Monthly Archives: January 2017

A Pleasant Day, with Pain

Leave a reply

By all accounts, it was a perfect day, then it wasn’t, but it wasn’t that bad.

First I got a proper eight hours of sleep and woke up do gorgeous weather. (The Tokyo area, in general, has the Season of Static this time of year, but it’s still pretty awesome.)

Then, I met up with a friend I haven’t seen in two years and we immediately fell into old habits as if he hadn’t been away. Then I went down to Tokyo for my evening class and had a coffee before heading to the school.

On the way to the school I bought supper. Something didn’t feel right but I figured it was because I hadn’t had my traditional Train Nap (more on that in another post). Then, right as I say down to eat I got my migraine spot.

I popped a couple extra-strength something-or-other (the medicine’s scientific name) and drank more coffee. After pondering a short nap, I started class and as the medicine set in things went well. I was pleased to see my two shyest students rock their speeches, but that may have been a migraine medicine induced hallucination.

Luckily I caught the faster train home. Now it’s time for bed.

2017 Pen and Stationery Resolutions

2 Replies

Along with my recent confessions, I thought it might be fun to include some pen and stationery resolutions for the coming year.

Pens:
One–Refine the collection. Focus more on quality rather than rapid and random acquisition. Get rid of what doesn’t set your soul on fire.

Two–To help accomplish One, stay the hell away from the nightly Kingdom Note pen sales. (For example.)

Three–Actually use your so-called “work horse” pens at work.

Four–Sell the pens that have been in storage for a long time.

Ink:
One–Sell the large stockpile of Kingdom Note inks once the weather warms, and/or find pen addicts who live in the tropics.

Two–Limit the ink rotation. Use up the inks you like, sell off the rest. Match pens with ink and make a system out of them.

Three–No more new inks (after you’ve acquired a couple you have your eye on.)

Four–Formalize the ink business or run away.

Paper:
One–Stop collecting scraps to bundle into notebooks.  Remember that you can’t spell “scrap” without “crap”. (“It’s crap” said quickly and repeatedly eventually sounds like “Scrap”. I think “scrap” actually derives from the Elizabethan English pronunciation “S’crap.” Look it up, forsooth.)

Two–Do one push up on the floor in the store for each 100 yen of price before buying a new notebook you suddenly can’t live without. (Don’t forget to wash hands after doing this.) Also, consider doing this for pen and ink purchases: Cheapest Montblanc Hemingway = 1,763 push ups (followed by spending the pen money on hospital bills and physical therapy.)

Three–Scan, scan, and scan old notebooks and then retire the moldering hard copies.

Four–Retire the last of the handmade writing tablets. Keep only the ones currently in use at work.

Five–Use up as many notebooks as you can before you get better at push-ups.

Other:
One–Take pictures of stuff.

Two–Review stuff.

Three–Just say “NO” to Massdrop and Kickstarter.

Four–Listen to the Pen Addict podcast, but do not check out the show notes. If you do check out the show notes, do NOT click on any interesting links.

 

 

 

Pen and Stationery Confessions

1 Reply

In a recent episode of the Pen Addict podcast, the great Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley confessed their stationery related sins. I thought it might be fun to do the same.

(Note: Yes, there really is a podcast about pens and stationery.)

Confession the First: I believe that refilling a fountain pen with the same ink counts as cleaning the pen as long as  you draw ink through the nib.

Confession the Second: I’m not liking my Nakaya as much as I hoped I would.

Confession the Third: I think LAMY Safari fountain pens, in all their variations, are ugly and I will never own one.

Confession the Fourth: Despite all the fountain pens I own, my “going out” pocket pen (meaning I’m not carrying a bag) is a County Comm Embassy Pen, not a fountain pen.

Confession the Fifth: Despite all the fountain pens I own, my everyday work pen is a ballpoint pen, not a fountain pen.

Confession the Sixth: I think modern Palomino Blackwing Pencils are an expensive con and I regret buying a couple. (I like the eraser, though.)

Confession the Seventh: I think the large format Traveler’s Notebooks are overrated and I hate that tall, narrow shape.

Confession the Eighth: I still like using large Moleskine notebooks and think the hatred against them is “I’m so cool” virtue signalling.

Confession the Ninth: Despite Confession the Second, I’d like to acquire another Nakaya.

Confession the Tenth: I think the adult coloring “movement” is silly.

That’s all for now. Eventually I’ll publish some pen and stationery resolutions. Until then, thanks for reading this far.

 

Papa’s Got a Brand New Mixed Bag

Leave a reply

Every now and then I couldn’t come up with a single coherent topic and I would instead resort to random aphorisms, observations and questions. — Your Humble Blatherer in Editorials and Litigious Leisure

Random bits today as lots of random stuff happened.

