moleskinerie

Welcome 2006!

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Image: D. Morris
...
Felice Anno Nuovo, Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, Antum salimoun, Feliz Ano Novo, Xin Nian Kuai Le, Bonne Annee, Sun Leen Fai Lok,, Selamat Tahun Baru, L'Shannah Tovah, Feliz Año Nuevo, Prosit Neujahr, Akimashite Omedetto Gozaimasu, Manigong Bagong Taon, Happy New Year!

Moleskine pocket weekly diary 2006: opened

"I'd been waiting for this moment for sometime."

"a recent ritual of mine to open a new Moleskine diary on New Year's Eve."

By Songlines @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
Image links: 1 2
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Past, present and future

Crystal's iconographic photo of her old, current and new notebooks is an unmistakable reminder that another year is about to pass. 2005 has brought natural and made-made disasters of proportions that make us pause and ponder. Wars and hurricanes, political and personal upheavals were but a few of the challenges we faced, almost unbearable and perplexing. Despite the sadness inspiring stories abound such as Slimbolala's "New People Project" and Lori DiSabato's piece on the flood that hit her hometown. As if in defiance to these tragedies we weld our pens and brushes to immortalize these events on paper hoping that someday we and those who will come after us, will remember  the times we lived and learn.

As we turn another page; methaporic and real,  I thank you all for the friendship and camaraderie. I am truly honored and humbled  to have met such a kind, crazy, creative and sublime bunch.

I wish everyone health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.

Now, get out! Have fun - and write about it! See you all on Tuesday.    

Armand

Related links: "New People Project"
"The Things They (used to) Carry"
 

Image: Crystal24 @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

"Solvitur Ambulando" - It is solved by walking

The long, thick stripes of heavy rain on the window obstructed my view in the shuttle bus from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the Arc de Triomphe on a late April afternoon. I was feeling sick from the slow ride on the highway at rush hour. Maybe I was tired than I thought after the thirteen-hour flight from Tokyo. At the bus terminal near the monument, I hailed a taxi but the driver dropped me off at the wrong street and I had to haul my baggage for a couple of blocks to my hotel in the drizzle.

 

After unpacking my things in the small hotel room and making sure I had everything in order for the meeting on the next day, I looked out my window facing the Seine. A rainbow had appeared above the Louvre in the evening twilight. I grabbed my bag in which I carried a map of the city, a Moleskine notebook that was my guidebook, a digital camera, and went out for my first walk of this stay.

 

* * *

 

I had visited Paris twice in the past and although I agreed it was an impressive city, I never felt affection towards it. To me, Paris seemed like an actress whose outstanding beauty radiated a proud and unapproachable aura.

 

While preparing for my third visit, I wondered why I had felt this way towards the city. I recalled my travels to other cities; for example in Berlin, where I went to in 2001, I had visited and photographed the few and scattered remains of the Wall in my spare time. With this personal assignment and the numerous business appointments I kept, I had covered much of Berlin by foot and it became one of my favorite cities in the world.

 

It dawned on me that in the case of Paris, I never really had the opportunity to walk its streets.

 

In prior to this trip, I had been reading an anthology of travel essays by the British author Bruce Chatwin, who introduced me to another quality of walking. In a chapter dedicated to the German film director Werner Herzog, Chatwin wrote:

 

"He [Herzog] was also the only person with whom I could have a one-to-one conversation on what I would call the sacramental aspect of walking. He and I share a belief that walking is not simply therapeutic for oneself but is a poetic activity that can cure the world of its ills. He sums up his position in a stern pronouncement: 'Walking is virtue, tourism deadly sin."

- Bruce Chatwin, "Werner Herzog in Ghana," What Am I Doing Here.

Pirozjki is leaving

"My cat, Pirozjki, will be leaving us. New year, a new home for her..."

"Pirozjki is leaving"
By Pettefletpluk
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Sightings: "Criminal Minds"

"Moleskines seem to be everywhere on television these days. Tonight CBS aired a rerun of Criminal Minds entitled "Plain Sight." In the opening few minutes there's actress Lola Glaudini who plays Elle Greenway holding one of our favorite black books -- open with strap clearly visible -- taking notes for the team's latest criminal profile. Now that's what I call cutting edge crime busting."

Rana W.
12.28.05

Criminal Minds on CBS

Scrawl, scribble, sketch, jot, doodle, muse & write on

"Zac Templeton is a Moleskiner. So is Hillary Thoren. No, they’re not relieving small furry lawn pests of their pelts. Along with other South Sound residents, they’re discovering a quaint and trendy low-tech way of taking notes and recording notions.

Pen and paper.

Imagine that.

Moleskine (pronounced MOLE-uh-SKEEN-uh) notebooks are the anti-PDA, simple and elegant cardboard-bound writing pads steeped in history and tradition. They allow every user his or her own personal font (har har), and they return keeping a journal to the art form it once was.

