My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Random Reflections
In my final look back at 2024, I’m looking at my blog performance and favorite posts again. You know that I love data, so this type of post is a lot of fun for me. If you enjoy data, too, take a look at the Data tag for posts you may have missed.
As I’ve said before, I’m well aware that the stats I have available to me are almost certainly tainted by bots, VPNs, etc. But, they’re still fun to look through. I know there are some other data nerds out there, so this post goes out to you.
Posted in Book Blogger
Well, first off, welcome to 2025. I won’t lie and say I’m looking forward to this year, but time moves on no matter what we want. I hope 2025 goes better than I currently have reason to expect.
Anyway, another year gone means another reading challenge complete. I’m surprised by how much I read this year. I didn’t feel like I was reading a lot, and there were even times when I read very slowly because I was reading non-fiction.
I find it fascinating to look back and see where I read a lot, where I slowed down, and what I was reading. To facilitate that more easily — and since I’ve gotten tired of Goodreads deleting Harry Potter fan fiction — I also tracked my books manually, this year. Since I’m tired of re-adding books, my numbers on Goodreads don’t quite match my manual tracking.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens
Another year, another overview of my collection. This is still one of my favorite posts of the year. Based on metrics, you all seem to prefer the “highlights” infographics version of this that I did last year over the in-depth dashboards I’ve put together previously. So, I stuck with that style.
For anyone who needs, or wants, an accessible version of the graphics below, I put together a text-only PDF version of this post. I’ve also made sure that the most important data in the graphics is also in the text of this post. So, you can choose the method of reading this post that most appeals to you: text, graphics, or PDF.
Posted in Random Reflections
In this final look back at 2023, and penultimate end-of-year/beginning-of-year post, I’m looking at my blog performance again. You almost certainly know that I love data, so this type of post is a lot of fun for me. If, like me, you enjoy data, you may want to look back at last year’s blog review post.
Posted in Book Blogger
Another year gone means another reading challenge complete. As I’m sure you can imagine, 2023 had some highly-stressful times. As often happens when I’m stressed, I read a lot.
I finished 104 books in 2023. That’s high even for me. That averages to 2 books a week, or a book every 3.5 days. Of course, the average doesn’t tell the whole story. As I mentioned in last year’s post, I have periods of voracious reading, followed by periods of relative calm.
My numbers are also skewed by when I’m offered free, or drastically reduced, Kindle Unlimited subscriptions. I don’t know why Amazon keeps offering me 3 months for 99¢, but I’m not complaining.
Another year, another overview of my collection. While I really enjoy the approach I used last year, I realize that such in-depth data visualization is not to everyone’s taste. And, while this is my blog and I can write/share what I like, I’d also like my readers to enjoy my posts.
So, this year, with the help of my non-data-hoarding husband, I’ve put together some stat highlights of my collection. I’ve included only on the fountain pens I currently own, so you will see a discrepancy between the numbers this year and the numbers from previous.
For anyone who needs, or wants, an accessible version of the graphics below, I put together a PDF of the graphics. I’ve also made sure that all of the data in the graphics is also in the text. Feel free to choose the method of reading this post that most appeals to you: text, graphics, or PDF.
Posted in Random Reflections
I’ve enjoyed these past two weeks of looking back at 2022 and looking forward to 2023. I’ll likely keep this same set of posts for future years, although perhaps not in the same order.
Like with yesterday’s Goodreads reading challenge post, I haven’t ever dedicated a post to my blog stats. So today, I’m fixing that oversight.
Posted in Book Blogger
While I’ve meant to, I’ve never actually written a post about my Goodreads Reading Challenge activity. I’ve actively taken part in the challenge every year since 2018. Generally, I’ve been conservative with my goal. In 2022, I went fairly easy on myself, setting a goal of only 36 books.
Since I haven’t looked back at my reading in previous years — on my blog, at least — I want to provide a brief overview of the previous years’ challenges, too. After all, while I know many of my readers are here for the fountain pen posts, 32% of my blog content is related to books.
If you’re interested in what I thought of the books I read, you can take a look at my book review posts, or my Reviewed list on Goodreads. I don’t always review the books I read, and, even for those I do, they aren’t guaranteed to make it on here.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Another year, another overview of my collection. I really enjoyed the Google Data Studio approach I used last year, so I went with that again this year. There are four pages again, and, while I’ve embedded the report below, there’s a good chance it will be easier for you to view it directly in Data Studio.
Posted in Miscellaneous Information
First off, thank you to everyone who responded to my survey. I’ve closed down the form, and I want to share the results. If you can’t see the charts below (depending on what device you’re on right now, it may be too small to read) you can view it on Google Data Studio. If you don’t want to view the charts, there’s a basic table further down in this post.
The votes surprised me. I didn’t think you’d be interested in brand “grudges,” and I thought pen porn would rate higher. I’ll have to do this again next time I’m running short on ideas.
Another year, another overview of my collection. Last year, I used Adobe Illustrator and created vector images for each table — accuracy was a pain in the butt. This time, I went with Google Data Studio. I don’t have as many shape and display options as I do with Illustrator, but I can more easily separate and display data this way. I have so much fun playing with data that I went a little overboard with this, so you can click through the four pages at the bottom of the frame. Or, if it’s easier for you, you can view directly in Data Studio.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Three and a quarter years ago, I wrote about inventories as part of my fountain pen series. Bac then, I was using Google Sheets to keep track of my pen and ink collections. Of course, at the time, I only had 50 total pen records.
As my collection grew, I found that I needed something with more features than Google Sheets. After some searching, I found Airtable. It’s basically a WYSIWYG database. You can customize your databases quite a bit, if you’d like, or you can work with very basic features. You can use most of the features with a free account, but there are additional features and reporting abilities available with a paid account.
Posted in Ink
The other day, I was going through my inks, and I couldn’t help but wonder what inks I use most. So, me being me, I dug into my data, and pulled out my 10 most-used inks. To figure out which they were, I looked for which inks have been used in my last four notebooks (since I started tracking inks). Only 6 inks were used in all 4 notebooks. The remaining 4 were inks that I used for both regular rotation in 3 notebooks and had in always inked pens.
Honestly, I was rather surprised by the results, as these aren’t my favorite inks. At least, not the inks I think of when asked about favorites. Maybe I’ll cover those in another post.
Note: This list is in alphabetical order. I scanned my personal ink swabs from my ink notebook. I’ve done my best to make the inks look true-to-life, but I can’t account for everyone’s screen settings, only mine.
Posted in Fountain Pens
I’m a data hoarder. I keep track of my pen collection in an extensive AirTable database, full of delicious data. For fun, I put together this infographic of my collection from the day I bought my first pen through May 1, 2021. It’s interesting seeing the trends. To view larger, click on any section of the image.