–Spent the morning watching a student write a make-up exam. The exam was three writing questions that, if done perfectly, would force him to write over 600 words. In the end, he only wrote 300 words, but by colossal coincidence, that equals the lengths of the two speeches he didn’t write or do last term. This, of course, means the test worked perfectly.

–While my student was working, I was doing my daily 10 Ideas, which has now been relegated to a smaller notebook, and then wrote extra ideas, and then switched notebooks where I wrote out notes for some upcoming posts on this site. They included my Sinclair Seven (now modified and including a plus one); my stationery  confessions; my Top Five pens (of various sorts) and my 2017 pen and stationery related resolutions. (More on all these, of course, in upcoming posts.)

–The afternoon was spent marking paragraphs from different students and deciding appropriate punishments for our oldest. (Long story involving grandparents, concerts, skipping school, bullet trains and Osaka.) The big fight was saved until after supper.

–Some where in there I took some pictures for future blog posts and sorted through a bunch of crap as part of some belated soot brushing. I have camera gear to trade and ink to sell. I also have a bunch of notebooks to dispose of somehow, someway. My long unused karate gear is still mocking me, even though I’ve somehow taught myself not to see it as little more than a ghost in the corners of my eyes.

–I also have work to worry about and more marking to do. I also have a grounded teenager to deal with, especially as I think she’s about to make the mistake of calling my bluff. (More on that in a future book…)

Breaking the Log But Maybe Not the Habit

Leave a reply

It was a good idea, I suspect, at the time, but now, I suspect, it’s not and have decided to stop.

Two years ago, in a fit of something-or-other (a technical term) I decided to keep daily log in which I tracked, at various points during the day, where I was, what I was doing, and how I was feeling. I drew pictures of key events as if I was looking over my own shoulder and also tracked the weather and, eventually, my meals by drawing pictures of them. It was an excuse to use up notebooks and ink and test pens.

The first year, I carried the log around with me which, quite frankly, is exactly the point of the log. Stopping to record what I was doing was fun, but it was a lot of dead weight. The second year I changed notebooks but left it at home, turning it into more of a diary.

The second year, I would fill out the morning weather and offer a summary of how I was feeling in the morning. When I got home after my day job I would summarize the day at that point and then record my lunch and the weather. Later, reasonably close to bed, I would summarize the evening and the day and, as I had in the first year, draw a few key events as if I was looking over my own shoulder.

After a couple weeks, I started adding color to the events and, a few days later, to the food and started keeping track of what I was wearing. Sort of.

The first color picture in the log.

A couple weeks later, I wore my Kansas State University sweatshirt and was still adding color to the events. Note: those are beans flying at my head, not bullets. Also, those are costume ogre horns, not my natural, undisguised appearance.

Although I kept up the daily habit of keeping up the log, I missed the immediacy of having it with me. I also felt as if my entire system had a lot of moving parts, even if one of those parts stayed on my desk. By the end of the year, the log felt more like the annoying paperwork in a job than a fun activity.

As such, I’ve started carrying a different kind of planner and, knowing me, will probably turn it into a portable mini-log. I did find it was interesting to see what I was wearing from day to day, especially on work days. A friend of mine used to plan out his entire wardrobe for the semester based on the theory that students change their opinion of you if they see you wearing the same outfit.

I’ll also probably keep track of the weather and maybe my wardrobe, but I’m more interested in recording what I accomplish during the day versus what I planned.

This will probably be ugly, though. Interesting, but ugly (more on all this in a future post).

Hobonichi Techo Cousin Planner–End of Book Review

2 Replies

The size of the Hobonichi Techo Cousin didn’t put me off as I only intended to use it as a desktop item but the color did. Unfortunately, for reasons involving expensive covers that are sold separately, the Hobonichi Cousin comes only in Caucasian flesh tone beige.

The Cousin is an A5 sized planner with 544 pages of Tomoe River paper. The pages include daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly planners with several black pages at the end for notes. Each day has a quote (in Japanese, though) that is supposed to serve as a source of wisdom, inspiration, contemplation.

The Cousin filled the role of my daily log and it was nice to replace the average paper of the MUJI notebook I’d used before, with the terrific and fountain pen friendly Tomoe River paper in the Cousin. I ended up using the monthly planner to keep track of days I actually wrote and the daily pages to write my log entries. I also used the blank pages as a scrapbook for random stickers and labels.

The paper was terrific, with only a few pens and inks bleeding through. My Noodler’s Ahab flex nib scored the paper and caused lots of bleedthrough and Noodler’s Apache Sunset ink is oily enough that it tends to soak through. Wancher Matcha, as good as it looks, laughs at pages made of any paper and makes them cry.

