MetaFilter posts tagged with diary

Shh... Don't Tell Steve

reenum — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:51:46 -0800

A lot of us have had bad roommates. One man has taken it upon himself to chronicle the buffoonery of his meathead roommate, Steve, via Twitter. You can read about the loves of Steve's life, Slutty Tina and Burrito Girl. You can also get updates as to Steve's academic progress (or lack thereof). Finally, there is Steve's love of MMA, parties and drinking, and the bad decisions they cause him to make and not regret. Some choice tidbits: "Steve's Dad called to tell him that he can't use the emergency credit card to buy stuff from our Liquor Store or to buy Paintball supplies." "Steve's job for party tomorrow was drinks. Asked him why he didn't get mixers. "That'll be our THING. No Mixers!" Now I gotta go buy mixers" "Steve is sick. He keeps making jokes that he has swine flu and is purposely sneezing without covering his mouth. It's not funny." It's a fascinating look at the life of a total ass. Steve's roommate has somehow built a large following on Twitter, but Steve apparently doesn't know about it.

Blacksmithing again

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:19:38 -0800

A Day in the Life of a Blacksmith (start here) is the 1869-70 diary of an apprentice blacksmith in Medfield, Massachusetts, in blog form. Brought to you by the American Antiquarian Society and its new blog Past is Present.

Women Veterans Historical Collection

tellurian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:01:59 -0800

Jean M. Fasse (Red Cross during WWII, and later the Special Service). Shirley Ann Thacker (WAVE). Just two of the interviews from the extensive collection of material (photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories and posters) at the Women Veterans Historical Collection.

An unreliable narrator tells his story

prefpara — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:13:44 -0800

A murderer attempts to explain, justify, and understand his crime (before the fact).

The things they returned

LenaO — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:18:25 -0800

In 1970, while burning captured enemy documents with no military intelligence value, Fred Whitehurst came across a tiny diary. Advised not to burn it by his translator, he kept it and took it with him to America when his tour was over. Thirty five years later, the diary came back home. That diary belonged to Dang Thuy Tram (she went by her middle name Thuy), a young doctor from the North. Freshly out from medical school, she followed the NVA down South and set up a clinic in Quang Ngai province, one of the fiercest battle ground in Vietnam (this is where My Lai happened). Young, idealistic and passionate, she wrote about her patients, her desires to join the Communist party, her childhood love, and most of all about her longing for family and friends: More links: Scan of the diary: (In Vietnamese) Last night I dream of Peace Translated by Andrew X.Pham, author of Catfish and Mandala Audio interview with the Whitehurst brothers and excerpts from the diary Women in war: Radio interview with Fred Whitehurst How the two families bonded Previously on things returned by old enemies.

Anaïs Nin

Joe Beese — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:06:09 -0800

As I read Incest, I realized that something which I had always taken to be unique, the voice of Myra Breckinridge, was actually that of Anaïs in all the flowing megalomania of the diaries. - Gore Vidal, Palimpsest - pg. 108 French-language television interview. And - appropriately - not just one, but two Twitter feeds.

Diary of a Non-Prospect

Deep Dish — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:48:36 -0800

So you're a minor-league pitcher in the Blue Jays system, not an exceptionally good one - a non prospect. So what do you do? You blog about a great prank you played on a teammate.

Had To Shoot An Elephant Today. Mood: (,_,)

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:32:18 -0800

GYOB: George Orwell's Blog, brought to you by The Orwell Prize. "August 9, 1938: Caught a large snake in the herbaceous border beside the drive..." And here's a collection of essays, if the lone entry has you hankering for more Orwell.

Servigliano Calling

amyms — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:54:50 -0800

‘Even to this day the diary has a slight aroma of cocoa,’ says Steve Dickinson about a diary kept by his uncle Robert Dickinson while a prisoner at Servigliano, an Italian war camp, in the 1940s. The diary has a cover made of old cocoa tins (hence the smell) with a broadcast aerial design incorporating the title 'Servigliano Calling.' It begins with his capture by the Germans in November 1941, and finishes, about six months before his death, in September 1944. Via The Diary Junction blog.

