Category Archives: Random

2015 LE Edison Mina Extended–First Impressions

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Birth-Mark“, the protagonist, Aylmer, marries the beautiful Georgiana. She is perfect in every way except for a hand shaped birthmark on her face. (Body 10/personality 10/face 9.9). Aylmer obsesses over this one flaw and that ruins his perception of the rest of Georgiana.

That’s kind of how I feel about the Edison Mina Extended. It’s beautiful and elegant. It just has a scrawny neck and that ruins my perception of it.

The pen is the 2015 Limited Edition version of the Mina and is made from a gorgeous Denim Ebonite that won’t be available again for one year. Ebonite (hard rubber) is one of my favorite pen materials as it has a warmth to it that other pen materials don’t.

The pen is about 5.8 inches long when capped and 5.03 inches long when uncapped. This makes it slightly shorter than the regular Mina as, in order to add the production number to the finial, Edison Pens had to flatten the Mina’s normal rounded ends.

The Edison Mina Extended. You can see the production number and slightly flared end on the cap.

The Edison Mina Extended. You can see the production number and slightly flared end on the cap.

The pen is slightly flared at the ends which reminds me of the special pens expert Pen Spinners use (often in my class; long story). Edison also included a new style of nib, which, unfortunately, may be the cause of the fatal flaw. (Note: I’m terrible at pen spinning and have therefore never attempted to spin this pen, although the temptation is there…)

My biggest complaint, and it’s very close to being a deal breaker, is that to get the flare and the new nib style the pen is left with a surprisingly small section down near the nib. If I’m measuring it correctly it is only 8.4 millimeters, which is only 1 millimeter thicker than a woodcase pencil. As a result, I find myself holding it up by the threads.

Although the steel M nib is well tuned and writes well, the pen quickly worked its way into my “back up” pen case and out of the regular rotation.

In “The Birth-Mark” Aylmer’s obsession with Georgiana’s small flaw leads to tragedy. In this case it might lead to an early pen sale.

A close up of the Denim Ebonite.

A close up of the Denim Ebonite.

In With the Old In With the New

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Some of it was salvageable, but a lot of it was crap. Some of it was only potential.

Because I am, most of the time, what is known as a “discovery writer” I tend to approach writing projects with no plan. (r.e. this blog). I start with a premise and maybe a character or two and then start writing. This is an exciting process but it also has a couple drawbacks.

First, I tend to underwrite. Because I’m outlining and writing at the same time, I tend to write scenes that I need to write rather than writing the scenes.

Second, I end up with different versions of the same scene.

Third, I end up forgetting what has gone before and changing both character and premise. (I’ve had to throw out several thousand words because I forgot the job of a main character’s father.)

Fourth, endings are real pain. This is because they come after a lot of energy has been spent and I’m in a hurry to move on to the next step. I end up with well written, detailed openings and “then they all got hit by a truck (note: check kind of truck) and lived happily ever after” endings.

The next step is where the previous steps meet and where my problems were today. After I finish a project, I tend to set it aside for months and then read it as if I’m a new reader (albeit one who keeps a pen in hand to mark up the book).

Today I went after a project that I’ve been avoiding for several months. (More on that in another post.) I’ve been through it once and it’s already on computer, but I had to reread it and put it in something resembling an order. That meant trying to remember previous decisions and trying to remember how to use the software I’d entered it in.

I can see where it’s underdeveloped and where it’s crap. This all hopefully leads to finding beta readers who will send reasonably specific feedback. (This has been a problem; more on that in a future post.)

There’s a lot of work to do but it turns out that actually starting the work makes me want to do the work. Not always, but often.

Lots of Motion With Little Movement

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In a very rare occurrence, I actually left the house at a time when I didn’t actually need to.

The plan was to meet up with some friends and have lunch but as I approached the end of my journey, I discovered that plans had been cancelled because of some misinformation.

(Important safety tip, kids: Verify plans BEFORE you travel, not as you’re travelling.)

I therefore changed plans on the fly. My new plans involved looking for ink (and at pens) and then going to a foreign food store to stock up on pasta and booze because, well, yeah. After that I had a lunch at a place I hadn’t been to in a very long time and the lunch reminded me of why I hadn’t been there in a long time. (More on that, and Japanese fast food in another post.)

