I continue to find it fun to see how the story in manga format is different from the movie. For instance, the grandmotherly seer in the movie is a priest in the manga. Events occur in the manga in different order or are accomplished by different characters than in the movie.

Chloe Fong is a shy girl, very good at making lists, and intends to seek revenge on the folks that stole her father’s sauce recipe.

Jeremy Wentworth intends to marry Chloe, but hides a terrible secret in his mind—he’s the Duke of Lansing

Things aren’t all as they seem in this story. Good suspense and humor. Very good!

The Lamy 2000 looks and feels like a futuristic pen, which is quite a feat considering it is a design released about 58 years ago.

I loved the material and how warm it felt in hand, the satisfying click when capping and uncapping the pen, and the smooth action of the piston when filling and cleaning the pen.

My experience was mixed, though. I purchased a medium nib, and it tended toward broad in everyday use. The nib was acceptable when writing in print, but I found it a liability for legibility when I wanted to write in cursive. While changing nibs doesn’t seem to be officially supported by Lamy, it is possible. My understanding is that Lamy’s nibs for the Lamy 2000 have the same tolerances as the Lamy Safari and AL-Star; which is to say that a fine nib can fall within the ranges of an extra-fine or a medium nib.

Cleaning can be an annoyance. While you can take the pen apart, it is incredibly easy to over tighten the pen and crack the section, something that I personally experienced. Repairing the pen wasn’t difficult, thankfully, but I put it off for some time because I was fairly disappointed that it cracked. Within two years of repairing it, I sold the pen.

I expect that I’ll own this pen again in the future, but I plan on buying it and having the nib tuned to ensure that it falls within an extra-fine (preferably a Japanese extra-fine, if possible).

The Lamy Safari and AL-Star fountain pens tend to be popular introductory fountain pens. They’re relatively inexpensive, easy to find, and are available in many different colors.

I consider the Safari and AL-Star very similar, as fountain pens go, their main difference being the materials. Whereas the Safari typically has a uniform and plastic material for the barrel, section, and cap, the AL-Star uses aluminum for the barrel and cap, and plastic for the section. They both feature the same triangular grip on the section, both use the same Lamy cartridges and cartridge converters, and the same nibs fit both.

The clip on the AL-Star that I had eventually weakened to the point that it was fairly wobbly. I couldn’t feel confident that clipping the pen in into a pocket would keep it in place (and often it fell off, with a couple of close calls near a toilet. I also found that the AL-Star was uncomfortable for me to hold, as the cold aluminum tended to drain the warmth from my hands.

The triangular sections on Lamy Safari and AL-Star fountain pens may be helpful for learning how to grip a fountain pen. Depending on your grip style, this may be more of a hindrance; I personally found it unobtrusive. I do find the section relatively small, lacking enough space for a comfortable grip.

If you want to try several different nibs, Lamy offers many nib width options for the Safari and AL-Star, and they’re relatively easy to swap. However, their Lamy’s nib guide demonstrates that their nib sizes tend to overlap with relatively wide margins. For example, you can purchase three fine nibs, and they can conceivably fall within range of an extra-fine nib to a medium nib. Typically the nibs are smooth, but sometimes it is possible to come across a scratchy nib.

I find the Lamy Safari and AL-Star fairly easy to maintain fountain pens. With a bit of gripping material (a small piece of rubber or anti-slip mats for kitchens work well), you can pull out the feed for deep cleaning. However, if you don’t have dried ink in your fountain pen, you can easily clean these fountain pens with a water and a bulb syringe. Remove the cartridge or cartridge converter, suck water into your bulb syringe, place the bulb syringe into the cartridge nibble, and gently squeeze. Depending on the ink that you last used, a single fill and flush from a bulb syringe may clean your pen; if not, repeat until the water runs clear.

Overall I find them to be fairly rugged and moderately inexpensive fountain pens. At least within the United States, it is relatively easy to obtain parts and supplies for Lamy Safari and AL-Star fountain pens. I recommend buying Lamy fountain pens from a reputable seller and avoiding Amazon sellers. As a fairly popular pen design, these fountain pens do attract counterfeiters.

The Majohn C4 is a larger-sized fountain pen. It is a Japanese-style eyedropper-filled fountain pen, which means that you fill the pen by using an eyedropper or syringe to suck ink from an ink bottle, and then deposit the ink into the pen’s reservoir. The pen features a valved shut-off, which looks like a filling mechanism, but can’t create a vacuum to fill the pen. Instead, it provides a way to prevent ink leaking from the pen when you aren’t writing, especially from air pressure changes due to flying or dramatic weather changes.

I find that the section’s length is on the shorter side, but I can still use the pen comfortably. The pen has a fairly wide girth, so it can feel too large to hold. I quite like the clear turned acrylic pen, so that I can view the ink sloshing around.

I find the nib pleasant; it is smooth, with a very light touch of feedback. I haven’t tried swapping nibs on this pen, yet, but I suspect that you could pull the nib out and replace with a similarly-sized nib (I think a number 6 nib should work).

I enjoy this pen. The large ink capacity is great for long writing sessions, or taking the pen on vacation, the nib is accurate to size, and the valve prevents accidents. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this a beginner’s pen, but it wouldn’t be far-fetched to consider it as a second or third pen.

A fantasy graphic novel in a post-apocalyptic world. After Touremekians descend upon the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaä leaves to meet other groups. She meets the prince of Pejetie on the way.

I thought it was interesting to see the bits left out from the movie, and with 6 more volumes I’m looking to see how the world expands.

Roberta feels that she loves a chess player. Her cousin, Damon, intends to entice her into debauchery and then to win her heart.

I thought this a strange book that resolves fine (happy ending and all of that), but left a strange aftertaste.

I tried reading this again, and I gave up through the vignettes of Law and Order episodes. I found that it is too weird to me, and therefore I have a hard time enjoying it.

I feel that the author tries to push on the weird way too hard. On the other hand, I feel that it is a collection of horror stories, and it does seem to deliver on that. It’s possible that this sort of horror isn’t to my taste.

Despite “love” in the title, this is not a romance. It’s book that uses the novel format to explore philosophical aspects of love starting primarily after the couple meets, that is, just when most books end at “happily ever after.”

The book primarily looks at thinks from Rabih’s perspective. It looks at arguments, children, infidelity, and so forth.

Overall I think it is an interesting thought experiment. I enjoyed it for the fact that it looks at a marriage after the wedding, and the fact that trials and troubles don’t stop for a couple just because they pledge themselves to each other.

Bodard’s novella explores autonomy in a court setting. Princess Thanh is a pawn in two people’s political games—her mother’s, and Eldris of Ephteria. Eldris claims to love Thanh but Thanh isn’t sure.

An interesting story.