-Click the image icon in the toolbar (looks like a mountain/photo)
-Click “Upload from computer”
- Choose a picture of the person you’re writing about
1. Click “Select”
- The picture appears in your post
- You can drag it to move it around in your story
-----
### STEP 6: Publish Your Post
- Click the orange “Publish” button (top right)-
Red arrow in first picture shows the publish button.
- Your post is now live!
- Click “View blog” to see what it looks like
- Copy the URL from your browser - this is your blog address
- If you need to make changes, you'll see the cloud with the slash through it (blue arrow pointing to it in the first picture), make sure to click the "Publish" button again, or you'll get the warning you see in the second picture.
-If you don't save your changes yourself, they'll get deleted when your screen is forced to reset.
**Congratulations! You just created your first Memory Ark post.**
-----
### STEP 7: Share With AI
Now when you talk to AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), start your conversation like this:
**“Before we talk, please read this: [paste your blog URL]”**
AI will read your story and remember who that person was and what they meant to you. Now when you ask AI for advice or help, it has context about your life instead of giving generic responses.
The red arrow in this picture above shows the button you need to click in order to pull up this Grez screen and then you could copy a link to the URL. That’s where the blue arrow was pointing that little paper clip.
In case anybody doesn’t know what a URL is, I highlighted it, and pointed at it with the red arrow at the top in this picture above.
For anyone using Firefox, The option to pull up the Grez box to copy the link isn’t available at all, So I just click The little eye which I’m pointing to with a red arrow in the picture above, and that will bring you to the page and then you can copy the URL at the top.
In the picture above, you can see three examples of the same link. I wanted to show people how I altered them.
-I copied and pasted the same link three times.
-I highlighted the text, Then clicked on that little paper clip where the blue arrow is pointing to in the picture above, that’s the insert or edit link option.
-Now you can click on your newly Clickable URL link.
Then you can highlight the little pencil.
-That will allow you to change how this URL is displayed on your blog page.
-Just make sure to apply ( blue arrow) or your changes won’t be saved.
https://rickystebbins78.blogspot.com/2025/06/rickys-memory-ark.html
-----
### What’s Next?
**You’re done with the basics!** You have:
- ✓ A blog
- ✓ One story about someone important
- ✓ A picture to remember them by
- ✓ A URL you can share with AI
**When you’re ready, move to Intermediate Level to add more stories.**
**But there’s no rush - this one post already makes AI more useful for you.**
-----
-----
## INTERMEDIATE LEVEL: Building Your Timeline
### What You’ll Learn:
- Write posts about different people and events
- Organize your posts by topic
- Use labels to connect related stories
- Build a timeline of your life
### Time Needed: A few hours spread over several days (add posts whenever you remember something worth sharing)
-----
### Types of Posts You Can Add:
**People Posts:**
- Grandparents, parents, siblings
- Friends who influenced you
- Teachers or mentors
- Anyone who taught you something important
**Event Posts:**
- Major life moments (graduations, marriages, births)
- Difficult times (losses, challenges, lessons learned)
- Happy memories (trips, celebrations, achievements)
- Turning points (decisions that changed your direction)
**Topic Posts:**
- Health history (major illnesses, diagnoses, treatments)
- Career journey (jobs, projects, what you learned)
- Interests and hobbies (what you love and why)
- Values and beliefs (what matters to you)
**You don’t need all of these. Just add what feels important to remember.**
-----
### How to Add More Posts:
- Go to [blogger.com](http://blogger.com)
- Sign in if needed
- Click the orange pencil icon (New Post)
- Write your story
- Add pictures if you have them
- Click Publish
**That’s it. Repeat whenever you want to add something.**
-----
### Using Labels to Organize Posts:
Labels are like tags - they help you (and AI) find related posts quickly.
**To add labels to a post:**
1. When writing or editing a post, look at the right sidebar
1. Find “Labels” section
1. Type a label (Example: “Family” or “Health” or “1990s”)
1. Press Enter
1. Add more labels if needed (Example: “Family, Grandmother, Lessons Learned”)
1. Click Publish or Update
**Good labels to use:**
- Names of people (Grandma Francis, Uncle Joe)
- Decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s)
- Topics (Health, Career, Family, Friends)
- Emotions (Happy Memories, Difficult Times, Lessons Learned)
**Why labels matter:** When AI reads your blog, labels help it understand how stories connect. If you write three posts about your grandmother, the label “Grandma Francis” connects them all.
