Uh... Where to start?
I've started faking calligraphy again. It started from a resolution this year to be a less-crappy correspondent; my personal correspondence has become a very endangered species with the influence of e-mail and instant messenger.
My handwriting sucks, and I hate that, so I never wrote much longhand, even before e-mail and laptops became prevalent in my life. Still, there's something about a hand-written letter that still appeals to the odd little romantic in me hiding not so deep inside my crusty exterior. I took a couple of calligraphy classes when I was a very, very young romantic (and still trying to become a "Renaissance Man" before I knew that the desire would merely result in "Repository-of-strange-pseudo-skills-and-scraps-of-useless-trivia Dude") and never looked back because, well, see bit above about sucky, sucky handwriting.
But for some reason, I can force myself to sit down at least once a month and write at the table when I can't do that on the laptop I have in my lap nearly every night. This March, I picked up a Sheaffer calligraphy set and added a few unnecessary flourishes and squiggles to my writing. In April, I changed over to nicer paper and card stock, and last month (in hopes of staving off a major purchase), I picked up a Levenger True Writer on deep discount. It worked, in that I remembered how much I really, really liked having a solid, smoothly writing pen in my hand (one of my favorites was a Cross SelecTip I bought for myself as a treat -- since stolen). It completely failed to do anything even remotely close to work in that it didn't really give me the line crispness or contrast I wanted for my calligraphy and just made me want to get something else new and shiny.
One of my friends recommended two sites to me. At the first (here, obviously), I spent a week researching, reading reviews and opinions, and thinking about things I never even thought would be a factor, then ordered my pen (Sailor Professional Gear) through the second (Classic Fountain Pens at http://www.nibs.com).
So all week, I've been driving myself crazy, waiting for assorted things to get here, and wondering what sort of madness I've unlocked within myself, as I get more and more interested in the various topics here. Ink! Custom pens! Special Editions! Wondering how many body parts I'm going to have to sell to get my hands on a Pelikan M620 San Francisco! So thanks for providing me with such a broad view of the world I think will suck a fair bit of my freedom (and free funds) for the forseeable future!
Ooh -- guess what just walked in my door! I'll post some first impressions or maybe even a completely biased review after I've had time to play a little. Gotta go!
