5 posts tagged “field notes”

Meet Autumn

Sep 29, 2009
2 comments

Yes let's meet autumn as our mid-autumn festival is coming! Things do converge mysteriously with or without you knowing or seeing, finding the connections is no big achievement but brings small pleasures to our lives.

Leaf-it, don't post-it

I was in Seoul 2 weeks ago meeting Mr. Nam who's company Appree just launched "Leaf-it" and already shipped to Japan's Marcs International for distribution. The leaf post-it comes in 8 different types, each with various sizes and colors of leaves. I hope they are coming to our stores soon.

Leaf-it with Mackinaw Autumn Field Notes

Two days ago I received a Mackinaw Autumn package from Field Notes, another hint of autumn coming, in colors I'm so very in love with. I regret that I missed their summer collection (Butcher Orange, Butcher Blue , Grass Stain Green). Hmmm.... so Tradio Nature just came to me, Leaf-it and Mackinaw Autumn are both on my desk now, they are all here to set something in motion, the welcoming of our 3,000 years old tradition, mid-autumn festival.

Mid-Autumn Lanterns on Queen's Road West

Tasty moon cakes await us, beautiful lanterns hanging all over the places, family gathering dinner and Chiu Chau tea ceremony at home..... such a pleasant anticipation. I particularly like what the shops do on Queen's Road West, about 5-6 stores normally selling incense for worship now hang hundreds of lanterns so beautifully which lighten up the streets. I was there with family on Sunday night, people were there lingering in such warm atmosphere. Tomorrow we will definitely go the park with our lanterns.

Street full of lanterns

2 comments

PS. My son told me something funny this evening: "God has no time to talk to us, because he has to make up some homework for us, so God is very difficult and we have to thank Him". Where did he get the ideas?

Field Notes Leather Cover by Gfeller

Sep 22, 2009
Post a comment

After my previous post about using Gfeller's Moleskine leather cover to put 2 Field Notes for a light trip to Seoul, Bob Corrigan told me about his "field testing" of a prototype leather cover specifically made for Field Notes, also done by the same maker. Here's Bob's review on his ack/nak site.

Field Notes Leather Cover by Gfeller

(Photo courtesy: Bob Corrigan)

During my trip to Seoul, I carried my Gfeller/FieldNotes all the time, for meeting records, market research notes and random thoughts. As Bob said the leather is thin and not very stiff, so I had some difficulty to write without a hard surface such as when I was on the streets. I guess that's the compromise to have a light notebook and cover, I can accept that. One important feature this cover lacks is the ability to store name cards, receipts or tickets in a more secure way. I did put some name cards between the notebooks and the inner flaps, but in several occasions I had them fell off to the floor. Steve, I'm sure it is quite important for many people, please consider adding a secure pocket.

What's Your Moleskine In?

2 comments

If you are new to Gfeller's cases, do check out this fantastic video.

mind.Depositor 2 - leather only

Jan 30, 2009
6 comments

After creating the original mind.Depositor with clips and used it for a while, I found a small problem but it bugs me on regular basis. To insert and pull out the cards, it requires force, no matter how small it is, it creates stress. That's why superior Japanese stationery designs often put into considerations how to reduce user efforts. They call the practice "Universal Design".

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

3 comments

So I set out to do a simpler version by using two pieces of leather only. I also have a practice to carry a small notepad or Field Notes to capture to-do inputs temporarily before transferring them to GTD index cards. So I'm adding a slit for the notepad and a slit to store extra blank index cards.

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

On the left hand side of the cover, I can put a notepad by inserting it to a slit, put blank GTD index cards in the pocket and insert a Field Notes.

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

On the right hand side I can put two categories of index cards (Personal and Work) into different pockets.

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

There is also a flap used as a bookmark or enclosure.

