The red Profili is about to leave for a new home, so I took some last tandem snapshots of it with its blue sibling yesterday.   I wish that these special pens were still in production.

I’ve often contemplated going vegetarian. I really don’t eat all that much meat as it is, and I really don’t think I’d miss it all that much.

I tried it for a while a few years back, but it never stuck. I think I missed certain foods. Bacon, for example. MMMMM, bacon and eggs. Yum.

Daydreaming aside, I come from a family which doesn’t cook meat heavy meals. In fact, my mother could quite happily stop tomorrow. My girlfriend is a vegetarian so I’m being slowly being pushed into becoming a herbivore.

Now, if I am to live up to my eco-credentials (as aspirations of eco-friendliness), maybe it’s the only way forward.

Indeed, all this week, and in the run up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, the BBC World Service is broadcasting a series called “The Climate Connection“.

The series follows five young people as they explore an issue they believe to be at the heart of the climate change debate. The participants come from all parts of the world and they look at potential solutions to the present crisis.

The series is in partnership with the Open University and their “Creative Climate” project. I’ll leave you to discover more about that if you wish. Just click here.

Tonight’s episode was titled “Does the World Need Meat” and followed a young American student from Columbia University in New York.

Together with the presenter she criss-crossed the United Sates in search of answers to that very question.

I thought it was a really interesting programme that took a very balanced approach and examined each side of the argument in equal measure. It did not try to impose a particular view on the listener in what can be a heated debate.

In fact, the “Climate Connection” series has so far been fair to all sides as it looks at quite contentious subject matters that divide opinion.

Why America? Well, if there was ever an avid meat eating nation, this is it. This is the country that chomped its way through millions upon millions of bison, driving it close to extinction, and continues to worship the cow, especially when it is on their plates.

10 billion animals are killed every year in the United Sates in order to feed their voracious and ever growing appetite for all things sanguine.

Of course, unashamed meat consumption is not limited to the US. Such is the demand that one third of the planet is devoted to rearing livestock and demand is expected to double by 2050.

At present, livestock accounts for 18% of global emissions. In the US, that figure is 2.8%. If you have read one of my previous posts, cows et al burp methane and this causes global warming.

The level of burping has a lot to do with the synthetic grain they are fed. Indeed, if you modify their diet, the burps decrease.

Anyway, in the States, the vast majority of cattle are raised in pens and fed on corn. Makes for a tastier animal apparently. Grass just doesn’t cut it (no pun intended).

And there are estimated to be 9.5 million cattle in such pens, or feed lots as they are also known.

What was interesting was the range of views we got in the programme. We heard from both sides of the debate, starting with the staunch defenders of the meat industry. We heard from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the ‘voice’ of beef industry as their Chief Environmental Counsel described it. Keen to point out that livestock produce only 2.8% of the US emissions, she was defensive when the presenter put it to her that the intensive raising of cattle was unnatural.

The American Farm Bureau, the largest farm lobby group in the US, argued that the US is the most efficient food producer in the world and attempting to regulate the industry through stricter standards would only have the effect of moving production to other, less efficient, parts of the world with the net result that the methane footprint would invariably increase.

Their president declared that the war raging between the meat eaters and the herbivores in the US is a pointless one

We like our hamburgers. We like our steaks, We like our chicken. We like our bacon in the morning and I don’t see that changing in the near future

I am inclined to agree with the naysayers. Nevin Cohen, from the New School in New York, said that their is a fatal flaw in the lobbyists’ argument. They fail to account for the vast swathes of rainforest in South America that is destroyed to make way for the soy plantations that feed the cattle. This raises CO2 levels.

Transporting the grain to the US and elsewhere raises CO2 levels.

As a result, the meat industry has a carbon footprint of rather large proportions.

Perhaps we do, as consumers, need to change our eating habits. Perhaps policy makers need to change policies. Yet, as the economic situation of a country improves, so does its meat consumption.

Maybe Pedro Sanchez of the Earth Institute at Columbia University is right..the American way of producing beef is sick. Through unnatural practices, the US is producing fatty beef by feeding them grain after grain. The world needs meat, but we must do it right. We have to use intelligent farming practices.

The problems associated with large scale soy farming in South America are well known. It is saddening to see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of acres of forest being cut down to feed the world’s appetite for meat and other agricultural products.

