Simple Living

My current interest is in my nascent Fountain Pen Collection and I've been planning how best to proceed over the next 12 Months increasing my Collection to a total of Six (6) Pens.  Presently, I own only three (3) Pens; all Metropolitan's and feel it necessary to add some variety & quality. Current Inventory Pilot Metropolitan Classic (Black) Retro Pop (Turquoise) Retro Pop (Purple) Iroshizuku Ink Kon-Peki Murusaki-Shikibu Future Desired: Pens Pilot Custom 74 Black -- $75 -- Mar 2018 Platinum 3776 Blue -- $75 -- Aug 2018 Platinum 3776 Red -- $ 75 -- Dec 2018 Accessories Pen Case (3 Pack) -- $25 -- Aug 2018 Estimated Outlay -- $250 Update 12/31/17 I've delayed my planned purchases and will make them contingent on successfully passing my Certification Exams for Python and R respectively.  The dates can vary, but more or less I want to 'win' these pens by passing the examinations. The Metropolitans have held up well and are being reinked every few days due to my s

I ordered two (2) Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pens from the Retro Pop Collection in Turquoise & Purple.  Both are Fine Point Nibs and with exception of the Color & Design patterns on the cross section they are identical to the Metropolitan Classic Collection. I'm Glad I purchased additional Metropolitan Fountain Pens as it does make life easier having several pens to choose from rather than rely on a single pen. Contents The pens come in the same standard packaging as other Pilot Metropolitan's and includes both a single Black Cartridge & Con-20 Style Ink Converter.  It makes the Metropolitan's probably the best starter pen as it has everything you need to begin writing.   Nib Both pens were a bit scratchy after their first inking of Iroshizuku Ink.  I grabbed my Metropolitan Classic and confirmed it writes smoother and I'm guessing these just need to be used a while to adjust & align the Nib's.  I vaguely recall the Classic was very scratch

My notes as I research and learn about the various models of Entry Level Pilot Fountain Pens. Criteria for 'Entry Level' Price Range $ 10 ~ $60 MSRP Normal Refillable (Converter / Cartridge, etc) List 78G Cavalier Cocoon Ecrino Kakuno Knight Lucina Metropolitan Classic Retro Pop Animal Print Minuet Penmanship Petit1 Plumix Prera

It appears I've misplaced and possibly lost my beloved Platinum Century 3776 Fountain Pen.  This is a bummer as it cost me quite a bit of money; estimating $75 ($65 Pen + $10 Converter). While I have my Pilot Metropolitan, it's not the same as having a Gold Nib Pen.  I'm not ready yet to invest in another expensive Fountain Pen and will have to think about how to better ensure I avoid misplacing and losing such an expensive item. A real bummer....

I scored a pair of AKG Headphones Model EO-IG955 that come with the Samsung Galaxy S8+ Phone.  A friend bought the phone, knew I love headphones and gave them to me, very generous! Basic Features It's a fairly nice pair of 'free' headphones and while Specs are hard to find online the best I could gather: In-Line Microphone Volume UP/DOWN PAUSE/RESUME The cabling is also braided cloth up until where the Earbuds split and that portion is all rubber.  The braiding is a nice touch as it reduces chance for a tight tangle, although it would have been better if they made it 100% braided. Sound They are about par with the Apple Earbuds with a slight edge in possibly Upper-Mids and Bass.  They are certainly more secure as they have flex tips you insert into your ear, but not so intrusive like on my Klipsch R6i's. The R6i's are more Bass Heavy tuned and beat the AKG's, but I did notice a slightly wider soundstage with the AKG's so certain music felt a bi

Made a short stop in Las Vegas for a few days.  Stayed on the Strip and was quite fun to see the old town again.  Haven't been here in years and mostly just had a few beers and did some sight seeing.  While it was great to see Vegas again,  it's just not the same unless you go there with a bunch of friends to party. The Old Fashioned wasn't half bad...but to be honest for $17 in Las Vegas it should have been spectacular.  I get better Old Fashion's back home and that's part of the reason I'm no longer impressed or amazed by this City.

Taking my Final International Trip for the Year and visiting Seoul, South Korea via Incheon Airport (ICN). Was a brief trip for a few days and stayed with relatives. Hung out at the Mall and ate at various Restaurants around town. Uneventful, best kind of trip. Day 1 - Flight to ICN Sat in Economy and it's quite good the Service & Amenities.  Free Beer, Free Movies and a palatable Meal. The Meal wasn't half bad and generally I've found anytime Airlines do a Chicken & Rice Meal Combo it warms up nicely.  The Kochujang Sauce was a brilliant idea and made this a fairly delicious meal. A few hours later in the flight they served Shin Ramen.  Was first time I had that on a plane and while it was okay, was too salty and I just ate the noodles and skipped the soup. I just stuck with more beer! Day 2 - Seoul It was a Delivery Food Party and stayed in all day and ordered four (4) different meals (sadly, only remembered to snap a pick of the Tonkatsu Bento): Chachamyun + T

I've begun preparing for MCSA Exam 70-480 - Programming in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3.  There are a total of sixteen (16) chapters.  I already was skimming as quite a bit of this stuff I already know, although they go into greater detail into certain things like lossy vs. lossless which was something I never really paid attention to before on why choose JPG, GIF, PNG or SVG; so in that sense this book has been quite useful.  6/3 - Chapter 1 & 2 -- VS2012 + HTML5 Yeah, I know sometimes it actually helps to study with a Pint of Beer. 6/4 - Chapter 3 -- JavaScript Sidecar + JavaScript! Update 12/17/17 // Cancelled! As is life...giving up my studies in Web Apps.  Well, for now.  I do wish I know where my Platinum 3776 Fountain Pen went...this book was the last one I studied while writing with that pen!