“I never leave mine at home,” said Templeton, 25, an assistant in the Office of Student Affairs at the University of Washington Tacoma. “It’s better than American Express.”

Templeton estimates he has gone through 15 Moleskine notebooks in recent months. A food and wine columnist for the school newspaper, he jots down story ideas and sketches table- and dinner-plate layouts in his pocket-size Moleskine..."

BILL HUTCHENS; The News Tribune
Tacoma, WA. 11.29.05

Read on.

Image: "Useful Item # 3"
By phototosbyarkady @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

[Thanks to Joy Rothke]

So that you will hear me...

" So that you will hear me
my words
sometimes grow thin
as the tracks of the gulls on the beaches.

Necklace, drunken bell
for your hands smooth as grapes.

And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me..."

Pablo Neruda

Image: Lorretine @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved

"The Power of Presence"

"I believe in the power of presence.

 

I was recently reminded of this belief when I and several other Red Cross volunteers met a group of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. We were there, as mental health professionals, to offer "psychological first aid." Despite all the training in how to "debrief," to educate about stress reactions and to screen for those needing therapy, I was struck again by the simple healing power of presence. Even as we walked in the gate to the shelter, we were greeted with an ardent burst of gratitude from the first person we encountered. I felt appreciated, but vaguely guilty, because I hadn’t really done anything yet.

 

Presence is a noun, not a verb; it is a state of being, not doing. States of being are not highly valued in a culture which places a high priority on doing. Yet, true presence or "being with" another person carries with it a silent power -- to bear witness to a passage, to help carry an emotional burden or to begin a healing process. In it, there is an intimate connection with another that is perhaps too seldom felt in a society that strives for ever-faster "connectivity."

"The Power of Presence"
Debbie Hall
This I Believe on NPR

Listen.

Why techies are leading the back-to-paper movement

"The biggest boon for the low-tech migrator is the stripping down of one's needs to the barest fundamentals. Suddenly naked in front of the mirror, we see all our marks, foibles and strengths. We see the things we actually need to get done, and perhaps how best to do them.

We see the downfalls of the past, and the possibilities of the future. We can suck in our stomach, puff out our chest, and get to work. We see our calendar, in black in white, before us, as well as some simple checklists, some basic reference material, some blank paper to brainstorm, and perhaps a chart or two. Why exactly does one need a 17-step process to create and then tick off "read office memo"?

The revolution is not for everyone, of course. Some people, attaining a Zen-like fluidity and uncluttered approach to their technological tools, are perfectly efficient to the point of no longer needing paper. But --if you love your technology-- it might be difficult to beat the addiction, to stop the tinkering, to put away the neat little AJAX web applications, to break away from the scribbling (and Mah Jongg) in your handheld. Your evolved digit musculature might cramp at holding a primitive pencil, or you may balk at the waste of trees (neglible, to be fair, compared to the environmental damage caused by outmoded computer equipment). Or you may even be forced to use a company extranet which allocates and subdivides your time into scheduled nuggets of productivity, no exceptions please!"

" Vive la révolution!"
by Douglas Johnston
Guest-posting at Dave Gray's Communication Nation

Visit.

'The loveliest landscape is a woman.'

"AMSTERDAM -- So read the caption beneath Kees van Dongen’s Woman with Shawl at Van Gogh's Park View and Other Works exhibit currently showing at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, a magnificently simple line that I immediately filed away with other luscious gems of sublime simplicity that I wish I had written. Another is Michael Stipe’s lyric, “I look at her and I see the beauty of the light of music.” There’s a very tangible light that illuminates music; if it’s a beautiful light, that’s all the better. And if that musical light emanates from the lovely landscape of a woman, then you’ve experienced a rare trifecta that simply can’t be outdone.

But the sentiments of Van Dongen (or Stipe) didn’t seem to fit with this exhibit, one that aimed to put Van Gogh in context with his immediate predecessors, contemporaries and successors. Van Gogh, it seems, rarely painted portraits of women. And of the few times he did, more often than not he chose to obscure their femininity and mask entirely their sexuality. This may have everything --or absolutely nothing-- to do with his well-known rejections, now the stuff of legend. But it did set the tone for my late morning and early afternoon meandering, which was cut in two by the museum’s monthly fire drill."

'The loveliest landscape is a woman.'

| b r i g h t (b) l i g h t c a f é |

Visit.

The Journals Lewis and Clark

"A windy day, fair and clear. Many of the Gros Ventres- or Big Bellies-and Wetersoons came to see us and hear the council. The wind being so violently hard from the S.W. prevented our going into council. Indeed the chiefs of the Mandans from the lower village could not cross. We made up the presents, and entertained several of the curious chiefs who wished to see the boat, which was very curious to them, viewing it as great medicine [whatever is mysterious or unintelligible is called great medicine]-as they also viewed my black servant.

