The Army's Plan for Comparison

According to a recent report, the army has discovered that small doses of caffeine taken regularly through the day are useful for keeping up a person's alertness level.

Link this for article Stay Alert Caffeine Gum

Health Benefits

Everyone has a natural tendency to have sleepy times during the day such as in the morning and in the early afternoon. With micro doses of caffeine someone can stay at their best level of alertness throughout the day.

Other benefits of caffeine are theoretical. By some chemistry that is not discovered at this time, caffeine intake is sometimes associated with lower rates of incidences Parkinson's, diabetes, and Alzheimer's diseases.

 Link this for article Health Benefits of Coffee 

My Caffeine Program

Twice per day, I take shots of E.s.e. pods of espresso from my inexpensive Starbucks machine. I limit myself to two pods with 7 ounces of espresso ground coffee in each of them per day which I put through pressure and steam in order to make espresso. Between the times when I drink those two shots, I may have as many as two matcha lattes of ground, green tea.

The benefits of the E.s.e. pod which was developed by Illy are three. They provide a uniform and exact dose of caffeine, the pods are partially recyclable, and they are inexpensive.  I get E.s.e. pods that I use every day from my nearby Starbucks shop which are further discounted at purchase time with my Starbucks club card. The coffee in the E.s.e. pod from Starbucks is hermetically sealed in a plastic wrapper. At less than 50¢ per shot of 100% arabica coffee they are economical.

link this for e.s.e. pods @ Starbucks.com

Link this for Starbuck's Via Venezia machine that is compatible with e.s.e. pods

The low cost, consistent shots that I pull from my machine at home make the E.s.e. pod a super way for me to manage my caffeine intake and to stay alert.

Americans have the habit of drinking coffee that we inherited from the Europeans. The Europeans picked up the habit from the explorer's contacts with the Moslems who got the coffee bean from Africa.

I wonder whether any of our founding fathers could imagine the degree to which we are a coffee culture today. The Starbucks phenomenon alone defies explanation. Rather it is the power of the caffeine addiction that propels us for the  double tall non fat foam only half caf caramel cappucino  with whip.

However, if you look at the laborious process of harvesting the coffee bean as compared to that of the Chinese green tea, the benefits of green tea become apparent. Coffee requires picking of the coffee beans by hand. The process of separating the coffee cherry from the bean creates an enormous waste because of the water process. Much waste water gets produced in the process or getting the coffee seed or bean.

Green tea, on the other hand, has some efficiencies in terms of making a palatable drink. Green tea can get harvested by machines, though the best Japanese green tea is still harvested by hand. The process of making the green tea that we find in the Asian supermarket requires sorting, steaming and roasting. Noxious waste water is not a problem with green tea production as it is with the coffee bean.

Some people think that the caffeine that a person gets from coffee is cause for the cry of moderation, and the caffeine is not the only reason to switch. If you can live without the huge dose of caffeine that comes from coffee at Starbucks, then consider green tea which is better for you and better for its economical production method as well.

The Montegrappa Micra fountain pen, with a starting price of about $370 U.S., is a wonderful, starting pen for a collector of fine fountain pens. The Micra fountain pen has all of the features that I expect in a compact, premium fountain pen and it works with the Monteverde mini converter in contrast to the Montblanc Boheme compact fountain pen that allows only the use of international ink cartridges.

There is an amazing review on Fountain Pen Network 
linked here that covers the Montegrappa Micra fountain pen.

Micra pictured with the Monteverde mini converter inserted in the nib section

Close up of the nib section

How does a shy and bald guy get to be on good terms with an attractive lady? If she is a lady who works in a coffee shop near me in the fancy nieghborhood, it is possible, as my experience will attest.

I thought that the coffee clerk in question probably got their by some means that is difficult to imagine. By her manner and appearance I thought that she was of a different social set and had mistakenly found her way into the coffee shop to be a clerk.

At is often the case with women who I respect at first we didn't get along well. I think that the clerks and the coffee shop have a profile about me because I've spent so much time and money there. She was a little bit brusque on a first meeting, and I noticed that she was bedecked in Van Cleef & Arpell's gold chains.

Brusque clerks in the coffee shop can put a person off over time, and I knew that I needed a boost for my ego if I were to claim my place at a table in the coffee shop for much time. One day I brought in my Montblanc Boheme fountain pen and wrote for over an hour in my notebook. The girl in question was the clerk that day, and I managed to make a purchase and to sign the slip with my Boheme Montblanc fountain pen. She was impressed, and she knew that Montblanc is a sister company to Van Cleef & Arpell's . She smiled and said, "that's one of ours" about my pen.

