I have two lj's and am pretty open about why I started them and why I actually have two.
I started my first one to record how I was dealing with a chronic debilitating illness. The fact was I couldn't write at the time but typing could be done without causing too much strain. I could also choose to go back and spell check if need be. I never did because very few people were reading it and I never expected many to even if they did stumble across my journal. I soon decided to make it friends only because I didn't want to bore many people about how the latest mouth ulcer was going and in fact so that no stranger who might be lurking would know when I was in a particularly vulnerable state. Pretty soon my costuming notes, outgrew my daily notes so I created a costume specific journal where I could nut out ideas and those who wondered how on earth we costumers actually work could see the whole process. You'd be surprised how helpful it is for those starting to see that those who do this regularly manage to deal with the cat or a child or simple working out a pattern piece. <<I've never gotten into that document every stitch diary thing. I am too busy thinking about the work I am doing, where it needs to go and how to get there to worry about where my camera is or accessing some convoluted file system (my husband set up my system, and thus is a reflection of his odd, uncommunicative mind... not very user friendly.) to tell everyone how my day's work went. I have people asking me to do it, but I am just not wired for it. I never kept up with a diary as a kid, I am lousy at sending letters - I have the attention span of a gnat even for email, for that matter. >> With many online journals you have a small client that runs in the background that you can just click on and type up a really brief note. This is the only reason I manage to keep up regularly. If I had to log in through the website and then upload photos every time it would languish like my written journals I started when I was younger. I'm not saying this would be useful for you, but even I didn't realise there was such an ability until about a year into having mine. At which time my updates suddenly increased. I find it a much more user friendly place. I can help far more people by giving them a quiet note in their journal than trumpeting across a huge list "you could/should have done it this way." In fact more people are willing to ask question in their own journals that fill up a list with talk on a minor subject. Probably because they have been scared off in the past for doing so. I find all the forms of communication online useful. There are nuggets of gold on all the lists and journals I am involved with. Michaela de Bruce http://glittersweet.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.10/385 - Release Date: 11/07/2006 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
