I just got my newsletter from JetPens, and I saw some really cool bags that I think are new for the autumn season: the Lihit Lab Teffa bags, which come in black, brown, orange, and yellow green. Let me first say that these bags are Japanese products, and, true to the Japanese standard of making awesome bags, they are sleek, cunning, full of pockets, and utterly organized.

This A5 size case will hold all of your everyday office needs in one organized place. The main compartment will easily fit an A5 notebook. The front of the bag has five different sections: one front pen pocket, one small pocket with a Velcro closure for a cell phone, one larger pocket with a Velcro closure for a slim camera with charger cord or a pocket-size notepad, and two open slim pockets in the back for slipping in papers or note cards. Several colors available.

Case dimensions: Approximately 10 inches (25.5 cm) long, 7.1 inches (18 cm) tall, and 0.6 inches (1.6 cm) wide.

The Lihit bag is very similar in that it’s really slim, just big enough to fit a notebook or two and a few small items, but the thing that I like about the Dr. Ion bag is its handle. Also, it has two cloth loops that I used to attach a shoulder strap to, so I can carry it diagonally across my back. From what I could see of the pictures on the JetPens site, the Lihit bag doesn’t have that option, or a built-in handle, and that’s the only drawback I can think of. However, the price is also appropriately lower; the Maruchiwaku was (when I bought it) quite a bit more expensive.

I’m kind of a stickler for having my hands free when I’m out and about, but some people don’t mind carry things, and if you’re that kind of person, this bag’s for you. And if I saw you holding it, I would come up to you and ask you where you got it because I would be so impressed by the professional look and organizational potential of it.

So check out JetPens’ new products for fall, and don’t forget to look at the Lihit bags–and don’t dally; there are only 10 left of the brown as of this post, the black has sold out, and there are 5 of the orange and 8 of the yellow green. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

I was surfing and sighing on the JetPens site today, and I came across something that looks wonderful for a bag hound like me. It’s the Nomadic WR-08 Wise-Walker A4 Shoulder Bag, yours for a mere $73 at JetPens. It comes in black, gray, and navy blue , and it’s got pockets up to wazoo.

I have another anime series that I would like to share with you. It is actually three related series called Aria: The Animation, Aria: The Natural and Aria: The Origination. (Click on each title to go to the page where I watch it. If that doesn’t work, just Google the names and you will find multiple anime sites that show it.)

The basic plotline is that it is around the year 2301, and the planet Mars has been terraformed and settled by people from Earth, which is called Manhome in this series. Mars is now called Aqua, probably because the majority of the planet is now covered with water. Every country on Earth was given an island on Aqua, so each island is a cultural treasure trove of traditions. There have been hints throughout the series that Earth is getting less and less habitable–the oceans are no longer swimmable, and parts of the planet have submerged and are not able to sustain life, but people do still live there and go back and forth to Aqua.

The series follows Akari Mizunashi, recently come from Manhome to work as an undine in a city called Neo-Venezia, which is basically a replica of Venice on Manhome. Venice submerged underwater, so the people rescued as much as they could of its buildings and art and rebuilt them on Aqua. An undine is basically a gondolier; on Aqua, they are all women, and they work for one of three companies: Himeya, Orange Planet, or Aria Company, for which the series is named. Akari works for Aria Company, but her best friends work for the two rival companies; Aika Granzchesta works for (and is the heir to) Himeya, and Alice Carroll is a prodigy scouted out before she turned 15 by Orange Planet. These three are the main characters of the three series, and we follow their adventures from being apprentice undines to becoming primas.

You may have noticed that everyone’s name in the series begins with an A. It’s true; I’m not sure why they did that. The sole human exception that I can think of is a one-time character named Henri, but Henri is pronounce /ahnree/, so it could be that the sound trumps the spelling.

There are two other regular characters who have non-A names, and they are the cats that are presidents of the companies. It is explained in the second episode of Aria: The Animation that blue-eyed cats are presidents of the companies. It has to do with their eyes being the color of the ocean and some good luck therein that combination. The cats, especially President Aria, play a sizable role in the series.

