pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic - Tumblr blog

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 2 months

Text

Anonymous asked (ages ago, but I hate fighting tumblr's UI)

Thought I was done commenting for awhile but oh hey, something that's in my wheelhouse. Have a relevant quote and an enthusiastic book rec: “When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. It's from Melissa Holbrook Pierson's The Secret History of Kindness (2015), which I read because someone else on Tumblr quoted it and it smacked me between the eyes and hasn't taken its claws out of my brain since. It's why when I'm trying to talk to someone who's using a prong or choke collar about Haltis we always do this: "I have to use it, they're really strong and they pull." "How long have you had it?" "Six months." "Do they still pull?" "Yeah." Almost every time. In other words, I think we need to consider that when it comes to arguments about hitting kids, the people defending it with illogical arguments probably don't entirely know why they keep doing it, even though it doesn't work. Because it DOES work, just not on the kid. And they've worn that groove so deep in their own heads they don't notice it anymore. -- Ishmael.

This is at least strongly compelling, and does explain a lot. Punishment obviously doesn't work very well... But if it feels good, people will probably keep doing it.

#rb #punishment #dog training #child abuse #child punishment #psychology #psychology of punishment

40 notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 2 months

Text

classic scifi novels by men r always like. page 1 here’s a cool scifi idea i had. page 2 i hate women so much it’s unreal

#the #books #book rec #book recommendations #scifi books #scifi rec #scifi recommendations

106K notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 2 months

Text

dykes read Fucking Trans Women challenge

#rb #trans woman #trans women #transfem #mtf #lesbian #sex education #sex ed #queer sex #lgbtq #lgbtq history #lgbtq books #lgbtq sex #queer sex ed

32K notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 3 months

Text

#rb #polls #one is a fish squishmallow a coworker bought for me #the other is one of my cats’ favorite toys that always ends up in my bed #no matter how often I move it

28K notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 3 months

Text

love those things so heres mine

#rb #polls #get leafeon’d!

14K notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 3 months

Text

are you or a loved one expecting to use a fountain pen for the first time this holiday season? you need this information.

fountain pens are making a comeback, with good reason. fountain pens require virtually no pressure to write, and many people used to ballpoint, gel, or rollerball pens will actually damage a fountain pen on their first use because of how much pressure they are accustomed to using. on the flip side, many people with joint pain will find that they can only write without pain when using a fountain pen.

fountain pens are customizable, reusable, ergonomic, comfortable, and utilize fantastical fountain pen inks containing shading, sheening, and shimmer.

using a fountain pen correctly for the first time just elicits that ever elusive and emphatic "oh." you will, with likelihood, understand why people use fountain pens just by using one yourself. it cannot be put into words.

but before you learn how to use a fountain pen, you need to learn how NOT to use a fountain pen.

here are my top 3 tips for how not to use a fountain pen.

first, what makes a fountain pen. a fountain pen is defined as a pen with an internal resivoir that feeds ink through a feed and to a nib. they do not require dipping.

the internals of the end of a fountain pen look like this. fountain pens are a lot of different parts. although this diagram shows a pen using a converter, most first time fountain pen users will use a cartridge, which is a pressurized pouch of ink.

the slit in the metal nib forms two tines, and the end of which is tipping. ink flows from the converter (or cartridge or other filling system) down the feed and through the slit in the nib, down to the tip.

since fountain pens are a bunch of very closely fitted different parts, they take specialized, thin, water-based ink.

which leads me to the first major thing to not do with a fountain pen.

