Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 17

Keep Me Away from Stationery

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It's possible I have a small addiction to office supplies. Notebooks count as office supplies, right? But it's not limited to notebooks. If it's paper or pen related in some way, I'm all in.

A while back, I spotted some Post-it notes that looked like planets while I was on Etsy. As tempted as I was, they were ridiculously expensive and I passed. I saw them a while later on Temu, but I'd heard horror stories about them, so hard pass.

I'd forgotten about them until Amazon put them in a recommended for you window. Oh, yes, please! The price for a set of six was what the Etsy seller was charging for two! And they were on subscribe and save, which meant they 100% were going to be ordered.

And wouldn't you know it? That's the subscribe and save delivery that was delayed a day. They finally came, though. Here are my planets/moon sticky notes:

Earth, Mercury, Pluto, Mars, and two different versions of the moon.

This wasn't the only recommendation Amazon had for me that day. These are a different sticky product. They showed them being used as tabs, which would totally work in my notebooks because I could tab each individual book/story with a different color. I've got separate notebooks for each series, but the Paladin League is mixed up as I got ideas for later books and wrote them down.

I also have one notebook in my tote bag, so ideas for multiple series are completely mixed up in there.

But my other plan is to use these tiny, mostly round notes to call attention to important notes in my notebooks or in my planner.

The left side of the circle is cut off so they're not completely round, but I'm intrigued by the possibilities with these notes. I do have stickies that are completely round, but they're also much bigger than these. Too small for a long note, too big for a quick hit. I haven't used them yet and there are mixed reviews about the adhesive, so I have my fingers crossed that I like them.

Moveable To Do Lists - Review

I mentioned recently about wanting a To Do List that I could move around my daily planner Post-it note style. The set I wanted to try arrived.

The pluses: They are Post-it note To Do lists. They even say Post-it on the back so I know they'll stay adhered. Some of the off-brand notes have issues with this.

They're wide enough to write what I need to write, but this is also a minus as they are too wide and cover up a column of my planner that I want to have fully visible all the time. Even moving the edge of the note as close to the spiral as possible doesn't give me enough space.

They are long, but not longer than my planner.

The minuses: The Post-it adhesive is on the side and not the top of the note. I would have preferred it be across the top. (This is also sort of a plus because I can cut the note and still use the bottom half.)

As I mentioned above, the notes are too wide.

The lists are too long. Even though they fit on my daily planner page, I was hoping for something considerably smaller. Because I write my daily To Dos on the planner, these longer term items are few in number and that's what I'm writing on the moveable list.

They come in three styles. It really doesn't matter to me as long as there are lines and check boxes of some sort.

This picture shows the full-size list on top of my daily planner. As you can see, it is slightly shorter than the page, but not by much.


This is how I'm using the Post-it To Do List. I filled in what I needed and then cut it off one line below my list. I did find shorter To Do List Post-it notes, but they're wide, and if I have to cut, I'd rather trim length than width.

Overall, they're okay. I guess at this point, I'd have to order custom made to get much better, so I'll make these work.

Notebooks 🤩

I bought two new notebooks. The pinkish-taupe is a B6 slim and the gray is passport size. Both have more than 500 pages to write on.

Did I need new notebooks? No. I have plenty, but notebooks (and tote bags) are my weakness.

I like the B6 size because it's compact, but not too small. I haven't tried a slim before, but we'll see what I think of the narrower page.

The passport size is really small. I did know that it would be, but I didn't think through what I would use this for. I have other small notebooks, around this size maybe, but they're much thinner. I haven't used those either. I'll have to think about this for a while.

And while I'm talking about buying things I don't need and weaknesses, I picked up another tote bag. It has a lot of pockets on the inside and the outside that I thought would come in handy. My plan is to use it to store the notebooks filled with my writing notes. I have a bad habit of losing track of the ones I'm not actively using.

The tote bag ended up a little smaller than I expected, but that might not be a bad thing because it will be heavy when it's filled with notebooks. The pockets aren't quite as handy has I'd hoped, though. I wish there was a narrow one for pens and there isn't unless I missed it.

 

Blast From the Past

Recently, I remembered a book I'd read back in the 1990s and I wanted to reread it. It has one of my yums--identical siblings who change places. I'm not even sure what made me think of this book, but it's memory was distinct in my mind.

I have a paperback copy of it, but I prefer to read on my phone now, so I went looking for an ebook version. I didn't hold out much hope since so many of these older books never were released in electronic format even if the authors have their rights back.

This time, I got lucky. Kind of.

The book was released in ebook. The price? $8.99, but on sale for $6.99. This is a short, contemporary romance released by Loveswept in the 1990s. We're not talking 100,000 words here. Probably more like 45,000 to 50,000 because word counts used to be higher back then.

There was zero chance I was paying $6.99 for a series romance, let alone one I already owned in paperback.

