So tell me, what do you use your notebooks for? Are you journaling all
day? Jotting random notes? Formulating your latest plot to take over
the world?

Inspire me, I feel so lost.

Posted via email from Tiddlywinks and Cupcakes

Read this article. I’ll wait here.

http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/10-07/reasons-to-never-leave-home-without-a…

Back?

Everything in that article resonates with me. Sitting back, listening,
connecting …. writing.

I’ve surrounded myself with fancy pens, many different brands of
notebooks and paper, and yet when I open the page, nothing comes out
of my pen.

Fail.

Posted via email from Tiddlywinks and Cupcakes

Their crazy commercials are one thing, but carrying that over to the web = win. Kudos to Old Spice for capturing the attention of a lot of Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube fans. Will it sell more Old Spice? Only time will tell.

Can’t change the channel, can’t move off the screen, the worst I can do is put the iPad down or mute it which isn’t worth the hassle for 30 seconds. I’m captive to their persuasive advertising!

I suddenly want to go to Disneyland.

When the tech blogs started reporting that Apple was making a tablet, I had very high hopes. Then Steve showed us what the iPad would be, and I lost my enthusiasm; now I own one. Yes, it’s been a roller coaster ride.

After reading so much criticism of the iPad’s shortcomings, I feel compelled to quickly cover the most common complaints as I feel they affect me.

• “It’s just a giant iPod touch” - No, actually it’s not but I doubt I can change your mind. Sure, it shares an OS with the iPod/iPhone but there are plenty of iPad specific changes that make for a different experience. If you don’t understand how much of a night-and-day difference this amount of screen resolution brings to the table, I fear you’re a lost cause.

• “It doesn’t multitask!” – True, but it’s not that noticeable during normal use. Sure, I’d love to stream Pandora while surfing the web but for now, I don’t find it much of a hinderance in my day-to-day usage.

• “It’s heavy.” – I would describe it as solid but not heavy. Besides, who wants to pay $500 for a flimsy lightweight device? Sure it’s not something you can hold onto for long with one hand but if they made it lighter, the battery size would suffer and you’d be complaining about that instead.

• “This won’t replace my laptop.” - You’re probably correct unless you only use your laptop to check Facebook and Twitter. The iPad can take over a big chunk of what you use a notebook for, but it definitely won’t replace it.

• “There’s no Flash support!” - Correct but I really don’t miss it that much. Would I like to watch Hulu from the comfort of the iPad? Yes! However, I’m sure they’ll eventually start using HTML5 and all shall be right in the world.

• “This is just a fad” – They said the same thing about the iPhone. Nevermind that tablets in bulkier form have been around for years. Plus, with HP and Dell working on their own tablets, I think we’re about to see an explosion of choices for the anti Apple folk. I’m definitely interested in seeing what an Android tablet can do.

That’s probably enough of that. Want to know what the iPad does well? Plain and simple, it’s a fantastic multimedia & Internet machine. If you want to surf the web, use Twitter, read RSS feeds, stream a Netflix movie, read an ebook, or play some games, this device is an excellent choice. It’s the last thing I have in my hands before bed, and the first thing I reach for when I wake up.

In case you were wondering, the battery life is just as amazing as every review claims it to be. Even after streaming Netflix for hours on end, you’ll still have enough battery life to make it through the day. And yes, the screen is fantastic as well.

So, do you need an iPad? Absolutely not. Will it change your life? I doubt it. Let’s face it, you probably don’t need half of the gadgets you own. With the iPad, you get a fun, versatile device that will only get better as the OS matures and app developers turn their focus toward the larger HD screen.

If you’re hung up on the highly publicized shortcomings, just imagine the monstrosity Apple would have created if they tried to please everyone.  My iPad sits on my desk between my Macbook and my Asus netbook and I don’t think any of the 3 are going anywhere soon. For the time being, I do find myself reaching for the iPad more than the other 2 options; I guess we’ll see how that pans out in the coming weeks.