President Aria (the white cat pictured above) is actually like a little person. He walks on his hind paws and eats people food at the table with Akari and Alicia, and he has adventures all on his own. He doesn’t speak people languages, but he does verbalize in a way that is totally unique and adorable. It’s not cat meowing, either; it’s just…well, you have to hear it yourself.

President Hime (the black cat above, the president of Himeya) is much more like a “normal” cat. She doesn’t speak, but meows, and she doesn’t do things that President Aria can do, like help set the table or open an umbrella. President Aria has a huge crush on President Hime, but she rebuffs him consistently.

President Maa (pictured above), who is my favorite, is a little kitten, and, while the series starts with Presidents Aria and Hime already in place as the figureheads of the two companies, early in the series, Alice finds a kitten and, after some hijinks, the kitten is made the president of Orange Planet, whose previous president had just died. President Maa is so named because she makes a “maa” sound; that’s her meow. Her favorite thing in the world to do is bite President Aria’s “mochi mochi” tummy (his tubbiness is the subject of occasional jokes), and there are some truly funny moments depicting President Maa’s sneaking up on President Aria for a big bite.

I have to say that the antics of the cats are my favorite parts of this series. They’re definitely humanized, even the most catlike of them, and it’s really cute to see them interacting in the context of being very important personages (to use the term loosely) in their worlds.

The reason why I like these series is because they’re gentle, beautiful depictions of how life could be if everyone loved their jobs and knew how to be polite and respectful to each other. The examples of rudeness are so mild and so completely resolved that it is a “safe” show to watch; one does not squirm with embarrassment or discomfort on behalf of a character who is wronged in some way. It’s a slow-moving series without a lot of action, but there’s plenty in the way of kind interpersonal interaction, and one watches the gradual growth and maturation of the three main characters until they achieve the goals that they began the series with: becoming Prima undines.

Also, another thing that I like about this series is that the seasons are very pronounced. This is something that I’ve seen a lot in Japanese literature and shows: great attention is given to the seasons. Neo-Venezia has pronounced seasons; it’s very hot and humid in the summer, but it snows in winter, and spring and autumn are the main tourist seasons, probably because the weather is mild and enjoyable. The animation is gorgeous, and you really get a feeling of the season that is being depicted; you feel like you’re there. I’ve been watching winter episodes lately, and I almost forget that it’s summer here in Elk Grove–a fact I wish I could forget. (I hate heat.)

So if you’re a fan of anime, and if you like gentle, slow-moving plots, I highly recommend the Aria series. I’ve watched all the episodes over and over, and I still enjoy every one.

I was trolling around on various websites last night, looking for something interesting to watch, when I came upon a web series called The Adventures of One EskimO [sic]. I really liked it, so I thought I would share it with you. Here are two addresses where you can find it and information about it. I actually watched it at the second address, the WB one, and I don’t know if you can watch the whole series at the first one, but the first one has information about the band and backstory and such. So I suggest that you check both out.

http://www.findlittlefeather.com

http://www.thewb.com/shows/one-eskimo

Basically, the series, each episode of which is about 3-4 minutes long, is an animated story of two characters, Little Feather and One EskimO, who meet, fall in love, and are separated by an evil villain called Top Hat. Most of the story is about One EskimO’s attempts to rescue Little Feather.

Although the plot line may sound familiar, there are things about this series that really make in unique and a pleasure to watch. The soundtrack is great; the songs are thoughtful, pensive, endearing, and they match the visual story really well. One song that really stood out to me was “Chosen One,” which was the soundtrack to an episode in the middle, maybe the 5th or 6th one. This music is not the canned bubble-gum crap designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator; this is music composed by real people, and it has a sort of universal appeal to it without being trite. It is heartwarming without being too precious. I think that the band itself might be called One EskimO because, when I went to the findlittlefeather.com site and clicked on “band,” it took me away from that site to another one that was called One EskimO. I encourage you to find out about them, too.

