A planner as a pocket notebook
My work week began with a mistake. I left my A5 pocket notebook at home. In it’s drawer. Habits take practice.
Happenstance: I had a B6 Stalogy 1/2 Year in my bag. The plan was to use the Stalogy for recording student meetings. However, in the absence of my Taroko pocket notebook, the Stalogy became my pocket notebook.
Good thing.
I love having dates along top of each page for pocket notes. Their home at the top corner renders my random notes more easily searchable. Especially, days later.
And, I’m learning that dates work better for me than page numbers — in a pocket notebook.
Dateline … of justice
The grid structures my quick jottings. And the leftmost squares serve as built-in checkboxes. Convenient as many of my jottings turn into short-term tasks.
Grids make a happy teacher
The B6 size poses a challenge. My Galen Leather folio — and most of my pants and jackets — are wide enough to comfortably fit an A5 book. The dimensions of the B6 Stalogy are too wide.
As a result, I’ve taken to carrying my notebook around. Held atop my laptop. It’s a novel arrangement for me. And looks great with Kaweco’s Fox colorway.
Hey there, good lookin’
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. This week’s standout combo is the Franklin-Christoph 46 with Birmingham’s Andy Warhol Pop Art Purple in a Masuyama F cursive italic. I reached for this combo over and again throughout the week. Just about every slow writing task includes purple. Smooth, if unforgivingly crisp, writing. Excellent purple accent for reading notes, meeting note annotations, and journaling. Only the feed remains.
That sneaky blue acrylic
Karas Kustoms Decograph (EF) — 1/4. Perfect pairing. A wet M line. Healthy shading, subtle sheen, and fun shimmer. Great journaling combo. Journaling, lesson plan outlines, meeting notes.
Sailor Pro Gear (F) — 1/5. Smoke’s color shifting is fun to watch. The true F line was well-suited to meeting notes, lesson plan outlines, and scratch notes. Sailor nib reverse writes to a smooth EF line — excellent for task management. Stealthy combo.
Kaweco Sport (EF) — 1/5. Dry. Usefully dry. Pocket notes were easily read, even from a short distance. And jottings dried almost instantly. I could make a note and close the book right away without smearing. Daily carry approved.
TWSBI 580-AL (Predator) — 2/5. The multi-tasker grind makes this pairing. The wet EF line is excellent for detailed notes. The M line made for fun journaling.
Wing Sung 601 (F) — 1/2. Burp city. The heat from my hand leads the air inside too push ink out. Orange hands are fine so long as I’m writing at home. Became a home-only combo from Wednesday on. Journaling, reading notes.
Faber-Castell Ondoro (M) — 1/4. Round M nib was a reliable member of the meeting notes crew. Snap cap made quick jottings workable. Flimsy clip relegates the Ondoro to my desk. Rose Noir fits in everywhere. Meeting notes, journaling, reading notes, lesson plan outlines.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). The spreads from last week held up well through the last three days of work.
One new page this week. An outline of my opening welcome speech for Wednesday’s orientation. In two oranges: Yu-Yake and Copper Noir.
Orange is the new orange
I had five topics I wanted to address. These notes represent the main nouns for each topic. Just enough on the page to remind me — without encouraging me to read what’s on the page.
Journal. Taroko Breeze (A5). 15 new pages, over five entries. I made a conscious effort to sit down with my Taroko on weekday evenings.
In fact, I sat down twice on Thursday. I got to use three pens that night: once to process my day and again to reflect on a 538 article on new voting laws across the US.
Tasty variety
And a healthy number of Harrison and Whitman poems.
Pocket notebook. Stalogy Editor 1/2 Year (B6). Seven new pages. A respectable beginning to this Stalogy pocket notebook.
All of my notes are made by the Kaweco Sport. The dry EF pen/ink combo dries quickly on Stalogy’s paper. With clear, legible lines. Structure = good.
Written dry. All seven pen and ink combos survived the week. Take that, ink deities.
Newly inked. A brief temporary fill of Diamine Earl Grey. I explain below.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. I fell to the allure of Sailor’s ongoing US sale. Fahrney’s offered a 1911 Large in Fresca for a stellar price. Check, please.
What my partner calls “Tiffany” blue
Sadly, the pen is already out again for an exchange. One tine was longer than the other. I can fix misalignment, but not a manufacturing error. Fahrney’s has been great in processing the quick turnaround.
Excited for the replacement. This is a color that stands out against my collection. Chalk up a point for trying a new color.
Outgoing / trades or sales. No additions to the outgoing tray.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. Artificial Condition fell to my kind attention. Following Eden’s exploits is a sarcasm rollercoaster. In a good way.
I continued on in Wells’ Murderbot series. I’m already 71 pages into Exit Strategy. Mostly read on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
With the world building fleshed out, Wells is leaning heart-forward. Eden is finding the courage to care about the folk around them. It’s rewarding reading.
Nonfiction. Dug back into Gerda Lerner’s historical analyses of ancient Mesopotamian stories. She explores patriarchal power arrangements in old Ishtar tales. Lerner is part of preparing for my unit on leadership expectations in ancient Mesopotamian stories.
My students hunt through Gilgamesh to find leadership expectations. Part of the process is recognizing assumptions about who deserves power. Lerner helps to dig out the gendered assumptions that are deeply embedded in who “deserves” power according to the Gilgamesh tale.
Fun times. Nerdy in the best of ways. And meaningful.
Music. I discovered Monday evening that Chillhop Music had released an hour-long compilation of L’Indécis’ music. Guitar-forward lo-fi. For those who prefer jazz over a hip hop base.
My good friend Justin, a writer, and I like it enough that we arranged a virtual listening party for the coming week. Sweet.
Excellent backing music for converting lesson plans from my school’s old LMS to our new system.
