My Journal, My Non-Living Best Friend

I've always tried to keep an updated Journal since I was a small kid. Sometimes I'll fill a notebook, but mostly, the pages are left empty after the first few get doodles of ink. Lately, after I moved back to the pen and paper scheme, I entertained the idea of keeping a journal/diary. And I took it seriously. Today, 19 days after I started writing, The Archer's Chronicles is 20 pages rich of scribbles, doodles, drawings, and stickers. For the last 19 days, it has become my non-living best friend.

My Journal is a blue 6.25 x 8.25 ruled spiral college notebook that used to be a concept notebook for my projects. The front and back covers are thick plastic, which protect the inside pages from scratches and dents while the notebook is inside my bag. The inside pages are made of inexpensive thin paper with the text "Wise Buy by Expressions" on the upper right portion of each page.

I use a variety of pens to write on my Journal, but mostly I use my 0.4 Pilot G-TECs. I also use other gel pens like the MonAmi Gel Pets and a blue 0.7 Pilot Super Gel Pen I like a lot. Some days call for that "special touch", and so I write with my Parker Vector fountain pen using black Parker Quink ink.

I usually write around midnight, when I'm done with housekeeping and television soap-opera and my neighborhood gets some semblance of calm and quiet. I like to write in silence. I always have. Silence brings me so much: words, emotions, remembrances--even sound. Lately, a new habit has formed, though, and I am suprised. I am beginning to like to write while the radio is tuned in to RJ100. It's such an excellent motivation to write.

Writing has become ceremonial for me. Almost ritualistic. I like to write after my night bath, with a mug of steaming hot tea next to me--sometimes Lyons Earl Grey, sometimes Tazo Green Tea. It depends. I like it steaming hot because I love the aroma of tea filling my writing corner of the room. My journal entries always begin with the day's date and time. I also include the background music. As I write, I slowly sip my tea.

After an entry, the tea is finished, and it's time for bed. Finally, I can sleep.

My 49th

Here is the 49th addition to my shotglass collection. It's a University of Michigan souvenir shotglass manufactured by Libbey, shown by the embossed L script found on the outer bottom of the glass. It is my collection's 49th shotglass, first university souvenir, second Libbey glass (the first is the St. Louis Cardinals shotglass), and seventh to come all the way from the US of A.

Another one is coming up early this week.

What Notebookism Says About the Archer

In the chaos of my Friday life... In the confusion of a hectic calendar... A kind soul uttered words that made my head spin and my heart skip a beat. Not in a romantic way, though.

This is what Sir Armard B. Frasco* said about this blog:

Kudos on your wonderful blog - a real paper/pen connoisseur's voyeuristic find.

Maraming salamat po, Sir Armand!


* Mr. Frasco is the Founder of Notebookism, a website showcasing notebook and notebook-related stories.

Journal Happy

My Journal has got a name now! I'm calling it “The Archer’s Chronicles”, and then I designed a logo for it. Nice.

Photos to be posted later. Ehehe.

My 48th

This is my 48th shotglass and it's cool that it's from a local alcohol advertising campaign. I consider it a treasure because it's a gift from someone I least expected to be giving me a gift after all we've been through.

My shotglass collection has surprisingly grown in the past several months, and I have created a gallery at Photobucket.com to make public viewing a bit easier. It also makes it possible for me to view them from time to time, rather than open the huge box where I keep them. I do not have a display case yet (and I'm saving up for at least one), so I am keeping them in a huge carton with each shotglass carefully wrapped in white paper.

Last weekend, I added six more shotglasses to my collection through an eBay purchase. It was actually a bargain because I got all six of them for only 190 Philippine pesoses. Wow. I got a Vancouver, B.C. shotglass, a Niagara Falls shotglass, a souvenir shotglass from the 1986 World Expo in Vancouver, two from the UK showing St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London, and an advertising shotglass from Hong Kong. All of them below. And also here.

