u/tabidots

I translated the quote a little more liberally so that the lines of the English version would break comfortably in the same way and the punchline would have an equally punchy rhythm as the original.

🖋️ Tape 1.5mm, 🫟 Kuretake Sumi, 📄 too-soft A3 dry media paper

The script is called Foundational Hand (I've seen it called "основной шрифт" or "базовое письмо" in Russian sources). It was created by Edward Johnston, the British calligrapher who revived broad-edge calligraphy (каллиграфия плоским пером) in the early 20th century. The scirpt is a modern adaptation of the letters in a 10th-century manuscript (the Ramsey Psalter); Johnston called it "Foundational" since it is a good starting point to learn how the broad-edge pen works. It is also fairly easy to adapt to Cyrillic letters.

If you are wondering about the Bulgarian-style к/ж, the letterforms are based on [the alphabet in «Каллиграфия» by Илья Богдеско](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/211174979003817/) and [some random exemplar](https://penlovers.ⓇⓊ/chema-postroeniya-bukv-osnovnogo-shrifta/) I found a long time ago.

Quote by unknown author, translation mine

🖋️ Tape 1.5mm, 🫟 Kuretake Sumi, 📄 too-soft A3 dry media paper

The Cyrillicized version is based on the alphabet in Ilya Bogdesko’s “Calligraphy” (Илья Богдеско, «Каллиграфия») and some random exemplar I found on Pinterest a long time ago.

There is definitely more than one way to skin a cat regarding the lowercase letters б, в, д, ж, к, л, м, т, я in Foundational. I found it interesting that Bogdesko opts for Bulgarian-style ж/к (with ascenders). I prefer the “sideways VHS” style в because it has a connection to скоропись (Skoropis’), which is very roughly the Cyrillic analog to Bâtarde or Gothic cursive.

This is a photo from summer 2012 of my then-gf’s cat. I currently live in a coastal tropical city where it’s 30°C, jungle-humid, and egg-fryingly sunny by 7:30am and this is pretty much how I feel these days.

I went from running a 1:43 half-marathon in March to barely ever leaving my apartment because it’s just too damn hot, lol.

I am a lefty but taught myself to write with my right hand over the past couple of years (late 30s). I do calligraphy with my right hand as well, but I decided to try mirror writing for International Left-Handers’ Day. It was as awkward for me as it would be for any righty!

- Top image: what I wrote
- Middle image: taking advantage of the bleed-through; I’m looking at the reverse, and part of the front side is reflected in the mirror
- Bottom image: the full reflection of the front side in the mirror

Parallel Pen 3.8mm, some thick scrap paper (peculiar Taiwanese size), Cánh Diều Olive Green

Imagine if Ancient Roman netizens had to put up not only with cookie notifications (Ep. 1), but rate limiting and captchas to prove they were human, too.

Nibs: Tape 1mm (browser tab title, address bar, Cloudflare branding); Mitchell #1 (page heading); Mitchell #2½ (Body text); Tape 2mm (checkbox text); Hunt 512; Sailor Shikiori brush pens

Ink: Walnut ink, Kuretake Sumi, Sailor Shikiori autumn series brush pens (Okuyama, Kinmokusei, Yamadori, Chushu)

Paper: Some suboptimal A3 dry-media paper

As someone who has had the dehumanizing experience of an job interview conducted by an AI 🙄

Tape 2mm and 4mm, Sumi ink, A3 dry-media paper

Tried a few different iterations of this quote, centered, in landscape format on A5, A4, and A3 paper (with the first clause in Uncial also). Centering is hard so I gave up on that and did it in portrait instead 😅

This is an exercise I made up for myself to work on getting the almond-shaped counters in Italic a-b-d-g-p-q to be absolutely perfectly consistent, which I find very difficult.

It is a multilingual set of phrases that meet the following criteria:

- Must contain all a-b-d-g-p-q in native words. This already rules out a large number of languages; I think there are very few, if any, other languages beyond these fifteen that meet this criteria. (Swedish gets a pass because Lindqvist is a common surname, even though "q" isn't used in modern spelling.)
- Non-Latin alphabet languages must have a Latin alphabet representation that is in official or common use (Mandarin, Hindi) or Italic letterforms that contain the required counters (Russian)
- Must be as short as possible while remaining grammatical (this is why a few of the phrases are rather long, and why German didn’t make the cut despite having words like “quantum”)
- Does not have to make sense, but should not feel like “word salad” like the perfect pangram "Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz"

Sumi ink, Tape 1.5mm, A3 dry-media paper that snags my nibs. (My Italic is better with Brause nibs but I want to keep them shiny and I'm relocating soon so I don't want to open another bottle of ink right now)

Here is the list with translations:

