Do you sometimes get tired of digital life?

God mode! :joy:

Not sure if this is sarcasm! :smile:

I may have to take the plunge. I am looking at the Supernote as well but cautious of getting back into Android. Not that it’s evil in anyway, but I’d rather not have the distractions.

Thanks for the thoughts @celler, very handy to know.

Always loved the look and feel of fountain pens. However, as I write with my left hand, it is dang impossible for me not to drag my palm across the not-yet-dried ink as I go. My hand looks terrible, and my notes are all smeared. The Montblancs will stay below the glass counter :slight_smile:

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While I tried regular journaling and planning on paper (mainly Bullet Journal style) it just didn’t last. And the main motivation also went away after retiring. I have also found that I do not enjoy writing any more. This is partially due to typing 95+wpm. My thoughts can get out of my head at an insanely fast rate when typing. Painfully slow with pen and paper. So I type out my ‘interstitial’ journal entries.

Having said all that, I have been enjoying the more artistic things you mentioned and just joined a local ‘urban sketching’ group. I was excited to discover that I might be able to resurrect my few fountain pens by using water-soluble ink and then water-brushing the lines to create water color shades. So the key was to draw rather than write. Now if I could just draw half-way decently…

Digital overwhelm is a thing. As others have mentioned, you can tame the notifications but that takes a bit of concentration and strategy to get it set right. But the focus problem is real.

There probably isn’t any harm in at least attempting to break free and go analog. You can always add tech back in as needed.

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Nick, you read my mind! How did you do that?

Once upon a time, I had a boss who use to constantly call meetings, saying every little thing has “priority”. I didn’t correct her but oh did I groan!

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No, Bill, honest. I wasn’t being sarcastic! It sounds like an intriguing device. And how much do you want to bet I will soon have one as they are readily affordable? Thanks.

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Haha! All good, @Katie, I wasn’t sure so thought I might have been missing something. I’ve looked at a couple of videos now and, as they are not that expensive, I’ll likely try one :slight_smile:

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If I could type 95 wpm… I’d be dangerous!

Interesting that you mention that it could be rediscovering art. That has a great deal to do with it now that you mention it.

I use to love those fountain pens. I looked all over for a mere Schaeffer for my sister and couldn’t find one although I did find the peacock blue ink. (Why didn’t I look on Ebay? Duh. One time I went ISO good, smelly wax Crayola brand crayons).

I have never had a really nice fountain pen. I love the act of writing, calligraphy although the brush writing IMHO is rather a bit of an eyesore.

I don’t true bullet journaling as I am making up my own criteria, style as I go along,

Urban sketching sounds fascinating. What is it?

I have to go to Court soon. Right now they are doing zoom and they use to ban phones, computers etc at the local Courthouse. I still think if a hired atty can bring in one, why can’t I? I shouldn’t be at a disadvantage for going pro se (although of course I’d likely have a fool for a client).

Anyway, that would fit right into permitted devices as I doubt it has a tape recorder in it. I think they are about $60 on Amazon.

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There is one on Amazon for $37. It comes with two notebooks (one of them small) and two pens!

I really like my Remarkable. The feel is just like paper and it is far better for writing on than an iPad. It feels like an endless pad, except everything I write is converted to text and then I can add it to Obsidian. The software doesn’t get in the way of writing, it is simple and does everything I need. I also use it as a PDF reader and it works great for this. Additionally, I much prefer to not have screens in front of me most of the day, my eye doctor says the problems I have with my eyes are caused by the overuse of screens.

The two-week battery means I’m never worried about the battery running out. This is great at conferences, when my iPad Pro would always run out of battery by the end of the day just using GoodNotes, I know Remarkable won’t.

Before having it I would often take notes in Drafts but then I realized that I always had to spend a lot of time reviewing. When writing I remember things much better.

I was lucky because I got it before the subscription came in, so I get all the features for free. Be aware that there is a 5.99 monthly sub now for OCR and unlimited cloud storage.

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Fountain pens have become a ‘thing’ again - I have two of these pens for under $20 each

then splurged on one of these:

Urban Sketching is just drawing things (usually city views) quickly. To me, it seems like something only slightly bored westerners could come up with, mixed with a dose of good old Protestant work-ethic. Voila, now your downtime can be ‘productive’ too! Having said that, it’s very world-wide now. Phrase coined by an illustrator for Seattle Times in 2007.

