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Launch Meet the new kids on the block. By Damiana (damiana@diarist.net)

Archives Past Launch Sites Submit Get Launched!   Roughly three years ago, the first online journals crawled out of the sea. These were shocking things, these chronicles of lives, these barings of innermost thoughts and feelings right there on the Internet. Putting your private life online? Absurd! That was a long time ago. Now opinions are changing. It seems nowadays that a homepage without a journal is unheard of. The largest journal webring boasts upwards of five hundred members, and the numbers are growing every day. With the constant outpour of new journals, readers are finding it increasingly harder to wade through these emerging life stories. Launch serves to spotlight these journals, the new or relatively unknown. Oftentimes, a quality journal gets overlooked in the tangle of the more established. Here, the "underdog" has a venue. Each week, two to three journals will be presented and given the opportunity to gain new readers into their lives. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1999 A Personal Site Even if I didn't know how to read, I'd find my way to this site somehow just to look at his photographs. Luckily, I can read, and luckily, his journal's worth the effort. He's funny and descriptive, writing out little pictures of life, and yeah, I'll admit it. I favor anyone who appreciates the joys of photography, especially when they do it really well. "I should have been a little more forthcoming and said I was a photographer and I liked the image she'd created, one that I'd like to shoot. Yes, there's a certain undercurrent of lust as well, but a distinct part of that lust had to do with images on film. Not everyone can do that, strike that spark, but it's a spark that creates the desire to make images and once made, make some more. Images are emotional if they're anything at all, and sex, lust, attraction, affection, hate, loathing and all the rest can be used in their making. Indifference doesn't work, I don't think, but I'm sure it's not a rule and there's some weird assed geek out there somewhere, shooting, stretching out through indifference to meet the very Hand Itself. Shit, man, go for it! After Godel, I guess, everything is possible." the jfk company Written by a 24 year old Seattle guy, his journal entries border on that elusive "personal narrative" label. They will blow your perceptions on that "quaint" big city we mostly know about because of evil software empires and dead band members, in skillful glimpses of life and event. "The middle of the nineties, the computer age and the slacker age meld into one homogenous globule that drinks, smokes dope, and programs web pages on its off time. It's a wonderful age to be alive. Alternative hits a commercial success rivaled only by glam rock. Baggy clothes are comfortable and fashionable. And smoking is on its last legs of being cool." Everything I Am Look out, it's another New Yorker! Along with a mini-site dedicated to Anna Voog, there's plenty of angst, job anxiety, bisexuality, cigarettes, and fantastic poetry and art. In the manner of most New Yorkers' journals, and I quote Samantha, former Launch editor extraordinaire, "not a journal for the spineless." "With the use of the magic herb I am hoping to make the Monster Rage go back to sleep. I just need to hold it together for a little longer. Then I will have the cam and a new place to live away from the drugs and guns and noise. And I can be at peace and use the cam to celebrate and document my healing. I can use the visual medium to make myself feel beautiful physically while I work on beautifying my psyche. If I can hold on for just a little while longer. If I can just get out from under this blanket of hatred. If I can just stop scaring my dog. " Mind Illusions She's a dancer, student, acrobat, and Wiccan living in Boston, with a flawlessly designed site (normally I hate frames, but she won me over) that's almost as pretty as she is. She also manages a few webrings, reviews other personal sites, and actively participates in several online communities. Where does she find all this time? "Seeing Heather with Nick made him call her names but underneath it all, he's torn up. I can tell him what would logically be the right things to do to get over her but every one's different. My "getting over" process might not work for him. This is the type of thing that we all have to do ourselves. Support and love from friends and family is important, but in the end, the final decision to move on will be up to him. I only hope that he makes it that far."