every day I write the book
A NEW FILTER
liken my LiveJournal to the bands who say they make music they want to hear: I try to keep a journal that I'd want to read. Over the past year and a half, I've stuck with that principle and overall I'm happy with the content I provide. Rather than writing every time something or other pops in my head or about every little detail, resulting in multiple entries per day, I've tried to provide things which were somewhat succinct and with purpose.
The problem with this is that, I spend inordinate amounts of time on polish and craft: editing as I go, moving sentences around, playing with syntax. Then there's all the linking for photos and what-not. While I'm pleased with the final result of my journal overall, and I don't mind the work that goes into writing an entry, I've found that there are lots of things which occur in my life that I wish were documented. This was my original intent for this journal, and while lots of things do get documented, a LOT doesn't. I want to, but sometimes it gets put-off because of time constraints. Pretty soon it's been several days and now there's something else that JUST OCCURRED that I want to write about. Basically, I've got a journal I'd like to read, but it's not completely the sort of journal I like to keep.
I first thought that maybe I needed another place to do this. I could write in an offline journal, but what's the fun of that? Besides, I have my laptop with me 90% of the time. I considered starting a second journal or a blog outside LJ, but neither of those really appeal to me: I like having everything in one place. Instead, I decided that I would begin keeping a daily log of my actions, movement, random thoughts... whatever and dump them into a single Semagic entry throughout the day. At the end of the day, I will make a single entry with this brain dump. All of this daily dumping of "I did this, I did that" would probably bore some of you to tears. I know it would me, that's why I don't keep a journal like that. (No offense to those of you who do.)
That's why I'm creating a new, elective filter called "daily_log". If for some reason you WANT to read this mess, just let me know and I'll add you. Edit To Add: I've added everyone to this filter. [/Edit] If at any time you would like to be removed from it, just let me know - no hard feelings. Basically, I will be writing for an audience of one: myself. I won't waste time writing back-stories, explaining things, or embellishing things. This isn't to say that it might not be entertaining, or amusing, or... whatever. But I'm not doing it with that intention, I'm just documenting my daily life as a supplement to the usual content. Feel free to leave comments, ask for clarification or further informaton about something.
I've made a set of guidelines for writing my daily logs, which I may tweak as I go:
1) Observe time of day and location each time I write in the log
2) Do not edit-as-you go. Do not edit previous time-segments. Any corrections and caveats must be made in subsequent segments.
3) No photos and a minimum of mark-up/style (including no LJ cuts).
4) Do not be "audience aware", all that matters is that I know what it means. I don't care that y'all don't know what it means (no backstories, etc)
That's it! Behind the cut is a sample of what you can expect. It's my log for 9/30/2006.
09/30/2006
06:30 PDT - Sparks, NV
Didn't sleep well last night due to a toothache. I was hoping to wait until Christmas to worry about doing something once and for all with this mouth of mine, but if this keeps up it may be sooner rather than later. I have a little bit of leeway with this load I'm pulling to Henderson, CO, so I plan to stop for a while in Austin, NV and photograph some things I originally visited two years ago. It's been a long time coming.
09:00 PDT - Middlegate, NV
Stopped and took some photos of the Nevada Shoe Tree.
10:15 PDT - Austin, NV
I was stopped by a State Trooper just outside Austin for a random vehicle inspection. I passed, but I sure I'm glad I had the cab's air suspension fixed in Omaha last week.
10:30 PDT
I'm at The Castle, then I'm headed up to the mines.
13:50 PDT
The big mine was sealed-up, which disappointed me, but the smaller one was still accessible so the trip up here wasn't a total bust. It took me a while to find the big one as I had only been the one time two years. After I found it, it took me thirty minutes to find one of the entrances. Then another thirty to find the other, and both were sealed. I went back to the smaller one and took some photos for about an hour. I'm now back in the truck. Erin called within 5 minutes of me being here, how's that for timing :). Now, I'm all tired and dirty and I still have another 6-7 hours of driving to do today. Wheeeeee!
16:40 PDT - Ely, NV
I hope to make it as far as Richfield, UT tonight, which shouldn't be any trouble. A quick consultation of PC Miler says that'll only leave me 472 miles to Henderson before midnight tomorrow night. I have an Arby's Ultimate BLT, and Arizona Black Tea with Ginseng and honey, and a couple of more Advil for the toothache. In the 20 zillion times I've heard it, I think I just now realized the line in "Heartless" by Heart is Keep on sinning in the name of rock and roll. Awesome.
21:45 MDT - Richfield, UT
....with thirty minutes to spare on my 14 hour. Tooth is starting to hurt again, took more Advil. Gonna chat with Erin for a bit, take my Conquer Club turns and maybe work a little on the Funny Farm before going to bed. I've heard Minor Threat three times in the past three days on XM... and I heard "Superstar" from JC Superstar. I think I'll pull both for listening-to tomorrow, that'll be a weird mix.
liken my LiveJournal to the bands who say they make music they want to hear: I try to keep a journal that I'd want to read. Over the past year and a half, I've stuck with that principle and overall I'm happy with the content I provide. Rather than writing every time something or other pops in my head or about every little detail, resulting in multiple entries per day, I've tried to provide things which were somewhat succinct and with purpose.
