Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
21 December 22 December 23 – 28 December 29 – 31 December	Wrestling with submissions. Getting the decks cleared for… Time off at Christmas! Getting Regular Job crap done before the end of the year!	Another one! Sufficient. Authentic de-stressing.† Re-stressing.	Pilot Vanishing Point Parker 51 Parker Moderne Pelikan New Classic Baoer 388 Sheaffer Targa Parker 180	Namiki Blue Montblanc Racing Green Diamine Syrah Diamine Evergreen Skrip Black Edelstein Topaz Herbin Poussière de Lune

† I probably should have posted something during the time away, but the very concepts of time and duty lost all meaning in a bubble-fied nuclear family-only Christmas. The effect on my inward state was such that to apologize for the lapse would be to seem ungrateful.

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Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
3 September 4 September 5 September 6 September	Third Draft of “A Legion of Candles.” Third Draft of “The Third Frame.” First draft of “Kick a Cat…”	The grinding, faceting and polishing of a gem of deathless prose! Um… ditto. 13 manuscript pages.	Pelikan New Classic Parker Moderne Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Pilot L-150MS	Pelikan Black Herbin Lie de Thé Jentle blue-black Herbin Vert Empire

I hope you all enjoyed Labour Day. I marked it by labouring to keep the Lego glaciers of my son’s making from engulfing the living room, which kept me from the Choose Your Own project.

If you missed it in the sidebar– there’s a new story on the writing site, the genesis of which I explain in this post.

Lupine Nostalgia

I was listening to a presentation of “Peter and the Wolf” while driving back from lunch just now, and it felt like Fate suggesting today’s film. So, sure.

I also spent much of that insubstantial drive trying to imagine the story from the wolf’s point of view– even listening to this very version as a kid, I did find my sympathies leaning toward the wolf, and now, aware of habitat encroachment and the vital role of apex predators in every ecosystem, that inclination grows.

Today’s pen: Parker Moderne (which is, coincidentally, about the same age as the piece of music)
Today’s ink: Herbin Lie de Thé

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
20 August 21 August 22 August 23 August	Second draft† of “A Legion of Candles.” Third (Threcond? Secird?) draft of the same. Third draft of “When Regrets Replace Dreams.”	56 words typed.‡ 6,250 words all together, many pre-typed. So many typos. So many.	Pelikan New Classic Parker Moderne TWSBI Classic Sheaffer Imperial Triumph	Pelikan Black Herbin Lie de Thé Diamine Marine Blue Jentle blue-black

 

†Usually my path is hand-written first, typed second, and then off for comment by readers before third. This story got a complete POV change and I didn’t feel like restarting the process, so because I’m the boss of me! we might consider this second draft more of a v.1.1.

‡ After vast struggle to push the narrative forward on Monday, I realized belatedly that it wasn’t moving because it had fetched up against the buffers at the last station on the line. Those 56 words are vanishing as I smack around the current version into the usual “second draft” shape, so what this really records is the waste of a whole writing session.

Parenting Trouble

But first– I have been made aware that October is Pit Bull Awareness Month.  Let’s all take a moment to look under our chairs.

*skreek*

Well, that’s a relief.  I’d hate to be unaware of a pit bull.

Enough of this point dodging, though.  I’ve got what is, by my measures, a really serious problem, composed of the intersection of my son and the educational system.  Last winter I mentioned his initial brush with education, and the interesting discovery about how he holds a writing device.  I was slightly concerned, but viewed as something that could be addressed when the time came.

Apparently I should have been doing something about it over the summer.

Wife and I had a little visit with his kindergarten teacher recently, at an open house and indoor picnic (the only day in the past two months there’s been a good firm rain), and she mentioned that she was having a little trouble convincing him to hold a pencil right.  She even showed us the training device she’s made, a triangle of the finger-stalls worn by people who have to riffle paper for a living which can be set around a pencil– kid puts thumb and two fingers in the rubber bits, and presto, a correct pencil grip.

Mmmmmmm… sorta.  With all three fingers pointing the same direction, the pencil ends up very vertical, and the inclination is to use the fingers to move the pen around.  If we’re undoing a “bad” habit (see how far I unbend?), let’s not replace it with another.  I resolved to make his Griffix pencil a part of the evening routine.

