Any Of You Do Anything Like This?

A few years back I got a Call Tracking Calendar from the local telephone company. It's about 5" X 8", and originally had about 450 pages, and was close to an inch think. It's still close to 3/4" thick.

I've got it on a table next to the end of the couch, and a plastic tray on a bookcase, with a bunch of colored pens, el cheapo Pentel type pencilss, calculator, and so on.

I use it to write down ideas, e-mail addresses I find in magazines, basically anything I want to keep handy for awhile.

I can visualize things I want to make, so seldom make any plans of projects, other than maybe a, usually, very rough sketch, and maybe a measurement or two. Works for me. However, I also use the call tracker to sketch out some things, so help me compare different ways of doing something. I can actually sketch freehand with pretty good detail - but no need for stuff like that. If I do want detail, I use a mechanical pencil, sketching lightly, then going over lines, erasing if needed. If people would try something like that, they could come up with some pretty detailed drawings even if they have little artistic talent. But, most of the time I just grab a pen, and make a rough drawing, no attempt at scale or detail. Pages I want to keep, I leave in. Other pages get pulled out, and shredded - just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after me.

At times, when I'm having a problem working something out on a project, I'll make a sketch, or several, maybe with notes, then leave it. Later, maybe days, maybe weeks, later, I'll recheck and maybe get new ideas on it. Right now I'm doing that with the end of a chair arm - I can't quite come up with a shape I'm content with. So, I do searches of chair, for inspiration, and go back, and make new sketches. One day I'll hit on one I like.

If you don't keep a pad and pencil handy, I would advise you to start.

JOAT Failure is ALWAYS an option.

- JOAT

Reply to
J T
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JOAT, yes and no. I have a PDA with a memo pad function and a rudimentary drawing program (think MS paint or similar) Stays in my pocket at all times except for when it's on the charger when I'm asleep. I usually use it to compare tool prices, and the checkbook program is awful handy as well. With the memory card, it will hold as many as 128 novels worth of plain text, and it has an acrobat reader.

Not a pad of paper, but very similar once you learn to use it. A lot of times I use it when out in the woods to sketch shapes I like, without having to lug around a notebook.

Reply to
Prometheus

Sun, May 29, 2005, 5:54am (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@business.org (Prometheus) says: JOAT, yes and no. I have a PDA with a memo pad function and a rudimentary drawing program (think MS paint or similar) Stays in my pocket at all times except for when it's on the charger when I'm asleep. I usually use it to compare tool prices, and the checkbook program is awful handy as well. With the memory card, it will hold as many as 128 novels worth of plain text, and it has an acrobat reader. Not a pad of paper, but very similar once you learn to use it. A lot of times I use it when out in the woods to sketch shapes I like, without having to lug around a notebook.

LMAO I'm not even sure what the Hell a PDA is. The advanced drawing program I use is paper, pencil, my brain. There's just something so very much more appealing about sketching on paper. Or wood scraps, my arm, shirt, or whatever - something tangible. I quit writing checks around 20 years ago, when times were tight raising my sons on my own, and managed to bounce a few checks. You miscalculate which have cleared, maybe lack as little as 5 cents and it bounces, then you always bounce one or two more - and pay the penalty for each. So, now pay with postal money orders, check debit, or automatic withdrawal. Life is less stressful that way. And, anything I read, still prefer hard copy, I don't read technical articles off my screen, I usually print them out, unless they're really short. I still prefer a small, pocket-sized, pad for sketching, I only have to worry about getting another, not whether it needs recharging. But, as long as you use something, that's the bottom line.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it.

Reply to
J T

I do the same. In my case I keep a "lab notebook" with gridded pages on my desk. I can visualize and sketch out ideas as they come. Mostly I use the notebook to work out proportions and cut lists. Lee Valley (I think) has some neat looking graph paper tablets that would do the job nicely.

