Thursday, 25 September, 1997 06:34

I'm up way too early, but I have had a lot of sleep.

Too damned much. Yesterday, I was planning on staying up until my doctor appointment. Then about 11:00, I just couldn't stay up any longer. So I set the alarm and went to sleep.

Yeah, I slept through the alarm. It must not've fazed me. Karen woke me up when she got home, about 17:30, and I stayed up until... about 20:30. She wanted me to watch the country music awards with her, but I am singularly uninterested in awards shows. I'm pretty much uninterested in almost anything on TV, actually.

I did get caught up on my journal-reading, though. My regular journals, at least. I haven't ventured out onto the big page (Open Pages) yet, though, to pick up on the ones that I occasionally read. I'll probably get to that sometime today.

I've written every day now for over a year, and that kinda surprises me. It was my intention to do that, of course, but I didn't really think that I would. It has become a habit, a routine. Not that that's bad... but sometimes the content is loose and sloppy, sometimes it's almost non-existent. In other words, is it worth it? I think that is is to me, but not necessarily to anyone else reading it. I need the discipline of writing daily; now I need to work on developing something worthwhile to say daily.

I will frequently hit a block. I generally try to think of what I will say when I'm at work (on my "on" weeks) and frequently I sit down at the keyboard with nothing in mind at all. These daily writings tend to not have a daily theme at all. I would really like to develop something every day, maybe pace myself a lot better. Some days, it seems like I have way too much to write about. And I want to write it all right now! I need to save some things for tomorrow, I think.

Much of this is simply a list of the things done for the day, and intentions for the future. Since I do not keep a separate paper journal, this part is for me; my records of the days. I like to go back sometimes and check when something happened, or remind myself of something.

But my main reason for writing remains... I'm having fun doing it. It's fun exposing part of myself to the world, and sometimes getting comments back. I also enjoy being part of the "journaling community" even though I don't really feel that much of a part of it. And I enjoy being part of the "Journal Crit Society", even though it's mostly a pain in the ass.

It's all a learning experience, and for certain aspects of it I'm still way behind. I would still like to improve my HTML skills, but really, this journal doesn't require much HTML. Nothing fancy, nothing cute, just basic stuff. There are all sorts of other stuff that I would like to learn, cascading style sheets, dynamic HTML, new stuff coming out all of the time, but I really have no use for it right now. Glitz and glitter... most of it is pretty, but useless for enhancing content, which is all a journal is really about.

There have been a lot of "rules" put out regarding journals; mine are simple:

• Content.
• Ease of navigation. Finding entries.
• Physical readability (background and text contrast).

• Graphics.
• Tricks. Java, jscript, etc.

I am certainly not going to go out on a limb and say that journals that don't follow my rules are bad. Content is the main thing here. Content, the ability to find the content, the ability to read the content.

Don't let anything get between your reader and your content.

Small graphics, a unique design, these are attempts to visually identify a journal. To differentiate one journal from another one. Well, OK. That works. But that is what the content does, and the content does it much better. There are many journals that are identifiable from across the room on a 13-inch monitor.

So what?

I read journals for only one reason: to get to know the journaller better, to get to know their point of view; to read interesting things, to be amused. Depending on my mood, I will read certain journals and not read others. If I'm a little bit depressed, I will certainly avoid some journals.

Much of the content depends upon clarity. Misspelled words and disjointed thoughts muddle what the journaller is trying to say. Other things that distract from the content:

• Centering text. I can do a paragraph of centered text OK; more than that is too much.
• Alternating paragraphs with left-right justification. I don't know why this bothers me, but it does.
• text that stretches clear from the left side to the right side. Put it in a table and narrow it down some. Just a little bit helps!

More later...