I went to school for newspaper journalism in the early 2000s; the final days of when one actually went to school for newspaper journalism and wasn’t completely batshit crazy or just deluded. While the internet wasn’t in its infancy by any means, it hadn’t (warning: hipster phraseology ahead) quite hit the mainstream as it has now.

That’s when I learned Associated Press style: the format journalists use in their writing. It’s beautiful in its simplicity — AP Style’s primary goal is to express the most information possible in the least amount of space. So, instead of saying “although”, for example, you’d say “though”, saving yourself two characters but not changing the meaning of your sentence. It’s elegant. It taught me to use my words efficiently to have more impact. It ruined me for the academic papers I had to write and the flowery, verbose language required by MLA style.

AP’s also pretty good at changing with culture, especially Internet culture. Originally, “website” was supposed to be written “Web site”, and “email” was “E-mail”. As Internet users themselves adapted, “website” and “email” became the norm, and pretty soon, AP followed suit.

The one thing that seems to have stuck around both in AP and, well, everywhere else is “Internet”, with a capital I.

I argue that it’s time for that capital letter to go. The Internet is as present in our lives as cars, electricity, phones, and air. We don’t capitalize those nouns, do they? The capitalization implies a proper noun, like Wikipedia, Samsung, or Google (though arguably Google is becoming generic enough to warrant a lower-case usage in its verb form).

But Andy! you might say. The Capital-I Internet is a powerful thing! We should all show it the respect it deserves!

I totally agree! All of my coworkers and I would not have a job without the Internet. We definitely respect the Internet.

But we know the Internet is a tool. Ubiquitous though it is, we manipulate it every day, and use it and its standards and protocol to convey information in (we think) an attractive and efficient manner. It’s not an entity unto itself (until SkyNet goes live, of course), and it’s not a brand name. It’s a commodity. It’s a community. It’s a tool. (You don’t say, “Pass me that Hammer,” would you?)

I say we stand together, and teach our spellcheckers that internet is spelled with a small “i”. Language is ever-evolving, and rather than try to lobby for new words like “gr8″ and “i’ma” (as in “I’ma let you finish”) to find its way into dictionaries and stylebooks, let’s improve the accuracy and precision of our lexicon and give the internet its propers by referring to it as what it is: a tool.

Update 5/23/12:

Just saw this, from Wired News, all the way back in 2004:

But in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.

Visionaries!

I have been known to obsess about the tools I use. It took me years to find the perfect weekly planner, until I finally gave up and switched to my iPhone’s iCal. I constantly obsess over the perfect pencil. And now, I’m back in the market for a new coffee tumbler, after shattering my old one.

This is similar to what I used to have. It’s a 10-ounce, matte ceramic, double walled tumbler mug with a black silicone grip and lid.

Aesthetically speaking, its simple, spartan look is an homage to a to-go coffee mug, but without any branding, textures, or etchings. It’s a minimalist dream, and I like to think that Steve Jobs himself couldn’t find fault with the pure usability of this thing.

Functionally speaking, it was the perfect container for my coffee. With a quick rinse, the bright white ceramic bore no traces of coffee stains, and had no residual flavor, should I want to put tea in it after a strong cup of coffee. The double-walled edges kept it insulated extremely effectively, and even if there was freshly brewed, scalding-hot liquid in it, the outside of the mug was barely warm, especially if gripping the silicone band.

The ten-ounce capacity is perfect — while some might find it insufficient, preferring a 12 or even 16-ounce capacity, I think ten ounces is perfect. I can finish a cup quickly enough before it gets cold, and I can pace myself so I don’t OD on caffeine throughout the morning.

I got it as a gift, and — stupid me — I never took the time to remember the brand or model. Unfortunately, last weekend while I was packing my lunch to go to work, I knocked my mug off the counter onto my kitchen’s hardwood floor, and it broke into many, many pieces.

So now I am looking for its replacement! Unfortunately, I can’t find one exactly like it. I can find tumblers made from plastic, tumblers made from a glazed ceramic, tumblers in a larger capacity, tumblers with designs on it, and in different colors. But nothing just like my old one.