DGA

Reply to
dgadams

I do the same thing with a pad when up the house, however when down the shed, it's scraps of wood all the way. ;) There's a neat little pile of odd shaped pieces of wood with ideas, measurements and plans on in one corner. Usually get a smile from the shop assistant when I go to the local hardware with my list and measurements on a piece of wood. regards John

Reply to
John B

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (J T) wrote in news:17185-429953CD-219@storefull-

3117.bay.webtv.net:

I've got sketchbooks going back decades. Creativity comes when it wants to.

A customer told me years ago "A dull pencil beats a sharp mind." Somedays, I have neither, however.

Patriarch

Reply to
Patriarch

I have a pad and pencil on my night stand. I sometimes get a few ideas when I'm teetering between being awake and being somewhat less awake. I take a small digital camera with me wherever I go. I see something of interest, I capture it. Sometimes I doodle on a napkin, and take a picture. Many times I look at my pictures and go: "WTF??"

Reply to
Robatoy

I have a lab notebook ("Composition Book") of graph paper also, and I sketch ideas as they strike, along with the date - it's interesting to track a project from the day the idea hits to completion. I'm sure it will be interesting to look back on in several years also. Cutting lists, wish-lists of tools to buy, etc. also go in here. I've also noticed the Lee Valley pads - they're ruled in 1/4" lines, with 32nd's I think along the edges (my notebook is 5 lines to the inch

- the scale occasionally gets confusing if I try to use a ruler for diagonal lines, etc.). I don't think they're acutally bound, though - just tear-off sheets. Anyway, I have a little plastic 6" ruler in a pocket made of tape inside the front cover, and keep a mechanical pencil clipped to it also. This is what works for me!

Reply to
Andy

Sun, May 29, 2005, 9:31pm snipped-for-privacy@BULLtopworks.ca (Robatoy) says: Many times I look at my pictures and go: "WTF??"

Ah, I can see you have the system perfected. LOL Join the crowd.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Life is basically good.

Reply to
J T

Sun, May 29, 2005, 7:14pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Andy) says: along with the date the scale occasionally gets confusing if I try to use a ruler for diagonal lines, etc.).

I don't date any of my sketches. If I use a date, I take it from the date the whatever is finished. I use a colored pen, different color from the paper lines - usually red, blue, maybe black - and that cures confusion. Actually, I'd prefer just plain sheets, no lines at all - but what I'm using now was free, so I'm not about to complain.

Something I do for some projects - usually non-woodworking - is print out a picture(s) of whatever, and use a pencil to sketch on changes I'm thinking of making, so see what scale they need to be, etc. Usually a vehicle project.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Life is basically good.

Reply to
J T

lol... This reminds me of our recent LMR (Labor-Management Relations) meetings. I'm a union officer. My department head sets across the table. I have a Palm (somewhere... the union bought one for me, but dangifIknow where it is or how to use it). Also on the management side is the UberGeek, with his GeekWatch, GeekPDA, and probably GeekDrawers.

While various folks around the table are trying to "beam" stuff back and forth and synch their calendars, my nemesis and I are taking notes on paper. I guarantee you that at the end of the meeting, we both know more of what went on at the meeting than those who are focused on hot-synching their PDAs. Both in our heads, and in our note pads. He often points out that if he takes a bullet through his note pad, he can still read around the bullet hole, but challenges his geeky partner to do the same if his Palm gets shot.

Hey, I *like* geeky stuffy. I'm a gadget freak. But I only want gadgets that work, and the whole Palm/PDA thing doesn't work for me.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Craig

The beauty of the little thing I've got is that it has a touch screen, so drawing on it is almost identical to sketching on paper. You can jot notes the same way by writing the letters in a little box in one corner, and it shows up as type.

Yep, I used to bounce them, too- that's why I've got the check program!