In its drive to become an agricultural giant, Brazil is plowing one of its most precious resources – the Amazon. We are talking farms the size of large English counties. They are now the world’s largest supplier of soybean and the country could soon replace the American heartlands when it comes to food production.

National Geographic covered the problem in typically excellent fashion.

So, the environmental arguments against meat eating are quite plain to see.

Will the world wake up tomorrow and turn vegetarian? No. People love their meat and will not stop eating it.

Can we modify our farming practices? Perhaps. I leave that to the experts.

More importantly, could alternative methods meet the ever growing demand for meat. Maybe only intensive farming would satisfy it.

I do believe that governments would be reluctant to do away with existing practices, if only for economic reasons. As we have seen, cattle farming in the US is a gargantuan operation with powerful lobbyists supporting it all the way up the steps to Capitol Hill.

Likewise, as much as Brazil would like to increase their eco-standing in the world, soybean farming will continue regardless. Why stop? There is a worldwide demand for the commodity.

If you would like to listen to the programme, click on the link below.

Does the World Need Meat?

P.S. If you have read this far, well done. Note to self: rant less and keep the posts short.

A couple of weeks ago I created a retail shop on Etsy for my artwork, hair accessories and jewelry; check it out www.ThePaperCafe.Etsy.com. For anyone not familiar with Etsy, it’s an online marketplace where shoppers can find unique, one-of-a-kind handmade products (great for the person who has everything) as well as vintage items that are at least 20 years old.

It’s kind of like eBay but with a lot more style! And I am pleased to announce that I made my first sale a couple of days ago – in fact, my first art piece (reference my previous blog post - The Butterfly) sold for $60. I’m pretty excited about it and now I’ve got lots and lots of ideas for additional pieces. I have another one listed in my store (The Tree) and have 2 more in progress – a lotus blossom and a pink ribbon breast cancer awareness one.

As for getting a “real” job, no luck so far. I think the right company is out there, I just haven’t found it yet! Until then, I suppose I’ll have to keep creating . . .

Oh, before I forget, I am also managing my father-in-law’s Etsy store – he is a woodworking professional and turns beautiful and unique pens. His store is www.TreeMendousDesigns.Etsy.com. Enjoy free shipping on many items in both of our stores throughout the holidays.

From left to right: Letts baroque, Rhodia web notebook, Letts noteletts, Moleskine.

It took longer time than I thought, but now I have testdrived Letts of London (LOL) noteletts, LOL Baroque, Rhodia webnotebook 80g (sorry – haven’t got hold of any of the newer yet) and Moleskine blank journal. Their size vary slightly, but it is basically the same concept; rubber band and pocket inside. Note that I have bought and paid these by myself – this comparison is independent and done as a part of the quest for a real good notebook (yet to find). I used a variety of pens and nib sizes  and inks to get a good view of the paper in the notebook The most prominent feature among all are that none are real fountain pen friendly, but both Letts are better than the Moleskine and Rhodia – not much, but enough to be significant. You can’t write on both pages – even with a fine nib – in any of them.  In order to view the writing samples properly: click on the photos.

Letts’ noteletts is clothed instead of the faux leather that the other sports. Good thing: variation and five colours available. Bad thing (for me who spills and carry it with me all the time) is that it stains more easily than faux leather. You can choose between lined, blank or squared (good for me who like blank pages). Paper is cream coloured . Upper right corner has a discrete date box that one can fill out or ignore. The paper quality is best out of the four, but it still features too much bleed through and feathering. It is almost worth the price.

Letts baroque seems to be a LE edition with flower textured faux leather (flower alligator?). It is the prettiest and most original of the four. Very nice. It comes in three colours; deep carmine red, black and brown (see earlier post).  The paper is not the same as in the noteletts and has a rather odd feature: every odd page is lined and every other blank – the left page is blank and the right is lined when you open it. Interesting, but I can’t help wondering why. The design makes it almost worth the price (about 20% cheaper than Moleskine here), but they should put their regular paper (best would be an even better paper than the regular) in this one and make it a part of their regular range.

