Headed up to San Luis Obispo and San Simeon this last weekend with a couple girlfriends for a mini-vacation. We stayed over in SLO and had a nice dinner and some drinks out (Midori Sours, mmm), and then drove a little further up the coast the next day after breakfast to see Hearst Castle.
Fun fact: Alex Trebek narrates the audio on the bus to and from the hilltop estate.
(I’ve got a soft spot for crows and ravens. They’re really intelligent birds! And look how proud the fellow on the right looks.)
(Hawaii can keep their white sand and swimmable beaches. I love California (and Oregon’s) rocky, freezing coastline.)
Switching to the “Gorgeous Office Products” portion of this post… russell+hazel. They’re news to me, but bloggers and the internet have been all a-twitter about them for quite a while, apparently. I’ve been meaning to get back into my foreign languages (Italian, Old English/Anglo-Saxon, and Latin), because it seems pointless to have spent years on them and then forget it all. Picking up a binder and all the accoutrements* for all my practice translations and notes was on my to-do list, so when I stumbled across these beautiful products, it was an easy decision. Brace yourself for way too many words about office products.
*I love this word.
They’re famous enough for their binders that they call it their Signature Three-ring Binder. 1.5″ wide and holding something like 275 sheets. Described as “the most inspired binder in history, with a dry-erase interior, an attractive book-linen spine, and a sturdy rubber band to keep it secure.” Bonus points for the fact that they are made from 100% post-consumer recycled content. I chose the bright red-orange color, so it’ll always be visible on my forever-cluttered desk (but I was sorely tempted by the silver). Is $24 a ridiculous amount to spend on a binder? Yes. But I have an unrivaled love of office products, and I plan on spending a lot of time with this binder, so I don’t really have a problem with the cost. (Besides, the cheap vinyl ones always fall apart.)
8-tab dividers. Their design is interesting, with 3 on the top and 5 along the side. On the bright side, that also means that you can just use 5 if so desired, without having the awkward empty gap the traditional all-along-the-side tabs would have. Acid-free and archival, laminated and cheerily colored.
Paper pockets to hold loose sheets. Set of 5. Heavy-duty with reinforced holes. The binders don’t have interior pockets like are common. On the one hand, it’s one less thing to tear on the binder: mine have the tendency to either tear or loosen, if I’ve used the binder for awhile. It also allows for more space for the dry-erase function. I figured these would be nice to have on hand as a replacement.
The Quips + Queries cards were a total impulse buy. I’ve had this weird desire for calling cards for as long as I can remember–I was kind of a strange kid. On the other hand, I don’t know what the hell I would do with them. I compromised, and bought these blank cards instead. Some of them do come printed with “quips and queries,” in varying themes, but I settled on the blank cards with silver edges. Très elegant, non? 100 cards and the little acrylic box. The cards measure 2.25″ by 3.5″ or about the same size of a standard business card. I can jot contact details on them or whatever. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but they were so glamorous and gorgeous I couldn’t pass them up.
Since I was already buying the other stuff, I threw in another 50 cards. I used to hate pink, so I find it a little disturbing that I’m growing fonder of the color. In any case, I loved the sweet French sayings, despite the fact I never formally studied it (unlike Spanish, Italian and Latin). From top to bottom, they translate as:
- je ne sais quoi: “I don’t know what” (literally), more figuratively, that certain something or intangible quality that makes something or someone attractive that you can’t quite put your finger on.
- tete a tete: “head to head” (literally), more figuratively, a private conversation, usually intimate in nature.
- c’est la vie: “that’s life” or “such is life.” Can be used similarly to “shit happens” or “oh, well.”
- vis a vis: “face to face” (literally). Wiktionary informs me it can be used to describe (1) a certain type of horse-drawn carriage for two people facing each other, (2) one of two (or more) people facing each other during a formal dance or at the dinner table, (3) a date or escort in a social event, (4) a person holding a corresponding position in another organization; a counterpart.
- joie de vivre: “joy of living/life” (literally). Generally refers to the enjoyment of living or an “exultation of spirit.”
Fun fact: russell+hazel also offer some bright ideas of how to put their products to use. My favorites were Chronologicality for students (filing by date), the card caddy to sort the little pieces of paper and frequent buyer cards that seem to multiply in my wallet, and their to-do basics. They also had a list of graduation advice and words of wisdom. I’m about six months too early for it to be appropriate, but the following made me laugh:
It was Conrad Hilton, the hotel millionaire, who was asked towards the end of his long and successful career for some lessons he had learned, something that might be a guide to the young. After a long pause, he said he thought one really good idea was to keep the shower curtain inside the tub.
— Roger Mudd
That’s all I’ve got for now! We’re moving into week three of winter quarter, and things are starting to pick up, as far as readings and projects and essays go. I’ll do my best to continue updating, though. It’s a nice break from thinking about informatics and reference transactions and the architecture of information technology.
