I have been reading a big ol' anthology called The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Phillip Lopate. Partly because I like reading essays, and partly because I thought I might be able to crib some hints for writing interesting web journal entries. (The web journal entry being essentially an impromptu short personal essay.)

What I didn't quite expect was the extent to which many of these essays really do resemble web journal entries. Particularly notable was an excerpt from Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book entitled "Hateful Things." Sei Shonagon wrote in the 10th century in Japan, but update a few cultural references and retitle it "Things that Suck!" and you have a web journal entry.

Though about half of the "Hateful Things" described involve the bad behavior of one's lovers:

An admirer has come on a clandestine visit, but a dog catches sight of him and starts barking. One feels like killing the beast.
One has been foolish enough to invite a man to spend the night in an unsuitable place - and then he starts snoring.
A gentleman has visited one secretly. Though he is wearing a tall, lacquered hat, he nevertheless wants no one to see him. He is so flurried, in fact, that upon leaving he bangs into something with his hat. Most hateful!

Apparently 10th century Japanese love affairs were supposed to be carried on in near total silence. Which is a logical consequence of all those paper walls, I suppose.

Hmmm...I wonder if anyone has thought of doing The Pillow Book as a blog, a la Samuel Pepys?

In other news, work is keeping me very busy. People I need to consult with in order to ensure the accuracy of the manuals I'm producing are proving frustratingly elusive. They may be out of town, or they may just be busy. I may have to start staking out people's desks, rather than relying on telephone and e-mail.

I was going to complain about people who don't answer their e-mail, but I can think of a few people who are awaiting replies from me, so I think I'll refrain from throwing stones.

Happily, I seem to have fallen into a habit of doing my fiction writing over my breakfast and morning coffee. My attempts to write fiction in the evenings after getting home from work were not going very well. By the time I drive home, and have some dinner, and spend a little time conversing with Daniel, it's late enough that it's time for me to wind down by reading a book or playing a game. But I've been getting up early enough that I can get in a good 45 minutes to an hour of writing before I have to hit the road.

If I were writing a journal entry entitled "Things that Suck", my commute would surely be one of them. There was an accident on 880 near Hayward today. It took me an 1 hour 25 minutes to get to work. Bleh.

I think I will go shop on-line for more MP3's to listen to while I drive. After all, I'm halfway through The Count of Monte Cristo already.

If I were writing a journal entry entitled "Things that Don't Suck," Alexandre Dumas would surely be near the top of the list.