The Male Hysteric

Against my better judgement I went ahead and purchased one of the supernova rainbow titanium nitride bullet fisher space pens. I also got a purple ink cartridge for it -- so I will have a fully automated luxury gay space communism pen when it arrives, I think.



I have also put in a hold for a digital copy of at my library for The Future Is Analog by David Sax, so he might come and strangle me in my sleep for that, I suppose.

A little while ago, as I've been resting my hands with cross stitch between projects (it seems the thing I've been doing that's least intent on destroying my fingernails at least), I decided to purchase some gold embroidery needles. If you don't actually do embroidery, this probably sounds insane, but you can often find them sold alongside normal embroidery needles for a couple dollars more a pack, though you don't get quite so many of them. They're not solid gold, of course -- some only have gold on the inside of the eyes, while some are covered in an incredibly thin layer of gold plating all over. Anyway, I wanted to be fancy and got some all-gold ones. They aren't prohibitively expensive given the hobby and I had just gotten paid, so, you know, treat yo' self, right?

Gold is considered to be superior to other needles if you have a nickel allergy, and also that the thin coating of soft metal can somehow make the process of punching the needle through fabric smoother, or in the case of the eyes, the threading easier. I don't have a significant nickel allergy -- I've had issues with earrings but never with just holding sewing needles, even for extended periods, so I have been thinking on the smoothness, and when they are fresh, they are extremely smooth. However I've used a single gold needle for something like a thousand stitches at this point and... the gold has almost entirely worn off! The gold in the eye is still there, and curiously some at the tip, but the part of the needle I hold is so pale, it's been stripped by use! I guess the gold at the tip is what matters most, but I did not know it would show so much wear without even a full finished project.

I've done a little research on gold needles and replacement needles in general and it sounds like a lot of serious embroiderers will grab a new needle for every project. Even though doing so, even if I did choose to use exclusively gold needles, would not be prohibitively expensive as I don't embroider that much, it's... just so strange to think about! Though I do have packs of needles that even if I started this practice today, I probably would not run out of needles for the next few years (though I would certainly run out of gold). It's one of those things that feels very wasteful but in the greater scheme of trash, probably wouldn't be, especially if one were not an avid embroiderer? compared to plastic bottles, paper products, etc... and there are apparently good reasons to switch out needles so often, because the oils of your fingers strip off the outer metals that run smoothly against the fabric and then the metal underneath can start snagging.

I don't know, it feels a lot like what I was thinking when I started buying fountain pens. It's not that I wasn't always a pen addict, but I didn't have any fountain pens -- I preferred gel pens, but with the number of pens I went through I always felt bad throwing so many away. And it was strange, because I was actually one of the few people using them until they completely ran out of ink! People are a bit irrational when it comes to this stuff, I guess.

Anyway, website is... currently on pause. I have a lot of shoelaces I need to make for a Pride booth later this month, and besides that I have the feeling that a lot of the Frankenstein stuff might be better in a book (?), but am also trying to get my writing brain for writing fiction back on track (???), also my AC is broken and it's like 100 degrees so I'm trying not to fry in my own home in the meanwhile. Too much going on, too little brain function, etc.

It’s that time of year again, and by that time of year, I mean it’s Hobonichi preview month. This is a very exciting time of year for people with a very particular interest and I am going to lead you down another Japanese stationery rabbit hole that you probably don’t know about and won’t understand.

Hobonichis are a type of planner by the company Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun which was first released in Japan in 2002 and in English (and therefore overseas) in 2013. Planners in general have their own kind of hobby base that exists at this weird nexus of actually using a planner for its intended purpose, journaling, and scrapbooking, and attracts everyone from busy students to moms recording “baby’s first” everything to Every Day Carry guys. The big name planner stateside is probably the Erin Condren system, though other popular systems are Midori Traveler’s planners and the Bullet Journal, which can use any kind of notebook, along with many others. There are a few things that make Hobonichi planners stand out, and that’s the paper, the organization, and the yearly release. The paper is somewhat unique because instead of no-name paper of variable quality, Hobonichis are printed with paper that can withstand all sorts of media, up to and including watercolor. The main setups for Hobonichi planners are one page every day rather than month or weekly spreads, gearing it towards scrapbookers or very determined journalers or otherwise people who are very busy and need all the space. And, of course, every year they put out entirely new covers and designs, making each year’s edition collectible, and everyone loves collectibles. This has led to an extremely aesthetic following on sites like Instagram and Pinterest.

They are bizarrely expensive for what they are and for the year of 2019, I have two:

And yes, I do use these, though the one on the left much more than the one on the right. The one on the right is mostly for drawings, and I haven’t kept up with that much.



The one on the left is an actual planner, a book I use to keep track of things like doctors appointments, workout reps, and how much I hate myself on a given day.




Does this actually keep me on task and prepared more than actually putting alerts in my phone like a normal person? Probably not. But hey, everyone needs a hobby.

This is not a paid endorsement. I have not received any compensation for this post.