Excerpts from pp. 57-58, dated 02-01-2010.

Today I fell in love.

I first met my new muse indirectly, on the Internet. Jessica Zafra copied JD Salinger’s “Before the War with the Eskimos” [by hand] as a way of remembering him (he died on Jan. 27, Wednesday, at the age of 91). Ms Zafra’s penmanship is remarkably elegant and I couldn’t help but notice how nicely the ink looked on the paper. This led to a bit of exploration which led me to the Montblanc website. (Montblanc is a renowned writing instruments manufacturer.)

And then I saw her.

The Meisterstück 149 fountain pen. Gorgeous. Elegant. Seductive.

Yes. I just called a fountain pen seductive.

Unfortunately the Meisterstück costs upwards of $500, way beyond what I can afford. However, the offerings of Parker, another popular premium writing instruments maker, are quite beautiful, too, and much more affordable. Some of their fountain pens can be had for below $30.

This afternoon I floated the idea of buying a fountain pen to my dad. I did so quite sneakily, too—I simply asked him if he had an unused fountain pen lying around. He told me there wasn’t much of a point in purchasing a fountain pen towards the end of the school year (he’s right), but that he wasn’t closed to the idea of buying me one for college.

I’m not going to hope for a Meisterstück 149, but a nice Parker with a refill bottle sounds delicious. Hopefully I will acquire one over the summer.

* * *

Look at this. Just look at it. Now, tell me that isn’t gorgeous. Here’s a beautiful Parker, too.

Do you use fountain pens? Any recommendations?

This is an excerpt from my Moleskine notebook, the personal repository of my thoughts and musings. This is more freewriting than ‘writing’, so expect to see grammatical rules observed less strictly. Excerpts from my Moleskine are not so much the organized arrangement of my thoughts, but instead the sudden, sometimes messy spillage of ideas onto legendary paper.

***

Just came back from the 2009 National Schools Press Conference in Naga City, no trophy in hand. I’d blame it on the time limit and the hag assigned as our examiner, but there’s more to it than that.

In all honesty, I love winning these competitions. I love being able to call myself a 3rd or 2nd or 1st placer. It sucks not to have another feather added to my cap.

I’ve decided not to measure myself and my writing on how many awards I have in my trophy  case, though. I don’t need special recognition to prove myself as a writer. If trophies would do anything to me, they’d just swell up my pride. Colleges would see them as additional pogi points to my credit, but I think that’s a bit shallow.

Just the ability to pick up a pen and write—an ability of all men, in one way or another—is reward enough for me.

I didn’t win an NSPC trophy. I don’t think I needed one, anyway.