Any option works, of course. I actually just tossed it out there because I went to Best Buy to get a replacement stylus (the thing that you use to write on the screen), and I saw that carried very few of them these days. The sales guy said they had been replaced by iPods, but that's completely nuts! All an iPod is is a fancy walkman, and a PDA is a handheld computer. I guess most people agree with you, and just use a little notebook! :)

Reply to
Prometheus

ROFL! No, for work I use my memory or good ol' paper. But I spend a fair amount of time these days tromping through the forest with a bow saw and a field identification guide for trees. No room for a notebook, and even if I had one, it'd have been ruined today, when I got rained on for about an hour. (Small price to pay for a nice oak burl cap, considering I can't buy the suckers *anywhere* around here!)

Overall, the PDA is a toy- but it works really well for doing some useful things as well. Taking notes in meetings just isn't one of them! I get irritated with the guys who rely too heavily on them as well.

The funny thing is, the Palm is the *only* gadget I really like. I won't have a cell phone, I don't care to have a laptop, and I'm certainly not in the mood for an iPod or one of it's cousins. Heck, I don't even like digital clocks or watches, and I do all my math longhand. Who knows why I like my PDA so much- it's a mystery even to me.

Reply to
Prometheus

Mon, May 30, 2005, 5:22am (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@business.org (Prometheus) spake: Yep, I used to bounce them, too- that's why I've got the check program!

But then you've still got to think. Life is easier since I started using the money orders, and especially the check debit card. I stop by the bank ATM about every day, check the money level, then know exacly how much is available. If I don't have enough to buy what it is I'm after, I pass it up until I got some more money in. The check debit card is nice, because if I get out and see something I want, and don't have enough cash, it works just like a credit card, except you're spending money you actually have, not borrowing money an an exhorbinate rate.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Life is basically good.

Reply to
J T

Mon, May 30, 2005, 5:37am (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@business.org (Prometheus) informs us: I got rained on for about an hour.

And you still don't know enough to come in out of the rain. LMAO

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Life is basically good.

Reply to
J T

Some days, I will take a fresh sheet of paper, a freshly sharpened pencil of appropriate hardness, and stare at the blank page till small drops of blood form on my forehead. I usually go on to something else when that happens.

Reply to
Robatoy

"Robatoy" wrote

Uh ... don't use the pencil as a prop next time you nod off, or at least aim it pointy side down (E-mail JOAT for his free detailed and measured Pointy Stick drawing ... it has the correct orientation for use indicated somewhere on sheet 3 of 9. If you act now, he might even throw in the VHS tape).

But you DO bring up a good point. Many has been the time that a new writing instrument and/or a new pad of paper (or lately a newer version of software) has been the inspiration for a wonderful and new project. It can be that all it takes to get you out of a 6' deep rut is one sheet of (spanky new, very nice) paper.

I have lots of used pens, pencils and too many partial pads of paper to count ... and not that many projects lately.

... now where did I put the plans for that flat board?

Cheers,

Rick

Reply to
Rick

Another up-side is that when your debit card is refused, you walk away from the transaction knowing that you don't owe anybody anything.

You don't get to take home that hand-crafted phillistred irradial desorator, but hey? Did you really need it?

Reply to
Robatoy

:-)

Reply to
jo4hn

Tue, May 31, 2005, 4:10pm snipped-for-privacy@madbbs.com (Norman=A0D.=A0Crow) saideth: Don't mind it down the back of the neck so much as on my bald pate!!!

Then you either learn to get in out of the rain, or get a hat. I got a nice National Geogrphic baseball hat a few weeks back. Stuck a DAV pin on it (couldn't think of anything better to do with it), and then, for some obscure reason, the Army sent me an Army pin (I retired in '84, apprently they just got the word), so stuck in on there too. Now the grand-dau loves it, but I'm not giving it up.

And, just for general info, nothing quite like being able to compare two hard-copy sketches, and seeing how they compare. You'd need to whatevers to be able to do that thingies with screens. I'm thinking I'll stuck with a pen/pencil and paper (or scrap wood, or whatever). Just more satisfying - possibly because it feels more real.

JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Life is basically good.

Reply to
J T

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