Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Why notebook is essential?

Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”




More people should write

 

Writing needn’t be a formal enterprise to have this effect. You don’t have to write well. You don’t even have to “write,” exactly — you can just talk onto the page. - James Somers, September 27, 2012


I am not an organized note taker. I have a terrible sense of writing. Basically, my notebook is... a mess. I have a good excuse; in the note taking moment, the speed is the most important. I am not creating a note to publish. 

 

Also, he writes about the book Field Notes on Science & Nature, describes the field notebook is "the site of a collision between a mind and a world". As Bacon said, writing will not only keep your outflow, but also changes the way you live.






“Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he doth not.” - Francis Bacon


Saturday, October 13, 2012

#4 Martina Milova








Martina Milova


















Who is Martina? :  Film Maker, Bartender




Preference

- Pen; Sailor, extra fine nib
- Paper; Moleskine and others




*this picture is overexposed for reason. not so perfect!



1.  Small leather pocket book
    - Her income and expence
    - to do
 Recently she bought a old BMW motorcycle. The sticker on the pocket book is from Motor Grrl.













2. Pink Notebook from Vienna
    - Daily planner she uses as everyday to do list








3. Small notebook that has bird on the cover
    - for everything
She writes everything there. She writes names of the people she appreciates.



4. Large leather covered notebook
    - for writing everything
At the first page of the notebook, she welcomed this notebook writing "welcome to new family", she greets.


  
5. Cork skin notebook
    - For her ideas and spiritual use
When she was confused, she wrote there.
First, her writing was in German, and from one page, it switched to English. Martina explained  that one day she watched Super Bowl and her mind language switched.





6.  Black Sketchbook
    - for her ideas








7. School notebooks from Slovakia - Large
    - morning notebook
She writes three pages when she woke up to keep her outflow of the mind.

8. School notebook from Slovakia - Small
    - Diary
   














9. Three Moleskine Cahier Large plain notebook
    - Collection of her favorite things











10. Large daily planner
      - used as a diary
She wrote quotes from books, stapled movie tickets and receipts, and wrote what she did that day.
It's exactly like her log.

11. Moleskine Classic Extra Large soft cover plain notebook
      - Started for Film ideas, and scripts, then she starts using for everything.
She describes this large-plain notebook as "diary substitute", as she writing her favorite music, films, books, etc...


--------------------  ---  --- ------------------------- --- --- ------------------------- --- --- ----------------------

At her favorite coffee shop Grounded, Martina showed me many MANY notebooks...how wonderful!! Writing is her therapy. " I write, write, and continue writing...and at the end of the day, I feel okay". I'm happy to participate her film "It Feels Good To Be Better"



Friday, October 5, 2012

Does Moleskine became an icon of Dickheads!?

Recently, Gizmood posted an article following.

This Is Not Your F*cking Office, Dickheads.



--- I ordered but I couldn't find a place to sit. Why? Because the place—which can fit about 40 people—was full of these dickheads and their computers and Moleskines.  - Jesus Diaz


 Personally I have a record of staying in the Starbucks for 13 hours when I was in high school. That day, I purchased more than 3 drinks, 2 sandwiches,  and many other small bites half from the reason above, but also I was just hungry...

From the same reason, some Starbucks like 39th street and 8th Avenue one, started the tryout of covering the power plugs. Places like Starbucks Coffee are invariable for start-ups. But often times these places get overclouded with people who finished their coffee 2 hours ago.  Now many cafe with WiFi service encounter the similar situations.You know, it is serious damage to their revenue.

Funny, it link my mind to the issue of people don't want to pay for music.


see also;

Using Starbucks As Your Office? Here Are Some Tips

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

#003 Alexandra










Alexandra 




























This picture is not from the interview, but she looks awesome with skates.
Location; Central Park, Bandshell

 

Who is Alexandra? : Writer, Photographer, and Traveler.
                                   She goes only by first name.


Paper ; Moleskine
Pen ; Gel pens


She has many many notebooks, and each of them are filled with words. A lot of words.



Digital Devices; None
Preference; She uses many notebooks, and each one has it's own purpose. Writing with gel pens that has fine tips.

From left,

1. Left two blue notebooks; Moleskine, Volant Notebook Large
2. Up Center memo pad; (maker unknown), Trust your Crazy Ideas
3. Down Center; (maker unknown), designer's notebook
4. 2nd from Right; Moleskine, Reporter Notebook
5. Right; Moleskine, Soft Cover



1. Moleskine, Volant Notebook Large / Diary / Dictionary
   Both blue notebooks are Alexandra's daily personal writing. One has her own dictionary at the end, and the other one has extension function to the reporter notebook (4). She uses post it to expand pages.

2.Trust your Crazy Ideas / Starting point notebook
   Perhaps this is the most important one for Alexandra. When she decided to return New York, she wrote everything what she needs in this little notebook. This is her starting point.

3. Designer's notebook / multi-functional to do list?
   This notebook has multiple colors at the edge of the pages. Alexandra uses that point, she organizes the information and to do list by color. In the pages of red edge, she had a long list of books she has to read or movies she has to watch... under the green, she listed the title of articles she wants to write about, and her to do list. There are pages she wrote down all her blessing there. All her blessing were listed in that page with one sentence each with date of when it happened.

