Syzygy.

Note: this is an entry for the Free Topic over at therealljidol. I'm not a contestant there, but this week they've offered that anyone can write an entry.

I'm not a novelist or author, although I have many as colleagues. I'm an essayist at heart.

Said in reply to clauderainsm, who proposed the notion of writing about our favorite LiveJournal user:

::::whine::::

This "free topic" thing is HARD!

1] Most of the people I read on LiveJournal now, I "met"/found in other online places first, or know them in "real life", so writing about their LJ influence on me is kind of pointless.

2] A significant number of my Gentle Readers have locked journals. I don't know whether that should or shouldn't be taken into consideration, if most of you can't read their wondrous words.

And it's true. If one wanted to get technical, one should pick the person who introduced one to LiveJournal. In my case, that would be booboobob. But I met Bob at Callahan's Saloon at Delphi Forums, and still associate him with there more than here.

There are many people here at LiveJournal whose journals I read more to follow their daily doings rather than the fact that they're LJ users. There are others whose LJ writings impress me, but my interactions with them are abstract, passive, and in the realm of observation.

It should be noted that those whose journals I read offer a better mirror to my soul and my interests than what passes for writing and commentary in my own journal. I'm fascinated by many, many things in this life... "hard" and "soft" science, the creation and appreciation of art, musical expression, the human condition, just to name a few. What little makes it from my mind to the electronic page doesn't always show the lively interest I take in such matters; that makes me relatively dull reading in the long run. Those who do peruse my blog, to whom I refer as my Gentle Readers, do so mostly because they know *me*, rather than being fascinated by what I say or how I say it.

Which brings me to "My Favorite LJ User".

There is one person whose LiveJournal intrigued me in and of itself, long before we met in person, and whose LiveJournal I still bookmark to be read separately, rather than to wait to read his entries as they pop up on what LJ laughingly calls a friendslist.

That person is mabfan.

My fascination with his journal began with this entry, subtitled "Write What You Read".

The world needs to know this about me - although I seem to have flashes of willful chaos in my person, my dress sense, my household and my verbal and written expressions, I adore order. Always have, always will. A tidy mind, a succinct style, and a flair for everything in its place... those traits will always win me over. I may practice chaos *within* order, but I crave and need that orderly framework in all I do.

All these I found when I first stumbled on mabfan's essays on ROBERT'S RULES OF WRITING.

I gave up my own fiction and poetry writing career many years ago, to concentrate on bookselling and what I refer to as book-doctoring... a combination of editing, proofing, sales and marketing in a literary collaboration. My gifts lie in appreciating and polishing other people's writing. Thus reading about the writing process is not only one of my jobs, but one of my joys.

I found posts about many different subjects in mabfan's journal, and every single one has appealed to me on a different level, no matter how diverse. He comments on writing; he comments on astronomy; he comments on Orthodox Judaism; he comments on television shows; he comments on science fiction as an industry and as a lifestyle. All in an orderly and thoughtful manner that suits me down to the ground.

And he tags everything in broad general categories, rather than wacky individual entries, which makes it much easier for me to find topics. In among all those serious science and writing posts is a steady stream of entries tagged "silly". And the things that strike me as the silly - the things that make life worth living, such as wordplay - strike him as silly too. Our sense of humor is quite compatible.

Then I got to see him moderate a panel at Arisia 2006, and that same tidiness of expression won me over. I added him to my LJ reading list, but also put a link in my general blogs folder, along with folks like John Scalzi and Chris Roberson, to be read daily.

I've kept up reading his posts every day, more than two years later, and have met him and his wife gnomi for dinner and lively discussion on several occasions. In those settings, he's blithe and merry, despite some serious events in his life, yet still thoughtful and concise, which gives an additional dimension to my daily reading of his journal.

And so, even though this entry may say as much about me as it does about him, I hope this little essay shows why I think Michael A. Burstein, also known as mabfan, is my favorite LiveJournal user.