I grabbed my paperback copy and started to read. I made it about a third of the way before I gave up. This book is dated. I'm not talking technology, I'm talking attitudes and actions of the characters. The hero, who I remembered as a sweet cinnamon roll kind of guy was pretty much an asshole. The heroine was judgy and mean spirited toward her sister. I didn't remember that at all.

It was brutally disappointing.

OneNote Update

After all the fretting I did, it turns out that I only had two duplicate notebooks between OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote 365. Of course, one of them is part of the series bible for the Paladin League, so a majorly important notebook.

So far, the Paladin League notebook has had the exact same pages in both notebooks, so I've just needed to delete the page and check the next one. It's tedious and I'm doing a page or two now and then.

The big issue is the other notebook that's duplicated. It's for a series I'm thinking about writing, but haven't done anything with, but I have the names in for the hero and heroine. Different names in each notebook for the same characters.

I have no memory of what happened, but my guess is that I picked names and the characters shot back at me and said, "That's not my name."

If you think I'm joking, you'd be wrong. Out of all the books I've written, all the ideas I've had, my characters have literally allowed me to choose a name once. For one heroine.

All the others? They tell me their name. Or they make me guess and refuse to work until I get it right.

For example, I have an idea for a series that spins off of the Paladin League. One of the heroes in that book told me what his name was. I didn't like the name and told him that. He said to me, "Let's just use the name as a placeholder and I'll pick something else later."

He lied to me. He never picked another name and by the time I was making notes and realized that, it was too late. That name was stuck.

But I digressed. Sorry. OneNote. I managed to just port over all the other notebooks to OneNote 365, so it ended up being easy. I even ported over the two duplicates and marked them with an emoji to keep them separate. So this fiasco isn't as bad as I feared.

The other series has a duplicate with almost no information in it, and it should be quick and easy to jettison. The Paladin League is going to take more time to go through because both the duplicate and the original are loaded with pages. I don't know how I managed this, but I'm blaming Microsoft.

Moveable To Do List, Please

I use a daily planner. I tried a weekly, but they never worked for me. There was something about seeing that full week's view that made me believe I didn't need to accomplish what I wrote under a particular day. And hey, if I didn't get it done on the right day, it was easy to let it slide to the next week. And the next.

Using a daily planner cured this bad habit. If it was written on that day, I needed to get it done.

But there were tasks that really weren't urgent, but still needed to be done. Sometime. There are experts who'll claim that these tasks don't need to be done at all, but they're wrong. They do need to be finished, but I'm willing to slide them for a while first.

The problem was if I wrote it on a particular day and didn't do it on the assigned day, it disappeared from view fast.

What I needed was a To Do List--preferably on Post-it Note paper so I could keep moving it from day to day to day if I wanted.

I measured my planner columns and set out to find a To Do List that would fit on one side (the schedule side) without covering the list side (which is what I primarily use). At that time, I couldn't find anything remotely close to what I needed. I decided I could buy a regular To Do List pad and I'd just move the loose paper from page to page.

At first, I really liked these notepads. And they're fine if I have them out and available to make notes on and cross things off immediately. They are not so great inside my planner. In fact, they annoyed the heck out of me. I started putting them months in the future and never looking at them. Not what I needed.

When I was looking at 2024 planners, I found a very narrow Post-it Note To Do List. I was ecstatic! At long last, I had what I needed!

Only these notes disappeared on the planner page. They're very small and the printing is light. They're also extremely narrow and unless an item was one or two words, I ended up needing multiple lines. I tried taking a highlighter and outlining the edges, which helped with the disappearing part, but they were still so narrow. 

Still, I had proof of concept. The Post-it Note adhesive was perfect and they were narrow enough to stay on one side of the planner. I decided to take a second search for versions of this that were bigger.

I did find some options. I ordered two of them and put a few more on my wish list. I'm hoping one of the newcomers will work. Testing will commence when they arrive.

New Obsession

In my February newsletter I talked about my latest obsession and believe me, it was a shocker.

I've blogged about how annoyed I've been with having to pick up some of my podcasts on YouTube because they're either not audio only at all or the audio is released a long time after the actual show. While I was over on YouTube to find a podcast, the algorithm had a suggestion. It was about a village that had a lot of survivors of the plague in the 17th century.

I don't know why the algorithm suggested this video because I've watched nothing remotely related to it, but I happen to have an interest in the plague. Years ago, when I still lived in Minneapolis, PBS had an hour-long documentary about a gene mutation that helped people survive the plague.

The description for the documentary YouTube was recommending sounded as if it was going to involve this gene as well. (And it did!) It's called Plague Mystery.

Then I got another plague documentary recommendation that led to more history recommendations and somehow I've found myself particularly interested in the Tudors--King Henry VIII, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I.

I even looked for audio podcasts with more English history. I found one specific to the time of the Tudors, but my favorite is called A History of England hosted by David Beeson. He's got a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor and the episodes are short. He also started Episode 1 with the Tudors.