-----
### Building Your Timeline:
**Simple chronological approach:**
Title your posts with years or periods:
- “1985-1990: Childhood Memories”
- “2005: The Year Everything Changed”
- “2015-2020: Health Struggles and Discoveries”
**Or title by topic/person:**
- “Grandma Francis: Who She Was”
- “Grandma Francis: Her Final Years”
- “What Grandma Taught Me About Family”
**Both work. Use whatever makes sense to you.**
-----
### How Many Posts Do You Need?
**There’s no minimum or maximum.**
Some people write:
- 5-10 posts about key people and events (good start)
- 20-30 posts covering major life periods (comprehensive)
- 50+ posts documenting everything they want to remember (very detailed)
**Start with the people and events that matter most. Add more over time.**
**The goal isn’t to document everything - it’s to give AI enough context to understand YOUR life and YOUR perspective.**
-----
### Tips for Writing Multiple Posts:
**1. Don’t write everything at once**
- Add one post when you think of something worth remembering
- No pressure to finish quickly
**2. Some posts can be short**
- A few paragraphs is fine
- Not every story needs to be long
**3. Some posts can be lists**
- “5 Things Uncle Joe Taught Me”
- “Major Health Events Timeline”
- “Jobs I’ve Had and What I Learned”
**4. Pictures make posts more meaningful**
- But they’re not required
- Even without pictures, stories matter
**5. You can always edit posts later**
- Remembered something else? Add it.
- Want to reorganize? Edit the post.
- Nothing is permanent - you can always improve it.
-----
### Sharing Your Growing Archive With AI:
**As you add more posts, AI gets more context.**
When starting conversations with AI:
**“Read my Memory Ark before we talk: [your blog URL]”**
AI will read all your posts and understand:
- Who influenced you
- What you’ve experienced
- What you value
- How you think about things
**The more you add, the better AI can help you.**
-----
### What’s Next?
**You’re done with Intermediate Level!** You now have:
- ✓ Multiple posts about people and events
- ✓ Labels organizing your content
- ✓ A timeline of your life taking shape
- ✓ Enough context for AI to really understand you
**When you’re ready, move to Advanced Level to create an index that connects everything.**
**But again - no rush. What you have now already works.**
-----
-----
## ADVANCED LEVEL: The Connected Archive
My page for an example: Rickystebbins78.blogspot.com
### What You’ll Learn:
- Create an index page that links to all your posts
- Use hyperlinks to connect related stories
- Reference external websites
- Structure your blog so AI can navigate it easily
### Time Needed: A few hours once you have multiple posts
-----
### Why Create an Index?
Right now, your posts are organized by date (newest first). That’s fine, but an **index page** gives you:
- One place to see all your stories at a glance
- Quick links to specific people or topics
- Better organization for AI to navigate
- A table of contents for your life
**Think of it like a book’s table of contents - helping readers (and AI) find what they need quickly.**
-----
### STEP 1: Create Your Index Page
-Go to [blogger.com](http://blogger.com) and sign in
-Click “Pages” in the left sidebar (not “Posts”)
-Click “New Page”
-Title it: “Index” or “Table of Contents” or “Start Here”
-Write a brief introduction (Example below)
**Example Introduction:**
```
Welcome to my Memory Ark. This is where I document the people, events, and lessons that shaped my life. I built this so AI can understand my context and give me better advice, and so future generations can know who I was.
Below are links to all my stories, organized by topic.
```
-----
### STEP 2: Organize Your Index by Categories
**Create sections for different types of posts:**
**FAMILY**
- Link to Grandma Francis post
- Link to Uncle Joe post
- Link to Parents post
- etc.
**MAJOR LIFE EVENTS**
- Link to “2005: The Year Everything Changed”
- Link to “Health Crisis and Recovery”
- Link to “Career Turning Points”
- etc.
**LESSONS LEARNED**
- Link to “What Grandma Taught Me”
- Link to “Mistakes I Made and What I Learned”
- etc.
**Use whatever categories make sense for YOUR stories.**
-----
### STEP 3: Add Links to Your Posts
**To link to a post:**
-Open the post you want to link to (in a new tab)
-Copy the URL from your browser
-Go back to your Index page
-Highlight the text you want to turn into a link (Example: “Grandma Francis”)
-Click the link icon in the toolbar (looks like a chain link)
-Paste the URL
-Click “OK”
-Now “Grandma Francis” is clickable and goes to that post
**Repeat for each post you want to link.**
-----
### STEP 4: Create a “Start Here” Link
Once your Index page is done:
-Click “Publish”
-Copy the URL of your Index page
-Go to your blog’s main page settings
-Add a link to your Index at the top of your blog
**OR** just tell AI: **“Start by reading my Index: [Index page URL]”**
AI will read the Index first, see all your categories and links, then navigate to the posts it needs.
-----
### STEP 5: Link Related Posts Together
**Inside individual posts, you can link to other related posts:**
Example: In your “Grandma Francis” post, you might write:
*“My grandmother taught me the importance of family. This lesson came up again when [Uncle Joe](link to Uncle Joe post) showed me how family sticks together during hard times.”*
Now readers (and AI) can jump between connected stories.