Noodler’s Apache Sunset bleed through.

Noodler’s Apache Sunset from the above bleed through staining a third page.

Wancher Matcha laughs at Tomoe River, even from a smooth M nib.

My biggest problems with the Cousin was that it simply was trying to do too much. Out of the 544 pages, I left about 100 pages unused. This isn’t so much the fault of the planner as much as it is a testament to the way I used it. However, I don’t see why it needs monthly, weekly and daily planners under one cover.

As for the cover, despite being on my desk, it showed a surprising amount of wear and tear. It is glossy card stock, but a year of being pulled in and out of a slot next to my PC wore both sides of the cover, including the side that wasn’t against the metal. A fellow Cousin user has dubbed this as “Hobonichi Cousin patina”.

The “patina” (aka scuff marks) on the Caucasian flesh tone beige cover.

I also noticed that the end tape started to peel and that the cover that was against the warm computer began to separate from its backing paper.

Another example of the “patina” spots and of the peeling end tape.

It is a good planner though, and most of my problems with it are a matter of personal preference. It has a lot of space for recording events and even writing follow up, which is nice. I find the daily quotes to be useless, though. After a while, I didn’t even notice them, except when I wished they weren’t taking up so much writing space.

I would recommend the Cousin, especially if you’re willing to splurge for a cover, or just make one yourself from some construction paper. (Alas, gone are the days of making book covers from paper grocery bags.) Even if you’re ballpoint pen user, you’ll like the paper.

However, as I’ve written before, sort of, this year I’ve decided to pare down some of what I’m using by combining my planner with my log. I’m also not going to keep the log in the same way. (But that’s fodder for a future post.)

 

 

Getting Home Eventually in Time

Leave a reply

We got home, but our bullet train was a lot slower than I was expecting. Somehow, though, we didn’t have a lot of time.

Because it was part of the bi-annual U-turn rush here in Japan, we ended up with some odd trains and little time to catch them, which meant we didn’t have time to buy snacks and drinks–which meant my girls stopped to buy snacks and drinks–but we made our one connection.

Unfortunately our bullet train was a “slow” one that stopped at every stop, including several at places that don’t seem to actually exist, and then lingered several minutes at each stop so the actual bullet trains could pass.

Then we exited the station at the wrong exit which meant we couldn’t find the treats we were looking for. (Note: one side of Omiya Station is awesome. The other side sucks.)

Then we got home and enjoyed the biannual tradition of She Who Must Be Obeyed being horrified by the state of the apartment. (Note: she does this even when we travel together.) (Note the Second: The bear wasn’t my fault.)

Now, we’re settling back into our normal patterns, for better and for worse, but at least we’re home.

 

Victoria’s Journals’ TeaBook–End of Book Review

Leave a reply

Disclosure: I got the Victoria’s Journals’ TeaBook at the 2016 ISOT as a sample from the notebook maker himself. I told him I’d use it and abuse and write a review only if I thought it was worth buying. It turns out it is.

The maker of the TeaBook is a fountain pen addict and designed the notebook to hold up well to fountain pens. He did a good job.

In general, the paper held up quite well against the brutal fountain pen onslaught I inflicted on it.

The TeaBook is an almost A5 sized notebook (it’s a few millimeters thinner but is the same height). It is designed to be rolled up and carried in clothes pockets or even in the bottle holder on a carry bag.

The TeaBook rolled up tightly.

It comes rolled up in a tube that reminds me of the tubes that Retro51 pens come in. The notebook can be rolled up quite tightly, but then lays flat without any latent curl. The cover is a flexible red plastic that didn’t crease over time.

The TeaBook in front of its case.

The pages are made of 80# Spanish paper. The version I had was lined, but it appears to come in at least dot grid as well. (Note: I had a prototype case that didn’t match the paper I had inside so this is just a guess.) Each page is perforated, which is something I usually don’t like, but after a few months of regular use, none of the pages had started to work loose. I did, by the end of the book, like the idea of being able to rip out pages I wanted to use and then get rid of the rest.

Detail of the perforations and the lines. I liked the light ruling.

The paper handled fountain pens about as well as the Field Notes America The Beautiful edition. Several inks bled through, though, including one that destroys laughs at notebook paper and snickers at Tomoe River paper—No, really, it mocks the paper it’s used on—and that was while it was in a pen with a steel M nib. (More on that ink in a future post.)

My ink testing page.

The results of the ink tests. The results are respectable, given most of the nibs and inks were terminators, but not great. I’m not sure this facing page was necessary, though, so I didn’t mind defacing it.

