lives

these are links I collected from 1994 to about 1995 or 1996. So if they actually work, well, woah!

I'm not the only one putting my life online...

other folks are bringing their own humanity to bear.
folks building links like life similar to mine, people based, place based storytelling.
otherwise, diaries online tend towards the uncontexted diary, ongoing daily explanations of events with names dropped and occasional links.
The focus is on dates, with a very linear progression
scrolling backwards and forwards through people's recent past.

in terms of daily reporting, dr bert gives me a run for my money. his corel draw inflected graphics are impurposefully postmodern-seeming - I mean, they lack totally any corporate or design school or expensive computer veneer. there is a lot of beautiful yearning spirit here. and some pensivity.
doug block is making a film on home page makers (including myself), and keeps a journal of his own process online. for an old mediator, he's pretty candid!

how often do you get to talk to a "hyper girlie" from savannah? an 18 year old, her friends, and all their art between them. young and yearning, if only they knew these are the best years of their lives! aye, there's humour in them thar pages. and now she's moved to san francisco! we've partied together!

poster children international, an independent punk band from illinois, is detailing their road trippin' online. DIY music, yeah, and touring, yeah - themselves homestyle. And html - the bassist keeps time on her powerbook. Honest, compelling narratives - their European tour was remarkably real. Something to strive for! heh.

Meet Amy. She likes astrology, and wants to have every restaurant in the world on her website.
Life and Times of a 41 year old virgin.

Hell's Buddhas seems a little composed, but the accounts are certainly first person, and the travels by motorbike around india. If you miss this account on the web, you can catch the theatrical premiere - they're like filming a movie or something. yeah.
Lifestyles of the wretched and webbed: If you think your life is bad, try Walter Miller's. The spelling, the grandfather, the farts, the threats, it's all perfect. funny. Who cares if it's real? maybe you.
I worked with Julie at HotWired. Now Julie Petersen is extending herself to the web. She recently took off from work, left her husband in San Francisco - she's taking a spiritual sabbattical. This page is how I keep up. Not so many daily particulars, perhaps, but infectious bits of Julie-spirit. Many good web thoughts herein.

this guy is cool, so cool he took all his personal pages down.
Personal profiles and journal recollections, Jessa introduces herself at her Garden of Groove. Distinctive hand rendered art style site, occasionally hard to make a connection, but keep trying. The site is there. She is using similar structure to me, there's a page about her mom, linked to enchanted cottage plans. But more, oh more! Her dreams, a journal, books she's reading - meet Jessa.
a mug of tea, soft rain during a graying sunday afternoon, a forgotten book on your knee as you stare out the window with a blanket over your legs - that's the feeling I get reading Willa's Journal.

had recent trouble getting through here:

I really enjoy this woman; maybe it's her youth. After adding a few of her words to my stories page, I discovered Sage Lunsford's ongoing journal, Coffee Shakes. The entries are engaging, moreso than the thirtysomething computer professionals I've discovered doing similar biographing. She's got a cast of cast of characters lined up behind her journal entries, some linked to other worthwhile writings. The writing, perspective, the entire site is fresh and friendly. I am happy wandering here.
Sage also reviews online diaries.

happy wandering

Virtually Yours: Carolyn's Diary explicates her Cognitive and Physical landscape. Subject oriented chunks. No pictures, a few links out to the world, and her writings. Her undated entries scroll back pretty far, there's a lot to wade through. Fortunately, she's indexed much of it, providing a few words for each thought.
I wasn't so drawn in. Perhaps its too cognitive, or professional. Perhaps I was burnt out.

Semi-Existence of Byron. Started on March 21, 1995, he's been regularly updating these diary pages daily. As he puts it,
" I assume in my current entries that you know what has happened in my past entries."
He has pages for the five or so main characters in his life, which are interlinked throughout the narrative, in case you get them confused. I think he should go for Liesl over Sandi, but I want more intimate details.
His entries are date indexed, without any event context.

I am going to cover the defacto cool site for the clueless (why, oh web, why?), but I should point you first to the Squat. Desparately down home, nice knock off. Join Cleitus, Valvoline, Earl, Woody, in their search for meaning on television and with beer. Lifestlyes of the poor and white. Their persistent rendering of rural vernacular is to be commended.

she was more attractive in person.

thes pot brings that MTV Real World sensibility to the net. Real people in Real situations talking about themselves! They've got six los angelicans writing near daily updates of their life together in a beach house.

I met one of the spotters at a party in San Francisco. She was a glamorous looking Scorpio. She wasn't using her real name for these pages, and she said they only sort of lived in the house together.

It's only as real as it seems. It's actually Memorex.

As Laurie cum "Tara" sez on the back of her spot stats card, "life is not meant to be just lived, but crafted."

The site construction is annoying - before and between any content layers of glossy imagemaps without text alternatives.

The stories are largely cotton candy - but hey, they must be cool, they're a nominee for cool site of the year.

Yahoo lists diaries under Entertainment/Humor Jokes and Fun. Of course.

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