Wahoo! I made it to anniversary two
This week is the second anniversary of the mnmlscholar. This blog is a pathway for sharing how I use my analog and digital tools to find joy in my writing and teaching. My way of choosing joy. It’s a labor of love — and necessity for my workflow.
I predicted in my first-ever post that mnmlscholar would serve as a “record of my experiences with analog productivity in a digital world.” And how.
My second year has been a lot of fun. More folks joined the conversation than ever before. And I’ve loved every minute of getting to know more people from our community over email, through post comments, in Slack and even at the DC Pen Show.
From the bottom of my ink-stained heart: thank you for taking this journey with me. I’m having a blast.
Looking at the big picture. I shared 107 posts. In aggregate, I’ve written over 100,000 words this past year. 100k. Words about my words. A möbius strip of stationery reflection. Nerdy.
Big picture changes. The biggest change I brought to the blog this year are the new end-of-week mnml digest posts. I end most weeks with a curated list of five links that shaped my thinking that week. Links to blog posts, essays and podcasts.
I’m always appreciative of blogs that collect great articles for me. It’s work, I’ve learned.
And yet I added a fun twist to my digests. Each week, I tie the quintet together with a theme. A theme those links led me to reflect on. I was happily surprised to discover that digests grew into some of my favorite weekly reflecting. Success.
My changing work schedule also shifted the release dates of my currently inked pens from Tuesdays to a fluid “midweek.” I published over 50 currently inked kits this past year.
Thinking regularly about my pen and ink choices has led me to be experimental with my combinations of inks, nibs and types of writing. A learning process that’s helped me to hone my writing preferences.
Decisions like tapping broad, ground nibs for long, slow moving writing sessions. The line variation keeps me interested. Broad nibs create lines that fill out pages quickly — each filled page is a small milestone. And each milestone is encouragement to finish my writing. Scientific method for the win.
I also published just under 50 weekly reflections, which I call “inked tines.” Self-assessments designed to capture what I actually got up to during the week. And the tools that worked for — or did not support — my teaching and reading shenanigans.
The targeted reflections of my Inked Tines posts have taken on a fun personality this year. My introductions have grown longer and more thoughtful. A change I continue to find engaging. Introductions re-home the kinds of targeted reflecting I do anyway in my journal. Sorry, not sorry, for sharing.
I’m an open book. Err, I’m an open blog.
We — not just me. The community around mnmlscholar continues to grow. I welcomed a monthly average of 4,200 people to my little corner of the internet. And the site records just under 9,000 monthly page views. Squarespace estimates mnmlscholar is on over 1,500 RSS feeds. Flattered and grateful.
The diverse places folks check in from is a lovely insight. Squarespace’s analytics tells me that folks found their ways here from over 62 countries. I’m excited to welcome new folks from Cyprus, Slovenia and Kenya — from Japan, and Korea and Malaysia — and many more to the pages of my notebooks. Happy you’re here.
Squarespace’s analytic sorcery also gives me a window into which posts you all found most engaging during my my sophomore year. Thinking through the sizes of our pen collections, migrating tasks from one task list to another, and exploring the qualities of shading inks resonated with folks. My kind of people.
More specifically, your three most-read posts were:
What is the right size for my pen collection?
February 5, 2022
The many faces of shading inks, or my love affair with dry inks
March 5, 2022
My analog task migration system, for when life lives outside of my plans
April 18, 2022
Chatting with cool folks. One of the most rewarding aspects of keeping a public blog is meeting like-minded, similarly stationery-obsessed people. I fielded far more emails this year than last. I’ll again keep your names confidential as you chose to email me rather than comment publicly on a post. Keep the great questions and suggestions coming!
Others have been generous enough to add their thoughts through comments on the site. A healthy thank you to my three most recent commenters: Mark, LDV, and Hastur. Happy you found your ways here. Your thoughtfulness and curiosity about the A1, indexes and ink mullets are just my style.
Popular pathways. I’ve also enjoyed connecting with other bloggers this year — online and at the DC Pen Show. Some of the same stationery thinkers whose opinions I thoroughly enjoy reading have been generous enough to share my posts with their regular readers.
The three most popular pathways into this site have been through the weekly link compilations at The Well-Appointed Desk, The Gentleman Stationer and The Pen Addict.
Thank you, Ana, Joe and Brad! The work you all do to elevate diverse voices within our stationery communities is valuable. You keep the constellation of voices turning.
Eager for the inky adventures in store for year three. I hope you tag along.
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This week’s Inked Tines update is abbreviated, given the length of my anniversary reflection. It includes changes to my collection and what I’ve been reading and listening to.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. I stuck to my existing collection over the past two weeks. I hath contained myself.
In truth, my partner has planned a trip to (drumroll) Yoseka Stationery for the coming weekend. Anticipation over acquisition. Until the weekend.
Outgoing / trades or sales. I have a growing pile of pens in my sonic cleaning queue. I used my collection reflections to select rarely used writers to ship off to moving homes.
Will. Not. Cry.
Deep cleans and tunings before pricing. And then four pens will be off to more attentive homes.
Boxes packed. Paperwork intact. Goodbyes enacted. (That last rhyme may be a stretch.)
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. My friend J and I touched base two weeks ago and agreed to set Liu’s sequel, The Dark Forest, aside for the near future. The Dark Forest is a precise, detailed storytelling that just isn’t resonating with me right now.
I turned, instead, to Brandon Sanderson’s conclusion for the Wheel of Time series. The Gathering Storm is high fantasy with a smart, Sanderson-infused edge.
One 77-page chapter in. My inner teenager is eager for more.
Nonfiction. I leaned on my TWA Blackwing and a duo of Mildliner highlighters to review three history chapters.
Thirteen textbook pages helped me to prepare for upcoming lessons on the historical context surrounding Machiavelli’s The Prince. Annotations in the margins help me to structure my presentation of cultural dynamics within 1500’s Florence. Made completely with the TWA.
Another 43 pages across two historical analyses focused on the US government’s policy of eliminating Native American cultures during the 1860’s.
Again, I trust a pencil for legible, bleed-free writing on spongy publisher paper.
Music. I recently learned that Covet, a great guitar-forward trio, recently reformed. I subsequently spent my evenings immersed in their discography.
Covet combines energetic, mathy arrangements with fancy guitar melodies. Intricate guitar work. Minimal vocals.
Covet is like-it-or-hate-it music. I like it. Especially for energizing my creative writing sessions and while reading fiction.