The music is great, and the visuals are also really sweet. The animation is touching…some might find it a little sentimental, but, even though I can really be cynical about life and romance, this story and how it was depicted (with recurring themes of holding onto stars and true love defeating evil) really found its way through my armor of sarcasm and drew me into itself. The colors, the different landscapes–especially the one under the sea–the journeys into the sky, the animals that portray the band (a giraffe, a penguin, and some kind of simian creature that might be an orangutan) are so beautifully depicted that they captured my sympathy and had me rooting for them from the very first episode on. I was so enraptured by the story that I watched the entire thing in one sitting. It doesn’t take very long since each episode is so short, but I watched it right before I went to bed, and I couldn’t stop in the middle in order to go to sleep; I had to watch it right to the end.

I encourage you to watch this series; the animation coupled with the music really create a unique experience. And I must say that I think it’s best watched late at night, when the worries of the day are gone and you can settle down to enjoy something magical and supernatural. Enjoy.

I’m pretty old–I’m older than I look–and I attribute my relatively youthful appearance to good genes. I am Eurasian: Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, English, German, and a little bit of Irish. (A former boyfriend insisted that I am Amerasian–American and Asian–but to my knowledge, Amerasian is a label for a very specific group of people: children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women from the Vietnam War. That term doesn’t cover just general people of both European and Asian descent.)

Because I am old, I have noticed the gradual metamorphosis of an interesting trend in popular culture, especially movies and television. When I was a kid, very few Asians made it to television and movies, and when they did, it was because the Asianness of the part was essential to the story. Heck, even parts that required some Asianness were sometimes given to non-Asian actors because it wasn’t trendy or cool to be Asian back then. I’m thinking specifically of the series Kung Fu, a story about a half-Chinese monk, banished from Qiang Dynasty China, and doomed to roam the Wild West, beating up people in bar fights, always successful because of his Shaolin training. Bruce Lee, the legend-status martial artist, was up for the role, but, because of the social tenor of the times, the role was given to David Carradine, who was neither Asian nor a martial artist, at least one of Lee’s caliber. Basically, back then, there were very few Asian roles, and Mako seemed to get 95% of them.

As time went on, Hollywood grew more tolerant of Asians, and more started appearing, but their Asianness was still central to the plots. Asians were never hired to play just general people; they were relegated to roles that ultimately contributed to stereotypes: the Inscrutable Oriental, the Exotic Eurasian, etc. The parts they got often had to do with the Yakuza or the Tong, or they portrayed people at the mercy of strange and immutable customs because everyone knows that all Chinese people preface every noun with the word “honorable” and every Japanese man commits seppuku (hara-kiri, ritual suicide by self-disembowelment). Asianness took over the plots; now, rather than hiding one’s Asian heritage, these new stories emphasized them, erroneously more often than not because, to many non-Asians, the cultures were interchangeable and the Western writers simply did not do their research. The cultures were often depicted as overly exotic, not understandable by Western standards, and always in need of modernization, preferably at the hand of some cowboy-like Caucasian male who fought or shot his way through the labyrinthine customs of outmoded Asian societies. This was the time when Asian actors (some of whom changed their real names to non-Asian ones in order to gain acceptance or some of whom were named at birth with non-Asian first names–I’m thinking of people like Joan Chen, James Hong, John Lone, even Bruce Lee.) played people with conspicuously Asian names. Asianness got more trendy, but it was still basically formed on stereotypes and misinformation.

Now, however, I have noticed a different trend. I have noticed that Asians are being hired more and more to play just general people whose Asianness is not a central plot point. They often play intellectuals, doctors or lawyers, because everyone knows that Asians are smart and not physical people. Put an Asian in a cowboy hat, and you have instant comedy. But the market is opening up, and now, one’s culture matters less because all the roles are not about the Yakuza or the Tong or someone’s daughter being sold into prostitution. The funny thing about this new trend is that the Asians, with no explanation, are starting to have non-Asian surnames. It’s almost like Hollywood is opening the doors, finally hiring Asians without making a huge deal about their Asianness, but it’s assimilating them by giving them last names like Barrett or Jennings or Bradford. It’s like Hollywood has gone on a campaign to declare, “Hey! We’re treating Asians just like everyone else!” and since everyone else has American surnames, they’ll get American surnames. It’s almost like it’s OK for people to look Asian, but it’s old-fashioned to identify at all, even by one’s surname, with one’s heritage.