Space, to lick the very fuzzy navel of the heavens

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:59:43 -0800

Ever wondered what life is like on the International Space Station? Wonder no more. Excitement!

Yuri getting ready for velo and Sergei warming up TVIS. Got a master alarm and the red light for "other" (warning) on the caution and warning panel

Drama!

End of the workday. Disc 2 of Apocalypse Now. Found "Kurtz" .

International Intrigue!

Shep is in the habit of reading the form 24 to the last "bykvia" and this slows things way down. For instance, misinterpreted the English letters "st"on the form 24--thinking this meant the Russian word "stranitsa" (page) when it really stood for "step". (Too early in the a.m.)

High-tech thriller!

Attempted backup of SSC file server (20 minute procedure) Hardware configuration requires saving files and shutting down SSC2 to get at the PC extender. Extender won't go on File Server until hardware is removed, which requires shutting down FS, and removing PC card bracket and ethernet card. More restarts required to get things going. Backup procedure unexpectedly shuts down FS. When restarted, FS comes up but network is down. FS is down again. Sergei helping with the troubleshooting--already spent 2 hours on this and still not working. Something wrong with the power supply? We swap supplies with the router--FS is working. Then the suspect power supply starts working again. We're stumped. The good news is that the network is up. The bad news--we will probably see this again.

Even the quotidian, in space, takes on a different feel!

Dinner in the wardroom as usual. Decided not to go for the ham and smoked turkey--saving this for tomorrow.

And that's just for the first month... Of course, if being an astronaut doesn't tickle your fancy, there's always astronaut-herding opportunities.

The Other Keynes Diary

wittgenstein — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:08:15 -0800

John Maynard Keynes kept two sex diaries. The second one is a bit mysterious. (via marginal revolution)

Online directory of historical and literary diarists

jayder — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:39:37 -0800

Diary Junction. "An internet resource for those interested in historical and literary diaries and diarists." Information pages on over five hundred diarists are included.

American Elf free for all

hydrophonic — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:00:26 -0800

The archives of American Elf, the celebrated online comic diary of cartoonist and rocker (audio) James Kochalka, are now free. There's the occasional NSFW-ish cartoon nudity and swearing. A previous post was dominated by a debate over the wisdom of his old strategy of offering the current day free, but charging for the archives. Problem solved!

A Fingerprint-Protected Social Network for Girls

dbarefoot — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:47:39 -0800

Some fancy security for 6 to 14-year-old girls Anne's Diary is a Canadian social network for 6 to 14-year-old girls (I read about it on the CBC's Spark blog). It has two interesting security features to fend off child molesters and the like. To sign up for the service, kids need to get a non-parental adult professional as a 'sponsor' who validates their identity and age (much like applying for a passport). Secondly, you get a USB fingerprint scanner with your initial package, and I gather the kids use this to log in to the service. And yes, that's Anne with an 'e'. No Prince Edward Island gable was ever this secure. Actually, there's one other cool feature that I like: "each Christmas the child will be sent a physical copy of their Diary with all of their entries included in it." I also wonder what their exit strategy is for girls who turn 15. Do they get summarily booted off the service? Is there another network (besides, you know, Facebook) that they graduate too?

