The "Your Life is Your Story" Blog Archives

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February, 2005

February 21, 2005

One of the most unusual - some would say "bizarre" - journalists of our time has died. If you grew up in the sixties and seventies and read Rolling Stone magazine you are very familiar with Hunter S. Thompson. His rambling, stream-of-consciousness writing on everything from politics to rock n' roll gave birth to the self-proclaimed "gonzo journalism".

The popular comic strip Doonesbury even had a character patterned after him.

I remember reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas just out of college. What a hoot! My college buddies and I lived vicariously through him and would occassionally try to imitate his writing style, although we couldn't touch him for his wacked out prose equivalent to continuous bungee cord jumping. Hunter S. Thompson was one of a kind and it is too bad that he apparently chose to end his life with a bullet (he had a lifelong fascination with firearms).

More here.

February 19, 2005

More and more I am seeing articles about Ethical Wills. I wrote about it not long ago. And you may be reading about it in your newspaper or favorite magazine. Reportedly there is an article in the new issue of Spirituality and Health (although I haven't seen it yet).

In my town the Albuquerque Journal publishes a monthly magazine, Boomer, and they recently included a good article on the value of ethical wills. You can view it here.

February 11, 2005

One of the great writers of our time has passed on. Arthur Miller was a great American playwrite best known for Death of A Salesman, for which he won the Pulitzer at age 33. Another of his best works was The Crucible.

Millerr was reportedly an introvert, but he was married for five years to Marilyn Monroe and that certainly thrust him into the brightness of the celebrity spotlight.

Arthur Miller died Thursday night at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 89. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to his assistant, Julia Bolus.

More here.

February 10, 2005

The rich heritage of Asians in the Western Hemisphere may not have been covered in your social studies class. I, for one, did not know there were Chinese barbers in Mexico City as early as 1625.

The extensive history of Asian-Americans is brought to light with the PBS "Ancestors in the Americas" Web site. Starting with Europe's desire to trade good with Asian countries before Columbus landed in the Western Hemisphere (remember, he was looking for a new trade route to India) and continuing up through the Japanese-American internment camps the U.S. government used in the 1940's, you can find out a great deal about the heritage fo Asian-Americans. The stories told in their own words by some of those profiled are particularly revealing. See the site here.

February, 5, 2005

As I've often pointed out on this website, there are many ways to preserve your story. Personal history is a growing field and I believe the number of people interested in saving their story in some fashion will continue to grow in the years ahead.

While I recommend working with a personal historian if you can, there are other options to pursue. One is Totem - a software program designed to record your life story to a computer. You can create a multimedia personal history that uses interviews, audio and video. Do you have a web cam with your computer? This software program is an affordable way to go (just $60) and is the first software designed to collect life histories from nursing home and care facility residents (thanks to a partnership with one of the nation's leading geriatric care and research institutions).

Take a look and even download a free trial here.

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