I wonder if Hollywood will ever portray Asians realistically. It’s true that many Asians, when coming to this country, change their first names to something that Americans can get their mouths around. It’s also true that they don’t usually change their last names, except in the case of their last names being changed for them by customs officials. It’s true that Asians are just people, and not all of them are held hostage by antiquated cultural traditions–but it is also true that some families hang onto traditions that make the younger generation feel stifled. I guess what I’m saying is that there’s a huge range of Asian experience in this country and everywhere in the world, and I have to laugh at Hollywood’s progression of anti-Asianness to ultra-Asianness to assimilated Asianness. Check out modern tv shows and see how many Asians have non-Asian surnames without any explanation. Check out old tv shows and see how few Asians played anything (and how many of them were Mako). Check out shows from the 80s and see how many were about corny, larger-than-life generic Asian cultures that portrayed either drugs, organized crime, or prostitution as the negative collateral damage of hanging onto the old ways.

And don’t even get me started on how Eurasian women are portrayed in movies, tv, and pulp fiction…tigresses in bed, obedient everywhere else, women who love Caucasian men, but who are “trapped between two worlds” and who inevitably die tragic deaths, but remain enshrined in our memories as the Ultimate Woman, the woman who knew her place, who satisfied her men’s most domineering desires, who was exotic in all the right places, but not so much that she was alien. I’m thinking of the flagship of the Eurasian Sex Kitten in Trevanian’s novel Shibumi. This novel featured a courtesan named Hana (which means “flower” in Japanese, but note that it is homophonous with the more familiar “Hannah”) who was described as African in her hip and breast size, Caucasian in her high-bridged nose and high cheekbones, but Asian in her demeanor (read: obedience) and her soft skin. The story explains that her parentage was of all three “races” (I know that race is a biological illusion, but it is a sociological fact, so I am treating it as such because I see it treated as such in these examples.) but the only thing she is good for in the story is having sex. She is a professional courtesan, after all. She is Trevanian’s wet dream, the perfect woman, having none of the more distasteful traits of her ethnicities. Many books and movies have similar women, usually just of two, not three, ethnicities, all in possession of Asian soft skin and obedience but Caucasian features, especially high-bridged noses, because flat noses are not considered attractive in our culture. They’re invariably sex toys or victims or both, and the swaggering cowboy has to save them–or lose them to the traditions that he is trying to destroy.

Just once, I would like to see a fictional Eurasian who is not a sex object or collateral damage. Maybe it’s one who, like me, has a flat nose; despite having one Caucasian parent, I was not lucky enough to get the desired “aquiline” nose. Maybe it’s one who isn’t a doctor or lawyer or mysteriously trained purveyor of all ritual and sexual delights. Maybe it’s one who isn’t an intellectual or a martial artist, but instead is significant because of something that Caucasians usually corner the market on. There’s a show that does do that: it’s the popular show called Glee, and in it is a very Asian young man who is a fabulous dancer. When most people think “Asian,” they probably do not think “great dancer,” and, in this way, that show does a lot to break up stereotypes. I know that there are Asians who are great at everything, just like there are Caucasians who are great at everything, African Americans, Native Americans, white, black, yellow, red, blue, green–there is always an exception that trumps the idea that people are slaves to their heritage and gene pool. The world is becoming one village, thanks to the huge leaps in technology–the Internet, cyberspace, etc.–and the information is out there, so we no longer need to rely on writers who treat all Asian cultures as one. While our improved communication is making us more homogeneous in some ways, it is also opening up ways to embrace diversity so that we can know that  fortune cookies actually originated in the U.S. and that “sayonara” is not Chinese for “good-bye.”

