Some history of ZiaLink and ZenWoman on the “about” links at top.
Other projects underway:
aBoP (too good and too early to reveal) but think freaky near future with androids, the singularity, the plague and consciousness exploration. Yep, a new fiction!
#grappling — another nonfiction take on reality and realizations. An “inner” dimensional experience. Promo by Tony aka Dear Leader
Simply Divine! — nonfiction on health & wellness (mental and physical) — client project – DONE!!
#PeacePledge — NOW more than ever we need humor and healing.
There are links at the top of this site about ZiaLink’s history. This post is about actual ink and handwriting. Sometime in the early 2000s, having survived the Y2K computer crisis, a sort of “gilded era” emerged where many of us preferred stationery. Leather or vegan journals, often traveler’s style, were the rage. Some people were creating art journals using embellishments, and lots of folks wanted a fountain pen. There lies the rub. Exotic handmade papers and expensive journal covers did not mix with messy fountain pens.
FF to present time where I found Brian Goulet and accomplice Drew Brown’s Pencast on Youtube (cued to 55:40 “heat setting” topic.) These guys (and others) have answers to leaky/dry pen probs. 50 episodes… check them out.
Drew in a T’ai Chi / Matrix pose, as Brian blathers on… j/k ha!
Below are a few of my pens (described in the captions), the glorious LMZ (that I almost ordered) and some current faves.
Yes, Jinhao dragon pen below!
Top left 1970s Lady Scheaffer (XF), new Chinese Wingsung (F), 2 vintage “bladder” pens: a Scheaffer and a Scout, beautiful BROWN custom acrylic, Picasso (M) with Caran d’Ache “Storm” ink and one of my many Jinhao dragon pens.
I’ve been researching flex or soft nib pens that allow more variation in writing style and ink flow. Brian & Drew have several video reviews of flexible nibs, so does Doodlebud in his Friday Flex off (2020): That’s how I learned about this beauty (below.) The Pen Addict blog features this gorgeous LMZ (drool) but Drew & Doodlebud have convinced me it’s pretty pricey for limited flex.
This image of the LMZ (Leonardo Momento Zero) is from Pen Addict blog, linked above.
Table top (late June, 2022) BEFORE I spilled some ink. GADZ! Baking soda is the answer for ink on wood and hands.
Upper left is a Zebra “disposable” (that I nearly disposed of since it’s over 5 yrs old!) Not only does it work, it’s smooth. Then old to new: my beloved Monteverde “tiger eye” (purchased new in 1995 at a local pen show), my new 2022 silver metal Japanese Muji pen with fabulous Herbin “Moonshadow” cartridge, plus a Jinhao “Gullor” (barely used since 2019 due to inking issues, resolved with new converter), two Tuls (described below) and my #BuJo (bullet journal.) NOTE: new limited Lamy purple “Candy” not shown, just flimsy box & red-tipped converter. Sorry.
As for daily writers, a few years ago (while writing LOTs of notes) I gave up and turned to Tul (shown above.) I know Goulet Pens and other FP loyalists shudder at BP (ball point) or gel pens, but OMG these attractive inexpensive Tul pens make fast writing a pleasure. I was given one at a journaling session and have bought many since then. (I’m not affiliated with Tul or any product and have NO advertising on my blog.) For fast, reliable never-blotchy no-fuss notes and journaling, Tul pens– BP or gel– are perfect IMHO.
That said, I will always have a passion for fountain pens. To me they’re for pleasure and treasure writing, not for scribbling notes or signing store receipts. Collect, enjoy, & tinker on.
UPDATE on my first eyedropper fill, my Pilot Prera:
close-up to see Diamine Shimmery Ivy green ink (loaded in barrel) Posted Pilot Prera with barrel-fill writing on Clairefontaine paper. Yikes, clipped the pic which says NO O-ring only dab of beeswax on the threads. Works GREAT. Love it!
Lower Left: Muji, Pilot Metro & Prera (next row up) Kaweco, Jinhao, Lmtd Ed Candy Lamy, Taccia BP, copper Jinhao dragon and last but not least my original Monteverde Olympia (1990s era.)
Asvine…
While investigating several pens I noticed this one in a youtube post. This Asvine V169 checked off a lot of want boxes: smooth writer, unique style and color-scheme I love, vacuum filler (wanted to try one) and the price point– under 50 bucks! (Some places sell for $75)
This beauty will arrive in a few days and I plan to load with Organics Studio Nitrogen ink (purchased from Goulet Pens.) I’ll add more thoughts once it’s here and inked. Labor Day Update: W o W! Love this pen. Super smooth even with F nib (more like M) and so juicy. The Nitro ink (with sheen) matches perfectly. I’ll post more on Youtube and link below. Write on, peeps!
Can’t find anyplace to vote online this year, other than one #OscarFanFavorite on twitter. I voted for Don’t Look Up. HOWEVER… Having watched pros and youtubers give their picks for pics, it appears: CODA will take Best Pic; Spider-Man: No Way Home will probably emerge as “Fan Fave” (many love Dune); Actor Will Smith is nearly hands down and Actress HUGE fave is Jessica Chastain; Director is nearly a lock for Jane Campion; Supporting Actor beloved Troy Kotsur (CODA) and Best Supporting Actress Ariana DeBose for Westside Story; Documentary Summer of Soul vs. Flee; Animated Feature Encanto (also Best Song giving Miranda an EGOT); Adapted Screenplay writing for CODA and Best Original Screenplay Licorice Pizza. Most technical, editing, sound awards may go to Dune, along with Cinematography, but I wonder if Production or Costumes or something will go Westside Story and Visuals to Spider-Man? Flee should take an award, maybe International Feature.
