new blog address

For some random reason, I decided to port my blog over to Blogger.com. This might be a terrible idea that I'm gonna regret, so I kept my wordpress blog too.... just in case...

Any reason why or why not I should (or shouldn't) use blogger? thanks!!

Giveaway extended...

Since I only have *sigh* 10 entries... I'm extending the giveaway for another week. I'll pick the winners sometime in the afternoon (PST) on Wednesday, November 17th.

Please, please, please... tell your friends about this giveaway!!!

To enter the giveaway, you still have to post a comment on the original post, which can be found HERE.

 

SPREAD THE WORD!! :o)

Exaclair Madness Reviews

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED!!!

Exaclair Madness!



Soo... recently I received quite a few goodies from Karen at Exaclair: a 2010 Quo Vadis Equology Sapa X planner, a Clairefontaine Basic, and a large Quo Vadis Habana. Instead of doing three individual reviews, I thought "why not do one BIG review?", complete with all the wonderful products Exaclair sent me (which I appropriately drafted on my Rhodia A4 pad, with a pen filled with J. Herbin Éclat de Saphir ink :o))

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="Quo Vadis Equology Sapa X"][/caption]

Our first test subject is the Equology Sapa X planner. The eco Sapa X is made from 85% recycled materials, and is refillable. It has a cool cover that's sort of rubbery with a bumby-ish texture, but not sticky (upon inquiry, I found it's made from latex).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Logo and cover detail"][/caption]

The planner is in a one-week-per-two-pages format (weekly), which I like.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="weekly spread"][/caption]

Sadly it also has the little time stamps (which thankfully are easy to blot out), though it makes it all up with the plain (un-ruled) pages... Doodlers rejoice!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="plain pages :)"][/caption]

Another handy little feature they added was the little section for notes at the bottom left side of the notebook, for every week,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Notes detail"][/caption]

and two blank pages at the beginning of each month, again, for notes.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Notes spread"][/caption]

My only true gripe about this planner, is the paper. I know they tried hard, but the grey-ish 64g paper is definitely not fountain pen friendly.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Ink tests"][/caption]

Heavy show-through,  and feathering make this planner suitable for ballpoints, pencils (<3), and fine (0.5) point roller/gel pens.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="show-through :("][/caption]

Aside from the paper though, I would recommend this planner to anyone who wants a good, refillable , pocket-sized planer, that's eco-friendly. Any FP users though, from what I've read the Quo Vadis Scholar Planner has thicker paper, and will stand up to bleed though, THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!

The Clairefontaine Basic, is what you would expect it to be: a very basic notebook. The cover is a somewhat laminated cardboard, and the notebook is cloth bound (great, since I despise spirals). The notebook measures 20.5 cm x 15 cm (about 6 x 8 ?), and comes in a variety of colors. The one Karen sent me is a pleasant green color,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Clairefontaine Basic"][/caption]

with the spine being a darker shade (it might look a little worn since I'm using this for NaNoWriMo :) great notebook!!!).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="spine detail (it's not as light as it appears in the picture!)."][/caption]

One slight thing that I noticed, (which personally, I don't mind... but you know how people are), was that the cover was slightly mis-aligned on the front (with the binding). The back cover was fine.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="the front cover is uneven. no biggie though!"][/caption]

What really makes this notebook special though, is the premium, smooth, extra-white 90 g/sm Clairefontaine paper "The best paper in the World for writing", a statement they have truly sold me on.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="Ink test "][/caption]

The colors show nicely. Blacks are black, blues are blue etc. Drying times were a bit slower, but it is to be expected with smoother, thicker papers.
Anyways, if you don't mind (or prefer) the very basic design (lack of strap and back pocket), but (and) still want the excellent paper (and considerably cheaper price tag, this notebook will be perfect for you. You can purchase them here (chill, I'm not affiliated with them in any way).

The last notebook I'm going to review here is the Quo Vadis Habana.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Quo Vadis Habana"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="without the... whatchamacallit "][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="details details details..."][/caption]

This large, 15 cm x 25 cm (6" x 9") notebook is bound in black leather. There are 80 sheets (160 pages) of the premium Clairefontaine paper (same as in the Basic, except the lines in this notebook are grey, vs the Basic's purple). The notebook has a great feel to it, though I wish it had more pages since these will go by quickly considering the wide-ish rule.
The notebook has a black elastic strap, and a polyester bookmark that looks as though it might fray :( (would recommend heat sealing it),

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="looks like it might fray... :("][/caption]

and a pocket in the back.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Back pocket "][/caption]

Also, incase you didn't get it already, this is not a pocket sized notebook, they do make an A6 version, though the paper is different (64g). Another thing that would get on my nerves about this notebook is that the corners overlap, a lot. And for some reason the front cover doesn't overlap as much as the back cover.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="uneven covers :("][/caption]

Just beware that the corners might crush if you have it in your bag a lot. More features: covers bend back all the way around,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="flexy :)"][/caption]

it spreads flat,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="spreads flat (sorry for the bad quality pic...)"][/caption]

and it's pretty thin (good and bad thing, as mentioned above).
Anyways, I would definitely recommend this notebook to anyone that writes. Really. It's just that great. I really love the extra-white paper, some people might not, I do. Just a personal preference (though if you prefer ivory paper, check out the Rhodia Webnotebook). You can purchase these notebooks here

Now here comes the cool part... I'm going to be giving away a Quo Vadis Habana... to 1 lucky winner. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post saying whatever you want (entries are limited to 1 per person), and I'll come around on the November 18th (next Wednesday) and pick a winner (using a random number generator). The winner will be posted on the 18th.

