Misc: Pencil Bug: Midnight

As I posted to Flickr, here are the dark pencils in my collection, from left to right (along with where I acquired them). It is tough to pick a favorite in this crowd. It depends on the situation. The top of the class would be 9, 1, and 3.

1-2: Faber Castell 9000 HB & H (gift)
3: Mirado Black Warrior #1 B (PencilThings)
4: Dixon Ticonderoga Black #2 Soft (office supply store)
5: Faber Castell Black Velvet #3 (eBay)
6: Musgrave Unigraph 1200 HB (PencilThings)
7: Mitsubishi 9800 HB (eBay)
8: J.R. Moon Gretta #2 (eBay)
9-10: Tombow Mono HB & H (Dick Blick)

The background is a painting of mine. Yes, this photo looks like I'm copying Ninth Wave - I'm sure they won't mind.

This is the third Pencil Bug post of mine. Here are one and two.

Misc: Pencil Bug: The Naturals

As I mentioned late last year, I developed a minor obsession with pencils after being awakened by the Pencil Revolution website. I draw in my sketch book a couple days each week and I use pencils at work almost exclusively. My little collection has grown quite a bit in the past six months. Since my last blog post about pencils is the most visited page on this site (after the homepage of course), I decided to write about them again.

My favorite pencils are often the natural, unpainted variety of incense cedar pencils. A nice coat of varnish is fine - completely bare is even better. The details and my opinions of the pencils pictured are below. A larger photo is available on Flickr.

a) Blackfeet Indian #2: My expectations on this one were really high given all that folks have written about them. It is a very nice pencil but the writing quality didn't blow me away.

• Ferrule: black
• Eraser: pink
• Print: black
• Finish: clear varnish
• Availability: eBay, may be hard to find

b) Musgrave HB Natural Finish: A dark and smooth line comparable to the Forest Choice - maybe smoother. This is one I picked up recently that I'm very happy with. The white eraser makes this one stand out.

• Ferrule: Light gold with a maroon stripe
• Eraser: white
• Print: gold and black
• Finish: clear varnish
• Availability: Pencil Things

c) Forest Choice #2: A very dark and smooth line - these are a little softer than some number two pencils but very nice.

• Ferrule: green
• Eraser: pink
• Print: green
• Finish: no varnish - very smooth
• Availability: Pencil World Creativity Store

d) Mongol Trio Jumbo, triangular barrel: This pencil is too big for me to write with for extended periods, but my son loves it and it looks great.

• Ferrule: black with copper stripe
• Eraser: pink
• Print: black
• Finish: clear varnish
• Availability: Pencil Things

e) Mirado Woodtone #2 HB: Not as smooth or dark a line as some of the competition but it doesn't require sharpening as often either. This may be the same wood, lead, and performance as the popular Mirado Black Warrior.

• Ferrule: gold with red stripe
• Eraser: pink
• Print: gold
• Finish: tinted varnish
• Availability: office supply stores

f) USA General's Cedar Pointe 333 # 2 HB: The lead produces a nice balance of darkness and hardness. I like the look and feel of this pencil a lot. The writing can feel a tad grittier than some of the softer number two pencils but this is still one of my favorites.

• Ferrule: black
• Eraser: black
• Print: black
• Finish: no varnish
• Availability: Dick Blick

g) Dixon Ticonderoga Woodgrain #2 Soft: A good line but the point goes blunt a little too quickly. I prefer a #2.5 for Dixon pencils but I've only seen them in yellow. Also, the varnish of this one is a little too golden for a cedar pencil.

• Ferrule: green with yellow stripes
• Eraser: pink
• Print: green
• Finish: tinted varnish
• Availability: office supply stores

Misc: Generation M

Derek hits the nail on the head as he describes Generation M:

Frankly, I never saw much connection between myself and those [Generation X and Y] labels. And lately, I've been thinking about what truly defines my generation. Us web geeks, us iPodders and remixers. I think we're Generation M. Here's my loose, entirely unscientific definition in three parts.

Read the rest on Powazek.com.

Misc: Redefining Adulthood

There is a brilliant article in New York Magazine titled Up With Grups that put into words something that was becoming more and more apparent to me:

He owns eleven pairs of sneakers, hasn’t worn anything but jeans in a year, and won’t shut up about the latest Death Cab for Cutie CD. But he is no kid. He is among the ascendant breed of grown-up who has redefined adulthood as we once knew it and killed off the generation gap.

I'm in my mid-thirties and was recently wearing a pair of Vans, khaki-camo cargo shorts, and a Threadless t-shirt thinking I'm certainly not the only one resisting the traditional definition of growing up. The clothes, the music, the state of mind: I have no intention of moving on to more mature things.

On the flip side, it is somewhat off-putting that my natural inclination has now been summarized into a stereotype for news anchors to toss around on the local morning show.

