Archive for January, 2008
January 31st
I noticed this year that we were receiving a lot of requests from Quo Vadis customers for extra address books. We even got a few emails from people asking us to sell address inserts online.
I gave up my address book when I started using a Palm Pilot back in the late ’90s. It worked great–except when I tried to use it in a cold office (it didn’t work) and when I missed replacing the batteries in time. I lost 15 years worth of addresses because I hadn’t backed it up on my computer. (I admit, big mistake.)
After that horror show, I cooled to technology for awhile and went back to saving business cards, addresses written on scraps of paper, and address labels in a hanging file in my desk. After awhile the volume of paper was getting to be too much to shift through. I decided to go back to a staple of my work life years ago - the Rolodex.
The Rolodex was a prized possession. It was more than a network of contacts at your fingertips. It was a storehouse of relationships that spanned years; people you met, worked with, could call on for information, advice, support, referrals. The different pen and pencil colors on the cards measured the years as the numbers and titles changed.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on Rolodex affectionatos, most of whom also rely on BlackBerrys and other computer-based address books.
“More than 20 years after the digital revolution that forecasted the paperless office, the “rotary card file”–best known by the market-leading brand name, Rolodex–continues to turn. As millions of social network users display their connectedness on their Facebook pages, a surprising robust group of people maintain their networks on small white cards.”
January 30th
I’ve never had the discipline to keep a daily diary; for one thing, it’s always seemed like such an enormous commitment of time, and I also suspect I’d soon grow bored with my own ramblings. I do carry around a couple of notebooks where I jot down random thoughts and observations (an idea for a short story, for example, or a funny conversation I overheard on the train). But it’s hardly a regular thing.
Nonetheless, I love learning about the methods people use to preserve their daily lives. In a comment to last week’s post about the new QV Memoriae journals, I found out about a service called LifeOnRecord, which enables would-be diarists to create an audio journal by calling in their thoughts on telephone. For some people, blogs serve as informal online diaries. So do scrapbooks.
And then there are the diary hybrids. A friend’s grandfather used his diary to painstakingly record each purchase he made that day. My own grandparents shared a diary in which they took turns narrating various milestones of their children’s lives: “Today Inga climbed up the stairs by herself for the first time”… “Today Harald’s first tooth broke through on the bottom right side of his jaw” (by the time they got to their fourth child, they’d pretty much abandoned the practice). A family friend encouraged people to write down a couple of thoughts in her notebook every time they visited; she lived alone, and that way she could read what they had written whenever she got lonely.
January 29th
This Quo Vadis mandala reads: “We must choose.”
A full account of the mandala is in the web book “The Milk is White” under the chapter heading “The Quo Vadis Mandala.”
This philosophical treatise was written by Ian Gardner, an 85 year old man living in Australia.
January 28th
How many programs are running on your computer as you read this? How many icons are scattered on your desktop?
If your answer is “too many to count,” you may want to check out a recent article over at Slate about a new kind of software called zenware, or clutter-management programs “that introduce much-needed traffic calming to our massively expanding desktops.” Zenware works by trying to minimize or hide the applications you don’t need as you work, thereby focusing your attention on the task at hand and minimizing distractions.
For reviews of some of the most popular programs, read the rest of the article or check out these other links.
January 25th
Clairefontaine, the French company that makes the paper for Quo Vadis planners and notebooks, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year… You can read more about the company’s history on this website, if you’re curious.
January 24th
As head of marketing for Quo Vadis in the U.S., much to my chagrin I was the only member of my immediate family to use an agenda. My spouse uses a blackberry. My son uses a cell phone. They weren’t budging.
Yesterday, I received an email from my son. It included this heart-warming quote: “I was hoping you might be able to get a planner for me. I find myself with more post-it notes than I can keep straight. I suppose the ideal planner would be bigger than a pocket one but smaller than a 11×7 book size.”
I gleefully went over to our stockroom and picked out an ABP1, Executive and Notor for him to choose from when we get together for dinner next week.
January 23rd
Memoriae is a new Quo Vadis product that should be available in the U.S. sometime within the next couple of months—it’s a set of 12 collectible diaries in which you can record your thoughts, dreams, and memories. Each diary, as I mentioned earlier this week, is designed to contain your reminisces about a particular topic (whether it’s your children, your travels, or your friends), and each is organized into a couple of different sections, like “stories and anecdotes,” “addresses,” and “lessons and advice.” It’s like a cross between a diary and a journal, only more organized.
You can also put your memories up online and share them with your friends on the Memoriae website, which recently launched in English. Just sign up for a free account and start writing; once you’ve completed each anecdote, you’ll be able to decide whether or not you’d like to make it public or keep it private. You can also upload and store photographs.
We’ll let you know just as soon as the Memoriae diaries are available for purchase. In the meantime, we’d love to hear how you currently record your memories… Do you keep a journal? Make scrapbooks? Let us know in the comments!
January 22nd
Traveling from Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona, I took a detour off I-10 and went to visit Casa Grande.
Built by the Hohokam, it is the largest prehistoric building in North America. The large and vibrant community surrounding it in 1350 AD vanished without a trace. We don’t know what became of the people or the purpose of Casa Grande.
Because the windows and doorways align with the sun and moon at significant times of the year, and at extreme points in their cycle, the building may have served as an calendar and observatory.
Why and for what use the Hohokam developed this elaborate system is still a mystery. Since the ruins of a ball court are nearby, the amateur archaeologist in me believes a relationship can be found with Aztec or Mayan temple complexes hundreds of miles to the south in Mexico and Central America.
January 21st
Last week Karen and I had lunch out here in Red Hook (I promise, it’s well worth the trek!), and we and talked about some of the new Quo Vadis products on the horizon for 2008.
The Habana series, which was introduced last year in France and should be available in the U.S. within the next few months, is a collection of compact, leather-bound notebooks with matching elastic closures and smooth, high quality paper. You can use them to record your thoughts, your dreams, whatever—they’re designed with the tactile experience of writing in mind.
A different series of notebooks will also soon be available with my beloved Robert le HĂ©ros cover designs.
And a set of 12 collectible diaries known as Memoriae is coming soon to help you organize and record the events of your life. Each diary is designed to contain your reminisces about a particular topic, whether it’s your dreams, your travels, or your friends. There’s also an accompanying website where you can share your experiences with your friends.
Karen and I will both write more about these products in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, happy planning!
January 18th
This Sunday, the Free Hugs Campaign— yes, there is such a thing—is hosting an event at the Astor cube in downtown New York City: the Free Hugs Roam, where volunteers “will give free hugs to anyone who wants one & roam about the city.”
The Free Hugs Campaign got its start in 2004, when a man named Juan Mann stood on Sydney’s Pitt Street with a sign that advertised “Free Hugs.” In 2006, a video of Mann and his sign made its way onto YouTube, and viewers around the globe began to take up the cause.
“In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal,” writes Mann. Personally, it reminds me of those scientific studies that’ve found you can actually brighten your mood through the physical act of smiling… it feels ridiculous, I’m sure, but it probably also feels great.
