The first LJ I saw was of someone I didn't realy like. I was amazed and how self-absorbed and pointless it was. I didn't get one until a while later, but I had no idea that anyone other than the person I didn't really like and myself had one. I'd previously had a blog, but it was too hard to use, so I never used it. I didn't know about friends on LJ, and just thougth my LJ was totally private. I used it to bitch and moan about things, or keep a record of stuff my rats were doing. I checked my user page one day and realised I had a bunch of friends, but I'd had LJ for quite a while at that point. So then I totally changed the tone of my pots. Up until then, it had just been a diary. I've always kept a diary. After that it moved over to being more of a performance space/soap box/comedy store, with the diary aspects taking a back seat. I still keep a paper diary, but mostly of the whining things I don't dare put on LJ anymore. I admit, I was kind of wigged out about the whole friending thing for a while, and was desperate to keep my friends list under 30, then under 80... now I won't let it go over 500.