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I spent the past few days simply going through the motions of what I was supposed to do. Given that it was the Chinese New Year, I went around to houses of relatives, and they and other family friends came to mine. I got a decent amount of red packets, and I now have a surplus of cash. 400 SGD would be my estimate. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of it. Today I spent some money on a notebook and some stationary.
I don't think I have to explain why I need stationary, so I'd like to talk a bit about the notebook. It's cover is a nice faint blue hue, like the background of TL.net. I'm not entirely sure how I would go about describing the texture of it, since it has this unique rubbery-smoothness to it. The pages are yellow and lined.
Joan Didion inspired me to get the notebook. She said something about notebooks once, and I read it on the internet somewhere. If my memory serves me correctly, she said that if she kept observing things and writing them down, it would eventually serve her well. It would serve her well when she wakes up one morning and finds that she has nothing to do but go about her usual routine - writing. Anyway, when she finds herself in this bankrupt day, in this bankrupt morning, she'll just open her notebook and everything will be there. Everything she has written about what she thought to be peculiar or worthy enough to remember would serve as an open passageway to her past.
I hope that makes some sort of sense. Anyway, the main idea of a notebook to Joan Didion is "Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point." I think that is a lovely idea, and I will be trying to embrace it.
Moving on, I have also started learning how to Photoshop. I started 4 days ago. All I'm capable of doing now is slapping quotes onto stolen images to make a wallpaper. I guess I'm just a sucker for quotes. I also did some typography things, which can be found in this blog.
Here are some wallpapers that I'm relatively comfortable with presenting:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tVoxMK0.jpg)
Given the proximity of Valentines Day, I decided to make this one. Steinback wrote this in a letter to his eldest son. I think it's great advice. Maybe it's because I'm secretly sour about being friendzoned. Who knows?
I'm not sure about the font I chose. I tried to make the drop shadows similar to the shadows in the original picture.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fKJoMtW.jpg)
This one was inspired by sam!zdat. It's he's own quote, and I believe it means "ours is not the only sun". It's a wonderful quote as I think it hints at extra terrestrial life and tries to make the reader look at the Universe in a bigger scope.
To him, it's also a reminder not to get too fixated on what seems to be the center of things. He mostly thinks it sounds elegant in Latin. This guy, man.
Well, that's all I have on my mind today. Thanks for reading.
 
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"How sam!zdat became the new Neil deGrasse Tyson."
Next thing that gets linked on "I fucking love science" <3
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If you're going to spend on a good notebook, you should get a good pen! While the pen world is kind of a mess, with flashiness and poor value being typical even among the best-regarded brands, you can get a very nice pen for not that much money. I recently purchased a Cross C-type gel rollerball pen for about US$75 that's one of the nicest I've ever used. (Note that when buying a pen that's not a fountain pen, the quality of writing depends mostly on the refills, but the Cross gel refills work beautifully and I can't recommend them highly enough.)
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Always like reading your blogs, but honestly, you have to follow up on the library girl man! :D
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On February 14 2013 00:45 Lysenko wrote:
If you're going to spend on a good notebook, you should get a good pen! While the pen world is kind of a mess, with flashiness and poor value being typical even among the best-regarded brands, you can get a very nice pen for not that much money. I recently purchased a Cross C-type gel rollerball pen for about US$75 that's one of the nicest I've ever used. (Note that when buying a pen that's not a fountain pen, the quality of writing depends mostly on the refills, but the Cross gel refills work beautifully and I can't recommend them highly enough.)
I would highly recommend getting a starter fountain pen. Writing with them is so much nicer than any ballpoint and you can try out any ink that you want.
Here is a decent guide on getting your first fountain pen. My first pen + ink was a Lamy AL-Star and Noodler's Black ink, for a total of around $50 on Amazon.
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On February 14 2013 01:21 theonemephisto wrote:
I would highly recommend getting a starter fountain pen. Writing with them is so much nicer than any ballpoint and you can try out any ink that you want.
Fountain pens are nice, but they can be a hassle to load and keep clean, and some are much better than others.
I should point out that I recommended a gel rollerball, not a ballpoint. Ballpoint pens use a viscous ink much like printer's ink, regular rollerballs use a water-soluble ink that can dry out, but gel rollerballs (which are new the last 10 years or so) use a viscous ink that flows freely once the pen's put into use.
A good gel rollerball feels like a fountain pen but without the mess, uneven flow, or need to carry around a separate bottle of ink. They also behave better on airplane flights.
Edit: I have not personally used it, but I have heard great things about the Lamy 2000 fountain pen, for the price. If you're inclined to go that direction, might be worth trying one if you can.
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Pilot G2s
![[image loading]](http://www.pilotg2.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Pilot-G22.jpg)
All you will ever need (seriously)
Practical, dependable, and stylish
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On February 14 2013 01:31 Lysenko wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2013 01:21 theonemephisto wrote:
I would highly recommend getting a starter fountain pen. Writing with them is so much nicer than any ballpoint and you can try out any ink that you want. Fountain pens are nice, but they can be a hassle to load and keep clean, and some are much better than others. I should point out that I recommended a gel rollerball, not a ballpoint. Ballpoint pens use a viscous ink much like printer's ink, regular rollerballs use a water-soluble ink that can dry out, but gel rollerballs (which are new the last 10 years or so) use a viscous ink that flows freely once the pen's put into use. A good gel rollerball feels like a fountain pen but without the mess, uneven flow, or need to carry around a separate bottle of ink. They also behave better on airplane flights. Edit: I have not personally used it, but I have heard great things about the Lamy 2000 fountain pen, for the price. If you're inclined to go that direction, might be worth trying one if you can.
There's a misconception that fountain pens are a lot of work. They really aren't. With a converter the hassle is pretty minimal. It takes about 30 seconds to load one with ink, and besides flushing it with water a couple times whenever you change ink colors that's pretty much the only maintenance you have to do. Mess is pretty nonexistent as long as you don't knock your bottle over.
There are also fountain pens with cartridges. In fact, most Lamy pens come standard with a cartridge. But buying ink separately is both more fun and cheaper, and there's such an insane variety of ink out there. If you want an idea of what you can get, here is a list of 600-700 ink samples that just one online store carries. There's an ink for pretty much every purpose imaginable, every color/shade, multicolor, invisible, fraud-proof, waterproof, whiskey scented, the list goes on.
Working on airplanes is a real advantage though. If you fly a lot a fountain pen is not a good idea.
I have a Lamy AL-Star that is pretty cheap and very functional. Lamy Safari is also essentially the same pen for even cheaper. I still use it as my red ink pen, but I've recently bought a refurbished Parker 51 that writes like a dream. It's like gliding over ice. I hate writing with pencil and other pens now because I'm so used to the effortless no-pressure writing of a good fountain pen.
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On February 14 2013 01:00 Tarias wrote:
Always like reading your blogs, but honestly, you have to follow up on the library girl man! :D
Heh, thanks!
I'm too embarrassed to do a follow up >.<
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On February 14 2013 16:42 Azera wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2013 01:00 Tarias wrote:
Always like reading your blogs, but honestly, you have to follow up on the library girl man! :D Heh, thanks! I'm too embarrassed to do a follow up >.<
Do itttttttttt
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On February 14 2013 00:41 r.Evo wrote:
"How sam!zdat became the new Neil deGrasse Tyson."
Next thing that gets linked on "I fucking love science" <3
you take that back right fucking now
edit: <3
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EPT