The Black Cat, great chief of the Mandans, Captain Lewis, and myself, with an interpreter, walked up the river about 1 1/2 miles. Our views were to examine the situation and timber for a fort. We found the situation good but the timber scarce; or at least, small timber such as would not answer us. We consulted the grand chief in respect to the other chiefs of the different villages. He gave the names of 12. George Drouilliard caught 2 beaver above our camp last night. We had several presents from the women of corn, boiled hominy, soft corn, &c. I presented a jar [earthen jar, glazed] to the chief's wife, who received it with much pleasure."

The Journals Lewis and Clark
The University of Virginia

[Via Plep]

Originally posted 5.18.04

Paper Notes

"...Because there's no turning back from digital, but we can learn to better balance our lives - and this is my contribution. Welcome to Paper Notes In A Digital World. A place where we will discuss all things paper, a place to consider the analog/digital balance. A place to slow down..."

Mike Swickey
Paper Notes in a Digital World

Visit.

Virtual Moleskine?

"I had the idea that it would be really neat to have a computer-based, Moleskine 'simulation'.  Circus Ponies has come very close with their 'NoteBook 2.0', below. Now if only they could release a version that emulates a Mole instead of a drugstore spiral-bound!"

Cinemafia @ Moleskinerie/GoogleGroups
Join the discussion.

Bicycle Haiku

Bicycle Haiku is a reproduction of a sketchbook I kept while I rode my bicycle across the US in 1979. It contains an ink sketch and a haiku for each day of the three month 5,000 mile trip. A typical scene would be like the day I passed through Francisco, Indiana.

This book will not be a best-seller. It's a book of poetry, and you know what that means. It might appeal to anyone intrigued by pedaling across a continent, or loners fascinated by blue highways and other little-traveled roads, or sensitive souls really into haikus, or sketches.

BICYCLE HAIKU
by Kevin Kelly

© 2001 KK

Originally posted 3.25.04.

Travelling Light

Here's a recent entry to the touring journal sites. Check it out while waiting for the revival of our own WMP next year. 

"They’re Moleskines. I love them, and I know that many of my friends use them. Either a moleskine, or something similar. And we all use them for pretty much the same reasons: to capture our thoughts, our ideas, those fleeting moments of creativity. To write something down, a snippet of verse, a feeling, the bones of something. Used perhaps to draw, to sketch something seen through eyes or in the mind. We all use them differently, but we all use them the same. To capture our creative thoughts....

 

...At the moment, there are three of them. And I guess they each ought to have a name, or a number, so that we can keep track of them. We’ll work that out, too. I don’t feel particularly inclined to stamp my mark on them, rather wait to see what sort of identity they acquire as they travel. Let’s call them, for now, Book One, Book Two, and Book Three."

Travelling Light

Merry (Insert appropriate celebration here) everyone!

Winter is an awfully inconvenient time to move here in the Midwest but  I'm finally settled in and feeling home at last. Thanks to all those who called, sent cards and emailed their greetings and concerns. Blogging can be lonely sometimes so hearing from you is always a treat.

 

Seeing more people rediscover creativity on paper never fail to give me the warm fuzzies. Wherever you are this holiday season - whether curled up around a warm fireplace, sprawled on the beach or huddled  at work in some forsaken cubicle, take comfort in the thought that somebody just like you, somewhere, in worse or better circumstances, is committing this memory to paper to be perused at a later date. Look beyond the angst, stop and smell the new notebook. Onward literate legions!

 

From my new "crib" to yours - Merry (Insert appropriate celebration here) -- or Happy Festivus!

Randomness:

- Visit Moleskinerie @ SQUIDOO. Mike Rohde's Moleskine Resources and Dave Gray's Visual Thinking School.
- Join the Moleskine Communities at MYSPACE, FLICKR, ORKUT, LIVEJOURNAL & GOOGLEGROUPS.
- If you happen to be in the area, WorkingUnit's "MyMoleskine" exhibit is ongoing in Taipei until the end of the month.

Merry Christmas everyone. Get out, celebrate - and write about it! See y'all on Tuesday!

"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"

"He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

From "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"
by Robert Frost
...
"The Carolers"
Image © 2002 A.B.F. All Rights Reserved/Originally posted 12.24.04

Bluegrass Sketch at the Station Inn

Here's a sketch done by Mike Rohde on a recent visit to  Nashville.

"The drawing below was done in the dim light of the Station Inn, a famous place for Bluegrass artists, something like The Grand Ole Opry for Country music...

Because the sketch done in low light conditions, it seemed a good time to use a speed sketch technique to capture the mood, rather than the visual appearance. The line quality is not exact, rather I let my hand loose to only follow my ears, eyes and heart to try and capture the moment."

Mike Rohde
Rohdesign

Custom-printed MAKE Moleskine

Here's a photo of the custom-printed Moleskine the crew at MAKE got for Christmas.

