Ink fest!

There's one benefit to at least starting NaNoWriMo this year: it got me back to writing by hand, which a) I enjoy and which b) seems to jog my creativity a little, or at least gives me a longing for creativity, which is sometimes the key to finding it again.

This is maybe a third to a half of the full stash...

I still have more fountain pens than any one person needs. At least they're small! At the moment, I've been leaning toward the cartridge converters, partly because they're often simpler to maintain, and partly because...well. Let me tell you.

Back when I first discovered Goulet Pens and their ink samples, I ordered about a billion* ink samples. Because, hey, I could! And look at all the pretty colors! And then life got in the way and I used pencils a lot for awhile there and I pretty much forgot about the ink samples until I moved, and then realized I still had about a billion* minus four.

So this has been a month of playing with inks again, primarily in my Pilot Metropolitan and the Lamy Safaris, since they're cheerful and easy to clean out. I've only actually emptied a few vials, but it's a start.

Empties!

Of course, now I want a bottle of Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel (it's so bright and happy!) and a bottle of Waterman Tender Purple and a bottle of...

But not until I've used up at least half a billion more vials, I think.

*slight exaggeration

Edited to add: here's a post with a bit of info about how I get ink into my pens! 

A Relaunch of Sorts

The past year has had a certain number of fits and starts for me, blog-wise. Little Flower Petals has always had rather a lot of split personalities, enough to make me uncomfortable with it a lot of the time. My first attempt to fix that was to spin at least some of those personalities to a second Blogger blog, Thorns and Blossoms. Unfortunately, I don't think it truly got off the ground.

Then I complicated matters by kind of sort of accidentally signing up for a full web service. As in a domain and site. With MY NAME on it. It's a long story, and I'm still a little weirded out over having a site with my name on it, but I own it, and I'm agonna use it.

My first posts there have been a little flailing, a little trying-to-figure-out-what-to-put-there. In the end, though, I believe I'll make it something of a catch-all for think-y posts and day-to-day activities, and keep LFP as, in a way, my "hardware" blog: a place to talk about pens and pencils and ink and notebooks and all that. That's been perhaps its strongest personality, in any case. I'll hopefully be doing some polishing and revamping here over the next little bit. I know there are older posts which have lost their images due to the evil treachery of Flickr, for example, and I need to either remove or patch them.

And there will be new content. First up, hopefully: I have a new little Renaissance Art leather notebook cover I'm excited about, and I'm going to work on getting a mini review up for that.

Update Just to Update, 1st Week of Sept 2014 Edition

1. I'm about a third of the way into Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. How I missed this one until now, I have no idea. It's a peculiar book: takes place in the early 1800s in an alternate England where magic still exists, though only two "practical" magicians remain, other magicians being merely "theoretical," reading up on the history and theory without actually doing any magic. At the beginning of the book, actually performing magic is considered a bit improper, though thrilling.
Anyway, I'm very much enjoying it so far. If you know the end, don't tell me!

2. Today I'm listening to Hank Williams over and over. A friend made mention of the song "I Saw the Light," and his version is the one that plays in my head as soon as I see those words. Listening to him is bittersweet now: this is music I listened to as a kid until every word is part of me...but now that I'm more familiar with the hard, short life he led, I can't help hearing double-meanings in so many of these songs, and it tears at my heart. Love his voice, though.

3. Tomorrow I'm going to do something that scares me, rather. I've been a regular blood donor for several years now, but yesterday I got a call/plea from the Puget Sound Blood Center asking me to consider donating platelets. This requires being hooked to a machine for several hours: blood goes to a cell separating machine that collects platelets, and then red blood cells are returned. This is WAY, WAY creepier than merely bleeding into a bag. I'm a pro at bleeding into a bag at this point. I have a 2 gallon pin to prove it. But a) the nice blood center lady said they're at "emergency" levels, and b) I accidentally totally missed my last appointment to donate, so I have guilt. So...off we go. Maybe I can include it in a story someday.

Added bonus: totally legit excuse to sit on my rear reading a book for several hours on Saturday.

4. I appear to have been conclusively adopted by a desk, whether I like it or not. It's a sturdy but unattractive thing that used to be a nurse's station at a gynecology/urology practice, just to add to its charm. (Everybody, CRINGE!) I got it for free when I helped some of the folks there move to a new building.

