385 lines
16 KiB
TeX
385 lines
16 KiB
TeX
\chapter{Journaling}
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Yes, yes yes... I know that I have a item I was going to add to this
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and a whole thing about, ``Who are we?'' which I am avoiding writing.
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I get the desire to write the previous thing about sales first, because
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that was very much the topic of what was on our mind, when we were
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sitting down to get something down here.
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This about journaling wasn't really on our mind, it's just we
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don't feel inspired to write directly about who we are right now.
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Maybe we'll totally skip that. Because you know, it's not something
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that we like to really consider directly because it always feels not
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right.
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So, let's talk about journaling, rather than talking about ourselves
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directly.
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I don't really want to fully dive into this, I have started a project
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already that kind of has sat sadly for... Months, maybe over a year,
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maybe even over 2 years.
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I want to sort of cover a few different things with journaling:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item{Why Journal?}
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\begin{itemize}[nosep]
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\item{Self Communication}
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\item{Getting Things Done}
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\item{Understanding Self}
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\item{Understanding World}
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\end{itemize}
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\item{How we journal}
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\begin{itemize}[nosep]
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\item{Bullet Journal}
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\item{Just Writing}
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\item{Script Writing}
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\end{itemize}
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\end{itemize}
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Dang, that was a longer list than I thought it would be, so let's get
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started
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\section{Why Journal?}
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This is something that honestly I'm sure there are at least as many
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reasons as there are people journaling. Which? Um, that sort of seems
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a bit odd, as what I'm talking about here is probably some fairly generic
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reasons.
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These are reasons that I have for why I try to journal (and sometimes
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actually succeed at it). They aren't really the only reason's, but we
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have to start somewhere, and we have to not overwhelm ourselves and our
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gentle (or not so gentle) readers.
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\subsection{Self Communication}
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This well... Self? Maybe that's hitting us a bit weird... Selves?
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System? Well maybe System is better then.\todo{Make this better with
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more direct use of something along the lines of system.}
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This will probably (hopefully) get edited, but I don't want to go back
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and do that right now... Remember, ``This will be terrible,'' from the
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introduction. It's not our goal with the thing, it is more an invitation
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for ourselves to be accepting as we are capable of, of it not being
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perfect. Especially for it not to be perfect as we are working on it.
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So... {\it System Communication}, then. We use journaling for system
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communication, to have ourselves better able to understand what's going
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on with the system as a whole.\todo{Something about Simply Plural and
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Discipline App}
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This ends up coming out in a few different ways, and more details about
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how this comes out in the different ways I've listed as ``How we
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journal.''
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The thing we're noticing is that actually a lot of the why and the
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how end up interacting. We were thinking that the ``Bullet Journal,''
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type format didn't have to do with much more than getting things done.
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And with looking at this, even the just getting things done of the
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``Bullet Journal'' format (Can we call it BJ? Let's at least for
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now.)\todo{Is BJ OK?} at least for us, involves system communication.
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Why do I say that? Well, I could write something down as Jigme that
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I want to get done, and then Moddy shows up, but wasn't aware of that
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and they can look at that, and go ahead and get it done.
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The other aspects felt a lot more like they were directly related to
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the ``internal communication'' aspect, as that is pretty much the direct
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purpose of them.
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So, what about getting things done?
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\subsection{Getting Things Done}
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This feels all of a sudden what I said about how the ``just writing,''
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and ``script writing,'' are basically about just internal communication
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that they have to be also connected with the getting things done aspect
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as well.
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The way they help with that may actually come up further down the way,
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but basically because they are about the communication, they can help
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with understanding as to what needs to be done.
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So, wait, we were talking about why? I guess that means I really
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need to talk about the executive function issues.\todo{yep this is a
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chapter too.}
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It easily can take 3 days to do a single load of laundry with just
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the general inability to remember that is what is going on (it's not
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right in front of us, and sometimes the person fronting, is not the
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person who put the laundry in), and often when remembering, promptly
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getting interrupted by things outside of our system (people, phone,
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computer, dog, et cetera).
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Properly noting this stuff can be a huge help in cutting that time to
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more like reasonable levels.
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Does it happen? Rarely, but hey a system can dream can't they?
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What about the other things that I've got in that lovely list up
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there $\uparrow$ (and for me over there $\rightarrow$ (yes I just
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spent several minutes getting the arrows to show up acceptably)),
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maybe let's look at them?
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\subsection{Understanding Self}
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OK, before I go too far with this, I feel that in our case, we're needing
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to split this into the self and the system, so let's do that.
