Now in the midst of dreary winter, while the hills wear their white mantles, I sense a withering of will, and a drying up of muscle. When buds burst into leaves, I also break out in motion, powering against the rusted pedals, to rush down that path of leaves; rustling. .

Wintry winds tear at my coat, seek to reach my guarded soul, And follow me into my bungalow to snuff out my little flame. When Summer, oh summer, comes, I shall ride the streets of sun, catch the warm rays upon my back, spreading a glow through my winter shrunken frame.

-Ezra Hilyer

My active iTunes library is 6,800 tracks long, and for the purposes of reviews, I go through a hundred or more new songs each month. This amount of music would be daunting to manage, but I have picked up a few habits over the years that helps me keep it all in order:

When adding songs to the library, I always rate them as one star.
I have a smart play-list that only shows songs that have one star and have a play-count of 0.
This allows me to quickly go over the new songs that I have yet to hear. I only listen to this play-list when I have the time and presence of mind to focus on the song. I then rate the songs from that starting point as follows:

A decent song gets 2 stars.
Good songs get 3 stars.
Fantastic songs get 4
Songs that are beyond compare get the coveted 5 star rating. (in the library of almost 7,000 songs there are only 57 that have that rating.
If the song fails the test, and is lacking in some way; I remove its one star and rate it 0. This flags the song for either deletion or repair.
There really isn’t a place for songs of one star for long, they tend to cycle through my play-list until they get rated up or down, I then use the sort by rating option to find and remove/fix album art/lyrics on the 0 star tracks.

-Ezra

$190.75

That number is the value I place on creativity. Or a hinting at the value I give to my writing. That is the cost of the pen case, and pens I carry everyday.
I use these pens like tools, they are the hammer and saw of my mind, the wrench that I use to fasten my mental state to the parchment of my life. Each of these tools has a function different than the others, and like a carpenter; I have a lifetime of choosing the tools that fit my work best…
There are 6 pens in my pen roll.
From right to left; they are:

Lamy Safari Yellow Fountain Pen, with EF Nib. (I have black ink in it. This pen is for dark thoughts, and deep dreams)

Kuretake No. 40 Sable Hair Brush-Pen. (Black Ink here as well, this is for expressive moments, and light flourishes)

Kuretake Letter Pen (This is by far my favorite pen, I use it for letter writing, for recording my thoughts. the tip is fine, and lets me move as freely as my thoughts. I keep Sepia Ink in this one.

Lamy Al-Star Graphite ( I have a blue-black ink in it, and have the 1.1mm Calligraphy nib on it. I use this pen for writing poetry, and for long thought out quotes. There is something about the calligraphy nib that drives me to write well, and poignant. I don’t doodle with this pen.)

Pentel Tradio Stylo with Blue Refill (This is a pen that lets me draw, scribble, and jot. A Pen for light moods, and free thoughts)

Kuretake Water Brush (This is not a pen in the true sense, but I use this in conjunction with my Winsor & Newton Bijou Box to full the world with rainbow colors).

I got all these pens from Jetpens.
-Ezra

This is the 24 pen set from Jetpens, they are the Pilot Frixion Pens, that are not yet available in the US, but they should be. They are a bit pricy at $50 a set, but there is a bunch of ink in each, so they should last a good long while. I bought them about 7 months ago and I have been using them regularly since, and they are still going strong.

The colors are great, they are more pastel than bold, and the colors show up very well. They write wet, but surprisingly they do not bleed through no matter how thin the paper ( I have tested them even on thin rice paper) which makes them great for lots of things.

Naturally they erase well, and can be written over many times. I also have the highlighter version, and they are just as usefull, it’s good to be able to highlight and be able to erase it again if I choose the wrong color…

-Ezra

Lately I have been bringing granola bars along to stave off those hunger pangs. I have found a brand of bars I really like: they are the Cascadian Farms organic trail mix bars.
I looooove these things!
-Ezra

Several years ago, I purchased a yellow Lamy Safari with an EF nib. I used it constantly, and carried it with me just about everywhere. I would fill out my paperwork at work with it, and use it on my Moleskine.
In any case, it went missing last spring, and I had to switch to another daily pen. I missed it, but kept hoping to find it, and so I never replaced it..