When my partner and I and I were driving home from dinner where I heard the news, I was trying to recall my first memory or even awareness of Steve Jobs. Katie compared it to trying to summon our first memory of George H. W. Bush — for people in their late-20s or early 30s like us, he was already around when we starting thinking about stuff other than ourselves, our friends and our Legos. Steve’s been around as long as I’ve really thought about the man behind the company, and ever since I started watching the media events, like the introduction of the iPod in 2001, I was aware of this charismatic man who personified the passion and excitement over that amazing device.

Apple computers have been with me my entire life. My elementary school had a bevvy of Apple ][s’, and I made the little turtle in Logo go all over the place. With that machine, Carmen SanDiego and I traveled the world over, I forded rivers on the Oregon Trail and built all sorts of virtual paper airplanes. When I hit fifth grade and my parents decided to buy a computer, we bought an Apple, a Mac LCII, because that’s what I already knew how to use. I’ve never had to use a Windows computer for personal use. I’m pretty spoiled in many regards.

A list of every computer I’ve owned (well, someone in my household owned):

• Mac LC II
• PowerMac 6100
• Newton eMate 300
• Bondi blue iMac Revision B
• Clamshell iBook in graphite (the special “A/V” edition)
• G5 iMac
• Aluminum Intel MacBook (my current computer)
• iPhone 3GS

Consumerist that I am, that I remember this is a testament to the indelible impression these products made on me.

At the risk of sounding hipstery, I’ve used Mac products since they were beige. I’m still a little obsessed with the rainbow Apple logo. I had a Newton eMate 300, and although I know Steve wasn’t particularly pleased with the Newton line, I loved it — it was a fun, easy-to-use foreshadowing of the blue translucent iMacs, iBooks, and then-future iProducts we’d see toward the end of the 90s.

As I went through college to find my place and voice in the world, I was influenced by Apple’s OS 10, a revolutionary, powerful interface that was dead simple to use and beautiful to look at. I strive (and don’t often succeed) in communicating simple, dynamic language that is easy to understand. Clear, decluttered writing is a personal goal and mission of mine, and in large part that was inspired by the tools I use everyday, especially my computer.

That’s enough fawning. I leave you with one of my favorite Jobs quotes:

Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Photo above: When user interface design Mike Matas worked at Apple in 2005, he built much of PhotoBooth. This is from a series of photos captured when Steve Jobs was trying out the filters. See the rest of his album here.

UPDATE: I completely forgot about this great video from the keynote Jobs gave to introduce the original iPhone. He called a local Starbucks and, not having anything to say, quickly cracked a joke and hung up.

One reason I don’t read those books is in order for the authors to distinguish themselves from others, and because it makes lectures and speaking engagements easier, they speak in buzzwords and simplified “five step” processes, for example.

This book was no different. Sanders threw around words like “bizlove” (referring to gestures of professional affection), “bizmates” (referring to coworkers or colleagues), or dotcommunists (referring to… I don’t even know). He constantly referred to being a “lovecat,” or someone who shared his knowledge, attention, and advocacy for others freely.

But beneath the breezy pacing and the casual buzzwording, there were some good, useful things to glean from this book.

Read books — lots of books
Sanders compared reading books to eating and digesting food. Books are a full meal. Magazine articles are an appetizer, and newspaper articles are a snack.

(Of course, Sanders didn’t even count blogs, because in 2002 when he wrote this book, the blogosphere wasn’t a fraction as information-rich as it is today.)

He suggests reading as many books in your subject of interest as you can, take notes and annotate the heck out of it in order to mentally digest its contents, and lend freely to friends and “bizmates” as the topic comes up. Heck, he says, if the situation calls for it, just gift them a copy.

As an avid reader, there’s nothing I like more than to give away books I love. I’ve gifted two or three people with The Cluetrain Manifesto, an 11 year-old book with the simple but revolutionary message, “businesses need to speak to humans like they’re people, not markets”. Whether or not they’ve read it, I’m not sure, but Sanders’s book helped me figure out how to tie the book’s thesis into my conversations, and how to better follow up.

