Comments on Strikethru: Ampad 8x5: Notebook of my youth

I printed thousands of Ampad notebook covers like ...

2010-12-24T19:48:14.268-08:00

I printed thousands of Ampad notebook covers like this. I always wondered who was buying them. I hoped that the product that I was making would help people to learn and grow.
I worked there for nineteen and a half years. I worked as a printer for fifteen years then one day they were not sure if they had a job for me there "they" were going to move it to Mexico. I left the company in 2005. They just announced that Mattoon IL facility will be shut down in 2011. We need to stop this job sucking problem so that the youth of the future your kids and my kids can have jobs and have a future! All the college degrees in the world won't help you get a job if they are somewhere else!

I think you all are right, I should just go ahead ...

2009-08-05T20:24:59.462-07:00

I think you all are right, I should just go ahead and put **something** in there.

What would you write about? Something of a rhetor...

2009-08-04T11:13:07.253-07:00

What would you write about? Something of a rhetorical question, but I'll answer anyhow. ;-) You could start off by telling the story of how you found these notebooks again. And then...well, whatever comes to mind! Write about making a paper wallet for your daughter, write about your crazy co-workers stacking paper cups, write about the ridiculously hot weather we've had, or what you think of current news and politics, or the music you're listening to or the book you're reading.

I've kept journals off an on since I was little, and they've been different things at different times. Sometimes they're ridiculously detailed accounts of my daily doings (especially during times when I'm dying to write fiction or poetry but have nothing to say): "Got up at six-thirty, and now I'm sitting here drinking Tully's coffee with half-and-half, mindlessly tossing Tam's ball for him, and thinking about making pancakes with blueberry sauce..." Other times they're a bunch of ranting about frustrations with family or co-workers, or planning on paper, or soul searching, or pages of poetry and critiques of said poetry, complete with doodles (mostly flowers or other plants...it's what I do). It's your journal. You bought and paid for it. Anything goes!

Love the lava lamp!

And my college friends wonder why I journal. Noteb...

2009-08-04T10:08:15.449-07:00

And my college friends wonder why I journal.
Notebooks that you used are like a time capsule, a record of what you were thinking and doing and what you thought was important at the time.
It's nice to see that you kept your old notebooks. I suggest you date your new ones, and start journaling again. sketch, write poetry, write about your kids. A similar entry on another blog, The Art of Manliness mentions the transcribing of a father's journals into text documents--and in doing it, how much the deceased father "taught" to his son and wife through journals that he kept while he was alive.
Very few people keep a daily account of their lives anymore. We're all too busy looking to the future to record the present.
Nice entry. ^.^

Maybe you've read Natalie Goldberg's "...

2009-08-03T11:37:13.519-07:00

Maybe you've read Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones." She has a great writing prompt: write "I remember" at the top of your page... and then continue writing.

Mine is: "I heard myself say..."

Perhaps write about how/why your perspective has changed since your last spiral notebook journal.

I vote for the bad poetry. Sheets and sheets of it...

2009-08-02T19:56:00.231-07:00

I vote for the bad poetry. Sheets and sheets of it. You'll need to recreate a little angst, though, and find a really cheap ballpoint pen.

Those were the days, huh?

Mike, I'd like to see some of your robot battl...

2009-08-02T18:37:01.193-07:00

Mike, I'd like to see some of your robot battle scene doodlings. Sounds fun.

~Joe

Word verification: "jaucre". Merce jaucre!

I say more doodling. Doodling is good for the brai...

2009-08-02T12:06:04.600-07:00

I say more doodling. Doodling is good for the brain.

Except the cat, Make the cat stop looking at me.

Also consider bad poetry, storyboards for a screenplay, games of hangman, microscopic battle scenes between human and robots (a favorite of mine), and hundreds and hundreds of random geometric shapes.

Well, you should at least start off with some red ...

2009-08-02T08:40:41.325-07:00

Well, you should at least start off with some red and blue ink drawings of cat super heroes and Lava Lamps! Those are great sketches, BTW. They capture your mindset, and the atmosphere of a now-gone era. Er, maybe "era" is a bit dramatic, makes you sound old. Sorry.

On a related theme, in the late 1970s I served in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club (that's the USN) and discovered microcassette recorders at a base exchange in the Philippines. I still have a box of old tapes, that still play with the same degree of "quality" (telephone quality sound.) It's fun to hear my voice from 35 years ago.

~Joe