What Is Grail Diary

It’s a mixture of a gratitude journal with a fail journal. 😂 In my native Slovak, I would likely coin a nonsense term for it, such as vďibňík – a portmanteau word composed out of the three standard Slovak words vďačnosť = *gratitude*, chiba/**chyba** = *mistake* and ďeňňík/**denník** = *journal*. 🤪 Or, you could say it originated out of the combination of *two other* neologisms: vďačňík *(gratitude journal)* + chibňík *(mistake/fail journal)*. ![[grail_diary.jpg |600]] Many people say it’s important to record, every day (and throughout the day), all the things in life that we’re *grateful* for. I agree, but I find that it’s just as important to record our *mistakes and failures* in life, so that we can learn from them. The two types of record should be in *balance*, because that’s how life typically unfolds every day: it’s a rare (impossible?) day in which everything goes right, or in which everything goes wrong. A typical day of a human being is a *mixture of both*. It would be harmful to “wallow in negativity” – recording *only* what *didn’t* work out in a day. But it would be just as wrong to pretend that *nothing* went wrong and everything was just perfect. If we don’t keep a record of our mistakes, we’re unlikely to avoid them in future, and likely to *repeat* them all over and over again. ### Format 👍 a good thing that happened 👍👍 an excellent thing that happened 👍👍👍 a terrific thing that happened – basically euphoria 👎 a mistake or a bad thing that happened 👎👎 a really bad thing that happened 👎👎👎 a disastrous thing that happened – the pits of depression ##### Star Ratings (⭐ to ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) For my [happiness charts](http://happy.avenarius.sk), I rate every day of my life, at bedtime, on a [scale of 1 to 5 stars](http://ave.click/happy). A day may start out as “average”, meaning it would get ⭐⭐⭐ or ⭐⭐ stars from me eventually. But these initial impressions tend to change throughout the day; some days can be pretty brutal rollercoaster rides. A day may start out in euphoria, and end in depression – or vice versa. Or, it may fluctuate between euphoria and depression several times, or between dullness and moderate satisfaction and slight or big disappointment, or any combination of these, from one hour to another. Therefore, I sometimes include, next to the 👍 and 👎 emoticons, the *provisional* star rating: if this day ended *right now*, that’s how many stars it would get from me. To mark such *provisional* star ratings in the course of a day, I like to use the German word `anbahnend`, which is a nice word meaning something like `shaping up to be…` – and that’s exactly what it’s supposed to signify, because a day that was `anbahnend` a 1-star day in the morning, may well end up being a 2-star, 3-star, 4-star or 5-star day at bedtime – who knows? (Especially because my bedtime frequently only arrives at the dawn of the *following* day, if not well afterwards: whenever there was so much work that not even the whole night was sufficient to dispose of it, forcing me to skip not only night sleep but sometimes also breakfast.) #### Language(s) in Grail Diary Absolutely crazy. (Here’s an [[2023-12-30-Sat (364)|example diary entry]] for the next-to-last day of 2023.) In jotting down these *brief* daily notes, I use whatever language pops into my brain first. It’s often English, but similarly often my native Slovak. Not sure *which* of the two languages I use more – and it doesn’t matter. As can be seen above, I sometimes also type German words or sentences, or Russian, or French ones… I sometimes use several languages in the same sentence or a single line of text, wildly mixing them up. What’s even worse, I don’t respect traditional grammar/spelling in these informal notes. For example, I typically *capitalize all nouns*, as is standard in German, even in English (like Ben Franklin used to do centuries ago!) and Slovak. The most outrageous is the use of my native language, Slovak: I prefer using a variety of it that does not employ the controversial (in Slovak) letter `Y`, among other changes. I recently (earlier in 2023) wrote a [blog post](https://ave.click/cibula) about my preferred variety of Slovak spelling – in fact, I composed the post in that variety. In short, this entire *[[Welcome to My Public Crater|Ave Notes]]* site is anything but an “official publication”, although it *is* the public *part* of my diary. #### I Dictate, Rather Than Write, in My Main Journal However, my *main* – and private – journal for many years have been **audio** files I dictate throughout the day into my Dropbox. I made the switch from *written* journal to an *audio* journal back around Christmas 2016, and wrote a [blog post](https://ave.click/audiodennik) explaining that as well. The main reason is I’m too busy for *writing at length*, even though I’m proficient in touch-typing, and can type at lightning-speed. However, it’s often even quicker simply to *dictate* something – especially when it’s not meant for anyone else except yourself, anyway. An advantage of an audio journal is that it can be created in a “multi-tasking mode”, so to say: I typically dictate into my journal while walking down the street, hiking in a forest, etc. I sometimes dictate into my audio journal for an hour or even longer, using my Bluetooth ear plugs (that include microphones), hands-free. Yes, some days are so eventful it’s possible to dictate for an hour or two about whatever was going on. Because I strive to walk around 6 or 7 miles every day, which can take 2 hours or longer, that gives me the leisure to devote that time not only to listening to podcasts, but also to dictating into my journal. (Frequently, though, it’s wholesome and very relaxing to simply let the brain rest completely and enjoy the walk.) So, the typical use of this *Grail Diary* of mine is that, whenever I’m too busy to *dictate* something, let alone to *write* something at length and in accordance with formal grammar – well, then I at least jot down these brief notes, accompanied with the 👍 or 👎 emoticons, and the occasional provisional ⭐ ratings. (As for the day’s *final* star rating, it doesn’t even get recorded *here* – it goes into my [habits tracking sheet](http://hab.avenarius.sk): the corresponding line there is *Happiness*, which is line 109 as of Christmas 2023 when I’m typing this.) > [!check] Grail Diary Motto (by the [band Bez ladu a skladu](https://youtu.be/sVWEU7P_HGk), slightly modified) Nerozumiete mi ale, prečo píšem kódovanou rečou? Aby mi nik nerozumel, bolo cieľom – takto môžem písať celkom smelo! *So you don’t get why I write in coded speech?* *So no one can understand me, that’s the goal –* *I can write quite boldly that way!* > [!info] Picture by the always excellent [Gerd Altmann from Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/illustrations/colorful-abstract-artwork-art-3256055)