Colorfully uncommon commonplace notes

I’m a firm believer that a searchable analog database requires color. Two colors, to be precise. And a threaded keyword system so I can search notes by topic. All in one common place. A commonplace notebook.

My commonplace notetaking system lives and breathes in two colors. Grey highlighters and inks tell the authors’ stories. Grey inks record powerful passages directly out of the books I read. These are direct quotes. The authors’ words in my own handwriting.

I use grey inks and EF nibs exclusively for recording direct quotes. Grey inks offer shading — which keeps my notetaking interesting. EF lines provide consistently across quotes, across pages and across notebooks. Every direct quote has a key characteristic in common: narrow grey lines. Recognizable.

Simple and simply quoted.

Then I highlight keywords in the citation info below each quote. Grey highlighter reminds me that those keywords are tied to the authors’ intended point.

Accent colors tell another, more personal, story. Colorful inks record my own thinking about each quoted passage in varieties of nib sizes wider than EF. I might agree or disagree with the author. I might combine the author’s idea with a different scholar’s idea. I might thread connections to other passages in the book. Wordsmithy-networking.

Colorful reflections jump off the page.

Colorful highlighting reminds future me that the keyword(s) are my own creations about the direct quote above.

Dual colors offer a double vision. My thinking in a different color than the author’s thinking. Bright accent colors and variable line widths render my own reflections on the passages I recorded easily skimmable and recoverable.

Digital accuracy in analog clothes. Colorfully uncommon commonplacing.

This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. This week’s standout pen-and-ink combo surprised me. I expected the KACO Green Edge (F) to clog with shimmer from All the Best periodically. Shimmer inks tend to perform reliably in broad and wet nib/feed arrangements. One initial clog on Monday was followed by a full week of reliable ink flow. I wound up requesting every type of writing from this pair: journaling, reading notes, commonplace notes, manuscript revisions, and even a letter. Yet another instance, in a long line of examples, of value and enjoyment refusing to correspond with a pen’s price. 1/5.

• TWSBI 580 Smoke RoseGold II (F) — 1/5. A wet feed that encouraged Rikyu-cha’s brown tones to dominate my writing. Lines stayed true to size despite the voluminous ink pooled atop my lines. Best for slow writing that affords heal;thy drying times — reflective journaling and commonplace notetaking.

• Franklin-Christoph 03 Antique Glass (EF) — 1/3. The combination of narrow section and grippy threads at the bottom of the section made this pairing excellent for detailed task management and notes. Narrow section grew uncomfortable during writing sessions longer than 15 minutes. Daily driver: task management, analog calendar, reading notes, commonplace notes.

• Nahvalur Nautilus Caldera Sea (BBG) — 1/2. Warped Passages is a mid-toned blue in this nib. Plenty of shading. Excellent for keeping longform writing fun. Journaling, creative writing, and commonplace notes.

• Sailor Pro Gear Graphite Lighthouse (Z Architect) — 1/2. Psc’s dryness narrows the Architect’s line width to between a European B and M. Perfect for wide letters in my small handwriting. My go-to journaling combo throughout the week, in addition to accents in my Hobonichi, reading notes and commonplace notes.

• Montblanc 146 Le Petit Prince & Fox (EF) — 2/3. Eau de Nil is moderately wet and so lends some softness to the sharp edges of the 146’s squared EF nib shape. A great combination. I found myself reaching for this pair for even longform journaling. Also: reading notes, and commonplace notes.

Notebooks. Work bujo. Odyssey Neptune 400 (A5). I added a blessed zero new pages to my work journal last week. Ain’t break a wonderful time?

Neptune. She slumbers …

Journal. Endless Recorder in Mountain Snow (A5). I added thirteen new pages to the personal journal last week. The next blank page is 175. My next journal best begin warming up. The Endless Recorder has only six pages of writing space left. Exciting.

The week’s writing begins with two pages of notes. Lists tracking pens cleaned and pens inked. Lists which evolved as I worked through them. Each of my pens for the week touched paper on these pages. In addition to each of my partner’s empty pens.

Pens which are now cleaned and re-inked. “Work-work-work.”

Two four-page long entries follow. The first is a reflection on my final four possibilities for a new summer reading assignment. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is winning out.

