Some input folks. Ever since the days of the original Star Trek and thinking it way to cool the way Krk entered in the captains log, I have kept a daily journal in bound composition notebooks. I always try to keep it up to within a week of being current. logs may be accomplishments, screw ups , special events, births, deaths or just the entry S.S.D.D. It's just something I have always done before retiring for the night while enjoying a glass of chocolate milk or as I got older a glass of wine or a bedtime toddy. When they get filled I shelve the volume and start a new one. I know I have eccentricities about this , like using ony marble composition books, refusing to use the computer "Doogie Howser" style and insisting on keeping a sheaffer medium/fine nib calligraphy fountain pen in protective pen box dedicated for journal (I'm a manly man, so I refuse to keep a diary :>) entries. Some around me say it's not normal to document a day this way, so what are your opinions?

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Answers

I think its very normal and I admire your ability to stick to it. I have tried to keep a journal..or since I am a girly girl ..a diary.. but either I have terrible commitment skills or I am soooo dull the diary falls by the wayside . I was getting pretty good there for awhile. I would read my study Bible, record the lesson or insight I had gained from this nightly study, mention my day or what have you but. I think the last entry is from when my BIL died of pancreatic cancer in June 2000. How do you stay motivated, Jay? I too had a special book and pen for this endeavor.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

I go to my office for a half hour of quiet time and as the 30 minutes of introspect begin I just pick up the journal, open to the current page and prime the nib and enter the date on the page. Then I spend 5 minutes deciding what I consider note worthy for the day and pur myself a nightcap. I have entered job transfers, my marriage, the deaths of my natural mother and the physician I was named after, my first garden, the first day I surfed the 'net, started my flea market store and fruit stand,my divorce, building Phoenix I and 30 years of other stuff. If at the end of five minutes nothing proves note worthy I enter "S.S.D.D." and "E.O.L.E" (Same S@*#, Different Day, End of Log Entry) on the page and try to make more happen the next day. As I close the cover, I think of those history channel specials where diary entries are read that were written hundreds of years before.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

I so admire someone who has the "sticktoittiveness" (my homemade word!) to keep a journal. When we first started our homestead here 26 yrs. ago. I took many pictures and have filled several albums. I've often thought to myself that I should have written it all down 'cause there is so much that I couldn't get in a picture (emotions, feelings, etc.). Too late for me now, I guess. I have trouble keeping up with my weekly entries in our business Dome book!!! Good luck, Jay, with your journals! Someday you'll be very glad you have them.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Wow, 30 years??? That is sure admirable. I have been "journaling" off and on since I was old enough to write, but will at times go months when I do not. It is usually when things are so boring on the one hand, or so painful that I don't want to write it down, that I go into lapses and don't record daily.

When I really got off track was two years ago when I got this computer and started trying to journal on it. There is something about pulling out a journal and favorite pen that make it a little more appealing at the end of a day. I believe, after ready your thread, I am going to go back to my old journaling style and forget trying to do it on the computer.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

diane,

Its easy to keep with it as its a little special something I do for myself in 5 to 30 minutes during prebed unwind. Even on days when I have a SSDD , I can take a few moments to retrospect things that have passed to get me here and realize I would never change anything passed because that was my life and tomorrow is my future and I have time to plan it. I have used it as a memory aid but its more of something I hope to leave to my desendents should I have some so that they might understand me better. nd its cheaper and more personal than a shrink :>)

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Something just hit me like a 100 pound bag of worm crap :>) These forums are a community journal diary. Better than the Waltons. But I'm still keeping my notebook :>)

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Oh, I wish! I've started umpty-million times, then a day will go by without my writing, or two...a month or so...

I always tried to start it on January 1st, to start off the New Year right - this year I didn't even get that far! I always wonder, too, if you start a journal when you are as old as I am now; how you explain the other people who you write about? Do you introduce them as they appear, or just let your readers figure out who they were? Hmmph! There I go - flattering myself with the idea that someone might want to read it someday!

And, if I thought someone might read it, that might limit what I put into it, too. Mama kept a journal while she had cancer, she made us promise to burn it after her death, without reading it, and so we did. She said she put her anger and resentment in it. I don't think I want that kind of journal. More a nice little weather and birds and what we had for supper...