This is a good overview:

Also, it occurs to me that my reply should have been in the form of a sketch. Such a newbie move LOL

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Fascinating. Sounds like you might have to be able to draw pretty well. (Just so long as I am not the least talented artist in the bunch, I feel fine. I accept it. ;o)

(My little brother was a most talented graphic designer and I taught him everything i knew. After he hit the age of 8, all I could do was encourage him and did so successfully. We use to kid each other. “All you do, Katie, is babysit!” I’m a teacher. “And, you Terry, just paint pretty pictures!” But drawing like that takes a great deal of concentration and is hard work. I never would have thought so pior to a class I took.)

Anyway, I took an art art course in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. The town is an artist colony. This wasn’t exactly urban but close… Towards the end of the class our assignment was to draw the interior of the old art building. We were outside. I just sat there and looked at the towering arches, then looked at my blank page. I did that for about a half hour until the kind teacher approached me and asked me what was wrong.

“I don’t even know where to begin.” I think the assignment was to teach perspective. I barely got it started.

Urban sketching sounds like a fantastic venture!

I did order a fountain pen from Amazon. If that goes well, I’d like to invest in a really nice one.

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I never stopped using some analog tools.

  • I prefer handwritten notes (better retention, faster)
  • I prefer “analog” flip-charts" and/or whiteboards (more effective, easier to use, faster)
  • I prefer drawing mindmaps or sketching ideas by hand (faster, more flexible)
  • I prefer hand-written thank-you’s to emails (I get huge compliments for those)
  • and some others.
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Not necessarily. I mean, it helps, but I’m certainly no ‘artiste’

I also took an art course in San Miguel! (2019) It was my introduction to urban sketching. I had tried drawing a church building in Zacatecas previously. It wasn’t bad, but it took a long time. I had to get every line, every perspective, just right. Would have fit in well in an architectural magazine. The class I took was Sketching Fast and Loose, by Rhoda Draws (actual last name). I struggled, but did produce at least one drawing I didn’t hate:

She also has a home study kit and private online sessions:

I also utilize YouTube for basic and refreshers. This guy has some nice videos I am going through on different shapes and perspectives:

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Love to share about the Bug! :slight_smile: There’s a picture of it on my site: jb… The Bug


Ah, I’ll just post it here. Please ignore the garage.

Very cool! I hope you take it for a drive once in a while!

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Great car. Bugs were popular with college students in the 60’s & 70’s. Split the emergency brake, so you could brake one rear wheel at a time, and they were a decent off-road vehicle. Volkswagen supposedly ran a commercial back then claiming they were so air tight they would float. I never saw it but it was a subject that came up often in those days.

My cousin and three friends were discussing this one night and she put it to the test. She drove hers into a lake near her university. But the local police showed up and ordered them to abandon ship so they never found out how long they will float. :grinning:

If you ever find out, let us know.

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That is a very nice sketch!!! I likely would have stared for a half hour. Nevertheless, the idea is to cut loose! Right? I’ll have to check out your info.

I use to teach the kids “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. It was amazing how well they were able to draw by just looking for shapes instead of telling themselves “It doesn’t look anything like a banana”. (You draw upside down). You know, some people talk about kids being so creative artistically, and they are. But the last thing they want is for their artwork NOT to resemble the actual object. I mean, they color Santa’s suit blue because they honestly cannot recall what color it is supposed to be! They are rather hard on themselves and by third grade I had to teach them all over again that they were wonderful little artistes. No stick figures or finishing in 5 minutes. LOL! I incorporated art into everything. And obviously it works with me too in this journaling passion.

Small world! I went to Instituto Allende (I just looked it up.) My teacher was excellent. I also took Spanish. Another excellent teacher. Lovely little town.

Did you get to Guanajuato to see the momias?

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Never used the Instituto but did take Spanish in a couple of other cities. We saw the Momias in 2008 and again in 2012. Creepy AF!

My room mate was an artist/photographer and was taking photos of them. I thought they would be like Egyptian momias- all wrapped up!

I often heard “Conoces las momias de Guanajuato? Son muy feas!”

Those people had not be deceased that long.

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