I Recently Started Writing a Log on the Campus Network

It’s been more than two weeks already, but I should still announce it here～
http://xiaonei.com/profile.do?id=7755

Why did I think of writing logs on Xiaonei?

First of all, unlike here on Suixuan, the logs on Xiaonei are not the product of my overflow. Although I only write two sentences a day, or even two words, this result is “squeezed” out rather than “flowing” out. When I am writing frequently, the text here on Suixuan may amount to one or two thousand characters a day, but that is a very effortless thing; whereas those two sentences a day there are terribly hard to produce, and I also don’t know how long I can keep it up.
Since it is not an spontaneous outpouring, there must be some external purpose behind why I write such things. Very simply, I am trying to keep in frequent touch with old friends through this means. Compared with a blog, Xiaonei is first livelier, and second, two casually written sentences are more likely to attract comments than a serious two thousand characters. And even if no one comments, the daily updates will still let me show up frequently in my old friends’ “news feed,” at least keeping my name and image fresh and familiar in the eyes of old friends. Since there are only two sentences, people don’t even need to click; they can see everything with just a casual glance at the “news feed.”

Given the way I live now, my social circle is pitiably small. If I do not communicate through the internet, then outside class time the people I interact with are basically limited to the canteen staff handing out meals. This trend is not what I hope for. I am simply a homebody, and by no means do I want to be a recluse. I would rather maintain relationships that are neither too close nor too distant with a not-too-many-not-too-few group of friends. Yet if there is no contact for a long time like this, an air of unfamiliarity and distance is bound to arise. In view of this, I hope to, in a way that does not go too far against my temperament, somewhat enhance my connection with friends: on the one hand, to increase my sense of presence in their eyes; on the other hand, I can also get a little sense of how my friends are doing. In short, that’s what it is. Writing logs on Xiaonei is a preliminary attempt. I haven’t thought of any other way yet.

The effect seems quite good. So far, every diary entry has received a reply, something I would never dare imagine on my blog.
After all, the logs on Xiaonei are also my words, so I am equally responsible for them. But they won’t be transferred to the blog, because if they were, Suixuan would become trivial.

That’s roughly the situation.

Latest comments

• mist

  2008-12-27 12:33:41 Anonymous 125.46.31.136 

  It seems you have a copy of my Heidegger Philosophy Introduction and the reader for Being and Time with me. When will you come pick them up?

• Guhua

  2008-12-27 13:36:28 

  ……Just have Xiao Dong or whoever bring it to me……basically, under ordinary circumstances I’m too lazy to go to the dormitory……

• mist

  2008-12-27 17:11:52 Anonymous 58.207.156.93 

  I’ve handed it over to Dong.
  You don’t need to give an explanation for your actions, especially for something like joining a new social network platform. Too much explanation and elaboration makes people feel it’s weird.

• Guhua

  2008-12-27 17:41:09 

  If I want to explain, then I explain; I don’t need to explain to anyone, and I don’t need not to explain to anyone.
  My blog is an integral whole, and therefore in the end I did not build a separate base, nor did I use RSS to create a copy on Xiaonei. By “whole,” I mean not only all the articles themselves, but also all the comments and messages, especially the latter, which are extremely important to me — this is also one of the reasons why I insist on posting every article on the blog rather than merely keeping them on my computer. So when you suggested back then that I build a mirror on Xiaonei, I thought it could be considered, but in the end I found that comments and messages could not automatically become a unified entity, so I gave it up. Now starting to write logs on Xiaonei may seem to you like a very natural thing, needing no explanation; yet for me, this is an extremely, extremely unusual thing. Although my posts on KKBBS are also separate from the blog, I will regularly transfer meaningful writing from KKBBS to the blog for archiving. But I do not plan to transfer the content on Xiaonei over for archiving, so those logs have become for me something very alien, something very strange. So I want to make this defense: that was not out of consideration for building my philosophy, but out of consideration for everyday communication.
  Of course, I know that many friends on Xiaonei often do not read, or even know about, this blog of mine, so my explanation is not for them. I am mainly explaining it for myself, and incidentally it can also be seen as an explanation for readers of Suixuan.

• 啰啰嗦嗦就是一篇^_^~

  2008-12-27 23:54:26 Anonymous 124.206.38.53 

  When the use of words has become a habit, is it like a smoker, who just casually exhales and a smoke ring comes out, without needing to put much thought into it at all? If one stops, would it be as painful as a smoking addict going through withdrawal?
  Haha~~~
  
  (Delete the former one吧^_^)

• Guhua

  2008-12-28 00:01:05

  The smoke-ring metaphor is too elegant; the one I like is another metaphor. See “Writing is Squirting” (https://yilinhut.net/2008/07/18/1916.html) and “How I Hold It In When Writing Papers” (https://yilinhut.net/2008/12/16/2222.html). When the habit is good and the intestinal flora are in harmony, one squat and there’s a lump; there’s no need to put much thought into it at all. If you stop, it’s like……feeling unbearably backed up.

• mist

  2008-12-28 23:44:51 Anonymous 219.234.81.63 

  I guess you still underestimated some of language’s functions, for example saying sweet nonsense, cracking jokes, and so on.

• Guhua

  2008-12-29 00:09:47

  It’s just that I haven’t had the opportunity or the proper target to use these functions. Broadly and roughly speaking, language has at least two kinds of functions: one is public, the other is private. Obviously, blogs, forums, and Xiaonei are all public venues, and in such venues one has to follow the logic of the public.

• Guhua

  2008-12-29 00:14:32

  But in a certain sense, Xiaonei is a communication platform with a somewhat private character. Therefore my interactions there will be a bit more casual, and occasionally I’ll crack jokes; I won’t always be so serious.

• Wuzheng Baobao

  2008-12-31 13:25:21 

  Mm, yes.
  Besides Xiaonei, it’s also necessary to expand other ways of interacting with this world.

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.