4. Moleskine, Reporter Ruled Notebook / Journal
   When she interviews someone, she prepare questions on one page, and following page has answers and what she heard in the interview. Each interview is marked under the interviewee's name. Reporter notebook suit perfect for her active journalism writing for magazines. 

5. Moleskine, Classic Soft Cover Plain Notebook / For everything
    It's like her primary outer brain field. Whatever she finds interesting or funny. Actually, looks like she is not missing any small thing she finds. The topics are vary, but each pages are filled with her words under the tags of simple information that she put very top of the page; date, title of the book she read, etc... For this notebook, she does not have definite system of how she will use the notebook. It's written by many colors of pens, and the notebook is also used from the last page, upside down.



---------------  --  ------------------  --  ------------------



   I've been thinking about this notebook project for over a year, since I wanted to bring this out with clear purpose, took a while to initiate whole thing. Through talking with Alexandra at Bandshell, she encouraged me to launch. It's always great to know someone who has similar philosophy :)
   Alexandra uses many Moleskine notebooks, both plain and ruled. She uses the plain notebook(5) very intuitive way. I heard it's better not to categorize the information you write down. It might look messy sometimes but that field will let the mind flows better to come up with a new creative idea.
  Like me, she is definitely a Moleskine user, but her two important notebooks are the other kind. About the notebook (3), she waited for 9 months to get this.
  

Monday, August 6, 2012

#002 Christopher Taha







Christopher Taha
Who is Taha? : Future restaurant owner / Hustler
                         He goes by his last name.


Paper ; Pentalic, soft leather cover
Pen ; Bic


Preference ; Not much.
Use notebook for ; Day to day stuff. Everything in one notebook.
Digital device ;  iPhone



When I went to Saturdays to interview Alexandra last week, I found her friend Taha is also my friend's friend. New York is really a small world! Taha is planning to open a Mexican restaurant in West Village on a street nearby NYU. Currently his notebook is occupied by his ideas for his new business. Turned a page, suddenly his rough drawing shows up next to his business brainstorming. And next page, there is a hand-written monthly planning calender. It was amusing to see his notebook, a new business is about to come out.



The next person is Alexandra!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

#001 Chika Jenkins







Chika Jenkins






  




Who is Chika? : Pianist
                          Adjunct lecturer at City College of New York  
                          Preparing to pursue Ph.D in Art History


Paper ; TOPS, Docket Gold
Pen ; Pilot, PreciseV5 Extra Fine 

Preference : Soft paper, but not a big fan of smooth touch paper. Pen must be inky. 
Digital devices : Yes  - Blackberry user
                                   - iPad for scheduling


Purpose / How : Simply take memo / Don't separate or categorize the information. Write down all kinds of stuff in one page and not wasting any space.
 


When I composed my second piece Blossomnight,  Chika played the piano part for my portfolio recording. Looking her office, she is a very organized person. But her notepad pages have all information mixed in one place. Today, she told me got over with shopaholic. I'm very happy with her achievement!



*注;ご指摘頂いた箇所訂正させて頂きました。ありがとうございます。

Monday, July 30, 2012

Lost your mind?

Or lost in your mind?


I couldn't meet the first person today, so I update with what I have now.


Happens often to me, so many things going on in my mind but life doesn't wait.
We all have great ideas, and only way to pull that out is THINK. There is no GPS for getting ideas location in our mind. But how about creating our own map to reach them?

I got to know about Mind Map a couple years ago, and recently I startted applying for my daily use. I need more practice to create better maps, but this is my favorite process of thinking. According to The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan, mind map is a diagram that to visually outline what's in your mind.

For me, what's down side of this is the time I spend to create one mind map. Once I start, I have so much fun and become like 3 years old kid...yes I love scribble.


Picture above is the mind map of Rise Again!, the concert for Japan earthquake relief that happened in April 2011.

Used; Sketch book, Sharpie.

Sharpie is perhaps the most well known permanent marker in US; has many types and color variation. I like the coloring, but the regular sketchbook paper wasn't good combination with Sharpie. After drawing this map, the ink penetrated to the other side and even for the next page. For these type of marker, obviously need a thicker paper.


Tomorrow, I'll interview Chika Jenkins, and Wednesday will be Alexandra Uzik!
Cant wait :)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Why paper and pen?


Notebooks have very unique freedom. Plain, ruled, squared...large, small... these create outflow that helps us pull out things from our mind. Sometimes it behaves almost like HDD for our mind.
It is beautiful how those reflect the users' personality, conscious and subconscious levels. Digital devices like smartphones getting easier and users can operate them intuitively; nowadays many pen and paper actions are able to do on digital devices. It looks like the distance between analogue and digital is getting closer and closer.


Living in New York, almost everyday I see Moleskine users. Some use only particular stationary, others keep searching perfect mach. Seeing some books teaching note taking skills, this action is primitive yet fundamental connection with a part of our mind that makes wonder.