Journalalia

I've been thinking a bit about online journals just recently. I don't mean blogs, but true journals. Places where people disect the minutae of the day, post about their thoughts and feelings, and so on. Now I know there is quite a bit of a cross over these days with blogs, some are heavy on links and light on personal thoughts, for others the reverse is true, and sometimes the mix is... well... mixed.

In particular I was reminiscing about the online journals I started reading ages ago (last century in fact - doesn't that sound cool?). Pre blogs, pre Moveable Type & Blogger, back when most of the sites were scratch written in simple html.

These early journalers are what primarily got me interested in one day sharing my own thoughts in some sort of format. Most of the ones I was addicted to are long gone now; Esperanca at Hope Wavers, Viv at First Person Particular, Anna at Lucidity, Spinny at Lemon Rind... all gone. Some of these guys I really miss. Hope Wavers was an entertaining look at the life of a twenty something girl living in the United Arab Emirates, Viv wrote long and beautiful entries about everything in her life, Anna was a Sydney local who I once passed on the street but was too shy to speak to... They all had unique voices and points of view which I miss.

Of the early ones I read in '98/'99 when I first started to read online journals, I think The Mighty Kymm and Beth at Bad Hair Days might be the only ones to still keep it going. Stee at Plaintive Wail has made a come-back after some years of hiatus, but in a more traditional blog format. I also just discovered Patrick Cleary (of Inside and then Are You Happy Now?) has a new journal. He was one the earliest journals I ever read, and certainly the first onling journal by a gay man.

So it is nice to see that some of the guys who sparked my initial interest in online journals are back, maybe if I search hard enough for the others I might find that they've returned to the fold too. Here's hoping.

[It would seem that even Barbie has gotten in on the act.]