Month: January 2021

We all, or so I hope, learned colors as we grew up. Red, Yellow, Blue as our first ones. Then we added the secondary colors, Green, Orange, and Purple. Then, well then, it gets kinda of murky. It is not a sure thing for people to know or agree on the other colors. I always had a problem with Magenta. A printer knew Magenta. Painters knew it also. But then you have tints. How many whites are there? Is that Yellow a sunshine yellow or a mustard yellow? As I get inks for my fountain pens, can you imagine it? A place on the east coast has around 700 types to choose from. As I flip back through a book, my Morning Pages, I see lots of colors. Sometimes there are four different ones in a two page spread. It is fun, and instructive, to switch pens in mid page. One of my favorite colors is called “Weathered Brick”. But to describe it, whell that is another whole problem. If you have a brick building around with aged red bricks you have got the idea of it. This is one huge reason to use a fountain pen; the colors available. And it kinda, sorta, partially, justifies having a stable of pens. You get the colors and then you get different colors and there you are, trying to match a color to a person you are writing. There are years ahead to explore this matching colors to moods and people.

Once I work out the basic colors I can move on to inks that show different colors depending on the light, its strength, its angle, the paper it is on. There are lots of things to explore.

I read today, it was from … hmm I seem to be hallucinating. Whoever it is or was sat down and had trouble coming up with thigns to say, a half page later he seemed to be doing fine. DATO – your problem was probably a cold camera. Keep it inside your jacket until you are ready to use it. I believe, I think, that will keep your film working just fine.

Ever sign a document in front of a notary public? They do appreciate a fine fountain pen. Even if they are from China, cost less than $10, and works great. It is great to be patient. Pay a bunch and your privacy to Amazon have it tomorrow. Pay a little wait a couple of weeks and you have it from China. But that is for people who want something that works, not that the ones from the higher priced one do not, they do, but for a basic, functional pen. My oh my! It enables you to have a bunch that (ahem) allows you to have extra money for inks. About the nortary public question, before my distraction, we signed today. I retired on September 15, 2017. Today we signed off on the pension, I delayed it to get a bit more, now we have a bit more. Not much, but as my wife would say “a little bit never hurts” We signed wth Oxford Blue, a deep blue. Very pretty, a keeper I think.

— MichaelRpdx :: rknm/48

It has been a shit week. I do not want to tell you about what a shit week it has been. You, I hope, do not want to hear about what a shit week it has been. You would, I hope, want to read about anything else. Now, if I could just get the thoughts of what a shit week it as been out of my brain, give thoughts room for other things to think about, that would be good, or at least passable. But nooooo, not yet it isn’t. Not yet at all. I am hoping to get something better to think about by thinking happy thoughts. Like World War II. That is something happier than my shit week. I am bringing it to mind by watching FOYLE’S WAR.

FOYLE’S WAR is a British drama, a mystery drama, set in Hastings Sussex. That would be on the south coast of the country. Close to where France was busy being run over by the Nazis and every boat they could muster ferry ferried over men to keep them from being killed or captured. It was a setting for the second episode. Now watching that was a dream boat of an evening compared to my shit week. We plan to watch more tonight. I expect to cheer up even more. Thanks to the drama.

Have I told you about my week? No? Good.

I am going to work on my night by watching some British drama. They do good stuff. Especially FOYLE’S WAR, I do not have their problems. They have some really, actual, shit weeks. We collectively do not have shit weeks. At least not yet.

~~ MichaelRpdx :: rknm/48

“Just one.” That is what I said to my wife. Just one. It was about the 1958 show “Peter Gunn”, perhaps you don’t remember the show, But, I am sure, you remember the theme song. How do you convey it on a typewritten page? I’m going to listen to it. Which version?

The original, from the soundtrack of the original? From the Qatar Philharmonic, starting with the drummer and tuba player getting us through the intro and then the rest of the brass walking onto the * stage to join them on the stage? (no redundancy here…) The Blues Brothers, lots of gruff sound there. Or Sarah Vaughn – yes there can be vocals in the piece and they are great also. Or more rock with Poison Ivy or The Venture. Yeah, if you have trouble remembering it there are plenty of choices to listen to, which I did because, well “just one.”

I had never seen Peter Gunn as a kid. It originally aired from 1958 through 1961. The plot lines were very, and I do mean very, simple. They do seem to get a bit more complex. Not by much. I said “just one” today. I was chilled. It seemed to be something to do. So we watched. And another and another and even more. Kinda like listening to the theme song. It just seemed to hook us in.

If you have a Amazon credit card, they are free to you. Enjoy.

By the way, I had earlier talked about Bordertown, a serial about a Finnish town close to Russia. We watched it to the end. And we are happy with it. A couple of low spots in it. But all in all it was satisfying with a great conclusion. Netflix.

LATIN and CURSIVE WRITING

I have asked the Facebook crowd about these subjects. Amazing responses. Does your school require cursive writing? It seems that it no longer taught. Well, not everywhere. And for people who did have it there was a large crowd that will admit to to having terrible writing. (ahem, I am working on mine. Writing with a mix of block and cursive letters.) Over 100 people have responded to that query. In the Latin world, just asked a day or two ago, 45 people have replied. It seems a majority of them did have Latin taught. Some people talking about three years in high school. A couple of them saying it was a great thing to have learned.

I am working on both subjects. Wish me luck.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48

I was scandalized. There she was, writing in her copy of the Riverside Shakespeare, Complete Edition. They were giant tomes. It had it all and she was writing in it. One did not do such a thing. Or so I thought. One writes outside of their books. Never in them. I had not heard of annotation in books. I still never did. Books are precious. Yet there she was, making notes about what she thought of the text. Since that time I have learned of people annotations in their books. Bring it to life. Looking at the works of other people to see what they thought of a book. Or even of what they thought of a book when they read it at an earlier time in life. I am now annotating a book I am reading. Underlines, questions, observations are all going into it. I use a pencil. It seems like one of the best uses of a pencil I have. Well, sketching is great too. Yes, very nice.

A few years ago I started to keep my Morning Journals. I did that with a pen. I could not use a pencil, stopping to sharpen it every so often, no I needed a pen. I spent some looking around. Wirecutter.com had a recommendation, a Jetstream pen. It was recommended by people who use a lot of pens and had their opinions about what makes a great pen. This one was “the best”, And even better they came with Uni-Ball refills. They are cheap. When I run out of ink, which I have done a lot of, I pop it out and a new one in and we are off to scribble more again. It seems I have purchased these things 16 times in packages from 5 to 12 refills. Gol darn, I have written more with these pens, the Jetstreams, more than any other pens out there. Love them.

That is to say, I loved them until I got hooked on fountain pens. People seem to be even more obsessed than I was. They are looking at pens in the three digit price range. OK, there are pens that cost a four digit amount. And inks! More on them in a minute, but the thing that gets to me about this group is they don’t talk about using their pens. In fairness, there are some people who use them for drawing and some that write beautiful things in beautiful script. But they are not talked about the way people talk about their pens. I have settled on a line that costs under ten dollars apiece. And these I can refill, well I have refilled with ink from a bottle. And this will keep me going for awhile, a long while. And I have to admit that writing with a fountain pen is a beautiful experience. So beautiful.

That last comment is a lot like using a typewriter. It is grand to write with one of these things, Even when I do not know what I am writing or why I am writing. I sit with my Royal or Hermes and I write and it is good.

More on this later. I need to think about this some more. But the first thoughts are out. I think about them some more and refine my thoughts.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48