In this age of digital everything — in spite of all the talk of paperless this and paperless that — I was just at Staples and there were shelves of paper, journals, spiral notebooks and steno notebooks... and pens and pencils.

People have blogs so that when they write something people they don’t even know can read and know what’s going on in their life or just in their head.

Back to Staples — bought a new Parker Jotter with gel ink. I already have Parker pens in both rollerball and plain old ball point, fine and medium points respectively. I’m going to reteach myself how to write in cursive... Maybe keep a journal...

I only write and keep the interesting parts. A record of one's life can come in a variety of forms. During a journalling hiatus, I continued to record my life via e-mail conversations.

Jeanette Isabelle

My son and daughter have just started working a few months ago. I advised them to keep a work journal. I kept a 100 page notebook in my work bag and wrote things like phone numbers of visiting engineers, or what projects we were starting ..etc. The 100 page notebook filled up and I started a 200 page notebook but retired when it became half-way full

These journals are very useful. For example you need to remember someone phone number six months after you met them. Or you need to write self-evaluation at the end of the year. You will definitely forget the details of what you were doing, unless you write them down.

Sounds like a fine project, Chisel.

Long time no blog ...

By mistake I have deleted a folder that contained files and videos about prepping, bushcraft and stuff. Can't get them back. As if this corona stuff is not enough. Grrrr

Several issues are brewing in my head.
One son working in another town, and we are thinking whether he should get an unpaid vacation to stay with us until the CV mess is over.

Daughter is a doctor. CV is all around her. I thought that mothers are the softer species, but dads are also soft when their kids are so close to danger.

Trying to engrave the prepping mentality in their heads ASAP without freaking them out or looking like paranoid.

I used to worry about looking like a paranoid, but my wife observed that the ship had already sailed.

Took off a lot of pressure.

This reminds me of when our house flooded and I had the correct homeowners insurance rider. One of my relatives said, "That was lucky!" No, it wasn't.

Very few people believe in planning ahead.

There are increasing signs of people getting depressed for being locked down in their homes. Some are depressed for not being able to 'have fun' any more. No cafe, no playground ..etc. But on the other hand, some glimmer of hope appears among this pessimistic atmosphere.

In our corner of the world, a guy (calls himself Ghaith), travels around the region, finding cases of the poorest of the poor, the most unfortunate , the most needy , and offers them help. He never showed his face (shown from the back always).

As great his work is , some episodes have shown even greater souls out there. One of them is a very old Egyptian doctor who devoted his life to help the poorest of the poor, and the needy in his area.

Ghaith and his team tried to have an interview with this elderly doctor, but he refused. Finally they had to trick him by calling him to help someone. After some talk, Ghaith asked him to accept a large sum of money to build a better clinic in a 'better ' area. Doctor refused and suggested the money goes to charity, saying that he does not need much to live. He lives on a few sandwiches, as he said. He added that he prefers to stay where he is in that area because he wants to live among the poor whom he is helping. All he accepted from Ghaith was a new stethocope, but refused anything else.

TV program interviewed a few patients who explained they cannot afford medical bills and the cost of extensive anlyses. Then showed the doctor examining samples under a very old microscope, saying that he saves the patients money by doing whatever tests he can by himself.

Guys !!
There is still alot of beauty in the world.
A lot of hope, and many decent people out there.

Indeed, there's still much good in the world! Thanks for shining a light on some of it, Chisel.