Archive for March, 2010

Planners and lawyers

Posted March 31, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 5 comments »

Here’s an interesting reason many attorneys are switching back to paper planners: Courts often ban cell phones from the courtrooms, making it difficult for those who keep their calendars on Blackberries or iPhones to schedule hearings while inside. The solution, according to Gregory Davis, a Milaca, MN based attorney and recent Quo Vadis convert, is to “go back to the past and keep a written calendar also.”

Greg finds the Quarter‘s 15-minute segments best suited to his planning needs, though he also uses the President since he prefers the Habana cover.

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The milk is white: an interview with Ian Garnder

Posted March 30, 2010 by
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A few years ago, Karen blogged about a Mandala she found on the Internet; called the Quo Vadis mandala, it was created by Ian Garnder, an Australian author of Sri Lankan heritage. Gardner included the mandala in his book, The Milk Is White, a philosophical treatise he wrote to share his thoughts about being and truth and happiness. “Quo Vadis” eventually became the name of a whole section of the book — called the Quo Vadis File — which is filled with short, wide-ranging aphorisms about life and its purpose.

“By what is normally termed ‘chance’,” as Gardner put it, he came across our blog and got in touch. He’s since expanded the Quo Vadis File with new material, and we figured it might be fun to ask him some questions about his work. (Both The Milk Is White and the new Quo Vadis File are available, free of charge, on Ian’s website.)

Can you tell the story of how you came to create the Quo Vadis mandala?

One day the words Quo Vadis entered my mind and I took little notice as this sort of thing often happened to me in relation to unusual and/or botanical names. However, when these particular words continued to present themselves I started to wonder if there was any significance to it. It occurred to me that it was a question asked of Jesus by Peter, and that I had seen a film with that title. By this time I had had enough experience to know that the puzzle would be solved in due time, and left it at that. A week or two later, when I was involved in the boring job of hand washing sheets in a tub – a job that seems to leave the mind vacant – thoughts started forming and culminated in an incomplete vision inside my head of lines radiating out of the centre of a bright light, accompanied by an increasing compulsion to stop what I was doing and commit it to paper. Eventually, I had no option but to wash and dry my hands and go to my desk.

At the start I had no clear picture of what was in the light but, once I started, as I drew I saw more. When the outline was almost complete I looked at a space near the top, below the flame, and exclaimed, “THAT is where the “Quo Vadis?” goes! This was what had been developing over some six weeks. The text that follows was a flow on from the drawing. When I related this series of events to a young friend of mine, and he saw the mandala, he said, “But that is a life’s compass!”

Continue reading »

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Planners, pandas, and China

Posted March 29, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

Chet Chin, whose awesome DIY Habana planner we blogged about back in January, recently traveled to the Bifengxia Panda Base in China’s Sichuan province for an annual volunteer trip. While there, she snapped this picture of her planner from her hotel room in Ya’an City.

“The impressive lighted roof in the background houses a historical looking building that’s actually a shopping mall with quaint little shops selling local stuff, including Chinese tea,” she writes. You can see a photo of the same view in daylight on her blog, and a bunch of great panda pics on Flickr.

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Power tools and paper

Posted March 26, 2010 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

How’s this for a customized cover! Thomas at Force de Frappe didn’t like the cover design of his Clairefontaine Graf it sketchpad, so he got out his power tools and set about creating a totally new one. As of now, it’s still blank, and awaiting its new design. Watch this space to see how things evolve, and if you’re looking for inspiration, check out Gentian’s awesome customized Rhodias!

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Helping hoarders II: Geralin in action

Posted March 25, 2010 by
in Videos | 3 comments »

UPDATE: These clips are no longer available on YouTube, though you can still see them on Geralin’s website.

Last week, we interviewed professional organizer Geralin Thomas about her work on A&E’s Hoarders. This week, you can see her in action: Geralin just put up a bunch of clips on her YouTube page that show how she helps hoarders make decisions about the items in their homes. Of the clip above, she writes:

Missy told me she will “never” get to the post office to return a few things she purchased on line that weren’t wanted/needed. She wanted to have the merchandise credited to her account but “couldn’t” get to the post office. She, like many hoarders, use a lot of “all or nothing” language.

Hoarders often think of the worst case scenarios. For example, some “know” how things will turn out. Some think in extremes. Missy’s statement, “I’m never going to get to the post office” was one of many.

She would most likely benefit from accomplishing very small goals, like returning an item or two for a refund. I don’t think she was hanging onto the return items because it was too difficult to let them go. There were many items she was happy to donate/discard. She believed it was too hard to get to the post office.

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Pregnancy planning

Posted March 23, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a planning enthusiast like Laurie has lots of great ideas about what to do with different layouts and formats. We were emailing about my new Monthly 4 garden planner recently, and she mentioned another application that sounded like a natural fit:

A friend of mine is due to have a baby any minute, and I realized the Monthly 4 would make an excellent pregnancy planner.

The mom-to-be could mark her due date and then keep track of everything she has to do each month to prepare for the big day. The list boxes each month could be used for topics like: baby’s room prep (furniture to buy, painting and decoration, etc.), things to do to prepare for the birth (like set up maternity leave), baby gear to buy, etc. The monthly format makes scheduling all those prenatal appointments and childbirth classes easy.

Something I did during my pregnancies was on my monthly calendar I wrote in each week what week of pregnancy I was (because for every prenatal appointment they ask, How many weeks are you? So it was nice to have a quick reference).

With the caveat that I don’t have kids myself and thus have no idea what it takes to plan a pregnancy, I’ll say that it sounds like a good idea to me! Might also be a good gift for a new mom-to-be from her friends or family members.

