"Oh the Things the Internet Has Influenced me to Buy" - a retrospective on my personal experiences with internet-enabled consumption

This post is meant to serve as a "thought excercise" of how much joy and value purchases I made after first learning about the product from nice people on the internet have brought into my life. The "Overall Rating" in each product section reflects my personal rating of how that particular product fits into my lifestyle and does not constitute a formal or informal product review.

Traveler's Notebook (Regular and Passport-size)

I first heard about this notebook (or more accurately "notebook system") from Maurice over at "Maurice Moves" where he sings its praises and even describes how he uses it with infectious enthusiasm

I eventually ended up buying both a Regular-sized and a Passport-sized notebook and much to my surprise, they've both made themselves nigh-indispensable to me.

I think the Regular-sized version would get a 👎 from me if my main use-case for it had nothing to do with work-related notes that require a bunch of vertical space and little horizontal space. It's just as tall as it needs to be for me and I appreciate the extra centimeter or two it saves on width 😝

The two most common deal-breakers for it - namely the knot in the back and the fact that it doesn't lay flat personally don't bother me at all but if any of these is a deal-breaker for you, you can check out Galen Leather's offerings and if you're after a regular A5-adjacent size, Paper Republic also make excellent leather covers (which I dearly love and use!) as well as portfolios (which I drool over but have little use for at the minute)

The Passport-size however has become THE thing I don't leave home without under any circumstances. If I could marry a lifeless object incapable of loving me back, this would be it.

It's become the "cluttered coffee table" to my brain, my personal calendar, my little "weird little objects and stray pieces of paper" holder. The zipper pouch insert is the one accessory that elevates it into more than a "leather holder for my notebooks" - Paper Republic's Grand Voyageur Pocket is a bit larger (and can fit in A6 Leuchtturm's) ergo a bit more suitable for most people but the lack of a secure zipped insert makes it far less than ideal for the kind of things I put my little TN through day to day.

If you're curious, here's the final setup I've settled on for each:

Regular-sized TN (Navy) : A zipper pouch, 1x blank insert (for work notes), 1x grid insert (for personal goal-setting and milestone-mapping), and a Kraft paper insert (for gluing business cards I no longer need, old sketches I want to hold on to, and other scrapbooking of sorts documenting some fun adventures I experience in my late 20s)

Passport-sized TN (Camel): A zipper pouch, 1x grid insert (daily tasks), 1x blank insert (random throughts), 1x undated free diary

All in all - mighty expensive, but so far worth tens of times their weight in gold for me.

Overall Rating: 10/10 🤩

"Field Notes" pocket notebooks

Courtesy of Lukas at "Blank First Page", a one-man labor of love for all things stationery.

They were nice for carrying around one at a time (they feel great when crumpled up by the rigors of sitting in different chairs throughout the day 😆), but as my needs evolved, so did my "daily carry" (EDC) habits.

These were effectively made obsolete by my Passport Traveler's Notebook. The covers are nice though, but I can no longer justify the expense to myself, given midori's superior paper quality and more convenient form factor for me. I found the 9x14cm sizing to hit a very sweet spot when I started using field notes though, coming from a regular A6.

Currently trying to burn through my remaining unused Field Notes to delay buying refills for my Passport-sized Traveler's Notebook.

I personally think they're a bit overpriced for what they offer. However, if you're American and want to support American-made products they're really nice to feel and look at and the National-Park series is extra-amazing!! 😄

Overall Rating: 7/10 ❤️

The Rotring 600 ballpoint

I wish I loved this as much as I thought I would 😔

Let this segment be a cautionary tale of what happens when you buy an objectively good product because your monkey brain wants it for X weeks without engaging in prolonged and careful deliberation of where it fits into your life in the long term

I was initially enamoured with the Rotring 600 and used it as anything-but-a-pen several times too - a staple dislodger, a makeshift lever etc. I loved the thing.

However, I really didn't think of how the heft and heaviness of it would feel after writing for extended periods of time (casually burning through a fountain pen ink cartridge in a day or two). It felt clunky and uncomfortable, but thankfully I found a good home for it so it definitely did bring joy and value to someone else's life! 😂

Overall Rating: 3/10 😭

Fitness Programs

Perhaps the most unnecessary expense I'm immensely grateful for - yes, there are free workouts on YouTube but I greatly benefited from the structure they offered and they helped in sort of inching towards making consistent physical activity a habit.

I've since taken the plunge and hired a Personal Trainer to work with in-person and I highly recommend doing that (or at least going to a gym near you) if you can afford it - I had no idea that past injuries and medical history STILL affected my fitness-related capabilities to an extent and I feel completely safe in trusting the process now.

All in all, I wish I'd taken that plunge sooner.

Overall Rating: 6/10 💪🐼

Got questions? Want to connect? You can find me on the Fediverse or drop an email at interorbitalks [at] fastmail [dot] com!