Dot's Daily Diary

carsonb — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:45:35 -0800

Dorothy's Daily Diary
1945 and 2007 share the same calendar, so this year Dave is posting a page a day from his mother Dorothy's diary. Sis and Dave chime in with memories, background, and news of the day. Via

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier

feelinglistless — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:42:20 -0800

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. "Dear Kate, Just a line to let you know I’m going on alright. We had an exciting time and this time up the line. We had only been in about six hours when fritz’s came over to us. We had an hour and a half of it but we beat them back and they lost a good many men too not many got back I can tell you. We lost #### (pencilled out –censored?) which I’m sorry to say and about #### wounded. I think the mug will be all right for Willie which Jack is getting for him. If you send me anything it will come in very nice the chocolate is very good I should like a bit of cake, if you could afford it really gets crushed so if it is not packed careful. With best love from Harry"

Basra Diary

Mwongozi — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:37:58 -0800

Basra Diary (Google Video)
"Last year, I completed my first tour of duty, in Basra, southern Iraq. I kept a video diary. This is the film I made, which details the experiences of both myself, and my colleagues, told in my own words."

Proof of Purchase

man vs sun — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 08:14:13 -0800

I am a middle class 20 year old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card.

Who was Opal Whiteley?

dersins — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:06:42 -0800

In 1918, at the age of 20, Oregonian Opal Whiteley published "The Fairyland Around Us" (contains full text & pictures), a nature book for children. Two years later, her diary (also contains full text and pictures) was published and became one of the best-selling books in the world. She died in a British mental hospital in 1992. More.

Today's Adventures of Spinspin: Alistair Campbell's media whirlwind

nthdegx — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:24:12 -0800

Tony Blair's ex-Master of Spin and closest adviser is on a media whirlwind promoting his diary. Campbell's apparently straight talking nature gives the prospects of some tantalizing insight into the inner workings of number 10 for the majority of Blair's premiership. He's not getting it all his own way, though. BBC Radio 4's John Humphrey's on the Today Programme (Real audio) (MP3) was more interested in the failings of a government and political movement for which he was an architect and key player, and particularly Campbell's legacy of elevating the role of spin in British politics, even in the inner working of government, allegedly sexing up an intelligence dossier in order to make a more compelling case for war in Iraq (See 10 ways to sex up a dossier). The Guardian, in an article titled Did he mean me?, invited some of those named in his diaries to give feedback, or should that be biteback?

A London Provisioner's Chronicle, 1550-1563

thomas j wise — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:32:01 -0800

Henry's Machyn's sixteenth-century Chronicle was nearly destroyed in an eighteenth-century fire, but editors Richard W. Bailey, Marilyn Miller, and Colette Moore have just published a new online scholarly edition, comprising both a reconstructed text (thanks to the very posthumous assistance of John Strype) and images of all the pages. There are several other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century diaries and chronicles online, including Dana F. Sutton's edition of William Camden's Diary (in both Latin and English), J. G. Nichols' Victorian edition of the Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, and the Earls Colne project's transcription of the diary of clergyman Ralph Josselin. (Machyn link via the very handy Textual Studies, 1500-1800.)

Diary of a Forty-Niner

Miko — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:24:50 -0800

Alex Ramsey's journal gives an account of his journey westward to join the 1849 Gold Rush, a laborious trek of no more than twenty-five miles a day which ended in illness and disappointment. "I am now convinced that I done very wrong in coming here with the hope of bettering my pecuniary condition alone and I now declare and humbly ask God to enable me to perform my promise that if I am again permitted to return to a land of peace and quietude, that I will strive to be content." From the Wyoming State Archives' Document Photo Gallery.

17 Million Words/155 Volumes/40 Years/1 Diary

OmieWise — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:30:44 -0800

17 Million Words / 155 Volumes / One bedridden hypochondriac (?) : Arthur Crew Inman wrote one of the strangest diaries of the 20th century. Listen to his voice (WMA), or see an excerpt from the documentary being made about him (WMV) by the man who wrote a play based on his life.

illustrated journeys

madamjujujive — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 06:38:09 -0800

Kathrin2305's Moleskine slideshow The non-flash version. (via robot wisdom) -more-

"And I think to myself... I see my true love on a Rimmel advert."

creeky — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 07:21:15 -0800

"I see paint-cracked walls stained with shite. Long long lock-up days, cold lonely nights. And I think to myself... what a wonderful world." Pete Doherty's prison diary.