[via Jay's blog]

Link: MAKE

Sketching Sushi

Tentacles, wasabi...Karen Winters shows us how her sushi sketch came to be.

Here’s one of my late in the day drawings from my Saturday sketchcrawl. I’ll be posting the other ones later but I have been tussling with ImageReady CS to learn how to do a rollover and then how to embed it in a blog post. So I think I’ve got it working now.

I’m not going to take the time to do this with all of the sketches … it’s too much extra effort. But the figuring out part was fun. What can I say … I’m a born geekette. Wait, make that a born sushi-loving geekette. By the way, I did not eat any octopus tentacles that evening. I had California roll, spicy tuna handroll and a specialty of the house roll whose name I can’t recall. The tentacle was just casually lying in the refrigerator case and was the closest thing to draw. Ditto the slab of tuna. Want to see me purr? Show me some hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi. Mmmmmm.

Karen Winters
The Creative Journey

Visit.

How to eat Sushi

"Maaa maaa maaa maaa"

"Oh toh toh toh"

"Sushi is awesome. Sushi is hot. Sushi is good. Sushi is tasty. Sushi is delicious. Sushi is fishy. Sushi sushi sushi sushi. Japanese people have one thing straight, and that's sushi."

"How to eat sushi"
Choi Style Production

VIEW

[via Joi Ito]

Double posted at Positve Fanatics.

"Encre Sympathique"

This product has always intrigued me. Perhaps I'll try a bottle...

"Is it invisible? Well, it’s less visible. The ink is wet, and there is a slight tint, so the very curious can probably tell that the paper isn’t as prisitine as it once was.

 

I let the paper dry and take it to my halogen lamp. Holding it near, the writing slowly comes to life in an aquamarine blue. This is thoroughly fascinating to see. What’s almost as intriguing, is that walking away from the lamp, the ink fades back to “invisible”, as if one saw the paper reveal a secret, temporal message.

 

Is it truly a method for secret record keeping and communication? It probably suffices for some purposes.

 

Some possible uses for invisible ink:
# Love notes
# Communicating passwords
# Sketching tentative ideas"

Stephen Worotynec
Visit his blog, Paper and Pencil.

Moleskine at Starbucks in Roppongi

Starbucks in Roppongi.

By Al-Hayat @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
Some rights reserved.

Visual thinking practice: Bossman/Geek

Can you capture the dichotomy of your corporate culture in one picture?

Today's visual thinking practice will give you a chance to improve your visual thinking skills and simultaneously highlight the cultural gap between bosses and geeks. You'll amuse yourself and amaze your friends! Plus it's fun.

"Visual thinking practice: Bossman/Geek"
By Dave Gray

Communication Nation

 

Brunette Confidential : " Top 5 Undercover Gifts"

"Essential to following any scheme. Vital to cracking any code. Great at quickly writing down some hottie's phone number. The moleskine reporter notebook is the only way to truly recruit new agents or deconstruct a vixen's plan...."

" Top 5 Undercover Gifts"
Brunette Confidential

Sketching with a Moleskine

" When I am sketching in a small format my favorite type of sketchbook is a hardbound book, whether a Moleskine notebook or one of those standard black ones you see in every art supply store. They feel classy, and are less conspicuous when sketching around people since they will most likely assume you are just reading a book or making journal or calendar entries.

The Moleskine does have an advantage over many other hardbound journals and notebooks because it is thinner and more portable. It will actually fit in your pocket, although it might not be comfortable unless it is a coat pocket. Its small size makes it the perfect traveling companion. Now you can carry a nice a sketchook with you everywhere, which means sketching may happen in your life more often. And the Moleskine pages do lie flat when open, which I think is their biggest selling point. It's much easier to draw on a perfectly flat surface....

Those who like to sketch in ink may also have difficulty with the Moleskine sketchbook, depending on what type of ink they use. Of course if your ink tool of choice is a ballpoint pen, then you can sketch on just about anything. Pigment pens such as the Micron also work fairly well, as do gel pens. However, those who sketch with a fountain pen will find that most inks will bead up in the Moleskine sketchbook. The only fountain ink I've used successfully with the sketchbook is Platinum's Carbon black ink, and even this ink does feather slightly, and doesn't go on as black as it should.

You will have more success with the fountain pen if you use the Moleskine notebook instead of the sketchbook. The challenge is finding a fountain pen ink that is compatible with the paper since many inks will bleed through or feather terribly on the paper..."

"Sketching with a Moleskine"
By Russ Stutler
Sketching Discussion Page

DIY - Paper Bookmarks

Here's a clever project sent in by a designer in Italy:

"Get the pdf from the float box, and follow the instruction in it, or continue to read this post.

1) Print the pdf on an A4 paper, possibly on a borderless printer (recycled paper is better for nature) or rescale it to a 95-98%...."

