Terminalcoffee discussion

I guess they aren't exactly the same thing (journals and diaries), but I'm just going to use the terms interchangably here, since it can get a little confusing.

I keep a diary, and try to write in it as often as I can. However, recently I started writing entries on Microsoft word and saving it so that no one can view them :). I know it's not the most traditional way, but I find it's more effective for me, since I spend a lot of my time at my desk anyway, and thoughts come easier. Writing on paper can also be very time-consuming and tedious at times, so that's another downside to that.

Anyway, I think it's interesting to read how life was for you, and how you thought when you read your old diary entries in the future. I think it's also a good way to express yourself.

I hope there wasn't a topic like this before :).

Welcome to TC, Esther!

Yep...I keep a journal/blog, whatever. I sometimes think I should keep a separate, completely private one but I don't think it's necessary. I type way faster than I hand-write, so I'd rather keep the journal on computer. I email the updates to myself monthly on a couple different email accounts to keep a record, although I should put them on a flash drive or something too. I have old journals from the early nineties printed out on paper...sometimes it's fun to go through those as well.

Oh, and don't worry about whether or not talked about this before. We revisit some topics multiple times...pasta shapes, cheese, "expressing" dogs...:)

I did, fairly religiously, from the age of 12/13 - until one of those psycho emotionally abusive ex-boyfriends got ahold of it and managed to make my life hell using the contents therein. No more :P

I write in my blog 4-5 times a week. I also have a notebook (the paper kind) that I drag around that I write things in if the mood strikes me.

I have journals for songs and story ideas and really cool passages from books, but I don't keep any diary-style record. I've always meant to, but never got into the habit.

i am like dan on this one. i keep a notebook deal close in case i think of something clever (never happens, but i am ready) or hear a song i want to remember or stuff like that. kind of a perpetual sticky note

i tried to journal in the past but when i read it back it seemed so....dumb

I blog privately.

Publicly, also, but that's updated less frequently, and I don't get as much out of it because I feel so self-conscious and censored.

I kept diaries when I was younger, at first because I was forced to (my dad would proofread every day), and later because I grew into a young teenager with feelings and aspirations to be one of those cool existential hipsters.

Sorry Natalie, something like that should never happen.

Nools, your dad proofread your diary? Obviously you didn't put a lot of personal information in it.

I've journaled forever. My first diary was this little pink number with a "lock" that my sister pried open with a paperclip. She wrote all sorts of horrific comments.
Ever since I've maintained an air of memoiresque fiction in my journals, to keep myself sheltered from slander.

I've blogged here and there for the last few years, but I tend to start blogs and then forget them.

Jim: Haha, I was like six. The assignment started at 1 paragraph a day and expanded into a 2 pages before I outgrew it and started writing more personally. It was a way of keeping track of my comings and goings as well as working on my grammar and spelling. I remember once, my dad told me, as feedback, to be "more specific," so I went back to my desk and hastily wrote a whole page wondering what it meant to be a more "pacific" writer. I just wanted to go play outside.

I used to HATE it, but in retrospect, I'm so grateful for the reflection-and-writing habit it worked into me. I started more personal blogging after about age nine.

it may have seemed tough but he loved you so much he wanted the very best for you and now look where you are. (not 2nd shift fry cook at Ned's Corner Pub)

Nools, that was cool then, and I second what Kevin said.

Kevin, Jim, thanks. : )

I know now he meant for the absolute best. I think my dad is The Man, also. And I don't mean the one Jack Black is "sticking it to" in School of Rock. Although sometimes, he is that one, too. If this makes any sense?

I love journals. I pick them up left & right at bookstores. I love the funky & beautiful colors & textures of the covers or the paper inside. I love how they feel in my hands and how the pen writes seemlessly on the handmade paper. And, have every intention of writing in them - one for dreams, one for simple thoughts, one for writing exercises, one for deep thoughts (like Jack Handy). Only, I don't seem to fill them up like I want to and then there is always another one to buy. (sigh)

I do write sporratically, and when I finally get down to it I write pages & pages. I finally created a blog to put down some of the things I've been researching & thinking about: spirituality, quantum physics, what is God, etc. But, in the past 5 months I've only blogged, officially, twice... and one of those was just a bunch of quotes I liked. I can't decide if it's because I can't order my thoughts enough to publish them, or because I'm too paranoid about what people will think about the bizarreness of what I really think about on a daily basis.

Anyone else blog-shy like me? What spurs you to write when you have a hard time writing?

I've been keeping a journal since 1998. It's really a life-saver, in so many ways. I love it, the blank pages, a place to put all my feelings and observations and not worry about what other people will think or how they will judge me. A place to figure out how I feel, it's totally for me, unlike a lot of things in life. I feel like my journal has helped me preserve my sanity and I also have a record of my life since then.

