u/ghostingpen

i love this thing. ever since i made it, i haven't felt a single itch to buy the real thing. i bought a cheap $5 card folder to hold my ID and payment cards, and it's been incredibly useful. the xteink x3 makes for a great secondary ereader on the go; it's just a shame there's no light source provided. at least it means the battery will last a long time, and i mainly leave the house during the day anyway.

i find myself writing in it during the bubbles of time i get sitting down at restaurants. so far it's been doodles, ideas for my current novel, and descriptions of dishes i loved eating.

i also love that because i didn't spend much money making it, i don't feel obligated to treat it as a precious thing. i've had ice cream dripped onto it during a work retreat, and i didn't freak out. when i wiped it off, the stains were still faintly there, but i treated that like it's part of my cover's charm now.

i decided to make this out of what i already had instead of paying an etsy seller for a copycat version, and there was especially no way i'd even pay the retail price of $100 for it. everything pictured i already owned (besides the ereader: xteink x3; i got it on sale for $60) so not much money was spent.

it was actually pretty easy, and a fun time sink! it's just that the spine's holes are sloppy and a bit unstable bc i didnt have the right tool to make neat holes at the time.

i plan to use this as an anti-scrolling method when i'm out and about. my goal is to get a card folder or some kind of zippered pouch so i can make it my wallet too.

ETA: since i got a few questions about it. i measured out the piece of leather and it's about 16cm x 10cm, with the booklets being 13cm x 10cm sheets of paper folded in half.

here i was thinking i wouldn't want more charms, but after seeing a couple creative charms, including a clicky keycap fidget charm, being sold at a recent convention, i just couldn't resist 😭

as someone with autism, adhd, and c-ptsd, i need some form of structure that's easy to be consistent with, or else i'll never get anything done. hence, the weekly template.

events are marked on the left half of the left page. i write time-sensitive tasks first for the week on the right half of the page, and then add tasks as they come up throughout the week. the weekly structure makes it really easy to migrate tasks to the next week by showing undone tasks at a glance from the previous week's spread.

on the right page, i usually log what i did or how i felt that day in shorthand. it takes literally 5-10 minutes to fill a day's space. sometimes i miss a day and forgot what i did back then, so i just freely journal a thought that's been stewing in my head that week. either that, or i just leave the space mostly blank save for a single "i forgor lol"

i keep a traveler's notebook as my bujo so that my monthly logs and notes are in separate booklets, so i have the option to just carry my weekly insert when i go out since that's what i use every day. i'm currently using a dated planner insert for this, but i easily replicated this layout in a gridded notebook i'll be using in 2027.

i was so lucky that the new little tokyo kinokuniya relocation finished just a few days before i landed in LA last week. i went to their temporary shop at first but the kind lady working at the stationery counter in the back tipped me on inventory still being in stock in little tokyo. my girlfriend was kind enough to understand how much i wanted this model due to stationery being my blatant special interest, so she quickly booked us an uber to get there.

it was $62 after taxes, which was expensive considering i previously got the champagne model for $40 at jetpens. however, the store had a promotion where any purchase over $50 got a free pen case valued at $30 (i'm assuming to celebrate their re-opening), so i'd say it was a decent deal all in all.

verdict: i still don't like the zento ink unless it is 0.7mm, so i swapped out the cartridge for the 0.7 stock refill i had in my champagne. as others have stated before, the pen definitely isn't made of brass, but the texture of the stone parts feel so nice.

i may sell my champagne model for japan's retail price (~$25 + shipping) to pass on some goodwill. however, i'm not sure if people would still be interested since the outer body is visibly chipped in some places near the cap.

now it's time to fill this new insert up!

i got gifted a nook glowlight 4 in ocean teal and i love it, but i noticed that whenever i lock my screen, i can still see my current page faded in the screen. will this become an issue? it doesn't bug me, but i just wanted to make sure it wouldn't gradually damage the device.

since its business is in books, my employer offered to gift me a $150 ereader of my choosing as my birthday gift. so i chose the nook glowlight 4 in ocean teal because it was the only option in that budget that has page buttons. it looks so nice and i'm really liking it so far!

this character also keeps it with her everywhere to sketch in.