Why aren't we writing?

Can't sleep, so here I am doing a post. It's been quiet again up in here. What's the problem? I know the primary problem is that folks are busy--significant others, jobs, kids, etc. I got none of the latter, and am seriously unfocused on what I do have of the 2nd category, which perhaps explains why I find the time to get on here once in a while.

But I'm sure it's not just a lack of time--I know we're all finding time to read random sh*t on the web and watch random sh*t on TV. Maybe it's a lack of desire or ability or self-discipline, to sit down and write out some cogent thoughts. I'm finding that hard to do--to set aside some time and mental space to really write something out. Case in point: I've been wanting to write up something about our trip to Ukraine and Istanbul. Nothing serious or deep or insightful, but just something to communicate and record where we went, what we did, and what we thought of it. But here it is a month and a half later, and I got nothing.

Part of the obstacle is setting the bar too high. With my travel log, I feel like it should be deep and insightful, which stops me from getting started. It may be a similar case with the paucity of posts up here--we feel like we got to have something "official" before we show it to the world, or even to each other (b/c there's not anyone else getting over here, are they?)

But I feel free to put up these stream-of-consiousness rambling posts. Better than nothing--I tell myself.

Another piece of writing I'd been meaning to do and post up here is a "currently reading/recently read" account. Something that we floated over e-mail a couple years ago--if not actually a book club, at least a book bulletin board. I've been maintaining a recently-read list over at my old geocities site. When I'd started the list, I'd even included a few sentences recording my impressions of the book; but that soon puttered out, so all I had was a list of books and dates that I read them. Better than nothing.

Again, I'd been meaning to work in more about what I'm reading into this blog or my other one, but it hasn't happened. It's partly due to the reasons given above--reasons that are personal failings. But it may also be a failure of the format. A blog is what I want--a log that I'll keep on the web--but this linear format we're stuck in here may be holding us back.

With respect to our team effort, maybe what we need is some sort of forum software--an interface and format that allows the back-and-forth that we had, and still occasionally have, over e-mail.

With respect to the idea of a BookLog, I've got a new tool: TiddlyWiki.

Came across the URL a few weeks ago--via del.icio.us, actually, now that I think about it. But I didn't take the time to play with it until today. In fact, I actually worked with it--after playing with it, me and the grad student I'm working with on this model decided we're going to try to collaboratively draft a paper using it.

While putting our outline into a TiddlyWiki, it occured to me that non-linear personal notebook is what I need for a BookLog. So check it out a first draft here.

Just start clicking on the links, which open what are called "tiddlers"--small bits of (hyper)text. Figure out how to close them too, and that's all there is to reading a TiddlyWiki. There's no particular place to start or to end, no particular order--just jump in and around. Just like the web itself.