After that, because our oldest was home sick, i decided to get back early before she woke up from her long nap. Her being a teenager, the odds were ever in my favor except that a train derailed on my main train line. Luckily no one was injured, but I had two switch to a different line which only partially solved my problem. It took me underground past the accident but then dumped me on the same train line.

Eventually, I managed to get home where all I did was scribble out one or two things that made me go sure, fine, whatever, and then I distracted myself with games and television. (Three different season finales all in one day. Aka, the day productivity died.)

As I watched the finales, I managed to scribble a few more things which finally put me over my daily quota, but it was a day where there seemed to be a lot of movement and a lot of spent energy, but in which very little was accomplished.

I could actually use a couple more days like this before June.

The Day Before The Day Before

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Last week, in both of my high school classes at the school where I work, the students and I disagreed on Saturday and Sunday.

The statement was “Saturday is more relaxing than Sunday” and the students, to a young man, all disagreed with that. They said Sunday was more relaxing.

This is because, for reasons only understood by the powers what are at the school where I work, the school implemented a six day week (five and a half, actually) on the same day that the rest of Japan switched to a five day week. This means the students have class most Saturdays and that’s why they don’t see it as a relaxing day.

However, I have both Saturday and Sunday off and get to enjoy, perhaps too much, Saturday.

What makes Saturday better than Sunday in my reckoning is that, in my schedule, Saturday is followed by a day off and Sunday is followed by a work day. To me it’s easier to relax knowing that the next day I’ll still be relaxing. However, when the next day is a work day, it’s a lot harder to relax.

The main problem with that schedule, for me at least, is that because I know I have another day of rest, I tend to put off until Sunday doing things I could be doing on Saturday.

This is all partly because I’ve always resisted scripting my Saturdays. I’ve tried scheduling things but more often than not those things get done on Sunday. I’ve even done this after taking out the things I planned to work on, only to shove them aside in favor of a distraction and the promise to do them on Sunday.

Of course, once Sunday rolls around, those projects can be put off again because, well, I have to save my energy because the next day is a work day.

Beer Hordes and Brew Masters

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Some guy grabbed my arm and offered seats to She Who Must Be Obeyed and me. It turned out they only wanted to know what we were drinking so they could mock it.

Today was the Spring Keyaki Beer Festival near Saitama Super Arena. Over 71 brewers and restaurants set up in stalls and hordes of beer lovers descended on the place to drink and eat. Since today was sunny and dry, it turned out to be the perfect day to go to a beer festival.

She Who Must Be Obeyed managed to get there on time and, as fate would have it, the first brewer we stumbled across happened to hail from her home prefecture and we decided that was as good a reason as any to try it. We ordered the four beer sampler (for 1,000 yen/$9.16) and then set about trying to find a place to sit without spilling beer.

The festival has two large tent areas that looked full but as we walked by a guy grabbed us and offered us seats. They asked what we were drinking and we told them it was Swan Lake (link in Japanese) and they looked at us as if they were doctors about to deliver bad news.

Our personal beer experts. They helped us find good seats and good beer.

Our personal beer experts. They helped us find good seats and good beer.

They were underwhelmed by our choice (and especially by our reason for choosing it and they started recommending several other places we should try. (Note: I like the beer. Two were very good the others only average but they were great for a warm spring day.)

After a while, we figured out that the two worked for a brewer named Harvest Moon. (link in Japanese) Oddly, that was the only brewer they didn’t recommend although they did give us a free sample later.

The staff at Shigakogen Brewery, one of the better ones in Japan.

The beer taps and brewery staff at Shigakogen Brewery. It one of the better breweries in Japan.

A great crowd is one of the things that makes the Keyaki a lot of fun. For being a large group of drunk people, everyone is friendly and you easily make those temporary friends forever. People watched our stuff and saved our seats when we sought provisions and more beer and we watched theirs. One group we barely spoke to was gone so long they brought us French fries as compensation.

The crowd at night.

The crowd at night.

More crowd at night. That's Shiga Kogen brewery at the back right.

More crowd at night. That’s Shiga Kogen brewery in the back center under the red and white flag.

The amount of beer available is overwhelming and all I learned was that most IPAs are overrated. (It seems to me IPAs are becoming one of those things you’re supposed to like because everyone thinks they are popular.) Having a couple guides was useful and left me with places to try when I go back on Sunday (long story).

