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Palomino Review Coming

October 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I know that in Friday’s Weekly Wrap post I stated that I’d have the first review up for the new Palomino notebooks and I apologize. But, due to technical issues and a question that I had on the product, it has been delayed. I hope to have it up by tomorrow. Thanks and make sure to check back tomorrow for the review.

Weekly Wrap

October 7, 2011 By 1 Comment

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Flags at half-mast at One Infinite Loop - Photo: Christina Warren

Things about stuff we actually enjoyed reading this week.

Pens/Pencils

Paper

 

Daddy’s in Charge

October 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Angela took a night off to catch up with friends and I got to stay home with Carnage (son – age 3) and Mayhem (daughter – age 1).

While at work I was trying to plan something because I don’t want to just plop them in front of the TV. They each require different activities to entertain them and/or keep them focused. Then I remembered that for a while now Carnage has been asking me to sharpen all his colored pencils with him. The last time we sharpened all of them by hand (all 100) we got blisters. But, I have an electric pencil sharpener that I inherited at work. So, I put it in a bag on my way home.

The workhorse.

There were a couple of hiccups. The sharpener got a little hot when we were about half-way through so we had to take a break. I had to teach my son how to not just shove the pencil into the sharpener so that it locks up. I had to be on guard because my daughter’s fingers easily fit into the hole. That would have been bad. She didn’t get to sharpen pencils freely. I had her hold the back of the pencil , furthest away from the end being sharpened, and had my hand in front of it like a guard while swatting her other hand away as she tried to poke inside the sharpener.

It took about 2-1/2 hours from the first pencil sharpened til we were done. That included sharpener overheating breaks, bathroom breaks, snack breaks, a diaper change and some Mini Ninjas gameplay. But, we finished! Then, despite vehement protests by my son,  I bagged up the sharpener to take it back to work.

Mission accomplished!

New Arrivals

October 4, 2011 By 2 Comments

These pencils look sweet!

Today Rad and Hungry (RAH) announced their latest kit and it’s from Canada! I happened to win this month’s hunt so I am super happy that I will actually be getting one of these. Going by their track record the past year, I think I might be getting a year’s subscription soon. (My birthday is coming up!) RAH kits are always cool and especially authentic. They get the best international stationery around. I reviewed the Mexico kit that I got a while back and I assure you they don’t just get anything. They do their research and the kits you receive have a high attention to detail from what they package to how they package it. I can’t wait to see the Canada kit firsthand.

My Franklin Covey catalog announced the new Booqpad iPad cover designed to hold not only your iPad2 but also a notebook, pen and business cards. Looks like a great way for your digital and analog notes to blend.

The TWSBI Diamond 540 fountain pens are back in stock at the Goulet Pen Co. and will probably be sold out again by the time you read this. They also have the limited edition TWSBI ROC100 fountain pens in stock…for a limited time.

I leave you with a little RUSH in honor of the Canada kit!

This is not a sponsored post and I am not affiliated in any way with the vendors that I mentioned above. I’m just pointing everyone in the direction of where to get the loot I like. If, in the future, one of these posts is sponsored, it will state it clearly at the beginning and the end.

Amazon Kindle Fire

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The ad for the new Amazon Kindle Fire is great. From quill to printing to digital.

Acquisitions: Michael’s

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Took a trip to Michael’s over the weekend. We had a birthday present to buy for one of my son’s friends and had been told by his mom that he wanted some robot craft thing. Don’t see it in the picture do you. Yeah, this is a picture of everything else that we purchased besides the birthday gift!

Included are:

  • 1-Faber-Castell PITT artist pen XS
  • 1-Real Simple Magazine
  • 1-Strathmore Windpower™ Sketchbook – 6.25″x 8.5″ ( 89 g/m² )
  • 1-Strathmore 300 Series Sketchbook – 3.5″ x 5″ ( 74 g/m² )
  • 6-Michael’s Journals ( 9mm line spacing with various covers )
  • 1-pack of 4 pencils
  • 2-packs of rub on stickers that match the journal covers

Both sketchbooks and the pencils are for my son. I’m pretty sure that if it went his way, the entire rainforest would be green lit to be made into sketchpads and pencils. Not kidding. I have a 2 inch stack of paper next to my desk right now of his drawings that took him 4 days. The Windpower™ Sketchbook has 70 sheets and the smaller sketchpad has 100. We got the smaller one for on-the-go to keep in the car, but I’m sure the larger one will be full by the end of the week. It’s great that he prefers drawing and coloring to TV though. He’s only 3 but he’ll sit there for hours. Love it.

The Michael’s journals were in the $1 bin and were picked up on the way out. They were $1.50 though. I will be reviewing those shortly. Based on what I’ve seen of them so far, I’ll probably be giving some away. Stay tuned.