Rhodia web note book 80 g/m paper The smallest of the four. This paper was a real bad surprise. I had expected – even though I knew that they have upgraded it to a 90g web note book – the paper to be something that felt like it came from a well reputed paper manufacturer, but unfortunately it didn’t. The paper has a nice colour and a nice feel to it, but it feathers even worse than Moleskine. Another drawback is that it only (even the new web note book) comes with lined pages. I prefer blank pages and can’t understand why they don’t bother to make both blanks, lined and squared. The least fountain pen friendly of the four. Not worth the hype or price. I can only hope that the 90 g paper does this brand justice.

Moleskine The brand everyone loves to hate. Costs almost  equivalent to $30 here. The paper is better than the paper in Rhodia’s web notebook, but it doesn’t justify the hilarious price. It loves to feather and let the ink seep through the page.

So, Twitter is a great thing for writers… all kinds of interesting things float by — and there are all kinds of articles too that other writers are posting all of the time as well as little literary quotes and things…

Also, I was looking at this this morning and it’s a very funny video.

http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/

here is the orig!

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Last night I was watching that movie Three Men and a Baby — but then switched over to Portrait of Dorian Grey — somehow there was an ad on for a hamburger place and they were actually using all sorts of things related to that whole Twilight movie…

And I thought, hmmm….

One of the literary agents I met at the conference I go to does that sort of thing, too.

Anyway on that note, following what this guy has to say on all that, off Twitter…

And, will be making soup today at some point.

I decided to post the book live in WordPress — so far, so good!  I changed the theme to a really cute one that has hearts and flowers too — that is the demographic it is for, and the WordPress template is just perfect.

So, I decided two pages a day for that blog?  Rather than one because, one wasn’t enough and I also decided to just edit the first post — when I add the pages.  Probably when I get to each chapter I will make a new post.  As I wrote the novel I pretty much had a chapter each day — so there are plenty of breaks.  Often I would pick up a theme from the previous day and just write to that — while I was doing NaNoWriMo.  It really worked well, I thought as a method for keeping the book in order — and it will be something I use for future novels too.

So, part of the mystique behind the novel I wrote is to teach kids about keeping journals.  I actually had my main character Teenie Alexander use a Waterman pen, and a little paper journal…

I use one — and they are the BEST!

and the journal that she writes in looks like these…

I was thinking of one that I used last year that is covered with a wisteria vine…

I like to use these too…

And, I get them at my favorite independent bookstore here in town!

I love books.

Umm, hmm….

I love books, beautiful little journals, Waterman pens, crayolas and Chronicle Books!

xxoo!

Author: tina rinaudo
Source: articlesfactory.com

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So I found a Pelikan 120 at my father’s office yesterday– he’s an architect, and I’ve been raiding his toolkit for as long as I can remember. Despite having sat around for a few years, it needed nothing more than a quick flush before I could ink it up and test it out. I used Lamy black because it’s the only bottled ink I have at the house right now. As it turns out, the quality is still pretty good! It lays down a crisp, fine line and flexes nicely (click on the image for a closer view).

The Pelikan 120 is a lower-end version of the 140, and apparently came in three versions: from the looks of this one, it seems to be the 2nd version which was picked up by many artists and architects.

The only flaw is that the nib is a bit scratchy on strokes to the right… I drew a circle on the sample page to show where the scratchy section was. After a bit of research, I found that you can smooth a scratchy nib on kraft paper, so I did that (very carefully) and it’s much smoother now. Certainly not buttery, but it doesn’t catch the paper now. Hooray!

I organized my closet and desk. I moved away papers that had lost their importance, and brought out pens flowing fresh ink and blank post-its. I tacked colored unicorns and drawn memorabilia to my bulletin board. I moved books I had read to the top shelf of my closet, and filled the left corner of my desk with new books I plan on reading sometime soon.

All for what? The holiday season is approaching and with that, coming gifts from loving family members and friends. All come appreciated and appear to be hand selected. Mine; generally come in the form of books, they are the quickest way to my heart no matter what genre or author. Books, books, books to add to my plethora of books.

With all the classics that have been on shelves for years, and the new books that are virgins to my reading eyes, I cannot help but think which books would please me best.

In the latest months, I have found myself venturing in to the philosophy section of bookstores. My latest purchase: The Symposium by the thinker Plato. Now, in somewhat of a switch, I think I would like to take a journey through some Charles Darwin, or Greek plays, maybe something more religious and controversial or possibly something more recent such as Under the Dome.

