Pens in Use - May 24, 2024

I discuss fountain pens, math, and introduce the concept of burnout. I also discuss the squirrels and the end of the school year.
Pilot Custom 823 (F) - Omas Black (February 21, 2024)
• Survivor Pens - Pilot ...
Stanford Wood Pens Miyuki Magic (BB) - Sailor Jentle Apricot (November 3, 2021)
• First Impressions - St...
Kaweco v16 (sport) - Akkerman Groenmarkt Smaragd (December 7, 2019) 🐿🐿🐿
• First Impressions: Kaw...
Geha Futura 714 (steno) - Geha Black (January 13, 2020)
• First Impressions: Geh...
Aurora Style (B) - J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis (August 24, 2016)🐿🐿🐿
• Aurora Style Gemstone
Parker Sonnet (B-CI) - Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses (September 26, 2018)🐿🐿🐿
• Parker Sonnet
Parker Duofold (BB) - Omas Grey (December 5, 2018)🐿🐿🐿
• Parker Duofold Centenn...
Parker Frontier (M) - Lamy Turquoise (April 10, 2019)🐿🐿🐿
• Parker Frontier
Chapters
Start 00:00
Pens 00:38
Math 14:59
Burnout 24:06
Outtro 31:30
Links
Chris Saenz Video - • Fountain Pen Burnout
PenBoyRoy Video - • Episode 191: Fountain ...
The First Time the Pen Habit Quit - • Thanks
Line Multiplication - whizz.com/blog/how-the-japane...
Line Multiplication - lifehacker.com/visualize-math...
KZbin Video Link
• Pens in Use - May 24, ...
Pens in Use Music
• Sayonara Camtasia Audi...
Visit me on Instagram
/ waskisquirrel
Visit my slowly growing website at:
www.evernote.com/pub/jwaskiew...
For High Resolution Photos Visit:
www.evernote.com/shard/s630/s...

[@Calcprof]

Your multiplication is a clever way to keep track (geometrically) of what gets added to what in the adding part of the usual method. I really like your driving videos.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I like it, especially because of the need to keep track of place value (I failed on that in the example with the zero). Of course, definitely limited. Hopefully there will be a driving video next weekend!

[@teresaharris-travelbybooks5564]

I enjoyed the look at your pens in use and I like the driving music. Looking forward to another driving video.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

More to come! I'm excited by the potential of this summer!

[@davidanderson3425]

Yes, I watched the PenBoyRoy video about fountain pen burnout. I could definitely relate to it. At the start of a new hobby I tend to absorb as much information as possible. This means I subscribe to a lot of fountain pen KZbin channels and purchase far more pens than I would ever need. Nowadays I only watch a small number of pen related videos and my desire to buy pens has waned. The good news, in my case, is that I enjoy other pastimes as well. When my interest in one subject declines I know I can enjoy other things. History has shown that my enthusiasm can be re-ignited at any time and I can go back to hobbies that were previously 'out of favour'. Your mathematical demonstration was interesting. The subject was never a strong point of mine at school. I remember my first calculator was a weird mechanical device involving a stylus used to move columns of numbers that would slide up and down inside the case. It was called the "Magic Brain Calculator". I was in my last year or two of school when the early electronic calculators were introduced. Many were far too expensive at the time for poor scholars and we weren't allowed to use them in class anyway.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I like how you describe it: I think hobbies, especially collecting hobbies, go in cycles. I have one of those calculators!!!! I need to do some videos on math devices...especially since my interest in acquiring fountain pens has waned.

[@johnnyjet3.1412]

I’ve decided to enjoy my collection of Sheaffers.

[@sajjadhusain4146]

I’m assuming they are mainly the classic, vintage Sheaffers. Because the modern ones all seem to me to be not worth anybody’s money. An insult to the venerable old brand. Ditto, something like Conklin, then..and now.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

That's the way to do it. I've ordered some parts for a pen repair, but haven't actually bought a pen in many months. I'm not giving up buying, but I think my acquisition phase is ending.

[@louishalleux]

Hi, I have never seen this approach to multiplication. Fun but very limited. Good recovery.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

That's a good description. I like it because it insists on understanding place value (something where I failed in the example with the zero). But definitely not a universal!

[@sathishrao7926]

I can confirm that I now have “Fountain pen exhaustion” when it comes to buying more pens and it has been a while since I bought one (and I might have bought that Kaweco Piston filler if not for‘exhaustion’).. Thankfully I’ve been as excited as ever to ink & use the pens I’ve bought in the last few years.. (That I’ve been buying Casio watches like crazy instead of pens is a story for another day!). I’d love to see Drive shots of ND, the state I didn’t know existed before I started watching this channel (in spite of my short, medium and long term stays in the US since late 90s)

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I think a lot of hobbies go in cycles. So is "burnout" the right term? Hopefully you're enjoying seeing a more rural part of the US!

