Some Changes to things..

Couple changes today, for the future…

I’ve been carrying two Field Notes, from the Ambition set, the Memo book, and the Ledger. I use the Memo for random thoughts, small notes, work diagrams, measurements etc. And the Ledger for lists, shopping, to-do, tools needed, etc.. Its worked out great having two different books, different paper layouts, its keeping me pretty organized.

Last week a guy posted a pic of a sweet Jumbo brass paper clip that he was using, and I asked where he got it, looked like a great way to keep the two FNs together in my pocket, and to make sure they stayed together as I drew them from the pocket… Being the great guy he is, he simply asked for my address and sent me one!!

So, for a few days, lets call it about 4 days actually out and about, thats how I’ve carried them. It works Fantastically! Love it for the function… But just in that short time, its adding a pretty good S shaped crease(like paper clips do…) to both notebooks. It looks terrible, and more importantly its make it hard to work with them to write in, and turn pages. I am already dealing with the curve they get from being in my back pocket all the time too, and the two shape modifications together, I’m sure just aren’t going to work out.

SO, today, I just stapled the front cover of the Ledger to the back cover of the Memo book. Voila! One book, two papers, and areas!

It also makes it so I can put it into the leather cover I had for my pocket Moleskine, something I couldn’t do before when I wanted to, with them un-attached in the middle.. I had actually considered stapling them together recently just for this, so I could use the cover, but hadn’t looked at doing it yet.

Stapled, and how it sits in the cover;

The two of them are a tad too thin for that cover, but it works. And, honestly the Mole in that cover was always a tad too thick, so this should be about perfect once I get used to it. The two FNs in the cover are about the same thickness as a Mole without the cover…

Its a good thing I decided to look at putting them in the cover; in doing the stapling, I had to look close at the covers on the FNs, and the spines have been getting sanded/abraded more than I had noticed from going in and out of, and ridding in my jeans pocket. I’d guess a few more weeks and they would just sand through around the staples and lose their covers.

Will see for a couple weeks if this cover will work OK, or if I need to make one with less room for thickness, for the field notes, that will fit the thickness of just two books a bit tighter.

And, the brass paper clip will still get used, when I got it Mom Loved it, and expressed interest in one for her check book. I was gonna try to bend some brass rod and make her one, but now I’ll just give her this one. 🙂

The other change I am making is to go back to my money clip from the Tyvek Mighty Wallet that a friend sent me recently.

Its a fantastic wallet. Its light, its slim, it carries wonderfully, holds all I need it to…
But its too light, and too slim. I never know if its in my pocket, and am starting to always worry that I’ve lost it, or that I’m going to.

I don’t like it in a front pocket where I’m sure I can’t lose it from, so I have to put it in a back or jacket pocket… but the back pocket I can’t feel it in at all, and in the jacket doesn’t work because if I take the jacket off I still have to transfer it to a pants pocket, and I’m right back where I started with it..

Its funny because the reasons I got away from wallets were bulk and comfort in a rear pocket. This fixes that. Its just ironic that all of its good points are also its bad points.

So, I’m going back to my money clips, where the bulk and weight are what I’m used to, and while I can’t really feel it in pocket all the time, I can actually tell its there. And it does it fitting and riding perfectly in a front pocket where I know I can’t lose it..

I’ve also noticed that the wallet is slower to open, and retrieve things from than it is with the clip.. This is habit and being used to the clip, but I found myself fumbling with the wallet a bit, so I wasn’t exactly transitioning well.

I’m thinking I’ll load it with registration, insurance card, some spare cash etc, and have it in the truck… I actually have nothing holding that stuff together in the truck now, and should put it in something anyway, so this isn’t just looking for a problem for a solution, it will be doing something practical with it. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll find someone to re-gift the wallet to. Its too cool to just lay around and not get used for something. 🙂