Every title I see provokes my interest in one way or another, I could argue any which one to the death of whether or not I would actually read it. It may sit, but the sitting and being unread is still a comfort in my heart. At least I have another book, I say to myself, and I love the gift thoroughly.

As I shuffled through my books, my two young cats wrestled beneath my feet with no idea of the compromises I was making in my head. I made choices of what books I was most likely not going to read anytime soon; these books feel to the deepest but still very fluorescently lit part of my closet. Other books built the foundation for mediocre piles of books I thought I might read soon. Through each decision, Oscar and Char continued to bicker.

It’s not an obsession. Not nearly. But, really if one is to be a writer, then one must have a writing implement equal to one’s task, suited to one’s personality, and matched to the task at hand. Got a pen in your pocket? If not, you’re not a writer.

It’s the writer’s endless quest: the perfect writing tool. Sure, most of what gets produced these days never goes through the stage of being carbon applied to paper by hand. But, as it happens, before I sat down at this computing machine to type out this post, I did actually jot down the basic ideas in a composition book with my current fave, a black Uni-Ball Signo Micro 207 (far right in the photo). Very classy. About six bucks for a pack of 4 at Staples. I could wax further over its merits, but my purpose is a broader one: this tactile, personal investment we make in the pen or pencil that is The One.

In the beginning, there was the inchoate mass in a box of some sort in the kitchen drawer that held an assortment of pens and pencils, along with rubber bands and those forgotten old state tax stamp receipts and other detritus, from which we’d grab whatever came to hand when we needed to write something or, more likely, to draw a treasure map or pirate flag. Probably a lot of those items were branded Brant’s Hardware or Lebanon Lumber Cmpny. or One Hour Martinizing. In those days, before the Writing Game was the Big Game for me, I didn’t care.

But, even before that came the initial Rites of Passage. I remember this. It’s not a photograph or something someone told me. I remember Mom taking me to the stationery store to get my supplies for kindergarten. The fundamental acquisition was the Binney & Smith crayons: big honkin’ hunks o’ color that make today’s crayolas look, well, wimpy. That’s where it all began. If you put that flat little box in front of me at this moment, I’d lift off the lid, grab a blue one and draw a big circle, a little circle, and four lines going down and scrawl “CAT” under it.

First Grade called for more serious weaponry. We were going to start PRINTING,  so the armament consisted of a big round black pencil. This pencil is the reason pencil sharpeners still have that big hole that you never use for your miserable, puny #2s. This was a SERIOUS pencil. Apparently the reasoning was that if your hands were half the size of adult hands, the pencil needed to be three times the size of a normal one. I do not know if one can buy such an implement now. It was massive.

Then, it happened. By 3rd grade, fashion had struck and, slave to fashion that I’ve always been, I manacled myself to the long, voluted pens in a variety of fauve colors that everyone in class was sporting. I vividly remember Mrs. Ingels raving about those precious pens — PENS, you must note. This was the Big Time at last. No more pencils. PENS. Of course, that also meant that one must have the pen ERASER, which was extremely effective because it removed not just ink but the paper itself, completely eliminating mistakes from all existence. The Impossible Missions Force would’ve approved.

Memory gets vague here, but somewhere around 5th or 6th grade must’ve been when the BICs arrived. A French Revolution. If you weren’t around then, you can’t imagine. 19 cents for the basic clear plastic model with the blue or black or red cap. Or 49 cents for the sleek white Accountant model with the metal clip (pocket protector, anyone?). Those Accountants carried me on into high school geometry. Oh yes. One would do those angles and charts and formulae in pen: why in the heck was that? Anyway, for me, the Accountant fine point was a stalwart, and probably remained so into college, where I learned to make marginal comments (both literally and figuratively) in my textbooks in a tiny, tiny hand that still shows up from time to time even today in my volumes of Proust.

For a while, still during high school, my admiration for the guitar playing of Mason Williams (“Classical Gas”) extended to include his journals, published in facsimile, written in blank ledger books with a felt-tipped pen: a pure product of the Late Machine Age. Sorry Mason, but that was a dead end for me. It’s great for show, but not something you want to churn out mongo pages in. I was back to The Accountant.

