A Solution

I may have found the perfect solution to my ultimate dilemma - how to have a private journal.

I love my blog because it allows me to share parts of my life with my friends and the world at large. However, there are certain aspects of my life that I prefer to keep private. It's nothing personal.... Well actually, it is, that's the point. It's all rather personal. I used to keep my journal in email form but then when my computer or hard drive crashed, I lost my journal. I then switched to this online format, but it's not really sufficient, not for the private aspects of my life. Hence, I've been keeping a written journal to supplement.

I like the ability of blogs to organize everything by dates, and in some cases categories. I like the convenience of being able to access and update them from anywhere. I appreciate the fact that I can type, cut and past, and more efficiently edit my entries as I go. I think through typing, and so it is much easier for me to commit a collection of thoughts through typing than through writing. At the same time, sometimes, all I have is a pen and paper.

I don't like the idea, however, of having to worry about who has access to my life. Even if I kept a Live Journal and locked it down so it could only be read by my friends - I'm not sure who has the rights to my writing. I'm not sure how secure the system is, and I'm not sure what would happen to it if Live Journal got a cyber attack or just shut down. It's not stable. It seems like everyone is able to find people private information in today's society and I would prefer to protect the parts I want to protect.

I wanted a journal that could fit on a flash drive so that I didn't have to worry about computers crashing. I could have it on the computer, but I wanted to be able to back it up and use it off of a flashdrive - this would also allow me to take it and use it more places. I wanted something I could password protect. It would be nice if it could interface with blogs, download previous posts and upload others. Categories would be a delicious ingredient, as would the ability to integrate written posts with typed ones. Oh, and I'd like it to be cheap.

My initial search did not yield many exciting results. All of them were expensive and none of them offered exactly what I wanted. But then I found This. I have to say, this program seems to have absolutely everything I could possibly want in a journal. It even integrates voice posting. I can't imagine anything better and at such a low price - especially considering all of its features.

Are any of you familiar with this program?