Distraction post time! thought i'd blog about something a little different for a change, and that's my pen hobby. i don't consider myself an expert by any means, and i'm still in the process of figuring out what i really like. of course, you may wonder why people pay so much for pens, when their only function is to write. i could say the same for cars, clothes, or almost any other consumer good. but that's not the main point of this post.
might be good to explain how this fascination started. i have a childhood memory of a green fountain pen with a gold cap, and a bottle of black ink. i know the ink was parker quink, and i'm pretty sure the pen was from parker as well. in school, i always preferred blue ink to black. i still do, actually. think it's because black gives me an impression of seriousness, which is good under the appropriate circumstances, but also of boring-ness, which is not good under most circumstances. by secondary school, i'd already settled on my pen of choice - a pilot G1. yes, i know that the G2 exists, and it's click mechanism is more convenient than the G1's cap. but there's something classic about the G1 which i like a lot. while in grad school, i started to buy some fountain pens, just to give them a try. at that time, my priority was nib width and overall look of the pen. still used my G1 for tests and exams, though, because i was worried about a fountain pen not writing, having to refill ink halfway, or any other similar mishaps that could possibly happen, especially with the added pressure of a time constraint. not good to tempt uncle murphy. instead, i used fountain pens for leisure writing (mainly random scribbles and quick notes, since i have this blog for more coherent stuff). over time, i bought a few nicer pens, and my priority list expanded to include nib material. still didn't use them much in daily life, because i was afraid of contaminating the nicer pens with chemical-stained hands from lab work. i did end up "sacrificing" a couple of cheap pens for lab use, and filled them with a notoriously difficult-to-clean ink. the only reason i even considered using that ink was because it was a brilliant shade of blue. downsides are that it's acidic and quite bad for pen parts, and it permanently stains most materials. it looks great, though!
i'd thought that moving to the working world would give me more opportunities to use my pens, but most things were digital in the IP firm, and i ended up sporadically using my pen for note-taking there. while i have to use pens a lot in the learning lab for marking, they give free stationery, so might as well use that instead, right? besides, with the standard paper quality these days, water-based inks tend to get absorbed really quickly and show up on the opposite side of the paper (aka. showing/having bleedthrough). that's not a concern for gel-based inks. we'll see if my next job allows for more pen usage.
as i get more involved and gain more knowledge about pens, i find that my priorities/criteria for what i look for in a pen shift somewhat. right now, i'd say that ink capacity/filling system is the most important, followed by the overall look and feel of the pen (colour, size, weight, transparency), then by all things nib-related (material, size, width, smoothness). the filling system matters most to me because i realize that it's tied closely to ink capacity. i'm the kind of person who sticks with a few inks for a long time, so having the flexibility to change inks often isn't that important. i also fear running out of ink, so small-capacity things like cartridges and converters have fallen out of favour with me. currently, my preference leans towards vacuum fillers and eyedropper-filled pens. the reason that the nib, despite being arguably the most important part of a pen, has become less of a priority in my view is because i realize that nibs are quite easily interchangeable and modifiable between pens. with limitations, of course, like pen brand or proprietary fittings/sizes. as for appearance, my only hard rule is no gold trim - but that's a personal preference.
while "more expensive" usually translates to "better" in the pen world, there are diminishing returns past a certain price point, and also accounting for users' preferences. for instance, despite having pens in the 3-digit price range with fancy gold nibs, my current favourite pen is a deep blue one (the one i posted a picture of several months ago), with a titanium nib. ok, fine, its total cost still runs into the 3-digit range (mainly due to the nib), but the pen itself with the default steel nib was only about $50. not sure if i really really want that 700+ euro pen any more. of course, i wouldn't complain if someone gifted it to me, but to spend my own money on that...not unless i'm like, 100 times richer than i am now. as far as pens go, i want to try broader, smoother nibs, to see if my taste leans more in that direction. i'm currently using fine nibs, because i've had to regulate my handwriting size while in school. maybe it's time to let loose a little in that regard. moving forward, i think i might progress to buying more nibs, and rotating them with the pen bodies that i already have. think it'll save me money in the long run, unless i destroy any of the parts in the process.
since i'm talking about spending money, i remember reading something about jeff bezos (founder of amazon). it's a comparison of relative wealth, something along the lines of "jeff bezos spending $2000 is equivalent to the average american spending $1". figures may change due to fluctuating net worth of him and the average american person, but you get the idea. that's insane to think about. i'd happily spend up to $25 on a good meal. scaled up using that ratio, that would be $50000. he can afford to spend that on one meal! i don't think any food in the world is worth that much. anyway, it's a relatively small sum to him, but it's a lot in absolute terms. i just wonder how i can start building wealth. the consensus seems to be that if you want to be well-off, find a high-paying job and work for the rest of your life. if you want to be rich,become a politicianrise up the ranks and become a director or CEO. if you want to have tons of money, start a successful business. maybe i should give the business thing more thought, although it doesn't help that i am naturally adverse to business-y things. i do have a contact that i can tap on, but i don't want to go that way unless it's a serious last resort.
last thing. i've reached a tentative decision regarding the future of this blog. what i think i will do is reach a nice post number here, then archive this and restart. haven't decided if i want to continue on blogger, or start anew somewhere else. this is post number 1733. what's a good number to stop at? knowing me, anything that ends in a 5 or 0, so 1735 is possible. knowing me even more, i'd be more likely to go for 1800, but that might take too long. 1750 is an acceptable compromise, i think. i'd have stopped on the post number corresponding to my birthday, but we've gone past that already. well, nothing's set in stone there yet. i might just take this as the last post, or go by a date instead. depends on how i feel at a later stage, i guess.
