Random Ruminations

Noodler's Kiowa Pecan

Posted Thu May 17, 2012 in Writing

I suppose I should create a new category entitled Fountain Pens and Inks for my weblog. I seem to be writing about these things more often lately, since the renewal of my interest in handwriting and writing instruments.

One of my favorite things about fountain pens is the variety of inks available. There are probably hundreds of different offerings at all sorts of price points. One of the most popular (and perhaps controversial) are the offerings of Nathan Tardif of Noodler’s Ink. As I learn more about inks, I found that Tardif is a one-man-show and does all the preparation himself. He must be something of a chemist because he certainly understands inks.

I didn’t think I would, but I find I like brown ink. There is something warm and inviting about brown ink on a warm-paper, like my Rhodia journal. There is a personal touch to it that is quite different from cooler colors (although I still love blue).

I bought a sample of Noodler’s Kiowa Pecan to try. It’s a beautiful color, although it is not waterproof. It falls between Noodler’s Walnut and standard Brown in shade. It also appears to offer shading with wider nibs. I like it. I think I’ll order a bottle and use it in place of Noodler’s #41 Brown, which I find difficult to use in my pens.

Enjoy the review. By the way, my reviews are also presented on Fountain Pen Network. I hang out there some, although I’m not as prolific as many others.

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Missy and Heidi

Posted Wed May 16, 2012 in Stories

Many years ago when I was a boy, my parents kept a couple of German Shepherds around the house. My earliest recollection of one of the bitches was of Missy, a big black girl who was good around us kids and big enough to scare off an intruder. She was accompanied by the male, Pal, whom dad adopted along the way, somehow, sometime. I have no recollection of how Pal came to live with us.

I was probably about seven-years old when she had her first litter of pups. As I recall, it was a big litter with maybe a dozen or so puppies. Dad warned me “Stay out of the doghouse, son. She will bite you if you bother her pups.”

In my brief experience, I never witnessed either dog (Missy or Pal) show any aggression toward us kids. So, nonplussed, I crawled into the large dog house with Missy and her pups. I loved that dog and the pups fascinated me.

They were probably just a few days old. Their eyes had not yet opened. They were snuffling, blind, mewling babies who knew nothing other than eating, sleeping, and eliminating. Missy was not bothered by my presence with her and the pups. I watched and listened (and enjoyed the puppy-smell) while Missy cared for her offspring.

One of the things I remembered was how she cared for them. They generally suckled as a group, calling and grunting little puppy sounds. After they fed, she carefully licked their parts to stimulate their elimination, cleaning up each one in turn. In this way, she kept the den clear and carried their urine and feces out when she took her turn to eliminate.

I remember “baby-sitting” the pups when she left to go eat, move around, or eliminate. They would gather around me, especially after a few weeks, and puppy-play. We had a good time together. It’s a good memory.

I’ll leave a story about Heidi for another time. She was the second (and last that I recall) German Shepherd my dad kept.

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Bedtime

Posted Tue May 15, 2012 in Stories

My Girl is so funny. Late in the afternoon I fell asleep with her on the sofa. It was not a good thing because it interrupted my circadian rhythm. So, later I was puttering at the computer when I felt her trot into my workroom. The second time she cold-nosed the inside of my right arm.

“What do you want?” I asked. She looked at me with those big brown eyes. I looked at Wife, “what do you think she wants?”

After a couple minutes of puzzling, I picked up my iPad and book and headed back to the bedroom. It was time to call it anyway, even if I wasn’t sleepy. She hopped up onto the bed and started picking her spot. She plopped before I could sneak in on my side.

So, I pushed her over. She hopped up again (as she always does when displaced) and started walking in circles. When she found the place, she plopped against my side.

I wasn’t sleepy, but I spent a half-hour or so puttering on my iPad and reading my book. I stroked her side now and again, listening as her breathing changed to sleepy-breathing and a light snore.

