27 April 2012

Free For All Friday No. 180

For folks in the northern hemisphere, summer is just around the corner!

Those of us who are parents with kids in school are starting to realize how busy the next month or two will be. The end of the school year is always a flurry of performances, class parties and assessments, and fitting it all into our already-busy schedules can be a challenge.

These next couple of months will be very busy for me in another way too: in June we are moving back to Scotland, so my Filofax is working overtime with preparing for the move, sorting out logistics, and planning lots of fun things to do when we get there!

Are you using your Filofax to schedule your very busy May? Are you starting to make plans for this summer? Will you travel, head to the beach, work in your garden or just generally enjoy the long warm days?

And for the folks in the southern hemisphere, are you making your winter plans?

As always on Fridays, feel free to contribute any Filofax-related questions or comments.

Have a great weekend everyone!

42 comments:

  1. I thought you might like to read my blog post abut mt new Filo :)
    http://theprettychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. Hi Laurie, yes you' re right. My personal Classic pink one is stuffed with all deadlines concerning my french lessons, the deadlines of my sons school business, business appointments etc. Holiday planning is in there, too, but to be honest I've bought the personal Mode in Aqua for our holidays this summer in South France - blue ==> Côte d'Azur! And I have to say, I love the Norwegian inserts! (will post on flickr a.s.ap.) Wish everybody out there a happy and sunny weekend, as we might have here in Berlin.....

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    1. Hi, I've been on the prowl for pink personal Classic myself and have had no luck. Don't want to pay full price for it.

      Does it lay flat? How does it hold up? I'd love to see pictures if you have any.

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    2. There's a Pink Personal Classic in Ad Spot (Readers Ads) for €80 I think:

      http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/p/readers-ads.html

      May be make an offer if that price is too high...

      Steve

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    3. Oooh, I forgot about that. I'll think about it, thanks for the tip.

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    4. @DORIS98 i have a personal classic available for £45 brand new in the box with 2012 diary as well, contact me @ delectabledesigns@hotmail.co.uk

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  3. Placed my first order on City Organizer for my first ever Filofax. So excited! I asked for opinions on getting an A5 on Tuesday but in the end I couldn't justify the cost and I can't wait around for one to pop up on eBay, it's rather urgent. I'll soon be the owner of a Personal Metropol in Kingfisher Blue. I hope, though part of me doubts, that it'll be enough to cover all of my needs (job, teacher certification exam, lots of journaling and personal goals/reflections, social life and daily todos).
    I think I'll get an A5 Cuban Zip off somewhere at some point anyway, if only for the sole reason that I've been dreaming of it at night! For now, my Personal Metropol will have to do.

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    1. I love the Kingfisher Blue colour. Congratulations!

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    2. Hi Ruby, congratulations on your purchase! you've done a Good Thing.

      Do you use the GTD (Getting Things Done) system for keeping track of tasks and projects? If not, you might like to take a look at it. There' a post in late December 2011 from me on my GTD setup (which I run from a personal-sized Malden FF) - run a business, a busy personal life and several non-work involvements using it, and I'm very happy with it. If you want to email me at any time, feel free to do so! Always happy to talk task management :)

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    3. Hi David!

      Yes I've read your posts about the system and watched the vids. I might take some elements from it (if it takes less than two minutes, do it now and write things down so you can focus on the doing and not the remembering most specifically) :)

      Industrious Housewife, I went for one of the cheapest to be honest as I'm a red/bordeaux girl myself but that meant full price. The cheapest was actually in Lavender but somehow the blue seemed more attractive, and I like the name :)

      Don't know why Metropols don't seem to get much love, it seems to be all about the Malden!

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    4. The Malden certainly seems to be a cult all of it's own - I'm a member, and I wouldn't swap it for any other model. But there are a lot of factors - price, colour, capacity (ring size), and no one binder is going to serve all. Good luck with your various enterprises!

