Revisiting the Index Card Dock

Hey, remember when I posted the picture and info about the Japanese “index card dock” awhile back? Well, evidently some of you do, and are still finding it, because it’s a rare day when that entry doesn’t get hits.

I emailed the good people at Correct to see what it would cost to order a dock out of curiosity (I’ve since bought an antique card file) and never got a response. It turns out that they don’t want to get into the international shipping biz.

But hawk has bridged the gap for those international customers who would like to order some of the Japanese gear he uses.

That’s the dock.

Those are the index cards. (And if you’re wondering what makes them different, there are at least two things. One, heavier card stock. Two, the graphs are consistent from one card to the next. Part of hawk’s personal system is to mark the top of the card by coloring in a square — which square he colors in indicates what kind of info is on the card. American graph cards are not consistent at all — when you look from the top, they don’t line up like the Japanese ones do.

If you look at the pic below, the cards with solid squares on top have been completed; the squares that are only outlined are not. Cool, huh?

And if I’m not mistaken, as expensive as they are, the Japanese ones are still cheaper than the good quality Levenger cards.

Order Japanese Gear Here.

I hope this helps somebody out!

Now. Go get something done.

Any MS Word gurus around?

So I admired this cool and mundane little index card and was told they are easy to design, etc.

Well, no, I’d have to actually learn something to do that.

However, I did design a very basic “project” card for myself, and I like it a lot.

The thing is, I use it vertically (the better for lists and scratching out, thereof) but will file horizontally.

So right now, I’m running it through the printer twice. Once, vertically for the form itself.

Second, horizontally-aligned with a title across the top (which is actually down the side when card is in use).

Is there a way in Word to set this up so that it all prints at once? Or will word not let you design your type to go in two directions at once?

If that makes no sense, I’ll be glad to email the templates to anybody who wants to look and see what I’m talking about.

Oh!

Here it is:

And here it is, filed:

I don’t mind running it through twice, but it would be very nice if I didn’t have to.

Any suggestions?

Little green things.

No, not boogers. Hush.

Years and years ago I was in a friend’s kitchen when her mom picked up an old school can opener and cranked open a can. I asked, “Don’t you like electric can openers?”

She said, “It’s not much, but it’s a little way of saving electricity. I mean, do I really need to use electricity to open a can?”

I always remembered that, and don’t have an electric can opener. I have ye olde basic Swing-Away that I bought at the grocery store early marriage, and has never needed replacing. This:

is the “new” one we bought about ten years ago when we were camping and didn’t have one. So just by default, when we got home I switched it out and put the “old” one in with the camping gear, but they both work the same. In fact, I have never struggled to open any can with these openers. And I have struggled many times to use electric openers at my friends’ homes.

So the question is really, why electric in the first place?

This came up for me recently when my desktop electric pencil sharpener stopped working. After hunting around, I finally figured out it was the only pencil sharpener in the house. I almost ordered a new one, but then thought about the can opener.

Why do I need an electric pencil sharpener?

So I did some research on the web and found all sorts of manual sharpeners, which led me to create a new page (see header above) called “writing green.”

If you need pencils or pencil sharpeners, check it out. And please feel free to add your own comments and suggestions.

Yes, I am.

A prude. Or so it seems.

Because I ordered (sight unseen, pretty much) a small organizer/calendar thingy that just looked cool when I saw a pic of it on flickr.

How cool is this?

I even got to choose my own color cover, and there were lots of choices. I’m not sure if I chose “Humbolt Green” or “Green Anarchy.” I just know it’s dark green and I love it. (I wonder how popular “Santorum” is.) (And I think it’s part of its charm that they evidently even have cute little misspelled words here and there.)

Front:

Back:

Okay, to begin with it’s revolutionary, I get that. I mean, as in subversive revolutionary. As in, it has a “Radical Contact List” in it, and info on dealing with government repression. In fact, here is what it says on the first page:

“In creating this organizer, we seek to respond to increasing repression from government and the corporate industrial machine with ever more powerful creativity and love.”

Okay, I’m there. Any time I can be creative and loving and fight the corporate industrial machine, I am definitely there, in all my middle-aged suburban glory.

NOTE: It occurs to me that this would be a very cool organizer thingy for The Admiral and Mr. Harris to whip out at business meetings, but I digress.

