If anything were to be used as one’s membership card in the blogosphere, it would have to be a Moleskine notebook. I got mine as a gift from my girlfriend last October when we first started going out (51 weeks, OH SNAP!). Being the minimalist I am, of course the original plain pocket-size notebook is the most appealing to me. 192 pages, but since I single-side it, it ends up being 98? (Their math failure, not mine…) But anyways, so October 5th, I finally finish filling my Moleskine. Of course I had ordered my second one months in advance, so I was ready.

I’ve often had others flip through my notebook and comment on how wide spread the content is. Keep in mind: this is my notebook for life. Just as one should take notes for physics and chemisty, they should take notes for life. Most normal people would call this a diary, but that has, like so many English terms, collected a conotation with it that is generally unappealing.

  • I am not a teenage girl.
  • There is no sob stories in this notebook.
  • There is actually very little having to do with my RL.
  • There is no commitment to write in it every day.
  • Unlike this blog, apparently…
  • There isn’t anything secret in it.
  • Otherwise, WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I DOING WRITING ABOUT IT?!?

So what does that leave?

  • 2 pages complete chaos
  • IP addresses, phone numbers, my dorm addresses, account numbers, office numbers, etc
  • 23 pages of lists
  • Ranged from things to remember from home, to shopping lists, to lists of people I know
  • 16 lists of ideas
  • Lists of small projects to work on, first drafts of designs that were little more than lists
  • 11 driving directions
  • Some of them, I was even nice enough to leave off things like the address, since it was obvious where I was going 6 months ago…
  • 5 Sketches
  • I actually dabbled in some art, but also analytical geometry.
  • 27 Algorithm designs
  • This is where carrying the notebook around really helped.
  • Read a Project Euler problem, roll it over for a week or two, and you’ll have the solution in an instant (case in point, solving #67 in the shower).
  • Most of these pages are taken up by flowcharts of the algorithms, which I enjoy writing.
  • Trying to draw flowcharts of recursive algorithms is a challenge in itself, and really shows that you understand it.
  • 4 pages of C code
  • 11 pages of miscellanea
  • Euler’s formula
  • Morse code table
  • Question I got wrong on a math quiz
  • A crude self-designed version of a Wheatstone bridge
  • List of commands to use aircrack, since using it implies a lack of internet
  • Schematic of the Joule Thief
  • Drove me nuts trying to understand it, because there was no good explanation of it online
  • International phonetic alphabet
  • Notes from research on water chemistry
  • A map of about 1/4 of De Anza’s campus
  • The measurements for a 2m J-Pole design
  • All of my blood pressure readings from the last three years (10 readings total)

So now I’ve been carrying my second Moleskine around for a month, and have yet to write anything in it other than my name and phone number. I can’t believe I still suffer from fear-of-ruining-the-first-page-of-a-new-notebook syndrome.

What do you think you’d put in your notebook? Would it be a Moleskine? (And don’t pay full price for a Moleskine, buy it from Chronicle Books and use coupon code “parents” for 30% off and free shipping)