Scription

Phew, 2014 is Here Already...

It's been a slowest blogging year, things happen to you, you thought you were not whining but you were.  You thought you would deal with them one by one with methods but they just keep coming at you.  With all the good intentions somehow attracting me negative energies, I started to realize that good intentions without positive emotions didn't do any good.  Everything went downhill coz I chose to fight giants, to look down on poor quality, to prove myself by winning battles, etc all these did me no good, in terms of health and effects on people and family around me.

(Pencil, pencil and pencils, nice colors and wooden barrels)

So at one point, I was near break down coz everything went nowhere, with increasing number of triggers lying around to set me off on anger and despair, I finally screamed in front of the mirror.  That was scary, that was the point I realized I had to re-wire my brain.

(that scream happened on 16th March 2014)

While I'm doing that, please stop by my Instagram and twitter feed.

(Traveler's Notebook experience corner, inside 5F Raffles City, "Life by city'super" store)

Short update you don't need to read: just finished setting up new "Life by city'super" store in Raffles City, Shanghai 2 weeks ago, loving the new furnitures and zoning I planted, thankful to friends and colleagues helping out a lot.  1st May we will launch a huge store in iAPM Shanghai, so next two weeks I'm flying there again.  June is Travel Photo Cafe 2014. Early July is stationery show in Tokyo I hope I can visit, but in that month a new store will be launched in Hong Kong which we've spent a lot of time perfecting, plus a relocation of another store.  August is Back To School, huge project.  September is launching of a range of limited edition Traveler's Notebook which is stuck at certain stage right now. Close to the end of the year is another new store I'm hoping I could spend a lot more time on planning, not to mention crazy Xmas season for gifts, cards, diaries, etc…. Wife's last chemo shot will be two weeks from now, then there will be a series of radiotherapy. Poor boy got his elbow broken 2 days ago and his arm is in plaster cast, oh gee he signed up for swimming competition.  Tons of small projects to seed, track and execute.  I love doing all these, if they were not all cramped together, I thought last year was hell hahahah.  And my Chronodex stamp, sorry that the maker of a special part went bankrupt and I couldn't find replacement yet, got to do it got to do it.  And yes the 2nd half of the 2014 weekly Chronodex should be on its way.

(nano Traveler's Notebook)

Did I manage to have some fun with my Traveler's Notebook?  Yes, I made the world's first nano Traveler's Notebook :)

Evidence of negligence

This typeset tray had been left untouched and not rearranged for 2 years, that proved how I wasted 2 years of my life in nonsenses. Time to change.

Chronodex July - December 2013 Weekly Diary Free Download Released

Chronodex friends here you go!  The July to December 2013 version is released, feel free to download and plan ahead your visual scheduling for the rest of the year.

Here are some of the places you can interact with other Chronodex users:

1. Chronodex
2. Chronodex Facebook Page
3. Chronodex Flickr Group
4. The Fountain Pen Network thread about Chronodex
5. Lifehacker's cover of Chronodex

Yes Chronodex is kind of weird, it looks a bit too complicated, it is not like any other traditional scheduling tools, but it is inspirational and free style.  I made it so as to break the rules of scheduling, most diaries/schedule books have rigid grids and timeline which limit the available space for you to write notes related to your schedule, you can use any space on the paper to link your time specific entries thus free from the traditional constraints.

Look at our beautiful cross harbour tunnel, it is a 'grid', it is 'rigid' but it works in mass transportation because it provides a system and create order.  It is dull too, especially in times of traffic jam and rainy days.  What you have to dissect is that there is a difference between mass order and personal creativity.  Chronodex is for your personal creativity in what seems to be a rigid time system, it is for you to exploit/explore the space nobody ever made constraints of.

I've also made Chronodex a free download to share in 2011 when my father was too old and too sick lying on bed struggling, questioning himself feeling useless.  We had no way to help, prayers from all of you mysteriously helped somehow IMHO, but the thing is, I wanted to prove that everything is connected, he was not and never useless, if people appreciate Chronodex, it was because of him I existed and being educated by him into a person with inquisitive mind.  He should be proud of himself, even though there was no way I could convey this to him during his deterioriation.  Today on the Star Ferry lower deck, I saw a grandfather holding his grandson's T-shirt looking over the harbour an European tall ship cruising by, the light tug, the togetherness and a sense of exploration made me sob inside, recalling my own exploration with Dad and his brief time with my own kid.

