Age - How old are you now?
I'm almost 28 years old.
When you started your online diary?
I started messing around with web pages when I was 25, I started my journal when I was 26.
Marital Status?
Divorced five years ago. I tend to write about this a lot. When I started online journaling, I was living with a boyfriend, but that officially ended in October of 1999. Currently I'm as single as can be, and for the most part, I like it a lot.
Occupation - What kind of work do you do?
My official title just changed to 'Services Administration'. Which is a fancy way of saying I do phone reception and administrative work for the tech support department of a software company. My work is /not/ my life.
Hobbies - What do you like to do,
besides keep this diary?
I'm a gamer chick and proud of the fact. There aren't many of us! I
tend to be a bit obsessive on the subject of role-playing games,
particularly White Wolf's World of Darkness games. Music is a huge part
of my life, it affects my moods and my thoughts. Writing is something
that's almost more of a vocation than a hobby, although I'm as yet
unpublished aside from my site. Then there are the usuals: reading,
watching movies... I'm also rather freakishly fond of extremely long
phone calls with friends.
Location - Where are you from? Where are
you now?
Born and raised in southeastern Michigan. I spent several years in
Tennessee during college and during my marriage. Michigan is home,
though. I consider myself an Ann Arbor resident even if I no longer
live there.
Why did you start writing your diary online?
I honestly started keeping a journal online because two of my friends
were, and I thought it was a neat idea. I had no idea what I was getting
into. :) Now, nearly a year and a half later, I'm still going, while
they've both pretty much quit. (Okay, not exactly true, one of them
started up a second journal, which he updates sporadically.) I kept
journals during my recovery period from depression, and love the
process. And I'm just enough of a ham to enjoy making that process a
little more public.
Do you communicate with readers of your
diary?
Whenever possible. A lot of my readers are also my friends and family,
so we talk often anyway. That's completely outside of the journal itself,
of course. I tried keeping a forum open like Pamie and a few others, but the response wasn't terribly overwhelming.
How much email feedback do you receive
from your diary? Is it mainly positive or negative?
Not nearly enough! I get maybe one email a week or so, usually. This
seems to be picking up lately, which is a good thing! All of it has been
unfailingly positive.
Have you met any new friends because of
the diary?
More just acquaintances than friends, for now, although that, too,
seems to be in the process of changing. I was so surprised, back when I
got started, to see what an enormous journaling community there is. I
have a small circle of journalers I read who also happen to read me, at
least occasionally. Some of them I keep in touch with via instant
messages and email, which is always nice.
Has your motivation changed over time?
Well, I'm no longer doing it because everyone else is, just for starters.
I enjoy having my own space, where I can write and experiment and post
anything I want... and I especially enjoy having an audience there waiting
to see what I come up with. I love having a creative outlet that can grow
and change as I grow and change, almost as if it's becoming whatever I'm
becoming... or more accurately, one that grows parallel to me.
How has the diary changed your life?
I'm more conscious of cycles in my life. By looking at entries I wrote a
year ago, I can see that hey, I'm struggling with the same questions and
the same issues I went through this time last year too. I can also see
that the issues passed. I don't know if I should be discouraged that I'm
going in circles, or heartened that most problems are temporary.
