New meeting notes at last. Not much to say about these. that's a guy who thinks he's superman there on the second page. And in the top right corner of the last page is a coworker. No names.

Labels: meeting_notes, sketches

A couple of weeks ago I started on a remodel of the bedroom. This is the second remodel project since I moved in two and a half years ago. The first one being the studio/foyer, which, strictly speaking, still isn't complete. Two rooms in two and a half years really isn't going to break any speed records, I realize, but the last project was such a pain in the ass, I was really not very motivated to start again.

You see, when I moved in, the entire place was covered with the same drab textured wall paper, and removing it proved very difficult. I tried all kinds of chemicals and gels before finally settling on muscle and a vinegar/water solution. It took forever.

And then, once I had the wall paper off, I could see that one whole wall was going to need to be resurfaced. And only then could I finally get around to painting. The whole thing put me off remodeling for awhile.

This time, though, I bought a wall paper steamer for $50. Let me tell you, it would have been worth it for three times the price. It made peeling off the wall paper so fast I did an entire wall in three hours (as opposed to the three days it took me the old way).

The first picture (click to enlarge) shows the wall after the first layer had been peeled off. Then, in the second picture, you can see the two steps. First the top part peels off leaving the paper/glue backing which then has to be steamed off.





The third picture shows the closet with the doors off, which I had to do to get to the wall paper tucked behind them.



So after the paper came off, the wall needed to be washed down to remove the glue left on the wall. In this picture you can see how I'm halfway through washing down the wall.



And here you can see Irene helping.



We're actually still in the middle of this, we just took a short break because it's tiring work. I hope that we will have this wall and the one with the window finished up today. Next weekend I'll finish washing down the walls and start on the resurfacing. This wall is the back side of the one I had to resurface last time, and it is in just as bad shape. I actually think I'll have to resurface the entire room, as there are two walls by the bed that they just painted right over the wall paper, and it's like sandpaper now. I'm probably going to paint a mural of some sort on that wall and will need it smooth.

I'll update my progress here next week,

Labels: remodel

I mentioned last time that I purchased a second Hero pen when I got the 160. This is a review of that pen. Click on the images for a larger version.



The Hero 370 cost a whole $4, and believe me, it was worth every penny. It's a small, simply designed pen constructed of a light weight metal (aluminum, I'm guessing). The cap is of the snap variety and has a garish advertisement for the company covering most of it. It has a steel extra fine nib.





It uses an aerometric filler, but also takes cartridges. I've tried it both ways with pretty much the same results.



The craftsmanship on this pen is shoddy all around. The cap, when on rotates freely, although there doesn't appear be any danger of it falling off. It's the same minor complaint I had with the 160, only in this case much more pronounced. It posts securely, but I mostly leave the cap off when I write, so that's not a huge concern for me. The nib also is of questionable quality. While the size is just about right, the ink flow is poor and often skips, and it is scratchy to write with. Also, the feed part of the nib doesn't sit flush against the body:



I don't know if this is specific to my pen, or if they are all like that but it doesn't inspire confidence. I pulled the nib apart and tried to fix the problem, but no luck. Plus, because of the thinness of the pen, it hurts my hand to write with for any length of time.

I wasn't expecting much from this $4 pen, and my expectations were met. Needless to say that this pen is headed for an early retirement.

Today I ordered another Hero pen, this time the 100 which is a knock off of the classic Parker 51. It has received rave reviews on various pen forums so I was curious to test it out. Once again I ordered it through ISellPens.com. I'll post a review after I've had a chance to play with it a bit.

I think next time I'll stick with some more of the inexpensive pens in my collection and review the Ohto Tasche that I bought from Jet Pens.

Labels: fountain_pens, reviews

So here we are starting in on Volume 4 of the Meeting Notes books. This one covers April 2003 through September 2003. I think I'm a couple of weeks behind on posting this one, but I'll try to keep it on a weekly basis from now on.

