whereiswaldo's Journal: Where does the time go... on /.

On the vein of New Years Resolutions, I've been thinking about how productive my time on Slashdot is. Is it a complete waste of time? I think not, and here's why.

For one thing, spending time here has taught me to be more patient with rude people. I am now a little better at handling frustrating situations where sometimes people are trying to 'get my goat', or sometimes that is just the way they talk.

Second, it keeps me up to date with what's happening in a relatively short period of time, assuming I don't let myself get sucked in to the discussions too much. I don't usually listen to the news on television because it's almost always the same sad shit, plus zillions of commercials and slanting the news and rehashing the same few details. Slashdot and Google news are my prime sources. I let word of mouth be my source of other major news pieces.

Third, writing discussion items helps me to think more about my position on issues. I know some people are going to jump on what I say if I can't back it up or there are holes in my logic, so I think it through some more. That has helped me be a bit more articulate.

Fourth and finally, writing is something people get better at with practice. This is a great outlet for me to write and keep up my vocabulary and expressiveness. The art of language is fascinating because it is the single best way for us to communicate our thoughts. Without it, what would we do? That's why, to me, it is very important to be able to get my point across as clearly as possible. I'm still working on it, and practice makes perfect as they say.

So, I guess you can see that I'll be here in 2004! The one thing I watch is letting trolls get the best of me and wasting my time, and I also watch not to hit "reload" too often on the front page. :) Happy New Years!