It’s another free writing Monday. This is where I just start writing and see where I end up. I have to write 500 words.
As I opened up WordPress this morning and hit the Add New option for this post the first thing I saw was the fact that my spam plugin has blocked 2,517 spam since I installed it.
It is a new spam plugin. Prior to using this I used WordPress’ own algorythm called Akismet. The problem is that Akismet is quite expensive.
Now as a general rule I am a firm believer in the idea that you get what you pay for. Although there are limits, Akismet hit that limit. The plugin I now use is in the great WordPress tradition open source and they are not charging for it. It is a superb spam solution. It is called WP SPam Free. And in this case you get a huge amount for what you pay for! Although I would recommend giving them a donation.
Let’s look at a more obvious example of getting what you pay for. I am for example currently looking to buy a fountain pen. They are hard to find here in Peru. And I have found three types. One of which I wanted to buy, but for a major flaw.
The first was approximately $3.50, the second was $70 and the third was $750.
And I wanted to buy the second. I could tell there was a major difference between the pen for $3.50. And there was a difference between the $70 pen and the $750 pen. Now even though the difference in price between the first and the second is 20 times and the difference between the second and the third is 0nly 10 times, the one I wanted to buy was the $70 one.
And the main reason is that the $70 one is a sturdy pen that I could see lasting for a very long time, the cheapest one wouldn’t last that long I suspect. And the expensive one, well I mean $750 for a pen? I just don’t think even the fact that the pen nib tip was made of iridium could justify the huge price increase.
For what it is worth of the three pens, the last two had well known brands: Parker and MontBlanc. The first was a generic throw away pen.
So why did I buy the one for $3.50 and not the one for $70. Can you believe that they were selling the pen, and they even sold some ink. What they didn’t do though is sell an adapter to let you use ink in the pen nor did they sell replacement cartridges. In the UK or the US that wouldn’t have been a problem but here in Peru it would be impossible to get more cartridges.
So I bought the one for $3.50 and when I am next in the UK or the USA I will upgrade my pen to a higher quality one.
I saw a nice one on Amazon that was less than $40, came with four cartridges, an adaptor and a bottle of ink which looked perfect. So if you ever want to buy me a present you know where to go!
So there we have it. Almost 500 words. Started by talking about spam, ended up on fountain pens. This post is potentially the basis of one or two more in depth posts in the future. Or it could just stand alone as an example of free-writing. Whilst I like to think the former will happen, it will undoubtedly be the latter.
What do you think? Have you ever tried freewriting? Let me know in the comments.
Time taken to write 20 minutes
Time from start to finish 22 minutes
Happy with result 5