"6) Put the bookmark on the upper left or upper right angle of you book....enjoy it"

Fabio Sirna

Visit his blog.

A Man With a Plan (and Boy, Is It a Plan)

"Having unhappily put up with an unwieldy multitude of diaries, address books and notepads for years, Mr. Berendt caught the Gutenberg spirit three years ago and indulged in a little obsessive-compulsive print project of his own. He printed up all the letters and numbers he would need to spell out the months and days of the week (no need for K, X, Q or Z) and sent them to a company that makes rubber stamps to order.

Once his cargo arrived, he took a simple clothbound Clairefontaine notebook he found in Paris and set to work with a ruler, ink pad and red pen. The result, a minor triumph of custom publishing, is a yearlong diary that combines notepad, agenda and phone book in a most orderly and portable fashion. "The key is that the cloth binding folds over, so you have a tablet," said Mr. Berendt, a connoisseur of writing materials.

This year, wondering if his amateur act was a bridge too far, he ventured into Smythson, the venerable London stationer, to see if it might have something similar. "They did have things that were close, the Duke's Diary, the King's Diary," Mr. Berendt said, listing model names. He asked if the store could make one like his. "They said, 'Of course we can.' It would cost about $5,000."

So back he went to Clairefontaine, his stamps and ruler. "It takes a while, and I feel like a complete idiot," he said. But the order it creates is more tranquilizing than any massage or course of meditation. "It really reduces my frustration level," he said. "If I can't put my finger on what I'm looking for instantly, I get totally scatterbrained."

"A Man With a Plan (and Boy, Is It a Plan)"
By David Coleman
The New York Times [Registration Required]

[via Rebecca's Pocket]

Sightings : "Poltergeist: The Legacy"

"This morning while getting ready to run the car in for an oil change I flipped on a Tivoed episode of the 1997 series "Poltergeist: The Legacy." The episode, entitled "Transference," features the escape of a serial killer from a mental institution. He goes stalking Rachel, his former psychiatrist, now a member of the supernatural bashing society, The Legacy. When she gets a cut up Valentine, the killer's  signature, Rachel and associate Derek Rain visit the man's cell. The walls are covered in occult  symbols, the desk littered with texts on death, and what's in his desk drawer? Two Moleskine notebooks. The guy couldn't have been completely nuts, right?"

Rana

Visit LegacyWeb.

Feltrinelli weekly 2006

"Everyone wondering how the Feltrinelli (red weekly Moleskine) looks like *inside*, pls feel free to have a look at these few photos..."

Gandolfi64 @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved

Greetings to our friends in Aurora, CO., Edinburgh, Bangladesh, Rasht, Almaty, Setagaya, Mercogliano, Jihlava, Berghof, Kampong Pendamaran, Wattimez, Berrilee, Irapuato, Antigua and Barbuda, Athens, Ra`ananna, Doha and Zaporozhye.

"A Christmas Carol" First edition

"Already the successful author of Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas     Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge and American Notes, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the best-loved novelists of the time when he wrote this short novel, which was    completed in a mere six weeks in tandem with the production of the eleventh episode of the serially published Martin Chuzzlewit.   

Originally published on 17 December 1843, the book was rapturously reviewed and became an instant success, the first 6,000 copies of its initial print-run being sold out by Christmas, with 2,000     further copies from the second printing snapped up by the 6th of January. While obviously enormously popular from the outset, it has remained Dicken's  most widely enjoyed work, with hundreds of further reprints and adaptations."

A Christmas Carol
Book of the Month
University of Glasgow

Wil Wheaton

"I wanted to do something creative and cool for the booklet that comes with Just A Geek The Audiobook, so I bought a Molskine notebook, and hand-wrote an introduction, the chapter and track listings, and a bunch of liner notes in it. There may also be a few things like the surfer "S", a Van Halen "VH", an actual game of Tic-Tac-Toe that I played with my wife, and some of the other stuff that you typically find on a Pee Chee folder in seventh grade. The idea is that Just A Geek is sort of a journal (all about Star Trek, if you believe the cover and marketing), and I think that this booklet ties in with that theme quite nicely. It's supermegatotallyawesome that I have the creative freedom to layer one creative mini-project over another creative mega-project..."

Wil Wheaton

Visit WWdN: In Exile

[Thanks Kelly Marie]

My First Moleskine!

"Today was like Christmas. I came home and my wife said there was a package waiting for me on the kitchen counter. She was curious but not trying to pry. ( I hadn't mantioned that I had ordered this). My youngest son was dying to know what was in the box. I had checked my USPS tracking number earlier in the day and didn't expect the package for another 48 hours. But there it was. Waiting for me to open it. My first Moleskine sketchbook.

Since I started blogging, about a month ago, I kept running across sites or comments that talked about the wonderful sketch books used by artists, writers and all around brilliant people to record their thoughts and images--Solitary blogs of the last century if you will. The quality of paper and binding seemed to be why these little books seemed so attractive. Along with the eleastic page holder and the bookmark ribbon.