And, of course, there were any number of fountain pens around the house when I was a kid. Stationery stores (that’s what we call an Office Supply Store today, kids) still stocked plenty of Carter’s Ink in the squat little bottles and I tried it seriously, for a while. A short while. A bit fussy, may I say, when the BIC Accountant lies there in the drawer, smirking. It knows you’ll be back. (Orwell, by the way, coined a term, “ink stick” in “1984″ to describe what he saw as a demotic, inferior implement like the BIC. Okay, George. You were right about Civilization and History and Tyranny and all that, but give me my ink stick and leave me alone.) I still have one fountain pen, far left in the photo.

Then the big world beckoned and the choices multiplied.

Oh man, how many other pathways and dead ends did I explore? Mechanical pencils. Cartridge pens that were the equivalent of the Winchester Repeating Rifle to the muzzle-loaders of the fountain pen. Endless, numberless kinds of graphite pencils of different hardness, thickness and tone.

Finally, out in the corporate arena, I encountered the Pen Players. These cats and kittens would reach into a vest pocket or purse and whip out the ritzy hardware to match their Rolex or Gucci bag. Mont Blanc. Cross. I bought one that put me near that class in Hong Kong: a nifty little French number by the name of Lamy. That’s it in red in the picture above. I’d still use it every day if it weren’t for the fact that the reservoir holds about enough ink to maybe sign your name on a a form, and then you have to know the one shop in a certain street just behind the Palmer House in Chicago where you can buy replacement refills.

I HAVE to mention Carolyn, a young communications director shooting for the top VP spot somewhere, anywhere. Carolyn astounded me. Bright, attractive, WORE HER PHI BETA KAPPA KEY. And each day, every day, her pen coordinated with her outfit. The mauve shoes and purple blouse? It’s the purple pen day. Staggering.

I have at least four Cross pens that came to me as very generous gifts for graduation, opening nights, and other significant events. One is engraved with my name and one with my initials. These are Significant Pens. They are, indeed, Writing Instruments: beautifully crafted, but designed only for executives to employ in signing Significant Documents like deals over $500 million (Please, use the Mont Blanc for deals over $1 billion). Not your workhorse for the long haul. There’s one in the photo, second from left.

This is not obsession. There aren’t really many tools of the trade for the writer. The only place that matters is the point at which the word goes on to the page. Ask some golfer, some time, how many putters, wedges, drivers, fairway woods she’s gone through. Prepare for a long slog. A 49-cent BIC Accountant hardly measures up.

Two final pictures.

The first is my dad, sitting at his drawing table, preparing to work on a perspective drawing for his architecture class. He takes a black Grumbacher #1 pencil and inserts it in the black rotary sharpener and spins it around, just so, and pulls it out with its perfectly-engineered conical point and gets to work. I tried the pencils. They belong on the drawing table. Loved that sharpener, man. German engineering down to the ground.

The final picture is of Fitz, my first corporate boss, whenever he had a Serious Piece of Writing to execute. He’d flip open his suit jacket and extract his maximum-thickness black Pentel Flair (or, if he was going to correct something I’d written, the red one). He’d meticulously pop off the cap and place it on the opposite end of the pen, and poise the felt tip over the yellow legal pad that he had angled just-so on the conference room table before him. A Dartmouth Man, you could just tell. He’d fill a page with that careful, well-formed script of his that in its very appearance conveyed as much as the meaning of the words, “This is Writing. I am a Writer.  These are my Words.”

Do not attempt to tell me you can do that on a Word Processor.

If you have pen and pencil faves and raves, I’d be glad to hear from  you.

I have a deadline tomorrow afternoon, so coffee has been my primary fuel the last days. Strong , dark roasted (fair trade) coffee with hot milk.  Simple and a yummy.  But, even if coffee and writing belongs together, neither coffee and paper nor coffee and computer keybords goes well together. So, to get the writing a little more exciting I put my glass of coffee close to the keyboard, forgot about it and knocked it over and ruined the laptop keyboard earlier today. Fortunately – I realized afterwards – the coffee didn’t reach the notebook with notes for the paper, which – since the notes were not written in bulletproof ink -  had been a real disaster. I guess I have to consider writing my study notes in Noodler’s bulletproof black even if I detest the nib creep and that it feels like it is flooding from the nib.Another bright thing is that I have begun to use my Sailor Sapporo again. I had forgotten what a great little  pen for note taking, margin notes etc that it is. It is very precise and even if it is small it is very comfortable to write with. A review of Sailor Sapporo can be found here and if you check the review index you’ll find more reviews of the Sapporo.