Weekend Loot (Last Part)

This is it. The promised post for what I called 'massive weekend looting' in my two earlier entries. I call it that because I bought so much pens I'm wondering now how I'm going to use them. Besides, I have never in my life bought as many pens as the ones I bought last weekend. Add to that the Stradmore notepad and small reporter notebook I bought, plus the green shotglasses from Korea, and all the stuff EJ brought me from the US, Canada and China. I got three new shotglasses: my first US State shotglass (from Las Vegas, Nevada), a unique Hollywood shotglass, and another one from Canada. He also bought me a small pocket notebook in China. All of these items are in the photo below:

Saturday morning brought me to San Pablo to visit my niece Laicka who was in the hospital for dengue fever treatment. After a short visit, I grabbed lunch over at my parents' house and went back to San Pablo to look at the Pilot G2s my sister-in-law told are available at OSC Bookstore. Alas, the G2s are there, but what caught my attention are the MonAmi 'Love Pet' gel pens. They're just amazing. The product line has eight available colors, and the pens are square compared to the usual round shape. I love these pens so much I bought two sets!

After that, I hopped over to another supplies store, Expressions which is located at the city mall. I saw the MonAmi pens there, too. At Expressions, I bought a Stradmore notepad and a small reporter notebook.

After the pens and notebook/notepad shopping spree, I went to a thrift shop and saw the two green shotglasses from Korea. Ha. I had to buy them, too.

And not long after, I saw jelly cellphone housing for both my Nokia 1100 and 3100.

Ayayay, what a weekend!

Weekend Loot (Part 2)

Pens Galore! These are gel pens from MonAmi called "Love Pets". Comes in colors: Black. Blue. Sky. Green. Wine. Rose. Pink. Orange. And as promised, more details on entries to come!

Weekend Loot (Part 1)

Two shotglasses from Korea. Part of massive weekend looting that includes pens, notebooks, notepads and jelly cellphone housing. More details on entries to come!

Back to Basics

People are probably confused why they now see me use an old Nokia 1100 and an even older Nokia 3100. I’m tempted to ask, what’s wrong with these phones, anyway? Friends are surprised to see me enjoy these two phones nowadays because they used to see me with high-tech phones and gadgets.

Barely a year ago, I carry in my backpack a small purse that contains, more or less, the following: a Nokia N70 (a craze at that time), a Sony Ericsson K608i, an HP1940 iPaq (with a wireless keyboard), a 6GB iPod Mini, and a Creative Zen Nano Plus. Also in the backpack are: Kodak digital camera, my 80GB external hard drive, two USB flash drives, USB card reader, USB port hub, three Phillips headsets, and an assortment of Cross, Parker, Sheaffer, and Inoxcrom pens. For safety reasons, my backpack’s zippers are always locked using two Master combination locks. Whew!

Fast forward to today.

I still carry the same backpack, and the same purse. (Grin.) But in the purse now are: two Nokias (1100 and 3100) and the iPod Mini. I still bring along the camera, external hard drive and flash drives, because clearly, they constitute a reasonable necessity. The card reader and USB port hub are either at the office or at home, but I have stopped carrying them with me.

There are new additions, though. (Big grin.) In my bag are my Starbucks 2007 planner, a personal journal that still needs a name (Grin. Grin. Grin.), and another notebook for what else, note-taking. (Big grin.) Also, there are more pens in my bag now, as I love to color code (and I love to hoard, according to Lilia). I purchased a set of three Pilot G-TEC-C4s (Bigger grin.) and a set of five HaloZee twin highlighters. Currently, I am drooling over the set of available-only-in-the-US Pilot G2 gel pens.

In terms of data management, I can say that I have truly gone back to the basics now. It didn’t take me overnight to do that, though, and quite a number of reasons contributed to this ‘historic’ change.

My iPaq. The PDA that is supposed to make life easier for me (and for others, too) only made things worse. I had an earlier version (1930) which worked well, and so I thought the 1940 will work along fine, if not better. But I was wrong. Sometimes it doesn’t synchronize with either my PC or laptop. At times, the battery is suddenly drained of power even after a full charge. But what busted my patience was when it didn’t turn on minutes before an important presentation at a staff meeting. All of my notes were in the iPaq, and I had to reconstruct everything out of memory. So after seven months of using an iPaq1940, I decided I had to part with it.

My 3G phones. Like so many Filipinos, I liked to keep up with the growing trend in cellphone fashion. So that when the first batch of 3G phones came in the market, I immediately grabbed not one, but two new handsets. For the price I had to pay for them, they were clearly a big investment. And so when the time for need came along, I was forced to ditch them and learn a hard lesson: I only need a phone that can send and receive calls and messages. Period. It was a big heartbreak for me and it was a lesson learned the hard way, but still a lesson, anyway.

