Reading a couple of other blogs….
One is of a graphic artist/designer. Let’s call him Eejit. Never met him. but last year, he and I had an electronic spat when I dared to criticise his ghastly frames-ridden website in my blog. He was enormously childish about it. Not only was he personally abusive and sneering in his emails, he posted all our exchanges on a forum, so that all his literate, polite little friends could send me their opinions as well. 🙁
Like I said, childish. The graphic work on his website is very good, I thought (and I told him so) – he’s clearly been blessed with a shedload of talent and design skills. But, boy, does he need a personality makeover!
Anyway, I carried on keeping an eye on him, every now and then dropping in to read the blog on his website (which was completely redesigned and hugely improved not long after our little spat – what a coincidence…). A couple of weeks ago, he posted that he wouldn’t be doing any work or posting for a while as something awful had happened in his life. He didn’t go into details, but he made it sound tragic, on the order of the sudden death of a loved one, or the Big C. I felt very sympathetic for him – even a little sh*t can feel pain.
Being the nosy sod that I am, I wanted to know just what had happened. So I went to the forum where he usually hangs out. And there discovered…

Wait for it…..

His girlfriend had left him.

OK, I know that can be horrible. But, hey, it really isn’t the complete and utter end of the world that he made it sound like. Looking at what he’s got – a good job that he likes, talent, he’s a rising star in his field and achieving his ambitions, he’s in perfect health! – I can’t see that he’s got a lot to complain about. Yes, he’s got a mortgage that he won’t be able to cover by himself. But he can move to somewhere cheaper, or get in somebody to house-share.
But that’s Eejit all over – whingy and self-pitying; not much surprise that his gf went!

It’s a good job that I have somebody like Steve on my blog-reading list. He’s an art sudent and I came across his blog by accident while looking for something else. He’s the complete opposite of Eejit, personality-wise – cheeful, breezy, sunny. He writes about silly trivial teen stuff – TV, music, personalities – as well as his art stuff, but is so honestly unself-conscious that I really warm to him. This week he was acepted for Uni, and I nearly did a happy dance for him!
He’s only eighteen, and doesn’t seem to have anything traumatic happen to him yet. But you feel that if his gf walked out on him (and she ‘d have to be out of her mind to leave such a nice fella), he would pick himself up off the floor, crack a joke and ask what time CSI was on. That’s the big difference between Steve and Eejit – positivity in all things.