🪚 Emma's Web Logging Zone

🪚 EMMA's LOGGING ZONE 🪵

So many little trees growing inside my head – can't see the wood for the trees!
Time to log some of them...

🌲 On logging

Welcome to this web-log. I’ve been saying it out loud: I want to log more! Logging as in keeping track, of thoughts and ideas, and moments, maybe. I call it logging because I don’t want to limit myself to blogging/writing only, and see what other documentation-methods might bring me. And also to draw a parallel between logging trees and logging thoughts:

(To log trees, I know, it has a negative connotation, trees are a symbol of nature and goodness and (illegal!!) logging is a symbol of capitalism and climate crisis. But it’s not inherently bad to log trees, I looked into it!)

If you know me, you might know I often understand certain abstract parts of life through concrete metaphors. Lately, I have been visualising the inside of my head as a metaphorical forest made up of moments and experiences and thoughts and feelings, where every day certain trees grow and new seeds sprout, and maybe other trees die, (when you forget something or fall out of love with an idea) and the weather changes every day.

Try imagining your own forest, if you like. It probably looks completely different from mine, or very different today than yesterday or a few years ago. Maybe when you are obsessed with something a certain type of tree takes over your forest, or maybe if you have a lot of routine in your life, your forest looks very neat and gridded, maybe you have planted a lot of little trees and you are waiting for them to grow, or maybe your forest is so dense you can’t even walk there anymore, or so big that you get lost in it.

A question to think (or log) about: What does your mental forest currently look like?

Mine feels quite spacious, as in, there is a lot of room for bigger trees to grow. That’s probably because I currently don't have much going on. I have no steady job or big clients, no large projects going on, no real plans for the future. And I somehow feel very calm about that, birds are chirping in my forest and the sun is shining on the open space in the woods. There’s a lot of little idea trees here and there, with leaves all different colors and shapes.

Anyways, what happens when you log a tree from your forest? I don't know yet but this is my hypothesis:

Here to find out 🪓

🪓 How to log thoughts like trees – guide ^bèta

(I found some tree-logging instructions and used them to make this guide for myself... and for whoever else wants some logging motivation. Still under construction & testing)

Obtain Necessary Permissions and Permits

AKA set up a place for your logs to be collected and/or published, maybe obtain a nice domainname that motivates you to log. But most of all: give yourself permission to log and publish. You don't need anyone else's permission but, you need to give it to yourself for sure!

Assess the Tree and Site

Evaluate the thought(s) to determine its size, species, and the quality of the idea. Consider its location in the forest and its proximity to other themes in your life. Some ideas are like mighty oaks, while others may be delicate saplings in the forest of your life.

Plan and Mark the Cut

Determine the direction in which the idea should fall.

Gather the Necessary Equipment

Different equipment is used for cutting, sawing trimming different parts of the tree. Some tree logging equipment includes:

Different tools can be used for different (parts of) ideas. Some life logging equipment includes: text, image, video, audio, drawing, emoji, metaphor, quote, reference, joke, question, ...

Making the cut

First step in logging a tree is creating a notch, and after that, the felling cut. In life logging, one way to make the initial notch might be by starting a new log file or page, and the felling cut might be outlining the content of the log.

Trimming and Processing

After logging a tree, you trim branches and process the wood. Trimming and refining a log takes the most work. Some small branches and leaves may distract from the main idea. You could refine and sand wood until it is smooth like plastic, but visible knots and flaws can be a nice reminder of the source material.