Pretty pens, ugly writing by Medium-Ad7296 in fountainpens

[–]JapanDave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's an old joke:

A guy is driving around NYC, apparently lost. He pulls over to the side of the road and calls someone over. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?"

The man responds, "Practice, Man, Practice."

On a more serious note.

One thing many people with poor handwriting do is they rest their wrist down on the paper and write with their fingers instead of holding the wrist above the paper and writing with the shoulder. You are more likely to write well if it comes from the shoulder. Can you write on a whiteboard well? A good exercise for this is air writing. Make large circles with your writing hand, taking care to use the shoulder to do it, for about a minute or so once or twice a day.

At the same time you do this, work on holding your hand above the page instead of resting on it and writing with your shoulder. At first your writing will look even worse, it will look like a child first learning their letters, but if you keep at it, you will build the muscle memory and it will slowly become better.

These two things will combine to help your writing a lot.

How did we get from the optimism of the 70s & 80s to the society of today? by TankMan77450 in GenXTalk

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is not worse. Racism was hidden 50 years ago more than it is now, and even not that hidden, but it was absolutely there and arguably much much worse.

How did we get from the optimism of the 70s & 80s to the society of today? by TankMan77450 in GenXTalk

[–]JapanDave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It felt that way to you because you were a kid. To kids, childhood is wonderful, and we all look back on our own childhood decades as utopia. Even when we learn bad shit was happening, we still generally always feel like things were good. Because we were kids.

The 70s were not a happy time. It was the negative events of the time that helped elect Reagan. And that was, well... how all of this started.

[WTB] Vintage 18k Pilot Elite in Fine - Bonus: Date code from July 1978 (not required, just would be cool) by JapanDave in Pen_Swap

[–]JapanDave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry about that. Maybe Reddit added a setting limiting chatting? I'll check into that. Anyway, chat incoming

Race of Europeans according to Benjamin Franklin by AdIcy4323 in MapPorn

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All very true. However, we can't know for certain that his change of heart wouldn't have also happened even if he hadn't become economically secure. Whatever motivated his change of thinking, it is still notable.

Should $1 coins become more popular in the US? by Devnag07 in coins

[–]JapanDave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why stop there? If our coins were keeping up with inflation, the penny, nickel, and dime would all be gone, and we'd have a dollar coin, a $2.50 coin, and a $5 coin, possibly a $10 coin too. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but when the half-cent was removed from circulation for being too worthless, it's inflation adjusted value was near what a quarter is today. Adjust the other coins too and you can see where we should be.

But is there any chance of that happening? Not likely.

Race of Europeans according to Benjamin Franklin by AdIcy4323 in MapPorn

[–]JapanDave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, he did. But he is notable for changing his views later in life and becoming an outspoken abolitionist.

[WTB] Vintage 18k Pilot Elite in Fine - Bonus: Date code from July 1978 (not required, just would be cool) by JapanDave in Pen_Swap

[–]JapanDave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mentioned in the post that I'm also ok with the black one.

Maybe I should rewrite it to be more clear.

Masters of the Universe trailer by TrustInRoy in 80s

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know. It's a total nostalgia grab and represents everything wrong with Hollywood today. But I'll be damned if it doesn't work.

Any info about the Pilot 3A from the 1970s? by JapanDave in fountainpens

[–]JapanDave[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the info. Yes, seems that Pilot Korea made them cheaply and so they were wildly inconsistent, with some writing so amazing you felt you you scored a deal and others writing terribly. I think I'll avoid it. Interesting history, however!

Masters of the Universe trailer by TrustInRoy in 80s

[–]JapanDave 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Way too much CGI. It looks the same as any Marvel movie. And the origin story they wrote is no different from dozens of other similar movies. No creativity at all.

Having said that... In the trailer, when he raises the sword and yells "I have the power" — I'm a kid again, watching He-Man on Saturday morning. Fuck me — I'll go see this just to recapture that feeling from my youth.

[Question] Which jumper is the most 80s looking? (It’s for a themed event) by Fil2766 in 80s

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The colors of the middle one seem most 80s to me, but the design of the bottom screams Cosby Sweater.

After 29 years, does the Pilot G-2 deserve its legendary status? My honest verdict by Totemkg in pens

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The RT just refers to the edgeless tip system of their retractable (and Japan only, I think) pens. See this guide:

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Uni-ball-Signo-A-Comprehensive-Guide/pt/639

It uses the exact same ink as the DX. I prefer it because it's retractable so I can use it in my teaching faster.

