Scammers are not stupid, and some of the scams can get pretty elaborate. With the economy in the tanks, and people looking for jobs, there's a growing "market" for scams against jobseekers.
I don't know if this is one of them, but I have seen a similar scam before that did not involve a job. So, read on, and at the end, you tell me, is this likely to be a scam? But let me start from the beginning...
I was looking for a technical support position on LinkedIn when I came across this listing by a recruiter, allegedly recruiting for a top law firm with a large tech budget. The requirements are quite soft. In fact, it didn't even list "years of experience required" or any certification. I'm on the west coast, but this recruiter... is on the east coast? Well, it's not impossible... And the LinkedIn listing clearly says "SF Bay Area On-site"...
So I hit apply, mainly out of curiosity. And I'm at the recruiter's website. And there's the position... Except it's for New York Metro Area. Huh?
There's an upload resume button, which loads your resume to be parse with their ATS (applicant tracking software). That's fine, every recruiter has that. But right below that, is a button that claims to "AI Match your resume".
So I clicked it. As I wondered what's that button doing there.
It sent me to another website, where it claimed my resume is deficient in half of the categories they rate (in fact, my resume allegedly scored 0/0/5/5 where a full score is 5/5/5/5), and for a fee (of SEVERAL HUNDRED dollars), it will rewrite the the resume for me using AI to make sure I cover all the keywords.
I looked at the ad again, there are no requirements, no expected duties, no "what you bring to the table". So how did this resume analysis software even came up with this rating for my resume, if there are no requirements in the ad?
And what kind of recruiter puts TWO BUTTONS on every alleged job page that sends prospective candidates to that service, possibly pocketing money at every one who coughed up the dough?
Minutes after I clicked away, decided not only I don't like this service, I can't afford it anyway, an email appeared in my inbox... The inbox attached to my job hunting email address... and nowhere else. Not only they "scanned" my resume, they are now spamming me with it. "This is the resume review you requested" yeah, sure.
So I hit UNSUBSCRIBE.
What do you mean I have to enter my email address again? WTF?
For that, they are marked as spam.
Then I reported the listing to to LinkedIn.
And they acted upon it.
No, I am NOT going to tell you what they did. This is NOT a name and shame session.
The point is actually much simpler. If you don't feel comfortable, STOP! You often notice something wrong BEFORE you can verbalize or reason out what's wrong with it.
NOTE: This is not an encyclopedia entry, so I can't list EVERY single nib available.
One of the more interesting aspects of fountain pen collecting is the wide nib variation available, and the existence of custom nibs, so you can truly customize the writing experience.
What is a Nib?
To put it plainly, the nib is how the ink, stored in your fountain pen's reservoir, gets down to the paper via the feed. It's the metal bit.
Most bits are exposed, but there are also integrated nibs (built into the barrel), recessed nibs, and even retractable nibs (Pilot's Vanishing Point is the most famous).
Some nibs are integrated into the feed, creating nib units, so you must replace them together. While other pens allow you to mix and match different nibs and feeds, as long as they fit together back into the barrel. The feed itself can be made of plastic or ebonite, which is a type of rubber.
Then we come to nib "sizes", "materials", and "tips" or "grinds".
Nib Sizes
The first fountain pens were hand-made, and only when industrial age came along that nibs are mass produced, and became standardized. However, each penmaker has their own designation for certain sizes, depending on the pen barrel size they offer. Bock nibs, for example, have a single digit number, like #6 nib, while JoWo nibs, have a 3 digit number.
A single penmaker can offer nibs in multiple sizes. Sailor, for example, offers 3 different nib sizes, one per product line, each of different material and tip design availability.
Generally speaking, the larger the nib, the more "flexible" it would be (see next section on material), and the more ink it can deliver, resulting in "wetter" and smoother writing experience. However, the material used will also matter.
Nib Materials
The nibs can be made of different materials. The earliest inks are corrosive, which means you can't use hard metals like steel. Instead, gold-laminated or gold-plated metals all the way up to gold alloys are used for their anti-corrosive properties, and that drives up costs. To increase hardness in the softer nibs, the tips of nibs are often made of iridium. But the high cost of iridium lead to it being replaced with cheaper metals since the 1950s. A common replacement is Rhodium. However, some pen makers still make iridium tipped pen nibs as a part of their premium line (with corresponding high prices).