[@julieridge9161]

I enjoy your driving videos! Very relaxing and thought provoking. I hope you enjoy your summer, there's something special about those first few days off after school's out!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

It has been a great few days and for the first time since I can remember, I didn't get sick as soon as school ended! Busy with graduation and Memorial Day, but it's a good kind of busy.

[@MrAndrew1953]

Look forward to driving videos and book reviews. In Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺 it’s getting very cold overnight and in the mornings. (4.8C around 7 am this morning) .it was foggy and sunny during the day. I just listened to a few football games. I’ve been watching the Giro d’Italia ( bicycle racing) mainly to see the countryside they ride through,which has been pretty amazing.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Sounds like a good day to enjoy your house. And, yes, that race goes through a beautiful area.

[@Juan_C84]

That’s a nice pen assortment this week. Glad you’re progressing in your ink journey. I’ve seen the burnout topic coming up recently regarding the fountain pen hobby. It seems to vary person to person as far as the sheer number of pens and inks each have before experiencing it but the same theme of feeling overwhelmed and indifferent is similar in all the cases of various pen influencers talking about it. I look forward to your driving videos as the topics you mention are sometimes labeled “taboo” but they are topics that are worth discussing, and you discuss it in a way that is direct, to the point and shows your perspective, which is conducive to a great conversation and discussion even with those that may disagree with your views. Again, great video! 👍👍

[@WaskiSquirrel]

KZbin is funny how it sometimes posts comments twice!

[@EnCwoisant]

I have seen this multiplication approach before, but I first learned it without the lines. For two digit numbers, AB and CD, multiply the tens (AxC), then criss-cross and add (AxD+BxC), then multiply the ones (BxD). You may be able to see how this approach is the same as drawing the lines and counting the intersections.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

What's crazy is you just described something taught in Algebra. Higher mathematics generalize what we're taught in more basic mathematics.

[@FGBFGB-vt7tc]

The review you asked on the Parker Vector USA has several posts now. By adjusting the tines this pen has opened a lot!. It is still not a pen I would use daily but its shortcomings are becoming more manageable. A good pen for the money, that said there are a lot of options that will give a dramatically better experience for not so much more money.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I'm glad you updated me! I don't get notifications of follow-ups. I can see what you are saying about options with a better experience and I agree with that.

[@FGBFGB-vt7tc]

@@WaskiSquirrel Mr. Squirrel, It was a riot to review it. As many works of art, it says something different to the casual viewer and to the person that lives with it. Getting to live with it at least three days changed my perception of it. I like it a lot more than when I started reviewing it, but it was cleaned and went to storage. On a side note, I found a couple of vermeil Aurora Hastils. One of them has a crack on the plastic side of the exterior of the feed directly where it attaches to the 14kt gold nib and it leaks a little bit of ink. It is still bearable but it worries me. I am planning to thoroughly clean it then apply a little bit of crazy glue. What would be your recommendation?, is it an easy nib unit to disassemble to repair properly?, how would you repair it?. Sorry for the barrage of questions. Thanks in advance!

[@ChrisSaenz13]

I'm really looking forward to hearing your more in depth driving video on fountain pen burnout! Wishing you an awesome summer!!!!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Thank you so much! I'm on my second draft of the script. And, on an unrelated note, I'll be using driving footage to Mountain, ND. Interesting name for a town in this state! I hope I make some unique contributions to the topic.

[@christophermckellar1352]

Thanks. Interesting about BlackSwan and other Noodler’s inks doing strange things after having been in a pen for a while. Enjoy your summer!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

They get so they take forever to dry, sometimes overnight. And one or two of them change color.

[@christophermckellar1352]

@@WaskiSquirrel Good to know! I used Noodker’s black on a watercolor postcard once. Two days later, I could still smear it with my thumb. Turns out Noodler’s black gets down and joins with the fibers of the paper, but watercolor paper has sizing on it, which doesn’t let that happen. Good lesson to learn for me! I wonder how Blackbirds … will do.

[@ichirofakename]

Not exactly burnout, but my ink and paper usage have settled down, and my pen collection is practically there as well. This makes youtube reviews of new products merely a matter of idle curiosity, rather than pre-purchase research. I wonder what I will do with all that time I'm not watching pen videos...

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I think we all get to the point where we have "enough". And I'll admit that my pen video watching has gone way down. I'm reading more. Maybe that's the answer.