I picked this Vac up at an antique store in Houghton Lake Michigan, it came in a pen box with another Vacumatic, a Wahl Eversharp with a nice flexy #2 nib, and a broken Eversharp pen/pencil set. I picked all those up for $40 so I count my purchase price of this pen as $10. Of the two Vacs, the 2nd gen was in the best shape so I sent it off to Daniel Smith to be restored. More on that later.

The pen in question was made in the 4th quarter of 1939 and it sure doesn’t look like it. I showed it to a couple coworkers today and they both couldn’t believe it was a ’39. Let’s take a look shall we?

This color is what I believe to be called “Golden Pearl”. There’s some transparency to the barrel although I’m not sure how it stacks up to better examples.  The body was in decent shape but the blind cap had some teeth marks on it but Dan managed to polish those out. It turned out pretty darn nice!

The nib is a two tone with the Parker arrow. I think it’s a fine but it’s not so fine that I don’t like it (I’m a medium kind of guy). If it were up to me, I’d rather it be a fatter line but I’ll be happy with what I have.

Here’s the whole pen in the 3 pieces. The blind cap jewel and the cap jewel don’t match, not sure if that’s how it should be or not. Feel free to hit the comments and tell me.

How does it work? Well, it’s pretty much everything I expected from a vintage Parker. The nib has a nice size to it, slender but with a bit more size to it than the other nibs I’m used to. There’s a slight spring to the nib as well which you don’t get from a lot of modern pens. I haven’t really tried to put any pressure on it since it’s not a flex nib but a little bit of pressure does cause the line to fatten up. Ink flow is on the wet side which I very much enjoy.

Now a note on the restoration. I sent this pen out to Daniel Smith for restoration and I can’t say enough about the service I received. The pen arrived to him on Monday night and I had a message on StyloForum on Tuesday morning saying it was on the way back. Yes, less than 24 hours turnaround. Obviously your mileage will vary but I can’t complain. I had the diaphragm replaced, the nib/feed straightened, and had the body polished. I’m very happy with his work and he has my recommendation from now on.

If you want to contact Dan, you can find him on Twitter as @mr_maxim or at his website dannzeman.com.

But this isn’t about me trying my hand at grinding, this is a plug for the work of Dan Smith. You may know him as @mr_maxim on twitter or by his website, dannzeman.com. He’s been doing pen repair for a while and when he offered me a custom ground Varsity to try, I jumped at it.

Why would I be excited about such a lowly pen? If you’ve never used a Varsity, you’re missing out. It’s the poster child for how great fountain pens can be without costing a fortune. I absolutely love the blue ink color and when I opened the package from Dan and saw that he had ground a blue one, I was elated. I’d keep blathering on about it, but I already sat down and did a mini-review with my chicken scratch. Click the below picture to see a much larger version.

As you can see, the line variation is just about perfect. In fact, I think it has inspired me to get something a bit more expensive ground in the same fashion. As noted in the written part, I’m sending him a Vacumatic to repair after the holidays so I’ll have more info on Dan’s work very soon.

As a disclaimer, I never checked with Dan to see if he sold these. I know he gifts them to some of his customers, but don’t be offended if he won’t sell you one. I’m just giving him props for a job well done, I don’t want to put words in his mouth.

Those of us who are pen fanatics tend to accumulate pens. You might not consider yourself a collector one day and the next, you realize that you’re surrounded with <insert pen type here>. For me, I’ve mainly focused on Sheaffers with a minor interest in Parkers. I’m no collector and I’ve been quick to sell off pens when I feel like spending money on something else, but that’s not the point of this.

Take a look at your pen collections, what do you see? Maybe you collect fountain pens of random types, maybe you’re a gel pen fanatic, maybe you are one of the crazy souls who simply must have every color that the Sheaffer No Nonsense came in?

Now that you’ve figured out what you are, direct yourself to the comment box and share with us. We’ll all understand your crazy obsession, trust me, we’re all family here.