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    5. Ruby could you please share pictures of your blue Metropol when you get it? I am eyeing it but really want to know how nice it is in person. Thanks :)

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    6. Romina I don't have a camera but I'll figure something out and report back!

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    7. Congratulations on your first filo!!! You will never look back :o)

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    8. Romina, I hope you'll read this. Here's a pic of my Personal Metropol in Kingfisher Blue: http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii197/OyPoodles/Photo4.jpg . Now I took this with my webcam - I took about 7 different photos in different lighting and this is the one that showed the colour best. Sadly, it's still not true to colour! I would describe it as a green blue, more so than a straight blue, if that makes any sense. It's not super bright, it's an elegant yet cheerful colour that reminds me of a swimming pool for some reason :p I can take pics of the inside if you want me to, of course (though I haven't even started writing in it yet)!
      Out of all the pics I can find online, this one shows its true colour the best : http://tinyurl.com/cdyb7vr
      It looks like leather and is very smooth and round. I think the Personal is too small for me though but I'm keeping it, it's very pretty.
      If you have any questions at all, please do let me know and I'll do my best to help :)

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  4. This next month is going to be extremely busy for me too. I have my last 3 essays due in in less than 4 weeks, and then I will be moving into my new uni house for the summer. As soon as that finishes I have to make some serious progress on my dissertation, which is due in mid-September at the latest, but I also want to apply for my PhD in late June, for which I need to do tonnes of research, a brilliant research proposal, a really good draft chapter of my MA dissertation and a clear and concise overview of the content and structure of my MA diss too. I have to impress an extremely hard-to-impress Professor!! So yes, my Filofaxes will be working over-time!!

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    1. Sounds like you have a lot on your plate indeed! I did a Master's some time ago, somehow with no organizer whatsoever besides the occasional piece of paper. I got a 2:1 so I must have done something right!
      Good luck with your studies :)

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  5. Does anyone have any tips for finding Filofaxes that aren't available on the US website, but are available in other countries? I was thinking about getting the new Finsbury in yellow, but after looking at photos on the web I don't think its the color I was hoping for (I wanted something closer to the Metropol - Amber color...and the Finsbury looks more like a true yellow). After looking at the Japan and Korea sites I really like the Finsbury (personal) in Teal and Tangerine, but I haven't been able to locate either color online. Any suggestions?

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  6. I've no been round in some time, and it looks as if a few changes have been made around here! Well, I saw Steve's link to the free organiser pages this morning, and it got me thinking. Since it's Free-For-All Friday, why don't I just drop this idea here?



    I've been thinking this morning that perhaps it might be nice if Filofax were to offer interactive software, now that tablet computers and smartphones are becoming ubiquitous. While calendaring and scheduling is fairly well handled in the system software of iOS and Android, the two systems are incompatible with each other, with Google and Apple both using non-standard protocols that are not easily accessible by the other system or other platforms.


    However, I'm not really talking about Calendaring & Scheduling, which you might think odd for a proposal for Filofax to get into, or really, get back into, the interactive software market. What I envision is a recreation of the other functions for which we have all used our Filofax organizers over the years. Right now, I am typing up this idea in the well-known note management application, Evernote, on my Mac OS X laptop, but I also have the application installed on my iPhone and on the Amazon Kindle Fire I bought this Christmas and on which I have installed a more-fully featured version of the Android operating system called CyanogenMod.


    For many years, I have generally used a programmer's text editor, such as Bare Bones Software's BBEdit or its freeware version, TextWrangler (formerly BBEdit Lite) to spawn notes the way I was accustomed to keeping my Filofax close at hand as a notebook in the days before portable computing became truly useful. As a technology consultant, however, I move through different systems so quickly that maintaining my archives can be something of a challenge, and synchronization between devices can be another challenge. Some time ago, I discovered the Dropbox application for this purpose, and then recently, after having downloaded and not deployed it at multiple points in the past, I finally gave Evernote a shot. Dropbox has changed their application several times, and it doesn't work for me as well as it once did for the purposes of notebooking. I find that Evernote does well enough, though I have yet to explore the program fully.

