Stationery on Super Fun Time

A Review of Tomoe River Paper

Sun, 30 Aug 2015 14:00:55 +0000

Hey, you there.

I want to tell you about my favorite paper.

Stop running away! Why would you do that? How rude!

I want to fill your ear sockets with words that express my love of Tomoe River paper. Surely you’ve heard of it? It’s the hottest paper on the block right now! If there were a reality show about paper, this would be Honey Boo Boo.

Wait, I’ve gone too far. Let’s forget I said that.

The fountain pen world has been a-buzz about this paper for a while. It’s insanely thin yet remarkably well behaved with all manner of writing instruments. How thin you ask? Ever opened a Bible? Yeah, it’s that thin.

So it’s thin and can handle your favorite nibs, what’s the downside? Well, there’s a lot of show-through and it’s a little more expensive than most paper. At first I thought the show-through was bad but I’ve been using both sides for a while and it’s pretty tolerable. As for the price, you’ll forget about that once you try it.

I don’t know what else to tell you, this paper doesn’t feather at all. It’s the greatest paper on earth! Yes, I know that’s a huge claim and I don’t care; it’s true.

I sacrificed a piece of my beloved paper to demonstrate how it handles a plethora of writing utensils. I threw all my pens and pencils in a box and scooped out a variety of things to show you. Now let’s look at the mess I made.

Pretty clean eh? Here’s the back of the page where you see the Sharpie marker is the only trouble maker. Of course, who uses a Sharpie to write anyway?

I bet you want to know what it looks like when you crumple it into a ball. Well alright then.

Oh, you didn’t ask for that? Sorry.

Just a guess but I think you’re wondering how Tomoe River paper handles paper airplane duty. I spent a week folding this piece of Tomoe River paper into an airplane shape just for you. Once I finished that arduous task, I threw it across my basement 1,000 times and gathered the data into a spreadsheet. After many weeks of number crunching and several intense algorithms, I’m happy to report that Tomoe River Paper performs adequately as a paper airplane.

Eat that, science! This paper can do anything! I bet you could print money on it! Wait, no, don’t try that.

So in conclusion, I love Tomoe River paper. It handles all sorts of pens and pencils, and it can fly if you fold it into a vague plane shape. That’s almost magical.

This is the greatest paper on earth. Obviously.

My 2015 DC Pen Show Review

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 03:24:04 +0000

This is going to be a tough review since I didn’t go to the DC Pen Show.

Instead, I sat at home looking at Twitter and Instagram and watched a happy community congregate in DC to celebrate pen and paper.

Deep inside, I seethed. Why didn’t I make plans to go to this show? It’s a mere 8 hour drive, that’s nothing!

I mumbled about the show repeatedly to my wife. She kept saying “I told you to go” but I don’t really understand what she was getting at. She claims I could have sat inside a metal bird and magically arrived in DC quicker than driving but she’s obviously crazy.

This weekend has me thinking about the community and how fast and large it has grown. When I started down this path in 2007, the only way to talk about pens was the Fountain Pen Network and some other site that escapes my memory. Today’s pen addicts have, well, The Pen Addict, and Facebook groups, and subreddits, and Twitter lists, and Instagram, and probably other things I don’t know about. Basically I’m saying you guys are lucky and it’s crazy how technology is bringing more and more of us analog tool fiends together.

So to those of you who ventured to DC, I envy you and I hope you cherished every moment. I had a great time living vicariously through your Tweets and Instagram posts. Maybe the excitement will carry over to every regional pen show and the Detroit Pen Show will be wild this year. A man can dream, can’t he?

Tough Love: Pilot Falcon Edition

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 14:00:51 +0000

Summary

The Pilot Falcon is a pen I lusted after for a long time before finally purchasing one. It’s a clean understated pen that’s light in the hand and offers a unique writing experience if you manage to find one that works out of the box.

Pen In Hand

I’m not someone who pays much attention to pen weights, but I consider the Falcon to be a normal weight pen. Throw in a Con-50 and a bit of ink and the combo weighs in at 19.8 grams. You can get this pen in a metal version but it’s substantially more expensive and considering what I went through to have a working specimen, I’m glad I bought the resin one.

The Falcon is a typical length pen similar to the Platinum 3776, Lamy 2000, or Karas Kustoms Ink. I find pens this size fit my hand well without posting, and even better when posted.

The Falcon has a nice strong clip that will cling to your shirt pocket or wherever you might fancy without any worry of slipping out-of-place.

The section tapers down slightly toward the nib and provides a good amount of grip area between the nib and threads. Depending how you hold your pen, you might place your fingers on the threads but they’re not sharp or bothersome so no worries there.

The Falcon can be posted and it’s comfortable in both scenarios. I prefer it posted but it feels well-balanced either way.

The resin pen comes in 2 trim colors: gold and rhodium. The body is available in black or red but the gold trim is only an option in the black version. Other than color, they’re exactly the same. I bought the rhodium trim and I think it looks the best but if gold is your jam, they have that covered. Either way, it’s pretty darn classy.

The Filling System

The Falcon can use a Pilot cartridge or the Con-20, or Con-50 converters. If you have the metal version, add the Con-70 to that list and enjoy with the increased ink capacity.

I lean toward the Con-50 as a personal preference although I’ve tried all of them in the past. I’ve read the cartridge holds more ink but I like twist converters. I’d choose the cartridge before a Con-20 though; squeeze converters aren’t something I care for.

The Nib

The Falcon has one of the more recognized nibs in the market. Thanks to the unique design and the “soft” designation, this nib is on a lot of wish lists, mine included. It’s available in all sizes from extra fine to broad, all of them soft. I chose the fine nib because I wanted a decent amount of variation but I didn’t think I could stomach an EF nib.

Of course, when you set your sights high, you increase the chances for disappointment and that’s exactly what happened to me. The Falcon I dreamed of for so long showed up and refused to work. The feed would go dry while writing, it couldn’t flow enough ink to handle a bit of flex, and every time I tried to cross a T, it skipped. Talk about a huge let down!

Based on my research, this isn’t rare behavior. I searched far and wide and came up with a list of fixes that revolved around the filling system. Besides flushing repeatedly with cold water and Goulet pen flush, I also tried all the different filling systems (cartridge, Con-20, and Con-50), and a number of inks. Nothing changed and the pen continued to disappoint.

Here’s where I screwed up: I tried to fix the pen myself. A pen that retails for $144 should work out of the box but I got impatient and started messing with it. Somewhere in my fiddling, I either sprung the nib or nudged something to make it even worse.

Eventually I realized what I had done and sent it to Pilot for repair. After inspection, they determined I’d damaged the nib and wanted $75 to fix it. I thought about letting the pen go and writing it off as a loss but I really wanted a Falcon so I broke down and paid for the repair. If I had sent it to Pilot immediately, the warranty would have covered the repair. Live and learn I guess.

When the pen came back from service, it was a completely different experience. Now it writes perfectly every time, with none of the problems from before. This is the pen I dreamed of and all I had to do was pay a lot more than it was worth. After a few minutes with this pen, I forget about the extra cost and I fall in love with it every time I use it.

So about that nib, I bet you’re wondering about the flex. You probably watched this video on YouTube and now you want one. Yeah, me too but this isn’t how the Falcon performs.

If you read the description, you’ll see his pen was modified by John Mottishaw of Nibs.com and this is nothing like the factory nib. Does it flex? Sure, a little. Can you get crazy with it? Nope. Be very careful, springing the nib is a one time trip.

What’s the Falcon nib really like? It’s a soft nib but not a flex nib, be sure you understand the difference. Properly used, the Falcon has a nice amount of spring and can offer plenty of line variation. As long as you know what to expect, this nib will deliver.

Learn from my mistake, if you buy a Pilot Falcon and it doesn’t work after a good flushing or with any of the Pilot filling systems, immediately contact Pilot and let them fix it. Don’t be a dummy like I was!

My Final Thoughts

I’m not someone who uses a fine nib voluntarily but I’ll make an exception for a soft nib since the line variation is worth the trouble. I don’t think this pen has been empty since it came home from repair, I love it that much.

The Falcon is a fun pen, very different from most, and fantastic if it works. But that’s the problem, it should work out of the box but my unscientific estimation based on my research is that this pen carries a 50/50 chance of having problems. That’s not a ratio anyone would want from a pen that costs this much.

On that note, I don’t know if I can recommend this pen to anyone but the most seasoned of fountain pen users. If you buy one, there’s a good chance it will need a trip to Pilot so be ready for that possibility. If it works out of the box, buy a lotto ticket and hope your luck continues. Otherwise, prepare to be separated from your new pen while Pilot makes it work like it should have.

What a sad sentence to end a review on.

Celebrate My First Promotion Request Email

Wed, 20 May 2015 05:00:31 +0000

Earlier today I received an email from the folks behind the Infinity Pen. It launched on IndieGoGo today and they seem to have searched the web for pen blogs that publicized other crowd funded pen projects and cold-emailed them. I, with my tens of readers, was one of the lucky folks. Now I’m going to reward them with this very vague article about their pen.

This is my first email from a crowd funded project so I felt like celebrating. After all, you’re no one until someone asks you to pimp their crowdfunding project, right?

Here we have the Infinity Pen, a pen that tries to be everything. This is an aluminum pen with magnets that secure any number of sections that might contain the following:

— Blue ink pen
— Thin black marker
— Thin red marker
— Thin blue marker
— Thin green marker
— Yellow highlighter
— Orange highlighter
— Pink highlighter
— Green highlighter

Based on what I read, they’re offering this in chrome, matte white, and matte black. While I don’t have much to say about the project, anyone who offers their wares in matte black has pretty good taste.

Is this something I’d back? No, but not because I think it’s a bad idea, I just don’t use these options in my daily life. If you find yourself swapping between a highlighter and a pen, this might be a pretty sweet setup.

Let me be perfectly clear, I’m only writing this post because this is the first cold email I’ve ever received to promote a crowd funded product. I almost feel important right now. I don’t have any connection to the IndieGoGo promoters or the project they are trying to make and the only exposure I’ve had to their product is looking at the same page I linked to earlier. Nothing I say here should be taken as an endorsement, no matter how important and influential I am to you.

If you look at this project and see something you like, back it. If not, oh well. At least I got to feel semi-important for a minute or two.

What Is A Grail Pen?

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 03:16:36 +0000

On episode #151 of The Pen Addict Podcast, Brad explained “grail pens” as such (painstakingly transcribed as best I could):

It’s like a … the ultimate pen for you. So, you know, whether it’s the design or the materials or a the company or the vintage. You know whatever this pen style that speaks to you the most and then like something that will really fulfill your needs uhm in writing and usage and just in beauty and something that really, really speaks to you on a personal level. Uhm you know is a kind of a grail pen. You know people search these things out. Uhm, it’s not necess, it can be, you know a mainline production pen that’s completely fine for a grail pen you know but it’s always something you’re striving to obtain. And you know I’ve talked about it in the past where it … I feel like it takes a little bit of a extra to get that grail pen you know whether it’s saving up or hunting down, or there’s always going to be a story behind a grail pen.

My definition mirrors the last sentence, a grail pen needs to be difficult to obtain. Whether it’s out of your price range, rare, or both, there’s a simple truth:

As you drool over the pen, a voice in the back your head reminds you of the obstacles. A grail pen carries the weight of wondering how you’ll pay for it or how you’ll find it. One thing’s certain: we’re all chasing the white rabbit, only our thresholds differ.

Grails are never easy to get your hands on, just ask King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Writing Evolution

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 04:24:58 +0000

I like gel pens and fountain pens. That’s it.

Wait.

Lets back this up.

I started on crayons. I think we all did.

I graduated to pencil at some point, I don’t really remember when. Then after some time, I was granted access to a pen. Not a good pen I’m sure, just a pen. A ball point pen.

Maybe a Bic?

It’s likely something the modern version of that little boy shivers at.

I don’t like ball point pens.

I use ball points and pencils for years.

How many?

I don’t remember. I’ve been drawn to the office supply aisles in my local stores any time I ventured near for as long as I remember.

Office supply. How formal can you get? I guess it’s better than “school supply” seeing how I’m not in school any more. I was back then I suppose.

Those office supplies transformed in time. Pencils, ball points, now we have gel pens.

I found the Pilot G2. I am delighted.

At some point I find a Parker Vector hanging in the aisle at Meijer. I think Meijer is a Michigan thing, or at least a midwest thing. Insert your favorite local everything store. That’s where I found my catalyst.

Not now, but later. It will explode later.

I spent years with gel pens. There’s nothing wrong with that, I love gel pens to this day. My pen drawer has many Pilot G2, Uni-Ball Signo 207, and Pilot Juice. I recommend those pens all the time, practically beg people to use them.

I graduate from gel to fountain over time. That Vector, it comes back. It sat in waiting, patient and quiet.

I find the Parker Vector in a box. I also find a package of cartridges. I put them together and find bliss.

I spend 8 years enamored by the fountain pen, shunning all others. The fountain pen is pure, the fountain pen is classic, the fountain pen is right.

Eventually an old friend creeps back into the frame.

He’s made of wood and graphite. He doesn’t replace the fountain pen, instead he brings his own nostalgia. He’s not the same, he’s delightfully different.

There’s the sound against paper that delights me. It’s a scritching sound. That’s the best I can do to describe it. Then there’s the smell of cedar, the remnants after a sharpening.

I dive in, head first. Like I did with fountain pens at one point. My collection swells, just as the fountain pens have. Vintage, modern, rare. I must have them all.

My collection evolves. I own more pencils, more pens, more inks than I can use in a lifetime. Maybe that’s not true, depending how wordy I can be. Maybe I can use my collection before I die but at the rate I’m acquiring, it’s not likely. Every week a new writing product arrives.

I’m obsessed by this hobby. I’m scared of my spending.

I have piles of paper, piles of pencils, piles of pens. Piles of piles and piles for miles. It’s not enough. I want to own them all, to feel them all, to try them all. Each drag of graphite across each kind of paper followed by each nib filled with each ink. Everything needs to be mine, everything needs my touch.

I’m a maniac, driven by paper lust. I must consume that which I have not tried. I must have what’s new and what’s old and everything in between. Bring me your half sharpened pencils, your best and worst ink, your smoothest or scratchiest nib, I must try them now.

This is my evolution of writing. This is my descent into madness.

Heavy Metal Bullet Pencil

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 05:23:13 +0000

Recently I reviewed the Metal Shop Twist Bullet Pencil. As I mentioned in that article, I ordered one of their limited edition brass bodies and here it is.

Just as I suspected, it’s a heavy chunk of metal. Let’s throw it on a scale and see how it measures up.

First, the aluminum body:

And now, the brass body:

Yep, it’s a full ounce heavier. That doesn’t sound like much but it’s very noticeable, especially when you try to use it. Of course, this thing is so pretty you probably won’t care.

I’ve tried to carry the brass body and bullet a couple times in the past week but the weight sends me back to the aluminum body. That and I’m afraid I might scratch it when it’s bouncing around with my Victorinox Classic. I think I’ll save the brass body for dressier occasions and keep the aluminum version as my EDC.

Speaking of the aluminum version, I ordered a blue body and another brass bullet last night. At this rate, I might end up with the full catalog in a couple weeks which wouldn’t be a bad thing.

A Pencil in a Bullet

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 16:00:35 +0000

I’m a newbie to the pencil world so I don’t feel qualified to review an actual pencil just yet. Perhaps one day I’ll know the difference in graphite grades but I’m still learning. So for now, I’m going to review a handy way to carry a pencil in your pocket.

The Twist Bullet Pencil was a joint effort between Metal Shop and Huckleberry Woodchuck and like most cool things these days, it launched on Kickstarter. I remember seeing chatter about it on Twitter but I don’t use pencils so why would I care?

I continued not caring but then at some point I did care and yada yada yada, one showed up in my mailbox. I don’t know how these things happen.

I chose the black aluminum body with the pointy brass bullet because black and brass looks awesome. It arrived with a white eraser and a Palomino 602 nub installed. I was pretty happy with it out of the box but erasers should be pink, am I right? Luckily Metal Shop sells a pink eraser pack so I fixed this oversight as quickly as I could. Now my bullet pencil is looking quite fine. Oh, remember when I said I chose the “pointy brass bullet”? Well, it’s really pointy.

The twist on this pencil — if you’ll allow the pun — is a that bullet screws into the body on both ends. You unscrew the bullet to reveal the pencil, flip it around, and screw that end in to assemble your writing instrument. I believe vintage bullet pencils were friction fit so this design is particularly sturdy. In fact, there are threads all over this thing. The eraser screws into a threaded end (which can also accept a pocket clip) and the pencil nub screws into threads inside the bullet end. Every part of this pencil threads together and the result is a nice solid feeling pencil.

I’ve carried the Twist Bullet Pencil in my pocket for about 2 weeks and it has proven to be quite sturdy. Jostling alongside the pencil is a Victorinox Classic — or occasionally a larger Victorinox Cadet — and an Eagletac D25AAA flashlight. Despite banging into other metal things for days on end, the finish is holding up beautifully.

This past weekend I carried the Twist Bullet Pencil and a Baron Fig Time Travel Apprentice (I’ll review this soon) to Ikea where I skipped their free pencils and shopping list in favor of my own tools. Did I feel a twinge of self-importance as I pulled the Baron Fig from my back pocket, assembled the Twist Bullet Pencil, and copied down product numbers? You bet I did. Look at me Ikea shoppers, I’m a pretty big deal.

I’m sure you’re wondering so, yes, every time I unveil a nice pen or pencil in public I secretly hope someone recognizes it and stops to admire my amazing taste. It hasn’t happened yet but I know one day it will and I’ll be ready.

As a pencil novice, I love the Palomino Blackwing 602 so I’m happy they include them with the Twist but according to episode 25 of The Erasable Podcast, Metal Shop will be switching to the ForestChoice pencils soon. I’m not sure I like those as much as the 602 but of course, you’re free to use any pencil you like, even crappy ones.

I can’t find much to criticize, the worst part is the time it takes to assemble before you can write. While at Ikea, it took longer to get the pencil ready than it took to record the product numbers. This didn’t really bother me and if it had, I would have carried it around open until I was sure I didn’t need it again.

I suppose it’s obvious but the Twist is a bit top-heavy when assembled. I have large hands and it balances well in the web of my thumb but smaller handed folk might notice the top end heft.

Speaking of weight, Metal Shop just produced a limited run of solid brass bodies and I had to order one because it’s so pretty. The aluminum body will feel pretty light once I’ve put in time with the brass one.

I know very little about bullet pencils but I think Twist Bullet Pencil is a great modern entry into the genre. Everything about this pencil is well made and I want to carry it with me every day, it’s that good.

Disclaimer: This article has several affiliate links to Amazon.

Doing Your Part To Regulate YouTube

Sun, 15 Feb 2015 05:24:59 +0000

Continuing the theme from my last post, I’m going to show you how to help squash YouTube trolls. It’s pretty easy and I hope you all join in.

Here’s a sample comment I found on the latest PenHabit review (I think this might be clever spam but I can’t be sure):

1 — The first step is to give that comment a thumbs down.

Next, hit the reply button and let them know you disapprove. Don’t stoop to their level, just point out the error of their ways. We’re here to talk about pens, no need to be nasty.

That’s generally enough, a typical human should feel shameful when called out on such a transgression. But what if they don’t? Well, let’s go nuclear.

2 — That little arrow in the top right of the comment is the door to the big red launch button.

3 — Yup, that says “abuse” and “spam”. Maybe it’s a little overboard but I think a lot of these mean posts qualify as abuse.

I haven’t tried this but I like to think YouTube will suck that comment into a black hole while they review it. Maybe that’s wishful thinking but hey, it’s worth a shot. At the very least, if enough of us join in, that account isn’t sticking around and the less garbage being spewed at the souls who devote their time to our hobby, the better.

Consider yourselves deputized, go forth and regulate. Don’t forget to leave a nice comment for your favorite videos, kindness goes a long way to offset the trolls.

Let’s Restore Civility In Pendom

Sat, 14 Feb 2015 06:30:11 +0000

Note: This was edited on 2015-02-15.

While writing about civility, I described internet trolls with words that were anything but civil. Those words undermined the intended message of the post and should have never been written. I’ve edited the post to remove the negativity and name calling and I’m sorry. -Brad

I’ve been in a number of communities during my years on the internet but none so accepting and friendly as the community of pen enthusiasts.

Ah, the penfolk, champions of the pen, embracers of ink, purveyors of paper. We grasp our pens and hold them high in protest of a world claiming digital as the new way of life. But yet even as we’re deep in the good fight, some in our midst are spreading a darkness over our community.

Let’s travel back to in time to the year 2007. We’re in the bedroom of a third floor apartment staring at a man digging through boxes of stuff he probably should have thrown away. From one of those boxes he retrieves a Parker Vector fountain pen. He bought that pen years earlier at a local supermarket because it looked neat and it’s about to send him down a rabbit hole.

He finds a package of Parker Quink cartridges and manages to get the pen working. Something deep inside of him awakens, he feels the urge to learn about fountain pens. Luckily it was 2007 and he had the internet at his disposal.

That guy was me but you already knew that right?

I remember finding Fountain Pen Network and being amazed that there were so many people still using fountain pens. Not just dabbling like I was, these were full blown collectors and enthusiasts. As someone with a tendency to latch on to strange hobbies, this sucked me in deeper. The first thing I noticed: everyone was extremely nice.

I’ve spent most of my life since my early teens in the car enthusiast world. This is a hobby that has no shortage of bickering and drama. No matter how you modify your car, someone out there thinks you’re doing it wrong and they won’t hesitate to start a flame war with you online. In 2007 I was waist deep in that drama and FPN was a welcome escape.

In the fountain pen world, it’s not uncommon to find someone with a collection of Montblanc fountain pens praising a much cheaper pen. Penfolk just like pens that write well, price be damned. This sets our little group apart, we just love pens and ink and paper and we want to use as many different types and brands as we can.

You’d think a group of enthusiasts who are so open that they’d place a $2 pen next to a $1200 one might be incredibly civil and for the most part they are. But while most of us are enjoying our hobby and watching it grow, there are a few bad apples who are spoiling the fun for some of us.

There are a few prominent bloggers and video reviewers that I think every fountain pen enthusiast knows. I’m talking about Brad Dowdy, Ana Reinert, Ed Jelley, Matt Armstrong, Stephen B.R.E. Brown, and Azizah Asgarali. There are plenty more but I feel like these folks are specifically front and center when someone tries to enter this hobby. They spend their time writing great reviews, taking amazing pictures, or shooting and editing video simply because they love pens.

So we have a number of great people who are pouring their time and efforts into our hobby and who shows up? Yup, the internet trolls.

They seem harmless if you’re not on the receiving end. “Just ignore them” we say, but it’s not that simple. Why does Matt need to deal with constant comments about his lack of hair? Why does anyone need to complain about Stephen and Azizah’s on-air chemistry? Why waste the energy to type a negative comment in the first place?

Surely you’re familiar with the saying: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. I like to imagine most of the penfolk follow this rule but there’s a select few of you who don’t and it’s time you learned.

I believe the good penfolk outnumber the trolls so I’m calling on all the good folks of our community to counteract them. Whether it be a nice comment or an admonishment of theirs, help us run these rabble-rousers out of our town. The worst we can do is to say nothing.

The next time you watch a YouTube review or read a blog post and you see someone acting rudely, counteract it with a kind comment and make it clear you don’t support such negativity. I may be giving them too much credit but I think they’ll get the message.

Be nice. Be civil. And most of all, call out those who aren’t. The internet is a cesspool but that doesn’t mean our little pond needs to be polluted.

Let’s Be Bad At Things

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 04:35:56 +0000

Sometimes I’m afraid of turning this site into a pity party but no one reads me so I’ll try to rid myself of that fear. This is more for me than you but feel free to read if you must.

Hey Brad, it’s okay to suck at this writing thing.

You’ve read a hundred articles on the subject but you haven’t grasped the concept. Pretty much everyone sucks when they start doing something. The real victory shows when you push through the barrier, admit you suck, and keep on chugging. This applies to writing, photography, design, and pretty much everything you can imagine. They say practice makes perfect and while I don’t know if “perfect” is the right word, practice sure makes you better to some degree.

I hated my Ti2 TechLiner review. I really did. Why? It lacked feeling, it felt forced, and it was abnormally hard to write. Of course I know why, I haven’t tried to write anything in months! If you pick up a pen or sit down at a keyboard once in a blue moon, you’re not likely to produce anything worth caring about. The trick is to sit down, pound out garbage, publish it (or whatever applies in your situation), and move on to the next thing. Sure it might suck but people have short memories these days, keep at it and eventually you’ll write something resonates with someone out there.

So this is a note to myself — and anyone else doubting themselves — keep up the bad work. You’ll eventually become mediocre and when you do, you’ll feel pretty darn great.

A Look at the Ti2 TechLiner

Sat, 07 Feb 2015 06:25:18 +0000

I love things that are made of copper, especially when they’ll see heavy use and develop a nice patina. Copper is a beautiful, bright metal when new but once it starts to patina, it takes on a look that can be incredibly beautiful. Some people prefer their copper bright and shiny, others prefer patina, I fall into the patina camp.

I backed the Ti2 TechLiner Revisited Kickstarter project because it came in copper and even more so because the acid wash finish was stunning. As soon as I laid eyes on the acid wash pen, I backed the 5.75" version without a second thought. However when the pen arrived, I realized I should have taken the time to consider what I was purchasing.

Here’s the problem: copper isn’t exactly a lightweight metal. Throw in a couple magnets and a refill and it’s a pretty substantial pen. I knew it felt heavy in my hand but for the purpose of this review, I put it on a scale where it registered a whopping 1.9 ounces or if you prefer, 53.864 grams. Compare that to the TWSBI Vac 700 which weighs in at 32g (cap and body) and you have a very heavy pen. I don’t think many people can tolerate a 54g pen for a lengthy writing session, I know I can’t.

If I had a second chance, I might try the same pen in the shorty version although I suspect it would still be too heavy. While aluminium and titanium may be lighter, they just don’t have the appeal of a copper pen. I have a few pens in those metals and they’re not on the same visual level as this copper TechLiner.

Weight concerns aside, this is a fantastic pen. It uses magnets, uses a great refill, and has an eye catching design. What’s not to love?

Thanks to that great refill, there’s no real reason to discuss the pen performance. This pen was designed specifically for the the Uni-Ball Signo 207 refills which I place among the very best of gel pens. Years ago I preferred the G2 but now I feel the 207 outshines it in all areas.

So, is this pen worth the cash? Absolutely! I don’t find myself using gel pens very often but I might still buy a lighter version of the Ti2 TechLiner. If you’re in the market for a nice pen and you love the Signo 207 refill, check the TechLiner out. Just keep the weight in mind before you buy a regular length copper or brass version.

The Passable Writer

Sat, 29 Nov 2014 05:49:15 +0000

I’ve always thought I’d be some sort of writer. Not a good writer, a passable one. A passable writer won’t be widely read, they won’t be overly interesting, nay, they won’t even be talked about. A passable writer will spell things wrong, their grammar might be poor, they might even over-use commas, but just enough people will read their words to keep them in business, whatever that is.

If you’re going to do something, I guess there’s less to aspire to than a passable writer. I could be a blogger! Oh wait.

So if I were a passable writer, I’d write. Instead I’m even less than that, I’m a guy who could be a passable writer who also doesn’t write. That’s the recipe for a good joke I suppose.

Hold on a second, I said mean things about bloggers a paragraph ago. I don’t believe there are bloggers any more than I believe there are joggers. You either write or you run, it doesn’t matter what speed or what your subject, just do it. That’s what Nike said so who can argue?

Okay back to the whole self loathing thing. If I were a passable writer, I’d be ecstatic right now. I almost put an expletive in that sentence but something told me you didn’t want to read that. Or maybe you did so go back and add whatever spice you like, I’ll wait.

Long story short, I don’t write, you don’t read me, and I didn’t curse in this bit of passable writing. I’m giving me a gold star.

That was passable right?

The Curse Of The Inked Fountain Pen

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:42:53 +0000

Last night as I scribbled random words on some lovely Tomoe River Paper, I found myself proclaiming my undying love for the TWSBI Vac 700. It has a large nib, large body, large ink supply, and it’s just…. large.

In that moment I decided I would flush every inked fountain pen and only use the Vac 700. So it was set: tomorrow I would be a 1 fountain pen user.

Tomorrow is here. I took the day off because World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor comes out today. That’s normal right? Nevermind that, I was talking about pens.

Before we get too far into this story, let’s cover what I currently have inked.

TWSBI Vac 700 — Broad nib filled with Diamine Prussian Blue
TWSBI 540 — 1.1mm nib filled with Diamine Ox Blood
Levenger L-Tech — Medium nib filled with Sailor Sky High
Pilot 78G — Broad nib filled with Iroshizuku Kon-Peki
Pilot Custom 74 — BB nib filled with Sailor Grenade
Kaweco AL Sport — Medium nib filled with Sailor Sky High

That’s not a lot of pens but it’s more than I need. I was positive one pen would be enough last night but today? I’m not quite so sure. I woke up ready to flush all my pens except the Vac 700. Diamine Prussian Blue? What a great ink! Who needs anything more than that?

Oh wait, the 540 has a stub nib and that’s different enough to warrant keeping it inked.

Okay, I’ll flush the rest.

Wait, the Pilot Custom 74 is super broad. Who doesn’t like super broad nibs? I love them! Okay, let’s keep that one inked, plus Sailor Grenade is a gorgeous ink and it would be a shame to flush that down the drain.

What about that Kaweco? It’s a cartridge pen and I carry it in my pocket every day although I never use it. That seems pretty important. Also, who flushes a cartridge pen? I had to fill the cartridge with a syringe! That’s a lot of work and it should stay inked.

That leaves the Levenger, the 78G, and…. I guess that’s it.

What’s that pen sitting in the stand over there? An un-inked Pilot Falcon? I bet Sailor Sky High would look cool in that. There’s no harm in having 5 pens inked right?

The Truth About Writers

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 02:56:16 +0000

You Need To Read: The Cramped

Wed, 10 Sep 2014 21:49:18 +0000

Here’s something new, I’m telling you what to read! Scratch that, I’m ordering you to read this and you’ll listen or else!

If you’re not familiar with Patrick Rhone, the man behind Patrick Rhone dot com and Minimal Mac, you should be. Even if you’re not aware of his work, feast your eyes on his celebration of the analog way of life in the form of a website called The Cramped.

I’ll let him describe it:

If you are the sort of person who appreciates nice paper, a decent pen, a well-crafted notebook, a solid pencil, writing and receiving handwritten correspondence, beautiful handwriting, or the clicky-clack of a dependable typewriter, you have come to the right place. The Cramped is a site dedicated to the pleasures of writing with analog tools (the name is purposefully ironic).

If that describes you, maybe check the site out. There are a number of guest authors and lots of regularly posted content. It’s like an analog smorgasbord.

The Retro 51 Tornado Flipper

Fri, 05 Sep 2014 01:53:19 +0000

I’m trying not to fall down the rabbit hole of collecting Retro 51s but this would be my fourth and they keep releasing limited editions that tug at my wallet, begging me to spend more money on pens I’ll never use.

My latest acquisition is the Flipper from their Popper line of rollerballs. I love pinball but I usually have to settle for a quick game on the iPad rather than standing in front of a machine in an arcade because, you know, those aren’t very common any more.

I really like the presentation of the Retro 51 limited editions. This is the tube it ships in, my Omega Popper shipped in a similar tube so this must be their standard limited edition packaging. I use this one to further clutter my office with things I don’t need to save.

The pen is brightly colored with antique silver trim that I find quite striking. They only made 750 of these and I have #478 which makes me feel special. I’m sure this number means absolutely nothing unless society falls apart and the only means of currency are limited edition Retro 51. In that case I’ll trade this one for a couple questionable pork chops and 3 eggs to feed my 4 children and a wife who tolerates the fact that her husband has been carting around a bunch of pens in a post apocalyptic world where there’s very little paper.

If you’ve used a Retro 51 rollerball, you know the refill is delightful. If you haven’t used a Retro 51 rollerball, I’m sorry. You should probably buy one and let the box clutter your domicile.

Here she is, the pen that will one day serve to feed my unbathed and tired family. Feast your eyes on her glory.

I Replaced My Brakes And You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next!

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 03:14:42 +0000

Thanks for falling for my clickbait title, you’re a peach. Let me tell you the story of my weekend and the struggle I endured while replacing the brakes on my Civic.

I started bright and early at 8:30 AM on Saturday. The sun was already blazing as I walked outside. Confident this would be quick work, I carried several boxes of parts outside and stacked them neatly on our patio table.

I jacked the car up and removed the wheels. I forgot that Honda screws their rotors to the hubs. Great, screws + Michigan winters should guarantee these won’t come out. I tried a regular screw driver but as I feared they weren’t budging. This called for an impact screwdriver but I don’t have one of those.

Off to Sears! Luckily I live about a half mile from one. The screwdriver was on sale, $10 off! Now I’m only $15 poorer but also I’m richer by one impact screwdriver so that’s something. I rushed home to dominate those screws.

I may have been a bit too cocky, only a couple screws came out, the rest still wouldn’t move. I mangled the threads on one so bad I have no choice but to drill it out. Oh joy.

About now I realize if these screws are all mangled and/or rusted, I probably need to replace them with new ones. What else can I do? I’m headed to the nearest Honda dealer!

OK, I’m back with 8 new screws. I also found a YouTube video that said placing a ball-peen hammer against the screw, then smacking that hammer with another hammer would loosen the rust. What do you know, it actually worked! Well, it mostly worked. I mangled another screw so badly it needs to be drilled out. I guess 2 out of 8 isn’t so bad.

Finally, hours after I started, I remove the driver side front caliper. I’m replacing the front brakes with the parts from a 2008 Acura TSX because they’re larger and will provide better braking performance. With the caliper removed, I realize there’s a part I didn’t think of, the caliper bracket. Do I need a different bracket for the TSX calipers? Yes I do. Did I order the calipers that come with brackets? Nope.

I’m ready to throw in the towel but I decide to check the local auto parts stores. I bought the calipers from Autozone so I check their website and sure enough, a few local Autozone stores have the brackets in stock. I head to the Lincoln Park store hoping they have 2 in stock.

They only have one. I buy it but I need another so they call the Taylor store and reserve it. I can handle this, it’s only a few miles away.

I get to the Taylor Autozone. No, not the one by Heritage Hospital, the other one. Yes I stopped at that one first, I didn’t know there were two stores in Taylor. Now I’m at the right one so I’ll just grab the bracket and be on my way.

The guy starts ringing me up when he asks if I need caliper pins.

I don’t know, do I?

I didn’t even think of those. I bet the Civic pins won’t work, I probably need TSX pins. Of course Autozone doesn’t have them in stock at any of the local stores. I guess I’ll try to make the Civic pins work.

There’s an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store on the way home so I stop to see if they have the pins. They don’t have them but the store on Van Born Road does. I’ve come this far, why not go a little further?

I find the Van Born O’Reilly’s and buy the pins, I’m all set, nothing can stop me now! The wife wants ice cream, I make that happen like a boss.

Guess what? The remanufactured TSX calipers came with pins, I didn’t need these after all. That’s 45 minutes I’ll never get back. Oh well, at least I can return them.

I now have everything I could possibly need, let’s get these brakes done! It’s almost 2pm now, I’ve been on the road longer today than I’ve been under the car.

I knew the front dust shields would need trimming to fit the TSX brakes but I never stopped to question whether I had snips.

I don’t own snips. I head to Sears for the second time.

Snips in hand, I cut the shields and install the front rotors, calipers, and pads. They go on as easily as I expected. The rears are just as painless.

I stop to think about how easily this would have been if only I had all the right parts and tools in the first place. It’s about 3:30 PM, I expected the job to take about 2 hours. I was way off.