Become a resource and a connector
Although Anthony Juliano told me the benefit of this (in the YLNI Leadership Institute) a while ago, it is worth reinforcing, especially in this book. Give your advice freely and without expectation of compensation. Bone up on whatever subject you want to be a resource for, and stay top-of-mind in your network. Sometimes the rewards aren’t monetary, but sometimes they are (Sanders recounts that one of his friends, the founder of mp3.com, gifted him stock options in the fledgling music format’s IPO, and Sanders made a small fortune when it took off and quadrupled in worth). In any case, you’ll build trust, goodwill and relevance.

While I don’t do these things quite as deliberately as Sanders (he reads books and immediately starts thinking about who he can share it with), I feel like he was helpful in keeping others in mind when reading, learning, and sharing.

And while “lovecat” is a silly word, it has a great meaning: to love and support your colleagues. Express to them your commitment to their growth and success. Bring a nurturing and supportive face into the workplace, where stoicism and an every-man-for-himself attitude usually resides. It’s kind of the professional version of the “love thy neighbor” bit.

Because the book was written in 2002, there wasn’t a lot of talk (or really, any) talk about social media and how it fits into this. Anyone can tell you that social media shouldn’t replace the real-life interactions that likely make one a lovecat, but they sure can supplement it. You can connect your network, share ideas, encourage, inform, and all sorts of things. I’d love to see a follow-up to this book updated to allow for social media interactions.

Sanders has a new book, Today We Are Rich, which is being marketed as the prequel to Love is the Killer App. I haven’t read it yet, and I’m not sure yet if I’m going to, but I’ll be keeping it on my radar.

Meanwhile, get out there. Be a lovecat. Share some bizlove with your bizmates. But don’t tell anyone, unless you want to get into a 20-minute discussion about what those words mean.

But perhaps you should. After all, isn’t that the point?

When that happens, you step back in, and you’re all the stronger for it.

In a nutshell: I’m not moving to California.

My last update here explained an opportunity I had to work with Pencils.com as their marketing and promotions coordinator. While I love the people, love the product, and love talking about pencils all day, it turns out I don’t really love selling pencils. And in this job, that’s the important part.

Plus, the job would have required me to move to Stockton, California (voted #1 most miserable city in the US by Forbes.com!). I could have dealt with that, but I realized how invested I was in my community here in Fort Wayne. I know lots of amazing people, and faced with the prospect of not being able to interact with them every day, not seeing them on the street when I walk to the Dash-In — that was hard. There’s an editorial coming soon about that.

So, in February, I realized I didn’t want to go forward with my full-time employment. I will, however, continue working with Pencils.com as a subcontractor in the role of Online Community Manager, coordinating social media efforts and continuing blogger outreach. That is the part of the work that I find most fulfilling, and the part where I can best maintain my relationship with them. As I said, I really enjoy much of Pencils.com, my coworkers, and the outreach portion of my job, so I’m extremely glad to continue working with them. It’s a very part-time, thing, though, so I needed to find a regular job as well.

Therefore, I’m excited to announce that today I started work at the newly created Fort Wayne Trails as the operations coordinator for the organization. I’m really excited about this organization and its mission, and I can’t wait to be part of it.  I’m super impressed with their board of directors, and there is a lot of forward momentum. I often take advantage of Fort Wayne’s beautiful greenway system, so this work will be personally fulfilling.

I’ll post more about this change in life plans soon, but I thought I’d fill you in so I’ll get fewer “You’re back! I thought you moved!”. I’m started to get a Jesus complex over here.

• I talked with a production assistant at a major UK style magazine about the Palomino Blackwing.
• I built relationships with several pencil/writing utensil bloggers
• Heading up a weekly promotional venture, attracting signers-up with my witty repartee. (-: (By the way, come sign up!)
• Interacted with dozens of pencil fans on social media

I’ll be traveling to Stockton, CA again on Sunday for two weeks to get oriented and make plans, set goals, and what-have-you. It’ll be a lonely two weeks, living in a hotel 2200 miles away from my wife, cat, family and friends, but I’m looking forward to it. I think I’ll get a lot of good, fun things accomplished.

