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Dr. Terri
@terri@curiousity.ca  ·  activity timestamp last week

Pelikan Twist: my new favourite fountain pen for shimmer ink

I mentioned back in June that shimmer inks had been giving me trouble. But I’ve found a new solution! the Pelikan Twist.

I own a few of the cheaper pens that people said worked for them, and the one that had been giving me the least trouble had been the TWSBI Swipe. But even “least trouble” meant that I could use the pen, but it felt like it was getting a shimmer particle stuck somewhere on the regular, so I’d have skipping and low ink flow and the whole thing felt scratchy and annoying to use. You can kind of see it in my journal writing:

A sample of writing using my TWSBI Swipe and Diamine Wishing Tree ink. There are noticeable dents in teh paper where the pen was giving me trouble.A sample of writing using my TWSBI Swipe and Diamine Wishing Tree ink. There are noticeable dents in the paper where the pen was giving me trouble.

Note that this ink *is* shimmery but I couldn’t get an angle of light that showed the paper dents and the shimmer at the same time so you’re not seeing much of it in these writing samples. This is on white Clairfontaine paper in my current journal.

Someone on mastodon (sorry, I forget who but it might have been @paradoxmo?) mentioned that they liked Pelikan for shimmer inks, but the ones they used were pretty pricey. But I had a Pelikan Twist I’d bought ages ago. So I wanted to know would the feed take shimmer as well as their more expensive pens? I can’t answer that because I don’t have any of those, but I can tell you that it’s worlds better than the TWSBI Swipe, or any of the other pens I’d gotten in search of the One True Shimmer Pen for my collection.

Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn’t working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.

I don’t know if the photos convey how different the writing experience is between these two pens. The TWSBI Swipe feels most often like I’m writing with a mechanical pencil: lots of feedback, very scratchy. It also tends to get finicky about angles. It’s not consistent: I think it’s happening when a particle gets stuck somewhere, so it’ll write fine for a word and then just choke. But basically it works beautifully for a day or two and then it feels like it’s running out of ink half the time.

The Pelikan Twist on the other hand, writes like, well, a fountain pen, even with the same shimmer ink. It’s smooth and the ink flows consistently. I can leave the pen for a few days without having to run the nib under the tap to get it going again. It is everything I wanted out of the writing experience but had never been able to achieve when using shimmer inks in any pen.

Pelikan Twist pen in red. It's a pen shaped like a long trianglular "tube" with a gentle twist so the ends are offset by about 1/3.Pelikan Twist pen in red. It’s a pen shaped like a long trianglular “tube” with a gentle twist so the ends are offset by about 1/3.

I’m really pleased, but also confused: lots of people love the TWSBI pens for shimmer, and I have 3 of them all of which eventually did the same half-clog thing. None of my other pens fared better, including the Wing Sung 698 I’d bought especially for this purpose. (To be fair, that one had other problems so I may have just gotten a bad one.) I still don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if I’m just significantly more picky about my writing experience. The former is entirely possible, the latter seems unlikely given how fountain pen users are. I am rolling the pen periodically to keep the shimmer moving as I write, and making sure the ink bottle is shaken so the shimmer is suspended in the ink before I fill the pen.

For all that I now love it, the Pelikan Twist is a weird pen. I think it cost me about $20 and only came in medium (which is fine, I like medium). I had some trouble finding a converter that actually fit it. The internet said it should fit a standard international converter but nothing I had on hand worked; thankfully the fine folk at Jetpens have more precise recommendations so I picked up something from them and it’s great. (I could also hae refilled the cartridge that came with it, but I like converters better.) I will say that the plastic on my Twist is already kind of dinged up (if you look closely in the photos you can see some grey areas), probably from when I carried my pens around in a pencil case that didn’t keep them separated.

Pelikan Twist pen in red with teh cap off to show the triangular grip section, which continues in line with the twisted pen body.Pelikan Twist pen in red with teh cap off to show the triangular grip section, which continues in line with the twisted pen body.

Unfortunately, the reason this pen never made it into regular rotation when I bought it to try many months ago (because it looked weird and was on sale) is that I don’t love the feel of the triangle grip. It’s not unbearable, just slightly off from what I find most comfortable. This got it most often relegated to “to do list pen” for months while I used up the cartridge, then got it forgotten in the pen cup until my shimmer problems made me pull it out.

