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Posted on by Patrick Rhone / 0 Comment

What you bring home – Mike Vardy

I’m sure many of us feel this way after attending a conference:

I got back from Podcast Movement this week with a notebook I can barely read. That’s how conferences go. Three days of good sessions, better hallway conversations, and a running list of things I absolutely need to try. By the flight home the list has fourteen items on it and every one of them felt urgent when I wrote it down.

Here is what Mike Vardy does with the plethora of notes in his notebook after returning home from a conference:

I go through everything and pull out three things. One idea worth thinking about longer. One action small enough to do this week. One person worth staying in touch with.

I love this and will be giving it a try with a conference I’m attending in November that I’m sure will fill the better part of a notebook.

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Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain – Here’s how to do it

Posted on by Patrick Rhone

Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain – Here’s how to do it — Neal Stephenson

Because I am known to write using a fountain pen on paper, a number of people have pointed me to this post and its underlying research. I won’t rehash what is said in those sources, but the gist of it is that when you write things down by hand you’re recruiting more of your brain, which is a good thing.

Review

The A24 Movie Log: A Brief Review

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

A couple weeks ago, I decided I wanted to start keeping a film journal to track my increasingly frequent movie watching. Previously, I’d just been keeping a running list of the films I’d watched, but a log, I figured, would give this pursuit a greater sense of intentionality and focus. Searches for “fountain pen–friendly film journals” and similar terms turned up little in the way of results. Removing the fountain pen qualification, of course, drastically broadened the scope, and there’s no end of movie logs to choose from.

I liked the look and features of this A24 Movie Log, but nowhere on the website was there any information about the type or quality of the interior paper, nor could I find any reviews from other fountain pen users. So I took a chance and purchased the log, and I’m happy to report that the paper is indeed quite fountain pen friendly. There’s a fair amount of ghosting, but zero bleed and only the tiniest bit of feathering. Sheen and shimmer show up just fine.

Now if someone has the same questions I did about this notebook’s paper quality, hopefully they’ll be able to find this post.

Yes, I did indeed enjoy Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride” much more than Guillermo del Toro’s incredibly beige “Frankenstein.” Sorry.
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The Penumbra Print Shop

Posted on by Patrick Rhone

The Penumbra Print Shop

Today, I’m launching a new line of business: Penumbra Print Shop, a man­u­fac­turer of sta­tionery with inter­esting capabilities. Why sta­tionery? Because I find myself com­pelled by print prod­ucts that are not just “for one thing”, but open to many sur­prising uses. Because sta­tionery can be so clever, so beautiful. Because last year I read The Note­book by Roland Allen, and it blew my mind!

A new line of stationary products in a way only Robin Sloan could dream up. Charming and delightful. The whole darn thing. An act of love to everything we believe in here.

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AI doesn’t belong in journaling | The Verge

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

AI doesn’t belong in journaling | The Verge

At my demo, Google told me the idea was to make journaling easier — much in the way that Gemini simplifies other writing tasks, like emails and document summaries. Sometimes, I was told, it can be hard to know what you should journal about. Looking back can also be difficult. The point of Gemini in this instance was to make life a little more convenient and helpful.

That’s nice, except journaling isn’t supposed to be easy or convenient.

Ask any writer: a blank page is meant to be wrestled with. And in journaling, the only prompt you ever need is “What happened today and how do I feel about that?”

What we believe in.