After that we were on good terms and it was all smiles and I managed to sign my slips with a Montblanc Boheme fountain pen.

Another Excellent Order with Isellpens.com 

I recently made another excellent order with Todd at Isellpens.com in Arizona which has an online site and that has Chinese fountain pens and other pens from other countries. It is worthwhile to stop and to look at the offerings of Isellpens.com because Todd's selection changes from time to time. Of particular note is the clearance section where I recently found some amazing French fountain pens in new condition for little money. The best aspects of Isellpens.com are the incredible values and wide selection that you get of ball point, fountain pen and pen refills. Instead of spending money on pricey and glamorous pens, look at Isellpens.com for its incredible values and good quality. I've gotten reports from other people writing on the Internet that Chinese pens from Isellpens.com are amazing values and emminently useful.

Todd at Isellpens.com operates an effective payment system that is based on Paypal, and he ships promptly by FedEx. An added free benefit with an order of a few pens is a useful pen pouch that can hold many pens. 

A Journey I'll Not Forget

According to recent news articles, a self centered individual will have certain telltale signs on his FB webpage. He will have 1000 friends or more, he will have many beautiful pictures of himself, and he will have stories about himself on his FB wall wherein he is the superhero and main character.

One such friend invited me on a trip to the country with him in his car, and he quickly pressed me into the role of navigator for which I was also the primary Starbucks agent in charge of getting the double tall, no whip, skinny mocha. I also had to get directions and, because of a miscommunication, I did not go to the Mapquest site to get the detailed directions. Though I have no GPS unit, I was able to find our way by getting directions from the Internet on my phone at the last minute.

Before arrival at the country home of our guest, I was pressed into footing the bill for the food of the party of four people in lieu of paying for gas for the automobile on the trip. That was fine as he and I have done this sort of activity on occasions before this trip.

After the dinner we had to listen to my friend regale us with stories of his art career exploits in which there were no surprises to me. He even went so far as to try to set up the host person with FB so that the host could stay in touch with my friend the artist.

On the way back, we missed a turn which seemed a little bit calculated in my mind as a punishment for me being a bad navigator. This bad turn added an hour to the trip and caused us to drive back in darkness. Since it was dark, my friend and I did not know in what direction we were going which was confusing. My friend's excellent decision was to keep going so that we did make it home before midnight.

After a good bye at my door step, my friend suggested to me that we should repeat the trip to the country in the near future, and I am still waiting to hear from him.

The self centered individual will rapidly press you into service for a journey that you'll not forget, and for which you will be forever in his debt.

Nighttime trumpet section in a wintry rain forest

White Perfume from Comme des Garcons was a surprise to me when I first came across the unisex scent at the perfume store many years ago. The packaging in its Japanese simplicity impressed me at first. Then the perfume with its white flower, vanilla and cedar notes seduced me.

A perfume with a base of cedar woods that comes to my mind when looking for a comparison to White  is Terre d'Hermes. The cedar bases are in common between these two, and Terre d'Hermes has a good number of masculine notes such as flint that give it a deeper base. However, the concepts of both White and  Terre d'Hermes show simlarities as they have woody bases including styrax notes and distinctive head notes including pepper. In their respective concepts, Terre d'Hermes has Hermes' distinctive orange head note 'and White has that of white flowers. 

White perfume features a unique combination of sensual, clean and invigorating notes, and the best quality of White perfume concerns something that is characteristic of comme Des garcons perfumes; White captivates surprisingly. In this way, White perfume starts out like a trumpet section with white flowers and pomegranate notes. Those head notes quickly subside to a reasonable level and to a point wherein you have a close base of cedar and amber after an hour of wearing it.

This sillage of this perfume is decent, and I found that when I put on more than one push of it, people reacted.  I wore two pushes of White perfume before I went to a party and and a man and with wife commented, "What is that you're wearing?" which seemed odd.  Now, when I wear White perfume, I take one push of it though it is tempting to take more of its seductive  notes.