In a lot of ways, it's an ideal desk for me: it has a file drawer plus another drawer for junk, a pull out work-surface for times when I need more paper space, a big built-in space for organizing documents, plenty of book space up above. However, the lamp on the underside broke, so it's dark. Also it's ugly. And did I mention ugly? I thought to maybe sell it and eventually replace with something slightly more of my own choice, but no bites. Beyond conning friends into helping me haul it to Goodwill, I seem to be stuck with it. And I'm beginning to think I'm not meant to get rid of it. It seems to be My Destiny.

So I guess I'm going to try to find a new LED light to mount on the underside of the hutch bit. And maybe I can pretty it up. Somehow. Maybe I can cover it in decorative duct tape. That would go along with my milk crate and garage sale rejects motif.

5. I've been posting a bit more poetry and such over on my reflections-and-thoughts blog, Thorns and Blossoms. Some of it's a repeat of what I've posted here, but not all, so check it out if you've a mind to.

Scattered (UJTU)

1. How do people travel all the time and still manage a normal life? I went on one five day trip from June 27th to July 2nd, and I'm *still* all discombobulated. I'd originally hoped to finish the first draft of Mind Jinx (my current work in progress) by mid-July, but that's out the window. Haven't recovered my usual routines AT ALL. New estimate: end of summer at best. I'd also hoped to write a trip report, but I feel like I'm a bit past the window for that. May yet take a stab at it, however.

2. My garden has grown tremendously. I have strawberries, peas, carrots, lettuce, and am starting to get cherry tomatoes. The big tomatoes and summer squash are right behind, and I have a baby eggplant and baby delicata squash coming along nicely. Now if I can just manage to water faithfully.... Western Washington may have a reputation for rain, but it pretty much all hits in the winter and spring months. Around the 4th of July, a switch is tripped, and it's high desert here. Nice in that you can pretty much plan on weekend outdoor activities without worrying about wet, but it does mean you suddenly go from plants drowning to plants dying of thirst, and you have to develop new habits instantly.

Sweet potato vine, just for fun!

First full sized tomato (a Cascade) is changing color...

Bitty baby bell peppers

Summer squash coming along

Baby delicata squash

Eggplant! First time I've seen these growing....

Mmmm, sugar snap peas....

3. I'm in the middle of a major music muddle: for *years* I've intended to sit down and redo my music library by re-ripping all my old CDs and then re-adding any digital purchases from backup/cloud. I had a lot of gaps and strays and tracks that weren't titled consistently, and it was driving me crazy. I'm thinking about upgrading to a new computer sometime this year, and chances are it won't have a built in CD drive, so now seemed as good a time as any to tackle this project. I'm going to get it all tidied up and then back up to a decent external drive, so I have a clean starting point from here on out.

It's turning out to be even more daunting than I anticipated. I'd forgotten just how much music I've acquired over the years, not to mention Teaching Company courses and the like. But re-ripping has been an interesting walk down memory lane: I still like a lot of the same music I did way back when, but my buying and primary listening habits have fluctuated, and going back through the albums is like excavating layers of the last fifteen or twenty years of my life from sedimentary rock. Early classical period...flatpicking guitar period...folk rock...middle early classical...Irish. Etc. It's all pretty mixed, honestly, but every so often I come across an album that all but defined a given time in my life and which I've not listened to in a long while. Fascinating how a few notes can trigger a flood of half-forgotten memories.

UJTU: Walk, Run, Snow, Play

Our Saturday to Sunday snow storm left me a bit buried...

The walking project continues apace (har har). I will need to fit in a few short evening walks or longer weekend jaunts in order to make up for a few slack days, but otherwise, I'm on track.

I *am*, however, thinking of once again attempting to get into running. Nothing fancy: it would just be nice to be able to handle 3-5 miles of slow jogging. Even at a slow pace, it'd be quicker than walking the same distance, thus freeing up some time for my next resolution-to-tackle, "Write More."

I actually planned to start this weekend by jogging the last half mile or mile of my usual walk. This may seem counter-intuitive, leaving it to the end, but I don't usually find my rhythm even for walking until I'm a couple miles in, so I think waiting a bit until my legs become my own is best.