#1: do not use anything other than 'fountain pen ink' in a fountain pen

so let me tell you a little story here. I got into dip pens before I got into fountain pens. years and years ago. I found out that a converter allows you to use bottled ink with a fountain pen, and I already had some decent ink I was using with my dip nibs. I bought a converter, a fountain pen, and then did one of the worst possible things you can do to a fountain pen: I loaded it with dip ink. if I remember right, it was some kind of india or sumi ink.

the pen no longer wrote, and I could not even replace the alleged easily replaceable parts. what happened?

ink is more than just liquid and color, it involves complicated chemical formulas. dip pens can be dipped in just about anything and then write to some degree, but fountain pens can only safely be used with ink designed specifically for fountain pens. dip ink is usually thicker and can clog the slits in the fountain pen's feed, preventing the ink from reaching the tip of the nib. but diluting dip ink is not good enough. the chemicals in dip inks can melt or rust the internals of a fountain pen. this damage is often irreparable without paying a specialist a lot of money to restore the pen, which can cost more than just buying a new fountain pen. in my case, the internals of my fountain pen melted slightly and got glued together.

unfortunately, many sellers on websites like amazon, etsy, ebay, aliexpress, and more will claim that their ink is fountain pen ink, when in reality it will destroy your fountain pen.

until you are used to which types of inks are safe for fountain pens, use a dedicated and reliable stationery website like jetpens, gouletpens, or cultpens to tell you which inks are designed for fountain pens. jetpens in particular will also tell you which cartridges and converters are compatible with the fountain pens they sell, which is essential, because many fountain pen cartridges and converters are proprietary and only fit certain pens.

when in doubt, just buy compatible cartridges.

#2 do not expect the fountain pen to flex

calligraphy videos are really popular right now. many of them involve fountain pens and dip pens using flexible lines to create gorgeous cursive. in reality, most modern fountain pens do not flex, and trying to make them flex can break them.

this is a dip nib. if you try to do this to a fountain pen nib, you will damage it. this is what NOT to do to a fountain pen nib.

there are two main materials used for making fountain pen nibs: steel and gold. steel is harder and stiffer, gold is softer and generally more bouncy or flexible. vintage gold fountain pens gained a reputation for writing like "wet noodles" and creating fantastic line variations. they are very desired for calligraphy. but vintage flex fountain pens start at hundreds of dollars each. and virtually no modern fountain pen with any degree of flex will skip on the chance to advertise themselves as flex pens. anything not blatantly advertised as a flex pen should never be flexed.

and honestly? your first fountain pen should not be a flex pen.

fountain pen nibs, as mentioned above, are metal pieces with a slit to form two tines. where the tines meet together is where the ink is dispensed. since most modern fountain pen nibs are NOT designed to flex, trying to use them like flexible dip nibs or even just using the fountain pen at the wrong angle can cause the nibs to splay and not be able to go back together without some skilled repair. there are fountain pens worth thousands of dollars with shining gold nibs that will promptly get fucked up if you try to flex them.

in my opinion, your first fountain pen nib should be steel. gold nibs are softer and way more easily damaged, while steel nibs are firmer, can be just as smooth in writing, and are a lot friendlier to beginners. not to mention, a lot more difficult to damage. the smoothness on paper is mostly determined by the grinding of the tip of the nib, not by the material the nib is made out of. there are plenty of steel nibs that write smoother than gold nibs, and they are a hell of a lot cheaper, too. a slight impact to a gold nib can cause them to bend to the point they cannot write, but a steel nib has a greater chance of surviving a drop.

fountain pens require very little pressure to write. you want to write with as little pressure as possible, without separating the tines (for the majority of pens).

flex pens are also not the only way to do calligraphy with a fountain pen. since flex pens required varied pressure, flex calligraphy is way more likely to cause joint pain and hand strain than doing italic calligraphy, which uses angle-based line variation at a steady pressure. there are a ton of fountain pens out there that come in italic nibs that are great for this type of calligraphy. a cheap way to try out italic fountain pen calligraphy is by grabbing some pilot parallel pens, which come in up to 6mm nibs, and are sold in many retail stores.

for a more practical daily use fountain pen that comes in both rounded and italic, grab a pilot metropolitan in medium (rounded) or cursive medium (italic).

and if you do still want to try out flex nibs, fountain pen revolution makes affordable steel ultra flex nibs that work better than most modern gold nibs.