NOTE: the color of the nib does NOT indicate the material of the nib. Nibs can plated with other metals to present as silver/steel, gold or even black. Some tips are two-toned.
The nib material affects the amount the nib tip flexes, which can be either a good or bad thing depending on your writing style. A rigid nib means your writing will exhibit the same width no matter which direction you write, while a flexible tip (or just "flex nib") means your writing will appear to be more ornate, more resemble older style dip pen output or calligraphic output, as because you can vary the line width by varying the pressure you exert on the tip, which then affects the amount of ink transferred to the paper. But exerting too much force on the can damage the tip.
NOTE: An "ideal" fountain pen should require ZERO effort to write... as you simply move the pen, the tip barely touching the paper, ink flow smoothly, and line was created effortlessly, no matter which way your pen stroke goes.
Nib Tip Designs
The nib tip design itself, the part that actually touches the paper, affects the final delivery of the ink, and thus have great effect on the final output. The "shape" of the contact patch (where tip touches the paper) affects the line being drawn, in both size and shape. And one can further change the contact patch by either changing the angle the pen is held, or use a non-round tip which will produce output that differ depending on the direction of motion. And this lead to a whole range of tip designs for different purposes.
If you want to see the output of these nib tips, go to GouletPens.s "Nib Nook" which contains sample output from most of the pens they've ever sold, all tips, and all nib materials, and put several pens side by side for comparison.
The tip designs are sometimes called nib grinds, as it is possible for "nibsmiths" to modify an existing tip into a custom grind (which we will discuss next section "Custom Nibs").
Generally speaking, the finer the tip, the less ink it delivers, and therefore the "drier" it will feel. Conversely, the wider the tip, the more ink it uses, and the smoother and wetter it feels.
Most tips you see and buy nowadays are round, and the most popular sizes of the round tips are named EF (extra fine), F (fine), M (medium), and B (bold or broad). But there is no standard definition of such. Generally speaking, a Japanese pen would have thinner lines than their their European counterparts, even if they have the same tip size label (F, for example), due to Japanese emphasis on smaller tighter and more complex characters, and generally Chinese pens lean the same way. Also keep in mind that the exact width of the line drawn will depend on the ink and paper combination as well.
Kaweco offers a "double broad", or "BB", which obviously, is even broader than broad, and relatively rare. Pilot has a "coarse" (C) nib which is roughly equivalent to double broad.
A somewhat less common tip design is called "stub", sometimes "italic". This tip is not round at the bottom, but it's actually flat, or more accurately, a rounded rectangle. This generally results it writing fat vertical lines, but thin horizontal lines, and may be available in multiple sizes, and sold as "calligraphic fountain pens", due to its ability to write a Gothic type script. They are often available in 1.0 or 1.1mm, 1.5mm, some may go as far as 1.9 / 2.0 mm. If you add a slant to the stub/italic tip, you turn the tip into an "oblique" tip. Lamy's "left-handed" (LH) nib is considered an oblique nib, making it one of the few "factory" oblique nib available.
An even less common nib is the "architect nib", also known as "Arab/Hebrew nib" due to it often used to write the cursive required in those languages. Very interestingly, Lamy calls their version the "cursive" nib, also nicknamed the "Hanzi" nib because it's labelled with the CJK character 漢 implying that it's better for Asian writing, I guess? FWIW, architect nibs are really named after the blocky print style architects often use. And even these come in variations, as some are curved, so it's more forgiving, while others are optimized for a single holding angle and going off it means the pen will no longer write properly.
Another rare nib is the "fude nib", as it looks like a nib with a upward bent tip at the very end, as if it's broken. But it's that way because it can vary the line width DEPENDING ON the angle it's held at. Hold it steeper, and it will produce a thinner line, while holding it flatter to the paper, and and you get broad strokes. It is meant to emulate a Japanese brush pen. There are Chinese "art pens" that are very cheap with this nib.
Lamy has a special "beginner nib" called the "A" nib that's VERY round and spherical, and very easy to write with on their beginner fountain pens, the Lamy ABC series, designed for children, but it's also available for their Nexx and Pelikano lines as well, all of which fits below the popular Safari line.
Recently, some new interesting nibs came out of China: the "heartbeat nib", and the "long knife" nib. In most nibs, the dividing line that separates the nib into two tines is a straight line. But the heartbeat nib added two "heartbeats" to that. Long knife nib, aka "long blade nib", is marketed by Hongdian / Kaigelu brand of pens (same group of penmakers as Asvine). It is not clear whether long knife and long blade are the same nib, or are they referring to two different nib families. One Reddit post claims "long blade" is a Chinese take on the architect nib (see above), while "long knife" is a Chinese take on the naginata-togi nib (zoom + architect) which is explained below under custom nibs.