However, Saturday afternoon a snow storm blew through. Nothing like what some of the east coast has seen, or what we used to get in Vermont, but six inches of heavy, wet snow put a damper on my plans all the same. I did go out and walk in it yesterday (three miles of laps between two half-mile markers), which was HARD WORK, but probably burned as many calories as my usual longer walk...but there was no way I was going to try running in the stuff, especially over uneven, footprint pocked trail.

But sometime this week, I hope. May have to wait until my legs recover...my calves are awfully tired and sore from that snow workout.

In the meantime, I got a good start on my "Play More" resolution. I've had the tenor banjo out pretty much every day, working on triplets and trebles and tunes. Currently I'm trying to polish up Humours of Tulla and The Clumsy Lover and learn Garrett Barry's and Pinch of Snuff, to name a few. Also continuing to practice Gravel Walk in the vain hope that someday I'll be able to keep up with the insanely fast pace they play it at the local session.

I need to change strings before Wintergrass. Especially mandolin strings. But changing mandolin strings is something I tend to put off as long as humanly possible....

Kaput

This is apparently Kaput Week around here.

This weekend I bought new sneakers. Because I am a knucklehead, Monday morning I went for a three mile walk in said sneakers, without having worn them around the house long enough for them to get used to me and I to them. Gave myself a blister.

I limped in to work that day to find that one co-worker had messed up his back and another had pulled a muscle in her calf and was also limping. And one of the uninjured had to leave early because her furnace broke down. Also, Comcast throughout the region had network glitches and intermittent outages most of the day. Not fun.

Well, I chalked it up to "Monday" and figured it was over. Bought blister bandages on the way home, and was able to walk as usual on Tuesday (albeit in old shoes). The work day was hectic, but without major outages. Everything seemed to be looking up.

Then this morning I stepped out the door onto the waterlogged front steps (which, I might add, I've traversed hundreds of times in far worse conditions) and my feet went out from under me. Came down HARD on my tailbone, wrenched my shoulder. It. Hurt. One of those moments where you can't decide whether to curse, cry, or maybe both.

So I'm back to limping.

Is there a lesson in all this? Not really.

Except that, maybe, though we've escaped the Polar Vortex, we in the Pacific Northwest are in the grip of a Vortex of Kaput.

Be careful out there, folks.

White Before Memorial Day: Pentel Hi-Polymer Eraser Caps

Awhile back I mentioned about how much I like Pentel's Hi-Polymer erasers. They do a great job, and they're relatively cheap and available. In a discussion that followed another blog post, an anonymous commenter mentioned seeing a pencil top version at WinCo, a discount grocery chain here in the Pacific Northwest. The other day I found myself in that part of town, so I popped in briefly to stock up on some pantry supplies and had to at least glance at the stationery supplies. Sure enough, there they were!

I don't think they're quite the same material as the blocks: they seem firmer and a little more crumbly.  Still, they do a much better job of erasing than your average pencil topper.  I keep a lot of full sized eraser blocks around, but there are times when it's nice to have one right at hand.  I added one to the Ticonderoga currently living on my music stand.  They're a bit odd looking...remind me of clunky looking nurse shoes.  But they do the trick right well!

Now if the fashion police will just leave the little guy alone...

Glass Top Tables

OK, so this is an Update Just to Update (UJTU) in disguise...

But if I may say so, glass top coffee tables could have been designed with clumsy fountain pen users in mind. Especially those with an affinity for Noodler's ink, which comes in bottles that are filled to the absolute brim. Especially when the clumsy fountain pen user with an affinity for Noodler's Ink is still attempting to learn a new filling system--say, for example, someone who just got a TWSBI Vac 700 vacuum filling pen just after Christmas.

I like glass top coffee tables...

Type Tweet: Ranch

Rolling Twitter old school.

Lazy Update Just to Update

I'd like to say I've not posted much because I've been so busy mapping out my NaNoWriMo story, but the truth is I've been obsessing about music instead.  Note to self: the week before NaNo is not the best time to rekindle a fanatical interest in one's primary instrument of the moment (mandolin, in this case).  But I still want to ride that wave as long as it lasts.  So we'll see how November goes...

I did get out and wander a bit yesterday, in town and out, and pictures (even poor cell phone photos, as is the case) make for easy, lazy update fodder.

First off, I went back to the downtown Olympia, WA antique place I'm always yammering on about: Finder's Keepers, on 4th Ave.  It's almost always a fun place to browse, whether or not I buy anything.