Going back to the basics did not come to me overnight. And it obviously became possible through a variety of reasons. But for several months now, I have been immensely enjoying a less-electronically-constipated life. My Nike backpack is heavier with three notebooks and dozens of pens inside, but I have no regrets. Not one bit. It’s a little tough for my back, but the satisfaction I get when I read my notes and journal entries is indescribable. Call it OA, but it's an amazing experience. I admit missing TextTwist and Bejewelled in the iPaq, but I guess I'll just consider it one among my life's big (and not-s0-big) trade-offs.

For now, at least. (Biggest grin.) Tomorrow is another day.

What's in My Bag

In August, Lifehacker.com asked its readers to send in photos of their 'Go Bags'. A photo submitted must show all the contents of a 'Go Bag', and a full text description. Lifehacker was so swamped with submissions that they had to do Parts 2 and 3.

When I submitted my entry, they were well into the 2nd part. But Part 3 came and my bag still wasn't selected. Oh, well. So here it is. My own 'Go Bag'. (Note: below the photo is a full description of my bag's contents.)

1. Foldable fan. Very useful in the hot and humid Philippine climate.
2. Small pouch. I use this to carry several items like keys, cellphones, wallet, mp3 players and flash drives. Very handy when I need to go out to lunch, or when I run errands and I cannot bring my back pack, like when I do grocery shopping.
3. My Nokia 3100. Super durable, super efficient. It’s been with me since November 2005 and I never had any problems with it. Not even with its battery.
4. My Samsung SGH-X160. It’s good to have two phones with two different mobile carriers. In case the other doesn't work, I can still have the other.
5. My blue 6G iPod mini. I love it! Thanks to Apple for blue iPods.
6. Alternate mp3 player. Creative Zen 512M.
7. Combination locksets for my bag’s two zippered compartments. I use these when I need to leave/deposit my backpack, like in the supermarket or bookstore.
8. My luckiest LA Gear wallet. Had this one since 1999. Super durable.
9. Baby lotion. A quick solution for skin dryness especially inside our air conditioned office rooms. It helps that this is water-based so it’s light. I don’t get the “sticky” feel.
10. Baby cologne. So refreshingly sweet. Can’t go wrong with this.
11. Comb. Useful when needed. Not that I always need to tidy up my short hair.
12. Visine. When my eyes get tired and strained.
13. My medication for asthma. Symbicort and Ventolin.
14. Toothpaste and toothbrush.
15. My blue earphones.
16. My black earphones. I need two earphones. I don’t know why, but I do. Hee-hee.
17. Bench™ hankie and a small towel (underneath the hankie).
18. External drive with 80G capacity and its cable.
19. Flashdrives. 2G (black) and 256M (gray)
20. ID card.
21. Rosary. This one’s very precious to me because it was a gift from my youngest brother.
22. Small expandable folder to hold and organize receipts, post-it notes, business cards, and other ID cards. It also has my passport and flu vaccination card.
23. Pill box. It contains all of my medicines for allergies, GERD, and various first aid medications: aspirin, paracetamol, loperamide.
24. Isopropyl alcohol. 70%. A small bottle is always very handy.
25. Off lotion. It’s a mosquito repellent lotion.
26. Small pouch containing cables, card reader, and a USB port hub.
27. Pens. Pens. Pens. And lots of pens.
28. The Body Shop’s clear lip gloss.
29. Blistex Gloss and Shine.
30. Mesaki lip shine. Green Apple and BubbleGum.
31. Body Shop lip balms. Satsuma and Strawberry.
32. Berroca. Best upper ever. Better than coffee.
33. Compact mirror.
34. My Starbucks 2007 Diary Planner. Can’t go out of the house without it. Also has a small notebook inside the leather case.
35. Glasses. One dark, while the other is my “working” glasses.
36. Keys. For my apartment, for the office.
37. Finally, an incomplete photo of the “go” bag. It’s a Nike black and gray back pack, bought at a sports store in February 2006, which makes it an 19-month old bag. But never underestimate it, though. This bag’s been with me to Thailand, Batangas, Boracay, anywhere! And it’s still standing. Hurray!!! It’s one tough bag.