Using NotePad to create a Dream Journal

[Kastro187420]

well I dont know how many users know about this, so here goes: Open up Notepad, and on the very first line, before anything else is typed, type: .LOG exactly like that, then Save As, and save it as Log. Now click it away.Next time you open it up, it will put in an entry with the time and date. It shows the Time and Date with me, but some people say it only shows the Date. Anyway, hope this helps some people.

[GoobCow]

What a neat trick. Thanks!

[Yume]

That is very interesting. I never liked to use my computer though. I hate the thought of my computer being wiped.

[Kastro187420]

well back up the DJ on a disc each time you update it.Then you don't gotta worry about that.

[Drangon]

Err... it's been a while since I used Windows, but doesn't Notepad have a menu entry for exactly that? It would probably be easier to use that than the .LOG trick.

[Kastro187420]

I dont know, I haven't found one.This is the only way i know of to make notepad do that... if you know how the menu thingy works that your talking about, plz tell.

[Drangon]

Hm. Maybe you are using an older version of Windows? On Windows XP Notepad has a menu entry Edit > Time/Date which inserts the current time and/or date depending on the locale- and date-settings. If that's not there, maybe the shortcut (F5) works in earlier notepads. If that doesn't help either, you might want to try out Notepad2, an excellent replacement for Notepad.

[PlayWithFire]

this might be worth as shot although, the chances are that by the time i get to my PC and locate the keyboard, my dream will fade away, they always to i am going to stick to paper notebook for now. If i get into it more, I'll be sure to add new section to my blog (which is to be created sometime in the future) just for dreams. Obviously it will be private since we are on that topic, i would recommend using gmail for keep track of dreams. Just sent an e-mail to yourself from your gmail account with your first dream, and that will show up in your mailbox. Next time you want to record a dream, just reply to that e-mail. It will all be kept in one neat thread, and is serchable, and is accessible from any PC that can connect to the interweb 8) I am pretty sure that everyone who wants a GMail account already has one, but here's the obligatory "i have lots of invites" seriously though, if you want an invite I'll send you one

[Drangon]

Originally posted by PlayWithFire this might be worth as shot although, the chances are that by the time i get to my PC and locate the keyboard, my dream will fade away, they always to Don't rush to write them down. Try to play the dream back from start to finish in your head first (ideally while your eyes are still closed), then you will be able to remember it long enough to write it down, even if you have to boot up the PC first. Personally I use a MediaWiki (the same thing that drives Wikipedia) to write down my dreams. It's pretty neat, because it provides a good way of organization. For example I can use the Reverse-Link feature to find every dream that a certain DS occured in. A little tricky to set up though, since it requires a webserver to be running...

[PlayWithFire]

i only statred a dream journal last night, but i read about keeping my eyes already. As soon as i woke up remembering a dream, that's what i forced myself to do. It did wonders. I would always wake up remembering my dream, and would forget it by the time i would sit down and eat breakfast anyway, getting back on topic here, would would you use a wiki, VS just a blog? What are the advantages?

[Drangon]

Hm. I guess it's a matter of preference. I tried some different ways of keeping my Dream Journal, and the wiki is what I stuck with. At first I used paper and pen, but was sort of frustrated because I couldn't write fast enough and ended up leaving stuff out. After that I used Notepad2 to keep the Journal, but I didn't really like that either since I could not include sketches and drawings, and after a while I'd have many small files which I couldn't search efficiently. I looked into some dedicated programs for Journaling, but didn't really like any of that either. I guess a private blog would be an improvement over that, since it would solve these problems, but the wiki goes a little farther. I stumbled upon someone else's DJ online, and he kept a list of DreamSigns and other motives that appeared in his dreams, and which Dreams they appeared in. I thought that was neat, but apparently he updated these pages manually. So I figured, I could use a wiki, since I would not have to update the lists manually and have all the formatting possibilities of a website plus a full text search. Currently I keep every dream in an article, use categories to sort them into dreams, fragments, lucid dreams, etc. and keep short articles about DreamSigns and other stuff, e. g. descriptions of people I'm unlikely to still remember in 10 years.