So bear with me. Once I figure out my role at CalCedar, and find out how this blog will fit into my life, I’ll get back to a little more regular updating. Meanwhile, I’ll hope you’ll find me on some of my other online nooks:

• @pencilscom, Pencils.com’s Twitter feed
• The Pencil Page, Pencils.com’s Facebook page
• Pencil Points, the Pencils.com Tumblr. And, of course:
• Pencils.com, where the main blog lives.
• Also, sign up for my weekly witty email promotions. (-:

That’s why I’ve looked at such an opportunity, and decided to make a big change in my life, which may lead to an even bigger change. As of January 1, 2011, I am leaving my job at the Fort Wayne Dance Collective to become the Marketing and Promotions Coordinator for Pencils.com, the e-commerce division of California Cedar Products.

How did this happen? By now, I’m sure you are aware of my blog at Woodclinched.com, where I write about, mainly, wooden pencils. It’s a hobby of mine that is more often than not an obsession. Several weeks ago, Charles Berolzheimer (or WoodChuck, as he is known in the online pencil community) President and CEO of  California Cedar contacted me to let me know about a unique opportunity — they needed to hire someone to help promote, develop, and create content for Pencils.com, where they sold their high quality brand of pencils, California Republic Stationers (among other products). Because of my blog, my name was at the top of the list

This was too good to pass up. It the job seems custom fit for me! One caveat: although I can stay in Fort Wayne until summer (we have commitments keeping us here until that time), this job will require me to be in Stockton, California, CalCedar’s homebase.

This isn’t a decision Katie and I have quite yet made — there are a lot of factors that may come into play. Technically, I am in a probationary period with CalCedar. But, chances are, we need friends and family to prepare for us to move to northern California some time in summer.

I will certainly miss my colleagues at the Dance Collective and in the nonprofit arts community. And I’m not actively trying to get out of Fort Wayne, as many I know have. I feel very close to my community, to my neighborhood, to my friends and family. Fort Wayne treats me well.

Check back here for to learn more about this change of career, and eventual change of scenery.

(The title is a quote by Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister from the Labour party in the 1970s. While it may not always be true, it is apt.)

Caifornia Cedar ads a new generation of the legendary pencil to their Palomino brand

(Published in The Pencil Collector, Volume LV, No. 5 — September/October 2010. www.pencilcollector.org)

By Andy Welfle, #2099
Woodclinched.com

The legendary Faber-Castell Blackwing 602, perhaps the most celebrated, most often written about wooden pencil  is back in production, only in a new form. California Cedar, maker of high-quality pencils like the Prospector and the Golden Bear, is adding Blackwing to their flagship brand, Palomino.

The news broke in July 2009 at Pencil Talk, (penciltalk.org), where editor Stephen Worotynec looked up the “Blackwing” trademark, and saw that California Cedar bought acquired the rights.

This was confirmed in mid-August of this year, when several pencil bloggers received an email that they were going to be sent a pair of pre-production Palomino Blackwing pencils, to review on their websites.

Charles Berolzheimer, CEO of California Cedar, has been candid about the new Blackwings, drumming up publicity and discourse by discussing it extensively on his blog, Timberlines (timberlines.blogspot.com).

In his article, “Reviving the Blackwing: a Labor of Love or Insanity?”, Berolzheimer (or WoodChuck, as he is known amongst his readers) said, “Over the past two weeks we on the CalCedar and Pencils.com team have been in the midst of a grand experiment. That is soliciting and evaluating the initial consumer responses to our new Palomino Blackwing pencil.”

In an industry where a wooden pencil is considered a globalized commodity, test markets are rare and highly publicized product releases are even rarer. Berolzheimer credits the specialty market of the Palomino users for this experiment.

“Ever since we introduced the Palomino it has regularly been referred to by many Blackwing fans as a principal contender for successor to the original 602,” he said on his blog. “These fans continually lament the ceasing of production of this pencil and the increasingly high cost of “old stock” on eBay. When I discovered the Blackwing name was available it was a natural choice to want to more closely associate this venerable name with our own brand.”

