Digitizing Old Letters and Papers

        I am a sentimental junkie.  My younger self even more so, and as a result I have piles of old pictures, letters, notes from middle school, and receipts (yes, receipts) and travel brochures from Disney World (these item seemed vital to me at age 8).  I have developed a much more discerning taste as time crept by, so I want to discard the lesser sentimental to Simplify (a subject that I read about tons and shop for items to simplify simplifying... ) my life.  I've just begun the tedious task of photographing old letters and notes, when I have a fantastic idea.  I will "digitize" the piles of journals and old pictures and then upload them into the Day One app.  I hope that the end product will be a sort of framework of my past- all letters and entries self written as well as letters sent to me of similar dates.  Per usual, a cool idea has ballooned into a massive undertaking that I'll try really hard to see through to the end!

So far, I've:
1.  pulled out all the papers, letters and cards.
2.  take photos on cell phone of sentimental things, throwing out the most after digital copy is made
3.  keep papers that are epic or grandma's signature- important love letters... The size of the paper collection is drastically downsized. (*this is key- I'm not ditching All the artifacts, but I feel contentment and peace of mind tossing stuff when I know there's a digital copy.*)

SO- Here I sit- watching many many movies, and taking pictures of old stuff.

My ideas to proceed include:
- upload everything from phone to computer and edit?
- create final edited versions and tag all by date
- pull them into day one

= hopefully a more detailed answer to the occasional question:  What brought me to This place?

Links that helped me arrive to this digitizing plan:

Organize Files... Personal and Professional This I emailed to my teachers, as a great way to organize all the crap for the school year, bonus- we just moved to Microsoft 365.

Helpful Discussion about Journal Archiving  Folks discuss how they feel going through the process of personal documentation- good ideas I wouldn't have considered this early in the project

Here is an example of the image created with camera phone:  This precious letter I should frame, because it was written to me by a Great Uncle of mine.  He was the Greatest preserver of writings, photos, stories, and memories of the old days.  I could go on and on, but that is a story for another day.

All the Books from 'Orange is the new Black'

My fascination with the fictional 'Orange is the New Black' on Netflix only deepens as I near the end of seasons that are available for free.  SO, here's some awesome book OITNB references from the Internet:

Slideshow of every book referenced or filmed in OITNB

In fact, the entire article is really interesting.  Author of the original book, Piper Kerman, in a article discusses her experiences and the role of reading in prison.  Huffington links to other fun OITNB images, lists and snippets as well:

Entire Huffington Article with Fun Links

Finally, I MUST post this classic clip of the book funeral (the Ultimate book Return) from my current favorite show.

*The video quality is not so great- but it is totally worth it for the dialogue.  You'll still laugh.
*Also, per usual, there is almost certainly profanity in this genius scene.

Death: the Ultimate Book Return Video

Mental Illness Happy Hour: modern day real life 'Pump up the Volume'

During my early teens and before the internet (!), I was changed by an exciting and seemingly revolutionary film starring Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis.  Pump up the Volume was the first movie that touched my soul such that I rewound the video cassette (!) playing back seconds at a time so that I could copy monologues from the script into my journal.  The soundtrack is just the absolute coolest.  The movie exposed to me the for the first time the breach between "surface life" and unspoken deep inner pain and honest thoughts and feelings.

Paul Gilmartin- the guy who co hosted "dinner and a  movie" on TBS (if you're my age), has created a podcast that reaches the outcasts and solitary.  If you've ever felt loneliness, depression, addiction, abuse, or ever known someone who has, you can be affected by this show.  So basically, if you are a human, and living- this podcast is for you, every one.  The interviews include a most diverse assortment, and the site hosts tons of places for anybody to post feelings that cannot be uttered aloud. Warning, due to the raw honesty of this amazing show, there is strong content concerning abuse in all forms, and profanity (in my opinion justified language in this setting, if you can handle that kind of thing).  I don't really give money to podcasts, but loyally throw my five dollars each month to the "happy hour"- I sincerely believe that this podcast saves lives.

SO remember that YOU'RE NOT ALONE by listening to this:

*** advisory:  strong abuse related content, often profane ***

http://mentalpod.com/

I can't help but wonder if it might have saved lives back then, too.  As a teenager- I'd have been all over this podcast.  It reassures... you are not alone.

Library Patrons in Middle School are just like Library Patrons in Prison

Truth be told, I am binge watching 'Orange is the new Black' (based on the book) this weekend, which has me thinking about the magic of reading in prison.  I write this with absolutely No Authority or personal experience inside juvenile detention centers or prisons.  That said, much of what I've read about detention and prison culture suggests that captive patrons are reluctant readers who are experiencing emotional pain.  One of the best of these books is featured in this book trailer that I made for library school:

So how does this relate to luring middle schoolers to read?  I still remember middle school being the most difficult time of youth because of low self esteem, hormone havoc, and exposure to real life heartache for the first time.  I connect imprisoned reading needs to those in middle school because of reading reluctance and need for processing and understanding emotional pain.  In fact, reading lists for detention centers and prisons have perfect suggestions for the reluctant reader.  Below are some examples:

*** advisory note:  the large part of the books on these lists are YA titles and may contain content or language not appropriate for some middle school readers. ***

Really Awesome List of Reading Categories

Juvenile Justice Center YA Novel Suggestions

List with Three Reading Levels

Outstanding Goodreads List