Journal of a Sabbatical

December 8, 2000

cyberjournals

Today's Reading: Tall Trees and Far Horizons by Virginia Eifert, Autumn from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Channel 7 news was running teasers for a feature about CyberJournals so I turned the TV back on for the 11:00 news, which I usually don't do. It featured two journalers with whom I'm not familiar : Bridget McGraw and her friend Meg (or maybe it was Megan) who apparently don't hold anything back - criticize friends and family etc. Unfortunately Channel 7 did not give the URLs for either of them and I couldn't find a Bridget McGraw online journal using google.com. The other thing the story featured was LiveJournal, to which I was able to connect but not to use the search feature to find users. Frustrating.

Why was I bothering to follow up on the story? Well mostly because I was intrigued with the comment that online journaling is an addiction. Also I was titillated by the references to disturbing content and waited to find out what that might be.

I do long to be hip and with it almost as much as I long to be a toon. For once I want to be with the in-crowd. And according to the Channel 7 reporter, cyberjournaling is a real happening phenomenon. Doesn't sound like I write about the same sorts of stuff though. I don't think birds, cats, and used books count as either intimate or disturbing stuff. And I'm afraid to criticize my family because they all read this. Not that I have anything startlingly critical to say about them anyway. I mean what could I write in the journal that they don't already know I think?

Continuing another facet of keeping up with the online trends, I spent a bit of time blogging today too, mostly about the ridiculous situation in Florida. No, not that one with those Bush and Gore guys. The one where a teenage boy killed two whooping cranes and under Florida law gets off with a $500 fine per head because Florida lists the whooping crane as "species of special concern" instead of "endangered species" even though it's on the federal endangered species list. And furthermore, why isn't the kid being prosecuted under the federal Migratory Bird statute never mind the Endangered Species Act. Gee, now you don't have to read my blog except that it's got links to the newspaper story and stuff like that.

I even finally put links to my travel journals back on the journal index page and patched up the broken links. I'd been putting that off since I sold the bluetarp name and changed it to bluetarpenterprises. At the time I just ran out of energy to make the changes once I got the basic journal back up and running. Of course I was also holding back because I'd like to redo the earlier ones into a nicer format and add some updated links and maybe even fill in some missing tidbits, but I may never get to that, so I just put everything back the way it was.

And I struggled to finish yesterday's entry but ran out of energy for that too. I'll back fill yesterday's entry soon. Not that it's that exciting. Just for completeness or something.

I attempted Xmas shopping today and failed utterly. I had been informed that I had to go to the Burlington Mall to get this one thing my mother wants. I am terrified of shopping malls at this season, especially the Burlington Mall. I feel trapped and surrounded and start to get the fight or flight response. The store she described isn't even there, and all the stores likely to have the particular thing said they didn't carry that particular line of collectibles anymore. It was not fun.