New Writing Set Up

When I started this blog, I wrote primarily from my smart phone. Then I got a tablet that worked with my keyboard and I used that too. Now, the tablet is old and cranky, it is running Android 7, and randomly closes whatever app I have open. I still mainly use my phone, but the tablet is nice because well bigger screen and real keyboard.

So I have invested in the Lenovo Duet Chromebook. It set up pretty much like any other Android based system. The Chromebook, however, is running the Chrome OS and I am not tech savy enough to know what differences that might entail. I am sure there are more tech knoweledgable folks that have reviewed the Duet and dig into the inner workings. As for me, I am happy to have something that won’t shut down while I am in the middle of reading, blogging or whatever.

First big difference between my old tablet and the Duet is screen size. I was using an 8 inch Lenovo tablet, while the Duet has a 10 inch screen. Big difference those two inches. (Cue snickering) Next is the keyboard. It is small and rather flat compared to my Nook Keyboard. The Nook Keyboard was almost a full size keyboard minus the number pad. The keyboard on the Duet also functions as the screen protector/cover. Thus far it isn’t causing too much of a difference other than I can reach all the keys that I maybe can’t quite reach on a normal sized keyboard. I may take a typing test to see what my speed is up too.

Then there is the speed, the Duet is lightening fast. Even when my old tablet was brand new it wasn’t this fast. That is due to the 4 gigs of Ram and the 128 gigs of solid state memory. It is so beyond what my old tablet had with 1 gig of Ram and 32 gigs of memory. I’m not sure the amount of Ram on my laptop and which is the faster.

I know which is the lighter of the two and the more portable. I still love my laptop and for some tasks there is no question of which is better suited. So I am hoping to get in lots of writing with this new set up. However as I am writing this in April and my last blog post was April 1st. I don’t know how true that statement really will turn out to be.

Cheers, james

Anime: Ascendance of a Bookworm

How far would you go to have books in your life?

I stumbled across this anime this weekend. Okay, so the hubby saw it and pegged it as something I would enjoy. And he was right. I sailed through all 14 episodes currently available on Crunchyroll.

Premise: A woman wakes up as a young child in a strange world. She carries both her own memories of her previous life and the child’s memories. The world she left behind looked a lot like our world, books were easily obtained and read. However, in her new life, books are for the nobility and the church. To complicate matters further, her new body is sickly and ravaged by an unknown illness, when she gets upset or downhearted, she gets sick. All she dreams of is being able to read, write and hold her cherished books in her hand. This means figuring out a way to create paper and through paper, books. It is a long hard road. But along the way she helps out her new family, makes friends, and discovers that maybe this new life isn’t so bad after all.

If you a bookworm, an anime fan, or fantasy fan, this series hits all the right notes. I heartily recommend it and then I won’t be alone waiting for the next season to be released.  Cheers, james

Hero 7022 Pen Review

I just inked up a nice Hero 7022 with a nice purple ink. The nib is a medium fine and the ink flows nice901.The 7022 is a nice weight, heavier and slightly thicker than the Hero 221, yet lighter and slimer than the Hero 901. The 7022 is a good compromise between the 221 and the 901. The ink flow is almost as bold as the 901 and the nib writes and draws smoothly across the page. It has a piston fill converter included and will accept cartridges. However I haven’t tried using them.

I am pleased that I bought two of these pens for gifts. They are a lovely red and gold solid metal bodied pen. The cap is tight fitting and posts securely. Overall a very nice fountain pen.

Cheers on this chilly evening, james

Fountain Pens: Say Whaat?

After reading so many glowing reviews about fountain pens, I bit the bullet and purchased one. It is from a Japanese company called Hero. My pen is the medium nib Light or Extra Light. I’m not exactly sure which one I have. I purchased my pen as a three pack from a seller in Virginia, speerbob. I then wandered down to the local Staples for a bottle of Parker Quink black ink. Sadly that was the only bottle of ink they had. It seems to get any of the really cool colors I’ll have to order them online. Goulet and Jetpens seem to be pretty good sources for both ink and pens. Amazon and Staples also have a good selection of inks and some really nice (expensive) pens.

Anyway after taking pen apart and attempting to fill with ink. User error, still practicing. My pens are the lever fill style, which means they have a bladder that fills with ink. And I have no doubt there is a simple trick for filling them, I just haven’t found it yet. I got enough ink in the pen so I could use it.

Wow, my writing has never looked so neat or sexy. I was using regular copy paper and the pen glided across the surface and I had no trouble with the ink bleeding through or smearing or other such problems. The nib is a medium, however because it is Japnese made it is like an American fine nib. It writes smoothly and I wrote a whole 8.5×11 page before I noticed the ink getting light and not flowing as well. A whole page of tiny cursive letters and words and no hand cramping. Amazing! Ever since I learned to write cursive in third grade, my hand cramps and it is hard to write for long periods of time. Printing or my mismash style of writing doesn’t bother me. I really wish someone had introduced me to fountain pens back then, my handwriting would have been greatly improved.

So I topped it off, capped it, and left it standing upright. There is a tendacy for a fountain pen to leak if left in a horizonal or nib down position. Most fountain pen users say a good bottle of ink will last a year or possibly longer depending on useage and properly storing the ink out of sunlight and in a cooler environment, such as a desk drawer or my current location an old cigar box.

All in all I paid $10 for three pens and $11 for a 2 ounce bottle of ink. So that is an investment of $7 per pen. Not bad, not bad at all. So if you have ever wondered or considered trying a fountain pen, do it. I really don’t think you’ll regret it.

Cheers on a rainy Easter evening, james