I'm happy I waited and just learned that Microsoft has created a new MCSA certification for Web Applications that is more closely tailored to what I do.  It basically a trimmed down version of the MCSD that eliminates the 70-487 Azure/Web Services Exam and limits scope to: 70-480 - HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3 70-486 - ASP.NET MVC I had already purchased the books last year and was going to start diving into an MCSD after completing the MCSA in SQL Server 2012/2014, but as always the case life got in the way and I had to focus on other priorities.  I'm now ready to resume my Technical Studies and excited to go for this new MCSA Certification.  The Certification itself is not my goal, but is just helpful as a way to focus my Studies. Budgeting about $460 in Exam Fees and Six Months Training Time so estimating if I stick to it I can get the MCSA Certification by Nov/Dec 2017. Update 12/17/17 // Cancelled... As is life...have to push this one back and maybe pursue in 2018

I was in Shibuya and decided to check out Tokyu Hands Department Store.  They had a modest, but decent selection of Fountain Pens and Inks on the 5th Floor.  Prices are fantastic @ 1500 Yen and I picked up my 2nd Iroshizuku Ink - Murusaki Shikibu (Purple).  I always wanted this ink and its actually cheaper here than on Amazon. The name is a play on words as its both the name of a famous Japanese Author and a Japanese Berry.  The Author was fond of wearing Purple and the Berry is also a Purple Color, but then it could be that the Berry was named after the Author and they made this ink the same color, so who knows... It's not as vibrant as Kon-Peki, but that subdued characteristic is what I like.  It flows better, but then that could also be because I left a few drops of water in the Platinum Pen after rinsing it out before Inking.  I'm quite pleased with this color and happy I took a chance with it. Tokyu Hands was also fun and they let me try a variety of Pens and Colors.  They

Took advantage of the 3-Day Weekend and went to Tokyo via Haneda Airport.  I hit up six (6) places in my short blitz: Shinjuku / Kabukicho Akihabara Shinagawa/Sengaku-Ji Ginza Shibuya Haneda I had several objectives for this Trip: Indulge in my Hobbies (Headphones, Fountain Pens, Shoes, Coffee & Reading) Finish a Novel Stay within Budget Have Fun I was able to achieve all three, but the best part that made this trip Fun, was I stayed within Budget and got to do most of the things I wanted. Budget (Rough Approximations) Took 66,000 Yen with me and only used Cash so it was easy to tell how much I spent as I had 50,000 Yen remaining (5 x 10k Yen Notes). 3,600 Yen -- Lodging 2,000 Yen -- Transportation (Trains) 8,900 Yen -- Food, Drink, Misc 1,500 Yen -- Iroshizuku Ink 16,000 Yen -- TOTAL I am quite pleased by this as that is roughly $ 75 USD / Day and only in Japan can you enjoy traveling that cheap.  The reason being anywhere else I would have to factor in $200 USD / Day Hotels + $1

Took a break from Mishima and purchased 'Snow Country' by Yasunari Kawabata.  I've been wanting to read some of his works and while I couldn't find anything at the Used Bookstore, they had a new copy @ Barnes and Nobles.  Granted it's cheaper online, but I feel its better to just purchase items at the physical store, otherwise what's the point of having Brick n' Mortar Stores anymore? The book is surprisingly a short read of just 177 pages.  I should be able to finish this over the weekend and see what next I'd like to read. Update 5/28/17 Took a bit longer than I anticipated and finished the novel while in Japan.  Figured that would be a more suitable venue to read this book.  Overall, it was okay and I got the general context of the story between Shimamura, Komako and Yoko.  Very simple list of characters, yet it does provide a good story of their interactions. However, the English translation from Japanese probably lost some meaning as I didn't qu

I wanted to spend more time at that Used Bookstore I found last week and was fun exploring their selection of books.  I picked up a few more works by Yukio Mishima.  The prices are very reasonable and barely $5/each (Amazon wants double for a Used Copy or several times that for Brand New).  I'm not able to find them at my local library so this seems to be the next best thing. I could only snag Book# 4 of his Tetralogy and will need to stay on the hunt for Book #1 & #2, which kinda makes it fun like a mini-treasure hunt.  I'll be in LA and Vegas in a few months so I'll try find those books there (already scoping out where the major Used Bookstores are in those Cities...) For Coffee, took the SideCar as I was undecided whether I wanted an Espresso or a Cappuccino.  I love whoever invented this thing as I get the best of both Worlds and somehow the Cappuccino tends to taste sweeter when you can readily compare/contrast it with a bitter Espresso, although this particular on

I took the plunge and picked up the 42mm size Apple Watch Series 2 in Space Gray for $399.  The Apple Watch looks and feels a lot better than I had thought and it was worth the wait to get the basic improvements like GPS and 50M Water Resistance in the 2nd Generation release vs. the 1st Generation. Initial Reaction -- Positive I've only worn it for a few hours and haven't really tried much beyond the basic functions of Email, Text Messages, Phone Calls, Music, etc.  It'll take me at least a week or more to really get a better understanding of how useful this watch will be, but I do like the utility of being able to control & access some features of my iPhone without having to access it.  Sounds silly to say, but makes more sense when you have the Apple Watch and your iPhone jammed inside your pants pocket. Overall, the Apple Watch is very well designed and has an appealing look & feel.  The build quality is good and like most Apple Products they focus on form m