Libb

50+ dude, here: there was no show I rushed home for as... I was not allowed to watch TV when I was a child. Heck, we even had not tv up until I was 8, or maybe 9.

Later, as a teen and after my parents finally got a tv, I would voraciously watch the Twilight Zone (the Rod Serling version, in B&W) but its episodes were aired on week-ends. So I had no real need to rush either ;)

Nowadays, My spouse and I have quit watching tv since the early 00s, when we realized we were getting tired of spending money while still have to watch ads... all of that for contents we were not really huge fans of. So we don't have a TV at all, when we watch a disc or something, it's on a computer screen.

Daily walks.

Nowadays, I take long walks (I will walk at least 6 or 8 km) but I started with really short ones, as back then I was barely able to walk at all — because of my bad physical health. How short were those first walks? Well, I celebrated the first time I managed to walk down our street and back without being exhausted for the entire day ;)

I’m sure I got some looks on the bus.

I have no doubt about that.

I just need to remember the look of people when I get out my paper agenda and a fountain pen to check availability or write some appointment and then see their face when I explain them why I so much prefer using an analog agenda to any digital one. It's even funnier when I explain them I prefer drafting all my writings longhand, using a fountain pen or even a good old... typewriter.

Is there such a thing as too niche?

Asking for a friend that would not mind finding a community of like-minded users of analog Zettelkasten note-taking — We don't need no application/We don't need no algorithm/No bugged updates in our workflow/Devs leave our notes alone. That friend would also not mind finding a community of authors of all kinds that prefer drafting their prose longhand, using a fountain pen, or a typewriter, instead of all those so wonderfully optimized digital tools we're now buried under. Well, maybe you're right and that could be too niche ;)

PS: my most sincere apologies to The Pink Floyd, obviously.

I liked my MD player a lot, maybe not as much as I loved the first Sony Walkman that was given to me when I was a kid — this thing was so cool. It went everywhere I went. For years. I dare not imagine how many batteries I wasted on it.

My MD looked very much the Sony in your photo, btw. I lost it a few years ago with the few remaining MD I had (all home copied). Who knows, maybe someone have found them and sold them to you on Ebay? (If so, I hope you like classical music and stuff like the Pink Floyd) :P

• Finishing reading 'Paradigm Shifts, Typewritten Tales of Digital Collapse', a short stories collection focusing on the use of... typewriters, and written on typewriters by their respective authors.
• Taking some notes, while reading that book.
• Replying to your question, while I'm...
• ...sipping a cup of coffee ;)

And if you’re not, sometimes you just need to stop for a sec and look around to find them. They’re always there.

Indeed.

I try to enjoy any moment, even the less than perfect ones. For the last few day, I've been stuck at home with a broken bone but I focus on the time it gives me to read and to write more, to spend more time with my spouse and us being happy to be together. Naive, most certainly, but I will still take it after 25 years together ;)

(Trying to revive the sub)

• Walk. I walk a lot... well not since the last few days since I broke a bone, but usually :p
• Public transportation. here in Paris we have a lot: buses, tram, metro, train.
• Taxi or Uber when we really have to. My spouse and I have not owned a car in over 20 years.
• We have also refused to travel by plane since the early 00s. Be it for personal or pro needs.

Walk has had the most crucial influence: it helped me get back into shape like nothing else did, both physically and mentally. A few years ago, I was not walking at all. As a matter of fact, I could barely walk a few meters before having to rest, my health was a mess. Nowadays; I will walk every single day for 8km or more.

I've been trying Moleskine regularly and, based on my experience, if they work great with ballpoints they just plain suck with fps.

My notebook of choice is a... sketchbook: ArtCreation, from Royal Talens the Dutch brand. It's 120 gsm smooth paper, plain, great for sketching (& even for light watercolors) and for fountain pen writing. Most often, I'll be using the A5 size, bu the're available in various sizes. Also, the sketchbook will stay flat when opened.

Before the ArtCreation sketchbooks, I used to use Leuchturm 1917 and Seven Seas (my favorite, but I wanted thicker paper).

I don't use cover or case.

I also always carry a pocket A7 Clairefontaine notebook, for quick notes and stuff.

Lose leaves of paper: Clairefontaine or Rhodia which are obviously readily available here in France and work real nice with fountain pen. l will also re-use all the back of letters, envelopes, old sheet of papers (drafts), and so on.

I will cut them to size :

• A5, to fit my Filofax-like 6 rings binder.
• A6, to fit my Zettelkasten-like note-taking system as I don't want to use Index cards: they're too thick and waste precious storage space (plus, I like recycling old sheets of paper)

Maybe worth mentioning next to the paper, there is the ink:

• De Atramentis Document Brown, for sketching, waterproof.
• Platinum Carbon Black, for writing, waterproof.
• Pilot Kon-Peki (blue) for writing, non-waterproof or I will use the basic
• Waterman Serenity Blue, Pelikan Blue, for writing, non-waterproof.
• Plus a pen loaded with a red and one with green (both Lamy ink)

My EDC is made of three fountain pens:

• Lamy Safari (ef nib, De Atramentis Document Brown ink). I use this one for sketching (waterproof ink works great with watercolors). But a Safari has been part of my EDC since the very early 00s I like them a lot.
• Around 2010/2015, I started using Twsbi, another great fp. Nowadays I carry one for their Twsbi Eco (ef, Pilot Kon-Peki blue ink) for its ginormous ink capacity. I also like its look.
• Very recently, like half a year at most, I started using a Platinum Preppy (ef, Platinum Carbon Black ink) and I must say I'm really impressed by it. Very cheap, nice (steel) nib and sturdy. Its look is the most... forgettable of the three fountain pens, but I'm fine with that, even more that, being Japanese made, they sport a finer nib than Lamy and even Twsbi who both use German/larger nibs ;)

They're all good writers and they're not expensive (Preppy being the cheapest, by far). So, I can enjoy a fine writing experience without worrying about damaging my more expensive fountain pens.

Swintec (US) makes trypewriters for inmates. They're not mechanical ones, but they're still typewriters: https://www.swintec.com/

Maybe there are/is some Chinese brands too?