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

The whole thing becomes more compact and functional. It requires less effort to use, it is a simpler design with pleasant leather as the only material, I'm so happy with it. I especially like the color contrast of the outer white and inner brown. So check out the sections below and learn how to create your own.

mind.Depositor 2: Leather Jacket for notepad and 6x4 index cards

Previous cover of mind.Depositor: Lifehacker.com (followup, and Japanese version of it), GTDTimes, Moleskinerie, Koloist, David Allen Co., Lifehacking.jp, Geeks Guide To Productivity

What's in Your Bag, What's in Your Dream

Dec 16, 2008
7 comments

What's in My Bag

9 comments

Looking inside to see what's your bag gives you a lot of insights, of what you are recently up to, of what you've already known but never being verbalized...... It is just like reviewing a dream, you discover patterns, signs and relieves. I woke up just now after 4.5 hours of dreaming and 1 full hour of dream review/replay. It was a fantastic dream, all beautiful people at different ages, one explained her Parkinson's disease, bright sunlights in beautiful buildings, meeting people in conference, people carrying all kinds of cameras, a typewriter hack, light coffee/martini in a restaurant, a mini-cooper strapped with a pair of jet engine fell off from sky to water passenger safe, on a cruise safely observing such AFV type accident, met several journalists and chatted about their confidential information, an announcement from our managing director, group photos with high school mates, .... how wonderful I got his little brain of mine dreamed away a totally stressful day. Patterns discovered: people were in groups of three when I interacted (journalists, waiter/waitress sat chatting with me, etc), discovering new things from old acquaintance, being nice to people unintentionally got me useful information, .... told me a lot of myself.

What's in My Bag

So what I discovered from my bag is similarly intriguing. I found that most of the stuffs there are recording devices except an iPod for playback. How simple is that! I record and organize a lot of things using these tools usually in very visual ways, I playback audiobooks/musics to relax and learn.

Here's what's inside: Moleskine and leather cover from Gfeller, pen clip from Authentics, Field Notes and its ball point pen, Moleskine leather diary, mind.Depositor, customized USB memory stick, Rollei 35SE, Canon IXUS digital camera, Visconti roller ball, Recife Baby Press, iPod video 60GB, Skullcandy Titan in-ear headphone, Beats headphone by Dr. Dre (I don't own this one, just testing it, amazing quality)

Field Notes - Acid-free and Round Corners

Nov 21, 2008
6 comments

More than a year ago I contacted Field Notes for wholesale pricing so that I could start selling them in our stores. Somehow communication broke down and I never received a sample. There are a lot of good reviews out there but without being able to touch and test it I refrained from selling it in our stores on blind faith. Finally I re-established contact and got a pack of 3 notebooks from their wholesale program.

Field Notes with Moleskine

It looks great but honestly I think it is a bit expensive. US$9.95 for a total of 144 pages, comparing to Moleskine's square notebook at US$10.95 for 192 pages. It looks like there is only a US$0.012 price difference per page but look at what else Moleskine put into its notebook: hard cover, bookmark and back pocket. Of course you can't compare Field Notes, as a new brand, with Moleskine which has a huge running production, naturally leads to lower cost per page with extra features. Well, they are both not cheap. So what more Field Notes is offering?

Field Notes - slightly alkaline

Simply, 3 things I like about Field Notes. The first two has a lot to do with how it looks.

front cover Futura typeface, black ink on Durotone "packing brown wrap" French paper
perfectly cut round corners. If you look closely, many notebooks have ugly round corners
I tested the paper and cover for acidity. Their PH values are nearly 9, which means slightly alkaline. Perhaps they added alkaline buffer to make it last longer intentionally or is it just my imagination? At least it is acid-free.
I prefer roller ball, ink doesn't bleed through Field Notes' pages. I have to use Moleskine's sketch book instead of plain notebook to prevent bleeding, when you count this in, the price per page of Field Notes becomes cheaper.
It fits perfectly on my pocket size Moleskine. Now I clip Field Notes on top of my Moleskine both as a handsome cover and my favorite to-do list
soy-based ink printing is environmental friendly

Did I say 3 things?

Just the alkaline paper plus its durable cover are good enough to fit Field Notes' outspoken "practical applications #30" - Last Will/Testament. Well, on second thought, I think the cover can be more durable and the price can be cheaper :)