Tonight, Mom told me her encounter with Dad on his 140th day of passing which happens to be my little brother's birthday.  A cicada was standing weakly on the floor where Dad used to stay often, she picked it up with both hands and prayed the Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒), bringing it to the window seam and left it there.  Minutes later, it flew away energetically full of life.  The scene reminds us of the Chao Shao-an (趙少昂)'s painting which my Dad loved so much and had been on our living room wall for the longest time, AND it is Lychee season now.  Can you see all the connections and emotions?

The stuffs we hold dear of, always leave impressions for people close and around us, these things are proves of our existence painted over with emotions and mysterious connections.

So this coming week, like the last, I will be out of my home town heading Shanghai for a week of intensive preparation of a new store launch.  Love the travel, hate the separation, enjoying everything in between.

Meanwhile, Traveler's Notebook fans in Hong Kong had a great time in the Star Ferry ride, after-party and small meet-ups.  I hope to do it more often, feel free to drop by our Facebook group.  Now, follow me for a 15 seconds tranquil journey across the lovely Victoria Harbour.

 

What's in the 1st Official TRAVELER'S notebook Hong Kong Gathering 2013

We spent 8 months in preparation to launch the Star Edition TRAVELER's notebook, it was unbelievable how the project sucked away my time from normal work, but it was super rewarding.  Tomorrow will be the day when we can get on the "Shinning Star" ferry to enjoy a sunny day of the 1st Official TRAVELER'S notebook Hong Kong Gathering!

Nearly a 100 fans, friends and staff will go onboard.  Participants will receive a pack of Star Edition cookie made freshly by Aunt Stella (all natural ingredients mixed in small bowl before baking) and a set of event only stickers kindly created by Designphil.  Our Korean TN friend won't be able to come but he made an interesting pin/badge for each of the participants too!

There will be 3 corners on the ferry in addition to the beautiful open deck on two sides where TN friends can enjoy a great harour view.  Customization corner will feature loads of scrap materials, masking tapes, event only rubber stamps and beads.  I will bring along my Kingsley leather hot stamp machine for an event only emboss for participants too.  Rubber stamp crafting corner will have demonstration of how to use a typical eraser and carving knife to make your own rubber stamp.  Presentation corner will feature slides of old Hong Kong and a collector will share the stories he found from these old Star Ferry postcards and tickets.

(photo credit: mimuthings workshop)

We've also made a huge event poster at the lower deck where TN friends can take photo in front of the ferry wheel to play coxwain.

Who will be there in this historic event?  THE Designphil TRAVELER'S notebook project owner Iijima san and designer Hashimoto san, brining along 7 Japanese TN fans flying HK just to be on the ferry.  Alan Cheung the crazy collector who can talk hours and hours of old Hong Kong and Star Ferry.  Shizue Takehara san who is an art exhibition organizer and rubber stamp fanatic, she helped to arrange Hong Kong artist and rubber stamp carving teacher Fion Wong onboard to give TN fans a glimpse of how easy it is to bring creativity into your TN life.

In addition to Japanese TN fans, we will have two French magazine editors from Pinholet, also fans of TN, coming onboard looking at the content of my bag and reporting this event.  They are here in Hong Kong to gather materials for their magazine issue specifically about Hong Kong sub-culture, featuring Michael Wolf pictures, HK Honey, Shanghai Street Studios, So Soap, Kacey Wong's work and Tom Grundy's explorations (remember his attempt of citizen's arrest on Tony Blair in Hong Kong).

Stationery freaks in Asia have probably noticed a new dream store in Taiwan called TOOLS to LIVEBY (禮拜文房具) by now.  Guess what, founder and owner Karen Yang has flown to HK just for this too!  To my delight my dear TN friend "Fishball" is also flying here to join us.  Finally, digital scrapbooking and installation artist Lie Fhung from Indonesia whom happens to be the 008 TRAVELER'S notebook Professional User couldn't resist the temptation to come as well.

