I don't just mean my journal, I mean all of them. What are your favorites? Do you like journals that are a little different each day (i.e., not always the same format)? Do you like humor? Drama? Trainwrecks?

What topics do you like? Work, politics, family, sex, relationships, rants, randomness, what?

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Answers

My favorite entries are always the daily routine of the journaller presented in a hilarious way. I particularly remember one entry that you did about getting in the car with Jeremy and Doc and Jeremy getting lost, it was hysterical. I love when Patrick writes about the weirdos he works with, or when Pamie takes a typical day of hers and makes it the funniest thing we've ever read. sarcasm, it's all about sarcasm.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Beth,

You shoulda talked about the dog. I *love* it when you talk about the dog. When there are pictures of him in your entries I "pet" them with my mouse. Ok, that sounds really creepy.

I like journals that are fairly consistent in format but not always on the same topic (although generally in a consistent voice). I get bored with simple factual accountings of daily life and people who focus only on their relationships, or those journals that have two dozen entries in a row saying "I'm so busy I haven't had time to write in this journal."

Your journal and Pamie's are the only two I have followed for more than a month at a time. Many others I will start to read but not feel connected to after a few days. Denver Doug's journal I've also started reading as well.

I tend to like people who have opinions, and I love it when people vent some of their righteous anger and injustice, whether it is you dealing with the treatment of your clients or Pamie dealing with gender roles.

I'm just mad that I'm missing Rebecca Blood on the Connection right now.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Beth,
I love the dog entries - then of course I have a dog and that's probably why - she seems to do a lot of the same things Doc does.

I tend to stick with the relatively upbeat journal - where sometimes things get bad and sure there's some entries that are depressing but it doens't go on, and on, and on.

Humour is always good and anyone who show you part of their life, like your entry today - was a good slice of life moment.

Life isn't always funny, or exciting or boring - it's how you write aboutit that counts.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like the funny ones, sure, and I have to admit to liking the occasional trainwreck, though I don't feel all that damn noble admitting it. I like well-written, sane recaps of days-in-the-life, without the eye-rolling angst eruptions. Angst, in general, I can take or leave. I prefer adult angst over real issues (money, relationship trauma, illness, career) than over illusory ones (identity, ambition, paranoia, want, morbid depression). I like the odd photo or graphic used to illustrate an entry, and the occasional flight of fancy, a Walter Mitty moment in the midst of the banal. That would pretty much set me up fine.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I'm with Caoimhe on this one - good writers can write about the contents of their fridge and make it sound interesting.

If you've made it to the highly restricted list of journals I check every day then you're in that category.

However, I do like a good rant from a writer - when something pisses them off so much they just have to vent.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Cool, I'm going to write about moldy watermelon and 398 cups of chocolate pudding, then. Jackie said I could!

Basically, I think what has to happen for me is I have to like the writer first, and then no matter what they write about, I enjoy it at least somewhat. It's like with my husband. He says some really boring crap sometimes, but I listen and interact with him because obviously it's important to him, and he's my best friend and that's what best friends do.

I'm the same way about journals. I love when Beth talks about her dog, because I like her dog. Pamie's cat stories, ugh. I just don't feel the same way about her pets. But now Pamie talking about pop culture-- hilarious. Other journalers trying to talk about pop culture, not so much. Mar talking about sex: I expect it. If Rob talked about sex, I'd probably freak out in weirdness. I guess it just depends on how I feel about the particular journaller and their little bubble world that I keep them in.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I'm a sucker for the Maureen Dowd type of entry where the narrator imagines what is going on inside another person's (or a household pet's) head. I just plain think it's funny.

Yes, I was the guy that Barnum (or whoever) was thinking of when he said no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

It really depends on the writer and my frame of mind when I'm reading a particular entry. I am trying to cut back on my journal reading as it has begun to interfere with my productivity, so I have narrowed it down to 5 journals a day. Each of them offers something different, but there are some common denominators.

Humor and pets will pretty much always capture my attention, but I can also be intrigued by the occasional trainwreck. And I can usually be sucked in by a healthy dose of Meta-talk.

The OLJ community is a world unto itself, nobody in my day-to-day life has any idea that such things as OLJ's even exist - and I don't really talk about it with anyone either. Because of this, it can be riveting to watch the interaction between jornallers and readers - particularly on forums such as this one. When it gets too ugly (or ridiculous or irrelevant - and I think we all know what I'm talking about) I'll run for the hills, but a lively debate will always capture my attention.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Yes, stasi, you can write about as much mouldy watermelon as you like!!

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

This is going to sound terribly lame of me, but I like journal entries about things that could have happened to me. Slice of life through another person's eyes.