Time to bleed the brakes, I enlist the wife’s help. The finish line is in sight.

Done!

The wheels are on, the car is on the ground. I start it up, back down the driveway and… the brake pedal is super spongy. I have to go to my nephew’s birthday party, I’m already an hour late so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Fast-forward to Sunday; of course it’s raining.

The rain lets up around 1pm and by 2 it’s dry enough to get back to work. Once again the wife has control of the brake pedal and this time I find a bunch of air in the passenger side front line. No air anywhere else, we’ve run plenty of fluid (ATE Type 200 Amber) through the lines, I think we’re good.

I drop the jack-stands and set the car on the ground, hopefully for the last time. Next is the step most people don’t know about, burnishing the pads. I head across Southfield Road to the old Farmer Jack’s and use the parking lot to make a bunch of stops from 35-45 mph. This heats the pads up and bakes the oils out of them. It’s a pretty important step.

I’m not satisfied with the pedal, it feels too low but I can lock the brakes up hard enough to trigger the ABS so I’m guessing it’s ok. I’ll circle back and bleed them again next week after a few days of normal driving. Finally, a job I expected to take a few hours is complete.

If you’re not a human who loves cars, I bet you’re shaking your head right now. How could someone screw up this much? How did I forget so many things? Am I new to this?

I assure you I’m not. I might be scatter brained or a little forgetful but I think this is a normal occurrence. Go find your favorite car nut and show them this story. I bet dollars to donuts (I don’t know what that phrase means) that they’ll relate and even have a story of their own that rivals mine.

The moral is, no matter how prepared you think you are, you aren’t. Ever. The car always wins.

Tactile Turn Mover & Shaker First Impressions

Tue, 06 May 2014 03:10:57 +0000

I don’t remember what made me jump on the Kickstarter campaign for the Tactile Turn Mover & Shaker but I ended up ordering one of each. It wasn’t the strange backer video that drew me in so it must have been the pen design. I originally backed the Mover but I added the Shaker at the last minute to make sure I could handle any gel refill my heart desired.

The pens arrived today in these crazy tubes that I absolutely love. I have no idea where he found these but I need a stash of them to store my pens that aren’t safely nestled in their Nock Co cases. I’m serious when I say the packaging almost made me forget how excited I was to get the pens.

They both come with a predetermined refill, the Mover with a Pilot G2 .38mm refill while the Shaker includes a Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 ballpoint refill. Neither of these meet my standards but that has nothing to do with my impression of the pens. After all, I purchased these to put my favorite refills in so the fact they shipped with anything is a bonus.

I’m not a ballpoint fan so the Schmidt was replaced with the only option I had handy: a Parker Gel refill which — after playing with it a bit — is almost as bad as the ballpoint. Luckily the list of refills that fits the Shaker is quite long so I shouldn’t have a problem finding something I like.

The Mover presents a small problem in that it doesn’t fit my favorite refill — the Uni-Ball 207 — without a little work. The website says “must fill in back space” which sounds easy enough but I haven’t tried it yet. Instead I rummaged around my stash of pens and found a .7mm Blue-Black Pilot Juice to steal the refill from. I hadn’t tried the Juice but I’d heard good things and the rumors were true, this is a fantastic refill.

My biggest gripe is one that you’ll only run into when changing the refill: there’s something weird about the threading. I’m not an engineer or designer but it feels like the 2 halves could have been better matched in size to make a more exact fit. Maybe the threads are too fine? I don’t know. Often it feels like the halves are about to cross-thread and I have to back them off and start over.

That’s all I really have to complain about, let’s get on to the good stuff.

The click mechanism is silent as advertised and the clip is nice and sturdy. You can actually unscrew the clicky bit and thereby marvel in its simplicity. When the mechanism is off, it also frees the clip from the pen which I suppose could allow you to replace it if bent or broken. I’m not certain that Tactile Turn is expecting to sell these bits but it seems like a very serviceable pen.

I ordered my Mover in raw aluminum color and my Shaker in dark blue and they’re quite striking in this combination. The dark blue Shaker has a nice contrast with the aluminum clip and click mechanism which makes me wish I had ordered a colored Mover as well. If I had a chance to do it again, I’d order a green version instead of the raw.

Now to the part I was most worried about: the patterned grip. Machined pens tend to have a slight roughness which send shivers down my spine if I slide my fingers across them wrong. Imagine fingernails on a chalkboard, that’s the feeling. I assume it’s the micro grooves from machining that cause this and while I’ve learned to tolerate it, I was afraid the patterned grip would be a problem.

As it turns out, the grooves are deeper than I imagined and are a wonderfully functional addition. I have another machined pen with a smooth section and I’d love to have this pattern machined into it. It’s just so darn grippy!

While I’ve owned these pens less than 12 hours, I’m quite happy with them. The number of refills available should provide me a decade or two of use which crazy considering what I paid for them. Sure plastic pens are cheaper but I’d rather have something more substantial in my hand and these fit that bill.

Tactile Turn is now listing the Mover and Shaker in their shop for $65. I highly recommend them.

I Spent More Money

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:30:17 +0000

After hearing about this pen endlessly from The Pen Addict Podcast, I finally broke down and bought a Kara’s Kustoms Render K G2.

I’ll have my full review soon but for now, I leave you with this photo.

Playing With Blocks

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 02:21:03 +0000

I may have a problem and it’s in the form of Mega Bloks World of Warcraft sets.

The picture above is from last week when my wife went out of town and I decided to keep myself occupied. I now have 13 of the World of Warcraft sets and I have no idea how many I’m missing.

I believe they’re discontinuing this line which makes me sad and simultaneously spurs me to buy them all before they’re all gone.

Spring Upgrades For The Mini 8ight

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 04:26:13 +0000

Spring is here (or so the calendar says) and it’s time for me to slip back into my RC hobby. What? You thought that was over? I guess it’s not.

Last year I had problems with the Losi Mini 8ight losing contact with the radio and smashing into things. I called Losi but the best they could offer was to have me ship the car and radio back to them. With today’s shipping prices? No thanks.

I decided to buy a new Spektrum radio with multi-model support in case I end up with a 2nd car but the DX3C has iffy reviews and the new DX4 with AVC isn’t out yet. I’m impatient so I went the cheap route: I ordered a Turnigy GTX3. For $40 I wasn’t expecting much but it couldn’t be worse than the radio included in the RTR kit. I’d have to swap out the receiver since the Turnigy isn’t DSM but luckily it includes one in the box.

The radio arrived on Wednesday and I was pleasantly surprised with the build quality. It’s not going to win any awards but it’s no more flimsy than the Losi radio and it has a lot more features like a backlit screen. Even my Spektrum DX6i which cost 3 times as much doesn’t have that and neither would the DX3C if I had bought it.

Here’s the radio fresh out of the box. I’ll write up my thoughts once I have more time with it.

As I mentioned, it included a receiver which was easy enough to swap in place of the SR300. It’s quite a bit smaller.

Here it is installed in the chassis.

I’ve only had time to run up and down my driveway a few times but it seems to work well. I won’t know if this solved my problem until I put in some serious wheel time, unfortunately the weather isn’t making that easy right now.

During my many crashes of 2013, I managed to bend the front and rear shock towers. I found these beautiful machined aluminum towers on The Toyz website and ordered both. I also swapped the shock tops out for Ofna bits. I’m not sure if the shock towers or the shock tops are the issue, but the rear shocks rub against the tower too much to work. For now, I’ve pulled the rear tower and put the stock one back in after straightening it a bit in a vice. I also installed plastic shock guards on the front and rear.

This should be enough to get 2014 started, we’ll see how long it lasts before I’m rebuilding the whole thing again.

Revisiting My Black n’ Red Review

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 02:22:08 +0000

Based on the search terms used to find this site, a lot of you are looking for opinions about Black n’ Red notebooks. Either that or there’s some other Black n’ Red that I don’t know about.

Assuming it’s the notebooks driving the traffic here, I decided to revisit my review from 2009 and see what, if anything, has changed and maybe take a look at the company history while I was at it.

I still use the spiral bound Black n’ Red notebooks on a regular basis, they’ve become a fixture on my desk at home and work. I use them with all sorts of different pen types and the paper never lets me down.

There are rumors the paper changed some time after my initial review. If I recall, they say the paper became slicker, shinier, perhaps less friendly to fountain pens. I dug through my stash of notebooks and found the notebook used in the 2009 review and a more recent purchase. At the very least, the printing on the back has changed.

/imgs/2014/03/bnrsidebyside.png

You’ll notice the branding changes from John Dickinson to Hamelin, a likely point for the paper to change as well. John Dickinson was purchased by Hamelin in 2005 but they seem to have waited until 2008 to change the Black n’ Red covers. The Dickinson era notebooks claimed “Made in the EU” while Hamelin claim “Made in Germany”. Germany is in the EU but who knows whether they’re manufactured in the same place.

A quick unscientific test of rubbing my index finger over a page of each notebook tells me the Hamelin branded notebook pages feel a bit smoother. That proves almost nothing but it’s worth noting. I can’t say I’ve noticed all that much difference using them with fountain pens but others have, specifically with drying time.

A visit to blacknred.com shows they’ve been busy expanding their product line, at least for the UK market. There are quite a number of great looking notebooks and planners available although I don’t think we can get many of these in the States. They have a link for USA buyers but it takes you to Mead.com where they’re branded as Mead Black n’ Red and the selection is the same as I’ve seen in my local stores. The Mead branding is interesting since ACCO (parent company of Mead) and Hamelin are competitors in the office supply market. Maybe someone can explain that to me.

The prices have gone up as you might expect but occasionally you can catch them on sale and when you do, I suggest you grab them. The spiral and casebound notebooks are widely available at Rite Aid and Staples and if I were to hear whispers of their cancellation, I’d raid every store in the area to stock up for the future. That’s how good they are.

We’re blessed with a ton of great notebooks these days but I count Black n’ Red as one of the best you can find without ordering online. Go forth and buy!

My 2014 Goals: Three Month Check

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:54:06 +0000

Let’s check how I’m doing with my 2014 goals.

Read More — I haven’t cracked open a single book on my list. That’s unfortunate but I’ve read several short stories and numerous long form pieces so I won’t beat myself up too much.

Accumulate Less, Eliminate More — This is a noble thing to have on my list but I knew I’d have trouble with it. As it turns out, I’ve accumulated more stuff! At least it was quality stuff (so far).

Write More — This is going better than I expected. I’ve created a workflow for journaling my day which begins with a morning weigh-in (for the next goal), includes a log of my eating habits, and ends with notes about the day. Looking back over the past 2 months, the daily entries grew from single sentences to several paragraphs which makes me happy.

Along with journaling, I’m trying to use writing as a way to work out my thoughts on a subject. When I start jotting down my thoughts, it feels like my brain has more room to explore further, similar to the capture process of GTD. Once the thoughts are somewhere permanent, the brain can wander around looking for other avenues to explore. I’m still fumbling around with this process but I can tell it’s a beneficial practice.

Lose Weight — The eternal struggle — for me at least. I spent the months between November and March in a whirlwind of progress and failure. In the past month I seem to have regained my focus and I’m on my way to success.

Think — As I said earlier, I’m using my writing as a thought exercise. These may not be ground shattering thoughts or discoveries but it helps me figure out who I am and what side I’m on. As long as I know where I stand, I’m happy.

Why I’m Not Writing

Sun, 23 Mar 2014 04:51:04 +0000

I’m lazy.

That’s the cold, hard truth. I — like a lot of people with blogs — am avoiding the hard work. I have ideas, I have drafts, I have things I could be writing yet when I sit down to work I freeze and end up playing video games or surfing the web.

This is nothing more than a bad habit, one I let myself fall into. Maybe writing is hard, maybe it’s not, that has nothing to do with it. I’ve been scribbling down ideas and trying to expand on thoughts, I just haven’t been able to create something for public consumption. I count it a small victory that I’m doing anything but it’s not a real victory until I publish.

People who actually write tell us to write even when you have nothing to say so here I am. It’s nothing more than self loathing but it’s something.

My Goals For 2014

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 04:41:18 +0000

I’m trying something new this year: I’m setting a small list of goals. In the past I’ve written long lists that sounded great but weren’t possible to complete. This year I’m focusing on a simple list I know I can achieve. If I screw something up, I’ll acknowledge it, correct my behavior, and continue toward the goal.

— Read More — I’ve been reading less lately but that hasn’t stopped me from buying books. Some are physical, some are digital but I haven’t read most of them. I have 8 partially read and 11 unread books on my list for 2014.

— Accumulate Less, Eliminate More — I buy a lot of things I don’t need, it’s a character flaw likely caused by a childhood where I had very little. It’s difficult to stop buying things but it can be just as hard to decide what to do with the resulting clutter. I see a few trips to the Salvation Army in my future.

— Write More — This is on everyone’s list and you’re tired of hearing it but I rarely write so this might be an easy victory. I plan to journal on a semi-regular basis and if I’m lucky, some of that will carry over to this site.

— Lose Weight — This also seems cliche but I’ve lost 35 pounds in the last 6 months and I have more to go. I’ll continue my progress until the scale reads 199 (only ~25 pounds left). The holidays added a few pounds but that’s a minor setback.

— Think — Yes, “think” as in spend more time in thought. I’ve noticed many areas in my life where taking time to assess a situation would have been in my favor. They say “think before you speak” and I’m a prime candidate.

These are what I want to focus on for 2014. I’ll revisit in 6 months and let you know how I’m doing.

Being The Best Means Nothing If You’re Broken

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 16:34:25 +0000

It’s officially 2014 and WordPress emailed a year-in-review that pointed out a rather large problem.

According to the stats, these are my most viewed posts:

Field Notes Mackinaw Autumn Review Black N’ Red Notebook Review G2 Signo 207 Hack

Each of these were written in the heyday of the blog: 2009. They also shared another common trait: the images were broken. It seems when I moved the blog from sph33r.com to superfunti.me, I forgot to fix the image links. This plagued all posts from 2009 to late 2012.

As someone who is trying to be a good host, I have gone back and fixed every image link in the archive. Now you can enjoy the writing of a past me with all visual stimulation I intended you to have when I wrote it.

I may have fixed a typo or two, I’ll never tell.

On Starting Titles With On

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 04:15:04 +0000

I have a pet peeve: article titles that start with “on”.

I don’t know if this practice has a name but it’s annoying. Surely a writer can craft a better title?

“On The Subject Of Writing” Ewwwww.

“On The New iPad” What’s on it?

“On Writing” OK that’s a book by Stephen King and I’ll allow it.

Starting a title with “on” seems weak, let’s all vow to avoid it.

Blizzard Announces Next World of Warcraft Expansion Pack

Sat, 09 Nov 2013 05:44:26 +0000

Yeah, I’m a World of Warcraft player, so what?

Today at Blizzcon, Blizzard announced the next expansion pack called Warlords of Draenor.

It looks like we’re headed back in time to Draenor or what existed before Outland. I’m one of the many who hate questing through Outland so I really hope this is a different experience.

There are a lot of great things coming in this expansion other than the new zones, things like new character models and a lot of changes to inventory handling have me pretty excited. Now if only Blizzard would update the Mobile Armory to stop asking for an authenticator code every time I try to do anything.

Everpix Shuts Down

Fri, 08 Nov 2013 16:30:17 +0000

This bums me out.

We were unable to secure sufficient funding in order to properly scale the business, and our endeavors to find a new home for Everpix did not come to pass.
We are heartbroken to discontinue Everpix. It’s a project that is very close to each and every one of us on the team. We cannot be more thankful to all of our customers who supported us over the >years. We hope you’ve enjoyed Everpix. We will miss it dearly.

I, like many nerds, discovered this service recently. I really enjoyed the flashback feature and was contemplating signing up for a paid account when they announced the shutdown.

Photo management is one of those things people struggle with. I’m perfectly fine with using Dropbox camera upload and since signing up with Everpix I’ve been thinking that Dropbox might be one or two releases away from creating exactly what Everpix offered. Now that they’re shutting down, I hope I’m right.

If you want more information on what happened, The Verge has a rather timely article from the same day Everpix announced their shutdown. I don’t know what to think of that.

Changing Your Mind 101

Fri, 08 Nov 2013 02:47:44 +0000

If I have any regular readers, they’ll notice something is missing. I deleted the 4 posts in my series on task management.

I struggled with the idea of deleting something I published but I think it needed to be done. I started the series because I’m trying to find the best way to handle the tasks and projects in my life but after 3 or 4 rather weak posts, I realize I had it all wrong.

The only thing you need is a system you trust. That’s it.

Do pen and paper lists work for you? Awesome. Do you prefer your work in projects and manageable tasks? Do that.

The first mistake I made was thinking the GTD system — which makes a lot of sense to me — works for everyone. This just isn’t true. Some people work best from simple lists and some people plan their work months in advance. All you have to do is figure out what your brain prefers.

So I deleted my posts but it’s not a big loss, they were fluff anyway. Maybe I’ll dig a bit deeper into this subject later or maybe I won’t. Sometimes digging for a system is a form of procrastination and I’m trying to avoid that.

Here’s to getting work done.

Review: Magpul Industries Field Case

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 14:30:38 +0000

I generally don’t carry my phone in a case but when the phone is brand new, I get a little paranoid of dropping it. My iPhone 4S spent some time in a case after I bought it but as time passed, I relaxed and it went naked for most of its life. With the 5s being lighter, thinner, and perhaps a little more beautiful, it pains me to hide it in a case but the fear of dropping it seems more powerful.

After a bit of research, I ordered a Magpul Field Case in Olive Drab from Amazon for $12.95. The reviews seemed positive and the price was hard to beat. Some of you may be familiar with Magpul as the company that makes AR-15 accessories. In fact, the pattern on the back of the case is modeled after their PMAG magazines.

I’m not sure what made Magpul get into phone cases but they seem to know what they were doing. The Magpul Field Case is a semi-rigid slip on case that wraps tightly over the back and sides of the phone. The sides provide a raised lip around the screen so you can set the phone on its face without hurting the glass if that’s your kind of thing. It’s a little difficult to get the phone out of the case but I don’t think you’d want it any other way.

The power and volume buttons are molded into the case, likely because they’d be hard to activate if they were simply cutouts. The mute switch however is a cutout as is the headphone jack, microphone, speakers, and Lightning port. The Apple Lightning cable fits the case with ease while the slightly larger Monoprice Lightning cables are a tight fit. I should note the headphone jack opening works fine for the Apple Earpods and other headphones with similar sized mini-plugs but my Audio Technica M50s have a larger diameter plug that won’t plug in with the case on. I have to peel the phone out of the case when I want to use my headphones which is annoying but I’m searching for a suitable 3.5mm adapter to solve this problem.

The case material is textured enough to give assure a good grip but not so textured that it’s hard to get in and out of a pocket. When the phone isn’t inside, the case is fairly flexible but slide your phone into it and it feels like hard plastic. It probably won’t outperform an Otterbox but it seems to provide plenty of protection. The rear of the case has a large cutout for the camera/flash and sports the Magpul logo and company name.

I’ve been carrying my phone in this case for the past week and while I can’t say I prefer it to a naked phone, the Magpul is as close to the perfect case as I’ve found and it looks great as well. From time to time I pull the phone out and try to carry it that way but it always seems to end up back in the Magpul. For just under $13, I don’t think this case can be beat.

Panic At The Pen Show

Sat, 28 Sep 2013 03:44:55 +0000

There are a few things I look forward to when summer draws to an end, they are as follows:

The Renaissance Festival
The Michigan Pen Show

I count myself lucky this year of 2013 as I managed to visit both. I can only count my fall as a success if I hit both milestones. Yay me!

Today was the first day of the Michigan Pen Show and since it’s right across the street from where I work, I made a beeline for The Met Hotel as soon as I could.

If you’re someone who has visited the D.C. or Atlanta pen show, I suspect the Michigan show might disappoint. It’s never a large show, never packed (at least when I’ve been there) and from what I can tell, nothing like the larger city shows. That’s not to say it’s lame, it’s quite the opposite!

When you stroll into the conference room, you’re greeted by the same folks you saw last year. I don’t know their names but I recognize their faces and the mood is always light. The entry stamp is a smiley face which matches my own face so that seems appropriate.

Into the next room I saunter, always starting on the right as that seems the only correct way to do this. Counter-clockwise might sound weird to you but my brain says this is the right direction. There are maybe 20 tables at most so it won’t take long unless you let your eyes wander and wander they will.

The majority of pens on these tables are vintage. I hate to say it but vintage just isn’t calling my name these days. Wait, I take that back, if I could find a broad Parker 51 or a flexy Sheaffer of some sort. No. No! I can’t spend that kind of money today so I must resign myself to just looking. Drooling?

I’m wearing a Detroit Dragway t-shirt and it seems to be getting some attention. The majority of the vendors are older gentlemen and several take the time to reminisce of drag racing in an era I can only dream about. I don’t bother telling them the only cars I’ve raced on the track came out of Japan, that might not go over so well.

I came here with the intent of finding a Namiki Falcon but I never actually see one. That’s probably for the best, I don’t have the clearance for that kind of spending. I spy plenty of Pelikans, Pilot VP, and other such exotic offerings but I don’t see a single Falcon. I meant to bring a couple Sailor 1911 M to try to trade but I didn’t, I guess I’m ok with that if there’s no Falcons to be seen.

I move along the tables, some have watches for sale, some have handmade pens, others have a wide assortment of pencils. I feel bad as I skim past the handmade pen tables but honestly, I rarely find them all that interesting. I nod sympathetically to the man or woman behind the table before sliding carefully to the next table. I like to think I’m slick but I’m probably not coming off as such.

I’ve made my way almost 3/4 of the way around the room when a nice gentleman starts reminiscing about attending the Detroit nationals sometime in the 1950’s. It’s fun to see something as simple as a t-shirt spark dormant memories in men who have doubled my time on this earth.

I continue on, I’ve had my eyes on the Anderson Pens table since I walked in. I think maybe I start counter-clockwise because they’re the 2nd to last table and I know I’ll be spending money there. Yeah that must be why, I’m definitely not neurotic or anything.

Their display is a mirror image of last year, plenty of ink, lots of Twsbi and Noodlers pens to chose from, and all manner of fountain pen friendly paper. I don’t know what to do, I didn’t come here with a plan but I feel compelled to buy something. My eye jumps to the Pilot Iroshizuku ink. I’ve been avoiding this particular ink for a very long time, it’s simply too expensive. But maybe today…

Panic sets in, I don’t remember what color I wanted to try. Surely it was kon-peki, right? Wait, was it? The color on the box looks too light, I must be remembering wrong. Flustered, I flip through the pages of their ink sample book but I can’t find kon-peki anywhere. I whip out my phone and consult JetPens to assure myself this is the ink I want. I step away from the inks, maybe there’s something else here I “need”.

It’s easy to skip past the pens — I really only care about the Falcon right now — but they have some notebooks I haven’t tried. What’s this, the new Field Notes Drink Local edition? I haven’t even received mine yet! Mine are in the mail so I relax and move on. They have 3 different sizes of Twsbi notebooks and I decide I need the large one. Need is such a funny word but I’ll use it here. There we have it, a large Twsbi notebook and some Pilot kon-peki, that’s all it will take to make my trip complete.

Then I notice the last table, it’s Brian Gray of Edison Pens. What are they doing here? This is maybe my 3rd or 4th Michigan Pen Show and I may not have been paying attention but I didn’t expect to see them here. He’s busy talking to another pen maker so I peruse the large number of pens on display and watch a video about his process.

I stand there for a few minutes but then I realize I don’t know this guy and he won’t know who I am, I’ll just be some weirdo who knows his name from the internet and that’s kind of weird so I walk back to the Anderson Pens table. I purchase my ink and notebook and head for the door before my wallet vomits any more money into eager hands. I really wanted one of the Twsbi notebooks with the Micarta pen tucked inside but I manage to get away before one jumped in my bag.

I burst out of the hotel into the crisp fall air and breathed a sigh of relief or perhaps it was a sigh of discontent. I didn’t have my Falcon and I know there’s at least one broad Parker 51 or flexy Sheaffer in the building behind me, all I had to do was turn around. I push forward toward my car, those treasures will have to wait for another day.

Video: Slow Motion Test on the iPhone 5s

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:12:47 +0000

Pretty amazing how far cell phone cameras have progressed.

vimeo

Following up on Control Center

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 14:30:54 +0000

Now that iOS 7 is out, let’s revisit my expectations for Control Center. I don’t use everything available but here’s my thoughts on the ones I’ve used so far.

Flashlight

Love it. I use it several times a day and it’s way faster than any of the 3rd party apps were on iOS 6.

WiFi/Bluetooth

I don’t know why I put LTE in the original article but let’s pretend that didn’t happen. Having WiFi and Bluetooth easily accessible is incredibly handy and I’ve used it more times than I can count in the past week.

Music Controls

I don’t use these much since most of my interaction with the music controls happens on the lock screen. Still, it’s quite handy and I find myself using it randomly. What I use most often is the volume control as I like to keep my phone volume very low unless I’m watching something.

AirDrop

I really didn’t give this much thought in the original article and once I upgraded my 4S I still didn’t care because it doesn’t seem to be available on that device. Now that I have a 5s and my wife has a 5c, we’ve used it several times to transfer pictures to each other. It’s incredibly handy although a bit slow in finding phones to share with.

Camera

I use to keep the stock camera on my home screen but this lets me keep it hidden in a folder. I generally activate the camera from the lock screen but for those times where I’m already doing something, quick access to the camera is delightful.

I wish Apple had allowed the bottom 4 buttons of the Control Center to be customized, I don’t find myself reaching for the calculator or timer all that often and I’d love to swap those out. But all in all, I feel the Control Center was a much needed addition that has a lot of potential for future changes. Maybe one day I’ll get my wish and some or all of the actions will be configurable.

My Task Manager Wishlist

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 14:30:02 +0000

I spend an embarrassing amount of time researching how people get things done. It’s almost as if I expect their habits to wear off on me and of course, they don’t. Lately I’ve been using Wunderlist and while it’s close to what I need, it’s not quite perfect. Here’s what I’m looking for in a task management product:

Projects

This is super important. Anything that requires more than one step is a project and I have a lot of things that fit this description. If a task manager doesn’t allow you to define a project and set the tasks to complete the project, it’s pretty much useless.

Tasks

Tasks can be standalone or part of a project but this is something no checklist app misses. Of all the apps I have installed on my phone and Macbook, none of them are missing the task element. The one area that is lacking in a lot of apps is reoccurring tasks. I use this function to remind me to change my oil, cut my hair, or replace my furnace filter. If an app is missing standalone tasks, sub-tasks (for projects), or reoccurring tasks, I have no use for it.

Start Dates

A project should have a start date. If I need to start a project on Jan 1st 2014, I don’t want to see it until then. I don’t own OmniFocus but from what I hear, this is pretty much the only app that handles start dates in this manner.

Due Dates

Anything worth doing needs a due date right? OK that’s a bit of a stretch but if this task manager is going to handle my personal and work life, it must have due dates.

Notifications/Reminders

The things I listed earlier as reoccurring tasks section are prime examples of items I want reminders for. What I really want in an app is the ability to set the reminder for any interval. The Reminders app allows for monthly or yearly reminders but nothing in between. This means my reminder to check the furnace filter needs to be ignored 2 months out of 3 because I can’t set it for a more useful interval.

Quick Capture

If I can’t capture a task quickly, what’s the point? I don’t care if this involves using Drafts with an x-callback-url or if the app itself opens to the entry box, I need a way to get tasks into the system easily.

Good Sync

Syncing is key these days and I’d rather it be something I control. If I had my way, the perfect app would use Dropbox to sync but the few that use this method lack push notifications. I’ll settle on a syncing solution that is reliable which it seems Wunderlist hasn’t figured out yet.

Filters/Views

I want to be able to filter my tasks in a few ways. Maybe I want to see today’s tasks, maybe I want to see this month. Either way, the filters need to be configurable and flexible.

Calendar Integration

Not everything ends up in my calendar but items that fall on a specific date and require a specific action should. Whether this means integration with the existing system calendar, or using a built-in calendar, it’s a must.

Future/Someday

We all have tasks that won’t be starting any time soon and you need a place to file those. These could be standalone tasks, or full blown projects so this area needs to be flexible. These tasks and projects won’t have dates so they won’t show up in filters or views unless I specifically want them to.

I don’t practice Getting Things Done but this list has a pretty obviously slant in that direction. I’ve been slowly melding the ideas from GTD into a system that fits my life and this is the system I feel will help me actually accomplish my tasks.

I’m fairly certain OmniFocus meets almost every one of these needs but they seem to lack a trial version for OS X so I have no way of knowing before forking out a pretty substantial wad of cash. One of these days I’ll grow tired of waiting and drop the $$ on the OS X and iOS clients and maybe then I’ll be happy.

Taking Time to Think

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:52:15 +0000

I have a 37 mile commute each way to work every day and about a year ago, I started filling those minutes with podcasts. The more I think of it, I’m not sure this was the best idea.

Here’s my basic itinerary on a normal workday:

Wake up, get ready for work, sit in a car listening to random podcast.
Arrive at work, put on headphones, listen to music.
Go to lunch, listen to podcast.
Back at work, more music.
Drive home, listen to podcast.

That’s a pretty sweet schedule right? Except I realize I haven’t set time aside to think. Work isn’t the place to spend time with my thoughts, I’m busy working and the 45 minutes in my car each way would be golden opportunity but I’m too busy listening to Myke Hurley or Dan Benjamin. When I get home, I have 2 dogs and a wife competing for my attention so any chance to delve into my thoughts is long gone. I’m not complaining, my girls are the best things in my life but I simply don’t spend enough time internalizing my thoughts. I don’t spend any time figuring out what I truly feel about anything because I purposely bury any chance of quiet time.

The takeaway is simple, take some time from your day to devote to your own thoughts. Don’t fill your ears with music or voices, set aside time to ruminate on things. You don’t have to be Socrates but the more time you’re concentrating on outside stimuli, the less you can spend thinking.

“Thinking: The talking of the soul with itself” — Plato

It’s easy to discount our thoughts as silly but time spent in introspection is beneficial to our brains. Don’t spend all your time in someone else’s world, spend some between your own ears.

The Linux Life Saver

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:30:07 +0000

As usual, I’m finding this super late but the Debian package “molly-guard” is amazing.

A lot of my SSH sessions are initiated from Windows which means I’m using Kitty (a fork of Putty). SSH sessions are fairly obvious when you’re using Windows but what if you’re using Linux or OS X? It’s so easy to confuse a remote session for a local session even if you use fancy prompts.

I have a web server, a home server, and a Raspberry Pi all of which have molly-guard installed to keep me from screwing something up. This is a no-brainer for the amateur and seasoned system administrator.

A Good Printer At A Nice Price

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 02:51:52 +0000

TidBITS — the best Apple news site with a 90’s design — has an article on the Brother HL-2270DW, a printer I happen to own and love.

For now, then I can recommend the Brother HL-2270DW monochrome laser printer for many people. Like every printer, it has its problems, but it’s wireless, fast, solidly built, and inexpensive to purchase and operate.

He has some good points, it’s not AirPrint compatible and maybe it’s noisy (I never really noticed) but it’s a darn good printer. When the wife asked me to buy a printer, I knew we wouldn’t be using it enough to justify the cost of an Inkjet. The longevity and initial cost of a laser printer makes a lot of sense if you don’t need to print photos, color, or if you don’t print very often.

At the time, I owned an Epson Stylus R200 which I had purchased years earlier to print photos but it uses 5 different ink cartridges which cost a mild fortune. I worried that any money I spent on new ink cartridges would be wasted once they dried out from lack of use. I may have been wrong about this, Marco Arment wrote about printers this week and he says the Epsons don’t use ink if turned off which is something I wasn’t aware of. Regardless, we don’t need a printer with 5 cartridges, we need something to occasionally churn out a standard black and white page or two. I should mention the R200 won’t even try to print a black and white page without every color cartridge being within operating levels. I’m not sure why I need a full cyan cartridge to print a black and white page but the R200 insists on it.

And so, I decided a laser printer would be the answer to our problems. Several internet searches later, I settled on the Brother HL-2270DW laser printer. It’s wireless, can print duplex, and isn’t a huge beast which met every requirement I had. Sure, I wish it could AirPrint but I’ve found Google Cloud Print to be sufficient when I need it. The starter toner will last roughly 700 pages which in my house should equal at least 3 years of printing which makes it a bargain. Even if you print a lot, the cost of toner doesn’t compare with the cost of an Inkjet.

Long story short, this printer has served my household very well and I highly recommend it.

When Tech News Attacks

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 02:25:04 +0000

Some time ago I brought this blog out of an almost 2 year dead zone and tried to write about technology. Now almost a year and a half later, I’m realizing I made a mistake.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology but what I was writing didn’t fill me with happiness, it kind of made me sad. I fell into the trap of taking sides, assuming anything I didn’t agree with was wrong, and generally being negative about almost everything. As time passed, I’ve watched myself change and — hopefully — grow out of that phase.

These days I’m less worried about who makes the product and more focused on what it can do for me. Isn’t that what technology is for? To better our lives? Who cares if Google or Microsoft or Apple is behind it, if it improves your daily life that’s all that matters.

Look at the state of tech news today. Do it, take a long hard look. It’s full of sites scrambling to be the first to publish the next doom and gloom piece. Do you really want to celebrate the loss of jobs at Blackberry? Do you want to cheer that Microsoft can’t sell the Surface RT? If so, why? Does it affect your life in any meaningful way?

The truth is, I have my preferred devices and how the Surface is selling doesn’t concern me. If anything, I should hope that Microsoft succeeds because the gadget world needs competition. If Apple sits at the top for too long, who’s to say they won’t start phoning it in? Along those lines, I’m glad Android has become a really good operating system, otherwise iOS may stagnate. The opposite is true as well, if iOS weren’t so dominate, would Google be trying this hard to improve Android?

That attitude seems lost on most writers today. They’re too busy writing headlines containing questions or sensationalizing random situations for page views. I understand why they do it, they need the ad views to make money, that’s what businesses do. That’s all well and good if you’re a professional writer but when you write an independent blog where page views don’t necessarily matter, it’s pointless to get bogged down in the same mire.

With that in mind, I’ve recently been spending time focusing on what technology does for me. Mainly how the gadgets I interact with on a daily basis affect my life. I hope to take that train of thought and move from feebly trying to report random old tech news and transition into writing about how technology improves our lives.

I’m also thinking it’s time to write about things that are fun. I enjoyed writing about RC cars & helicopters earlier this year so I intend to bring that back along with some other fun subjects.

Life is too short to spend worrying about what Tim Cook or Steve Ballmer is thinking, let’s have some fun. I hope you stick around and enjoy it with me.

Late To Link

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 04:52:53 +0000

“I’d rather be late to link and right than early to link and wrong.“

— John Gruber

The Auto Update Dilemma

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 05:12:13 +0000

By now you’ve probably heard that iOS 7 will allow apps to auto update. In theory it sounds like a great addition but here’s an example of where it might backfire.

Imagine if you rely on this app for work and you use iCloud. If iOS 7 automatically updates to this broken version, you’re out of luck. In an ideal world, developers wouldn’t ship with bugs that cripple their apps but we all know it happens to the best of them.

The good news is there’s a toggle to turn this feature off. The bad news is it’s unlikely normal users will know the toggle exists until after a bad update.

The Free Experience

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 02:55:51 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about free services lately in the wake of Google shuttering Reader, most of it negative. The rally cry is one of pay for everything lest ye lose it. Sounds dire right? It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and shun all free services but is that right? Is free always bad?

If a stranger approached you on the street and offered you a free ice cream cone, you’d be skeptical. First because no one in their right mind would accept food from a random stranger but also because you’d assume there was a catch.