might be good to explain how this fascination started. i have a childhood memory of a green fountain pen with a gold cap, and a bottle of black ink. i know the ink was parker quink, and i'm pretty sure the pen was from parker as well. in school, i always preferred blue ink to black. i still do, actually. think it's because black gives me an impression of seriousness, which is good under the appropriate circumstances, but also of boring-ness, which is not good under most circumstances. by secondary school, i'd already settled on my pen of choice - a pilot G1. yes, i know that the G2 exists, and it's click mechanism is more convenient than the G1's cap. but there's something classic about the G1 which i like a lot. while in grad school, i started to buy some fountain pens, just to give them a try. at that time, my priority was nib width and overall look of the pen. still used my G1 for tests and exams, though, because i was worried about a fountain pen not writing, having to refill ink halfway, or any other similar mishaps that could possibly happen, especially with the added pressure of a time constraint. not good to tempt uncle murphy. instead, i used fountain pens for leisure writing (mainly random scribbles and quick notes, since i have this blog for more coherent stuff). over time, i bought a few nicer pens, and my priority list expanded to include nib material. still didn't use them much in daily life, because i was afraid of contaminating the nicer pens with chemical-stained hands from lab work. i did end up "sacrificing" a couple of cheap pens for lab use, and filled them with a notoriously difficult-to-clean ink. the only reason i even considered using that ink was because it was a brilliant shade of blue. downsides are that it's acidic and quite bad for pen parts, and it permanently stains most materials. it looks great, though!
i'd thought that moving to the working world would give me more opportunities to use my pens, but most things were digital in the IP firm, and i ended up sporadically using my pen for note-taking there. while i have to use pens a lot in the learning lab for marking, they give free stationery, so might as well use that instead, right? besides, with the standard paper quality these days, water-based inks tend to get absorbed really quickly and show up on the opposite side of the paper (aka. showing/having bleedthrough). that's not a concern for gel-based inks. we'll see if my next job allows for more pen usage.
as i get more involved and gain more knowledge about pens, i find that my priorities/criteria for what i look for in a pen shift somewhat. right now, i'd say that ink capacity/filling system is the most important, followed by the overall look and feel of the pen (colour, size, weight, transparency), then by all things nib-related (material, size, width, smoothness). the filling system matters most to me because i realize that it's tied closely to ink capacity. i'm the kind of person who sticks with a few inks for a long time, so having the flexibility to change inks often isn't that important. i also fear running out of ink, so small-capacity things like cartridges and converters have fallen out of favour with me. currently, my preference leans towards vacuum fillers and eyedropper-filled pens. the reason that the nib, despite being arguably the most important part of a pen, has become less of a priority in my view is because i realize that nibs are quite easily interchangeable and modifiable between pens. with limitations, of course, like pen brand or proprietary fittings/sizes. as for appearance, my only hard rule is no gold trim - but that's a personal preference.
while "more expensive" usually translates to "better" in the pen world, there are diminishing returns past a certain price point, and also accounting for users' preferences. for instance, despite having pens in the 3-digit price range with fancy gold nibs, my current favourite pen is a deep blue one (the one i posted a picture of several months ago), with a titanium nib. ok, fine, its total cost still runs into the 3-digit range (mainly due to the nib), but the pen itself with the default steel nib was only about $50. not sure if i really really want that 700+ euro pen any more. of course, i wouldn't complain if someone gifted it to me, but to spend my own money on that...not unless i'm like, 100 times richer than i am now. as far as pens go, i want to try broader, smoother nibs, to see if my taste leans more in that direction. i'm currently using fine nibs, because i've had to regulate my handwriting size while in school. maybe it's time to let loose a little in that regard. moving forward, i think i might progress to buying more nibs, and rotating them with the pen bodies that i already have. think it'll save me money in the long run, unless i destroy any of the parts in the process.
since i'm talking about spending money, i remember reading something about jeff bezos (founder of amazon). it's a comparison of relative wealth, something along the lines of "jeff bezos spending $2000 is equivalent to the average american spending $1". figures may change due to fluctuating net worth of him and the average american person, but you get the idea. that's insane to think about. i'd happily spend up to $25 on a good meal. scaled up using that ratio, that would be $50000. he can afford to spend that on one meal! i don't think any food in the world is worth that much. anyway, it's a relatively small sum to him, but it's a lot in absolute terms. i just wonder how i can start building wealth. the consensus seems to be that if you want to be well-off, find a high-paying job and work for the rest of your life. if you want to be rich,
last thing. i've reached a tentative decision regarding the future of this blog. what i think i will do is reach a nice post number here, then archive this and restart. haven't decided if i want to continue on blogger, or start anew somewhere else. this is post number 1733. what's a good number to stop at? knowing me, anything that ends in a 5 or 0, so 1735 is possible. knowing me even more, i'd be more likely to go for 1800, but that might take too long. 1750 is an acceptable compromise, i think. i'd have stopped on the post number corresponding to my birthday, but we've gone past that already. well, nothing's set in stone there yet. i might just take this as the last post, or go by a date instead. depends on how i feel at a later stage, i guess.
-random thought of the day: Last week of downtime.-
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