There were a number of typewriters this time around, some of more interest than others.  This Royal was in pretty rough cosmetic shape and didn't have a case.

This Smith Corona standard is absolutely gorgeous...but it's also $75.  Lovely thing, though.

This little guy tucked away on a bottom shelf looks kind of familiar, and likely a good candidate for a crazy paint job.  But for forty dollars...um...no.  Not even if I was in buying mode.

I was tempted by a number of vintage index card/recipe boxes.  They almost always have some pretty ones there.

Oh, and toys!  Look at this little doll house desk!  Isn't this adorable?  (Sorry about the glare--it was in a glass case, and I couldn't get a good angle).

I also saw this somewhat puzzling toy typewriter.  I guess you had to rotate the little wheel for each and every letter.  Good way to teach kids patience, I suppose...or drive little Johnny completely mad before his seventh birthday.

It was a beautiful sunny day, so I went off on a ramble down the trail as well--days like that are rare here this time of year!  Most of the fall has...fallen, and the trail is thickly carpeted with leaves, still colorful (though not the jewel-toned brightness of the sugar maples back home in Vermont...).  Along the way I saw a note posted on one of the mileposts offering a reward for the finding of a lost gold ring, and had to feel for the author: how is anyone to spot one tiny spot of gold in all that natural richness?

These little guys are out in force.  I lost track of how many I saw along the way--dozens, for certain.

And now I suppose I should buckle down and NaNo plan for one whole day.  Or an hour or so.  I have wisdom teeth coming out tomorrow (joy!), so I doubt I'll be doing much in the way of deep thinking.

A Long Expected Rereading

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, 

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, 

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, 

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne 

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. 

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, 

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them 

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

I first read J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was about thirteen.  Sometimes I wish I could go back to that first read-through, recapture that first wonder.  It took my breath away: that vast world with all its many races, cultures, languages; the varied landscapes, the maps and runes, the staggering scope of the history.  Although it's an often criticized aspect, I loved the richness of the many layered names for people, places and things. I warmed to to the innocent, comfort-loving hobbits, felt for them as they left innocence and comfort far behind in order to do what needed to be done.  I felt the panic of being chased by Black Riders, by evil unknown.  I felt the awe and wonder of the hobbits at Rivendell; like them, I wanted to linger, listening to the songs and stories of the wise, unthinkably long-lived elves.  And then, at Rivendell, just when the adventure seemed about to end, the true quest began, filled with danger, beauty, darkness, love and friendship--and an ultimate victory that, as is so often the case, is nevertheless touched by sorrow and pain.  And along the way, I fell deeply in love most particularly with two characters: the sweet, ever-faithful hobbit Samwise Gamgee, and the brave, wise, and utterly romantic Knight of Gondor, Faramir. (Ladies: just try reading his scene with Eowyn in the Houses of Healing without swooning a little...)

I don't need to go through every detail of the entire story.  Those who have read it are likely already wandering there in their minds.  Those who haven't...really should. 

It's a long story in its own right, but for better or worse, I quite literally would not be where I am right now without these books.  You could say they were, in a very real sense, entwined in my own destiny.  And it had been too long since I last read them.

Today, I begin the adventure anew, starting with Frodo and Bilbo's birthday, which happens to fall--funnily enough--on September the 22nd.  When I was planning to set aside some time for this reread, it seemed an appropriate day to begin the journey once again.  I am very much looking forward to it.

Storms and Crashes and Grillin' and Marshmallows: What I've Been Up To

I am lame: no typecast, no pencast, no nuffin.  But there are pictures!  Lots of pictures!

The end of last week was rough.  Thursday morning, I was in a car accident on the way to work.  Another driver pulled into me from the side as I was going by, and the whole passenger side of my bitty car is scraped up.  Looks like someone keyed it with a Really Big Key.  Her insurance company and my insurance company are duking it out, and the whole process makes me queasy and uneasy.  I guess I've been really fortunate...aside from a few minor parking lot bumps and the one time I slid partly off the road in the snow and popped a tire, I've never had an accident.  And as accidents go, I guess it's pretty minor.  Still...oof.

And then Friday, I woke to news that there had been a major hail and wind storm back home in Northeastern Vermont, like nothing anyone had ever seen before: roads washed out, vehicles and homes flooded, trees knocked down.  One of the biggest roads near town (Rt. 5, which runs North/South) is closed down due to a major cave-in.

