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Skipped judo today because I'm coming down with a cold. Feeling bummed about it.

Ed won gold at the tournament this past weekend. I'm happy for him.

Saw somebody refer to Squidgeworld Archive as "Squidward" and now I will never be able to read it as anything else for the rest of my days.

Things I did this evening:

- Got a vaccination for tetanus and Hep A/B because I was outdated on both
- Ordered takeout for the first time ever
- Cleaned my fountain pen because it was skipping a bit
- Zoned out for an hour while trying to make my grocery list

I think it'll be an early bedtime tonight.

I'm going to have to go out to do a thing every single evening this week, and I am not exactly thrilled about it.

Some of these are things I want to do, some of these are things that I have to do, but part of me is just ughhhhh.

I had to go to a doctor appointment today, so I took half of the day off.

Stopped by the library to pick something up after the appointment. The library and community centre were so relaxed and quiet. Mac Island is so busy and crazy on the weekend, it's absolutely nuts; but when I was there it was calm. Pretty nice. I wish I could experience that more often.

Once again I am struck by how hard it is to have a nice, pleasant, relaxing life where you have time for the things you enjoy and little stress. I was able to do my errands, go home, relax a little. And the only way I could do that is because I took time off work. I know that's just life, but it sucks.

FTH is going to open soon, but I haven't even looked at the offers much. I should put together a spreadsheet. I do know that I want to put in a bid on the person who is offering NiF fanart, but they're also offering some other large Cdrama fandoms, and I think the bids will go outside of my budget really quickly.

The cologne I chose to work on for this month, Ellis Brooklyn "BEE", sure is a lot. It smells like honey. So much like honey. Too much like honey. I like it as a note, but not as a whole thing. This one is just so... much? I don't know if I like it or hate it, but I do know that I am glad that I only have a travel size version of this, not the whole thing. Will not be purchasing the full bottle.

Whoo! I'm participating in the FTH charity auction once again. Offers are open for browsing.

You can see my offers here. You can also see a list of all fandoms on offer here.

Bidding opens on March 03!

This year I'm offering up to 5k of Hetalia, Promare, or any fandom I've written in the past (such as Ex Machina, Vatican Miracle Examiner, Frozen, etc). I'm offering any characters/pairings.

If you're interested in this but don't really get how it works, I might be able to help - I've participated on both the offering on bidding ends before.

I'm really looking forward to seeing whatever the winner requests; in the past I've had asks for pairings that I normally don't write, and in the end those often turn out to be some of my best fics.

Anyway! Whoo! Let's see how this goes!

I briefly considered buying myself a Kaweco Liliput Kolibri, but I think I've talked myself out of it.

My current fountain pen is a Kaweco Sport Classic. The weight is 12 grams, and the dimensions are 4 inch length or 5.25 inch posted. So, it's very light, and the length is pretty good when posted (an uncapped Bic ballpoint, by comparison, is around 5.5 inches).

In comparison to the Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop that Meto let me borrow: That is slightly over 6 inches when posted, and 26 grams. I found it both too big and too heavy.

The Kaweco Liliput Kolibri is 3.8 inches capped, 4.9 inches posted. So, noticeably smaller than the Sport Classic, which is already a small pen. And then there is the weight - 20 grams, much heavier than a Kaweco Sport.

I think I would find it both too small and too heavy. So, even though it's a really beautiful pen, there's no way I can justify buying it. Which is just as well, because it's expensive. It's currently on sale at Reid's for 150 (here) but that's still a lot of money for a pen.

I do kind of like the idea of having a fountain pen that I use at work, because I like them. But I think a better choice would just be another Kaweco Sport Classic. Or possibly a Kaweco Aluminum Sport - that one is heavier than the regular classic, 20g. But the weight is more proportional to its size than the Lilliput. If I got another pen, I think I'd go for either a Fine or Extra Fine nib - I tend to use very cheap paper and it'd probably minimise the bleed that way. I do like the Medium nib that my Classic came with, but it doesn't always behave well on cheap paper.

I bought some cartridges while in Victoria, so I'm just going to use those for a while. My broad plan is to keep the empty cartridges, and eventually syringe-fill them. They hold more than a converter, anyway. I picked up two Kaweco packages - blue ink and green ink. I think I'll try the green ink next. Lucky for me, the current cartridge (that the pen came with) is almost finished.

[edit Feb 24]
I looked up some video reviews of the Liliput Kolibri, and while I was kind of tempted I'm definitely leaning toward a no now. They made the very good point that all Liliput pens roll a lot; you put them down and they immediately roll. So, the options are to get a clip for it - sold separately, and not available in a colour that will match the iridescent pen - or always put it on a pen rest. Neither of those things appeal to me. I might theoretically consider a clip for a regular Liliput pen, and who knows if I might look into one in the future, but for a Kolibri I really don't think I would like the look of it. And I would like the rolling even less. I want my pens to stay where I put them!!

I also found out that Reid's sells 15ml bottles of Pilot Iroshizuku ink. So, while I don't plan to use bottles at this time, it's nice to know that I will eventually have an in-province option for obtaining bottles of good quality ink of a smallish size, rather than some huge amount that would take me forever to get through. I like the thought of switching colours often, anyway.