2018 - An Inky Year in Review As the end of the year starts to draw near, I always enjoy looking back at some of the things that happened in the year past. And while there were a bunch of things that moved forward throughout the year (running, career, baby), my fountain pen hobby really took off
Paper The Paper Series: Whitelines Pad Review I live my digital and analog lives almost entirely separately. I’ve been a technology guy since I built my first computer when I was 13, and my love of stationery has only rekindled itself in the past few years. So when something really hits the intersection of those two
“How Do I Get Started Running?” > “Hey Joseph, how do you get in to running?” I hear that question a lot. It’s certainly no secret that I’m a bit of a runner these days. I’ve run either six or seven half marathon races, covered that distance a few more times, and I’m
DC Pen Show 2018 Recap Have I really been to three DC Pen Shows now?! I can still remember the overwhelming feeling of walking it to the old hotel and seeing rows and rows of pen vendors in 2016. Wandering though, bewildered, geeking out over some of the pen community “celebrities”, unsure of what I
Pelikan Edelstein Olivine Review Each year since 2012, Pelikan has released a new ink of the year for the Edelstein line of inks. Last year was Smoky Quartz, the year before was Aquamarine, and this year’s ink is Edelstein Olivine. This year’s color was chosen through community submission, and the community spoke
Paper The Paper Series: Life Airmail Letter Pad Review “What was that paper you used in your last letter?!” was a common refrain over InCoWriMo [https://loopedsquare.ink/incowrimo-2018/]. As I mentioned in my post about the month, my primary paper for letter writing in February was Life’s Airmail Letter Pad [https://www.jetpens.com/Life-Airmail-Letter-Pad-Blank-50-Sheets/pd/13883]
Paperblanks Holographic Mini Notebook Review I have a confession to make. I stereotype notebooks, and it can make me overlook really good products that are out in the market. I tend to focus on Japanese-made products, because their aesthetic and quality appeals to me, with a smattering of products made in the US to round
journaling My Hobonichi Setup A few different people have asked me how I’m using my Hobonichi Planner [https://www.1101.com/store/techo/en/] lately, so I thought it might finally be time for a blog post about it. I got my Hobonichi as a Christmas present this year, and started using it
Paper The Paper Series: Delfonics Rollbahn Memo Pad Review I have a real soft spot for spiral notebooks. There’s something so satisfying about watching the notebook get thinner and thinner as I tear pages out to leave notes around or toss a scrap page towards the trash can. Sure, a spiral binding gets bent up if you throw
Paper The Paper Series: Write Correspondence Pad Review When a craftsman is proud of what they made, it shows in the product. So when Chris Rothe from Write Notepads [https://writepads.com] showed up at the BWI Pen Show [https://loopedsquare.ink/baltimore-pen-show-2018-recap/] excited to unveil a new product, I knew I would need to take a look.
The Paper Series: Eccolo Penny for Your Thoughts Notebook I have used a lot of pocket notebooks. But most of the time, being a fountain pen enthusiast and a pocket notebook enthusiast is inherently at odds with itself. A pocket notebook needs to be portable, durable, and the paper needs to be quick drying so that you can jot
Baltimore Pen Show 2018 Recap The Baltimore Pen Show was this past weekend, and I officially have a favorite pen show. Over the past few years, I’ve hit a decent number of pen shows on the East Coast, and Baltimore is a firm favorite now. When I went last year, I was still fairly
The Paper Series: Nanuk Stationery Red Stitch Notebook Review At the DC Pen Show last year, I picked up a gorgeous notebook at the Vanness Pens [https://vanness1938.com] table. It was stitch bound with a bright red thread, and it was a different size than all of the other notebooks at the table. I was immediately struck, but
InCoWriMo 2018 It’s that time of the year again: InCoWriMo [https://incowrimo.org] starts tomorrow! If you’re looking for an excuse to sit down and play with paper, pens, or pencils, International Correspondence Writing Month is one of the best ways to do that. The premise is pretty simple: during
The Paper Series - Pilot Letter Pad With InCoWriMo coming up, it seems like a good time to talk about a letter pad that I picked up recently. While I was in Texas, I stopped by the Kinokuniya in Carrollton, and I saw that they had the Pilot “Super Quality Paper for Fountain Pen” [https://www.jetpens.
Paper The Paper Series - Our Story Begins A4 Notebook With as much paper as I’ve tried and touched, I can usually have an idea of how a notebook will perform almost as soon as I touch it. When you’re looking for a fountain pen friendly notebook, you’re usually looking for a tightly formulated paper, and the
My Journaling Setup Recently, someone asked me if I kept a journal. When I answered that I actually keep multiple journals, they seemed a bit surprised and said that they just didn’t think they could build the habit to journal. So I thought it might be useful to write up a post
The Paper Series: Stifflexible Blue Camo Whether you love them or hate them, Moleskine kind of helped kick off the “stationery revival” with their rise to popularity. In fact, there’s a great chapter about just that in The Revenge of Analog [https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Analog-Real-Things-Matter/dp/1610395719/]. And as with anything popular and easy
The Paper Series: Inky Fingers Currently Inked Notebook As I've mentioned before, I don't usually like purpose-built notebooks. Part of the fun of getting a new notebook is figuring out what I’m going to use it for. But sometimes you find a product that fits a specific niche just right and you have to give it a
Paper The Paper Series: Uzumaki Letter Pads In the United States, we tend to equate cheap price with poor quality. Doubly so when it comes to stationery. Big box stores like Staples and Office Depot are stuffed to the gills with bad paper, crumbly pencils, and gummy pens, all sold at cheap prices. So when I saw
Paper The Paper Series: Midori Polar Bear Notebook Like I mentioned in the last post, it can be hard to get a hold of good spiral ring notebooks, especially ones that have good paper. The Midori "Polar Bear" Spiral Ring Notebook is one of the exceptions to that rule, but a few things hold it back from being
Paper The Paper Series: Maruman Mnemosyne Notebooks As a general rule, I tend to steer clear of notebooks that are built for specific purposes. Planners stress me out (it's all those confining little boxes) and "subject" notebooks make me break out in a cold sweat of remembering college classes and deadlines. So, by all accounts, I shouldn't
The Paper Series: Life Margin A5 Notebook We are being sold things based on catchy slogans all the time. "Half the pressure, twice the speed", "melts in your mouth, not in your hand", and all sorts of other things. So when I saw that the Life Margin Notebook promised me that "it is easy to write smoothly"
Paper The Paper Series: Midori Letter Pad During InCoWriMo [https://incowrimo.org/] this year, I got bit by the letter writing bug. There's something great about both sending and receiving mail, and as a bonus, you get to play with a ton of fun stationery. So this May, when my wife and I went to San Francisco,
The Paper Series: Introduction While it's no secret that I'm a big fan of fountain pens and ink, there's something that I geek out over more than those: paper. It's easy to overlook paper when you're getting into the fountain pen hobby, as there are some really good standbys that people recommend. Leuchtturm, Rhodia,
