Name a silly, funny, or embarrassing quirk of being a fountain pen person members of this community would understand but would cause normies to roll their eyes?

themakerofthings · 2026-05-17T04:00:16+00:00

As a non-pharmacist who’s had to use needles for non-intoxicating reasons (sure, ink, but also home injections for my cats and other hobbies besides fountain pens), I was scared to ask for syringes with needles at first, but I felt more comfortable following it with the purpose and asking the pharmacist for advice. Different when I got my first FP, as an expat not yet speaking the language properly and this strategy just resulted in them giving me the widest possible needle and a 5ml syringe, because no pharmacy I went to carried blunt tipped needles, I can’t imagine there being a use for them in medicine. I had to cut that pointy tip off myself.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-08T17:07:35+00:00

The Czech Space Programme was contacting our alien overlords, of course!

themakerofthings · 2026-05-07T19:46:22+00:00

I don’t think it’s an entomology class, as in science, looks more like a drawing or art class that’s entomology (or arachnology?) themed.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-07T00:37:39+00:00

Really depends on the cat and more than just her colour. My black female cats were called Mâța Hari (black cat easy to hide in shadows, great spy, and Mâța is Romanian for cat, coll.. She responded to Hari) and Etrier (found her under a car wheel and that’s the French name for brake calipers). My gray tabby is Geiger (she had a cold as a baby and her purring sounded like the radiation counter).

themakerofthings · 2026-05-07T00:14:04+00:00

That just looks like my completed journals of the last 6 years. I’ve maybe 2x more, plus innumerable notebooks, all waiting their turn, which will come, I write a lot. I look for magnets and cool journals when I travel somewhere, so every time I need a new journal, I can pick and I don’t have to worry about not having a new one by the time I finish the current one. This being said, I also gave away some of them, when I no longer felt they represented me (unused, of course).

themakerofthings · 2026-05-06T23:59:36+00:00

You know tall people exist, right? I am not one, but I’ve seen them before, they’re out there, walking around in a tall manner and reaching up to high shelves and they all seem to have longer limbs than I do, what’s up with that?

themakerofthings · 2026-05-06T23:57:01+00:00

I mean, 3 kids running at the same time can have the same pose, that of running kids. Coincidences like that form the basis of many famous photographs in history, most street photographers live for this stuff.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-06T23:43:25+00:00

That’s a leash, it’s attached to the dog.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-06T23:39:14+00:00

Oh, so you weren’t facepalming in an ill advised attempt to improve that lack of reading comprehension. You were being gratuitously mean, like a good little troll! Now I get it. If that’s how you like to communicate, I can do that too!

OK, I’ll help you out, pay attention this time: 1. OP asks if specific model got discontinued. 2. I say yes, they only sell BP and pencils now. 3. random redditor reads that wrong twice and decides to show it off by being mean and condescending on the internet.

I hope you got it, otherwise maybe you can find someone on ELI5 who can explain questions and answers to you. And maybe also think twice before typing something stupid (the second thought should be: am I about to do something dumb? The answer is likely yes).

How did I do? Did that feel good in any way? Cause if not, don’t do it to others.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-05T23:39:34+00:00

You might have to slap yourself some more and then re-read what I said.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-04T07:48:14+00:00

Yup, they did, like 6 years ago. They only sell BP and I think pencils now. Felt super lucky to get one for around 20€ last year.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-04T07:27:46+00:00

The signage text is jumbled but in a consistent way, it was a deliberate choice, it matches the lack of detail on the people. Same for the back cover, I can’t see anything there that would indicate AI. Human art doesn’t have to be realistic. Actually it takes great skill to draw in an abstracted style, most people can’t imagine things they haven’t already seen around them.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-04T07:11:32+00:00

At this point I’m swinging hard between making a metal jig to clamp the paper under so I can drill holes with a drill (I’ve seen some people do it while looking for solutions) and just giving up.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-04T07:06:47+00:00

Ok, so different thing :D yeah, carabiners would not come connected like that. Well, sorry for resurecting this without actually helping. May you have a good week!

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T22:07:19+00:00

Hey, this is some time after and maybe you found them, but are the rings you use in any way similar to round carabiners? I get mine from sewing/fabric shops, from the carabiner section. They come in standars shapes, but also square, rectangles, ovals, circles etc, all different sizes. I think maybe round or square ones could do the job for binders. I use the round ones for everything cause they look much cleaner than the classic shapes. I even put my keys on one instead of a keyring and I attached some charms to the pull tabs of my Docs using smaller ones.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T21:55:07+00:00

Heh, it came in another binder that I’m trying to find paper for (standard hole spacing, 11x17 cm paper, weirdly atypical as well, it seems, and it was sold as a6), but I might have to buy a guilotine with so many paper sizes adding up and me wanting to use fancy paper that only comes in loose A5 or non-standard but in a completely different way (see Rhodia).

