Author: dd-b

Cambridge (Mead) Wirebound Planning Pad

This seems to be product 06194. I can’t find it on their web site, though I find related products with nearby numbers; I suspect it’s been discontinued.

This is an oversize side-bound spiral notebook. The pages are micro-perforated but not three-hole punched. The paper is “ivory”, and called “heavyweight”; it might be 20 pound, certainly no heavier. It also has two “pocket” pages.

The backing board of this notebook is much thicker, and much stiffer, than any of the others had. It’s very nice to use. This is the best of the notebooks I’ve found, though as I recall it was rather expensive (though not at the level of the $30 to $150 lab notebooks).

Mead Quadrille Composition Book

I don’t think they make anything like this one any more, either. Its product id seems to be B-101.

This is the usual composition book, sewn binding taped over the back, smaller than letter size. But it has graph-paper pages instead of lined. That’s nice. The big thing wrong with it is that the cover and back (same piece of board, wrapped around) are too flimsy for it to be useful in the situations when you need a notebook. It’d work fine writing on a desk.

This paper feels smoother and nicer than the paper in the cheap spiral-bound notebook, but it’s still too thin to use both sides with roller pens or fountain pens.  But then I never use both sides in a composition book anyway, and rarely in a spiral bound even though they open flat.

Mead 100 Sheet Quad Notebook

The product number it gives on the cover is 05674. This one is quite old, and I can’t find that item number, or anything that looks a lot like this notebook, on their web site.

This is a completely ordinary spiral-bound graph-paper notebook. It’s three-hole punched, the pages are not oversize or perforated. The paper is light, not as heavy as 20 pound. The 4-to-the-inch squares are in gray again; maybe this is e Mead thing?

The thing wrong with this is that the back board, while it looks like cardboard,  is hardly any stiffer than the paper. This makes it not very useful for most of the situations where one wants to use a notebook.

It was, however, very cheap.

Eight Years Ago

Eight years ago, I was woken by a phone call saying “They nuked New York!”

I’ve been a science fiction fan all my life, and I pay attention to security issues (computer security professionally though not as my main responsibility, and other stuff from habit and interest). So the concept of actual nuclear terrorism was by no means inconceivable to me. However, in a short time we worked through that the situation was somewhat different from that, and I got on the computer and started watching videos and looking for individuals posting their own photos (I’ve still got a bunch of the photos I snagged off the net). But I am probably close to unique in remembering learning that airplanes had flown into the World Trade Center as a bit of an anti-climax.

For MultiLogic, where I worked from 1996 to 2000 when they shut down, I’d made a number of trips to New York, and worked with major financial clients there (though none of the groups I worked with had their offices in the WTC complex). On a trip in October 2000 I’d taken a number of pictures including the WTC. I’d also decided to go to the top of the Empire State building rather than the WTC (there were more other buildings of interest nearby; and indeed I’m quite pleased with some of the photos I got from up there). I haven’t been back to New York since then.

I have watched the constant erosion of civil rights, with one small but important exception (RKBA for self-defense), and our blundering around the world smiting right and left at random, since then, with great sadness.