For those who find EF is not thin enough, Platinum has an UEF nib (ultra-extra fine) that is even thinner.
Sailor pens of Japan is probably best known for having some exotic tips for their nibs. In addition to the "standard" EF, F, M, and B, they also have MF (medium fine), Z (Zoom), and MS (Music). Thanks to Brian Goulet of GouletPens.com, we know that Music is a special stub nib optimized for steep angles that gives wide variations in line width depending on pressure, and was for a while used to write music notation on music sheets, while Zoom is a tip that varies its line width depending on the angle held, similar to a fude tip, but more versatile and smoother.
Pilot actually has two more very rare tips called "posting" (P) and "waverly" (W), which are variations on their F (fine) tips. Posting nib has an upturned tip that if you apply slight pressure, you get a VERY thin line, and thus, is used on very thin paper to reduce feathering, while Waverly is a combination of "fude" and "oblique" tips, more suitable for lefties. However, they are only available on the Custom Heritage 912.
Sailor has an ultra-premium "naginata" line of 23K tips reserved for their top-of-the-line pens and not available separately. They come in the following variations: "naginata togi", "naginata emperor", "naginata fude de mannen", "naginata concord", "naginata cross point", naginata cross music, and naginata cross concord. The most famous and known of the naginata nibs are probably naginata-togi tips, which are sometimes abbreviated as NAG tips, but are also known as kodachi nibs. It is physically composed of multiple LAYER of tips. Kyuseido call their own version of this tip Sankakusen (triangle grind) as naginata togi has been trademarked by Sailor.
Custom Nibs
Most nibsmiths are subtractive artists. They can take a large nib, and grind away bits, creating a new tip that's smaller. But a few nibsmiths are also additive... and they can ADD bits to the tip to create new tip designs. Nagahara, who worked for Sailor, was the first, and many of the aforementioned naginata cross nibs are in fact, "stacked nibs" (multiple layers of nibs combined into a single nib).
One of the best contemporary stacked nib nibsmiths is Ralph of Regalia Writing Labs. And his experimental nibs are either insane or ingenious, probably both. He had a custom experimental triple-stack tip (made by welding 3 separate nibs together!), each of which is cut into 3 separate tines, so you see NINE tines in a 3x3 grid... which he called Ninth Symphony. And he has many experimental nibs that are even more elaborate.
There are other custom stacked nibs that can be used both right side up and upside down, or unique combination of angles that produce very interesting variations.
While these ultra-premium naginata-tipped pens from Sailor can cost you THOUSANDS of dollars each, a relatively simple architect grind can be done in less than an hour at a pen show, and typically cost less than $100, with the pen owner supplying the nib. Needless to say, this will completely void any warranty thereof.
White-label Nibs and Nib Units
Nib makers are a lot fewer nowadays, and may penmakers simply buy nibs from other makers. Some of the more famous nib makes are BOCK nibs from Peter Bock AG, JoWo, and Schmidt, all of whom are in Germany (and Lamy, of course) , but others that sell nibs and nib units to penmakers includes Kanwrite and Magna Carta of India.
Indeed, some of the more famous pens you buy may be using a "white-label" nib from these makers. Visconti used almost exclusively BOCK nibs. I read somewhere they try to bring it back in-house with the new gold nibs, but they have to ask Bock for help with quality control.
Japanese and Chinese penmakers tend to make their own nibs.
In Conclusion
That covers 99% of stuff you need to know about nibs, well, maybe except how to adjust them if they don't feed properly. I think GouletPens and Goldspot pens have videos on that, and if you're in New York, Fountain Pen Hospital can adjust them for you. Or wait for the annual pen show to come to a city near you. Usually multiple nibsmiths will be attending, so book some time and let them take a look if you want a pen working right.
If you have questions about fountain pen nibs, comment below and maybe I'll add them to the list.
This is only Bluetooth 5.0, so it's being sold as low as $4.99... with free shipping by Amazon via their outlet, Woot.com. They sold out, but they have a slightly better version also for $4.99 (claims to have better battery life?). You don't expect much for $5, and this overdeliver at $5.