There’s almost always a catch for free, that much we know. Facebook gives you a free way to keep in contact with friends and family but you pay with ads. You also pay with all your data being harvested for a “social graph” whatever the hell that is. This is what keeps Facebook in business so you can see what your cousin is eating for dinner and it’s at least a mostly painless price to pay.

Let’s go back to the Google Reader thing for a moment. Reader was an RSS service which allowed you to subscribe to feeds from your favorite sites and read them in one place. Lots of apps and sites sprung up to improve the somewhat ugly Google experience. It didn’t matter if the site was ugly or clunky or lacked features, it was Google and no one could touch RSS after that point, at least not in a meaningful way. Then one day, we were told it was going away.

The nerd world erupted in panic, what would they do for RSS? As with anything of this nature, it quickly became evident that several newcomers would be staking a claim in the newly abandoned wasteland of feed readers and the panic was replaced with confusion. Who’s service do we all agree on? It better be something paid or we’re going to lose RSS again!

But did we lose something all that important? If RSS didn’t exist, what then? We’d all have to use bookmarks and visit sites manually, a method I happen to prefer. Was the loss all that great if the answer was simply a tiny bit more work? I don’t think so. Luckily we don’t have to find out, now we wait for someone to tell us what service is best or try them all and decide.

Right now the general consensus among the nerds I follow on Twitter is that Feedly is winning. Here’s the kicker, Feedly is a free service with no revenue model. Did we not learn anything from the Readerpocalypse?

Maybe we did, maybe we realized how easy it is to shuffle an OPML file from one service to another and the idea of paying for something so trivial seems silly even after facing this “crisis”. I know someone is reading this and getting angry because they value their RSS feeds, I understand that but I respectfully suggest it’s still not that big of a deal.

Let’s shift gears and look at another paid vs free scenario. I’m a fan of Marco Arment, he’s the creator of Instapaper and The Magazine – both of which he has sold – and one of the loudest voices in the campaign against free services. That’s not to say he’s anti-free but he often engaged in bickering matches with his competitors, And frequently referred to their business models as a negative thing.

For a long time I agreed with Marco and I embraced Instapaper as the only option for a read-it-later service. I refused to try the others simply because free cannot be sustained and I didn’t want to lose my data if they couldn’t keep their doors open.

Let’s get one thing clear here, I know free can’t last. I think we all know that, that’s why we’re so accepting of ads all over the internet. Would your mom pay for Facebook? Probably not and ads make it so she doesn’t have to. The venture backed RSS app with no revenue stream could shut down tomorrow unless someone with deep pockets buys them. There is always an argument for paying for a service you care about.

One day I started wondering why I was so against Pocket. Their app was so pretty and shiny compared to Instapaper. Nothing against Marco – he’s not a designer which he admits often on his podcasts – but Instapaper was starting to feel a little long in the tooth. I can’t exactly describe why but it felt clunky and old even though it functioned perfectly well. And so one day I exported my reading list from Instapaper and dropped it in Pocket.

You know what I won’t miss if Pocket goes under? The articles I have in Pocket. Yes, I find the service handy but I, like a lot of people, have an enormous backlog of things that I’ll never get around to reading. If I want to save a bookmark for the future, I save it in Pinboard where I’m fairly confident it will stay.

I pay for Pinboard because I want the things in there to have longevity, I don’t pay for Pocket because I don’t really care about their lifespan. What I do care about is my reading experience and I feel Pocket provides that better than Instapaper ever did. In my case, a free app works because I have a system in place to deal with things I want to keep.

That was a rather long-winded way to say this: free isn’t something to run away from, it simply means you need to evaluate what you get from the service and what losing it would mean to you. I’m sure you can come up with a thousand counterpoints to what I’ve said but in reality if you won’t shed a tear if your data disappears tomorrow, maybe you’re worrying too much about nothing.

Why I’m excited for Control Center in iOS 7

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 03:43:01 +0000

Sick of all the discussion around iOS 7 icons or the “flat” design? So am I! Don’t worry, I won’t bring those things up again, I want to focus on a tiny little corner of iOS 7 that I see changing my day to day routine.

As far back as I can remember, nerds have been begging Apple for toggles and widgets. As an Android convert, toggles were one of the things I missed the most. I watched as iOS 5, then 6 came and we weren’t given much more than a Bluetooth toggle in the Settings app. Now in iOS 7 Apple has given us a taste of the good stuff with Control Center.

Control Center is an interesting new feature that either goes too far or not far enough depending on who you’re talking to. Let’s quickly go over what you can control:

Airplane Mode
WiFi
Bluetooth
Do Not Disturb
Screen Lock
Brightness
Music controls (track position, play, reverse, forward, volume)
AirDrop
AirPlay
Flashlight
Clock
Calculator
Camera

Whew, that’s a lot! Control Center will be available at any time and can even be accessed from the lock screen. I haven’t played with iOS 7 yet so I’m not clear on how all this works but I have a pretty clear idea of what I’ll be using most.

Flashlight

I use a flashlight app almost every day and it’s not all that easy. Most of the apps I found have quite a delay and they require you to unlock the phone, find the app, and then wait for it to activate the LED.

Having no experience with the toggle in iOS 7, I’ll assume Apple can access the LED much quicker than a 3rd party app and since you can access Control Center from the lock screen, that cuts down on several steps.

WiFi/LTE

I seem to be in the minority of folks who want to toggle my WiFi off/on a few times a day. While I’m at work I use our vendor network which can be insanely slow at times, hence I often find myself jumping into the Settings app to shut it off and rely on my cellular network.

On my iPad, I often swap between WiFi and LTE. Sadly it appears LTE won’t be one of the toggles available in Control Center although I haven’t seen the iPad specific version so perhaps I’m wrong. I tend to keep the LTE radio turned off until I need it as the battery drain is noticeable even if WiFi is being used.

Bluetooth

The bluetooth radio is another battery suck that I tend to keep off as much as possible. The only time I use my bluetooth is in my wife’s car since she has a modern vehicle with one of those fancy stereos. While iOS 6 brought a much easier BT toggle, I’d still rather not have to dig into the Settings app.

I think the moral of the story here is, the less I have to go into Settings the better.

The Rest

What about the rest of these things? Some of them seem a little out of place. Do I really need to access the clock or calculator on a regular basis? I suppose they make sense but I’m not sure I’ll be using those options all that much.

One opinion I’ve seen a few times is that in the future Apple might open that bottom row up for app actions. Imagine a world where inter-app communication were finally allowed. I get giddy just thinking about it!

Yeah, yeah, I hear you Android people, I know you’ve had that forever. It’s one of the things you can loft high above iOS users heads, I’ll never deny that.

Conclusion

I started using these headers and now I don’t know how to stop. So here’s a conclusion.

I can’t wait for Control Center. OK honestly I can’t wait for iOS 7 but these easy to reach toggles have me giddy!

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Wed, 08 May 2013 03:20:53 +0000

Someone linked this article on Twitter and the title sucked me in: Apple fail should be a lesson to Microsoft.

OMG that sound serious! I wonder what he’s talking about?

The Retina iPad, for example, violated Apple’s design creed: products should get thinner and lighter — aka, cooler. Not thicker and heavier.

But Apple fixed this quickly (six month later) with the iPad Mini trifecta: thinner, lighter, cheaper. And the iPad, reinvented as the Mini, has been a runaway success.

Oh my! I read it a few times and I’m still not sure what the fail is, perhaps I should read it again.

This is what we call “link bait”, a provocative title draws you in and then fails to deliver because they don’t care beyond the click. See, cash moves everything around these “news” sites and they’ll do anything to get the dolla, dolla bill ya’ll. Now that you’ve clicked and been served 15 ads, they’re not all that worried about letting you down with writing that doesn’t deliver what the title promised.

As best I can tell, the “fail” is that Apple had to (slightly) increase the thickness and weight of the 3rd generation iPad to deal with the LTE radio and Retina screen. I’m not an expert but I don’t think this really hurt Apple because they somehow managed to sell a gazillion 3rd and 4th gen iPads before the Mini came out.

What about the iPad Mini? Is it something you can compare to the full size iPad? Are people who buy a 7" tablet really in the same group as those who prefer a 10" version? I’m not convinced the two can be compared. I’ve fondled a Mini and it’s a very nice device but I said the same thing about the Nexus 7. They may be fantastic devices but I personally prefer the screen real estate provided by the larger tablets and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

I do find it interesting that while phones surge upward in screen size, we seem to be gravitating backwards with tablets, does that make sense? Don’t mention phablets please, I really don’t like that term. Oops, I typed it, how do I delete again?

Sorry, I got sidetracked, where was I?

I think what the author really wanted to say is that first generation products aren’t that great, if you owned a 1st gen iPad you know the later versions were better but that’s sort of expected. The Surface RT and Pro are going to improve, they’re going to get lighter, faster, and thinner as Microsoft iterates them. Is that surprising to anyone? I hope not.

Of course no one would have read his article if the headline read “Microsoft Surface Will Eventually Improve”.

iPhone 6

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:55:15 +0000

They could release a revolutionary 60-inch 4K TV for $99 with built-in nanobots to assemble and dispense free smartwatches, and people would complain that it should cost $49 and the nanobots aren’t open enough.

Marco Arment

Keeping a spark file

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:30:09 +0000

I like this idea by Steven Johnson on keeping a spark file for all the little things that come up in life.

The problem with hunches is that it’s incredibly easy to forget them, precisely because they’re not fully-baked ideas. You’re reading an article, and a little spark of an idea pops into your head, but by the time you’ve finished the article, you’re checking your email, or responding to some urgent request from your colleague, and the next thing you know, you’ve forgotten the hunch for good.

Those of us who prefer an analog solution will simply jot down our “sparks” in a notebook but what if you prefer a digital solution? I recommend using the “Append to Dropbox” action in Drafts for iOS, a method which an be found in this article by George Coghill. I’m sure something similar to Drafts exists for Android but I don’t know for sure.

Whatever method you chose, keeping a spark file seems like a smart idea and I plan on starting one today.

The Making of Medium

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:15:32 +0000

Teehan+Lax have a great behind the scenes look at their part in designing Medium.

They consisted of questions like:

Who is this page for?
What problem does this page solve for the user?
How do we know they need it?
What is the primary action we want users to take on this page?
What might prompt a user to take this action?
How will we know that this page is doing what we want it to do?

I love learning how designers drill down into the function of a site or product. I often dream of being someone with an expert eye and taste that can influence product design but then I realize I don’t have those skills and I pout in the corner.

Make sure you check out the other stories on their site, there’s a lot of knowledge in these pages.

How Far is it to Mars?

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:58:50 +0000

Everyone is linking to this today and for good reason, it’s fun!

How Far is it to Mars?

It’s amazing what can be accomplished with Javascript and CSS these days.

An interesting take on acquisitions

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:30:37 +0000

Jake Lodwick at Pandodaily

Bit by bit, the youthful energy that created so much value was siphoned off. Whereas we’d once been free to work on whatever seemed interesting, we now found ourselves in vaguely defined middle-management roles, sitting through pointless meetings where older doofuses who didn’t understand the Web challenged our intuitions and trivialized our ambitions.

It’s always interesting to peek behind the curtain of startups and their acquisitions. Obviously I’m not in a place where I can agree or disagree with what he has to say but he makes a compelling argument.

(via: TightWind)

Einstein’s Zurich Notebook

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:30:09 +0000

I love the chance to peek into the notebook of a famous person, don’t you?

Let’s take a look at one of Einstein’s notebooks, specifically the so called Zurich Notebook

This stuff is way over my head but look at the handwriting, it’s so precise! I’m guessing he preferred graph paper as it lends itself to computation and drawing.

I think it’s ok to feel a little self conscious of your notebooks after all, this is Einstein we’re talking about.

Maybe I’ll do this in 2013

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:47:33 +0000

At some point in 2009 I decided to ride BMX bicycles. Perhaps you’re an old-school reader and you remember this phase in my life but if not, rest assured I didn’t get far. I did mess up my back and knee which stands to reason, men in their 30’s probably shouldn’t take up BMX as a hobby.

I’ll say this, I had high hopes. OK, not really.

As I write this, I realize I never posted any pictures or details of the Hoffman Bama I built, I suppose at some point this spring I should pull it out of the garage and snap a few pictures. While I have it out, maybe I’ll work on that goal from 2009?

Probably not, I’m much too old now.

poor quality

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:01:14 +0000

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten.“

— Ben Franklin (allegedly)

Immobilized

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:47:43 +0000

A few months ago I wrote about the bursitis in my right foot. The steroid shot appeared to eliminate the inflammation but a few months later the pain returned and my options are shrinking. Apparently another shot runs the risk of weakening my tendon which is something I’d like to avoid.

The picture above is the current phase of treatment: immobilization. The Aircast boot locks my foot from moving which should help the bursa sac eventually heal. The boot is hot, clumsy, and generally annoying but I’m trying to stick with it.

Along with the boot, the doctor advised me to take ibuprofen three times a day to raise the level of anti-inflammatory agents in my system. I assume that doctors know best but everyone I talk to seems concerned with my liver. I’d research this on Web MD but that site scares me.

I haven’t been wearing the boot as often as I should and I keep forgetting to take my Advil but I think it’s healing. It may take another month or two but I may be able to visit the zoo or museum this summer without waking up in pain the next day.

Will I run again this year? Highly unlikely and that makes me very sad. Instead, I’m going to substitute my bicycle for running and see how that goes. I don’t find biking quite as satisfying but it will have to do.

Here’s to hoping I can run again in 2014.

Everyone wants more carnage.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:13:00 +0000

Detroit got a taste of spring today with temperatures in the low 60’s so I took the Losi Mini 8ight out for a spin at a local park. I had a lot of fun but then it got messy.

About 15 minutes into the first battery, I noticed the radio was randomly losing range. In hindsight, I should have stopped driving but being an RC newb, I swapped the LiPo for a fresh one and kept bashing. Shortly after the battery change, I lost steering input and drove full throttle into a parking block. The impact destroyed the front suspension mount, ripped the shock out of the Driven Productions shock tower, and bent one of the front turnbuckle rods.

Summer isn’t here yet, I’m sure I can top this.

I’ve got no voice.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:01:01 +0000

“I’ve got no voice. I don’t know how to write like me.”

— Kemp (Johnny Depp) in The Rum Diary

The Making of Pulp Fiction

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 04:31:43 +0000

Vanity Fair on “The Making of Pulp Fiction

He has said that his first drafts look like “the diaries of a madman,” but Chen says they’re even worse. “His handwriting is atrocious. He’s a functional illiterate. I was averaging about 9,000 grammatical errors per page. After I would correct them, he would try to put back the errors, because he liked them.”

This article has been everywhere lately but perhaps you haven’t seen it yet. If you’re a Tarantino fan, this is a must read. It was really hard to pick a pull quote from an article this great.

The discovery of Stuxnet

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:00:42 +0000

Have you heard of Stuxnet? I hadn’t until today and it’s a fascinating story.

First, let’s learn how researchers found Stuxnet in the first place. This 2011 Wired article does a great job of explaining it.

Months earlier, in June 2009, someone had silently unleashed a sophisticated and destructive digital worm that had been slithering its way through computers in Iran with just one aim — to sabotage the country’s uranium enrichment program and prevent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from building a nuclear weapon.

The original Stuxnet discovery was version 1.001 and it remained the oldest on record until yesterday when Symantec published details of version 0.5. This older version predates the original discovery by almost 2 years.

Symantec’s data is spread out across multiple blog posts so you may prefer Wired’s breakdown of the discovery.

The new variant appears to have been released in 2007, two years earlier than other variants of the code were released, indicating that Stuxnet was active much earlier than previously known. A command-and-control server used with the malware was registered even earlier than this, on Nov. 3, 2005.

All of the information from Symantec’s blog and Wired’s article can also be found in Symantec’s Stuxnet 0.5: The Missing Link(PDF) whitepaper.

Finally, I recommend this article at ieee.org which has more detail on the history of Stuxnet. (via Macdrifter)

Now you know about Stuxnet, I hope you’re as intrigued and frightened as I am.

Lessons from the movie 'Hackers'

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:22:29 +0000

I have to be honest, of all the repeatedly viewed movies in my past, Hackers holds the crown. I can’t sit through this movie without annoying everyone in the room by reciting the lines as — or before — they happen. I adore this movie and clearly Chris Sims from Wired agrees with me.

Hackers is quite possibly the finest representation of the ’90s that has ever been committed to film, and I love it with an intensity that most people reserve for spouses and children.

This article is one of the funniest things I’ve read this week, definitely worth it if you’re a fan of the movie.

I was hoping to find Hackers on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video but alas, neither service has it. I guess I’ll spend my lunch hour doing something else.

Budget 450 build update

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:19:23 +0000

In typical fashion, I’ve picked up yet another project I probably don’t need, I’m attempting to build a 450 class RC helicopter. I went the cheap route and while I’m starting to regret it (as I always do), I’m pushing through to the finished product.

The helicopter kit is a Hobby King 450 CCPM 3D Ver. 2 which costs just under $30. If I could start over, I’d buy the HK 450GT-PRO V2 but for now, I’ll deal with what I have.

I also went cheap with the components picking up a Detrum 450 brushless combo from Hobby Partz. I’m sure the servos won’t last and there’s no high speed servo for the tail but I already have the parts so I might as well continue.

I’d describe my progress thus far as “fumbly”. Just a few minutes ago I realized I had assembled the tail upside down which meant I had to tear it all back apart. Chalk it all up to the learning process right?

Here’s the progress thus far, the servos are mounted (correctly I hope) and the tail is mostly assembled. I have a 3 day weekend coming up and I hope to get close to completion.

Preparation

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:48:16 +0000

I’m getting ready for something.

Whatever it is, my wallet is in pain.

Discovering the band that changes everything.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:26:58 +0000

Almost 9 years ago I discovered a band that resonated so deeply, I can honestly say my life changed. They didn’t make me a better person or help my love life or really do anything measurable, but they’ve been my soundtrack for nearly a decade. There’s the times I’ve seen them live — somewhere around 12 and counting —, the memories tied to songs, and no matter how many times I hear them, some songs just give me goosebumps. No other band in my 35 years has ever affected me in this way.

In early 2004 I picked up a random CD from my brother’s entertainment center. The band was Coheed and Cambria and the album was their newest release In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. The name intrigued me but I don’t think I even questioned my brother about it. Sometime in the next few days, my friend Matt loaned me their CD and the rest is history.

The second the title track came through the speakers, I was hooked. I’m writing this with that same song in my headphones, my arms covered in goosebumps, and my mind flashing back to the times I’ve seen them perform it live. This is a powerful song, full of epic sauce you might say.

In 2005 Coheed released their third album, Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. The title is a mouthful but this is by far my favorite album by a long shot. Why is it my favorite? I direct your ears to the last 5 tracks. The whole albums is amazing but the last 5 tracks are something special. I have spent months with them on repeat as I absorbed the entirety of this masterpiece in 5 pieces. It may seem melodramatic but I believe this is the best thing Claudio and crew have created. So far at least.

October 2005, Matt and I walk into The State Theatre in Detroit to see Coheed in concert. I still remember that show with a vivid brightness that seems I must have experienced it only last month. I can still feel the wonder as the entire house joined in singing Everything Evil. I remember “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3” whipping the crowd into a frenzy and subsequently into a writhing mosh pit (as it always did). Most of all I remember their performance of The Final Cut, the last track of the album that went on to become their signature concert finale for many shows to come.

One month later, Matt and I drove to Toronto to see the exact same show in a horrible venue — compared to The State Theatre at least. We tried to walk the 5 miles from our hotel to the venue, a rather big mistake. Even so, it was worth every step, every blister, every penny, every mile.

A few years earlier, my brother saw Coheed perform at The Shelter in Detroit. They were touring for The Second Stage Turbine Blade and relatively unknown. The Shelter is basically the basement of Saint Andrew’s Hall and it’s quite the intimate setting. If I ever stumble on a time machine, this is the first place I’ll head.

I may not have experienced them in a tiny venue in Detroit, but I’ve more than made up for that in the past 9 years. As I said earlier, I’ve seen them live something like 12 times. I was keeping all of my stubs but I didn’t do such a great job. One day I’ll sit down and try to map out my concert history so I know for sure what number I’m on.

Next Coheed released Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow which was kind of a let down. I built up such an expectation after Good Apollo v1 that I wasn’t prepared for anything less. What’s that saying, a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work? I’d rather listen to this album than most anything else. Even at their worst, I’m a fanboy.

I should have explained this earlier but Coheed has released only concept albums with each album a part of a larger story. Second Stage Turbine Blade was the second part of the story and Year of the Black Rainbow, released 8 years later, was the first. This album ranked a solid 4th in my preference until The Afterman Ascension was released in October 2012.

The Afterman is a 2 part album split into Ascension and Descension, both are fantastic. My fear that Claudio had lost his mojo is proven wrong with this set of albums released several months apart. This is the Coheed I fell in love with.

This Friday night (2/8/2013) I’ll see them perform in the same venue as my first show. I’ll scream the lyrics to every song as will almost everyone in the room. I’ll have goosebumps. I’ll be bursting with energy. This is what I mean by life changing, they make me feel alive like nothing else has.

If you haven’t heard Coheed and Cambria, I strongly recommend them. Don’t start in the present, go to the beginning, it’s totally worth it.

Verizon updates the Thunderbolt

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:30:15 +0000

This seems like something out of the Twilight Zone, Verizon Wireless is updating the HTC Thunderbolt to Ice Cream Sandwich.

ThunderBolt by HTC is the next smartphone to be upgraded to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. The software upgrade will start getting pushed in phases beginning today Feb. 5.

Why is this odd? Because the phone in question is almost 2 years old and Android phones rarely get updated this late in life. Most of the early adopters of the phone will be up for contract renewal soon and there are 2 other higher end HTC phones in VZW’s lineup right now. It’s incredibly odd that they’d update something this old given their track record.

If you don’t remember, the Thunderbolt was VZW’s first LTE phone so perhaps they have a personal bond with the hardware. Still the update to ICS is quite strange considering the last update pushed to the device was Gingerbread in Sept 2011. I knew a few people who bought the phone during release week and the battery life was horrid. They were lucky to see 3-4 hours of life because the LTE chipset was so power hungry and the phone shipped without a way to shut it off. I have no idea what future software updates introduced but it’s doubtful they were able to fix the power needs of the chipset.

Whatever the reason, congratulations Thunderbolt owners, I’m sure there are plenty of newer phone owners who aren’t happy with you right now.

A new heli in the stable

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 06:05:17 +0000

This is a Kyosho Concept 30 DX, a nitro powered helicopter from the late 80’s. As you might have guessed, they don’t make these any more and there aren’t any new parts available either.

This heli belongs to my wife’s uncle who received it as a gift from a friend. It’s in very nice shape but it’s going to need some TLC if we want to get it off the ground. If I manage to return it to flight, this old bird will only see leisurely hovering sessions to minimize the chance of a bad crash.

Here’s my Blade MSR next to the Concept 30 to give you an idea of the size, it’s a big one.

This is a nitro heli which is new territory for me. Based on how long it has been sitting, I’ll need to disassemble the engine and most likely replace the seals and bearings. The Concept World website has the DX manuals but sadly they have very little information on the engine itself. Hopefully I’ll still be able to locate all the parts necessary for a rebuild.

So that’s the new project. It’s a rather daunting one but with any luck, it will see air time again.

That didn’t take long.

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:30:01 +0000

I broke it!

I slammed into a hard pile of snow while attempting to turn on wet concrete and it didn’t end well. The lower control arm mount broke causing the arm to separate from the body. Luckily it costs $6 to buy all of the lower control arm mounts.

In related news, switching to a LiPo battery makes a huge difference in power. One might assume the extra speed played a part in the crash but I choose not to comment.

All cleaned up

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:45:09 +0000

I like the look without stickers. The next step is to get rid of the hideous yellow wheels.

Everybody wants to have written

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:53:43 +0000

“Everybody wants to have written but it’s hard work to write.”

Merlin Man — Back 2 Work episode 102

Wondering about weight

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:30:56 +0000

I was curious how a nickel-metal hydride battery and a LiPo of roughly the same dimensions might match up in the weight department. Luckily I have a postal scale and all sorts of spare time.

First up, the Losi 1100 mAh NiMH that ships with the Losi Mini 8ight.

I’m comparing it to the Turnigy 1700mAh Lithium Polymer battery from HobbyKing. The Turnigy is slightly smaller in all dimensions while providing 600mAh more power and a savings of $22 over the Losi battery.

As you can see, the Turnigy saves a full ounce of weight and delivers more power. I haven’t run the LiPo since I’m waiting on my charger but I’m fairly certain I won’t use the NiMH battery once I’ve tasted LiPo power.

EDC: Victorinox Classic Alox

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:30:33 +0000

Ah my dear Victorinox Classic Alox, where would I be without you? If I had to pick a tool in my daily arsenal that rivals the importance of my wallet and keys, the Classic Alox is it. I seriously use this little knife almost every single day of the week.

I like to think of the Victorinox Classic as the ultimate in office friendly cutlery. Pull this from your pocket and no one will scream in terror, it’s the most tame knife around. I always have my Spyderco Sage 1 in my pocket but most days I’m reaching for the Victorinox, it’s just safer.

I’m not sure which I use more, the scissors or the knife but both get a serious daily workout. Hangnail? The scissors fix that. Need to open a package or an envelope? Knife blade reporting for duty!

If I had to pick a contender for EDC perfection, this would be it.

The new toy and some upgrades

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:30:37 +0000

Recently I picked up a Losi Mini 8ight with some gift money left over from the holidays. I had promised myself I wouldn’t expand beyond the RC helicopter hobby but that’s not how things worked out. Now in hindsight I see that ignoring the RC car genre would have been a mistake, this little thing is a blast!

As these things go, this car was relatively inexpensive while still having bells and whistles that weren’t available when I was a kid. Stuff like electronic speed controllers, brushless motors, and 2.4ghz radios are pretty much standard today on just about every RC car on the market. If you don’t know what I just said, it adds up to a little car that’s too fast for an old man like me to handle.

When you throw a lot of speed at a bad driver, crashes are the norm. When you crash, you break things so I took some steps to preempt larger costs by upgrading a couple problem areas. I don’t know how it was 15 years ago but these days almost every part can be upgraded if you can stomach the cost. As with anything, the parts range from appearance to protection and I need all the protection I can buy.

What you see here is an RPM front bumper and a Driven Productions delrin shock tower. Both of these address problems I saw in my first few driving sessions.

The Mini 8ight ships with almost no bumper to speak of so any upgrade is a good one and that’s where the RPM bumper comes in. It’s big enough to protect from running into things while still looking like it belongs. When you consider the cost of the parts behind the bumper, the ~$9 price tag makes it well worth it.

After you’ve piloted this buggy for a few minutes, you quickly see a glaring problem with the design. When you flip upside down, the car rests on the front shock caps which are made of plastic. Land upside down enough and the caps will break which, at the rate I was going, wouldn’t take long. The Driven Productions shock tower covers the caps so when I’m upside down, they’re not taking the damage. There’s no data on how long this tower will last but I’m confident it will save me from having to rebuild my shocks over and over.

That’s the end of the upgrades so far. I’ve challenged myself to only upgrade things I identify as weak areas, this means I’m going to try to keep the car as stock as possible. Based on the amount of crashes I’m experiencing, it won’t take long to drain a few more bucks from my wallet.

The new work area

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 05:16:54 +0000

We purchased this house a little over 2 years ago, ecstatic to pay less than our rental home and very happy to have a second bathroom. As excited as that extra toilet and shower made us, I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times that tiny basement bathroom has been used.

But what’s this? Someone from decades prior has set up a work bench of sorts. Sure it’s just a bunch of 1950’s era kitchen cabinets relocated to the basement but who can argue with this location? There’s the aforementioned bathroom to the left and a refrigerator to the right. What else could a man possibly need?

As I dive further into the hobby of remote controlled vehicles, I need a place to work. I’ve been doing everything at the desk in my office, a task made near impossible by the amount of clutter I tend to live in. As the wife and I performed our pre-spring cleaning of the basement, I saw this area as a new frontier, a place I could claim as my own, a place that might provide a sanctuary for my remote controlled hobbies.

This is where I will build my future helicopter (an Align 450 T-rex clone), it’s where my existing helicopters live, where my Losi Mini 8ight is stored when it’s not outside flipping upside-down because the driver isn’t all that great. It’s where I’ll store the tools I designate as the “indoor tools”, separate from the tools in the garage. None of this makes much sense but that’s how I tend to work. Perhaps this area will end up dusty and unused, or maybe this time around I’ll find a hobby that captivates me longer than anything else.

If only it weren’t so cold out

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:03:52 +0000

If you read this blog, you know I like to run. Sadly I don’t have the willpower or fortitude to run in the winter.

Patrick Rhone recently posted his guide to winter running and it has me wishing I weren’t such a pansy.

Two things keep me from running during the winter:

I. My eyes water like crazy when it’s cold or windy.

This happens when I run in cooler mornings and it’s horribly distracting. My eyes start watering and I seem to cry as I run, just the image I want. Drop the temperature and my eyes water even more, just walking outside in the winter triggers the waterworks.

This isn’t that big of a deal in the spring and summer but in freezing cold temps? Yeah, I’ll pass.

II. My sinuses do not like cold.

I assume this is pretty normal, go out in the cold and sniffles abound. My nose runs faster than I do when the temps drop and I end up wiping snot on my gloves, pretty disgusting. I suppose I could stuff a few Kleenex in my pocket to remedy this particular problem.

These 2 things represent the main reasons I can’t run in the winter. The cold isn’t as bad as you think once you get moving but throw snot and watering eyes in the mix and it gets too annoying for my taste.

Hats off to Patrick for his ability to run in the cold Minnesota winters, I’ll stay inside until I see the mid 40’s somewhere in March.

You know what’s sad? I own a treadmill. Go ahead, judge me, I deserve it.

So I guess this is growing up

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:33:58 +0000

I don’t know what happened between being a child and becoming an adult but life has not turned out as I expected. Here I am in the center of my 30th decade and I still feel like a child. I often pause and wonder if this is normal, did I screw up somewhere and lock myself in perpetual childhood?

If you were to walk into my comically messy office, you’d pass 2 Nerf guns, an aluminum case containing 2 remote control helicopters, a remote control car, and a few World of Warcraft themed Megabloks sets on display. All things I associate with childhood and definitely not something my younger self would have expected a 35 year old man to own.

Did I always have the definition of maturity wrong?

I grew up expecting to become boring one day. I didn’t know when but it was a guarantee as far as I was concerned. There would come a time where I’d switch from an immature kid to a super serious adult who woke up early, rushed off to a job, then came home to eat dinner and fall asleep, destined to repeat the day forever. Sure, work exists and my days aren’t all that different but I never expected to still be playing with toys.

I’m not complaining, I love this life. I’m a guy who by some accounts is approaching the middle of his life and I’ve recently discovered the joy of remote control vehicles. I’m married, own a house, and have all sorts of disposable income thanks to the joint decision of my wife and I not to reproduce. Of course, even if we did chose to crank out a reproduction of ourselves, our friends with kids still seem like big children raising little children.

I watch something like Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in cars getting coffee” and I realize that the whole growing up thing is a sham. Here are grown men acting young, breaking only for the occasions where life requires them to act like “grown ups” and then jumping back into the swimming pool of childhood, hoping not to be interrupted again.

I’m so relieved life isn’t what I expected, I didn’t want to be a serious person and I don’t have to be. If one day I see the ripe age of 70 and I’m lucky enough to have my beautiful wife by my side and we’re still laughing when one of us farts, I’ll be so amazingly blessed.

Who wants to be a serious grown up anyway? Plus farts are always funny.

Learning as you go

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 03:18:12 +0000

Matt Alexander wrote a fantastic piece to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his site, One Thirty Seven.

12 months gone, over 800 articles written, more than 30 podcasts recorded, and too many new friends to count.

With one lesson for each month, here’s some of the most fundamental things I’ve gotten wrong, observed, and learned over the past year.

It’s a very long article detailing twelve things he’s learned in the past year, one entry for each month. I highly recommend you read it, there is a wealth of knowledge inside.

Who Invited The Bursitis?

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:00:51 +0000

I miss running.

To a lot of people I know, that statement is something a crazy person might say. You miss running? Running is hard! I like Doritos! It’s so bad on the knees!

I swear if someone lectures me on that knee garbage one more time …

OK so I’m not going to slap anyone but hey, I love to run. I’m not one of those athletes who can run 10-15 miles any given day nor am I a speed demon, I just like to run at my own slow pace.

A few years ago I discovered that I could run as long as I threw the idea of speed out the window. I spent the spring, summer, and fall of 2008 running my heart out. I wasn’t fast, heck I was barely running by most standards, but I loved it.

Then the Michigan winter arrived and I chickened out. I even bought all the winter accessories one might wear while running in the cold but I still couldn’t go through with it. I bet I would have looked great in those tights.

That was the end of my running for a while. I wish I could say I picked back up in the spring of 2009 but I didn’t. Sure I tried but I only made it a week or two before I gave up. I repeated this in 2010 and 2011. I tried every year, I’ll give myself that much credit, but the habit didn’t form.

Why do I love running so much? Let me count the ways. First and foremost, I need it. I’m a typical American with extra baggage in the mid-section, what a shocker! I find that running helps keep me focused on my diet so it’s almost like I’m being healthy or something.

Other than the health aspect, I like having time alone to think and the extra blood flow to the brain helps a lot. In fact, I find that my brain works better all day long if I run. There’s also the metabolism boost and a sense of calm that results from having a lower resting heart rate.

So there it is, I like all that stuff. I’d trade any carbohydrate-laden sluggish week for one day of that post-run feel.

I was telling a story before I interrupted myself, let’s get back to it.

I tried to run again in 2012 and this time it actually stuck, I was a running fool again! I worked my way up to 3-5 miles a day depending on how much time I had, I was back baby!

Then came July 11th, 2012 — a day I’ll remember for at least a year or two.

I know the exact date because that’s the last run recorded in Endomondo, the tracking app I use to record my runs. The list that details my runs ends very abruptly at that date.

It wasn’t a dramatic exit, I finished my run and went to work. Later that day I noticed a twinge of pain in my right heel and as the day progressed, it got worse. Never run on an injury, that’s a basic rule.

I hobbled around for a month convinced it was healing but the pain never went away. Finally I visited my doctor who referred me to a podiatrist, a man so busy I had to wait a month and a half for an appointment. Finally in early October, I had a diagnosis.

What kept me from running for 3 months? An inflamed bursa, the sac of fluid that keeps the Achilles tendon from rubbing against the heel bone had somehow been angered during that July run. The solution was simple: shoot it full of steroids.

Two days later, the pain was gone. Like magically gone. Steroids are serious business!

I’m reluctant to try to run again this year as I want to be sure the injury is completely healed but the pain I endured for 3 months disappeared the day after the shot. If only I had been able to see this mysterious medicine man sooner!

Bursitis ruined my 2012 running season but I refuse to let it stop me from running again. 2013 will be another successful year, not a repeat of 2009-2011, I owe that to myself.

That about sums it up

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:00:25 +0000

I’m a zombie fan and I had high hopes when The Walking Dead was turned into a TV show, unfortunately I find this infographic to be true.

I never make it to the cliffhanger, I usually give up somewhere in the yellow or pink areas. It took me almost a year to admit I wasn’t going to watch this show and delete it from my DVR.

Too much drama, not enough zeds!

Source

Looking for a backup assistant?

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:09:13 +0000

The Nexus devices weren’t the only thing Google rolled out this week, they just dropped an amazing update to their iOS search app

I don’t know what else this app does because I’m too busy playing with voice search.

Words flash on the screen as fast as you say them and the results come back quick as well. There’s even a voice option if you really want another robotic assistant. Google obviously put a lot of work into making this really fast.

Some will be quick to compare it with Siri but it’s not really a fair comparison. Yes they both share similar functions but Siri will always have the advantage of being available from the lock screen. Of course she isn’t always working so Google will probably see plenty of use.