Can you imagine?  We are all connected through TN.  I wish my UK friend Colin Edwards could come, we are connected through TN and my blog and he used to travel to Hong Kong in his youth.  Now do I sound like this is my Tuesday-with-Morris type of funeral which everybody I hold dear of can attend?  It does.

Lastly, before I start to pack my bag for the ferry ride, I would like to express my dismay of being unable to write on Scription as much as I would like to.  My job has the most rewarding things one could get from a job ever, but at the same time as an employee in business (oh this blog is personal BTW), the under manpower and workload is killing the whole team and drained my energy.  Like this Conklin fountain pen, the beauty and aura it emanates can't be measured by numbers, frequencies, profit or a paycheck, you will never pick this pen up if that's all you look for, you will not put this in your store if that's all you look for.  I fall for beauty and aura.

Field Notes Dream Journal with Leather Vest

My pile of Field Notes laid dormant for a while because they tend to bleed with my fountain pen or roller balls.  On a surprising turn of events (meeting Tsuchihashi san and his idea note), I realized I hadn't been jotting down my dreams for a long while and started to look for a handy reliable notebook to do so all over again.

The trigger was a week ago when my Dad passed away.  I was expecting to see him at least in my dreams on the 7th day of his passing, realizing that I had to write down every single word I would hear from him, I frantically picked up Field Notes and pondering how I would attach a pen onto it for quick access.

There it was, a few hours of measuring and hammering, I made a leather vest from ~1mm thin leather (Australian Gold) attaching to Field Notes' cover and holds a wooden ball pen from Japan I love.

So by the 7th night of his passing, I had this fully equipped, following me all the time.  Did he came into my dreams?  No.  But he did tell a love story I will never forget from his small moves.

I guess the insight was "life is what happens when you are busying making other plans".  No regret trying.

You can plan so much and things are not happening the way you expected, but the cool thing to realize is that, things would always turn out to be more beautiful, that is, only had you acted.

The leather vest I made was just the right size to allow me rolling the Field Notes in half for compact storage in jackets.  The proportion even allows me to use it on a typical thicker (and dull) Moleskine in pocket size.

I encourage you to make one yourself, you should be proud of what you can do and carry inspirations (idea notes) and dreams in your pocket.  Fear not losing the notes coz that's only the physical record of what you've already gotten.

Today, I brought my kid out to Cheung Chau island for a leisure cycling, feeling contented my vest and FN, along side with my inspirations and dreams were with me.

Advanced Information About Traveler's Notebook ARMY EDITION

My heart skipped a beat when I saw this news from friend and Traveler's Notebook fanatics at Miscellaneous, whom also operates Travelers-notebook.com for the European market (origin: Amsterdam).

Nop, I know nothing about it yet, but here's what I've learned so far:

In collaboration with Nigel Calbourn, Midori proudly presents the TRAVELERS'S notebook ARMY EDITION at the tradeshows AW13.

TRAVELER'S notebook ARMY EDITION Passport Size has a leather cover branded with the British broad arrow military symbol.  This symbol was used dring WWII to symbolise government ownership.

Available in stores from July 2013 onwards.

Alright Brigitta, you have secrets not telling me in advance, I too have something you may not know about TN, huh.  It is something about "STAR" to be launched in March/April in HONG KONG! :)

What's In My Pencase - December 2012

Porn: was on Flickr Explore on 5th December, Things Organized Neatly on 24th December.

Content: candy design & works, merchants & mills tape measure and scissors, scription gtd tap mod, koh-i-noor eraser, mt tape, fishing reel tape measure, Muji scissors, cutter and glue stick, charm, magnifier, Kaweco al sports touch, pilot Capless fountain pen, staedtler 925 mechanical pencil, tascam audio recorder, 8 scales in one body. Beneath: Moleskine large grid journal, saddleback leather cover.

Head over to the Flickr photo, hover your mouse over the objects to see which is which.