- opaque badge
- quagmire for bipeds
- gabapentin required
- shipbuilding quay
- all quibbling prohibited
- 🇻🇳 đi qua phòng bếp (go through the kitchen)
- [Latin] quadrigae plumbi (chariots of lead)
- 🇫🇷 plus d’argent québécois (more Quebec money)
- 🇫🇷 pourquoi des baguettes ? (why baguettes?)
- 🇧🇷 um pouquinho bagunçado (a little messy)
- 🇧🇷 equipagem absurda (absurd equipment)
- 🇧🇷 pesquisador de bagulho (researcher of stuff)
- 🇧🇷 pão de queijo e gengibre (cheese-bread and ginger)
- 🇪🇸 pagado en Mozambique (paid for in Mozambique)
- 🇮🇹 quattro bagni dopo (four baths later)
- 🇷🇺 добавить фарш (add minced meat)
- 🇮🇳 badqismat pagal (unfortunate lunatic)
- 🇨🇳 Bàba, dìng qípáo (爸爸，訂旗袍 / Dad, order the cheongsams)
- 🇸🇪 byggnaden köptes av Lindqvist (the building was bought by Lindqvist)
- 🇦🇱 pagesa e borxhit qendror (the central debt payment)
- 🇲🇹 toqgħodx bilqiegħda fuq il-pont (don’t sit on the bridge)
- [Wolof] dinga jàpp junqóob (you will catch a crab)
- [Xhosa] gqiba ukuphanda (stop researching)
- [Xhosa] xa ndigqiba apha (when I finish here)

Some people genetically have this reaction to cilantro. For me, it’s dill 🤮

(Apparently, there’s a chemical compound in dill called α-phellandrene that can smell like turpentine to some people.)

Tape 1.5mm, acrylic ink (Sennelier Light Green, which needs to be diluted and is a PITA to clean; for acrylic, Liquitex is better), A5 practice notebook

In a parallel universe, the Romans got the internet, but somehow still had to deal with cookie notifications. This piece depicts an imaginary news portal, http://acta.diurna.spqr, with the following text:

ACTA DIVRNA (Events of the Day)

NOVA RETIS MUNDANI INVENTIO hodie in lucem prolata est, qua per unam tabulam omnes terras, gentes, scriptaque [simul inspicere licet]...
(THE NEW WORLD-NET INVENTION has been revealed today, whereby through a single tablet, [one may simultaneously view] all lands, peoples, and writings....)

HOC SITVS INTERRETIALIS CRUSTVLIS VTITVR. ACCIPIO / RECVSO (This website uses cookies. Accept / Decline)

For the pedants: Yes, I know lowercase letters and Italic/Foundational aren't period-accurate but it's just too much text to write everything in caps, lol.

Nibs: Brause 1mm (browser tab and address bar); Speedball C-0 (Trajan caps); Mitchell poster 4mm (Rustica); Brause 2mm (last word in headline and the Italic); Leonardt Roundhand #1.5 (cookie notice); Tape 1.5mm (Accept/Decline); Hunt 512; Sailor Shikiori brush pens

Ink: Walnut ink, Kuretake Sumi, Sailor Shikiori autumn series brush pens (Okuyama, Kinmokusei, Yamadori, Chushu)

Paper: Some suboptimal A3 dry-media paper that snags my nibs

Leonardt Roundhand #1.5, Brause 0.75mm, walnut ink, A3 paper (for dry media, so not really suitable)

I'd been playing around with this sequence for a while, but only did two takes on A3 paper where I wrote monoline italic in pencil first and traced. Somehow I still messed up some letters when inking them, lol. I wish there was a rigid 2.5mm straight-cut nib (besides the 2.4mm Parallel). But the spacing on this one turned out well, so that's my consolation prize.

I tried to come up with a collection of instruments that are:

- genuinely uncommon. None are European orchestral or modern pop music instruments; most belong to folk music or non-European classical music traditions)

- still used today (even if not in something you can hear on Spotify)

Agogô — 🇧🇷 cowbell family
Bandoneón — 🇦🇷 accordion family
Cimbalom — 🇭🇺 dulcimer family
Đàn bầu — 🇻🇳 one-string zither
Erhu — 🇨🇳 two-string fiddle
Fujara — 🇸🇰 giant flute
Gamelan (gender) — 🇮🇩 xylophone family
Harmonium — 🇮🇳 (North), pump organ
Inanga — East/Central Africa, zither family
Jaltarang — 🇮🇳 (North), water-filled bowls
Kora — West Africa, lute-shaped harp
Launeddas — 🇮🇹 (Sardinia), bagpipes without the bag
Mbira — 🇿🇼 thumb piano
Ngoni — West Africa, lute family
Oud — Middle East, lute family
Pandeiro — 🇧🇷 tambourine family
Qanun — Middle East, zither family
Roneat ek — 🇰🇭 xylophone family
Sitar — 🇮🇳 (North), lute family
Taiko — 🇯🇵 drum
Udu — 🇳🇬 percussion (clay pot)
Veena — 🇮🇳 (South), lute family
Washboard — 🇺🇸 percussion
Yueqin — 🇨🇳 lute family
Zurna — 🇹🇷 trumpet-shaped oboe