It can recharge itself from the case in about 30-60 minutes, and one full charge should lasts you at least 3-4 hours of non-stop play-time. And the case itself should be able to recharge the earbuds at least 4-6 times. And I'm being relatively conservative. Oh, and it claims to act as a small 2000 mAh powerbank and has a USB-A output port (it charges via the old-fashioned MicroUSB though).
The fit is relatively comfortable once I got both buds fitted properly. The eargel portion goes into the canal, then rotate the body until it fits into the crook of the ear. It won't stand up to rigorous exercise, but it should not fall off with walking or stair climbing. If you need them to be tighter, you need better eargels, which you can find on Amazon. But that introduces us to the nags and niggles.
Now for the nags and niggles... this thing is very sensitive to the size of the eargels. Beware, that if your eargels are too large, your buds won't fit back into the case and may not recharge. I tried replacing the eargels with foam tips... Won't fit nicely back into the case, even with pressure on the main lid. Also, the indicators of charge are pretty much junk. When it's out of power, it shows 2 out 4 bars. And one side runs out of power first (though only by a few minutes). And 2000 mAh battery... Who uses that?
Still, it's great value for a measly $5. It may not looks as clean as the Xiaomi Airpod clone, but at least this ain't a "homage". And no, I won't pay $100-200 for earbuds, not even if its Bose or Sony.
Zettlekasten is a way of organizing information to make them more retrievable for your research. It's related to a LOT of similar concepts, such as GTD, Building a Second Brain, and so on. Yet it predates most of these modern concepts.
There are many people who want to sell you classes and workshops and so on, but I think they are playing up the complexity of the system too much. Instead, I'll just show you what I have taken Zettlekasten to be... a multi-layer approach. I don't have fancy acronyms or backronyms. I'll just tell you the levels.
Level 1: Acquire and file information (of various types) into the Slip-box (which is what Zettlekasten means). This has 2 parts:
1A: Do GTD's "brain dump"... Get all the stuff out of your brain to be processed later. These are call "fleeting notes" in ZK, as they are ideas, not information. They are topics or directions you should explore (see level 3), but are not information per se.
1B: you also need to take literature / media notes, which points out interesting concepts, thoughts, quotes, and so on (with full bibliographical refs) as you consume all that info.
If you have extra thoughts, well, make them fleeting notes and attach them to the lit notes you made in 1B. But they are SEPARATE notes. Keep information (immutable) separate from ideas (mutable).
Level 2: Associate / Link the filed information to make them retrievable.
Initially you would not have much information to free associate, which is why you need to do this consistently over a long period to build up a large amount of information. It is essentially building a second brain to help you think.
In level 2, there are also a few parts
2A: Convert fleeting notes into permanent notes, by adding cross ref (if available) to relevant topics, or leave them on top as potential "todo" items if you want to look into them in the future
2B: Examine the new permanent notes and try to associate them with existing permanent notes, by adding forward links, backlinks, and index links.
Most people simply stop here, as they think this is enough, but that's missing a final step:
Level 3: Explore the OTHER dimensions of association / linking.
In level 3: we need to explore the "compass of zettlekasten". Most people, when they associate, they think of similarities. However, this doesn't address all the potential topics that one card can possibly related to.
Here's what the cardinal directions refer to:
West: similar topics, usually related anecdotes, quotes, studies, that support this hypothesis
East: opposite topics, anecdotes, quotes, studies, that directly oppose this hypothesis
North: explore potential duality / theme in a new direction, where X come front? If we take it up 10000 ft, what topic would it cover?
South: what does all these lead to? If we go down 10000 ft, what topic would it cover? What does X contribute to? What does X grow into?
In Vicky Zhao's ZK example, she was reading "Range by David Epstein" subtitled "Why generalist triumph in a specialized world", can be summarized as "breadth is better than depth", and "Sampling Hypothesis", about child athletes should be allowed to experiment with many sports before they settle down to specialize in one thing.
So "west" here would be a bunch of anecdotes and examples pointing out that a lot of the best experts, like Roger Federe in Tennis, Yo-yo Ma on music, are actually generalists before they became specialists.
East then would be the opposite viewpoint, such as the "10000 hours to become expert", or perhaps, the Matthew Principle (how those who have initial advantage tend to keep that advantage, or "how the rich got richer")
North then would have topics such as "why can't someone be BOTH a generalist AND a specialist?" "What about the late bloomers, like Van Gogh, or Colonel Sanders?"
