It’s feels like it has been a couple years at least since I’ve made a “blog” post here. I have various sites in which I create content. Multiple sites have evolved focused on specific topics rather than one blog/website where in the content is separated by categories.

Unfortunately this blog has not had many entries of late. My other blogs get filled in as needed. They are more like travel journals (ourlittleguytravels.com, geegeerides.com) or student record keeping (ricksrippers.com, rickboucher.wordpress.com). Oh, then there is Sir Simon Wheat’s blog.

I write regularly in a journal, a paper journal. It’s an amazing medium. I could list the features here, but they are obvious. Random access memory for example. Instantly-on is another.

Aside from the characteristics compared to an electronic medium, I like the paper interface, the tactile references, the visual imperfections that reflect my physical being. The ease of access to write is a biggy. I once talked about being overwhelmed with mediums and methods with which to write. I decided to go back to my writing professor’s advice and pick one and do it with regularity. I chose pen and paper in a blank, bound, cream colored and lined paper. I carry it with me when I travel. It’s with my bag that has all my important stuff, including Airbook, cash, passport, wallet, iPad, PDA, pens and note paper. My mini travel office. And it’s worked. Volumes are filled as time passes and I make entries whenever I feel the need or Mr. Discipline taps me on the shoulder and says it’s time. These journals can’t be erased, crash, or disappear in cyberspace. There is comfort in that. (That actually happened to years worth of my electronic journalism.)

My grandmother wrote a memoir called My Valley of Tears. We typed it up from photo copies of her hand written pages. It inspires me to write one of my own. I read my own paper journal entries once in a while and wonder, should I type these into a website? The thought of the world reading those terrifies me.