Little Black Book
So I'm on my way to Taiwan again. Well, technically I'm on my way to Japan. Newark—Tokyo direct? That's hot. What's even hotter is that I only booked it two weeks in advance, but it was only $750. Most fares were showing at least 50% more expensive.

I love this notebook. It's smooth, unadorned exterior adds a sense of credibility. Plus, it's small. It's as if having a notebook that fits in my pocket, one in which I can furiously scribble my tiny print, means I am of some kind of significance. They way hands-free earpieces for cell phones used to be, before everyone and their grandmother got one.

Some of the appeal comes from it being a Moleskine notebook. The whole "famous artists used it blah blah blah" is a little appealing. But there's more to it than dead French painters— Indiana Jones's dad had one! And I'm sure other important movie characters did as well.

My infatuation is a little silly. I never write anything in here that I go back and read again. But it's nice having something tangible. It's why snail mail will never completely die.

I'm a bit over two-thirds through this book. It's mostly filled with these travel entries that I've already put online. But there's some extra content. I have random Chinese characters interspersed throughout. Usually I'll see some sign, perhaps the name of a place, and intend to find its meaning in a dictionary later. I never do.

I also have random errand and grocery lists. And I recorded the contents of every meal I had in St. Martin. Yeah, the food was that good. That good.

Probably the most salient detail of my notebook is that I've kept track of every guy I've slept with. Oh, don't look so surprised. I keep a spreadsheet with the names, locations, genres, and dates-of-purchase of all my CDs. I'm still that same guy. When I started keeping track, I didn't really have a reason. I just figured I might want to know in the future. And like last night's dinner, you eventually forget if you don't write it down.

Of course, being slightly modest, my list isn't very explicit. It's a list of mostly innocuous words that appear to be nonsense to anyone who isn't me. Whenever it was time to add someone, I thought of their most distinctive characteristic, and I wrote it down. Honestly, if I had written names down, I wouldn't remember who these guys were. But I write something like "ginger ale," and I know exactly who that is.
- posted by roger @ 6:02 PM