Scription 2012 - How Was It?

Scription has been very slow in the past year of 2012.  I thought situation at work would become smoother but it didn't.  Simply opening too many stores too fast, losing important connection between sourcing and customer wants/needs.  In addition to under staff situation in my departments, I had a lot of tedious problems to tackle for developing new stores in Shanghai.  That left me essentially no time in cultivating people and projects at work, let alone my own Chronodex adventure.  2012 was a very tiring year.

(Le Jardin Secret)

(A Room vintage cafe: dolls from the 50s meet present day Traveler's Notebook)

(A Room vintage cafe: Tri-eyes of different ages. Bell & Howell model 333 8mm movie camera vs #turtlejacket on iPhone. 3-lens turret)

(GZ cafe: which I brought a dear Korean Traveler's Notebook super fan/friend there)

I did managed to stop by a few nice places during my business trips, which is like Shanghai every month, such as Le Jardin Secret (秘密花園) restuarant, A Room which is a nice cafe flooded with vintage stuffs and GZ cafe which the owner is always there to chat with.

(Shanghai airport lounge)

(Shanghai airport: roof window looks like leaves from certain angles)

I did managed to steal time, like I said before, to do something I like in small chunks of time too, but that's not too fulfilling and I always feel like missing a lot of things.  Like bringing personal projects to business trip hoping I could work on them in hotel but eventually too tired to do so, like I needed to organize ideas floating around but there was never a quiet moment I could use productively.  Despite what you think apparently, I myself feel like losing myself bits and pieces here and there.  2013 new year resolution? Be smarter. 

Smarter!  Like forget about Apple's Map, use Baidu in China once and for all. For the rest of the world, Google Map rocks.  Yup, Apple led somebody in Australia to a dessert, it led me to a wrong building too.  Not smart to roll out an app like that.  Not smart when you don't know you are not ready for it (I'm reminding myself).

(Sensu brush is the best stylus I've ever found! Writing with it on iPad is effortless, not to mention the amazing low friction digital painting in apps like Paper)

(Words notebook: made in USA, carefully chosen paper and ink, size the same as Moleskine Cahier, unique system of notation for tasks and bullets. Fountain pen will bleed through pages, finer rollerballs, pencils and ballpoints are perfect.  I would say it is the tasks/bullets version of Field Notes)

(Varacil mechanical pencil PUZZLE, HK$108 kind of challenging to finish, but it is our 2012 Xmas TOP seller! 砌死人嘅鉛蕊筆)

As for product reviews in 2012, I believe I did nothing at all.  Did managed to post some pictures with short comments on Instagram/Twitter feed, but no analysis and comparison, zero.  Well, Scription is not about product reviews afterall, I am sure you trust what I share here or on Instagram/Twitter has some points of interest.  Maybe I filtered too much, should have revealed a little more.

(Kaweco props for retail display: sick and tired of data analysis and fighting against biased opinions on that day, so I played with tihngs on my table for a few minutes)

(Frame and lenses: I was just posting something I stare at for a long time, bet they are pleasing in some ways, to you too)

(Headphones and cameras cleaning day of the year)

Yes I posted porns on my feeds too, judging from the responds I get, I figured people really don't mind.  I hope in between these porns, you can see tibits of my life and practise perhaps something good will come out of the sharing.

(Love film, no edit great colors and texture, not too real. Mangrove in Tainan. Canon F1 85mm/f1.2, AGFA Vista plus 200)

Oh meeting people in 2012 was fun, great fun.  I took the liberty to further disrupt my work boundaries and went to Tainan University of Technology sharing my retail experience, hope I had inspired some students there.  They are very polite and teachers are super friendly, I appreciate the opportunity.  I also went to a forum to speak to dozens of secondary school students in Hong Kong, sharing thoughts about creating a sustainable campaign for their Chinese New Year projects.  I love sharing, which is part of my very own learning, I just hope I can have more time to do that in our industry as well.

(Thanks world Traveler's Notebook fans @fishball and Colin for sending me lovely greetings! Merry Xmas!)

