Monthly Archives: November 2015

Karas Kustoms Ink Fountain Pen–Long Term Review

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(Note: Yesterday’s version of this post was written as my netbook battery was letting me know it was about to take a break. I rushed through just to get it out. Now that I have more time, I’ve gone back and added some detail.)

A year ago, I received the goods from the second Kickstarter project I backed. They were six months late but very much worth the wait.

I received the Karas Kustoms Ink Fountain Pen and Roller ball. I ordered the fountain pen in green anodized aluminum with a copper section and the Roller ball in black anodized aluminum with a copper section. The fountain pen quickly became one of the five pens I use regularly. However, as much as I like the roller ball, it’s no longer part of my regular pen rotation and may be up for sale soon (more on that in another post).

The Ink Roller ball (top); the Bolt (middle) and the Ink fountain pen (bottom). All the weight is in the middle.

The Ink Roller ball (top) and the Ink fountain pen (bottom). The roller ball still shows how good the new copper looked.

It’s about 5.4 inches (13.8ish cm) long with the cap. Without the cap it’s just under five inches (12.6ish cm) and fits my hand comfortably. The cap threads look sharp but are small enough they don’t bother me at all.  The shape of the copper section is well done and easy to grip.

Uncapped and inked the pen weighs a little over one ounce (33ish grams) which is just enough heft to let the pen do all the work without being too heavy.

The copper section looked great right out of the box but has since tarnished (aka “developed character”). I could polish it, but can’t be bothered.

Karas Kustoms, which started out making hot rod parts and metal iPhone cases, and a handful of ballpoint pens, does an excellent job machining the pen parts. The threads on all the parts are smooth despite them being metal rubbing against metal.

The Schmidt M nib has been excellent and is part of what made this one of my favorite pens. It writes smoothly and seems made for Diamine Sherwood Green ink. I’ve tried other inks in it, but always go back to Sherwood Green. The nib does look oddly small compared to the rest of the pen, though.

The Schidt M Nib and Sherwood Green ink.

The Scmhidt M Nib and Sherwood Green ink on a Field Notes Two Rivers.

My only real gripe was that my pen came with a small chip in the anodizing along the bottom finial. It wasn’t a big deal, but it’s kind of like getting a new book with a ding on the cover: it will look like that soon enough, I don’t need the manufacturer to do it for me. (Note: Karas Kustoms warns that such dings are possible and not considered a manufacturing defect.)

Because it’s made of metal, the cap doesn’t post. This doesn’t bother me much. The clip is a gorgeous piece of design and machine work. Mine doesn’t touch the pen–which I’ve heard is the result of over-zealous polishing–but it still locks securely in my pocket, at least if I’m wearing a heavier shirt.

Since these pens were produced, Karas Kustoms has expanded its fountain pen line up and streamlined some of its manufacturing. Their line up is worth checking out for someone looking to move up from a cheap fountain pen or looking to support US manufacturing.

 

 

An Excuse is Not a Reason

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There is an odd thing that happens to some students when they enter the mid point of their high school careers: The reasoning parts of their brains shutdown leaving in operation only the parts necessary to maintain basic physical functions.

This usually manifests itself as attitude and excuses.

Today, a student I’ve mentioned before (the one who gave me the “Penis Man” superhero) arrived to class five minutes late. He then put his head down and made ready to take a nap.

I went over and woke him up and reminded him of the rules: if you want to sleep, you may leave the classroom and go sleep. He then told me that the reason he wasn’t working was that he’d lost his paper. This, to the teenage mind, is a logical excuse. He lost the paper and therefore he now has free time.

I told him to get a notebook and copy the questions from someone else, as three other students had already done. I also reminded him he hadn’t done his superhero speech yet and should work on that. He said “okay” which is Japanese high school boy for “fuck you” and then did his best to try to sleep sitting up.

When I reminded him he needed to hurry because if he didn’t do the superhero and supervillain speeches he couldn’t do the final project (which requires the two characters) and then he’d fail the term and, almost certainly, they year.

He said in Japanese “I don’t understand English. Har har har.” Which is Japanese high school boy for “I don’t understand you which means you’re stupid. Har har har.” Again, to the teenage mind, this makes logical sense.

I told him it was too bad he’d lost his papers because he’d need them next year if I was in charge of the grade. He said “I don’t understand English. Har har har.”

I said “I know” and failed him for the day. He never did get a chance to sleep.

 

One Page Two Page Wall Crash No Page

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On day eight of the National Novel Writing Month I hit the wall in a bad and merciless way.

The wall, as near as I can tell, is the moment where your old habits show up at your house like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and announce they are “not going to be ignored“. There’s that game you haven’t played in a while and there are those articles you were going to read and there’s that book you haven’t been reading.

