I've just remembered about Livejournal

[davidn]

You know, I've lived independently for five years, apparently as a full and genuine adult, and am very, very far away from both my parents for 99% of the year. And I still feel a slight disapproving glare over my shoulder somewhere from three thousand miles to the east when I add an extra spoonful of sugar to lemonade.

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

The question is - do you enjoy the lemonade all that much more for being so much more aware of your freedom to make it how you like?

[davidn]

The further question is what does that question mean! It's often easy to forget the freedom that we have compared to childhood, especially in the simple things... because seriously, you need more than one flat teaspoonful of Nesquik per glass of milk.

[kjorteo]

It's strange how slow people like you and I can be to realize what adult freedom actually means. Sometimes this can end poorly, of course, but mostly it's just little moments like that, or me with....

Well, okay, see, when I was much younger, I had a nightlight to ward off fear of the dark, like most much-younger people do. Upon becoming an older kid it became apparent how uncool it was compared to all the much cooler older kids who obviously were brave enough to not need one as part of their overall coolness. I got by until, at the age of 28, I just now realized that if I'm nervous about the dark at night when I'm home alone, then, obvious solution aside, they've actually make something for that for years and I'm actually allowed to have one again. (And I want a lilac one, naturally.)

[davidn]

I'm sort of distracted by the point by the fact that you just linked me to a My Little Pony song, but... as I'm feeling charitable here, that's something you're allowed to like as an adult as well!

I still don't like walking through dark rooms, either - though it's more to do with what might be there outside of the glow that any nightlight could provide! Although realistically, I'm not sure what I'm imagining there.

[kjorteo]

I always liked My Little Pony, even when I was younger. I blame my sister. From NES Barbie to PSX Croc and all the My Little Pony-like VHS movies in between, she got me into a lot of things just by getting them ostensibly for her and then enjoying them as a group activity. It's probably as big an explanation for why I turned out the way I did as all the furry bait is.

(As revenge, that went both ways and I accidentally got her into infamously brutal NES titles like A Boy and His Blob and Snake, Rattle 'n Roll.)

[davidn]

That sounds fair :) If there was anything I did to my sister, it was turning her into a PS-era Final Fantasy fan... being outnumbered three to one meant she must have had to put up with more boyish pursuits a lot of the time.

What I'm really impressed by is that even though we grew up with the same entertainment, I was the only one who later turned into a rabbit.

[kjorteo]

My sister seems relatively normal compared to me, too. Maybe the internet got us? I don't know!

[kjorteo]

Also, that' sort of the problem I aim to solve, as well--if I got a nightlight, I'd put it right by the bedroom door so I could see out into the living room area a bit and have it not be a dark silent void out there. (Also, you're imagining Welcome to the Machine with the music replaced by FAROUT. I'm not sure how that would physically manifest in your living room, but there you have it.)

[davidn]

I have to love that FAROUT - alarming all-caps and all - has become such a deadly word ever since I remembered about it! For me it's the symbol of a computer going outright berserk... while Welcome to the Machine was it clearly being malicious.

[kjorteo]

FAROUT is ... not the biggest example of old chiptunes having a seizure of which I know, but it's definitely not a normal song!

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I can now spend days in my flat as I am not forced outside because it is a 'nice day'. I can watch what I want and for how long I want. I don't need to be home for a particular time. I don't need to eat a balanced meal every day or make sure that I am drinking enough. I can put on a T-shirt underneath my shirt without being forced to iron it first. I don't need to put away things to take it out the next day, just because it looks tidy.

Actually, come to think of it. I probably should start doing things again like I was under parental rule.

[davidn]

I know, if left to my own devices to live as I dreamed when I was five, I'd die very quickly ;) Even if I eat something quick and unhealthy as a lunch substitute it leaves me feeling lethargic for the rest of the day - at the age when you can do things like that and survive, you're not allowed to :)