Even in Kyoto

Interesting! I take a totally different approach towards similar end goals... I try to make my posts about ideas, and deliberately collaborative/participatory. I ask questions on things my audience knows about, and I try to make some of that things EVERYONE knows about. (Nearly all the [Sociology] posts are intended to engage people without a high experiential bar to entry, frex.) So I'm still the narrative voice, but I try to present the down sides to things as well as the good sides, and to try to be funny about the difficulties. (If you're funny, you're probably not whining. If you're posting all the work as well as the high points and inviting discussion, hopefully that's more engaging storytelling than smug But No, Seriously, Look How Awesome I Am.

Still, I've found that some of it is in the mood and setting of your readers. When people for unrelated reasons decide they don't like me (partners-of-partners after their partner and I just broke up is the classic case), sometimes they read the same posts in the same journal and conclude "look at that bitch over there eating crackers". I've also had it happen where I posted something about stress at work and got WELL AT LEAST YOU HAVE A JOB, or something about my dating search and got I WOULD BE HAPPY WITH EVEN ONE BOYFRIEND WHY AREN'T YOU. Sometimes, they just have to get to a place where they're not mad at you, or mad at the world, before they can read without that-bitch colored glasses.