South where does all these lead? Example given is "paradox of personal monopoly". Personal Monopoly is the idea of "nicheing". The Internet, esp. Youtube, rewards nicheing, where you build your own personal brand/monopoly that nobody can copy because you are uniquely you. People can imitate you, but they cannot BE you. Yet to develop a personal monopoly, you need to try a variety of things before finding your niche.
Oh, but wait, there's more!
Level 4: Synthesize new content
By this time, you may have enough information to create your end-goal: an article, a study, a research paper, a Youtube video... And you already have all the material at hand, so it's just a matter of putting it all together, no further research is needed.
Level 5: Getting feedback from audience and fellow creators / collabs so cycle can be repeated (optional)
A while back, I'm not sure where, I picked up this macro keyboard that has 3 rotating encoders (knobs) and 11 keys. However, I can't find a use for it at the time, so I put it back in the box. (I actually also have a single knob 6 key version I probably bought off Temu) Now that I dug it out again, I start to wonder what can I do with it.
Took me a while, but I FINALLY found the right driver for it. It was made by Videyt, but their download website is NOT well designed. The software listed next to the device actually will NOT work. I had to download the version just above it, the "upgraded" version's software, to see the device.
And somehow Chrome won't finish the download. Had to bring out Firefox to download the file correctly.
Then there's the problem of setting "layers". You see, while the software claims to support 3 layers of settings, there seems to be no key or keymapping in the software that lets you toggle through the layers.
It wasn't until I find better description of the device that I realize there isn't one. There is an EXTERNAL button that toggles among the 3 layers. The button was so tiny and recessed flat I thought it was a reset or Bluetooth pairing request button. It wasn't until I saw a diagram that labelled the LED as layer indicator that I realized there's only a manual switch. Yes, I know this is not an exact match, but it's close enough. And yes, mine has RGB lights... and Bluetooth.
Probably should have paid a bit more so I can get one that's compatible with GMK or VIA firmware... so I can toggle layers via one of the keys, not a switch. Hahaha. Still, those are like $70-100, whereas this one... is about $35-45. (The little 1 knob 6 key one is like... $10-15?)
Obsidian started out simple: a way to link and hierarchically organize a bunch Markdown (.md) files which themselves can contain links to other Markdown files, photos, videos, URLs, and much more. However, with a bit of tweaking, it became a full notetaking and note organizing app. And with additional of graph view, it became a visual tool as well, that lead many thinkers calling it "building your second brain".
And it's free.
There are two features that the company charge for, such as Obsidian Sync, and Obsidian Publish, but as a personal user, you don't need those features. Sync lets you clone your entire "vault" of Markdown notes and replicate it to other devices such as those of your collaboration team mates with full Git integration, while Publish turns, with a few tweaks, your vault into a public Wiki or Knowledge base, that you can edit on the fly. Personal uesrs don't need these. These are really for companies, which can also purchase at the cost of $50 per year per user, commercial license to receive priority support. But remember, personal use is free, forever.
And it accepts "Community Plug-ins", developed by the Obsidian community that turns Obsidian into a Kanban board, adds omni-search across entire vault, enhances editing capabilities, quick citing of Wikipedia, and much much more.
There is a way to migrate data from Evernote to Obsidian, but it's not a quick process, as you need to re-tag and re-arrange almost everything. But once you do, you'll find yourself wondering why you waited so long to do it.
I was at CPMC Van Ness, and for lunch, I decided to try Tommy's Joynt, supposedly a San Francisco institution with a 75+ year history. Never been there, and now I've tried it, never going back.
(Tommy's Joynt is at 1101 Geary, cross Van Ness)
I decided to try a "slim dinner plate", which is a meat entree (I picked "brisket"), and 2 sides (I picked mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables).
This is what I actually got:
Instead of "brisket", what I actually got was shredded beef.
The mashed potato gravy have sweet bits, doesn't taste like gravy.
The dinner roll was COLD. COLDER than the butter it was served with.
And the "steamed vegetables"? I got BOILED string beans (yes, I saw him fished it out of a steel vat.)
When you think about it, the sound system in Windows is extremely primitive. It doesn't even have treble/bass, much less an equalizer!
That's where the free EqualizerAPO comes in. Yes, it's free. Yes, it works in almost ALL versions of Windows, including latest Win11.
