I’d like to begin by offering a hearty apology to the fine folks at Jet Pens, who sent me a bottle of Iroshizuku Asagao all the way back in October of 2013. At the time, I thought that I could sneak in an ink review in the middle of my EMBA program. That was a gross over-estimation of time and ability on my part. I managed to get the ink samples created, but the review itself never materialized – always de-prioritized in favor of papers, presentations, and projects.

I’m practicing my flex nib skills. Done with a Noodler’s Ahab pen and Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses ink on Midori paper. Filtering via Instagram. The un-filtered version is below. Unfiltered version. Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses in a Midori lined notebook.

Cleveland Botanical Gardens, 21 June, 2014

I took this photo while traveling along the PA turnpike. It’s an incredibly boring drive, but if you look hard enough, can be quite lovely.

I realized the other day that I don’t post very many pictures here outside of my ink reviews. I plan to change that, starting with this lovely flower that I captured at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. It’s currently serving as the wallpaper on my iPhone, a job it does very well indeed.

A very tiny spider pranced around atop my head. It shimmied down my earlobe, and then dangled from a thread. It scurried down my shoulder, and then scuttled down my arm, While I watched with much amusement, since it clearly meant no harm. Oh, where do spiders wander when they walk across the floor? Do they have a spider family waiting just outside the door? I hope its web is warm and soft when the day comes to an end.

J. Herbin Rouge Opera should come with a warning. If you fill your fountain pen with it, you will, in short order, develop a compulsion to listen to Puccini, Verdi, and, perhaps, Bizet. The ink is the color of a heavy, velvet stage curtain and of walls lined with brocade. It’s the color of soprano Anna Netrebko’s dress in the 2005 staging of La Traviata. It’s each of those shades from moment to moment, and it’s all of them at once.