It's like stopping at a traffic light and looking into the car next to you, wondering what it's like to be where they're sitting instead of where you are. You're both stopped at a traffic light, but what's going on in their head is probably totally different from what you're thinking.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Beth, I like the Doc entries, too. On Pamie's journal, I prefer Cal to Taylor, though.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

The ones I check out every day seem to all be funny and kind of ironic and self deprecating. If someone's funny, they can write about a trip to the store or the dog or their annoying job, and it will be entertaining. I also like people who observe interesting things and report on them. A lot of the ones I like best are really about nothing, but I just like the writer and their style.

It doesn't really matter what topics they write about, though I'm not very interested in politics and I'm not at all interested in children. Even those things can be interesting, though. If the person is (say) talking about how meeting with their kid's teacher reminded them of what learning New Math was like for them, rather than (say) just reporting what the kid did and bragging or complaining about it. I'm squeamish and don't like stuff about dirty diapers or throwing up or whatever. Jeeze.

Inevitably everyone has drama and sadness in their lives so these people have days when they talk about sickness or a death in the family or something, which is fine. I know everyone chooses what they talk about and I don't mind if one day they post that they've been having some marital problems they haven't talked about and are now separating, or whatever. Since I nearly always have come to like the person, it's just another layer of knowing them, or feeling like I do.

I kind of like things to be in the same format every day - I don't really go for the experimental ones.

I don't like very earnest writing about personal growth - somehow this just doesn't hook me the way humor does, even someone writing humorously about personal growth does. I guess a lot of these seem kind of badly written, to me.

I like train wrecks too. You know, I might read the New York Times for news and fine writing, but I get a laugh out of the Weekly World News too...

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like funny entries and insightful-daily-life entries and pet entries as much as the next person (yes, even including the dying-cat entries that always reduce me to tears) but what I really love are entries that tell me some hard information about a subject I don't know about. Thoughts I could never have had for myself because the experiences are just so inaccessible to me. I enjoyed Beth and Tom's and any other lawyers' forum posts about what their jobs are really like. I love Sara's entries about her world, and Dawn's reports from Italy, and Kymm's and Pamie's acting stories, and Ceej's insider view of high tech. I miss that ER doctor's diary that hasn't updated in years.

Also, I like reading personal views of public events, again, especially by people who've participated or are only a few degrees of separation away or just have a strong point of view. Millennium parties, explosions, elections - we do realize we're writing the zeroth draft of history here, don't we?

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like to read a journal that updates every day.

I like to read a journal entry and a forum discussion or two.

I like links to other journals.

I like photographs of the person, the characters he or she writes about, and pets, or gardens. Houses, or old cars.

I like writing that comes at the same small handful of leitmotifs, again and again, now in this genre, now in that.

I like felicitous juxtapositions. Surprises. The method is heuristic.

I like humor. Black humor. Satire. Especially of work environments, co-workers and bossmen, TQM jargon and Diversity jargon --as if you can have excellence and outreach both. Zero tolerance for Bobby Knight and one more chance for Bobby Knight.

I like high culture and pop culture and marginal, lunatic fringe culture, mixed together, cheek by jowl.

I like to learn things I don't know, about other people. Kindred spirits. The town creep in the adjoining town.

I like a point of view, a skewed, or eccentric vision, which lets-- which makes--me see things from an angle I wasn't considering.

I like diversity.

I like quality.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like humour, but I get tired of journals that are always funny, as though the writer never has problems. I like writers who can laugh at themselves. I like entries that remember whole narratives of previous experiences, like flashbacks to childhood or retrospectives of relationships. I like pet stories, too - I've never gotten higher up on the food chain with pets than gerbils (which are a lot like rats), so it's all new to me. I like hearing about jobs I know nothing about. I like walking tours of places I've never been (Caoimhe just had one of Cork that was neat). I like rants about political/social issues, especially when they're not issues you hear about every day. I like good writing - proper grammar is nice, but I'm talking about tone & style. I like continuing storylines which keep me coming back to find out what's happened.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like funny. I love your dog stories Beth, and the cat stories too.

I also like "heart-warming" -- you know, ones that make you sad and glad at the same time, those little "true-to-life" stories ...

I like being brought into the writer's space and time, so that I feel as if I really am right there with them looking over their shoulder into the small piece of life they've chosen to share with me.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I really like the funny dog stories. I would prefer to have funny cat stories like you used to tell before the dog came along. I liked the story about the squirrel and the murderous bluejay. I also like to find out how it would be to live in Sacramento...what the streets are like...what the people are like... I would like to read more journals, but don't have the time so it's just your journal and my daughter's.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I have a particular fondness for fellow Californians - I don't know why, just some sort of odd comfort, I guess.