Comparisons aside, the app is a great example of what Google can do it they really want to show off. Now if only they’d give us a killer Gmail app. Please?

Google announces the Nexus 4

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:30:29 +0000

The Google announcement may have been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy but that didn’t stop them from showing us the goods. Personally I was hoping the event would happen just to see their retort to Apple’s dig on the Nexus 7 from last week’s iPad Mini unveil. Oh well, I’m sure the jabs will continue in future events.

Google announced both a phone and a tablet but I really only care about the phone. They’re calling it the Nexus 4 and The Verge has a preview. It’s made by LG and I’ve never known anyone to own an LG smartphone so I know next to nothing about their products. Unknown quality aside, on paper this thing is a beast. Here are a few things I consider important:

— 4.7" screen (1280x768 @ 320ppi)
— Quad core Snapdragon S4 CPU @ 1.5GHz
— 2GB RAM
— 8GB or 16GB storage
— Wireless charging
— Android 4.2

I left out the obvious stuff, of course it has NFC, WiFi, and Bluetooth although as with the Nexus phones before it, there’s no SD card slot.

The screen has almost the same ppi as the iPhone so I bet it looks fantastic. LG is also laminating their display to the glass (again, like Apple) which might not be something you notice consciously but you do notice it.

I’m still not clear why we need a quad core CPU in our phones but I’m guessing this Snapdragon is up to the task of pretty much anything you can throw at it. The 2GB of RAM is generous and will likely help extend the life of this device. I suppose no one will complain if it has too much power, better than too little.

I don’t understand why phone manufacturers are offering 8GB options in 2012, it seems like we all have more than enough media to fill that and then some. I suspect it might be needed to hit the price point but it would be nice if 16GB were the floor. I have no proof but I like to think the cost of 8GB vs 16GB chips are fairly negligible in bulk. Of course, the big push toward cloud storage might make 8GB more than enough in the next year or so.

I still consider wireless charging to be a gimmick but I’ve never owned a device that used it. Plugging my phone in at night isn’t a chore and all the wireless solutions I’ve seen still require a mat or dock that takes up space on your desk or night stand. Since I’ve never actually used it, I’ll reserve my judgement until I have. It’s a neat selling point no matter what.

Possibly the best feature is Android 4.2 which as Google describes it, is a “flavor” of Jelly Bean. I have to wonder how much emphasis would have been placed on this iteration of Android had the event taken place. The Verge has a sneak peak at the new version and it seems like a nice bump from the Jelly Bean we were introduced to a couple months ago. Most notable is the introduction of user accounts on tablets, how many of us have been clamoring for that? It also appears they stole some of Swype’s thunder with the new keyboard. How Apple-like!

Did you notice something’s missing? Two somethings really, there’s no CDMA or LTE options for this phone. In fact, we’re transported back to 2010 where, like the Nexus One, this phone is only available from Google and the only carrier mentioned is T-Mobile. Naturally, this has caused an uproar from the internet community, no LTE? What is this, 2011?

I’m sure Google didn’t want to release a Nexus phone without LTE, especially since the Galaxy Nexus had it so why the step backwards? I can’t help but think the blame falls on Verizon’s shoulders. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus roll was full of problems, mainly caused by the carrier’s want to control it. In fact, if you have the unlocked GSM version, you were running Jelly Bean long before VZW users. That’s not what Google had in mind for the Nexus line.

Sadly, the time for Google to strong-arm their way into the carriers is long gone. Unlike Apple who offered AT&T exclusivity then used that to leverage all kinds of power over them and subsequently VZW and Sprint, Google seemed to let VZW walk all over them. Now they have no choice but to slink back to the Play store and sell the phone themselves.

To some people, this is a deal breaker due to poor quality GSM signal. As I understand it, AT&T is useless in New York and certain areas of California but here in the Detroit Metro area, AT&T is fast enough to be useful at any time of day. It’s not LTE quality but it’s almost always usable by which I mean at least 2MB/s. If it came down to it, I’m not sure I would let the lack of LTE stop me from buying this phone and I most certainly understand what Google is up against.

I saved the best part for last: the price. As with previous Nexus devices, Google is eating some of the cost in the interest of getting it into our hands. The only official carrier deal available is with T-Mobile where the Nexus 4 can be had for the standard $199 with 2 year contract. For those of us on AT&T or who don’t want to deal with contracts, the 8GB version will cost you $299 while the 16GB will run $349. These prices are a far cry from the normal $600 range most smartphones retail for.

I’ll admit I’m intrigued by this LG Nexus, especially because it’s not a Samsung product. I was hoping for a Nexus device by Motorola but it looks like that might not happen until next year if Google allows it at all. While LG is a relative unknown entity in the smartphone race, they might have a winner here.

One last note before I wrap this up, I didn’t feel like getting too in-depth with the looks because it’s a pretty boring looking phone, the only real personality it has is the weird sparkly glass back and I’m not even sure that’s all that exciting.

The Negativity Trend

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:41:19 +0000

I like to refer to negativity as the “language of the internet” — it oozes from every site you visit, impossible to avoid. Everywhere you look there are people being negative for the sake of being negative and it’s hard not to feel weighed down by it.

I can control what I read but it seems I’ve lost control of what I write. Take a look at my latest article about the Microsoft Surface commercial. This article has an overly negative tone, I seem to think I’m a marketing genius and I know this is a bad move for Microsoft.

Is Microsoft making a mistake? I don’t have a clue and that’s the truth.

I’m not alone in this voice, it seems common in technology writing. If you want to see what I mean, wait for Apple to release a new product or report earnings (they did both this week, lucky us!) then read the articles about it. Without a doubt, several will use the news to predict Apple’s downfall.

It’s no secret that it’s easier — and more fun — to predict doom and gloom; no one seems to get excited about success anymore. Everyone’s on the edge of their seat waiting for a train wreck, ready to cheer and slap each other on the back for having the foresight to predict failure. It’s an ugly place and I found myself standing in the group trying to high-five everyone.

I’m going to put my hand down and leave the party. I’m not even sure how I got here.

This isn’t to say I can’t have an unfavorable opinion but I can be more careful about the voice I use. There’s a big difference between sharing a balanced opinion and focusing only on the negative aspects of everything. An author who practices the latter may find a large audience but they’ll likely be as negative as the writing itself.

I hate to admit it but focusing on the negative is really easy, the stuff practically writes itself. As I write, I imagine other jaded folks reading it with a sneer on their lips. Once they’re finished, we high-five and giggle at how right I was. These days negativity sells and everybody’s buying.

I want to make a change, I need to open my eyes, look past the negativity, and find something that’s actually interesting to talk about. It won’t be easy and there will probably be fewer high-fives but I think it’s necessary. I should aim to produce the same kind of content I like to read, I owe myself that.

I don’t want to be yet another voice gloating over the downfall of others.

Marketing is tricky

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:33:21 +0000

Last night Microsoft rolled out the first television ad for the Surface and to the surprise of no one, failed to tell us anything useful. I guess if you pay attention you learn it has a kickstand and a snap on keyboard thingy.

Take a look.

youtube

This is new territory for Microsoft, they’re manufacturing their own tablet hardware specifically for the Windows 8 operating system that releases later this month. Why not focus on the new touch friendly OS or brag about how great the keyboard cover is? The opportunities seem endless, it’s a completely new product and they should have a lot of great things to tell us.

For instance, Microsoft says the Surface RT will ship with a preview edition of Office 2013, why not highlight that? Imagine the effectiveness of an ad campaign that focused on the power of Windows 8 and Office 2013 on a tablet. This may not resonate with us nerds but we’re out-numbered by the millions of people who work in Office every day. I’m not an expert but I have to think a smartly run campaign on this subject alone would sell a lot of these things.

Instead we got a dance video. Microsoft, you haven’t changed.

Tap the tiny links.

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 02:11:48 +0000

Of all the major changes Apple made to the app store in iOS 6, this one is driving me nuts.

When I update an app, I like to check out the change log before installing. The tiny text link is frustratingly hard to hit on on the iPhone screen and I end up opening the app description. As you can imagine, the problem doesn’t exist on the larger iPad screen.

Luckily the app store is HTML 5 and Apple can update on the fly. With any luck they’ll tweak the font size soon.

EDC: Spyderco Sage 1

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 02:32:47 +0000

I’m a collector by nature meaning I find something I like and buy a lot of them. Some of these fascinations stick around, most of them depart as quickly as they arrived. I thought I’d start a series of posts called “My favorite things” to highlight some of the things that stuck around and that I use every day.

I’ve had pocket knives since I was a kid. I was raised in a home where a pocket knife was something a man carried and to this day I believe that every man should have one in his pocket. While society may view a knife as a weapon, to me it’s a tool with an every-day use.

Whether you agree or disagree, we’ll sidestep that matter and attend to this virtual show-and-tell. I have a large collection of pocket knives but this particular one quickly became the knife I put in my pocket every single day.

This is my Spyderco Sage 1.

The Sage series was created to pay homage to the different locking devices used in the folding knife world. This one recognizes the liner lock, one of my favorite locking mechanisms.

My biggest draw to this knife is the carbon fiber scales, they’re simply beautiful. I’m also a fan of the size, balance, and of course, the signature Spyderco flat-ground blade. I own several Spyderco knives but this is the best looking of my collection by far. Of course, if you intend to use the knife to cut things, you could do a lot worse than S30V steel.

The Sage line has progressed to the 4th model (Sage 2, Sage 3, Sage 4) but none are as beautiful as the first. If you look around the knife forums, you can still find these new or lightly used for a very reasonable price. If you do happen to find one, I highly recommend you buy it immediately.

Every morning I look down the line of knives that cross my dresser and I pick up the Sage 1. Can you blame me?

Danny MacAskill vs. San Francisco

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:31:35 +0000

Danny MacAskill has a new video out and it’s great as always, I never get tired of watching him ride.

youtube

How about another for good measure?

youtube

When you’re done with those, there’s plenty more at his website.

That looks familiar

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:30:45 +0000

Philips just announced a new cordless phone line and the S10 model looks really familiar.

Who “designed” this and why is Philips letting it go to market?

Go to the Philips Flickr account to take a closer look.

Is this where we’re at?

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 03:44:33 +0000

Are you angry that Apple is calling their new device the iPhone 5? If so, you need a vacation.

Today my Twitter and RSS feeds are bursting with discussion about the name of an unreleased smart phone.

A name.

Is there nothing else to talk about? Are we so desensitized to how amazing these devices have become that we’re writing 300 word blog posts about a naming convention?

Longbows are allowed

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 14:00:49 +0000

I love this weapons policy from the Michigan Renaissance Festival

The Festival bans guns on our premises. Longbows are allowed as long as they are not strung, arrows with tips are not allowed unless you are competing in the longbow competition that day. Swords, knives, dirks and daggers must be completely sheathed and peace-tied. Axes, claymores, maces, antique firearms, pikes and halberds are NOT allowed on the Festival site. No drawing of any weapon at any time.

I can’t think of another event that could pull this off.

All the fiddly things

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 02:20:41 +0000

I have more fountain pens than I can write with in a month.

I have 2 desk drawers full of notebooks and paper.

I have a shrine made of ink bottles, all full.

I have a drawer full of non-fountain pens and pencils.

I have fancy leather notebook covers to protect empty notebooks.

I have 2 external keyboards for my iPad.

I own 10 different text editors for my various devices (so far).

I have a text file workflow that includes Dropbox.

I can write in Markdown.

I have all these things. When do the words come?

I can’t stop watching this

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:26:50 +0000

My favorite band returns with a new album. I’m so pumped.

youtube

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 02:10:14 +0000

Kudos to Evernote, if anything makes me want an overpriced Moleskine, it’s that beautiful debossed cover. What can I say, I’m a sucker for pretty things.

Evernote just announced these notebooks to go along with a new “Page Camera” feature in their iOS app. They claim the special dotted graph or lined paper helps the app adjust skew which will help with OCR to make your handwritten notes searchable. There’s also a feature that uses “Smart Stickers” to allow you to tag pictures automatically or even send them to specific notebooks.

I was curious how well Page Camera works so I tested the Evernote app using a regular lined pocket Moleskine. The app defaults to a normal camera that takes normal type pictures. I snapped a photo of a notebook page in low light and the picture looked like a notebook page in low light, readable but not all that great.

Page Camera mode automatically uses the flash and tweaks the contrast to clean up shadows; it even has a handy rectangle guide to help center the image. A picture of the same page taken with Page Camera resulted in a much cleaner image. As far as I could tell, Evernote’s OCR worked fine in both instances.

You can’t blame Evernote for going after this market, it’s a legitimate need on some level. I know a lot of the indie tech bloggers I read already use Evernote for this purpose and Page Camera alone should be a big help. At $24.95 & $29.95 they seem overpriced but each notebook comes with 3 months of Evernote Premium — a $15 value — which means they cost roughly the same as a regular Moleskine.

Pre-orders are taking place now at the Evernote store and Moleskine store (USA link). Evernote says they’ll start shipping on October 1st.

Judging by how many notebooks I already own and how well Evernote Page Camera works with regular notebooks, I’ll try to pass on these. I don’t think anyone needs this notebook but I wouldn’t fault you for buying one, they’re so pretty.

My new Retro 51

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:35:58 +0000

I have too many pens and I don’t need any more.

Anyway, here’s the Retro 51 Vintage Metalsmith Jefferson that I ordered from JetPens as soon as they got them in. The Metalsmith series are standard size Tornados with custom metal barrels so there’s no surprises in the size, weight, or refill quality.

As you can see, it has a nice brushed metal finish to go with the textured barrel. I’m a sucker for anything brushed metal, antique copper, or matte black. I owned the Stealth Tornado and now I have the Jefferson, any Retro 51 fan knows what happens next (hint: I answer this in the last paragraph).

Check out that textured metal barrel, it looks fantastic. It’s sort of industrial in a way that catches the eye but doesn’t attack it. When in the hand, the texture is noticeable but not distracting to the fingertips during use.

Remember the copper comment? Well, this exists and I don’t know how long I can fight the urge to buy it.

Please don’t buy this

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 04:24:24 +0000

Wow, Android Police went to town on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

The overall impression I get from this is arrogance. “We’re Samsung. You slobs will buy anything we crap out. We don’t have to try, we don’t even need the latest components. You’ll buy it no matter what.”

Scathing! I giggle with pleasure to see one of the better Android sites blast something from Samsung.

What about this review by The Verge? It looks like Android Police isn’t alone in their criticisms (The Verge gave it a 5.4 out of 10).

But a pretty good pen system built on top of a disappointing Android tablet still makes for a disappointing Android tablet. There’s just no reason to suffer through it: the Nexus 7 costs less than half as much as the Note and is without question the best Android tablet available.

That’s all I need to hear, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is junk and I could have told you that last year. I very much dislike Samsung, I don’t think I’ve tried to hide that fact in the past and I sure won’t sugar coat it now. They make copy-cat products that are pure garbage and then refuse to support them once they’re in the hands of the general public. They are everything that is wrong with the technology world and I hope they go out of business.

Don’t buy this, buy a Nexus 7 if you must.

Kill your darlings

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:43:24 +0000

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings”

— Stephen King, “On Writing”

A merging of personalities

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:23:46 +0000

During my 2 year hiatus from writing this site (formerly bwh.me), I started another blog where I actually produced a decent amount of content. I love technology and I wanted to try my hand at covering the news that interested me.

Superfunti.me became my personal soapbox for sounding off about technology news but it followed a rather cookie cutter approach. I tried to be John Gruber which is a rather popular thing to try these days. Trust me, the internet doesn’t need any more link list sites.

At some point early in the game I became disheartened with my lack of critical thinking. Nothing deflates an ego like writing a piece then an article that covered areas you didn’t even think about. One doesn’t develop critical thinking skills or a writing voice overnight but that knowledge didn’t stop me from promptly quitting.

Despite the poor quality, I was writing and that was my whole goal when I started the site. To delete that content would be a disservice to myself and the effort I put into it. And so, I exported the data from superfunti.me and imported it here. The 2 year silence has been erased and in it’s place is a collection of technology writing I’m not particularly proud of.

Proud or not, I won’t hide from it — it’s all part of the process. I also have no intention of running from this idea so expect more technology writing in the future.

Aaron Draplin loves notebooks

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 05:11:10 +0000

I could watch this over and over, his passion for these old notebooks is inspiring.

vimeo

How time flies

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:28:44 +0000

Occasionally I enjoy a trip down memory lane and reading old blog posts will definitely take you there. Often times the things I’ve written sound so different from the person I am now that I wonder if it was truly me who penned them.

I’ve started many blogs for many different reasons; I’ve dedicated them to the subject of cars, guns, pens, and a technology. Most of the time I end up hating what I wrote or just getting bored with the subject. Sadly I have no record of those sites but this one provides a peek at my interest moving from bicycles to pens to writing.

Join me as I point out a few interesting things from the past.

Back in 2009, I got the bright idea that I wanted to start riding BMX bikes. Mind you, I was 30 years old and this was not my best idea. Things tend to heal a bit slower when you’re past your 20’s and I found this out the hard way. In the post “More Problems, More Money” I see a quick mention of something I’m all too familiar with even here in 2012. I’m spending a lot of time and money building bicycles but not actually getting outside and riding.

Later in August, I wrote a post called “Success and how we get there which went further on the subject. No matter how much money I spend on pens or bicycle parts, I don’t improve without practice. Fancy pens don’t improve your penmanship or writing skills if they’re sitting in a drawer while you watch Dancing With The Stars. I may have a custom built BMX bike but I still can’t fakie and I think we can all figure out why.

In September of 2009, I got the bright idea to start a new pen forum called Styloforum. Like almost all of my website ideas it didn’t last that long although I let it languish for quite a while. I actually just shut it off earlier this year knowing I would never return. Sad, it probably had some potential but my hobbies come and go without my control.

I need to note that I’m amazed at how much I wrote in 2009. Of all my blog attempts, this one might have held a record.

At some point in September 2009, I started focusing more on pen and paper topics. I still remember being a little nervous about blasting Field Notes in my review of the Mackinaw Autumn version. Back then I was a fountain pen guy and nothing else mattered, these days I’m quite accepting of the gel pen. I’ve also purchased every limited edition Field Notes they’ve offered since that review. It’s hard not to support a company that uses Michigan companies to make their product.

Ah look at this, I’m struggling with the writer label. This is a constant in my life, I’m still arguing with myself about it to this day. I want to write, but I don’t do it as often as I’d like.

Here’s an ironic one, I bash on Moleskine. After all that, I’m still using the exact same notebook I reviewed. Obviously I don’t write in it very often but it’s neat to see things from every year since 2009. Since writing this review, I’ve become a pretty big fan of Moleskine despite all the fake back-story crap.

In November of 2009, I attempted NaNoWriMo and succeeded. That marks the point where I began ignoring the blog albeit for honorable reasons. I’ve had dreams of trying NaNoWriMo again but have not even attempted it since.

In 2010 I tried my hand at writing about technology with my initial thoughts on the iPad. As iOS 4 and 5 came, I stuck with that machine and loved it more and more each year. Now I have a third generation iPad and am still using it daily.

In 2012 I started writing about technology on another domain but ended up scrapping it because I didn’t like my voice. Perhaps this blog can absorb a bit of the tech side of me.

That brings us to now, 2012 where a lot of things have changed in my life. In the missing 2 years I’ve lost a job, found a new place, then returned to the original company. I’ve celebrated my 2nd wedding anniversary, acquired a tiny dog, and bought a home. And through it all, I still have my BMX bike, my pens & paper, and my iPad.

Maybe things haven’t changed as much as I think?

Two years

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:15:05 +0000

I think that’s a record.

Fountain pen sales on the rise

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:23:36 +0000

Stephen Bayley for The Telegraph

Few things are more exciting than to hear a woman breathlessly say: “You have lovely handwriting.” But you are unlikely to hear this if you write with a cheap ballpoint and its viscous, blobby ink. For gratification of this sort, a fountain pen is required. And the written trail it must leave is, for best effect, a dense black water‑based ink.

I’m not surprised, they’re a lot of fun.

I’ve been collecting fountain pens off and on for several years and have amassed a small selection of pens that I really like. There’s something for everyone, from the cheap Chinese pens off Ebay to the pricier options from well known, established makers.

No matter what price range you feel comfortable in, you can’t go wrong with a fountain pen!

How Jenna Wortham writes.

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:50:31 +0000

The Atlantic Wire has a great interview with NYT tech reporter Jenna Wortham. Interesting to see how she structures her day and all the ways she gets her news.

So much time spent on the internet, too many days like this would destroy my attention span which is already pretty short.

Samsung the heart breaker

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:08:02 +0000

Vlad Savov writing for The Verge: “How Samsung broke my heart”

But the Korean leopard hadn’t changed its spots. We were just riding the crest of its massive technological advantage, there was no change in philosophy. In simple terms, Samsung was still Samsung, only its products happened to be awesome enough to be desirable in their own right. The signs of this were all there, in the shadowy expanse between its glamorous product launches. Once you buy a Samsung phone, you’re pretty much on your own. Did your Galaxy S ship with a dysfunctional GPS unit? Tough. Did you hope for timely software updates to your US variant of the same phone? Tougher still.

I can’t agree more with this. I’ve repeatedly fallen for Samsung’s technical specs only to be disappointed with the experience as a whole. Both the Sprint and AT&T versions of the Galaxy S II experienced software issues that caused me to return them. The Nexus S — which I still own — was a decent experience simply because it’s a “pure” Google device.

Vlad echos something I’ve been saying for a while, Samsung does not care about the device past the release date. Once they get the fanfare, it’s dead to them and even serious bugs get ignored, denied, or if you’re lucky, fixed months later. The carriers deserve some blame but I feel the majority of it falls on Samsung.

Even the much awaited ICS update is a huge disappointment. Samsung chose to completely hide Google’s Halo skin under the same version of Touchwiz that they used on Gingerbread. While HTC uses ICS as an opportunity to scale back and update their custom UI, Samsung plods along with the same old thing and robs the user of an improved experience.

The Galaxy S III is surprisingly ugly compared to the previous model and no matter how much they try to spin the software changes, it’s not very exciting at all. If the previous models are any example, there will be serious software bugs and only if enough people get angry will Samsung act with any urgency.

If you’re looking to get a new top of the line Android phone, I’d say the HTC One X is your best option right now.

Let’s get more ice cream sandwiches!

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:05:54 +0000

This time last month Android 4.0 was on 2.9% of devices, now it’s on 4.9%. Slowly gaining ground.

I have no idea if 2% growth in a month is good or bad but at least more phones have ICS on them now. Hopefully they’re not all hiding behind Samsung’s dreadful Touchwiz.

Source: Android Developers

What version is this?

Wed, 02 May 2012 15:03:18 +0000

I randomly stumbled onto the version history in the footer of The Verge.

Pretty cool.

I guess that works

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:24:33 +0000

One of the more interesting things to come out of the Blackberry 10 Jam keynote is that Rim says they’re prepared to guarantee a $10k first year for apps submitted to the BB App World. As you would guess, there are conditions to this deal and I’ll let Crackberry and The Verge expound.

Even Android struggled with luring developers to their ecosystem for the first few years. I can only imagine the battle Rim and Microsoft will face to bring them to their respective platforms. It may not work, but this seems like a good try.

Saying goodbye to the internet

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:56:41 +0000

Paul Miller from The Verge is trying to leave the internet for a year.

At midnight tonight I will leave the internet. I’m abandoning one of my “top 5” technological innovations of all time for a little peace and quiet. If I can survive the separation, I’m going to do this for a year. Yeah, I’m serious. I’m not leaving The Verge, and I’m not becoming a hermit, I just won’t use the internet in my personal or work life, and won’t ask anyone to use it for me.

I can’t even fathom how one could pull this off, especially with a job like his.

Sudden friendships

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:26:46 +0000

According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is investing $300 Million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook platform.

The alliance comes after the companies openly feuded over the Nook. Microsoft last year sued Barnes & Noble and the manufacturers of the Nook, charging the device infringed on its patents. Barnes & Noble said Microsoft was trying to “bully” smaller companies that used versions of Google Inc.’s Android operating system, as Barnes & Noble does for the Nook.

This is just wild speculation but I’m guessing that B&N’s response was valid enough that Microsoft now finds itself chucking money at them to smooth things over. It might be hard to say for sure as the lawsuit conveniently disappears with this agreement.

Android adoption in chart form

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:18:54 +0000

Android Police has a fantastic article about the adoption of Android through the years complete with a really good chart. Make sure you click The Big Android Chart graphic for a good view.

This confirms something I think we all suspected, Ice Cream Sandwich adoption is moving really really slow. On the other hand Jean-Baptiste Queru seems to think this is normal.

With the Jelly Bean announcement most likely coming at Google I/O this year, I’d like to see this chart updated in 6 months, I bet it will still be depressing.

The descriptive camera

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:12:52 +0000

I thought this was kind of cool. A camera that uses human power to spit out descriptive text of a picture.

I forgot that Amazon had this Mechanical Turk thingy. I almost want to try being a worker just reading the description.

Oh yeah, forgot I’m suppose to be talking about this camera thing. So he snaps a pic, it’s sent off to the mechanical turk, someone types out a description and sends it back, and boom.. a true text Instagram, not to be confused with @textinstagram.

Very cool project.

via:kottke

Hey Samsung, try harder

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:03:21 +0000

Androidandme.com found an interesting story about Samsung hiring a marketing firm to stir up some buzz about the Galaxy S III. While it’s not clear if Samsung is specifically directing the marketing firm, someone thought it would be a good idea to crash an Apple store with signs reading “Wake up”.

I don’t get their marketing strategy at all. Samsung seems hell-bent on convincing iPhone users to switch phones by insulting them. Whether it be a jab at baristas, waiting in line for a launch, or the idea that iPhone users need to wake up to the amazing world of Samsung, they’re all sort of rude. I’ve had enough bad experiences with Samsung software to know better but if someone does fall for this, they’re in for a big surprise.

I wish Samsung would put as much effort into perfecting their products as they put into badgering Apple users. Imagine that world.

UPDATE: Samsung is stating that they are not behind this according to a story on Slashgear.

The definition of disappointment

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:28:49 +0000

According to Ina Fried, the second quarter iPad sales were disappointing.

For any other company, 11.8 million tablets would be a lot to sell in a year, never mind a quarter.

I just like that quote. If Asus had sold 11.8 million tablets in a year, they would throw a 2 week celebration on a huge yacht in the middle of the ocean. Here, we have an article bemoaning the poor sales of 11.8 Million iPads in 16 days.

Sixteen days

Let me repeat this for emphasis. In sixteen days, Apple sold a number of iPads that would make their competitors dance with joy, even if that number were for all 4 quarters combined.

Let’s not forget that the new iPad has had some availability constraints which would limit the number they were able to sell along side the lower price iPad 2.

I thought I’d dig around for the Samsung Galaxy Tab sales numbers but it seems Samsung doesn’t make those public. Instead, I found this NPD press release which claims the total sales figures of all non-iPad tablets in the first 10 months of 2011 was around 1.2 Million. In other words, Apple sold something like 10x that number in 16 days. I are disappoint.

I know nothing of the markets or how these analysts work but it befuddles me how we can hold a company to made up standards and then write articles like this when they don’t hit it.

The attack of the revenue model

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:25:14 +0000

Ars Technica is reporting that Tumblr will begin showing ads in May.

On Wednesday, Tumblr announced in an apparent about-face that it would be allowing paid advertisement on the popular blogging platform. David Kamp, Tumblr CEO and founder, made the announcement at Ad Age’s Digital Conference today in New York.

I wonder how much money they make from premium theme sales. I dug around but couldn’t find any information on the revenue split with theme developers. Obviously they don’t make enough to keep a service this large afloat.

From the details, it sounds like they’ll only be displaying ads on the dashboard view which makes sense to me. The Tumblr dashboard view is clean and sparse, plenty of room for an ad or two while not cluttering the view.

Remember kids, if you’re not paying for a service, don’t get upset when they need ad revenue to make money.

Draw Something adds some things

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:00:19 +0000

Zynga updated Draw Something yesterday and introduced a few options that should have existed from the beginning. I wish they’d redesign the app as it’s quite ugly but with Zynga, it can only get worse.

Anyway, let’s look at the differences in this update.

Hmmm, still OMGPOP branded. The only mention of Zynga that I found was in the Appstore description.

Finally a way to refresh the current game page. I can’t tell you how many times it would notify me I had a game to play but show that none were ready.

You can comment on drawings now but it’s not as awesome as it sounds as the next screenshot will show. I saw another comment field at the bottom of the page after guessing a drawing correctly but it timed out in 1 second and moved on to the next screen. Either it wasn’t intended to be used, or this is Zynga quality control at its finest.

Commenting seems cool but what is this crap? Limited characters and a pop-up entry box? Worst implementation ever.

Finally you can save your amazing drawing or share it on Facebook. Can’t wait to see my Facebook and Twitter streams filled with crude drawings of penises.

I love the idea of this game but wow is this app horrible. OMGPOP wasn’t known for amazing apps, and neither is Zynga. If it weren’t an utterly despicable act, I might wish that someone would steal the idea and make a better implementation. On the flip side, Zynga could probably use a dose of their own medicine.

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:40:25 +0000

The new version of the Logitech keyboard cover looks really nice! There’s a lot of people — myself included — who like using an external keyboard with their iPad for long form writing. I like using an external keyboard when I’m sitting at my desk just to avoid all the mistakes I make with the on-screen keyboard.

Just before the new iPad was released, I purchased the Logitech Tablet Keyboard which has been really great. Of course, when I want to leave the house, I have to lug both around which makes the keyboard cover even more enticing. Anyone want to buy a lightly used tablet keyboard?

It’s the size of the dongle

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:11:22 +0000

Asus announced this week that they are offering a free “dongle” to fix the GPS problems with their flagship Transformer Prime. Here’s how they describe it:

Although the Transformer Prime is not a professional GPS device, as part of our unwavering commitment to customers we are offering all Transformer Prime owners a free external GPS extension kit, called a dongle, which may help improve signal reception and optimize the user experience

I was curious if the Prime was advertised as having GPS from the get-go so I headed to the Asus page for the Transformer Prime to see what it said. It’s not very surprising to find the term “GPS” missing from sensor listing.

Sensor G-Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope, E-compass

It would seem that they dropped GPS from the listing sometime around the beginning of January according to RegHardware. Early on, Asus refers to a GPS module as evidenced by this posting on their UK site. They even went so far as to release a software update in January to try to fix some aspects of the GPS as reported by AnandTech.

For an in depth look, check out this AnandTech article where they ultimately blame the aluminum construction for the poor WiFi and GPS signal. The original Transformer was housed in plastic and still declares GPS as a function on the specification page.

It’s fairly obvious that Asus fully intended to have GPS as a feature on the Prime. In fact a lot of retailers still list GPS in the feature list, see Best Buy for example. Ultimately it seems that instead of owning up to their engineering failure, they intend to “fix” it with a dongle that ruins the Transformer Prime’s sleek lines. Even better, you get to chose between working GPS or using the keyboard dock.

Take a look at this thing!

As expected, Asus is patting themselves on the back for how they handled this.

ASUS prides itself on delivering an unrivaled user experience, and we offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that our customers may have encountered.

Asus screwed up and instead of owning their mistake, they’ll kindly send you an ugly piece of plastic and insinuate that you expected too much of their product despite what their spec sheet said. The proper reaction would have been to immediately offer refunds to anyone who bought a Prime and is unhappy with the GPS performance. Even better, they should have locked their best engineers in a room until they came up with a real fix. The fact they think this is a solution is laughable.

The magic price

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:39:37 +0000

Bloomberg is reporting that Audi is paying 1.1 Billion to purchase Ducati.

The deal, minus debt, would value Ducati at about seven times last year’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

So Instagram, a company with zero revenue generation, is worth 1B and Ducati, a motorcycle coveted by many, is worth 1.1B? I really don’t understand how these things work.

Nokia releases Lumia 900 update

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:08:16 +0000

Three days earlier than promised.

Some could argue that this bug shouldn’t have made it out the door but good on Nokia for getting an update out and even delivering early.

The prompt apology, a discount/refund, and a very fast delivery of a fix; these are all really good signs of how seriously Nokia is taking this. Whether they succeed or not, they just moved up a notch in my book.

Hopefully this attitude remains in effect for their future phones as well. The last thing the WP7 world needs is another OEM that fixes bugs as slowly as Samsung.

Android users flock to Instagram

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:15:56 +0000

Techcrunch:

Since the launch of its Android app, Instagram’s user base grew from 30 to 40 million. That’s over 1,000,000 new users a day.

Flock is such a silly word, I should be embarrassed for using it.

10 million new users in a week is a very nice bump. Now, let’s all cross our fingers that Facebook doesn’t mess with it.

The Cosmonaut stylus

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:45:35 +0000

I’ll admit it, I somehow ended up hooked on Draw Something and then, mysteriously, sucked in by Paper. This means I have a lot of horrible stick figures to draw and only my finger to do it with. This simply will not do so I ordered the Cosmonaut by Studio Neat.

I’m going to take a real quick break here and point you at this great stylus comparison by The Verge. If you can’t find a stylus you like from that bunch, keep using your finger.

Let’s get back to the Cosmonaut. This is a different kind of stylus, it’s fat and rubbery and looks nothing like a pen. In fact, the Studio Neat guys modeled it after a dry erase marker, something a bit different from most of the styli you might encounter. I’m sure the size might turn a lot of people away but for me, it’s perfect.

The Cosmonaut is machined from a solid piece of aluminum, coated in rubber, and fitted with a tip that glides over the screen with ease. If you heard “coated in rubber” and thought “I bet that gathers lint”, you are correct. A minor complaint, but a legitimate one nonetheless. At the same time, the rubber coating ensures you keep a good grip at all times, something I can’t say about the other skinny metal styli I’ve used in the past.

As you can imagine, the size + a solid aluminum core results in some heft although nothing major. I do prefer the weight to say the cheap iHome stylus my wife owns even if the Cosmonaut was 5x the price. The tip isn’t as squishy as others and, while not perfectly accurate, it works well enough for my needs. I can see this stylus being more useful in less precision work.

Even with my fancy new Cosmonaut, I can’t draw anything more than stick figures but I still think it was well worth it. For $25, it’s on par with most other styli and it’s made in America. I give the Cosmonaut two poorly drawn thumbs up.

Too far from the kitchen

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:31:04 +0000

The perfect alarm app for morning masochists: Morning Routine.

Morning Routine is an alarm clock that lets you get out of bed!
Set it up, so that you have to scan the milk cartoon, or any other item, to turn off the alarm.

I’d rather oversleep.

A fancy new look for Chrome OS

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:09:14 +0000

The Google Operating System blog (unofficial as it may be) has some screenshots and info about the new window manager called “Aura”.

It looks really nice and I was ready to rush home to flash the CR-48 until I saw this:

The latest Chrome OS release is only available for Samsung and Acer Chromebooks as Cr-48 Chromebooks will skip Chrome 19.

I’m a sad panda.

Call my accountant

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:42:52 +0000

Drool worthy: 2013 SRT Viper

Facebook acquires Instagram

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:22:40 +0000

Facebook PR

MENLO PARK, CALIF.—April 9, 2012—Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

I suspect Facebook felt threatened by Instagram’s growing self portrait numbers and acted in a panic. How else would you justify a 1 billion dollar price tag for a product that makes no money?

I suspect they’ll patent the girl+camera+mirror genre soon.

Through the Google Glass

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:00:37 +0000

So, these things exist.

Anyone share my lack of interest? The video doesn’t really sell me on the concept.

Figure

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:43:53 +0000

This is too much fun — Figure by Propellerhead.

I’m still trying to get the hang of it but even the most haphazard mix sounds good. Like everyone else, my only wish is an export feature so I can save my tracks.