But even *with* a grip that doesn’t perfectly suit me, it’s worlds better with shimmer ink than any other pen I own, and I’m really happy because this means the Diamine Inkvent inks I’d been struggling to use now have a dedicated pen and will be coming out significantly more often than they would have if I’d had to use a dip pen with them.

Another sample of writing with the Pelikan Twist fountain pen using Diamine Wishing Tree ink. Again, the writing is smooth and shows no misbehaviour from the pen. there's also a sticker with a strawberry macaroon shaped like a sea turtle on the same page.Another sample of writing with the Pelikan Twist fountain pen using Diamine Wishing Tree ink. Again, the writing is smooth and shows no misbehaviour from the pen. there’s also a sticker with a strawberry macaroon shaped like a sea turtle on the same page.

I should note that it’s not *all* shimmer inks that give me these headaches. I’ve been having a delightful time with the KWZ All That Glitters inks in pretty much any pen I try. But my ink collection is very small so it’s pretty dominated by last year’s Inkvent calendar at the moment. Still, the problem was bad enough that I’d been refusing to buy other shimmer inks and had taken the Diamine inkvent 2025 calendar off my plans for this year because I didn’t want to pile up more inks I could barely use.

Anyhow, I’m very happy with discovering that even this cheap Pelikan pen has a feed that takes shimmer better than anything else I own! But I will admit that it made me go look at other Pelikan pens and of course I feel in love with one that’s considerably more expensive and limited edition to boot. I can’t really *blame* companies for making money and no one manufactures exactly the same thing forever, but this hobby can be a bit much with the special editions to keep you buying. Ugh!

#FountainPens #review #stationery

Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
Dr. Terri
@terri@curiousity.ca  ·  activity timestamp last week

Pelikan Twist: my new favourite fountain pen for shimmer ink

I mentioned back in June that shimmer inks had been giving me trouble. But I’ve found a new solution! the Pelikan Twist.

I own a few of the cheaper pens that people said worked for them, and the one that had been giving me the least trouble had been the TWSBI Swipe. But even “least trouble” meant that I could use the pen, but it felt like it was getting a shimmer particle stuck somewhere on the regular, so I’d have skipping and low ink flow and the whole thing felt scratchy and annoying to use. You can kind of see it in my journal writing:

A sample of writing using my TWSBI Swipe and Diamine Wishing Tree ink. There are noticeable dents in teh paper where the pen was giving me trouble.A sample of writing using my TWSBI Swipe and Diamine Wishing Tree ink. There are noticeable dents in the paper where the pen was giving me trouble.

Note that this ink *is* shimmery but I couldn’t get an angle of light that showed the paper dents and the shimmer at the same time so you’re not seeing much of it in these writing samples. This is on white Clairfontaine paper in my current journal.

Someone on mastodon (sorry, I forget who but it might have been @paradoxmo?) mentioned that they liked Pelikan for shimmer inks, but the ones they used were pretty pricey. But I had a Pelikan Twist I’d bought ages ago. So I wanted to know would the feed take shimmer as well as their more expensive pens? I can’t answer that because I don’t have any of those, but I can tell you that it’s worlds better than the TWSBI Swipe, or any of the other pens I’d gotten in search of the One True Shimmer Pen for my collection.

Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn’t working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.

I don’t know if the photos convey how different the writing experience is between these two pens. The TWSBI Swipe feels most often like I’m writing with a mechanical pencil: lots of feedback, very scratchy. It also tends to get finicky about angles. It’s not consistent: I think it’s happening when a particle gets stuck somewhere, so it’ll write fine for a word and then just choke. But basically it works beautifully for a day or two and then it feels like it’s running out of ink half the time.

The Pelikan Twist on the other hand, writes like, well, a fountain pen, even with the same shimmer ink. It’s smooth and the ink flows consistently. I can leave the pen for a few days without having to run the nib under the tap to get it going again. It is everything I wanted out of the writing experience but had never been able to achieve when using shimmer inks in any pen.

Pelikan Twist pen in red. It's a pen shaped like a long trianglular "tube" with a gentle twist so the ends are offset by about 1/3.Pelikan Twist pen in red. It’s a pen shaped like a long trianglular “tube” with a gentle twist so the ends are offset by about 1/3.

