AI Wrote a Prize-Winning Story. No One Noticed

Let's talk about the package that arrived from Japan.

Ooh.

I've got to get used to not keeping it pristine and neat.

So basically this is…

So what are they listening to, Lyndon?

Remember we were talking about, it was a few weeks ago.

Yeah.

It's

a

good episode.

Go and have a listen.

It's about journaling.

I think

it's titled, I can't remember.

Anyway.

Lyndon got very deep into why bullet journaling hadn't been successful for him over the past eight or so years and how he's now discovered a new method that he's really going to give a good go at.

All

right.

Now, I don't want to sidetrack us too much, but on my phone because, okay, so in that episode I was talking about systems and how I'm really, I don't want to say I'm really good at setting up systems, but I do set them up.

You set them up really, really well.

I do

set them up really well.

Okay, I do.

Very

deliberate and a lot of contemplation and a lot of

just, you know,

I'm taking lots of meds just to get through the whole setup.

Yeah.

And anyway, so part of that whole bullet journaling set up was I also put reminders on my phone.

So in the morning a reminder will come up of, you know, that I've got to do my stretches exercise and, you know, do my bullet journaling.

And I know I don't have to spend hours on bullet journaling.

Just a few minutes, that's all you need to do.

That's the whole point.

And then I have another reminder at night because at night you have to migrate your entries to the following day.

Yeah.

Can I just say, never did it.

The reminders.

Now, that

episode was quite liberating.

Good.

In a way, and liberating and disappointing

to know that I'd put all this work into setting up, you know, what ultimately was going to change my life and then never doing it and realising that there's a through line there my whole life.

Anyway, but so since then...

These reminders keep coming up as they have been for years.

You haven't taken them out? No.

No, I haven't yet.

So every morning and every night you're getting a reminder about bullet journaling, which you've really never done and now you've also officially given up trying.

I don't want to use the words given up.

I would like to say

retired.

Anyway, so I found – so I was very particular about the kind of notebook things I needed once I discovered the Grail Method.

Look it up.

I actually put a link to – is his name Sean Penny? I've forgotten.

Anyway, the link is in the episode notes.

If you go to our website, I think it was episode 71, on the episodes page, you see the whole transcript there, the audio is there, and the link to the guy who was talking about the Grail Method.

And so I decided in my new approach, which is an anti-method, like because Bree, your advice was, and I understand this and I respect it and part of me knows that I should just do this.

But also, as we were saying last week, I have an eye for detail and aesthetic and things really do annoy me.

So I had to find a notebook that lays flat.

I had three criteria and I did abandon the leather cover

because I didn't know what kind of animal it would have come from and how much tanning of the hide may have been done and how much getting rid of the smell.

Anyway, so this had to lay flat.

It lays

flat.

My advice had been just get anything.

Just write on whatever.

Just start writing.

Don't worry about it.

Just any old notebook will do because you don't want to put the pressure of

the

perfect notebook onto yourself.

Yes, that's right, because it was all

about

friction and

removing friction.

Yeah, so don't make that something else.

But do

you

think now I've created more friction

for myself with this? Well, I don't

know.

You've got this beautiful

notebook.

Mind you, it just arrived yesterday.

It arrived yesterday.

We had a grand opening.

Well, I tried to, yeah.

And we looked at

the newer notebooks and you'd been very kind and ordered one for me as well.

So we've got a new one each.

So these are from?

Just go through the features as well real quick because you've started, you know, that opens flat.

So it's Midori.

It's Japanese paper.

Yeah.

I think they must be people kind of either like me or they're sort of professionals in terms of their artistic, you know, they needed.

Proper artists.

They like to write with different pens on paper that rewards their writing, doesn't bleed, doesn't smear, won't smudge, all that kind of stuff, right? So this company, Midori, they've brought out this, which is the same as their regular A5.

Is it even called Midori? It sounds like.

Isn't that an alcohol drink? All right, well.

But this is thicker, so...

We're going to try these ones.

Yeah.

And then we're going to try their regular

paper.

Paper feels beautiful.

Yeah,

it's beautiful.

I'm touching it now and I'm loving it.

It does open completely flat.

I can't remember how many grams per page.

What is it?

I think there's 140 and their regular is 80.

Yeah.

Which doesn't

sound like a lot, but

it's

enough.

It's 96 pages.

All right.

It's not stark white.

Remember I said that? Yes, that's right.

It's a cream or an off-white.

Nice colour, restful for the eyes.

And smooth.

It's A5.

What was my other criteria? Flat, had to open flat, couldn't be white.

This obviously meets all the criteria.

It's not lined.

You've done all your research.

It's completely plain.

How many hours of research do you reckon you spent before you clicked buy now? The other

thing too is I've got to say this is no dearer to get than if you just went into Officeworks and got one of their moleskin journals or something like that.

Moleskin journals.

Yeah, you know, from dirty old moles.

Are they not called moleskins? I think they are.

Yeah.

Are they made from moles? So

you've got – are you pointing to your nose? Moley, moley, moley, moley.

Guacamole.

I was thinking more like – It's so

childish.

The people we used to –

Call moles.

Yeah.

It's an animal.

Grew up in the outer suburbs.

Yeah, I know.

It's an animal.

Is it literally made from that animal?

I doubt that highly.

I think it's just a name.

Okay.

Anyway, so, well, there you go.

Well, we've spoken about these.

When you look at this too, the front and back cover is just essentially the same paper.

It looks like it doesn't have a cover.

Yeah, it looks like it doesn't have a cover.

Which has

been nice because I was able to put it into my little bundle of journals that does have a leather cover with my name.

Oh, yeah, I got that for you as a present a couple of years ago.

And I don't think you've used them.

It's

too good to use.

You broke

your own rule.

Well, I gave it to you.

I know.

Yeah, it's got your name in the leather.

Yeah.

And that is leather.

And some different little books inside.

I've got a gardening one, a cooking one.

I've actually got a bullet journal one, yeah.

Oh, have you really?

Yeah, it's got the dot point, dot grids, yeah.

But yeah, they are lovely.

And I am, I've left it,

now I've kind of taken it from its sacred spot on the shelf and put it on my desk.

So it's my new journal.

I'm going to look at this.

I've stacked it up with some of the other ones because I had to organise the studio.

Yeah.

Yeah, you've got a nice stack of journals there, one that I'd be proud of too.

One, two, three, four, and that's not all of them.

I know there's another couple somewhere.

Yeah.

None of them have been used to their full capacity, but it's all going to change with this MD paper.

Yeah.

So there you go.

It's good to know your progress on that challenge that you set us both.

Now to find a suitable pen.

Oh, dear.

I have guidelines.

I

feel you're journaling.