Capturing ideas with Drafts

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:30:47 +0000

I’ve always been one of those people who tried to keep all of my ideas in my brain. Obviously that doesn’t work and I ultimately forget the awesome idea I had of a social network for fruit lovers. There are few things more annoying than pacing around my office trying to remember something I thought I memorized; I have to address this bad habit.

Enter the concept of getting your ideas down on paper immediately. Once you’ve recorded the idea on a more permanent medium, your brain is free to jump to the next idea. You can circle back to the idea whenever you wish, whether it be later that day or weeks down the road.

Everyone has a different way to record ideas, some prefer the feel of pen and paper, others like voice memos, and some turn to the smartphone in their pocket. I fall in the latter category as my iPhone is constantly present and it has proven to be the perfect way to record my thoughts.

My current process is to open ByWord or iA Writer, start a new document, name it, and then type my idea. I could save some time by having one single document for this purpose but that’s not my style, I like everything in a separate document. I was trying to think of a more streamlined process when I stumbled on Drafts by Agile Tortoise.

Drafts is a simple app but one suited to replace my current process completely. When the app opens, it’s at a blank screen, ready to capture my thoughts. When I’m done typing, I can leave the app and Drafts automatically stores what I typed in as a separate note that I can return to later. If I want to capture another thought, the + button will drop me in a new note with no need for a save button.

There’s a whole mess of things you can do with that idea once it’s ready to be shared. You can tweet straight from Drafts using the built in iOS 5 Twitter integration, email it, or copy the text to the clipboard. If you’re a Markdown user, the app will let you preview, email, or copy the Markdown as well.

If themes and fonts are your thing, Drafts has those as well. There are 4 themes and 13 fonts to chose from, nothing ground-breaking but at least you have some choices. It also has built in support for TextExpander Touch and Agile Tortoise’s own Terminology PH.

The biggest problem with Drafts is the lack of Dropbox (affiliate link) integration. I, like most writers who use iOS, have come to rely on Dropbox as a conduit between my writing apps. In a perfect world, I’d be able to open documents created in Drafts with another text editor. Perhaps this feature will arrive in a later release.

Drafts now has a place on my homescreen, ready and waiting for whatever snippet of text I need to save. If you like to capture your thoughts on your iPhone, I’d encourage you to give Drafts a try.

Drafts is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and costs $0.99.

Time for some company

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:44:19 +0000

Nick Bilton for the New York Times

In the last week I have asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some didn’t even respond.

The answer from Barnes & Noble, the maker of the Nook e-reader, was typical. Mary Ellen Keating, a senior vice president, said only, “We don’t comment on our supply chain vendors.”

Lenovo e-mailed a general report on sustainability. Samsung, which sells more cellphones than Apple, gave no response.

Ever since Apple came under fire, I wondered when the outrage would grow to encompass the full scope of offenders. Interestingly, the main focus remains on Apple, despite the number of other companies that Chinese factories to manufacture their goods.

I’d be curious to see an investigation into this. Any company that turns a blind eye to dangerous working conditions should be held responsible. Don’t think this is only a problem that exists in Apple’s world.

Instagram for Android

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:46:35 +0000

Android users rejoice, Instagram has finally arrived!

By now, every site on the Internet has a comparison of the iOS and Android interface. So… I’ll just toss these right here.

The two apps are very much alike, but not exact copies. This isn’t a bad thing, you want the app to be similar but still follow some of the OS design standards. For the most part, I feel the Instagram team did well.

The biggest issue I see is the awkward grid/list selector in the middle of the profile page (see picture #3). On iOS, this is handled with a low key toggle in the header, something I assume could not be done on Android. I find this single UI choice makes the profile page rather hard to look at.

The ability to apply blur/tilt shift effects to pictures is absent in the Android app. That is, as far as I can tell, the only thing that is missing from the iOS version. I can only guess that rendering this effect must be too intensive on lower powered devices and was left off for that reason.

Overall, the reaction to Instagram for Android seems to be mixed. There are the angry iPhone users who feel their turf has been invaded, the anti-filter crowd who hate Instagram all together, and the Android users who have been dying for this app to be released. If anything, we should be asking how they’re going to afford the extra bandwidth and storage space for this free service with no visible revenue stream.

At the end of the day, we’re all posting heavily filtered pictures taken by a phone. Getting up in arms about the operating system or camera quality seems like a waste of time.

Bartending

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:23:40 +0000

Stephen Hackett has a book coming out. — Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius.

I’m looking forward to this, I’ve been listening to the 512 Podcast since it started and anything from Stephen or Myke would be worth the read IMO. In fact, Myke has a book coming out soon as well, guess I better save my pennies.

The HTC One X reviews begin

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:49:09 +0000

Phil Nickinson reviewing the HTC One X for Android Central:

Indeed, the HTC One X has set the bar high for this new generation of Android phones. That bar’s always going to inch higher as the year goes on. But for now, HTC’s back in the saddle and is riding high.

This is the year of HTC returning to a focus on quality and this looks to be a decent phone with a few caveats. First off, I wish they’d figure out the LTE/Nvidia problem ASAP, not that I really think we need a quad core phone, but I’d like to see one in action at my AT&T store.

Is it just me or does that camera look really odd protruding from the back of the phone like it does? The sample shots look great but the placement of the lens will undoubtedly mean scratches over the lifetime of the device.

I’m really digging Sense 4.0, it’s exciting to see them ditch the look they’ve held on to for years and actually freshen it up a bit. ICS is too good to bury, HTC knows that and that puts them ahead of Samsung by a mile.

I’m intrigued by this phone, but not entirely sold on it. I’d like to see how the dual core Qualcomm version stacks up to this one first. Still, I stand by my statement that this is the year of HTC, I’m expecting great things from them this year.

Nvidia on the future of tablets.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:06:16 +0000

NYT Bits has a piece on Nvidia’s outlook on the tablet market.

Jen-Hsun Huang:

“We took out $150 in build materials, things like expensive memory,” he said. “At $199, you can just about buy a tablet at a 7-Eleven.”

Sounds great, hopefully the things they stripped out don’t have a negative effect on performance. He’s rather bullish about Windows 8 and a bit down on Android.

More on Android fragmentation

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:31:50 +0000

I knew it was bad, but The Next Web paints a very bleak picture.

“It is a nightmare…the worst part for me is that ultimately it means that I have a lot of grumpy users that I just can’t realistically help. It just doesn’t make sense (economically) to run down every bug that is specialized to a particular device/OS combo.”

I suspect we’ll see a lot more news on this subject in the coming days due to the Temple Run fiasco of earlier.

The peril of Android development

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:53:17 +0000

Temple Run released for Android.

Read the comments.

There exists a huge gap between the low end and high end Android phones available today. Most carriers offer a low end single core 600 mhz phone along side their dual core screamers. I’m not a developer but I imagine it’s nigh impossible to develop something that will run on all of these options.

This isn’t an Android problem, it’s a carrier problem.

Incipio Smart Feather shell case

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:31:00 +0000

When it comes to protecting my devices, I spend a lot of time trying different cases to find one that protects but doesn’t get in the way. With the first generation iPad, the Apple case met that need but that was before the era of the Smart Cover. Now that I’ve stepped up to the third gen iPad, I wanted to find something that would work in conjunction with the Smart Cover to protect my investment. My first purchase was the Incipio Smart Feather and I think it may be “the one”.

I wanted something simple, thin, and light and the Smart Feather fit the bill, adding only 1mm of thickness and about 2.5 oz of weight. I would have preferred to find one locally but cases for the 3rd generation iPad are currently in short supply so I settled for buying online.

The package contains the case, screen protector, microfiber towel, and some instructions. I personally wouldn’t bother with a screen protector but it’s a nice that they included one for those who might.

Installation is simple, just place your iPad in it and snap around the edges. It’s designed to cover the smart cover hinge while still allowing it to work as intended. The fitment is snug and it provides cut-outs for all the required areas while the grippy coating gives a little something extra to hold on to.

As you can tell from the pictures, the material attracts greasy fingerprints but you can avoid that by not eating a bag of chips while handling your iPad, a lesson I obviously need to learn. Fear not, they aren’t that hard to wipe off with your hand or a cloth.

One thing to note, there are iPad 2 specific Smart Feather cases still on the shelves at retailers. Based on pictures I’ve found, the camera opening doesn’t quite match up. The packaging on the updated covers clearly state that it works with the “new iPad” and the iPad 2.

The Smart Feather has an MSRP of $34.99 but you can find it cheaper at the usual online retailers. I’m quite satisfied with it and I recommend it highly

Microsoft and Nokia pull no punches

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:10:28 +0000

AT&T Press Release:

The Nokia Lumia 900, the Windows Phone named “Best of CES” for all smartphones, will be available exclusively in the U.S. from AT&T on April 8 for $99.99.

That’s a nice price point to hit for a phone of this level. If this phone is successful, perhaps they can lure more developers to strengthen their app selection.

Good move by Nokia and Microsoft.

The outcome of 'don’t be evil'.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:51:59 +0000

I stopped actively reading Gizmodo in 2010 when they paid someone for a “lost” iPhone 4. Since then, every article I’ve actually enjoyed reading has come from the same author. If Mat Honan is still at this hack-job site in 6 months, I’ll be shocked. His latest piece has been linked almost everywhere and rightfully so.

“The Case Against Google”

If it can’t keep its promises, if it can’t avoid resorting to trickery, if it can’t keep itself from subverting the power of its search engine for commercial ends, and on top of all that if it can’t even deliver the highest quality search results at a default setting—the most basic thing people have come to expect from Google, the very thing its name has become synonymous with—why should you trust it with your personal data?

A fantastic piece, one I highly recommend you read.

Android kernel merging into Linux kernel

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:33:34 +0000

The new Linux 3.3 changelog.

For a long time, code from the Android project has not been merged back to the Linux repositories due to disagreement between developers from both projects. Fortunately, after several years the differences are being ironed out. Various Android subsystems and features have already been merged, and more will follow in the future. This will make things easier for everybody, including the Android mod community, or Linux distributions that want to support Android programs.

This is a good thing for Android.

Another disappointing launch

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:31:39 +0000

Apple:

“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Only 3 Million sold in ~4 days. I bet the other tablet manufacturers wish they could experience this level of failure.

In need of a watchdog

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:49:33 +0000

An excellent point, why doesn’t Apple have this covered?

Samsung delivers

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:42:12 +0000

The Verge reports the Samsung Galaxy S II Ice Cream Sandwich update is rolling out to certain European countries.

I wonder how long the US carriers will delay it?

I’ll admit, the Android lover in me is feeling a tiny twinge of regret for not sticking with the SGSII. I really like the AOSP ICS experience and the SGSII hardware is fantastic. It would be nice if Samsung backed off on the Touchwiz just a bit to let the better parts of Halo shine through.

Second time this week

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:29:59 +0000

Samsung, doing what they do best.

I guess their PR folks don’t talk to each other?

This is becoming a thing

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:38:24 +0000

Looks like Samsung trolled the Android world this week. Rumors were circulating this week that Samsung had a special announcement at SXSW. I’ll let Android Police share the news.

It’s Angry Birds Space. Yes, we’re serious. No GSIII. No 11.6-inch tablet. Just Angry Birds Space on the Galaxy Note (phone).

This is actually kind of funny. I’m not laughing at the consumer, instead I’m laughing at how out of touch Samsung’s PR department must be. Everyone is waiting for the Galaxy S III and they know that.

Come to think of it, this reminds me of the Google TV announcement from February.

The 4G deception

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:02:25 +0000

The iOS 5.1 update has caused my iPhone to start lying to me. Gasp!

The $399 iPad 2

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:47:54 +0000

Yep, you can get an iPad 2 for $399.

If you’re in the tablet market and you’re not buying an iPad 2 at that price, you must really hate Apple.

Obligatory iPad 3 predictions

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:22:31 +0000

After weeks of iPad rumors, I’m looking forward to March 8th when every tech blog in existence runs an article about how Apple dropped the ball. Before I pen my “Apple sucks” manifesto, I present a list of my predictions for the March 7th iPad 3 announcement.

Retina display

This is pretty much a given. As would be expected, the GPU will be greatly improved to take advantage of the fancy display.

Upgraded cameras

New cameras front and rear. The front is a logical upgrade as the existing VGA unit won’t do justice to the display. The rear camera will be vastly upgraded to turn the iPad into a serious video/photo device. I’m expecting a camera on par with the one in the iPhone 4S.

Quad core processor … maybe

With apps like iMovie, Avid, and Photoshop touch, the iPad is moving into the realm of a serious editing machine. If Apple chooses to embrace that, their best bet would be to offer a quad core processor with plenty of RAM to go with it. Otherwise, the A5 with a bump in clock speed is likely.

No LTE

Qualcomm has released a low power LTE chip but I don’t see Apple jumping on this technology just yet. Verizon is the only US carrier with decent LTE coverage while Sprint and AT&T are just starting. At this rate, a true LTE footprint on multiple carriers won’t be available until 2013, just in time for the iPhone 5 or iPad 4.

Same memory options

Apple will keep the 16, 32, and 64 GB options although they may chose to introduce a 128 GB version.

Siri

I’m not sure how Apple will implement Siri on the iPad but I want to believe she’ll be there. In current form, she’s useless without an internet connection; a likely situation for a WiFi iPad. If Apple includes Siri on the iPad 3, they’ll need a graceful way to explain why she is unable to help. Connection issues aside, I’d be happy to see the dictation features at the very least.

iOS 5

Despite the iOS 6 rumors, the iPad 3 will ship with the latest update of iOS 5. The new update (5.1?) will be available for all iOS devices after the keynote.

Same price structure

Apple will leave the pricing structure the same as the existing model. At the same time, they will cut into the mid-range tablet market by keeping the iPad 2 16gb WiFi model in production and priced somewhere between $349 and $399.

Wrapup

As you can tell, I am rooting for the iPad to become a serious device to create multimedia content. A good camera, solid processing power, and the existing range of editing tools will provide the amateur videographer a single machine to shoot, edit, and publish from. Sure, it looks silly to be holding the iPad out in front of you but really, it only feels weird until everyone is doing it.

If I’m right on 50% of these, I’ll snap my suspenders smugly in a nearby Starbucks.

The many versions of Windows 8

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:24:25 +0000

Are there more versions this time?

The complete lit [sic] of SKU available in Windows 8 according to the registry file is-
Windows 8 Enterprise Edition
Windows 8 Enterprise Eval edition
Windows 8 Home Basic Edition
Windows 8 Home Premium edition
Windows 8 ARM edition
Windows 8 Professional edition
Windows 8 Professional Plus edition
Windows 8 Starter edition
Windows 8 Ultimate edition

I’m not sure why Microsoft thinks this is a good idea.

Source: windows8beta

HTC wakes up.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:23:31 +0000

Pocket-lint interviews Kouji Kodera: Sense UI got too complicated.

“From the original Sense up to Sense 3.5 we added too many things. The original concept was that it had to be simple and it had to be easy to use and we had that philosophy, but over time it got cluttered”

If you’ve ever used a Sense 1.0 device, you know it’s incredibly dull. Having used every version from 1.0 to 3.5, I agree that it got messy near the end. At the same time, there were some nice additions in 3.0 that I’m sure will be found in 4.0.

It’s good to see HTC realize they needed to improve both their software and hardware in 2012. I have high hopes.

What do you write on a daily basis?

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:13:00 +0000

All this self loathing for not being able to write anything has me wondering. What kind of things do you use your notebooks for on a daily basis? I see plenty of people listing their #dailyarsenal on Twitter and I always wonder what they use it for.

So tell me, what do you use your notebooks for? Are you journaling all day? Jotting random notes? Formulating your latest plot to take over the world?

Inspire me, I feel so lost.

Old Spice, you slay me.

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:59:53 +0000

Want to see some genius viral marketing? Look no further than the Old Spice Youtube channel.

Their crazy commercials are one thing, but carrying that over to the web = win. Kudos to Old Spice for capturing the attention of a lot of Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube fans. Will it sell more Old Spice? Only time will tell.

Advertising to a captive audience

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:17:29 +0000

I’m catching up on “V” on the ABC app for the iPad and guess what I can’t do? I can’t flip to another app while the commercials are on like I would on my PC. That seems like a rather strong reason for the other networks to get their own apps out, or at least push Hulu and Fancast to get free & subscription apps on this device.

Can’t change the channel, can’t move off the screen, the worst I can do is put the iPad down or mute it which isn’t worth the hassle for 30 seconds. I’m captive to their persuasive advertising!

I suddenly want to go to Disneyland.

Tired of the iPad yet?

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:19:43 +0000

Lately you’ve probably been inundated with iPad news, reviews, comments, hatred, etc. Allow me to toss a few more words onto the pile.

When the tech blogs started reporting that Apple was making a tablet, I had very high hopes. Then Steve showed us what the iPad would be, and I lost my enthusiasm; now I own one. Yes, it’s been a roller coaster ride.

After reading so much criticism of the iPad’s shortcomings, I feel compelled to quickly cover the most common complaints as I feel they affect me.

“It’s just a giant iPod touch” — No, actually it’s not but I doubt I can change your mind. Sure, it shares an OS with the iPod/iPhone but there are plenty of iPad specific changes that make for a different experience. If you don’t understand how much of a night-and-day difference this amount of screen resolution brings to the table, I fear you’re a lost cause.
“It doesn’t multitask!” — True, but it’s not that noticeable during normal use. Sure, I’d love to stream Pandora while surfing the web but for now, I don’t find it much of a hinderance in my day-to-day usage.
“It’s heavy.” — I would describe it as solid but not heavy. Besides, who wants to pay $500 for a flimsy lightweight device? Sure it’s not something you can hold onto for long with one hand but if they made it lighter, the battery size would suffer and you’d be complaining about that instead.
“This won’t replace my laptop.” — You’re probably correct unless you only use your laptop to check Facebook and Twitter. The iPad can take over a big chunk of what you use a notebook for, but it definitely won’t replace it.
“There’s no Flash support!” — Correct but I really don’t miss it that much. Would I like to watch Hulu from the comfort of the iPad? Yes! However, I’m sure they’ll eventually start using HTML5 and all shall be right in the world.
“This is just a fad” — They said the same thing about the iPhone. Nevermind that tablets in bulkier form have been around for years. Plus, with HP and Dell working on their own tablets, I think we’re about to see an explosion of choices for the anti Apple folk. I’m definitely interested in seeing what an Android tablet can do.

That’s probably enough of that. Want to know what the iPad does well? Plain and simple, it’s a fantastic multimedia & Internet machine. If you want to surf the web, use Twitter, read RSS feeds, stream a Netflix movie, read an ebook, or play some games, this device is an excellent choice. It’s the last thing I have in my hands before bed, and the first thing I reach for when I wake up.

In case you were wondering, the battery life is just as amazing as every review claims it to be. Even after streaming Netflix for hours on end, you’ll still have enough battery life to make it through the day. And yes, the screen is fantastic as well.

So, do you need an iPad? Absolutely not. Will it change your life? I doubt it. Let’s face it, you probably don’t need half of the gadgets you own. With the iPad, you get a fun, versatile device that will only get better as the OS matures and app developers turn their focus toward the larger HD screen.

If you’re hung up on the highly publicized shortcomings, just imagine the monstrosity Apple would have created if they tried to please everyone. My iPad sits on my desk between my Macbook and my Asus netbook and I don’t think any of the 3 are going anywhere soon. For the time being, I do find myself reaching for the iPad more than the other 2 options; I guess we’ll see how that pans out in the coming weeks.

Mmmm Vacumatic!

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:56:17 +0000

There seems to be a rather ravenous bunch in the fountain pen world that simply must collect every Parker Vacumatic ever made. Luckily, I haven’t been bitten by this bug yet but I now have my first working Parker Vacumatic and I thought I’d share it with you.

I picked this Vac up at an antique store in Houghton Lake Michigan, it came in a pen box with another Vacumatic, a Wahl Eversharp with a nice flexy #2 nib, and a broken Eversharp pen/pencil set. I picked all those up for $40 so I count my purchase price of this pen as $10. Of the two Vacs, the 2nd gen was in the best shape so I sent it off to Daniel Smith to be restored. More on that later.

The pen in question was made in the 4th quarter of 1939 and it sure doesn’t look like it. I showed it to a couple coworkers today and they both couldn’t believe it was a ‘39. Let’s take a look shall we?

This color is what I believe to be called “Golden Pearl”. There’s some transparency to the barrel although I’m not sure how it stacks up to better examples. The body was in decent shape but the blind cap had some teeth marks on it but Dan managed to polish those out. It turned out pretty darn nice!

The nib is a two tone with the Parker arrow. I think it’s a fine but it’s not so fine that I don’t like it (I’m a medium kind of guy). If it were up to me, I’d rather it be a fatter line but I’ll be happy with what I have.

Here’s the whole pen in the 3 pieces. The blind cap jewel and the cap jewel don’t match, not sure if that’s how it should be or not. Feel free to hit the comments and tell me.

How does it work? Well, it’s pretty much everything I expected from a vintage Parker. The nib has a nice size to it, slender but with a bit more size to it than the other nibs I’m used to. There’s a slight spring to the nib as well which you don’t get from a lot of modern pens. I haven’t really tried to put any pressure on it since it’s not a flex nib but a little bit of pressure does cause the line to fatten up. Ink flow is on the wet side which I very much enjoy.

Now a note on the restoration. I sent this pen out to Daniel Smith for restoration and I can’t say enough about the service I received. The pen arrived to him on Monday night and I had a message on Tuesday morning saying it was on the way back. Yes, less than 24 hours turnaround. Obviously your mileage will vary but I can’t complain. I had the diaphragm replaced, the nib/feed straightened, and had the body polished. I’m very happy with his work and he has my recommendation from now on.

If you want to contact Dan, you can find him on Twitter as @mr_maxim or at his website dannzeman.com.

Review: Custom ground italic Pilot Varsity

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:21 +0000

Did you read that title and say “What? Who grinds disposable pens?” Good, that was the point. I myself had never considered messing with the Pilot Varsity but if you think about it, what better pen to practice on? They’re only a couple bucks a piece and if you ruin one, who cares?

But this isn’t about me trying my hand at grinding, this is a plug for the work of Dan Smith. You may know him as @mr_maxim on twitter or by his website, dannzeman.com. He’s been doing pen repair for a while and when he offered me a custom ground Varsity to try, I jumped at it.

Why would I be excited about such a lowly pen? If you’ve never used a Varsity, you’re missing out. It’s the poster child for how great fountain pens can be without costing a fortune. I absolutely love the blue ink color and when I opened the package from Dan and saw that he had ground a blue one, I was elated. I’d keep blathering on about it, but I already sat down and did a mini-review with my chicken scratch. Click the below picture to see a much larger version.

As you can see, the line variation is just about perfect. In fact, I think it has inspired me to get something a bit more expensive ground in the same fashion. As noted in the written part, I’m sending him a Vacumatic to repair after the holidays so I’ll have more info on Dan’s work very soon.

As a disclaimer, I never checked with Dan to see if he sold these. I know he gifts them to some of his customers, but don’t be offended if he won’t sell you one. I’m just giving him props for a job well done, I don’t want to put words in his mouth.

QOTW: What’s your pen collection focus?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:37:29 +0000

For months I updated this blog at least 5 days a week as if I had some unending fountain of words from which to draw on. After taking a month off for NaNoWriMo, I find it almost impossible to think of things to write. And so, I’ve moved the Question of the Week to Monday for now. I figure that’ll give me something easy to come up with on the worst day of the week.

Those of us who are pen fanatics tend to accumulate pens. You might not consider yourself a collector one day and the next, you realize that you’re surrounded with (insert pen type here). For me, I’ve mainly focused on Sheaffers with a minor interest in Parkers. I’m no collector and I’ve been quick to sell off pens when I feel like spending money on something else, but that’s not the point of this.

Take a look at your pen collections, what do you see? Maybe you collect fountain pens of random types, maybe you’re a gel pen fanatic, maybe you are one of the crazy souls who simply must have every color that the Sheaffer No Nonsense came in?

Now that you’ve figured out what you are, direct yourself to the comment box and share with us. We’ll all understand your crazy obsession, trust me, we’re all family here.

Review: Quo Vadis Habana

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:00:54 +0000

In my handful of years deep in the midst of the crazy pen people (that’s what I call you all, don’t worry, I’m included in that grouping), I’ve went through a bunch of phases.

The first phase was the “any paper is fine” attitude, we’ve all probably been there once we learned that it simply wasn’t true. That quickly let go to the second phase which was when I discovered Black n’ Red notebooks and decided I had no reason to look further. To be honest, I probably could have kept using their notebooks and been perfectly happy, the Black n’ Red line is great. But alas, that’s not what happened, I started trying to branch out. And that brings us to the third phase where I just went nuts buying notebook after notebook trying to find something else I liked.

Of course we all know I’m a Rhodia fan (who isnt?) and I’m also a fan of Piccadilly and I bet if I ever opened this Ciak journal I bought months ago, I’d probably love that too. Hmmm wasn’t I supposed to be reviewing something? Ah! I remember where I was going, I wanted to point out that I learned something else about myself; I hate small notebooks for journals. At the moment, I’m trying to use a small Rhodia Webbie as my journal and I find I rarely use it because the small size is uncomfortable to me. The notebook itself is great, I just don’t care to use the standard 5x5.5" notebook for a journal. Lucky for me, the Webbie comes in a larger size so I’ve just added that to my list of things to purchase in the future. It’s a long list.

You’re still wondering what that has to do with the Quo Vadis Habana, right? Well let’s just cut to the chase, this notebook embodies the notebook I think I can see myself using as a journal. It’s the right size, it has the right paper… I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s start off with the form factor. The Habana I’m reviewing is the large version and it measures 6"x9" according to the packaging (Quo Vadis website says 6 1/4 x 9 1/4). That, in my mind, is the perfect size for sitting down at a desk and cranking out page after page of … whatever you put in your personal journal.

The cover is a bit hard to explain, it’s soft to the touch yet slightly rigid. The top layer is so soft, in fact, that the elastic enclosure (which isn’t strung super tight) still leaves marks in the edges of the cover. While it feels soft, I don’t think you’ll be bending it into a U shape, I sure didn’t try it for this review. There’s something to be said about the appearance, it’s one of understated elegance and I’d have to say that something about it makes it one of the sexiest notebooks I’ve reviewed thus far. It also opens to almost flat which is something I really look for in a bound notebook.

The Habana seems to take cues from the ever popular genre of the black notebook. From the elastic enclosure, to the marker ribbon, to the expanding rear pocket, it offers all of the most popular features of the genre. Is that wrong? No way! It’s what the people want and have come to expect and there’s a reason for that.

Let’s face it, the sexiest notebook in the world doesn’t mean squat if the paper isn’t quality stuff. If you’ve read my reviews on the other Exaclair products, you already know where I’m going with this. Inside the beautiful cover is 80 sheets of crisp white 90 gr Clairefontaine paper. Do I even need to say anything else? Ask 25 notebook fanatics who has the best paper and I bet Clairefontaine falls into the top of your answers if not the very top. I’m not even going to bore you with a writing sample as I plan on using this for my personal journal and well, I have problems writing on beautiful objects. The first words to be entered into these pages shall be personal, it’s just that nice of a piece.

What I have here in my hand is a very sharp notebook that’s just waiting to be filled with your deepest darkest secrets. At the $20 price tag, I assume you won’t be buying this for meeting notes at work but for filling with words that might mean something to you or someone else one day, it’s the perfect choice.

Thanks to Karen at Exaclair for providing me this notebook to review. I feel truly honored to have had a chance to test out their products and as you can probably tell I haven’t found one I don’t like yet.

I’m supposed to edit this?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:46:11 +0000

Now that NaNoWriMo is behind me, I have my first novel in my hands and I’m now faced with the inevitable next step; the editing process. To me, this is almost more of a daunting task than the writing was, I don’t even know where to start. I’ve read some suggestions but it seems like every writer has a different idea of how to edit, when to edit, and the sequence of the editing steps.

I started by printing the novel so I could hold it in my hands. This seemed like a better option than trying to read it on the computer screen and making edits on the fly. If I make notes in the margins, they’re not changed yet, they’re just suggestions. Then I can come back after my initial read through and see if I really think my notes apply.

One of the biggest problems I see ahead is dealing with the ending. I sort of chopped the end off in a cliche sort of way and I really want to continue with the story and end it properly. Unfortunately that probably means I’ll be adding a lot more to the story. I also know there are numerous occasions where I started a scene with more than one character and then forgot about everyone but the main character. Those areas are going to demand a major rework to fix my oversight.

I’ve read that the best way to edit is to focus on fixing the story first, then worrying about grammar and sentence structure and things of that nature. I plan on trying to tackle my story in this same manner. I certainly hope this is the most effective way of editing!

Anyone have any other good editing tips they’d like to share?

NaNoWriMo 2009 Afterthoughts

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:26:01 +0000

Whew! NaNoWriMo is over and I’m sort of … sad? It’s funny how your mind can change from fear and uncertainty at the beginning of the month, to the complete opposite at the end. Well, I suppose that’s not true if you don’t win but lucky for me, I did! I didn’t think I’d make it, but I came out alive with a word count of 50,203.

What did I learn from the month long experience? A lot! It’s not easy sitting down and writing anything that long and I’m sure the first time you do it is always the worst. Here’s a few things I learned along my journey.

If it’s your first time (or maybe second, third, whatever) you probably want to make this as easy on yourself as you can. I started with a story idea but it felt like I was dragging it out of my head through a swamp. Six days into the process, I dropped that story and changed subjects to something I’m very comfortable with. I think the worst thing you could do on your first try is venture down a road that you’re not familiar with. Simply changing subjects helped me write a lot faster and the story sort of just came out.
Ditch the editor. It’s SO hard to try to not think about what you’re writing but you must! Early on it’s a bit of a chore but you must put your head down and run past that mean old editor! Once you get used to pouring words onto a page without the editor’s interference, you become a lot more relaxed.
One thing I didn’t do was plan anything out. I had a piece of paper with some character names scribbled on it and that’s about it. If I had it to do over again, I might like to plan out the scene of the novel a bit more, re-think the characters and the number of them (I have WAY too many nameless characters in my novel), and maybe think about how I want it to end. I like to leave the middle open for the characters to weave their own story, but my ending sucks!
Don’t lose track of your characters! I have at least 4 scenes where I started out with 2 characters and ended up just focusing on one. I would be three thousand words in before I realized I had lost the other guy in my memory. Oops! Again, probably something I could have avoided with a little planning.
If you have a day where you really get in the groove of writing, wring as much of that out as you can! There are enough days where you struggle that it’s worth it. I did find that those days where I struggled, sometimes just hammering through a few hundred words would get things flowing nicely.

I guess that’s the basics. In the end, I have a novel that I wrote myself and even though I know it’s poorly written and needs major work to be good enough to share with anyone, I’m still extremely proud of myself and looking forward to editing it. I even started a new novel, imagine that!

To all the winners, congrats. To all those who tried, there’s always next year. Keep hammering at it!

Review: Clairefontaine Basic Notebook

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:30:02 +0000

Nothing makes a review harder than trying to write about something that’s high quality. I’m staring at this Clairefontaine Basic notebook on my desk and I’m tempted to make this review as complex as “It has Clairefontaine paper. You know what to expect.” and call that good. But alas, I think I’m supposed to say a few more words than that.

The picture you’re looking at above this sentence is the Clairefontaine Basic notebook. I think Basic is a good name for it although at first glance you don’t see “basic”. When I think “basic” I think about the Mead single subject notebooks I used in school. I suppose putting this next to the Quo Vadis Habana or the Rhodia WebNotebook might force you to focus on the “basic” Basic but we’re not going to do that here. Instead, I’ll just run over the basics (yes, pun intended) of this notebook.

The Basic has nice textured hardboard covers with a raised Clairefontaine logo in the bottom right hand corner. It might not be super fancy but I think it looks great. It’s low key yet a lot better looking than a lot of other notebooks. Besides, I don’t think we buy notebooks for their looks… do we? Oh maybe we do and if that’s the case, this is a handsome notebook so you should be delighted. It’s also nice and flexible as I shall now demonstrate in the ever classic “bent notebook” picture.

Perhaps the “basic” name comes from the binding, unlike everything else I’ve held in my hands that came from Exaclair, this notebook has a cloth binding. I don’t know that I own any other notebooks with this kind of binding, in fact I know I don’t. The beauty of this type of binding is the flexibility that allows the notebook to open flat on your desk. I think we all know the pain of dealing with a bound notebook that doesn’t lie flat. Basic yet functional, no complaints there.

And now we’re at the part of the review where one would typically scribble some random gibberish on a page and take a picture of it. Well guess what, I’m throwing that part out the window. This is a notebook made by Clairefontaine so I think you know what paper it uses. All you have to do is open the cover and caress a sheet to know it’s going to be a delight. I’m so confident it’s going to be an absolute dream to write in, I’m not even going to try. It’s Clairefontaine! Why bother? I’d bet we see the Lions in the Super Bowl before you find yourself disappointed with the 90g Clairefontaine paper inside these covers. It has the same amazingly bright white color you are familiar with in the Rhodia pads. The line spacing’s the same as well and the lines are just a bit brighter blue.

Let me break it down to you. If you’re picky about your notebooks and you want something light years ahead of the stuff you’ll find at your local drugstore, go get yourself a Clairefontaine Basic. It’s 192 pages of pure Clairefontaine bliss and if you’ve touched anything with Clairefontaine, you know I’m not exaggerating.

And now I must get back to my NaNoWriMo writing! And you need to go shopping for a Clairefontaine Basic.

A closer look at the Lamy Safari

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:30:49 +0000

Oh the beloved Lamy Safari, what can be said that hasn’t already been said a hundred times? This pen is probably one of the most reviewed pens on the net right now. By now, you’re probably bored to death with Lamy Safari reviews! When I decided to do this, I asked myself what I could talk about that might be slightly different from all the other reviews out there. That’s when I came up with the idea of focusing on the various design aspects that set this pen apart from the others.

Obviously the biggest selling point is the price. Yes, that’s a lame joke, ignore it and move on. Go read just about any “what pen” thread and you’ll find numerous people suggesting the Safari, regardless of the question. Why? Well it’s a flat out good deal. This pen delivers more in the sum of $30 or less than a lot of much more expensive pens have ever managed. Granted, you need to buy the converter separately but it’s an amazingly versatile pen for the few bucks the converter might cost you.

Let’s look at some of what makes this pen great shall we? To start, we’ll head to the top of the pen and check out the clip.

Look at that, it’s a monster! In the world of the utilitarian, this pen has a clip to put all others to shame. Need a firm grip on your shirt pocket? You got it! Need to slip it on your notebook cover? No problem! It’s a simple wire loop that just plain works. Sure it’s funky looking but this isn’t a normal pen so who cares?

Next up, let’s look at the body. I’m not sure how exciting you might find this feature, but it has a built in window that gives you a glimpse into the ink reservoir.

Yes, I’m aware this isn’t an amazing feature but hey, take a look at the pen with the body unscrewed. That ink window is an exact science. There are 2 indentions in the section that match up perfectly with the windows in the body of the pen. Unscrew the body a tiny bit from the section and half the window is obscured. When the body is screwed tightly onto the section, the window is all you see. That’s engineering!

While we’re talking about the exterior aspects, check this nib feature out.

Yes, the nib just slides off the feed. Why is this great? You want a Fine point today and a Medium tomorrow but don’t want to pay for 2 pens? Buy 2 nibs! The nibs slide off and back on with an ease that I’ve yet to find in any other pen. What’s that? Your Esterbrook has interchangeable nibs? Bah! This is even easier! No unscrewing required, you just slide the nib off and slide a new one on. Want to sign that birthday card with an italic nib? Slide your current nib off and slide the italic nib on, sign the card, and swap them back. This is pure genius.