Eventually, a couple young women moved in next to us and, as is wont to happen with this crowd, they immediately asked if the four of us already there were friends. I used the opportunity to promote Harvest Moon and encouraged the two gentlemen to get the two ladies some beer from their brewery.

I’m looking forward to going back on Sunday. I hope it’s still a good crowd.

 

Planning for the Escape and the Drinks

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Parents I haven’t met yet, and who I may not actually meet, are already messing up my plans.

Tomorrow is a clash of two things: Parents’ Day at the school where I work and the spring Keyaki Beer Festival in a nearby city. The former involves lots of well dressed men and women (and embarrassed students) and the latter involves hundreds of craft beers from all over Japan.

I convinced She Who Must Be Obeyed to go to the beer festival (My sales pitch amounted to saying “hundreds of craft beers from all over Japan” and she wen’t “okay” and as I tried to add that there was also food and that our oldest could watch our youngest while we went out she was like “you had me at hundreds of craft beers”.)

The problem is I plan to look respectable for the parents. Because I’m teaching a JHS 1 class in the afternoon the odds are I will have a large crowd and it makes both the school and me look good if I bother to wear a tie and wear clean slacks. The trouble with that is “tie” and “clean slacks” do not necessarily go with “hundreds of craft beers” especially on a warm spring day.

This leaves a couple options: 1) come home and change and then go out again, but that will steal precious beer enjoyment time. 2) Carry a change of clothes, but that will require a place to change. Also, it’s heavy.

I’ll probably change at school and then rush past the parents whilst hoping they don’t recognize me and carry the tie and formerly clean slacks in my book bag.

She Who Must Be Obeyed, though, will be attending parents’ day at our oldest’s school, which means she might need to carry a change of clothes too.

Beer is supposed to be a simple drink. This is getting complicated. But it does put me in the mood for a beer.

 

Mothers Day, With Eggs and Steak

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A couple very rare things happened this week:

1. I remembered Mother’s Day occurs every year.
2. I remembered Mother’s Day before Mother’s Day–rather than the morning of–which allowed me to figure out what day it was on.
3. Figuring out what day it was on allowed me to make some plans.

Granted, the plans weren’t that complicated. I bought wine on Saturday and made breakfast today (Omelet with spinach, cheese and ham; side of bacon; rye toast) and had our youngest do dishes after.

I was then able to cocoon with a bunch of small projects that got pushed aside by other things whilst She Who Must Be Obeyed attended a PTA meeting, because Mother’s Day is totally when you schedule meetings (something like that).

During the meeting I also took our youngest to the store to buy chocolate and decorations. (Note: She decorated the chocolate bar with a ribbon and other decorations.)

Then, in the afternoon, She Who Must Be Obeyed, completely misunderstanding the purpose of Mother’s Day (sit, do nothing, enjoy being pampered) made chocolate chip cookies. Granted, if you’re going to do something when you could be doing nothing, making chocolate chip cookies is an awesome thing to do.)

In the evening I cooked steaks for all of us–three medium rare and one well done for our youngest because she’s a communist. Something like that. She Who Must Be Obeyed bought the salad and I pan fried the steaks. (Note: we are not allowed to use any kind of open flame grill in our apartment because our landlord and neighbors are also communists. More on that in a future post.)

The steaks turned out reasonably well (for cheap steaks) and we all managed to eat too much. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I couldn’t choose between wine and beer so we ended up drinking both.

Later, after some “severe promises” were made, our oldest washed the supper dishes.

Now, all I have to do is remember all this again next year. I could set a reminder on my phone, but I’m sure I’ll forget to do that.

Counting Paper Before Breakfast

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I should have gone out to eat, but it’s not much fun by yourself. It also didn’t take that long to do.

Today was inventory day at my odd little ink reselling business. I have a bunch of product to move and I needed to list the inventory so that I could offer it to people with the ultimate goals being 1) making a little money and 2) getting it all off my floor.

All this reminded me of inventory day at Taco Tico. (Note: I am not responsible for their bankruptcy/failure to pay taxes although my management skills, quite frankly, did not help the situation.)

One of my jobs as shift manager was to control the outflow of napkins (servilletes to those in Europe) and paper products. The main rule, if I remember correctly, was that, although Taco Tico had a more “family” style, with food served on regular plates rather than in cartons, napkins were only available on request. This is because when we handed them one or two napkins, customers would accept that. When facing a napkin dispenser or a stack of napkins, however, customers would take half the available supply.