Four pens contributed to my thinking-upon-paper. The Sailor started the morning off — shady greens and wide lines. The TWSBI and KACO followed. Fine lines in hushed brown and party-shimmer red, respectively. The Montblanc ended the day’s reflection. A literary themed pen seemed fitting for thinking through Adichie’s strong We Should All Be Feminists.

The second began as an early curricular redesign around how Kamkwamba’s book might work throughout my history class’ first unit. Which skills will the final project capture? How might specific passages from the book built those competencies in the lessons leading up to said project? All written in the no-nonsense Warped Passages, with an increasingly forgiving BBG grind.

The week’s journaling concluded with scribbles, jottings and swatches from my local pen group’s Saturday meetup. A landscape of new-to-me inks from Wearingeul, J. Herbin, Akkerman, and Sailor. Wa. Hoo.

Commonplace. Elemental Paper Iodine (A5). I like to record powerful passages from the books I read into my commonplace notebook. I journey through the commonplacing process after I’ve close-read a book.

Two passages from Ressa’s How to Stand Up to a Dictator now live across three pages. The Franklin-Christoph 03’s EF nib recorded both quotes directly out of the book. All in Sailor 223’s subtle grey.

Eau de Nil’s teal and Warped Passages’ denim blue lend their shading-forward colors to my reflections on the two passages.

I also recorded six passages from Mounk’s The Great Experiment. Every pen and ink pairing took a turn as I reflected on each passage. Rotating through pens keeps the exercise feeling fresh and fun.

Rotating ink colors also keeps each passage’s reflection skimmably discrete — and so easily differentiated at a quick glance.

And pretty. Must not forget pretty to look at.

Written dry. The TWSBI is nearing its feed as I post this. Enough ink to continue writing for another week.

Newly inked. I enjoyed a local pen group meetup without inking a new pen. The best explanation for how I stuck to my initial six-pen plan is: I forgot to bring an empty pen to the meetup.

Yep. Forgetful happenstance for the win.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. I took two ink samples home with me from the pen group meetup. Opposites. One warm orange and one cool blue.

New-to-me inks lovingly donated by my good friends Mike and Martha.

SBRE Brown is a product of Akkerman. Saturday’s gathering was my first experience with the ink in real life, on real and actual paper. A lovely orange-brown with strong shading.

Wearingeul’s Lost is an adventurous light blue. Lost threw off pink and green undertones as it dried on my journal’s Regalia paper. It ultimately dried to a light denim blue. Peaceful and playful.

Outgoing / trades or sales. I have been lax with respect to moving my five chosen pens on to new homes. Next week (he intends once again).

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. My fictional march towards the Last Battle in the Wheel of Time picked up steam last week. I read from midway through Chapter 6 (Questioning Intentions) to the beginning of Chapter 22 (The End of a Legend). 284 iPhone sized pages.

Witnessing the careful, intentional conversion of writing styles from Robert Jordan to Brandon Sanderson is motivating all on its own.

Nonfiction. I finished my close reads of Ressa’s How to Stand Up to a Dictator and MacLean’s Democracy in Chains. A story-driven biography-essay on modern politics and a traditional history of the ideological underpinnings of modern US conservatism, respectively.

I swapped out my longtime bookmark, a guitar pick from my college days, for a lovely brass colored bookmark from Smruti Pens.

A bookmark that serves as temporary storage for my sharpener while reading.

Close reading deserves its own post. It’s a process involving a healthy amount of scribbling in margins, threading annotations, outlining arguments and highlighting.

My trusty Mitsubishi 9852 pencil makes a positive impact. It keeps a needlepoint tip for multiple pages. Annotating multiple pages between visits to a sharpener is a boon to my concentration while drawing connections across chapters in a book.

Yea. I’m talking hearts about you, 9852.

Music. Spring is here and, with the season, comes Chillhop’s latest Spring 23 lo-fi playlist. Their theme is “roadtrip.”

The Spring ‘23 playlist is one of their best. It sits comfortably in my top-five Chillhop Essentials playlists. A slow build in song quality until the final third, which sports one great song after another. Energy that keeps me focused without distracting me from my desktop.

And a peaceful countryside animation to accompany my writing and reading this week. Springtime special.