Brain Pocket: An artisanal notebook

Brain Pocket is a leather covered notebook. The leather is of a premium quality and tough. I choose a very light, buttery cream colored one. I also chose a sheriff's star metal button to tie the notebook shut with. It is a very well made product. I planned on using it to track my paper portfolio for a stock market game I play online. I also was going to try out strategies with this too.

I chose to get the lined paper and blank paper. I really like that this notebook is made by hand and then the filler papers are inserted. Everything else is crafted by hand. The leather is worked and tanned by hand and the accessories are chosen by the customer.

The notebook is about 4 by 8 and is really long. This model is intended to be carry under one's arm or placed inside a jacket's pocket. I keep it on my desk.

Verdict: Mixed recommendation, for some it is great to have a notebook with two books. For others, the size is a problem and the price, $70, is just too much. For me, I don't think this is the kind of product you repurchase; you simply buy refills for the cover and replace it. There is one thing though; it draws stares and questions when friends come over.

Rhodia Pad Holders 3x4 Review

I have a need, okay more of a compulsion, to carry a 3 by 4 pad with me at all times. It is invaluable at work and helps me capture ideas, lists, to do items, and other GTD captures as the day progresses. After destroying a few of them I decided it would be great if I had some sort of holder for them. Well, Rhodia preempted me.

I bit the bullet and purchased the black. Secretly I wanted the orange. Who am I kidding? The orange was my preference. The choice was taken out of my hands because I couldn't find a single dealer who had them in stock in that particular color. So after 3 weeks with one I think it is time to give it a review.

Review

• Looks: Well the leatherette is okay but real leather is always nicer.
• Portability: Extremely portable. Can fit in my shirt pockets, pants pockets, jacket pockets, and breast pocket even with 2 pads in it.
• Usefulness: Extremely. It adds 2 pockets to my small pads and offers me a place to store torn out pages. The protection it offers my pads is great.
• Durability: Well, I'm not sure which would be more durable between leather and its imitation counterpart but I'm certainly sure this is pretty good. It definitely took a beating from my nephews, being stomped on, and falling out of a moving car pretty well. I'm going with Decent.
• Price: +- $10.00 online it includes a 3x4 pad.

Overall: I say the pad holder is a great purchase for individuals who need an extra pocket with their palm sized pads and need a little protection, too. Would I purchase another one? Yes in orange. I'll keep the black for business and the orange for pleasure.

I used the pad it came with to plan my father's funeral and memorial service. I keep everything in the pad holder, cards, ideas, my pad for captures, and even cash. It was invaluable and I don't know how I would have kept up if I wasn't writing everything down. It also was useful for shielding my pad while writing in the rain.

Keep your eyes open for more updates and reviews. I'll probably go on a posting run of a few at a time in the next week. During my formal mourning period I constantly was finding ideas for posts. I found it a little disturbing considering my circumstances; maybe this is one way for me to heal. Blogging through the pain. Maybe writing is another thing I inherited from my father.

A Clairefontaine Review

Another review is in order this time I'll be reviewing a Clairefontaine product.

I'll start this one off with a general description of the pad. First of all, it is 105 x 148 MM and contains 80 sheets of paper. It does fit into my palm but not comfortably. I don't think its size is conducive to carrying on your person. The pad barely fit into my back pocket and didn't fare well in my other pockets either. Back to the description, it has 3 folds on the cover which allow you to fold the cover over to the back thus, making it usable from the palm of one very large hand.

On to the testing; to get an overview of my testing methods read this post: Rhodia No.12 Bloc Review.

Tests

Feel; Smooth, even for scratchy nibs.

Feathering; None

Bleed-through; No, even less than with Rhodia paper. Only the most sensitive will care about this.

Aesthetics; Functional and the orange is attractive. No real margins to distract me. One transgression, the cover has a logo and so does the rear.

Durability; The pages need to be firmly grasped to tear them out. The back pad is stiff and the entire note pad is sturdy.

Portability: This one will stay on a desk. It is portable just not for me. So, I want to keep it in my laptop bag yet, it will probably stay on a desk somewhere.

Uses: Can be used for business and play. For business I would use it to quickly jot tasks, inventory lists, and maybe to keep messages. This is a note pad I will be using for games like scrabble that require score keeping. I also have quite a bit of fun playing guess the sketch and other drawing games with this pad. I probably wouldn't use it at school; too big for a palm sized pad and too small for a classroom note taking pad.

Hack ability: This is really open to interpretation. Of course, I just don't have any ideas or links for this one.

Overall Thoughts

Clairefontaine paper is much better than Rhodia paper. It is definitely smoother and heavier. That is probably due to Clairefontaine being 90 g/m squared and Rhodia is 80 g/m squared. No real bleed-through and it comes in a gridded paper. This is the ultimate in fountain pen safe stationery! The final verdict to the question of a purchase is no. Why not? I prefer a certain sizing in pads. I like them small enough to fit into my pockets easily or big enough to take pages of lecture notes without turning the page after every pen lift. If this is your preferred size then go for it, you wont be disappointed. Clairefontaine paper is awesome!

Details:

• No comparison paper for the feel test.
• Subjective methods used.
• *This particular note pad was provided by Exaclair.