Please give a short bio of yourself for our readers.

I turned twenty-six a couple of weeks ago. I live in Virginia. I'm an only child, and have the rare distinction of belonging to a military family who never moved out of our home city. My dad's still in the military, but that's pretty obvious from last month's diary entries.

I'm bossy and accustomed to being in charge. I recently came this close to being laid off by my technology firm, and am currently working in a much more corporate environment, wielding much less authority than I'm accustomed to. Until recently, I lived work, but I can't really do that anymore. That last bit isn't exactly biographical information, but affects my perspective a lot [and makes me cranky].

Why did you choose this username?

I take a lot of inspiration from ancient Greek religion, particularly from the idea of Persephone/Demeter, which is a really interesting story when you start delving into the history of the archetype. I came across the word "keryx" in my reading of Karl Kerenyi (archaeologist associated with Karl Jung's use or archetypes). The word is (ancient) Greek for herald, and the Kerykes were a group of people trained as announcers for the Eleusinian Mysteries (the biannual religious festival of Persephone/Demeter). The Kerykes were sacred loud people, who served as the voice of Persephone in the context of the Mysteries.

Kerykes-the-diary started as essentially the voice of my website, and the voice of me as a character within the site. It also took on another identity, this "edge of the season" thing, which is more my own feelings.

Why do you keep a diary online?

I started using diaryland more for posting impersonal rants about lots of different things; that wasn't really a diary, at least not in any conventional sense. I ended up removing a number of those entries, but I guess that's the first reason.

I have this thing with time. With memories overlapping my daily life, basically; it's not a feeling that is easily described without making me sound like a new age freak (and apologies to all new age people out there for implying you're freaks). So the diary gave me a place to note those things down. Those are most of my favorite entries, the ones that are like love letters to people I don't necessarily know anymore but still feel close to.

And finally, I grew attached to and comfortable with many of the people I met through my diary. People who were either kindred spirits, or so different that we had really fascinating arguments all the time. I'm a huge extravert, and the diary is a way to feel connected to people. Plus, some people decided that I would be their official guru/defender of feminism, and I felt obliged to follow through on that.

It's about this [imagine some gesture of great smallness] important from my perspective as a reader. A good journal would still be fascinating if it were just a screen full of unformatted text, no extras and no explanations. It might even be better that way.

But a layout is important from the journaller's perspective. It's an incentive to write, and a way to see your words turned into art. I always have to preview my page after I write it, to see the words colorized and laid out on screen. That's the feeling that got me designing for my diarist friends; I wanted these great writers to be able to see their art as this multimedia/multi-perspective thing.

As for comments on my own layout. I change my own layout as my perspective on things changes (usually seasonally, I always have this huge need for change as I start turning the corner to a new season). The current layout came from Sunday mornings spent in my living room. We get this soft, blueish light through the bottles lined up on my windowsill. Even when there are beer bottles and wine glasses littered all around the room after a party, there's that calm, still light. So I guess it's a design about light. Or maybe about wine.

You run Arbitary Awards and The Cemetery. Can you tell our readers what these projects are and what gave you the inspiration to start them?

Online diarists come and go, and it's often a surprise to their readers when they go. Keeping a diary on the web is such a trend that I was surprised no one had started collecting ghost diaries the way people started collecting ghost sites (see www.disobey.com/ghostsites, for instance) after the dot com bust. So the cemetery is partly just a curiosity, and partly a chance for people to recognise diaries they really like that aren't updated anymore. It's basically a service that I thought was missing. I made it public when that feature came out, and now I only go by once a week to read people's postings, post anything I've come across, and update the long and short lists.

As for the Arbitrary Awards - it really started as a joke. At the time (a couple of months ago), there were diary awards sites springing up all over the place. I don't have an issue with awards or anything, it was just funny to see all the awards that people came up with, like a grade school awards banquet. I thought of all the diaries I'd want to recognise (and the weird things I'd recognise them for), and decided I'd start a site that gave out awards without rules, voting, or bureaucracy of any sort. Rarely do I come across a diary and not see something really good and striking about it; if I can come up with a fun story or something clever to say about the diary, it gets an award (I take nominations, too). The nice thing is that, since the whole thing is random, I don't feel an obligation to update with any regularity. So it's still fun to do.

You have categorised your archived diary entries using Ancient Athenian calendar names. Can you tell us the significance of this to you?

Did I ever actually explain that, or did you go look it up on Google or something? Well, it's related to the whole Kerykes/Persephone/Greek thing, obviously. Mostly, I like the idea of living in two calendars at once. It's a little reminder to myself to stop and think for a moment, like noticing the moon. I'll think "Hey, it's < insert month here >", and maybe pause my life long enough to mentally celebrate whatever festival would be in that month.

You talk about environmental issues, feminism and have strong opinions in general. This is your chance - what is your message to the world?

I talk about environmental issues? Really, I don't even recycle. I do have a message for Americans right now - we live in a country where the government answers to us, so researching and questioning past actions and thinking is patriotic. I think a lot of people assume patriotism means simply supporting any decision the leaders make, but it is and should be much more complex than that. That extends to everyday situations; your words are activist in a way, and it's important to speak up re: whatever you feel strongly about. I am most effective as a feminist activist just by being myself and talking to people. Every individual has power. That's true to some degree no matter where you live. So, there, that's my message to the world.

Why do you hate BIG WRITING on web pages?

I made the archive list bigger; are you happy now? I like small text. It makes me smile, and it lets me fit more words in small spaces. I really hate typing in all caps, too - which is funny, because I write in all caps like an architect.

Interviewed by GingerBug

most recently:

11:02 p.m.
2001-10-18
kerykes

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