    (to be continued)

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  7. Some of you may be aware of the Paige Paigen product line which I designed about two years ago and sadly, have let languish since, while I attempt to put my life back into some semblance of order. I have been inspired by many different ideas from every organizer company I have investigated, creating designs for many different types of organizer pages, but there are many types of pages which I have yet to explore, types which have been formerly available as products from Filofax and other companies. Perusing the free organizer pages here that Steve linked on Facebook gave me a little burst of energy this morning, and I found myself imagining a software application that would encapsulate far more than the typical calendaring, scheduling, and contact management software packages that seemed to nearly do in the very idea of a paper organizer during the 1990's, an application that would capture the sorts of task for which paper organizer pages were commonly employed in the past.


    I also found myself thinking of the joint initiative from Apple and IBM in the 1990's working toward a new modular standard for software development called OpenDoc, that was briefly available on MacOS and quite useful. I thought of this, because from my initial impression of Evernote, I had thought it actually did a lot more than it does. For example, ledger pages, or checkbook register pages have always been a popular item in organizers. What if we had, as did OpenDoc, a Filofax application that incorporated a lightweight, limited spreadsheet application? For the sort of uses that we would employ a portable device or paper organizer, we don't need Microsoft Excel, we need something far more simple.


    There are many, many more uses I can envision, from diary layouts to menstrual calendars to travel records to tasting notes, and many, many more. There are applications to cover all of these areas and more available nowadays on both iOS and Android, as well as other, less prominent platforms, but although I have just woken and not really investigated, I am not aware of any integrated packages which offer all of these features at once, nor do the modern smartphone operating systems offer the advantages of the much-maligned Apple Newton OS, which stored data in "soups" that were available to the whole system for ease of integration. As much as people joke about the Newton, it was far ahead of its time in ways that have yet to be duplicated today, and still has a small, but dedicated following. If I am not much mistaken, there is a lot of functionality that can be easily grafted in via third-party interfaces, such as having access to Google Maps and similar sites. I also cannot help but think of the conceptual videos leaked concerning the Microsoft Courier project some time ago.


    I am not a programmer, myself. If I were, I might have just gone ahead and built this beast myself. This would be a substantial project, and would require an organization which has the resources to commit to long-term development. While the current owners of Filofax might not be willing to make such an investment, wouldn't it be great if they did?


    Sincerely,

    Gemma Seymour-Amper
    Designer, Paige Paigen
    http://www.paigepaigen.com/
    (Currently having a DNS thing because I haven't logged in to my website in so long I didn't realise that between Yahoo! Domains and Posterous, something isn't working right. Hope to have it fixed shortly.)

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  8. So, when exactly did the site get passed off to Steve?

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    1. I don't believe it has. The Philofaxy Triumverate seems to be in place. Laurie posted today's FFAF...

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    2. It is indeed, Sandra! I just haven't posted for a while.

      Hi Gemma!

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    3. No definitely not... I've just got more time on my hands these days. But Nan and Laurie are there behind the scenes, helping and supporting, putting forward suggestions and helping out when they can. For which I'm very grateful for.

      Steve

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  9. I'm looking forward to hearing more, Gemma. The reason I returned to Filo after about 6 years with Palm devices was that I couldn't find a way to sync notes among my computers and Palm T3. The last things I remember trying were StickyBrain and CircusPonies Notebook.

    I also remember using something called Missing Sync from Mark/Space, which filled in the gaps in iCal and Palm Desktop. iCal was so buggy back in the mid-00s that it lost most of my years of information. I never use iCal for anything anymore. I finally went back to Palm Desktop for everything, even though Palm had stopped supporting it. I was spending one 8-hour day a week just trying to sync and troubleshoot. Then when the Notes application on the Palm started crashing every time I tried to sort the notes, I gave up on electronic organizing completely.

