Shake That Tail!

We all have things we don’t do because we think fate has closed the door to us– I’m too short for professional basketball, I’m too tall to be an astronaut, I’m too thin, fat, pale, dark, polydactyl and on and on and on.  Well, here’s someone who didn’t say “I’m too extinct and carnivorous to dance ballet.”

An inspiration for us all.

Today’s pen: Parker 51
Today’s ink: Diamine Marine

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I also managed to get an entry up on the fiction site, which is not fiction.  It’s either explanatory or inflammatory.  Possibly both.

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
22 February 23 February 24 February 25 February	First draft of  “The Mermaid’s Husband”. Finished the first draft. And so onto the second draft! Blazing second draft action.	Seven manuscript pages. Five page. 660 words typed. 1326 words.	40 min. 35 min. 50 min. 55 min.	Waterman Executive Pelikan M20 Pilot Vanishing Point Sheaffer Imperial Triumph	Herbin Lie de Thé Herbin Poussière de Lune Waterman blue-black Montblanc Racing Green

Funny Responses to Bereavement

I learned this morning that OMAS was having its tent folded up by its corporate masters (with some vague speculations of just possibly maybe some other large and well-moneyed entity sweeping in to prevent the final death).  Those who want to get a full and sensible examination of the matter can look here and here, although the jury is still somewhat out as to how sensible the action is– there may be a little bit of spite swirled in with the usual profit/loss considerations.

My own response, after the immediate, “Aw, no.  Not another one,” was something I’m not particularly proud of.  There was a tremor of relief at the prospect of not having to remember to update the latest suggested retail prices on my site.  How’s that for self-absorption?  I’ll try to put it down to an inward mechanism aimed at not feeling too bad about things I cannot control swinging into action, which is still self-absorbed but less monstrous.

Today’s pen: Waterman Executive
Today’s ink: Herbin Lie de Thé

Belated Valentines

Well, I know I missed the day itself, and really should have offered this last week… but I didn’t see this until this week.

Oh, yeah… it’s maybe not totally work-safe.

Today’s pen: Pelikan M20
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

In addition to the final item below, I’ve also run out the a new release on my fiction portal today.  How’s that for efficient use of time?

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
15 February 17 February 18 February	First draft of  “The Mermaid’s Husband”. Ditto. More splashing about.	Six manuscript pages. Six pages again. Eight pages.	35 min. 50 min. 50 min.	Parker 51 Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Pilot Vanishing Point	Diamine Marine Montblanc Racing Green Waterman blue-black

Not Minding My Own Business

But first, with reference to the last entry:  I did indeed come very close to dying of my labours, John Henry-style.  Too many garbage bags of things that didn’t meet the “We really must hang onto this” criteria for one week’s garbage-removal support system; the usual single bag of kitchen trash had to wait until the Monday morning collection to go out, rather than getting taken out on Sunday night.

However, it wasn’t all picks, shovels, and vacuum cleaners.  I also started on a fresh story, once I finished the schlepping, and between a bout on Friday afternoon and a little effort last night after dinner, there are now twenty-six pages of “The Mermaid’s Husband” (which I just now discovered was used as a title by none other than Lord Dunsany himself— I may have to rethink it).  What I could accomplish if left to do as I pleased on any given week-day!

There were also pens seen to during the Great Fling, and it is on this that the title of this entry hangs.  My plan was to drop off two parcels at the post office, and then back to The Regular Job to get more writing done.  I had glanced at my email this morning, which showed that payment had been made… but by not paying attention and opening one of those emails until I was ready to send along the parcel’s tracking number, I missed a request to please not send the thing until 1 March, as the client was travelling.

Poo. After apologizing, for I could do little else, I went on to the other client to give them their tracking number… and found that by not paying attention at the post office, I missed on the clerk there rather mis-entering the postal code, consigning the parcel to the west coast rather than Quebec– something like intending to go to the attic and heading for the cellar.  Phone calls suggest the problem is fixed… we think… probably, and the worst outcome is an undeliverable parcel comes back to me and then heads off in the right direction.  I have, though, had finer days.

Apart from the possibility of having to pay a second dose of postage, I found that my nerves were too jangled to usefully turn my hand to the new story.  My mind was not on that business either, and thus am I penalized for not minding my business.

Today’s pen, shaking its head in disbelief: Parker 51
Today’s ink, too polite to say what it really thinks of me: Diamine Marine

PS– as a sop to my vanity, I will mention that I at least trimmed the diaphragms properly in the Vacumatics that are rushing towards an empty house, unlike the fellow who “refitted” one of them before selling it to the client.  So there.

Absum. Absunt. Wait… I’ll get there eventually….

I’m not actually here now, and a me of the past has transmitted these words into the future as a warning.

Well… “memo” is probably more correct that “warning,” as disregarding this whole thing will have almost no consequences whatever for the reader.  I’m off work this week, engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the heaps of inanimate objects tottering in all parts of my house as the outcome of the moving out of my parents mentioned now and again in the previous year’s entries and my own stupid attachments.  It’s not quite the sort of “creeping over mounds of old milk jugs” one sees in TV shows about hoarding… but it is close enough to it that I dare not suggest people come over to visit.

Yes, that is bad.  That’s why I’m devoting this week to the matter.  Hopefully, I’ll survive to post again.

Unearthing Some Entertainment

For today’s Found Film, a freshly-posted treatment of a moldering short work of literary fiction.

Tee hee.

Today’s pen: Pilot Vanishing Point
Today’s ink: Waterman blue-black (modern)

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
1 February 2 February 3 February 4 February	Second draft of  “Final Resting Place”. Ditto. Second draft concluded. Third draft work on “Harmonic Aliasing”.	1,360 words. 621 words 4,812 words total. Pruned and polished– watch for it soon, at an easily-accessible location.	60 min. 35 min. 50 min. 45 min.	Parker 51 Faber-Castell e-Motion Sheaffer Balance Craftsman Eversharp Skyline	Diamine Marine Diamine Sargasso Sea Jentle blue-black Herbin Perle Noire

Utterly Spoiled Rotten

I was making some notes in anticipation of planning the outline of a long piece of writing (as you can tell, very preliminary stages), and used a pencil with an HB lead.  I found that I was getting a sore hand and arm from the demands of the instrument.

Yes.  I have been so pampered by the use of fountain pens that I now find the pressure requirements of a soft-ish pencil onerous and uncomfortable.  A vast and hairy princess am I, complaining of the lump in my tower of mattresses.

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Balance Craftsman
Today’s ink: Jentle blue-black