However, EqualizerAPO doesn't have a graphical interface, which is where PEACE comes in. This gives you EQ presets, hotkeys, and more so you can switch setup on the fly.
Recently came across EyeKeeper (affiliate link), who had developed a whole series of eyeglasses frames that are completely metal-less. And what's better, you can buy readers of each style for $30, in 6 different color variations, so you can pick a color that coordinates with your outfit. (AND there's a discount code to take 30% off)
You want prescription glasses, blue-light-blocking glasses, or sunglasses instead? No problem. They can do that too (subject to extra cost, of course). Prescription glasses can go as low as $15 each... So you can afford to get it in multiple colors!
Oh, and check their warehouse clearance section too. Can you believe they have titanium-framed blue light blocking glasses for less than $12 after a discount code? (US warehouse $22.99, use 50CPW to get another 50% off).
Yes, I bought 2 already. Use discount code KASEYCHANG for 15% off (or use the affiliate link above). Enjoy!
PCs generally do not come with a webcam, though laptops do. Yet the ones come with laptop are... tiny and non-upgradable. Sure, you can BUY a webcam... but why do that when there's usually at least two perfectly great cameras... in your smartphone, that's usually MUCH better than any webcam? You don't know how? Let me introduce you to Camo.
Basically, you download Camo.Studio on the PC side, and the Camo app on the smartphone side (yes, Android and iOS compatible). Start the pairing mode, scan the QR code with the Camo app (make sure both are on the same Wifi) and voila, your smartphone cam and microphone can be used on the PC as if it's a webcam input. And you can tune it with your Camo.Studio before using it as a video feed for anything else... Zoom, Google Meet, Youtube Live, and so on.
Your smartphone's camera are usually much more capable than any webcam. On my OG Google Pixel 6 (Pixel 8 is already out, you know) even the FRONT camera is 8 MP. Most webcams are barely capable of 1080p, unless you pay for the premium ones. Why would you?
Best of all... All this is FREE! Both Camo.Studio and the companion app are free! Yes, they do sell a premium subscription if you want HIGHER resolution feed, more tuning power, more profiles, presets, frames, presets, but that's not my job to explain EVERYTHING to you.
It's FREE. Just download it and TRY it yourself! How you mount it... I leave up to you.
Another item I picked up from Aliexpress recently (and strangely, it's ONLY available on Aliexpress, not on Temu) is the Xiaomi Mitu Fidget Cube. While they sometimes go as low as $1.00 USD, the usual price is $3 or so, which makes them a little overpriced when you can find a metal version for about $5 on Temu. These are supposed to come in a "blind bag" (i.e. random, could be metallic, ceramic, or just plain plastic in a couple different colorways) Personally, you would probably end up with the most numerous white/gray plastic version, which is why I said it's a bit overpriced if not on sale.
Anyway, my "cube" arrived UNASSEMBLED. It has no less than 8 small cubes, 8 cross-links, and 16 connecting rods, plus a double-length rod to help alignment in assembly. Fortunately, there are clear graphical instructions. Please study it CAREFULLY. If you assemble it wrong, you won't be able to get it to bend properly, and thus, won't be able to fidget with it. It took me a couple times to assemble it properly, mainly because I missed a few details on the assembly diagram.
This is someone else's video, but it's basically this, except I got a white and brown with white connectors, not blood orange connectors like the one in the picture.
At about $1 USD, this would be worth it. Try not to pay $3, okay?
One of the items I picked up on Aliexpress was a Xiaomi E17 ANC "airpod-like" wireless earbuds. The whole design is obviously a "homage" to Apple's Airpods. I thought I ordered Blue, but I got a black one instead.
The advertised features are 11db ANC mode, transparency mode (so you CAN hear people near you), and supposedly 20 hours playtime. Clearly, it's counting the battery capacity in the carrying case, not in the buds themselves. There are 2 sets of touchpads along either stem of the earbuds.
It does come with a small wrist-loop that can be threaded through the opening on the side of the carrying case. There's a cutout in the loop, but no explanation on what it is for. Maybe for hanging onto things?
To charge it, plug in a USB-C cable into the bottom. When LED over the Mi logo turns solid, the charging is complete.
To pair it, simply flip open the lid near the device you wanted (recommended distance: 2 inches). The instructions says you should turn on BOTH Wifi and Bluetooth on the device (why?)
