Diary of a Network Geek

This is not a new idea.

But, then, I remember hearing when I was in high school that there are no new ideas under the Sun, only new ways to implement them.  And, remember, every story you tell, is uniquely your own.  So, the age-old question about creative ideas, right?  Where do they come from?  The answer I got was that they come in a plain, brown wrapper from Schenectady.  (That was from Frank Herbert, author of Dune, via a phone…
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On this day, in 1660, arguably the most famous diarist in history, Samuel Pepys, made the first entry into his personal diary.

He kept his diary for approximately nine years, detailing everything from his personal life to the news of the day to even what he ate.  Although he clearly kept his diary purely as a personal exercise, he must have suspected that it may eventually prove interesting to future generations based on the care he took to bind it and…
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Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
   --Martin Luther King

Oddly enough, I’m not talking about physics here.

Thanks to my obsessive attention to Moleskine marketing, I found a link to the most interesting little looping vignettes.  And, yes, to those of you who are also rabid Moleskine fans, this won’t be anything new, but, you have to admit, it is still pretty cool.

Actually, with having recently lost my main Moleskine, which I carried everywhere with me, I’ve been thinking a lot about notebooks and where and how I use them.  So, while writing this post, and thinking about the title, it did occur to me that I might set up a Volant, which is the pretty, soft-cover line of Moleskines, as a sort of fictional encyclopedia with which to imagine a whole science-fiction or fantasy world.  I may do it, and occasionally share pages.  We’ll see.
Anyway, sorry for the tangent.  Now, go look at those loops!

Oh, and happy Friday!

No, that’s not like pen testing.

I used to think with a yellow legal pad.  Then, I thought on a keyboard.  Now, it sort of depends on what I’m doing where and how I do my thinking.  As long-time readers may remember, I’ve been carrying a small Moleskine notebook with me everywhere I go to record thoughts I don’t want to lose.  That, of course, requires a pen.  Or a pencil, I suppose, but I tend toward permanent thoughts, so I use a pen.  The only problem is, Moleskines don’t have a pen sleeve of any kind.  Problem solved: Pen Sleeve.

(Okay, kind of lame for a Friday post, but, really, I’ve been too busy to post much.  And, sadly, I have little to show for being so busy, either!)

I likes me some Moleskine.

I am a geek.  This is not news to you if you read the title of this blog.  The geek is built in.  Like many geeks, I fixate on things to the point of distraction at times.  One of the non-computer things that I have fixated on over the years are Moleskine notebooks.  In fact, I carry one with me pretty much everywhere I go with an embossed red tape label on it to capture my brilliant ideas.  It’s mostly empty, but that’s besides the point.

When choosing this particular Moleskine, I bought several of each variety, lined, squared, plain, in both sizes.  I looked at the merits of each.  The open-ended freedom of the plain that I could picture an artist using.  The writer’s familiar lined much like I’m sure Hemingway used.  The squared version seeming like the kind of thing Edison would carry to sketch out engineering drawings.  But, in the end, I had to choose just one.  I had to commit to using one style, one method, one mindset.  Well, not so much any more.

Now, thanks to the Moleskine website, there are templates for making your own custom pages in each of the formats and sizes available.  Now, you can add ruled pages to your plain notebook, or squared pages to your lined notebook.  You can even add a personal information page!  Why, the possibilities are virtually endless!  (Well, mathematically speaking, they are finite, but you get what I mean.)
Also?  Now that Moleskine has loose-leaf paper like they bind into their notebooks available, customizing your Moleskine is even easier.