# I've had a note sat in iA Writer for a while asking "Is the ultimate goal for me to use the garden to replace a notes app?" At the time of writing the answer was 'probably not' but as things progress I'm not so sure. Now that I've also got the daily journal, the site can function on a number of different levels: storage, thoughts and ideas, long term projects, public and private.
The journal is raw, everything thrown in just to get it out of ones head. The garden is something you tend, cultivate, it's an ongoing investment, more evergreen, timeless. The blog is an ongoing investment, yes, but one of a different nature - it is the public face of my writing where each post is of the here and now, removed daily from the home page, but forms part of the 'conversation with myself' that transcends time.
The three are separate but connected: feeding and fertilising one another, at least that's how it should be. Not everything is ready to be a blog post, not everything should be a blog post and trying to make it fit just because there's nowhere else to put it is wrong. Having multiple places to 'work' based on need, but still behaving in one coherent manner, is a game changer.
Why do I need a notes app when notes can be whatever I want them to be right here on the site? I'll see how this develops.
# The decision to relax covid rules in the UK over Christmas was always stupid. That infection numbers and deaths are back on the rise illustrates that a lot of people just can't be trusted to follow the guidelines. Yes, the spread of a new variant which is up to 70% more infectious will be a factor but following the rules would reduce the spread even of this.
The number of people I see gathering in groups or not wearing masks is depressing but add travel, celebration and alcohol to the mix and we would absolutely be heading for a third wave in the new year.
It's such a shame that more infections and deaths have had to occur for a rethink of policy but the need for a rethink was obvious.
For me, the advantage of using iA Writer to jot down personal thoughts is that it's private and updates as I type into it. Posting stuff to my website involves a bit of friction and extra time, so I tend to only post when I have something I want to show to the world.
@colinwalker I like the thought you're putting into this, and the idea of website as notebook. Whenever I consider taking down the years of embarassing posts on my blog, I remember how often I use it to look for stuff I was thinking about at one time and just leave everything up. And the wiki, although separate, really has become a public-facing notebook and it's even better than a blog...for me.
That's the advantage of having it all work the way it does now with inline editing, friction is reduced to almost nothing and it's all self-contained on my own site.
I love the idea of public notebooks as I feel the process can be as important as the result. Show your work.