My Daydream

The other day on Twitter, @MissiveMaven retweeted a post about the paper letter coming back. There was a name "Bob Slate" that I was not familiar with. So I clicked on the link and watched the video.

That has been something I've daydreamed about for many years, owning and running my own stationery store! There aren't many small stationers here in Hawaii that I know of. The only one I know of is The Paperie in Kahala Mall Shopping Center. Gone are Fresh Inc and Paper Roses as far as I know. Barnes and Noble or Papyrus stores are probably the best places to purchase stationery, Moleskine, blank journals, etc. Of course greeting cards you can get almost anywhere else. But those are "big box" stores, not locally owned and not run by the owner where you'll probably get more personal service. And none of the aforementioned business promoted handwritten letters or things handwritten.

In my store I would sell good stationery like Crane Papers, and also some European papers like Amalfi and Pineader and Clairfontaine.



I'd like to sell good quality pens like Pelikan, Namiki, Pilot and also offer good affordable pens too. I would offer calligraphy service too. Would try to teach non pen people to become pen people, willing to take the effort to handwrite letters and maybe even seal the envelope with a wax seal.

But you know, I've kinda learned to never say never, however I really doubt this daydream will will every come through. One I don't have the money.Two I prefer to work for an employer where I'm guaranteed a paycheck, get paid vacation and sick leave, have a retirement fund, and most importantly medical insurance! Also I think I'd pretty much suck as a business owner. I don't like charging people money even for services I may provide. I rather someone else charge the customer and pay me for the service. Besides there must be a reason why there is only one stationery store here in Honolulu.

Well I guess dreams can come true!

Blasphemy

Gasp. I am writing with a ballpoint pen!

To some pen fanciers that's frowned upon. It has to be written with a fine fountain pen, a fine writing instrument. But I've ruined so many store bought cards that do not do well with fountain pen ink. After the first downstroke I watch the ink my nice line feather into a hairy blob. A ballpoint never fails here. Heck I'm not even using a fancy ballpoint pen like a Mont Blanc or a Parker. Just a pen I bought from Fisher Hawaii.



I hope she will still like the postcard...

That's it, short post. Pau!

Reduce Reuse Recycle

When I see these three, words I keep hearing North Shore resident Jack Johnson singing his song titled Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. That simple song has allowed those words to sink into my head. I'm starting to get interested in this "movement" to save the Earth. Makes sense ecologically and often financially, it can save you money.

One evening while walking back to our car, (well mini-van to be exact) from dinner at a restaurant, I noticed a store that I had not seen before. Looks like some furniture and other items, but a guitar caught my eye. We walked into Stand Up Eight and had a look around.



Store owner Mark Ariyoshi greeted us.


He explained that his store takes items that were headed to trash landfill, and repurpose them. It started off as primarily furniture items but now has evolved into a cool art gallery of sorts. Now there are items from various artist all created/repurposed out of almost thrown away items.

Here is a small photo gallery of the art in Stand Up Eight...











Even his business card is on recycled cardboard!





One thing that Mark loves is wood, and so do I. I've always loved nice wood on my gun stocks or my guitars, basses and ukulele. He showed me his small work area. I loved seeing the Japanese woodworking tools...better yet they are mostly hand tools!



He told me about how he tried to talk his in laws out of cutting down their mango tree but they did anyway. So he had the trunk resawn and kiln dried. Mango is a very nice wood. Here are a couple shots of his workshop, the mango is in the corner.





Lots of wood items in the store. I saw a lot of "hints" of wood as a part of some items. No sense wasting those little pieces of scrap wood left over after cutting larger pieces to size.



This lamp really caught my eye. I love when the artist leaves a part or parts of wood unmachined in it's natural state.



A closer look shows the beautiful figure in the wood.



The word quirky or eccentric comes comes to mind, but I'm no word guru and I hope I'm not wrong. Maybe I'll just say it's a really cool place.

Near the door is a nice touch, this basket of origami tsuru (crane) made out of what else...recycled paper!



I had to ask how he came up with the name Stand Up Eight. He said it was part of an Asian proverb "Fall down seven times, stand up eight."

Nice!

So why am I writing a post that is not about pens, paper, inks, handwriting, etc that this blog normally is about? I've been thinking about expanding this blog beyond pens and paper etc. I have a Posterous blog for miscellaneous thoughts that used to be for a Photo Project 365 before I gave up on that, but it's a bit redundant for me to have 2 blogs with so little posts. Besides views on Posterous really dropped off after I changed away from Project 365. I may try the photo Project 365 again next year since it does improve my skill as a photographer, but I plan to expand this blog into more than pen and paper.

Besides, aren't some of us pen and paper people much like Mark. We rescue old fountain pens from garage sales. We rebuild them or at the very least replace the ink sac. Some of us find and collect vintage ink bottles. I know there are those who store letters received in old cigar boxes or wine crates.

Anyway for those in Honolulu, Stand Up Eight is on South King St on the makai side past Pensacola St near Bac Nam Vietnamese Restaurant and Cigar Cigar. BTW they sell cigar boxes at Cigar Cigar!

Look for the origami curtain in the window.



You know I forgot about that guitar, the very item that first caught my attention. Perhaps some day I will commission Mark to build a writing desk out of recycled wood.

Maybe I'll do more with pen and paper, and post it here...

Cursive is Easy!

Last night I noticed my six year old son sitting on the sofa and appeared to be writing in a book of some sort. His actions were different from when he draws. I walked over and asked if he was writing, and he was. Are you writing in cursive I asked. Yes, it's easy!

What the...

Keep in mind he's in the first grade and does not write quite fluently yet. But I was shocked at what I saw, It turns out he was copying the guide in this composition book that he found on the bookshelf.



