The Reader

Black and White lamy pen and ballpen

First entry of my 2009 journal

For this year,I have chosen to use a 'monologue' diary which cost about 40% of my previous moleskine diary.The choice was based mainly on the better layout of the daily pages.When it comes paper quality and binding,moleskine is still superior. For my journal,I still prefer the moleskine classic notebook but for this year,I have chosen the blank pages over the lined pages.By so doing,I hope I could be more creative in writing and recording my personal journal.

From my past two years experience in journaling using moleskine notebook,I only used on average about two notebooks in a year-just about 30 sen per day.

Yesterday was my first time using a blank moleskine with some sketches as shown above.

Moleskine users..

PalmX-Flickr
Originally uploaded by Honeytar

When was the last time you wrote a personal letter to someone? Honestly,I can't remember...it must be more than 30 years ago when I was at the university. How about you?

What I meant by writing here is when I get a piece of paper(or a notebook) and start writing using my pen(or nowadays ballpen).Typing on the keyboard is just pressing a button and an alphabet comes out in a size and font which one has selected.The only thing personal is the content. What about writing using pen and paper?When I do write,I am actually drawing an alphabet as well as the words as I go along.No standard size and font to follow.It is all mine all the way...

Which is more meaningful to someone who receives a thank you note  personally hand-written compared to an email or sms(text message)?

By the way, there is a growing group of us Malaysians who still enjoy writing with their pen and paper as reported by a bookshop which sells moleskine notebook.Most of us don't write letters anymore, but some of us  do write journals and draw some sketches..

You are most welcome to join us here.Link to our first meeting.

Photo : Thank Honeytar for allowing to use your photo.

Replacing old Lamy

Two years ago I bought a Lamy Safari.You can see it here.After being used and misused by me, the nib is a bit disoriented.Yesterday,I had the opportunity to enter The Pen Galley at The Weld,Kuala Lumpur.A few months ago,I visited the shop during weekend but it was closed.When I entered the shop yesterday afternoon, I was greeted with a friendly smile by Mr Jamal.The wallet in my pocket was literally shaking in my pants.My eyes began a fast horizontal scan just like the eyes of my wife when she enters Southern Pottery Shop!From the wallet's previous experience, a few blue pieces will fly away because the man has zero resistance to prevent him from buying a good pen if he likes it.By the way,the pen cost me about RM75.It is a really good buy.

Let me give a free advertisement to this shop.If you are looking to buy Nakimi Capless fountain pens, you can get 20% of list prices.I can assure you that these are much cheaper than when I bought  one Pilot Fermo in Singapore recently.By the way,this shop also sells pens that cost thousands of ringgit.I dare not look at them even though they were staring at me.These Lamys are good enough for my level of penmanship in my moleskine notebook and the values of cheques I sign.

Pen maintenance

  Pen maintenance 
  Originally uploaded by Adibi

My old Parker Frontier is having problem.The ink does not flow anymore.So, I took it my friend Nazley,who is a pen collector and he knows how to do some 'mechanic' work.He helped me to clean up my Parker using ultrasonic device and now my old parker is okay.Thanks Nazley.

I share his enthusiasm in collecting good looking and well engineered fountain pen.Today,he showed me the mechanic of how the ink flows properly in the right quantity and explained  a few pen terminologies like GP,CT,GT etc.

After using fountain pen for more than 40 years,I discovered that there is a ball bearing in the fountain pen and its function!

Penulis & Blog

  Penulis & Blog 
  Originally uploaded by Firdaus Ibnu Ariff

Last Saturday morning,Firdaus and me went  to DBP to participate in a seminar with the above title(Writers & Blogs).There,I met Fauzi Shafie,my schoolmate and my friend Jiwarasa who is one of the panel speakers.(My thanks to Firdaus for the photo shown on the right)

First,let me congratulate DBP for taking this initiative.Jiwarasa has articulated very well about his experience in blogging and showed the landscape,terrains and landmarks in the cyberworld and blogsphere.
Puan Nisah Hj Harun also elaborated very well about the roles of blog for writers.For more detailed report on the event,please read this.

I am grateful that I have met new friends and learnt a lot from the two speakers.By the way,I was sitting next to the senior officer of DBP and I managed to whisper to her that this is a good event that needs follow through and action plan to increase more blogs written in Bahasa Melayu.Rightly used, blogs can be utilised to achieve a few objectives of DBP.

By the way, the new minister of Information and Sport/Youth have recently acknowledged the  importance of blogs.

Meeting of Pens

The photo shows my pens and ball pens.I honestly don't know why I buy all of them but their prices are mostly less than RM10 each- a few are RM100 plus,nothing expensive.

May be I just love to have them because they are nice and functional as well.If the pens/ballpens could talk, they may tell each other that I am crazy to need all of them;-)

Talking about pens, are they still mightier than the swords? I believe they do but in different medium and use in specific war zones.

Writing:Any where and any time..

Some people asked me how I got the time to write. Well, I write any where I am and whenever I feel like it. All you need is a pen a piece of paper(preferrably a notebook) - which every one can afford.Now, I write everyday-in my notebook and my computer. By the way, I enjoy both worlds - analogue and digital. Both have their own strenghts and weaknesses.

Just carry a pen and notebook with you all the time.Then, take some time to write every day. After a few months, it became my habit. Just tell yourself that it is cool to write;-)

Note: The photo shown was taken by my son Ahmad Maher when we were going home(balik kampung) during the recent Eidul Adha.

Hari Raya gift!

This morning I received a lovely suprise in my email inbox telling me that I have won a competition in writing  a catch phrase for moleskine notebook. This coincides well with Eidul Fitri tomorrow.InsyaAllah,I will celebrate the win tomorrow.May I thank  Allah swt,the Owner of All The Praises:

Below is a copy of the email:

You've been sent a Flickr Mail from Juan Kerr:

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:: You won the Volants!

And the winner is ...

Adibi with this:

I love the Moleskine because it makes me write and keeps me writing.

If you could let me have your full postal address by
return, I'll get them posted off ASAP.

Thank you Juan Kerr for selecting me to receive the honour:-)
By the way, you can have a look at a few snapshots of my moleskine here.

Choosing a fountain pen

  Lamy Safari 
  Originally uploaded by Adibi.

I know that nowadays,not many people are using fountain pens. Ball pens are more convenient. I agree, but personally I prefer fountain pens despite some gel ball pens are almost equally good.My choice of ballpen is Uniball Signo model 207,size 0.7mm.It cost me RM5.80

Currently, I have two fountain pens-one Parker and one Lamy Safari. actually one is enough but I happen to like both of them.Each cost me less than RM80. This is small amount to pay if I compared to my previous Mont Blanc that I used to have when I was younger. I love it very much but it bleeds all the time.However, it had served me for more than five years..

If you wish to know more on how to choose a fountain pen,please click on the link below the photo on the right.