As said before, each bud has two control pads on the stem. But all of these work on either pad alone. Swipe up or down controls volume. Single tap is pause/play, double tap is fast forward, and triple tap is reverse. If a call comes in, single tap answers. Once I triggered Google assistant by accident, but there's no documented gesture for that. Touch and hold both touchpads to toggle between ANC and "transparency mode". That's it. That's all the documentation. No explanation on what the button on the charging case back does (seems to control charging of the buds?)
After using it a few days, the ANC does work, and yet... it doesn't feel like it doesn't do much. I have an air purifier in my room, and it's like a fan in the background if I turn it up to any setting beyond "whisper quiet". With E17's ANC on, I still hear the fan, just... more muffled. It's similar to wearing an earplug, or wearing over-the-ear headphone with a decent cushion seal. Switching to "transparency mode" just seem to turn ANC off.
There were no spare silicone ear tips, just one set was installed, and they fit... "okay". I'll try to replace them with foam tips when I find some of my spares.
It also does not do multi-point. It will pair with only ONE device. And that device had to "forget" about the E17 to allow it to pair with anything else. Maybe they consider that a security feature, heh?
My MAIN problem with the E17 is its lack of battery life in the buds. I am only getting about 3 hours when one bud or the other starts beeping, indicating low power and needing a recharge from the carrying case. This severely affects my enjoyment of the device and makes me want to bring back out my Lenovo "neckband" or other Bluetooth headsets with far more battery life, even if they don't look as "cool".
Not quite sure how it happened, but I got food poisoning after getting out of the hospital on Tuesday. I suspect it's on Friday, when I was out walking about and picked up some snacks and dimsum, probably the snack, a mix of peanuts, edamame, and dried bait fish. My stomach started spasming couple hours later, threw up 2-3 times, ended up with NO food for 24 hours. Basically subsisted on candy and chocolate. What's worse somehow EVERY ache on my body came back, and since I can't keep any food down, no medicine would go down either. Tried taking Acetaminophen, came right back out an hour later. So it's double or triple the suffering. I count it as lesser blessing I didn't shat in my bed, but it was close.
On the other hand, the edema (fluid retention) in my calf is mostly gone. There's still some around my feet and ankles, but those would go down with time, I suspect.
It's now Sunday morning, and the symptoms from the food poisoning have mostly subsided. Got some oatmeal flavored with a bit of maple syrup. I think I'll do with half a cup for now.
Now some fountain pen talk.
One of the major criticisms for Chinese fountain pens is that they are very often... "homages" of western pens, or they are of very low quality with horrible tips. Part of it is they are often cheap as dirt compared to Western pens. You can often find full metal Chinese fountain pens for less than $5 on Chinese sites on Aliexpress, Temu, and so on. The cheapest fountain pens outside of China you'll find are disposable fountain pens like Pilot Varsity. Next step up you're looking at Platinum Preppy, at about $6-7, which is, of course, plastic. Basically, you're not going to find anything more "high-class" with metal body until you hit the $20-25 range, such as the Pilot Metropolitan, or Lamy AL-Star (which is very lightweight aluminum and costs $40-60 unless you shop around, and looks exactly like its cheaper cousin, the resin-based Lamy Safari, which is 30-40)
As I said, you can get a very nice full metal WEIGHTY Chinese fountain pen, directly from China, for a pittance. I bought the Hero A11 for under $5 off Temu, and it writes pretty darn well, if you ask me, even compared to the favorites like Lamy. It comes with its own piston filler, not sure if it's a converter or not, I didn't try to disassemble it yet. Just filled it with ink and started writing.
I got a couple more pens in my next shipment from Temu, so stay tuned. One's a Jinhou "porcelain art" special, then one with what looks like a fude nib, and finally a retractable nib pen, which was apparently all the rage in China. The Jinhou is about $8, and the other are about $2 each. We shall see if they are garbage or not next week.
My Aliexpress order is finally here... Only took them 8 days.
Anyway, adding another fountain pen and and 2 bottles of ink to my collection, which currently consists of:
* Crappy Lamy Safari CLONE from Temu (with included black cart ink, at least 5 if not 10) (about $1.00)
* Jinhou X850 from Temu, black, about $1.50
* Platinum Preppy in see-through blue from Amazon (about $6?) currently MIA (whole pen case is missing, just need to find it)
* Hero A11 "Black Forest" (new)
* Lamy Safari in Black with Black trim (genuine from Lamy store) (new)
As for ink, I currently have:
* Banmi Dragon
* Banmi Dolphin
* Generic black cartridge (for the Safari clone)
* Noodler's Blue (was for the Preppy?)