Link White perfume to purchase at LuckyScent.com

People wonder, "What is the purpose of a fountain pen?"

in order to understand the value of a fountain pen I think that people need to experience one and to use one in their daily lives, and in this purpose I listed below this several inexpensive fountain pens with their features that should be good for a person who is starting out in handwriting on paper.
A fountain pen is economical because you can buy a bottle of ink for very little money and use it over the course of a year. A fountain pen is expressive because you can vary the colors of inks that you buy, and a fountain pen brings out the best hand writing that you have. A fountain pen is reusable, and if you don't lose it you may use your fountain pen for many years. Finally, a fountain pen is eminently useful because you will write more easily and with less friction on the paper with a fountain pen than you would with ball point that uses ink paste. The purpose of a fountain is that of a useful tool for thinking.

Rotring Core

My first candidate for a fountain pen that costs less than $30.00 is the Rotring Core. The best aspect of the Rotring Rotring Core fountain pen from Germany is the generic ink reservoir system that can take two international cartridges or one standard converter. Using ink in the Rotring Core with the standard converter allows you to get the most use out of the pen. You must buy the converter in addition to buying the pen if you wish to use the converter. The Rotring Core has a responsive steel nib that is available in different widths such as large, medium and small. The cap is stable and steady and keeps the ink from drying out in the pen. The clip on the Rotring Core pen is serviceable and sturdy. The ergonomic design of the Rotring Core will leave some people cold because of the strangely useful grip, and its decoration in contrasting colors. I have many Rotring Core pens that I keep around the house because having them gives me a good feeling, and one is a great gift for a student.
Link the Rotring Core Pen on Swisher Pens Online Store

Lamy Safari

Lamy, also of Germany, makes a popular and long running pen design called the Safari which is made of plastic. The Safari pen has a responsive steel nib and a proprietary ink converter system. The Safari pen's ink system can take a bottled inks into a converter which people buy in addition to the Safari pen. Also, the Safari pen can use Lamy's proprietary cartridges of ink. The cap on the Safari has a reliable snap closure. The Safari's clip, while not as sturdy as the Rotring Core, is useful.
Link the Lamy Safari pen on Swisher Pens

Bic Easyclic

At the end of my list of pens, also in the super inexpensive category, we have the Bic Easyclic fountain pen from France. I ordered this pen from a merchant who lives in England, and with postage to the U.S. this fountain pen cost me about $10.00 u.s. It is not one of my first choices because the Bic Easyclic pen is not offered in the United States. For this price the steel nib of the fountain Bic Easyclic pen is responsive, and it is available in one medium width. It requires an international cartridge, and it can handle one international cartridge at a time. A converter is not an option with this Bic. The clip on the Bic Easyclic is not reliable for securing the pen in the shirt pocket, and the cap snaps shut and keeps the pen ink sealed. I would not let this pen float around in a briefcase because the cap may come undone in the briefcase and then leak ink on documents. Compared to the Rotring Core, is smaller. The Bic Easyclic is almost the same as another, more expensive pen, the Bic X pen fountain pen. I keep the Bic Easyclic pen as a spare pen in case someone needs to borrow one while I'm on the road.
Bic Easyclic Pen on Amazon.co.uk

To summarize, all of these pens take ink from a bottle or they take international cartridges. The best looking pen is the Lamy Safari pen. Though it is bulky the most useful pen may be the Rotring core  The Bic Easyclic is the cheapest fountain pen in Europe in my knowledge. Please let me know your thoughts on this topic. I hope you will find this article of some use to you as you look for an economical solution for excellent handwriting.

I know an Internet celebrity. We met twenty years ago when I moved into the inner city apartment where she lived in a separate apartment with her infant son. We started to talk when I brought over some poppy seed bread that I made by myself in a good hearted impulse. Eventually we got to know one another, and we spent time. After the boy got to be about two years old, the artist moved out of the building. I kept up with her and I baby sat a couple of times. I used her apartment to entertain. Having some income from a technical job, I tried to support her by buying paintings from her. This was before she got ensconced in a number of art galleries such as she has at her disposal on this day.

Now she is curating shows and flying to New York several times per year. She has had shows in the French countryside and has caught the wave of everything that has to do with the Outsider art phenomenon though she eschews the term for herself.

We sometimes got together for dinner and she told me of her friends in the Hamptons of New York. She has plans of getting out of the city that she hatched, to no avail, for many years. Most importantly the work continues to bubble and coalesce from within her modest apartment. I have become a regular habitué at her the gallery in the town where I live in order to stay abreast of her work and that of her contemporaries.

Link an interesting online discussion on the topic of Precious Resin by Montblanc on the The Fountain Pen Network

• Possibly, Precious Resin does not contain petrochemical
• Possibly, Precious Resin resembles plexiglass. A German company makes a material similar to plexiglass and to Precious Resin called edelharz.