Letters & Journals Magazine Charter Subscription

Letters & Journals Magazine is looking for a thousand interested souls to join as charter members. I just subscribed, hope you will too.

Tokira Airplane Paper Weight

This has to be one of the coolest paper weights ever.

The Serial Comma Was Good Enough For My Mother

The University of Oxford Writing and Style Guide has advised writers to avoid using the serial/Oxford comma. I may need to lie down.

Her Name is Theia

Not a great picture of her but she rarely stops moving right now. When she does I 'll have lots more to show off. She's 11 months old, an Abyssinian/mix (there's a white dot of fur on her chest and her tail has very pale black rings on it). I call her Squeaky as she is so talkative, especially at 5:30 am when she wants her can of cat food now. She doesn't seem to understand the concept of dry food, which will be difficult when I go away for a few days at Christmas. We'll see how that works out.

She's much smaller than the other two, and I doubt she'll be any bigger even though she has enormous presence. The other two cats weren't that happy when I brought her home, but it only took 24 hours for them to come around and love her. Must be a new record.

Mally is now top cat, and sets the tone for the apartment. Seranne would actually be first in line based on age, but she's more a follower than a leader (and a bit too spacey to even realize there's a hierarchy at all).

Muji 4x4 Recycled Scratch Pad

Just a small item I picked up on one of my trips to Muji, but hadn't had a chance to use it until now. I like to use scratch pads instead of yellow stickies for quick notes, as I feel like I'm wasting a perfectly good 3M for a calculation or phone number. But with a scratch pad, especially one made from recycled paper, I don't feel quite as guilty.

Muji's pad is a 4x4 square made from 50% recycled paper with the feel of a slightly heavier newsprint. It's a dull cream color, which you don't really see too well in the picture (only one of which would load for some reason, grrrrrrr!!!!). The square size fits perfectly on my desk or in one of the compartments in my handbag or carry case, so it's portable as well and could actually be divided into smaller amounts (there are 400 sheets, enough for 4 to 8 pads if you're so minded).

The paper itself is quite nice, a bit thicker than regular newsprint but nowhere near the Rhodia/Quo Vadis 80gsm to 90gsm weight. I forget the price, but less than $2 definitely, which makes it a great stocking stuffer for the paper and office supply lovers on your various lists (birthday, holiday, I'm sorry day, etc.).

Writing is fine, the paper is thick enough so there is no bleed through but a definite shadow using a gel ink pen. Pencils work well too, although you have to be careful of smearing the graphite. All in all this is a cute scratch pad that looks much nicer than the regular bright white rectangles you see on everyone's desks. If you're near Muji sometime (or online, although these are just slightly larger), check out these cute pads.

Bast's Gift, 1995 to 2011

Unfortunately my big boy's heart wasn't able to do the job, and he became very debilitated very fast. He crossed over Sunday morning at 10:53 am with my arms around him.

Posting will resume next week, when I get my own heart glued back together.

I am waiting on the notecards I just ordered from Snapfish of Gift featuring Mia's wonderful watercolor. They should look fantastic.

Squeteague and Other Blue-Green Inks

Playing around with some of my more interesting inks, I thought I'd catalog the blue-green shades and see where they fit on the spectrum.

The greenest of the blue-greens is Noodler's Squeteague. In swabs it may look more blue, but this is actually a deep pine green with an undertone of blue.

Next is Iroshizuku's Syo-Ro, which is describes as a dark turquoise. It's blue with just a hint of green to it, and I have to say I was impressed by the color and wondering why I don't use it more.

The two that are most similar are De Atramentis Sherlock Holmes and Diamine Twilight, dark night sky blues with a touch of green to deepen the hue.

Finally, there is Diamine Teal. Teal looks as if it is more a 50-50 blend of blue-green than any of the others and perhaps the standard for that mix of color.