My dog told me it was time for bed. She knows my routine better than I do. She also loves her cuddles.

As I wrote before (and will write again), in many ways my dog is smarter than I am — probably in all the important things.

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LaTeX Letters

Posted Mon May 14, 2012 in Computing

While working on a letter over the weekend, I decided to do something about the signature block of my standard letter format. I don’t care for the layout that puts the signature block midway (at the centerline) across the page. I think having the return address set off on the right is acceptable. But I use a block format type of letter and the shift of the signature block doesn’t look right.

So, I spent a few minutes using Google to search for a solution. I found a number of document classes that offer many tweaks. But, I’m generally pleased with the standard letter class and didn’t want to have to make a lot of changes.

The hint that provided the most insight was one from stackoverflow.com. In it, the author suggested making a change to the standard letter class document.

With a little searching, I came across this segment of code in letter.cls:

\newcommand{\closing}[1]{\par\nobreak\vspace{\parskip}%
\stopbreaks
\noindent
\ifx\@empty\fromaddress\else
\hspace*{\longindentation}\fi
\parbox{\indentedwidth}{\raggedright
\ignorespaces #1\\[6\medskipamount]%
\ifx\@empty\fromsig
\fromname
\else \fromsig \fi\strut}%
\par}

This code block is the one that regulate placing the signature at the bottom of the page. The two key components are the \ifx and \parbox blocks. What I did was to comment out the former and make a couple other adjustments. What I ended up with is:

\renewcommand{\closing}[1]{\par\nobreak\vspace{2\parskip}%
\stopbreaks
\noindent
%\ifx\@empty\fromaddress\else
%\hspace*{\longindentation}\fi
\parbox{2\indentedwidth}{\raggedright
\ignorespaces #1\\[6\medskipamount]%
\ifx\@empty\fromsig
\fromname
\else \fromsig \fi\strut}%
\par}

I commented out the \ifx statement (I always have a from address. I then add a 2x multiplier to the \parbox width and a 2x multiplier to the vertical space between the last paragraph and the signature block at the \vspace{\parskip} code block.

The result was a letter that looks professional and suits my eye. I had one final task — to include that code in my standard letter style. To accomplish that, I needed to edit my dletter.sty file. That’s located in the ~/Library in the filesystem.

Unfortunately, that directory is hidden in OS X Lion. Urgh… A little more searching led me to a MacWorld article. The fix is relatively easy (I knew it would be). From a terminal (Oh No! The Shell!!!!), execute the command chflags nohidden ~/Library. That unhides the library directory. Patching my style file was then trivial.

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Private Reserve Midnight Blues

Posted Sun May 13, 2012 in Writing

Still searching for the perfect blue-black, I ordered a sample of Private Reserve Midnight Blues to try, based on a recommendation from a reader on FPN. I love this color! It’s a very dark blue with none of the turquoise seen in some of the other inks I tried.

Dry time is reasonable, at least on the coated HP laser paper. It’s not quite as quick as I’d like, but is good enough. On more porous paper PRMB will dry quickly enough to be useful without having to wait.

My only reservation is the lack of real water resistance. The dye will wash off the paper. Still, I decided to order a bottle of PR Midnight Blues. It will do and I love the color.

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Links — 05-12-2012

Posted Sat May 12, 2012 in Links

Another week, another link-list…

Moleskine notebooks are acid-free. This is a good thing because I’m considering going back to Moleskine journals when my last Rhodia is complete. It’s a cost and availability thing.
The Unarchiver (also available on the Apple App Store) is a simple utility that does one thing — it decompresses archives. I’ve been using it for years. It just works.
The Archive Browser is also worth a look.
Dinosaur flatulence linked to prehistoric global warming!?!
I’ve noticed some issues with tire pressures in all of my vehicles. I figured it out! I need Seasonal Air in my tires!
I don’t recall if I shared this, but I Lift Things Up… cracks me up — after watching it maybe 15 times!
A surfer on the biggest wave ever?