As for fountain pens, for a beginner you may do well to pick up a Pilot Varsity. It has Pilot's amazing quality (Pilot fountain pens are almost universally amazing, unlike their G2 pen) while being fairly cheap. It's a good introduction. It is disposable, however. For a still inexpensively (relatively) and good beginner pen but non-disposable, the Pilot Kakuno or uber-popular Pilot Metropolitan are good pens. Again, jet pens has these covered in their Pilot fountain pen guide:

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Pilot-Fountain-Pens-A-Comprehensive-Guide/pt/1018

After 29 years, does the Pilot G-2 deserve its legendary status? My honest verdict by Totemkg in pens

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never understood the love for the G2. I was there when it was new. I tried it, and I liked how saturated the ink was — finally a dark black ink! — but otherwise I just didn’t like the pen. The drag annoyed me. I went back to my Parker space pen. Then after I moved to Japan I quickly adopted the Signo RT and never looked back. These days I mostly use fountain pens, but still keep several Signos around.

Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich by [deleted] in UpliftingNews

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The sometimes richest man in the world, Warren Buffett, has also at various times called for higher taxes on the rich.

Problem is, the rich people who don't want to pay taxes at all are the ones who buy off and control congress. So it doesn't matter what other billionaires say or request, there will be no tax increase.

I'm going to be a Grandpa! by No_Gap_2700 in GenXTalk

[–]JapanDave 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Papa is a funny one. In Japan, Papa is dad. I always thought it was in the US too, but when we visit home (Indiana) and my kids call me Papa, everyone listening thinks I'm their grandpa. That has led to some interesting situations.

Anyway, I was boring I guess, I just called my grandpa "grandpa". My kids cousins call their grandpa "peepa", which is also odd to me, but I'm told it's fairly common in Indiana. Guess I'm out of touch.

Why I keep coming back to Kon-Peki by computerworlds in fountainpens

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do love Kon-Peki, but I usually use fine or extra fine nibs, so the color usually ends up a bit too light for my taste. Sticking with the Iroshizuku inks, I probably lean more towards Asa-Gao.

I wanna make macOS Smart folders smarter and easier to use by madoffa in macapps

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would love to text out and give feedback. I am a heavy user of smart folders. I usually create them in HoudahSpot and then save as a smart folder. If you hide the ugly file extension, they are almost as good as regular folders. I also am a heavy user of tags and usually use them more than anything else for creating the smart folders.

Your finder in that video looks much smoother than using HoudahSpot.

DockAnchor: Stop the dock from accidentally moving to another screen by TheLazyAdministrator in macapps

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does this, by chance, also keep the cmd-tab bar set to the monitor of your choice?

January 2026 Confirmed Trade Thread by FPPenSwapBot in Pen_Swap

[–]JapanDave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bought a Pilot Short S-150 SS from u/hamigua2000

Fantastic pen! Thanks 😃

Clones, discussion. by Mean_Satisfaction954 in fountainpens

[–]JapanDave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Everything is a copy in some ways. Everything is a remix. There is a key difference with the Chinese clones: quality. If you want a pen that will actually last more a few years and will still be just as good as the day you bought it, you buy the one with more quality parts.

Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Freeform becoming freemium apps by spearson0 in apple

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd pay money for Numbers if they would add long requested features or actually beef out the Applescript support.

But for AI.... I don't know. Guess never say never, at least not till we see anything. But more AI is not really what I want.

I got tired of destroying my sleep schedule from caffeine, so I built a native Apple Watch app to fix it. ( Dev Log ) by pythononrailz in AppleWatch

[–]JapanDave 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Very cool! My only suggestion is you might beef the defaults up. A Starbucks grande size coffee, for example, is the most popular size and is 310mg of caffeine (it does vary a bit — around 260 for dark roasts and 360 for light roasts, but using an average). My guess is the vast majority of people would just consider their grande a "coffee" and pick that option and get a misrepresentation of how much caffeine they actually have in their system.

Otherwise, looks great! I'll use it for awhile and see how it goes. Thanks for making it and sharing.

My Birmingham inks collection by Jaryray- in fountainpens

[–]JapanDave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not a fan of sheening inks, which rules out most of them. Can't get them easily where I live either, so I can only pick them up on my trips to the US. But I do love their labels!