It’s been a while since I’ve posted a weekly update, but as part of my effort to get back to a regular blogging schedule I want to start posting these.
Here are some cute kittens cuddling together to cheer you up
Reading
I’ve recently finished Ben Aaronovich’s “The Masquerades of Spring” (nice enough, I’m hoping to review it later) and John McPhee’s “Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process” which was fascinating and very well written. Then I started reading “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey. It’s this year’s Booker winner and yet I’m struggling to read it because it’s so dull and lifeless. I’m a quarter of the way through but I may just give up on it in favour of more interesting things on my list.
Running
After participating in a 5k and 10k at Disney World last month, I’ve been struggling to get back to my training plan. The solution, as always, is a combination of patience, perseverance and enrolling to another race. I have a 10k at the end of February and I want to be in good shape for it as the running conditions will likely be less than ideal (i.e. too hot).
Other things
At the Gentleman Stationer there’s some very good advice on which stationery items make for bad gift ideas. I will add to this: don’t buy the artist in your life art supplies unless they gave you very specific information on what to get them. Good art supplies are usually not inexpensive and you’re very likely to go wrong if you just try to muddle your way through an art supply store. Either get them a gift card to their favourite art supply store (a brick and mortar one, preferably), or ask them to tell what they want. If you insists on going on this route then sketchbooks from Stillman and Birn (go for the softcover ones and never buy coloured paper), or a set of Faber Castel 9000 sketching pencils will likely be welcome.
If you haven’t gone to see the movie “Wicked,” then go and see it. It’s a great adaptation to a very good musical and I promise you’ll enjoy it.
I went to a pre-auction exhibition today and got to see this original cover for a pre-war Pelikan catalog created in gauche and bronze powder by El Lissitzky:
Shana Tova to all who celebrate the Jewish New Year. The passing year has been an extremely tough one on a personal and national level. I sincerely hope that the coming year will be better in every possible way, that the hostages will return and we will have some much needed peace in our region.
I’ve had a lot of the worst kind of upheaval at work during the past two weeks and so I haven’t been keeping up with all the comings and goings in the stationery-sphere. There has been drama of the ugly kind, which I don’t intend to get into. I will just say that this blog is LGBTQIA+ friendly (I am a member of the community myself), and anyone equating homosexuality to murder is both extremely wrong and very hateful person.
I have had to take a break in the SketchingNow Travel Sketching course but am now returning to it and will be making a post about the second week of classes (Shapes).
I will not be participating in Inktober this year. I just don’t have the time for it, and I want to focus on working through the Travel Sketching course instead, as I have some travel planned for later this month and I’m hoping to incorporate what I learned into my travels.
My dad went through open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve and repair his aorta. The surgery went well, but the recovery is long and hard. He’s home now bus still severely limited in what he can do, and dealing with the surgery’s side effects. We have about a month more of regular tests, hospital visits, and recovery before he can start building back his strength again.
I’ve had a lot of hospital time lately, which has meant a PTSD flare up. I’m struggling not to fall back to my old coping habits, and I’m journaling a lot to help with that – journaling and running.
I went to see a special “Angels in America” event – part 1 and part 2 in the same day, with a panel with the production’s creatives, and an exhibition about the play in between. It was a fantastic and very moving experience, and the 6 1/2 hours of the play passed in the blink of an eye. I bought three postcards with sketches from the production development and will use them to send postcards to my family.
Angels in America postcards
Next month is my turn at the hospital, as my oncological checkup is coming up. I’ve started lining up the pre-checkup appointments and tests, but I really hope that I get my stress levels from my dad’s procedure down ASAP because they’re about to sky-rocket as the checkup day approaches.
Next month is one week 100 people and I intend to join it again – but this time I won’t be posting to social media. I’ve stopped posting and using social media for the past two months, and it’s been tremendously beneficial for both my productivity and my mental state. If you need encouragement to do the same I suggest watching this video or reading Cal Neport’s Deep Work.
I’m about to restart the cancer project (a series of essays on my journey with cancer), but not through the alphabet superset challenge, nor are my posts going to be deeply technical. I’m going back to personal essays with insights and tips embedded in them. I find them to be more genuine and more genuinely useful, and I didn’t like the arbitrary constraint of the alphabetical posts as a framework for the subject.
I got back last week from a week in Orlando (no, I wasn’t at the pen show, I was on the Galactic Starcruiser — of which I will write a post later on) and am starting to get back to my routine, sort of. In any case, I haven’t posted a weekly update in a while, so I figured that it’s about time.
Health
I got my CPET (Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise Test) results back. I have less lung capacity to work with, which is likely the result of the chemo I underwent. There’s nothing to do about it but keep on running and hoping that my lungs will recover in time. It does mean that I won’t be able to break any more speed PRs anytime soon, but I can live with that. It’s better to be alive than to break running PRs.
I’ve been on an enforced break from running due to plantar fasciitis caused by my not getting my insoles replaced in time. As I have two races next month I’m really hoping to get back to running soon.
For the first time in my life I had perfect bloodwork results, which was very nice indeed and made me and my oncologist very happy.
Reading
I finished reading M Train, and found it both delightful and slightly disappointing.
I finished reading “Well of Ascension”, Brandon Sanderson’s second Mistborn novel. I really didn’t like this one, and I’m not really sure that I’ll bother with the third book in the trilogy.
I read “Winter’s Gifts”, a Rivers of London novella by Ben Aaronovich. I love the Rivers of London series, but this novella wasn’t the best, and you can feel free to skip it and not miss much. It was an OK plane read.
I’m reading “Deep Work” by Cal Newport right now, and so far it’s been pretty insightful. As someone who gets constantly interrupted while working I was interested in seeing if there was a way that I could carve out bigger chunks of time for more meaningful work, and I hope this book will help.
Sketching
I did a tremendous amount of repetitive sketching as giveaways on the Galactic Starcruiser, to the point where my carpal tunnel lifted its head and said hi. I’m giving myself a bit of a break from regular sketching and starting to plan out Inktober. Anything in particular that you’d like to see?
Pens and Ink
I’ve replaced almost my entire rotation. As this is starting to get a little too lengthy of a post, I’ll post a separate blog post about what I’m currently using.
D&D, tabletop roleplaying and LARPs
I ran a convention game, a new one I wrote just for the convention, and it turned out pretty well. Something that I can tweak and rerun in a different convention next year.
My adventure got accepted to the biggest convention in Israel, I-Con, and for the first time ever I’ll be running a game in the “big league”. My game was one of the first to be sold out, with all the tickets going in the first 24 hours, which was super nice and big boost to my confidence.
I’m nearing the end of another adventure in my current D&D campaign, and it’s been going well so far. I took a risk of creating a no combat adventure, but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so far.
LARPs – I got to participate in the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser before it shuts down at the end of the month and it was beyond amazing, and is going to get its own dedicated post. Locally, next week marks a turning point in the space themed LARP that we’re participating in and I can’t wait to see where the story takes us next.
Sketches of Banthas for the Galactic Starcruiser. I drew about 100 of these.
General Stuff
I watched season 1 and 2 of “Slow Horses” on Apple TV and I loved it. Phenomenal actors, excellent writing, and my beloved London at its best. I purchased the first book in the series because I loved it so much.
I spent about two hours today clearing out all of my plant pots, adding new earth, sowing seeds. I haven’t planted anything since I got sick in 2021 because I didn’t want to burden anyone with taking care of my plants for me. It took more time and courage than I thought I would need to get out there and sow some seeds, but hopefully I’ll get to see them germinate, grow and bloom. All the seeds I have are from 2021, so I’m not sure they’ll germinate at all, but as I planted basically only nasturtiums and they’re hardy little plants, I’m hoping for the best. In any case progress is marked in the little things, and this little step is something too, I guess.
Long time no update, so I decided that it’s about time to write one up.
Reading
I’ve been in a terrible reading rut, and I blame the book that I’m currently reading: “The Books of Jacob” by Olga Tokarczuk, a 912 (!) page historical epic about Jacob Frank and his followers. I’m halfway through, and I’ve decided to put it aside for now and train my brain to enjoy reading again with some lighter and more fun material.
The book itself is masterfully written and researched, with the narrative made out of a carefully pieced together mosaic of characters, voices and narrative styles. I just cannot handle the subject matter right now. As my rights are being taken away by religious, power hungry fanatics, I don’t want to spend my free time reading about religious, power hungry fanatics. It has reached a point where I balk at the idea of reading again, and that’s just not healthy. I hate giving up on books like that, especially good books, but if I want to actually read again and not just beat myself up for not reading, I’m going to have to start reading something else.
Health
I went through a CPET (Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing) last week and it was pretty intense. My lungs aren’t working well in high intensity since my chemo, and so a lung specialist sent me to get this test, to see whether my heart or my lungs are the issue.
It started with a spirometry test (which is a simple test done to check your lung capacity and performance), and then went on to the CPET itself. I was hooked up to an EKG and pre-test measurements were taken. Then I was fitted with a special mask and filter that recorded my air intake and CO2 levels. Finally I was put on a special stationary bike, attached to a blood pressure monitor and a blood oxygen level monitor, and told to pedal without stopping until I felt chest pain or was about to faint, or until I was told to stop. As the technician calmly told me, they have a lot of people fainting during this test, which is why they do it on a bike and not a treadmill. I said it was intense, right?
Anyway, I pedalled for my life, with the bike’s resistance being constantly raised, and me gradually getting out of breath. The point was to see why, so I didn’t stop until the technician stopped me, at which point a little over 10 minutes of constant intense exercise had gone by and I was drenched in sweat and panting. H
ere’s hoping that I get some useful insights from the results. In the meanwhile I’m still running 5 times a week, just not as fast as I would like.
Pens and Ink
I wrote most of my pens dry and filled in a new batch, this time consisting of mostly vintage pens. There are also two expensive pens in this rotation, a few old ink favourites and some completely new to me inks, and a weird selection of colours.
Writing samples
The Henry Simpole Jasmin Pen is one of the most expensive fountain pens I own, and one that doesn’t leave the house because I can never ever replace it. It’s a Conway Stewart button filler with a bouncy 18K gold nib, with silver overlay created by Henry for it. The late Henry’s birthday was on the 4th of July, and so to commemorate him and his work I inked this pen up. I chose the Kyo-iro ink because it’s an interesting dusky purple that I haven’t had enough time with. Like the Jasmine Pen (bought in Portobello Road market), I bought the ink in London (at Choosing Keeping).
The Lamy AL Star isn’t interesting, but the ink in it is new to me. The Graf von Faber-Castell Yozakura is a pale and shading pink that I normally would never have purchased, because it’s so light it’s almost unreadable. It was deeply discounted during the closeout of a local pen shop, and I came in late and had very little to buy to show my support. I probably should have inked a much wider nibbed pen with this, but I have a big bottle of it, so there’s always another time.
In the Mahjon Q1’s case the pen and nib are interesting, the nib is not. This is one of two pens (the other being the Sailor Fude in the end) which I inked solely for sketching purposes. It’s a weirdly shaped pocket eyedropper fountain pen that I bought with a fude (bent) nib. I’ll probably review it at some time in the future.
The Montblanc Victor Hugo was a pen that I bought at the end of last year, during my last visit to Mora Stylos. This was an impulse buy, something that would never have happened if not for the display that Montblanc used to sell this pen. I love the Notre Dame de Paris, I’ve visited her and sketched her many times, and my heart broke when she burnt down. She’s a survivor, and seeing this pen displayed in a diorama of the Notre Dame in all her white glory, I just had to buy it. The ink was a gift that Mr. Mora gave me with the pen.
Parker 51 pens. The cocoa and the teal were all purchases made in the local flea market, and the cocoa is part of a set (with a pencil) and the earliest of the bunch (from 1948, a first generation Aerometric). The teal was in pretty bad shape, and took me a while to flush out. The demonstrator Parker 51 is from Mora Stylos, has a gorgeous stub italic nib, and is likely one of the Argentinian, aftermarket demonstrators. The Parker 51 is my favourite pen, and I have a hard time not buying all of them.
The Pelikan M205 Petrol was a Black Friday purchase, and I haven’t inked it until now. The nib is great, the pen is great, and Iroshizuku Ama-Iro turquoise ink is quickly becoming one of my favourites. Such an optimistic, summery colour.
The Platinums include two Preppy’s that I’m trying out, after being disappointed with their durability in the past. The Plaisir is the pen that’s been inked the longest of the bunch.
The Sailor fude is filled with a new ink to me, the Graf von Faber-Castell Carbon Black. The ink was purchased in the same closeout sale as the pink Yozakura, and I’m planning on testing it out as a non-waterproof sketching ink.
I wrote the Conklin Lever filler on top dry just as I was planning this post, so it’s here for reference only. I purchased it at Mora Stylos, it’s from 1919 and it’s in user grade condition (cap discolouration, significant brassing, the imprint isn’t in perfect condition). The lever filling mechanism is infuriating to use, both for filling and for cleaning the pen, but there nib is magnificent. It’s a true flex nib, going from medium to triple broad with no effort or railroading, and it’s a joy to use. The fact that I enjoyed it so much, coupled with its tiny ink capacity, meant that it took me about a week to write it dry. I used Waterman Serenity Blue in it, and that ink once again proved its worth in troublesome vintage pens. It’s a great shade of blue that is very pen safe and super easy to clean out of pens (think the opposite to Bay State Blue). A must have for anyone dabbling in vintage pens IMHO.
The pens, from left to right, matching the order of the writing samples with an added guest on top
Other Stuff
I’m working on an adventure for a 30+ tabletop roleplaying convention at the end of the month. I may publish something here about how I write adventures for conventions.
In the meanwhile my D&D 5E game, set in a university like setting and a university town next to it, is progressing nicely. It’s the most complex campaign that I have ever written, but it’s wonderful to see the players rush around in this world, having the time of their lives exploring, interacting and trying to break stuff. D&D is a pure joy and a wonderful escape from the pretty dark reality we live in these days.
Speaking of both dark reality and things that cheer me up:
It’s week 27 of the pro-democracy protests, and we’re still showing up in numbers (that are growing again). It’s great seeing whole families show up, including the dogs, to say no to stripping the judicial branch of its oversight powers.
I’ve been sketching people’s dogs, and it’s a pure delight to try and capture their personality with each sketch. Plus, it’s making people happy, which is a good thing.
I’ve managed to help a few people get back to running, and that’s always a joy. Go get some exercise. Do something you enjoy, and even 10 minutes is enough. As Dr. Jen Gutner says, exercise is like finding money in the street: if you find $10 lying around, you’re not going to leave them there because they aren’t $100. Invest a little in yourself, because you’re worth taking 10 minutes a day for.
I returned on Saturday afternoon from a 17(!) day trip to London, York and Paris, and I’m still in the process of adjusting back to my routine. It was a perfect trip and a perfect break from the hard reality that I normally live in, and so it’s been tough getting back. I missed my cats, and I missed my running routine, but I didn’t miss the slew of doctor appointments and medical related bureaucracy surrounding my cancer and my mom’s cancer, and I didn’t miss the political situation here at all.
So I’m trying to find comfort in journalling, in talking to friends, in enjoying the things that I got from abroad (of course I bought pens, paper, pencils, ink, cool vintage stationery, art supplies, etc). And I’m returning to blogging regularly. I have quite a few reviews in the works, and one more post in the “Ghosts of Planner’s Past” series, plus as I’m getting back to my reading routine more books will be featured here.
For now I’ve filled up four new fountain pens (none of which I’ve bought on this latest trip). The ASC Triangolo is a pen that I don’t remember buying at all, which is extremely unusual, and likely means that I bought it at Mora Stylos in 2022, on my first trip after finishing Chemo. Chemo brain is a real thing and I have chunks of that time (during treatment and a few months after it) that are completely missing in a very scary sort of way. The pen itself is an Omas 360 look alike, made with gorgeous arco verde material and has a “magic flex” nib. It’s the largest and one of the heaviest pens that I own, and the nib has issues (both problems starting and issues where it puts down too much ink). I filled it with Faber Castell Deep Sea Green, which from my experience is a drier ink, but that didn’t seem to affect it much. I doubt that I’d get much help from the Pen Family (their QC and service isn’t known to be the best though I will give them a try), so it’s a matter of seeing if I can fix it myself, and seeing what I can do to get it tuned locally, considering that the main guy working on pens here has recently retired. The ASC Triangolo is the big green striped triangular pen right beneath the writing.
The Sailor Pro Gear Slim Manyo Cherry Blossom is a pen that I bought on a whim in Choosing Keeping in London last year. I haven’t inked it since I bought it, but now I did, using the bottle of Sailor Manyo Sakura ink that came with it. This pen, unlike the Triangolo, perfectly fits my tiny hands (it’s the pink pen with the blue finials).
The two Lamy AL Stars (one on each side of the page) are a recent purchase from Pen Chalet. I wanted to try out a Lamy B nib, and I really liked the AL Star Petrol 2023 special edition, and the Tourmaline (2020?) one. They’re filled with Sailor Ink Studio inks that I purchased in Choosing Keeping during my last trip there.
The Leonardo Momento Zero Blue Hawaii and the FC Sparkling Rock travelled with me to London and back. They were a joy to use, and I’m glad that I took them along as they caused no issues – no leaks, etc – and were fun to use when I journaled during my trip.
Here’s a bit of a closer look at the writing sample. The Triangolo’s is unfortunately a mess. The Ink Studio 340 and 224 are my favourite inks of the bunch, though the Ama Iro and 743 are also great. The Sailor Manyo Sakura is too light of my tastes, especially in such a fine nib (the Sailor MF is like a Lamy EF).
Break out a nice pen or pencil to use. It’s the little things that can help make your day.
I’m in a bit of a rush, so this one’s going to be quick:
Fountain pens: I’m down to 11 inked fountain pens, with most of them being half empty at least. I’ve been writing a pen or two dry a week, which is good.
Reading: I’ve got a few reviews to post, and I’m now reading the stunning “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” by Olga Tokarczuk, the Noble prize in literature winner. The prose in this is something else.
Running: I’ve upped my long runs to 10.5-11k, and with the weekly walks to the protests have reached around 19k of running and walking every Saturday. I’ve also enrolled to my first every 12k, and will be enrolling to a few more races this month.
Drawing: One Week 100 People is over and already I miss sketching people daily. It was a tough but fun challenge, and messing around with different medium types really added an interesting dimension to it all.
Apart from all that I have several projects in the works, including a few long blog posts, some volunteer work, a good amount of decluttering, a bit of professional up-skilling and more.
I have a complicated relationship with the Tel Aviv Marathon. It’s the largest local race, with 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon courses (Jerusalem’s Marathon doesn’t come close in the number of runners because hills. Runners don’t like them, in case you didn’t know). But it’s my least favourite local race, and there’s always something going on around it to make me dislike it more (bad organizing, heat wave, holding the race despite there being a global pandemic, etc).
The finish line
I was enrolled to run the 10k at the Tel Aviv Marathon in late February 2020, a few days before the lockdowns started. Everybody already had an idea of what Covid looked like, it was already a pandemic, and the number of sick people was rising daily. We were expecting the race to be cancelled, but the night before the race it was clear that the organizers planned to cram people into very dense corals, and just hope they didn’t get an outbreak. Anything but return people’s fees. My friend and I had a conversation that night, and we both decided not to run. The risk wasn’t worth it.
In late February 2021 there was no physical race – it was a digital (i.e. virtual) one instead. In late February 2022 the marathon returned in full force, but I was two months after completing my chemotherapy, and in no condition to run even the 5k course. I was running 3ks, which was great considering what my body had been through and the fact that I hadn’t been able to run for almost a year, and I had lost all my muscle mass and was working with a restricted lung capacity. I remember following this race on their site and on social media and feeling bereft, even though it was never my favourite race. I had no idea at the time that I’d be able to participate in the Women’s Race 4k three months later. For various good reasons I wasn’t sure I’d be able to race again.
Uncrowded part of the starting line
Last Friday I was set to run the 10k course in the Tel Aviv Marathon. Then on Monday I fell and hurt my knee on the way to work (the sidewalks and streets near my office are dreadfully maintained, and rushing across them is now no longer something I plan on doing). I took care of it as best I could, rested it as much as I could and wondered whether I could race on Friday, and if I set out could I complete the course?
The crowded part.
I woke up early, got race ready, took the train to the starting area, and walked to the coral. There were a lot of people there, and I don’t do well with crowds these days. I stood on the side, and once the race started, waited for most of the people to walk by (no running in those conditions – we were packed like sardines), so that I could start running too. About 5 minutes went by, I judged things to be safer and started making my way to the starting line when about 5 meters from the line they stopped us and had us wait for 10 minutes, as more and more people piled behind, and the crowds got thicker and thicker. Ostensibly this was so people could start in “waves” and “the route will clear up”. In reality, they had the original coral start late, and this was just a way to catch up by having half of the A coral start with about half of the B coral. The only way for me to power through was to look straight up at the sky for 10 minutes. My neck is still sore.
River of runners
But then we were finally allowed to run, and the magic of races kicked in. I can’t describe the adrenaline, the joy, the pure sense of life that racing gives me. It made everything disappear. I high-fived the kids that were cheering us on. I appreciate just how many runners (including myself) ran with pro-democracy stickers and flags. I enjoyed seeing the sheer variety of runners around me, and the feeling of belonging into a flowing river of runners moving constantly towards the finish line.
Just after crossing the finish line
It wasn’t my best time, but I did much better than I thought I could. My knee held up. I narrowly avoided a panic attack at the starting line, but I avoided it, which is the point. I saw a lot of people running for excellent causes, and just running for themselves. There was the kindness of races – people rushing to care for the marathon runner that collapsed in the heat, treating him until the medics (very quickly) arrived; people cheering others along, complimenting each other freely; kids cheering as loudly and boisterously as they could.
Try to find kindness around you this week, try to find joy.
I went back to my usual running schedule this week, and was able to take a picture of two Monk Parakeets cuddling together on a tree during today’s long run. Decided to create a quick sketch of the couple:
There was too much unnecessary drama in my life this week, from a moderator in a group that I’m in deciding to take out her personal frustrations with the job market on me (and then apologizing profusely), through someone having issues with the week in Israel starting on Sunday and the weekend being Friday and Saturday here, to me deciding to go to the protests against the judicial system changes here for the first time. The large amount of people is likely going to trigger my PTSD and I’m not looking forward to the ensuing panic attacks, but I’m fed up with cancer taking things away from me, including the right to protest. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve been reading “Erebus” by Michael Palin, and it’s very good but slow going. I read non-fiction slower than I read fiction, especially when there are things that I want to stop and look up.
Next week is a tough one, with blood tests and an oncologist check up, a 10k race on Friday, running a new D&D adventure and having to scout for a new player, plus being understaffed at work. We’ll see how it goes – my planners are going to be working full time, for sure.
Someone put up these post-its in the elevators at work on valentine’s day, and I want to give them a hug. They made everyone smile.
I’ve had a cold this week, which is to show just how well masks and isolation work as it’s the first cold I’ve had in years. I haven’t missed it.
After a rainy week and then a sick week, my running has been suffering and the first race of the year is in two week’s time! I went back to running today, and planned to ease in with a 3k run that ended up being a 5.5k fast run because I was enjoying myself so much. It’s cold outside, but it isn’t raining, and that makes it perfect running weather.
After three days of being cooped inside, I went outside to draw yesterday, and I tried a new kind of composition, which I kind of like:
I finished reading “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m focusing on finishing “Erebus” by Michael Palin next before working my way through my kindle backlog and the stack of physical books that I want to read this year.
I’ve written my Lamy Studio Terracotta limited edition filled with Diamine Yule Log dry, and I’m now using a Lamy Safari Charcoal with Diamine Deck the Halls and a Lamy AL Star Charged Green with Diamine Alpine mostly, as they’re the next in line, with a couple of Kaweco sports, to be written dry. I’ve currently got 26(!) pens inked up, and it looks like I’ll be dumping out ink from a few of them, for the sake of my sanity. We’ll see how things go next week.
I’ve been my fountain pens mostly for journalling, on a Stalogy 365 notebook that I’ve started using. Every time my journalling gets into a rut, I switch notebook formats and that generally works to get me journalling again. The Stalogy is smaller than the Moleskine’s that I generally prefer to journal in, but it has fountain pen friendly paper, which is giving me the chance to use my pens. This is not to say that I don’t use fountain pens with my Moleskines (I do. I don’t care that they show through and sometimes bleed, as I have more than enough of them to use just one side of the paper), but that it’s nice to better see the properties of the inks that I use. Drying times aren’t great, and the cover is floppy, which means that I probably won’t be using this format long term. For now it works, as I’ve been journalling regularly, and I can use the Stalogy without looking at the various hour and date notations on the page. They are very feint, and I’ve turned the notebook upside down, so they are completely irrelevant to me.
I’ve been doing a lot of NTC workouts lately, and they’re tough but a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a way to work out more, using the NTC app is a great option. They have a large variety of workouts, workouts that are as long or as short as you need them to be, and workouts that are built for small places and little or no equipment (mostly you’ll just need a mat). It’s all completely free of charge, and has been that way for years. I’ve been using them for over a decade, and the quality and variety has just gone up with time. Even 5-10 minutes of exercise a day is better than nothing, and this is an easy and fun way to get into training.
Writing at Large 