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Saturday Ruminations

Posted Sat May 12, 2012 in Family

One of the best things to happen to me in a long time is this dog. She’s lived with us for about a year now.

Wife was in the middle of chemotherapy, I was all over the place emotionally, and I needed motivation to get outside daily. My buddy, Jack, died suddenly and Wife decided that Angel needed to be re-homed because of her (Angel’s) personality.

Although it didn’t work out neatly, I found Ki through a rescue agency, Young Son and I drove over the hill to meet her, and she came home with us.

I wasn’t entirely sure how it would all work, but I needed a buddy to keep me engaged. I had no idea how Ki would fill that role. After a year, though, I can write a few things about it.

As expected (and intended), The Girl needs exercise and interaction. She is engaged with her family and is up-front about what she wants and needs. We walk twice a day, morning and evening, and I try to keep those walks to 20 minutes or more. We also have a couple of play times every day. The play can be wrestling over her Kong bone or playing fetch with same bone in the backyard.

The wrestling can result in “war wounds” — scratches on my arms and hands. Wife fusses at me a little, but I’ve been through other rowdy times in my life when I had scratches and bruises from playing rough. I’m OK with it. They come not from malice on Ki’s part, but from her swatting at the toy to knock it loose. She might have learned that from me, I don’t know. But I make the toy a moving target and she misses.

She has a soft mouth and never bites, even in play. We tug-of-war over the bone, sometimes, and I get pinched. But that’s my own doing and not hers.

I love to watch her move. She has an easy grace with considerable strength. Her muscles move under her subcutaneous fat and are evident when she chases her toy or trots around the backyard on patrol. Her focused attention on the “prey” (the bone) is engaging. She’s a rock-and-roll girl and if she was human, she’d be a tomboy… one of those whom the boys both love and fear. They’d love her for her good looks and companionship and fear her because she could whip their asses without exerting herself.

Then there’s the other side of Ki. She is not just a rowdy girl, but she’s a cuddly-girl. One of my favorite times of the day is the evening just after supper. Wife and I normally watch a little TV together (currently we’re working through the Farscape series). Ki will hop onto the couch and plop down next to me on her blanket. She normally turns around a couple of times and then falls. Usually, a part of her rests on my left leg, then slides down to the surface of the couch. She’ll snooze there with me draping my left arm over her and stroking her side and ears.

After a few months, Wife warmed to The Girl. Wife was a little intimidated at first (everyone knows pit bulls are killers) — her strength and activity could be intimidating. But when Wife was most sick, Ki would hop onto the bed next to her and just be there. She would curl next to Wife and provide what she can, her heat and companionship. Ki did what I couldn’t during some of those long days and provided warmth and care.

Who wouldn’t respond to that?

Ki is really good with Wife. She’s there for her during the day when I’m at the office. She’s generally not far away when either of us is home.

She’s fun to take with us. She loves to see (and smell) new things and places. Her engagement with her surroundings is fun to watch. She tries to figure things out as we go. When we drive, I like to have the window down. There is often a snout next to my left shoulder under the seatbelt, sniffing to catch passing scents.

She’s learning to walk on the leash a lot better. Even a dog learns something when it’s repeated 4,000 times. Actually, I think she’s teaching me to use the lead. Moreover, I think Ki is teaching me a lot of things. She’s teaching me to stay away from the computer for a good part of the day. She’s teaching me to sit and be quiet — to just be for a bit each day. She’s teaching me that getting out early and catching some sun while walking is a good thing. She’s teaching me that there are all kinds of interesting things to see (and smell). She’s teaching me that play is important and that there’s always a little time to play fetch or wrestle on the floor.

She’s teaching me the importance of spending a little time each day on the couch, resting close together and sharing the heat our bodies generate as a part of the oxidation process. On those cool days, when heat is precious, she is teaching me to stay close together because that heat is precious and fleeting.

My dog is smarter than I am in all the important things. That’s something to ruminate on…

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