variations on a theme? not om. not hadyn. just that i’ve got a pile of this-kind-of-thing mooching desk space right now; from the ever reliable in the red, is john dwyers newest as thee oh sees; slightly surprisingly from de stijl, the (overly?) perky pens record; and the vivian girlsish rocket-spunk conciseness of brilliant colors on slumberland. all good in their own way. but in light of the time:music ratio i’ve plumped to wordage this canny bugger (and attached some empeethree’s for the others). and by this-kind-of-thing i mean whatever’s vaguely garage related. obviously.

so the mantles. inhabiting the underground (both velvet and paisley). chucking out, in a brevitous half hour, ten songs with a zonked swagger. releasing the bugger on siltbreeze. can’t really go wrong can you? the answer’s no incase you were wondering.

it’s one of those strange records that seems to belong to no particular era, tendrils snaking under the skin of fifties rock and roll, sixites surf, seventies psyche, eighties garage revival and cassette pop. all these things smudge together into one hazy smear, a hypno-droning, foot-tapping, spiky chuggery of woofwoofwoof.

it’s all amphetamined jitter and jangle and jigger like some bermuda triangle where late-period vu, lyres and the byrds intersect. not entirely sure if i just described clinic there… but musically exemplified by disappearing act. anyway what it all boils down to is this:

kind of a narcotic garage rawk covered in dreamy gauze and smoggy fuzz of reverb and lo-fi pop stomp. as in what we do matters. kind of a trebly paranoid downer ballads, acid-burned and laconic, sassed-up melodiousness. as in look away, which has some awesome organ wooze on there.

and that’s just the opening triumvirate…

oh and i really dig the cover. an oddtastic photo, washed out gorgeous, from the olden days of virginia weatherby’s father gawky awkward and besuited, clutching a jimi hendrix pic, framed by mountainous skyline.

s’all good.

myspace / siltbreeze

Relaxed holding of an artistic implement

Holding a drawing implement will undoubtedly affect how effective the outcome is. Many people who say ‘I can’t draw’ usually don’t hold the pen or pencil in a relaxed fashion.

Over flexing the first finger is one of the most common problems and can have long term physical issues if it is not addressed properly.

I would be interested in hearing from those of you who have had issues with holding pens and pencils either yourself or with your children.

over-flexing the first finger

These cute animals are literally right at your fingertips when you use this cool fingerprint technique.  Using your fingerprints and a pen, the possibilities are endless and you can create an entire zoo full of animals!  This is a great beginner project that can get a little messy if you don’t keep an eye on the ink pad.  To help keep things under control, make sure the ink is washable and that you have plenty of soap and water on hand!

Things you will need:

• A washable ink pad in the color of your choice
• A pen or fine-tip marker
• A piece of paper or note cards

Steps: Simply press your finger into the ink then press it firmly on your piece of paper.  Next, follow the guides below to create the different animals.  Try experimenting and see what you can come up with!

Bird

Cat

Fish

Monkey

Pig

Congratulations!  You are well on your way to creating a thumbprint zoo!  Use your imagination and see how many different animals you can come up with.  Have you done this project?  Did you do it differently?  Please feel free to share your comments and pictures in the comments section!

A mid-level productivity manager has spoken of his anguish after the stockpile of pens, pencils and dry wipe-board markers that he had painstakingly collected over a period of 15 years was lost in a fire that ravaged the Reading branch of his employer, Quality Assurance Ltd. 

By the time fire fighters had the blaze under control a large part of the building had been gutted, including the small first floor office of Gary Wetherall.  ‘The first thing I thought of was my pen collection.’ said the visibly shaken manager.  ‘I had at least thirty Biros of various colours, including one of those multicoloured ones where you click a button on the top to choose what colour you want.  Sadly they’re all gone now.’

Gary is also mourning the loss of his extensive assortment of highlighters.  ‘As productivity manager I’d use these to chart the efficiency of the staff; blue for those who are meeting the requisite standards – in other words working late for no extra pay, yellow for those who work late but have the nerve to claim time off in lieu, and bright pink to highlight poor performers – staff who insist on restricting their working hours to those stipulated within their contracts.’

