the paradox of air movement

It's funny but the store, which I've compared to Target (or really it's more like the K-mart of my childhood... it's not as bourgeois as Target, but it's also like... a bit higher-end than Wal-Mart) HAS airconditioning inside which is perfectly adequate; it's cool enough to wear trousers all day, or long sleeves, for some people, but it's not over-airconditioned like American big box stores are. And as a result, when you exert yourself beyond a certain point you can get quite hot - this happened the other day to both me and my supervisor cleaning up a shoe department that looked like a hurricane had hit it, so even without any heavy lifting or running.

As a result, it's both hotter AND cooler outside. You get hotter almost right away when you stand in the sun, but on the other hand we get a lot of good breezes here in the Finnish archipelago (the store is surrounded by forest, but is about 1 km in from the sea in two directions), so a lot of times even standing in the sun can be cooler outside.

On balance, the air inside feels a little stifling in spite of the recirculation, so it's memorably more pleasant outside, but inside often feels preferable to escape the necessity of standing in the sun on days without any cloud cover. The temperature still isn't over the 80s in Fahrenheit, but the sun is just so glaring that it feels like it's cooking you as soon as you stand in it (which is what UV does actually!). If you were outside doing your own thing at home or whatever, and master of your own fate, and possessed of a shady pavilion or a bunch of trees, you could arrange things to be in the shade most of the time and make it pleasant, but you can't do that at work because the setup just doesn't have enough shade to allow it. There are too many plants and not enough shady places to put them while they've all got to be watered.

school fountain pens

In some countries children are still taught cursive/handwriting with fountain pens. There's some benefit to this because fountain pens don't require any pressure for ink flow - the weight of the pen itself creates the line. As a result there are fountain pens designed for schoolchildren: to be ergonomic, sturdy, often a bit smaller for their hands, and otherwise easy to use, as well as brightly colored. Some of these pens are easy enough to get hold of internationally, but a lot of them aren't exported along with the pens for adults that the manufacturers make, much to my dismay. They look like a lot of fun. Mainly they make me wish I'd been taught to write with them. There weren't really any fun pens at all when they started teaching us cursive in 1990.


Pelikan Griffix; Pelikan Pelikano Junior; Pelikan Pelikano; Pelikan Twist (Pelikan Twist is relatively easily obtained internationally. I've been meaning to buy one to play with for years)


Lamy Nexx; Faber-Castell Scribolino; Schneider Base; Stabilo Easy Birdy and Easy Buddy (this line also includes an Easy Ergo that looks rather suggestive)


Kaweco Perkeo Bad Taste collection and pastel collection; Pilot Kakuno with grey, white, and transparent bodies