The Brow @lowbrow@writing.exchange

I got a set of Scribal Workshop historical inks for Christmas, and they're fantastic. The blackness of iron gall ink is truly something to behold when written with--it just sucks in the light like a sculpted black hole on the paper, I love it. It's not quite "Black 2.0" level, but it's close, and really, really lovely.

Oh jeez. The only writing I've been doing lately is Python code for work.

BUT - I did pick up a Kobo Libra H2O for reading! I like it--been reading a lot more lately. Decent price, waterproof, light and small but still has a pleasant reading area. Loaded my ebook stash on it and the Overdrive integration with my library card is great. Kobo bookstore is better than the Amazon junkheap, too. Also has some DRM-free titles available, which is very nice. Do recommend!

Now if only it had USB-C...

Today, a discussion brought back up the old "hidden" truth of writing: good writing takes time, and it takes revisions.

I love me some beat poets hard, but I feel like maybe they did some cultural damage to writing, in the sense that newer writers all seem to think you should churn out perfect prose the first time, and any editing afterwards "isn't true to your vision." That's as big a lie as anything.

My advice: edit your work. Twice, at least. You will never be sorry for it.

Ah boy, somewhat big news, I last week I quit my job for a new, better one (in the same field.) I'm on a week vacation in-between now, and doing all the stuff that a stressful work life stopped me from: i bought shelves and reorganized home office, fixed a mysqld problem that plagued me for ages, updated all my raspberry pis and am putting them to use for various thing around the house (new emulation station, filesharing, monitoring) and generally just like, trying to tidy up my wreckage. Woo!

Ink: In my quest for the best shade of indelible red, I dragged out the Noodler's red-black again the other day to revisit it. It's nice in that it's deep, bloody red while wet, but it dries somewhere in the maroon/red wine range. I like it overall, but not quite what I'm looking for in my journal all the time. Like many Noodler's inks, it also leans a bit feathery on less-than-exemplary paper, which is a bummer. Not bad though and very usable in general. The ink quest continues!

Good god I am literally the worst. I hadn't written in a while that I let the ink in my pen dry out, so I went to grab a fresh pen because lazy. Nope.. full of dried ink. Fine, other pen... No. NO! WHY DO YOU DO THIS?

...The upshot is that I now have three very clean and empty pens waiting to be used.

Welcome to the word party!

Finally got into my journal last night. My last entry was two weeks ago, and wow. I filled up pages just to catch up on current events before I even got to my own personal junk. What the hell is even going on with the timescale?

Currently sitting with an ice pack after doing PT exercises. I sure do miss being able to do things like "stand in one spot, but... vigorously?" without needing a major recovery period.

Physical therapy is hard, woo.

Going to hit the ol' journal later on, I hope. Very busy lately.

I'm feeling a little bit... done with things, today.

Haven't actually written in my journal in a few months now and my pen dried up. Got it soaking now to clear out the old ink funk, then I'll dry it, recharge with fresh ink, and hit the paper soon. Oh *boy* do I have some things to write down since the last time, haaaaaa.

My vacation got cancelled, go figure. :/ Holed up at home, I feel at least a little blessed that I can work from home most of the time with the occasional office visit. What an interesting and fresh hell this is to visit us, though. Who the fuck knows what happens next?

Little bit less than thrilled with my onyx nova pro e-reader these days because the wacom side of it won't calibrate correctly for handwriting anymore. Calibration is uneven across the screen surface, which is even more frustrating. Still love reading on e-ink, though, I haul this thing everywhere. Debating a switch to a kobo, though, for better battery life and waterproof... but only the onyx has usb-c. ugh.

Started re-reading Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy. Really good sci-fi, explores identity and culture in a great way.

Ow, my leg.

Oh, I'm approximately alive, thanks for asking. I'm monitoring writing.exchange regularly, but haven't had a lot to say, so I just thought I'd check in!

Good grief, I got my machine back after a near 30-day RMA process. It seems.. mostly ok. Definitely better than it was, in that using the GPU doesn't send the fans into full-bore hovercraft mode, or start crashing the system horribly. Here's hoping that sorted everything.