These first two here was days before I left for two and a half weeks in France, hence the poorly drawn woman with the baguette under her arm:



And these two were done right after my return from France. I was never so sad as when that trip was over. Paris is a place in which I immediately felt at home and fell in love with. I could very easily see myself living there someday. I'm currently planning another trip there this year with my girlfriend and I'm very excited about that.



So that's all for now. More next week.

Labels: meeting_notes, sketches

Recently, while browsing the forums at the Jet Pens Web site I came across mention of a pen from a Chinese company called Hero. The posters had high praise for the extra fine tip and the fluidity with which it wrote. I was intrigued. One of the things I struggle with when purchasing pens is finding the right combination of style and fine point. With most American and European pen companies your lucky if they go down to a fine point, and extra fine seems to be a concept with which they have yet to come to terms. There are of course exceptions, but it seems to be true for the most part.

Enter the Asian pens. The Japanese seem to share my love of both the fine point and the funky design, and I have purchased more than a few pens from Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore attached to the Uwajimaya downtown. Those will turn up in future posts.

Today though, I'm reviewing the Hero 160 that I purchased from this Web site for $15. So not the cheapest pen I own, but far from the most expensive.



Style wise, it's a pretty simple pen, I was drawn to the frilly design on the cap and I liked the semi-hooded nib.







One reservation I had was that it was an aerometric filler and did not take cartridges. I've never used anything but cartridges before, so I didn't know what I would think.



This turned out to be no big deal. You simply dip the nib into the ink, press on the metal bar, wait to the count of 5 and repeat 4 or 5 more times.

It seems to be a fairly well made pen and it writes extremely well. Smooth flowing lines right off the bat and hasn't skipped on me yet. The nib is called a fine, but really is an extra fine when compared to other pens. Which suits me just fine.

My one complaint is that the cap is a bit loose. Not loose like it's going to fall off in your pocket, because it seems fairly secure in that regard, but loose like it rotates around easily when it is on. Not a big deal, but there it is.

That's all for now, next time I'll review the other Hero pen I purchased when I got this one: the Hero 370, which cost a whopping $4.

Update: I recently discovered that Lamy cartridges will fit in this pen. This is very exciting, as when I travel, I can't be carrying around bottles of ink for refilling.

Labels: fountain_pens, reviews

I am a collector of things. I don't know why this should be, but it is a deeply ingrained part of my personality that I can not shake.

Among the things I collect are Books, Comic Books, Movies, Interesting Packaging and Pens.

Mostly, fountain pens, although I have been known to pick up the occasional roller ball and pencil. I love them. The funny thing is, I really don't do all that much writing. Probably the most concentrated burst of writing for me comes when I am traveling and keeping a daily journal. But still, this hasn't prevented me from acquiring pens at an alarming rate. Actually, I do quite a bit of sketching with them, and I think that's probably where this whole thing started. I'm constantly in search of a better instrument.

Now I don't tend to go in for super expensive pens, I think the most I've ever spent on a pen was $70 (a Rotring 600 series extra fine fountain pen that I bought from Levenger).

This was the first nice pen I bought and it served me well for years until something came loose in the cap and I put is a way for a while (I just last week sent it off to Rotring for repairs, we'll see how that goes). As an aside, I recently bought another Rotring from Pen City when they had a sale clearing out all the discontinued Rotring products. This time with a fine nib. I tend to like an extra fine nib as my writing is pretty small. Unfortunately, most pens stop at fine.

So as I was saying, I don't spend a lot for each pen, most of them were under $40, what I most look for is a cool design. I have a pretty good collection going so I'm going to do a series of posts on each pen with photo's, writing samples and a quick review. I'll start off next week with a couple of my most recent purchases from a Chinese company called Hero that I only learned about a few weeks ago.

Labels: fountain_pens, reviews

Happy new year everybody!

Here are the first meeting notes of 2006 and the last of volume 3. Next week, volume 4. And slowly, oh so slowly, we are coming up to date with the meeting notes.

Labels: meeting_notes, sketches