I do mine with the intent of keeping them, even though I don't really go back in time much with them (now). Part of it, I admit, is vanity and self-preservation. I do genealogy for my family, and one thing you can never really get is an idea of who these people really were outside of some numbers written in a censustaker's book or the occasional tax record or birth certificate. I'd like to think that one day someone may want to fill in the branches in my family, and when they do, there'll be some info on who I was
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This is helpful. I'm not looking for advise so much as perspectives I may be missing. I don't want to let it fade away and then one day regret it because I hadn't considered some situation or another
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I was actually really happy to find LJ when a lot of my local friends started blogging here. I used to write long informative emails to various friends, talking about my days, and they would get lost in email archives. I like having one place with all that info, and I do go back to remind myself of things. I keep notes on my heath, books I've read and movies I've watched, places I've gone and restaurants at which I've eaten
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I don't do as much travel/book/movie/dining-out blogging as you do. If I'd had the forethought to somehow mark specific entries like those, I'd be tempted to keep just that much for sure.
I do like the sharing aspects of blogging, and 70% of the time, that's my reason for it. The other 30% are the days I just need to see my thoughts "out there somewhere." I see blogging as conversation though, casual banter, not the kind of thing one wants to record for all of time.
I'm undecided as to how long I want to hang on to it all during my own lifetime, I hardly ever reference it (maybe once a year or three), but the thought of it outliving me is rather unappealing.
If you're asking an old History teacher if you should toss (or let fade away) things that describe how someone in a particular time and place felt...? Guess at my answer. Everything everyone has to say is of equal value to the future. What you think would be more culturally significant that the memoirs of every president since you are an average person living with the effects of life, instead of in the ivory tower. Keep it somewhere! (I assume you're not of the ivory tower set)
I don't want to scare you off, but I've never enjoyed or valued history. The past got us to this moment, and it's this moment that is most important. It's this very instant that holds all the possibilities for future courses. If we spend the present examining the past, we're reliving history and missing the now.
Plus, everything has a time and a place. There may be some moments of my life that could inspire others or help them get through tough times, but the vast majority of my blogged moments have had their time, and to continue to keep them alive outside of their time seems wrong. If someone were to ask me if they could write about one day or era of my life, I'd tell them to mind their own business, to go live their own lives and leave mine to me.
I ain't scared! In any average archaeologist's life the most exciting moment is when the discover an ancient trash heap. Discarded food containers and the most mundane letters from family tell us more than decrees from the king. The guy that does excavations at Hadrian's Wall raves about the day he found a wood chip that has a PS on it to a soldiers... it said "we've sent you socks, leather and underwear".
:) That's good, because I can be quite an idiot when it comes to conversation and social interaction, and it does tend to send some folks running.
"we've sent you socks, leather and underwear".
That brought a smile to my face. I can see how that would be an exciting find, though it was thoroughly mundane in it's day.
In a similar vein, I suppose it would be fun if some day, many many many years from now, some archaeologist manages to pull data from some cached google back-up and they find my blogs. The fact that depression was a side effect of my allergy meds could create quite a stir in some historical circles. *L* But I can't imagine making an effort to preserve the information myself, not just on the off chance that it may prove valuable to someone some day. :)
I don't delete old entries (mostly), but I never look back at them, either.
I actually have my own domain with a Wordpress blog, and the "important" stuff gets posted there first and automatically cross-posted to LJ (and Dreamwidth). I still post new stuff on LJ, but I don't worry about losing it.
The thing that keeps me at LJ is the community - it's harder to participate in ongoing conversations when everyone's on their own site.
I don't follow history either however I realised when packing up my nana's house when she passed away that there was a grip of things I didn't know about her and wished I did. I don't have children to pass things down to either but after spending hours telling my neice stories about her mum and I growing up- I decided I needed to keep things like a journal and allow her the choice to read them or not when I am gone. I also think of Anne Frank, had she not kept a journal we wouldnt know how it felt to be in hiding from the germans- we knew war happened but she is the one who made it personal. I'd keep a copy of your blog. I know it sounds morbid but what if you pass before Craig... if you left a journal he could re read all the many loving things you did together and have a way to be with you thru your words.
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I don't do as much travel/book/movie/dining-out blogging as you do. If I'd had the forethought to somehow mark specific entries like those, I'd be tempted to keep just that much for sure.
I do like the sharing aspects of blogging, and 70% of the time, that's my reason for it. The other 30% are the days I just need to see my thoughts "out there somewhere." I see blogging as conversation though, casual banter, not the kind of thing one wants to record for all of time.
I'm undecided as to how long I want to hang on to it all during my own lifetime, I hardly ever reference it (maybe once a year or three), but the thought of it outliving me is rather unappealing.
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Guess at my answer.
Everything everyone has to say is of equal value to the future. What you think would be more culturally significant that the memoirs of every president since you are an average person living with the effects of life, instead of in the ivory tower.
Keep it somewhere!
(I assume you're not of the ivory tower set)
Reply
Plus, everything has a time and a place. There may be some moments of my life that could inspire others or help them get through tough times, but the vast majority of my blogged moments have had their time, and to continue to keep them alive outside of their time seems wrong. If someone were to ask me if they could write about one day or era of my life, I'd tell them to mind their own business, to go live their own lives and leave mine to me.
Reply
In any average archaeologist's life the most exciting moment is when the discover an ancient trash heap. Discarded food containers and the most mundane letters from family tell us more than decrees from the king. The guy that does excavations at Hadrian's Wall raves about the day he found a wood chip that has a PS on it to a soldiers... it said "we've sent you socks, leather and underwear".
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:) That's good, because I can be quite an idiot when it comes to conversation and social interaction, and it does tend to send some folks running.
"we've sent you socks, leather and underwear".
That brought a smile to my face. I can see how that would be an exciting find, though it was thoroughly mundane in it's day.
In a similar vein, I suppose it would be fun if some day, many many many years from now, some archaeologist manages to pull data from some cached google back-up and they find my blogs. The fact that depression was a side effect of my allergy meds could create quite a stir in some historical circles. *L* But I can't imagine making an effort to preserve the information myself, not just on the off chance that it may prove valuable to someone some day. :)
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I actually have my own domain with a Wordpress blog, and the "important" stuff gets posted there first and automatically cross-posted to LJ (and Dreamwidth). I still post new stuff on LJ, but I don't worry about losing it.
The thing that keeps me at LJ is the community - it's harder to participate in ongoing conversations when everyone's on their own site.
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