(no subject)

- Have been considering a Lamy AL-Star for a workplace pen. Going to need to think about it a bit more. Visually, it's unremarkable. On the other hand, it's kind of utilitarian, which I like. Plus it will stay where you put it, if you put it on a desk.

- The downside of Lamy is that they have proprietary cartridges. But if I picked up a converter, that would theoretically be irrelevant.

- Based on usage with the Kaweco cartridge, I can estimate that one Kaweco cartridge will last me 2 months of casual home use. Though the cartridge did leak in transit on the way to me, so probably it'd be more; let's say 2.5 months then. So, calculating that... with the cartridges I bought in Victoria, I have about two years of Kaweco ink. That's something to keep in perspective.

- The cartridge I'm using is almost finished; I can't decide whether to put in another blue, or whether to switch it to green. I guess I'll figure that out later. Technically you're supposed to clean it between cartridges, though apparently it's less of an issue when you are using the same brand of ink.

- Unsure whether I should buy some distilled water specifically for fountain pens. Our water is hard, so it could be an issue.

- Stationery note: I've been using note sheets from Peter Pauper Press, and gosh, they're nice. Cute designs on them AND the paper stands up very well to fountain pen ink; there is no bleedthrough at all. Amazing.

[edit] My cartridge ran out of ink while I was writing, so I switched to green. But I decided not to both cleaning the pen (just wiped it down) so for now it's still pulling blue. Which is fine.