I love entries on everyday epiphaneys. Work, relationships, pets, plants, what the neighborhood is like. I find everyday life interesting enough.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I like entries that show you a little piece of who the writer truly is. Whether it's through a humorous piece, a rant, a revelation. I want to feel like they are truly sharing part of themself with me.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

If Rob talked about sex, I'd probably freak out in weirdness.

Hey, now...

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Heheheheh

Well go see yourself in my entry today and maybe you'll know what all the freaking would be about.

Okay, last forum post, I promise.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I'm different from most of you, I think...I like journals that tend to be a soap opera. Surprising things happening, stuff that takes my breath away and leaves me anxious to read again the next day (or at least curious to find out what happens). I also tend to keep reading journals that I relate to at least a little bit to my own life. I used to read obscure college girls' journals for that reason. And funny ones. And smartasses.

Was my journal like that? God, yes. Very much a relationship soap opera.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I'm rather fond of soap-opera style journals too. Not perhaps "Monday: My house burned down, Tuesday: my husband left me, Wednesday: my mother died", but I like it where there's a small cast of characters and you can watch their relationships develop. I think imminent change within the narrator's life is compelling too: if they're about to move to a different country or start college or a new job, it makes interesting reading.

Oops, I'm talking about types of journal, rather than types of entry. Well, the above paragraph indicates that I enjoy those that are part of an ongoing saga. Humour is good, but a lot of humorous incidents I read in journals leave me thinking "you obviously had to be there". Train wreck journals are good for a while but get exhausting. But if I'm totally new to a journal, a memory entry or one that reflects on a singular aspect of life proves easiest to get into. ("Elphaba, Diary Of" had that effect on me.)

</contradictory ramble>

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

I find it highly amusing that it's ok for me to talk about sex when I never get any.

OK, yeah... the dating your brother thing would have gotten weird.

I like journals that generally talk about something that happened that day that affected them in some way, and they run with that.

I usually don't like "today I went to the mall and then I ate a cookie. it was good" even though I find my own journal sinking into that pattern a lot.

I suppose that could be why I lost half my readers. Mazel Tov!

- M

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

I always find it interesting when people share how they confront the common problems of everyday living. I also enjoy political diatribes, especially left-wing diatribes. I kind of like it when poeple tell me a little about how their job works and what it's like to live in their town. I'm not that interested in the music they listen to, but I like to hear what books they might be reading.

I appreciate it when journals link to good train-wreck entries on other journals. I won't regularly follow a journal where the writer seems doomed, but if a big wreck is pointed out I can't help but look.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

You, Pamie, Patrick, Rob and Mary Ellen could make the phone book interesting. So I guess it doesn't have to be humorous, but they are just my favorite entries. I love the dog stories, the Jeremy stories, the funny things that you do with the coffee machine (sounds erotic doesn't it?) and with Pamie I love the cat stories, the dialogue she has with Eric when she does his dialogue as only existing in her head. When Patrick writes about people at his job I just know it will be a great entry, or his dating life, writing/acting woes, ALWAYS great stuff there, Rob's way of putting himself down so much always makes me feel more human, and he cracks me up. I read Mary Ellen's journal because if I knew her I would want her to be a friend, I just 'get' her.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

That reminds me that I have a light bias in favor of Californians. I'm not sure why. And a bias against Canadians or anyone elsewhere in the world except England.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

Who is Mary Ellen?

And I have the same thing about non-Americans. Canadians are okay, and people from the UK, but I tried and failed to "get into" Up from Sloth, an American in Korea, and Dawn, an American in Italy. It's ridiculous. There are so many journalers whom people love, people whose taste I respect, that I haven't got into, and I figure that's my fault, not the journaler's. I read few men, few smokers, and few parents, which shows that I'm just me seeking out me.

What I like in an entry: photographs; when a light bulb goes off in someone's head and she suddenly makes a connection or realization she hadn't before; a small detail that illuminates a greater generatlization; making me laugh; talking about books, and talking about books that *I* like; gaining any sort of well-presented useful information; dogs; anything that makes me think oh! she's just like me! or oh! that's so different from me and such a good way to be different!

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

I like British journals, being a bit of a Brit-o-phile. I enjoy some Bay Area journalers, for the same reason it's fun to see a movie filmed in one's home town.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2000

I'm quite fond of randomness.. with a bit of humor and drama thrown in for good measure.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2000

I was going to formulate my own response, but having thought about it for a couple of days I'll still have to agree entirely with Jack Saunders. Said it far more eloquently than ever I would.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2000

Contrary to most people, I don't like a lot of photographs. I have a fast connection here at work, but a slow dial up one at home, and lots of pictures really make a difference. I guess I don't care much what people look like, though it's nice to see a picture once in a while.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2000

Journal entries... I like ones where someone enthuses about cool new books or music-- provides me with info I can use. And of course, as a major voyeur, I like ones where attractive girls discuss their sex lives...

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000