Discovery

Pen Addict blogger Brad Dowdy is making a pen case!

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

My internet-friend and inky colleague Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict blog and podcast just announced something really, really exciting — In September, he’s launching a Kickstarter for a pen case!

Nock Co. prototype. Image from <a href="http://nockco.com/blog/">the Nock Co. blog</a>.

Nock Co. prototype. Image from the Nock Co. blog. Click the image to visit Nock Co.’s website.

Teaming up with Jeffrey Bruckwi, a tailor who specialized in sewing bags, they’re creating Nock Co., a company specializing in little pen/notebook holders that fold up into a bag! This is great for those who — like me — travel with several different writing instruments to use in case the situation or my mood changes.

One request, Brad: any chance there might be one for wooden pencils in the future? The sleeves would have to be slightly taller and skinnier, and the bottom might need to be a bit stiffer to prevent bending and breaking of the pencil tip.

In any case, this is very exciting, and I can’t wait to pledge once the Kickstarter launches! Everyone congratulate Brad and Jeffrey over at The Pen Addict!

Co-founder of Moleskine discusses her productivity habits on Lifehacker

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

Maria Segrebondi of Moleskine

I love it when worlds collide. I am a big fan of Lifehacker’s “This is How I Work” series, and I love Moleskine notebooks. So when the co-founder of Moleskine (and currently the “VP of Brand Equity and Communications”), Maria Sebregondi, spoke at length about how she stays organized, what tools she uses, and how she bridges the analog/digital gap in her workday, I was fascinated.

Although this doesn’t really have any mentions of pencils (it’s clear Sebregondi is a pen fan, but I won’t hold that against her), Moleskines and pencils go very well together, so this might be relevant to your interests as well.

When she was asked about gadgets she couldn’t live without, I especially loved her answer. She speaks of an “analog cloud”:

I like to think of my bag as an analog cloud. It follows me wherever I go and carries my most important objects—identity markers that anchor me to the real world, while my phone connects me to the digital cloud through the computer files, emails, and megabytes it stores. [Link]

While I don’t necessarily carry around as much stuff as she does (the contents of her bag are impressive — and makes my shoulder ache just looking at it), I understand what she’s saying. Though I use my iPhone and laptop all the time, with instant access to my files, it’s fulfilling to just bring a pencil and a notebook somewhere with me (though with me it’s often a Field Notes book rather than a Moleskine cahier). She’s right — it anchors me to the here and now. I know exactly where that data lies, and I know that, save for a fire or rainstorm, it suffers zero percent downtime.

 

Man Finds 15 Years of Ailments Due to Pencil Stuck in Head

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

A friend sent me this article from the Latinos Post, about a man who found he had a 4-inch pencil stub stuck in the back of man’s throat.

[S]urgeons at Aachen University Hospital, the largest hospital in Europe, successfully removed the pencil from the head of the young man, who reportedly recovered successfully from the procedure and left the hospital in only a few days, despite lingering blurry vision. The man cannot remember when or how the writing implement ended up in his head, although he recalls taking a serious fall when he was young and then having a significant nosebleed.
[Link]

Typically, I would say that a nice, freshly sharpened wooden pencil will cure what ails you, but I think this is definitely an exception to that rule.

Link: Don’t Be Afraid of a Pencil.

/ Andy Welfle / 1 Comment

I’m a huge fan of Medium — Evan Williams’ new publishing platform. I’ve had the opportunity to write a few things there, and though I haven’t written anything pencil related for it yet, Caryn Vainio has:

Don’t Be Afraid of a Pencil. »

The golden nugget from her post:

[S]ketching is one of the most critical skills I think you could learn if you work in any environment that requires you to build something, whether that’s a physical product or a piece of software. And you should learn to stop being afraid of a pencil and a piece of blank paper, because sketching is fast, visible, collaborative communication, and it doesn’t matter how well you can draw.

She’s absolutely right. I work at a web development shop, and although I have absolutely no artistic background, I will often grab one of my ever-present pencils and sketch out a very rough layout of how I think content should be structured on a site we’re building.

Because as Vainio points out, we’re not drawing something — it doesn’t have to look polished. We’re just getting a visual idea down and on paper.

It’s worth a read! And hey, if you want my thoughts on Medium, check out this post on my personal blog.