I have downloaded and trying a journal writing software program, The Journal. It’s actually pretty cool. It can be password protected and has a variety of templates that can be added to the daily entries, like food and exercise logs, free-writing prompts and writing specific prompts. There’s a notebook feature that is not tied to dates like the daily entries. Instead, the entries are named. You can insert the date and time, pictures, tables, and everything else a word processor can do. It has color coded topics like business, dreams, family, etc. and you can add or edit the topics to suit your specific needs. If you have a blog, you can post entries from the program. There’s a lot this program can do and it’s very easy to use. It’s defiantly worth the $39.95 when you consider all of its features and what a word processing program cost.

But, what really excited me was the MemoryGrabber plugin that appeared when I installed the program. It’s a tool to help write an Autobiography. It provides memory grabbing questions, topics, activities, games, resources, lists-to-create and a time line of life events. While this tool may not offer everything you need to actually write an autobiography, it does provide a good start, especially when you have no idea of where to start telling your own story. I did a time line when I was working through The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron. I found that a difficult task when I first started but as I got more into it I made some wonderful discoveries. Memories flooded to the surface, some good, some not so good but all were important to my life. The MemoryGrabber might have made it easier for me to get started with the time line. I think this feature alone is worth getting The Journal program and some of the questions are questions I would not have thought to ask myself. Yes, there is an added cost, $14.95 or if you buy both at the same time it cost $49.95.

I’m going to try a few other journal writing programs before making a decision since this one is the first I’ve actually downloaded and used. I’m not even sure what’s out there and if they offer free-to-try downloads. If not, I will not be reviewing them. I don’t have the money it could take to pay for software just to review it, especially since I may never use.

If anyone drops by who is using some kind of writing software, please post a comment. I’m not a big fan of writing software in general but for computer journal writing it may be a perfect solution. I’m still leaning toward pen and paper for journal writing but I can see how this software can be useful in many ways other than journaling.

I did a search for online journal writing just to see what popped up. What popped up is interesting if the first return is any indication. I didn’t get past the first site Google showed me. Writing the Journey is actually a resource for personal journal writing, not necessarily for online journal writing. Blogs, journals, diaries, they’re all the same thing when published online in my opinion. I don’t think you can define them by what kind of writing is found within the pages, whether it be in a notebook or on a Web site. The one difference is blogging. You can’t blog without a computer while you can journal and make diary entries with or without a computer.

I wrote about my perceptions on journals, diaries, and blogs when I first started this blog. You can read them Here and Here.

I realize that blogs were originally link-driven sites with a mixture of commentary and/or personal thoughts and essays. Not much has changed except for the technology, the diversity of those using the technology and how they have chosen to use the technology. Rebecca Blood’s piece on Weblogs: A History and Perspective is worth a read for the curious at heart.

I’ve digressed a bit from my original focus … so back to my wonderful find this morning, Writing the Journey. The basic premise of this site is to open the door to an internal dialog with your spiritual self through journal writing. I should note that I believe that there is a difference between religion and spirituality. While a religious person is spiritual by definition, spirituality can live outside of an organized religious structure. It’s an internal state of being, a state of knowing your true self and it can’t be confined by religious dogma. We, as individuals, can and do confine its expression through our own beliefs and thoughts about what’s right and what’s wrong with our world and ourselves. Using journal writing as a way to uncover who we believe ourselves to be is a powerful tool.

The site offers an online journal writing workshop with well defined concepts and exercises. There’s a free monthly newsletter, resources and a review on software designed especially for computer journaling that can be password protected. 1stJournal by NextWord offers a free 21-day trial. If I were going to journal using my computer, I’d try this software but I prefer to do it with pen and paper. There’s something organic about the connection of mind to hand and a pen scratching out words across a piece of paper that excites my senses. That and the fact that I write much differently on my computer. Actually, what’s different is that I edit my words more when using a keyboard than I do with pen in hand and a notebook of perfectly lined paper.

I should write more about my personal experiences with journaling. Maybe it will excite me enough to get me back into the journaling process daily. My mind was much clearer and my writing became more colorful and expressive when I was journaling everyday. I should take my own advice and just do it!

It’s time for the Fifth annual Bloggies Awards nominations. This is the first time I will be participating in this event, only because I want to nominate WordPress. I don’t feel like I have enough information/experience to make an informed choice on some of the categories but it should be fun to explore.

Nominations are over on Monday, January 10th, so hurry on over and nominate your favorite blogs. The voting will begin on Thursday, January 20th and run through Sunday, January 31st. The winners will be posted sometime between March 13th and 15th.

Yahoo! I finally got the new layout done. I may do a bit more tweaking to the overall design eventually but I’m done for now. I spent a lot of time trying to get the CSS right. I’m not sure if the CSS validates, haven’t checked it out yet, but the pages are XHTML valid. It was tricky and I found myself completely over my head with the navigation bar and getting the background image to repeat down the whole length when there wasn’t any content in the content field. In other words, the right menu grew off the white background image, gurrrr! It was very frustrating. The CSS min-height property worked in Firefox but not in stupid IE. Fortunately I found a work-around for stupid IE but not until I had almost given up on the whole layout.

Getting the navigation bar where it is currently located was a nightmare and it’s not exactly where I’d like it to be but it’s good enough for now. It servers its purpose. I haven’t written anything about myself yet, so the About Me link is not working. Actually, it does work but it just sends you back to the front page. And I want to work on the archive script so that it will show the categories by default. I just haven’t had time to research it.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and great New Year’s celebration. I was sick in bead for the New Year. I’m hoping that isn’t a sign of what the new year will bring.