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Field Notes and Moleskines!
I wrote about Field Notes here. My connection with Field Notes starts with Aaron Draplin. As I explained, it was how Aaron made me feel about Field Notes that provided the spark for my fire.
I jumped on the Moleskine train in 2005. The buzz in my then online communities (authors, management / leadership / marketing) made the notebook impossible to resist. Truth be told, I have always been a notebook junkie so it didn't take much.
The day my first Moleskine arrived in the mail was the day I cut the link between Moleskine and Hipsters.
To me, then, Hipsters were folks who lavished over Seth Godin and many of the top fifty or so online marketing websites. It was like they'd link to Seth to show the other Hipsters that they were cool. They'd also write stuff about marketing and their readers fed upon their words like a school of pirana feeding upon cow intestines. Actually I think it was more of a Kool-Aid thing than a cow intestine thing.
As the immature idiot I was at the time, I quit writing stuff about Seth. While he's one of my most favorite all time authors ever, and although I have this tendency to rant about people I dig, I could not associate myself with the Hipsters. In retrospect, most, no check that, all of the Hipsters were way more talented than myself and any dribble from me would have been a grain of sand in the desert worth of distinction...Dave belly laughs here!
The Moleskine notebook stood on its own. I did not need Hipster validation. I loved them! As with Aaron, one spark for me was the company's brand story of its connection as a successor to the legendary notebooks used by yesteryear's rockstar artists like Vincent van Gogh. While the notebooks are not the same ones used by the previous two centuries worth of artists, the story mesmerized me. That alone however, would not be enough. Plain and simple, it's the way my pen feels in my hands as I write in the Moleskine that seals the deal. It. Just. Feels. Good. So, brand story plus tactility keeps me buying Moleskines.
In the past I used two Pocket-sized, (3.5 X 5.5 inch) hardcovered Moleskines in the field. The Classic Notebook and the Classic Reporter's Notebook. At my writing desk I use the Cover Art Journal and the Large-sized (5 X 8.25 inch) Classic Notebook, both for journaling.
I devoted a couple of Pocket Reporter Notebooks to grocery shopping over the past few years. Both basically fell apart. That crack in the Moleskine
armor led me to start using the Field Note memo book for grocery store duties. So far so good.
To me, notebook usage is an evolving phenomena. I began to use a Quiver pen holder with my Pocket Moleskine Classic and it enriches the experience. Still, I love the Field Notes memo book. So I will continue to use them as well.
One more thing about the Field Notes memo book: It inspires me to get out of the house and go record stuff.
I recently subscribed to the Field Notes seasonal edition release. When that first batch of Field Notes memo books hit my door I looked at them and thought, "Now you really got to get your butt out in the field and take notes!"
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