About a month or so back, I was rummaging through my kitchen cabinets trying to reorganized our cookbooks to fit better. When I shifted one particular book, I uncovered a few smaller books which had been hidden for the past year or two behind the the wooden lip of the cabinet. A curious discover, as it was a book called “Pluck the Fleeting Instant: Recipes and Recollections from Italy”. I didn’t remember ever buying it, but one look underneath the cover revealed that this was a wedding present from family friends of my husband. A few more pages deep uncovered that this wasn’t just any recipe book they had bought for us, this was a book they had written and gotten published containing their recipes and journal entries about a trip they had taken to Tuscany back in 2001.
I spent the entire morning that day reading the book cover to cover and excitedly sharing bits and pieces with my husband. It made us feel closer to this couple, who had documented their trip in such an intimate and expressive way. It fit who they are as people, energetic people who enjoy experimenting in art and cooking. It got us excited for our trip, but more importantly, it got me thinking hard about how I wanted to document this trip upon our return.
As much as I love the scrapbook I made for our honeymoon and all the glue sticks, artsy paper, and fun stickers of wine bottles and hearts that went into it, there is nothing in the physical medium of scrapbooking that really ties back to myself as a person. I am an interactive strategist reading and writing about web trends and new internet technologies on a daily basis. So, I decided it was about time to push my scrapbooking pursuits into the 21st century.
Instead of journals and recipes, it needs to be blogging and del.icio.us links. Instead of photos and mix tapes, it needs to be Flickr feeds and podcasts. Instead of notes jotted down on napkins in cafes, it needs to be text messages to Twitter. While that might seem colder and less personal to some, it fits in more with the way we interact with the world on a daily basis and the technologies I am finding myself more and more passionate about. In 10 years, documenting trips in this fashion won’t seem so odd, and I feel I almost have a duty to push myself forward and create a fun futuristic scrapbook that shows how personal it really can be.
So upon returning from Europe, I am going to put together a mini-site that brings together a timeline of our trip via blogs, twitters, photos, and google maps of the paths we took. During the trip, I might collect some of my initial thoughts here in blogs entries when I get a chance, and our eurotrip twitter feed will be constantly updated along the side and available via RSS.
So this is my blog farewell. Off to the world of vino and cafes. Until next time….
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[…] recentlyconsumed.com wrote a fantastic post today on “Scrapbooking for the 21st Century”Here’s ONLY a quick extract of wine bottles and hearts that went into it, there is nothing in the physical medium […]
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