Don't call it a comeback
Hobonichi, Paperage, Pilot, Sharpie, Unicorn Spit
Skip this if you don’t really care about where I post content.
Yesterday, I performed my annual ritual of noting stuff from the previous year’s planner into my Hobonichi 5 year diary. I noticed that I’ve given up a lot of things. It’s happened over the last few years, but it was particularly true last year. Sometimes, I gave it up to save money. Sometimes, I gave it up because I was too mortified by a revelation. Sometimes, both.
I don’t miss a lot of the things I’ve given up. But: Even before X turned out to be an asshole and I learned Y’s agenda is reprehensible, feeling connected was already a big challenge for me. I’m an introverted, non churchgoing, former remote-job-holding-and-now-empty-nest mom1 who’s lived for aeons in a small town in southernmost New England2 . Not exaggerating: I could move away tomorrow and only two people would notice. My partner, and my therapist. And I wish I was kidding, but half an hour after I put my five year diary back on the shelf I got a phone call: my therapist3 died this past weekend.
All of which is to say: I have a good understanding of how and why Substack is bad. When our little world moves on from it, so will I. But I learned a long time ago4 that in times like this, each person has to make their own decisions about what they can and cannot do. And like many people, I’m doing things that I can’t talk about except in person. Meanwhile, “in person” has been a challenge for me since long before the golden escalator. So. I’m trying out being here again because maybe, it will help me keep everything else going.
Skip this if you don’t really care about pens or ink.
My pen budget has really tanked, but I did get the Diamine Inkvent calendar for Christmas! I’ve swatched all of my Inkvent inks, but (of course) I’ve done that over several notebooks and card sets that are now all in different places. The next snowpocalypse, I hope to find them all and maybe do a top ten.
Skip this if you don’t really care about journals or planners.
Every year, not long before Hobonichi Ordering Season starts in early September, I receive a gift certificate from a particular store5 that covers the cost of a Cousin. Five or six years ago, I could just order my Cousin whenever I remembered to order it. But now? If I don’t pay attention to the date and even the time, I’m screwed.
Last year, I paid a little attention to Ordering Season Date/Time and just barely managed to snag one. This year, I basically said fuck it, thereby screwing myself.6 So this year, I used the gift certificate to buy a Dayfree Cousin, a set of thin Hobonichi notebooks, and a couple of stamp pads. But I still needed a planner, because Dayfree doesn’t really work like a planner — it’s more of a “I feel like commemorating this day, but not EVERY day” deal. So I used another gift certificate I had from a place you can probably guess, and got a Paperage A5 weekly.
I moved to a weekly planner because I realized that when there isn’t a certain kind of work environment7, I don’t need a daily planner. A month into 2025, it’s working out pretty well. Every day gets a couple of phrases, and the full page on the right side gets stuff I need to do (but don’t), stuff I read or watched, doodles, and other random crap.
So all of that — the planner, my notebooks — is The 2026 Frankenplanner Experiment. I’ll try to remember to report in on it from time to time, especially since I already have THOUGHTS about paper quality.
Skip this if you don’t really care about art supplies.
For a while now, I’ve been doing more visual art. If I start talking about creative stuff again I’ll get into why and how that’s been going. But for now, here are a few tools I’ve been using that I like.
Pilot Parallel pens. The 6.0 nib in particular is a lot of fun.
Sharpie Creative Markers. Everything the package says is true.8 One down side: some colors seem to dry out more quickly than I’d like.
Unicorn Spit. Soooo many projects on the official website, but I think it’s just fun to dink around with. Not sure I’d pay regular $15 retail, though.9
Procreate. iPad only, $13, no subscription, no AI. Even without looking at support and resources, much less frustrating than Adobe.
Sakura Micron pens. Have always hated them for regular writing-writing, but get it now. (Fight me, but: Sakura is not really about regular writing-writing anyway.)
No complex volunteering capabilities + no local coworkers —> no socializing with kid’s friends’ moms —> no book club invitations —> You Are Here. Also, I’m a weirdo.
Bonus round: I didn’t grow up anywhere near here.
While it wasn’t entirely unexpected — she had a lot of health challenges — it’s pretty awful. I’d been seeing her for a long time, and she was fantastic. I’d go on but this is a newsletter (ostensibly) about pens and art/office supplies.
Along with how everyone should work in the service industry, everyone should experience a community-wide protest.
It’s from Yoseka. I still haven’t been to Yoseka in person, by the way.
My mom used to like telling this story: My sister and I played with building blocks as kids. When my sister’s blocks tumbled over, she’d shrug and start building again. But when mine did? I’d stand up, kick the ground next to the pile, and walk away.
By the way: If your boss tells you to stop taking notes and the meeting doesn’t include nuclear codes? Run like hell.
What the hell is getting pumped through the vents at Sharpie? First the Micron dupes, then the S-Gel, and now these! They’re going wild over there.
Like the beginning of a fairy tale that won’t end well: Every time I meticulously go through Michaels’ clearance section, I somehow find a new color of Unicorn Spit for $5.