In school, the only English history I learned was how it impacted American history. I was in AP American History, but there was no European history class at my high school, and I never sought it out in college.

I'm not sure how long my English history obsession will last, but for the moment, I'm enjoying everything that I'm learning.

Mug Review

My 40 ounce water mug has arrived and I've had a chance to use it for a little while. Since maybe I'm not the only one dithering about what to pick up, I'm going to give my review. 

(I am not compensated in any way for this review and I'm still angry about the coupon crap this company pulled, so....)

This is the Brumate Era in the 40 ounce size. The color is verbena.

First, I'm brutally disappointed with the shade of pink. It looks so much more vibrant in the pictures than it actually is. It's more of a flat dusty rose. I thought the pictures I saw online from other customers were an accident of lighting, but then my images turned out the same, so it photographs prettier than it is.

I know there are people who will be elated that the cup is more dusty rose than bright-ish pink, but I'm someone who loves neon shades. The brighter the better.

Second, 40 ounces is heavy when the cup is full of water. But all the 40 ounce mugs/cups are going to have the same issue so it's not unique to this brand.

About the cup itself, it is completely leak proof. I tested it. I filled it to the top with water, followed the instructions for the lid, and tipped it upside down over my sink. Nothing came out. I shook it. No leaks. Major win!

The lid has three settings: Sip, Seal, and Open. The sip setting has a little bead-like thing to mark it and the seal side has a little depression. To open it, you position the piece in the center of those two markers. It comes with a sticker that says where each position is. I washed the lid with it on, the sticker stayed in place, and I'm leaving it there for now.

The top of the straw is silicone and comfortable to drink from. My water stays cold enough even after hours in the cup. The cup/mug came apart easily for washing and reassembled just as easily. It says dishwasher safe for the top rack. I did put the cap, straw, and the other upper pieces in the top rack, but I put the actual cup on the bottom because of its size. It came through the experience just fine.

The bottom of the cup has a layer of rubber/silicone so it doesn't slide when I set it down.

One of the things I am having an issue with is that the mug is top heavy. I know it's designed to fit in a cup holder in cars, but I've almost knocked it over a few times reaching for it and missing the handle. I guess the cup holder trade off is stability.

I started thinking I wanted the 30 ounce size because of the weight and the stability issues. A smaller cup would sit closer to the table and be less tippy, I think. But then my 32 ounce coffee mug arrived. A 30 ounce water mug wouldn't hold enough water.

Picture of my 22 ounce coffee mug, the 32 ounce coffee mug, and the 40 ounce water cup for comparison:

Overall, I really like this water mug and it's done its job--I'm drinking more water. This is has been something I've been bad at. It met my biggest requirement--leak proof--and if I can get it in the same neon pink shade as my coffee mugs in the picture above, I will love it.

I'm giving it 5 stars and trying to pretend I never had a coupon.

Adventures with OneNote

Yes, I'm talking about OneNote again.

I began (and I mean barely) trying to merge my two Paladin League notebooks together. First, let me tell you that this is a totally miserable experience.

I did discover that about 85-90% of the content is identical. The problem is that I have to check each page to see if it is fully duplicated. This became tedious quickly.

If the content had been 100% the same, everything would be easier than what I'm dealing with because then I could just delete the page or section. Sadly, I can't do this.

I put an emoji in the title of the partial notebook so I can tell them apart at a glance because they are named the same. Why did it let me name the file the same thing? I have no clue.

I didn't make it far before I kind of gave up and decided I didn't have time for this project. This is going to have to be something I do in tiny pieces because UGH!

Also, I need to figure out why my other notebooks didn't show up in this version of OneNote when they are in the Windows 10 version of the app. Or maybe I should just not worry about the whys and simply figure out how to move them over. That's probably the best answer.

Anyway, I can't recommend this experience and I'm worried I'm going to zone out and delete something I need/want. More venting to come.

Every Day Delivery

I saw a headline while I was on social media, something about an Amazon delivery driver ragging on visiting the same houses every day with deliveries. I didn't read the article, but presuming the headlines are accurate, I was like, really? Really?

So I get my Subscribe and Save shipment at the beginning of the month. I was supposed to receive all my items on my day. So the Amazon delivery driver should have only needed to make one stop at my house for the entire week. That's not how it worked. Not because I ordered anything additional, but because of how Amazon shipped them.

Friday: Four items arrive.

Saturday: Three items arrive.

Sunday: One item arrives.

Monday: One item arrives.

That Amazon driver ragging about visiting the same house every day could be my driver after this week, but this was all supposed to be one shipment. Everything was supposed to come on Friday. The other days? That's Amazon's fault.

Which is my long way of saying that the driver complaining about the same house every day thing is totally bogus. Maybe he should complain about his employer sending things piecemeal instead of all at once like they said they would.