Editing The Pen Addict 281/transcript (section)

== Hipponodo Notebook ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I really like it. The presentation is wonderful. The box that it comes in is fantastic. The hippo and the way it's like... What language is this on the front? Do you know? So, it's like there's a hippo and then there are some characters.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I'm sure it's Japanese, katakana, but I'm not positive.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't want to say a name in case I get it wrong. You know, like... But yeah, it's some flavor of Japanese writing, I guess, which is like... I guess it's saying noto. I think it's noto, yes. Yeah. And then there's a cute little hippo on it, which is lovely. I've got the black one with the blue. Mm-hmm. It's got like the blue elastic and a blue and black bookmark in them. Mm-hmm. So, the presentation is wonderful. The book feels so great. It's got like that soft cover. It's pink on the inside, right? Like the kind of the first page. And then it breaks out into the cream pages is what I got. Mm-hmm. Which is why you're waiting. It's got a great pocket in the back, all that goodness. I found to me the paper itself. I don't know if this is because of the color that I got or whatever. It is not as smooth feeling as the Crossfield notebook. It's a little bit rougher. Like there's more tooth to it when I'm writing. You know, like there's more feedback. Of course. Right. Because it is, to my way, it is fantastic. Right? Like the paper is wonderful. But I do overall prefer the paper in the Crossfield. Mm-hmm. To this version, to this variant.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, it's a weight difference in the paper. Okay. So, this is the thicker version of the Tomoe 68 GSM, I think. And the standard's 52. So, you get a little bit of thickness difference. So, I'm wondering if that's just playing into the feel of it. It still, it has a different feel, but maybe not like completely glassy, like you're used to in the Crossfield or something like that. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The problem with the Crossfield is that like it takes six years for the ink to dry. Right? Like, you know. Yeah. Where it's better in the Hipponuto. Yeah. So, obviously, one of the big selling points of this book is the thickness of the book. Right? Like the amount of paper you get.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 500 pages.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 500 pages is a wild amount. It makes the book feel substantial. Like it's a real thing. Like I'm waving it around now like it's a Bible. Right? Like it is a big kind of like it is. It's a serious thing. Right? Like and that is nice. It feels nice to hold because of that. Like you feel like you have something in your hand that is means a thing. Right? If that makes sense. And I think people that use this for journals, they're going to really love that because this is a book that feels more than your average Leuchtturm or Moleskine or bullet journal. Like it's got a thing to it. Right? But there is a problem in that is like the early pages. If I'm writing on the left hand side, it's not the best. Right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like you're up in the air.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're up in the air. Bouncing around. Or you're like pulling the page down and then the book's flipping around and hitting you on the knuckles. Like it's like with any book. Right? The first few pages or the last few pages when you're writing on the thin side, it's tough. But the thin side lasts way longer in this book because it's so big. Yeah. Now I will say for me personally, I am mostly infrequently write on the left page. But I do do it. Right? But it's not always. I'm less frequent to write on that page. And I've tried it and it works. It totally works. But it's not perfectly ideal. Right? Like but there's no way you can do it if that's what you want. And I think for me, I'm willing to take that to get the thickness and the amount of paper in the notebook. Like I'm willing to take the loss. Like if I really don't like it, I'll just never use the left page. And I still have, you know, 500 pages. Right. So, you know, I just wanted to say that. Right? Because I think that is the downside of the upside. Right? That there is a double-edged sword with the, I think, kind of one of the main selling points of this book. You just need to be aware that like you can work it out on your own. It's logic. But it's there. Right? And, you know, and the thing is like the lay flatness. Yeah, that happens. But nothing can lay flat, completely flat all the time. Always. Unless you're going spiral bound. Right? That's the only way it works. With this type of binding, there isn't like the lay flat comes in inverted commas. Do you agree with what I'm saying? Like, there is an element of lay flatness, but it's not for 100% of the book. Yeah. Because it's 500 pages. It's impossible to do, right? Yeah, sure. But that's what I'm saying. Like, I, you know, I don't want to focus on that too much. But like, it's the only downside to this book, which I think is wonderful. And I'm so happy to have it. Like, I'm actually thinking now that once the Crossfield is done, I'm going to work through this before I order another Crossfield. Because my original plan was to order another one of those. But I don't think I need it now. Like, I have a really lovely book here. Other than that, I maybe want to try and find a use for this that I don't have. Like, I use my Crossfield for kind of like doodling when I'm recording some shows. And also to like take notes of whenever I do like a mic at the movies or whatever, I'm watching a TV show or I'm watching a movie for a show. That's where I take my notes. I take them by hand and I take them in my Crossfield book. And I've done that with my Hippo Noto over the last week. So I could get a bit more of a feel for it. And I'm either going to transfer those notes over to here like as a use case when I'm out of my Crossfield, which is very soon. Or maybe try and find a good use for the Hippo Noto. I've pointed my eye towards bullet journaling a little bit in recent times. And I don't want to make any promises. But like I've read about the system. I've made notes about the system. I