I've driven down this road I don't know how many times...it's hard to fathom this kind of damage.  And many of the smaller roads are at least as bad.

Closer to my own heart, the pond where we used to play growing up is gone--the storm took out the embankment that held it in place, and there's really nothing left but a big muddy hole with a little stream running through it.

The big gap left after the storm rolled through...



Obviously, it wasn't that big or that deep to begin with, but it's still sort of impressive that it disappeared literally overnight.


I actually shed tears, though I realize how silly this is considering that a) this wasn't even our property and b) others suffered far greater things.  Fortunately no one I know was hurt or anything like that.  Still...the pond!  I don't know how many hours I spent down there as a kid, skipping stones, catching bugs and frogs and salamanders, sailing toy boats, coming home muddy and smelly and wet...  Good times.

Apparently one of the neighbors on the road is hoping to start a fund to repair it, since the young man who now owns the land is likely unable to be able to pull it off alone.  Here's hoping it lives again.  Poor little pond!

But this weekend was good, if busy.  Things I did this weekend:

1. Played with inks, including the very pretty new Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses.

(Those of you on my letter writing list should have a chance to see this ink in person soon.  Yes, I'm actually getting caught up on letter writing.  Try not to faint.)

2. Planted a bunch o' flowers and herbs: petunias, alyssum, marigolds, basil, rosemary, dill, and a few random others.

Hopefully at least some of them survive.  I have a tendency to go, "Oooooh, pretty!!" whenever I walk into a greenhouse / garden center, end up purchasing more than I set out for, and then forget to water come July when Washington suddenly becomes high desert.  But for now, everything is doing well except the basil.  I'm batting 0 for about 5 where basil is concerned.  It's starting to feel personal.

3. Went on a nice long walk with thedog, down paths now green and leafy.  These pictures are actually about a week old, but I didn't think to take any this weekend...so you get old footage.


Gratuitous shot of the trees Jeff liked a few posts back.  I'm not quite sure what these are, actually!  They aren't the standard white "paper" birch we have back home, though in certain light, they do look like them.  But they're more silvery, and the bark is pretty solid.


4. Bought a bitty little gas grill, and after a day where I debated using it or taking it back (I sort of had post-purchase sticker shock, I guess)...I broke down, put it together, fired it up and was very pleased with the results.  Best grilled chicken I've ever made, by far!  And it's just big enough to make dinner with leftovers for the week without having to do batches.


I also grilled mangos (they're on sale this week, and ohh, I love mangos!) and avocado.  The avocado in particular was a revelation.  Cut it in half, took out the pit, brushed with olive oil and slapped it down on the grill for maybe six minutes.  It was soft and creamy and subtly smoky.  I put a little salsa and sour cream in the middle and...nom.  So good.  I'll be making those again.

And I didn't torch any major structures!  Yay me!

Now I have a very, very short work week, and then a brother I haven't seen in awhile and my baby sister will be visiting.  They'll mostly stay with another brother and his family up near Tacoma, but I may kidnap 'em for a day or so to show them the sights.  Next weekend there's a music festival in Winlock, WA, and I'm hoping to drag my brother to that.  It's maybe my favorite local music festival, for a number of reasons: first off, there's a wide variety of acoustic music from bluegrass to Celtic to...whatever.  Also, after the concerts, everyone hangs out to just play music for hours.  Also--and this is important--there's a pavilion with an open fireplace where you can roast marshmallows.  I mean, c'mon--marshmallows!

Speaking of which, I was at Fred Meyer this weekend and they had GINORMOUS marshmallows.  Like...almost-the-size-of-a-small-apple marshmallows.  What is this world coming to?  Aren't regular marshmallows more than enough sugar for the average person?  And yet...giant marshmallows are just awesome, especially if (like me), you're one of those people who toasts marshmallows by burning the outside, peeling it off and eating it, and repeating.  You could go a long time on a marshmallow like that.  Woo-hoo!  If, on the other hand, you're one of those weirdos like my Dad who like to carefully, carefully toast marshmallows to a perfectly even golden brown outside and complete inner gooeyness, I'd guess these'd get very messy.

I didn't buy any, but I keep thinking about that open fireplace deal coming up next weekend.  Hrm.

