tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314170255512513562.post2674608164142086118..comments2024-01-13T01:13:27.059+00:00Comments on Changing the World (and other excuses for not getting a proper job...): An Embarrassment of Gap Year BlogsDougald Hinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13454824557311085039noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5314170255512513562.post-44306698091607397762008-03-30T04:48:00.000+00:002008-03-30T04:48:00.000+00:00In spare moments over the last few years I've been...In spare moments over the last few years I've been transcribing my old diaries into a text database. And yes, a lot of the stuff I wrote when I was 19 is embarrassing to read now. But even if public blogs had been available then, I don't think I would have written like that for public consumption, though obviously some people do.<BR/><BR/>What got me started with the transcription was my interest in family history, and I wanted to see what I had recorded of conversations with my grandmother. Then I moved to Namibia, far from my grandmother, and continued transcribing that bit, and then, in correspondence with Namibian Archives about my wife's family, sent an archivies a bit of my diary, and found they actually wanted it, for the light it threw on a period of Namibian history for which they had little material. I was well into my 20s when I lived in Namibia, so it was no longer quite so much the self-absorbed ramblings of a jejeune teenager who had just discovered Kerouac.<BR/><BR/>I sent them an annotated and indexed copy of the transcription. Perhaps one day it will be mentioned in a footnote of some historical tome. <BR/> <BR/>But that encouraged me to continue with the transcription.Steve Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11283123400540587033noreply@blogger.com