Mosaic

[sun_set_bravely]

Inspired by the format of schpahky's "short cuts" entry a while back, here are some of the tile pieces currently floating around in my head.

*Someone smelled like very clean hair on the subway this morning, and the scent made me happy.

*At work, I have received over 300 e-mails with the "mydoom" virus attached since last Thursday.

*My favorite virus e-mail so far arrived this morning, and read only:
"you need to grow your little man 3 inches"
I imagined a tiny man on my desk, dancing his tiny little heart out. I think he looks like David Hasselhoff. I may keep him there for my entertainment.

*I have fallen in love with Origins' Ginger Essence fragrance spray and Ginger Cloud body lotion. But I'm courting the purchases slowly, because they're not inexpensive, and because I'm trying to save money for my Big Dream this year.

*My Big Dream this year (have I announced this here?) is to begin my transition out of a full-time day job into a career as a freelance writer. This is a Big Goal, with many little and big steps to be made. The entire transition may not happen in 2004, but I want to make big leaps and bounds towards it.

*It's currently 40 degrees and sunny outside, and I'd forgotten how much of a difference this makes in my mood. Every time I looked up from my writing this morning, I was surprised at how much warm light was in the den. I kept thinking that I'd turned on every light in the house.

*Tonight, I'm going to Joe's Pub for the CD launch party of Tanuja Desai Hidier's album "When We Were Twins", a "cross-Atlantic collaborative CD of original rock/pop/electro-folk songs" based on her book "Born Confused". I've only met her once (at a Woodhull event last summer), but Tanuja is one of those people whose expansive creative energy inspires mine, and makes me want to write, paint, photograph, dance -- all of it. I'm excited to see her again.

*I love my new wool coat, with hood. I found it at Housing Works last weekend. I love love love it! I can now give away several of the older used coats in my closet that I've clung to for far too long.

*I like the new haircut that I got this weekend. It's closer to the angled cut I've been looking for, but it's still not exactly right. I'll keep trying.

~ ~ ~

Finally, a question for all of you paper journallers out there:

What's your process for buying blank journals? Do you stay faithful to a certain brand or style? Do you make sure to buy journals with acid-free pages so your words will last longer? What do you want done with your journals when you die?

edit 11:20a.m.: I realized it wasn't very fair for me to ask you about your journals and not tell about mine. So here goes:

I prefer a smooth medium weight paper that my fountain pens can flow onto and stay wet for a few seconds before drying. (I like to imagine myself as Nicodemus writing in that amazing glittery firey ink at the beginning of "The Secret of N.I.M.H." when the pages cooperate that way.) I love a good spiral -- that way I can tuck my pen into the spiral for easy access on the subway. I like unlined journals, because I like to let my handwriting find its own spacing, based on my mood or my location. The Canson unlined journals are good, reliable ones, but they're plain black, and I like to have variety. I've bought several with the intention of decorating them myself, but I rarely get around to it.

What happens to them after I die? I have romantic visions of my journals being intricately catalogued and preserved in a library somewhere. I also have visions of becoming a famous writer and excerpts of my journals being published or studied for clues to the secrets of my brilliant mind. Or I've lived an amazing love story, and parts of my journal are published along with the words of my partner. It all sounds very egotistical when I type it out, but that's what's in my head.

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

My "fetish" is for narrow-ruled pages, not too big -- because with my tiny handwriting, it would take forever to fill them. In an ideal universe, they'd be spiral bound notebooks in the 6" by 7" size range, narrow-ruled, with paper that takes fountain pen ink and rubber stamps without bleeding and feathering. I've not thought too much about acid-free pages.

The current books that I'm using are Letts of London books, which have 160 pages, deliciously narrow-ruled. They're perfect bound, and I don't know whether the paper is acid-ree, but I like them a lot.

I've used at least a dozen different types of books since I started keeping a regular journal in longhand. I was very fond of the Xonex spiral notebooks available in the 1980s, but that company has gone out of business. (Michael Rogers does some nice small spiral books, but most of them are a peculiar type of recycled paper that bleeds and feathers.)

As for what happens after my death... Soren, Vicki, and Mark get to decide whether to keep or toss them, or pass them on to some diary archive. I do idly wonder if someone, decades after my death, will be able to tell what are fantasies and what was real.

[freak1c.livejournal.com]

Your Big Dream - have I told you yet my dedication supporting this? Whatever it takes. It's more than possible. It's happening.

My tastes are similar to yours, I think...

[sanguinity]

Unlined, a nice finish and weight on the paper to take liquid ink, a hefty spiral to hold the pen and to survive the battering of carrying it wherever...

I have the worst time finding such journals. Everything has lines, damnit. Where are you shopping for yours?

I usually end up buying sketch notebooks. No lines, and the paper is right, but they're also fairly expensive.

Re: My tastes are similar to yours, I think...

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

I find them at art supply stores, and smaller stationery stores. Bigger stores like Barnes & Noble sometimes carry the Canson notebooks (they call them sketch notebooks). Whenever I find one I really like, I try to stock up.

