Some Words

Since the last post was the 500th I’ve posted here, I find it fitting that it was one of the most banal that I’ve ever managed to pump out. Banality: just one of the many exciting new services we hope to provide you with here at Some Words.

Continuing on that front, I think I have been getting a lot more boring recently. At least, if my recent purchase history is to be believed. I have it on good authority that Americans are best defined by their recent purchase history. No one has ever failed to follow through after buying those running shoes.

That said, spending just above my comfort level has always been one of the ways that I motivate myself to actually get over the initial hurdle on some challenges. When I wanted to deal with my fear of heights? I bought climbing shoes. Shortly thereafter I was getting up on the rope. I still have overgrip problems, but I wasn’t looking to become a world class climber.

So what would you know from the recent purchases? And here’s where things really start to sound like a Jeanie Teasdale op-ed. I got a bunch of nice pens, and have been practicing my handwriting. Yes, I’m working on penmanship. Apparently I’m not happy with the cheapo pens that come in twelve packs anymore. I would have hated this in the past. Why bother, most of the stuff I do is typed. But like a time bomb, the heckling that my handwriting drew at one of my first post college jobs appears to have finally tipped my over the neurosis threshold into trying to do something about it. While I was working on edits for the past few weeks, I was also carefully working on my print letters. Now I’ve got a cheap fountain pen and have started on cursive.

I read somewhere, and I think I’ve used this quote on the blog before, that “people like to buy books because they think they are buying the time to read them.” I wonder if I like buying pens because I think I am buying the time to write my own projects with them.

Teenage Ian would have wanted to kick my ass for this. Fortunately for me, even if someone invents a time machine, teenage Ian wasn’t so big on climbing, biking, or generally staying healthy. I had more of a cola and video games lifestyle back then. I could probably take seventeen year old me in a fight.