Pocket Notebook Throwdown - First Elimination

A little while back I mentioned that I would be test driving a few different pocket notebooks to see if I can find anything better/more affordable/sexier than my usual Moleskine Cahiers books.

I had originally started with three notebooks, the Moleskine, a no-name lookalike from Target and the Rhodia No. 11 pocket notebooks. My friend John Abella put word in for Field Notes brand, and a few people mentioned Rite in the Rain. I haven't been able to find a local source for the RitR books, (although that doesn't rule out trying them in the future) but John was kind enough to send me a couple of the Field Notes books to try.

Well, the Moleskine and Field Notes are still in the running, but today let's talk about the two that I'm eliminating.

First of, the Target notebook. On the pro side, they're cheap, at less than $5 for a three pack, and, like the Moleskine, it has a rudimentary pocket in the back for reciepts/business cards. On the con side, they're cheap, as in, the binding is coming apart after the second day in a sport coat pocket. It's one thing to save some cash, but three or four dollars is not worth your to-do list getting scattered all over the floor when you pull it out of your pocket.

Also, from an aesthetic point of view, the manufacturer felt the need, for some reason, to make the cover some glossy faux pebbled-leather finish, which looks tacky next to the plain matte cardboard of the Cahiers. If you're worried about money, you're better off just getting some 3x5" notecards and sticking 'em together with a binder clip.

Next up we have the Rhodia. This is actually a wonderful little pad, and I intend to keep a couple on hand for project notes and repair work. They're super-compact and, unlike the Moleskine, which only has a handful of tear-off sheets in the back, each sheet is tear-able.

While this pad is great for a lot of uses, and can be had for less than $2 at your local Target, it doesn't quite work for me as my shirt/jacket pocket notepad for a couple of relatively minor reasons.

The biggest issue for me is the size. It's shorter and thicker than the Cahiers, as well as a bit heavier. Because of that, it creates a bigger bulge in a dress shirt or jacket pocket, and is uncomfortable to sit on in a back pants pocket. This is really a minor gripe, but that slight bit of awkwardness in toting it, bearing in mind human nature, makes me less likely to grab it while dressing to leave the house.

The other complaint, which is probably a bit more serious for my purposes, is that the readily-available ones only come in graph paper. The lines on the pages are just dark enough that they can make it hard to read a quick pencil scrawl.

If I'm hiking or doing something outdoors that involves wearing cargo shorts or a backpack, then the splash-resistant cover and convenient tear-off pages make this a great tool, but not when I'm dressed in my work clothes.

I'm going to spend a bit of time with the Field Notes books John sent. I like the look of them, which mixes a no-frills style with a few touches of humor, and will have my thoughts on them later this week, I hope.

Off the Grid, On the Web

I have to admit that, like a lot of men, I have a certain amount of affection for gadgetry. I'm not into giant TVs or cars or gaming consoles, my favorite toys are the portable gadgets, all the little doo-dads I can jam into my briefcase and take with me. I've got my netbook, my iPod and my smartphone, enough to set up a pretty cozy digital base camp on the coffee shop sofa.

But my favorite, my "desert island" gadget is definitely my Amazon Kindle. Mostly because in spite of my attachment to my toys, reading is still one of my greatest joys in life. My e-reader lets me carry a selection of books, a newspaper and even a few word games (crosswords, anagrams) in a relatively compact space. Add the Moleskine cover I have for it and I've got my notebook and pen in the same package.

Another neat thing about the Kindle is the fact that it comes with free 3G wireless internet. It's not fast, or graphics intensive, but I can check my Gmail account and surf text-heavy blogs and other pages pretty comfortably. Did I mention it's free?

Now, just like my other gadgets, the Kindle needs electricity to function. It needs a lot less than, say a laptop computer, and in fact has far, far better battery life than an advanced cell phone (it gets about 4 days with the wireless on, but if I take it offline I can read on it for nearly two weeks between recharges).

Since it uses a pretty negligible amount of socket-juice anyway, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could charge my Kindle entirely on some renewable energy source, say, solar power?

I'm pretty poor, and solar cells are not as cheap as they should be yet. Most of the solar chargers in my budget are pretty weak, they can take a couple days in the sun to accumulate enough of a charge to fully recharge one of your portable devices. This means for the phone, which needs to be plugged in every day, or the laptop, which takes significantly more power, solar isn't affordable for me right now. But I can afford to wait three days to recharge the Kindle.

So I picked up a solar battery charger for $20, which stores the power for later use, and am now going to attempt to run my Kindle entirely on solar power. This means, using readily-available, unmodified consumer products, I should be able to have text-based internet, email and, of course, reading material (including many free books) for free.

Yes, I'll still be using my netbook to blog and do the bulk of my web surfing, but now I can rest assured that when I finally run out of money and am forced to live in a handmade shelter in the woods (or when I finally have had enough and decide to do that voluntarily) I can stay connected, kind of a digital Thoreau.

And yes, Walden is available for free download.