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED :(

Good Luck,

SirCram

Giveaway and update

Just wanted to let you know that @_ghost_world is giving away a 2010 Rhodia planner, you can enter HERE, but hurry! it closes on Oct. 14!! Also, I'm trying to finish my Rhodia Webnotebook review, it should be done today, or tomorrow (I hope!).

anyways,

Best!

Sircram

Moleskine GTD

Somehow, a pocket ruled Moleskine made its way to my room. I don't know how, I don't know why, but it did.
Anyways, I decided to take a shot at creating my own complete Moleskine GTD system based on the hyalineskies GTD System,  the Circle, GIL's Student Planner Hack and a little bit of my own creativity..

I don't want to re-iterate everything I already wrote on my flickr, click on the pictures to see the notes etc.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The front cover of my 'hacked' Moleskine GTD system."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="post-it flags on the inside cover to mark pages etc. Project flag in case I have a project that I want to quickly find. I rarely have any big projects, which is why I didn't put this on the outside of the notebook/"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Number the odd pages (for quick reference when an item is delegated to a different section)."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The main tabs: ToDo Soon Maybe/Later Notes"][/caption]



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="How I use the tabs: ToDo (can be used for simple items or as an inbox ((you can change it to inbox if you want.)) As an inbox, you want it to have the most pages since this is where you put everything, before it gets delegated to the other sections. Since this section will have the most items , I made mine about 95 pages long) Soon (used for things that aren't immediate ((scheduling appointments etc. and things happening in the near future)). Since I don't have many things that would fit this category, it's only about 30 pages long). Maybe/Later (things I'm putting off, or that don't require immediate attention. Only about 30 pages long.) Notes (where I just put down random notes, things that don't necessarily need to go in the ToDo or Inbox section ((book lists, movie lists, email lists, twitter drafts, doodling, you name it!))"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="This system is pretty self explanatory. I kind of tweaked it, you can find the original idea here font.is/?p=790 Very easy system to take care of little items, to planning bigger projects."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375" caption="Some of the things I added: Contexts (from David Allen's GTD): Create a border/column about 1.5 cm in from the side of the page (you can use a thin sharpie so that it bleeds through, and you only have to do it every other page) where you put Contexts (@mac, @car, @cell, @work etc). You can add as may as you want per action/project, just try to keep it broad and simple, so you can easily scan through your items to see what you have to do! Due Dates are pretty self explanatory."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="I like to keep a secret $20, some index cards and a couple spare metro tickets, nice to have in case of emergency."][/caption]

That's all! Happy productivity!!

Sircram

p.s. leave comments on how this worked out for you!!

Win Free Stuff (and help me win free stuff)

Love/Hate relationship with my Moleskine, but only love with my Hero 329 :o)

Recently, I became a bit of a Moleskine addict, and as I've been looking through various sites ('Skine Art), and somehow, I fell on some interesting pen/notebook sites, some that you should check out: The Pen Addict, Future Nostalgic, Potentially Percipicacious, Good Pens, An Inkophile's Blog, and Notebook Stories to name a few. Anyways, since lately I've been having issues with bleed through and feathering with my fountain pen, in my moleskine, I posted a tweet on my account (@ecram), asking if anyone knew of a great, affordable, moleskine friendly fountain pen. Of course, @futurenostalgic, always ready to help, responded with a link to his glowing review of the Hero 329. The Hero 329 is a Chinese-made fountain pen, with an extra Fine hooded nib, and an aerometric filling method. But wait, it gets even better, the pen is available at HisNibs, for only $15!!! I almost immediately purchased it. Though I should have listened to @futurenostalgic, and purchased his recommended Aurora Black ink, instead I went with convenience, over quality, and bought the only ink my local stationery store carries, Private Reserve Velvet Black.

This pen/ink combination is OK, but there's still a lot of bleed/show through. Aside from that, when I'm not writing in my Moleskine (or when I come across pages that are actually good quality paper. More on that later.), I use my Hero 329, it's a great pen. Puts down a nice, smooth, wet line, and fares better than some of the pens I have that cost three times that!

Anyways, onto my grippes with Moleskine, more specifically Moleskine paper, even more specifically; Moleskine's shitty paper.

Since I got my Moleskine, one of the many things I enjoyed about it, was its smooth, creamy, ivory-colored FOUNTAIN PEN FRIENDLY paper. But... I guess the wonderful... smooth... creamy... ivory-colored... FOUNTAIN PEN FRIENDLY paper, was there by mistake, since as I continued writing in my trusty notebook, the paper quickly quickly degraded, and my words started to feather, and bleed through. I mean, it's SO bad, that even my Pilot G2 (THE G2!!) bleeds through, A LOT, when it used to not (bleed through).

So, if any of you pen/notebook fanatics/enthusiasts/addicts, could please give me some advice on an inexpensive, pocket sized notebook, with FP friendly paper, that's available in US (locally in San Diego, California, would be even better!), it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric (@ecram)