Awesome Star Wars Moleskines are awesome

Featuring quotes from Han, Vader, Luke, and Yoda emblazoned on the covers, these new additions are just plain cool.

Yoda Han Solo Moleskine

Luke Skywalker Darth Vader Moleskine

There are four in total:

DO. OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY.‘ - Yoda

THIS IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS.‘ - Han Solo

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.‘- Luke Skywalker

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE FORCE.’ –  Darth Vader

I’m pretty sure Darth says ‘Do not…’ not ‘don’t but I’m not going to argue. And besides, I’m a Yoda man myself, so that’s which way I’ll be going. Oh, and apparently these are limited edition, so if you’re keen you better snap one up quick. I’ve already got one like this, but I’ve got a feeling I might need a new one VERY SOON.

Excuse me while I go shopping…

Via

Five things on Friday #34

Things of note for the week ending August 24th, 2012

A bit later than usual (today is Aug 27th and I’m back-dating this post) as I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY AND IT WAS AMAZING.

Ahem.

Shall we?

1. Evernote + Moleskine
My undying love for all things Moleskine-related is fairly well known around these parts so it was unsurprising to find tags, mentions and emails into their double figures when the Evernote + Moleskine partnership was announced. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Right, let’s make two things clear –

  1. Evernote is your virtual online notebook. You can upload all kinds of things to it, written notes, images, whiteboards, hell – even receipts. It’s basically there for you to store your whole written life and, what’s more, it’s 100% searchable and taggable. Kinda awesome, right?
  2. Moleskine is an actual notebook.

The two brands/products represent opposite sides of the same coin and as such, should be sworn enemies. In fact, they have been for some time. But no more! They are now in bed together and their first offspring is something called ‘The Evernote Smart Notebook’.

From TechCrunch:

The idea is to bridge the digital and analog worlds, allowing you to take notes physically, then import those notes into Evernote.

So the smart notebook uses specially formatted paper that allows it to work with Evernote. In the new version of the Evernote iPhone app, you can take photos of pages from the Moleskine notebook, and then they’re browsable and even searchable in the app. The notebook also comes with special stickers, which tell the app the notebook (the virtual kind) where each page should be saved.

I absolutely love this. Although I’m not an Evernote user (yet – I’m still trying to find my own use case), I can definitely see the benefits of being able to tag analogue pages for easy searchability online. I mean, that’s just ACE.

via RWW

Alas, it is iOS only at the moment meaning only iPhoners and iPadders get to play (for now). However, this is one really cool step in the direction of online and offline integration that I totally adore. More please.

Mark my words: it won’t be long until the Evernote sticker tags start appearing on a whole bunch of other things outside of the Moleskine…

2. Redesigning the America’s Cup

I don’t know if you know much about the America’s Cup, I certainly didn’t. What I mean is: up until about three years ago I didn’t.

Back in September 2009, as part of the final leg of the Lucozade Energy Challenge, we were flown out to the Caribbean for some yacht-on-yacht America’s Cup style racing… with actual America’s Cup winning yachts (see above and wikipedia).

Since then, the history of the game has fascinated me (seriously, it’s great – read up) and well, a recent turn of events are leading me to believe that we’re about to enter a whole new era of America’s Cup awesomeness —

When you win the America’s Cup, you get to decide pretty much all the details about how, where, and when you get to defend the trophy. It’s a little bit like H.O.R.S.E. crossed with Capture the Flag, a soapbox derby, being President in a game of Asshole, and lots of saltwater. After Ellison won the 2010 America’s Cup, hosted in Valencia, Spain, he wasn’t just interested in steering the ship, so to speak: Nope, he made like a nautical engineer and decided to redesign the whole thing.

There’s more over at Grantland, and keep an eye on this one – it’s going to be big.

3. POP
Need a universal charging station? Look no further. POP has been pulled together by an old sparring partner of mine and I actually really like the look of it (if my DT-600 ever fails, I’ll be first in line). There’s only a week left to buy one, so go get [kick-]started.

4. Facebook Mobile Gets Better
And Read Write Web have published a really well written article about how.

5. That Holiday (and CARNIVAL!)
Last Friday my girlfriend and I packed up our things and headed off to the island of Sal, for a week of sun, sea, sand and sangria. We spent seven days literally doing nothing, every day and it was amazing. Cape Verde is beautiful and this was pretty much what we woke up every day –

From a tech perspective, being able to use my Nokia 808 PureView underwater was pretty ace and I’ve got a ton of video to upload from that at some point (the images aren’t bad though).

Geekiness aside, it was exactly what we both needed and it was book ended perfectly too as – on the work front – a client win landed just as I was boarding for take off and then, when we got home, we were just in time for my first ever Notting Hill Carnival too – amazing!

2012-08-26-0504

I’ve got a ton of blogging to catch up on and a helluva busy four day week ahead.

Hope y’all had an awesome week.

Whatley out.

 

 

The BWA*

*Big Wall of Asia

Beijing North Train Station

Moleskine Entry: 24th April, 2011

Up early today, we’re on the 9:30 train out of Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China.

One ticket to Badaling please!

We came, we saw and the Big Wall of Asia did not disappoint.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China

MPD Sufferer [at the Great Wall]

The Great Wall Skyline

Tonight most of the friends I’ve made are off home and I’ll be venturing out into the city on my own for another week.

