11/26 Part of our role as parents is to make the kids uncomfortable. They don’t enjoy it, but we can’t let them settle into a bad local optima. (that afternoon, we took the training wheels off his bike)
11/23 Life is funny, it takes you places. I play a part by going along. But I tend towards the passive. Most likely comes from my mom.
11/20 I write lists. Making tasks visible lets me manipulate them. Maybe even cross shit without doing them (because I realize they’re unimportant). I do love my lists. Be careful about procrastinating by list. Do the work!
I used up the last of the Waterman blue my dad gave me years ago. My guess is that this ink is half a century old. The boy helped me fill the cartridge so there’s three generations in this pen.
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In my recent search for pens, I’ve tried up a bunch of cheap pens. It’s fun to explore each assemblage of plastic and steel.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, if I could only pick two it would be the Pilot Kakuno and Pilot Parallel. The Kakuno with an extra fine nib is a tight writing instrument, and the Parallel is a unique tool that is creates an expressive line and suited for calligraphy.
If I could to create a second pairing, the Sailor Fude Nib Pen is a similarly wide pen that goes great with the Sailor Compass. At $30, its twice as expensive as the other pens, but the build quality is noticeably better than cheaper pens.
After graduating college, I treated myself to a Pelikan M600 which now sells for about half a grand. Even accounting for the piston mechanism (that has survived two decades of neglect) and the butter smooth gold nib, I don’t see how the M600 is $470 better than the Compass.
As with many things in this world, the first few bucks makes a huge difference in quality. After that, the extra dollars only temporarily mollifies the ravenous criticism of a connoisseur.
This time last year, there was a magical moment on Post.news as people escaped the chaos of the recently acquired Twitter.
It was a wonderful holiday season as we enjoyed and explored each others’ art. I rediscovered my drawing hand, which had atrophied from decades of fear. They encouraged me to keep exploring poetry. Post freed me to make bad art, which might not sound special, but it’s eons ahead of doing nothing.
I’m not sure what went wrong (maybe their focus on news and opinion?) but the magic dissipated in the early months of the new year. I miss those folks, but most of them have also moved on, and I don’t have time to be online everywhere.
Fortunately Substack stepped in to fill the void. This community has been generous with encouragement and relentlessly inspiring with the endless publishing of amazing work. It’s a place to stretch and play.
When I joined Post last Thanksgiving, I took a photo of our freshly reinstalled Christmas tree to be the banner image of my user account (it’s still there). This morning, that tree is back up as we enter into another holiday season.
What will the new year bring? Who knows. Maybe I’ll actually bang out some good art. Whatever’s. I’ll settle for sharing more bad art. A second year of making would be an accomplishment in this topsy-turvy world.
In the meantime, thanks for the company; let’s hope this party lasts a bit longer.
We went to hallOVeen at the Magical Forest, a little amusement park that the non-profit Opportunity Village opens up for fundraising during the Halloween and Christmas holidays.
The kids enjoyed the Blizzard. Mama and I only lasted once each. So we let them sit together for another spin around and around and around and around and around…
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The kids are growing up fast. Only yesterday, they needed us to play with them. Now they keep each other amused (when they aren’t arguing!). And she’s got books. The whole world on her Kobo with a Libby account. She’s read through the Harry Potter series at least twice and was Hermione this Halloween (he was Pikachu).
Right now they’re watching Harry Potter #2 downstairs. I can’t do it. I don’t have anything against the series. I was just old enough to miss the excitement over the series as it came out. We watched the first movie and it did nothing for me. And the thought of spending 283 minutes on the second film pains my soul.
I’ve never been good at entertainment if I wasn’t in the mood for it. I wish I could be a little less judgemental when watching TV, but instead I’m up here writing notes about my finicky media habits.
The kids helped Pikachu make a little candy shack, turned off the lights, and lit the room with a red plastic cup over a flashlight.
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As the first letter of the alphabet I have a lot of A’s. There won’t be as many for future letters, and even less when I hit the numbers. But hey, let’s start with a bAng!
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One of the best firm names I’ve come across is “Atelier One”, a British structural engineering company. Why? Cause I still remember it nineteen years after I saw them give a lecture at Rice. Can I remember anything they did? Nope. But what a sticky name to stay in my consciousness after all these years.
It sharpens my thinking. Writing squeezes out the slop in a stray notion.
Sharing for the future. My work isn’t best-in-class, but it’s not worthless. A future reader might find threads of silver amongst the dross. That person might be me.
To get better at writing. Posting publicly hones the craft. Leveling up can be its own joy (and help with work emails and memos.)
For the company, to be part of a conversation and contribute to the zeitgeist. It’s fun to get responses and comments.
Blogging is an exercise of whispering into the hurricane. My practice is more about self improvement than broadcasting. The reception of others are a fickle shadow. The privilege is in doing work.
In the moment it isn’t easy fun like watching a video, but I find a deeper joy through all parts of the process, drafting, editing, posting. Why else would I do this for fifteen years?