* Karkos Black
* Karkos Blue
* A couple genuine Lamy T10 carts for the Safari, forgot which color(s).
Ah, but I have the additional stuff coming in from Temu...
* A Jinhou 950 "Blue and White Porcelain" pen for $7.29
* A generic 0.7mm fountain pen with an "art tip" (fude nib?) for $1.59
* 20 more 3.4mm ink carts for $1.19
* 2 generic 3.4mm converters for $2.39 (converts fountain pens to use bottled ink instead of carts)
* A "retractable tip fountain pen 0.38 mm nib" for $1.59
And one more item from Amazon...
* Platinum Preppy M nib black (I bought a converter from LONG time ago for the blue one, which is MIA)
Now I just need a converter for my Lamy Safari... :) Which is like $5 on Jetpens. I am also eyeing one of their closeout limited edition Safaris for $30... But that'll have to wait when I *do* have money.
Don't have much in terms of paper, but I did buy a Rhodia A5 notebook at my local stationery store (Patrick and Co) for funsies. It was like $8. Most of my current fountain pen writing was in a diary I bought off Temu, nice paper, but it has a little bit of bleed through.
This hobby can add up, but if you do a bit of bargain hunting on Temu and such, you'll get a LOT MORE for your money. I am of course NOT saying that these fountain pens are comparable to Japanese (Platinum, Pilot, Sailor), German (Lamy, etc.), muchless Italian (Visconti) craftsmanship, but they are also 1/10 or 1/100th the cost. Platinum Preppy can be had for $6, but is plastic-y. You need to go up to something like Metropolitan to look less plastic-y. Lamy Safari is also plastic-y and starts at $30 (discounted) or $37 (official store), and you need Lamy AL or Lamy 2000 to get to metal body which costs significantly more. Visconti pens STARTS at $120 and goes up to THOUSANDS of bucks.
That Hero A11 full metal black cost me less than $5. I think it was $4.25 or so on Aliexpress.
I think I've wrote enough. Now I need some breakfast.
Went to the CPMC campus on Van Ness for my ECRP procedure.
How did Uber get so expensive? I was going to book Uber, and apparently at 6AM it will cost me $43 to go 1.3 miles (!!!). I changed to Lyft and it only cost me $20. And yes, I tipped $5. The guy came in a BMW! Rene, you're a good egg. Could drive a little smoother, but your car's immaculate.
Anyway, the procedure went without a hitch. Pretty much got dressed in the gown, got EKG, had a little problem getting the IV in, that the nurses decided to let the anesthesiologist do it. But I have always had difficult veins, and lack of water intake before the procedure (if I regurg during the procedure I could drown, no joke, or get water in my lung, which is not good either) means I am a little dehydrated, which added to the difficulty. I think I got like 4 holes poked in me before the nurses gave up. :D
Anyway, got to the procedure room, got the IV put in, then it's time for the procedure. Got transferred from the gurney to the table, was warned that the drugs are going in, got a couple breaths of pure O2, then it's lights out for me. And I woke up in recovery. Then... I got the "bad" news? They apparently did find a 3cm mass, and they were able to biopsy that for the lab. Then they put a stent in, so I should start feeling better. But they need a better look at that mass, so I have a CT scan to be scheduled "soon".
Got back home with a ride from family friend, pretty much went to bed, and dozed off.
Spent Wednesday pretty much moping at home. Dad decided to move his shitter to my room in case I needed it. :D Let's just say my bowels before the procedure was loose enough I may have gone a couple times in my trash can, that I got so tired of it I loaded myself with Loperamide (generic Immodium AD) that I constipated for a full day, didn't go until late Wednesday night / early Thursday morning. And yes, I had gone all the way to my local pharmacy to buy some.
Finally decided to venture outside on Thursday, but I didn't go to sleep until like 5AM, that I didn't get out until noon. Nothing quite taste right, but forced myself to eat some cheungfun, then got a haircut (I think my last one was in... January?)
Have a doctor's appt tomorrow, my sleep doctor, not much to report there, then there's an interview next week... Not getting paid MUCH, but my resume is apparently impressive to them, probably because no one else applied. Still, it'd put some money in my bank account, which is getting down to negligible status, and my credit card's over limit. ARGH!
Separate update about other stuff in the next blog post.