I say ‘on my own’, there other people here, friends I’ve made along the way, plus one of my train buddies has extended his stay to hangout a bit longer. Should be cool.

Can’t believe I’m less than a week from home.

Moscow – nay London! – seems an entire world away.

Other things:

– – — – Whatley out

One world. One dream.

Bare Jing

Writing up my diaries, it seems that China really did get the better of me and my Moleskine. What lies below is the last full entry, after here it’s just random scattered notes that I’ll do my best to put into some kind of coherent timeline. Wish me luck…

I. Love. It. Here. Already.

Moleskine Entry April 24th 2011

  1. Bejing (and China in general actually) is beautiful. Stunning even. I am more at peace now than I think I have ever been. I am calm and immensely happy.
  2. We have been busy.

We arrived on April 22nd. It was raining. Hard, Asian, Bladerunner-esque city rain.
It was perfect.

I had video to show you, but it never saved – this makes me sad, but I think the definition above does it justice.

China!

After checking into our hotel and getting our debrief, we ventured out for some food.

OH MY GOD THE FOOD.

Oh my God it was so good

THIS WAS AMAZING

Plus, naturally, my first experience of Chinglish.

Chinglish... YES!

Eight ate, total? £40. You can see why we love it here.

After our appetites were full sated, we ventured out to the bizarre food market to try out the the strange delicacies therein.

Starfish @ The Night Market

How about some lobster?

I ate a scorpion. Nuff said.

The lights, the buzz, the constant chatter of bartering; the atmosphere is enchanting. With my new found friends in tow, we continued.

Our guide had mentioned a lake far north of the city surrounded by bars. It was a fair old walk but we found it, eventually.

Gorgeous lanterns

Walk far enough around and you’ll make your way past the over-priced tourist spots and find more appeasing, friendly bars who create new prices on the spot (and, when asked nicely, will let you play your phone’s Spotify playlist through in-house sound system).

It was ace.

Which leads us nicely to yesterday; April 23rd:  Mao Money, Mao Problems

Today we did as much as we could. We’ve planned to do the wall tomorrow and as such, the others don’t have much time left to do the tourist bit. Our honcho this time ’round is a bit more hands off, choosing to show/tell us things and then let us find our own way.

Things we did:

— – — – Whatley out

Silent Tee Protest

Beijing Bound

Moleskine Entry April 22nd 2011

It’s 11:49am local time, we crossed the Chinese border about 12hrs ago and should be arriving at the capital in around 2hrs. Immense.

Some things I need to cover before I start on Beijing!

Day 3 in Ulaanbaatar.

After waking up at stupid o’clock and catching a genuine Mongolian sunrise (note to self: catch more sunrises), we had breakfast and headed back to UB just in time for lunch.

Later there was traditional Mongolian dancing and singing.
More things of note:

  • The Mongolian influences on parts I, II and III of Star Wars are incredible. The first singer may as well be auditioning for the part of Queen Amidala – it was that spot on.

Traditional Mongolian Throat Singing

  • I touched upon the culture clash of eastern and western life in a previous entry but, what is equally staggering is that, simply through a cursory glance at the traditional clothing worn by the Mongolians at this evening out, anyone could see how the Russian and Cossack dress, style and fashion has mixed in with that of the eastern, more Chinese way of presenting one’s self. If London is the cultural melting pot of the world, then Mongolia is (or was) the same but of Russia and China. A truly unique, yet ultimately recognisable, design for life.
    .
  • Mongolian throat singing. Like that thing that you do sometimes when you catch your voice just at its driest.

Aaaaand then it was an early night for us. Yesterday, the 21st, we were to get up and board the train for our final leg of the trip from UB to Beijing.

Looking at the train

The train itself (by comparison to our last transport) is gorgeous (and actually, I’m glad that I made the trip this way ’round, given that initially I’d intended to start in Beijing – thank you Sarah), and they have actual showers!

Last night, just after we crossed the border…

WE HAD TO CHANGE THE FRICKIN’ WHEELS ON THE FREAKIN’ TRAIN CARRIAGES

Changing the wheels

Yes, that’s right. The tracks in China are smaller to that of the rest of the world and, although you would think that you would simply change trains at the border – oh no, they simply lift the carriages into the air AND CHANGE THE WHEELS WHILE YOU’RE STILL INSIDE. This is nothing short of mental.

Soon. Beijing.

We’re not there yet and already I’m in love.

China is stunning.

.
.

PS. Lunch in the restaurant car.

Yes! Decent food! Yes!

TF3: an overdue review

I’m just sorting through some old Moleskines (making sure that I’ve copied up all the blog posts that I’ve made in them etc before I crack on with the new one) and I stumbled upon this short review of Transformers 3 – aka Dark of the Moon.

It’s old, I know. But I fancied sharing it.

TF3: Moleskine Review

In short: the best Transformers film to date*
*Not exactly a hard thing

High points

  • 1960s!
  • OMFG! BEST TRANSFORMING SCENE… EVER!
  • EPIC BATTLES
  • SENTINEL PRIME!

Low points

  • THE END IS HORRIFIC
  • WHY IS MEGATRON IN A SCARF?
  • MEGATRON / NEW GF SCENE OF FAIL

Going to the NYC premiere was fun (as was the Michael Bay screening in Miami), but the film – although featuring several rather spectacular set pieces – was not awesome. Figured the best way to illustrate this was through the above ‘interest curve’ idea that I nicked borrowed from Total Film.

S’all I got.