Compartment 14B

On journalling... 2003-10-15 - 4:04 p.m. Why did I start this journal? Good question. I haven�t any real intention of telling anyone I know about it, so why tell strangers my thoughts? I suppose it boils down to a few things: 1) I like to write. You know how some people self-identify as something, even though there�s no real evidence to support that? To use a contentious comparison, some people consider themselves straight even though they have relationships with people of the same sex (something which both puzzled and smacked of denial to my former roommate who is, herself, lesbian). Well I�ve always thought of myself as a writer, despite the fact that I hadn�t exactly accumulated a vast body of work. So this is a bit of accumulation, a flexing of my mental muscles, an oiling of my writing machinery, etc. 2) This journal also provides a place to air my thoughts fairly freely. I am trying to keep in mind the advice that you shouldn�t put anything up that you don�t want those who know you to read, and I wouldn�t want to hurt anyone or be malicious in any way, but I still see the opportunity to vent from time to time. 3) I read a few journals. In fact I�ve been reading some of them for years*. I enjoy reading well-written opinions and thoughts and dare to hope to add a few of my own to the pool. 4) The journalling community seems to be just that, a community, and I am fascinated that so many people know each other who would probably never have met before the advent of the internet. I don�t often follow links from one person�s journal to another�s so I have discovered most of the journals I keep up with via the Diarist.net awards. Yet, at some point, most of those journallers mention the others I read. It puts the �web� in the world wide web, from my perspective. It�s a community I�d like to step forward and be part of. *In case you�re curious, I�ve probably been reading Sars�s work over at Tomato Nation for the longest (since 1998 at the latest as I know I was still in grad school at the time), though I have kept an eye on a few others since including Rob, Mo, Jessamyn, Jenfu and, recently, diaryland�s own Weetabix. I also wish that Miss Alli would add more to Frolic and Detour because I love her writing and her great TWoP recaps are naturally restricted to the TV show at hand. Before - After All content � Shawna 2003-2010 That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking. P.S. If you're emailing me, replace the [at] with @ in the "to" line. Oh, and if you put the word "journal" in the subject line it'll have a better chance of making it past my junk mail filters. recommend me HTML and design help by Jo hosted by Diaryland