Potent Quotables

I have been working on a creative outlet once again. In the past, having very little artistic ability usually gets in my way and this frustrates me so I quit. Now is the beginning of the cycle again so I am giving another go to calligraphy since you don't need that much skill to at least make the letters look decent. I am not belittling calligraphy, surely mastery takes as much hard work as anything else. There are a couple of things I learned the hard way today. Having been raised with either ball point or roller ball pens, I have little experience with nib pens. The things get a little fussy if they go unused for a while and it is hard to get the ink to come out. Some helpful tips:
  1. Do not lick the nib. You will get a mouthful of ink and your tongue will get stained. If you insist on licking the pen, then I recommend investing in the children's calligraphy pen set that is non-toxic and safe. If that exists.

  2. Do not flick the pen down in the hope that the force will bring the ink to the tip. Because it will bring it to the tip and then past the tip and then all over everything in your room.

  3. If you prefer to ignore 1 and 2 prepare to have ink all over you and to be kind of woozy with ink poisoning.

For practice I have been writing quotes that I enjoy and then post them around my room. Lately I have been putting up a lot of quotes telling me not to waste so much time and that I should spend more time on self improvement after all “We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” - Alice Bloch.

I know some of you might be saying,

“Here's a quote for your stupid wall, 'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted' - Marthe Troly-Curtin”.

And to that I say,

"Take it easy let's not get nasty. I guess you are right, I should say, 'Time wastes our bodies and our wits, but we waste time, so we are quits.' - Some Person”.

And then you say,

“Smart guy huh? Well, 'You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.' - James M. Barrie”.

And then Henry David Thoreau comes out of nowhere and says,

“hey guys, 'Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in' - Henry David Thoreau”

Somehow this ends the whole argument. While we ponder what Thoreau is on about, Voltaire slips by and casually reminds us all that “a witty saying proves nothing”.

I think that ink I swallowed has crossed the blood brain barrier.

Not a particularly inspiring quote. I just thought it was funny.

I guess it is good advice though.

Socks and Underwear: Potent Quotables

Friday, November 5, 2010

Potent Quotables

I have been working on a creative outlet once again. In the past, having very little artistic ability usually gets in my way and this frustrates me so I quit. Now is the beginning of the cycle again so I am giving another go to calligraphy since you don't need that much skill to at least make the letters look decent. I am not belittling calligraphy, surely mastery takes as much hard work as anything else. There are a couple of things I learned the hard way today. Having been raised with either ball point or roller ball pens, I have little experience with nib pens. The things get a little fussy if they go unused for a while and it is hard to get the ink to come out. Some helpful tips:
  1. Do not lick the nib. You will get a mouthful of ink and your tongue will get stained. If you insist on licking the pen, then I recommend investing in the children's calligraphy pen set that is non-toxic and safe. If that exists.

  2. Do not flick the pen down in the hope that the force will bring the ink to the tip. Because it will bring it to the tip and then past the tip and then all over everything in your room.

  3. If you prefer to ignore 1 and 2 prepare to have ink all over you and to be kind of woozy with ink poisoning.

For practice I have been writing quotes that I enjoy and then post them around my room. Lately I have been putting up a lot of quotes telling me not to waste so much time and that I should spend more time on self improvement after all “We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” - Alice Bloch.

I know some of you might be saying,

“Here's a quote for your stupid wall, 'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted' - Marthe Troly-Curtin”.

And to that I say,

"Take it easy let's not get nasty. I guess you are right, I should say, 'Time wastes our bodies and our wits, but we waste time, so we are quits.' - Some Person”.

And then you say,

“Smart guy huh? Well, 'You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.' - James M. Barrie”.

And then Henry David Thoreau comes out of nowhere and says,

“hey guys, 'Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in' - Henry David Thoreau”

Somehow this ends the whole argument. While we ponder what Thoreau is on about, Voltaire slips by and casually reminds us all that “a witty saying proves nothing”.

I think that ink I swallowed has crossed the blood brain barrier.

Not a particularly inspiring quote. I just thought it was funny.

I guess it is good advice though.

5 Comments:

Blogger presco said...

Granny would love your penmanship... only her's is much harder to read.

November 5, 2010 at 12:49 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

"To do is to be [Descartes]. To be is to do [Voltaire]. Do be do be do [Frank Sinatra]."

November 6, 2010 at 8:20 AM  
Blogger Noah Prescott said...

@presco - Thanks, but Granny's is much more unique and for that she wins. I see a positive correlation between legibility and the amount of time I take to write. Perhaps some fancy letters are in order.

@Ryan - Man, that kind of encapsulates the entire post. Might I add "Scooby-dooby-doooooooooo! [Scooby Doo]". I looked it up on wikipedia and the name for Scooby Doo actually came from the Franks Sinatra song.

November 6, 2010 at 12:00 PM  
Blogger thesixkillerlibrarian said...

In my grade 9 art class, 9 of the 18 weeks were dedicated to, you guessed it, oil painting. Just kidding, calligraphy! Make lines or put lined paper behind your calligraphy paper. It will make things a lot easier for you. Do you have a book to emulate, or how are you practising?

November 11, 2010 at 12:04 AM  
Blogger Noah Prescott said...

I think you're right, I might need some lines as training wheels to get me started. I do get a little off kilter. As for the writing the letters, I printed out a bunch of fonts I liked on a computer and practice from those.

November 11, 2010 at 12:34 PM  

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