As those who regularly read these pages know I’m a guy of the Digital Era: I listen to MP3 music both at home and while on the move, I regularly wear a couple of cellphones, my alterego’s name is Blackberry, I own 3 computers (and regularly use each of them), the main method I get in touch with my parents is via Skype video, etc. etc.
But all these bits are starting pissing me off. I want some more Carbonium (or, better said, 6 athoms of Carbonium 10 athoms of Hydrogen and a twist of 5 athoms of Oxygen).
It all started in early last year. When I get rid of the ugly Word generated fax cover and switched to b-side of used A4 sheets and the use of a pen.
This simple operation boosted my performances when sending data via fax:
- Since I don’t usually use Word templates I’ve always got the need to search for them. Now I don’t do it anymore.
- Since your’re supposed to be creating a – ehm – good looking fax cover you should also give a proper form to what you’re writing. Now I grab my pen and wrote what I have in mind directly on the paper.
- Some times the printer crashes, and I have to reprint the cover and wait for the printer doing its job. Now I just take the first used sheet I find and I’m ready to start.
- And, most of all, I can draw cooler smiles then those you find in Word!!! (actually cooler then those you find in WordPress too!)
But this was just the beginning. Then I received a present from one of our partners that definitely turned me on. A 365 days Moleskine diary. In full effect.
I’ve never owned a Moleskine book, but apparently all of my marketing/advertising/graphics/creative friends have one (Marcello, you know who you are), and I’ve always been kinda gelous of the particular feeling they have for their Moleskine.
Today I grabbed my beloved stylo and started copying all my meetings from the Outlook agenda to the Moleskine. What I loved more is the soft scraping sound the pen produces as the ink flow on the paper; it’s not a scheduler anymore, it’s a piece of me; an echo of my life tranferred on the Moleskine.
Wonderful.
Now I’ll tell you my friend what are my plans. I still need Blackberry and Outlook since they’re way too comfortable to be left behind. But the paper diary will become my preferred way of tracking appointments, it will be the first thing I’ll look at once in my office (just before opening my Bloglines account) and the last thing I’ll close before commuting to home.
Me, my stylo and my brand new Moleskine: technology for my own sake