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Well, maybe a bit about this before going to that. It might seem obvious
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now that this makes sense, but when I wrote the list above, it really
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did not. I didn't really see that this was different, but in writing,
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found that it really is.
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It's really very difficult to express what's going on in a way that
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actually fully expresses this. As I type a single word, there's like
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five different sentences going on that may or may not shift what's
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happening with the greater thought pattern.
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Every so often enough of what's happening has a, ``click'' type moment
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where something comes up that needs to be noted. Sometimes that ends
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up working out, other times it doesn't.
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It can be easier to get some of these thoughts better to come out
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when working with a physical medium like a pen and paper (how I like
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to have my journals when I'm managing that), than it is when trying
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to express stuff on the computer.
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So, that's what happened to bring this to realising that this is actually
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important to pull into a more clear that the individual self, and the
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system are connected, but not the same.
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\subsubsection{Understanding the Individual}
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This would be something which figuring out how certain patterns with
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certain members of the system are there.
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This seems like it may have been a significant breakdown in counselling
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when we've gone through it, as the counsellor (and ourselves) lacked the
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understanding that talking to Jigme about something that happened when
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Little One was fronting, can be next to useless.
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Until Jigme understands Little One, it is like me trying to explain
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why you went into do the thing you did. And, if you really want to
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understand, no matter how much Jigme understands about what Little
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One did, they can't explain as well as Little One can themselves.
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So, getting what Little One, or Jigme, or Samantha to understand what
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they are going through, and why they are doing the things they are
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doing, is very much a step in getting stuff so that the system
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as a whole better understands what's going on.
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Which is very much a place to transition to more specifically speaking
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about understanding the system.
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\subsubsection{Understanding the System}
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We're taking a break right now, will get back to you shortly, need to
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step away a bit.
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Ah, we're back... That helped. Now, I got into some of what I'm talking
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about how figuring out how an individual member of the system helps with
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understanding the system as a whole, but that sort of is not the whole
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thing about understanding the system.
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Like it is a lot different to understand how every individual in a
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classroom is behaving, than it is to understand how the classroom as
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a whole is working. It's a bit of a difference between considering
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things from a psychological versus a group psychology or sociology
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view.
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I'm not sure I can wholely say more about it than that without trying
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to do it, and ending up going through a long rambling discussion that
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quite possibly doesn't even get any further along than I already have.
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Let's move to the next thing about understanding the world.
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\subsubsection{Understanding the World}
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This is more a matter (at least for me), about understanding how I'm
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fitting in the world, but it can be more general in just understanding
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the dynamics of the world.
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In the ``Are you going to sell this?'' chapter, I talked a bit about how
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that works out, around the idea of collectivism versus individualism,
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and about capitalism. I didn't go into detail about how I got there,
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or really in any level of detail about the topics, but just enough
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to maybe start to think about those topics yourself (if you have
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not already been).
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So, it does end up being a somewhat useful thing in doing that, and
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any of these tools which I'm about to go into can be part of that.
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\section{How We Journal}
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This will have to wait until some other time...
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I guess it's a fairly simple thing, but I was just done whenever I
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paused there. So, there's basically three different ways that I do my
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journaling. Doing the Bullet Journal (BulJo? I think that might be a
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form used to refer to it, but ah not really sure?)\todo{ah Bujo, that's
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actually official}, then just writing portions out, and writing
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scripts.
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This certainly won't go into the full details of any of these methods,
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just give a bit about how I do them, and how they kind of address the
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why above.
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\subsection{Bullet Journal\textsuperscript{\tiny®}
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(Bujo\textsuperscript{\tiny®})}
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Bujo\textsuperscript{\tiny®}, was created by Ryder Carroll, to help deal
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with his ADHD, (or maybe to deal with his egotism, and not in a good
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way), technically it's not an open system, but also technically there's
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a lot of information publicly available officially. It's not clear
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really what the status of the trademark, and his enforcing of it is, if
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he is enforcing it, and finds I dared to mention his product and mention
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that I use it, well I guess this section will change ... It's why I
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decided to create my series on journaling (that never got very far).
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So, he uses a system that works for him. He's making money off that
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system, and as he's trademarked it, no one can use the name in anything
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which would be considered to be a commercial product.
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I've run into this attitude with other systems meant to help people.
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Someone ends up making money from it, and also preventing the spread
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of it in a ``legal'' way, as they somehow consider that it's so important
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that it be protected.