You want more? Take a look at any inexpensive pen you own that has a converter. Chances are it just slides on like a cartridge would. This means it can be slid off without much thought. Sure, that’s not a big deal but what if you were a German, would you really engineer your pen that way?

Yes, you’re seeing correctly, the converter has little bumps that lock into the section. Seems like such a little thing but it really makes the converter a part of the pen instead of just something you stuffed into the front section. I know what you’re thinking, the German’s can really engineer a pen! This thing is starting to seem more like a BMW than Kia right?

While we’re on the subject, check this converter out.

Yeah it looks like your normal piston style converter but it’s SOLID. I’m not kidding, don’t mistake this with a cheap converter, this thing is precise. Sure, that’s not a a huge deal but trust me, it matters.

And finally, I want to take a look at the section. Most pens have a round section and we’re all quite familiar with that. Lamy threw the normal design out the window and made the Safari section a little differently. Or if you want me to be candid, they made the darn thing comfortable.

See that? Those 2 flat spots are perfectly placed for a proper pen hold. I love writing with this pen!

And there you have it, a glimpse into something I hope most reviews have ignored. If you want to hear people gush about how great they write, there’s a ton of reviews for that and just between you and me, those other reviews are absolutely correct, this thing is a joy to write with. But I won’t get into that, because you came here for a funky review and I hope I delivered.

I’ll toss you one last tip. If you head to Lamy USA’ website and click on the Care, Repairs, & Parts link, you can find parts for your Lamy. Say you wanted a Lamy Safari in Charcoal and you can’t find it anywhere (a quick Google search proves this to be false but play along anyway). You can actually build the pen from parts right on their website. I don’t know if they ever release any of the limited edition colors but right now you could get the parts for 5 different colors. If you happen to find one of those colors sold out and you simply MUST have it now, for a few bucks more than a complete pen, you can build your own. Hey, you could even build yourself a crazy multicolor pen!

Now, if you don’t have a Lamy Safari, go get one! And if you already have one, get another! You won’t regret it.

Writing is hard!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:35:22 +0000

Wow, NaNoWriMo is beating me up! If you haven’t tried writing a novel, it’s no walk in the park! I think the first time is probably always the hardest and thus, I was sort of expecting this to happen.

Last Thursday I abandoned a week’s worth of work (I’m not sure if it qualifies as a real week’s worth) and started a new story. Oddly enough, the words began to pour out of me and I finished 3,300 words in one sitting. The next night I sat down and cranked out 2500 words. I was feeling great!

Then came Saturday in which I expected to make up a big chunk of my deficit. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Sunday I tried to write and it just wasn’t coming out.

That has me sitting here tonight on Monday thinking about how I’m 9,000 words behind. Oh well, I can’t complain, I’m actually getting somewhere.

By the way, I’m aware I’ve been ignoring my blog and I apologize. I have 3 nice products from the Exaclair line that I will be reviewing as soon as I can. It’ll be worth it.

QOTW: Are you a pencil user?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:48:31 +0000

I don’t know about you, but 99.5% of my time spent in front of a piece of paper, I’m holding a pen. Very rarely do I bother with pencils unless I’m attempting to sketch something which is quite rare.

It seems like there’s a lot of people quite dedicated to the use of pen just as I am but surely there are those wild and crazy folk who would rather hoist graphite than pen?

Feel free to admit your love for pencils or go ahead and tell us that you never use them.

NaNoWriMo and my disappearance

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:38:37 +0000

Oh my, it’s Monday night and I haven’t posted anything on my blog. Allow me to shove the blame over on NaNoWriMo please?

I’ve spent the past week quite stressed out about the whole novel writing business. I’ve often fancied myself as a writer yet I don’t write so… yeah that’s a problem. As Nov 1st drew closer, I began to panic about not having a story or characters or any of those things you might expect to be in a novel. Oddly enough, while I thought I was kind of ignoring it, I was actually stressing out about it in the back of my head and it started to affect my sleep quit badly. The last night I slept well was Thursday and I’m firmly placing the blame on this novel stuff.

However, I pulled an idea out of my head and decided to at least give it a start. At 9pm last night, I began to write and cranked out 1700 words before succumbing to fatigue of the fingers and brain. I tell you what, it’s not easy to drag a story out of your head if you’re not used to it. I imagine if you’re not used to writing fiction — which I’m not — then you’d find yourself in the same place I was, dragging the story out of your brain as if pulling a large log through a mud field. Not easy!

After last night’s insanely fitful attempt at sleep, I’ve decided to take a day off. Today is my birthday and in a couple of hours, my Fiance will be home and we’re going out for dinner after which I fully plan on passing out with a nice full belly. Hopefully a good night’s rest will help spur me on to writing well tomorrow as I’ll be a day behind! I have not given up on NaNoWriMo… yet. 😉

I’m going to move the updates to this blog from daily to Mon-Wed-Fri for now. I think that’s about all I’ll be able to handle and write a novel.

To everyone participating in NaNoWriMo, good luck!

Review: Doane Paper Idea Journal

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:37:18 +0000

Come, let us celebrate the new world of Twitter, for most of us probably wouldn’t know about half the things we do.

For me, one of those things is Doane Paper and their unique stationary offerings. Their website is fun, their products are simple, and they don’t bury you in options. I don’t need 15 different pads; give me a few options in a couple sizes and I’m good. Doane must have the same belief because they offer 3 different style pads, with a maximum choice of 2 sizes. That’s perfect and I must thank them for it.

I’ll admit, I was tempted by their legal pads. There’s just not a lot of good legal pads out there but not being sure what to expect of their paper, I ordered the small “Idea Journal” and figured I’d feel it out from there.

Clearly their most unique feature is the paper and even more odd is the fact that they provide you with the template for free if you want to make your own. Have a love affair with 32lb HP paper but dig the Doane lines + grid format? Not a problem, grab their template and make your own. How cool is that?

The Idea Journal is a pretty simple design; thick recycled covers, a strong spiral binding, and bright white 60lb paper with their signature and unusual lines + grid format. I almost hate to say this, but it’s so simple it might cause some people to overlook how good it is. This thing isn’t flashy or trying to be fancy, it’s just a good solid journal. That’s not a bad thing, let’s make that clear. We live in a world flooded with notepads vying for our attention with all sorts of marketing schemes. It’s nice to find one that isn’t trying to act like something special only to leave you annoyed with the lack of quality.

As with every notebook review, it always comes down to the paper. I’ll just come out and say it, it’s good stuff. The lines + grid layout doesn’t really resonate with me but that’s mainly because I feel the, big horizontal lines are too far apart. They’re spaced 3 grid lines apart when I’d prefer them to be only 2. Of course, that’s just an opinion and once you get past the line situation, the paper is fantastic. No feathering, no bleed-through, and practically no show-through even with wet pens and dark ink. Combine all that with the bright white color and I can’t find a thing to complain about except those pesky lines.

I’m not exactly sure where this journal is going to fit into my life as I still haven’t made up my mind on lines yet. For some reason I see this line format working wonderfully for the legal pads but in a journal it seems out of place. As always, you’ll have to get your hands on the design to see how it feels for you and seeing how they offer their template for free, that’s not too hard to do.

If you’re picky about your paper, I’d put Doane Paper in the top contenders. I think I’ll have to get my hands on those legal pads after all.

QOTW: Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:08 +0000

National Novel Writing Month is upon us! November 1st thousands of people will begin to pound on their keyboards or scribble on notepads to try to hit 50,000 words by November 30th.

Simple question, are you one of them? Tell us in the comments!

And as a reminder, last Friday’s blog post had a giveaway in it and all you had to do was comment. If you haven’t commented yet, I suggest you hurry because the drawing is tomorrow! I’ll even be kind and link you right to the article: Piccadilly Primo Review

Good luck to all who entered!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:30:47 +0000

Ah the cursed arrival of the fall season is here and I utterly despise it. Nothing puts me in a more foul mood than watching the trees turn beautiful shades of orange and red, and then die right before my eyes. And once October is over, November rushes in with colder temps and a promise of at least 5 more months of this wretched weather.

But let us focus on a tiny little bright spot; November also brings National Novel Writing Month and for those of you who love to write, love sitting inside, or just love being anti-social, it works out perfectly. Who really has anything important to do in November other than Thanksgiving? From November 1st to November 30th, your job is simply to write a novel. No one is telling you what it has to be about or how good it has to be or how clean your dialog must be, you simply have to write a novel.

For several years now I’ve watched NaNoWriMo come and go and thought “I should do that” but there’s one thing that always holds me back: I’m convinced I can’t write a novel. I’ve started one but got lost in my plot and gave up. I’ve written several very silly short stories to amuse friends but never actually tried to write something of any real substance in such a short time. The creator of NaNoWriMo says that the very thing that makes this process work is very simple, you have a deadline. 30 days to write 50,000 words isn’t exactly a cakewalk, that’s 1,667 words per day and while I know for a fact I can crank out a blog post that rivals that in an hour, that’s me spewing my opinion and not trying to tell a story about… ? But the deadline is what makes it possible. You have a rather frantic sense of needing to be done by a certain date and it helps motivate your writing, or so the belief goes.

And thus, I have committed to NaNoWriMo this year. At the very least, I’m going to start a novel and that’s a step above and beyond every other year which in itself is an accomplishment. I’ve purchased the “No Plot, No Problem” book written by the NaNoWriMo creator and have been pouring over it feverishly for the past couple days in hopes that he will tell me something that will quell my fear. Guess what? He did.

I’m a perfectionist who is never perfect. It’s a curse really. Some things in my life must be clean, straightforward, exact, and then the rest of my life is a jumbled up mess. I strive for perfection only to fail miserably which always leads me to not want to try whatever that was ever again. But here’s the key to NaNoWriMo: you’re just writing a rough draft. This is the kind of manuscript that Stephen King urges you to write and then throw in a drawer and forget for 6 months. If you’ve read his book “On Writing” you know that he feels the most important part is getting the story out onto the paper in whatever form you can and worry about the plot holes and character flaws and all the other little bobbles, AFTER you’ve written it. You set it aside, let the story ferment, then come back and see if it’s worth another draft.

To steal a quote from the book, Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying “The first draft of anything is shit”. Let those words ring in your ears as you write!

And thus, I’m heading into NaNoWriMo knowing that whatever I produce will undoubtedly be utter crap and I fully expect it to be. In fact, I want it to be! After all, it’s just a rough draft and my only goal is to hit 50,000 words in 30 days. That, I’m positive I can do.

I hope you join me in this quest, it’s gonna be a blast.

Quick view: Pentel Slicci

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:30:52 +0000

I don’t do many reviews of “normal” pens because quite frankly I find them boring. Does it write? Ok, it’s good.

So what I’m going to do here is a “quick view” of a pen. I’ve been a bit of a fountain pen snob for a few years so I’m starting to feel my way around the world of non-fp pens and am finding things I like. One of those is the Pentel Slicci. My first experience with the Slicci was one with a .4mm tip which is MUCH too fine for my taste. I’ve developed a preference for pens that have at least a .7mm size as I get older and writing with the .4mm was like writing with a needle. I used that as an excuse to place yet another JetPens order and try the .7mm Slicci.

Once I had my hands on my preferred size, I began to really like this pen. My biggest complaint? The barrel is very slender and I’m a fan of a much fatter pen. But something about the needle style tip and the combination of the beautiful blue ink keeps bringing me back to this one. The combination of the price, the available ball sizes, and the great ink make for one great pen.

Hey Pentel, if you’re reading this, can you make one that’s a little bigger diameter?

Of posture, writing, and discomfort

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:30:13 +0000

For the past 2-3 years I’ve been trying to improve my penmanship as well as turn writing into a hobby. I’ve spent hours sitting at different tables, chairs, etc and I simply cannot get comfortable. It may have to do with my 6'2" height, or it may have to do with my poor posture when writing. You see, I can’t write very well without leaning over the paper and that causes my elbows to cramped up.

I also fight with the problem of holding onto my pen much too tightly. While I’m able to focus on that and get my hand to relax somewhat, it’s only a matter of time before my elbow starts hurting due to being bent for so long. I’m also resting a lot of weight on my arms as I’m bent over so far. I have to admit, I”m sort of at a loss here.

At the moment, I sit in a normal swiveling office chair and write at an old oak desk that I picked up from a friend for cheap. Sitting in my chair, the top of the desk sits at my mid-belly which I think is about as good as I can get it. Any lower and I feel like a kid sitting down at an adult table, and any higher makes the desk seem super far away. As I mentioned before, if I don’t bend myself over the paper, I don’t write very well. I’ve tried sitting up straight and writing but it seems the quality of my penmanship begins to suffer.

Perhaps I just need to practice sitting straight up and working on that penmanship problem but regardless of what I try, I’m never comfortable. If I can crank out 3-4 pages in my journal before becoming annoyed by the discomfort, it’s quite the accomplishment.

Any suggestions on how to alleviate the pain I’m facing? I’d love to be able to sit down for hours and write but at the moment, it just doesn’t seem possible.

Review: Piccadilly Primo journal

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:58 +0000

I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a fan of Piccadilly. In fact, it seems almost normal to be a fan these days considering the great pricing of their products. Sure, their products are made in China but so is the mega-star Moleskine. It’s also been my experience that their paper is less inconsistent than the beloved M as well. The Piccadilly Primo journal has been popping up a lot on the net so I went on a journey to find one. After 3 tries, I found a Borders that had some in stock.

They come in 3 sizes which are named… ready for this? Small, Medium, and Large. And would you know it, 2 or 3 shopping trips later, I had all 3!

These journals have 100gsm wood-free paper, the conventional ribbon bookmark, a somewhat unconventional elastic band closure, and a nice cream colored paper. But by far my favorite part is the smell. Yes, I like the smell of the cover, I don’t know why, it just smells … booky? I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it seems like rubber and it’s quite flexible. Something about this design screams “I’m a journal!”

But I know you don’t care about the looks, the smell, or how it stays closed as much as you do about the paper. While it clearly performs better than a Moleskine, it still isn’t perfect which I didn’t really expect seeing how the paper is 100gsm. Despite the fact that most pens work well, it still has the same peculiar single thread feathering that the other notebook suffered from. I managed to capture the feathering using the macro mode of my camera.

I wouldn’t let this keep you away from the Primo, the feathering is slight and really seems to depend on the pen. One thing I notice a lot when reading reviews of paper is the distinction that fine tip fountain pens tend to feather less than mediums. Unfortunately for almost everything I review, I’m a fan of a medium/broad nib and therefore I’m probably a bit harder on the paper than I should be. When it comes to “normal” pens; gel, Sharpie pens, and ballpoints, this paper works great. Unlike my experience with the Moleskine, gel ink dries instantly and without much drama at all. I also managed to find a fountain pen that wasn’t a big fat wet mess and the Primo handled it without any feathering at all.

I do have to give points to Piccadilly for binding this journal so it opens flat on almost every page. There’s also a ton of pages (288) which makes this journal a bargain. The Borders in my area sells the small journal for $5.99 which means you get a lot of space to write for very little cash. In my case, that would probably last me 2 years. 😉

Sure it has its shortcomings but when you look at the price and the fact that not everyone is a fountain pen devotee, it’s a pretty darn good journal for most people.

And now, a contest! I’m going to give away a FREE small Primo! All you have to do is post a comment. I don’t care if it’s as simple as “I want to win” or you feel like waxing philosophical about my review, any comment gets you entered to win (you can only enter once). On October 30th, I’ll pick a winner at random and that person will get a free small Primo journal! Simple eh?

QOTW: What is your writing process?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:30:10 +0000

Here’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve come across bloggers who hand write their entire blog post before typing it into the computer. I’ve also found many examples of other types of work that people prefer to write out by hand before entering into the computer. Let’s face it, we live in a computer age and most of what we write for the consumption of others ends up on a computer.

So this question is for those of you who write for the public eye, be it a blog or simply a report for work; do you hand write it first? How do you feel it helps your process? Is it simply therapeutic or do you feel it brings out better writing? Are you more apt to keep it simple? Or perhaps it just lets you get your first draft out at a leisurely pace which helps keep the re-writes to a minimum.

Hit the comments and share! I’m very interested in the responses as my blog posts tend to come straight from my mind to the keyboard. I don’t think I have the patience to handwrite all the words that want to tumble from my fingertips.

Cheap doesn’t mean bad

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:30:38 +0000

As a person who has had many hobbies, there’s always one adage that gets thrown around everywhere; you get what you pay for. In most cases, this means that you’ve opted to buy something cheap and it failed and someone is lecturing you on the benefits of spending money on quality. One of the best examples that I’ve found where this isn’t true is fountain pens.

If you’re new to the fountain pen scene, you’re probably enamored by the sight of the big money pens. People lust over all different brands and styles and usually these tend to be out of your financial reach. Trust me, I’ve been there before and I still find myself lusting over pens that cost a lot more than I could ever bring myself to pay. The most expensive pen I ever bought was a Visconti Van Gogh Maxi. I was so excited when I got that pen and naturally I expected it to be an amazing writer. Instead I had a beautiful pen that couldn’t get through a single page without drying up. Regardless of what I tried, I couldn’t get it to write with any consistency and it ended up going back to Italy to have the feed replaced. By the time it came back, I wasn’t in love with it anymore and I quickly parted ways with it.

That served as a wakeup call that no matter how much money you spend, you’re not guaranteed a flawless writing experience. The simple truth is, if a pen can hold ink and perform the simple capillary action required of a fountain pen, you’ll have a pen that won’t let you down. There’s a reason so many people swear by some of the cheaper pens coming out of China right now. The Hero 616 is a favorite of many due to its obvious resemblance to the Parker 51 and the fact that it just plain works without breaking the bank.

Then there’s the Platinum Preppy. For a whopping $3 at JetPens, you can own a cartridge pen that writes great and is refillable. If you’re crazy, you can spend 2x the amount of the pen and get a converter that will allow you to use bottled ink. There’s also a very popular modification that turns these pens into eyedroppers which means you’ll have a literal tank of ink at your disposal, perfect for those times when you need to write a lot.

Move even farther down the scale and you get to the disposables. Pens like the Pilot Varsity, Pilot Vpen (same as the Varsity but just look a little different), and the Sailor Ink-bar are some of the more popular options. These pens are non-refillable (although some resourceful folks do refill them) and are as reliable as can be. Just last night I was using a blue Pilot Varsity to test my new Rhodia Webnotebook and it was as smooth as silk with great color, all for less than $3.

The lesson here is to remember that you don’t need to spend a ton of money to get a great writing pen. I’m not knocking people who prefer pens that cost more, that’s simply a matter of preference. If you’d rather be using a Parker 51, then you should. But if you’re looking for a good fountain pen that isn’t going to give you trouble and doesn’t break the bank, don’t automatically assume the cheap pens are a waste of money.

Quick preview: The Rhodia Webnotebook

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:59 +0000

Last week I finally broke down and bought a Rhodia Webnotebook. Tired of dealing with the inconsistency of the Moleskine paper and as always, under the influence of my paper fetish, I found a seller on Ebay who happened to be in Michigan and had free shipping. I swallowed the pill of paying $15 for yet another 3.5x5.5" notebook and waited a whopping 2 days for it to show up.

Obviously when it comes to Rhodia, the people who use their products have come to expect a certain level of quality. I didn’t even bother reading reviews of this notebook, I blindly trusted the Rhodia name and assumed it would be good. That’s a spot most manufacturers want to be in but it’s also a dangerous one. If you put out a bunch of good products then follow up with a flaky one, you’ll never live it down. It would seem that there’s more disappointment to be had in the 3.5x5.5" range than there is joy but as you’d expect, Rhodia doesn’t drop the ball here.

I don’t want to give too much away because I’d like to do a full review, but I’ll comment briefly on the paper. Because I didn’t read any of the reviews, I missed the fact that they didn’t use their normal bright white lined paper for this notebook. When I cracked it open, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice cream colored paper with light grey lines and a Rhodia logo at the bottom of every page. IMO, if you’re shooting for the Moleskine, you must have cream colored paper and thus I was quite happy to find that Rhodia already knew this fact.

The rest of my thoughts shall be saved for an upcoming review but I’ll leave you with this. If you’re tired of spending $10 on a Moleskine only to play Russian Roulette with the paper quality, spending an extra $5 for the Rhodia will end that pain forever.

Watch for a full review soon!

Fighting the fetish

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:44:46 +0000

Ah the paper fetish, oh how strong a curse it is. Those of us who are afflicted know the feeling well; we walk past the office supply aisles of a store and hear the paper calling us. Sure, we have probably walked down that aisle 500 times in the past and know there’s nothing worth buying yet we check again, just in case.

Yesterday I stood in the aisle at my local Target holding a Miquelrius notebook in my hand and staring at the Rhodias sitting a couple shelves lower. I had to work to convince myself not to buy either. The Miquelrius was color coded for subjects and the pages seemed thin so that wasn’t all that hard to put back. The Rhodia, on the other hand, screamed at me to buy it. If they had a better selection, I would have picked something but they only had 2 types: the stapled pad which I dislike, and the reverse notebook which I would have bought if they had anything other than graph lining. I made it out of the store without any paper, quite a feat if I must say so myself.

For me, it’s a constant battle not to buy paper. I don’t know what it is, but every time I’m in physical contact with paper I love or have heard is good, I want to buy it. I literally have to argue with my inner voice to save myself from spending the money. Then I head home, open up the 2 drawers in my desk that are stuffed with empty notebooks and journals, and remind myself that I have enough paper to last me for years.

Ah what a rough life. I can’t wait for the pen buying fetish to start back up, I can feel it in the back of my mind just begging to be let free.

Review: Quo Vadis Equology Textagenda Planner

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Exaclair has great timing. Right about the time I was lamenting my lack of organization, I stumbled onto the Quo Vadis blog and saw they were offering planners to bloggers who wanted to review them. I had no experience with any of their products but I’m not one to turn down an opportunity so I threw my hat in the ring. I chose the Equology Textagenda Daily planner which is marketed as a student planner but I hoped the daily layout would suit my needs. Karen quickly shipped the red covered planner I requested and I put it to use immediately. Over the last two and a half weeks, I’ve used it almost every day to keep my work and personal activities on track.

First, let’s go over the basics of the Equology Textagenda. The Equology line is Quo Vadis’ recycled paper products and while that makes most people cringe, you’ll see you have nothing to fear. The cover has a nice textured rubbery feel and is refillable. Being that it’s aimed at students, this planner covers the dates between August and July to accommodate a normal school year. I personally don’t see that as a problem but some people will have a hard time getting out of the Jan-Dec rut. Quo Vadis does sell a planner called the “Notor” which contains what appears to be the same page layout but in a more conventional Jan-Dec date range. However, it should be pointed out that the Notor is not an Equology product thus does not contain recycled paper.

If I had to guess, I bet you’re still thinking about the recycled paper. Admit it, the idea of writing on 100% post-consumer fiber conjures up images of writing on a paper towel or a brown paper sack. Well have no fear, Quo Vadis has actually created a recycled paper you don’t need to be afraid of. It’s not going to win a brightness contest against Clairefontaine or Black n’ Red but for a recycled paper, they did a great job of making it white. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s very fountain pen friendly. Even my Pelikan M200 with Mont Blanc British Racing Green ink which is notorious for how badly it feathers doesn’t have any problems on the Textagenda’s recycled paper. There was a fair amount of bleed through but I find that a normal occurrence with this pen and ink combination. None of my “normal” flowing fountain pens exhibited any annoying characteristics. As with most paper, there is a slight amount of show-through but nothing I consider to be out of the ordinary. I have used as many different types of pens as I could in the past 2 weeks and all of them were very well behaved on this paper.

Something I really found very handy is the way this planner helps you find the current date. Instead of an old fashioned ribbon, the bottom right hand corner of each page is perforated allowing you to tear off the corner once you’re done with that page. This makes finding the current day a snap which is great if you’re opening your planner before you’ve had your morning coffee. One word of advice, you may be tempted to tear off several pages at a time but that’s not the best idea as I ripped a few pages trying to get caught up to the current date. I find the best way to tear them off is usually 2-3 at a time and folding them at the perforation helps as well.

The Textagenda is one of Quo Vadis’ line of medium sized planners and I think it’s the perfect size for daily use. It measures 4.75"x6.75" and I’ve been carrying it in a small messenger style laptop bag that I use to transport my 9" netbook. If it fits in that bag, it will just about fit in any bag. The cover is thin and flexible but very tough so it should easily handle being shoved in and out of your bag on a daily basis and will most likely live through many refills.

They actually crammed a lot of features into this planner, so many that I’m not going to have time to devote to each one. Sufficed to say, they’re pretty self explanatory and if there’s anything I don’t cover to your satisfaction, just ask for a clarification in the comments.

When you open the planner, you’re first greeted with the typical personal information page, followed by a quick glance calendar, a class schedule, and a very handy page that is labeled “Anno-Planning” which is intended to give you a quick daily glance at your entire year. There’s a very tiny box designated for each page so I’m not 100% sure what you could write in there, but I suppose if you had small handwriting and a very fine pen, you might be OK. At the back of the planner there’s several maps, an address book, and another quick glance calendar for the upcoming years, in this case, 2010/2011. I want to circle back to the address book very quickly. In today’s day and age, almost everyone has their address book on their phone or has a dedicated book for this information. I’m not sure if I’d want to spend time putting a bunch of address data into a planner that will only last a year but if you want it, Quo Vadis has provided it. I’m sure someone will find it very handy and if you don’t, it’s easily ignored.

Quo Vadis makes it clear on the opening page that they intend for this to replace the somewhat normal system of random dates and notes in a notebook. Once you see the open page layout, it’s pretty obvious how this planner could easily fix your poor organizational skills by giving you a great place to cover what needs to be accomplished on any given day. Sure, you’ll still need a real notebook for notes, but if you need to jot down something about your schedule or just a quick note, there’s plenty of room for it. At the top of each page is a very prominently displayed date surrounded by lines for each hour between 8am to 7pm. These are clearly intended for printing your class schedule although you shouldn’t feel locked into that. I’ve been using this section to jot down meeting schedules for those rare days where I might have to tear myself away from my desk.

The rest of the page consists of a box for the day’s priority items, 14 blank lines, and another box for notes. I’ve been using the 14 blank lines as my way of keeping track of what I need to do throughout the day, and also as a record of what I’ve accomplished. Seeing how the lines are blank, you’re free to work out your own way of using them. I use a system of prefacing each line with a P: or W: which obviously stand for Personal and Work. I mostly use the planner for work as I need to remember what I did the day before in the morning’s stand-up meeting.

Until the Textagenda arrived at my door, I had been using a single notebook for all my meeting notes, work notes, schedules, etc… Once I had this daily planner in my hand, it became obvious how cluttered my previous system had been. Sure, it wasn’t a bad setup but when I can easily flip back to last Tuesday and see what I worked on, it makes a big difference over the scrambled notes I had before. All in all, I find the Textagenda to be a very well executed daily planner and it does a great job bridging the gap between a serious planner and a notebook for your daily tasks. Whether you’re a student or not, it’s a handy tool. It’s also good for us pen geeks to know we don’t have to be afraid of using our favorite pen on this planner, even if it is made out of recycled material.

QOTW: What do you write?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:00:46 +0000

I’m pretty sure everyone who reads this blog uses their stash of notebooks and pens for different reasons. What do you use yours for?

School notes?

Journaling?

Scribbling notes about your day?

Notes for an upcoming story or perhaps you even handwrite your stories in them?

Maybe something else? Hit the comments and tell us what you like to write about most!

Bye Bye Moleskine!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:30:41 +0000

Ah the beloved and classic Moleskine, how I wanted to know thee. Before I bought my first one, I read numerous accounts of people feeling very strongly one way or another about their place in paperdom. The complaints ranged from the paper being the most horrible ever made, to the best ever made and everything in between. I tend to research my paper purchases heavily but when you see something as visual pleasing as the Moleskine and the seemingly 50/50 split on the quality, I simply have to try it myself.

Unfortunately for Moleskine, I didn’t get very far in my usage. Yes, I still carry the Volant in my pocket because it’s the perfect size and intended to be used with a Fisher space pen which has no problems on any paper. However, the Cahier and the ever ubiquitous 3.5"x5.5" hardback Moleskine are getting shelved to most likely never be used again. I really wanted them to work because they’re everything I imagine a notebook should be. Simple, classy, and very easily obtained. Even when placing a Moleskine next to a knockoff Piccadilly, I would pick the Moleskine, there’s just something about it that oozes class. Yes, I’m aware the Piccadilly looks almost the same so my choice is hard to explain, it might be the page color or the way the one I own seems to have a slightly more hand assembled look but the Moleskine simply calls to me more than the cheaper version.

Of course, that’s where the fun stops. Both brands of notebook have some issues with certain fountain pens but the Moleskine has a problem with almost every fountain pen I’ve tried on it. I’ve read that using a Fine or XF nib is the key but I don’t like those, I’m a Medium kind of guy. Seeing how I’m starting to use a lot of other types of pens, I also tried numerous gel pens on the notebook only to find they take forever to dry. What’s the point in using a notebook where any good pen is practically useless?

And then you have the Piccadilly. Noticeably cheaper construction, similar look to the Moleskine, and a paper that, at the very least, dries almost instantly with every gel pen I have tested on it. Several of the fountain pens that would make a feathering mess on Moleskine paper actually work quite well on the Piccadilly. Sure, some very wet pens have a feathering problem but nowhere near as many as the Moleskine. It should be noted that the Sharpie Pen works great with every paper I’ve ever tested but I sort of expected that.

And so I bid farewell to the Moleskine. I needed this notebook to perform yesterday’s Moletape review and now it will be shoved in the dark recesses of my desk never to be called upon again. All the fancy marketing and history can’t overcome the great disappointment these notebooks have been to me. Goodbye Moleskine, the Piccadilly shall take your place and no longer will I have to leave the page open to let my ink dry.

Review: Molecover Moletape

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:30:15 +0000

When Molecover put out the request for bloggers to review their Moletape, I jumped at the chance and I didn’t even own a Moleskine at the time. I think we all like getting free products, even if it carries the stipulation that we do some work for it. As soon as they confirmed they were sending me one, I ran out and bought a ruled Moleskine to test.

Molecover created this tape to strengthen the binding of the Moleskine which they claim is the weakest point of the notebook. A quick search on Google lead me to several pages where people have created home-brew fixes very similar to the Moletape to fix broken bindings so I assumed these notebooks were quite fragile. In order to give a good review, I wanted to break the spine on my Moleskine and promptly set out to do so. Despite spending a lot of time bending the notebook back and forth, from full closed to both covers open until they touched each other, I couldn’t get any more than a crease in my binding. Maybe I was doing something wrong or I got a strong one, but try as I might, I could not get the binding to crack or split at all. Finally I gave up, I know the problem exists, I just couldn’t manage to break this particular Moleskine.

Unable to destroy the spine, I gave up and decided it was time to install the tape. It’s a simple product and very simple to install so I decided to take you through my install steps.

Naturally to start, you’ll need a piece of Moletape and a Moleskine notebook. According to their website, Molecover is now shipping a piece of Moletape free with every Molecover purchased.

Removing the tape from the backing material was a lot harder than I expected. This isn’t a weak tape, it has a stickiness that surpasses duct tape and as a result, you’re going to want to be very patient during the install. Once I had the tape removed from the backing material, I laid it on a flat surfface, centered the Moleskine as best I could, and carefully pressed the spine down onto the tape.

The next step is simply a matter of rolling the sides of the tape up onto the cover. Take your time here, I ended up with a big crease on one side and it wasn’t too hard to peel back off but a little more patience would have prevented the problem. Using my thumb and sliding it back and forth outward from the spine, I slowly pressed the tape down onto the cover. This will leave the ends sticking out but that’s OK, we’ll take care of that next.

Now we need to fold the ends in. You can do both ends at once, but you want to only focus on the outer flaps that will go over the cover, leave the center section for last. Once you’ve rolled the outer flaps of the tape over the cover, you can move on to the center portion. I’d recommend using something like a house key or something similarly small enough to stick down into the spine. Open both covers so the spine bows outward and then carefully roll the center portion down into the bowed out spine. Again, patience is the key here. Once you’ve got the one end done, flip the notebook over and do the other end.

And there you have it, your Moletape is installed!

I really wish I could have broke the spine to show the repairing power of the Moletape but it’s quite easy to see the additional strength this tape is going to add. Thanks to the very sticky adhesive, I don’t see this coming off easily, and your spine should be able to handle all the opening and closing you can muster. I can definitely see this being a very good investment if you’re a heavy duty Moleskine user.

On being a pen snob

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:17:57 +0000

I spent the entire weekend watching Fringe so today’s post is A. late, and B. quite lame. Maybe if I didn’t put myself under pressure to post every single week day, I’d have better content.

I’m going to admit to being a pen snob. No, I’m not one of those people with a whole collection of (insert high end brand name here) who act as if every other pen is below them, but I was close. I spent the better part of 2 years using fountain pens for 98% of my writing and looking down on pens I perceived to be farther down the food chain. Recently, I’ve begun to address this little problem by adding Sharpie pens and a large number of gel pens to my collection.

I’m not saying I don’t love fountain pens anymore, no way, they’re just too awesome. They possess a soul that no pen with a ball at the tip will ever know. And the manual intervention needed to keep them inked? That’s a huge part of the fun! Who among us hasn’t enjoyed a couple hours with a handful of pens at a basement sink flushing them clean so we can change the color spectrum we have loaded in them? I shall always love my fountain pens but I can no longer act like they’re the only pens on the planet.

And so, I’ve begun purposely exposing myself to other types of pens. I can’t stand normal ball points so those are out of the question, I can’t think of a single reason to keep a ballpoint on hand except for signing credit cards and shiny birthday cards. Other than for those reasons, if I have to reach for a pen and it’s a standard ball point, I shudder. Maybe I still retain a bit of that pen snobbery or perhaps I just hate having to use a pen that requires pressure. I find that Sharpie and gel pens tend to require about the same pressure a fountain pen would need (meaning none or close to none) and that makes them perfect candidates for use when a FP doesn’t work.

So now my man bag is packed full of even more pens. I have Sharpie pens, gel pens, and fountain pens sitting next to each other happily and I’m cool with it. There’s nothing better than having options!

Pen Hack: G-2 meets Signo

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:00:10 +0000

Normally I try to do a review of something on Fridays and I had intended to review the Piccadilly Primo journal, but I don’t feel my review is properly ready. I’ve been a bit under the weather lately and it has me moving a bit slower than normal. I will have that review ready for next Friday or perhaps even a bit earlier during the week.

I’ve been a big fan of the Pilot G-2 for a while, as you saw earlier this week, I have 3 of the different editions. Unfortunately I’ve been having a few problems with them; Of the 3 I have at my desk, 2 have a nasty habit of skipping more than they should and they’re not the smoothest pen I’ve ever felt. Of course, if you haven’t tried anything else, you don’t know what you’re missing. Last night I picked up a Uni-Ball Signo 207 from my local Walgreens as I had heard good things about them and the special ink they use. To my surprise, it was an incredibly smooth writing experience and I even had better luck with the ink drying in my Moleskine (although it still takes a while).

Today I got to thinking, I love the G-2 Limited because it’s made out of metal and has a nice heft, but it has a nasty habit of skipping. Wouldn’t it be nice if it wrote like the Uni-ball and had the fancy 207 ink while still looking good?

So I took them apart and wouldn’t you know it, the refills are almost exactly the same size!

Putting the Uni-ball refill in the G-2 body resulted in the tip sticking out a bit further than it should.

It wrote just fine but it bugged me that the tip stuck out like that. I’m a little weird about my pens and I figured this had to be a simple fix. So I introduced the refill to my X-acto knife. This took a few tries to get the length right. I would shave a little bit off, test fit, and shave more if needed.

The end result is a Uni-ball Signo 207 refill inside a nice hefty Pilot G-2 Limited. All ready to write in delightful smoothness and keep your checks safe from being washed.

