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wombat1138I used to get the Levenger's catalog and lust over it regularly, though I seldom actually bought anything from them, or possibly even never-- I can't recall now whether I got my matte-black Pilot Vanishing-Point fountain pen (an early version; current versions are more metallic and are branded as Namiki) from them or from somewhere else (maybe Fahrney's?). One of their product lines that always caught my eye was their "Pocket Briefcases"-- slim leather cases that held a small stash of 3x5" index cards, and also had shallow end slots on one side to secure a card onto it as a solid writing surface.
A few years ago at Barnes & Noble, I spotted and promptly snapped up a ~$10 clone of one of the basic models (roughly equivalent to their original Shirt Pocket Briefcase), with end slots on one side of a simple black leather pocket with one long side open for storing spare cards etc. It's been serving me well, but earlier this week I spotted a mention somewhere of a more advanced clone, similar to their International Pocket Briefcases-- this one only appears to be available at Office Depot, but it's still made of black leather and it's only $15. I checked out OD's website, quailed while speculating about their shipping charges, and waffled for a few days until I decided to ignore their site's claim that the local stores were out of the item, and went this morning to go take a look in person. Lo and behold, I found one-- two, actually, but I only bought one. (Kinda tempted to go back for the other one. Dunno yet.)
It's nifty-- I'm not sure yet how to incorporate it into my normal clutter schematics, but it definitely has promise. The downsides are that its secured writing surface is on the inside, so to use it on the fly, I'd either have to unfold the whole thing backward or pull out one loose card to prop up on the outside, and that its pen slot doesn't quite fit the pen I'd envisioned using with it-- it's really a three-function pen/pencil, and the clicky thing (whatever the heck that thing at the other end is called) sticks up out of the end, tempting the metal clicky cap to fall off the pencil eraser into the outer darkness. The upsides are that it has more pockets, which might allow it to subsume the functions of both my older card-holder and my Space-Pen wallet. I'm not sure whether latter model is still being made; compared to the first few current Google results, it only has three stacked credit-card slots, plus two larger pockets on each side behind the stacked slots and the ID window)... the new card-holder also only has three stacked card-slots and one ID window, but of course there's more underlying area behind it, and in addition to the one extra 3x5" pocket that won't be holding spare index cards, there's also another pocket between it and the stacked card slots, and this other pocket has a much wider access flap.
I had to ditch the small bitty bag I used to carry, with just enough room for my wallet and keys, when I got a much larger set of keys a few months ago. I'm still trying to settle into a new bag, or rather, a reliable way of packing one of my assortment of larger, older bags; I just realized earlier this week that the one I've been using has at least one major pocket that I'd completely forgotten about, but it does finally have a convenient place for my new big key blob. And I think the "lost" pocket is big enough to hold the new card-holder, so all I have to do now is find the right pen to put into it. Yay?
(At least I also found the stash of quadrille-ruled 3x5" index cards I bought a while ago and then misplaced. Not only do they eliminate the problem of fretting about portrait-vs-landscape orientation for ruled lines, but they also eliminate any need for the overpriced grid-preprinted "sudoku pads" I've been seeing here and there. Not that I've been doing much sudoku since we stopped subscribing to the newspaper, but the principle still remains, and graph paper makes everything better anyway.)
A few years ago at Barnes & Noble, I spotted and promptly snapped up a ~$10 clone of one of the basic models (roughly equivalent to their original Shirt Pocket Briefcase), with end slots on one side of a simple black leather pocket with one long side open for storing spare cards etc. It's been serving me well, but earlier this week I spotted a mention somewhere of a more advanced clone, similar to their International Pocket Briefcases-- this one only appears to be available at Office Depot, but it's still made of black leather and it's only $15. I checked out OD's website, quailed while speculating about their shipping charges, and waffled for a few days until I decided to ignore their site's claim that the local stores were out of the item, and went this morning to go take a look in person. Lo and behold, I found one-- two, actually, but I only bought one. (Kinda tempted to go back for the other one. Dunno yet.)
It's nifty-- I'm not sure yet how to incorporate it into my normal clutter schematics, but it definitely has promise. The downsides are that its secured writing surface is on the inside, so to use it on the fly, I'd either have to unfold the whole thing backward or pull out one loose card to prop up on the outside, and that its pen slot doesn't quite fit the pen I'd envisioned using with it-- it's really a three-function pen/pencil, and the clicky thing (whatever the heck that thing at the other end is called) sticks up out of the end, tempting the metal clicky cap to fall off the pencil eraser into the outer darkness. The upsides are that it has more pockets, which might allow it to subsume the functions of both my older card-holder and my Space-Pen wallet. I'm not sure whether latter model is still being made; compared to the first few current Google results, it only has three stacked credit-card slots, plus two larger pockets on each side behind the stacked slots and the ID window)... the new card-holder also only has three stacked card-slots and one ID window, but of course there's more underlying area behind it, and in addition to the one extra 3x5" pocket that won't be holding spare index cards, there's also another pocket between it and the stacked card slots, and this other pocket has a much wider access flap.
I had to ditch the small bitty bag I used to carry, with just enough room for my wallet and keys, when I got a much larger set of keys a few months ago. I'm still trying to settle into a new bag, or rather, a reliable way of packing one of my assortment of larger, older bags; I just realized earlier this week that the one I've been using has at least one major pocket that I'd completely forgotten about, but it does finally have a convenient place for my new big key blob. And I think the "lost" pocket is big enough to hold the new card-holder, so all I have to do now is find the right pen to put into it. Yay?
(At least I also found the stash of quadrille-ruled 3x5" index cards I bought a while ago and then misplaced. Not only do they eliminate the problem of fretting about portrait-vs-landscape orientation for ruled lines, but they also eliminate any need for the overpriced grid-preprinted "sudoku pads" I've been seeing here and there. Not that I've been doing much sudoku since we stopped subscribing to the newspaper, but the principle still remains, and graph paper makes everything better anyway.)
no subject
on 2009-02-07 07:34 pm (UTC)Plunger.