Scrambled pencast

Midweek Update Just To Update

The suffocation/choking picture I was talking about is this one...somehow he's become sort of our mascot.

The Downside

I managed to remember my lunch today (sometimes a rare occurance), but forgot my entire backpack, which contains my current reading book (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), my current writing books (journal, full sized notebook, the little brain dump notebook, and assorted index cards), and my box o' pencils.

I feel like I'm missing an arm.  And what am I gonna do during lunch??

If I lived in "the cloud," I wouldn't hafta be in mourning.

Update Just To Update: Caffeine, Gadgetry, and Some Final NaNoWriMo Thoughts

1. Ya-hooo!

In my young Air Force days, before I discovered that there was more to coffee than the lousy yucky-to-begin-with-then-cooked-for-hours-cooled-and-reheated stuff most typically available at home, I was well and truly hooked on the glowing yellow elixir that is Mountain Dew. I didn't lug around a two-liter bottle or anything, but I did go through the stuff. OK, so I realize it's essentially just very watered down orange juice with some whole buncha sugar and a plethora of unsavory and suspicious chemicals and dyes and things added to it (brominated vegetable oil, anyone?), but I loved it nonetheless. Still do, though I partake but rarely these days, if only due to the sugar content. Although Diet Mountain Dew is not the downright sacrilege that Diet Vernor's is (ohhh, Vernor's, how I love thee!) it still just isn't the same.

So the other day I was at the grocery, and they had "Mountain Dew Flashback" for sale. It's made with reg'lar sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, which made me mildly curious about any taste differences...but I still would have passed it by but for the label. I could not resist the charms of the hillbilly with the moonshine jug (don't read too far into this). I mean...come on! So I picked up a twelve pack. But the package said, "For a Limited Time Only," and I'm a sucker...so I grabbed one more. I mean, that's like a month's supply if I don't have one every day. And then I got to the cash register and after everything was rung up, the clerk said, "Oh, those are buy two twelve-packs, get two free. Do you want to run back for two more?"

Um...so if you run into me in the next few weeks and I seem particularly hyped up on sugar and caffeine...well, I probably am.

2. Nanooooo

A few (belated) final thoughts on the whole NaNoWriMo '10 experience: this was a fun year in a lot of ways, and in other ways, the toughest year ever. My writing method--pencils--was not really to blame for the struggle. Life got in the way, and I fell behind early on and struggled ever after. Let that be a lesson to me: in my case, the first week is make-it-or-break-it time. If I can get at least a day ahead by the end of the first week, I'm far more likely to have an easy go of it.

I also really struggle to write entirely at home, because it's all too easy to procrastinate when there are other distractions. If I take my notebook off to a coffee house or some such thing where there's nothing to do but write, I get lots more done. I did most of my writing at home this year, and did a lousy job of time management. Those of you who are not only able to write steadfastly at home, but write steadfastly at home despite having lots of other folks around have my admiration. I am weak.

But the writing process was a lot of fun, trying out all sorts of different pencils! I learned that paper matters a great deal--regular composition book paper is much nicer for pencils than bagasse. I liked the whole ritual of sharpening a whole platoon of pencils and using them one at a time, noting the differences as I went along. I developed some favorites for this lengthy writing: mostly the cheerful middle-of-the-road types, neither too hard nor too soft, not too smooth or too rough. I'd have to think a bit before writing full thoughts, but pencils that come to mind are the Mongol 482, the California Republic Golden Bear, the Forest Choice and the General's Cedar Pointe. (By the by, I just contributed a review of the Cedar Pointe on Pencil Revolution--check it out here!

3. Drrroooooiiid!!

I have a new toy. My contract with Verizon was up, and with all the free-with-contract-renewal deals out there right now, I decided to take the plunge into smart phonedom. Yes, I will pay out the nose for the thing over time with the added data plan, but I still have my dumb phone, so I can retreat if need be.