Note: Jetpens.com does sell a Uni-ball Signo Premier 207 which appears to be a better built version of the normal 207. Unfortunately they seem to have replaced the rubber end with a mushy gel which I would hate so I’m perfectly happy with my hybrid.

QOTW: What’s your favorite writing instrument?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0000

If you’re reading this blog, you probably have a LOT of writing utensils. Some of us prefer pens, some prefer pencils, and we all have that one favorite instrument that we can’t help but keep near us at all times.

So what’s yours? Maybe you don’t like to play favorites but I bet deep down in your brain, you have a favorite. But if you can’t pick one, at least tell us if it’s a fountain pen, a gel pen, or a pencil.

Hit the comments and share!

Failure IS an option!

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:00:39 +0000

This week, I coined a new term: “Temporary Failure Environment”. This is an idea I came up with while trying to work through some creative issues. This process most likely isn’t anything new but I stumbled onto it by my own accord so I’ll act like it’s mine for the duration of this entry. I think it will prove to be quite helpful for people suffering from the same creative fright I’ve been paralyzed by.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at some form of art lately, that’s what started this whole thing. If you have been reading this blog for at least a week, you know that I believe we all battle what I call the “Inner Judge”. This Judge is the reason we know we’ll fail before we even start, he exists to stop our creativity. When you’re facing this judge, the trick is to put the battle outside of his normal turf. How do you do that? You set up a Temporary Failure Environment. It’s amazing what mental blocks are removed when you make it clear to yourself and the Judge that everything is temporary. A page in a sketchbook is more intimidating than a loose page from the same sketchbook. Why? Because our minds see the page in the sketchbook as something permanent while the loose page is not.

Once that loose page is in front of you, it’s simply a matter of accepting that it can be trash at a moments notice. That piece of paper is at your mercy, you either keep it or you destroy it, nothing can stop you. You are free to fail in this environment and it’s completely temporary, there will be no sign of your failure unless you choose to keep it.

Failure is always talked about in the negative but as with anything, it’s not that black and white. When you’re so afraid of failure that you are unable to perform a creative task, you need to introduce failure on purpose. Once you’ve faced failure, it’s no longer such an intimidating foe. Your Inner Judge has very little he or she can say when you make it clear that failure IS an option. Naturally we don’t want to fail forever but the first step to beating the Inner Judge is embracing the failure that has kept your success at bay. Once you have done that, the hard part is past.

I feel this can be applied to writing as well as it’s quite similar to some writer’s block tricks that I’ve read. It’s a little different environment when you’re trying to work through a writers block or having problems with character development, but I still contend that there is some form of Inner Judge being applied that can be defeated if you take him to task outside of his normal environment. Put yourself in a Temporary Failure Environment and open yourself to failure. I have a feeling that if you drop your guard and embrace the impending failure, you will work your way through the blockage. The trick is always to move the fight onto turf where the Judge has no power.

Now… get out there and fail! And then start enjoying your success. 😉

Mass of links

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:00:54 +0000

There’s always something great to read on the pen blogs so, I figure I’ll share some links that I found particularly interesting.

Inkyjournal - Montblanc Meisterstück no 149 (fine) review

Inkophile - The Rhodia Webnotebook vs Moleskine Journal Showdown

Pocket Blonde - Favorite New York Stationery Store

Office Supply Geek - Noodler’s Forest Green Fountain Pen Ink Review

BiffyBeans - My Trip to NYC: Exaclair, Art Brown, Mr. Nagahara Pen Tweaks & the new Sailor Realo

Journaling Arts - [Review: Quick Look at Rhodia’s New Weekly Planner][6]

Whatever - Reynolds Encre Effacable from France

Pen Addict - Review: Zebra Techno Line 0.4mm + Kokuyo Beetle Tip 3way Highlighter

Quo Vadis Blog - User review: Tom Hall on Rouge Caroubier

Regarding Wolf - J. Herbin Ink

I also want to remind everyone about Styloforum. It’s a new forum for pen and paper lovers and we’ve got some freebie give-aways going on for a few small milestones. If you haven’t checked it out, or if you signed up but never posted, you should come back and help us grow this tiny forum into something great!

The G2 family keeps growing

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:36 +0000

This is probably old news for you Pilot G-2 fanatics, but there’s a G-2 “Limited” out there. When I saw one in person, I decided I had to have one for my very own.

The popular G-2 pen is cheap and that’s the draw, it’s a fantastic writer, very low priced, and it’s comfortable. Pilot definitely hit a home run when they designed this pen. Then, as if they knew there might be a portion of the world who wanted something a little bit fancier, they released the G-2 Pro. This was the same gel refill wrapped in a larger diameter plastic body with metal accents. If you found the original G-2 to be a bit too skinny, this one was perfect. I very much enjoyed mine when I wasn’t being a fountain pen snob.

Now, enter the G-2 Limited. It has a metal body available in 3 different colors, the accents are still metal but so is the clip. The rubber grip is even color matched to the barrel making for a very striking appearance. Now it feels like a real fancy pen at a paltry $10. In fact, when I bought mine, it had a $3 rebate making it a whopping $6 pen with a much more expensive feel. All while providing the same great writing experience we’ve come to love with the G-2.

I may be out of the loop here, but I noticed a rather cool feature on the Limited. Looking at the button from the top, if the pen is retracted, you can see a green dot, otherwise there’s just an empty hole. I assume this is there so a quick glance tells you the pen is retracted and safe for the pocket. Or… they just made a green dot in the button for no reason at all. I’m not sure which.

That sounded like an infomercial but I’m admittedly enamored by this pen.

Review: Black n’ Red notebooks

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:30:51 +0000

Update 2014-03-27: I’ve revisited this review after 5 years, see if I still love these notebooks by clicking this sentence

If you’re like me, you love collecting paper. Notebooks, journals, reams of paper, these are things that a lot of us have squirreled away somewhere in our home. And in my case, most of them are blank but that’s a subject for another day. 🙂

Today I am reviewing the Black n’ Red brand notebooks. They come in a variety of styles and sizes and I know you will love them if you haven’t tried them yet. These have been my go-to notebooks ever since I discovered them and the fact that most of my local major office supply chains, as well as Rite Aid carry them… well that just makes them all the more perfect!

According to the manufacturer’s website, they have a very wide range of covers. Hard cover bound (bottom right hand corner in the picture above), hard cover spiral bound (top right corner), polypropylene cover (the entire left hand side in a varied range of sizes) and then they have several other options that I don’t own. The rest of the choices include poly covered flip notebooks, executive refills, and even a notebook made from recycled materials. In my experience, the ones I have pictured are the easiest to find and I haven’t actually found any of the other options in my area. Black n’ Red is a UK company and there may be a limit to what is imported, or I haven’t found the right store yet. My local Office Depot did have an A6 sized bound hardcover which I believe is the first time I’ve seen one in that size and binding.

Sizes, covers, bindings & colors

Let’s get the appearance stuff out of the way first. As the name implies, the Black n’ Red notebooks are… black and red. My favorite color combination happens to be black and red so I find these perfect. If you’re looking for something a little more colorful, these probably won’t be on your shopping list. In terms of notebook sizes, almost every notebook they make comes in A4, A5, and A6 sizing. There are a few other sizes in between those that I’m not familiar with, but it’s safe to say that these 3 sizes are the most common across all the bindings and cover options.

The Poly notebooks have an elastic cord that hold them closed and I need to address this feature specifically. Yes, having an elastic band is a handy feature but unfortunately the rivets used to hold the band to the back cover cause headaches when you’re writing. If you use the notebook on a flat surface, you can feel the rivets all the way through the paper making them rather uncomfortable to write over. Depending on the notebook, I usually rip the elastic band out and pry the rivets out with a knife. This allows the notebook to sit flat and I don’t have to write over rivets anymore. I wouldn’t hold this against them as the elastic band is “in” these days and they did a great job making it very sturdy. If you’re a lap writer, these probably won’t bug you or if you really like the band, you can fold the back over under the other side and write in peace.

My notebook of choice is the hard cover, spiral bound, A5 size. I like the hard cover as it allows me to use it when there is no desk around and A5 is a perfect size for sliding into my computer bag or just carrying around. A little side note here, I’ve not found any hard cover spiral A4 or A6 notebooks in my area. They may exist in the US, but I haven’t found them with the exception of the A4 hardcover with built in calculator. I suppose those count but they cost a lot more than the regular versions so I don’t even consider them.

I happen to find spiral bound notebooks to be an on-again, off-again annoyance due to the binding getting in the way when you’re writing on the left hand page. Luckily, Black n’ Red does offer a bound hardcover version which I own but have not used yet. There are rumors of the bound notebooks having different paper than the spiral, but Black n’ Red make no note of any paper variations on their website so that fact is yet to be determined. The cover is a different texture than the spiral books and the binding is covered with red colored tape which makes for a handsome looking notebook. I’m excited to give this one a try as soon as I work my way through the pile of notebooks ahead of it.

The Paper

Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter how fancy the notebook is, if the paper isn’t great, you’re not going to use it. Black n’ Red notebooks all use the same 90 gsm (24 lb) paper and their website clearly touts that it’s fountain pen friendly. In my experience, this paper is extremely fountain pen friendly and even holds up to doodling with a Sharpie Pen. I expected some sort of bleed through when scribbling shapes with my red pen but the 24lb paper was up to the challenge and the other side was blemish free.

The A4/A5 notebooks have the typical personal information page where you can fill in your contact details, as well as a table of contents. The opposite side of that page contains a timezone map and some conversion information for EU to US measurements. It should be noted that the bound hardcover book has fixed pages but all the spiral notebooks are perforated to allow clean removal.

I’ve used numerous pens and numerous inks with my Black n’ Red collection and I’ve only found one oddity. Occasionally you’ll run into a single page that doesn’t dry very well. It doesn’t seem to be very frequent, but when it happens, it’s annoying. With a very wet writing fountain pen, and one of these oddball pages, I’ve still had wet ink after sitting overnight. While that sounds awful, I’m happy to report it happens very infrequently. I have a poly cover A5 notebook on my desk at work that has been filled with notes from various fountain pens and I can’t remember having one page with this problem. My journal, which is in a hardcover A5 notebook, has had maybe 5 out of the entire book and I write on the front and back of each page. In my personal experience, the excellent writing qualities of this paper far outweighs an occasional bad sheet.

Black n’ Red offer many different ruling options but I only own the regular ruled paper. To the best of my memory, I don’t recall seeing any other options available at the stores where I shop. The lines are a grey color and very prominent on the page. When placed next to a Rhodia pad, the paper has a bit of an off white hue but I’ve always found it to be quite bright. If you make sure you don’t put your Black n’ Red next to anything with Clairefontaine paper, it will appear to be very white.

One important factor with any paper is whether it encourages feathering from fountain pen ink, or if it bleeds through easily. I have never experienced any bleed-through or feathering during normal writing in any of the Black n’ Red models I’ve used. I’ve used very wet writers, very broad nibs, and several different inks and none of them have acted any differently on this paper. One thing’s for certain, Black n’ Red paper is very consistent when it comes to feathering or bleed-through.

Some people don’t like smooth paper and prefer a little feedback. I’ve always been of the opinion that the Black n’ Red was an incredibly smooth paper and while that’s true, it’s not as smooth as Clairefontaine. If you use Rhodia notebooks and feel the paper is a tiny bit too smooth, perhaps Black n’ Red will provide what you want. If you like toothy paper, the Black n’ Red isn’t going to deliver.

My Final Thoughts

I don’t know what that above picture intends to illustrate other than my poor attempt at fancy writing, but I can assure you that I’ve used everything from a Visconti Van Gogh to a Platinum Preppy on Black n’ Red paper and loved every second of it. How about a hidden contest? I’ll send a brand new Platinum Preppy fountain pen to the first commenter who correctly identifies where the bottom 4 lines of that page come from. EDIT: Julie AKA Okami has won! Congrats!

It used to be that you could walk into your local Rite Aid and purchase these notepads at prices roughly $2 less than at the office supply stores. Unfortunately, they seem to have updated their pricing to be on par with the office supply stores. Of course, the fact that you can wander into your local Rite Aid and pick up such a fine notebook is an awesome reason to use them. You’re going to spend roughly six to seven dollars on an A5 version but for the quality, I don’t find that outrageous.

If you’re interested in finding one of these, check your local Rite Aid, Office Depot, and Staples. I’ve seen them in all 3 of those stores as well as a few other places.

Ain’t it precious?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:00:16 +0000

Look at this cute little thing! It showed up in the package with my Quo Vadis TextAgenda (review coming soon) and I don’t know if I can bring myself to use it. No one around me carries this size so it’s just too darn neat to soil with pen.

There’s not much I can say that the picture hasn’t said already. It’s tiny, it has graph paper inside, and it’s the same wonderful Clairefontaine paper that the Rhodia lovers have come to know. The question is, can I get this little guy to replace my Moleskine Volant? Unfortunately I think the Volant wins in the pocket carry category due to its thinner form.

But if you’re looking for a tiny little notebook full of super awesome paper, look no further!

QOTW:How bad is your paper fetish?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:30:38 +0000

I hate to use the word “fetish” but hey, that’s probably accurate. Those of us with this fetish find notebooks and paper to be irresistible. When we walk past the stationary aisle of a store, we inevitably stop and check out what they have to offer. I find myself doing this even at places I know only sell low end products just in case I find something I haven’t seen before.

This fetish leads to book shelves or drawers full of empty notebooks waiting to be used. Some are still wrapped in cellophane, some we’ve tried out and found unacceptable and just tossed back on the shelf, and the truly crazy among us have stacks of the same brand of notebook that we keep buying “just in case” they stop making them.

So now’s your chance to come out and admit you have a paper problem. How many unused notebooks do you have? How many reams of paper stacked up on a shelf? How often do you buy a new notebook knowing full well that you have 10 more at home that need to be used first?

I guess that’s more than one question, but I think they’re all technically the same question. Hit the comment box and tell us about your addiction, I promise you won’t be judged, you’re in good company.

Who’s over your shoulder?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:00:25 +0000

The Judge stands in my mind as a dark figure seated upon a huge black beast.

There are people who don’t fear this man, he has never shown his face to begin with. There are people who have faced this man and beat him, their lives now free from his interruptions. There are people who have faced this man, fought and beat him, only to have him remain. And there are those, like me, who have yet to face him but can feel his hot breath on our necks every day.

When I stand on the edge of a bright white empty landscape, writing utensil in hand, he is there. Somewhere behind me — I can feel his presence — he sits upon his black steed waiting to charge forward and gut what little belief I have in myself and what I’m attempting to do. He is a dark shadow in my mind, an ever present observer who will stop at nothing to make me feel inadequate and unqualified for whatever task I set out to perform.

Do you feel him behind you? The Judge stands behind me and I’ve yet to turn to face him. I am procrastinating, dreading the show down, putting off any necessary confrontation for tomorrow. Today I will say to myself “I need to pick up this pencil and draw something, anything!” and yet I’ll push it off with other excuses. I’ll watch TV, I’ll spend an hour on Twitter, I’ll read blogs, I’ll suddenly remember that I need to pay some bills, anything to keep the standoff for another day.

I need to turn and face him, I need to lift my chin high and stare into his cold dark eyes and tell him where to go. This paper is mine, this pen is mine, what I create is for me and me alone. He need not interject his fear, doubt, loathing, and despair into my work, this isn’t for him, this is for me. I am the one in charge here, he lives in MY head. I am the master of this mind, he is simply an unwanted inhabitant who must be taught his place.

He doesn’t like these words, I can feel that. The Judge doesn’t want to be faced, he doesn’t want to be banished from my mind to leave me to my creative wishes. He wants to be in charge and the audacity that I would face him can be enough to send him on his way, back deep into the recesses of my mind to spend his days in a cave, waiting for weaker times. He’ll be back, he always comes back, but after you defeat him once, the power lies on your side and he knows it.

Don’t tell him, but I’m about to turn and shove a sword into his belly. For me, it will simply take the first stroke of this pencil to my sketchbook and the fight will begin. I do not intend to lose.

Life Time vs. Technology vs Creative Time

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:00:14 +0000

How’s that for a confusing title?

Here’s something I’d like to find an answer to: how to balance real life demands with our online demands and our creative demands. My life isn’t particularly filled with activities yet I spend 2 hours a day on the road travelling to/from work, 8.5 hours at work, then come home to a Fiance who wants to spend time with me, not to mention the preparation of dinner when I get home at 7pm. Toss in the draw of Twitter and checking out all the links that everyone shared throughout the day, and of course catching up on other computer activities like paying bills and stuff. Once you get all of that out of the way, when do you have time to do anything creative?

I’m writing this Sunday night. I like to write my blog posts as soon as the inspiration hits and then I schedule them. I spent all day Saturday out at a yearly gathering I throw for my car website and didn’t have a lot of time or energy to spend by the time I got home. I guess spending your day from 7:30am to 8pm on your feet running around and inhaling smoke from a bbq grill will do that to you. Needless to say, I had no interest in doing anything creative other than making a mental note to journal about the gathering so I’d have some solid notes for next year.

Now here it is, 11:30pm on Sunday night, I need to go to bed but I still haven’t journaled about Saturday. I came down to my office to do just that but instead this inspiration hit me and I sat down to type it out, then of course Twitter called and I was off checking links for the next 30 minutes. I still have to sit down to write and if I’m lucky, I’ll maybe get a page into it before I get tired and want to go to bed. I’m sure you’re thinking I could have started earlier and I agree, but I spent the day relaxing with the Fiance and then this NCIS marathon came on… 🙂

I wish I had an answer on how to cram all this into one day but I can’t. I’m starting to think the best thing to do is just ignore technology (very hard) and forge on with the “real” things in life. Granted, that’s not the real answer but there sure are a lot of devices in our lives that now compete for our time, be it creative or “real” life. I’m probably not the only one who falls victim to the technology bug.

I’m positive technology is doing us equal harm as good.

A new friend for my Space Pen

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:30:51 +0000

For the past few weeks I’ve been stuffing a 3.5x5.5" Moleskine Cahier in my back pocket. The covers seem to just be cardboard and the size left me with no option but to sit on it. Needless to say, it didn’t take very long for it to start looking kind of ratty. I’m not very keen on pulling a bent notebook out of my pocket to write on either.

Enter the almost cute 2.5x4" Moleskine Volant. I stumbled onto this little delight during a recent visit to Borders. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had found the perfect little notebook for easy front pocket carry and the fact that all the pages are perforated made it even better. I used it rather extensively this past weekend at an event I hosted, even using a couple pages as makeshift gift certificates for a give away.

My only previous experience with Moleskine has been the Cahier but it’s easy to tell that the Volant is following in bigger footsteps. It has an “In case of loss” page in the front, and the cover is of a completely different material that I understand is more “moleskinesque” if I must coin a word to describe it. And of course, if the small size doesn’t work for you, the Volant comes in larger sizes as well. I find this tiny notebook perfect to slip in my pocket behind my Blackberry and next to my Fisher Space Pen. It’s only been a couple days, but it’s not bent or looking worse for wear so I’m quite happy with the move from Cahier to Volant.

As far as I know, and my knowledge is admitedly limited, there isn’t a knock off rival for this sturdy little notepad. If you know of one, please share!

Art store field trip!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:37:31 +0000

I’m not an artist and I never have been, but today I walked into Blick Art Materials in Dearborn, Michigan. I was there because they supposedly carry Rhodia pads and I’m desperately wanting something that isn’t a staple bound notebook. I imagined walking in and finding every Rhodia imaginable but alas, they only had a small supply of the staple bound books. To top it off, I accidentally bought a graph paper #16 which bums me out even further.

Besides my Rhodia hunt, I was there for another purpose. I decided that I was going to buy a sketchbook and some pencils or charcoal and then force myself to draw. If you’ve read my blog much, you know that I’m currently struggling to open the creative side of my brain which seems to have been walled off in recent years. I can’t seem to bring myself to doodle in my journals, so I purchased a 9x12 sketch pad with perforated pages so I have the freedom to sit down, sketch something, and always have the option to throw it away with nary a trace of it having existed. I also grabbed a 12 pack of Prismacolor pencils to draw with.

The Blick store in Dearborn is a tiny little place but the amount of artist materials on display is quite frankly overwhelming. I wandered down almost every aisle in awe at the sheer number of options an artist might have. Standing in the pencil aisle, I had to wonder how anyone could keep track of what pencil they need or want. I have a new found respect for anyone who has a good art supply collection as it seems like it might be a bit of work to amass.

I also picked up a 3 pack of Writersblok notebooks but upon arriving home, I see that Notebook Stories already reviewed them and found their paper to be very thin. Oh well, those can go in the drawer of unused notebooks for a later day.

Now, I must try to break in the new sketchbook.

Review: Field Notes Mackinaw Autumn

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:26:51 +0000

In the world of the pocket sized notebook, the Moleskine reigns supreme. You may not be a fan of them, but you know what they are. Naturally challengers will rise up to compete with the king and they will either fall by the wayside, or carve out a little niche for themselves under the umbrella that is Moleskine. Field Notes is one of those challengers and one I had high hopes for since the first time I heard of them.

If you’re not familiar with Field Notes, they’ve been cranking out pocket sized notebooks for a while now — I couldn’t find a definitive answer to when they began but I believe it was sometime in 2008 (feel free to correct me). Their main product offering is a 3.5"x5.5" notebook with a brown cover and 48 pages of lined, graph, or plain paper. At some point in time, they began selling limited edition color combinations and I happened to be quick enough to snap up a 3 pack of their Mackinaw Autumn set. Apparently they sold out of these in 22 hours so I count myself lucky. They arrived today and I couldn’t help but dive right in for a review.

As always, Field Notes included a few freebies; in this case it was a “general purpose band of rubber” and an ink pen. I was kind of hoping for one of their pencils but I’m not complaining. They also included a sticker which is the logo of Coudal, the parent company of Field Notes.

The Mackinaw Autumn set comes in the colors of a Michigan fall, something I’m very familiar with. The covers were even made in Niles, Michigan by French Paper Company which made me even more excited to purchase them. Field Notes describes these colors as “burnt red”, “running-board brown”, and “harvest moon orange” but the notes in the back cover call them “Tangy Orange”, “Safety Orange”, and “Orange Fizz”. I’m not sure which are the official names but they look snazzy either way.

Now we get into the meat and potatoes of the review. When I first heard of Field Notes, it was on FPN and the general consensus was that they were fountain pen friendly. One of the more “famous” voices endorsing Field Notes is none other than fountain pen guru Richard Binder. That alone was enough to satisfy me but the day after I placed my order, I found a thread on FPN where people were complaining of problems with feathering and bleed through. The possibility of Field Notes changing their paper recently has been floated about but doesn’t seem to have any real proof behind it. I had already placed my order so I knew I’d be able to find out first hand. Sadly, it seems as if the detractors were right.

I tested the first page of a randomly selected notebook with 5 different fountain pens ranging from a Pelikan M200 to a Pilot Varsity. The feathering was immediately noticeable with the paper visibly sucking ink out of the nib. The minute I placed my Lamy Safari nib to the paper, my heart dropped. I had such high hopes for this paper but all was dashed in that split second. I continued testing pens, my Pelikan M200 dumped ink onto the page as if it were a sponge, even my lowly Platinum Preppy experienced a good amount of feathering. Of all the fountain pens tested, the best behaved was a cheap disposable Pilot Varsity. Oddly enough, while it managed to write without a lot of feathering, it was 2nd worst at bleed through.

I tested a Sharpie pen for kicks but I wasn’t surprised when it worked well, after all, it’s designed for use on regular paper. One other odd note, this paper exhibits a quality where the grid lines actually seem to repel ink. The darker inks from the Lamy and the Pelikan show this phenomenon quite well. Even the Sharpie wasn’t immune, the grid lines show through the lettering in several spots. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced this with any other grid paper before.

Naturally when paper has this much feathering, you can expect bleed through and the Field Notes paper followed through with plenty. Normally I expect to see the writing through the page but the Pelikan and Varsity actually bled through enough to put spots on the next page. You can see the decent amount of bleed through exhibited by the Pelikan which was by far the worst performer of the bunch.

I wanted to be as thorough as I could be so I tried the Pelikan on the next page, and the next, and the next. Five pages in and I was still having the same feathering and bleed through as the first page. I then begrudgingly picked up the other 2 notebooks and soiled their first page with the Pelikan only to find that they didn’t have any feathering issues. I numbered the bottom edges of 7 pages on both and the results were the same, the feathering wasn’t there. However, the bleed through occured on each page I tested. I understand that a notebook manufacturer will have differences between paper batches but I can say without a doubt that all 3 notebooks that I tested have some degree of fault when being used with a fountain pen. I will say this, the Pelikan and the Mont Blanc ink combination seems to be a very bad offender when it comes to bleed through. I tested the same pen on a page from a Moleskine Volant and while it didn’t feather, the bleed through was evident. However, since it happened with the Varsity as well, I can’t fully excuse this paper.

Frankly the paper variation between the 3 notebooks is frustrating. The first notepad is useless if I use a fountain pen, the other 2 still exhibit a level of bleed through that I find unacceptable. I numbered several other pages in the remaining 2 notebooks using my Lamy Safari and, while the bleed through wasn’t comparable to the Pelikan, any writing on those pages would render the back of the page useless. Comparing them to my recently purchased Moleskine Cahiers, I feel the Moleskine has the better paper. I have yet to experience feathering and bleed through with the same Pelikan is nothing like the Field Notes. If you use a gel pen or a Sharpie pen, you shouldn’t let this review turn you off but fountain pen users beware! I very much prefer the look of these notebooks to the Moleskine and I’m kind of bummed that I had to soil all 3 to get a fair review. Oh well.

So there you have it, my first very long (and hopefully thorough) notebook review.

QOTW: Do you still use cursive?

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:30:00 +0000

There’s been a lot of discussion on the death of cursive lately. In fact, here’s an article on that very subject from Yahoo News.

So of course the question of the week is; “Do you still use cursive and how often?”

Hit the comment section and tell us!

Learning how to use a journal

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:30:49 +0000

The subject is probably a bit confusing; how to use a journal? Easy, write in it! Allow me to take you on a journey through my mind.

To me, a journal has always been a continuous flow of text. Regardless of my age, that’s what my mind pictured when I heard the word “journal”. A 14 yr old girl sitting in her room writing in her journal/diary? In my mind I saw that to mean sentence after sentence of how she’s in love with (insert kid at school here) and nothing more. Someone of a bit more experience in the world who journals? I figured they must be writing about their day or taking notes on ideas they have floating in their head. A journal held a massive amount of words and nothing more.

About 2 years ago I discovered fountain pens and was suddenly plunged into a world of creative folk who used their pens for more than just scribbling notes on a 79 cent notebook. These are the people I always imagined would use a journal. I imagined them wielding a fountain pen and writing their innermost secrets on creamy ivory pages of their expensive leather bound journal. They spent their time chronicling their every move so they’d be able to look back on it in years to come and see the a portrait of their mind at the time, frozen in place on paper.

Then I started noticing people who weren’t using their journals as a boring line by line record of their life, they were writing poems, doodling, drawing, and painting. Everything on their pages reflected something, whether it be a moment in their life or a picture in their head, they were journaling in a way completely foreign to me. I myself stayed locked in the line by line idea of the journal and, try as I might, could never get away from it.

I simply must experience this form of journaling. If you were to sit down and read my current notebook/journal, you would see a progression over 2 years (yes, one notebook in 2 years.. sad isn’t it?) where I fill the pages with sentences and paragraphs don’t deviate from that style. Then you’ll see a page from last week where I filled a page with nothing but random thoughts. It sounds simple yet it was oddly invigorating. I was breaking the “rules” of journaling in my mind and it was a whole lot of fun. I can’t seem to switch myself over to that method yet, but I’m trying.

I’d like my journals to be a collection of my current mood, feelings, pictures in my head, etc.. I don’t want only sentences, I want something visual that does more than bore you to death with poor grammar and spelling. I want my journal to be full of spontaneity and feeling, and one day I’d like to be able to sit down with my journal and doodle on it. I don’t know why that’s so hard to do, perhaps I fear the finality of ink on paper and not being able to correct the thing I’ve written or drawn. It’s as if my mind has set up a fence at the edge of boring journal entries and demanded I not cross it for fear of failure.

But what can I fail at? It’s my journal, it’s my paper, it’s by my hand. There should be no fear involved here, it should be organic and free, it should flow from my brain uninhibited by these crazy thoughts of failure. If you don’t want someone to see it, lock it up. If you’re afraid of what might come out, perhaps you shouldn’t worry until that happens and just let your brain go free!

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go try to climb this wall my mind has put in my way. See you on the other side!

Any suggestions on how to make this transition would be greatly appreciated!

Brain freeze!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:49:42 +0000

I knew that eventually updating on a daily basis was going to catch up with me. Perhaps I should change that schedule. Anyway, let’s see what I can come up with here.

How about a few links to some interesting blog posts I’ve read recently.

BiffyBeans asks “How’s your Grip?” I liked this entry because it touches on a problem I’ve been having for a very long time. Death grip and the resulting cramping! I cannot seem to beat it but I’m trying.

Office Supply Geek is hosting the 3rd Carnival of Pen, Pencil, and Paper. Deadline to get your submission in is October 4th. I’m trying to see if I can’t come up with something to submit this time.

Rhodia Drive (also authored by BiffyBeans) asks “What’s keeping you from writing?” This hit home to me because I’m so easily distracted and I pretty much can never find time to write!

Unposted returns from a few month hiatus of writing to review the very interesting RevolveR notebook.

The Pen Collector talks about my favorite gel ink pen with a few thoughts after 6 years of use.

FieldNotes rolled out a new color combo which I’m sure is sold out by now. I have a 3 pack on the way which will be my first time using a Fieldnotes book.

I think that’ll be sufficient to give you a few things to read while I try to gather my thoughts and put something original on this page.

Thank you mister postman!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:14:19 +0000

The post man dropped off my Jet Pens order today. I tried to grab a bunch of pens that were < $10 each. I ended up with the following list:

1 Pilot Vpen (very similar to the Varsity)
1 Pilot Plumix (The medium nib is identical to the Pilot 78G Bold)
1 Pilot Petit1
4 Platinum Preppy pens in varying colors/nib sizes
1 Sailor Ink Bar

I’d like to write about these but I’m not sure how I’ll go about it. I could do a cheap pen shoot out and cover them all quickly in one article, or I could do a full review on each pen. I guess I’ll have to see what feels right when the time comes.

A little sneak peek: I’ve tried all of them and oddly enough, I’m a fan of the Fine Pilot nibs. I would not have guessed that as I’m normally a Medium nib guy.

My new lap desk

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:42:46 +0000

For the past year or so, I’ve been wanting a lap desk. I’ll admit that I haven’t been actively looking for one, I tend to just wait until something pops out in front of me and begs me to buy it. Oddly enough, I was walking through my local Walgreens this past week and happened to find just the thing I was looking for.

It’s a fairly simple item and the quality isn’t amazing but for $14.95, I can’t complain. The legs can be folded up into the bottom of the desk, or folded down as shown in the picture. They also adjust to 2 different heights which is quite handy. I tried to use both configurations while sitting on my couch and the most comfortable for me was to fold the legs up and set the desk on my lap. As you can see, the larger section tilt upwards with several different choices to set your desired slope. The smaller section stays flat which is handy for keeping writing instruments nearby or even as a pad for using a mouse with your laptop.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to give this a good test as a writing desk, I’ve never used a sloped surface for writing and I wasn’t able to get into a comfortable position when I tried. I personally feel the large black plastic rail at the bottom of the desk is obtrusive and I might replace it with something thinner or remove it all together. I also found it mildly annoying that there is no lock to keep the legs open. I’m a bit fidgety when sitting and side to side movement causes the legs to start to close up.

Other than my few minor complaints, it’s a handy desk and for only $15, you can’t go wrong. If you’re looking for something that will let you read, write, or use your computer while sitting in bed or on the floor, you might want to give this little desk a try.

My adventures in the forest

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:00:58 +0000

The Michigan Renaissance Festival is… interesting. I mean that in the most kind way possible, it’s literally one of the most interesting events I attend each year. My brain has a very hard time coping with the sheer amount of input that my eyes are feeding it. Between the incredibly diverse costumes (Of note: I saw a pimp and a bunch of ninjas… not sure how that fits the period), the interesting people, the shops, and the wide range of food, I nearly have smoke pouring out of my ears by the time I leave.

Naturally I always keep my eyes open for writing related items. There’s a very talented calligrapher who has a shop there each year that provides a great amount of inspiration. There’s also a gentleman who sells very nice handmade leather bound journals. Even the paper is handmade and claimed to be archival quality. I purchased a mid-sized journal from him last year but couldn’t bring myself to mar the pages. This year I wanted to find something more affordable that I could perform some ink tests on. Luckily he had these very small 3"x2" leather bound notebooks that are simply delightful in their simplicity. They contain the same handmade paper bound in a single stitch to a small leather cover and there’s a small string to wrap around it. Look for a full review of my findings shortly.

I also found a booth selling stationary printed with various Celtic and other unknown designs. The artist is named John Benson and he is a Michigan printmaker who is known for his wildly illustrated cards. I couldn’t decide on a single print design so I picked up the sample pack; it contains 10 cream colored printed pages, 10 plain pages, and 10 envelopes. He assured me that it would work very well with fountain pen ink which I’ll test soon enough. I’m not sure where the paper is sourced from but it’s a decently thick stock that has a nice texture to it. He’ll be at my city’s art gallery in November so perhaps I’ll bother him to find out more information.

This has ended up longer than I wanted it to. I’ll just say that if you’re a Michigan resident and can make it over to the Ren Fest, do it. It’s a whole lot of fun!

Cigar box pen case

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:30:38 +0000

This is a nice cheap way to store your pens.

Step 1. Go find yourself a cigar box. I got this box for free because a friend of mine is a wine salesman and is always in shops that sell cigars. Most stores around me have empty cigar boxes for $5 and they vary in size. Try asking around at any place that sells good cigars, you’ll probably find something very cheap.

Step 2. Buy your choice of color of pen tray from Go Pens. These are of a good size, I bought 2 and have enough to line 4 cigar boxes.

Step 3. Cut to size and press into the bottom.Take your time with this and use a straight edge to cut the tray as cleanly as possible.

That’s it! Here’s the finished product:

I made this one for a friend. It took all of 5 minutes and will hold 11 pens. They’re so easy to make, I strongly suggest you try it if you need a better way to store your pens.

I’m gonna ask you a few questions

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:09:59 +0000

It’s Thursday and you know what that means? It’s time for Question of the Week!

Ok I made that feature up just now but I kind of like it so let’s see how it goes!

This week the question is: Do you send or receive any handwritten correspondence?

My answer: Nope! I think the last thing I received that was handwritten was a Thank You card and I don’t count those. Anything you’re practically forced to write shouldn’t count. 😉 Maybe that’s too harsh, I should appreciate that the sender write anything at all. And the last time I sent anything handwritten… I can’t even remember. Sad when you think about it, I have pens and ink galore and I’m keeping it all to myself.

Ok, it’s called “question of the week” so you get to hit the comment box below and give me your answers!

Question of the Week Rules and Regulations

You MUST talk about QOTW (blog it, twitter it, tell your friends!)
You MUST talk about QOTW.
If this is your first QOTW, you have to answer. 😉

I have to quit trying

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:09:51 +0000

I mean I need to quit trying so hard. This is advice given to me by more than one person and the more I think about it, the more true it rings.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I seem to mainly whine about how I can’t find my muse and I’m a lousy creative person and I can’t do anything. Let me establish some proof.

Last night I spent all night fiddling around on Twitter and pen websites instead of doing anything constructive. In the back of my head, I wanted to pick up my journal which I haven’t used in 7 months. But that’s sort of a daunting task for me and I think it’s because I feel pressure to be great. How can one be great in their own journal? It’s just supposed to be MY thoughts and I can’t be wrong if I’m writing things that are in my head… right? Who feels pressure to perform greatness in a journal?

