The essay on spindles in history has been updated, if you’re interested.
The cross stitch is halfway done.
According to the new cross stitching app I’m using on my Android tablet, the completed project has 67,980 stitches. Mind-blowing.
Something else that’s mind-blowing: the fact that most humans have fingers that are far more sensitive than their eyes. I think about this a lot when I’m stitching this project. I have to wear magnifying glasses for it. My fingers have no trouble. Think about watchmakers. Jewelers. They need strong magnifiers but their fingers do precise things. That’s wild to me.
I’ve gotten back into using my fountain pens. I had stopped for a bit. I’m selling off some of my old ones. (They’re all pretty cheap and have been sitting in a box for the last decade.) I also catalogued the ones I have and plan to keep that list updated. I don’t have many anymore. I sold most of my collection when I got divorced in 2015. But I have some good ones. My favorites are still the ones I talked about in 2022, though my fave non-fountain pen is a Retro 51 Tornado with a Pilot Precise v5 RT refill in it. (Blue ink.) I’ve loved the way the Precise v5 writes since I was a kid, and figuring out how to put the refill in a much more attractive body made me really happy.
Current planner is an old discontinued Dayrunner binder, “desk” size (half-letter pages). (I’d love to have a Filofax Malden cover, A5 size, in the color Iris, but they’re crazy expensive. Maybe someday one will come up on Ebay in my price range.) Contents are not really planner-ish: some tracking stuff for my health; reference material like what tires my car uses and what strings are on my cello, plus health stuff; and plent of blank paper for lists or notes. I use Google Calendar for anything time-related, and Todoist for task lists.
I get a lot of ideas on things to do while I’m driving. Back in the 90s I used a mini tape recorder to capture stuff while on the road. When smartphones came along, I could just tell Siri. Now I have an Android phone, so what I do is use IFTTT to send my reminders to Todoist. While I’m driving I can say “Hey Google, remind me at {time} to do {thing}. A minute later it’s on Todoist. Brilliant.
I have adult-onset ADHD, so if I don’t write down (or dictate) an idea as soon as I have it, then it’s gone. Sometimes forever. I’ve been listening to a podcast called Hacking Your ADHD, and it’s got some cool tips. But my system works for me.
The main thing I’ve been doing with my pens is writing letters to encourage people to vote. I’ve done 80 letters so far for Vote Forward. (Mom bought the stamps, as her contribution to the cause.) I’m going to do some stuff for Postcards for Voters, too.
I discovered that “digital penpals” are a thing. You hand-write a letter on paper, take a photo of it, and send the photo via email (or other tech) to your penpal. They write you back on paper, take a photo, and send you the photo. It’s brilliant. Handwritten letters without waiting days or weeks for snailmail! I need to do this once I’m done with voter mail.
Okay, that’s enough from me right now. I hope you’re having a good day, friend!
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