online journals

I recently heard from family/friends who called out of concern because I hadn't written a real Blathering in a couple days (or who said they knew I was okay because I Blathered yesterday).

Interesting that I've gotten into such a regular habit with my online journal that people notice when I break out of my posting pattern. :-) I used to hate being predictable, but now I'm starting the value of a certain level of predictability. I like knowing that I'm not going to sell a business this year. I like knowing that I'm not going to be moving my office, or moving to the States (NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH LIVING IN THE STATES, MIND YOU), or having to depend on a corporate committee to approve every plan and decision in my work. I like knowing that I can work on the computer all morning in my flannel pajamas and no one will ever know.

(um, unless you read my Blatherings, that is :-) )

For the first time in years, I feel as if I'm actually getting my life under control again.

But I digress...I want to talk about online journals today.

Despite the decline of Dot-com Mania, the popularity of online journals continues to grow. I've expanded the list of personal journals of people I know (and don't know).

Several different types of journals have emerged:

-- Confessionals: Intensely personal, these authors don't hold anything back. Or at least give the illusion of not holding anything back. Sometimes stream-of-consciousness, sometimes emotional rants about personal issues.

-- Shopping lists: Entries tend to be a shopping list of everything the author did in a particular day, with very little personal insights. "First I woke up. Then I washed my face and took the dog for a walk. For breakfast, I had Cheerios and a glass of orange juice. Then I called my friend Helga and SHE said blabla and then I said blabla and then SHE said blabla...etc."

-- Humour: These tend to focus on humorous personal essays a la Dave Barry style.

-- Hybrid: Some mixture of the above.

-- Other: Experimental, excerpts from written works-in-progress, anything else not covered by the above.

I find pure confessionals too intense for regular reading, shopping lists too boring. In terms of what I like reading, my favourite type of journal tends to be the hybrid type...I like knowing what's going on in the person's life, but also like getting some insight into what's happening in their heads as well, finding out how they feel about a certain event rather than just a description of the event itself. Other things I like seeing in a journal: a good sense of life, passion, sense of humour, variety, strong writing.

These are just my personal preferences; others may prefer different types of reading. (if any of you have favourite journal links you're willing to share, please do.)

I used to check every journal in my links section on a daily basis, but the list has grown to the point where I usually can only check most once or twice a week.

Journal-related links of interest:

The Bleat: Journal by James Lileks. My favourite online journal.

Diarist.net: great source of journal-related information.


Blatherpics:

- My mom, obviously very young. As I mentioned in yesterday's Blathering, I'm starting to scan photos from old family albums and burn them onto CD (I always shrink graphic files before posting them in Blatherings, by the way, so the stored images are of better quality than those I use in my column). However, it's been pointed out to me that this is not a good longterm solution...other (not too expensive) suggestions welcome! :-)

Today's Poll:

Are both your parents still alive?