national whatever writing whatever

Since I don’t have the time to do NaNoWriMo this year — but I’m happily supporting those of you who do — I thought I’d try to post a journal entry every day of November. I understand that there is probably a website devoted to people doing just this, but I am too lazy to join it. Regardless, here we go …

November 2007. Ah, how you began, with home-mulled cider and cold-medicine-induced crashing into fitful sleep. The workday was long, but so productive and interesting I cannot complain. Multiple large projects are converging this month, making every day a triage day as I hemorrhage bits and bytes across workgroups.

It is so strange to work in such an intangible field. I use objects to keep me grounded, reveling in their functionality as well as their beauty. Three new additions have become especially significant.

The first, and the most obvious, is my iPhone. D and I bought ours at the beginning of September when the prices dropped, and I have not once regretted the decision. Granted, I love most things Mac-related, as well as most things the least bit shiny, so I was bound to be attracted to this gadget, but it’s become much more than that. Because I could go on for pages about the neatest features, I’ll just describe my very favorite: how the iPod deals with incoming calls. When I am listening to music and someone calls me, the music fades out and I hear the ringer in my earbuds. I tap the little controller on the right earbud wire and answer the call. When the call ends, my music fades gradually back in. This may seem like no big deal, but it is huge for someone who is regularly startled by loud noises. I’m also used to missing calls because I’m listening to my iPod and don’t hear or feel my phone ring — no more!

The second new object in my life is a fountain pen. No surprise there, really; I’ve been collecting them for a few years now, and every once in a while I justify the expense. This, however, is no mere pen. At the risk of sounding like a new luxury car owner, I will venture to say that this provides a whole new writing experience. The pen is an ivory/tortoiseshell Pelikan M400, and I happened upon it over a year ago in Seattle. That trip, I ended up with my Visconti Van Gogh Midi, which is also a marvelous pen, but I still found myself fondling the M400 in stores whenever I saw it. Its appearance is not what I am usually attracted to in a pen — my favorites are dark colors with silver accents — but it is striking in a way that people less interested in pens never fail to notice.

The third object is the smallest and yet most significant. For years now, as I am an old-school D&D geek, I have carried a 20-sided die as a lucky charm. Most of the time, it sits at the bottom of my purse, but during times of duress — like my dental work last month — I hold it in my hand with the 20 up and it gives me something to focus on instead of the pain. The die itself is translucent and sparkly, and I haven’t been able to find one just like it since. While at the Interpol concert last month, D surprised me by taking my hand not once but twice to slip translucent, sparkly d20s into it — one clear and one purple — like my original, only lovelier. The purple one accompanies me everywhere now.

About Halsted M. Bernard

Halsted, a/k/a cygnoir, does stuff with words. Her favourite things to do with words are keeping this diary, writing stories, and organising information. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, two cats, a few gadgets, several fountain pens, and many books.

• Web
|
• Twitter
|
• Google+
|
• Flickr