Goulet on Notes from the Rabbit Hole

What the heck, it's only a buck

Wed, 09 Mar 2016 02:05:31 -0400

The best deal in quality writing instruments going today is, without a doubt, the Jinhao X450. This pen, for only 99 cents shipped from China to the US, should prove to be a gateway drug into the good shit for anyone with good taste and frugal spending habits.

Buying the Jinhao X450 is easy. If you go out on eBay, you’ll find a bunch of them in all kinds of different colors. But you probably won’t find any for 99 cents… unless you know where to look.

various nibs on a Jinhao X750

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:37:46 -0400

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering how to get better performance out of your cheap Chinese fountain pens. I spent a few bucks and got my hands filthy with Hero blue-black ink so that you won’t have to.

I was super excited that our friends over at Goulet Pens (who did not sponsor or participate in this in any way) got through the giant snow storm that just pummeled the US east coast recently, and got a care package out to me. I’ve been collecting their nibs, you see. And this order gave me a pretty nice variety of nibs to work with. Goulet’s nibs are made by JoWo in Germany, stamped attractively with Goulet’s logo, and only cost fifteen bucks bare (use the feed that came with your pen).

Fountain Pens for Cheap Bastards

Sat, 19 Dec 2015 13:30:34 -0400

I’ve enjoyed using fountain pens for a number of years. This probably tickles the same part of my brain that appreciates typewriters and Victrolas. This is a really elegant writing instrument that never should have been allowed to fade back into obscurity and the hobbies of overpaid eccentrics.

If you’re curious about fountain pens, you might be put off by the enthusiasts who pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a pen. You just want something nice to write with, right? Maybe spending $25 to $30 on a Lamy would make sense to you if you already knew that you liked fountain pens.

Reading & Writing Updates

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 09:44:22 -0400

During this calm before our family Christmas storm, I thought I’d drop a fresh State of the Nerd report. This one was going to be all over the map, as I’ve been very busy with a lot of things. But it became clear as I was writing it that it would be too long even if I just narrowed the scope to what I was reading and writing.

Reading Stuff

I’m back to my old habit of parallelized reading, so I’ve got a number of in-progress books right now that I’m jumping back and forth between.