First of all, Happy St. Patricks Day!  This is a great holiday for people to enjoy some good music and some fun, all dressed in green.  If you need a soundtrack, head on over to my buddy Marc Gunn’s site at www.marcgunn.com.  He has tons and tons of great Irish and Celtic music as well as podcasts and free MP3’s!  I have enjoyed his stuff for years now.  And if you see him, tell him Happy Birthday, it is today as well!

Now for a blog post:

If you are a blogger your main objective is to write.  Or rather it Should be your main objective.  When we get wrapped up in site design and monetization schemes we have to focus on the writing.

I had a thought that maybe there is cause to give up even on the computer and write.  I mean actual pen to paper writing.  And not necessarily blog posts either.  How about some bad poetry, or a short story about a leprechaun with a bad attitude and blister on his foot.

I don’t write on paper as much anymore, typing it in has taken over.  And who wants to transcribe all of that???  Sometimes I think it can be a great exercise.  I do tend to take it one step further though.

My dad is the artist, I didn’t inherit anything in that realm.  He was always into Calligraphy as well as drawing and painting.  I tried in vain to do any calligraphy and it was beyond me.  I did however gain an unhealthy fascination with the tools that people used to write with.

I have mentioned before how I would love to head back to 1800 and become a mountain man.  I love that whole era.  I have made some of my own clothes based on “patterns” (you have to make up the actual pattern) from that era.  I also love the pens that were beginning to be manufactured then.  Not the quill pens, those are hard to use, but the steel nibbed ones.  They are so much fun to write with.  You just have to be careful not to spill a bottle of ink on the carpet.  It doesn’t come out and you will be grounded for weeks.

Anyway, Old style dip pens are great fun otherwise.  There are different styles and types that look different when you write with them.  Those types of pens can be impractical for everyday use.  Thank goodness someone figured out how to put ink reservoirs into a pen and came up with fountain pens.

Fountain pens are way cool.  They are classic reminders of the early 20th century for me.  They have a certain charm and mystique because people just dont use them as much any more.

Now this is not for a slightly older generation, as fountain pens were still very popular in the 60’s.  As for my generation, I started writing around 1980 and the only pens I ever knew growing up were Bic ball points.

Why use a fountain pen?  Besides it is cool and will make people jealous of the level of cool you have acheived (very close to that of Steve McQueen), they are easy to write with and leave letters full of thick and thin lines that are almost art in themselves; just from the nature of the mechanism.  A ballpoint is always the same.

There are some very cheap fountain pens out there now so you could pick one up and try it for yourself.  Grab one and write a note to your sweetheart.  If you are really cool, seal it with sealing wax.  That is another post.  Go out and DO something a bit different, write like your grandfather did.

Any thoughts?  That comment section below is waiting for you!  Also, please don’t for get to sign up for my newsletter! First edition goes out when the Leprechauns are finished with it this afternoon!

Justin