One of the activities that I really enjoy partaking in is the reading of my old writings, be it journals, blog posts, or old papers from school. It really is a small time capsule into my mind, past thoughts and beliefs, past struggles and joys. Its interesting to note the development of my own writing, my own thinking, when looking at papers from my sophomore year as compared to my senior year of college. Its interesting, due to the nature of philosophical inquiry papers, to note the self-exploration I was on at that time, and how it relates to the exploratory journeys I currently undertake. Some things have changed drastically - believe it or not, I am much more efficient with my writing now than I was then, its not even close; some things I had doubts about then, regarding myself and my relationships, I no longer have; some things which I had a lot of supposed certainty about, chiefly my views in politics and religion, have changed pretty drastically and have gotten a lot more complicated. All in all, it makes sense for such a transition to take place, I just love looking back and viewing the process over again with hindsight. Its always a nice reminder to not get too caught up in the stress or doubt of the here and now, because it too shall pass.
Due to this hobby so to speak, I usually have to spend a lot of time on my computer to read the old papers or see the old blog posts (my journal entries, thankfully, give me a break from the computer screen). Over the past year or so, as I have spent much more time on the computer at work, I tend to hardly get on the computer at all when I am home, partly due to just being tired of being on a computer, partly because our laptop is pretty old and I can't play music on it and do anything else at the same time, which is sort of a prerequisite for me. Thus, in order to keep up my little joy of reliving my journeys of thoughts and introspection, I have casually looked into such services as Blurb and Lulu, two self-publishing web sites - allowing you to submit material, and they bind it for like a book, for a small fee. Great stuff, and such a nice service for people like me that really enjoy reading their own writings and thoughts over and over again. In theory, these sites also give you the opportunity to use them to self-publish books for sale, which while I wish I could do that, I enjoy the services just the same for simple personal use.
I've used both services already, and both have their own advantages and disadvantages that really depends on what the user wants out of the service...I find both acceptable, and am not really sure if one is superior to the other, or any other similar services out there. But the whole idea has so much potential...I already look forward to keeping a journal or sorts for my kids, chronicling events from their birth, first step, first day of school and so on, and be able to give a book as a gift to them when they are all grown up. I think there is so much potential for great sharing and reflection with services like that, and glad that I happened on to them and have been able to have personal benefit from the service.
Due to this hobby so to speak, I usually have to spend a lot of time on my computer to read the old papers or see the old blog posts (my journal entries, thankfully, give me a break from the computer screen). Over the past year or so, as I have spent much more time on the computer at work, I tend to hardly get on the computer at all when I am home, partly due to just being tired of being on a computer, partly because our laptop is pretty old and I can't play music on it and do anything else at the same time, which is sort of a prerequisite for me. Thus, in order to keep up my little joy of reliving my journeys of thoughts and introspection, I have casually looked into such services as Blurb and Lulu, two self-publishing web sites - allowing you to submit material, and they bind it for like a book, for a small fee. Great stuff, and such a nice service for people like me that really enjoy reading their own writings and thoughts over and over again. In theory, these sites also give you the opportunity to use them to self-publish books for sale, which while I wish I could do that, I enjoy the services just the same for simple personal use.
I've used both services already, and both have their own advantages and disadvantages that really depends on what the user wants out of the service...I find both acceptable, and am not really sure if one is superior to the other, or any other similar services out there. But the whole idea has so much potential...I already look forward to keeping a journal or sorts for my kids, chronicling events from their birth, first step, first day of school and so on, and be able to give a book as a gift to them when they are all grown up. I think there is so much potential for great sharing and reflection with services like that, and glad that I happened on to them and have been able to have personal benefit from the service.
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