    Once bitten, a million times shy, I guess. Just typing the word iCal gives me the chills. I've never bought an iPhone because I'm afraid I'd start to use it for calendaring.

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  10. Hi Steve/Laurie
    The email to philofaxy keeps bouncing, so I'm posting this here:
    I have a proposition for you. I am looking to simplify my life (as well as save for a trip to Ireland next year for my 20th wedding anniversary ) and would like to sell 70 of my Filofaxes. I am selling them at just about half cost and many below that as a lot of them don't have the guts inside, although they've never been used. I know this is a lot of work/time for you to list all of them. However, if you're willing to work with me on this, I will donate 10% of my proceeds towards Chimwemwe. Let me know what you think and I can send you a list with the prices. I would like the buyers to pay shipping as many are oversees. Happy Friday!

    Erin

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    1. I, for one, would LOVE to see what you're selling. I'm looking for a personal Amazona and a pink personal Baroque.

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    2. And I'm interested in any A5 ones - especially if they have larger ring sizes! Wow this is a big decision and I'm sure you will feel like a new person once you have simplified (I'm guessing that the filofaxes are not the only thing you are simplifying!) I'd just like to wish you luck and I hope you will raise plenty of money for your trip.

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    3. I have the list from Erin, it will be on the page tonight please be patient.

      Steve

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    4. How about international sales? *wink wink*

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    5. I saw a pocket baroque here some time ago. If i ever find a black one i have to have it. So if you sell one , i would be very happy to buy it :)

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    6. Thank you so much for donating 10% to Chimwemwe. We are in the process of building a centre that can act as an emergency hostel to get the kids off the streets (while we find a proper home and community for them) and the funds will help enormously!
      Thank you!!

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  11. Are you serious??? You have 70 Filofaxes?! HOLY COW!!!

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  12. Filofreak, hi. I am interested in an Osterley with 15mm rings, if you have one. I am also interested in Winchesters with 30mm rings and Cavendishes with 30mm rings. Let me know.

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  13. @gdigesu
    Are you looking for A5 or personal Osterley? I don't have on my list I gave to Steve, but I'd be willing to sell the one I have. It's an A5 size in plum. I'm not sure of ring size, will check if you're interested.

    Erin

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  14. List is now on line here:

    http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/p/readers-ads.html

    Happy hunting... buying... etc

    Steve

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  15. Erin - you are my new favorite person. You should send us photos from Ireland. We will send you photos of your Filofaxes in their new and loving homes.

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  16. Warning: Enabling :)

    FYI Denmark's online FF store has extended its 50% off sale to personal and pocket Kendals.
    Trivia: if you live outside of Denmark the cost of the actual FF is even a little lower as you don't need to pay the local tax on the item (so this means the international postage doesn't hurt so much).


    I also have a question about a personal Filofax Buckingham? I know nothing about this model (release date etc) but it was for local sale on ebay for a total of $12AUD in excellent condition, so I couldn't resist despite there being limited photos. Anyone know anything about what I can expect?

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  17. @Sarah Ahhh,,,you are so sweet! Yes, I'll send pictures of me with my hubby with one or 2 of my remaining Filos in Ireland. Also, I'd LOVE to see where all of the Filos I'm selling wind up. I don't worry with the bunch on this group as we're all Filo lovers!

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  18. @Amanda: I'm very happy to be donating to Chimwemwe as i've been very fortunate in my life and it's very little to be giving back. Plus, I've had a wonderful reply so far from the Philofaxers and the planners are selling like hotcakes. Don't worry, there are enough for everyone,,,,,,,,
    @Alison: Yes, it's a wonderful feeling to be clearing things out and making people SO very happy with their new Filos. Next are purses,,,,,,

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    1. Are they Filofax purses??? Now theres one of them I'm looking for!!!

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