My only complaints with the TeaBook were minor and more a matter of personal preference. I’m not a big fan of title pages on notebooks, and even less of a fan of personal information sections. I’m not going to leave my address around in case some radical pen/notebook addict finds my notebook and then tracks me down to punish me for disrespecting stationery. (Oh, sure, mock me as if I’m the only person who does that.)

This really isn’t necessary and could lead to me visiting your house.

Also, I’m not sure it needs the logo, as cool as it is, taking up space on each page.

Lastly, some kind of built in strap or aftermarket binder loop to keep the notebook closed tight would be nice because it tends to unroll to fit the space it’s put in. That said, it’s probably easy to make or rig up something like that.

Right now the TeaBook, if it is available (it may only be a prototype) is only available from retailers in Asia. Interested parties will have to contact the maker for more information.

I’ll be contacting him myself. I’d like to try a couple versions with different paper styles.

 

Rudeness is as Rudeness Does

Leave a reply

It says a lot about Japan that the most uncivil things I saw today were actually quite minor. One shocked She Who Must Be Obeyed, and the other involved coffee.

Oddly, although I was also involved, I was not the biggest problem.

As is our tradition for each New Year’s holiday, we had a huge dinner with the entire clan of immediate in-laws and then, after the oldest brother ran away as fast as he could, the rest of us went shopping.

This involves droves of people and traffic, but luckily we’ve missed most of the fukubukuro fighting so we were safe.

At lunch though, we chose the busiest restaurant, and as I was bringing my double espresso back from the drink bar, a woman decided to spread her wings and spun into my cup. This I could have forgiven but her attitude was less than apologetic, which is unusual for Japan, so I got grumpy for minute. Oddly, though, I was able to move on fairly quickly, which is unusual for me.

Then, after we all separated—our girls having been dumped off on the youngest in-law and her husband—She Who Must Be Obeyed and I did some shopping. As we were heading back to the car to head home, we witnessed one of the rudest things we’ve seen in Japan (at least that didn’t involve riding on the train).

An elevator full of parents and kids in carts began to empty while a young couple with a stroller and an older couple with a couple small bags waited. It took the parents and kids in carts a long time to exit, prompting the older man to push his way on the elevator. Then, when the last cart was gone, the old man closed the door in front of the young couple with the stroller. The young man tried to push the button, but it was too late. He and his wife both looked surprised, as they had, technically, been at the front of the line.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I both muttered something along the lines of “What an asshole” and it was our topic of conversation all the way back to the car. In the asshole’s defense, the young father should have pushed the button as soon as people started getting off the elevator. Also, as rude things go, it wasn’t that bad, but by Japan’s standards, it was rude.

The most shocking thing was that I didn’t do anything that could be considered rude. I even apologized for being bumped. And I didn’t swear. Much. At least not loudly.

New Year’s Planner Planning

1 Reply

Although it may seem crazy to so-called normal people, pen/stationery addicts understand the necessity of deciding your new year’s carry before New Year’s Day. They also understand the idea of “your carry”.

So-called normal people use a smart phone app or a portable calendar or, in a really risky stretch, they write in the squares on calendars that hang on the wall. They also have the crazy notion that “you should just use the system you used last year.”

Pen/stationery addicts, on the other hand, find this crazy. They have a lot of stuff they need to use, even as they acquire new stuff, and this inspires them to try different things each year. Variety. Spice of life. Etcetera.

In my case, I’ve decided to abandon the daily log that resides on my desk (more on that in a future post) for something more portable. I’ve also decided to abandon a scratch planner that I carry both as a justification for owning my Old Church Works Quad Cover and as a way to use up notebooks.

Instead I’ve acquired a smaller Hobonichi Techo that will serve as my planner and log and I am trying to figure out way to use the pages I didn’t use in its larger cousin (aptly named Cousin).

I’ve also decided to switch my daily 10 Ideas to a random Field Notes notebook or a similar sized notebook from a different maker. That will go in my OCW cover along with my food log, my random notes notebook, and the “book bible” for my latest project. This might give me four notebooks in the cover, which will make it fairly thick, but will give me something to write about in the future.

My other goal is to limit my goals in the new year. I have a couple projects to finish before I worry about other projects. Any attempts at multitasking have, of late, led to paralysis and that will change.”

Along the way I’m looking or ways to use up notebooks. I’ve already passed a few on to the girls whilst trying to encourage them to find ways to use them.

I’ll give specific details on all this in the future. Until then, there are notebooks to assemble.

There’s also a business to formalize or simplify. I’ll need a notebook to help me think about
that, though. I’ll have to decide if I’ll use one I have on hand or if I’ll have to buy a new one.

That makes sense to pen/stationery addicts but so-called normal people may find it crazy.