(29 January, 2001)
Pursuant to a splendid suggestion from the redoubtable Anita Rowland, and after a remarkably short delay (a mere 8 months or so, not at all bad considering what a flake I am), I am changing the format of this journal. As of now, this page is an index or table of contents.
Originally, I wrote each journal entry under this filename. When I decided that I was done with it, I changed its name to the next number in line, sometimes remembering to note the change in the archive list and sometimes not. Then I'd start the new entry, again under this filename. Anyone who came to this file always got the most recent entry, but that was not invariably the entry I had sent someone to look at.
In addition, Anita has rightly pointed out that changing the name of the current page is a disservice to readers. As it happens, it's also a pain in the neck; now I won't have to do it.
One thing I might like to do but really can't is to give a date for each entry. If I wrote one a day, or wrote each one in a single day, that might make sense; but that isn't how I generate this thing. I'm thinking about whether it makes sense to give the creation date of the file. In the meanwhile, however, they are in order here (reverse order, actually, so the current one is at the top of the list), which is more than I can say for the way they exist in my head.
Unfortunately, the fact that I work on any given entry over a period sometimes as long as weeks is another aspect that makes life hard for readers, and I will soon take up another of Anita's excellent suggestions: the notify list. Haven't done it yet; hope it won't take me another eight months!
I think I've got this particular reformatting all straightened out, but I did notice a few irregularities in the process of tweaking the files, so if something is slightly askew, please let me know and I'll fix it.
Meanwhile, here are the links to the entries in my journal:
Email: a@b.com, where a is replaced by my first name (just 3 letters, jon), and b is replaced by joss (Thanks to Shannon Smith for this anti-’bot method.)
Phone: +1 301 SAPWOOD (That’s 7279663, if your phone doesn’t have letters on it.)
Last modified: Sun Sep 25 01:42:22 EDT 2005