The first phase was the “any paper is fine” attitude, we’ve all probably been there once we learned that it simply wasn’t true. That quickly let go to the second phase which was when I discovered Black n’ Red notebooks and decided I had no reason to look further. To be honest, I probably could have kept using their notebooks and been perfectly happy, the Black n’ Red line is great. But alas, that’s not what happened, I started trying to branch out. And that brings us to the third phase where I just went nuts buying notebook after notebook trying to find something else I liked.

Of course we all know I’m a Rhodia fan (who isnt?) and I’m also a fan of Piccadilly and I bet if I ever opened this Ciak journal I bought months ago, I’d probably love that too. Hmmm wasn’t I supposed to be reviewing something? Ah! I remember where I was going, I wanted to point out that I learned something else about myself; I hate small notebooks for journals. At the moment, I’m trying to use a small Rhodia Webbie as my journal and I find I rarely use it because the small size is uncomfortable to me. The notebook itself is great, I just don’t care to use the standard 5×5.5″ notebook for a journal. Lucky for me, the Webbie comes in a larger size so I’ve just added that to my list of things to purchase in the future. It’s a long list.

You’re still wondering what that has to do with the Quo Vadis Habana, right? Well let’s just cut to the chase, this notebook embodies the notebook I think I can see myself using as a journal. It’s the right size, it has the right paper… I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s start off with the form factor. The Habana I’m reviewing is the large version and it measures 6″x9″ according to the packaging (Quo Vadis website says 6 1/4 x 9 1/4). That, in my mind, is the perfect size for sitting down at a desk and cranking out page after page of … whatever you put in your personal journal.

The cover is a bit hard to explain, it’s soft to the touch yet slightly rigid. The top layer is so soft, in fact, that the elastic enclosure (which isn’t strung super tight) still leaves marks in the edges of the cover. While it feels soft, I don’t think you’ll be bending it into a U shape, I sure didn’t try it for this review. There’s something to be said about the appearance, it’s one of understated elegance and I’d have to say that something about it makes it one of the sexiest notebooks I’ve reviewed thus far.  It also opens to almost flat which is something I really look for in a bound notebook.

The Habana seems to take cues from the ever popular genre of the black notebook. From the elastic enclosure, to the marker ribbon, to the expanding rear pocket, it offers all of the most popular features of the genre. Is that wrong? No way! It’s what the people want and have come to expect and there’s a reason for that.

Let’s face it, the sexiest notebook in the world doesn’t mean squat if the paper isn’t quality stuff. If you’ve read my reviews on the other Exaclair products, you already know where I’m going with this. Inside the beautiful cover is 80 sheets of crisp white 90 gr Clairefontaine paper. Do I even need to say anything else? Ask 25 notebook fanatics who has the best paper and I bet Clairefontaine falls into the top of your answers if not the very top. I’m not even going to bore you with a writing sample as I plan on using this for my personal journal and well, I have problems writing on beautiful objects. The first words to be entered into these pages shall be personal, it’s just that nice of a piece.

What I have here in my hand is a very sharp notebook that’s just waiting to be filled with your deepest darkest secrets. At the $20 price tag, I assume you won’t be buying this for meeting notes at work but for filling with words that might mean something to you or someone else one day, it’s the perfect choice.

Thanks to Karen at Exaclair for providing me this notebook to review. I feel truly honored to have had a chance to test out their products and as you can probably tell I haven’t found one I don’t like yet.

I started by printing the novel so I could hold it in my hands. This seemed like a better option than trying to read it on the computer screen and making edits on the fly. If I make notes in the margins, they’re not changed yet, they’re just suggestions. Then I can come back after my initial read through and see if I really think my notes apply.

One of the biggest problems I see ahead is dealing with the ending. I sort of chopped the end off in a cliche sort of way and I really want to continue with the story and end it properly. Unfortunately that probably means I’ll be adding a lot more to the story. I also know there are numerous occasions where I started a scene with more than one character and then forgot about everyone but the main character. Those areas are going to demand a major rework to fix my oversight.

I’ve read that the best way to edit is to focus on fixing the story first, then worrying about grammar and sentence structure and things of that nature. I plan on trying to tackle my story in this same manner. I certainly hope this is the most effective way of editing!

Anyone have any other good editing tips they’d like to share?