I had to get another Moleskine for my Modern Algebra class. I just received the textbook, appropriately called Algebra [Hungerford, Springer Verlag, vol 73], and needed to get back to class quickly. I spent an obscene amount of time waiting at the ESlite at Gongguan to get served. I wanted to get a red Moleskine XL Plain Paper softcover. They had shown me something similar, but I must have remembered it wrong, because they don’t have those types of MS. They only had the L size in red, as well as a bunch of Cahier Journals. For some reason, it took about 20 minutes to get this answer. I was getting pissed off. I almost left without buying anything.
But I got the softcover Moleskine XL Plain Paper instead. Why? Well I need to transfer over my notes before class tomorrow and this is the only class that’s left that I haven’t done so. I plan on using a Japanese notebook from MD Paper (Midori Paper Japan) to note stuff about the colloquium we attend every week³.
Usually, I get a rebate at ESlite. I’ve always gotten it at the flagship store in Xinyi. The girl at the counter asked me if I was a student. I said I was and showed her my card. She replied that the rebate was only for Taida students, not Shida. I was getting really pissed off at that point. If I had thought about it, I would have browsed around a bit more so that my tally would have been at around $30. Then I would have gotten 5% off. But I was pissed at them for wasting my time and vowed never to return. I left for class.
I met Charlotte on the way to class and exclaimed my anger at their incompetence. She said that service was really poor there. It was more frustration than anything else.
MD Paper from Midori Japan looks really interesting². Their notebooks are less expensive than Moleskines, but still expensive for Taiwan¹. The notebooks are very simple and come with a pagemark as well. I’ve learned that they are made to be slipped into a notebook cover. I’m not a fan of this, but it takes all kinds. Tomorrow, I’d like to get a Clairefontaine or Rhodia notebook² to do exercises as well as an MD Paper notebook² for colloquium notes. For my exercises, I’d just get a regular Hilroy spiral notebook, but I can’t since they aren’t availalbe here. Maybe I should check out the Carrefour to see what kind of cheap notebooks they have available there. I was told that there was a cheap store near my home called We Share. I’ll have to check it out.
The Rhodia notebooks are very well priced⁴. Seeing a nice display kind of makes you want to get a lot, but I’m pretty much all setup in my journaling needs. I think the only thing left that I’ll get is a the A4-sized Folio MS for watercolors. I discovered the Rhodia Drive blog while researching the notebooks.
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[¹]: About $15 for an 7 ½” x 10”. I’m unsure of the exact dimensions, but they fit the standard A5 size, or maybe slightly bigger.
[²]: I’m getting a bit notebook obsessed here, but notebooks are really cool. MS will keep for very long time, much more than simple notebooks. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to take all of my notes in Moleskines.
[³]: Colloquim is a one-hour lecture by visiting profs. That sounds swell, but the subject matter is usually unfamiliar to me, so I’m kind of out of my depth since the profs present in Mandarin. This week’s topic was tropical curves, surfaces, and hypersurfaces.
[⁴]: Most of them are available for $10 and less. They specialize in high-quality lined pads, 80gr/m2 which are quite iconic looking since they are available in either black or orange.
memoirs on a rainy day 
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