Unfortunately, at this point in the cycle, the initial feeling of inspiration and invulnerability is no longer enough to provide the willpower to carry you through the daily task (which can also include marking student exams). But, you still feel guilty about not doing it and can’t concentrate on doing anything else for very long.

I played the game a bit and then went back to writing. When I tired that I found myself writing a few lines and then drifting off in “deep thoughts” and then falling asleep (a temporary return to bad sleep patterns might be part of that).

It got so bad I even tried exercising.

Now, it’s also possible that this is a reaction to what I’m writing. Kimberly, my internal editor, is trying to get attention by telling me that the scene I’m working on is crap and not letting me enter the zone of “no mind” necessary to finish something like NaNoWriMo. The secret of NaNoWriMo is to always think “yes, I know it’s crap, but I’ll worry about that in post”.

I tried skipping the scene and starting a different one. That worked for a page or two, until the deep thoughts came back and I started falling asleep again.

I managed to finish 7 pages or about 1,295 words, which puts me at an average of 1,665 words a day, which is slightly behind the usual NaNoWriMo goal of 1,667.

Tomorrow’s another day, but the wall is real.

 

Too Many Good Ideas Make a Bad Routine

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I have too many good ideas vying for time before I go to bad. That’s especially true this month.

My usual after-supper routine involves finishing my daily log and readying the book for the next day; entering my food journal in the forum at Vic Magary’s site; wracking my brain to think of a blog topic; rejecting several topics; choosing a topic; starting to write the topic; rejecting the topic; playing a game to “free up my mind a bit”; deciding on a new blog topic; writing the blog topic.

Depending on the timing of supper and the time it takes me to finish that routine, I will also wash dishes if She Who Must Be Obeyed hasn’t snuck in and done them already.

What complicates this month is my goal to complete 50,000 words of a novel in National Novel Writing Month. I spent a good portion of today catching up, but I also spent part of my after supper routine finishing the last of the quota. That pushes everything else back, including sleep.

Now, I could plan ahead and do the blog post early but, well, yeah. Probably no. I could also write with more focus but, well, yeah, there are games to be played, too. (Oh, and kids to speak to and feed.)

I did manage to finish the first book of my NaNoWriMo novel and move on to the second, which puts me, by my official formula, at 12,025 words in seven days. That seems impressive, but it means I’m actually 925 words (or five handwritten pages) behind my personal quota.

Out with the old, in with the next.

Out with the old, in with the next.

Tomorrow my goal is to catch up to my personal quota by hammering out 15 handwritten pages. If I were smart, I’d keep going since next week will be a busy week at work but, well, yeah.

I am pleased to say that after 12,025 words the book is finally starting to find a plot. I’ll probably abandon it or forget it, but at least I have it for now. Also, as tends to happen with seat-of-the-pants writing, certain characters are starting to take over the book and that generates new ideas.

Eventually I’ll have to decide to follow the characters or kill them off. But first I have a routine to follow, for better and for worse.

 

Back But Not Back Quite Yet

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The big problem with coming back after Autumn break is that you’ve lost all rhythm to your work. The problem is made worse when you’ve had an October with lots of starts and stops. The problem is even worser when you’re only back for one day after a long break.

It’s as if your vacation has suddenly been interrupted by someone calling you back to work for an emergency.

I complicated it by  adding a new part-time job. This isn’t usually that big of a problem except this job has me walking in the door at 11:35 p.m. That left me feeling somewhere between “spritely” and “zombie” (with more slant toward zombie). I wasn’t that tired and I didn’t get cranky but I wasn’t 100%.

Luckily, neither were my students. They seemed surprised to be back (and they have class tomorrow) and were, at best 50%.

They got work done, but my last class, which featured a role play about the two partners meeting in 2035 for the first time in 20 years, was treated as optional by a few groups of students. I pointed out that it was not actually optional but it didn’t have my usual force, even when I suggested a couple students keep their textbooks because they’d need them next year when they repeated the class.

(Note: the school where I work will allow high school students to fail and force them to repeat the year or transfer to a new school.)

I quietly gave zeroes, which is unusual as zeroes usually arrive with force and noise, and I’m not sure the students who got zeroes fully appreciated that they were getting zeroes.

This means that next class about five pairs will have to perform their role plays or get zeroes for a second day in a row. I hope I can be louder next time, but we’ll see. The next class is on a Wednesday, which is the day after my part time job so I have my doubts about how high my energy level will be, at least until I get used to the new class rhythm.

Or, if things go horribly off kilter, I may only give zeroes for people who wake me up during class.

 

 

International Bring the Pain Month: Fountain Pen Version

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Like many things, National Novel Writing Month seems like a good idea when you start. After a week it suddenly doesn’t seem so good. Since I’ve chosen to write by hand, I’m beginning to question my sanity.