If I had to start over, here are the pens I’d get in order.
Pilot Kakuno, Extra Fine
Pilot Parallel, 3.8mm
FPR Muft, Ultraflex nib
Sailor Fude De Mannen, 40 degrees
FPR Muft, Architect Nib
Notes:
I love the smiley face on the nib. Just need to get a Kaweco Sport clip for my shirt pocket. The Kakuno beat out the Platinum Preppy because of cartridge compatibility with the Parallel if I was to take them both on the road. The Japanese Extra Fine nib takes the top slot because it’s perfect for everyday carry and sketching.
The Parallel is in a Pilot Sign Pen Body and has been used as an eyedropper at home for months without leaks, but I’d use a cartridge if I was traveling (just to be safe).
The FPR Muft had been perfect at home (love the clear eyedropper body) but leaked on the road. I’m curious about the Osprey Madison with a Zebra G nib, but worried about rust. If the road-ability is important I could just use the ultraflex in my FPR Guru (a piston filling pen that didn’t leak when we went on a trip in summer).
The Fude is screwed in a Sailor Compass body. Even though it’s clear, it isn’t eyedropper convertible without epoxy to plug up the body. I like the 40 degree nib slightly better than the 55 degree nib but I’m exploring other Fude Pens, so this may change.
This Architect nib lays a beautiful bold line that goes skinny on a dime. And yes, it’s great for architectural lettering.
I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my morning pages. Or even whether to bother.
It’s good to just blather. Get shit off my chest like the day after 10/7. Maybe it’s self therapy? And there’s always the ubiquitous Things To Do list.
But sometimes it’s a chore to hit three pages. So I just shoot for two. The first flip between the first and second pages is a great mind wipe, but I feel like I’m just burning ink and killing trees to fill up page three.
Julia Cameron says you shouldn’t package the journal for public consumption, but I’ve started roughing out blog posts some mornings. And the last couple of days I jotted some half-baked thoughts that want to be recorded somewhere.
Expectation is the thief of joy.
Not a new concept, just a variation of the Buddhist origin of suffering. My personal insight is that comparison and optimization are also expectations (against others and an idealized perfect). These are all bandits against internal peace.
With work and home being so hectic, I need to be more present with the kids. I’m trying out a new pair of personal rules. Our parents never had to wrestle against the allure of a pocket computer.
No Youtube when they’re awake!
Leave the phone upstairs (in the home office)
This also applies to life in general. I need to reduce stream of outside words being implanted into my brain. More jazz, less podcasts.
What is the difference between Craft and Connoisseurship?
Both entail a dissatisfaction with the status quo. But Connoisseurship is unhappiness with others, while Craft is the continual striving for personal improvement. Maybe that’s why I value Craft as a practice while being suspicious of Connoisseurship as a sneaky form of optimization.
Making is an act of faith.
Faith that something “good” will pop out. Or that I’ll learn something for next time.
Last week, I uploaded the letter “Z” of Alphabet Magic, pairing photos of everyday life with sketches of my hand forming the ASL manual alphabet.
Just another post, but I couldn’t let it pass without comment.
I took more art studios than architecture studios in college, but stopped drawing over the past two decades; constipated with perfection. After turning forty, I eliminated drawing from of my list of future projects (along with reading Chinese and the Guan Dao kung fu form).
Then Post came online last year. I wanted to help make the place that I wanted to see, so this alphabet series was my contribution. The winter of 2022-2023 was a magical season when quirky artists came together for a mass experiment. (Much as Substack has become a beautiful writer’s oasis).
When it became clear Post management was focused on news and opinion, I hopped over to Substack and turned the drawings into a formal series, pairing it with my contributions to Charlene Storey’s weekly thread of “everyday magic”.
Twenty-six weeks later I’ve posted half a year of hands and magic.
So what next? Well I have plenty more hands. After joining Substack, Wendy MacNaughton hosted a 30 day sketching challenge around the same time Ashlyn Ashantee got me really into fountain pens. So I kept drawing with hatching and new wacky nibs.
Next week, I’ll start the second series, with a bit more variety, still with a pop of everyday magic, but with less alliterative titles. Maybe I’ll throw in the occasional calligraphy experiment and zine (inspired by a conversation with d.w. and John Ward on Notes).
In home, school, or work, I’ve learned that projects start with promise, grind through midlife, and shutter with little fanfare. But I’ve also learned that the anticipation of triumph will eventually realized in retrospect long after the moment has faded.
As I mature, I’m slowly embracing the process. It’s a privilege to draw. It’s a privilege to do anything beyond the bare necessities. It’s a privilege to share — thanks for reading!
The results are up to the fickle gods, but we can always exhilarate in the chase.
The boy made a potion with sugar (flowers) and salt (sand) to put out a fire (thorny weeds) in the backyard. His hands were stained with red ink from doodling with my flexy fountain pen.