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Category Archives: ponderings

Writing utensils

I like writing utensils.  Especially those of the pen variety.  It used to be a thing with me in college.  It was very dangerous for me to go into the university bookstore because I would almost assuredly walk out with some new writing instrument.  Generally a pen, but sometimes something else.

For the last several years, my main writing utensil has been a multi-function from Yafa because I didn’t want to carry 238912837912873 different writing utensils with me.  I started out using a Quad-point, went to a Quin-Tek, got another Quin-Tek because the first one broke, went back to a Quad-point (but a grippy kind) because a part went missing on the Quin-Tek I was using and made it annoying to use, and now…I have none.  Because my last Quad-point was inadvertently stolen by someone.  And my mom took my backup pen, which is fine.  She can have it if she really likes it.

Now, I really liked my Yafa pens.  I like the multi-functionness of the pens.  I really liked how smooth the pens would write.  I liked that you could replace the ink barrels.  I liked that I could have so many different colors including something that could function as a highlighter.  I even liked the weight of the Quin-tek, which was on the heavy side.

I also really liked the gravity feed feature of the pen.  It generally meant that no one understood how to use my pen and made it less susceptible to theft.  The fact that my last pen was stolen from me was at least equally my fault and really, the girl who took it had way bigger problems to deal with than remembering to return the pen to me.

But, I really didn’t like the pencil portion of the multi-function.  The tip was constantly working itself loose.  And the lead barrel of the Quad-points were never upgraded to be like the ones on the Quin-tek, where you could replace the pencil with another pen.  And customer service wasn’t really the greatest.  The tech that I spoke with way back in the day with my first Quin-tek broke was very pleasant and tried to help as best he could, but the corporation wasn’t really making it easy for him.

So now…I’m in the market for a multi-function pen again.  I’m not going with another Yafa because…well, they don’t really offer anything I really want anymore.  The Quin-tek is probably discontinued, even if they don’t actively say that it is.  The Quad-point can still be found in places like Fry’s and online, but I really don’t want to go into Fry’s.  It’s one of my least favorite stores ever.  EVAR.

I’m thinking maybe a Pilot or maybe a Uni.  But for the time being, I got myself a set of Papermate Ink Joys.  They write really nicely and there are lots of colors to choose from.  If only they made them as multi-functions…

And…this was a whole post on pens.

Random things to draw

The other day I was at a bookstore.  A real, brick and mortar bookstore.  Only, this bookstore probably wasn’t constructed from brick, this being California and all.  Anyway, the point is that I was at a real bookstore.  And while I was there, I saw this book.

Links to Amazon

Links to Amazon

And I really wanted this book.  It looked so interesting.  I wanted to draw 642 weird and random things.  But, since I was at a real bookstore, there was a markup and I didn’t think a book of predominately blank paper was worth as much as they were asking for it.  It made me kind of sad.

But then I thought, “Hey!  I bet there are lists of weird and random things to draw on the internets!  And if I draw from a list on the internets, I can draw digitally and skip the step of scanning stuff if I want to post the drawing!”  This is exactly what I thought to myself.  Well, not really.  My thoughts weren’t really all that excited.

But anyway, after the briefest of searches online, I have indeed found a list of weird things to draw.  And they even update it every year.  And they even post their drawings as they complete them.  Huzzah!

So, the plan is this: I’m going to start posting twice a week.  Because…this Clib project seems to be never ending.  But I need to start doing something creative again or start going crazy (or more so).  I can’t really work on any of the projects I had been doing because my house is…well, I don’t have much of a house right now.  It’s still under repair from the swimming pool incident.  Stuff has been shoved into rooms and there’s construction equipment all over the house and there is dust everywhere and the general contractor didn’t think it was necessary to put drop cloths over the stuff being stored in the rooms so there is dust everywhere.  EVERYWHERE.  AND ON EVERYTHING.  You probably don’t realize how displeased this makes me.  BUT ANYWAY…

The plan will be one normal, ridiculous post (because the words “normal” and “ridiculous” should be used in the same sentence and even describe the same thing) on Mondays and a weird drawing on either Wednesday or Friday.  You should draw ridiculous things too.  Ridiculous things are fun to draw.  Huzzah!