ephemeral

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Phoebe Gilman, a Canadian children's author and illustrator whose books included the Jillian Jiggs series. Ms. Gilman was also very supportive of my sister and her work. More information at the Canscaip site (obituary) or Phoebe's own Web site (bibliography).

When I heard about Ms. Gilman's death, I did an online search for more information. When Google turned up a PhoebeGilman.com site, I half-expected to find a fan-run site or one of those slick but impersonal author sites created by a hired third party. Instead, I found a well-designed but very personal site with photographs of the author as a child, with friendly and conversational text.

Even though I've never met the author in person, I couldn't help but experience deep regret that the creator of the site would no longer be updating it herself. Would her family choose to keep the site online? Would they update it?





That started me thinking about mortality, history, and the ephemeral nature of the Web. I've been keeping an online journal since April/97. I've been writing on a daily basis since the beginning of the year. While I probably won't continue to write every day forever, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't keep Blathering for as long as I can keep typing.

But how long will the Web last? Web sites come and go; so do Internet service providers and hosts. Bryan Fullerton has been kind enough to host my sites so far (including Inkspot -- thanks, Bryan!).

I began Blatherings as a lark, but now it's become an essential part of my daily routine, my equivalent of many peoples' morning cup of coffee. Not only is it a great writing exercise for me in preparation for a day's work, like warming up before a run, but I've also begun to realize how great it is to have a searchable archive of all my entries. I can remind myself what I did on the last day of 1999, did I really give Sara a brussel sprout named Susie, the closing of Inkspot.

Now that I'm adding photos, it's become my personal photo album as well, MUCH more organized than the boxes of loose paper photographs I have in my closet and our basement locker. I've also gotten a bit paranoid about losing everything, so have gotten into the habit of using MovableType's backup feature on a regular basis.

I don't tend to read through my past Blatherings that often. When I do, it's usually because I'm searching for a particular date or piece of information, and get distracted by re-reading past entries. Some make me cringe, some nostalgic.

Some I don't recall writing at all, making me wonder if I'm losing braincells over time. But hey, won't that make it all that more exciting for me when I'm 102, reading my own Blatherings as if for the first time. Holy toledo, I'll say, what was I thinking? Then I'd shake my head at the follies of youth, and go back to packing for my canoe trip with Jeff.





News/links:

I'm even more jealous of those who got to go to ConJose this weekend. Just heard that Patrick Stewart gave a talk on Friday night!

Those looking for a feedback page for their blogs/journals might want to check out SignMyGuestbook.com. I noticed that Funny The World (one of the online journals I read regularly) uses it, and it seems nicely-designed and reliable.

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Today's Blatherpics:

These photos were taken at the cottage, when Jeff and I paddled to Adaskin's Bay on our wedding anniversary.