Things I have been thinking about recently
1). 0.5 vs 0.7 lead
Most people I know use 0.7 lead for their mechanical pencils.
Personally, I have been using 0.5 lead since sophomore year, but am currently trying to decide on which lead to use in college.
Throughout high school, I’ve always bought my mechanical pencils in packs, usually the really expensive papermate ones that come with lead and extra erasers. So, I’ve always been hesitant to switch lead sizes because in my mind, it would be a waste of money after spending around $10 for the pencils I’ve already purchased. However, since college is right around the corner, I figured that I would make a decision now.
As a 0.5 lead size user, I can name plenty of advantages and disadvantages right off of the top of my head.
Advantages:
- As an artist, usually better for sketching and erasing pencil marks
- Precision
- Ability to write smaller (which is important for saving paper space)
- Sharper
- 2+ years of experience with 0.5 lead
Disadvantages:
- Breaks easily compared to 0.7 lead
- May show up lighter than 0.7 lead
- At North, more people carry 0.7 lead with them
- Better variety of colors for the papermate pencils
So I really don’t know which one I’m going to choose. Hopefully I will find an answer soon!
2). My favorite colors
I realized that I really like blue, purple, pink, green, and beige.
3). How the sound ‘m’ is associated with mother and how the sound ‘p’ or ‘f’ is associated with father across multiple languages
For example:
English: Mother, Father
Korean: 엄마 Eomma, 아빠 Appa
Burmese: မိခင် (mi khin) and ဖခင် (pha khin)
Swahili: Mama, Baba
4). What to do for the rest of my portfolio for AP Studio
I’ve made 8 pieces so far and I’m down to my last two, so I wanna make them special. I also want people to look at them and be very very impressed.
For my ninth one, I am planning on using mylar as my surface, and charcoal/graphite for my media. I’d love to make the piece seem dramatic, with contrasting values and strong attention to detail. The problem is, I don’t know how that would connect to my sustained investigation question (how hand movement/action demonstrates the different types of love). Maybe I could do something where the hands are having a conversation together, but how? When are hands used to communicate? What specific movements do they make while talking with friends? Lovers? Family? I think I should study more human movement and body language. Maybe I should do that by watching Studio Ghibli movies. The movies have always been attentive towards small human movement.
For my last one, I am completely stumped. I want my last one to be beautiful and angelic. I not only want it to show love, but also a bit of the bittersweet side of love one feels when departing and how that in itself is beautiful.
5). Ayesha Khan is so talented
Ayesha Khan is so talented. She plays viola, the electric guitar, and acoustic guitar.
Her electric guitar sounds kinda remind me of honey.
6). I wanna…
- I wanna learn how to play the harp
- I wanna learn ballet
- I wanna not be sick anymore
7). Saying goodbye
Recently, I’ve been training for my new job as a hostess at Ikkai. However, it’s been a bit difficult to balance two jobs, as I already work over the weekends at Tous Les Jours. Since I would have better and more convenient hours and better tips at Ikkai, my mom recommended that I quit Tous Les Jours and commit to Ikkai. I think that it the route I am going to take. But I know it will be difficult. I’ve worked at Tous Les Jours for almost 2 years, and I will miss my coworkers dearly.
I personally like 0.5 pen size. It is the best. Pencils suck
no
While you’re too busy debating if 0.5 or 0.7 is the right way to go for your mechanical pencils, I think your severely underestimating the strengths of the traditional wood pencil. For starters, wood pencils have been used and trusted since the dawn of time and were probably use by Moses and John when they were writing the Bible. Secondly, the are not as fragile as mechanical pencils meaning you can use whatever amount of pressure you’d like onto the page. Lastly, they allow you to carry around a cool little pencil sharpener that always breaks on your lap leaving a million little pencil bits and dust everywhere (so fun)!
no
I have an explanation for #3! It’s based on the sounds that babies are able to make first. “Mama” (and variations) is simply the easiest thing to say because it isn’t a complex mouth movement, and it is generally assumed that the first thing a baby would say would be to get their mother’s attention, so that universal-ish first word became the universal word for mother. (“P” and “B” sounds, come next, and so they are used for dads).
Oh that’s really interesting!! Thanks!!
Esther,
I have something to say about the whole lead thing: In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter. Some people are even partial to 2mm pencil lead (they’re not even mechanical pencils at that point, people call them lead holders) that they have to sharpen manually, some people, like me, have minuscule handwriting and prefer the thicknesses of 0.28/0.3mm lead. And yes Emilio, the trusty wooden pencil is tried and true, but I simply find them really annoying since they get dull really easily. As for the problem with lead breakages with thinner lead, it all depends on the way you write. I prefer to write using 2B lead to reduce the problems of using such a thin lead: it allows me to apply zero pressure and still get a nice, dark line on the page. I rarely break my lead, even if it’s softer than most 0.3mm leads. All in all, there are tradeoffs to everything, so the whole pencil debate can be solved simply by choosing what is right for your handwriting size. Oh, also, liking purple gang (though I do like black more)! Parker already mentioned the mama/papa thing, and I can definitely relate to the AP Studio thing, even if I don’t take the class… why is it so hard to just come up with one thing nowadays…
-Derek
2B lead is a very interesting choice. Maybe that is the lead I am looking for?? I will try it. Thanks!