For this event I’ve decided to do a few things differently than I’ve done before. 1) I am starting a new work completely from scratch; 2) I am writing by hand using one, well, actually three of my fountain pens; and 3) I’m starting a new evening job.

For the pens, as I’ve mentioned before, I chose my workhorse TWSBI 580 as the main pen. I’m also using my Sunset from Levenger and my Titanium Nexus from Namisu. I chose the latter two because they are inked with Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa and Salix. These are old school iron gall inks that dry quickly and are also waterproof and “I set my arm across it and now look like I have a tattoo” proof. Scabiosa is a purple ink (not a disease) I use to indicate asides and changes to things that have gone before and Salix is a blue ink (and not a sci fi character) that I use for random exposition and deep thoughts, which I am counting in my daily word count.

The three pens on Scabiosa an dSalix samples, which look bad in bad lighting.

The three pens on Scabiosa and Salix samples, which don’t look good in bad lighting.

I also chose those pens because they write well on the DIM (Did it Myself) notepads I’m using mostly to use them up. It’s also interesting because they are three different nib types: steel, gold and titanium. (Note: in the picture the gold nib is rose gold plated steel, the silver nib is rhodium plated gold and gray nib is titanium.)

The main advantage of writing by hand is I can do it anywhere without having to dig things out and I don’t have to worry about batteries, cords or outlets.  My arm may give out eventually, in which case I’ll start typing again. Oh, and I also have to read my own handwriting some day. (Which may be the hardest part of all this.)

On day five I’m at 9,250 words, which is actually slightly ahead of the usual 1,667 words per day. I will continue working during breaks and when my students are writing (hypothetically of course).

Next week, though, is a full week of work and that’s when things usually fall apart.

Getting Ready to Go Again

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I’ve posted 623 days in a row on this blog and I’m hoping that doesn’t change tomorrow, but it might. Or, I might go insane and that will make these posts more interesting. (That latter bit won’t happen for a while though so please be patient.)

After some persuading, I’ve agreed to take part time classes two nights a week. When I had these classes before, I had them four nights a week and started to go slightly mad. When I wouldn’t agree to four nights and they wouldn’t agree to two nights and/or a raise, we all said no thanks and see you later.

I did, of course, see them later, and got two classes a week after my replacement cracked and his replacement realized he would eventually crack, too, and agreed to split the classes with me.

Complicating matters this time is that the classes start later and finish later meaning I won’t be getting home until around 11:30 p.m. at night. This means I’ll be doing a rapid decompression and going straight to bed so that I can get up at 5:00 a.m. ish, or so.

Now, if I were industrious, I would write several posts of product reviews and random thoughts in advance, but, well, yeah. I would if I were.

This mean the posts will likely become shorter on Tuesdays and Thursdays and may be posted at odd times. I suspect they will become more travel oriented (here’s a lovely picture of some random part of Tokyo and some text to go with it!). There also may be some visits to some interesting pen shops if I have the energy and they let me take pictures.

I spent part of the evening updating and charging my netbook and getting it ready. I hope to write the posts before the class starts, but that will require some planning and, well, yeah. I’m also doing the NaNoWriMo thing and don’t want to fall behind on that.

Hypothetically I could do a lot of writing during class, but, well, yeah. That’s only hypothetical because I totally wouldn’t do that. Probably. (More on that in a future post.)

 

 

 

Air Shows and Neighbors

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I was kind of rude to a guy today because I was trying to watch a free air show.

We live along one of the approaches to the Iruma Air Base, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base and that means we constantly get fly-overs from transport aircraft, helicopters and the occasional fighter.

Once a year, though, if the weather’s nice, we can see the practice for the annual Iruma Air Show. Fighters and transports fly over head in formation and some demonstrate combat tactics. On November 3–Culture Day–if we look to the West we can see parts of the air show itself.

Today She Who Must Be Obeyed came back from work and mentioned that we should go out and see the planes. It turns out we got to see a large portion of the performance put on by Blue Impulse, Japan’s version of the Blue Angels/Thunderbirds.

We saw lots of hearts made from smoke and lots of loops and, then, all of a sudden some guy on the street was asking where I was from. Because I was, for a brief time, considering going into the U.S. Air Force as a pilot; because fighters are just cool gadgets and I like cool gadgets; and because I figured he was either selling religion or crap, my initial reaction was “I’m from fuck you.” (For the record, I didn’t say that. I said I was from the USA but didn’t actually look at him at first.)

Eventually we figured out that 1) he’s from Germany, and 2) he’s been my neighbor for 14 years but we somehow never managed to meet or see each other. For most of that he lived down the street and around the corner and up the hill, but for the past year or so he’s lived across the street and we still didn’t see each other. That surprise was what prompted him to interrupt our free air show.

Eventually he went off to exercise, which is good, because about two minutes after he left, four Blue Impulse planes flew over head. It was pretty cool to meet him and pretty cool to see the planes, too.