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I've had very strange issues with the use of
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WordPress\textsuperscript{\tiny®}, because even though what I was doing
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was saying, ``we are using this product,'' you can't actually say that
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(depends on who it is to some extent), if what you are doing is
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considered commercial.\todo{What is commercial?}
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Anyway, the system (which is trademarked not patented, it can't really
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be), is a decent system, but it's not really open.
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And, apparently he doesn't respect the IP of other people...
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It really feels like a huge faff that he's making a decent amount of
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money from, just get yourself a blank notebook, do what you can, and
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check out even his videos, or other instruction.
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It's a great system for getting stuff done. But really it comes down
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to, ``keep it simple,'' ``make it your own.''
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Yes, he's got some specifics. But those specifics are basically, a
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20 minute video worth, or a single double sided A4/Letter paper to
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explain enough to take it into something that you can take further.
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So, let's move to something that I'm more comfortable talking as a
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way I'm doing stuff (because I don't have any term associated with
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it that I am aware is considered proprietary).
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\subsection{Just Writing}
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This isn't really anything particular, though probably sort of is.
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There is a concept called ``free writing''\todo{Get Wikipedia Reference
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here.} where a person writes continuously for 15 minutes, or some other
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period of time, with the pen never stopping.
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While I've tried to do that, I've never found that it was anything
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other than just a huge stressful ball of anxiety, because I kept,
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``screwing up'' how I was doing this.
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For me, this is to just write and feel free to stop and thing or
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whatever whenever you want.
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You may sit down with something on your mind. You may be writing
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about your day (where I kind of started with this), or you may write
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about some topic, or whatever.
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The point for this for me, is it really doesn't have rules, except
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for what you set out when you do it that particular time. And
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really those rules are mostly, ``why am I sitting down to do this?''
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I have found that this isn't that common for me any more, but I
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feel it's actually a good place to start. Pick up a small notebook,
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and just have it so you can fill it up with whatever you want.
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You can do this as a daily practice, do it multiple times a day,
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do it just whenever you think about it.
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So, what about the other Script Writing thing?
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\subsection{Script Writing}
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This is a new thing that I've started to do. I started first with
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doing this in a sketchbook, and sometimes do stuff similar to what
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I did still.
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Essentially this is something where we create document of an internal
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dialogue, or maybe multiple parts talking, and trying to keep track of
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who is saying what in that dialogue.
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I have started to use the Stage document class, in \LaTeX, to write
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some of these scripts.
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The purpose and format are a bit related. For me, this is one
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of the system mapping tools that I use. The specific tool that I
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use isn't as important as finding something that works. The writing
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in a sketchbook, or notebook, or whatever does work, and there is
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nothing wrong with doing that, but I find that it also is a way that I
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end up with something that ends up being a bit of a scribble, that I
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don't really know what is said.
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Which... Leads me to another how that I hadn't thought about...
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Just scribbling.
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\subsection{Just Scribbling}
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This probably isn't quite the thing here. I guess this is a bit about
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why I really like to do some of this in a physical, open format journal.
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I haven't found a way on the computer that I can quickly switch between
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writing a text thing that ends up being decently formatted, to being able
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to throw a sketch, or formula in (well maybe a formula as I can do
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something like):
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\begin{figure}[htb]
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$$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} {n\over{n^2}}$$
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\caption{I really have no idea what this ends up being.}
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\end{figure}\todo{Find out
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what this ends up summing to.}
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(yes I looked up how to do that), in \LaTeX.
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But I can easily switch when I'm using a pen/pencil on paper, to
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whatever format I want, and it doesn't require any kind of mode
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switching or loading anything up, it just happens.
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So I could just throw something down that is very much just a
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scribble, a ``ball of anxiety,'' and just sort of do that, or
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do a sketch of an idea I'm trying to explain, or whatever.
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\section{Conclusion (sort of)}
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Well, that's been a heck of a lot, that I really did not expect
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so I want to say that this actually was a little weird to write
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up as a lot of the breaks were because things were bringing stuff
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up, so yeah, take breaks, and enjoy your stuff.
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I don't think this vaguely covers what I'd like to, but it
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certainly is a thing, that I can work with.
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I'd really love to write more about this whole topic, and probably
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will, but right now, this is done. If you want to journal, just do
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it. Don't spend your time trying to find the right way to do it,
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don't spend your time finding the right journal to do it in. Just
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do it.
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If you find what you are doing, then change it. Or you might decide
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just to stop, or set it aside and not worry about it.
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Sure you'll get ideas from various sources. They are great, but
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don't let them start to get in the way of just doing the thing.
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And yes, that's a lot easier said than done for a lot of people,
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including ourselves in the Datse Collective. |