Shopping in San Francisco yesterday, success. Yes, let it be known that this is the real motive of coming back to California, friends and family be damned.

My favorite purchase (other than my boots), however, is my random bird cage from Ross I got for $10. I now sits in my window and makes me happy every time I look at it.

This is because I saw giant birdcages with ruffle ostriches peeking into them at Anthropology [where all those who shopped at UO go when they turn 30 and are willing to pay 5x that for a shapeless shirt that they could should only wear if they were 3x less fat] and that made me want a bird cage.

Have also been getting quite ridiculously tired of F21 (gasp!) because of their shod quality and clothes that disintegrate within 5 washes in freezing cold water. Can’t get over the fact that I can pay in the mid-$30s for a decent pleather imitation (haha, yes, I know what I’m saying) of an awesomely ripped-up jacked. Mine is in plum.

Speaking of Urban Outfitters, though: $39 jeans sale! Yeah, I’ll shop at Antropology when I’m 30.

Arden B.’s sales people didn’t match their clothes. Amusement abound. Their little cousin Wet Seal had some major understaffment issues and confusingly set up sales rack containing non-sale items, like awesome gray/shiny jeans that I would only pay 50% less for since they obviously snag and break easily, case and point by the snagging of the product in hand. So instead got the Most Confusing Jeans in the World in that the most Real they have going for them is the button and the back pockets. Eat that, $40 jean leggings advertised by Anthropology

Think will ask for Doc Martens for birthday since my cheap (but awesome) combat boots are dying from salt erosion thanks to stupid East Coast weather & the insipid practice it incubates known as salting the roads aka killing my shoes.

Happy 2010!

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.¹

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.

1. The above customizations are by Champignons. [↩]