Stone Journal by Gartner

Dear friends,

Over the months, I’ve had a couple of people ask me about the stone journal (pictured above) that I wrote about in a previous post. People want to  know where they can find one, or they write in to tell me about how much they love this unique notebook.

As far as I know, the only place that one can find one is at Target, and it has been many months since I bought one, so I’m not certain that they still carry them. So I’m writing this post to give you all of the product information that I can so that you can conduct your own searches if you’re looking for this book. I have looked online pretty extensively, and I have not been able to find it anywhere but Target, but that was a long time ago, and maybe there are some places that carry it now.

The name of this journal on the shelf in Target is “Navy Comp Book” or “Navy Stone Journal.” I don’t know why it’s called “Navy”; it is not navy blue, nor is it naval in appearance. There are two company names on the book: the first one, on the gray band that encircles it, is Gartner, and on the back of the journal itself is “roobee by mara-mi” (no capital letters). The number right beneath the bar code (I assume is like the ISBN) is 34680 23027. The name of this journal according to the gray band again is both “Stone Journal” and “Stone Paper Composition Book,” so you might be able to find something if you Google that or look on the Target website–but be warned that I looked at www.target.com f0r this book, using all of the information I’ve given you here, and I was not able to find it, even though they did carry it at the time. So your best bet is to call Target and ask them to physically check in the office supply department. This journal is available in a large book (7.5″ x 9.75″) and a smaller size (4.75″ x 6.25″ in a double set).

For those of you just joining us, the thing that’s so cool about this journal (besides the price, which is about $3) is that it is made of stone–no trees involved. The paper is fascinating; when you tear it, it feels like you’re tearing fabric, and it shows up fountain pen ink beautifully because it is bright white. My only wish is that the rule were a little narrower; it’s a wide rule, and I prefer college rule or narrower. But it’s worth it to write on. I even like to tear out the pages and use them to write letters on.

If you are looking for this journal, I wish you the best of luck. If you by chance have found another source of them, please write to me and let me know so that I can post it for my loyal readers. And if you do find, them, buy up all you can. They’re hard to locate, and really popular.

Thanks for tuning in…keep on writing!

After writing my previous post about the ink that I got from my nephew the Wiggle Monster and promising to write a post about it, I got in the mood and put a little sample together. So this is it. I apologize for my lack of Bailiwick Limerick; I’m still not in a good enough mental place to come up with one of those. Frankly, I’m lucky I had the steam to do what I’ve done.

So, this post is to introduce this new ink, a brand that I’ve never heard of: Aladine. The ink comes in a cute little bottle that is smaller even than the J. Herbin bottles. Below is a photo of said ink:

Aladine Violet Encre de Calligraphie. Tiny!

I peered inside the bottle as I was filling it up, and I noticed that it looked a little like paint, thicker than J. Herbin or Private Reserve inks, which have a watery quality to them (although that doesn’t detract from the high saturation of color). They just look like ink, whereas this Aladine looks like thin paint. It bears a striking resemblance to the Calli inks that I like for their vividness. However, I have a little trouble putting the Calli inks into the superfine pens, such as the Sailor Recruit or Sailor Desk Pens. So I reserve my non-Japanese pens for those inks. (Japanese pens tend to have finer nibs than non-Japanese pens.) Likewise, I decided to use a Pen & Ink Broad Nib for the Aladine so that I wouldn’t have any trouble with clogging.

I have a couple of purples already, so I decided to do a comparison. Below is my small sample of purples. It’s on Clairefontaine notepaper, which is a beautiful pure white, so the colors show up vividly.

My collection of purples. Grapey!

