Category Archives: random

I was digging around for pens this afternoon and found (gasp) a fountain pen! Sure, it was a cheap Pilot Plumix, but I had forgotten how my handwriting was forced to improve when using a fountain pen… its pretty crazy actually.

Unlike most normal pens (rollerballs and ballpoints), fountain pens utilize capillary action to move the ink to the paper. This is facilitated by an interesting looking nib, but it creates a nice, smooth line. The characteristic ink marks of a fountain pen are recognized by many as “calligraphy”, as in the time modern “calligraphy” was the norm, dip pens and fountain pens were the most common.

These are the parts of a normal fountain pen:

As you can see, its not quite what you’re probably used to.

A pen-to-pen comparison:

It’ll be what I’m writing my APUSH notes and such with, and hopefully will last some time (until I get a better one!)

For the past couple days, in conjunction with homework, I’ve been playing around with these small alcohol based stoves. Colloquially known as “pepsi-can” stoves, they utilize a simple design and cheap materials to produce an ultralight burner.

I’m not too sure if we’ll actually try using these during the Philmont trek, but they should be a good backup, just in case something happens to the primary white gas stoves. I tested one out today, it works reasonably well:

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Boil time for 1L of water was approximate 5 minutes and 30 seconds; for one can of Progesso soup, 3 minutes and 15 seconds. The fuel reservoir held about 25 minutes’ worth of fuel, about 2 fl. oz.

Conclusion of this experiment seems to be a success, with no major mishaps.

I learned how to make a paper noisemaker today, during my sister’s birthday party. It’s rather interesting, actually.

That’s the finished product. Usage is as such:

Why is it that happiness is naught but a lark,
fleeting away in the night?
Are the stars and the moon so hateful,
so joyless, so empty?
Illusions of caring, of friends, of family -
all shattered, all fallacious fantasy.
It wasn’t so long ago that
life’s promises seemed endless,
yet it is as days and nights pass
in their endless revolution,
as new knowledge is learned and
new ideas created,
that one realizes -
Ignorance is bliss.
Even the perfect family,
the place of indescribable,
unbreakable bonds,
is held together only by
a thin, fragile thread.

An attempt at a poem, inspired by some events in my life and others.