More to the point, it is very cool. All hand drawn, line drawings decorating every single page. And dates you are unlikely to find anywhere else. I mean, did you know that on December 24, 1955, Aldous Huxley took his first acid trip?

Or that on July 4, 1835 the children of Paterson, NJ went on strike for a six day work week, and an 11-hour workday?

And of course in addition to historic boycotts, strikes, assassinations, etc., it includes the dates like Independence Day, Bastille Day — but wait, I’ll come back to that.

It also has a Menstrual Calendar, instructions how to “Check your nuts” “and your breasts” and tips on having successful meetings and conversion tables and a 5.5″ ruler on the edge of a page so you can measure things, and — it’s just very cool.

You see, this time last year I was ordering my new, much-much smaller Franklin Planner, and wondering if it was going to work out for me. Little did I realize that I would have turned my organizational system upside down and would be going even smaller.

And this cute little slingshot seems to be everything I want. Small, fun enough to make me want to use it, and the way my life is these days, I can usually fit any appts. into a small space. I keep my notes in my moleskine, use my 3×5s for the hPDA, so I think this may work.

I have my new Franklin refills sitting here, and I’m seriously considering returning them. (I haven’t opened the packages.)

So, what’s my point?

Well, the line drawings are sometimes a tad graphic. They range from simple almost childlike line drawings, to complex art. They range from kites and 50s-era spacemen and floral borders to a few nudes, one of which is a robust lady with delicate flowers covering her “delicate flower” with proper gentility.

But, did I mention Bastille Day?

Bastille Day made me blush when I first saw it. Made me close the book and go, um, I don’t think so. Not that I cared about the act itself — but I just didn’t want to see a line drawing of any sex act every time I flipped by that page, and so I thought about giving the Slingshot away to somebody less ::blushy:: than I am.

But the more I looked at my slingshot, the more I wanted it. 160 pages of fun facts to entertain my family and friends! And I thought, aw heck, why not have fun with it? Why not put a sticker of some sort over the odd little guy’s erection (and maybe another on the powder puff he’s using to, I suppose, powder the other guy’s bum (for all I know these are some sort of mythological creatures of which I’m woefully ignorant, or maybe just someone’s imagination).

Stickers, hmm. Oh. WAIT!

I ordered some stickers a few weeks ago. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I ordered the flylady stickers.

Shut up.

They looked fun, okay?

And I now have two flylady clingies, oh joy. Yes, I’m blushing about that, too, are you satisfied? (Um, anybody want them?)

So I’m looking and thinking, “Family Fun Time!” Now that’s a clever sticker to cover well, the picture I’m covering! Or the sticker that says, “PARTY!”

But then. I couldn’t resist.

“Tsk-tsk!”

I now have a tiny Flylady her-own-self hiding the sex act on Bastille Day.

Sex is fine. I don’t care who you are or what you do with consenting adults, yadda yadda.

Just please don’t do it on my planner page.

You see, I am a prude.

More 3×5s.

So over at One Slack Martian he’s showing off his great index cards.

One of the best things about the index cards in Save the Catis that on his cards he has you write the two most vital things about a scene. Emotional arc and conflict. If there’s anything beginning writers need to learn, it’s that scenes need conflict, and that something in them must change. Generally it’s a story issue. Something happens in the scene that moves the story forward, so that between the beginning and end of the scene, something changed. Blake Snyder emphasizes the emotional change, and that’s not a bad thing.

But Martian has taken it farther. He’s added, What does the audience hope, and what does the audience fear? Room for a line of dialogue. The name of the main character.

I’m giving some thought to making some sort of scene cards to distribute in class, and I’m thinking I’ll put the basics on one side, and a series of optional things on the other. I don’t think you need to know every detail of every scene to write it, but sometimes details do come to you. A line of dialogue, a great setting. With cards you can jot down those things, and later fill them out, figure out exactly what the scene will be about, or how to use those details in another scene.

And I got my old oak card catalog yesterday — six drawers!

It’s on my desk now, and I love it.

And my Jane Austen Action Figure, my mouse rug and USB Christmas tree make such a nice tableau. How twee!

I think I shall buy Jane a boyfriend..