​New tripping journal/field desk

[Guest]

I am late to a New Year’s tradition; making a new tripping journal/field desk.

I wrote in B&W composition books for years, mostly for the stiff covers, but they sucked for tearing out a page. Then spiral bound steno pads; better for page tearing but too small and flimsy for easy writing.



Then small Mead 5-Star notebooks, with the handy manila pocket folder for loose papers & permits desk organization. Reinforcing the inside covers with spray-glued cardboard stiffeners made a better knee-writing desk platform, but they were still kind of winky sized to work pen to paper with balanced atop a knee.



Then, screw it; a good writing platform is important to me, 8 ½ x 11 Mead 5-Stars, with the inner covers reinforced with spray-glued cardboard stiffeners for a less floopy platform.



(FedEx logo appreciation note: Look at the white space between the red E and X. You will now and forevermore first see that pointed arrow. Brilliant logo design. BTW, the DIY-fold triangular Fed-Ex shipping boxes are some the best cardboard going; stiffly corrugated and slick plastic coated on one side. Free too)

And finally the improved 2017 field desk journal.



The inner desk set folder contains a fully annotated 2017 calendar, double-sided meteor shower guide*, a spare packing list and blank weather forecast grid. The major improvement was using some 1/8 inch glueable plastic as desktop kneepad stiffener. That stuff is as rigid as sheet metal yet weighs next to nothing.

Oh yeah, pen(s) storage inside the spiral binding, so I don’t have to hunt for one.



*A few of you for whom I have an address, check your mailbox next week for a condensed page of meteor shower information.

No worries, the frighten-the-mail-carrier envelop already arrived at DougD’s, caution labeled as:

PRODUCT RECALL

Gentle Hands (TM) Brand Scrotum Massage Cradle
Your Scrotum Cradle may be packaged with the wrong model power converter. Use of an improper power converter can cause the cradle to operate at increased rates of jiggle speed and exert overwhelming force.

In addition, page 43 of the manual contains errata. Instruction 43 A, diagram 17 should read "raise the cradle to your scrotum and cinch patented nutsack drawstring before adjusting variable massage speed.

(I love Doug’s mail lady, and the folks at my local post office are way into it after handling a dozen faux-company lables)

 

[Boreal Birch]

Now, that made me laugh so hard I pret near choked on my own snortings!!

 

[Guest]

Now, that made me laugh so hard I pret near choked on my own snortings!!

The package before that contained a string of battery operated Christmas Lights for night paddling his Rob Roy.

With a giant faux company label affixed to the back:

The Original
Bed Wetter Nightlight

Wee colored lights scientifically proven to help prevent wee accidents

Some assembly required. Do not attempt assembly if pregnant, drunk or both. May cause drowsiness. Using this device does not allow you to drink 7 beers before bedtime. For best results keep battery pack away from urine. Do not operate heavy machinery with Nightlight in place. For external use only. Do not insert.
Do not attempt to remove this label under penalty of law. If you cannot read warnings do not use this product. Batteries and plastic sheet not included.
May contain nuts.

If you are not 100% satisfied with this product good effing luck.

 

[frozentripper]

Mike,

If you cannot read warnings do not use this product.

OK, faux label.... still, it it were real, not for beginner bedwetters who would want to be able to wet beds safely. Another product label below, this seems to be for real. Maybe more detailed instructions are printed on the inside of the package, do not use while operating heavy machinery, etc.

http://dotcomjoe.com/0114f2

 

[Boatman53]

Love those labels, but I wouldn't want to receive one.
When I first saw the topic heading for a field desk I thought you going to make one of these.

Jim

 

[Guest]

When I first saw the topic heading for a field desk I thought you going to make one of these.

If I had a Sherpa to carry it for me I’d dig one of those old cabinets. Field desk designs go back a long ways in military and exploration history

For writing purposes I make do with the stiffened 5-Star notebook, although the desk “cabinet” is actually flat rectangular dry bag that roll-folds shut at 13 x 16 interior inches, x however thick a paperback (or two) I am carrying. Basically a big flat envelope with a roll top closure.

Contained in that flat rectangle dry bag; the knee-top stiffened writing journal & calendar/papers, pens, paperback book or two for hammock or bedtime reading, deflated Luci-light, small battery op lantern or back-up flashlight (Ok, often both), reading glasses in a hard case, a pencil, assorted permits and papers, sometimes a field guide…it’s a dense little brick, but worth it to me.

Shiiiiit, I pulled out that old flat/rectangular dry bag desk to see what all was in it. It is a 15 year old PADDLER/SOTAR give away dry bag, seriously well made for a freebie, but on close inspection is beginning to show the age of its vinyl coating in a couple of small splits developing along the seams.

I could (will) fix those splits with Aqua-seal and Tenacious Tape repairs, but I expect the aged vinyl coating it at the Fiat stage (Fix It Again Tony).