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

I'm bipolar when it comes to journals. If I had a lined journal last time, I'll get an unlined one next time, and vice versa. I used to love spirals but as the years went by, they started to degenerate, so now I only believe in casebound ones. Since I'm on, I think (counts) my 7th ot 8th full paper journal, I've had time to watch the pattern grow. I'll use any pen available though I have a fetish for black Pilot ballpoints.
If I could write like Nicodemus does in that scene, I'd never do anything else. Did you know that Derek Jacobi did his voice? I've owned that movie since I was 6 but never realized that until a few months ago.
After I die I'd want them preserved for my family (just my children, not other relatives) and their children, in case anyone would find some help or hope or historical value to them. I don't think I'd be cool with anyone else seeing them.

That reminds me (for no good reason) I never saw any of those picture we took with Chris's large-format camera that morning at the diner. Did they come out? I'd love to see them.

Re:

[freak1c.livejournal.com]

: ( THEY DIDN't Come out....

SO very sad. I don't know what happened - but it wasn't pretty. They got exposed somehow. Gah.

Re:

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

*cries*

Re:

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

I did know about Derek Jacobi. I think I realized it around the time I was hardcore into "Dead Again."

Ditto on what you said about your children reading your journals. I definitely want my kids to be able to read my words and see what their mother was like before they were ever even thought of. I feel like it would tell them things about me that I might not have been able to in person.

Re:

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I have so few writings that my mother and father did when they were younger, and they're so precious to me. I think a journal of theirs, especially when they were my age, would be invaluable to me.

[heidilouwho.livejournal.com]

what a beautiful entry! i, too, totally support your Big Dream, however you need me to (although there's not a whole lot i can do from what sometimes seems like half a world away)... but i can send good thoughts!

as for the journal, the last one i wrote in was the one you gave to me as a graduation gift, which i love... but haven't written in in almost two years... *hangs head in shame*... someday...

(maybe i need a little david hasselhoff on my desk to inspire me!)

Re:

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Good thoughts are more helpful than most people realize. I might call upon your Rolodex at some point to see if you know of any writers I can talk to and ask questions of. When I figure out what questions I should be asking!

I think that everyone needs a little David Hasselhoff on their desk. Hey -- did you ever see that funny-ass video of him on the internet? If not, look under my "memories" section, under "A good Laugh", and you'll find a gleeful delight. I laughed my butt off for weeks after watching it.

Re:

[heidilouwho.livejournal.com]

i do remember seeing that video! "i can't stop this feeling... deep inside of me..."

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Ummmm, I buy most of my journals at Buck-A-Book for about three dollars a pop. I prefer ruled ones, which help me better utilize the space. I have big messy handwriting that hates college rules, though. I go through a regular hardcover notebook - the kind you see at Barnes and Noble in the gift section - in about a month. So I have to keep it cheap. Sometimes I buy an unruled notebook so I can really let it rip, but I usually go through it really fast. That brings up storage issues - I have no idea what to do with my notebooks when I die. nickelchief, though, knows that he is the designated executor of all my writing. He is my Keeper of Words.

Lately I have become obsessed with a plastic-covered spiral-bound notebook made in Spain. It's eight dollars, but I get two months out it, so it's all right. I use ballpoint pens. I used to love inky Pilot pens but fear of water made me go back to ballpoints. They're fine.

In college, for my own writing, I used plain composition notebooks. They were wide-ruled and were cheap, so I didn't feel a crippling obligation to write well. I needed the low expectations, badly, just to be able to write. I prefer recycled paper but it's hard to find. And now I require a spiral binding that allows the covers to open out flat, and at least a hard(ish) back cover. Also, the books now have to be small enough to fit in my bag, so no more letter size.

I use yellow Cambridge pads for letters and lists, and have for years and years now.

I write too fast for most fountain pens I've used; it would make a very expensive, frustrating habit. Give me something disposable, though, and I'll write anything.

Re:

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

What is Buck-A-Book?

Re:

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Buck a Book is a local chain , started by salvage guru Jerry Ellis as a natural outgrowth of his hugely successful "Building #19" warehouse stores. The stuff comes from salvage lots, overstocks, and sometimes I think just deals they make in bulk. Buck a Book doesn't have the grimy charm Building #19 had (they would sell socks still wet from firehoses, cheap - bring your own plastic bag!). The stores are pretty sterile and bare bones, and they have a lot of journals with kitties kissing, babies dressed as fruits, etc. etc. But when they're good, they're very good. They're really involved with the teaching community too, which I like. I buy journals there and also wicked cheap excellent wrapping paper.

and incidentally

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

You should perhaps talk to curmudgeon about freelancing. She lives on it, she even teaches a class in it. And also, she is da bomb.

Re: and incidentally

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

I definitely plan to! I'm signing up for the April writer's conference she recommended, and will sit down and pick her brain then.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I use 8 1/2 x 11 lab notebooks I get at the UW Bookstore. They're narrow ruled, and have pale green paper. They take rolling ball pens (like Pilot Precise) fine, but I'm left handed and can't use fountain pens or spiral notebooks.

I've been using this kind of notebook for about twelve years now. I have no idea how many I've filled.

I don't care what happens to them after I die. They probably don't have much worth reprinting. Hah! I'd hate to have that job, whenever I reread them I think what a winer I am. Hah!