News

Big News from Baron Fig

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

We don’t often post about Kickstarters at The Cramped, but Baron Fig’s always have excellent results. Three years ago they Kickstarted their first product, the Confidant notebook, and it’s since become my daily driver.

Today Baron Fig is launching a Kickstarter for their newest products: three awesome-looking bags. Specifically, the Minimal Backpack, Messenger, and Tote. Each of these looks excellent—simple and beautiful (and check out those colors!). And they’re designed specifically to hold things like pens and notebooks (as well as laptops and anything else you need to carry, of course).

Each tool has a clear purpose. They help you do what you do best. Our goal with these new bags is to provide you with functional tools that are also beautiful items in their own right.

Check out the Kickstarter here.

 

Review

Baron Fig Metamorphosis and Pocket Confidant Review

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

By Petey “Pete” Conklin

Look, I’ll be straight with you. No jive. This is a Baron Fig Confidant notebook. They are calling this limited release edition Metamorphosis. But it’s just the same ol’ Confidant y’all know — but it’s pink. With a blue ribbon. Same features as you get with the gray Confidant notebook. Same paper. Same quality. Only in pink.

Now, I got nothin’ against pink. I have a pink shirt that I wear with my gray summer Sunday best suit. I even sometimes pair it with a blue tie. But, where I live here in Elsewhere, they already think I’m a bit strange.

Let me tell you about this place — just to give you a picture of what I’m dealing with. We’ve got three things still operating downtown. A bar, a cafe, and an oil well. No one ever goes to the oil well. The nearest gas station is two exits west on the highway in a town called Otherwise. But, it’s always ten cents cheaper three exits east in Sumsutch. My point being, this is not the place a grown-ass man caries a pink notebook and not have some talk about himself going around.

So, I gave the pink notebook to a gal I’m sweet on. Which was a surprise to her because I don’t usually give a notebook to a body unless I’m planning on getting serious. And she knows this. So, now I suppose she’s expecting a ring next time…

But, the folks at Baron Fig also fairly recently introduced a tiny pocket version of the Confidant. Now, that’s something I’ve been carrying with me just about everywhere. It’s smaller than the Moleskine pocket sized models and has the superior quality and features of it’s big brother Confidant. There’s lots to love and such a little package. I’ve been using this sucker for everything. Writing down conversations I overhear at the cafe. Logging the cigars I smoke every so often. And jotting the occasional poem when nobody’s lookin’ (gotta keep that secret, elsewise people talk about that being strange too).

So, I say both are worth buying if you live anywhere better than here in Elsewhere, OK.

Petey “Pete” Conklin is an almanac aficionado and reliable raconteur. His writing can be found various places around the way or the no-door stall in the restroom of his favorite bar in his hometown of Elsewhere, OK.

Essay

What I Talk about When I Talk About Running Journal

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

By Sean Sharp

I recently finished the book by Haruki Murakami titled, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which, for lack of a better descriptive phrase, is a meditation on distance running. It’s outlines how he came to be a distance runner, how that intersects with his life both as a writer and in terms of his daily routine. Murakami states, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.” As one who runs regularly this is something I can relate to a lot.

After completing this book I decided to create an analogue journal of my running, naming it after the title of Murakami’s book. There are a lot of digital tools to track one’s running, but I wanted to have some notes that I would write following the run (hopefully immediately afterwards) which would capture my thoughts on my distance, pace and anything I noticed, saw or felt while running. A simple reflective journal is what I wanted.

I use a Field Notes larger notebook from the Arts & Sciences edition (though one can use any notebook) and I keep it on my kitchen table where it waits for when I return from a run. Reading back through I can see where I’ve been, what part of my body felt off, what I saw, and anything else I wrote down.

I recommend both the book and a reflective journal for this type of activity. Even if you’re not a runner the book by Murakami has themes around the ideas of perseverance, boredom, an pushing through to which we can all relate.

Sean lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he works as an Educational Technologist for the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon. When not helping faculty and students with technology, he enjoys time with family, reading, writing, running, seeing friends, watching and playing baseball, & hiking. Sean can be found online @seansharp and at seansharp.org.

Review

Guest Review: The OnTask

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

By Petey “Pete” Conklin

Look, I’ll be straight with you. I don’t like Kickstarter stuff. The whole deal kinda sucks. You see something cool and it looks like a deal and you think, “Hey, that’s cool!” But, then, half the time you don’t get the cool thing because it never gets made because what was a cool idea was too cool to actually make. Or you get it and then it’s junk because the cool idea was too cool to make well. Or, you order the thing based on the cool idea that seemed like a good deal and then you see a thousand Chinese knock-offs on Amazon at half the price before the thing you backed even ships because cool ideas are simple to copy. And, then, you try to cancel your thing and the Kickstarter folks are all, like, too busy playing with fidget cubes to give you the time of day. So, for the record, Kickstarter’s sucks.

That said, every once in a while a cool idea comes along that is cool enough to actually ship. That’s when I order it. The OnTask is one of those.

The idea is stupid simple. It’s a tiny whiteboard shaped like a triangular tube. You write your three “big rocks” or whatever else you want to remember for the day on it — one per side. It has a lid on one side that pops off so you can stick your dry erase marker or other pens inside. Or you can stand it on its side and use it as a pen cup. Oh, there’s also an eraser on that cap so you can wipe the thing off for re-use. It’s small enough to throw into a bag and be portable. It’s well made by folks that have been doing the indie business thing for a while. It’s a cool idea executed in a cool way.

Look, there’s two type of people in this world. Whiteboard people and everybody else. If you’re a whiteboard person like me, you’re probably are already on their site clicking the buy button. The rest of you, Godspeed!

Petey “Pete” Conklin is an almanac aficionado and reliable raconteur. His writing can be found various places around the way or the no-door stall in the restroom of his favorite bar in his hometown of Elsewhere, OK.