Editing The Pen Addict 163/transcript (section)

== Journaling ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I want to talk about this post by our friend Ben Brooks on personal journaling. He posted it last week. And I read it. I read Ben's blog and I read this post and it's me. This is, like, exactly me, which is why I wanted to put it in the show notes. I have trouble keeping a journal and I've tried to use day one. It's really one of the most beautiful apps on my iPhone and it's wonderful to use. I just don't use it. I ended up deleting it about a month ago just because I'm never typing in there. So, before I've even read Ben's post here, like, a week or two before that, I had actually started writing in a journal a little bit more, which is not something I ever do. And I just thought it was a good take on the state of, like, a personal journal. And it's a real short read. Y'all check it out. And I just wanted to take this one paragraph towards the end. This pretty much sums it up. He says, Journaling is something different to each person. And for me, it's the fleeting thoughts and feelings of the late night at the tail end of a long week where I sit on the edge of my bed, weary and tired, trying to form coherent thoughts that one day my kids might read. I don't have time for lies, exaggerations, or creative prose. Only honesty seems to exist at that moment. But so, the way I read that is, like, I've never been someone that can journal on a schedule, right? I don't have a set day, a set time, which is why I never turned on, like, the day app reminders. Okay, go journal now. It doesn't work that way for me. And that's kind of what I get out of Ben's thing. It's, you know, it's kind of that recap of whatever personal journey you've embarked on during the day or the week. And it's something, you know, interesting that someone else might read later down the line. It's not for, like, I don't ever want my journal to be, like, a forced writing thing, which is why I don't do a schedule. And this is kind of a new thing to me. I'm kind of feeling it out. Maybe we can talk about it more later as I go with it and see if it sticks. I've never stuck really hard on a journal, but I'd like to this time, and I'm not making it a daily requirement. You know, that's important to me. I can't do that. That doesn't work. I've tried time and time and time again. I know personally that doesn't work for me. For some people, it's the best way to do it. So, I don't – you don't really keep a personal journal, right, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No. I use day one, but I use it as, like, a memory box is probably the best way to describe it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The way you've told me you use day one, and I've heard this conversation. I don't know if we had it on here, but the way you use day one actually would work for me really well. You, like, take snippets from – I almost want to say your online world. Yeah. And then paste them into day one and say kind of, like, this great thing happened today, and here's a link to it or something.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're personal achievements or, like, things that – they tend to be either big days in my, like, online life. You know, like, we've had a big day of some description and a new exciting thing has happened. Or they're things that if I could send my day one back into time, they would be really impressive. So, like, if I could show me five years ago, look what happened today, they would be very impressive to me of five years ago. Right. And then basically I maybe look through them every now and then and just be like, you know, oh, that's all these nice things. Because when you collect them all up, it's like a nice collection of stuff. But that tends to be what I use it for. It's like a retroactive time capsule or something.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. See, I like that. I think that's a good use for day one. I think that's how I could use day one. But, like, I was telling you in the pre-show this weekend, this past weekend, was my son's birthday. And, you know, I want to write, you know, just kind of about the cool things we did and how we had fun and whatever. Just really just stuff important to me. I can't type that into day one. That doesn't work for me. That digitalness doesn't feel right when I'm doing something super personal like that. Like, that's just for me. And even though day one's just for me, when I'm putting it digitally, it just doesn't feel like that. It doesn't feel like it's just for me. Does that make sense? Yeah, I do. It's a little bit odd. It's a little bit odd. So, anyway, I thought I wanted to share this post because Ben and I agree on a lot of things. And, you know, some people love Ben. Some people hate Ben. And I tend to agree with Ben way more than most people. So, I appreciated him writing this. I could totally see myself in this. So, yeah, there you go. Now, this next thing. I gave Myke homework last night as I was putting together the show notes. This video made the rounds last week around the pen blogosphere and really around the world. It's a video called Ink, written by hand. And it's an ink documentary. And I'm sure a lot of you have seen this. And I just watched it this weekend. And I sent Myke the link to watch it before the show last night. So, what did you think about it, Myke, just in general?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Loved it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's pretty great, isn't it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's, you know, it's one of those types of documentaries. You will have seen these before on the internet. It's like a person candidly speaking softly with nice music in the background and lots of close-up shots. And then walking around the town that they live in and being at home. You know, you've seen these. This is like a style of documentary which has been quite popular on the internet in the last couple of years. That is not a criticism because I love that style. But it's just, you've seen a style, you've seen documentaries in this style before. I thought it was very well made. The lady who they had on there, she seemed like in a really interesting place with her pen nerdiness. She seemed quite new to it, it seemed. It was the way that it came across. But seems to have found this thing that she loves and has turned it into a business. And she lived, looked like she lived in a building that I could not comprehend but is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, if that's her apartment slash workspace, it's amazing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, what was that building?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's almost like an open loft concept but the inside was built out. But it was like inside outside. Yeah. It was really beautiful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was like they took a prison and turned it into a beautiful thing. Because that's what it looked like, right? It was like this big inside courtyard area and these apartment buildings that were around the perimeter but facing into this courtyard. Like, it looked like a prison, right? Can you get what I mean by that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sure. The way it was set out. But if anyone knows what that building is, I would love to know.