|
(Last updated February )
Q: What sort of a web site is this?
A: This site is one of manyaudit which are referred to as "online journals." A great deal more information regarding sites like this can be found at www.diarist.net, but basically this is a narrative, often illustrated, about some of the things that go on in my life, usually updated a few times a week.
Q: Why would anyone care about that?
A: I'll let you discover your own reasons for reading further or ever coming back. A few people have written to to tell me that they sometimes enjoy the writing and the pictures here.
Q: Ok. I'll stick around for a few minutes notebook ace aspire . Who are you?
A: Steve.
Q: Where are you?
A: Now, South Florida. Before that, the Bay Area of Northern California best game. Before that, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is where I started doing this.
Q: Are you male or female?
A: Male.
Q: How old are you?
A: 48.
Q: Are you married?
A: Yes, 17 years, to Lynn.
Q: Do you have any kids?
A: Yes. A son, 16, Patrick, and a daughter, 10, Anna.
Q: How about a picture?
A: Ok.
Q: Why do you keep an online journal?
A: That is a hard question. Well, actually I guess the question is easy, but the answer is hard. Hmm... not hard to answer, actually, but... well... I don't know, ok? I like to write. I like to take pictures. Putting these things here adds something to the experience. Ask me again later.
Q: Do you welcome comments?
A: Yes. If you like what I am doing here, or if something I wrote made you laugh, or moved you, I would appreciate knowing. If you don't like what I am doing here, and wouldn't mind taking a few moments to tell me why, I would appreciate that as well. Also, if there is something technically wrong with this site on your combination of browser and computer, please tell me.
Q: Somewhere it says that you've been doing this since 1998. Where is all the old stuff?
A: While driving home one evening, I simply decided to start over. It was liberating somehow to throw out all of the old stuff and begin again. I did, though, keep a lot of the old pictures in the gallery. And I plan to put some of the old stuff back up eventually.
Q: Whatever. Do you have a job?
A: Yes. Marketing for an electronics manufacturer.
Q: Do you have any political views?
A: Nope.
Q: How about religion?
A: Among many other things, I believe (in spite of recent scientific findings to the contrary) that the expansion of the universe will eventually slow, then cease, and then gravitational attraction will cause all things and all souls to come back together again. God will then wake up from this amazing dream. After a time, He will probably do something like this again.
Q: Steve... listen closely... why are you really doing this? Think before you answer.
A: One thing I learned soon after starting this journal is that because anyone in the world can read it, I feel more compelled than I would otherwise to explain clearly the events and feelings that are subjects of its entries. Sometimes it takes a real effort to work through things to the point where what I am writing (hopefully) makes any sense. The result, of course, is that I gain a much better understanding of myself and why I reacted to the day as I did. I don't think that would happen for me with a private paper journal. There are a few subjects that I choose not to write about online, but I am more open and honest with everything else in this forum than perhaps any other.
Another part of why I do this is that sometimes I will get a letter from someone saying that one of my entries moved him or her in some way. Knowing that my writing made someone laugh, or caused someone to remember something dear but long forgotten creates a hard to describe but very good feeling. As well, sometimes people will respond with empathy and understanding to an entry where I have written of a struggle I am having. Sometimes someone will write just to say that they enjoy my writing and pictures. Once in a very rare while, someone will say something very flattering about something I have written or a picture I have taken. These things all make me grin from ear to ear.
Finally, I simply enjoy writing, photography, and entertaining. Putting it online just seems natural to me. Mine is not a journal where I am working through any sort of major problem, nor am I dealing with a tragedy that happened in a distant past. I am just an ordinary working husband and father living a very ordinary life. But I like to think that simple things in such a life, if looked at closely, thought about with compassion, and then explained clearly, can become extraordinary. My journal is all about me teaching myself how to do that, and sharing the journey.
Q: Do you get out very much?
A: Obviously, no.
Q: So your answers to things like favorite movies, musicians, plays, books... stuff like that will be boring?
A: Yes, at least now, although I am trying to fix that.
Q: The pictures on your site are wonderful. Breathtaking sometimes. They make me swoon. Are they really yours?
A: All of the images on this site are either photographs taken by me or drawings made by me.
Q: How is it you can take the most trivial of events, and turn it into a story of epic proportions?
A: A life of any sort is a gift of epic proportions.
Q: Is my duck in your swimming pool?
A: Is that a duck? I thought it was a frog.
Q: Just kidding... I don't really have a duck... got'cha! Are you ok with that?
A: Yes. Would you care for some frog's legs? |