This seems like a minor thing, however, once a month the store manager and the area manager would take over the restaurant after closing and count everything in it The napkin rules came about after they decide that napkins were disappearing too quickly. They then presented a complicated mathematical formula that was supposed to prove this but I just said “Sure, yeah, control napkins. I get it”).

After the inventory, which took a few hours, they always went to a truck stop for a middle of the night breakfast. At one point the area manager implied that I would one day be involved in the counting. I assured him, in so many words, that wasn’t my style.

Instead I ended up counting ink bottles and trying to figure out how to get them off my floor. And there was no breakfast after.

In the Belly of the Buddha

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I got swallowed by a Buddha today, although I did enter by the side entrance.

Because today was the last day of my Golden Week holiday, I met up with an old friend (and former photography teacher) in Kamakura to take some pictures of the big Buddha stature at Kotoku-in.

The Buddha statue at Kotoku-in.

The Buddha statue at Kotoku-in.

The Big Buddha is made of bronze and stands 13.35 meters (43.8 feet) and weigh 121 tonnes (267,000 pounds). It is one of those places I’d always intended to visit but had always decided “there’s always next week”.

The big concern today was crowds, especially on the small coastal train line. We were lucky that neither train we took was that crowded (i.e. there was actually room for people AND air, rather than just people).

The entry fee of 200 yen ($2ish) makes it one of the best deals in Japan (not counting, of course, the money and time spent getting to it.

Despite the crowds around the statue, I managed to score a photo with no people in front of it and was able to get inside without too much of a wait. (Although it did cost another 20 yen). The inside would be more interesting to architects and engineers than it was to me, especially as it was too dark to take good pictures.

Looking up through the neck of the Buddha. It literally has "No Mind". There's a lesson there, I suppose.

Looking up through the neck of the Buddha. It literally has “No Mind”. There’s a meditation lesson there, I suppose.

I like the Buddha and could be persuaded to go back. I like that it seems to have a slightly different expression from different angles.

Contemplating the power of having "No Mind".

Contemplating the power of having “No Mind”.

After seeing the Big Buddha, we went to Enoshima, a picturesque rock/island just off the coast in Tokyo Bay.

Unfortunately it was even more crowded and we opted to avoid the main stairs and wander off toward the Marina which turned out to be rather boring.

People on the main path up the hill at Enoshima.

People on the main path up the hill at Enoshima.

It was a good day, even though we chose the wrong path on Enoshima.

Now it’s back to work, for a day, then there’s the weekend.

 

Updating and Swearing and Pondering

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I spent more of today going “what the hell is going on” than I’d expected, although I had expected to spend some time saying that.

For various complicated reasons, I have three laptop computers that as of right now are not being used much. I used to use the oldest at the school where I work until they suddenly cancelled all access to the network by computers that weren’t owned by the school. The second I got on a whim because it was cheap. The third is a netbook that was given to me by a friend when he no longer needed it (as he’d joined the Cult of Mac). All it cost me was a curry lunch.

I’ve used the oldest to test out various Linux distros. I mostly keep it because it has a great keyboard (at least it down NOW after I fixed it). The second and third as work computers when I have classes in Tokyo.

However, for the past few months all the computers have done little more than sit on the floor collecting mold and dust. As today was the middle of the Golden Week holiday, I decided I’d better turn to them on to see if they still work and, as necessary, update them.

I also needed to charge their slowly dying batteries.

I had no problems with the newer computers, but when I got to the older one, I had some troubles. I couldn’t update the Linux distro (which led to minor swearing) so I downloaded a couple others. I used to use Linux as my main operating system on this computer  (because English and FREE) until the school where I work changed printer models and I couldn’t get proper drivers. (Everything works well in Linux until it doesn’t and then you need a degree in computer programming to make it work.)

Eventually, after a couple ruined discs filled with distros that didn’t work, I got the old laptop working and then pondered getting rid of it. The newer computers have nice keyboards, too, and there’s no reason to keep the older one around.

Well, there is one reason, the DVD/RW drive on my desktop isn’t working so the old Linux machine is the only one I have that’s capable of burning CDs or DVDS which I occasionally need to do as part of my job. The trouble is, I now need to find a place to store all of these that’s not the floor.  But that may involve making other decisions. (More on that in another post.)