New Arrivals

September 20, 2011 By 2 Comments

Into the Fray!!!

The Aurora Ipsilon Satin Fountain Pen now being offered by Jet Pens caught my eye. Unfortunately that’s exactly where it punched my wallet as well. I’m going to have to save up for this beauty but it will be added to the pen wish list.

Gel pens are my favorite. This Parker Urban looks like a gel pen kicked up a notch and has the price to show for it. It will be nice to have a twist-action gel pen to add to the arsenal. (I would have chosen the pic for the other one but it had twilight in the name.)

For the artist that wants to make the doodles on their clothes pop, Sharpie is accommodating. These Stained brush tip fabric markers are made to be used to draw on your pants, shirts, hats, or whatever you’re wearing. I would have gone for something like this back in high school when I would doodle on my pants when bored in class. They resist fading during normal cold wash cycles and if you only hang dry the garment.

Earlier last week Pencils.com announced that California Republic Stationers has a new series of hand crafted notebooks that will be revealed starting this Monday, September 19th through Friday September 23rd. Newsletter subscribers will have first dibs during a subscriber only presale on the 26th. The items will sell to the general public the next day. I can’t wait to see all of these to know how many will make their way to my shelves.

This Mont Blanc Writers Edition Carlo Collodi Pinnochio Fountain Pen is something that I’ll probably not add to my collection. It’s beautiful but I have a mortgage to pay.

And for those of us that follow the GTD guidelines for always staying current with our work, Staples has 100 packs of 3-Tab manila folders on sale for 50% off. I know that David says that you need to keep at least 100 on hand so here is our chance to stock up for half off.

 

 

Last week I had the Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner markers on the New Arrivals post. Shockingly The Pen Addict has already reviewed one after picking up a couple. Check out his review of Ultramarine Blue.

 

This is not a sponsored post and I am not affiliated in any way with the vendors that I mentioned above. I’m just pointing everyone in the direction of where to get the loot I like. If, in the future, one of these posts is sponsored, it will state it clearly at the beginning and the end.

 

 

Quill 700 Series Rollerball ESGR

September 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m a video editor. I’ve worked at several advertising and TV show-producing companies along with doing freelance work. Sometimes I do work as a favor for people, but doing favors for the Department of Defense has some perks. Back in 2003 I was asked by a member of the ESGR ( Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, operating within the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs) to edit some video together that they needed to show on the JumboTron at Anaheim Stadium here in California. The “ESGR was established in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding between Reserve component members and their civilian employers and to assist in the resolution of conflicts arising from an employee’s military commitment.” They were having a special event honoring returning troops and this volunteer member asked for my help. I complied. Doing favors for Uncle Sam can’t look bad on your resume right? When all was said and done, they got an edited video, I got a plaque signed by the Assistant Secretary of Defense and, more importantly, this pen!

This is a Quill 700 Series Rollerball with the ESGR logo at the top of the pen cap. I was going to put up writing samples of it, but just when I was getting used to it, it ran out of ink. I can tell you that the pen writes pretty smooth but is pretty heavy and I felt more comfortable writing with it unposted. I also looked them up on the Quill site and was surprised to see that they retail for about $50, without the logo. Of course, knowing the way the government operates, they probably paid a lot more for it.

;)

Inkling Trailer

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is awesome. Makes me wish I was an artist.

Be sure to check out the making of video as well.

UPDATE: I was finally able to embed this thing. Chrome was giving me some problems. Enjoy.

So, How Small Do You Write?

August 29, 2011 By 5 Comments

The pic above and scan below are from my “Commonplace/Catch-all” journal that I have been using for a while now. I use it to keep track of certain ongoing things like eBay sales, writing practice (which I desperately need to do more of), pen and notebook wish lists, and some notes or quotes that I might want to keep for future use or reference. This page is just writing practice. Also, I wanted to see how much of Genesis I could comfortably fit on a single page. I’m pretty sure I could write 3 lines within the 6mm ruling if I only used my Slicci .25mm. I used several gel pens at differnent times on this particular page.

Click so you can actually read this.

I write small because I feel that I have more control that way (although it might not look like it here). When I start to make bigger letters my hand really starts going all over the place. Actually, if I right for a long period of time, my writing gets worse. I definitely need to work on my control. Basically, I need to practice enough to fill about 10 more notebooks to see improvement. And those new 5.5mm ruled Habanas are looking pretty tempting. I think it’s time for me to send some more child support over to Brian again.

Anyway, the standard size I write is just a little bigger than what you see here which is why I prefer smaller ruled paper and notebooks. I know it’ll never look as neat as Angela‘s writing, but I’ll just keep practicing anyway.

How small do you write?

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