INS fun, petty bitching

I get digitally fingerprinted at the “Application Support Center” today as part of the change of status paperwork. Seventy five bucks. Someone has to be making money off this. Bit strange really. I mean, they have my photograph and fingerprint from the last 3 years of TN-1 visas, as well as when I came back from Costa Rica and then again from Peru. Something makes me think homeland security is not quite as integrated as the name suggests.


Someone must stop the moleskine insanity. What is in the water? Fan sites, hacks? People, this is a notebook. Nothing more. No, Hemingway and Van Gogh did not use the same notebook as you. This company started in 1994, in Italy, not France. Your writings will not be better when you put them in this notepad. I should know, Anna bought me one for travel two years ago. It was on sale, because no one was buying them. Funny how things change.

To me, it all just shows how desperate modern society is to belong. Simple things become tiny gods (iPod, I’m looking at you) in the rush to belong. I suppose one could argue that the moleskine is the result of people rejecting the push to digital. But I think the real question is, how should modern society fill the tribal void we seem to be missing?


Interesting article at the UT about Friends of San Diego Architecture finishing the awards for “Accessory Dwelling Units: Inspired Solutions for Our Community”. In other words, granny flats. Looks like they have some really good ideas and are hoping to convince SD city council that loosening the requirements on the flats can help out with the housing crisis. All the power to them, current regulations are insane.

5 replies on “INS fun, petty bitching”

  1. How embarassing. I must admit, I’m a moleskin user myself. And I even believed they were the same company Chatwin wrote about in Songlines. I remember him writing that the guy who made his journals died, but I figured some relative maybe started it back up after the publicity.

    Anyway, I get them (the little ones) ’cause there’s no other journal out there the size of a passport that slips into my back pocket with blank and not lined paper. I have to admit: I’m a fan.

  2. I do like my notebook as well – its design is that great mix of extras and simplicity. But I was just shocked as to how much hype some waxed fabric and paper was given.

  3. If it weren’t for the hype, I probably wouldn’t have heard of these notebooks, so I can’t complain about that. But, regardless of its invented past and present popularity, it’s a fine place for your notes.

  4. I’m pretty happy with my notebook, too. You just can’t badmouth quality, and I noticed you didn’t. While the cult of moleskine may be here and rabid, the notebooks themselves are very well made.

    I must also confess to a bit of rabidity, myself. If it weren’t for the recent trendwhoring of the hipster pda and moleskine (it’s MOLE-SKIN unless you’re a native Italian, people!) fads, I’d probably not have picked up my recent good habits of note-taking and writing in my journal again.

  5. hey Chris, had to drop round and visit your blog after reading your comment on moleskinerie.com

    here’s my thought:

    you know, some people get and some people don’t. some people rave about movies or chocolate or spend all there money on baseball cards. some people join a religion. whatever. the M is the mighty M because it just is. no one says anyone else must use it. relax, share the love. if you don’t love it, hey, no one says you have too.

    a counter point to Chris is this, what ever happened to peace love and Moleskine? fan sites, hacks, exhibitions, hey, Chris, it’s fun. you know fun? what would be wrong with fun? i do a lot of work with kids and i often tell them before we play a game or do some activity, “everyone is invited to play but if you would rather not play, that’s fine. no one who doesn’t want to play doesn’t have to play but if you don’t want to play, don’t spoil it for those who do.” the best news is, you can’t spoil it, not really because the fact that someone isn’t going to play can’t keep those who are playing from playing.

    and i would add that none of the fact that Modo Modo has done some clever marketing and retooling a story into a full on myth bothers me. the expanded mythology is fun. if i didn’t like the product the myth would not make me buy it so for me, the product mythology is just a part of the kick. besides, who’d want to buy a notebook made from mole skin? here’s to MolAskeenA.

    if dollar store caches do for you or student quality sketch books get your creative mojo workin’, have at it. i love my M.

    ::thrive!, O

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