Archive for May, 2008
May 15th
Speaking of procrastination, here’s a topic I’ve been meaning to blog about for months: the new Habana notebooks, which aren’t yet available in the U.S. (the Euro’s insane right now… we’re working on it) but have already made quite a splash in Europe and on the Internet.
Back in October, Patrick Ng posted photos of the Habana on Flickr, dismissing them as Moleskine knock-offs. More recently, others have praised the superior quality of Habana paper as well as its durable binding.
The way we see it, diary-style notebooks are a natural extension of our product lineup; we care deeply about the physical pleasures of writing, and that passion extends to both date- and notebooks. Also, no company has a monopoly on attractive, portable notebooks! Moleskine has wonderful products, and their marketing should be taught in business schools (read more about the company’s history here—contrary to popular belief, modern Moleskine notebooks were first made in 1998 and are only similar to the notebooks used by Picasso, Hemingway, and Chatwin).
When Moleskine moved their production to China, however, we feel that the quality of their paper fell. Our paper, which is made in France by Clairefontaine, is much better, especially for fountain pens.
Personally, I love the little orange Habana that Karen sent me earlier this year. Surely there’s room for both…
May 14th
David Oscarson recently introduced a pen I would love to have but unfortunately can’t afford. It honors Jacques de Molay, the last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar. I appreciate beauty and history together in one pen. 
More and more it seems, pens are becoming works of art in addition to fine writing instruments. Krone and Loiminchay excel in their exquisite and lifelike depictions. I will never forget seeing one of Loiminchay’s solid jade pens at the DC Pen Show.
Pen shows are a great way to see all the different kinds of pens and determine which one is best for you. You can see how a pen feels in your hand, test the nib, and appreciate its beauty and balance.
Art Brown is having a pen show over the next three days: May 14-16 from 9 am to 5 pm. If you’re in the area, please come by to meet Bob, Marilyn and Warren, and test a new pen on Rhodia or Clairefontaine paper.
May 13th
This morning at Slate, the editors tackle a topic that’s near to everyone’s hearts with a special report on procrastination. (Of course I read the whole thing before I started composing this post.)
My favorite piece: Emily Yoffe’s tale about trying to use online support groups and self-help books to stop procrastinating. Yoffe sounds like a woman after my own heart; “For me,” she writes, “Small tasks—getting the dry cleaning, checking the downspouts—have a way of inflating like helium, floating the day away.” Here’s her attempt to understand the psychology of procrastination:
Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University… divides us into two general behavior types: arousal procrastinators and avoidance procrastinators. Arousal procrastinators seek the excitement and pumping stress hormones of having to finish everything under duress. (I’m this type.) Avoidance procrastinators make their work the measure of their self-worth and so end up putting it off out of fear. (I’m this type, too.) I talked to Ferrari and discovered that after 20 years of studying us, his sympathy is wearing thin. “I don’t understand this, why they’re consistently like this. I don’t like cutting the grass, but I do it.”
In the end, the best advice comes from her 12-year-old daughter—stop taking so many breaks, and stop making excuses for yourself. Easier said than done, of course, but never mind…
May 12th
The Farm in Southold, NY uses the Stella Natura calendar. The Farm’s crops are bountiful, delicious and healthy. Last summer, when overabundant rains compromised many other farmers’ and gardeners’ tomatoes (including mine!), The Farm had a great crop.
The Stella Natura is a biodynamic agricultural calendar that had its beginnings with Austrian philosopher-educator Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Sherry Wildfeuer popularized an English language edition, and has edited the calendar for the last 32 years.
Biodynamics is a holistic system of agriculture whose practices are designed to harness the forces of the sun, moon, planets and stars and focus them on the earth and its plants. Its both an ancient and modern practice of preparation and cultivation.
The calendar is meant to be used with common sense and an eye to the weather. The charts can assist you in choosing optimum times to sow seeds, transplant, cultivate your crops and harvest them for storage.
May 9th
Did you know that the average person thinks around 60,000 thoughts each day? (Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but never mind.) According to Sharon Melnick, clinical psychologist and life coach, the key to success and accomplishment is to make sure those thoughts are directed positively, towards your goals. On her blog, she recently wrote about how to let go of things you obsess over.
The situation unfolded the way it did. That’s now a fact. But when you explain to yourself why it happened that way, you have made the situation to be a confirmation of a long held belief you have about yourself (e.g. I am not good enough; I’ll always be a “B+” kind of player; I’m a loser”, etc.)
To start moving forward, what you want to do is start to trace “what it means about YOU” that the situation happened the way it did. Write down on a piece of paper the explanation(s) you tell yourself for why the situation happened this way. With each answer you give, dig a little deeper to answer the question “and what does that mean about me?” This analysis will lead you to the root of what is making you ‘hold onto’ the situation. You want to see if you can come up with a personalized meaning that confirms your deepest fear or doubt about yourself.
The next step, of course, is to analyze the problem more objectively and stop blaming yourself… Easier said than done, of course, but that’s no different from most good advice.
May 7th
2008-2009 Quo Vadis Academic planners started shipping to retailers and college bookstores early last week. They should be on the shelves by early June.
If you don’t see the one you want, ask the bookstore manager to order it for you.
Last year, the most popular student planners included the Textagenda, Scholar, Academic Minister and Principal.
Our Academic planner sales continue to grow every year, and this year has seen the biggest jump so far, almost doubling the number of college bookstores around the country that carry Quo Vadis.
Retailers located near colleges and universities have also started to stock academic planners in addition to calendar year. Why? Primarily because many college students like to shop off-campus for stationery supplies, local high school and junior high teachers buy them, and other education professionals prefer a pocket or desk calendar on the academic year.
May 5th
Back when I was in college, I was never particularly systematic about keeping track of homework assignments—I’d scribble notes to myself on various scraps of paper, or sometimes on my hand—but it seems today’s students are better organized.
Claire from Gig Harbor, Washington, recently wrote in to suggest that we add a column to the Academic Minister for writing down assignments… does anyone else agree? How do you keep track of your homework?
May 3rd
How many life-changing events are unplanned, but come from chance discoveries?
The Red Leather Diary - Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal by journalist Lily Koppel, is the story of such a discovery.
Like something out of a novel, a chance find in an Upper West Side dumpster turned into Koppel’s look at a young woman coming of age in New York City in the 1930s. Koppel stumbled across the diary inside a steamer trunk near her apartment. And thanks to a hired sleuth, she found the owner of that diary. Florence Wolfson, the young writer, was still around at 92.
In her diary, which Koppel augments with interviews with Florence, we can see a young woman with an artistic, literary aesthetic trying to take advantage of all New York City offers and find herself in the process.
Though written at a time when sex was a a subject discussed discreetly at best, the diary is studded with brief but graphic details about relationships with both men and women.
How, Florence was asked, did the diary end up in dumpster? She is not sure, but she suspects the journal was inadvertently abandoned in storage when she and her husband left 98 Riverside Drive in 1989.
The move from New York City to an affluent Connecticut suburb seemed to write a final entry to the chronicle of the eager, searching girl she had been. “Where did all of that creativity go?” Wolfson wondered aloud to Koppel as she pondered the newly rediscovered story of her youth. “If I was true to myself, would I have ended up in Wesport?”
May 1st
A German artist took photographs of 100 different products—mostly food and candy—and compared the pictures on their packages with what was actually inside. Of course we all know there’s bound to be some exaggeration in an advertising photo, but the comparisons are still quite surprising. I’ve reproduced one of the most unappetizing examples above; you can check out the whole series here.
Guten Appetit, as they say!
