Journals

After seeing my basket of journals that I was going to take a picture of for my blog, sb suggested, “Why don’t you write about journaling?”  I have kept a journal for 30 years now!  I usually use “empty books” as the first ones were gifts to me in the early 70’s.  I started my first journal in high school, but I was much too self-conscience to write much so I mostly drew 70’s-type pictures and sayings.

I picked up journal writing again in 1976.  I had just finished working at a ski area for the winter ski season and was unemployed and without a plan.  A fellow ski bum and I decided to hop a freight to the west coast.  I packed all my worldly belongings into my backpack and threw in a new blank book.  We gathered cardboard to put on the floor of the train car so as not to get too dirty.  We also had a bicycle with us as my traveling partner was going to a cycling leadership training.  The railroad yard bulls were actually helpful – told us when the freight train to the west coast was coming, which car number would be good.  So we waited and until about 2 a.m. when we loaded ourselves and our gear onto a freight train and off into the unknown.

Click image to see bigger

First entry, May 3, 1976

Boarded the 197 last night about 2:30 a.m. on car 318131.  It was really a bumpy car!  It got to swaying so bad at times that I had to hold my stomach because of the sideaches and for fear my kidneys were going to bounce out!  Woke up this morning somewhere outside Spokane with voices and faces peering into our car, “They’ve got a bike in there!”  We poked our heads out of our sleeping bags and tried to figure out what was going on.  The train had dropped off some cars – including the one we were on.  We barely had enough time to get on another train.

This one seems more stable – again we were shown the way by the helpful yard bulls.  This is really a fantastic way to travel.  You have room to move around, plenty of openness to see the country.  You can sleep whenever you want, eat, etc.  Also you’re able to see America in a different way – like all the hobos we saw this morning.  It’s farout to see that that culture is still around.

So that was the beginning of a life changing adventure and the beginning of journal writing for the next 30 years.  My journals are combination of daily writings, drawings, poems, addresses, to do lists, historical recordings, newspaper clippings, pressed flowers, quotes, photos, etc – anything and everything that records the moment.

Comments

[kat]

very cool!! what great images. thank you for sharing!!

[Blue Dog]

That is so very cool! I love these photos of your journals..especially the one in the upper left hand corner and the lower right hand corner--they're extremely inviting, not to mention INTERESTING! Thanks for posting this :)

[Jens]

I had never missed a day until about a cploue of months ago. I am glad you gave us this challenge. It renewed my desire to write daily. I made a little more effort to make it meaningful and not just a list of what I did that day. Thanks for the challenge.

[Emilio]

Good to hear you again. Your discussion about the icierasnng flows of real-time digital information was interesting. If you are looking for a backlash, I'm happy to provide one! (Along with Mills, I suspect.) Maybe I'm just still resistant to an assumption that the new reality necessitates some loss of control over the information space, as you mention (though the sense of loss of control over my time makes me even more grumpy). In fact, the thing I have always loved most about the Internet is how it untethers me from needing to be in a particular time or place to accomplish some task whether it's shopping, finding information, communicating via email, etc. For me, Twitter, texting, status updates, etc. reverses this; it's like going back to a time when people sat waiting by the phone in case a call came in. (The fact that people can now take their phones with them doesn't make it any better, in my opinion.) Bottom line, unless and until we have better tools to manage this information I think it's incumbent upon anyone sending out important information whether individuals or institutions to be respectful of the fact that not everyone is (or wants to be) hanging on their every word as it issues forth.Alright, rant over

[Vasava]

really? It's a term out of the late 80's/early 90's. "Do me a favor" Can't you just see some kid in a member's only jakect saying it to his best bud - like he is SO hip? Yeah, that's how I feel now - LAME! (It was also used in "Juno" so now I guess it's become sorta dumb to say) Oh well.

[Anna]

Hi Clare;Allan told me about the blog.Science Direct has feeds is that how you get your jrnls? I know there were issues w/ Elsevier, and I yeleld at them at MLA last year, only to be shown the Sci Dir. feeds which had just recently gone live.

[Ted]

It is so hard to pick. I love the Jump up journals, but my boys are too young to write them thmeselves. I also love the She book because it will help me remember what I was thinking 30 years from now. I also really like the Love Where We Live journal because it documents our family's time together right now. I must say I love them all!

[Ayako]

Ooh! I like "The Little Things. Listing Thankful Thoughts"- a good way to focus on the positive. And I like "A Love Letter" A Minibook for Someone You Love". And the "Seeking Grace- Prayer Journal". So many good ideas!

[Manya]

I just spent half an hour perusing her pages. I want (Become) in ppurle. Just exactly what I need right now - getting to the end of full time motherhood after 30+ years, and not knowing what I will do next. I do hope I win!

[Saratu]

Roflcopter?!?!? Very observant artcile. Maybe a little too observant. I don't think Nature could handle it. Ultimately rude of them. And your mum's posting on breakfast reminds me of some baby pictures of you we were looking at this weekend. Very, very messy. But funny to look at. Thanks. Oh, and maybe you should add a section on IM impersonators. Like that other hack, the fake Nick. I'm sure there's a whole field of research out there for that one. Make them sorry for me. xxxsmoooochsnooooog! JK.

[Bala]

This is a great feature, for those using WordPress as a host for an open accses journal, like the Code4Lib Journal. It's important to note that one important benefit of including article-level metadata in DOAJ is that the metadata will also end up in the indexes of anyone that harvests from DOAJ with OAI-PMH. OAISter is one great example.

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