Journaling

[JackJ]

I've just recently started a "Bullet Journal" and so far, it's a useful tool for me. My purpose is mostly to be better organized. (And yes, to justify my burgeoning fountain pen collection.) I've got too many electronic calendars that I need to keep tabs on, making it hard to prioritize the most important tasks and events. A paper journal is helping me keep sight of the more important stuff. Beyond calendaring, I use it for lists, recipes, logs, etc.

Much of the "BuJo" (not a term I'm fond of!) stuff online gets into self-awareness and personal creativity stuff that isn't my bag, personally. But a paper "planner" for which I create and modify the structure as I go is proving to be engaging and constructive.

 

[Doc4]

So would it be bad form to handwrite a letter and then email it as a PDF. Seems like the actual feel of the paper has something to do with it, but I hate to feed the coffers of the USPS.

UPS?

Seriously, I doubt that giving USPS a couple bucks to deliver a few letters is going to help them much if at all. I suspect that the post offices make their money (to the degree they make money at all) with bulk mailings and parcel delivery rather than old-fashioned letters. And if you hand-write the address, the scanning machine can't read it so they have to pay someone to manually read and direct the letter. They lose money on every letter you send.

 

[H4nk]

My "journal" is actually a planner along with a composition book. The planner is a "here is today" type of thing. Things I need to do, things I need to buy, what I should be researching, what people asked me and what I did. The front page is a planner for the day and the back is a journal that is printed on HP 32 lb paper that I print every morning. When I am done, they go into a notebook in case I need to look back but get trashed after a while.

The composition book is details. Password/Login changes go here. I am taking my sister to the Outer Banks in the fall so all my house research goes here(prices, pros and cons of oceanfront vs sound). There are notes about changes to the house we have "obtained"(renting until the sale can go through). Research into riding mowers since I am paying TimmyTommy $100 a week to cut it while we rent. Research into buying marijuana seeds for July 1 when it becomes legal to grow. What veggie plants I want to grow this season. Shaving notes. Budget for large items. Budget for income. What I need to eat this week.

If I think about it, I try to remember to write it down. It's a great habit to form.

 

[tankerjohn]

UPS?

Seriously, I doubt that giving USPS a couple bucks to deliver a few letters is going to help them much if at all. I suspect that the post offices make their money (to the degree they make money at all) with bulk mailings and parcel delivery rather than old-fashioned letters. And if you hand-write the address, the scanning machine can't read it so they have to pay someone to manually read and direct the letter. They lose money on every letter you send.

The USPS pretty much doesn't make money, period. Which is part of its problem. But that's a discussion for the Barbershop forum. I believe you are correct that postage stamps are a loss leader. I am personally grateful that we can still send letters "snail-mail" in this day and age.

 

[tankerjohn]

This?

The Handwritten Thread

www.badgerandblade.com

That's it!

 

[KW Driver]

I've been doing my version of a bullet journal format for the better part of a decade. it's an all in one for everything that needs doing. tasks, lists, tv/books/music/food to remember or try, business/personal travel itineraries and locations, thinky thoughts put to paper (as much to explore and ID the thought as to purge it out of my head into a formed concept), daily ramblings, bitching about people in my life...

it's whatever you want it to be, as coded for privacy as you want it to be, used as often or rarely as you want it to be.

 

[Slivovitz]

I've been slowly reading Boswell's Life of Johnson, and came across this passage, which reminded me of this thread. Samuel Johnson is counseling his young friend James Boswell on a page headed "Thursday, 14 July, 1763".

He counseled me to keep a journal of my life, full and unreserved. He said it would be a very good exercise, and would yield me great satisfaction when the particulars were faded from my remembrance...He counseled me to keep it private, and said I might surely have a friend who would burn it in case of my death. From this habit I have been enabled to give the world so many anecdotes, which would otherwise have been lost to posterity. I mentioned that I was afraid I put into my journal too many little incidents. JOHNSON. "There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

To many, the idea of making a provision for destroying one's journals may seem odd; it may be an older idea of privacy and discretion. Certainly many diarists intend to leave their daily musings as a record for future generations. Samuel Pepys kept his diary in a known form of shorthand, effectively a code for most people, but made sure that a physical copy survived him, to be deciphered long after his death. Other diaries have turned out to be valuable historical sources, or perhaps given individuals insight into the lives of their own ancestors. Still, it's certainly worth giving some thought to the subject, and at least to make it a conscious decision rather than leaving it to chance.

And I certainly don't worry about whether what I put in my own journal is too little to be worth recording. If it interests me on that day, and if I have time to write about it, in it goes.

 

[tankerjohn]

I've been slowly reading Boswell's Life of Johnson, and came across this passage, which reminded me of this thread. Samuel Johnson is counseling his young friend James Boswell on a page headed "Thursday, 14 July, 1763".

He counseled me to keep a journal of my life, full and unreserved. He said it would be a very good exercise, and would yield me great satisfaction when the particulars were faded from my remembrance...He counseled me to keep it private, and said I might surely have a friend who would burn it in case of my death. From this habit I have been enabled to give the world so many anecdotes, which would otherwise have been lost to posterity. I mentioned that I was afraid I put into my journal too many little incidents. JOHNSON. "There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

To many, the idea of making a provision for destroying one's journals may seem odd; it may be an older idea of privacy and discretion. Certainly many diarists intend to leave their daily musings as a record for future generations. Samuel Pepys kept his diary in a known form of shorthand, effectively a code for most people, but made sure that a physical copy survived him, to be deciphered long after his death. Other diaries have turned out to be valuable historical sources, or perhaps given individuals insight into the lives of their own ancestors. Still, it's certainly worth giving some thought to the subject, and at least to make it a conscious decision rather than leaving it to chance.

And I certainly don't worry about whether what I put in my own journal is too little to be worth recording. If it interests me on that day, and if I have time to write about it, in it goes.

Outstanding! Thank you.

Marcus Aurelius wrote a private journal that is now considered one of the Great Books of the Western canon. So, you never know...

 

[Doc4]

Outstanding! Thank you.

Marcus Aurelius wrote a private journal that is now considered one of the Great Books of the Western canon. So, you never know...

He was the first Irish emperor of the Roman Empire.












... Marcus O'Rilleyus

 

[tankerjohn]

He was the first Irish emperor of the Roman Empire.












... Marcus O'Rilleyus

...and thank you ladies and gentlemen. Doc’s going to be here all night. Sit back and enjoy and don’t forget to tip your waitress.

 

[Borderboss]

I've been keeping a journal since the late-90s, as has my wife. I'm probably up to my 10th or 12th book at this point.

I write on days where something happened that I want to record for posterity and my own recall. It's actually been very handy to go back to a book from 15 years ago to remember something that happened on a particular date that I wanted to recall for some reason.

I don't care if someone in the future reads what I wrote, be it a family member or a perfect stranger. At that point, I'll be room temperature and won't care.

 

[Borderboss]

So would it be bad form to handwrite a letter and then email it as a PDF. Seems like the actual feel of the paper has something to do with it, but I hate to feed the coffers of the USPS.

Yes, I think it would be poor form. Plus, what I've found is that people really love getting a hand written letter or note card. It happens so infrequently for them that it makes them feel special that you took the time to write your thoughts to them on paper and sent it to them. So ignore the mess the USPS is in and use them as a necessary evil.