I journal from the front and work my way towards the back and in the back I write poetry, lists, books I want to read, phone numbers, short fiction or non-fiction, eveything else, except my book, and when the two part meet some place in the middle, it's time for a new notebook. I love the artist's sketch books, the paper is smooth and the pages are big.

Seems like my journal is essential to my emotional health.

When I was in 6th/7th grade, I used to write class notes/aphorisms/phone numbers/various little things in a moleskine. I've never consistently kept any sort of journal. I just seem to remember everything. My mom has kept various journals since she was six. Definitely not my thing.

I've read the diaries of my mother and various female cousins. I felt so guilty!

Nools: Haha, my dad used to make me do the paragraph-a-day thing as well. I absolutely hated it at the time. It all worked out in the end, though.

Matt, I once caught my brother reading my diary. Not funny. :/ But seeing as you've read them anyway: Did you find anything good? :D :D :D?

My ex-husband got me to burn a whole set of journals I kept in the 80's. He said they were sinful because they were encyclodpedias of his sins that he had repented of and if I wrote them down God would make me answer for his sins--which was a scary thought, considering some of the stuff he did. I know it sounds crazy, it does to me now, too, but that's where I was in my life. I still regret burning those journals.

Then I started journaling again, about 5 years before I left him. He said that my journals emanated evil that he could feel when he walked into the room. That he didn't even have to see it to know it was there, he could feel the evil energy. I don't know if he read them or not, it wouldn't surprise me. When I left him and our house and moved in with my mom and dad, I didn't take much, but I did take every volume--all my journals and other notebooks. I figured he would read them or burn them or do something.

So now I have my own house and still write in my journal and they are safe and me too! :)

Wow, Leslie. I can't wait to read your book.

:) Thank you Larry!

I did when I was younger.
I have a dream journal now, I write in it and then look up the meanings of the things I dream or try to find some sort of interpretation for it and jot it down on the opposite page.
It's interesting to look back on.

I've always wanted to have separate journals for different things, but it's never worked for me. Sometimes I write in different color ink to differeniate between different things, or write sort of side bars--that's where I put my dreams. There is a book about journaling called Life's Companion and that's what it feels like--my altar ego, my companion, my--what? My journal is so important to me that I don't even know how to express it.

Nools: Nothing exciting. Just the usual stuff about school/parents/boys, etc.

Nothing exciting? What could be more exciting than Steve looking at you in class? I mean, duh!

I really think that journaling/writing is a way to let your subconscious self out, where you can then let go of the negative in your life and let the positive manifest. In ancient history, all through the world, words were said to have a power of their own - not just metaphysically but truly a real power. I believe this. Especially when you write down your dreams and desires, I believe it helps create the reality of them to actually happen... although, it's not often in the way we expect.

Matt: Ah! That's pretty endearing. I would ask for more, except I suddenly imagine my brother quoting my sixth-grade "poetry," and Christina wins my sympathy again. Rotten little brothers, always going through our stuff. :P

: )

LOL Oh that reminds me of me & my little brother. He was born when I was 6 and stole all the love from Mom. Stoopid little brothers. :P

(Go figure that now he's my best bud out of all of us)

BunWat: There is SO much blackmail material in my angsty adolescent entries.


Matt: Oh, man, I'm (a little) sorry.

My brother and I are only 2 years apart, but it feels like much more than that. And I am all kinds of affectionately unkind to him. At least your sisters haven't permanently renamed you "pooface"? (Which, for the record, I say with love and good will!)

Really? I enjoyed being the older one, sort of? In Asian culture, age determines respect. Actually, the eldest son does, but fortunately, my parents' philosophy was diluted enough in gender equity for me to be given the role of firstborn over my younger brother.

The problem with being given that kind of responsibility is the guilt that comes from hurting the one you were supposed to protect. When it's dark and cold, it's easy for me to regret a lot I've done to poor Young. He trusted me so much.

I do regret most of it now.

When my lil bro was about 1 1/2 I was told to watch him while my parents went out back to talk to a neighbor. We were watching Sesame Street (what else?) and I leaned over to kiss him on the cheek... no, really, that was my intent... and I bit him instead leaving a big, red toothy bite mark. He just looked at me as if to say, "Oh, you're gonna get it now." And calmly waited 5 minutes for my Mom to return, then he let out a yowl that could have woken the dead bird buried in the back.

I really regret that, and still, to this day, have no idea why I did what I did. See? We older ones do love you little ones, it's just filled with a modicum of jealousy and a pinch of bitterness. :D

Haha, I'm blog shy as well, Sherrie :). Plus, I don't believe anyone will read them anyway. I mean if I post a link to it on my Facebook or something, they might read it, but I would probably not receive any comments. So I wouldn't even have an audience, and it would seem like I'm not speaking out to anyone.

As of now I have a journal, ideas notebook for stories/etc., one where I write poetry/songs, one for abstract/philosophical values, a dream log, and one for anazlyzing verses in the Bible.

