Three strikes make a turkey
I worked in three modes this week. I taught in person Monday and Tuesday. This involved the usual analog bookkeeping and lesson planning. My electronic work was in our school learning management system (LMS), and in my virtual pacing guide.
I also drafted a new publication and a letter of recommendation. Outlining and initial sketching happens in a notebook. Working by hand slows me down enough that I think purposefully. The bulk of my drafting takes place in MS Word — academia still lives in Word docs.
Third, I marked two papers for peer review. I think best in analog, especially when editing. Each manuscript was printed and marked by hand. Then I sorted the annotations thematically and arranged them in a typed letter. Some journals even have a lovely form to use, which makes the process fairly straightforward.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. The FC31 worked well when I was using it regularly. Monteverde’s Pumpkin Cake caked up between the tines after sitting idle for two days. Use it or lose it, I guess.
Esterbrook J Copper — ??. One of the downsides to a sac-filled pen is that there’s no simple way to check the amount of ink left in the pen. Regardless, the 2442 nib is fun and reliable. Plays to Moonstone’s fantastic shading. Excelled with every task I’ve thrown it at.
TWSBI Vac700R Iris — 1/2 used. Became my marking pen. Two paper reviews led to quite a lot of annotations. The F-CSI balances a narrow line (more writing in a tiny space) with line variation (more fun).
TWSBI 580 ALR Prussian Blue — 3/5 used – but I only inked this pen halfway. However, it’s proven itself to be versatile. A true EF that behaves, but is wet enough to show shading. A M on the reverse that provides contrast. Used for Thanksgiving menu and recipe notes. Also my pocket carry.
TWSBI 580 AL Emerald — 3/4 used. Lovely shading. Hisoku worked well for list items in lists. Contrasted dark colors from headings well, especially grey. Made list items and headings easy to distinguish. Also fun for journaling.
Nakaya Neostandard — 4/5 used. Still works great for journaling and for headings. Used for some marking, too. Contrasted the Vac/Akkerman combo well. It’s like Nakaya molded a pen into my hand: comfortable and enjoyable.
Delike New Moon — Empty. A powerhouse combination. My daily driver throughout the week. Smooth, well-behaved, and secure in the pocket. Slag Gray dried quickly enough to work for task lists. Wetness of the feed robs Slag Gray of any shading qualities.
Franklin-Christoph 31 — Empty. The spouse used this to write holiday letters. My toddler-brain thought, “I want to use it now!” Three lesson plans and a journal entry later it’s empty. The curved section was great for longer writing sessions.
Mythic Aeschylus — Empty. Primarily for crossword puzzles, the fountain pen challenge and lesson planning. Works best as an accent color against a dark ink. The shade of purple just isn’t for me. I prefer dustier purples.
Notebooks. The work bullet journal. A two-day work week translated into only six new pages. We’re now at page 163 of the Hobonichi Plain Notebook.
I adapted my two-page weekly spread into a one-page spread, plus a “Later” section for tasks I knew wouldn’t get completed on Monday or Tuesday. It worked quite well. Three lesson plans and two pages of meeting notes round out the week’s analog work. To be honest: I spent most of my at-work time writing emails.
The Musubi personal journal. 19 pages across seven entries. I journaled far more than usual this week. The holiday offered me more personal time. I used some of that time to catch up with the fountain pen challenge on Instagram. So about a fifth of these pages are #fountainpenchallenge reflections.
On Friday night, my partner asked if I would like another Musubi notebook for my next journal. I’m thinking I’d like a journal with pre-printed lines. The only pages that didn’t use a guide sheet were the poems: Long, too long, America (Walt Whitman); The Weight of Love (The Black Keys); and The Dream of Evan and Chan (The Postal Service).
Written dry. I wrote three pens empty this week. Strike one was the Franklin-Christoph 31 on Tuesday. Strike two was the Mythic Aeschylus on Wednesday. And strike three was the new Delike on Thursday.
Seems fitting that a new pen dried up three days in a row, ending on Thanksgiving. After all, three strikes make a turkey.
Newly inked. I couldn’t help but ink my new TWSBI 580 ALR when it arrived on Tuesday night. I chose Monteverde Rose Noir for first fill honors. The ink’s tone matches the ALR but the color does not. Plus, I dig an ink with great shading.
My nearly empty friend
Collection
Incoming / new orders. The last of my new purchases is the TWSBI 580-ALR in Prussian Blue. I ordered it from Mark Bacas, the Nib Grinder. The Prussian Blue is my first ALR. She’s a beaut, folks.
Hello, beautiful. Come here often?
Looks and function are all on point. The subdued blue is lovely. And the large ink capacity makes the pen useful as a daily driver. The threaded grip will take some getting used to.
Keeps turkey-greased fingers from slipping
Mark ground a B nib into a M Predator Hybrid. The predator is a versatile combination grind with an EF right side-up and a M feed-side up. Mark delivered on the pencil-like feedback I requested. I like a dual-purpose nib.
Pretty and useful …
Outgoing / trades or sales. Nothing this week.
Currently listening
Nick Hakim. If aliens wrote songs to woo you, this is what they would sound like.