Fast forward to last week: I was cleaning out my closet and found a sweatshirt that I hadn’t worn in a while, so I decided to wear it that day. I
Had it on when I suddenly thought about my missing pen, and decided to order a replacement. I went on Jetpens, and ordered a white Lamy to replace my lost yellow one.

Didn’t think a thing about it until that evening when I went to take the shirt off, and guess what I found in the pocket? My missing yellow pen.

I have been wondering since: if my subconscious was trying to tell me that my pen was in that sweatshirt, and I misunderstood and just took it as a chance to replace it? I mean somewhere deep in my brain I must have known that I left the pen in the pocket, and so that bubbled up into my consciousness somehow….

In any case, I decided to not cancel the order since I really will lose the pen again at some point, and the white looks so good on my iPad after all……..

-Ezra

Page 1 of a fresh Moleskine.

The lowly school composition book, the simple tool that has been used by so many.

A few days ago I picked up a $1 marbled composition book to record the progress of a current project, and upon picking it up, I was flooded with memories, it brought me back to my school days.
That black and white marbled cover and familiar size, the single signature of pages, and the cheap, but sturdy construction is unchanged in the 15 years since I last held one.

I have been into the whole ‘Moleskine thing’ for about 7 or 8 years now, and have looked down on the cheaper notebooks as inferior, but perhaps that is just pride, after all it is what is inside that counts.

I chose this one specifically because it was cheap, I wanted to use it to record notes on a messy experiment, and knew it would get wet, and smudged, so I didn’t want to put one of my precious Moles through that, but I wonder if that desire to keep my notes clear and clean and precise is a downfall?
When I first started to use the Moleskines, I only had one size: the pocket size, and I carried it with me everywhere. I put it in my back pocket, and sat on it, I had it with me every day I was working in dirty wet conditions, and the edges would get wet, and the ink would run. Just about the time I filled one up, it would start to come apart. Those first 3 or 4 Moleskines are ragged and torn, the covers are stuck on with gorilla tape, and the markers are frayed.

Now I have a bit more sedate life, and more of a clean work environment, I also don’t carry my moles in my pocket, but rather in my bag (which is always with me) and so they are in much better shape when I am done with them.
Conversely, I don’t use them as much; having them closer to my hand makes me more likely to use them in the few moments I have standing in line, than if I have to unzip my bag, and then open my pen case. Now I tend to use my notebooks for longer stretches, but the tendency to just fill them with instant inspiration is gone.
Now when I am waiting in line, I reach for my iPhone instead.

These lowly composition books are really jewels in a way that Moleskines can never be. Because they are cheap and readily available, the bar is set low, and there is no hesitation to use them.
I won’t stop using my Moleskines, as they are a wonderful tool that I have grown quote attached to, but I intend to get a few more of these ordinary cheap little books, and I intend to use them.

-Ezra Hilyer

She was great, good quick wit, and humor. She razzed the audience, and fired off her one-liners as fast as you can imagine. It was fun to see her live, she is always our favorite panelist on ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t tell me’.

If you ever get the chance to see her preform you must take it, it was well worth the ticket price. Now we just have to get to Chicago to see a Wait, Wait, show, live!

-Ezra

Above is a color edited photo of the Allan Longprimer 53br (bottom) and the Allan Brevier Clarendon 6C (top)

I ordered both of these bibles looking for a lifelong investment, but am having terrible trouble deciding between them. I cant really justify keeping both of them (because together they cost more than $300) and besides I like having only one, to keep everything together, and not be wasteful.

Needless to say they are amazing pieces of hand-worked art. Gold Gilt, and Goatskin Leather. They are almost fluid, and you really have to pick one up to understand.

In any case, I have had them for about a week now, and I am still at a loss as to which one to keep. Size vs. Readability….

Such a conundrum to be in…..
-Ezra