As you can see, the Aladine ink (top) is quite a bit redder than both the J. Herbin Violette Pensée and the Waterman Encre Violette.  (Excuse my misspelling of “Violette” on the J. Herbin ink; I forgot it was the French spelling when I did the samples.) All of the pens I used for this sample are fairly broad, so you can get a good look at the quality of purples shown. I tend to like very bluish purples, but it is nice to have a variety of subtly differing shades, especially if you’re an artist and like to draw with inks. (For some beautiful artwork with inks, please check out the Spiritual Evolution of the Bean, located on my blogroll. There are some gorgeous mandalas, some made with fountain pen ink, on that site.) I am not an artist, but I’m very sensitive to ink colors because I do a great deal of writing by hand. I favor really vivid colors. In my experience, between the J. Herbin Violette Pensée and the Waterman Encre Violette, the Waterman is just a bit more saturated than the J. Herbin. However, for the most part, I find the J. Herbin very saturated; it’s only this particular ink that seems a little lower chroma. I’m not sure why; I’ve really liked the the other J. Herbin inks that I’ve tried, especially the Rose Cyclamen, which is really bright and one of my all-time favorite colors.

But back to the Aladine. Although it is thicker and more opaque than the J. Herbin, the Waterman, and the Private Reserve that I have, I had no trouble sucking it up into a broad-nib pen and then using it. It doesn’t seem quite as vivid as the Calli inks, although it looks like them in the bottle, but that might be because the pen is broad or because I just washed it out and a little water might have stuck in the nib. I haven’t written much with this ink yet, but I am working on a couple of journals right now, and I’ll write with it first in them. So if I notice a significant difference between the sample pictured above and the journals, I’ll let you know.

So if you favor reddish purples, I highly recommend the Aladine. Or if you’re an artist and you have a lot of very blue purples, and you want something to give your purple some vibrant highlights, this would be a great ink for that. By the way, on the box, I saw some curious instructions. It says to use only with “stainless steel nibs or brushes,” which is weird; I don’t know why iridium or gold nibs wouldn’t work. It wonder if the manufacturer meant to say to use it only with dip pens, but I didn’t have any trouble with it in a converter, so I don’t know why it said that. If I have any trouble with it later, I’ll also let you know about that, but so far, it acts just like any other ink.

If any of you out there is a regular user of Aladine inks and you want to weigh in on this, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think, and I’ll do a post on it.

As I said in my previous post, I’m living on a shoestring now, so this will probably be my last office supply-related post for a while (unless I get a job, by some miracle, or unless I get a gift). Again, though, let me reassure you that, as soon as I start earning regular money, I will get back on the wagon and start doing fountain pen-related posts again. I hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Take care, and thanks for stopping by!

Today at Mass, I was reminded that today is Veterans’ Day and Armistice Day–on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (I think it was 11 minutes after the hour, too, according to the homily), the guns of the War to End All Wars fell silent.

I never had the chance to learn about my grandfathers’ service in the army; they both died before I was old enough to appreciate their stories and they didn’t talk much about it anyway. And my father was not in the military. So I don’t have the benefit of knowing someone who served in the military. If you do, if one of your grandparents served, or your parents, or even aunts and uncles, why not give them a call today and thank them for all their sacrifices (because life in the military is not easy, and it takes a special person to be able to withstand its travails)? Perhaps you can take some time and listen to their war stories. Or, if they cannot talk about them (because wars always leave scars), just chat with them about other stuff. But honor them somehow; we have a great deal to thank them for.

And, as for me, if you are a veteran or if you’re currently serving in the military, please accept my heartfelt thanks to you for protecting our shores and for helping others in other countries.  I am very grateful to you for your sacrifices and good works. And if by chance you were serving at Armistice Day, I hope you have good memories of the end of that war. And for all those brave souls who did not come home, we have prayed a novena for you so that you can move on to the happiest life beyond this one. You will be in my prayers always.

I was just poking around on the JetPens Ink and Refill page, and I was contemplating getting a new bottle of ink, a color that I don’t have. As you all probably know, I love the J. Herbin inks, and those are mostly what I have. However, a friend told me that she found that J. Herbin inks can be a little bit pastel, and I do agree with that; some of them are a little washed out. So I’m putting the question out there for all you super fountain-pen aficionados: what is a good, vibrant brand of ink with a high chroma level? I like my colors to be über-saturated and bright as can be. What brand, and if you know of a specific color, color is good? For example, one of my favorites is J. Herbin’s Rose Cyclamen. That is a gorgeous, deep fuchsia that I love more every time I use it. But I found the Rouge Caroubier and the Rouge Bourgogne a little bit washed out. I’m looking for super bright, super saturated. Any suggestions?