So, I tried mine for the first time tonight...."

"My First Moleskine"
By Chuck Rose
Visit his blog: "Struggling to paint"

Randomness:

- Thanks John for the card. "I am not a man. I am dynamite" - F.W.Nietzsche. Indeed.
- You are cordially invited to our companion "lens" at SQUIDOO. Mike Rohde is also there.
- Visit the Moleskine Communities at MYSPACE, FLICKR, ORKUT, LIVEJOURNAL & GOOGLEGROUPS.
- Ongoing in Taipei until the end of the month: Workingunit's "MyMoleskine" exhibit.
- Moleskinerie.com was down earlier ( and our images are still missing ) due to some technical issues with TypePad. Our apologies for the frustration and inconvenience. In the event of another outaqe please proceed to our SQUIDOO.

Well, enjoy your weekend everyone. Get out, have a snowball fight to vent your frustrations - and write about it! See y'all on Monday!

Chocolate Buddha and other edible deities

"   There are those beings who have vowed not to enter Nirvana until they have helped all others realize enlightenment. Hotei is this kind of Bodhisattva. He is one of the Shichi Fukujin, the Seven Japanese Shinto-Gods of Luck. His fat stomach, which protrudes from the robes he wears, symbolizes the largeness of his soul. It is also a symbol of happiness, luck, and generosity. His large elongated earlobes are a sign of wisdom. Hotei as a wandering monk who goes around and takes the sadness from the people of this world. Just his appearance has the ability to cheer anyone up from a bad day. His largely exposed, pot-belly stomach protrudes in front of him as he continues to laugh through never-ending-time. He is admired for his happiness, plenitude, contentment and his loving and cheerful character...

    Chocolate Deities’ Laughing Buddha travels the world spreading joy and happiness wherever he goes. His whimsical spirit reminds us to always keep our sense of humor. There is a tradition that if a group of strangers gather together on New Year's Eve and ask Hotei for the same gift, provided they truly believe he will grant it, Hotei will indeed give them what they ask for...."

Chocolate Deities

Visit.

Persimmon Tangelos

Fruit Study in ceramic bowls. Everyday Matters challenge.

By Gallery318 @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Under the digital mattress

"One of the most interesting things to come out of the secret sites discussion is that people are keeping their private journals on the web instead of in a paper journal under their mattress or in a Word document on their computer. This sounds surprising, but there's a couple of good reasons for it:

-The tools for writing, organizing, and searching an online journal written with Typepad or LiveJournal are superior to those for writing a paper journal or an electronic diary (in Word or text format) stored locally. Hyperlinks, entries organized by date, mood, category, if you're used to using these things writing a public site, you might have trouble going back to just text in a Word document for your important innermost thoughts.

-Your diary may actually be more private and secure on the web. A password protected online journal is more difficult for a parent, significant other, or parole officer to stumble upon and read than a document sitting on a hard drive of a shared computer or hidden on the top shelf of a closet, especially if you're careful with your cookies, browser history, choose a good password, and are more computer savvy than said parent/S.O./P.O."

"Under the Digital Mattress"
Jason Kottke

LINK

Image: "Be Seeing You"
By Olivander @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
Some rights reserved.

Used-Book Phobia

"Dear Blowhards --

I don't like to buy used books unless I have no alternative.

There. I said it. I feel better already because confession purifies. Or something. Maybe I don't like used books because they give me the feeling that they're not really mine. Or maybe here's another explanation. I'm not sure. Truth is, I have all sorts of bookish quirks that are inexplicable -- well, I can't explain them, and they're my quirks after all. Another quirk is that I  don't believe in Freud, so no comments invoking him, thank you. (And my belief in Santa Claus is wavering too; I'll save that for another time. But the Easter Bunny rules!!)..."

Donald Pittenger @ 2blowhards

[via Conversational Reading.Thanks Rachel!]

Visual thinking practice: Heads and hands

"Visual thinking is the practice of using pictures to enhance your ability to solve problems, think about complex issues and communicate effectively. Are you ready to work on your visual thinking skills? You don't have to be an artist. Pick up a pen or pencil and try the following exercise:

1. Find a public place where you can observe other people unobtrusively. The best places are places that are somewhat crowded, and where people typically sit down for awhile, such as a park, courthouse or coffee shop. Airports are great for this, and so are restaurants...."

 

"Visual thinking practice: Heads and hands"

By Dave Gray

Communication Nation

[Thanks Marc V.]

Moleskine & Lonely Planet

Amelia Clarke of West Yorkshire writes:

"I was in borders in Norwich, Norfolk, UK at the weekend and saw that they had Lonely Planet Guides shrink-wrapped with Moleskine notebooks as a "perfect travel package" - cool!"

