In My 'Skine

I love my Moleskine. However, if there any knocks against my famous Moleskine Legendary Notebooks it is the people that say they are expensive. On this point of course I beg to differ because I don’t find Moleskine Notebook expensive if you account for their high quality paper and nice build construction. Moleskine are higher quality notebooks, so yes, they do cost more than a standard Walmart composition pad or the little freebie notepad you get from your insurance agents during this time of the year. By the way, remember, garbage in garbage out. Actually in this case it’s garbage out garbage in. Maybe the adage is backwards, but there is a solution to the otherwise “quote-unqoute” expensive Moleskine Legendary Notebooks.

Bring on companies like Borders or Barnes and Noble who if you sign up for their affinity programs like the Borders Rewards Plus membership you will get your inbox flooded at least once a week by coupons allowing you to take 30% off, 40% off, 50% off and during the glorious holiday season like today upwards of 60% off any item you purchase in the store with said coupon. Simply, you print out these special coupons at home, carefully fold them up and place them safely in the back pocket of your Moleskine and head straight to your local Borders brick and mortar store.

Today I got just such a coupon offering me 33% off any item in the store with an additional 10% because I am a Borders Rewards Plus Member so today 60% off my $20 Moleskine a gives me a $8 Moleskine(Plus+ membership cost $20p/y). Not much more expensive than the piece of crap you could possibly buy from Wal-Mart.

So the way to save money and get the type of journal that you would love, is to simply sign up for a free Borders Rewards Membership card and just wait and watch him box for coupons a rolling and use those coupon times to buy your Moleskine Legendary Notebooks. Or if you buy a lot of books you can sign up for the Barnes & Noble’s Card which cost $25 however B&N offers a lot of times much bigger discounts on books, magazines, music and DVD’s. Both companies off discount on coffee to so the cards will pay for themselves in no time.

Since all the naysayers that say Moleskine Legendary Notebooks are pretentious and expensive I say shut the hell up print out your coupon and keep the pen moving. Well that’s enough of this blog post now my buddy Philip and I are on our way to Borders to buy more Moleskine Notebooks.

Aloha

Oh well the positive person in side of me says the hell with it… Bring on day 5

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@DocRock and @Yoon001 talk about Distraction Free Writing and Cafe pickup Lines.

In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days. Please leave us your feedback. Don’t forget follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/inmyskine or http://twitter.com/docrock. You can check out my personal blog at http://mrdocrock.com

It’s precisely in those moments when I don’t know what to do, boredom drives one to try a host of possibilities to either get somewhere or not get anywhere. — Anish Kapoor

Today In My ‘Skine I dropped some knowledge on the subject of boredom. Boredom is a huge pet peeve of mine and I have to say I absolutely hate it. Not even to get into the philosophical statements about idle hands and all that mess the notion of bitching about being bored when there is so much to do in the worlds amazes me.

What’s the Big Deal About Boredom?

Easy, If you are bored you are a self centered and cruel person. PERIOD. Look think about this, It is not there is nothing to do… It’s there is nothing you want to do. That is a total different statement and is little about lack of activities but more about being selfish. There are parks to clean, charities that need help, brain cells to cultivate and lots more civic work to be done if for one second these bored people could live outside of themselves for a moment and think more of the next man (ok woman too).

For boredom speaks the language of time, and it is to teach you the most valuable lesson of your life – the lesson of your utter insignificance.  –Joseph Brodsky

Did you know that boredom can be a powerful contributor to workplace related stress. Bored staff members ofter blame their idleness on lack of challenge or under appreciation. This by it self can be a source for dwindling profits and productivity due to loss of focus. Even though boredom is one of the major causation factors of Clinical Depression it is not widely studied.

How To Solve Boredom

Honestly I can’t believe I have to explain this but I will none the less. It’s simple get out there and do something. There are tone os sites out there that allow you to volunteer like Volunteer Match or United We Serve. Another way to solve boredom is to have all of your goals for life, projects, work, charity etc… already planned out somewhere, this way when a few free minutes arise you can get back to task doing something useful. I personally like to use my idle time taking care of others as it gives me satisfaction knowing I’m making a difference.

Ok Stop reading and go do something.