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Guest post: Waterproof inks

Posted March 22, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

Guest blogger Kate Marshall is back this morning with a good subject for the accident prone: waterproof ink.

So one time, I was transcribing notes and accidentally knocked over my glass of water. Yes, all over my notebook. Luckily, my notes were okay because I’d written them with a waterproof fountain-pen ink: Noodler’s Black.

Yes, such a thing exists. Recently, I did a quick and dirty test of three waterproof Noodler’s inks, a J. Herbin fountain pen ink, and two waterproof J. Herbin inks to see how well they hold up against liquid abuse.

The inks I tested were:

I. Noodler’s (recently purchased during the 2010 Philadelphia Pen Show)

1. Black
2. Bad Blue Heron (a new turquoise color)
3. Old Manhattan Black (exclusive to Fountain Pen Hospital)

II. J. Herbin (provided by Exaclair)

1. Perle Noire (not specifically labeled waterproof but more on that later)
2. Encre Authentique (“Lawyer’s ink”)
3. Encre Chine (“China ink.” Also can be known as “India ink”)

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Helping hoarders: An interview with Geralin Thomas

Posted March 18, 2010 by
in Planning Tips | 10 comments »

Geralin Thomas is a North Carolina based professional organizer whose advice we’ve featured here before. Since last fall, she’s also been involved with A&E’s hit show Hoarders. We caught up with Geralin recently to ask her a few questions about the experience.

First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself—where are you from, where do you live, how did you get started as an organizer…

I am based in Cary, North Carolina. I joined NAPO, North Carolina in August of 2003 and consider that my “official” start date. Before that, I was on the ‘friends and family plan’, meaning I helped friends and relatives who knew I loved organizing people’s time, space and stuff. I unofficially started calling myself an organizer a year before that.

How did you come to be involved with A&E’s Hoarders? Had you worked with hoarders before?

Hoarders are a population I enjoy working with tremendously. I find it disappointing that there is such a stigma placed on mental health conditions such as hoarding. I have worked with hoarders for a while, but when I was offered a chance to work with them on film I leapt at the opportunity. I was optimistic that the show would pull the topic of hoarding out of the closet, but it has busted the door right off the hinges!

How does working with hoarders differ from working with your other clients? I imagine there must be psychological problems to confront, in addition to organizational ones…

Helping a hoarder involves more than simply cleaning out the home. Personal, emotional, and even financial issues come into play.

“Outing” a hoarder may ruin a relationship. Sometimes the hoarder will feel angry or hurt and may disconnect themselves from the person trying to help them. In addition, it often divides families, with one half of a family thinking, “Leave the hoarder alone, they aren’t harming anyone except themselves,” and the other half thinking, “I am not going to sit around and be negligent about this; it’s a mental disorder and I’m going to take action.”

Once a private hoarding situation becomes public (outside involvement coming from fire chiefs, social workers, code enforcers, mental health practitioners, etc.), things tend to move more rapidly than the hoarder or the family expects. The hoarder feels a loss of control. So does the family.

Also worth noting, especially for mid-life or elderly hoarders, is that many of them have been homeowners for several years and “home” means they know their neighbours, their community, and the local rhythm of a neighbourhood. They are comfortable getting around town and making appointments. They navigate well in familiar territory. To remove them from their “comforting” piles of clutter and their home may exacerbate feelings of depression, disorientation or helplessness. They may feel anxious, out of control or ashamed.

The show has obviously done a lot to raise awareness about hoarding. Do you think it’s been as successful in helping the individuals who actually participate? In a blog post you wrote this fall, you mentioned that the road to recovery for hoarders extends way beyond the 2-day taping schedule…

Continue reading »

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted March 17, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 13 comments »

UPDATE: We’re all out of ink! Thanks to all who participated, and check back next year for more…

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day–and the beautiful spring weather–I am pleased to announce our second annual J. Herbin Green and Orange ink giveaway!

Please write to us c/o the Contact Us form with your name, mailing address and first and second choices for ink colors. Your ink will be mailed to you before the end of the month.

You can see all the greens and orange here on the J. Herbin website.

We hope you enjoy them, and if you create any sketches, artwork or fun doodles, we would love to have a photo for this blog!

For the “white” in the Irish flag I will include a sample of Clairefontaine paper.

Growing up with the last name of “Doherty” everyone always expected us to have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. We didn’t. Since it was a holiday, my sister and I could pick out any meal we wanted. So every St. Patrick’s Day we had my mother make spaghetti and meatballs!

I was glad to hear that actor Malachy McCourt and his family celebrated the day with Italian food, too!  Read the whole story here.

Have a wonderful day!  Thank you for reading and being part of this community.

And thank you to Biffybeans for her beautiful photography!

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Taking planners beyond planning

Posted March 16, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

I’ve been meaning to blog about this great post at Plannerisms for weeks, and was reminded of it recently during our discussion of switching planner formats. If you’ve got an extra planner, Laurie has some great suggestions for putting it to use — a phone log, meeting notes, a meditation record… which in turn reminds of one of Stephanie’s old posts, where she talked about using a Notor as a daily journal.

I used to use a Notor as a bird watching journal, but alas, the habit didn’t stick: we don’t get enough species here for me to want to record everything I see each day, so eventually I just decided to keep a running list in one of my Habanas instead. I do use a Monthly 4 as a garden planner, but other than that, it’s just me, my Sapa X, and my meetings and appointments.

Do you have any other creative non-planning planner uses?

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