I have a habit when taking quick notes of writing in all caps. This is partially because such notes are often for the benefit of others, and no one likes wrestling with handwriting, and partially because I’ve somehow convinced myself it’s faster. So but anyway, I got into the habit of doing this with my diary1, and even now that I’ve realised it’s kind of weird I can’t quite convince myself to stop – it’ll ruin the consistency, you can’t run counter to house style, and plus if for some reason anyone else happens to look through it it’ll look like I’m admitting I was wrong. So caps it is. But ok, that’s all very well when it’s something sedate and sensible like OXEGEN or ANNIE’S LAUNCH or whatever, but then you get stuff like HONKIVERSARY or SOME CLASS OF YOKE IN LAN and soon you’re looking like some deranged concierge2 who doesn’t know how to quit, stringing syllables together and shouting them at the sky, hoping it sounds like enough like a real itinerary to fool the manager into leaving you be. So on balance, I should probably look into the lowercase, is I guess my point here.
- Do people still keep appointment diaries? Or does everyone just use their phones now? I tried that, but I end up never checking it so it’s kind of pointless. Whereas if I see an object lying around that looks like it might be some kind of configuration of words and paper (delightful!) I tend to flick through it out of sheer muscle memory. [↩]
- I put the original outline for this post in my phone, which it turns out is an uncouth bloody yahoo and doesn’t recognise the word “concierge”. However, after foundering a bit it does leave you with “bombieri,” which sounds like a kind of roguish Italian fighter pilot. So that’s all right. [↩]
i use an a5 copy of the Dialann Stáit, no less, bound in aquamarine and red leather with gilt edges on the pages and illustrations from the National Botanic Gardens archive. it’s so lovely that i stroke it absentmindedly when i’m supposed to be working. and i always write in lower case because my handwritten capitals are ugly.
so there.
It’s swirly messy cursive for me. So swirly and messy that sometimes I can’t read my own notes and the original thoughts, useful or not, end up getting lost forever.
What is the class of yoke in Lan?
Dunno, didn’t go. Nerd-festival of some description. Always a giggle, but I was otherwise engaged.
Rosie, that sounds only gorgeous. An odd but excellent colour scheme. And stroking in public isn’t so bad – I personally feel naked if I’m not absentmindedly chewing a notebook, or flicking the pages in front of my nose (new stationery smells amazing).
I use both, in both cases, and none are satisfactory.
I patiently put all appointments, birthdays, weddings, ceremonies, obligations etc into both my phone and my moleskine “red” diary, then forget to check either one. Even though I carry both at almost all times.
I use a *very* neat but *very* slow CAPITAL LETTER SCHEME (but for the tendency to deform F, E, D & H slightly, which has led to some confusion very occasionally, or a *very* fast but almost illegible cursive. They feel natural. I have a mid-level clear cursive but I feel like it’s someone else’s hand writing it when I try to use it.
I couldn’t help but read that in someone’s voice, and it was annoying me because I couldn’t place it. Then I realised: Patrick Bateman. Make of that what you will.
Google calendar is where it’s at, ably assisted by scribbles on the back of my hands. Which is only useful if you have a lax approach to digital hygiene.
“The first such incident occurred in…”
I used Google calendar for a while, and even had it showing up in Gmail, but still never paid attention to it. In fact it was almost worse – since it was always there, my brain just assumed I’d notice it when appropriate and proceeded to completely blank it.
I use reminders in my phone, which syncs with Google calendar, on one recent occasion I was accosted by beeping from my phone and an dialog box on my screen, I couldn’t help but be reminded. Now the real trick is remembering/ being aware of them long enough to enter them.
Shurely not such a problem when you’re using your phone. Though you’re quite tall, those pockets are pretty far away.
Capitals. I approve.
I can go back and add a couple of exclamation marks if you like. Or maybe a “…?!”. Though that’d probably just get weird and unsettling after a while.
… fuck it: “ANNIE’S LAUNCH! OLÉ!!!”
even better!!!1
Chinese-New-Year-red Moleskine week-to-view. My father calls it my ‘prayer book’. Which in a way it is.
Oof. I already have enough varieties of Moleskine, if I added a diary I fear some kind of singularity would ensue.
PS: Hello!
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MAYBE
… I was actually pretty shocked when I realised this was my most recent post. That’s poor, even for me.
I believe I have a footnote fetish. This is all your fault.
Sadly, this plugin doesn’t let me do nested footnotes. If it did I would be UNSTOPPABLE.
Dinna be blamin’ me for the fetish though, it was ol’ Terry Pratchett put the seed in both our heads. There’s a DFW essay called “Host” (in Consider the Lobster) that’ll really twist your niblets – the notes are dropped right into the main text in the form of flow-chart diagrams.