Officeworks joy
20 Aug 2004One of my more favoured pasttimes is the purchasing of stationary; as nerdy as this may seem, it’s something I actually enjoy quite a lot. Following discussions (where discussions is synonymous with email sessions, but hey, I am a geek as well as a nerd, it would seem) had regarding… well, many things… but the use of paper as an outlet came up.
I’d been meaning to get my hands on a nice notebook or two for some time now, and it was with some glee that I moved upon Officeworks in Clarence St. this afternoon to make this purchase. As far as Officeworks stores go, that one kind of sucks… the range just isn’t there. That said, I did find what I was looking for.
See, what I want to know is why the accountant people get such cool notebooks whilst the rest of us suffer ring-bound crap! Seriously! Accountant people AREN’T that cool! We (Ben was along for the ride, or something) discovered a range of notebooks akin to what I was looking for (a properly bound pad, without any dodgy ring crappiness), IN THE ACCOUNTING AISLE! Well… it wasn’t exactly labelled as such… but it was HIDDEN in amidst all the ledger books and other such boredom inducing stuff. I think the accountants want to keep these pads to themselves.
*insert conspiracy theory here*
Yes, anyway. I ended up getting two A5 pads, weighing in at 168 pages each. So that was cool.
What happened next? Hmm. This bit is kind of weird. Jokingly or not, I haven’t asked, but Ben (in the course of conversation, not just randomly) raised his hand to his mouth, saying “Oooh, a diary!” in mock-shocked tones. I shrugged it off, without giving a direct answer, I think… but yes, that is what one of the two pads is for, if the world must know (which of course it DOESN’T, but I don’t mind sharing that much).
See, what I’m struck by is how this can be construed as any different to the maintenance of a ‘blog site. This IS essentially a self-censored, abridged, restricted online diary. The three conditions there exist simply because I am aware that the world has full access to all content posted on this resource. More on that in a second — My point for now is that I’m yet to have anyone comment on this with shocked expressions and mocking tones (I’m not saying that’s what Ben did, because I don’t know for certain and didn’t think to find out at the time, but there IS a stigma attached, so it would seem, reflected in this mock/or not mock opinion conveyed), despite some saying they don’t understand WHY people would ‘blog (which I think is perfectly understandable, and I agree with some of their reservations).
So what makes this website any different from a paper diary? Structured content, for one. Paper is infinitively more intuitive. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Graphics tablet? Pfft. It doesn’t FEEL the same. (heh, I was eyeing off some 110GSM paper this afternoon, but restrained myself). Structure has two aspects, though. This website isn’t searchable as yet (well, not via the interface most users here see — my local mirror has had experimentation done with varying degrees of success), but it could be with moderate effort. Everything is also sorted by date, and has permanent reference links.
Now, if I wanted searchable, dated content, I’d probably be using a system designed for such, i.e. NOT paper. But I don’t. And really, that demand can’t make what people do with paper that different to what hundreds of people worldwide do with weblogs. Personally, I try to keep my whinge sessions here to a minimum, both to avoid giving offence, and to avoid narcissistic trappings which such things can provide, especially if others begin to comment (ultimately fuelling the fire)… that said, I read many webloggers pages which aren’t like that, and are effectively a diary openly published to the world.
There is something about that I admire, I think, that they can be so open (or at least “open”) about their life. But then there are other websites which leave a sense of “get over it” hanging in the air. Like one weblog I read, about a guy whose relationship with his girlfriend ended two and half years ago. There was a lot of content on there, so I didn’t read all of it. I skipped about a quarter of a year at a time, but the consistent theme was this one girl, and his ensuing depression. Okay, I’m not going to speculate as to whether he “should” or “shouldn’t” be depressed — that’s a matter for him personally. If using the web as a medium for expression assists him, then great. I don’t think it was, though. After two and a half years, I think that other things need to be explored.
I know I’m guilty of using this publishing medium as a “sympathy net” at times, although it’s not something I’ll deliberately set out to achieve when writing content. Disclaimer out of the way, I’d like to direct your attention to a blog article posted a few days ago.
“Is that what blogs are about? Selfish desires.” – that provokes some thought for all personal (i.e. non-professional only) blog sites. Something I’m now aiming more to actively avoid, because I hadn’t thought about it too hard, and it’s a very valid point IMHO.
Apparently, though, the use of private expressionistic writing is something which is odd, unusual, taboo, undiscussed. Thoughts, anyone? What difference, if any, is there between private and public diary entry, online or otherwise? Is there a stigma attached to mediums or modes of writing?