I’m really pleased, but also confused: lots of people love the TWSBI pens for shimmer, and I have 3 of them all of which eventually did the same half-clog thing. None of my other pens fared better, including the Wing Sung 698 I’d bought especially for this purpose. (To be fair, that one had other problems so I may have just gotten a bad one.) I still don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if I’m just significantly more picky about my writing experience. The former is entirely possible, the latter seems unlikely given how fountain pen users are. I am rolling the pen periodically to keep the shimmer moving as I write, and making sure the ink bottle is shaken so the shimmer is suspended in the ink before I fill the pen.

For all that I now love it, the Pelikan Twist is a weird pen. I think it cost me about $20 and only came in medium (which is fine, I like medium). I had some trouble finding a converter that actually fit it. The internet said it should fit a standard international converter but nothing I had on hand worked; thankfully the fine folk at Jetpens have more precise recommendations so I picked up something from them and it’s great. (I could also hae refilled the cartridge that came with it, but I like converters better.) I will say that the plastic on my Twist is already kind of dinged up (if you look closely in the photos you can see some grey areas), probably from when I carried my pens around in a pencil case that didn’t keep them separated.

Pelikan Twist pen in red with teh cap off to show the triangular grip section, which continues in line with the twisted pen body.Pelikan Twist pen in red with teh cap off to show the triangular grip section, which continues in line with the twisted pen body.

Unfortunately, the reason this pen never made it into regular rotation when I bought it to try many months ago (because it looked weird and was on sale) is that I don’t love the feel of the triangle grip. It’s not unbearable, just slightly off from what I find most comfortable. This got it most often relegated to “to do list pen” for months while I used up the cartridge, then got it forgotten in the pen cup until my shimmer problems made me pull it out.

But even *with* a grip that doesn’t perfectly suit me, it’s worlds better with shimmer ink than any other pen I own, and I’m really happy because this means the Diamine Inkvent inks I’d been struggling to use now have a dedicated pen and will be coming out significantly more often than they would have if I’d had to use a dip pen with them.

Another sample of writing with the Pelikan Twist fountain pen using Diamine Wishing Tree ink. Again, the writing is smooth and shows no misbehaviour from the pen. there's also a sticker with a strawberry macaroon shaped like a sea turtle on the same page.Another sample of writing with the Pelikan Twist fountain pen using Diamine Wishing Tree ink. Again, the writing is smooth and shows no misbehaviour from the pen. there’s also a sticker with a strawberry macaroon shaped like a sea turtle on the same page.

I should note that it’s not *all* shimmer inks that give me these headaches. I’ve been having a delightful time with the KWZ All That Glitters inks in pretty much any pen I try. But my ink collection is very small so it’s pretty dominated by last year’s Inkvent calendar at the moment. Still, the problem was bad enough that I’d been refusing to buy other shimmer inks and had taken the Diamine inkvent 2025 calendar off my plans for this year because I didn’t want to pile up more inks I could barely use.

Anyhow, I’m very happy with discovering that even this cheap Pelikan pen has a feed that takes shimmer better than anything else I own! But I will admit that it made me go look at other Pelikan pens and of course I feel in love with one that’s considerably more expensive and limited edition to boot. I can’t really *blame* companies for making money and no one manufactures exactly the same thing forever, but this hobby can be a bit much with the special editions to keep you buying. Ugh!

#FountainPens #review #stationery

Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
Sample of handwriting using Diamine Wishing Tree Ink. The first two lines were done using my TWSBI Swipe fountain pen and have missing sections and dents where the pen wasn't working correctly. The bottom two lines writen with the Pelikan Twist pen are ver smooth in contrast and show no skipping or dents.
NHAM
@mixtape@nham.co.uk  ·  activity timestamp last month
[Read in full on NHAM]

Apophonia by Roberta Fidora

Review by @ashnoodle

Apophonia is a 5 track EP released by Roberta Fidora back in 2023. It’s full of catchy synthpop, and songs with a wistful, melancholic, self-aware, left of centre, humorous touch. All the tracks have a cohesive feel, but with a slightly different take on each.

