#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!

#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。

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 :)

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.