But! I only write in the ideas one when ideas pop up and the poetry one. Also, I don't even write in my journal anymore because I type them up now. It's really quite annoying, because I want to write in all of them as well, but it's also very hard to manage so many notebooks. Haha :)!

Hmmm... beg to differ, Bun. My older sister used to do all the 'bad girl' things in High School, but got away with everything. I, on the other hand & being the younger sis, used to get caught every time, usually because it was curfew related or because I was way too honest for my own good. Maybe I just hadn't learned how to be sneaky enough then. You bet your bottom dollar I know how to be sneaky now, though. :)

I'm the oldest and the double standard really drove me nuts!! I snuck into an r rated movie when I was 16 and I was so scared of getting caught I didn't even watch the movie, hardly--A Star is Born.
By the time the twins were 16, my mom and dad had a vcr and they were watching r rated movies at home!!
And I used to get so mad at my brother--he was the youngest, the only boy, and he had a heart condition. Now I understand how my parents were, but I sure resented it then!

My journal is getting neglected so bad now that I'm in the home stretch of finishing the rough draft of my book! I miss it, it feels like a friend I don't spend enough time with, but I'm so into my book right now!

Looking forward to being able to read your book, good luck.

Thanks! I've gotten so much encouragement on here--it really makes me feel good!

I dont keep a journal or a diary anymore . My husband got a hold of it and under the influence of some strong alcohol totally went bezerk. It wasn't anything sexual or personal it was just some things I had to put on paper and deal with. unfortunately I have found that MY PERSONAL thoughts evoke anger in others and they are best burnt after writing. It happens in here too. people seem to get angry with me . And I dont even know them.

unfortunately I have found that MY PERSONAL thoughts evoke anger in others

Aren't your personal thoughts personal, no one should be reading them.

On here I would say that your thoughts are quite public, and open to discussion, but I would hope not anger.

I feel sad when I read of all the people giving up their journals because other people have read them. I understand it, but it's like giving up something really wonderful you can do for yourself because another person did something wrong to you. Punishing yourself because of their actions. But I do understand the desire not to be put in that position again. It's sad, though.

I kept a diary as a kid, intermittently, up to maybe 9th or 10th grade. I wish I'd kept it up because the entries are completely hilarious, and so much of the stuff I've forgotten.

I kind of wish I kept a journal still - not deep emotive stuff, but more day-to-day stuff, like what I did, who I socialized with, conversations I had. So much of that vanishes into thin air.

I do keep a digital commonplace book - passages from books I want to have a record of, and other random files full of notes.

I burned all but the most prosaic entries about five years ago - all the stuff I didn't want my son to read someday. You don't think about that when you're young.

Burning seemed more right than just throwing them away.

I have a few visual diaries for drawings . I had a diary for a few years when I was a teenager. I don't know what happened to them.

Saw this and thought of a certain someone:

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Here is the link: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tool...

^^Do want^^.

I probably have 5 or 6 journals I've started and never really kept up over the years since high school.

I have never kept a journal or diary, but I keep a log book of all our road trips. I record routes taken, places we stop to eat, things we see, where we stay.

I sometimes do that too, but not consistently. I wish I had been more consistent about it.

I look back at my life and I only remember snippets of things. A lot of what I remember are actually photographs, not what I really saw or experienced. Sometimes I think that if I don't remember all the events that happened to me, it makes my life shorter. If I only remember a few years' worth of events, have I really lived those 40+ years? If I had kept up with a journal maybe I wouldn't feel that way.

My life has so much drama and events in one day, that I would need a book for each week of my life. I was thinking when things settle down, if they ever do that I would like to keep a journal, so that my children and grandchildren know how much I love them and how fullfilling life was for me. But with what is going on now, no I don't keep one.

It's so weird how I've forgotten entire swaths. I remember a lot of details from piano lessons with three different teachers, but I have no memory of piano lessons with a fourth teacher at a conservatory when I was 10-11. I couldn't even tell you if it was a man or woman. Yet I remember the first day of kindergarten, walking down the hall to the classroom, and the floor sloped down a little at the end of the hall. I remember playing on the playground that first day.

Cyril wrote: "I look back at my life and I only remember snippets of things. A lot of what I remember are actually photographs, not what I really saw or experienced. Sometimes I think that if I don't remember al..."

Interesting, Cyril.

I don't but my grandmother was a prolific diary writer. Sadly we only have one left - but it's a goodie being 1940 and the year she met my grandfather. I'm currently typing it up as most people in the fanmily can't read her fancy handwriting!

I have a journal. I used to do personal blogging but found that it only upset people and I ended up not being honest anymore. So I bought this pretty journal which I keep in my bedroom, got all "Yay, I'm gonna cleanse my soul and embrace my inner beauty by writing in this book" about it...and found myself writing in it every once in a blue moon. And only passive-aggressive melodramatic crap. Ah well, I tried.