It’s tax time. Needed to print out hard copies of PDF tax docs emailed to me end of last week. Elderly laser printer connected to iMac. But iMac died last year. Hooked up cheapo replacement linux laptop to replace iMac. Laptop test prints fine. PDF’s print as garbage. Waste lots of paper trying different things, different browsers. Still garbage. Finally try downloading PDF’s to hard drive and print. Works.

Meanwhile, my couple of months old Kobo ereader’s battery has started draining abnormally fast - 100% to 5% in one hour. Trying factory reset. Unit charging. Will test. Meanwhile I will look up to see if it’s covered under warranty.

Between these two things, just trying to print some damn documents and troubleshooting an ereader with battery problems has taken up the better part of a day.

And we haven’t even gotten to the taxes yet.

Finished reading: Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3) by Jim Butcher 📚

Okay, so I’m sitting here wondering if vampires can withstand the sound of bagpipe music.

Listening/Watching: Max Raabe & Palast Orchester - Dream, a little dream

I spent some time last night reading reviews of the iPhone XR and inspite of all the slobbering superlatives in those reviews, nothing convinced me to go back to an iPhone except the improved privacy over Android. Access to Apple Pay may also be a factor because I trust Apple Pay over Google Pay. The rest was bigger, faster, longer, more cool and do what Apple says and what Apple wants. No innovation.

And again, the Apple walled garden is everywhere: “not compatible with existing micro-SIM cards” which means I can’t switch back and forth between an Android phone and the XR. Use Apple’s Safari browser or pound sand. Use our proprietary cords.

iOS 12? Boring. Again, bigger, faster, longer but still the same old iOS.

Price? Cheaper than all the flagship phones but still a lot of money for a phone that does not have fingerprint ID. Screw that.

I have business cards, they advertise the business I’m a partner in. They don’t advertise me as an individual. Every once in awhile I run into somebody socially who wants my contact details, not business but about me. So I thought I would get cards that represent just me.

This is nothing new, people used to have calling cards or visiting cards and the Victorians, in particular had elaborate rules of etiquette surrounding their use. Calling cards were important in an urban world before telephones and internet and at a time when many servants may well be illiterate. The business card evolved out of the calling card. Anyway, it would be accurate to call what I ordered calling cards.

I ordered business cards (“Me cards” really) that don’t mention my business interests, just my contact info:

• Name
• Street address
• Telephone number
• URL of my personal blog (important)
• Twitter Name
• My Micro.blog URL (this I really wanted on there)

Normally I leave the back blank, so I can write on it, but the design I chose called for a logo, which I don’t have. However, I could substitute a QR Code which will take people to my blog if scanned so I used that. Still enough room to jot a note.

The printer offered a bewildering choice of card papers, I chose cards made from 100% cotton sourced from scraps in the making of T-Shirts. No trees.

I ordered from Moo on the recommendation of both @Ron and @dejus and they turned out great. (Thanks guys!)

I like the idea of having a QR Code somewhere on the card. I personally don’t use them except when exhibits have them, like at an arboretum or a museum, but others might so no harm in having it there.

That’s it - Me Cards. I don’t need them often, but darn handy when I do.

Interesting. This, The Justwrite Post came up on my Twitter feed. Fountain pen users might be interested.

For the last couple of years about the only thing I write in cursive with a pen are checks. Otherwise it has all been keyboard typing. Writing anything at length with a pen is like relearning how to write. Fortunately, like riding a bike, it comes back quickly.

Writing with a fountain pen brings it to a different level. More arm, less wrist and fingers and different angle. Or something.

Which makes me wonder if writing with a fountain pen, might be good exercise for preventing carpal tunnel? Dunno.

I wanted a cheap fountain pen to carry everyday because pens I carry have a habit of getting lost. This pen generally sells for under $10 and you can even buy 4 pens for under $20 if you shop around. Even though each pen comes with a converter for bottled ink, I also ordered some Jinhao black International Standard sized ink cartridges. International Standard sized cartridges are available from other manufacturers and they should work too, so you are not locked into a proprietary ink cartridge. I like that.

The X750 has a medium nib which is a bit more fine than my Pilot. The X750 uses a common #6 nib so you can upgrade it.

Got pen, installed cartridge. The cartridge is very rigid so you can’t squeeze it to start the ink flowing so you have to do some jabs to start off. Once I got the ink going there was some dripping but I just test wrote through it and the flow seemed to settle down to a normal flow in a short time.

Then I wrote a journal length test page, and the Jinhao X750 wrote very well. Some small skipping every so often but nothing to put me off. It writes more like a $20 pen and does not feel cheap. This could be a good starter pen if you are on a budget.

My Pilot Metropolitan glides a little bit better with a slightly broader line, but my first impression is I could write all day with the X750.

Jinhao Ink

The ink cartridges themselves seem sturdy. One complaint about Pilot cartridges is leakage during shipment. The Jinhao cartridges look and feel like they might take more abuse in a padded mailer envelope. They are reasonably priced.

The ink flows well and gets the job done. In my limited test I have no complaints. My observation is the black is more translucent than black Pilot ink, but it writes just fine.

Here is a professional review of the Jinhao X750 by Goulet Pens.

You can find Jinhao pens from various online pen retailers like Goulet (above) and also on Amazon and eBay.

Keep in mind, I have not started to carry this pen everyday so I can’t speak to things like leakage yet. I don’t even know if I will like carrying a fountain pen. I’ll update when I know.

Testing Omnibear.

Watches, notepads, fountain pens, business cards, journals - I seem to have this need to get my everyday carry kit in order.

