DailyLife

Analog Version

This post is about the digital anti bad habit notebook. For an analog version implemented as a pocket notebook, see this post.

The Post

Not going to lie : I have a few bad habits and have used my analog anti bad habit notebook to break some in teh past.

Sadly, I can no longer reliably use analog methods for my notes and similar. Due to this I went ahead and re-implemented the anti bad habit analog notebook as an Obsidian vault. So far it’s proven very helpful for tracking a bad habit I want to break and should work well for pretty much any “bad habit” one may want to break.

What’s Within?

This post lays out how I research topics. I’ve struggled with “research” in the past and, thanks to a friend, finally figured out a methodology that actually works for me. This post goes through my methodology, how I use it with success and the details needed to recreate and/or adapt it.

Table of Contents

What / Why / How

Important Context

Over the years I never really figured out how to research a topic properly. Basically if I needed to research anything I just sort of went digging around the internet, read books, read published articles and similar but didn’t really take notes or create summaries or similar. At best I’d catalog very basic snippets that I could turn into something actually useful at a later date.

What’s Within?

Within is a walk through of all things analog and digital that I put together to be effective with notebooks and organizers. Things I’ve cataloged, setup, used, tinkered with and more. It even includes the how and why of my personal needs, preferences and opinions.

In short: it’s a very long breakdown of everything that actually works for me as well as many things that didn’t work for me. Think “Kemo’s Notebook & Organizer Autobiography”.

Editors note: KemoNine wrote this post before realizing they had already written Digital Writing Tablet Mini Review 3 ish months ago. Some information below overlaps with the prior blog post but the core of this particular post is how KemoNine is using a drawing tablet day to day for handwriting.

Prelude

Let’s get this out of the way up front: I am a pen and paper human at heart. Despite being labeled a ’tech nerd’ I use pen and paper as a default medium. I do have some health hassles (read: serious, chronic health issues) that prevent me from using pen and paper with the frequency I desire and, arguably, need in order to stay on top of daily life and more.

Changelog

2025-04-24

Add Koamtac accessories and information based on 6 months of regular use. Also cleanup text some.

2024-09-02

Initial Post

Prelude

I’ve used rugged phones and other rugged electronic devices since ~2009. I’ve worked in the trades as a career. I’ve worked truly Dirty Jobs. I used to write custom firmware for rugged phones including the Samsung Rugby Smart, Samsung Rugby Pro and Kyocera DuraForce. I’ve been hired to work on Android firmware for rugged phones by companies creating Android phones (OEMs).

Prelude

I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile (read: months) as I wanted to write something longer, robust and full of detail how I worked through re-thinking how I engage with my portable compute devices like my Samsung Z Fold 4 and Boox Palma. Annoyingly the re-think of my Android devices triggered a much deeper re-think of how I approach ‘focused time’ and some other things. The bigger re-think is a super set of the information I hoped to put forth here and, frankly, I’d rather use my few spoons and energies to just write the ’total re-think of compute’ blog post.

For a few years I’ve wanted to replace a synthetic fleece blanket with a natural material. After a bit of research I settled on replacing my blanket with a large linen sheet I could fold over on itself. Why?

Linen is an excellent, durable material that breathes well. It’s similar to cotton but has a bit more of a texture, is more durable, is less absorbent (good for my sweaty skin) and when ‘doubled up’ has a similar warmth to synthetic fleece.

A workflow dedicated to reading web content

Over the last 15-20 years I’ve kept up a reading habit that is driven by only content I find online. I read an average of 10-20 “articles” per day and they range from single panel comics to forum threads to blog posts to mainstream news. If it looks interesting, I’m likely going to read it at some point.

If that seems like an absurd amount of reading day to day: it is! But! I do not consume much television, movie or other video content. It’s incredibly rare for me to sit and watch video of my own volition. I’ll go as far as skipping video content when I come across it. Yes, I’m “different” and “weird” about video and I genuinely don’t give a shit ; video isn’t for me.

The pacsave Vibe 150 (product page) is a sling bag setup similar to a messenger bag but very small, only 2.5L in usable storage.

I’ve had it for awhile and it has proven to be the best shoulder bag I’ve used to date as an EDC. When I’m headed out for the day I can carry all my essentials in the bag without any real hassles or worries. It’s displaced my Timbuk2 bag as well as a ThinkTank belt pouch I’ve used heavily in the past.

I have a ton of notes about the Henson DE safety razor (Product Page). Enough to make this a very long blog post. As much as I’d probably enjoy writing a longer, word vomit adjacent post about this razor, I’m not going to do that to my time or yours. This will be more mini review.

The website for the Henson DE, linked above, has all the fun information and details. It’s also accurate and not pure marketing or advertising speak. It’s definitely worth reviewing. Strange, I know.