Those of you who have followed my online writing, even for a brief time, know that I constantly fight with finding a proper place for all of the different types of content that I produce. I’m sure I’m not the first person to think about this, I’m probably just one of the first to obsess over it so much.
It’s fairly easy for me to categorize my usual writing topics:
* My Life: Birth Annoucements, New Homes, Visiting Friends, Wonderful Family, What I did Yesterday, Etc.
* My Troubles and Reflection: Reflection and Introspection on who I am, what I stand for, and how I work.
* Local Events: Upcoming Parties, Events, Road Trips, and other Gatherings.
* Technology: Programming, Podcasting, Web 2.0, Mobile Phones, and every gadget known to man.
* Photograpy: Techniques, Equipment Reviews, and a constant barrage of Photographs.
* News, Politics, and Pop Culture: My take on everything that being an American and being a Human has to offer, from my love for Gyros and Pho, to my hate for Survivor and George Bush.
* Other: Everything else.
The problem is that it’s very difficult for me to separate them all from one another. For Example:
bq. This past weekend I spent some time with my new Nephew. I took quite a few photographs of him. I’m thinking I should start a website devoted to him and photographs of him. Lots of other children have them. It’s way better than an old fashion baby book. Just because my brother is not as technically inclined as other people doesn’t mean my nephew should suffer. I’ll probably use a combination of WordPress and Flickr to make the website, as those tools are quite easy to work with. Then again, that’s a lot of work and I’m sure he’ll be just fine without one. Seeing so much of him lately makes me consider, quite strongly, having children of my own.
So I missed “Local Events”, but, if it were closer to his first birthday, I’d probably invite you all to it.
So, aside from deep, personal introspection which needs to be a bit more anonymous, my initial thought is to just jumble it all together in one place and let you, my dear readers, sort it out.
I’m curious, however, about how each of you manage to separate yourselves into more manageable chunks. *How do you do it*?
I remember feeling that way when my nephew was first born. Then I got to get up with him a few times in the middle of the night, and listen to his tantrums (he had one in my car this past weekend)…. and now i wonder if i want kids at all! After all, i do have him to play with if I feel the need. ;)
There is no method to my madness. Sorry I can’t offer more insight.
separation? nope. it’s almost all out there. what needs to be “separated” just gets completely left out.
Two journals: 1 for “anonymous” and one for everything else.
On the “everything else” journal, have multiple RSS feeds: one per category.
i.e. Let the user worry about it. It’s their problem, not yours.
I tend to fight my natural inclination to ‘seperate’ (or more accurately ‘segregate’) those reading what I write. I think it’s important to present a balanced view of ones-self otherwise it leaves me with little right to complain if I’m then misunderstood or perceived inaccurately.
Journal-wise, for me, it would very much a case of what is ‘personal’ and what is ‘not personal’; therefore someone who is interested in my photography (or technology interests) would not have access to my personal introspective ramblings about life, beliefs, politics, family news – unless they specifically befriended me for such.
Most of us don’t do anywhere near the job that you do at categorizing. I pretty much lay it all out on the line, and if anyone wants to separate it, they can worry about that. You are waaay organized – kudos to you for being able to be that. I suck at organizing. Anything.
i’m waiting until you figure out this whole separation thing then i’ll react ;)
seriously, i just gave up long ago (before i started, really) on trying to separate stuff. recently (last summer i guess it was) i started my photo blog for posting photos, as i know a lot of people who just prefer to look at photos instead of entries for certain bloggers.
other than that, it’s all public. hell, i don’t even use subjects/titles for my entries. anything that i’m willing to share with more than one friend i’m willing to make public. i don’t lie, and i do my best to not speak ill of anyone, so i don’t have anything to hide.
however, that said, i would prefer some form of categorization for nostalgia/archival purposes. i think LJ addresses that with their tags, but i haven’t used it yet, though i like it’s flexibility (i.e. zero or more ‘categories’ per entry).
what i’m looking for is hierarchical dynamically-categorical knowledge-base for permanent archival of research, ideas, findings, and possibly collaboration. i like wiki, but it doesn’t seem to be conducive to a hierarchical implementation. i’d like to use it for a general knowledge base for myself, a separate one for documentation for work, and a separate one for photoclub. bonus points if they can be dynamically linked.
does that make sense, or do i have the brain worms?