I got me an HTC Droid Incredible: an Android phone. I gotta say, thus far I'm impressed. Smart phones have come a long way in the last few years. Rather than just a very basic way to keep track of a calendar and check e-mail on the go, this thing is a full-fledged mini-computer. I expected to use it as a phone (well, duh...) and also for GPS (those who know me know just how much I *need* this feature!) and for basic internet checking when out and about, but didn't really think beyond those possiblities at first. But wow, there are a lot of things these little guys can do. Just a few of the things I've discovered in about a week's use:

• In addition to playing MP3s, I can have podcasts delivered directly to the phone, and then plug the thing into the car and listen as I'm driving without having to rely on radio time schedules and reception. As one example, the most local Catholic radio station is based up in Seattle, and the AM signal doesn't reach down this way much of the time, particularly after dark. But the main morning show (Sound Insight) is available in podcast form, and with Google Listen, I can listen to it on my way to and from work, pausing if I want, and not miss any of it. Ditto other interesting podcasts (Car Talk, , music programs, documentaries, stuff from EWTN, etc.). Very nifty. There are also lots of streaming radio stations, and the 3G coverage 'round here is good enough I can typically listen without a hitch while driving around.
• There's a free program called iBreviary (originally developed for iPhone as the "i" indicates) that gives you the Mass readings and ALL the major hours of the Liturgy of the Hours, and in the same translation as the books so you can follow along with other people. No, it's not a true substitute for a well-loved real book, but it's easier to carry around--I've been using it at least some of the time since I don't have to find my place, and because I always have my phone on me. It'd be very handy for travel. Way cool. The Android version is a little on the unpolished side from what I can judge from screenshots of the iPhone app, but it does the job. I like.
• OpenSudoku. Very nice Sudoku game with literally thousands of free puzzles available. Need I say more?

It makes me a little nervous that my phone is now essentially just one application on a computer that does all sorts of other things, but it does work well as a phone. We'll see how I feel about it over time. There may be such a thing as being too connected, but just as, back when I got my first cell phone, I liked the fact that I no longer had to wait at home by the phone back expecting an important call, I like not being tied to a computer. I can check e-mail, news, weather, store hours, maps...all sorta stuff wherever I am. Fascination with old technology doesn't preclude fascination with new....

Weird search terms of the week: "i hate you poems" and "poems about haters". Can't we all just get along??

Monday Evening Update Just to Update

Today's Update Just to Update (UJTU) is brought to you by the letter "W," as in wet, weekend, windy, weather and say whut??

1. We had a wet, wet, windy weekend. Which means, naturally, that my stuck-indoors yucky-weather survival skillz mode kicked in, and instead of doing anything seriously productive this weekend, I made prodigious quantities of beef vegetable soup and chocolate chocolate-chip muffins and did a lot of reading (Connie Willis, in fact). I did no NaNoWriMo planning. Lots of weekends left for that.

Only there aren't, as I realized this morning as I was paddling...er...driving (kinda) to an early morning dental appointment. NEXT MONDAY is the first of November!!!? How did *that* happen??

I suppose I should at least pick out a notebook and start figuring out character names and such.

2. Speaking of notebooks, one of the few things I actually *did* accomplish this weekend was my first ever outing to the bookstore of a local college. The college has a rather...umm...polarizing reputation, but I will say this for 'em: their bookstore is pretty awesome. They don't have much in the way of woodcase pencils (a handful of sketching pencils and a jar of the ubiquitous Ticonderogas), or unusual pens (mostly your standard Pilot G2s and such) but they do stock all *sorts* of nifty paper products. We're talking stacks of Rhodia, seemingly every available Moleskine product, Blueline notebooks, regular composition notebooks, all sorts of interesting engineering notebooks, Paperblanks journals, a whole aisle of sketchbooks in every size and configuration, and--my favorite, since I'd never had the chance to see them in the flesh before--a full aisle-end display of Rite-in-the-Rain pens, papers, journals, and notebooks.

I bought both a very small pocket notebook and a medium sized one, though I suppose I have no real excuse to own one. Granted, I do live where it rains about six months out of the year, but I really don't *need* to write in the rain. But on the other hand, now I can. If I can bring myself to actually use the things. I'm half afraid to, for fear of not using them to their full potential or something. But I'll probably give them a shot just out of curiosity. The paper doesn't *feel* that weird. It just feels like slightly heavy regular paper. The notebooks smell kind of funny to me, but that may be the cover material rather than the paper treatment.

I rather like the bright yellow color of 'em. I'd take a picture of them, but my indoor lighting shots are pretty lousy (witness the candy corn and pencils shot a few posts back), and although the notebook may be immune to rain, my camera isn't....