#3: do not expect any paper to work / DO NOT USE MOLESKINE

with this post now apparently at over 75,000 notes, I am one of the most prolific moleskine haters in the world. and with good reason, I know a thing or two about fountain pen paper. moleskine is garbage. there is nothing it does that other paper companies do not do better and/or cheaper, aside from maybe the brands that agree to collaborate with them. they have some notebooks with hello kitty, pokemon, james bond stuff on the cover among other things.

if you roll into any fountain pen community and say you are trying to use moleskine with a fountain pen, you will get laughed at and/or pitied. yes, even though moleskine literally sells kaweco fountain pens on its website. kaweco is not exactly known for being ethical.

as I mentioned before, fountain pen ink is thin and water-based. most ball-tipped pens have thicker ink made up of completely different chemicals. ballpoint ink is made of oil and alcohol, gel ink is made of a thick water-based ink, rollerballs often use ink that is almost as thin as fountain pen ink. basically, most writing utensils use thicker ink than fountain pens. which means, paper that works well with any other writing utensil might still work very badly with fountain pen ink. most paper sold in united states stores, as an example, will probably not work well with fountain pen ink. even if it is an expensive notebook. trust me on this.

there is no way to tell whether or not a paper will work with fountain pen ink without trying it first. do not rub paper to try and guess if it will work well with your desired ink, rubbing paper just damages the paper. there are tissue thin papers that work better with fountain pen ink than heavy art papers, there are rough papers that work better than smooth papers, there are ugly papers that work better than pretty papers, there are cheap papers that work better with fountain pen ink than expensive paper.

fountain pen ink looks best when it dries slowly rather than absorbing into the fibers of the paper. and since fountain pen ink is so thin, it can often cause feathering (fuzzy spreading of lines) and bleeding (going through the page). if your lines look fuzzy or if they go through the page, it is almost definitely a problem of the paper you are using, and not the problem of the pen or the ink.

some examples of showthrough, bleedthrough, and feathering from a jetpens article on fountain pen paper. while showthrough is not necessarily a problem depending on how you want to use the paper, if you have high bleedthrough or high feathering, you are definitely going to want different paper.

fountain pen lines should look crisp. paper that can handle most fountain pen inks is considered "fountain pen friendly paper". the best way to find fountain pen friendly paper is to look up reviews of paper online. there are a lot of fountain pen enthusiasts who test out fountain pen inks on different types of paper.

one of the reasons I really like jetpens is they test fountain pen ink on all their paper, and show the results. as far as stationery stores go, jetpens has the most testing of their products that I have ever seen. the information and testing from jetpens can be used no matter where you wind up buying stationery supplies.

if you are getting a fountain pen, or if you are gifting a fountain pen, expect to need fountain pen friendly paper to go with it. ink problems are usually actually paper problems.

I recommend products like midori md, maruman mnemosyne, rhodia, clairfontaine. if you want the best possible color for fountain pen inks, check out tomoe river paper and cosmo air light/snow, but they feel very different from typical types of paper.

do not ever get moleskine.

with these 3 tips, you are way less likely to flub your fountain pen. happy inking!

ko-fi

#rb #writing #reference #interesting

12K notes · View notes

pretty-anime-girl-aesthetic · 3 months

Text

proud to be the world's #1 moleskine hater. get fucked you inferior overpriced toilet paper. if you roll into any self-respecting stationery community with a moleskine notebook you will just embarrass yourself. the paper is notoriously overpriced and just plain bad and can hardly handle extra fine pens with water-based ink. if you use anything other than a pencil or ballpoint pen it is prone to feathering and soaking through the page instead of the crisp lines that basically every half decent and self-proclaimed "fancy" paper company is capable of. ink should not be spreading out or marking the next page. and all at a bullshit high price.

this awful brand is mostly only popular due to marketing and having a hard cover, which people think is exclusive to moleskine for some reason. they took the description of quality types of notebooks, trademarked it, and then churned out horseshit. moleskine has so many different factories with so many different types of paper that even if you manage to get a decent one, the exact same notebook type bought the very next day might be completely different and way worse. moleskine paper quality varies by notebook, by factory, and by year. their paper is genuinely some of the worst and most inconsistent garbage you can buy at that price, and their lack of functionality with ergonomic rollerball and fountain pen inks forces people to stick with ballpoint and pencil, causing unnecessary hand strain and sometimes even permanent injury. writing is not supposed to hurt and if you use moleskine that is part of why it does.

