I have been reminiscing lots about my life lately after being reunited with some old friends on facebook… it has been interesting and fun, and has made me realize how much stuff i’ve actually FORGOTTEN! I feel stumped and worried, wondering if there’s a way to sort out a time line of my life and try to piece together some of my stories and memories and help bring some back. I wish I could “google” my life and find out what happened and when. There’s just no way to do it! It would be up to me to write it all, somehow in a database or calendar format. I did a little research on software to find something simple to use to organize all of the junk and bits and pieces of memory.

I figured I could try to remember things by googling the facts I know about the timeframe — for example, I knew I went to camp and we did some dance performances to Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. I just couldn’t remember what year it was. Well that should be easy right? Google the music and piece together the year, what summer it was, at least… I thought, OK i can do that, but where to put this info? How to “jot it down?” fearing i’ll forget it again… I also felt compelled to write some notes about that summer at camp — I’d dislocated my knee, and we’d had a food fight in the cafeteria… hmmm what other memories might come up as I write? I am thinking this might be fun to do!

As i researched i came across a bunch of software packages that were detailed, and looked very comprehensive, but I have a problem with things not looking “clean” and if it is too cluttered it won’t make me feel like I’m getting organized. It’s all about user-interface. I don’t want to get stressed out as I clean up and organize my life memories…

I found a site that I am going to try out and see if it will work. I have probably 1000s of fragments of memories, and am not sure how the “timeline” they create out of these bits will work. But I’m going to try it and see if it will help me get it going. I think it is still in beta though, but it looks clean and simple and easy to use: xtimeline.com