January into February and I find that I’m spending all my money. Poof, like that. One month in cameras, and another in clothes. My days can be summarized like so: work, class, online shopping, blogs, online shopping, sleep, repeat. Most of the clothes lust comes from the one movie I watched in theater whilst in Japan last month (and rightfully so, with them being ¥18 a screening!): Norwegian Wood. G.’s a big Murakami fan.

Will probably obsess more about the costumes and Kiko Mizuhara at a future point in time.

Below you will find a “marketing poster” for the Olympus E3 dSLR camera. Just another case of fun and creative advertising. Too bad these awesome marketing fronts

Unfortunately, as brilliant as the is, I don't think it was actually legitimately used anywhere. Olympus just happens to have it on file. Ah, Asia and their restrictions.

The story of Narcissus and Echo -- painting by Waterhouse. I mean, why would anyone journal if to some extent they were not in love with either themselves, their lives, the people around them, or the world they live in? Okay, that story only covers the first, but we're flexible aren't we?

Since the mention of journals last time, I’ve picked up the idea of playing around with an all-purpose notebook on pen and paper again. There’s something definitely romantic in the old standard and its a reminder that in a world quickly converting everything to digital, once the world ran on paper, and to a great extent, still does.

While I currently have kept a notebook, it’s one those cheap 25cent ones from WalMart and the ilk (though my current one is on grid paper). They probably won’t last very long, what with the binding coming apart as we speak and the pages eating themselves up. Not to mention how bulky and impossible they are to cart around.

So I started looking up other all purpose notebooks.

Notebooks

Moleskine Cahier

The first that comes to mind whenever notebooks are mentioned are Moleskines,the legendary notebook of Van Gogh and Hemingway. Or at least the one of the many notebooks that match the description of those used by them, because Moleskine® was registered 1996.

Moleskine notebook customizations; My preference is for the Cahier line because the paper quality is purported better and honestly, pre-printed dates and "city guides" are all just marketing schemes anyway.

Nevertheless, they are still famous and of purported amazing quality–a fact which is reflected in its higher price, and $8-$16, depending on size. At first I was adament against getting one, but the more I read and research on them, the more attractive they become–I mean, just look at the art. ((The above customizations are by Champignons.))

Ciak

Ciak books are thicker and made of leather instead of cardboard covers. They claim to be handmade but are pretty much exclusive to Italy and seem to be near impossible to track down in the states outside of those distributed by Paperchase (Noto series). I’ve asked a friend who’s going to college in Lugano, Switzerland to pick one up for whenever she visits Milano.

I especially like the travel diary series (Taccuino di Viaggio), which alternate blank and lined pages.

Paperchase

This is a very prettily-decorated brand that you can find at any time in any Borders. They make a lot of nice cloth-covered books, mostly lined. I currently have a still-empty book from them that I plan to start this summer, as soon as I can find a good pen to journal with.

I love how the inside cover pages are a gorgeous, pure red.

My Collection

I think my other notebook-collecting phase proceeded my blogging one, so all of these were early purchases. I don’t have a particularly large one and none of things are filled; all have the end third blank.

The top one was from elementary school, roughly stradding my 3rd/4th grade. The fuzzy one is a joke and the bottom leather one I purchased in China as a rising sophomore with its "Spledored" Engrish and spans 2002-2008 in 2/3 of its 150 pages, with many many gaps in between.

My biggest regret of a notebook purchase; it was completely ridiculous, as are its contents. I actually brought it to China on my last trip to journal in but that failed epically as yellow gel pens were involved.

I actually plan on buying a couple cheap ones on my trip this summer just for scratch or temporary cashbooks/expense journals for college.

Pens

I find that I can never journal properly without some amazing neat ink pen to force me to temporarily use better penmanship. Since they discontinued/morphed my favorite uniball visions, I’ve decided on a couple pens I’ll be getting soon for my new found fascination for journaling.

Possible journaling pens; the Lamy is the only fountain pen of the bunch at $30.

My requirements in a pen are simple:

• Black ink; it just doesn’t seem as “official” with any color ink.
• Smudge resistant; so that they don’t streak or stain my Sharpie Accent Highlighters.
• 0.5; my writing gets weird if the point is too big or too small. Or you know, I could get a set of sizes and go crazy.
• Pretty; yeah, well, I’m petty like that. And also plain to some extent.

Sometimes I think i just like owning this. Alas, this means I shall have to marry rich then.

This is, by the way, the street outside my house right now. And to think we get 4inches on average annually..

To bookmark in my head a pretty poem entitled Styx by Dana Levin.