Areala Asks: Do You Keep A Diary/Journal/Blog? (20160205)

[Areala]

In the interest of fostering some hopefully fun discussions here, I thought I'd start a project. We'll see how long I can keep up with it, but the basic idea is that every week, I'll post a new question in a new thread entitled "Areala Asks:" and then whatever your local resident Warrior Nun is curious about this week. You may answer with as much or as little information as you're comfortable. This is just an experiment to get people chatting, allow new users an easy way to add to their post count, and hopefully keep people coming back regularly.

This week's question is:

Do you now or did you in the past keep a diary, journal, blog, or other form of written personal log, regularly or irregularly updated? If so, what prompted you to start? If not, what keeps you from doing so?

If you keep one online you'd like others to know about, feel free to link it so others can see what you're writing about if you're so inclined.

Feel free to respond below. This topic will remain open from February 5 to February 13, at which time the thread will be closed to new comments and a new "Areala Asks" will be posted.

*huggles*
Areala

[Areala]

When I was younger, in high school and college, I kept several journals over the years. Some were school-related (a food diary for Health class, a personal journal for my Senior year religion class, a sketchbook for my Drawing classes, etc...), but others were personal wherein I wrote about my day, bitched about life, composed awful poetry, etc...

I started it because that was kind of the thing when I was younger; girls just kept diaries, you know?

I still keep a writer's notebook today (generally in my purse), where I can quickly jot down ideas, thoughts, story outlines and so forth.

I've also irregularly kept a blog here at Retromags, which can be read here, though I haven't updated it in a few months:

https://community.retromags.com/blog/6-retrochick-retroblog-v10/

I talk about gaming-related topics, magazines, collecting, D&D, movies, or whatever I feel like gabbing about when the writing bug strikes me.

If you're looking for a place to start a blog, Phillyman lets any established forum visitor set up their own here. Just click on the Blog tab above and you should be able to create a new one. If you want to and can't for some reason, let Phillyman or E-Day know and they should be able to set it up so you can.

*huggles*
Areala

[DPsx7]

Not by choice. One of my English classes had us write in a journal daily (busy work I'd say). I'm not a fan of writing, nevermind the fact my thoughts are scary enough the first time without having a hard copy available to scare me again. Not sure what ever happened to that notebook. These days I tend to post a lot online but it's never anything personal. Putting your personal details online often leads to unwanted attention.

[Sean697]

No. Although if you googled my handle or name , you'd find enough posts around the Internet to constitute a blog I supose.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Sean697

[twiztor]

Do you now or did you in the past keep a diary, journal, blog, or other form of written personal log, regularly or irregularly updated? If so, what prompted you to start? If not, what keeps you from doing so?

nope.

writing has never really been my thing (ironic, since i have been engrossed in message boards since the day we got the internet at home).

i do keep a high score notebook in my basement for any personal high scores that get set in NES games (by me or a friend, doesn't matter who)

i also have a notebook where i jot down comic book ideas that i think are cool. names/codenames, backstories, sketches, storyline ideas, whatever's in my head. i doubt it will ever lead to anything, but i think i've come up with some rather creative stuff over the last couple years.

[kitsunebi]

No, nothing that ever lasted more than a handful of entries at any rate.

However, I am notorious for keeping inane lists of things I've done like some sort of obsessive compulsive crazy person. I have a list for books I've read, comics I've read (it's obscene), movies I've seen, games I've beaten, etc. I've always done it, but as time goes on, I find that there actually is some value to having such things recorded and checking them at the appropriate times.

For example, I recently played through and completed the NES Dragon Quest clone The Adventures of Musashi (Musashi no bouken). I had a vague recollection of having played the early part of the game before, but was confident that I must have quit at some point and never picked it up again. Upon beating it, I went to add it to my list and -SHOCK- I had already beaten it 13 years earlier and completely forgotten (yes, my list also includes the date they were finished). Sad that a game wouldn't make enough of an impact on my memory that I would remember having finished it before, but, hey...I've played A LOT of games, and when you're emulating, it isn't as if you have a cartridge/disc to recognize. Not all of them are standouts. So now I dutifully check my list before starting something new.

[miketheratguy]

I like this idea, it's similar to something that I did back on the THQ forums. Writing is kind of my thing, which most of you can probably tell by how lengthy my posts usually are.

The closest thing that I have to a diary is my gaming podcast, which I obviously talk about in its thread. That's pretty much the only venue where I make note of current events in my life. The last time that I kept any kind of diary or journal was way back in late 2001, when I was going through a breakup with my girlfriend of four years, and writing my thoughts down every day was the only thing that kept me sane. I do actually keep what I call a "Christmas document", however. I'm a big nostalgic nut for Christmas and every December I add to an ever-growing Word document, describing what's going on for that particular holiday as well as recording as many memories and thoughts of Christmas-related things (movies, old toys, commercials, etc.) that I can think of. If I ever have kids it's the kind of thing that I'd like to pass onto them someday.

I'm actually thinking of starting a food journal. I'm never going to be big and fat but once I hit 30 a while back the metabolism slowed and I slowly started morphing away from the gawkily skinny kid that I used to be all my life, so I'm currently dieting. I lost 20 pounds over the course of a couple months and seem to be sticking to my diet better than I expected I would, but I keep hearing that maintaining a daily caloric intake journal increases the chance of staying on track that much more.

[Metron4]

Once as a requirement for Speech class in college, but I was never able to keep it going. It turns out all I really care about are the basic facts of my eventful life (in opposition to my everyday life). Since 2006 I have been keeping an Excel spreadsheet of important events; the what, when, where, and who I was with. If something else of personal significance happened in the world on the same day I put it under the "In the News..." cell. Thanks to keeping movie stubs going back to 1989, I also include every movie I have ever seen in theaters, the theater I saw them in, and who was with me. Movies are important to me.

One day I had a revelation; add these events to Google Earth. I now have a complete world map of every significant thing I have ever done (and quite a few insignificant events). I am in the process of adding all the family photos and videos to it as well. Next year I plan to buy a 27" flat-screen touchscreen PC for the living room and have this spinning, virtual globe available to recall all of my past events. How's that for biographical documentation!