Just for fun, I'll tell this story the long way.

My first experience with PDAs goes back to about 1997 or 1998. I took the plunge and bought a Palm III. It was sort of fun and I got decent mileage out of it. I used it to keep a schedule (with mediocre success), to keep addresses and phone numbers (some success), to jot notes (less useful), and to play chess while riding the bus on the way to school (a huge, resounding success).

About a year later, I won an identical Palm III at a conference. I immediately gave it to Nath as a gift. She got into it, and made good use of it for contacts, shopping lists, and Bejewelled.

Some time after that, my Palm kicked the bucket. I considered getting it repaired or buying a new one, but I came to the important realization that I didn't miss it. I liked the idea of a PDA, but found that they weren't quite mature enough yet. They needed to get smaller, lighter, and more brainless to use before I would commit to one again. Meanwhile, Nath wanted to upgrade to something sexier, and bought a shiny red Handspring Visor Edge. Her old Palm III went in a drawer.

Much later, Rachel mentioned to me that Steve's Palm III had also died. Steve was much more attached to his Palm III than I ever was, and even had a special titanium case for his. I told Rachel that we had an old Palm III that we could probably give Steve. I believe I also mentioned that I had given up on PDAs and wanted to start carrying a small notebook. It was then that Rachel made a crucial suggestion -- she offered to be buy me a Fisher Space Pen in exchange for Nath's Palm III.

We completed the transaction a few days later. At the campus bookstore, Rachel bought me a smooth chrome Space Pen. You may know that the Space Pen advertises its ability to write on any surface, even in space. What was more important to me is that when closed, the pen is really small. The cap fits on the back of the pen in such a way that it makes a full-sized writing implement that's comfortable in the hand. The closed pen fits perfectly inside the spirals of a small spiral-bound notebook, and the complete apparatus fits neatly in a pants pocket.

This "PAA" became my preferred method of jotting notes for a couple of years. I filled two small notebooks and began on a third. Then a terrible thing happened: I lost the pen (sorry, Rachel!). The PAA became useless. The barrier to making a note needs to be minimal; it ceases to be so if the pen isn't right there in the notebook. The notebook was consigned to a designated "nearest horizontal surface" near my front door. I can tell when this must have happened by the last note in the third notebook written using the Space Pen -- roughly August of last year.

This morning I had an epiphany. Unlike my experience with the Palm III, I did miss my pen and notebook. In fact, I specifically missed the Space Pen, a testament to Rachel's good taste. And so in the early afternoon I wandered over to the supply store on campus. Happily, they sell Space Pens. I bought a new one, this time in a very elegant matte black. Space Pen II has taken up residence in the spirals of the third notebook (clad in furry faux leopard, if you can believe it), and will be deployed tomorrow. Hopefully it will prevent me from losing any more brainwaves. They always seem clever at the time, but given that I never remember them, who can tell?