Very often when friends and acquaintances go abroad, they lead very busy lives..LJ is a great way to follow happenings in their lives without disturbing them with email (which they might not reply to, either.) But sometimes the LJ’s also peter out…sad when you want to catch up with someone’s life and you just get the same old stale entry from a few months ago….keeping a journal is like keeping a diary and needs time invested in it…the difference is that allows others to silently keep track of what’s going on with you.