My handwriting is terrible; and since I have to write (chart) what seems to be volumes for my job to CMA, handwriting a daily journal wouldn't be relaxing for me. Using the computer would be much easier (not to mention legible!), but given my schedule, I'm not able to sit down at the computer at the end of the day, each day. And really, there isn't a lot to journal about at 0830 when I'm sitting here winding down after work! Maybe I just need to loosen up and get over the idea of daily entries.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Jay, my dear grandmother kept a daily journal just like you do, the same black and white marble covered composition notebook too!!! Like you, some days it was just same stuff, different day, but she usually at least had temps and stuff like that, of how the day was. They were dairy farmers and such mundane information was important to farmers.

I do keep a simplied version of a journal using the old fashioned large wall calendars, I mark down when the fuel tanks are filled, keep track of fuel tank levels, mark down important births, deaths, and significant weather happenings as they occur on the large space for each day on the wall calendar. I have 15 years worth of annual old wall calendars in my kitchen cupboard should I need to review this information. I guess a little of Grandma got passed on to me after all!!!

She develped Alzheimer's at an early age and her journal keeping ended as her mind got worse. I would give anything to have her journals now, I don't know what happened to them, I'll have to check with my aunt!!!

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

If anyone's interested, you could create an on-line journal through a weblogger such as Blogger. I've just set one up there to use as an archiver for on-line articles I wish to save.

It's pretty easy to use IMO and you don't really need to know HTML.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

Annie,

I seldom enter more than four or five sentences,unless it is a major day (9/11/01) is the longest entry in quite some time, covering 5 pages. Its interesting that your grandmother used the marble brand composition books. The pen that I use belonged to my first wife before she passed away and she got it from her grandmother or grandfather who used it for journal entry using marble brand also.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

I really admire your ability to stick with it, especially for thirty years. I gave it a half assed effort a few times but found it hard to write to myself as audience. Talk about boring!

Several times however I've wished I had stuck with it because there have been a few or several events in my life where it would have been helpful to me to remember the exact chronology.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

never write in a journal as writing to yourself. Always envision a being in the future almost as inteligent as you (teenagers from this generation as compare to our generations are a fine example of this concept :>) and write to them.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2002

Meant to add, my favorite person to write to is the Great Kazoo from Flintstones. I just don't put his name at the top of the page . :>)

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2002

I have been journaling for about ten years, sometimes I go days or even weeks without writing anything but I get back to it. I don't just write what went on that day, I'll write something I found inspiring like a poem or phrase. I talk to myself and not to anyone else.

I have a particular kind of notebook that I use to get at Wal-Mart that I stocked up on for y2k and didn't notice when Wal-Mart stopped carrying them. It's 9 1/2"x6" with yellow paper, lined on one side and quad ruled on the back. I just happened to notice that Wal-Mart didn't have them anymore. I thought I would go nuts when I thought I couldn't find this notebook, and I looked for them everywhere (even though I still had about a two year supply left) and I just happend to be in Rite Aid one day getting a prescription filled for my husband and wandered into the section where they have notebooks and they have them, I almost felt like I would pass out. They only had two on the shelp and I grabbed both of them. The next couple of days I went to all the Rite Aids in town and each one of them had exactly two in stock, which of course I snatched them up. Now I have about a four year supply.

I bought a different kind of journaling book before I made my trip and tried to write in it, but it just didn't feel comfortable so I am back to my yellow lined notebook.

I carry it with me almost everywhere, even though I might not write in it everyday, I have it with me. It's like my best friend.

I have a big stack of them and I asked my olded son to burn them after I die. Maybe I'll change my mind about that. I did bring them all with me, I had to leave so much behind, but couldn't bring myself to leave my journals (somehow diary just never fit).

Good topic.

Namaste, Judy

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2002

Judy,

When I couldn't find a local souce of my favorite notebooks, I contacted the manufacturer direct and ordered a case.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2002

Thanks Jay, actually I tried that and the manufacturer had discontinued my particular style. The one I found at Rite Aid is not the same manufacturer and a little bit different, but enought alike to keep me sane. However, I can get a case of the new kind, or two cases, enough to last a long, long time. I really like the yellow paper, it's easier on my eyes.

For you folks that want to journal but can't seem to get started, Julia Cameron has a book called "The Artist's Way" that offers a way to get started.

Namaste, Judy

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2002