The loss that Wetherall feels most keenly is that of the showpiece of his collection, his Executive Platinum Easigrip 2000 ball-point pen.  ‘It came in a little case with refills and everything.’ he recalls.  ‘It was personally awarded to me by the CEO last year, in recognition of my services to the company after I volunteered to select possible candidates for redundancy as part of a cost-cutting project.  Ironically the permanent marker that I used to cross off the names has also been lost in the fire.’

Fire investigators are currently examining several possibilities for the cause of the inferno, but are said to be concentrating on the suspected faulty wiring of a small illuminated display cabinet.  They are also investigating why the office’s smoke detection system did not raise the alarm before the fire took hold throughout the building.  ‘It’s a mystery to me.’ says Gary.  ‘and we can’t ask the company’s fire prevention officer because we laid him off in December.’

(Written 17 Apr 2009)

…is on its way to me! This is a pen that I have wanted since I first saw the exquisite photos  of it in a review written by the FPN member Pinarello -  that you’ll find if you click here. I got the opportunity to buy it – used – for a real good price. I have a very restricted pen budget at the moment, but this opportunity was too good to pass, so I jumped on it. Another special pen from Pilot. Not much of bling – just shape and a special design – by a French designer – Juliette Bonnamour. I think she has succeeded very well in creating a pen that feels Japanese – shape oriented, aesthetic, functional simplicity – with a twist of her own. Very special. Maybe not as special as the M90, but hey! my heart (the section with a material and profane focus)  is big enough to cherish more than one pen. I really look forward getting this pen. Please USPS and Swedish Posten – be swift and efficient!

After starting out with a heavy overweight of German pens – mostly Pelikans – I have gradually began to realize that the countries (design spheres) that manufacture pens with a design that often appeals to me – by different reasons – are Italy and Japan. I love Italian pens for their saucy, glossy, elegance. Smart rascals.  I love Japanese pens for their shape awareness, perfection, functional simpleness and grace with the M90 as their modern icon and the Nakaya pens as their traditional representative. Of course there are many variants and exceptions – but when I think of Italian of Japanese pens at their best – the essence of the best of their design cultures – it is those things that I think of. When I feel rich sometime in the future I shall buy myself a Nakaya. Preferably with a little dandelion painted on it.

Photos are not by me – they are linked from Pilot Europe. These official photos don’t make them justice in my opinion – check the photos in the review mentioned above if you want to get a feel of it.

I don’t own a vast amount of fountain pens and since I am a user and accumulator I don’t aim to have several (or all) versions of a certain model. By accident I happened to end up with two of these. I had bought another Delta  – 365 – a beautiful and cool pen that in the end turned out to be a little bit to fat for my taste and since the cap didn’t post well I sold it. (Below it is with its friends -  Pelikan M215 in Lozenge pattern and Pelikan M605. The M215 would be the perfect Pelikan if it were a little bit bigger – like a M80X)

The buyer found out that the barrel had an almost undetectable hair crack which I had missed. Buyer returned pen to the retailer who sold me the pen just a month earlier – a very good retailer that  accepted a warranty claim without fuss.

So, I got a new Delta Profili instead. I had planned to sell it straight away to keep the pen budget in check, but when it arrived I just couldn’t sell it. It was so beautiful – the combination of the candy, lustrous blue and silver is divine futurism. The first one (the red) had feed issues. A smooth nib that wouldn’t let go of any ink. Retailer and nibmeister fixed it and after this fuss it wrote just like a dream. The blue/silver version laid down a perfect line straight out of the box.

I was  surprised to find that they differ a little bit from each other (not only colour wise). The blue only has guilloche each other side on both barrel and cap – where the red is patterned all over; except for one side of the cap where the brand name is engraved – in a futuristic, ultra cool typeface . On the blue pen the brand name is engraved on the barrel instead. They also have different nibs.

The red one has Delta’s old logo and style and is in 18 k gold, while the nib on the blue is in 14 k gold and wears the newer logo.

I prefer the blue Profili’s characteristics, but the unengraved sides on barrel and cap makes it less practical and prone to get scratches and dings if one isn’t careful. A little bit of patina can be beautiful, but too many scratches makes the pen look dull and this is a too lustrous and sparkling pen to benefit from that kind of dullness.

