I recently bought an el cheapo macro studio:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/...013fe62853.jpg

It's fun to have although it has a few flaws. Click on the picture for more info!

But it looks pretty! :P


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I've become addicted to R&B and hiphop music over the past few years. I bought Beyonce's newest album recently.

I also bought two new computer games. Benoit Sikol's Paradise, and Sam And Max, Season 1, episodes 1-3.

I can't wait to play Paradise. I'm a HUGE Syberia games fan.

I spend way too much money on iTunes, lately. I think they made buying records too easy and convenient for me.

Last tuesday I bought a macro lens for my new camera (Sigma 105 mm F/2.8 EX DG for who's interested) . I will have a lot of fun with this lens in spring! Here's a picture I took recently with it:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/...9f3bb9.jpg?v=0

Scarily accurate, tsa. And may I add that this Mont Blanc, from a certain angle, seems a bullet? ;)

I thought it was a speartip at first. :)


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I bought a bunch of Blu-Rays in Woolworths before it closes: Sweeney Todd, National Treasure 2, Son of Rambow and The Shawshank Redemption. Price comparisons online show that I didn't actually make a great saving, but hey... it's not like I go out and spend this much money regularly...

That really is coincidental. This is the whole pen:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/...38ea74.jpg?v=0
It's a pen for women that my father gave to my mother years ago. She never could get the hang of fountain pens, so I took it home. It's a great pen; it writes with a fine line and little resistance. And it looks beautiful. I love it.

Fountain pens are awesome. I especially love ones with calligraphy tips (much to the dismay of my teachers at school, because my first one was always very messy, *AND* I was writing in black ink.)


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I almost always write in black ink. It looks so much beter than blue.

I use a fountain pen for the vast majority of my writing nowadays.

I write in black ink because the decent fountain pen ink in Britain only comes in black or washable blue, and the latter fades incredibly quickly.

I also write almost exclusively with fountain pens nowadays. I got a nice tip from someone just before Christmas. He has a fountain pen that uses the normal ink 'cartidges', and when its cartridge is empty he fills it up again from a bottle using a syringe. Smart, cheap and better for the environment! I will try that soon too. I have to nick a small syringe from work for it first ;)

I have a refillable cartridge that serves much the same purpose. I only use standard cartridges when I have to sit exams and whatnot, since I find that one standard cartridge allows me to do a 3 hour exam's worth of writing.

And yes, bottled ink is much, much cheaper. I'm still using a bottle I bought in May, for instance. The only downside is that it's nigh on impossible to avoid getting ink on your hands when refilling a pen (at least if you use a refillable cartridge, since one has to submerge the nib of the pen in the ink). Still, it lends one a certain studious look :D.

I usually use black ink. For notes and scribbles to myself, I use both. When I sign my reports at work, I have to sign in blue ink. The print on the page is black and with a blue signature, they know that particular version is the original copy (when it gets copied on a machine, the signature will turn black).

No fountain pens for me. I'd make a mess everywhere.

Back in primary school I had a Lamy ABC, which here in Germany is the standard children's beginner fountain pen. Lamy fountain pens are special in that they have a rather long cartridge that fills out the whole pen. Also, even if it's not listed on the website for some reason, there are refillable cartridges available for them. Those are simply put into the pen like a regular cartridge, then you buy an ink barrel in the colour of your choice, dip the head of the fountain pen into the ink, and turn the little wheel at the end of the refillable cartridge. Yes, that makes the head rather dirty - but there's special LAMY ink barrels come with strips of blotting paper attached to the barrel. See here.


Come to think of it, I'll have to look for that refillable cartridge and see if it fits in my new Rotring calligraphy fountain pen...


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I use a Parker pen, with Quink ink. In fact, the cartridges pictured there are also the long type.

My refillable cartridge is a bit like the LAMY one you linked to, Jaz, only with the smaller part replaced by the mechanism used to draw ink into the cartridge.

That's the part the LAMY refillable cartridge replaces with the mechanism too.


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I always thought that fountain pens are so elegant but I have a hard time writing with them. I push to hard on the paper and being left handed also have a tendency to drag my hand across what I am writing.I am like a bull in a china closet when it comes to penmanship. I should have been a doctor it's so bad.

Yesterday I splurged on this:
http://joby.com/images/gpodslrzoom-hanger.png
It's a tripod with flexible legs. I want to use it for macro photography, especially outside and close to the ground. Does any one of you maybe have experience with this thing? I also bought the spiked feet so it doesn't slip:
http://joby.com/images/gp3-spike-feet-web.jpg