document my life better

Years back, I was poking through one of those books that tried to explain for the layman what scientific inquiry was all about.

I remember a passage to the effect that scientific discoveries come in a brown paper wrapper. You can’t immediately discern the impact of a new discovery. An electronic switch can register zero or one. No big deal until this becomes the basis of computer science.

You won’t remember later without prompts. And you won’t know now – or may presently be blind to – what could help or guide you later. So don’t throw those embarrassing journals and photos away, just get better at hiding them from others.

(1) Keep a daily journal.
(2) Carry my camera and take pictures.

Not only to weed out the time-wasters, but to map the ebb and flow of my moods and energy.

I’m self-conscious about taking candids of people and lazy about lugging out the camera. Parts of my social life cannot be evoked well for lack of documentation and photos.

I’ve resolved to take near-daily pictures this year. (Even in this digital camera/cheap memory card age, I have this atavistic mentality that every shot costs 40 cents, so you can’t waste a frame and nobody had better blink!)

I’m also going to keep a regular journal. I started a LiveJournal, but early on felt I’d be playing to any readers. Decided to use MacJournal offline instead, which still gives me the option of click-posting to LJ if I later want to.