Shoreliner could almost be a darkwave remix of a 1980s goth pop rock song, and Biarritz drives along with a solid bass sequence and synth string melodies.

All the tracks feel almost like torch songs. I’d love to be in a club and hear danceable tracks such as Biarritz, Is It Too Late For Fan Clubs?, and Shoreliner popping out of the speakers.

Roberta’s vocals soar in places, and this works especially well in the melancholic minimal atmospheric ballad of You Live Alone.

As well as the songs themselves there are a couple of great videos for Biarritz (below), and Is It Too Late For Fan Clubs? featuring a quirky, surreal humour …and puppets. You can find all of her videos over on her Gravitons Peertube channel.

Roberta asks, “I’m playing my tiny violin. Will you listen? Will you listen?” Yes, I will! In fact I’ve got this EP on repeat. Such a great set of tracks.

You can find Apophonia on Roberta’s site.

And you can follow Roberta on Mastodon ( @RobertaFidora).

#review
Alexey Skobkin
@skobkin@gts.skobk.in  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

"Важные истории" выпустили продолжение своего расследования про Telegram.

Я подозреваю, что за то, что я напишу дальше меня запишут в кого угодно - хоть в сотрудников ФСБ, но меня прям бомбит.

Как человеку, который не специализируется на этом, но чуть-чуть понимает про сети - уже первую часть их расследования было больно слушать.
Во второй части вместо того чтобы адресовать реальную критику первой (там было много технических моментов!) они решили опубликовать разговор с каким-то чуваком, который владеет точками обмена трафиком и сетями, также предоставляя услуги Telegram.

Как-то даже не хочется начинать говорить про журналистскую этику, но они сами открыто признаются, что он просил их разговор не публиковать, а они (все в белом такие) - его публикуют, хоть и частично. Океееееей.

Смотрим сам разговор. Чувак ровно в тех же местах, где мне хочется им сказать "бля, вы же нихуя не понимаете о чём говорите" делает ровно это и пытается как идиотам объяснять о том, что если они размещают какое-то оборудование для Telegram - это не значит, что у них есть доступ к данным пользователей. Он им прямо открыто говорит: "я могу пойти и поставить какую-нибудь железку между их оборудованием и сетью, только непонятно зачем мне это делать". И правда: ему это делать в общем-то не за чем 🤷
И про то, что ФСБ может получать данные о трафику он им объясняет, что вообще-то у всех операторов стоят ТСПУ и СОРМ и съём трафика там предусмотрен. Если есть возможности работать с big data, то не нужно никаких заговоров оператора со спецслужбами чтобы вычислить сеансы связи между двумя абонентами на территории РФ.

Почему-то при этом его слова "журналистами" воспринимаются как будто бы как подтверждение того, что они ранее говорили и они продолжают задавать ещё более тупые вопросы.

Да, в какой-то момент они там начинают что-то рассказывать про бумажки и кто за кого их подписывал и была ли у него должность в Telegram или нет. Но с технической точки зрения (в которую их и тыкали носом ранее) это вообще не имеет никакого значения. Даже если бы у него была должность в ФСБ это не поменяло бы того, что они несут чушь.

Это так глупо и отвратительно смотреть, что мне сложно выразить всю полноту своих эмоций после того как я это сделал.

Telegram - это не безопасный мессенджер. У него по дефолту не включено E2E шифрование и UX этого E2E там такой, что стимулирует им не пользоваться. Также у специалистов есть вопросики к кастомным протоколам.
Но это расследование не указывает на реальные проблемы Telegram, а выдумывает какое-то соломенное чучело и радостно тычет в него.

И ещё одно. В самом начале они говорят, что якобы многие независимые специалисты критиковали их, но на самом деле это всё был вот этот товарищ, разговор с которым они показали против его воли.
Нет! Их критиковал даже грёбаный Климарёв, который у нас уже давно признан экстремистом. И куча других людей, которые хотя бы базово понимают работу сетей.

То есть вся эта "работа" - это манипуляция на манипуляции. И я даже не знаю - это они специально это делают на заказ или они просто НАСТОЛЬКО некомпетентны.

Короче, пиздец, товарищи. Пиздец и позор.

#log #Russia #Telegram #security #journalism #ethics #thoughts #review #ВажныеИстории