Sketching with just ink

"I need to acknowledge that practically all of my daily sketches are black and white.

Of course, I can color my black and white sketches in the evening at home, but I prefer to do all my sketching and painting away from home.

So now I leave my watercolors at home and save them for actual sketch days, and concentrate on sketching with just ink.

I had to recognize ink sketching as a worthy pursuit, and not a second class form of art, and now see myself as primarily an ink sketcher who occasionally dabbles in color.
In concrete terms, since I have been sketching in ink all along, nothing has actually changed, except now my conscience is lighter, and so is my bag. Also, I am even more excited about ink sketching than before..."

Russ Stutler
Visit his site.

[Thanks Marc V.]

30% off coupon at Borders

Fiveyearwinter says:
A pocket Moleskine will be $6.35, a Large will be $11.something.

http://f.chtah.com/i/9/276579820/1213coupon_30off.htm

Print, use once a day until the 19th! Stock up. ;)

[via Moleskinerie/FLICKR]

PuzzlesByEmail

If you're into Soduku, this is for you:

"Now that you're hooked on sudoku puzzles ... how will you ever get enough of them?

If you've encountered this singularly addictive puzzle phenomenon, you know how exciting it is. If you haven't - you're in for a huge treat!

PuzzlesByEmail is pleased to bring you your favorite puzzles, direct to your inbox, every day. We'll send you two puzzles every day in your category of choice - easy, medium or hard - perfectly formatted for your printer. Just print and solve!.."

PuzzlesByEmail

The Voynich Manuscript

"The Voynich manuscript is a mysterious illustrated book of unknown contents, written some 600 years ago by an anonymous author in an unidentified alphabet and unintelligible language.

 

Over its recorded existence, the Voynich manuscript has been the object of intense study by many professional and amateur cryptographers — including some top American and British codebreakers of World War II fame — who all failed to decipher a single word. This string of failures has turned the Voynich manuscript into the Holy Grail of historical cryptology, but it has also given weight to the theory that the book is simply an elaborate hoax — a meaningless sequence of arbitrary symbols.

 

The book is named after the Polish-American book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912. His wife, Ethel Lilian Voynich (1864-1960), is famous for the novel The Gadfly. As of 2005, the Voynich manuscript is item MS 408 in the Beinecke Rare Book Library of Yale University. The whole manuscript was published for the first time by a French editor, Jean-Claude Gawsewitch, in the 2005 book Le Code Voynich."

The Voynich Manuscript
Wikipedia

[Thanks JC!]

What do you do with the colored strip?

"I am a relative late comer to the world of Moleskine and a switcher from the Palm world. But I have already owned 3 Moleskines in two months and they are large squared, pocket sketchbook and pocket japanese album. They all came with a colored strip on the cover representing the type of the notebook. Admittedly, it was the color strip to attract my attention from the crowd and it looks very cool with a black background.

I don't know you but I have been collecting these strips without knowing any practicality. So, here is a question for you. What do you do with the colored strip? Throw them away? No..."

Untitled13:
"I've never really been a fan of packratting needless things. Some people like to hoard items that hold no practical use and, all too likely, not much emotional meaning. To me, that colored strip is just as much a part of the disposable packaging as the cellophane wrapper or price tag..."

Hanni:
" I used to use them as bookmarks, or just keep them for posterity but now I chuck 'em."

"What do you do with the colored strip?"
Discussion @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR. Join!

Image: "Moleskine Watercolor Notebook Revealed"
By Patrick Ng @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Because we can't live on Moleskine alone...

"It's out there somewhere--the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, perfectly baked, perfectly formed, heaped with divine chocolate pieces. In fact, the recipe for that dream cookie may well be found nestled in the pages of The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. The story behind this cookbook is intriguing. A small guest house in western Massachusetts (well known for its own home-cooked cookies) sponsored a competition to find the best cookie recipe in America. More than 2,600 recipes flooded in, and over 100 of the best grace the pages of this book."

"The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie"
By Gewn Steege

Available @ Amazon.com

Sightings : "NUMB3RS"

"I have been enjoying the Friday night show NUMB3ERS.  The episode that aired Dec. 9, 2005 was about a museum scientist/anthropologist who was murdered.  At the scene, the FBI found her notebook.  It was a Moleskine.  I was a bit excited when I saw them passing it around and reading from it the calculations written in it which gave them clues to what she had been working on - a 10,000 year old skull which had been stolen as part of the crime."

Kasandra S.

"NUMB3RS" on CBS

Do you SQUIDOO?

Our pal, Mike Rohde has opened a Moleskine page at SQUIDOO. Check it out.

Now it can be told. We were a Beta Tester for SQUIDOO. Visit

Fisher Space Pens & Moleskine Notebooks

"Quite possibly the best pen I have ever used is the Space Pen by Fisher. The pen writes very smoothly and is very reliable (no more hiccups in the ink). The pen will also write on almost anything and anywhere. It can write on greasy paper, underwater, and even in zero gravity. The pen cartridges are pressurized so the ink will flow smoothly even in the worst of conditions.

