Jackson Fox, inspired by Leah Buhey’s AP newsletter article, posted about the sketching tools he uses and I’m following suit.  I encourage all sketchers to do this.  Let’s create a daisy chain of permalinks for our pen and paper recommendations.

Ink, etc.

I carry a pencil bag with a set of 005, 01, 02, 05 black Micron pens, a rainbow set of 01 Microns, a few Sharpies, a mechanical pencil, a #1 ex-soft leaded pencil, and a set of colored pencils.

Tip: #1 pencils are far better for sketching than #2. They write with little resistence and erase easily.  They’re used in many libraries because they do not damage paper.

Paper

Earlier this week, I had to go to the hospital to have the sort of test you can only have at a hospital because it is specialized and expensive.  I arrived on time and promptly saw someone who got all of my paperwork ready.  Once checked-in, I sat for about 20 minutes waiting for a technician to call my name.

When my name was called, we walked to my room and by some mix-up, there was someone already there.  I was sent to another waiting room and told it would be 10 more minutes.

At•ten•tion n. The cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things.

There’s an enlightening read over at PsyBlog – Memory Improved by 20% by Nature Walk – about how walks in nature enhance our ability to remember things as opposed to walks in an urban environments.  The reason?

I just updated my five year plan tonight, tracking changes so that I can see where I was coming from and when those directions changed.

Which is to say, my direction seems to be changing.  I’m gentle enough with myself to allow for some meandering, but the current is strong.  I rewrote the original sections which said “In 3 months…” and “In 6 to 12 months…” and so on, to “By March 24th, 2008…” and “By June 24th, 2008…” so that I can manage things in bite-sized chunks.

Key components to each time period passing:

Very nice, Garrett.

v1.garrettdimon.com

This is a good example of comedy as a reward.  The leading paragraph combined with the picture selection, even the size of the caption font… all work together to deliver the punch line.

5 Famous Inventors (Who Stole Their Big Idea) | Cracked.com