The Palomino Blackwing, as it is known, has several noticeable differences from the original, indicating that this is not simply “a Blackwing 603.”Cosmetically, the barrel is finished in matte black rather than the glossy charcoal color as before. The famous motto “Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed,” is missing from the barrel. The eraser, removable and shaped to fit the rectangular ferrule, is very similar to the iconic in the previous Blackwing. However, the eraser is white polymer, the same formula used in the Palomino, rather than pink rubber as used in the original.

Several reviewers have mentioned that the Palomino Blackwing performs very well, but not as well as the original Blackwing 602. Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art (mleddy.blogspot.com/) said, “Writing with the new Blackwing is a pleasure. The lead is soft and smooth and doesn’t smear, though now and then a tiny crumb breaks off.” He mentioned, however, that “the new Blackwing’s point wears more quickly than that of the old Blackwing.”

Mark Frauenfelder, author, artist and co-editor of BoingBoing, is perhaps the most influential and well-known Blackwing fan. After receiving his pre-production samples, he mentioned that he prefers the old Blackwing, if only for sentimental reasons.

“If the (new Blackwing)  ends up looking almost exactly like the (old Blackwing) and costs under $2.00, I will buy it. Otherwise I will use any HB that ends up in my hand,” Frauenfelder wrote.

At the time of this writing, Berolzheimer announced on California Cedar’s Pencils.com that the first batch of 875 dozen Palomino Blackwings was en route from the production facility in Japan to their warehouses, and would be available for sale via Pencils.com within two weeks. When asked how much they would cost, he declined to answer.

Additional Palomino Blackwing Resources:

• Pencils.com Info Page: http://www.pencils.com/palomino-blackwing-coming-soon
• PencilTalk.org Review: http://www.penciltalk.org/2010/09/palomino-blackwing-pencil
• The Blackwing Pages Review: http://blackwingpages.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/blackwing-reborn/
• BoingBoing.net’s Review: http://boingboing.net/2010/08/27/first-impression-of.html
• WoodChuck’s Series of Blackwing Articles: http://timberlines.blogspot.com/search/label/Blackwing
• Woodclinched review of the original Blackwing 602: http://woodclinched.com/2010/09/05/blackwing-review/ (full disclosure: this was written by the author of this article)
• History of the Blackwing 602: http://www.pencilpages.com/articles/blackwing.htm

SIDEBAR:
Title: “Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed”

With the possible exception of the Dixon Ticonderoga, the Faber-Castell Blackwing 602 might be the most celebrated pencil brand in modern history. The preferred pencil of John Steinbeck, Stephen Sondheim, and mentioned in author Henry Petroski’s book “The Pencil”, the unparallelled quality of the Blackwing’s graphite and replaceable eraser made it a favorite among authors, artists, and anyone who uses a pencil for extended periods of time. The dark, smooth lead, almost waxy in its writing, is unrivaled in quality, and the glossy, lacquered grey painted barrel contains what is now an iconic phrase, “Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed”. The removable eraser, held in the ferrule with a clip, is replaceable, and is well-loved by Blackwing users who wear the eraser down faster than the graphite.

Originally manufactured by Ebarhard-Faber, the company was bought by Faber-Castell in the 1980s. Although the Blackwing continued to carry the E-F name, eventually some were produced with the F-C mark. In the 1990s, Faber-Castell was purchased by Sanford, one of the leading manufacturers of writing instruments.

In 1998, the Blackwing line was discontinued. The official reason was that the machine that produced the specialized ferrules broke, but according to “The Blackwing 602 — the Final Chapter”, a PencilPages.com article used by pencil afficinados as the authoritative Blackwing history online (by whom?), Doug Martin, the editor, (DOUG, SHOULD WE PUT A DISCLOSURE HERE?) says that he met with Sanford personnel who told him that the ferrule machine broke long before the company purchased Faber-Castell, and they had been manufacturing the pencil with stockpiles up until then.

Since the discontinuation of the Blackwing 602, demand skyrocketed, and the Internet became a key tool in purchasing and trading the hard-to-find stock. eBay regularly sells single, unsharpened Blackwings for up to $40 apiece, and a few years ago a gross of Blackwings sold for nearly $3,000.

• I liked it.
• This speaks more about me than my love of pencils. It’s also about my childhood, a product of 1990s pop culture.

