Tag: pens

The pens are taking over the asylum

Jan. 06 Random musings 8 comments

I’ve decided that there are too many pens in my house.

I don’t have a big house, and I’ve started to feel like pens are taking up more than their fair share of the space. I don’t know exactly what proportion of a typical family home should be given over to pens, but something feels wrong about the current situation.

There are pens everywhere – in cups on top of the fridge and in mugs on my desk. In every wicker storage basket and biscuit tin in the house there will be at least one pen. Under my desk there is an entire cardboard box full of them.

What’s the deal though when you have too many pens? What are you supposed to do with them? A charity shop doesn’t want a box of half used biros, but you can’t exactly throw them in the bin can you? That’s way too decadent. ‘Oh these? They’re just a few pens I don’t want’. It would be wrong.

"Pen"

This is a good number of pens

In the shower this morning, thinking over the pen situation, (which is ironic given that the shower is one of the few places in the house without pens in it), I concluded that I will probably never have to buy another pen in my whole life. That’s quite a sobering thought – I am so old and the pens are so powerful that they may well outlive me. In fact, such is the speed with which these pens seem to appear, they may end up forming small gangs, pen communities if you will, and taking over the house.

It’s not like I can even do anything to stem the flow as I have no idea where they come from. I have a pen in my bag for instance, a blue barreled biro, that just says ‘raccoon’ on it in big red letters. What does that even mean? I have never bought a pen with ‘raccoon’ written on it and yet there it is, bold as brass, casually lying around in my bag. I can almost hear it chuckling at me, sniggering with its sneaky pen friends behind my back.

So what can I do to take back control? Do you have something similar that takes over your house? How do you deal with it? Give me some pointers and I’ll make a list.

Just let me find a pen…

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Is the fountain pen making a comeback?

May. 22 Random musings 12 comments

You’d think that with the wealth of technology we have at our fingertips nowadays that something as simple as a pen and paper would be practically obsolete. And fountain pens? A relic of the past surely?

Apparently not.

According to the BBC today sales of fountain pens are rising, and Amazon say that sales so far this year are four times that of the same period in 2010. That’s a crazy rise isn’t it? What’s causing this amazing fountain pen resurgence? Are we all sick of gadgets and hankering after the past?

"Fountain pen"

The power of the pen

 

I do wonder if I have been partly responsible for the trend, as I have bought about six fountain pens in the last few months. Everyone in Belle’s class is required to write with a fountain pen, and Belle unfortunately hasn’t quite got the hang of pressing gently and evenly, resulting in a costly number of snapped nibs.

It would seem though that Belle’s school are in a minority, and that most schools no longer insist on children using fountain pens. In fact, one headmaster at a school in Stockport even went so far apparently as to ban GCSE pupils from using fountain pens, as he was worried it would affect their exam performance.

Despite getting through them quicker than Bee gets through crates of Angel Delight, Belle loves using a fountain pen. She happily spends time sat up in bed practising her best handwriting, and her choice of pen seems to give her a sense of importance, that makes her take her work just a little bit more seriously. Her pen gives her gravitas, just as lawyers and doctors using fountain pens inspire an air of authority and confidence.

Is this the power of the pen in action?

What do you think? Do you have a special place in your heart for fountain pens or is this possibly the dullest post you’ve read all week?

Photo credit – Linda Cronin

 

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In defence of the written word

Apr. 20 Random musings, Work 17 comments

And by written, I mean actually written. With a pen, like in the old days.

Working in marketing and social media, much of my life revolves around the virtual world – emails, tweets, status updates – it’s all typey typey typey. This is fine, it’s my job, I understand it is the modern way, but at the same time I do have to acknowledge the fact that I am not quite of the internet generation.

For example, I would sill prefer to peer over my glasses at a copy of the Radio Times than to look on the television because, for some reason, in my hands the remote control turns into something unresponsive, and I take on the look of an elderly person trying to talk into the wrong end of a telephone.

I also like writing. Actual, physical writing. I know that between them my blackberry, laptop and netbook could provide me with all manner of whizzy time management tools, but I prefer to surround myself with physical list-making equipment that I trust not to delete itself. Here is a little corner of my office as evidence:

"picture of my office"

You see? I have everything I need – whiteboards, calendars, notebooks, nice pens, sparkling elderflower wine…

Call me old-fashioned, mock if you will, but as much as the mobile internet devices try to worm their way in, I will always be more excited by a large pack of whiteboard markers. Apple store or Staples? I know where I’d rather be.

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