Escribitionists who dare to distill the essence of their sites down to the smallest fragment of a story are invited to join A Word to the Wise, a new journal 'burb created by Ohio diarist Carol Mathena and Alvin Valles of California.

"A story exists because there is a central theme that purveys throughout the words," they explain. "Each journal writer listed here has chosen one key word to define their journal. The word may be relevant to others it'll strike a chord in their experience and they'll, hopefully, be able to identify with it."

More than a dozen diarists have already stepped forward. Longtime journaler Doug Franklin of Kansas has chosen "eclectic," Brooke from California went with "surreal," and "whangdepootenawah" is the word (and it is a word) for New York diarist Stephanie. Many members have even provided visual representations of their chosen words.

The Diarist.Net Registry formerly The Diary Registry was rebuilt from the ground up this week, evolving into its third and most advanced incarnation yet.

The new setup reflects the worldwide popularity of online storytelling, organizing countries and states in their own directories. The ability to include descriptive text with each link was also added one of the most-requested features for the registry. And in addition to tracking new entries and the most-visited links (even marking them on every page), it allows visitors to rate each link. Plans are in the works to extend the feature to allow comments as well.

As part of the upgrade, the registry was finally redesigned to fit into the rest of the Diarist.Net site, and more than 100 duplicate links and more than 800 dead links were pruned from the database. Finally, e-mail addresses are no longer displayed by default, a change long overdue given the growing scourge of spam.

The new Diarist.Net Registry uses a completely new (and faster) search system a customized version of the Gossamer Threads directory management program and automates many of the processes that previously required time-consuming manual maintenance... hopefully meaning no more two-month delays between directory updates.

One of the inaugural features of the Diarist.Net site when it launched in June 1998, the registry has grown to become the largest directory of independent journals, diaries, and personal weblogs on the Internet. At one point overflowing with over 5,000 links, it continues to be one of the most popular escribitionist resources, drawing more than 200,000 visitors a month.

Puppy Vaugn, a 31-year-old journaler in Austin, Texas, finally met his son on Wednesday.

Aidan Alexander born to Puppy Vaugn and his wife Renee on April 3 at 12:44 a.m. weighed 8 pounds and measured 20.25 inches long. Due March 25, Aidan's arrival was more than a week later than expected. And Puppy Vaugn was prepared for parenthood well ahead of time: he started his mailing list last July to discuss, among other things, homeschooling.

Although still adjusting to life as a dad, Puppy Vaugn has managed to post Aidan's birth story as well as a gallery of photos.

"Renee is doing extremely well and so is Aidan," Puppy Vaugn wrote. "I couldn't be prouder of either of them."

Puppy Vaugn also runs The Veggie 'Burb, for vegetarians and vegetarian supporters.