Of old favorites and new favorites and least favorites
Oh happy day. Starting a new journal is a joyful part of keeping a personal journal. Transitioning from one notebook into another is one of my favorite stationery-related activities.
My next journal jumps from an A6 size back into my typical A5. The pages are large enough that I can get on a roll within my writing before changing pages. A5 is also small enough that I can fill a page fairly quickly. It’s empowering to fill pages.
The notebook is simple. The paper and my writing get top billing. Between the two, the star this week has been the new cosmo air light (CAL) paper.
Lines stay crisp, even with broad nibs. And the shading is fantastic. Shading is my favorite ink quality. Especially where shading happens around the outside edges of a line. So CAL has been a big win.
My writing this week has been quite high. Between starting a new month in my work bullet journal and starting a new personal journal, there were plenty of reasons to put pen to paper.
As a side note: my local pen group had its March meetup this Saturday (virtually, of course). We shared our most and least favorite pens/inks. Some of my absolute favorites:
A choir should sing when you look at this picture
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. No one pen and ink combo stood out this week. I will say that the multitasker nibs on my Pelikan and on the TWSBI encourage me to reach for both more often than other pens. I can use both to write bold headings and smaller detailed notes.
Montblanc 146 (EF) — Dumped at 1/4. Smooth, disciplined writing. Took too long to dry for my intended use as a task manager. HMJE Black bled through a a few pages, too. This ink would be great paired with a stingier feed. Task management, accent notes, scratch notes.
TWSBI 580-ALR (EF/M) — Empty. The M side of this nib became a go-to for my lesson plans. Matter’s dryness led to excellent shading on Tomoe River. Lesson plans, meeting notes, task management.
Karas Kustoms (EF) — Empty. A first: super-wet combo with hard starts. Anecdotally, those have been mutually exclusive until this week. Wrote an M line, which showed off Hisoku’s excellent shading. Journaling and a little lesson planning.
Lamy Safari (B) — Empty. A lovely, if dry, combo. True B line. Exceptionally smooth nib kept Moonlight an easy writing experience. I used this as an accenting pen in lecture notes, meeting notes, lesson plans, and also for journaling.
Pelikan m805 (F Architect) — Empty. A journaling staple. Pale color shades darkly on TR paper, which makes this combo excellent for accent notes that stand out. Lecture notes, reading notes, marking papers (EF side), and journaling.
Franklin-Christoph 03 (EF SIG) — 1/4. To summarize writing with this EF SIG: wow. Small handwriting brings out the SIG’s line variation. Some tweaks to the feed Monday night resulted in a wet, behaved EF line. Warped Passages is just bright enough to be readable from afar: so great for lesson plans. Lesson plans, accent meeting notes, journaling.
Sailor Pro Gear (Zoom) — 1/2. A wet, broad combination. Lines broad enough to make regular notetaking muddled, and challenging to read. Relegated this pair to journaling early in the week. Journaling.
Notebooks. Work bujo. A new month brings brainstorming and reflection pages. My monthly self-reflection takes two pages. The weekly is another two.
Six more pages are devoted to lesson plans. I reference these outlines while teaching. I also record any issues or high points on my lesson plans. These quick notes help me improve my lessons over the summer months. Notes are often a quick phrase, such as “Only get to one” or “Liked primary source.”
Notes to self
Plans for my research students’ presentations are ramping up. Another two pages house notes on which papers to group together on panels and contact info for potential guest discussants. The remainder were meeting and reading notes.
All told: 16 new pages in the work bullet journal this week. Next week will start on page 43.
A new journal: A5 dot grid with Cosmo Air Light paper. 8 pages. I wrote three long-form entries. Pen choice was varied. The first entry relied on the Sailor (Z) and Pelikan (F Architect). The second: Karas Kustoms (“EF”) and Franklin-Christoph (EF SIG). My most recent entry was with the EF-SIG again, and the M side of the TWSBI nib.
Grey is a color, right?
And I taped in a note my partner slipped to me during the week. These artifacts convert my journal into a running history of what matters to me. Small gestures matter.
Aww
Written dry. This week was a masterclass in emptying pens. Four pens emptied: the TWSBI, Karas Kustoms, Lamy Safari, and Pelikan.
Two long-haulers have been around for weeks. The Pelikan ran out early in the workday on Wednesday. I had just ended a round of reading notes on the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The TWSBI hung on until mid-afternoon Friday.
The Karas Kustoms emptied Tuesday evening while on a call. Despite the wonky “EF” nib, it’s a fun pen to write with.
The Safari lasted all week. Saturday morning saw the last of the Moonlight on paper; mid-sketching for a blog post. There may be a bottle in my future.
Newly inked. No need this week.
The Collection
Incoming / new orders. No new arrivals this week.
Outgoing / trades or sales. Soon. Well: soon-ish.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. Name of the Wind continues. We’re up to chapter 80. The woods. Some dragon-thing. And a [no spoilers] mystery still under cover. My partner and I have an exciting final few chapters to go.
I’ve also added four more chapters to my reading of Heir to the Empire, bringing me to page 141. Thrawn’s thoughtfulness, as an antagonist, is a joy ride.
Nonfiction. One essay stands out this week. I found a theoretical warning of sorts by Neil Postman (1998) through Ezra Klein’s podcast. Postman highlights five observations about technology. The fifth has stuck with me for days: we eventually think of new technology as part of a natural process of humans evolving. He warns that we permit technology unnatural control over our lives.
As someone who lives within both analog and virtual worlds, I’m unsettled on what lesson I should take away.
Music. Sigur Rós is a longtime favorite of mine. Their mix of metal-like energy and mellow vocals resonates with me. Their lead singer just dropped a new album. It’s been on repeat most nights this week.
The hook of Jónsi’s first track is a meaningful reminder: It’s just the way it is; It isn’t your fault; Just let it go.
