Be Inspired by the Neighbors (and Moleskine Notebooks)
I'll forgive the intentional spelling mistake in the title, because I'm guessing the majority of the people who might stumble upon this blog post are American (in England, we spell it “Neighbours” – don't ask me why. And yes, I'm English – with the accent and everything). I'm drifting off topic already. Today's exercise for the Wordpress Blogging 101 course asks us the following;
Write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday. Don't forget to link to the other blog!
As per usual, I'm not going to follow the rules to the letter – but I am going to call out a blog, and waffle on about paper notebooks. It's all Jana's fault, following herunexpectedly amazing comment on my last post (p.s. go read her blog – it's wonderful).
Janawrote at length about using a notebook to empty your head from time to time. I can't agree with her enough – it's the primary reason I have carried a notebook around for the last few years – apart from drawing ridiculous doodles while on conference calls, of course.
One of the things that has interested me about paper journals is how much importance people place in their choice of journal. I have bought Moleskine notebooks for years now, and will freely admit that I was influenced almost entirely by the hipster brigade at Tumblr. Yes, they are made well, and yes, they are well designed, but really – it's just a notebook, and an expensive one at that. I guess in many ways Moleskine have become the Apple of the notebook world.
The funny thing about writing in a journal – at least for me – is that I love the idea of doing it, but I don't do it as regularly as I should. Saying I “should” do it seems like an edict to myself. Maybe it's not the right word. I think half the reason I don't write as often as I might is because I'ma world championship contender at avoiding getting on with the thing Iknow Ishould be doing, by inventing something else much more interesting en-route to doing it. I wandered down to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee in the middle of writing this, for example.
Anyway – thankyou to Jana for reading the rubbish I pollute the web with, and thankyou for making me think about the notebook again – maybe it will spur me into a head emptying episode a little later on – you know, after I've invented a few more “other things that I really must do right now”...