# Do you keep a diary?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Mae West is supposed to have said, 'Keep a diary, and some day it'll keep you.'

But I doubt if anyone would want to read my ramblings. 

I have kept a diary when I was younger, but now I just sometimes make entries in a notebook about important occurrences. When I was younger, I did have ambitions to write, and was trying to record feelings and impressions with a view to using them later. I was also often lonely, and it helped to express my feelings. Now, when I reread my earlier self, I often laugh or feel uneasy or irritated by my stupidity and/or smugness. 

These days, I don't have the time to write a daily diary, though blogs about music or holidays are quite fun. However, my mother has dementia, and I am always urging her to write her diary to try and exercise her memory - but she doesn't often follow the advice. I'm wondering if I should start a diary now, as a sort of preventive measure, along with the crosswords, dark chocolate, & music practice. 

I am wondering if any of you keep, or have kept, a diary, and if so, why? And if not, why not?
The poll is just to prompt discussion.

Thanks in advance for any replies.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

No, I'm much to busy living life to set aside time to write about it!
And when I'm old enough to have time to read it, I'll have forgotten how to read anyway or can read something interesting that some talented writer has written! 

/ptr


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Here's an example of a day at Durham university - I lived in a residential college. Names have been changed.

*March 10th 1970**: 3 hours (I used to record the study I did - not very much that day!)
Morning - Teresa (my room mate) missed breakfast so I smuggled in two rolls. However, she got up later. I missed Practical Criticism on purpose & after getting some panadol and cough sweets for Teresa's cold, I went up the Cathedral tower - an endless spiral staircase, but it was nice to be alone so high up, looking down, and singing a song. The trouble is, I had to run all the way back to college for my lunch, bolt it down, and rush to Indian Civilisation. My face was red for quite a long time. I had a tutorial with Mr Crow on Robert Burns. It went off very well despite the fact that I couldn't quote with the correct accent. However, Mr Crow was very ignorant and rather patronising about the poet. After dinner, coffee with Linda, Cathy's friend, then to Trevelyan College for a school reunion - but no one turned up so I had coffee alone and a two hour talk with Vera Stanley.*

*I don't understand this. Vera Stanley was an old schoolfriend, so someone must have shown up! *

That earnest & rather silly tone makes me smile - what an idiot!


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

I keep a diary so I know what I'm doing on any given day. When I was younger I kept a 'journal' type diary and there are some interesting things in there but most of it is depressing so I don't go back to them.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ingélou said:


> That earnest & rather silly tone makes me smile - what an idiot!


Shucks, if I could write like that, I'd keep a diary.

I kept a journal in my 20s. (Guys don't have diaries; they have journals, right?) But I abandoned it after it seemed like I was writing more for who might possibly be reading it than its intended purpose, an exercise in self-revelation. At this point in my life, I need a Boswell.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've never had a diary or journal. I don't like writing much; come to think of it, I don't like talking much either. My preference is action. I once asked my wife if she noticed any similarities between myself and the typical Clint Eastwood characters; she answered in the affirmative except she made a big deal out of the fact that Clint shoots people while I kill flies and rodents.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

July 13, 2015

...I don't keep a diary.

Sincerely yours,
...............Celloman


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

No. Sometimes I wish I did so I could remember what I used to think abut things. But I would be afraid to put my most personal thoughts in a diary. What if someone found it? What about after I die? Perhaps it is irrational, but I'd really be worried about that.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I keep a diary now for my daughter but it is being hosted on another website.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Actually I do not keep a diary, not that I am opposed to the idea, it's just that I am far too lazy to chronicle my life's colorful events!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

No I don't. I like the idea of it and I recall trying one when I was in junior school but needless to say it didn't go on for more than a few days.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I still keep my _journal_ in my backpack, but it was mostly for writing things down whenever I was bored say, during a lecture; but I didn't stick to a schedule of one entry a day. I must've thrown away a bunch of older journal entries at one point, probably out of embarrassment after re-reading them, because there's only 7 left and they all date from June 21, 2011 to November 13, 2012. Looking over them, there's a lot of ranting.


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

I used to for a brief amount of time when I was younger. Even my younger-self used to laugh at my idiotic writings and how pointless the activity was. I very much oppose the idea of nostalgia or looking at the past. That's why I rarely take photographs. Life's too short to waste on the past.

But, to each to his own I suppose...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I think I'd better start the diary.
Today I asked Taggart if he could try again to get me a cd (William Lawes: The Harp Consorts) since I remembered that the title hadn't been available before. He agreed without batting an eyelid. But when he went on to Amazon, he discovered a note that told him we'd already bought it. He looked in the cupboard, and there it was!

Gordon Bennet!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I used to keep a dream diary, but it kept me up most of the night


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

If I kept a diary, I'd never have time to post on Talk Classical.

(A massive virtual shout can be heard slowly gathering intensity *"START KEEPING A DIARY, VESTERALEN!!!*")


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I made a resolution yesterday to do so.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

A timely post for me, as I've just started keeping a journal again.