That’s right. Yikes. I LOVED these pencils. It was a thrill for me every fall to go with my mom to K-Mart and buy school supplies, because she indulged me and let me get these colorful little sticks of fun. Just like the kid in the commercial, they were the opposite of boring. Everything about the design was crafted — from the contrasting (and often, conflicting) color scheme to the odd shapes, from the dyed wood to the bright rubber (and later, polymer) eraser.

And now, they have all but disappeared.

Of course, when I was ten (probably the same age as the kid in the commercial), I didn’t care who made it. I cared that it was colorful. But I didn’t think that it might fall out of style. Who knew that a pencil version

Here’s what I do know: They were made in the USA by Berol (PencilPages tells me so). I know that they hit the market during back-to-school season 1993. According to a 2002 article in the trade journal Chain Drug Review, they were unveiled at a trade show for the School and Home Office Products Association (SHOPA) in 1992. Apparently, they were originally marketing toward girls:

“The big news for us is the debut of a number of extensions to or Yikes! line, which has been a tremendous success, especially among teenage girls,” says Rosie Gillotti, manager of marketing administration at Empire Berol USA.

The extended Yikes! line will include rulers, sharpeners and pencil boxes–all sporting the kinds of wild colors and offbeat designs that ignited the popularity of Yikes! pencils.

[LINK]

Yikes! Pencils shown here with a non-Yikes pencil case from the British Museum gift shop. Available at PencilThings.

If you noticed the commercial, it featured a boy and his father. My little sister was too busy with her Lisa Frank pencils and, if I’m not mistaken, that was about the time Hello Kitty was introduced to the US. Rainbows, unicorns and kitty cats beat out wacky colors and shapes with the archetypal 90s girl any day.

They were in stores at least through 1996, although if I remember correctly, it was much later before they disappeared. At some point in the product line, they started being endorsed by Nickelodeon. That’s about the time they gained a lot more vivid patterns instead of just contrasting solid colors.

Sharpener image found here.

When they created the pencils, they also had erasers, rulers, and a really kick-ass rotary pencil sharpener! A friend had the sharpener, and from the dim memory I have, it worked really well, and sharpened to a short tip. I am trying desperately to find one.

Yikes, it seems are extremely scarce and hard to come by (even more so than the Blackwing, it seems!) I see them show up in eBay auctions every now and then, usually in a lot with other pencils that, to me, have no value. The pencils in the images are a collection I amassed over the period of a few years. One of my favorite fans of scribomechanica, Slywy, sent me the big silver one in the corner with the ridges and the large polymer eraser. The other ones came from a very generous benefactor in a HUGE collection of other pencils from the 90s, some of which I hope to feature later. I heard from him because of a wanted ad in the PencilPages Classifieds.

Because of their relative scarcity and impracticality for use, I’m going to take a page from PencilTalk.org‘s book and not review their performance. I can tell you that I remember the lead to be smooth, but not extremely dark. The dyed wood sharpened very smoothly (and of course looked really cool mixed in with all the wood-colored shavings), and the round and triangular pencils were easy to hold and comfortable. I remember the ridged pencil barrels to be sharp and uncomfortable, and sure enough, when I hold it in my hand now, I can imagine the blisters I got on my middle finger from holding that sucker. I have no memory of the eraser, and the samples I have now are too old to accurately show what the eraser used to be like.

If you find one of these pencils in a desk drawer, or an old Trapper Keeper, or some forgotten place where it’s been sitting for 17 years, let me know. I’d love to get a hold of it. Or better yet, keep it for yourself and treasure it. Remember the days when you would come home from school, have a Mondo (or a Squeezit, if you were at my house), maybe eat some Dunkaroos, and start working on your homework. Math was made so much more bearable with a bright yellow pencil with purple wood.

My goal is to figure out how to repost what I write there onto here, and use Welfle.com as a repository for the content that I put on the internet, but for now, this may just sit empty, until I have something non-pencil related to talk about. I’m sure I’ll have something.

Meanwhile, go over and visit Expeditious Culture. Alex has many more more interesting things to say, pencils or no.