For some reason my mind just races in the shower and I get all kinds of good ideas for blog essays while scrub-a-dub-dubbing in the shower. However, I forget most of them. I try to hang onto at least one idea, so that after I get out of the shower, dry off, get partly dressed, exercise, get completely dressed, eat breakfast and back at the computer, I can write it down. Often even that single idea doesn’t make it to the more permanent memory of my word processor. I really should learn to type in the nude while wet.
So I did a couple of Google searches, “writing notes in the shower” and “how to write in the shower?”
As you can see, I’m not the only one with this problem of wanting to take notes in the shower. It seems showering is well known for stimulating ideas for writers. Karen Woodward made a homemade scuba writing tablet with materials from Staples in “How To Write In The Shower.” However, Amazon has a ready made Scuba slate that’s cheaper than Karen’s put together solution. The problem with both solutions is erasing the board. But one of the customer reviews at Amazon suggested a Mr Clean Magic Eraser, which my wife has been buying lately, erases the slate well. Amazon also offers a larger Scuba slate. I ordered the smaller one for $7.78 with free Prime shipping.
The little scuba slate turned out to be good enough for now. Capturing my thoughts usually only takes 2-3 lines, and the small slate, about the size of of a trade paperback, can handle 4-5 notes on each side. I write with water streaming all over me and what I’m writing. Pretty cool. Problem solved.
However, I noticed there were other good solutions, include Aqua Notes, a waterproof notepad specifically designed for the shower. It’s $7.00 plus $3.99 shipping at the site for a 40 page pad, or $10 at Amazon. I’m going to try this next if the slate doesn’t work out in the long run. This solution could get expensive. However it has an advantage over the slate in that you can pull off a page and take it to the computer.
I expect the scuba slate to solve my immediate problem, but I’d like more elaborate permanent solution. I need a system for taking notes all the time, and from any location. My iPod touch has a good voice recorder app called Recorder. I used to own an Olympus digital recorder for dictating notes until I rocked on it with my La-Z-Boy. Digital recorders are great for in the middle of the night note taking, but I wouldn’t want to take one into the shower, or even a steamy bathroom.
But wouldn’t it be cool to have a smart home that constantly listened to me? Or even talked to me? Over the years I’ve seen various science fiction movies where houses had AI butlers built into them. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Of course I might go crazy talking to my house all the time. In the future they might have personal robots that I could chat with and they’d take notes, and be my very own Dr. Watson, but I can’t count on that now.
I created this blog to record my thoughts and called it Auxiliary Memory because I wanted to record my thoughts. I forget too easily, and I’m forgetting more all the time. I often reread my older blog posts amazed at forgetting ever writing them. There is even a movement called lifelogging to record everything a person does in their life, see “Lifelogging 101: How to record your life digitally.”
Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell wrote a book Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything. Bell was a researcher for Microsoft that became the subject of MyLifeBits, an early lifelogging project.
Now, I’m not actually interested in recording my whole life. I want to record ideas. I often write in my head thinking I’ll get up and write it all down later, but I don’t. What I’d really like is a brainstorming recorder. I just searched “brainstorming recording” on Google and got hits. See, everything I think about has already been thought of before. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one with these crazy ideas.
Ultimately I’d like a transparent way to record my thoughts, then mind map them with XMind, research and collect additional information and store that research in Evernote, and finally write it all up in an essay. Sooner or later some savvy young inventor will invent an app that does all those things at once.
JWH – 9/26/12
Auxiliary Memory 
Crike, I thought I was the only one! No use in writing down the ideas though, more fun to feel the paranoia of letting them slip away as you towel off. I have written on the steamy mirror, it is true!
Seems like a child’s Magic Slate would be ideal if you could find.or make one that used a waterproof substrate instead of cardboard.
(Magic Slates are those reusable tablets consisting of a wax-covered cardboard covered with a sheet of cellophane — you write on it with a stylus, lift the cellophane to erase)
Those magic slates were the first thing I thought about, but I haven’t seen one in decades.
They are still around, maybe only in novelty sizes. And on ebay.
Maybe you could disassemble one of this type and mount it on a plastic clipboard –
http://www.tintoyarcade.com/products/Magic-Drawing-Slate-Traveling-Classic.html
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or brew your own –
1 – buy or salvage stylus and cellophane
2- melt wax onto plastic clipboard
3 – cip sheet of cellophane on top, e voila!
Wax mixture –
http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/2008/09/magic-slate-magic-drawing-pad-mystic.html
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Or maybe one of these magnetic sketcher thingamabobs –
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Doodle%20Sketch&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20
Those are all clever solutions, but the scuba slate turned out to be simple enough and works. I’ve yet to see how many times it can be washed off. And there’s still the problem with sharpening the pencil. It’s going to take awhile to see if it’s a long term solution.
I have your answer. it’s called a Pen Drive Digital Audio Voice Recorder. Twenty bucks at newegg.
I’ve relied on pocket sized voice recorders for years, but this gizmo is the tits. Record your notes in the shower, slap in the USB port for xmind or whatever
And it’s waterproof??? Or are you saying, leave it outside of the shower. They have one at Amazon for $12.35. Some of these are being sold as spy recorders. Pretty neat. Thanks.
I’ve only had it a few months and it’s hotter than hell here, never humid. I put it in my pocket and it’s dry when I get to the computer. I always have some canned air near the computer if I was concerned.
What would be good, is an app that plugged into your brain and just organised and recorded your thoughts for you and then retrieved them when you wanted them. A sort of in-brain secretary.
An app that plugges into your brain…..wow! That would be soooo nice….a little creepy granted but I loose so much information from the time I think it till the time I can write it down! Being in the shower and trying to sleep at night is the worst!
Crap and I call myself a writer 😦 I meant to say *plugs* !!
Have you read L Sprague de Camp’s funny story, “Merman”. A man really needs to write there in a swimming pool.
Thanks for cluing me into the Scuba Slate. I’m going to have to check that out! It drives me insane when I can’t remember my thoughts after I leave the shower. Sometimes I try to think of completely mundane things so that I won’t think about anything important…..just so I won’t have to forget something brilliant that I thought up while showering!!
So many of the same thoughts. I see there are waterproof shower recorders out there now, but haven’t yet found one that syncs with Google or Evernote. How’s your quest?
I didn’t know about the waterproof recorders. I’ll have to go research them. I’m pretty happy with the scuba slate.
That’s really cool, I might get myself one. Big fan of this solution for any shower recording needs: https://showerpi.com
Cool, I’m into the Raspberry Pi.
Nice! This one is really simple, can be made with a pi 0 + some accessories and really works well.