When I was a kid, I kept a journal at my father's suggestion, but it didn't last.

For a long time, I thought I didn't have time to keep a journal, and that in any case I didn't have enough interesting thoughts to put in it. But recently, a friend told me about his approach: just a sentence or two a day, noting what happened. The point is not to express one's deepest thoughts and feelings, but only to help trigger one's memory in the future. This is what I'm doing now, and I hope I stick with it. I wish I'd done it before.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

That's what I've tried to get my Mum to do & I think it's an excellent habit, isorhythm. It also beats the problem of what to do with them after one passes on - nobody will want to know what I had for tea on June 20th 2017.


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

Sometimes I journal, but my nosy parents still get into my stuff when they come over.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Posie said:


> Sometimes I journal, but my nosy parents still get into my stuff when they come over.


You'll have to write it in code!


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I keep track of the highlighted moments in my life ... from youthful days to present. But a daily log of activities? Nope, and not going to start this late in the game. 

My sister does though - and she is the one with all the family histories and genealogy.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Ingélou said:


> Mae West is supposed to have said, 'Keep a diary, and some day it'll keep you.'
> 
> But I doubt if anyone would want to read my ramblings.
> 
> ...


Nope, I get along just fine staving off Alzheimer's with sudoku puzzles, jumbles, and crosswords. Probably would find it fun keeping one but it's never really occurred to me.

I'm not sure I know how to write casually or record daily events anyways. It would likely end up being the nonsense thoughts I discard, about all that high falutin' stuff you guys know I like. But I guess it would be healthy for my ego, to gag at all of my failed thoughts.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

isorhythm said:


> A timely post for me, as I've just started keeping a journal again.
> 
> When I was a kid, I kept a journal at my father's suggestion, but it didn't last.
> 
> For a long time, I thought I didn't have time to keep a journal, and that in any case I didn't have enough interesting thoughts to put in it. But recently, a friend told me about his approach: just a sentence or two a day, noting what happened. The point is not to express one's deepest thoughts and feelings, but only to help trigger one's memory in the future. This is what I'm doing now, and I hope I stick with it. I wish I'd done it before.


Hadn't thought of using one this way. Maybe it could help me better remember people and events, possibly even recall faces.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Ingélou said:


> That's what I've tried to get my Mum to do & I think it's an excellent habit, isorhythm. It also beats the problem of what to do with them after one passes on - nobody will want to know what I had for tea on June 20th 2017.


*Had* for tea in 20th _2017_? Maybe the tea itself isn't interesting, but the fact that you time traveled at some point to 2017 is pretty interesting.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Dim7 said:


> *Had* for tea in 20th _2017_? Maybe the tea itself isn't interesting, but the fact that you time traveled at some point to 2017 is pretty interesting.


No, it was simply that I planned on living at least until then. Presumptuous of me, I know. 
*'Man proposes - God disposes!' *


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

I don't dare. My wife reads and then interrogates me on everything I write, including shopping lists or notes to myself. I haven't written a letter to anyone since we married.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I've tried but it just feels pointless. However, I've started keeping 'Bible Notes'—just a way for me to work out passages I don't understand. Bible study is hard work, man, and it's best done in seclusion.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

I'd probably go mad If I did.


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> I think I'd better start the diary.
> Today I asked Taggart if he could try again to get me a cd (William Lawes: The Harp Consorts) since I remembered that the title hadn't been available before. He agreed without batting an eyelid. But when he went on to Amazon, he discovered a note that told him we'd already bought it. He looked in the cupboard, and there it was!
> 
> Gordon Bennet!


I always learn something new on this forum. Thanks for teaching me a new exclamation, Mrs. Ingélou.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I do not, no. I do keep a "log" online where I jot down various ideas, thoughts, or dreams, but it's mostly random and a lot of it has to do with the fact that I write fiction for fun and I'm always coming up with ideas for stories.

It's related to the "voice log" I have on my phone where anytime I come up with a good tune that could be used for a future composition, I make sure to whistle into my phone so as not to forget it -_-


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Tristan said:


> I do not, no. I do keep a "log" online where I jot down various ideas, thoughts, or dreams, but it's mostly random and a lot of it has to do with the fact that I write fiction for fun and I'm always coming up with ideas for stories.
> 
> It's related to the "voice log" I have on my phone where anytime I come up with a good tune that could be used for a future composition, I make sure to whistle into my phone so as not to forget it -_-


Sounds more like a 'writer's notebook'. Good luck with your ambitions. :tiphat:


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I, uh, briefly had one wen I was in "love" a few years ago -- high school stuff. It was so embarrassing I got rid of it not too long ago. Wouldn't want future biographers to see... that.


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> I, uh, briefly had one wen I was in "love" a few years ago -- high school stuff. It was so embarrassing I got rid of it not too long ago. Wouldn't want future biographers to see... that.


It appears that is always the case. Future us looking down upon the ridiculous behavior and mannerisms of our younger selves. Perhaps, that, more than anything, symbolizes maturity.

Alternatively, you could read those diaries and marvel at what a better man you've become.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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