Paper Notes In A Digital World

Many of us have only recently been introduced to a great new pencil called the Palomino, a product of California Republic Stationers. The pencils are sold at the The Pencil World Creativity Store on eBay, which is run by Charles P. Berolzheimer II. Who is this man? One thing we know is that there is no question that Charles Berolzheimer has a true love for pencils. Yes, love. Need proof? Try this…..

By day, Charles Berolzheimer is President of the California Cedar Products Company, a company founded by his grandfather in 1919. CalCedar is now the world’s leading manufacturer of pencil slats. While looking for a more responsible use of the sawdust from their mills, the company developed a product they may best be known for: the Duraflame log. Today, California Cedar Products is a large company of some 575 employees with several divisions and annual sales, according to Hoover’s Online, in the 35 million dollars a year range. So, you’re thinking, why is the president of this company selling things on eBay?

Love. A true love for the pencil.

Charles P. Berolzheimer II is known by other lovers of pencils as, “Woodchuck.” And Woodchuck is pencil lover extrordinaire. To attempt to explain just how much pencils mean to Berolzheimer would be difficult. After all, pencils and pencilmaking are in his blood. Literally. Part of the family business is now a personal quest for the perfect pencil. Enter the Palomino. It may not be perfect, but it’s darn close. The pencil has received rave reviews from Pencil Revolution and is quickly becoming a topic of choice among those of us who love all things pen, paper and pencil. Make no mistake, only a true lover of pencils could have conceived and produced such an incredible instrument of wood and graphite. Graceful. Beautiful. The Palomino is a pencil lover’s dream.

President of California Cedar Products, California Republic Stationers – and now – selling his beloved pencils from an eBay store, Charles P. “Woodchuck” Berolzheimer II is an inspiration to those of us who walk in a deep sleep through jobs we only tolerate. His zeal for pencils doesn’t stop with CalCedar, California Republic Stationers or the eBay store…..

Charles has a blog called Timberlines. It’s a labor of love detailing his personal musings on pencils, forest management, his company and, “the artistic and written creativity enabled by the wood-cased pencil.”

Charles, “Woodchuck”, maintains a Squidoo lens appropriately called Pencil World. A must-visit at Squidoo.

California Cedar Products even has a coveted domain in the industry: pencils.com where they maintain The Pencil Pages.

And yes, that eBay store: The Pencil World Creativity Store. It’s now open for business and Charles will sell you his beloved pencils. After you make your pencil purchase, don’t be surprised when the emails you receive make it clear that you’re doing business with the Pencil Man himself.

Now when you walk into the store and see those stacks of Duraflame logs? Now you know, at least part of, the rest of the story.

The Theorist from Fade Theory sent me an email alerting me to a fascinating article from Inside Higher Ed. The basis of the article is that, in the classroom, handwritten work is often the best work. Judge for yourself:

Amelia, a university sophomore, scores a 60 on her first academic paper. On her second she scores a 60 again. On her third paper, she pulls up to an 80 — mostly due to extensive rewrites. Yet on her midterm and final, she received an astounding 90 and 85. Not only was her paragraph structure and use of quotations significantly better, but her ability to sequence ideas and support claims had taken a leap. Even her mechanics (grammar, sentence structure and punctuation) had improved.

I’d like to say that these two high scores came at the end of the semester; this would prove what an effective instructor I was. Instead, they came at odd times — the first A came just after the second paper (which scored a D). The solid B paper did come at the end of the semester. The difference was in how the papers were produced. Both the 90 and 85 papers were handwritten in-class timed essays that constituted the midterm and final. The much lower scores were for computer-generated papers that she produced out of class. These, of course, could be rewritten over and over before the due dates.

I’d like to say that Amelia’s experience is an anomaly. But I can’t. In fact, this semester, 8 of my 20 sophomore English composition students scored significantly better on in-class essays written by hand in a timed situation. Some jumped more than a full grade level. In my three freshman composition classes, almost 20 of 60 students excelled when allowed to write in class rather than compose typed papers on their own time. In fact, at a large community college in California where I taught for six years, I frequently saw 10 to 25 percent of my developmental- and freshman-level writers do significantly better when asked to compose in-class with a topic given just before a two-hour writing period.

Read the rest of, “The Surprising Process of Writing,” at InsideHigherEd.com.

This is interesting stuff and raises a lot of questions. Is it simply the slower pace and deliberate writing that paper and pen demands? The comments at the end of the article make for good reading as well. It’s a very thought provoking piece. Thanks, Theorist!

I’ll be the first to admit that searching for articles in online databases and finding just the right material from X or Y magazine – in a matter of seconds – is something to behold. However, I discovered again last night just how much I love to read the Real Thingâ„¢. To sit back and hold a nice, glossy magazine and flip through the pages is an experience I don’t think can be duplicated on the computer. In fact, I’ll be quite honest, I rarely read very long text articles on my computer screen at all. If it’s a very long article or post – I’ll print it. I don’t think it’s all about ease on the eyes either, there’s just something about reading a long piece from a newspaper, magazine or my printer that appeals to me and my tactile desires.

My experience last night: I am not a subscriber to TIME magazine but came across an interesting article while browsing around titled, “Happiness Isn’t Normal,” which looks at the relatively new psychology of ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I wanted to read this in a bad way and even seriously considered going to the store to buy the magazine rather than read it off the computer screen. (My printer ran its last drop of ink earlier in the day.) This hit me square between the eyes and me me realize another truth about paper in the digital world. Some things really can’t be duplicated, and the experience of curling up in bed and reading this (very long) article on my laptop had zero appeal. Yet, the idea of doing the same with a real edition of the nice, cool, slick TIME Magazine was very appealing. I opted against the trip to the store and read it online. But it wasn’t the same.

Today, while looking at Borders and picking up the issue of TIME with this ACT article, I discovered there were five or so pictures that didn’t accompany the web version. I wished I had waited. I savor the times with a good magazine. Surely there are others like me. I’m not a luddite, as I explained above, I love the lightning fast search for articles and I discovered the article in the first place on the Internet. But that is where the relationship between me and magazines on the web end. Great for quick research, browsing and back issues – but no comparison to the real deal.

I admit to being a magazineaholic. At this moment I subscribe to: U.S. News & World Report, Maximum PC, PC World, The Week (great magazine), The New Yorker, Fast Company, Best Life, Inc., Entrepreneur, Poets & Writers, SC Magazine (computer security), The Atlantic Monthly and Computer Shopper. Those are just the subscriptions. I plead guilty to being an impulsive buyer of magazines at the newsstand – I’ll pick up Writers Digest, Pages, Bookmarks, Men’s Health and others. The point here being that holding a magazine, flipping the pages and leisurely reading from the Real Thingâ„¢ is, I think, a sort of simple life pleasure. Reading these same magazines online, clicking the arrows from page to page just won’t do it – for me.

Am I the only one?

NPR’s Talk Of The Nation had a very good discussion on keeping a diary back in March of 2002. I listened to it again yesterday and decided to pass it along to Paper Notes readers. It’s 48 minutes long and includes Alexandra Johnson, the author of Leaving A Trace: On Keeping A Journal. The NPR description of the program is quite simple:

One day you’re cleaning out your attic and underneath the discarded issues of LIFE magazine and unused camping equipment you find a diary. What should you do? Read it of course, but then what? Join host Neal Conan and guests for a discussion about using diaries to unlock the inner writer inside.

If you keep a diary/journal, or are considering it, you’ll enjoy this show. (The old mp3 file is gone, but as of July of 2010 it’s still available online as a RealMedia streaming file.)