Pencils, Moleskines, Ticket to Ride

I stopped off in Hudson County Art Supply the other day, and found these Yasutomo Grip500 mechanical pencils. Back in college I’d used a model very like this, which I liked because the point retracts into a plastic sleeve, protecting the point and my pocket from each other. I haven’t been able to find the brand I used in college, which was a bit sturdier than the Yasutomos, but these’ll do. I’ve filled mine with 2B leads, softer and darker than the HBs it comes with.

I picked up another couple of Moleskine sketchbooks at The Art Store, figuring I might as well stock up while they’re on sale. I’m probably going all Moleskine, all the time. I could switch to a smaller shoulder bag, but I still need something I can carry comics in.

Played something new at Games Club (last Lerner Games Club of the year): Ticket to Ride, a simple yet challenging rail game. I got a really lucky pair of starting tickets — LA-to-Chicago and LA-to-NY, both high-value and both overlapping to a serious degree. I had to start building rails early, because if I’d gotten locked out of the middle of the board I’d have had to eat -37 points. But that kept me from building many long rail stretches, which cost me enough points to drop me into third out of five players.

Stopped off at Starbucks on the way to GC, did some drawing:

( More sketches, including some color )