Keeping a dream journal. BAH.

wow, how unfortunate.
Dreams are often easily misinterpreted by others. They should never be interpreted literally.

Have you thought about a Diary? Most Diaries come with a lock and key.

You could always be doubly safe, by using a diary with a lock and storing it in a lockable cupboard or if it’s a small book in one of the lockable money boxes you can buy…the rectangular ones. :content:

Yes, just buy a diary with a lock, those exist. She may promise not to read it but then she will eventually do it out of curiosity, and confront you with her opinions anyway (I’ve been through this when I had a waking life diary :bored: ) - so protect your privacy. It’s your right!

:happy: My mom would break the small locks. But…what if I got a BIG lock…? Personal safe. Mwuaha.

I try to write the parts I wouldnt want others to read in a code only I would understand.

If you physically write it down, there’s next to nothing you can do to prevent your mom from reading it. Parents are interested in their children.

If I were you, I would write it in a word processor and put a password on it.

maybe you should make up dreams about your mom raping you while screaming “I KNOW WHAT YOU WRITE, I KNOW YOU WHAT YOU WRITE!” and then you jump off a cliff while on fire, in a tutu

that would show her.

(as funny as that would be, don’t do it)

I know what it’s like having parents spy on you, mine have done it all the time, but you know, they’ve gone as far as to put spyware and keyloggers on my PC, and they know my usernames and the forums I post on.

The bastards really screwed me up mentally because of that… I think I’m still pretty badly affected, since the internet is my only place to express myself.

And yes they told me they would never do something like that, too…

Oh well. At least I have my pot. (not really… or do I?)

the word processor is a good route providing you are the only person that has access to your computer.

Some times the best place to hide something is in plain sight. Having a locked dairy is just begging for curious people to read. I would keep your DJ in a plain note book nothing attractive at all.
If your parents snoop into your room don’t do anything like hide it. If you hide it and they come across it of corse they will read it. Just keep it on your book shelf or what ever. The last place a snoop would look.

I feel your pain…

I just started writing in code…assigning different things to the names of things…mix up verbs and nouns within the code too. But stay away from the words “cactus”…it sounds even dirtier than the real thing…seriously…

It’ a shame you can’t just tell her that this is just for your dreams and it’s private. Please don’t read it and she would respect your wishes. Sounds like she almost deservies holy reality’s creative solution.

You know there are programs that you can get that will disable those. Many are freeware. Spy bot is one of the better ones. Worked better than one I paid money for.

I have a feeling my mum has read it. But if she has, she hasn’t said anything (I wouldn’t expect her too).

it’s mainly my brother I’m worried about - but I haven’t told him I have one, so with any luck…

I just use a notpad, and stick it in a place that’s easy to get too, but no one would see. It’s in plain view, but you wouldn’t see it unless you were looking for it.

well i’m pretty sure they aren’t here because that was 2 years ago, on a different PC that has been formatted twice, I knew about it right away, they eventually admitted to it, and showed me how to use it, then removed it

i then found a bunch of the old logs and reinstalled the program (zip file was still there) and dicked around with it (and was thoroughly pissed off whiel reading the logs)… and well … that was a format or two ago.

My comp is password protected now, not that my passwords are very creative, and well, if you have a network spreadable spy thingy on here I’m sure you can get it too, since we are on a network, but I do have spybot and adaware and use them fairly regularly.

The only thing they probably do unless they suspect me of doing something is look a tthe website logs that go through the network, as my dad once told me not to look at porn on my brother’s computer, which I hadn’t been doing (thankfully he wasn’t looking at hardcore mind warping stuff though, he’s way too young (11)… or it could have been someone else, he thought it was the cleaning lady)

so but I mean all they have to do is go to these forums to know way too much about me than I’d ever want them to know, and I am sure they are more than willing to do that, or do do it, when they feel suspicious about me.

I’m sure it’s something I could probably sue them for, being 18, it’s probably a form of stalking or something.

I don’t care though really, not at all anymore… and well I’ve written essays that it is possible they could find detailing how much they screwed my mind up by doing this stuff to me, and how paranoid they have made me.

I certainly don’t want them reading them, either, but they are in fairly easy to find normal places… and should be destroyed… but then again they took so long to write (psychology project) that I"d like to have a paper back up to reminsice upon.

(sorry for the bad spelling)

It must suck to have parents that are still that intrusive. I mean you don’t sound like you are a kid. Some parents just seem to have trouble letting go.

That sounds horrible. I’m pretty sure my mom would never go through my stuff, shes not invasive of my privacy. Which is why I keep anything I don’t want read at her house. My dad is completly overprotecive, and we got into this huge argument about 6 months ago when I figured out he was reading my email. I finally just created a hotmail account and didn’t tell him about it. He wouldn’t have been able to get the password anyway, and I changed it once a month. A couple of years ago I caught him listening to my phone conversations. I couldn’t do anything about it though because at that point I was still a minor. But it made me really paranoid. Now I’m really careful. When I was younger, I kept a written journal, and (I went through a couple of them) every one had a lock, with the key hidden in a place that it was very unlikely he would ever find. My computer is password protected, and I use OmniPass to protect a lot of my files. I recommend keeping your DJ on your computer and then locking the file.

Heh, I remember when I first start keeping a DJ. That was back when I lived with my parents, and my mother would forever be going through my stuff. Not because she was intentionally invading my privacy, but just because she just didn’t understand the concept of that word, privacy. She’d casually sift though my papers, read whatever I left on my desk, glance at my drawings as she filed them away - lest they be exposed to bedroom air for longer than an hour (guess where I got my obsession for being neat and tidy). Anyway, I would always write the entries in “Shandre”, a replacement characterset for English that a friend and I invented a billion years ago. Unfortunately this only prompted my sister to develop even more interest in trying to decode it…

It’s about time I made my own code, not just a shorthand. :smile:

Wow :happy: Thanks a lot for all the replies. Lots of interesting things to read :wink:

Still havnt decided if I should keep one in a notebook. I MIGHT do it on the computer, but that just…doesnt feel as right.

Holy Reality: My parents did the same thing. Keyloggers and all. I couldnt get it off, untill I finally got a new computer. She REALLY screwed me up. Big time. Im a very, very paranoid person now =/ My relationship with her still hasnt gotten better since then. She knows damned well not to touch my computer now, since I would just leave home if she did it agian. Privacy=a HUGE deal. Cant stand it when people butt in. =/

One again, thanks for all the nice replies ^_^;. -goes back to playing Lineage 2-

I hear you there loud and clear. My friend’s mom is even worse. There are a few things I use for digital security and privacy. First is encrypted AIM conversations (aimencrypt.com). I use Cix to encrypt my dream journal and other personal documents. (spyarsenal.com/spy-software.html) The way I do it is password protect my user account, set it to show the welcome screen when the screen saver is disengaged (same as password protecting the screen saver on win 98 etc.) and then unencrypt the dream journal at night. In the morning when I am done, I reencrypt it and completely overwrite the text file. If you have wireless internet access make sure it is encrypted…what else…yes…trust no one. PM me if you need to.

Maybe we need a new form of “parent control” software, i.e ways to control your parents instead of parents controlling you :gni: