I’m off to participate in my first ever LARP this weekend, and I’m going to try and capture as much of it as I can in sketches and post it here.
Long train ride means that I can try to sketch.
My lines and painting came out more wobbly than usual due to a combination of neuropathy and the train ride.
Rough painting on the train.One and a half pages done.Close up of morning run sketches.Close up of train station sketch.
Update: the weekend was excellent but phenomenally busy, and I got only about 4-5 hours of sleep per day. Still recovering, but working on a backlog sketch journal of the trip in the meanwhile.
It’s been a long day, so excuse the wobbly lines and imperfect writing.
Here’s a close up, for those who enjoy close ups:
Tools: Stillman and Birn pocket landscape epsilon, Platinum 3776 UEF nib with Sailor Epinard, Schmincke and Daniel Smith watercolours, Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.1.
Big I Design is one of those pen manufacturing companies that use Kickstarter as a sort of pre-order system. I’ve backed several of their kickstarters and they always deliver on time, exactly what they promised to deliver. Their campaigns are for products that they already designed and know exactly how to manufacture, and I know that backing their work is a low risk endeavour. They know how to make pens, they know how to make pens that I enjoy using, their pens are solid and super versatile workhorses, and there aren’t too many options to get sidetracked by. It’s usually one new pen body in three different finishes, with maybe an add-on option or two.
So when they came out with a new pen on Kickstarter, the Dual Side Click, of course I backed it.
The Dual Side Click box.
Like all of Big I Design’s pens, the Dual Side Click is designed to accept a large variety of refills – ballpoint, gel ink and rollerball. If there’s a particular pen refill that you like or you’d like to try, it’s likely one that is compatible with the Dual Side Click. Here’s the full list of refills for your delectation. I will note that likely because of the click mechanism, the Dual Side Click (and the EDCClick) don’t support as many refills as their Ti Arto and Ti Arto EDC counterparts (which support every refill on the market, I think, including the Uni-ball Signo DX UMR-1 refills). They do, however, support more refills than the Ti Pocket Pro, and an impressive amount of refills.
The back of the Dual Side Click box. Says what it does on the tin.
I got the stonewashed titanium Dual Side Click, which is by far my favourite Big I Design pen finish. I like the new packaging that they use, as its functional, well made and impressive enough to work as gift packaging, while not being so fancy that you’ll feel bad tossing it into the recycling.
Functional, well designed box. The little compartment on the right holds spare parts and the ring used with the clip tool, and it magnetically closes.
The box comes with a tool that will allow you to remove or adjust the clip (which is the little ridged rod and the ring you see below), and spare parts – o-rings and springs. That’s a wonderful touch, as is the magnetic closure on the ring and spare parts compartment.
Everything you need, right in the box.
You also get a Big I Design sticker, some info cards and of course, the pen. The stonewashed titanium finish is silky to the touch, and gives the pen an understated look. The grip section is wide, with a few engraved rings to added grip. It’s the same grip section as on the Ti Click pen, and is great for longer writing sections. The Ti logo is, as usual, elegant and understated. It’s not a “I’m an expensive pen!” kind of design, nor is is a “I’m a tactical pen!” kind of design. It’s a functional, pragmatic, solid, and enjoyable to use kind of design.
Info, sticker and pen.
The stonewashed finish will age well with time and use – like an old pair of jeans. You can see the new Dual Side Click next to the Ti Pocket Pro, which I have used since late 2017. The original finish on both pens was the same, but the various nicks and scratches on the Pocket Pro have added to its looks, and it has a little more lustre now.
Dual Click on the left, Pocket Pro on the right.
The star of the Dual Side Click is, of course, the dual side click mechanism. The pen is engaged by clicking on the click mechanism on top, just like any other click pen, and then the refill is retracted by clicking on one of the side clicks. The side clicks look like flat lozenges that protrude a bit on each side.
Side click mechanism.
When the click mechanism is engaged the side click buttons protrude a bit more, but they’re still unobtrusive and aren’t likely to snag on anything.
Other click mechanism.
You can press on either the left or the right side mechanism to retract the pen refill, and both the click mechanism and the side mechanism engage and disengage with satisfying clicks. Unlike the Ti Click pen, this Dual Side Click’s mechanisms aren’t mushy.
A closer look on the click mechanisms.
The Dual Side Click ships with a Schmidt P 900 medium refill, which is one of my least favourite pen refills. That doesn’t matter much as I immediately swapped it for my favourite refill, the Uni-ball Signo UMR-85N.
Refill swap.
As the whole point of the Dual Side Click is the pen body and not the refill (which most users will swap out), I created a video of the click mechanism in action:
This is a very satisfying pen to use. And fidget with during dull meetings.
If your favourite refill is among those that is supported by the Dual Side Click, then I highly recommend it. It’s one of the best pens that Big I Design have ever created, and that’s saying something. The titanium body is solid, weighty without being overly heavy, and comfortable to hold and use. The click mechanism is excellent, and it’s fairly priced, especially when you factor in the refill choice flexibility and the free worldwide shipping (and the lifetime warranty, which I’ve never had to use for any Big I Design pen).
A year ago, on the 13th of July 2021, I started my first round of chemo. I was hospitalised and connected to oxygen at the time (my tumour was so large that it had collapsed both of my lungs, and my lung capacity was well below 35%). My last run was 1.2km on the 3rd of May 2021, done at a crawling pace on a treadmill. My lungs couldn’t carry me through my runs, and I had started feeling it from April 2021, but tried to push through it as my GP insisted that I was OK.
Today is the last day of July, 2022. This is my running distance for the month:
104.1 km of running in July 2022.
Running was one of the things that I missed the most while I was hospitalised and then throughout chemo and the months immediately after treatment, when my body was too broken down to carry me through a run. Words cannot express what running means to me. They just can’t.
I ran more than a 100 kms this month, lacing up for 21 times, getting back to a baseline of 5k runs five times a week. Despite the heat. Despite the humidity. Despite my lungs and my PTSD.
I only wish there was a way to send a message back to the me that lay in that hospital bed connected to the chemo IV, to let her know where I’d be a year from then.
It’s been a while since I posted an update, and there’s been fewer posts than usual during the last two months. This is mostly because I started a new job in June, and it’s been longer hours and more work than I anticipated at first. I am enjoying myself, but the change means I have less free time, and that I need to prioritise things differently to better fit the things that I care about into my life. Was moving from a cushy and undemanding job to an interesting and fun but much more demanding one a mistake? Time will tell, but so far I’m not regretting the switch.
As I’m starting to find my footing, I’ve been able to find more time for my hobbies. During the early days of my new job the only thing I did was work, exercise, sleep and eat. Then reading came back into my life, and journalling and sketching followed. Meanwhile the Sketching Now Watercolour course is over and I only had time for the first week, but thankfully the materials are all available online so I’ll be able to complete it all eventually.
What’s left my life almost entirely so far is watching TV, and I doubt that it will regularly return. In terms of media consumption, I read and listen to podcasts and that’s about it. I will watch specific things on Disney Plus or watch Adam Savage make things on YouTube, but even that isn’t something that I do often these days. It’s not a value judgement on TV – it’s just that I have less time now, and of the things I could easily get rid of, this was one of them.
Lego Orchid set (it’s gorgeous). I find building these sets very relaxing, and as you can see in the background, I have quite a few more to build…
Another thing that went out the window is social media. I’ve stopped checking Twitter and Facebook regularly. The only thing left is Instagram, which I still spend too much time on for my liking, and as Facebook starts messing with it I may likely leave as well.
Health
I had a bit of a health scare in late June. It was 6 months after my last chemo treatment, and I had some blood work done for a check up with my hemato-oncologist. One of the results was extremely low, and it was for a test that people rarely get and I certainly have never gotten before, so I had no baseline to compare it to. What little information I found online indicated that I either was going through kidney failure/had a kidney tumor or had a rare form of blood cancer (beyond the blood cancer that I already had). Two sleepless nights later my hemato-oncologist (bless her), told me that everything was OK. The rest of my blood work was good, and this test was meaningless for people in my condition. She never asked for it, and I don’t know what possessed my GP to ask for it. In any case, I am now officially well enough to go on the regular post treatment checkup schedule, which means once every three months. Yay!!!
I’m running five times a week now, four 5ks a week and I’ve now started to work in a long run in the hopes to get back to running 10k. It’s tough running in this heat and humidity, especially with my lungs not being 100%, but I’m pushing through and enjoying myself. Running is my meditation, and has remained that way even though I now also meditate as part of ACT.
I’m also going twice a week to lift weights in the gym, nowadays with a mask on to avoid COVID. I’ve been vaccinated four times, but am now working from home again and staying masked as I can’t afford to get sick with the state of my lungs. Practically nobody is wearing masks anymore, and almost everyone around me is sick, so it’s been frustrating to try and stay healthy under these conditions. I’m hoping that the Omicron variant vaccine will be available here in a month or so, and I’m keeping an eye on the numbers to know when I can go back to the office and see people face to face again.
Reading
I’ve finished Hillary Mantel’s “The Mirror and the Light”, the third and final book in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. I’ll write a more lengthy review of it on Goodreads, but I will say that I got tired of the book at around the 60% mark (it’s about 900 pages long), and it didn’t really recover from that point on. I can see why Mantel struggled with this one, and I don’t regret reading it, but it’s not as good as the previous two books, and it could have done with some robust (and perhaps ruthless) editing.
I’ve also finished Ali Smith’s “Companion Piece”, which is a companion piece to her seasonal quartet of novels (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) and is excellent. You don’t need to read the quartet to enjoy this book, and “Companion Piece” would also be a good introduction to Smith’s writing. It’s written in stream of consciousness style, although it’s fairly easy to understand (nothing as complex as Joyce), and there’s a joy in her writing, compassion, insight and humour that make reading her always an enjoyable and worthy pastime.
As these were a bit challenging to read, I had an Agatha Christie “palate cleanser” in the shape of two novels: “The Man in the Brown Suit” and “Crooked House”. “The Man in the Brown Suit” is a detective/adventure story that was originally light hearted, but today just doesn’t work. There’s too much racism and sexism to bear, especially if you know anything at all about the history of South Africa, diamond mines, and labour relations in Africa. “Crooked House” was one of Christie’s favourite novels, and it’s a fun and interesting book with many original characters (and yes, also spots of racism).
Pens, Pencils and Notebooks
I’ve been playing around a lot with ink washes lately, as I’ve written here. They’re a fun and quick way to add colour to a sketch, and having a limited palette makes me appreciate colour values more.
Quick sketch of squash plants gone wild in a local garden.
I’ve written almost all of my fountain pens dry, with the exception of a Franklin Christoph 45L Sage with a S.I.G fine nib (filled with Bungobox June Bride Something Blue ink) and a Platinum Plaisir filled with the blue cartridge it came with. The other fountain pens I have inked (two Lamy’s and two Sailor Fude pens) are used for sketching and not writing. I’ll likely fill up a few pens next week.
From left to right: Platinum Plaisir, Franklin Christoph 45L Sage, Sailor Fude pen, Lamy Lx Rose Gold, Lamy Safari white and red, Sailor Fude pen.
The BigIDesign Dual Side Click pen arrived from the kickstarted that I backed, and it’s fantastic. I hope to have a review up next week, but so far I’ve really enjoyed using it, and I think that it’s their best pen yet (which is saying something).
I’ve decided to start switching around the pencils that I use, instead of writing one down to a nub. I’ve been using a vintage Eberhard Faber Mongol pencil this week, and a Musgrave Tennessee Red one. They’re both #2 or HB pencils, but the Tennessee Red one is much softer and darker.
I’ve changed the way I use my notebooks, streamlining certain things, consolidating notebooks on the one hand, and starting a new notebook (MD A5 blank paper notebook) for insights and ideas that I would have previously explored on social media and now prefer to explore in private, on paper. I’m no longer chasing likes for these things, as I’m more interested in giving the thoughts in my head time and space to grow and change, and Twitter and Facebook are the last places to allow for that.
All the Rest
I’m back to decluttering my house, a project that I had started working on before I got sick and until now didn’t have energy to get back to. Yesterday I found a stash of half used notebooks that I forgot that I ever had, and it was bizarre to go over them and read what my pre-Covid, pre-cancer self thought about life in 2014-2015.
This is the Musgrave Tennessee Red pencil presentation box:
Gorgeous, isn’t it? Just look at that reddish and golden timber. It glows:
The pencils inside are equally beautiful. They’re made of Eastern Red Cedar, in the USA, and this is the 24 pencil presentation box. I have two of these, as well as a paper box that has 12 pencils. I’ve had them for a few months, but I haven’t had the nerve to sharpen them until earlier this week. They were just too good looking to sharpen.
24 Tennessee Red pencils in a cedar presentation box.
Now this isn’t to say that these pencils are perfect. Musgrave points out on their site that these pencils can have modest visible wear due to the soft nature of the wood, and the core may be slightly off centre. A rummage through the pencils that I have proves that these warnings are justified. But it still is a gorgeous pencil:
Just look at it.
The pencil is lacquered which does protect the wood somewhat, and a lot of thought and care went into designing the imprint on the barrel (text, colour, font, symbols) – and a lot of restraint too. The imprint, ferrule, and eraser don’t call attention to themselves. This is a pencil that’s all about its beautiful, sweet smelling wood.
See how the imprint and everything else fade out of sight? An beautiful and understated pencil.
The Tennessee Red is a joy to sharpen. The cedar smell is intoxicating, and if the pencil wasn’t such a good one I may have just sharpened it all away. But it comes with a smooth, dark lead that feels and behaves like a B grade despite being a #2 (or HB) pencil. It’ll be a delight to sketch with this beauty. You can see it in action below, on a Baron Fig Confidant.
These aren’t cheap or widely available, and if you are outside the US they are even less cheap and more hard to come by. They are, however, worth the price and worth making an effort to find, and not because they are the best pencils in the world, but because it is clear that someone made an effort to make a modern American pencil that doesn’t shame its Eagle and Eberhard Faber vintage counterparts. It’s a beautiful, sweet smelling, wonderful woodcased pencil that is a joy to use and would make any stationery lover smile. And who can’t use a reason to smile these days?
Writing at Large 