Lastly, thanks to all of you Scription readers and Chronodex users whom have been heart warming and supportive.  Let's continue the Scription journey in 2013!

Please do comment for the Scription content so far, I'd like to see what I can improve.

Beyond Transportation and Stationery

Because of certain project related to Traveler's Notebook, I had a chance to meet a well known Hong Kong collector Alan Cheung.  He collects postcards, tickets, matchboxes etc but most importantly he is a tram lover and has a sizable collection of Hong Kong Tramways and Star Ferry artifacts.

2 hours easily passed talking to him in person.  He shared a lot through explaining each book and artifact he brought out, while I told him about my Dad's obsession in authenticating old Chinese paintings, which actually has a lot in common with Mr. Cheung's obsession.

I believe many Traveler's Notebook users didn't really get it, I mean the whole purpose of naming the notebook "Traveler's" is not really because it is for travel journaling, it is for everyday use.  When you travel, your mind is wide open, you capture new things and you are inspired by all the geological and cultural differences.  It is this very same exposure Traveler's Notebook wants you to have, only on everyday basis.  Imagine the huge difference this sense of adventure, openness and discovery can bring to you each and everyday!  You look at everything from a fresh pair of eyes, the future is just bright.

Well, transportation has a lot to do with this concept isn't it?  Without the first ferry, there would be no traffic between islands, without the first plane there would be no colorful culture clashes, let alone higher human awareness on a global scale.  Transportation break boundaries and induce discovery.  Transportation enabled travel, but also enabled everything which follows, for better or for worse.  A simple, tasteful notebook you carry representing something that huge, yet inspiring you to have personal adventures to break daily boundaries, is GREAT stationery!

On the contrary to great stationery, I was one of the judges to facilitate an office table to win the grand award of the Hong Kong Stationery Award last week.  An office table!  Shameful!  It doesn't represent Hong Kong, it is not stationery enough, it has no innovation despite some merits of being X kilograms lighter than a typical one…. .  Any trade fair participants could have won the grand award if they ever submitted.  I was relieved the clock punching machine only made it to the top 4th, geee.  The whole thing was just a mechanism to give trade show participants a false hope to be recognized.  A true award should have a personality to seek great stuffs by a clear set of principles and believes, anyway I can't be on that panel next year, they didn't listen and improve from last year.

A few hours of flight from HK to China 2 weeks ago, the situation is even… sigh.  These Eiffel Tower name card stands were sold 1/3 of the typical retail price, they all have the same packaging design of the real ones.  Only that the packaging print quality were terrible, alright maybe they were being over priced in developed countries, but they are really just copying exactly the look and cared nothing about quality.  All of them were not able to stand on all 4 feet, one even had a distorted profile.

I don't mean to devalue commerce, no typical soul has the luxury to pursue higher values if bread is not made to the table.  But I invite those who are on the upper level of Maslow's hierarchy to go beyond paper and pen, beyond products and commerce, to plant seeds to the future by taking a small chunk of your time just to reflect what it means to create value.  Now I have to work on some superficial numbers and things, so that I can have those small chunks of time.  Cheers.

Canon F1 in Wood Interpretation

Oh BTW, I stole some time last night to execute an idea of woodenizing my beloved Canon F1n.

Not proud of it yet, coz I was just peeling off old fake leather from the macine and applied decal sticker on certain parts.  I don't know what you call this obsession of natural materials (leather, wood, etc), those stuffs please me and calm me like no other.  Someday I'm gonna grab some real thin wood veneer to make it authentic.

Canon F1n is such a heavy full brass machine, sick to carry for a long time, but I guess the emotion for me loving it originated from my youth.  No money, no taste, just love the idea of taking photos, some classmate made it to acquire an F1.  I was "just" hanging on with my 120 Yashica. Took me years later to get my very own F1n.

What then?  Treasure what I've already have or lust after Leica M?  Same as lusting after hundreds of masking tapes, the important thing is what you do with these objects.  Tresend yourself form object lust and free yourself from endless chase of equipment, AND enjoy the serendipity of not having those things in the timing you desired.  Having said that, I still want a Leica M :)