for the price of a moleskine notebook or cheaper you can buy some of the best fucking paper in the world. seriously if you go into any decent fountain pen circle and ask if moleskine is good just about every single person is going to cringe. it happens a lot and it is always funny. moleskine can not handle any significant amount of quality water-based ink (which have existed since forever), and can basically only reliably hold up to ballpoint ink, which is a thick paste-like concoction made of oil and fat. not at all impressive, especially since ballpoint ink is so thick that ballpoint pens require way more pressure and hand strain to write with than just about any other reasonable writing utensil around. and you know what else can handle ballpoint ink? paper towel

the following is just a few respectable alternatives to reaching for a moleskine that have actual good writing paper. these hold up better to ink found in fountain pens, gel pens, rollerball and more without looking like a sharpie in some tissue, in no particular order (these are not affiliate links I just hate moleskine) (this is just off the top of my head and nowhere near a comprehensive list because there are so, so, so, so, so many types of paper that are better than moleskine):

midori md a5 in dot grid. this paper is creamy in texture and color. a vintage looking paper that is gentle on the eyes and gentle with the texture. shows great sheen and shade with minimal bleed and feathering. also comes in graph, lined, and blank. feels great under the pen or pencil, without snagging any gross loose fibers like in a moleskine. by the way this has lay flat binding. it will lay flat on a table.

hobonichi a5 plain notebook. this grid-ruled, silky smooth tomoe river notebook sets out to emphasize that paper does not need to be thick to be better than moleskine. at 52 GSM, tomoe river is internationally famous for its strength and beauty while having a delightful crinkle. a ton of pages in a tiny space. this is the same paper used in hobonichi planners, and it can withstand watercolors, while being about as thick as tissue. meanwhile moleskine can barely handle rollerball. your fountain pen inks will look some of their best on tomoe river, with excessive sheen and shade. more great lay flat binding.

traveler's company starter kit in brown leather. want to look cool, feel cool, and not use moleskine? traveler's company is famous for its sturdy products in practical and stylish form factors. this particular notebook uses midori md. more than a notebook, this is a companion.

leuchtturm1917 notebooks. do you think hardcover notebooks with elastic closures and little flaps in the back are exclusive to the moleskine line? absolutely not. leuchtturm1917 has all that and more while being able to hold up to thick gel, rollerball, fountain pens, and more. their paper and binding quality over the past few years has been somewhat spotty but it is miles ahead of any of the garbage coming out of moleskine

rhodia webnotebook. speaking of hardcover notebooks with elastic closures and little flaps in the back, here is another notebook with a similar form factor to moleskine, and will not embarrass you to use in any respectable stationery or study circle. fountain pens, rollerball, gel, and more in big sizes are all fair game.

blackwing slate. this one is really funny because it comes from the makers of an internationally famous line of pencils. blackwing pencils are popular for artists, animators, journalists, and more. and despite being a notebook from a pencil company, it STILL holds up to ink infinitely better than moleskine. hardcover, elastic closure. and it has a slot for a pencil or pen on the side, and comes with a silky smooth blackwing pencil. by the way, one of the main methods to make a moleskine notebook not feel like total bumpy ass is to use a blackwing pencil, one of the smoothest pencils in the world. how about just get another notebook

drug store paper: for anyone who thinks that paper needs to be expensive to be good, you are wrong! there are so many papers that cost pennies and still handle some of the heaviest water-based inks around. the caliber paper from fucking CVS (the kinds that say made in vietnam specifically) can withstand a 6mm calligraphy nib. even more embarrassing for moleskine, this school grade binder paper makes ink look absolutely fantastic with heavy levels of sheen and shading. if you tried this on a moleskine it would soak through the page like you threw it in a bucket of ink. I cannot even begin to count the number of paper I have found for pennies that handles ink better than moleskine, because moleskine is some of the worst and most overpriced paper around. staples, walgreens, daiso, office depot, muji, walmart, random brands on amazon, all have paper that is better than moleskine if you know what to look for.

