For today’s post, I thought I’d revisit last year’s pen and stationery resolutions to see how well/badly I’ve done with them.
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.
Three–Actually use your so-called “work horse” pens at work.
Four–Sell the pens that have been in storage for a long time.
One and Four: A mixed bag here. I did quite well by shedding a substantial chunk of my collection and only acquiring a couple new ones.
Two: Another mixed bag. I acquired two pens via the Kingdom Note nightly sales. One was an OMAS and the second an orange Faber-Castell Ondoro (acquired in no small part thanks to a substantial amount of built up points).
Three: Done. Also close to finishing a second bottle of my workhorse ink: Noodler’s Old Manhattan. Would have finished it all, but rotated with a couple other workhorse pens.
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.
One: Sold a large portion now working on getting rid of the last bit after the thaw.
Two: A jolly good start, then a spectacular failure.
Three: Actually did quite well at this. Only acquired three new bottles of ink. (And a few samples…)
Four: Still running away, slowly, after outreach to an ink manufacturer went nowhere, but a have a few ideas for acquiring inks that require actually visiting stores. (Without me actually having to visit the store…)
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.
One: Accomplished. Have only saved Rhodia paper and some Tomoe River Paper.
Two: Never stood a chance of doing this. Did do push ups, though, just not related to purchases.
Three: Did some of this, then scanner/printer died. Bought new all-in-one and stopped scanning.
Four: Done except for a few that I’m still using up.
Five: Been doing a good job of this. Have also given away extra Field Notes, including a few Colors editions.
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.
One: Did well, but need to organize office better to establish a better studio space.
Two: Partially accomplished, but have a lot more to review.
Three: Mostly accomplished. Avoided Massdrop, for many reasons, but gave into a few Kickstarters.
Four: Mostly accomplished. Except I do now own a pen with Bomb Pops on it.
The Future:
In the next post, I’ll figure out my 2018 Stationery Resolutions. (Note: one has already been accomplished, so that my count as cheating.)