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13 December 2005
Pencil or pen? I just noticed that I'm using the venerated Dixon Ticonderoga; quite accidentally, of course. What's your writing implement of choice?
Pen, pencil, marker, rustoleum, krylon, Sakura flow marker, sandpaper glued to the base of a little wooden dowl,stylus and wax tablet, doodoo on the wall, as long as it's never a mechanical pencil, blurrrggggg!
Although I do keep pencils around for twirling. They have ideal weight and length for such endevours. I kept a pencil twirling on my thumb once for twenty minutes.
I'm with mudpuppie. Ballpoints suck. Felt tips are good, especially pentel sign pens, and pencils are good, preferably HB or softer. American Naturals!
I just want one of those spacepens that write upside down... I'm always doing crossword puzzles in bed, which, while I'm cycling through near-sleep positions, often makes my pen go no-writey.
which reminds me of this story from back in the day:
I was having a major caffeine jones on the way home from work, so I decided to break with the usual policy and pulled into a Starbucks. I perused the menuboard and saw a small placard below the drinks reading "ADD POWER 50 cents" This was promising. My turn in line came up.
"I'd like a venti Caramel Frappuccino," I said "with telekinesis."
"With what, sir?"
"You know, the power to move objects with my mind," I pointed at the sign, "I always wanted that."
"Oh," the barrista said "It's not that kind of power, sir."
Ah, so it was a coffee-based beverage of a more Machiavellian bent I was purchasing here.
"All right, then I'd like to be ruler of Maine" I said.
"Maine?"
"The state. It's really nice up there and if I'm going to weild power, that's the place I'd like to do it."
"Um, it's not that kind of power either, sir. How about I just give you some with your drink and you'll see."
Well, I'm here to tell ya, it just tasted like an ordinary Frappuccino to me, but all you chicks better watch out, power being the ultimate aphrodisiac and all.
Pen - preferably gel or felt tip. I'm another ball point hater. Pencils are okay for taking notes as long as it's a mechanical. I hate regular pencils - they get dull too fast.
For just basic writing, I usually use a Bic pen. I have refillables and such, but it's hard to keep track of one that you like and have it always available, whereas I can buy Bics by the barrel. I'll also use pencils for drawing-type tasks, but it has to have a fresh eraser -- the dried-out-eraser scrape sound is like fingernails on blackboard, to me.
For other tasks I'll use a felt-tip, a calligraphic pen, a Sharpie, a highlighter, etc. as appropriate.
My favorite is a black Papermate Flair - basically a felt-tip. Their design hasn't changed since the seventies so they have, for me anyway, a slightly retro feel to them. But I prefer felt-tips for two reasons - you can draw with them easier than with biros and they never seem to dry out in the same annoying way (a total irritant when you have an idea you need to get down NOW!).
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