 

Remembrance of Futures Past

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With the Royals as World Series champions and the Kansas State Wildcats football team playing like crap, it’s officially the ’80’s again and I’m looking for head bands and skinny ties and pushing up the sleeves of my sport coat.

I also decided to go even more retro and go back and watch two made for television science fiction dramas from 1980 that have stuck with me and influenced my writing for better and for worse. One is still pretty good, the other, well, has its moments.

The first was the PBS production of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven. I mostly remember the grey people, the aliens that looked like turtles and the cone of blue light. I also remember not being able to hear and/or understand what the alien in the cone of blue light was saying. It sounded like “Jor Jor breathymumblyhightechybreathybreathymumblytechyhightechy lathe of heaven”.

I didn’t understand what was said, even though it seemed kind of important, but the drama wasn’t shown much in the 80’s. Then, for various reasons, PBS stopped showing it in 1988 and since then it has remained one of their most requested dramas.

When I watched it again I was underwhelmed by most of the acting. The lead actors, Bruce Davison and Kevin Conway are good but Margaret Avery has been a lot better. I was also surprised at how much I didn’t remember. I remember the aliens being more prominent than they were. I didn’t remember a volcano being involved.

The biggest thing I remembered/didn’t remember involved a novel I wrote. In it, two of the characters are instructed to “Ask about Antwerp” and at one point the protagonist merely says “Antwerp” in place of asking about it. That turns out to have been “acquired” from the Lathe of Heaven.

The other drama was the mini-series adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. This one has not held up well. The special effects are terrible and the science is dodgy as it has people walking around breathing Mars’ thin atmosphere. Also, based on the old Martian Canal theory, there’s apparently drinkable water all over Mars. Mars, of course, looks absolutely nothing like Malta. (At least that’s what the government wants you think it’s like…) With the exception of Bernie Casey, who steals the show as an astronaut who goes native very quickly, the acting is atrocious. Rock Hudson phones it in and Darren McGavin is the character Darren McGavin always plays.

Although I read the book a million years ago, I’d forgotten about some of the Martian empathy tricks and the three blue lights. I also forgot Bernadette Peters. I do remember writing a piece of fan fiction, maybe for class, maybe for no reason whatsoever, based on the scene where the guy stumbles across the two android women and decides to live with them. (Me being in my horror phase, it ends badly and rather grossly after a malfunction and a kiss.) I therefore take credit for inventing fan fic. (Please email me for the place to send royalty checks.)

The biggest annoyance I had with the Martian Chronicles is the sentiment that the fault is not in ourselves but in our stuff and if we just get rid of our stuff we’ll all be excellent to each other and somehow not the humans who invented the stuff in the first place (a conclusion also reached, rather annoyingly, by the most recent incarnation of Battlestar Galactica).

The other interesting part is that both dramas are now set in the past. The Lathe of Heaven is set in 2002 and in The Martian Chronicles humans land on Mars in 1999, only to be killed by a jealous Martian husband.

Cheering for the Discount if Not the Team

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The Japan Series baseball championship ended a few days ago and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Although I don’t follow baseball that closely, I do follow it here in Japan. My favorite team name is the Carp (because Carp) but my favorite team is the one with the best discounts.

Japanese baseball teams are owned by corporations that use the teams as marketing more than as sources of income. (The main source of income actually seems to be fees earned from sending Japanese players to the US Major Leagues.) As a result, the Japan Series was the Fukuoka SoftBank (telecommunications) Hawks versus the Tokyo Yakult (probiotic dairy product) Swallows. The Hawks won their second series in a row and that means several days of product discounts at every company affiliated with SoftBank.

This is pretty good, but it was better when the Hawks were the Fukuoka Daiei (department store chain) Hawks. When they won the Japan series in 1999, the discounts at all their stores were excellent and several items were priced at. She Who Must Be Obeyed cheered for them in 2003 in anticipation of the discounts. (They won and there were discounts.)

The discounts were also good at the fast food chain Lotteria when the Chiba Lotte (food and chemical) Marines won.

There are, of course, teams you hope will never win. For example, the Hanshin (electric railway) Tigers and the Yomiuri (media conglomerate) Giants, are right out. Yes, they are the most popular teams in Japan but what do I get when they win? I get nothing. And nothing don’t buy my love. (Something like that.)

In the future I’m hoping to see a series of discounts, er, a series championship from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham (food processing) Fighters (because tasty dead animal flesh) or from the Hiroshima Toyo (actually Mazda) Carp (because cool name and car stuff).

Until then, I’ll try to enjoy the SoftBank related discounts. I’m hoping if they three-peat they’ll offer some discounts on their smartphone plans. It’s only a coincidence that I want that and that they are my phone provider. Well, not it’s not.