Busy busy busy

Links, and the Making of Jeremy Moonshine

A handful of interesting links from recent Internet travels:

Pens and Pencils in Space!

A boys' guide to field notebooks (circa 1920)

A glimpse into the minds (and notebooks) of 20 famous men

Haven't done much writing this week; I've spent most of my spare time catching up on some reading and playing music. I finally have a few people to play my kinda tunes with (Scots/Irish/Contra dance tunes, mostly).

I recently got to play a part in the whole folk / tune propagation process: at a primarily bluegrass festival a few weeks ago, I was playing some Irish tunes with my new friend Anne, who plays whistles, when a young man (well...about my age) came up to us, introduced himself as Jeremy, and asked if he could play with us a little later--he played mandolin. When he joined us, he also brought a Mason jar of moonshine, which he offered to pass around. Call me chicken, but I declined.

He was a pretty good mandolinist and knew a ton of tunes, one of which he attempted to teach us quickly by ear. It's a jig called "Little Black Pig," which I haven't been able to find on-line--at least not the version he played. I attempted to recreate it when I got home, playing it over and over, and ended up with a neat little tune that I'm not sure is really a faithful recreation of the original or primarily my own. Unfortunately I didn't get Jeremy's last name or e-mail address or anything, so I have no way of double-checking. In any case, I recorded it and shared my rendition with the other people I've been playing with, and one of them dubbed it Jeremy Moonshine in honor of our one-day acquaintance. And a new tune (sorta!) is born. We're going to work it up as a set with two other jigs (Lilting Banshee and Boys of Tandragee, for the curious and Irish-musically-inclined). Fun!

And that's my cop-out of an update!

The Double-Edged Sword of Witness

It was one of those days. I had an early morning dental appointment and an afternoon headache. I spent the day chasing problems and not catching them. I didn't finish the tasks I'd set out for myself. I was so tired in the afternoon I was literally nodding off at my desk. And then just as I was about to head out the door, I ended up in a phone call with someone angry about a new task they're having to perform who sort of took it out on me. And although I didn't shout at them or anything, I kind of ended up saying, essentially, "that's just the way it is, and you're going to have to learn to deal with it." And I feel like I did a poor job of representing my company, which makes me furious with myself.

It's always tough, being a witness. I know I fail in the most important areas as well. The final nail in the coffin of my day was visiting the blog of a Catholic friend who once upon a time, back when I was being more introspective and less shallow in my posts, had a link back to my blog. That link is now gone. And I totally understand, though it felt a bit of a slap in the face. This hasn't been much of a Catholic blog lately. Not much of a Christian blog. It's mostly a bunch of materialistic (and sometimes whiny) thoughts about physical things and writing, and nothing more. Why? Largely because I feel like I can't write well enough or convincingly enough to represent my "company." I'm better off staying on the surface. I'm better off making small talk, because if I try to speak about big important things, I'll embarrass the family.

I'm not sure how to get past that fear. And maybe there's no call to, maybe I should let go of that guilt and just remove that quote I love so much at the top of my page, stop pretending to be anything more than a jumble of random vaguely writing related stuff. Maybe I should start a second blog where I try to sort out some of my more meaningful thoughts, or move my meaningless content posts to a new place. I'm not sure what my blog should be a lot of the time. Everyone else seems to have a unifying purpose. Mine seems to be pure vanity. And that makes me sad. I guess originally I hoped to post *some* of my fiction writing, but also hoped to think and share deep thoughts. Instead my deep thoughts (still too shallow, I feel, for public consumption) remain locked up tight in my private journal.

The other thing I've been struggling with, the other reason I've stayed away from my faith in my recent posts, is that I'm struggling with what I suppose one would call dryness. I go to church, talk about all these things with family, I go to early morning adoration on Wednesdays, I go through all the motions, and I could tell anyone in depth what I believe, but I don't *feel* a deep and committed belief most of the time. I don't feel anything. And how do you write through that?

I'll end off with this poem I wrote in adoration, as I grappled with that question.

So many have written of You:
words of beauty, sweetness, light beyond all measure.
I feel the writing longing,
but what poetry is in me?
I feel nothing.
What poetry can come of emptiness?

My soul walks in shadow;
fear and doubt howl
across the wind-swept plains of my existence
where I walk alone.
And yet I know that it is your love
that holds me in being.
I feel nothing,
but I know this--
and that must be enough for me.