"Like a Bubble Surfacing in Water"

While doing research for this Tools & Toys post about the 2015 Hobonichi Techo planner, I came across this quote from Shigesato Itoi, the guy who created it (emphasis mine):

“When people are alone, they have this hazy, blank period of time they can’t put a name to.

The nameless feelings experienced during those nameless times make up a major element of a person. And one day, like a bubble surfacing in water, something will emerge in the form of words. I hope the Hobonichi Techo can serve as a means to keep those words.

I’d like the Hobonichi Techo to be a fishing net to catch all the things you think and feel during your unnameable times. Of course you can use the techo as a scheduler, but there are already other tools you can use for that. I get the feeling there’s never been a container to keep things that surface during unnameable times, unimportant things that stick with you, or things that resonate with you when you don’t know why.”

This translates well to how I think about and use Day One.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

I just stumbled on this Tumblr and already love everything about it. As the author describes, it's “a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.”

His definition for sonder—which he also produced a video for—is the sort of thing I think about all the time:

n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

This site speaks to me in so many ways. Such a wonderful concept, beautifully written.

Big Morning in My Little Corner of the Web

I woke up to all sorts of good news today:

• Dropbox increased my Pro storage from 100 GB to 1 TB.
• Quotebook, one of my favorite iOS apps, has updated to version 3. I was on the beta and loved watching the developers' thoughtfulness and attention to detail as the app came together. [iTunes link]
• My friend Federico Viticci and his girlfriend Sylvia Gatta have released Perspective Icons 2, a lovely set of 100 icons for OmniFocus 2. Introductory price of $10.
• The guys at Studio Neat have redesigned their website (it's gorgeous) and made their Neat Ice Kit available for everyone to purchase now that the Kickstarter backers have been taken care of.
• Smile have announced that they've created a custom iOS 8 keyboard for TextExpander Touch that will allow you to expand snippets within any app. Now I won't have to rely on iOS' own built-in keyboard shortcuts anymore, as helpful as they've been to me.

There's probably even more I'm forgetting but man, this is one of those days when it's awesome to be a nerd.

Hidden Meditation Spots in NYC

I love this list of beautiful, secluded places in New York City. Now I'm feeling inspired to do some exploring around my own town of Oklahoma City and seek out similar locations.

Pennaquod—The Pen Blog Searcher

I don't profess to be much of an expert on fancy analog writing tools, but I do enjoy drooling over them now and again. I typically rely on internet friends like Brad Dowdy and Patrick Rhone for information and tips about such things.

Pennaquod, a Google search tool put together by Ian Hedley, allows you to search over fifty (!) of these pen blogs at once. If you've ever wanted to know about particular fountain pens or notebooks or even typewriters, bookmark this super-handy site for later.

Fair warning: that site is a gateway into some deep, deep rabbit holes for even the most minor of pen nerds. Tread lightly.

For a More Ordered Life, Organize Like a Chef

Dwayne Lipuma of the Culinary Institute of America, while being interviewed for an NPR piece:

“The world is a giant gerbil wheel right now. I think if we just became a little bit more organized, a little bit more mise-en-place, understand what we really need and only do what we really need, I think we'll have more time for what's important.

You'll be able to sit down at the table with your kids and actually cook a meal. Get up a little bit earlier so you could breathe. You want to greet the day.”

The timing of coming across this article is funny to me, because there's an article about mise en place and other such concepts sitting in my drafts folder at this very moment. I should really finish it sometime. I think it's going to be a good 'un.

In the meantime, you can read more about mise en place here.

Let's Talk About Margins

Craig Mod writes about the power and character of well-designed books (bold emphasis mine):

“On the other hand, cheap, rough paper with a beautifully set textblock hanging just so on the page makes those in the know, smile (and those who don’t, feel welcome). It says: We may not have had the money to print on better paper, but man, we give a shit. Giving a shit does not require capital, simply attention and humility and diligence. Giving a shit is the best feeling you can imbue craft with. Giving a shit in book design manifests in many ways, but it manifests perhaps most in the margins.”

"Don’t write email that people can respond to."

NPR Creative Director Liz Danzico, being interviewed by web magazine Technical.ly:

“As far as Inbox Zero, I’ve tried a few things, and even now I use a modified GTD approach where I transfer all to-do-like email content into a to-do app. But basically those all pale in comparison to this simple approach:

Don’t write email that people can respond to.

If you ask questions in an email, people will respond. If you don’t answer their questions, they’ll ask again. If you write charming email, they will want more. Don’t do those things. Write an email that is impossible to respond to. Answer every question. Tie up every loose end. Write a complete and completely un-respondable email.”

I like her style. (h/t Patrick Rhone)

The Future of Iced Coffee

Alexis Madrigal, writing for The Atlantic, got a behind-the-scenes look at the manufacturing process for Blue Bottle Coffee's New Orleans iced coffee cartons. As an iced coffee fanatic myself, it's fascinating to see how they're trying to tackle the problem of mass-production now that they've mastered the recipe.

One particularly interesting fact in the article: Blue Bottle's sterilization process requires machines that generate six times the amount of atmospheric pressure as one would find at the bottom of the Mariana Trench—you know, the one from that movie—which itself is 1,000 times more intense than what we experience here aboveground.

Talk about hardcore.

Crave

Chase Reeves, writing for The Sparkline:

“I think our buddhist friends would say something to the tune of, “all cravings will eat you up from the inside out.” Maybe they’re right.

But I have cravings.

[...]

I see [Robin Williams] sweating and manic and quick and sharp and brilliant and dynamic and feeding, feeding, feeding on the relationship with the audience… and I see a fable about myself, a hole in the center, a vacuum, always on, sucking, searching, hungry… for this moment, laughter, friends, me in the center of it… not wanting the moment to end.

The things I create come from there. That hole, that insecurity is an engine of creation.”

I love this piece. Sometimes I forget that Chase is just as great a writer as he is a web designer. For more stuff like this be sure to check out his personal blog, Ice to the Brim.