For the pedants out there: Yes, gamelan should be gender, oops. Don't @ me

Was busy with other things the past few days and couldn’t practice. Writing skills evaporate quickly (this was take 6) 😣

Leonardt Roundhand #3.5, Brause 3/4mm, KWZ Misty Red, Midori A5 notebook

I am having a pretty miserable writing day. I must have written this sentence 100 times since last night and, as always, specific elements were better in some of them, but this is the least unacceptable take.

Leonardt Roundhand #3, walnut ink, A5 practice notebook bought in Vietnam (no brand)

I'm an Asian-American guy so in the US I've always had difficulty finding clothes that fit, especially back in the day. Nowadays it's a bit better with all the Chinese stuff on Amazon, but you really can't beat hàng VNXK (if you can fit in them, and ignore the hilariously wrong sizing).

I go clothes shopping here every couple of years and am always pleasantly surprised by what I find. (In between, I get T-shirts from participating in marathons here and the fit is perfect.) The key is to look for shops where, when you pass by, you can't see any discernible aesthetic across the selection of clothes / shop interior and the clothes are in a big pile.

My best finds over the years have been things like perfect-fitting stretchy polos, stretchy shorts and stretchy button-down shirts that never wrinkle (that last one was from The Blues, so more like Vietnamese GAP than VNXK, but still). If you have any shops to recommend in Đà Nẵng that are not on Lê Duẩn street, let me know! (I miss GUU Man and Pazzini 😢) I no longer stay on the city side so I spend less time randomly wandering around over that way.

Brause 3mm, KWZ Misty Red, A5 size practice notebook (domestic Vietnamese product)

Spent the entire weekend frustratedly drilling Roman caps for an upcoming post and wanted to unwind with something more forgiving, so here’s the NATO phonetic alphabet in Foundational. Some flubs here but nothing unpostable.

Speedball C-1 with walnut ink on Hồng Hà drawing paper, A3 size. I ordered the paper online so I didn’t know if it would work or not. It’s actually for dry media so FP ink feathers but walnut (and I assume Sumi as well) are fine.

The paper feels like soft sand to write on - a nice change from copy paper, or even Midori MD/Mnemosyne.

Done with fountain pens, so the colors are just whatever happened to be in them

I don’t know Arabic, so I was just copying an image for the “Akbar”

Maruman Mnemosyne B5
Sakura Hi-Ace 1.5mm / Sailor Wakauguisu
Parallel Pen 4.5mm / Cánh Diều Xanh Ôliu
Sailor Fude de Mannen 40° / KWZ Misty Red
Sailor Hi-Ace 2.0mm / KWZ Misty Red

Midori A5, Tape 2mm, Sumi

Unfortunate hyphenation 🤷🏻‍♂️

A4 copy paper, sumi ink, Leonardt Roundhand #1½, Speedball C-4

Alternate take: Midori A5 notebook, walnut ink, Leonardt Roundhand #2 and #3½

Spent a few hours too many trying to get warmed up and nail any passable take. Out of the takes that didn't end prematurely, the one on copy paper had a more interesting layout, but on a technical level it is still a rough draft. Oh well, I met my goal of ideating and executing within July 4 in both my time zone (in Asia) and US Eastern time.

It's not my best Rustica (and certainly not my best italic). I left the initial rough Q thinking "well, let's see how far I actually get." There are a lot of false starts. The end of the second italic line was an absolute disaster because someone kept texting me rapidly and I got distracted. I also don't usually write italic with the ascenders that extend rightward, which is why the "h" in "what" and the "l" in "gold" don't match.

I made another attempt at the same layout after this but a weird spot in the paper totally broke my top stroke of the F and I could not fix it. Rage. So then I decided to try a new batch of walnut ink I got in my Midori notebook. It's only A5 size so a bit limiting.

On the alternate version: My previous batch of walnut ink had precipitated out significantly (I had used a lot of it but then left it unused for over a year), so I forgot that walnut ink is supposed to be rather watery. The ink hotspots are due to (1) my being impatient at this point and just wanting to finish for the day, and (2) not being totally sure how the really wet ink spots would look when dry on this paper compared to my FP inks in more vibrant colors.

The Caroline is OK but a bit too bold; I should have switched to a #3 there. The serifs got worse as I went along and by the last word I even lost track of the slant, oops.

On the translation: I'm not a serious student of Latin or the classics, so I had Claude refine the translation, which I appreciate is not exact. "Human hearts" was a good way to make it more readable in modern English, as opposed to "mortal chests"