Page 112 - Louisiana Loop (manuscript Edition)

A journal has several related meanings:
 a record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary

 a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one published each day
 many publications issued at stated intervals, such as academic journals (including scientific journals), or the record
of the transactions of a society, are often called journals.

In academic use, a journal refers to a serious, scholarly publication that is peer-reviewed. A non
scholarly magazine written for an educated audience about an industry or an area of professional activity is usually
called a trade magazine.

A logbook (a ship's logs or simply log) is a record of important events in the management, operation, and navigation of a
ship. It is essential to traditional navigation, and must be filled in at least daily.

The term originally referred to a book for recording readings from the chip log that was used to estimate a ship's speed
through the water.
Today's ship's log has grown to contain many other types of information, and is a record of operational data relating to
a ship or submarine, such as weather conditions, times of routine events and significant incidents, crew complement or
what ports were docked at and when.
The term logbook has spread to a wide variety of other usages.

Today, a virtual or electronic logbook is typically used for record-keeping for complex machines such as nuclear plants
or particle accelerators. In military terms, a logbook is a series of official and legally binding documents. Each document
(usually arranged by date) is marked with the time of an event or action of significance.

Most national shipping authorities and admiralties specify that logbooks are kept to provide a record of events, and to
help crews navigate should radio, radar or the GPS fail.

Examination of the detail in a ship's log is often an important part of the investigative process for official maritime
inquiries, in much the same way as a "black box" is used on airplanes. Logbook entries are sometimes of great
importance in legal cases involving maritime commercial disputes.

Commercial ships and Naval vessels often keep a "rough log", - or "scrap log" - a preliminary draft of the ship's course,
speed, location, and other data, which is then transcribed as the "smooth log", - or "official log" - the final version of the
ship's record.

Changes may be made to the rough log but the smooth log is considered permanent and no erasures are permitted.
Alterations or corrections in an official logbook must be initialed by the authorized keeper of the logbook and the
original data entries which have been cancelled or corrected must remain legible. (courtesy Wikipedia)
Generally speaking most people do not keep logs or diaries of Kayaking, paddling or canoe trips. Modern photographs or
camcorders have become the normative record keeper.

Writers will jot notes, people who have been trained in journaling will often keep more of a diary, or record of events.
For paddling there really is no one set standard, but blogs and social media have become the preferred medium for
modern journalists to use.
In my younger days I used to keep journals of poetry written by hand and unique to each book then given them to a
person I cared about. Thousands of my early poems went out to people this way. In my later years I have found
journaling a self discipline that if employed makes a great bare bones outline for books.
These journal entries were an attempt to return to journaling……..