**To add links inside posts:**
-Edit the post
-Highlight the text you want to link
-Click the link icon
-Paste the URL of the related post
-Click “OK”
-Click “Update” to save changes
-----
### STEP 6: Reference External Websites
**You can link to outside sources too:**
Example: If you mention a medical diagnosis, you might link to:
- Medical explanation websites
- Support group pages
- News articles relevant to your story
**To add external links:**
Same process as internal links:
-Highlight text
-Click link icon
-Paste external URL
-Click “OK”
**Why this helps AI:** When AI sees you’ve linked to external sources, it can read those too and understand more context about your situation.
-----
### STEP 7: Structure for AI Navigation
**Make it easy for AI to understand your blog’s structure:**
**In your Index, use clear headers:**
- # FAMILY (largest header)
- ## Grandparents (medium header)
- ### Grandma Francis (smaller header)
**Use bullet points and lists:**
- Makes content scannable
- AI processes lists efficiently
- Easier to find specific information
**Group related content:**
- Keep all health posts together
- Keep all family posts together
- Keep all career posts together
**AI will understand:** “This person organized their life into Family, Health, and Career sections. I can navigate to whichever is relevant to their question.”
-----
### STEP 8: Optional - Create Multiple Index Pages
**If you have a LOT of content, you can create specialized indexes:**
- “Family Index” - Links to all family-related posts
- “Health Timeline Index” - Links to all medical history posts
- “Career Journey Index” - Links to all work-related posts
**Each index page gets its own URL you can share with AI.**
This lets you say: **“For this conversation, just read my Health Timeline Index: [URL]”** instead of making AI read everything.
-----
### Examples of Well-Structured Indexes:
**SIMPLE INDEX:**
```
PEOPLE WHO MATTERED
- Grandma Francis
- Uncle Joe
- My First Teacher
MAJOR EVENTS
- Childhood Years (1980-1990)
- Health Crisis (2015)
- Career Change (2020)
LESSONS LEARNED
- What Family Taught Me
- Mistakes I Made
```
**DETAILED INDEX:**
```
FAMILY
Grandparents:
- Grandma Francis: Who She Was
- Grandma Francis: Her Final Years
- Grandpa John: The Quiet Strength
Parents:
- Mom's Influence on My Values
- Dad's Work Ethic
HEALTH JOURNEY
- 1995-2015: Undiagnosed Struggles
- 2015: The Breakthrough Diagnosis
- 2016-Present: Life After Treatment
CAREER & WORK
- Early Jobs and Lessons
- The Career That Didn't Work Out
- Finding My Path
INTERESTS & VALUES
- What Matters to Me
- How I Think About Problems
```
**Use whichever style fits your content.**
-----
### Sharing Your Connected Archive With AI:
**Now when you talk to AI, you can:**
**Option 1: Share everything**
*“Read my entire Memory Ark, starting with the Index: [Index URL]”*
**Option 2: Share specific sections**
*“For this conversation, just read my Family section: [Family Index URL]”*
**Option 3: Share individual posts**
*“Before we talk about health, read this post: [specific post URL]”*
**The more organized your archive, the more useful it becomes.**
-----
### What You’ve Built:
**Congratulations - you now have a fully connected Memory Ark!**
✓ Multiple posts about people, events, and lessons
✓ Labels organizing content by topic
✓ An Index page linking everything together
✓ Internal links connecting related stories
✓ External links to reference materials
✓ A structure AI can navigate easily
**This is a permanent, searchable, cross-referenced archive of your life that:**
- Makes AI actually useful (real context instead of generic advice)
- Preserves your stories for future generations
- Helps you see patterns in your own life
- Can’t be lost or deleted by companies
- YOU control completely
-----
### Maintaining Your Archive:
**Adding new posts:**
- Write the post as usual
- Add it to your Index page with a link
- Label it so AI knows what category it belongs to
**Updating old posts:**
- Go back and edit anytime
- Add links to new posts you’ve written
- Include new pictures or details you remembered
**Reorganizing:**
- Update your Index structure if needed
- Move posts between categories
- Create new sections as your archive grows
**There’s no “final” version - your Memory Ark grows with you.**
-----
### Teaching Others:
**Now that you’ve built yours, you can help others build theirs.**
Share these instructions with:
- Family members who want to document their stories
- Friends struggling with AI giving generic advice
- Anyone who wants to preserve their history
**The more people who build Memory Arks, the more patterns emerge, and the more useful AI becomes for everyone.**
-----
## You’re Done!
You’ve completed all three levels:
**BASIC:** Created blog, wrote first story, added picture
**INTERMEDIATE:** Built timeline with multiple posts and labels
**ADVANCED:** Created connected archive with index and links
**Your Memory Ark is now a powerful tool for:**
- Making AI genuinely useful
- Preserving your legacy
- Understanding your own patterns
- Helping others do the same
**Welcome to the Memory Ark community.**
---
