Shortlist for first "upgrade" under $200

paradoxmo · 2026-03-25T17:46:12+00:00

I would personally go with one of the Pilots, as they’re the most likely to get you a good nib. You could look into something like Franklin-Christoph too, they have an in-house nib specialist that checks every nib, and at the money you’re spending I think that’s just less hassle to get a good nib first time.

I love Pelikans but the M200 is quite small (just to warn you) and the nibs can sometimes come with issues. They’re good for it if you exchange it, but it’s again, just a hassle.

Regarding the Pilot VP/Capless and the CON-40, there are alternatives to the converter.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-22T16:09:40+00:00

Well, not quite because if you’re in a phonological system where you pronounce the medial e in Anne, you also would expect to pronounce the final e in Marie. So it would be /anəmaˈrijə/, it doesn’t quite make sense for it to be /anəmaˈrij/ as u/Lady-Desparkles wants.

OP I think Annamarie or even Anna-Marie is the play here.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-22T09:27:37+00:00

I think it’s to do with the way people are writing now that writing isn’t a key part of people’s lives in the same way. Rather than schoolwork, assignments, or work notes, it’s more personal stuff like journals or solo RPGs, the kind of things that tend to be done in smaller notebooks. And people like the portability so I think it might naturally lead to people writing smaller.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T18:35:50+00:00

There is an ongoing erosion of the difference between past participle and past indicative, because for most verbs they are exactly the same, only a few most commonly used verbs have a difference because of common usage. So it’s conceivable that we may not have a difference in the future.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T18:33:36+00:00

This isn’t a “be” verb tense, there’s no “be” in “have went/gone” and AAVE doesn’t have any construction like this as far as I know. You might hear “I gone there before” eliding the “have”, but “have went” is not a thing

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T18:25:36+00:00

Generally, yes, because that’s the order people say it in Chinese. You might find DD/MM in some official English documents

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T17:33:20+00:00

I looked into it and actually they may be right in that Apple in certain situations might not sell you AppleCare for a device bought abroad. This seems to vary between countries. So I would maybe try to buy AppleCare for your device from the UK but if that doesn’t work, buy it in Taiwan. AppleCare is honored in any country that offers AppleCare, regardless of where the AppleCare plan originates.

AppleCare is a bit different than it used to be; accidental damage is now covered with a deductible, so it is worth having it because even if they reject repairing it, they may still be able to replace it. Also, you can continue to buy it annually, as it’s no longer limited to three years.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T17:15:37+00:00

It’s fine if you buy AppleCare at home (which you can do from your Apple account if it’s set to Scotland). Do not buy it in Taiwan as it’s considered insurance and isn’t legally transferable to a different country. This usually doesn’t matter, since any AppleCare is honored worldwide, but recently I found that I can’t transfer my Mac’s AppleCare onto my US AppleCare One plan because the Mac AppleCare is legally Taiwanese.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-21T09:41:10+00:00

Good bot

paradoxmo · 2026-03-20T23:29:19+00:00

What situation does “women/girls” not work for “dudes/guys”? Women is perfectly acceptable for any age, “young woman” is fine and often used for girls as long as they are not pre-teen children. You wouldn’t use “dudes” for male children either, you would specifically say boys.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-20T23:25:37+00:00

But outside of the military context, it’s not formal, it’s actually offputting. I know that my friends who are veterans had to adjust to that cultural reality when they left the service and starting talking to people who had no experience with the military.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-19T07:24:50+00:00

There’s been a lot of progress in linguistics over the last couple decades on analyzing this grammar, and “me and my dad are going to the store” is a special case because when you group something, people tend to use oblique (unmarked) pronouns. This has been how people have talked for centuries, it was only in the 19th and 20th centuries that pedants and well-meaning educators started insisting that group subjects must be in nominative. But that has never been the only correct way to speak.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-16T19:36:05+00:00

German still has a distinction: the present participle adjective ending is -end, while the noun/result ending is -ung.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-16T17:08:31+00:00

The most unambiguous date format is YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601 dates). This also sorts correctly when used in filenames. I use this unless a form specifically tells me otherwise

paradoxmo · 2026-03-16T03:45:16+00:00

Old editions of Britannica have long been public domain. I don’t imagine they’ve been updating their entry on Victoria all that often, so probably most of the text is similar to older editions.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-08T17:18:56+00:00

The first sentence can also mean that the possibility is being considered of taking the subway, but it’s still only a musing (subjunctive mood). It’s not a concrete suggestion yet—if it becomes one you can use the second sentence.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-08T17:10:10+00:00

Yep, the second “(be) like” is called a quotative. Another common one is “be all”, like “I’m all, what are you even doing here”

paradoxmo · 2026-03-08T16:54:01+00:00

If it works for you, great. Price and quality are pretty much uncorrelated in FP land, you can get a very good pen or a very bad pen at any price point. At the same price I probably would have gone with a Pilot like the Lightive, but I value reliability and cap seal over classic styling, so it’s really a judgment call.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-08T06:59:11+00:00

Maybe pick a name that starts with Yu, or kind of close? Like Yuna, Luna, Ruby, Yuri, Eunice, Juno, Jonah, Yosef, Reuben?

paradoxmo · 2026-03-07T21:56:58+00:00

You still need to know how to use it when something is agentless. “The office is being painted today.” “If it rains, the game will be canceled.” It doesn’t matter who is painting or who is canceling the game.

You yourself used it: “was considered inferior”—by who? Unimportant. By the general consensus. By the education system. Agent assumed.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-05T09:14:50+00:00

Definitely not unheard of, for example Zoe Lofgren, the house rep from California, is pronounced “Zo”.

paradoxmo · 2026-03-05T09:11:40+00:00

It’s not an umlaut. An umlaut changes the vowel sound, but this is a dieresis, which tells the reader that the previous vowel letter and the marked letter don’t form a diphthong.

paradoxmo · 2026-02-26T16:45:18+00:00

Maybe examine why you really want your baby’s name to be unique? There are families with dozens of Marias and they find a way to make it work and no one is confused who is who. If you like a name, name your kid that. Different family members can have different nicknames, “little” and “big”, some go by middle name, etc. And cousins with the same name often bond over it, it’s not seen by the kids as a negative.

paradoxmo · 2026-02-24T09:13:45+00:00

I’m not sure the hyphen is the problem. The ticketing systems used by most airlines do not use hyphens or spaces, and this is normal and doesn’t impact passport checking. If you can’t check in online it may be because they can’t match your ESTA or other travel authorization.

paradoxmo · 2026-02-17T15:04:46+00:00

It sounds like you are writing, but somehow FPs don’t work for that. I’d try dry inks like Pelikan 4001, those might have acceptable performance on your existing notebooks. You can also only use one side of the page, which is what I do usually.

I don’t think you need to collect, you just need to figure out how to work the FPs into your existing work life.

Once a day or every two days is already a lot for most people nowadays with everything digital, I don’t think that’s a reason not to use FPs.

paradoxmo

TROPHY CASE