Archive for October, 2009
Almost Project 365
October 31st, 2009 PicturesTags: Project 365
Love this green. Almost filled the parker 51 and the other Sailor with the new ink. Better pictures here.
Ink Exchange
October 29th, 2009 TreatsTags: Pens
I was so glad to see inks at the table in Little Bites Cafe last Sunday. I thought I missed the pen meet having to stop halfway at Daiso for empty bottles and the office to pick up my Skrip purple and Pelikan Brilliant Brown.
Pen Meet was absolutely brilliant. People understand when you say things like “don’t post the cap!” or “be careful with that pen” or “crap, you mean it stains?”
I played with, amongst others, vintage Pelikans, a really nice Le Man, vintage MB 149 , Sheaffer No Nonsense, Pilot Decimo, Montegrappa, Sailor Professional Gear in Rose Gold trim, admired a bloody gorgeous Maki-e (Nakaya?) and was afraid to touch a collection of Parkers. I tried out a new paper (sugarcane), J Herbin Vert Olive, a few Noodler’s Inks but didn’t take any back. I listened to lots of people who are more knowledgeable about pens talk about pens. I heard stories of amazing collections (crates of parts, cupboards full of pens). Halfway through, I replied a friend’s sms, asking if I would be going into work: “No. I’m with MY PEOPLE!”
~
A few days later, I’m online pen/ink shopping, thinking about a Binder music nib (actually I just want a really smooth, slightly soft BB nib) and a green ink. Damn you, pen people! Damn you!
Things I want to still be doing when I’m grey
October 25th, 2009 Uncategorized
Writing: something, anything, even if they are nothing more than grocery lists
Going to the theatre: watching lots of local theatre, shouting my approval at the end of the show.
Running: kicking the arses of the young people on the track
Into thin air
October 21st, 2009 elsewhere
I can picture them, Zelda 28, Scott 32, sitting down with in the dining room of a HDB 4 room flat with contemporary interiors puzzling over an excel spreadsheet showing
the monthly household budget while the Indonesian maid turns the kitchen light off to go to bed.
At year’s end he was 100 percent over his $18,000 budget, having spent $36,000. How had he spent $36,000? Like others who try to live by a budget, Fitzgerald discovered that a lot of money had definitely been spent but didn’t fall into any category that budgets provide—there is “leakage.” Of course, in his case, there was more leakage than is customary. Fitzgerald and Zelda prepared what they thought was a complete record of what they had spent running the household—it came to $1,600 a month. Then they added what they had spent on pleasure, trips to New York, the theater, and so on; that came to $400 a month. Together that totaled $2,000, but Fitzgerald knew he’d spent $3,000. Fitzgerald asked, “You don’t mean to say that every month we lose $1,000?” It was impossible. “People don’t lose $12,000 in a year, it’s just missing.” Somehow a “mysterious third of our income had vanished into thin air.”
They would both go quiet with suspicion that the other was keeping 私房钱.
Time of reckoning
October 19th, 2009 Uncategorized
Every year, I pull up my lists of things done to try to justify for my existence and come out from the experience with more than a nagging suspicion that I’ve didn’t quite succeed.
Justice@Harvard
October 18th, 2009 elsewhere
Listening to the Michael Sandel (this year’s Reith Lecturer) present Moral Reasoning (”Justice”) lecture series , I find it very tempting to say things like “your assumption that such and such is incorrect”, or reply that “we don’t really know, do we”, or to wildly vacillate between two positions. My initial response, which I had wanted to write was this: “Well, to have a position about something and to stick to it is the right thing to do – it makes decision making easier for individuals and society, but is it correct to stick to one’s morals without tempering it with compassion, empathy or common sense? But how far do we go to temper before we hash things up – or that it doesn’t matter because it is better to err on the side of kindness? If so, why have principles in the first place?” Then after some thought, I fall into writing another agreeable notion: “Of course, it’s all a balancing act – to have a middle ground that everyone agrees on.”
Listening to it twice more, I began to realise that the point about learning moral reasoning is to walk away from the path of least resistance, to strip away easy, agreeable, acceptable notions and perhaps *gulp* discover that I have some extremely disagreeable ideas. Rather worrisome thought there.
Aside: I was listening to The Philosopher’s Zone during one of my walks and the topic was about the ethics of ethicists. The interesting conclusion is that ethicists are not any better than a non-ethicist. So, it is as difficult for them as it is for ordinary human beings.
Almost Project 365
October 11th, 2009 PicturesTags: Project 365
20090913 Migration
20090924 Lunch
20091001 Children's Day
Hope
October 11th, 2009 Uncategorized
Perhaps the point of awarding someone promising the Nobel Peace Prize is the point of the prize: it is the hope that the individual will live up to expectations.