Last night, we sat down together, I with my pen (at which, bless him, an “ooh” noise was made) and he with his pencil.  I showed him how I was holding mine, showed him the landing zones and encouraging smiley face on his, and got his hand arranged about it.  We made some letters, in no particular sequence.  We made some numbers, likewise.  All very comradely, until the number 5 came up.  5 is a bit of a problem, because it’s not a single gesture.  Make an inverted sickle, then return to the start for the crossbar.

My son, new to the game, was having a little trouble with targeting the second step.  Three tries, all recognizably 5 but all also recognizably written by someone who is a beginner at running a pencil.

Our discovery, last night, is that our son gets pretty wound up when he can’t do something to a high degree of skill right away.  Pencil was dashed to the table.  Tears.  Howling.  A tantrum that happily left out the banging of head upon the floor.  Frequent holding up of a hand in the classic stop gesture, but in this case meant to keep us from looking at him.

It’s an early age to internalize disgrace, and a terrible thing to feel it over.  He doesn’t cling to such moods, hoorah, so hopefully our next session won’t be tainted.  If anyone can suggest an effective way to persuade a five-year-old with a mere wisp of autism in his makeup that perfection isn’t required at the first or even hundredth attempt, I’m ready to grab on with both hands.  In an interesting confluence, his recent discovery of Despicable Me, this little setback, and a thing shown me by a Facebook acquaintance a few days ago may come together to make for his first motivational poster:

If only we didn’t despise motivational posters.

Today’s pen: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink: Reeves blue-black

Post Script– on the imperfection front, I may not be around for an entry tomorrow, due to arranging delivery of some pens.  I’m not above back-to-back film days, but I’ve been relying on Youtube an awful lot lately.

The Late Show

Power outage over lunch at The Regular Job.  Most unexpected.  I begin to wonder if there’s a connection to the pen/ink combination and the inability to get a post out, although last time was my own doing rather than mysterious failures affecting hundreds.

Today’s pen: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink: Noodler’s Walnut

Oh, look at the time.

Dummy took a “moment” to respond to an email, and most of my composition time has fled.  I’m sure you can live with the disappointment, and I’ll try to make up for it with something really spectacular for tomorrow’s film.

Today’s pen: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink: Noodler’s Walnut

Friday Fun

An unusually short window, so how about another film?  Not in the least pen-related, but it may brighten a day all the same.

My son found this, and it strikes me as interesting that a Soviet-made film would encourage such a leisurely approach to life.

Today’s pen, pausing frequently to enjoy life’s pleasures: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink, enhancing the world’s beauty: Diamine Majestic Blue

Should I Be Seeing This?

I mentioned a while ago that I have a nice-looking and totally non-functional silver Eversharp pencil.  Well, I’ve been letting it soak in a light oil (the worst outcome of which, I’m told, is the dissolution of the leads and a subsequent toil of cleaning graphite/clay goo out of the interstices), and it loosened things up.  A great deal of twisting, crown in one direction, barrel t’other, and there was movement!  Moments later, I had this:

GAAHHHH!  ITS SKIN CAME OFF!

Here’s why I avoided biology classes in school.  I find the skinning of things alarming.  Happily, with a writing implement, there’s not much in the way of grue.  What the oil soak accomplished was to release the nose cone, which has a major role in keeping the insides inside.  The crown remains firmly mated to the inner portion, and soaking proceeds anew.  I’ll also mention that the clip looks rather sprung because it’s normally held in place by the inner tube.

Today’s pen: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink: Diamine Majestic Blue

Chloroform

It is, after more rational consideration, not the answer.  It provides at best a short-term solution, and tends to generate fresh and larger problems.

However…. I set my alarm Saturday night to get me up at my regular working week hour to provide a nice long window to work on a pen too long left sitting, as my usual rising during the week is some hours ahead of the rest of the family when they follow their normal course. At 4:30am, I was awakened by my son, alternately boucing on the bed and delivering kisses to whatever part of the parental faces came in sight; there are worse ways to be hauled up out of slumber’s well, but that’s not an hour that any way really looks good.  As the morning person in the family, I got up to make sure he’d do himself no injury, and brooded upon the cost of and potential distributors of chloroform.

A short-term solution, and the gratification it would provide is vastly outweighted by the long-term problems (brain-damaged son, frisky cell-mates, pens sold off to pay lawyer’s fees).  It’s probably just as well it’s not easily gotten.

Today’s still-drowsy pen: Parker Moderne
Today’s ink: Diamine Majestic Blue