think I have a decent understanding of it now. But I've yet to do anything more than just read about it. But this feels like a great book for that. So big thumbs up. Yeah, I think that'd be perfect for that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I mean, I've just been a committed non left side of the page user for my entire life. Just because almost no notebook gives you a wonderful experience doing that. So I don't like to see the ink through both sides. It makes it harder to read the pages. It's more uncomfortable to write with. So yeah, I'm good with only using half the pages in all of the notebooks that I use. Because I only write on one side. No big deal. So I can't wait to get mine. I definitely want to try it out. And we'll talk more about this bullet journaling thing. I'm sure as the calendar changes and the new notebooks get put into use. New planners and things like that. My Hipponodo's not in. But I do have another notebook on the way, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh yeah?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I bought a Moleskine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's the end of this. So we're off. I don't really know what's going on anymore. What's going on? What are you doing? Why did you do that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've been tempted to try one of the newer models just to see if anything's changed. Okay. And I think, you know, as someone who reviews things and talks about things, you need to, you know, revisit things that maybe you have not cared for in the past. See if anything's changed. And there's been enough talk around new-ish Moleskine products that something's a little bit different in the paper. And I think it's worth exploring. So actually buying the Moleskine was an enormous challenge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Huh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Aren't they available everywhere? How can that be a problem? So this is exactly right. So they're available everywhere. I didn't want to buy one in a store because I wanted to buy the most current issue, if you will, of the notebook. So I know Amazon does basically publishing dates, release dates. So I went to Moleskine on Amazon to their brand, pulled up essentially all of their products and then sorted them by publication date. So they have things out, you know, to 2018, 2019, all these planners. So it took me pages and pages to get to the current stuff. So then I'm starting to flip through the current stuff and it's like all planners. And if it's not a planner, it's a ruled notebook. And I'm not going to buy a ruled notebook if this is something I want to try. I hate ruled notebooks. So give me something in graph or grid.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 29 pages later on the Amazon site of 12 items each on a page. It took me till the 29th page to actually find the most current Moleskine notebook that I would purchase. And it turns out to be the most basic black one with a dot grid with a release date of 2016. It was kind of frustrating that I couldn't find something better, cooler, newer. But I think they just have so much stock of the same things. It just doesn't... The standards don't really recycle like the planners do. And all the special releases like the Star Wars ones looked amazing. But they're all ruled or blank. Most of them are ruled. And I'm just not going to buy one for the cover. I want to buy it for the paper too, like the format. It was just... It was kind of annoying.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I was already turned off by that. But, you know, we'll see when I get the notebook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think hardcover was a mistake though. Honestly, like from my history with them, their softcover notebooks are their best notebooks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, the hardcover is kind of the standard. I agree with your statement from everyone, you know, everyone's comments on the notebooks themselves. But the little black book is the standard, right? Like the 5-ish by 8-ish black Moleskine is the standard. So that's kind of the one I wanted to test too. So that was in my mind. I would have bought something different if I could have come up with a recently published version of... You know, they had some cool orange covers and yellow covers. But they weren't... They were either blank or lined. And I could never find a grid or graph. And, you know, anyway, this is a... It's an experiment, you know. And we'll see how it goes. The shopping process was more of a pain in the butt. But that was just for me being particular. Trying to get the most recently made notebook. You can't... I can't just walk into Barnes & Noble and get one off the shelf. I don't think knowing, you know, it could be, you know, 2014, 2015. I got at least one from 2016. Whether that's even really the case, what I'm going to get, who knows. Whether you can really tell, who knows. But we'll know pretty quickly whether it's changed or not. I think I have one of my old ones that I used to use at my old job when I traveled. I'll have to see if I can dig that up and do some comparisons. But, yeah. This is the great Moleskine experiment. And, you know, this will put me off them for another decade. If, you know, if it's still the same old Moleskine paper. So, we'll see how it goes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We all are happy that you're taking this bullet for us. I'm not 100% sure what else to say.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. No, I definitely feel traitorous. It feels weird.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Again, it's good to make fun. But, like, they're better than nothing. And they're better than so many other books. Right? Exactly. But, like, they're so much worse than so many others, even at the same price. You know, like, move to Leuchtturm, move to Rodier, and you can get the same format with much better paper. But I'm happy that Moleskine exists because it's pushed people like me further into the world that I'm in now. Like, I'm happy that they're there as an entrance point. But that's kind of all they should be for a lot of people.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. Yep. But they're the biggest. So let's see what we have these days. Who knows?