Finally I forced myself to turn away from the computer and grab my journal. I selected my Pelikan M200 filled with MB British Racing Green, put nib to paper, and waited to see what happened. What came out of me was this odd list of things I observed about my behavior prior to picking up my pen. It was kind of refreshing because my journaling has always been very methodical; I sit down, write out several correctly formatted paragraphs, and put the journal away. This entry had nothing in common with my previous entries, it felt spontaneous and very different.

Then I sat down with another notebook, this one is an idea book where I’m hashing out ideas for projects or just random thoughts about things. I wanted to perform a very simple task: draw a very simple registration screen for a website I’m fiddling with. It consisted of maybe 5 rectangles and yet I balked at the job. I sat there staring at the blank page with my Sharpie pen in hand and wondering where to start.

Where to start? Draw a frickin rectangle you dope!

Eventually I managed to scrawl out a very simplistic mockup that should have never even given me pause at all. Once it was done, I felt sheepish. It took that much energy to draw a few rectangles in a notebook? Why am I so crazy?

I think at some point I got the idea in my head that things on a notebook page need to be perfect, even if it’s just something I’m using for ideas. I’m a perfectionist with everything I do, yet I’m not capable of being perfect. See the conundrum there? I can’t be perfect because I’m not an artist, yet I won’t try unless it’s perfect, even when it’s supposed to be a rough sketch. There has to be a term to describe this level of insanity.

This week I think I’m going to force myself to doodle. Can you believe I won’t even doodle because I fear it won’t turn out right? That’s right, I won’t doodle because it might look stupid. Someone smack me in the head please.

I look fabulous!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:30:39 +0000

I wonder when society decided that it was ok for a female to carry a bag for all her stuff, but a male should be able to fit his crap in his pockets. OK, I over-simplified that. But still, it’s sort of the “manly” thing to not carry an extra bag of stuff around. Men used to carry their stuff in bags around when we all rode horses, the business man made the briefcase “cool”, and in some areas I know the messenger bag thing is normal. Unfortunately I’m not riding a horse, I’m not a business man, and I’m not in an area known for having bike messengers. I need to carry a bunch of stuff somehow pauses to scratch chin.

Today I’m carrying… a bag of some sort. I guess I can call it a mini-messenger computer bag? Last night I managed to cram my Dell Mini 9, the current book I’m reading (the Lifehacker book in case you were wondering), a couple notebooks, an external hard drive, all the power bobbles needed for such things, and a bunch of pens. I tried to fit my little Aiptek HD camera in there but I was unsuccessful. If only I was carrying a slimmer book!

Needless to say, I felt a little funny walking into work today. It wasn’t that bad since I normally carry a backpack for my work laptop and it sort of hid the messenger bag. Walking out to my car for lunch will be a different story. All of this stuff was crammed into the work laptop bag + a bunch of other stuff and was just getting too painful to dig through so I have deemed 2 bags necessary. If this bag looked more like something other than a small woman’s purse, I’d be a bit more comfortable carrying it.

Now I just have to get comfortable carrying this around and not feeling self conscious. Or perhaps I should go shopping for something that’s olive drab and looks like it belongs on a special forces guy? 😀

Everybody cheats

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:00:25 +0000

Don’t worry, I feel your pain!

Yes, I’ve been using Sharpie pens. Up until today, I had the standard ones but at lunch I popped into the local office supply store and picked up some retractables. I, like so many others, feel a bit guilty about this fact. I’m supposed to be a fountain pen guy and here I am using a marker?

Maybe I’m just a pen guy. Come to think of it, I have purchased a few ball points in the past 2 weeks.

If you haven’t tried the Sharpie pen yet, I highly recommend it. I would get more indepth, but you can just read what both The Pen Addict and Office Supply Geek have to say about them. They cover everything I could possibly care to say.

I will add a couple of my favorite points. The best thing about these pens is they don’t require ball point pen pressure to write. Similar to a fountain pen, the pressure on the page needs only be very light. I also find the ink colors, however limited they may be, to be quite rich and vibrant. I’m particularly a fan of the red.

Am I a writer?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:56:59 +0000

This is a question I’m sure a lot of us ask ourselves. I don’t, because I’m pretty sure I’m not.

Last night I was perusing Twitter and found an interesting article linked by @richardink . His tweet pointed me to a blog entitled “Write to done” which was new to me but now resides in my bookmarks of good blogs to read when I have time. In an article entitled “Are you a Writer? Really?”, Mary Jaksch touches on the fear of proclaiming ones self a writer.

The article’s message bounced around in my head all day. Am I a writer because I’ve had a few short lived blogs? Am I a writer because I scribble random thoughts into a notebook? Do my incredibly spotty journal entries make me a writer? What about the handful of short stories (for the lack of a better term) or that unfinished zombie themed novella I started writing last year? Does any of this make me a writer?

My thoughts seem to echo hers, she actually has a book published and still can’t consider herself a writer. In my case, I know I’m writing something but I don’t feel like I write.

I’ve had this fantasy of being a writer for a very long time. Despite this rather ambitious dream, I can rarely bring myself to actually sit down and write. Blog posts? Easy. Author something of substance like a short story or novella? Incredibly hard. My brain insists that a writer actually has to author something “real” like a book or be employed at a magazine or newspaper. Surely my pitifully small lifetime word count can’t make me a writer… can it? According to Mary, it sure does.

So if you write something, anything, do what I’m going to do. Find a mirror, stare into it, say “I’m a writer” and see if, with enough repetition, you start to believe it.

Everybody knows that the bird is the word

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:10:06 +0000

When I first heard of Twitter I thought it was the dumbest idea I had ever heard. It seemed to be marketed as a way to tell people what you’re doing and I just don’t care that you’re eating ice cream right now.

Now that I’ve been playing with it, and I’m following a few good people, I’m starting to see a plethora of links and articles that I want to check out. Hardly a day goes by where one of the bloggers I’m following doesn’t post a link where I think “oh I need to check this out when I get home!”. Case in point; an article I found via someone I’m following that should end up inspiring a blog entry that will be posted later this evening. It also added another great site to my list of bookmarks.

So even if you’re not going to tell us all what you’re having for dinner, don’t be afraid of joining Twitter. You might just find the info gleaned from the tweets to be quite inspirational.

Where do I find a poker?

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:30:48 +0000

I have a problem and it’s with my creative fires. I look through the bits of fiction I’ve written, my old journals, or even stuff I’ve made in Photoshop and most of the time I can’t recognize it. I know I created it, but it doesn’t sound like me. Maybe it’s how my brain changes directions so often, but it seems like I’m inspired with creativity at odd intervals in life.

I can remember a time when I was very into photography. I never really produced anything that amazed me but I was experiencing creativity at some level. I remember looking at objects and trying to find the best way to convey it to my viewers. As with everything I had the flawed underlying belief that my level of progression came from the quality of the tool I used. When my hard earned $$ went into good equipment and the output didn’t increase accordingly, I bailed out of the hobby. I still sort of regret that.

I also remember being consumed by music, I had a palpable hunger for new music. I loved going to concerts, I was pumped by new albums, I basked in the joy of a new band. I became obsessed with Coheed and Cambria, they literally swept me off my feet when I started to listen to them. Such talent, not just in the instruments, but the lyrics; an amazing combination of darkness, evil, melody, and yet somehow poppy. Coheed took me away to a place I had never been taken by a band before. I suddenly understood why people got band tattoos, and I have their Keywork symbol inked between my shoulder blades to prove it. I literally hung on every word that Claudio wrote, I felt every beat of Josh’s drum, my heart quivered with the thump of Mike’s bass, my brain screamed with every riff that Travis laid down, every nuance of their music spoke to me. Where did that go? I still love them more than any other band I’ve ever heard so I can assume it’s not all gone, but it’s just a shadow of what it used to be.

Maybe that doesn’t technically have anything to do with creativity, but I think it does. The brain needs outside stimulation to be creative but mine sits numb these days regardless of what I throw at it.

Something inside of me wants to be creative, I know this. I love notebooks and paper, I have 2 drawers in my desk that are full of empty notebooks that I bought when the paper spoke to me. I have a ton of different pens and a rainbow of ink, yet when I’m faced with the blank page, I can’t come up with anything. Is it fear? Am I forcing something that doesn’t exist? Surely I’m not attracted to the blank page for naught?

So how do you spark creativity? Give me some ideas on how to stoke the tiny little embers smoldering inside my brain. At this point, I’m willing to try anything.

Yay for life changes!

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:54:45 +0000

I’m not going to get all sappy but I got engaged this week. Thursday to be exact. I don’t think anyone reads this site but I feel like making that public. On XceedSpeed I got all sappy and weird but on here I’ll just say….. neato!

She better stay cool when we get married or I’m so out of here.

New pen case!

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:53:36 +0000

My hobbies follow an odd path once they arrive at my mind’s door. First I am rabid, insatiable, unable to stop myself from spending every penny I have to acquire everything I see. I’ve followed that same trend when it came to pens, guns, and bikes. As the craziness subsides, it hits this soft rolling hill where I stop acquiring and attempt to tell myself to enjoy what I have. Then I inevitably slide down the other side of the hill to find a new hobby.

Oddly enough, those old hobbies never quite leave. They stick around, poke their faces into my every day activities, and sometimes return. The pen interest is one of those, it has surfaced twice so far and this past few weeks is kind of poking its head up out of my subconscious to look around. Let’s hope the bike thing does the same since I have a half built bike sitting in my garage that I’ll never be able to get rid of. 🙂

Last year I heard that Michaels was selling a pen display case. I ran over there but only found a watch display case. I grabbed it anyway figuring the glass top might lend it to being turned into a pen case. This weekend, after a very long period of sitting on a shelf, and with the help of a tray purchased from Go Pens, it’s now actually a pen case.

What have I done?

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:00:31 +0000

I think I joined a cult this weekend. The cult of the Moleskine and the Fisher Space pen.

I’m not sure how I feel about this Moleskine yet. I picked up the thin little Cahier 3 pack while at Borders on Sunday. I’ve forever heard of the history of Moleskine and naturally that in itself intrigued me. Not to mention how many famous people have used these notebooks for their notes while they created masterpieces which stand the test of time. Hmmm.. after saying that, it almost sounds like I’ve fallen victim to my constant search for a magical device to make my creative juices start flowing.

Anyway, I’ve not figured out how to carry this yet. It’s small yet doesn’t quite feel comfortable in the front pocket of my Dickies work pants that I’m wearing today. I moved it to the back pocket not inhabited by my wallet and that seems to have disfigured it. Sure paper can be bent back into shape but it annoys me.

I’m forever in a conundrum over what pen to carry. I love my fountain pens, but I also love my Pilot G2’s and those new Sharpie pens are delightful as well. However, carrying a “real” sized pen in my pocket bugs me so I thought the ever loved Fisher Space pen would work wonders. The size and shape is perfect, when the cap is posted it’s perfectly comfortable to use. Except… it’s a typical ball point with typical ball point ink (or at least it acts like it). I haven’t checked on this yet but I’m guessing it’s not possible to get gel ink in this and therefore it shall be very hard to learn to love this convenient little pen.

I feel like I’m carrying the tools of great thinkers and those who get things done, but I’m an imposter! I don’t get things done, I don’t have constant ideas flowing from my brain, and I’m horrible at putting anything in my head on paper out of fear that someone might see it and read it.

Hello desktop, it’s been a while.

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:35:24 +0000

I can hardly remember the last time I owned a desktop computer. I’d have to guess it was at least 4 years ago if not more. This weekend, I purchased what I thought would end up being a replacement for an aging Dell Poweredge 1300 that I use for a home server. Instead, it has morphed into a desktop computer that I’m very much loving.

Until now, my main computing machine was my Macbook. I love that computer, OS X has something that no other OS seems to capture. And while I’m infatuated with that machine, this new kid on the block has stolen my attention. It’s nothing fancy yet when using Ubuntu, it’s quite the snappy machine. I was saving up some money for a shotgun but I spent $100 on this computer and decided to spend the other $120 on a nice monitor. Now I have a 22" Acer LCD sitting on my desk!

At the moment I’m running Ubuntu 9.04. It’s my OS of choice when not using OS X and it is working beautifully! There’s a few little complaints that I’ve found along the way but for the most part, I’m very happy with this computer. So happy, in fact, that I haven’t fired the Mac up for much this weekend. Poor beautiful laptop, it’s probably feeling lonely and ignored!

All that’s left is to get 2 power splitters (I have 2 SATA drives that need power) and maybe bump it up to 4gb of ram, and I’ll be a happy camper for a while.

The inspiration floweth.

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:21:20 +0000

I just got inspired. I don’t know why it happened, it just did. One second I’m reading about simple user interfaces, the next I’m standing in front of my big white board (which I hung yesterday for such use) sketching out the diagram for a site idea I’ve been chewing on for 2 weeks. It’s not pretty but it’s a LOT more than I had an hour ago. In fact, it’s simple enough that it will probably be close to the actual outcome of the website.

You know earlier when I said “I don’t know why it happened”? Uhm… I can probably thank the mixture of rum and faux-Dew flowing through my veins. I’d rather not, but I’m thinking that this is probably the source of my inspiration. Like Poe, Faulkner, and Hemingway, I seem to gain mental strength from the bottle. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad, but I have a wireframe on my white board that wasn’t there earlier so I’m not complaining.

Who has money?

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:23:24 +0000

Every time I walk into my local Microcenter, I have to wonder if anyone heard we’re supposed to be in a recession. Regardless of what time I go there, the place is packed from wall to wall with shoppers buying all sorts of things. There’s always 20+ people waiting in line to check out as well.

I did my part tonight by buying a nice 22" wide screen monitor. I’m finally going to have a desktop after many years of only owning a laptop. Yay!

Project wishlist overload

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:47:16 +0000

Here’s something I struggle with a lot and I’m willing to bet there’s a ton of people out there like me.

Say you have an idea for a website that’s going to give people the opportunity to perform a list of cool things. Obviously when you look at that list of cool things, your brain starts getting overwhelmed with the amount of work you need to do to get each thing working. If you’re like me, you start jumbling them all up and seem to be trying to focus on all of them at once.

The right way to handle this is with a simple priority list. If your site should do X, Y, and Z; you need to figure out which of those is the main focus or the most important. Say Z is the biggest thing that you are pushing and X and Y are just nice features. Then you should push X and Y out of your mind and start focusing on Z.

With Z as your focus, you get that working properly, test it out, and then add in X or Y but never both. Attacking one problem at a time and purposely pushing the other problems out of your mind as you do so will help you actually make progress. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve let a list of ideas overwhelm me to the point of leaving the project on the table and walking away.

My goal with my current web project is to use this method. We’ll see how far that gets.

The power of the pen

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:49:31 +0000

I’ve noticed something interesting in the past week or two. Every since I’ve started dumping my random ideas into a notebook, I seem to have more ideas popping up every day. It’s like I just needed to get rid of the stuff at the top so the stuff at the bottom could bubble up into my consciousness.

Yes, this is a basic principle of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” program but I don’t follow that. I’m so unorganized that I doubt I could follow his system for an entire day. However, I can vouch whole heartedly on the benefits of getting things out of your mind and onto paper. It doesn’t matter if you plan on acting on them or if they’re just crazy ideas, the brain likes to hold on to things unless it knows they won’t be lost. What better way to empty out your brain’s current focus than by putting it on paper where you can find it again.

Once you’ve got your ideas on paper, your brain is free to think about other aspects of that same idea, expound on it, or just move on to the next thing. That’s sort of what I do with this blog; this morning I had this idea of this very post and if I hadn’t come straight to work and typed it out, I would have been dwelling on it for hours. Now my brain is free to focus on work which is a bit more important at this moment.

Give it a try, most of us have a notebook and pen at our disposal all the time and if not, you can probably spend $2 and have all the necessary equipment needed to start your mind on the path of freedom to work with its ideas.

Stressed and overwhelmed

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:33:12 +0000

It’s funny how little I know about web design or anything involved with it. Tonight marks 3 nights in a row I’ve been sitting in front of this computer pouring over design sites trying to get inspired and instead I just end up with a headache.

Perhaps I should step back and admit that I’m not a very creative person when it comes to designing layouts, at least not on a very frequent scale. Some days I get a burst of design power but those days are few and far between.

Is design and the ability to see a good design in your head something you can cultivate and grow with constant practice? Or is it something you’re born with meaning the rest of us are destined to be mediocre?

I’m going back to my reading, here’s to hoping something clicks.

Can I click my heels and get this?

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:02:21 +0000

You ever really want to be capable of something that you’re positive you’ll never achieve?

I’m a guy who constantly has ideas yet never has the capability to make them come to life. Most of my ideas are web based and nothing ground breaking but if I were capable of putting that idea into an actual working form, I feel they would be useful to some people. Yet, I’m cursed with not having any knowledge of a programming language and this horrible inability to focus enough to learn.

I’ve spent this weekend reading online manuals for Ruby on Rails and trying to get an environment set up on my laptop to assist me in learning it, yet I don’t feel like I’ve gotten anywhere. I started doing something I’ve never done before, taking notes while I read. That seems to help a tiny bit but I’m guessing I don’t get very far anyway.

I’m also faced with the design aspect of things. Of all my ideas, the most I’ve ever done is scribble down a huge list of possible functions of these apps and never anything else. As I stand back and look at them, they’re usually lists full of unnecessary bobbles that the user won’t ever touch. If my reading this weekend has taught me anything, it’s that I tend to over complicate things that don’t need to be.

On the design note, my father needs a website built for his business and of course he turns to his son who runs a big car website and therefore must know how to do such things. Sadly, I’ve never churned out a website worth it’s weight in my entire time fiddling with HTML. I barely know CSS or how to properly leverage it into making my code actually look decent. So I find myself staring at design sites tonight praying for a spark of something, anything, to ignite my creative juices and let me have some breakthrough to use for my dad’s website.

Have I mentioned I’ve not drawn out an idea in years? I remember scrawling some basic shapes on a piece of paper in the past but it seems like years since I’ve even tried to come up with a UI to go with an idea. This week I hope to break that as I need to sketch out a plan for my dad’s site.

So with that, I urge you to read this if you have any plan of ever churning out anything web related. It’s a good book and free if you don’t mind reading it on your computer screen. Getting Real by 37Signals.

I’m just a stupid man

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:38:35 +0000

Does anyone else notice the heavy slant toward smart women and dumb men in almost everything in the media today? For instance, the Walmart commercial with the woman who buys steaks and the husband has no idea why but won’t say anything. Nevermind this couple’s obvious communication issues, it’s obvious this guy has no clue what’s going on in his life.

And of course, let’s not forget the innumerable sitcoms of idiot men with attractive, smart women by their side. King of Queens pretty much embodies this belief. You have a fat dumb funny guy who’s married to a woman way out of his league and just happens to be witty, sarcastic, and the only person with brains in the house. I could list at least 5 that are on TV right now, it seems every sitcom based on a husband/wife team is like this.

The sad thing is, men are starting to live this way in real life. Want to go out with the friends? “Gotta check with the boss.” It’s a funny phrase and we all start using it to be funny but sadly it ends up that way in the end.

Uhoh, I have to stop writing now, my dark overlord wants me to take out the trash while she berates me about how fat, dumb, and slow I am. 😉

Snow Leopard is here!

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:42:31 +0000

I’m installing Snow Leopard on my Macbook right now! I opted for a fresh install so I had to dump everything onto external drives but that wasn’t hard. Hopefully this is worth the time.

More after I’ve had time to play with it.

Success and how we get there.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:32:57 +0000

I like to think I rarely use this space to get very personal but I think a lot of us suffer from this affliction and therefore I feel safe discussing it.

I’m the kind of person who has a problem with obtaining better and better items to attempt to assist whatever hobby I’m into. Let me give you the moral of the story up front; in most situations, the tools of the trade, no matter how expensive or fancy they are, will not suddenly give you super powers to be awesome at what you try.

Example: I have spent many months of my past 2 years very much into fountain pens and attempting to improve my handwriting. During that time, I’ve used $5 chinese fountain pens and $300 Italian pens and guess what? I wrote the same regardless of the pen. No matter how desperate I was to think that a $300 pen was going to magically transform my abilities, it did nothing except empty my wallet more than it needed to.

If you took a peek into my garage you’d see a fully custom BMX bike that I built from some of the best parts I could afford. This bike is strong, fairly light, and tailored to my needs as a 6'2" guy who rides a 20" bike. Regardless of the ~$650 I spent building this bike, I still can’t ride any better than I could on the cheapo bike I borrowed to get into the hobby. Sure, I had a blast building it and I learned a lot about bikes and fixing them which I don’t want to discount, but in the grand scheme of things, that bike brings very little to the table in terms of making my skills any better.

You know what would make my skills better? If I stopped focusing on the objects involved and started focusing on me. You don’t need 5 books on a programming language to learn it, the internet has probably everything we need and most of us learn better from trial and error anyway. You don’t need a $3,000 road bike to pedal to work, what you really need is a bike in general and the will and focus to get out there and ride every day.

The only thing that will truly make you better at something is what’s inside you. You can’t give up, you can’t stop because it’s too hard, you have to push and push until you get somewhere. Celebrate every little triumph but know that the big money bike, pen, gun, etc.. most likely did nothing to bring you that success.

I’ve been repeating a mantra similar to this a lot lately. Hopefully it sinks in and I can begin to spend my time learning vs spending money.

Fresh ink and a nib

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:33:33 +0000

Sometimes I’m not sure if there’s anything better than inking a fountain pen with a new color of ink. I don’t know what it is, I just love that feeling of holding a writing instrument that has been manually filled with ink and is ready to dispense words to my chosen canvas.

This post inspired by the fact that I just filled my Pelikan M200 fountain pen with Mont Blanc British Racing Green ink to take notes on a programming language book I’m reading.

I go through phases where a pen is most possibly the most romantic thing on this earth. I don’t know what comes over me when I hold a pen to a clean sheet of paper, but I do know I don’t seem to possess the capabilities to fill that paper with anything worth reading. Nevertheless, I can’t say there’s too many better feelings than that in the world.

I’m a pen nerd.

My Dell Mini 9 gets a new OS

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:30:35 +0000

A while back I purchased a Dell Mini 9 with the sole intent of turning it into a Hackintosh. If you’re not familiar with that, it’s the name given to machines that aren’t Apple products but are hacked to run OS X. I’ve had this little machine running Leopard ever since the day I got it and it even lead me to purchase a Macbook a few months ago. OS X is a great operating system and I can’t say I’ve ever been happier with a computer than I am with that.

Unfortunately the purchase of the real Mac left my poor little Dell sitting in the case 95% of the time, relegated to occasional use via tethering to my Blackberry for when I needed something off the internet but didn’t have a wifi signal.

Last night ended with me wiping the hard drive and installing Ubuntu 9.10 which I believe is currently in Beta form. I’ve been using Linux for several years, my web server runs it, my home server runs it, and at one point, I had 3 laptops running it as well. The introduction of the Macintosh reduced me to 2 servers running Linux and nothing else. For a tinkerer like me, eventually that’s going to need to change.

So now I have a little 9" netbook running Ubuntu with no discernible issues that I can find other than it’s not auto mounting my SD card but I haven’t had time to check into that yet. It’s good to see that fact that Dell ships Ubuntu with a lot of their machines means that Ubuntu just handles most of the Dell hardware without any problems. No issues with wifi, blue tooth, etc.. it just works.

Oh Linux, how I missed thee.

Organization take 50

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:00:42 +0000

I’m a horribly unorganized person. You can probably tell that by reading my writing, I think it accurately reflects how my brain works.

One thing I’ve found is that my brain tends to stop and dwell on a subject once something has stuck in my head. If I just leave it in my head, I spend an abnormal amount of time dwelling on it and thereby taking up a lot of brain power that could be used elsewhere. That’s one of the reasons I have this blog, to dump things out of my head so I don’t have to dwell on it for very long.

Since you can’t always be in front of a computer or maybe the thoughts aren’t worth putting down here, I went out and purchased yet another Black n’ Red notebook. A side note; the Black n’ Red notebooks are some of the best I’ve found and tend to be very cheap at your local Rite Aid.

Anyway, the thought would be that I now have a notebook that I’m going to try very hard to use as a brain dump. Forget the quality of writing, nevermind the handwriting, it’s all about dumping my thoughts onto paper and hopefully keep my brain working on other things.

I don’t have high hopes for this but I’ll see what happens.

Octoberfest is here

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:42:38 +0000

As much as I dread the coming of fall and winter, I’m incredibly excited that Sam Adams Octoberfest is in stores now. I just picked up a case and am enjoying a nice ice cold glass right now.

One of my favorite beers by far.

Recipe for obesity

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:17:44 +0000

This weekend was overcast and cool yet most likely perfect for riding a bicycle.

I have a goal to learn how to 180 bunny hop before winter gets here.

My activities included lying on the couch reading a book and occasionally getting up to find food.

I suck.

And a friendly greeting to you!

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:33:29 +0000

I think my brain has a mis-wire in the greeting department. It’s not every time, but more often than not, I’m left shaking my head at my ridiculous responses.

The majority of my greetings are made in the hallway of my workplace. I’m not a big socialite so the greeting is almost always offered by the other person and the burden of response is left to me. For some reason, my brain handles this by repeating the greeting back to them in the same manner as it was offered.

For instance, I just walked past a co-worker who, for some reason, whispered a greeting. My response? A whispered “hey”. Why did I do that? I don’t whisper greetings! Another favorite of mine is the guy who always offers a snarky looking smile and rocks his head backwards, I find myself doing the same thing back even though I’ve never used that as a greeting in my life.

I also have a major pet peeve when it comes to greetings. When someone says “How are you”, I respond with “I’m doing well, how are you?” A lot of people just keep walking without another word. Maybe they didn’t expect me to answer their greeting but it annoys me just the same.

Look Ma! I’m grinding!

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:36:34 +0000

The title is a complete lie, I cannot grind. I do have pegs on my bike which might communicate to other riders that I grind, but they’re a lie as well. To be fair to myself, I put them on the bike so I’d be forced to learn, and I’ve been riding around my city trying to find a nice low ledge to learn on, but alas, such things seem in short supply. I did find one spot with a nice low ledge that is obviously a popular grind spot, but I’ve yet to try it.

Last night I was encouraged to attempt a feeble grind on a ~20" ledge at the skate park. Try as I might, I simply could not get my front wheel on top, and my rear peg on the ledge. Repeatedly, I’d get the front wheel up and then just dig the peg into the side of the box. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but my mind can handle getting the front up, but it forgets completely about pulling the rear end up. I’m told the problem is simply over-thinking.

Which is probably true now that I over-think it. I’m a research kind of guy, the internet has cultured me into someone who puts massive time and energy into researching and dwelling on whatever my current interest is. Last year I was so intent on my research of a particular hobby, that it actually gave me the first migraine headache I’ve ever had. I can only assume that while I’m pedaling toward an object, my brain is putting so much thought into the process of the bunny hop, that I just flub the entire thing up.

My new project.. stop thinking about it. I know how to bunny hop, I know what I have to do to get onto the ledge, I just need to forget about that part and focus on spotting my landing.

I should build a grind box and annoy my neighbors with hours of grinding.

No more big gears?

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:00:01 +0000

Shock and awe, I’m trying to build a new bike. I know, I have a nice one already but there’s something fun about wrenching in the garage that has me building bikes left and right. I’ll say the same thing I always say, it’s cheaper than working on a car!

I’ve had this old Terrible One frame for a few months and it never felt right. That’s probably due to the 20.5" top tube measurement which I wasn’t exactly aware of when I purchased it. I tend to buy a lot of junk while I learn a new hobby and while this isn’t junk, it’s not working for me. So I stripped all the parts off the frame and ordered a new frame to put them on.

When the new frame showed up -it’s a simple Enigma V1 in case you were wondering, I promptly tossed it on the bike stand and started assembling it. Unfortunately I ran into a problem when I slid my Eastern 720 cranks and Solid 36t sprocket into the bottom bracket; it doesn’t exactly fit. A quick glance at my Hoffman confirmed that I had been a little short sighted when I assumed I could just swap everything over, today’s frames just aren’t built for larger sprockets anymore. I tried to use spacers to push the sprocket away from the frame but that resulted in a very bad chain angle.

Woe is me, I have to unlace my back wheel and find a 48h cassette hub in the 10 or 9 tooth variety. I might just spring for the Danscomp Poverty cassette hub, it’s cheap and probably adequate for my poor riding skills. I’ve not read any reviews on this particular hub but it’s safe to say that there will be those who hate it, and those who love it. I’ll just have to give it a try.

I’m melting!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:00:51 +0000

Notice a lack of bike content? It’s because summer showed up late and brought humidity with it! The summer in Michigan has been rather mild this year and suddenly August erupts with high 80 degree temps and crushing humidity. I’ve been staying in doors where the AC keeps me safe and cool.

Obviously that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I’ve been out in the garage a bit during the past 2 weeks putting together 2 complete BMX bikes to try to sell off the collection of old parts sitting in the corner. So far I’ve managed to trade one complete bike for some 9mm ammo, and I have another bike 85% finished which I’ll be selling next week to a guy I know. Then maybe I can start to make sense of the mess that has become my garage.

As for riding, I haven’t been to the bike park in 2 weeks. Tomorrow’s weather looks nice in terms of keeping the park attendance low but the park is indoors which means it’ll probably be near 100 degrees inside. Not sure I feel like putting myself through that although I should, I need practice!

This is the end… right?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:57:02 +0000

This is as small as they can get right? No one can do anything better, we’re done? Please?

Macneil is the smallest post EVAR winner!

In case you want to order one, you can do so here.

Mark Web edit

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:43:11 +0000

I, for one, am not a Mark Web hater. The guy does have some skills.

Mark Web on a mini ramp

Actually riding finally

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:50:36 +0000

It’s sad when your bright shining moment of a week is the fact you got on your bike 3 times in the given week. But, as most of my time has been spent working in the garage for the past few months, I guess it’s ok to revel in the small triumphs.

On Wednesday, I actually made it to the local skate park for the first time. Granted, I didn’t do much more than roll in and out of some quarters, but it’s more than nothing.

Thursday I went to Modern skate park in Royal Oak, Mi which is a bit more of a comfortable place since I’ve been there a few times. That was a good time with a lot of sweating (they should get A/C in there!).

And finally, last night I made it to the skate park down the street yet again. Not a lot of progress made other than rolling in and out of a larger quarter than I ever have, and I practiced my fakies as well.

This all sounds pretty lame when it’s typed out. I should just say “I went out 3 times this week” but I’ll leave the embarrassing newbie stuff there. I planned on getting up early today to ride but instead was greeted by a wild storm, followed by an insane amount of humidity and heat. I’m spending the day inside eating pizza instead.

Always something else to buy

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:41:55 +0000

Last night I got the Hoffman Bama I’ve been working on put together. Yet, as always, there’s more to spend money on. Like, the nice KMC 710SL is too long or too short, never where I want it. I suppose I could get a half link..

Or the 2.25" front tire that just won’t fit in the forks I bought.

Or how I’ve already replaced 3 tubes in the front tire thanks to a rim strip that keeps sliding.

Oh well, it rides and quite nicely. And it’s a lot lighter than my T1. I’ll post more on that later, I just decided to go to the bike store for a half link.

I hate wheels

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:51:31 +0000

I want to murder this back wheel. It has an up and down wobble that I cannot get out and I messed up a bunch of the spoke nipples in the process.

Hopefully I can find black spoke nipples somewhere tomorrow. And with some luck, I can start over and get this wheel trued without throwing it across the garage.

Another useful link that hopefully helps me fix this problem:

Odyssey BMX guide to wheel truing

Assembling round rolling things

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:30:54 +0000

I spent last night assembling the front and rear wheels for my new bike project. This would be the 5th time I’ve built a wheel if you count the one wheel I took apart after assembly because it was too lopsided to ride. Technically these would have been #3 and #4 respectively.

I don’t feel like giving too much away on the build but I went with the ever trusted Odyssey 7K-A rims, a Gsport Monkey front hub, and an Odyssey Hazard rear cassette. I’ll leave the unveiling for later.

But back to the wheel building point, it’s a very time consuming process for me. I would imagine it takes me an hour or so to assemble a wheel which is kind of sad because if you Google “Albes wheel build”, you’ll find yourself pointed at a video of a man who can build a complete wheel, and true it, in < 15 minutes. Sigh! But I’ve always been a slow and careful worker plus it’s not like I’m building these for a living.

I figure this might be of help to anyone who might stumble onto this site; the guide I use to build my wheels. This gets linked to a lot I imagine and George from Gsport is regarded quite highly in the BMX world so I figured he would be the man to follow. Using his guide, I do tend to end up with fairly true wheels straight out of assembly and the 2 I’ve actually built and trued, required very little work to get straight.

Here’s the link to the guide.

My Terrible One Barcode build

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:54:03 +0000

When I got into this crazy hobby of playing with BMX bikes at the ripe age of 31, I knew nothing and immediately got my hands on 2 Haro bikes. Turns out Haro is junk these days. I’ll pontificate on that point at a later moment.

Shortly after I started, I grabbed an early production Terrible One Barcode frame. This is back when they weighed something near 7 lbs, 12 oz and had an American bottom bracket. The 08 model weighed 5 lbs, 7 oz as a comparison and it also had the much smaller Spanish BB. Terrible one has a strong following but I do believe that the weight of the frame I started with was a bit much. Regardless, I jumped in head first and started buying parts. The following is what I ended up with.

Frame: Terrible One Barcode (99 or 2000 vintage if I had to guess)
Headset: Solid
Bottom Bracket: Profile
Bars: Solid Hella Light
Grips: Solid Death grips
Stem: Unknown
Forks: Odyssey Pro Dirt
Lever: Diatech Dirty Harry
Cable: Odyssey Slic Kable
Brake: Odyssey Evolver
Pads: Odyssey 4x4 Red
Cranks: Eastern 720
Pedals: Odyssey Twisted PC
Sprocket: Solid 36t
Chain: KMC
Hubs: G-Sport Homer (front & rear — 14mm, 48h, 4x lace pattern)
Freewheel: Odyssey 13t
Spokes: Sapim 14g
Rims: Odyssey 7K-A
Tires: Premium Refuse Resist Folding
Seat Post: Shadow Conspiracy
Seat: Shadow Conspiracy Penumbra

This resulted in a pretty solid bike that can handle a big guy like me and not need a whole lot of maintenance done to it. Sure, it’s not a sub 30lb bike (or if it is, it’s maybe 29 lbs) so it’s not going to win any popularity contests on the forums, but it’s a darn good bike if I have to say so.

I’m still a total newb at the BMX thing but I think building is where the fun is, hence there’ll be a 2nd build post coming up soon. For now, an already out of date picture.. yes, the Eclat seat is long gone.

The ever changing interests

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:13:29 +0000

I don’t expect this blog to make much sense. If it even ends up being used for that matter.

I change my hobbies like girls change their shoes. One week I’m into guns, the next I’m into cars, the next… well it just changes a lot.

The interest of the moment right now… BMX bicycles. And I’m 31 yrs old, never owned a real BMX bike, so it’s one of the more off-the-wall interests I’ve had. Thus far I’ve built one bike, am in the process of building a 2nd, and I also have 3 other frames in my garage that serve no purpose.

I’m an accumulator by nature so when I get into something, I collect massive quantities of the item. It takes a few weeks before I realize that the items I’ve amassed are junk or just sub-par stuff and then I go out and start buying new, better items. That leaves my garage, basement, etc… full of things I probably can’t get rid of.

It’s an odd ride being me, but I enjoy it.

First Post!!!!!1

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:58:53 +0000

Let’s watch this blog die like the rest!

Why do I even bother?