The problem with this is that, I spend inordinate amounts of time on polish and craft: editing as I go, moving sentences around, playing with syntax. Then there's all the linking for photos and what-not. While I'm pleased with the final result of my journal overall, and I don't mind the work that goes into writing an entry, I've found that there are lots of things which occur in my life that I wish were documented. This was my original intent for this journal, and while lots of things do get documented, a LOT doesn't. I want to, but sometimes it gets put-off because of time constraints. Pretty soon it's been several days and now there's something else that JUST OCCURRED that I want to write about. Basically, I've got a journal I'd like to read, but it's not completely the sort of journal I like to keep.
I first thought that maybe I needed another place to do this. I could write in an offline journal, but what's the fun of that? Besides, I have my laptop with me 90% of the time. I considered starting a second journal or a blog outside LJ, but neither of those really appeal to me: I like having everything in one place. Instead, I decided that I would begin keeping a daily log of my actions, movement, random thoughts... whatever and dump them into a single Semagic entry throughout the day. At the end of the day, I will make a single entry with this brain dump. All of this daily dumping of "I did this, I did that" would probably bore some of you to tears. I know it would me, that's why I don't keep a journal like that. (No offense to those of you who do.)
That's why I'm creating a new, elective filter called "daily_log". If for some reason you WANT to read this mess, just let me know and I'll add you. Edit To Add: I've added everyone to this filter. [/Edit] If at any time you would like to be removed from it, just let me know - no hard feelings. Basically, I will be writing for an audience of one: myself. I won't waste time writing back-stories, explaining things, or embellishing things. This isn't to say that it might not be entertaining, or amusing, or... whatever. But I'm not doing it with that intention, I'm just documenting my daily life as a supplement to the usual content. Feel free to leave comments, ask for clarification or further informaton about something.
I've made a set of guidelines for writing my daily logs, which I may tweak as I go:
1) Observe time of day and location each time I write in the log
2) Do not edit-as-you go. Do not edit previous time-segments. Any corrections and caveats must be made in subsequent segments.
3) No photos and a minimum of mark-up/style (including no LJ cuts).
4) Do not be "audience aware", all that matters is that I know what it means. I don't care that y'all don't know what it means (no backstories, etc)
That's it! Behind the cut is a sample of what you can expect. It's my log for 9/30/2006.
09/30/2006
06:30 PDT - Sparks, NV
Didn't sleep well last night due to a toothache. I was hoping to wait until Christmas to worry about doing something once and for all with this mouth of mine, but if this keeps up it may be sooner rather than later. I have a little bit of leeway with this load I'm pulling to Henderson, CO, so I plan to stop for a while in Austin, NV and photograph some things I originally visited two years ago. It's been a long time coming.
09:00 PDT - Middlegate, NV
Stopped and took some photos of the Nevada Shoe Tree.
10:15 PDT - Austin, NV
I was stopped by a State Trooper just outside Austin for a random vehicle inspection. I passed, but I sure I'm glad I had the cab's air suspension fixed in Omaha last week.
10:30 PDT
I'm at The Castle, then I'm headed up to the mines.
13:50 PDT
The big mine was sealed-up, which disappointed me, but the smaller one was still accessible so the trip up here wasn't a total bust. It took me a while to find the big one as I had only been the one time two years. After I found it, it took me thirty minutes to find one of the entrances. Then another thirty to find the other, and both were sealed. I went back to the smaller one and took some photos for about an hour. I'm now back in the truck. Erin called within 5 minutes of me being here, how's that for timing :). Now, I'm all tired and dirty and I still have another 6-7 hours of driving to do today. Wheeeeee!
16:40 PDT - Ely, NV
I hope to make it as far as Richfield, UT tonight, which shouldn't be any trouble. A quick consultation of PC Miler says that'll only leave me 472 miles to Henderson before midnight tomorrow night. I have an Arby's Ultimate BLT, and Arizona Black Tea with Ginseng and honey, and a couple of more Advil for the toothache. In the 20 zillion times I've heard it, I think I just now realized the line in "Heartless" by Heart is Keep on sinning in the name of rock and roll. Awesome.
21:45 MDT - Richfield, UT
....with thirty minutes to spare on my 14 hour. Tooth is starting to hurt again, took more Advil. Gonna chat with Erin for a bit, take my Conquer Club turns and maybe work a little on the Funny Farm before going to bed. I've heard Minor Threat three times in the past three days on XM... and I heard "Superstar" from JC Superstar. I think I'll pull both for listening-to tomorrow, that'll be a weird mix.