clairefontaine flying spirit. you want smooth? you want professional? clairefontaine. this leather cover notebook has cream pages made by one of the most ubiquitous names in paper, clairefontaine. clairefontaine excels at butter smooth paper that gives all your inks rich sheen and shade. clairefontaine has countless models of notebooks and paper, and just about every single one of them is better than moleskine by a marathon. even their cheapest, ugliest notebooks will make writing on moleskine seem like scribbling in dirt.

black n' red notebooks. you can find these online and at office depot, staples, target. their bold contrast of black and red (because they are named... yeah) is a sneak preview at how bold your inks are going to look on their smooth paper. despite some of their notebooks coming with things like QR codes and motivational quotes, this is quality paper that give your inks rich sheen.

cosmo air light. the winner of the 2019 award for best fountain pen friendly paper at the san francisco pen show, cosmo air light is one of the few notebooks out there to dethrone tomoe river in terms of how much contrast and sheen it gives inks. this unsuspecting paper drinks ink like a free lemonade stand in the middle of summer, and is some of the best you can get in terms of making your inks look even better than tomoe river. one thing to note is that lines will be slightly wider on cosmo air light, but will still have nice crisp lines. there was no 2020 winner for the best fountain pen friendly paper. a pandemic blocked the 2020 event, much like moleskine is blocking people from realizing most paper at that price point is not shit

apica. these usually floppy, sometimes not floppy notebooks are cheap as hell and still better than moleskine. with smooth pages and an index, these are popular for use in school, and only cost a few bucks each.

maruman mnemosyne. forget your preconceptions of ring-bound notebooks, this paper is smoother than anything moleskine can dream up, and comes in cool colors perfect for both professionals and gamers.

kokuyo campus. hey do you watch anime? you know how in anime, there are students who use notebooks? a shit ton of the most iconic notebooks in anime are kokuyo campus notebooks, because these are really popular basic notebooks for students in japan. the bottom of the barrel notebooks have better paper than moleskine

graphilio. do you just want to try good paper? do you not give as much a shit about fancy covers and binding, and just want to experience some of the best writing paper humanity has to offer? graphilio.

pro tip! do you want a notebook with a nice cover, but also have a particular paper you like? then just get the notebook and a separate reusable notebook cover. these are sometimes called refillable notebooks. notebooks generally come in standardized sizes like A5 and A4, you can find reusable notebook covers for just about every size of notebook, and you can use notebook covers again and again. there are notebook covers with tablet holders. there are notebook covers for notepads. there are notebook covers for ring-bound notebooks. there are notebook covers with built in wallets. there are notebook covers that are silky soft to the touch. there are notebook covers made out of quality leather. there are notebook covers that can hold several pens. there are notebook covers with metal claws inside them to hold several notebooks at once. find a notebook you like, find a notebook cover you like for it and then every single notebook has your favorite exterior, textures, and features. every single time.

writing is not supposed to hurt and paper does not have to be expensive to handle nice inks and ergonomic writing tools. if you have ever wondered why moleskine feels better to hold than it does to use, it is because they prey off of people who do not know that decent paper is supposed to handle more than ballpoint.

thanks to the internet you can look up all kinds of paper and find out which ones suck in a matter of minutes. with the help of your search engine of choice, simply look up [paper model] [fountain pen/marker/gel pen/your desired writing utensil friendly]. inspired by the countless types of deceptively shitty paper on the market like moleskine, the stationery community prides itself in testing and evaluating every type of paper it can get its hands on. in general, if something can handle fountain pen ink well, it can also probably handle rollerball, gel, and water-based marker ink. use stationery websites, use search engines, read reviews, and look at paper tests before buying paper so you do not wind up miserable and committed to something like moleskine, one of the stationery community's biggest mistakes.

moleskine is not good paper. good pens need good paper. bad paper makes people hate good pens. bad pens hurt people. fuck moleskine

ko-fi

#rb #stationery #writing #reference #interesting

4K notes · View notes