Thank you for stopping by. I suggest that all of you who are able, go today in search of autumn! It’s just arriving here in Northern California, and I’m planning on enjoying it to the utmost!

As you know, dear friends, I’ve been struggling with life in general, and since I have to be a little careful with money, I have not been raiding JetPens as much as I would like to. (Please click on the previous link; it appears that they are carrying some new pens! I’ll put links to them in the post, later.) Also, because I’ve been in such bad shape, I haven’t been writing with the pens I have. And this is an important test because it really separates the men from the boys in terms of the pens that hold up and keep their ability to write after some days of not being used.

I know that it is pretty much necessary to write with most fountain pens, no matter how good, every day in order to keep them from drying out. However, I just have not been able to do that, and I’ve found that there are some pens that still stay writable even after some days of not being used. I wanted to focus on those in this post because I find that going to use a pen and not being able to immediately to be very frustrating. The pens that did not stand up to this test of non-use are the Noodlers pens, unfortunately, the Lamy ABC, and the Pen & Ink fountain pens.

Some of the ones that did stand up to it a bit but that needed a bit of coaching were the Sailor High-Ace pens. I’d need to dampen them a bit, and scribble on my hand, but they did come through without me having to totally clean them out and start all over.

However, the ones that made it through consistently were the following:

Sailor Desk Pens

Platinum Preppy

Pilot Petit

Sailor Recruit

Platinum Carbon Desk Pen

Lamy Safari

Sailor A.S. Manhattaner’s Pen

Those all came through like champs and are ready to use after days of non-use. I have a theory that the pens that have a wider nib let in more air and thus dry faster, but it’s not totally consistent. If that were truly the only reason why some don’t dry out and some do, then the Sailor High Aces would be in the “good” list and the Lamy Safaris would not. But that’s the only guess I have.

I think I’m going to try out some of the new pens on the site. These are pens that I did not know are there now. I’ll put links to them as I look at them. If any of you has bought and used any of these new pens, and if you feel like sharing, I would love to hear what you think of them, so drop me a line, and I’ll do a post based on your evaluations!

Centropen children’s fountain pens: These look interesting, and you can’t beat the price at only $5-$6.15. Apparently Centropen is a new company out of the Czech Republic. The pens are for beginners, and they look like children’s pens–bright colors, nothing very delicate. I tend to prefer my pens dark and subdued, but for this price, I will definitely have to buy one and see what it’s like.

Lamy Nexx and Nexx M fountain pens: We all know Lamy, and most of us, I assume, like their Safari, which won the Best Fountain Pen Under $100 from a fountain pen magazine. And I know that my two Lamys work really well no matter how much time has gone by. These pens are available in fine and medium nibs, and they have aluminum bodies that look, as it says on the site, more “industrial” than the Safaris. The caps come in different colors, and the bodies are softly triangular. They also look a bit like children’s pens, but I wouldn’t let that deter me. I know that Lamy is a great company, and I bet that the pens live up to that tradition. They range from $23-$28. One thing I like about them is that they have a hole on the clip, which means that you can put a lanyard or string through to keep track of it. That is a feature that might make this pen my regular travel pen, something that I can tie to my bag and keep with me all the time.

Platinum Plaisir fountain pens: I think that this one is going to be my first purchase. I have both the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and the Platinum Preppy, and both are excellent pens. These Plaisirs look like more adult pens, and according to the blurb on the site, they have a special designed cap to prevent them from drying up after some time of non use. That’s a selling point right there for me! These are $20 and come in fine and medium nibs, with a surprisingly large range of colors. Picking which color I want is going to be tough!

So that is it for the new pens. I think I will try the Plaisir and the Centropen first. I’d love to buy all of them, but I have to be careful with my cash.

Thank you for dropping by. It’s time for me to get my lard ass out of bed and meet the day!