I need your feedback

Please leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com

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@DocRock and @Yoon001 talk about the “LiveScribe Echo” (http://www.livescribe.com) digital note-taking pen and goal setting.

In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.

I need your feedback

Please leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com

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@DocRock and @Yoon001 talk about “Free Writing”, overcoming “Writer’s Block”, and Personal Journal tips.

In My ‘Skine is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.

I need your feedback

Please leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com

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Moleskine 101? Yeah 101 because many people buy Moleskine Legendary Notebooks or some other lame ass journal and keep it blank for ever. I know this is true because when the big box bookstores started selling journals in the front of the store as an impulse purchase item I bought plenty of them.

Linen covers, Faux Suede covers, plain paper, lined paper and grid paper it didn’t matter I kept buying them because they were like $4.99. Hell you could get them for $1.99 right after Christmas season, in fact both Borders and Barnes & Noble both still sell the cheapy Faux Textile covered journals right in the fro of the store and they are still cheap.

The major issue I had with these books is they were too nice. Ok wait no they weren’t Moleskine nice but they we a far cry from the $.88 composition books from the Five and Dime. Since these books were so nice I thought they need to have my best finished creations, ideas, plans or outlines in them. So I never used them opting for a metric crap ton of post-it notepads or free notebook I picked up from various computer trade shows.

This left me in big trouble because with random notebooks my brain dumps were all over the place or I could never seem to find the right stuff when I needed it. The second issue is I ended up with countless notebooks never filled with anything because I was waiting for the big fish or to be struck by the creative shit storm lighting bolt. It never happened.

Moleskine to the rescue, well sort of, it was actually some random dude I met at B&N who gave me this little nugget of wisdom and I took it to heart. He explained to me right after you buy a Moleskine or any other journal for that matter write something in it right away like before the crumpled up plastic wrapping unravels in your trashcan.

Now when I purchase a new journal I craft a few words of wisdom in the cafe of the bookstore over a cup of burnt overpriced fashion coffee.

If you are a chronic empty journal owner it’s time to fess up and leave me a comment. You know owning up to the problem is the first step.

If you have any suggestions, questions or feedback please let ‘em rip.

Please Leave a comment and don’t forget to follow In My ‘Skine or Doc Rock. You can check out my personal blog Sleeve of Wizzard at http://mrdocrock.com

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The Legendary Notebooks of Picasso, Chatwin and Hemingway

One of my goals for 2010 is to write more. My major way of achieving this was to get started by keeping a journal. I recently listened to an audiobook by Jim Rohn about journaling and found that it isa good way to keep track of ones progress in business and personal development goals.

So off the the Bookstores I went looking for a great journal to buy. I need a good, sexy, nice paper and quality book. See all the advise I found about journaling said get a good book as it will make you feel better about writing. (they all also said not to journal on your computer). So as I looked at the many options I feel in love with the cult like appeal of the Moleskine Large Journals.

It is Moleskine (mol-a-skeen’-a). So please stop saying mole skin or mole skine (sounds like old wine).

I have been using the small pocket sized Moleskine notebooks for over a year due to my GTD addiction and have had great success with the overall quality, look and feel, and style of these little guys. I also found a good leather bound journal can cost upwards of $100 bucks or nearly $.34 a page; whereas, my new Moleskine would only cost about $.06 a page. Good value, great looks, soft cover, and a big pocket in the back as well as the Moleskine legacy… I’m Hooked.

The large sized square ruled notebook is great for my journaling, mind mapping new ideas, keeping my GTD weekly reviews, and the grids help me sketch out my concepts of taking over the world. I tend to write in my notebooks with TUL Fine Needle Point pens (Office Max) and in my journal with a Montblanc Starwalker Fineliner Resin and the paper hold up to the ink really well. There is very little to no bleed through effectively giving me the ability to write on both sides without the distraction of ink seeping through.

If you have not tried a Moleskine I suggest heading over to your local Barnes and Nobles and grabbing some.

I’ also have 2010 Moleskine 365 Desk Calendar and Moleskine 2010 Daily Planner Box Set in my growing Moleskine collection. I also keep giving them away to people who I think need to be better organized. they are awesome gifts.

Moleskine FTW!