But cool design aside – this pen is a real great writer. Smooth, but not slippery smooth. Well balanced, at home in my hand. Very comfortable for long writing sessions. I also like that the cap posts by screwing it onto the end of the barrel. In all a favourite. I realize that I think that all of the pens I’ve got now belongs to my favourites. I’ve sold all (expensive) pens that I didn’t feel that I was perfectly happy with. I haven’t regretted one of these sales – it only feels good to let go of things that are good and OK, but not right. It is so easy to end up with a lot of things that doesn’t mean anything special or fill any function (one function can be looks and another to make me happy an a third to be a real great writer). A review of the red  with more photos can be found here.

I’ve been thinking about Anne Shirley and her pens.

Even though I do a lot of work on the computer these days, I also do quite a bit of writing by hand – journaling, notes to friends, grocery and to-do lists. I am particular about my pens (I consider it one of my rights, as a writer, to be choosy about pens and ink). However, I’ve never seen the wisdom in using fancy, expensive pens, since I can’t afford them, and since fancy inks tend to smear easily. (I am left-handed, so the non-smudge factor is vital for me.) I’ve settled, finally, on some roller-ball pens from Wal-Mart – not too expensive, but nicer than ballpoint. They write well, and I suppose they should all write the same, but every once in a while one of them gives me fits – writing unevenly or scratching the paper too deeply or just refusing to work at all.

All this musing has led me back to the beginning of Anne of Windy Poplars, when Anne, newly installed as the principal of Summerside High School, settles down in her tower room to write to Gilbert for the first time. On the first page, she cautions him, “This won’t be a love-letter. I have a scratchy pen and I can’t write love-letters with a scratchy pen…or a sharp pen…or a stub pen. So you’ll only get that kind of letter from me when I have exactly the right kind of pen.”

Judging by when she lived, I’m sure Anne used fountain pens, or at least a close relative of them – and I’m sure her pens were much harder to manage than mine. But I like knowing that we are kindred spirits in this, as in so much else – and so, when my pen misbehaves or when it writes perfectly, I think of Anne in her tower room, and smile.

So, that’s my 1st post on Lawliets blog. I want to say hello and put my judgment about mods from PMWT.

I will start from 1 round. Tetris mod has the best idea/concept. None of other mods from this round can be so new like this. It’s not a cheapest mod like Pienieks or the best looking, but it’s so innovative. Ahh, MaPic+ GJ. Colors can be better, but it’s tetris idea – random colors ^^.

From 2nd round i have chosen more than 1 mod. I did in that not another way, cause the all mods have interesting functions. I have chosen this mods, what have amazing functions.

The Freshmaker – I’ve never thought about putting mentos to pen and for more this mod can write. It’s awesome in some way. Only yellow cartoon comssa cap or something like that looks very ugly. I think better would be not clear, regular yellow comssa cap.

Mod by Modder5 (cause on PMWT site i can’t find who has made it and how that mod is called)

This mod looks really ugly. white comssa cap doesn’t fit into body color with outsert. Grips has regular Ryo or nhk9 colors (red vs. blue) and has no color rings. But look at function. Just look at this fan into comssa body and how to make it open/closed. It’s very nice idea. I think this is a winner of 2nd round.

911 mod

When i look at this i imagin how ugly my modder kit looks. In some way this mod is hilarious. Who will need this tools away from the desk? 911 has X-acto, Sticky Tak, Metal Hook, Clear Tape and Tweezer.

In round 3 was only few the best modders contesting for 3-person final. Densen77 have made some interesting mod called 2409. I always like chaos sign. But this gripcut is almost invisible, color scheme is bad. If he use white grip or neon green it can be the best mod.

The Neptune mod called Fusion mod is just unbeliveble. How he made it?! o.O That’s the best mod for now, even better than last round mods.

The last round – final. The contestants have to create luminous mod. I will comment only 1 mod, cause it’s the best IMO – The Sunrising Spirit. When i looked at other mods i thought about boring leds, not in this mod. Neptune used glow sticks and his devil skill in gripcut. It looks amazing in the normal light and in the dark. It’s simply and the winrar mod ^^

This will be all for my 1st post. You can agree or not, that’s just my opinion.