I'm thinking about all the different types of diaries I've kept over the years.
What's that one on the table?
That's my Moleskine diary for daily stuff, but I've found I'm increasingly using it to record ideas for this comic, and stories.
What about personal diaries? Do you have any of those? The ones that you use for the embarrassing emotional stuff, I mean.
Well, I've kept those too, on and off over the years. And yes, they're very embarrassing. Some of them make me squirm.
How come?
Oh, they're so self-absorbed. I think I only write in them when I feel like a bit of a moan, so consequently they read like page after page of belly-aching.
But aren't diaries supposed to be true representations of the Self? Aren't they meant to show the secret stuff that no one knows about?
I wonder if that's actually true. Like I said, my diaries tend to reflect the lows rather than the highs. Also, I think people often lie to their diaries.
Why would anyone do that?
Recreating painful events? Putting a better spin on things? Exonerating yourself from blame? There are lots of reasons.
Do you lie to your diary?
I try not to. But I leave things out. Anyway, I barely keep one anymore anyway.
What other types of diaries have you kept?
I have a notebook I kept a while ago that I called "a notebook of ordinary objects." It had lots of simple line drawings of things on my desk or in my cupboard.
I put a date at the bottom of each page, so I guess it was sort of a diary.
A visual diary, maybe?
Yes, sort of. But I guess I think of visual diaries as being less methodical than this was.
Does anyone keep a visual journal style blog?
Plenty of people do. Kathyrn was doing it for a while until her scanner broke. And Looby Lu has drawings to illustrate some entries.
Wasn't there an American guy who was doing a drawing of a new person everyday that he passed on the street?
Oh yeah, he was great. He had some amazing ones from New York around September 11. I'll try to find his site again.
You should add more drawings to these chat sessions.
I intend to. There's just so much to do. I just feel like I'm constantly rushing around.
So we were out, the other night, at a bar, perusing the the drinkslist. One of the cocktails had "muddled papaya" as one of its key ingredients. This led, of course, to a discussion of the best way to muddle a papaya. Crumb felt that simply setting it into a spin would do the trick, I however, thought that perhaps a more devious approach was required. Perhaps you could swap its car keys for someone else's,. Or when it asked you for directions you could say "You go that way. No, actually, it's that way. No. It's over there."
Later I thought that maybe another strategy for muddling a papaya would be to tell it that it wasn't actually a papaya at all, but an avocado. Dunno. Just a thought.
MA / narrative- non linear / link One Hundred Million Poems
Uncontrol is one of those design sites that does groovy things with algorithms (and yes, I am jealous and insecure). It has some very pretty things on it, but what really caught my eye was the "one hundred million poems" by Robert Massin, in collaboration with Eugene Ionesco and Raymond Queneau. Each line is interactive- a click slides it to one side to reveal another line beneath. You can also click on random poem. It reminds me of the way that the Ern Malley poems were made- sliced up lines from various sources.
It is an arty nav and therefore quite difficult to find your way around methodically, but the poem piece is the ninth grey quare on the second row.
The ever vigilant Boynton has alerted me to the fact that there is a clone of my site. It's very weird. Boynton has a slightly different, but equally disturbing (more disturbing, actually) site THEFT to deal with: they've taken the template, the blogroll, even the comments, but changed the content.
news / MA / animation / Iraq- link The Humour of the Gallows
I'm starting to make a collection of anti-war bits and pieces that are currently circulating via the Internet and email. The use of humour seems to be the common thread. Textism has linked to this today and Scott McCloud has this (which takes a little while to download.)
Then there's the market research "survey" that fridaysixpm has upgraded from the comments to the main part of her blog.
I daresay this is all a reasonably common response to war- I'd be interested to know what Ten Seconds to Midnight, who is writing a thesis on The Great War and Popular culture has to say about this, and if there are comparable responses from WWI.
1. I've realised that my research has started to drift from the original questions and I need to adjust them. Sensei suggested that it might be worth trying to incorporate the GG comic into the one of the questions. Need to think about this and what would be the best way to do it.
2. Start some blog writing exercises, either on the blog or on a new site. I've just finished a 2 week writing exercise (brusque blog) that I set up for myself. Admittedly it's pretty crappy, but I think it was a useful undertaking all the same. Might come back to it in a few months and refine it, if it seems worth it. Also will go back to the Glean Blog and do some more work on that.
3. Ask some blog writers if they are prepared to be interviewed by either GG or the Ant and for their answers to appear in the comic strip chat style. Have already asked Boynton. Must get on to this...
4.work on adding more "incidental" drawings to the comic chat things so that it becomes a combination of library elements and new images to stop it looking too similar week to week.
5. finish abstract and submit to RMIT. Hassle Sensei to do the same.
MA / diaries / Iraq- link Peacekeepers' Iraq diaries
This contains links to the diaries of a number of diaries of Peacekeepers currently stationed in Iraq. Harrowing, sad, first person accounts of the conflict, some with extensive photographic material.. Diaries
I found this site on Friday via a Google search for writing exercises. Each Friday she posts a writing exercise task and then whoever participates in it amongst her friends posts their piece on their site. I like this idea a lot and would like to think that I could do a similar thing but suspect I lack the resolve. I must go back to doing the One Word exercise.
I am in the shop as the two women walk up. They are a huddle of jackets and silk scarves- lightweight enough, but presenting a sort of mental preparation for the cold months ahead. I am looking at curious, abstract garments- lopsided, spikey, unfriendly things pinned sullenly on to hangers. Heavy. I think "winter is like drowning in plaid pants"
The sales assistant, dressed in examples of the shop's produce, is sorting out coloured cloth at the counter. She is very thin- a hairline crack, wrapped in fabric.
The women enter the shop, the door gasping in air. They have spotted something in the jewellery cabinet. One woman drags her friend over and holds an earring up against her friend's cheek. Pale skin. Silver grey- blonde hair. Light blue jumper. She looks like a beach.
"Silver looks so good against your face." says her friend. "You have exactly the right skin for it." "Not for gold?" "Oh no. Not gold. Definitely not gold. Silver."
A gentleman arrives: shiny black shoes and a scented handkerchief. My foot is aching again. I leave.
Wired has written about the problems caused to the servers hosting the images on Dear Raed's site. There is a link to Jill's post from a couple of week's ago on the issue of whether or not the blog is genuine.
