History is happening. Write it down!
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I'm glad you said write it down because I was so enthralled by news coming in that I totally forgot to do so. Egads! I'm going to write down a moment in World History in my Moleskine.
Congrats to Obama. Congrats to those folks who went out and did their obligation to vote. Even if you didn't vote for Obama you still did your part in the democratic process and should be proud of it. History has been made today and shall be noted! :)
Posted by: Ali S. | November 04, 2008 at 11:36 PM
I did! In the 5 November 2008 section of my home-made planner!
Posted by: Chet | November 05, 2008 at 02:54 AM
Speaking of writing it down for history, has anybody sent a notebook to an aging relative in order to have that person write down his or her story?
We read a lot about people writing in their own stories in journals, but what about getting other people, about whom you may care deeply, to write their stories? Before we lose these resources.
So, has anybody tried this? Do you send a list of questions to guide the person's writing? Do you merely send a blank notebook and say go?
Any thoughts?
Posted by: darin | November 05, 2008 at 05:44 AM
This is a good idea and maybe my own failure with this is will give some pointers. Not everyone enjoys writing things of that nature. If you're LUCKY one out of 4 will consider this an enjoyable thing to do, and questions would help. I found it much easier for everyone to sit and interview older people with a tape recorder. You'll get a lot of "My life hasn't been very interesting." Old guys enjoy talking about the service.
But what I thought you might try. There's a company, and I don't remember the name (I can find it on the web again if it's helpful). They can make recordings by phone. So if they think of something they can just call and record something. You can edit it and then it comes to you as a compact disc every month. So for the right person that would be a really fun present. You can put little kids on the phone to say things and make CDs of THAT. It may sound heartwarming to get an older person to write things down but if someone has had no interest in writing things down before it will be viewed as a chore.
Posted by: Sophie Brown | November 05, 2008 at 04:31 PM
One of these places is heritagememoirs.com.
Posted by: Sophie Brown | November 05, 2008 at 05:50 PM
Sophie-
There's a phone journal service called Voice Journal (.com). There might be others. Voice Journal is around $10 a month, minimum of 2 months.
You call in, enter a journal number. Then, for each time you call in, you can record 30 minutes of a "journal session." You can invite friends and family to call in, too.
You can download the journal on iTunes or purchase a CD.
I just started using it. I'm not sure how I like it-- it's easy to ramble on it, and not get to the point. And, sometimes the audio is quiet or static-y (you're calling from a phone, after all).
They have local or toll free numbers, with the toll free numbers being more. Be sure and figure out if it'll cost the elderly relative more to call this service frequently or not. Also, decide if you want to type up some or all of the journal recordings at some point. The journal recordings can be large file sizes or perhaps be lost/damaged files over the years, so a transcript would be nice.
It would be neat to have their voice on recording, as well as in writing. Paper often holds up longer than digital versions since computer crashes-- but, in the future, maybe it won't be like that.
I would be interested in learning of cheaper alternatives. $10/month seems pretty good, but I'm not sure that I would want to permanently subscribe. I usually call when shopping or when extremely bored and feel like ranting. Haven't tried it with friends and family calling in. Also haven't tried downloading the recordings yet, either.
Posted by: anonymouse | November 05, 2008 at 09:27 PM
Oops, it's called Life on Record (.com), not what I said before.
If there are cheaper/better/etc. alternatives, please let me know. I would LOVE to find a service that lets you call in journal recordings by phone, THEN transcribes them automatically into a typed printed journal (this service does *not* do that).
Posted by: anonymouse | November 05, 2008 at 09:30 PM
I've never heard of automatic transcriptions, but this other sounds the same. It would be cool if someone like a real-time court reporter could have a business for themselves doing this if they wanted a change (they do the closed captioning on television as well.) I always thought I would like being a court reporter, I've always wondered if anyone has ever written a novel on those machines they have, isn't that the coolest idea? It takes awhile to learn to use one, but if you already did and wanted to write a book--that would maybe be really GREAT. To write as fast as someone can talk. Does anyone else wonder if recording life is as important as living it, or who thinks the effort to balance the 2 is a primary goal?
The only reason I knew about the phone thing is because I know someone who uses is mostly only when she's stuck in traffic, so that she can actually enjoy that time instead of getting out of the car and having a road rage incident. Which is kind of funny when you think about it but also kind of interesting.
But most people it turns out don't journal. I know that's hard to understand but we're actually a smallish club if you want to call it that. And sometimes it sounds to people like something they might enjoy but then they don't really like it. If your grandma has this fetish she would already be doing it. I'd make it easier for HER. Let her do the phone thing, then you yourself are going to get stuck with the typing. OR if you were really serious about the family history bent, you take the CD to a typist and have them deal with it. It would cost real money but it would be worth it to someone out there I'm sure. Maybe you don't have to type up every entry on the recording. 3 or 5 of the best ones. CDs are pretty hardy and then if there's new technology you can put it on another format. There's always a way to to that, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Probably most important, you get her on the CD. Maybe she only wants to call half a dozen times. You'll be glad later.
Does anyone else think that the journalling notebook fool in the family is the most likely to be the one running around thrusting a microphone at grandma? Because I think I'm detecting a pattern.
Posted by: Sophie Brown | November 06, 2008 at 06:46 PM