[New York Magazine article via Design Observer]

Misc: The Pencil Bug

I have always used pencils (who hasn't?) but the reviews on Pencil Revolution alerted me to their finer details.  I realized I had a couple decent pencils around the house and I tried out some others to see what all the fuss was about. I soon became pretty well addicted.  Here's what I have at my desk, as shown from left to right in the photo (larger version):

• Staedtler Topstar Dry highlighters in yellow and green. These were given to me a few years ago and are finally seeing regular use.
• Ticonderoga Checking pencils in carmine red.  These have quickly become a required item on my desk. They're great for marking up my notes, tasks, and printed documents.
• Mirado Black Warriors are my current favorite general purpose pencils. They write great, look great, and the cedar smells great too.
• PaperMate American Naturals are a nice alternative (as reviewed over at Pencil Revolution). I really like the feel of the unfinished, hexagonal wood and the overall understated style of this pencil.  The Maritime Hotel stocks a similar unfinished pencil that I'd like to add to my collection.
• Ticonderoga Tri-Writes are classic yellow and triangular in shape. I haven't given these enough of an audition to draw conclusions yet. They're marked "soft" which may have scared me away.
• Keith Haring Doubles from Acme Writing Tools. I received a nice metal tin containing a dozen of these fine pencils for Christmas several years ago.  They feature the colorful and energetic artwork of Keith Haring. For the longest time I shied away from using them often because they looked too nice to sharpen away. I finally got over that silliness and now use them regularly.
• Dixon Tri-Conderogas are oversized, triangular pencils (also reviewed on Pencil Revolution).  They look and feel really great with a matte black rubbery coating but I never got comfortable with the large size.
• Col-Erase Light Blue. I pulled this one out of the art supply bin after reading about Steve of Blue Pencil Unlimited and haven't given it my full attention yet.  It may be a nice complementary addition to the stable.

Misc: New Coke

I know this is old news and not the point of Luke's article, but I had not heard this explanation before.

Coke invested in “New Coke” on the results of one form of research: blind, small sample size taste tests which Pepsi repeatedly won. They did not consider the results of “home-use” tests, the associations of their brand, or what cola consumers prefer after drinking a whole can (a more realistic user scenario). As a result, they based their new product on its performance within a very small portion of the complete user experience. The first sip of cola, after all, is just one part of buying and enjoying Coke.

Misc: Fizzy Lifting Drinks

Using the World Wide Web to gather and process data from across English-speaking North America, I intend to plot the regional variations in the use of the terms "Pop" and "Soda" to describe carbonated soft drinks.

[via information aesthetics]

Misc: Wristbands Called Safety Risk

Before you wear your cool yellow LiveStrong wristband at the hospital, think twice. Several area hospitals are putting the brakes on Lance Armstrong's cancer organization fundraising bracelets. It's not cold-hearted backlash, but rather a safety precaution.

Patients wear colored bracelets to identify safety needs, said Lisa Johnson, vice president of patient services for Morton Plant Mease Health Care. Yellow stands for 'do not resuscitate.'

From the St. Petersburg Times via Details magazine (article reprint).

Misc: All Posts from 2004

December
Misc: 2005 Calendars for Download
Art: A Couple Paint Links
Quote: On Luck
Web: Smooth Flash Headlines with sIFR
Web: Free PDF Creator
Art: Carl Fudge
Music: iPod Socks
Art: Christopher H. Martin
Music: Beastie Boys vs The Beatles
Art: My Painting "Attack"
Music: Download Sites
Art: Marla Olmstead
Art: Stuart Davis
Web: Thoughts After Web Design World 2004
Book: Geometry of design
Misc: The Dog Has His Reasons
Web: More Extensions for Firefox
Web: Google Suggest Beta
Misc: Nostalgia in a Video Game
Web: Photo Fades Without Flash
Web: Gmail Doesn't Dig CSS
Art: Nostalgia in a Found Object
Quote: Think Creatively
Design: Icons

November
Quote: Creativity
Web: Firefox Browser
Music: Jay-Z vs The Beatles
Misc: Hack Yourself
Book: Creating a Web Page with HTML
Quote: Matrix Reloaded
Web: Free Design Resources
Design: The Man Behind the FedEx Logo
Music: Modest Mouse, Grand National, Midlake
Music: NBA Tells Player to Stop Listening to iPod
Design: 100% Handmade Friends
Web: CSS Resources
Web: Usability Resources
Web: HTML Email Newsletters
Web: Using Patterns in Web Design

October
Web: Media Ratings
Web: Search Sites
Web: Color Generators
Music: Citizen Cope
Music: Solid Steel
Web: Table-Free CSS Layouts
Web: Please Make Me Think!
Quote: Heraclitus
Quote: Wilde

September
Web: CSS Stuff On A List Apart
Book: Photoshop: channel-chops
Web: Some Blogs I Frequent

August
Web: Trade This Site

July
Web: Site Pairs
Music: TV on the Radio
Music: iPod Ubiquity
Book: Defensive Design for the Web
Music: Fiona Apple
Music: Rachael Yamagata
Photoshop: Extrude Filter
Music: Gift of Gab
Photoshop: Tutorial Sites
Music: Interpol
Misc: Welcome

Misc: 2005 Calendars for Download

PDF calendars to download and print:

• Comadivision
  
• FontFont (my favorite)
  
• Lounge72 (first 3 months available)

Update: I've heard the FontFont calendar doesn't work with older versions of Acrobat Reader. You may download version 7.

Misc: The Dog Has His Reasons

This is so funny I had to pass it along. Go read Dooce's blog entry Another Reason I Probably Shouldn't Be Allowed to Care for Living Things:

This now makes two members of my family who run (or sit in the case of Leta) shrieking at the site of the vacuum cleaner, the other member being the dog, but the dog… the dog has his reasons.

Misc: Nostalgia in a Video Game

Atari® Anthology™ includes 85 classic games for PS2 or XBox:

Take a step back in time to the early days of video arcades with an unmatched compilation of unforgettable and authentic Atari titles. All of the games are faithfully reproduced with the great sights, sounds and fast action that made them so popular.

Misc: Hack Yourself

From the Bloodletters self-improvement rant, Hack Yourself:

We're nothing but the stories we tell ourselves. We know in our hearts what kind of people we are, what we're capable of, because we've told ourselves what kind of people we are. You're a carefully-rehearsed list of weaknesses and strengths you've told yourself you have.

[via 43 Folders]