Back to basics on my notebook

So I made it early here at Market Market!, I planned on getting some thinking done before my Korean client arrives for our meeting here at Starbucks. I came upon some extra time as my lunch meeting with another client got postponed to next week. I purposely left my afternoon meeting as is, seeing the opportunity to get some groceries for the weekend.

Turns out, all the supermarkets were packed full of people panic-buying for this weekend's highly anticipated storm. I've read conflicting reports about the storm online, one that it was headed straight for the Visayas, and another that it swerved northwards towards the isolated Batanes group of islands. Either way am pretty sure that it's going to be a wet weekend ahead.

Just in case you were wondering, I do not bring my laptop to these meetings. Hence if you're reading this, then you'd know that this was encoded online by myself after tediously writing it all down by hand on my notebook. Judging from my handwriting, the transfer of this post is quite an effort in itself. I've never been known for my penmanship, and though I do scribble notes and memos at work, I hardly get to read them again once I set them on my out-tray. No wonder my assistant isn't fond of my hand-written notes.

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To anyone who needs to write long letters by hand, then you must probably know what a joy it is writing with a signpen or fountain pen rather than the common ballpoint. For one, it's a relaxing experience, just having to let the tip glide on the paper's surface rather than applying pressure and keeping it fairly uniform throughout. It's got more character as well, the ink reflecting every quirky movement of your hand and letting it blot and thin out at all the appropriate strokes. I'm particularly fond of the squiggly tails that you get from the letters G, J, D and Y. Mine's a bit awkwardly curved, making it look discernably mine.

The use of a sign pen also makes me very thankful for going through all that hassle of learning cursive. I imagind that writing in print letters is more tiresome, the lifting and going down on paper. Cursive certainly is proving useful, moreso if you're stuck at a coffee shop without a laptop for company.

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I'm experiencing a backlog in my reading list. So far, I've 3 issues of Newsweek still unopened as well as 4 books unfinished. I always forget to bring them with me for times I don't feel like posting stuff on my blog. That's also part of the reason I've unplugged my television, which is starting to become yet another random useless act.

This morning, I sat on the crapper and continued with "The Lavas", a history of the Lava family by one of my favorite authors, Jose Dalisay, Jr. Curiously, I didn't realize that a friend of a friend is actually a Lava, and that her lolo and lolas are the subject of this book. So now, I'm quite curious about her lineage but am stopping short of getting in contact with her for verification of some items that I've read. We're not really close, after all, plus there's some history I think between her and our common friend, so that's that.

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There's this man seated beside me sucking on a big fat cigar. The smoke wafts in my direction, and it smells really... "relaxing". Unlike cigarette smoke which is irritating even to us chain-smokers, cigar smoke is a real treat. Think of a chocolate bar burning, that's probably the best description I can give for it. No it's not one of those pretentious flavored cigars that seem popular with the younger generation of cigar-chompers. The one he's smoking is the real deal, hard-core hand rolled/folded stuff. Despite not being a connoisseur of cigars, I can tell it's worth a lot judging from the smile on his face. When I do quit smoking these cheap cigarettes, I'll probably indulge my senses with an after dinner dose of Tabacalera on a daily basis.

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Hmm, seem to be running out of space on my notebook. Another reason why I should write on paper with pen more, it'll train me to write not less, but more concisely. Unless of course, I get myself a bigger notebook. Oh well...