Three Good Things

Brought to you in part by three good fountain pens...

Continuing my striving toward more positive thinking: this is a concept that I believe exists elsewhere (I think someone even mentioned it in response to a recent post of mine), but I first came to think about it via an on-going thread in the Chatter section of Fountain Pen Network which has long piqued my interest and admiration. The thread is called, quite simply, "Three Good Things From Your Day," and it invites just that: that you stop by and list three good things from your day, each day. The variance in responses is interesting: some people and some days may include Big Important Good Things like births and weddings and graduations and promotions--life dreams fulfilled. Other days, the good things mostly amount to, "Well, I made it through." Sometimes it can be a real struggle to excavate any tiny gems glittering in the muck and mire of a bad day, but I think the very exercise of seeking these reclusive gems helps us to see the positive in life, and just how blessed we really are.

I think I'm going to incorporate this idea into my journals: finish off each day's entry with a list of three good things from the day. I imagine I'll have my fair share of "made it through" items: today, for example, I could write that I remembered my coffee at the last second instead of leaving it on the counter at home. But it will also push me to notice and appreciate all the good little moments in my days. I'm looking forward to this. Maybe that in itself counts as one of my three good things for the day!

For today, on top of my remembering my coffee, I could also include:
- Received an e-mail from my grandmother
- My brother offered to send me the Goat Rodeo Sessions DVD (I'm a big fan of this project, and have the music album, but not the concert DVD!) Very cool.

What are three good things from your day?

Places to See #2

This week's passel o' links I found entertaining or of interest:

► The oldest recorded melody? I find this one particularly fascinating, even a bit spine tingling. If this is anything *close* to accurate, we're hearing music that fell on the ears of the ancients, eons ago.

► Interesting glimpses of New York diaries from all different time periods and very different personalities...as always, I'm intrigued by variances in handwriting and style.

► 10 words that need to die immediately. (They do, they do!)

► The Lamy Safari color of the year, 2012.

► Cats as fonts--cute. (Thanks to notagain at Manual Entry for this one...)

► Guitars in space!

► Speaking of guitar, wanna buy a guitar boat?

► How to make a duct tape rose. Well, *I* thought it was cool!

► And this round's "just because" entry, cat caught barking...

Places to See

I've been too busy to write a real post, so instead, here are a bunch of links to some interesting Internet places I've run across in recent travels:

1. Check out this fascinating gallery of pencil sharpeners!

2. The first portion of this video is hilarious for EDC adherants and fountain pen fanatics alike...the second part interesting to at least the fountain pen geeks.  I love this guy!  Thanks to Ravens March for bringing him to my attention.  He's a member of Fountain Pen Network, but I'd missed seeing his videos before.

3. Can you imagine just happening to find a letter by *Tolkien* in a random book?

4. Utterly gorgeous bookstores--just wow.

5. Couple links regarding a robot writing the Bible with fountain pen: I'm a little unsure how to feel about this demonstration of technology mixed with older writing techniques.  I mean...is it truly calligraphy if it's done with robots?  And yet...this is so cool to watch!

Article...

Video...

Note that it's a Lamy Safari.  Lamy Safaris for the win!

6. And just because...only on YouTube: a Saruman/Trololo guy mash-up (warning: brutal wizard fatality).





TGIF!

Lamy Safari: Official Typospherian Fountain Pen?

I would like to declare the Lamy Safari the unofficial Official Fountain Pen of the Typosphere. Seriously, how many of us have 'em? Stand and be counted!

I have two, neither of which are colors that photograph easily: an orange (medium nib), and the new aqua (fine nib), which in reality is a fairly dark turquoise. They've been my ink sample pens, for the most part, because they fill and clean easily, and because they just write so nicely. And it's nice to know if something *does* happen to a nib or converter, they swap out easily. Cheerful, bombproof pens they are.

Vignette #3 (experimental stream of consciousness style...)

It's here, it's here, it's here! (My first Goulet Pens order)

I arrived home today to find a package waiting!

After removing the bubble wrap, I ended up with this oblong object, all wrapped up in the Goulets' signature blue saran wrap. (And yes, as you can already see, I went a little overboard on these things...)

Each (tightly capped) little vial contains a generous portion of the given ink, and is nicely labeled.

I also bought this syringe kit, to make it easier to transfer ink from the vials to pens. The bottom of the vials is cone shaped, which should make it easier to fill a pen, but I imagine you'd still have trouble getting the last little bit. Plus, I are clumsy.

So, rather than futzing with dipping the nib, I took the converter out of my orange Safari and filled it with ink using one of the syringes. Selecting an ink to start with was tough! I admit to using the very childish close-your-eyes-and-grab-one method, and ended up with Diamine Majestic Blue.

All fueled up and ready to go!

 I put the little Safari back together, waited a second for the ink to start, and we were off!

Looking forward to playing this ink for awhile, and with the rest of the colors as time goes on!