Robin, Robin is a fave for Animated Short and Live Action Short seems to be The Dress, although many say The Long Goodbye. Make Up of course, to the crew who re-created The Eyes of Tammy Faye 😉 Enjoy the awards. We’ll tally up winners after that.
I promised myself no more blogging until I finished my #grappling book (that’s why so few posts this year), BUT Cajun cultural “icon” Carville really raised my hackles with his comments to Vox: Wokeness is our problem. Really?
Even though eventually the pundit makes a valid point about messaging, most of it sounds like more Morning Joe “latte shaming” or Bill Maher mockery of WWW “woke white women” or #WSJW’s (White Social Justice Warriors) as we’ve been labeled on Twitter. Sure, mock us, but when “woke” women marched in the streets all around the world in January of 2017, we pledged to get Don the Con out of our WHITE House and we did.
It was the combined effort of white and “woke” women of color who fueled the #Resistance and worked tirelessly despite GOP’s “fascist four” creeps like #MoscowMitch McConnell, Fox f**k Tucker Carlson, Ron “Anon” Johnson (R-WI) or Cancún Cruz who sold out America to an autocratic wannabe like tRump… and STILL DO. (Add “#LeningradLindsey to the list.) But no, according to Carville women like me are the problem. We’re too woke.
THAT is why I’m still #grappling. I simply cannot get my mind around that mentality. If we had not kept these issues front and center for four long painful years, it’s more than likely that the #CapitolRiot would have worked. Trump might still be in power, journalists jailed, perceived antifa executed along with many more blacks gunned down in broad daylight.
As is, HUNDREDS of new voter suppression laws are being passed in red-state legislatures. If we don’t continue to rise up and speak out, America will be autocratic not democratic with greedy GOP goons running US into the ground.
THINK! It’s not woke white women who are the enemy, it’s apathy and greed. VIGILANCE truly is the price of Freedom.
Some of my twitter pals know that I’ve been creating a new book from the angst that was 2020.
Personally, I’m #SAD to see her go, 2020 = Seeing Clearly. I had such hopes for this year. But, as I write in the book, and say in the promo, it’s our karma. American values, like pride and greed, created this mess we’re in, not the fun-to-write and view 2020. Such symmetry. I really want to share some of the book NOW given that “We’re all grappling with everything” (as the byline goes), and expecting the turn of a calendar page to fix it?
So, try looking up. Both literally and further up the page. Tilting your head back and smiling will truly make you feel better. So will many of the energy practices I share in the first section of my book, #grappling. This PDF will have to do until we finish editing and publish on Amazon. Please provide some feedback below… that’s all I ask.
By the middle of September TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Americans will have died from #COVID19 complications. Some health experts, and those who monitor US deaths, claim the death toll is higher not less as Trump Cult claims. My previous post (below) written 2.29.2020 marked the first US Covid death. Now we know that a month earlier (late January 2020) Trump had been briefed on how deadly and severe the pandemic might become. There is audio (from renowned reporter/editor Bob Woodward, not a deep fake) that he would “play it down.” Trump did not want to “panic” Americans. HA!
I shudder at the crowds the so-called potus (can’t cap and can’t call him the “P” word) is drawing to his re-election rallies. I won’t call him “president” EVER because he stole the 2016 election, and if Republicans had a backbone he’d be long gone now.
Over time it’s become obvious how he did it; a combination of #DirtyTricks, Roger Stone’s forte (aka for-tay), combined with standard GoP <Repub> voter suppression, confusion, chaos, and of course, Russian assistance. And, the other factor: “he’s so fun” as the Cult claims.
Maybe that’s the biggest problem. MAGA Cult is unable to differentiate between the old TV show (The Apprentice) and actual experience / ability to run the country. NOW, with the #COVID-19 crisis, maybe they’ll get a clue. As MAGA continue to gather in huge stadiums, possibly infecting each other with their hacking and spitting, this will become a pandemic in the good ole USA. That’s what happens when communicable disease runs amok.
There is no reliable or accessible test yet for this strain of “corona virus” which is a type of respiratory infection; partly because Dear Leader has spent more time mocking the virus than learning about it. And, thanks to his real-life re-enactment of “JAWS mentality” (reference to the greedy, foolish major who wouldn’t close the beach on July 4th… as portrayed here):
Trump delayed acting on the virus because he didn’t want to “spook the stock market.” Yet, look what happened anyway the last week of February; DOW Jones biggest point drop and sharpest turn around in investor confidence since the Great Recession crash (caused by W.) Yeah, heck of a job, Donnie. Not to mention calling it a HOAX at one of his “fun” political rallies.
So, now here we are. The first death attributed to the virus in America reported today (2.29) with who knows how many to come. No test, much less an antidote or vaccine. No you can’t “drink bleach” or hose yourself down with Lysol… as some Alt-R sites claim. But, if you have enough sense to truly wash your hands properly (with soap) FREQUENTLY– literally every time you touch surfaces, substances, or others– we can slow down the contagion while professionals work to save us — something Donald Trump will never have a clue how to do. But, yeah, “he’s so fun!”
Dance, watch a movie, get high (safely) or whatever you do for FUN, but we need a real President… and a blue Senate, too!
ZiaLink Ink 