Or I could DIY recreate that big flat-envelope dry bag easily enough using heat sealable coated oxford nylon from Seattle Fabrics.

http://www.seattlefabrics.com/dry_bag.html

But, just for funsies, what if anything is on the market as flat rectangular dry bags to hold books, notebooks, put-em-away been-there or yet-to-get-there maps, permits/paperwork and etc?

Just the reading and writing stuff is important enough to me that I might spring for my first Watershed bag or other proven-performance-pricey flat designed bag if there was one available in similar dimensions.

Or look at the cost, calculate I could Seattle Fabrics DIY five flat folder dry bags at that price, keep two and give three away.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

My panel of advisors has informed me that there's a better way to journal:

Dictate entries into your smart phone, using a speech-to-text app if you also want a written version, interspersed with smart phone photos and videos of places and permits, collated by a storyboard app -- all of which can be simultaneously uploaded to your cloud storage via a sat connection device linked to your smart phone via Bluetooth -- and all powered by a solar power module.

In this way, your thoughts and visual experiences are available to family, friends, Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange within femtoseconds after you create them, and forever.

However, when my panel of advisors was told the average age of posters on this forum, they all giggled uncontrollably and went back to their kindergarten class.

 

[Guest]

Alas, the kiddies may never know the beauty of slow reflection while putting pen to paper. Sad.

I nowadays do little enough handwriting in everyday life. I am mostly hunting and pecking in Word, and the only things I still handwrite are whiteboard and Post-it note reminders, and index card pocket to-do lists (although I have a constantly revised long term master to-do list printed out in crisp, easy to read Tahoma 11).

Putting words to paper more slowly and carefully, in the field, with a pen, unspellingcorrected, is one of the joys of more rudimentary tripping life.

I am no artist, and I mean no, none, zero artistic abilities, but even so I have done crude journal sketches of myself, my site and my kit, Still Life with Pack & Gear, that hold far more memories than any photo. I am a dinosaur, and you can have my pen and pencil when you can pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

BTW, available in femtoseconds forever? Tell that to the thousands of captioned photos I once had on Community Webshots. Or the trip reports and how-to’s once on Solo Tripping.

It might take me a few minutes, but I could still produce every hand written Composition Book journal with bad pen & ink sketches from the 1970’s onward.

I don’t really need that stuff available to Vlad or Julian. My political career would be ruined reading me at 20, grousing that weed is a misdemeanor but I can’t legally buy beer in California for another year.

Phuck, see what you’ve done; time to label and organize those old journals by year.

 

[Guest]

Give and yee shall receive

The USPS guy just delivered a package to my door and ran away.

The return address label was from :
FIRE-IN-A-CAN Waste Recycling Corp.

The label on the side of the box (two sides) read:

Caution: Contains post-ceremonial waste of venerated religious events.
Take appropriate respiratory precautions before opening
DO NOT ingest or insert as a suppository
May Contain .09% rodent fecal matter.

The contents?
A dozen sorta groady 6 inch tall white candle stubs.

Catholic altar candles? Used Menorah candles? Wiccan ritual candles that have witnessed bare chested ladies prancing about?

Left to my imagination I’m going with the latter.

Whoever you are, well done!

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Mike, feel free to send a handwritten note to my kiddie advisors by Pony Express.

However, in all seriousness, they will be unable to read it. Cursive writing has not been taught in public schools in Connecticut for many years, and I've heard the same about many other states. That's right: Many or most of today's youth are no longer taught how to read or write cursive handwriting; everything is block printed or typed on some sort of electronic device. I wonder how they are taught to "sign" their names. Catholic and other private schools are much more likely to still teach cursive.

 

[Alan Gage]

I heard they quit teaching Latin too.

Alan

 

[wgiles]

I haven't written in longhand for 45 years or more. As an engineering student at a time when a computer meant an IBM 360 and punch cards, I learned to print everything but my signature. I don't think that I could live without notebooks, but mine are quad ruled. My notes are often half sketched and half written, but my sketches are more graphic ideas and diagrams than art. Printing is slow, but my handwriting is illegible. I often transcribe my notes to files and I often make lists in Microsoft Word, but most of my ideas and notes are on paper. Fifty years ago, in high school, my foreign language choices were French and Spanish, neither of which held much interest for me.

 

[Rippy]

My wife informed me I got a letter today from a Mike McCrea. Not having read this thread yet I said to her "crap, you didn't open it did you". Turns out it was harmless. Thanks Mike for the return address, I've been kinda bored lately. Will see what happens. Dave

 

[Guest]

My wife informed me I got a letter today from a Mike McCrea. Not having read this thread yet I said to her "crap, you didn't open it did you". Turns out it was harmless. Thanks Mike for the return address, I've been kinda bored lately. Will see what happens. Dave

Oh Phuck, I see the flaw in that plan; I used my real return address.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. . . .