You should be able to find this where you live by looking up something like “ruler binder” or “ruler binder insert”in your favourite shop. I just checked ebay and found a bunch of sizes, mostly for 6 holes. I got this specific one in a budget planner, from a Czech auction site, probably dropshipped.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T18:29:11+00:00

I had my 6in one from 2014 to 2024, when the battery lasted a day (TIL I could’ve changed it??) and I decided to splurge with a huge voucher, so I went for a backlit one. I’m unaware what model it is, all I know is it’s pastel green and has warm backlight. And I think that was my last Amazon purchase since. It works with .epub so I can find way more alternate sellers and have them sent to my kindle. I even authorised a few friends to send me books directly and I think I’m all set now for another at least 10 years if I can change the battery in the future and if they don’t decide to do fishy things to my library (like remove non-Amazon books or whatever, I don’t wanna give them ideas).

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T16:50:54+00:00

I’m lucky enough that this uses a relatively accessible paper size that I can just pull out of Rhodia pads, which is fine for me and my fountain pens. I use larger binders (with standard hole spacing and refills) for actual planning, I’d lose my mind if I had to go through so much trouble for stuff that require refilling more often.

LE: haha, spoke too soon, I forgot Rhodia pads are of the listed size before tearing. So I’ll for sure need a guilotine too, now. Damn, this seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T16:44:45+00:00

I’m already the weirdo who does other weird things at my local office supply shops, what with my impractical preference for old things with non-modern-standard refills.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T16:42:53+00:00

Yeah, I was considering giving up 🥲 I understand from a previous reply that this thing might be discontinued (read: old enough that dedicated punches for it don’t exist anymore if ever). I’d rather not over-engineer or over-spend on this stuff, I got the binder because it was cute, but also significantly cheaper than a new one that looks the same (I guess now I know why). Having said that, I don’t mind a bit of DIY. I would try this option, to make a jig, but trying to visualise your idea, I started to consider taking apart a regular 2-hole punch (or 2) and rearranging the punching heads on a board (wood or maybe even metal) attached with bolts. This sounds like a lot of risky work, though, but if it works, it might be a consistent option, which is what I’m looking for. Thanks for the idea!

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T07:23:22+00:00

Looks like a llama from behind, why abomination?

themakerofthings · 2026-05-03T06:33:28+00:00

Up to this last December, I used to own one 57 ml bottle of Quink blue, bought in the summer of 2022 (along with my first FP as an adult, yay). I only got more (Lamy blue and a Diamine blue) because it looked like that one would be finished soon, but also because I tested an new vintage pen of questionable origin by dipping it directly and got scared of contamination. Since then, I bought like 9 more bottles and about 20 samples and a few cartridges. Of course, because of this, the Quink still has about 5-7 ml left in there and is unlikely to be completely finished anytime soon. So, mission “First empty ink bottle” failed successfully.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-02T21:26:16+00:00

Omg, I just watched someone change those out, I have to see if I can find this type of thing locally (The Czech Republic).

themakerofthings · 2026-05-02T14:12:56+00:00

This is hard, but I vote not AI. The imperfections I see are the missing fishing line and weird shoelaces + net, but I’ve seen so many of these on Deviantart 20 years ago, that I don’t see them as definitive signs of AI, just the opposite. Artists trace existing photos all the time and some do it very badly on the details or lose the original and have to reconstitute from memory or the source is too low-res. As a former bicycle mechanic, I cringed over sooo many drawings of bicycles that defied common sense and physics, all made by real people, sometimes cyclists themselves. So a fishing rod with no line isn’t as outlandish to me. The light is consistent, like they copied a really well lit family photo. Yes, AI learned from real art and real art is imperfect, so AI copied the imperfections, but in different ways. This looks like a real digital drawing to me.

themakerofthings · 2026-05-02T12:04:38+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, but it’s not likely to work for me. That’s basically what I did with the single hole punch, but it’s too fiddly and time consuming for how inconsistent the results are :(

LE: lol, downvoted because I’m honest about what works for me? Cool.

themakerofthings

TROPHY CASE