No inspiration on the poetry front, but I did get in a decent row, my first since
leaving for Korea. It was fairly rough out today though, so I spent most of the
time working on staying right side up, rather than finer points of
technique.
I've been keeping a travel diary for several years now --
the idea was originally Rudder's, but he wimped out of his almost immediately.
During the long flights to and from Korea, I've got it up to date too -- I had
been remiss lately. Writing about a trip months afterward tends to lead to much
shorter entries than if I do it during or just after the trip. Since the Korea
entry was written in real time, it ran to about 20 pages. Of course, pages in a
handwritten journal probably fit about four to a typewritten page. I started the
first volume on July 5, 1994; this trip just about finishes out the second volume.
I might be able to squeeze in a weekend trip, but that's about it.
The third volume is sitting waiting and ready on my shelf, where it
has been for a couple of years. I prefer a specific format, so I figured I had
better buy if when I found it. They're the Paperblanks series, which have a
special Smyth-sewn binding so the book lays flat when open, and they have an
eggshell-textured acid-free paper that's a pleasure to write on. The journal I'm
just finishing isn't in this series. It has wonderful paper, but not the special
binding, so it's harder to write near the bound edges. Also, it's a little smaller
than the 8"x10" Paperblanks books.
Those 20 handwritten pages on
Korea are probably the reason I haven't written in too much detail here, though I
do keep remembering, on and off, topics I want to discuss here (like
href="http://dichroic.diaryland.com/missbkft.html">breakfast). The trick is to
remember them when I'm actually sitting down to write. Ironically, the reason I
liked the travel diary idea to begin with was that I thought I could keep it up,
as opposed to the daily journal I knew would languish after two entries. I never
thought, back in 1994 when the Web was still new, that I would be able to keep a
daily online diary. This one is coming up on a year now, and I still haven't
missed a day except when traveling, and not always then. (Also, the two- or three-
entry days more than make up for the missed ones; I've got well over 400 total
entries.)
I'm not sure what makes the difference between a diary I
want to write every day and one I have to remind myself to update, but feedback
probably has something to do with it. In a lot of ways, I prefer the idea of a
public diary. I hope that Internet archives somehow manage to survive a few
centuries, so that these diaries will be available as an historic reference.