I had on of the really nice Bullet Pens but because it was so compact and the clip kept falling off I lost it after a month. I didn’t want to buy another $20 pen that I was going to lose Jotters yetso now I just put the refills in the Parker Jotter, which works great and I don’t worry about loosing them altho I never have lost one of my jotters yet. "

"Fisher Space Pens & Moleskine Notebooks"
By Eric Taylor
Silverdragon Studios

Image: Eastgate

Greetings to our friends in Westfield, NZ., Togo, Cambridge, UK., Plano, TX., Espoo, Lima, Cheung Sha Wan, Lahore, Joya Galena, Lyon, Kobe, Frankfurt Am Main, Lahug,  Kenya,  Madras and  Pointe-Gatineau.

My other blog is a Moleskine

"My more extended posts to Orange Crate Art tend to begin in a Moleskine pocket notebook. Yes, my other blog is a Moleskine. (And no, I didn't need to draft this post in a notebook first.).."

Michael Leddy
Visit his blog, "Orange Crate Art"

Also check out Michael's post on Larry David's notebook.

Thingophilia

"I'm no luddite, but sometimes technology can get in the way of efficiency. After all, all these computers were supposed to save us paper, right?

I find that carrying a notebook helps me navigate through the day. Palmtops are sexy, but a good old pen (or pencil - but that's for another day) and paper just seem more efficient to me. No waiting to power up, no batteries, no interface, and a sense of permanance all contribute to the utility of a notebook. They also seem to promote creativity, as you can jot, draw, scribble, and tape things in them quickly and easily.

The more accustomed to carrying a notebook you become, the more use the notebook gets, and the more invaluable it becomes. I dug up a pocket notebook out of the closet the other day that was 14 years old, and it was like a time capsule to another time in my life. It had reminders, shopping lists, and phone numbers that evoked some great memories...."

Jeremy O'Kelly
Visit "Thingophilia"

Image: "Last Few Pages"
by Visual Impact @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
Some rights reserved.

Taking Time

"what’s the point of a notebook you don’t write in?

Another good example of taking time is planning, something I used to resent immensely. After all, I reasoned, shouldn’t I be spending my time working? Planning—writing lists, deciding on what to eat that week, working out the structure of my essays, keeping track of appointments—just took away from what I really ought to be doing. Foolishness, of course, but overcoming that impulse has been incredibly difficult.

To do something well, you need to take the time. Moreover, you need to spend what I call support time: planning, preparing the ground, getting things ready—getting yourself ready.

Obviously there’s a balance to be struck here; if all you do is plan, you’ll never accomplish anything. But it is a balance; too little support time and your work will be muddled, you’ll find yourself hungry and exhausted, forgetting things, and maybe not even doing that much work..."

Benedict Eastaugh
Visit his blog, Ionfish.

Image: "Praha Saint Luitgarde indian ink watercolor 2005"
by Nathanael Archer @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
Some rights reserved.

Read Benedict's earlier post.

Randomness:
- Discover and join the Moleskine Communities at MYSPACE, FLICKR, ORKUT, LIVEJOURNAL & GOOGLEGROUPS.
- Workingunit's "MyMoleskine" exhibit is ongoing in Taipei.
- Hi to Manolo at Shoe Blog.
- Don't miss NYT Sunday Magazine's Annual "The Year in Ideas" issue.

Get out, have a life - and write about it! See you on Monday.

How to start and maintain a commonplace book

"A commonplace book is a place to store thoughts that you might want to revisit later. They can include letters, recipes, scraps of paper, pieces of unfinished writing, facts, sayings, vocabulary words, and so forth. What distinguishes this from a diary or a journal is that the focus is on the items themselves, not on any sort of chronology. It's simply a collection of items you want to think about again in the future.

 

Sounds like chaos...
They can be very chaotic, or very orderly. My first attempt at a commonplace book was a small Moleskine notebook I kept in my pocket, along with a pen. In it, I basically just wrote down any interesting thought I had throughout the day in a very haphazard fashion: it was filled with quotes and undefined words and random facts and such all scribbled together. Very chaotic.

 

But that chaos was what made it worthwhile. About once a week I'd leaf through the pages with a dictionary and some other scratch paper at hand, defining undefined words and expanding on fleeting thoughts, which would usually result in a trip to the library (remember, this was before the advent of the internet) and, if nothing else, an hour of very rich food for thought.

 

How does one get started?..."

"How to start and maintain a commonplace book"
By Trent Seigfried
Visit his blog, Long Haired Child.

Image: "Random Moleskine Page: by Andrew Jay @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR.
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Waiting patiently

"The moleskine in the picture is my trusty address book. I'd be lost without