{"id":1531,"date":"2014-04-24T23:22:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T03:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2021-05-26T15:06:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T19:06:05","slug":"inadequacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/?p=1531","title":{"rendered":"Inadequacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IMG_0050-e1398394233330-225x300.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IMG_0050-e1398394233330-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0050\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" align=\"right\"><\/a>My parents gave me this journal. It was a Christmas gift, if I remember correctly. I was living on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trulia.com\/homes\/Michigan\/Lansing\/sold\/203068-119-N-Fairview-Ave-Lansing-MI-48912\">Fairview<\/a>. It came in its own box, the same color as the cover. I remember being enthralled with the ribbon bookmark, the stamped leather cover, and the gold leafing on the edges of the pages.<\/p>\n<p>This journal was simply too fancy for me to desecrate with my chicken scratchings.&nbsp; How could I possibly taint it with anything less than perfect handwriting?&nbsp; What if I spilled coffee on it, or got diner grease on the pages?&nbsp; Those were badges of pride in my&nbsp;second hand or homemade journals, but seemed offensive in this work of art.<\/p>\n<p>This journal was NICE.<\/p>\n<p>It spent a year or two collecting dust in that house, and then in storage, and then in <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/nn5DFn\">my nerd cave<\/a> in the Bancroft house.&nbsp; A couple of months after the <a title=\"House\" href=\"http:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/?p=1178\">move to Bradley Ave<\/a>, I picked it up, brushed the dust off of the gold leafing, and steeled myself.&nbsp; I took my collection of <a href=\"http:\/\/penguicon.org\">convention<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/confusionsf.org\/\">badges<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.convocation.org\/\">ribbons<\/a> and taped them throughout.&nbsp; It no longer shut properly.&nbsp; The gold had gaps in it.&nbsp; When it opened, the pages naturally parted to multicolored evidence of <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/s\/aHsjXru9wH\">nerdy shenanigans<\/a>.&nbsp; It was no longer too nice for me, and I could write in its pages with abandon.&nbsp; I had given myself permission.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m glad I did.&nbsp; The pages are thick and solid.&nbsp; They&#8217;re a bit glossy, creating issues with some pens, but work fine with most.&nbsp; The ribbon bookmark frayed slowly at the end, but never enough to impede its function.&nbsp; It&#8217;s been an absolute joy to write in.&nbsp; Somehow, it avoided both grease and coffee stains.<\/p>\n<p>And just in case you&#8217;re interested, <a href=\"http:\/\/obriencelticgifts.ie\/acatalog9\/embossed-journals.html\">they&#8217;re still made<\/a>.&nbsp; In Dublin.&nbsp; I highly recommend them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My parents gave me this journal. It was a Christmas gift, if I remember correctly. I was living on Fairview. It came in its own box, the same color as the cover. I remember being enthralled with the ribbon bookmark, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/?p=1531\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-journals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paQnES-oH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8114,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/8114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcrampton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}