[@archivist17]

Driving videos are interesting, as it gives you a chance to dive a little deeper into a topic, while we get to see North Dakota's geography and history. Btw, I like the multiplication technique. I think I saw that it was taught in India, but I'm not sure.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Glad to hear that! And this multiplication technique is actually taught in a lot of places.

[@drew......]

When you finally exhaust some inks, what will you do with the empty bottles? Keep them as trophies or get rid of the empties?

[@WaskiSquirrel]

Some bottles are nothing special and only worthy of recycling. But a really good bottle often lives a new life holding some other ink...like my Akkerman bottle currently holding J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis.

[@jeffroberts532]

I don’t yet have the new Kaweco piston filler, but I do have a V16 that I sought out & acquired after watching one of your PiU vids a few years ago. Before that vid I had no idea that Kaweco ever made a piston filler. Now I know they’ve made many models and I’ve learned that I greatly prefer the vintage models to any of the modern offerings. I expect I would be disappointed with a new Kaweco piston filler, so I’m not looking to purchase one, especially considering the price. I’m glad to hear of your upcoming plans for new vids (he says with trepidation). 😊 You are always interesting! BTW, isn’t that graphical math you demonstrated known as Common Core?

[@WaskiSquirrel]

There are a lot of wonderful vintage piston fillers, and so far I've paid far less for any of them than this new Kaweco. This method may have been taught as part of Common Core. But it is taught in a number of countries.

[@archivist17]

I got a Frontier recently, and was quite disappointed by it. 😞

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I'm sorry to hear that. I must have a good one.

[@archivist17]

@@WaskiSquirrel or else mine is an outlier

[@sajjadhusain4146]

Very nice line-up of eight pens, as always. Alas, the Sonnet is awfully underwhelming. As are all of Parker’s modern pens. Only the Duofold, (I own both the Centennial and the International) is the sole great contemporary Parker pen today. I love the Aurora Style a lot. I own two; a glossy black with rose gold cap (B) and another lovely red (paprika) with a fine nib. The steel nibs write wonderfully. With the very pleasantly ‘toothy’, feedback-y smoothness of Aurora’s nibs, whether steel or gold. For $100, you get a classy, reliable pen that is 100% made-in-house. I’ll always keep my Style pens. They survived a few culls of the collection. I reckon I’ll always keep both of them. I’ve seen just a few of the recent videos on ‘burn-out’ relating to the pen/ink hobby and other aspects of our lives. Very interesting to watch and hear personal perspectives on the issue. I don’t think I’ve experienced burn out in anything in my life so far. I’m sure I would have gone through it, though, if I had to work in an office or for somebody else in a salaried job, in general. Being self-employed is something I’m grateful for. Romantic entanglements is another arena fraught with burn out issues. I’ve felt particularly stressed recently with the events surrounding the repression of the continuing and legitimate student protests at my alma mater, Columbia University. I know a few of the protesting students quite well. Always good to see a driving video. I’ll watch and comment as usual if the topics you intend to talk about interest me enough.

[@WaskiSquirrel]

The Dufold is a really nice pen! As for the Sonnet: it's small, but I usually enjoy it, just not with this ink. This brand of ink is a gamble in any pen. Yes, the Style has nice feedback. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I enjoy it, and it helped me really appreciate my own Aurora 88 pens. Burnout seems to be a topic on a lot of KZbin channels. Honestly, my only true burnout happened in teaching, and it happened because I was putting too much time into the job without balance. You brought up the protests. Emotional investment can definitely lead to burnout. And one effect of burnout can be apathy. It's hard to maintain that kind of investment, especially against a system that disagrees.

[@keraba1]

I bet you would not have made the math mistake had you used a fountain pen. ;-)

[@WaskiSquirrel]

So I actually prefer to use a fountain pen for math. One teacher asked me why and my explanation was that I wanted to see the mistakes I'd already made and didn't make them again. That's still true, but it is inconvenient when trying to make something to show to students...

[@Juan_C84]

That’s a nice pen assortment this week. Glad you’re progressing in your ink journey. I’ve seen the burnout topic coming up recently regarding the fountain pen hobby. It seems to vary person to person as far as the sheer number of pens and inks each have before experiencing it but the same theme of feeling overwhelmed and indifferent is similar in all the cases of various pen influencers talking about it. I look forward to your driving videos as the topics you mention are sometimes labeled “taboo” but they are topics that are worth discussing, and you discuss it in a way that is direct, to the point and shows your perspective, which is conducive to a great conversation and discussion even with those that may disagree with your views. Again, great video! 👍👍

[@WaskiSquirrel]

I was surprised by how much the burnout topic is appearing in very diverse KZbin channels. I'm going to have to address how KZbin burnout is different from burnout in other hobbyists. I hope my driving videos succeed this summer in being thought provoking and worth listening to.