Counters and cat owners can find ideas through two new online journal projects that have recently sprouted.

Austin journaler and music maven Greg Bueno launched the Top Five Collab, wherein participants make monthly countdown lists on a variety of topics.

"The inaugural Top Five Collab topic, of course, is a list of your Top Five Desert Island Discs," Bueno explains, noting that he took some inspiration from Nick Hornsby's novel High Fidelity. Future topics include Top Five Break-Ups of All Time, Top Five Sexiest People You Know Personally, and Top Five Places to have Sex.

Meanwhile, Ciara has started a collaboration for people who count cats among their closest friends.

The Kitty Kollab "is for people who love cats, and who want to write about them," Ciara explains. "I have tried to make it a low pressure sort of collab; it involves few restrictions or obligations."

"Lessons I Learned from my Cat" is the inaugural The Kitty Kollab topic.

Diarists in and around Northern California are planning yet another gathering, this one scheduled for Saturday, June 23, at Tilden Park in Berkeley.

Instead of taking place at a crowded restaurant, this shindig will be open and spontaneous kid- and pet-friendly, with attendees bringing their own grub and coming and going throughout the afternoon.

Details are still being hashed out, as are carpooling arrangements. Organizer Jolene Baldwin has been tending to a forum discussion on the event, and also posts occasional updates to the California diarists mailing list.

Ohio diarist Carrie Lynn Richmond and her husband Eric finally met their new son, Samuel Gregory, who was born at 3:15 p.m. yesterday. Pittsburgh diarist Dreama broke the news on the Diary-L mailing list this morning.

Richmond found out she was pregnant last September. It was the same day her journal hit the one-year mark, and only two weeks after she posted a heartfelt letter to her unborn child, recounting how she and her husband had been trying for over a year to conceive. It became a challenge waiting for the birth, as well, as Samuel missed his June 5 due date.

"Due dates mean nothing to a baby," she wrote in her most recent entry, "The Eternal Pregnancy," written June 7. "I love having this baby inside me, but I am so, so ready to have it in my arms now."

Timothy McVeigh was pronounced dead this morning at 7:14 a.m., put to death by the U.S. government for killing 168 Americans when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. This morning's execution dominated the news, and many journalers weighed in on McVeigh, and the death penalty.

"All the people who witnessed this event and all of those people that were supportive of this event should be ashamed," wrote Florida diarist Danny McGuffin. "Now they have the blood of a man on their hands, the blood of his family on their hands."

At the opposite end of the country, Washington diarist Mary took the opposite view: "Life in prison is not an answer when prisoners can grow gardens, watch cable, work out in a gym, and eat better than I do."

Many found themselves conflicted over capital punishment. "I am not an eye-for-an-eye type. But I understand the people who are," wrote Florida diarist Jessi, herself a survivor of a violent crime. "At base, I really the see the death penalty, however, as pretty unenlightened."

Also posted within hours of McVeigh's death were entries by New Hampshire diarist Adrith Bicchieri, Pittsburgh diarist Dreama, Dallas diarist Kara Leah, Canadian diarist Pauline, Indiana diarist Piper Dane, Texas diarist David Lynch, and Florida diarist Pixelvixen.

At the end of his own entry on the death penalty, Texas diarist Puppy Vaughn has compiled the the execution collection, a collection of links to other diarists who've written about the issue.