Video blogs, floaty pens.

I've always been a little annoyed by internet video. The buffering wait times bring to mind the 56 kpbs download days, where you'd sit there and watch an image on your screen inchworm itself into existence while your blood pressure ticked up a notch. I vowed I'd stay away from this so-called innovation as a blogger, but then these darned fancy little Flip cameras came along, and here I am thinking about doing some videocasting about typewriters and pens and whatnot. Because you can only take so many videos of your kid.

Trying to brainstorm topics... Stalking typewriters at thrift stores? Live pen comparison tests?

***a few hours later***

Ok, not exactly Wim Wenders here, and not even a Flip camera (rather, an old Canon Elph) but here is some poorly executed stalker footage I took of the many dozens of typewriters that line the shelves of Island Books on Mercer Island, Washington. The typewriters line many walls of the store, this is just one section. They are all on the top of a very high bookshelf, thus, I had to hold the camera aloft, surely looking insane in the process. Luckily, only the bookseller was present at the time, since it was right after the place opened on a glum, post-Christmas Sunday.

I will try in earnest to supply superior footage to this in future filming attempts.

Moving on to floaty pens.

There is a floaty pen blogger out there. Check it out. Thus far I have learned that quality varies in the floaty pen world, and that one would do best to focus on those made by the Eskesen company, which explains floating action technology on its Web site.

***update***

I remembered that a friend of mine and my husband's had once been in the habit of gifting my husband with floaty pens. Thus, I banished him to the attic on a 30 degree night to rummage in boxes of old office supplies until he descended, covered in spiders and fiberglass wisps, with a bundle of pens in his hand. May I also mention that he rolled his eyes.

Click the photos for a closer look, although getting a good shot of floaty pens isn't the easiest trick in the amateur scanner's handbook.