And this is just the analog stuff. The digital revolves around my smartphone and the services I rely on and all that is on hold, out of my control until the e.foundation starts selling phones with a version of Android OS with all things Google removed PLUS a set of cloud services to replace all the Googly services you use with normal Android. That’s going to happen this year, I hope.

One thing, with phone, shirt pocket briefcase and 2 pens my shirt pocket is at capacity.

Posted earlier: Automatic Wrist Watches Because analog time is more better than digital time.

I’ve stated before that I have set aside smart watches and gone back to an analog timepiece. One problem I had with the analog quartz watch I was using was it had thin silver hands and markings on a white background. Not a lot of contrast which makes it hard to read at a glance or in low light. I have other watches but most of them are dress watches and I rarely dress up in a suit anymore.

I decided to get a watch that was easier to see. I also wanted something mechanical, if I could find it. Briefly, there are two kinds of mechanical watches: 1. manual winding, where you have to wind it up every day, 2. automatic (self winding) watches which capture your motion as you move about to wind up the mainspring.

Automatic watches have always fascinated me so I went hunting for something suitable and found the Orient Scout Watch.

What I like about this watch:

• Casual style
• Big dark numbers on a light background.
• Dark hands that glow in the dark. Sweep second hand. Easier to glance at the time during a meeting on the sly, so I don’t send the wrong signal to others.
• Simple design: no day/date or other complications that need to be adjusted all the time. All I have to worry about is moving around enough to keep it running.
• I think it looks good.
• Made by Orient a company still specializing in mechanical watches with all movements still made in Japan.
• I like the fact that it is mechanical, somehow even more analog.
• Little window that shows a bit of the gear work and fly wheels moving - just because it’s fun.
• No battery, so there is some small environmental benefit in that.

Watches: Analog vs. Smart

I’ve had an Apple Watch and an Android Watch. The Apple watch is, by far, the better of the two. I used both for notifications from social networks, SMS and email. Well I don’t do Facebook anymore, Twitter can wait and my phone does fine notifying me about emails. In short, since I’ve backed off from social networking I don’t need a smart watch.

I grew up when everyone wore an analog wrist watch. Even with a smartphone, I never gave up the habit and I probably never will. I constantly check the time on my watch.

I like quartz watches. They are so accurate and now, so common they are inexpensive to boot.

I like automatics for mechanical watches - I don’t miss having to wind my watch every morning as with a manual. Been there.

With the automatic watches, it is fun to have a “skeleton” style watch where you can see all the inner workings move, it gives off a steampunk vibe. However, I find the the background of all that gear work can make them hard to read at a glance.

Fair warning: watches can be like fountain pens, typewriters, notebooks: collectible.

I am over my limit for feed to follow on Inoreader free. I may have to either pay or move to a different reader. I’ve been experimenting with Wordpress reader but I’m finding it cumbersome.

Currently reading: Murder on the Orient (SS): The Agatha Christie Book Club 2 by C. A. Larmer 📚

Like: Normal Horoscopes by @kicks who finds really neat stuff, weird but neat, while dancing at the edge of The Abyss.

From the Archives: Let Us Build a New Web We needn’t wait around for somebody else to do it, we can all create our little corner of the web, right now.

Currently reading: Fool Moon (Dresden Files Book 2) by Jim Butcher 📚

I hate time changes.

Things I Learned Today: There is such a thing as Womens Rugby which I think is cool. Mainly because I think we need more rugby as a sport here in the USA but also because it’s another opportunity for women.

Currently reading: Storm Front (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher 📚

“The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

A few years ago I got into fountain pens and experimented with them for awhile, then cleaned them up and stored them away. I don’t even remember what I have and which ones I liked. I should have kept notes.

Flashback

I think when I was in my tweens, fountain pens became popular in school. At the time you could buy a cheap Scheaffer cartridge fountain pen anywhere they sold school supplies. I used one quite a lot. I found it was better than a ballpoint for compositions because I could not write as fast with a fountain pen. This allowed me to think more about what I wanted to write.

In High School I reverted back to ballpoints, and somewhere over the years the cheap Scheaffer fountain pens disappeared from the school supply shelves at the local drug stores and super markets.

Now-ish:

Of course the Internet changed everything and niche products like fountain pens got a new, wider, life. They were available again.

I Buy a New Fountain Pen

I decided to rethink this fountain pen thing and try to define what worked for me the last time and what didn’t work. Why had I set them aside? I think I got caught up in experimenting and trying different pens and bottled ink too much. Generally for daily things that I use, the KISS model works the best.

So on this reboot: pick one pen and really use it, cartridge pen, medium nib, reasonable quality, forgiving for beginners. I bought a simple Pilot Metropolitan medium. Still made in Japan. Preliminary tests: it writes well, very smooth - it glides, even on cheap paper. The black ink is very black, dries quickly and does not bleed through too much. It writes well on index cards.

Cartridge ink is more expensive, but a lot less fuss and mess - which is probably a better choice for me. KISS.

Now I have to retrain myself how to write with a fountain pen. Again.

I’m going to use this Pilot as my exclusive fountain pen and if I stick with it, I’ll see what other cartridge fountain pens I already have that I can use, because it would be handy to have a second.

When a major company like Automattic sends you to Github to update to the next version of Simplenote for Linux you know you are screwed. Github is for coders, NOT the general public. True to my prediction, it didn’t go well.

I don’t have cable at home and rarely watch TV anyway. I had to be in a place that had Fox News on for a couple of hours. It sounded more like brain washing to me than anything.