Every now and then he would ask me to write his name "fancy" which meant in script. So I would take my time and write his name in as close to Zanerian Engrosser's Script as I could whether it was with a fountain pen or ball point. And he would take that paper and just admire it with a big smile on his face!

Now with more practice he can write is own name "fancy"



I guess I do have an influence on him!

Old School Versus High Tech

There's a lot in the news today about how we are the "microwave generation" where we want everything done yesterday. Disappearing is the lost art of the handwritten letter with the advent of e-mail, texting, etc. In fact I think I read it started with the telegraph.

Also recently in the news here in Hawaii, public schools will drop teaching cursive handwriting. This is happening all over the US. My sons go to private school, the oldest learned italics last year in the second grade and the teacher said he'll learn cursive this year in the third grade. Anyway most of the news articles about cursive mention that it helps with a lot more than nice writing, but also with motor skills and other brain development subjects though I myself am not smart enough to know what that stuff is.

Sad is the closing of Borders Books because everyone is using e-readers. The post office is on the brink of being shut down because of cyber communication. Hard to find music CDs anymore because of downloads and MP3s. I don't even want to think about vinyl.

I myself may have "wronged" my sons by providing them with iPads, DS, Wii, use of the computer.

I recently started a morning devotional, something I've been wanting to do for some time now. I'm "old school" and really wanted to use a print Bible, no fancy high tech Bible gizmos for me. But recently I've acquired an iPad which made surfing the internet more convenient. I also found a Bible study site with fantastic tools. Instead of a print Bible where you have only one translation or version (unless you have a huge cross reference Bible), you now have a whole list of them, just click and you change from King James, to American Standard to New Living, etc and a lot I've never heard of. Also there are a host of other tools like commentaries, cross references, footnotes and probably a lot I have not looked at yet.

Part of my devotions include journaling, something I've been trying to do unsuccessfully for many years. In fact I wrote a fairly recent post about a new journal I bought which remains rather empty. But since I've started writing in it, I now see the value of writing in cursive. When I write it's the words flow on to the page from my Mont Blanc 149. You can see the ink flow and blend into the words that seem to just flow from from my soul onto the page. My handwriting had been "on the edge" recently because I haven't been writing as much as I'd like to, but my hand seems to become steadier the more I write.

So why not take the best of both worlds? Blend high tech with old school? Letter writing and e-mails both have their place as does Twitter, Facebook , Crane Paper and Hallmark.



Recently we went to an open house for our youngest son's first grade class. It was a combined function for kindergarten and first grade. I was so surprised when the principle for K-1 talked about what they're looking at for the students. They're looking at what they will need for college and beyond. He said the "big thing" now seems to be neurology...again over my head. But he had a list of books he recommended parents read. I didn't bother to write them down because I'm not a reader, but there was one that stood out, "Now You See It". I think there's something in this book that ties into what I am writing here on the post. Thus far I've only downloaded the sample in iBooks but plan to read the entire book. But...

Sigh...

Here we go again. Electronic book or print? We'll see. But when I'm writing...

I prefer cursive!

What kind of letter would you like to receive?

I want to start writing and sending out a lot of handwritten notes, cards and letters, but I have a minor and a bit silly dilemma. It seems I have this reputation for having nice handwriting, and I feel that those who know me almost expect to see correspondence from me written in a nice script. But this gets tough, let me explain.

I've been learning Zanerian's Engrosser's Script for some time now. It is done with a oblique holder and a dip nib. It is a very slow process and would take a very long time to write a lengthy letter this way. Also since I'm concentrating on forming letters I lose track of the composition of my letter. This is lettering (more like drawing letters) and not my handwriting. But learning this craft has influenced my handwriting, and given time it can be pretty decent regardless of what my writing instrument is. But again it takes a bit of concentration trying to write nicely.

But what I would like to do is write without worrying about how my letter or note look aesthetically and focus more on what I want to say. In my opinion any handwritten note or letter looks nice regardless of the sender's handwriting or what kind of writing instrument they use. I still prefer to use a fountain pen and good stationary.

I'm taking a poll, what kind of note or letter would you like to receive?

Nice fancy script?



Or not so fancy but still cursive but with meaning?



Thank you!

The Handwritten Letter

Today I was so excited to get a handwritten letter in the mail. Among the bills and credit card applications, there was nice handwritten blue envelope with a Washington State return address. I thought wow, I think I know a few people in WA! I wonder who it's from?




I opened the envelope, it's a greeting card! I wonder that they wrote?



What the? It was a sales promo from AT&T Wireless. It appears they use a font that looks like someone's handwriting.



Disappointing but this was a reminder for myself how people (or some people) enjoy receiving a handwritten letter or correspondence which I am passionate about. I've been seeing a lot of tweets and Facebook posts about how people are trying to bring back handwritten correspondence via the United States Postal Service aka snail mail.

This article by the Wall Street Journal showed up in a Tweet and I absolutely love it!

There is a place for e-mail. I'm an avid Twitter and sometimes Facebook user. There is value in these for myself which includes meeting new friends I would otherwise have not known. Learning about new eating places which seems to be rather important here in Hawaii. But more importantly for me it's a source of inspiration and motivation for my creative side which includes letter writing.

I've been struggling for a number of years with my creative side. I think I'm near the end of my slump but I'm not quite there yet. That said I need to get off of this computer and hopefully work on another post or maybe actually...write a letter!

PS

If you do send a store bought card, please write a personal handwritten note in it and make it personal! Don't just let Hallmark say it for you.

Post PS

I should have known it was not a real letter, there was no wax seal on the flap! Doesn't everyone use wax seals?