Surprise...Morning Glory Mach 3

Everyone loves surprises right?  Good surprises are better than bad surprises also.. right?  I guess it depends on the outcome. Certain things are good- like... a call from an old friend, finding a few minutes in your day you weren't expecting, a dry diaper (sorry...potty training in the Good Pens household...it's where my head is right now.)  But there's also bad surprises... The Red Sox Tanking, Braves Missing out, wisdom teeth needed yanked etc.It's like luck and here's one of my favorite stories about this:

There is a Chinese story of an old farmer who had a horse for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and, when all the farmer's neighbors sympathised with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, 'Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?'
A week later the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbours congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, 'Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?'
Then, when the farmer's son was attempted to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, 'Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?'
Some weeks later the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg they let him off. Now was that good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?

There are variations of the story, but you get the idea.  Any-who...let's talk about pens. 

The other day I met a friend for dinner at an awesome little place called the H-Mart.  Think Asian Grocery Store slash Asian Wal-Mart. You get the idea...usually, I am there for the food, but I popped over to a little store that had just about every sort of Hello Kitty product ever made in it.  There is  a tiny sliver of a pen aisle and I couldn't resist. 

I looked down...and here where these little munchkins in between the Pinky erasers and Hello Kitty scissors. Quick mental rundown of the situation: 3 pack, .38, multiple colors and only $5.99...Check Please!

Two minutes later I am telling a story and MUST pull one of these out to draw a graphic and I stop in my tracks...It really is a .38.  -it's not bleeding on the receipt like a stuck pig and I do like the blue color. What.The.Hell?  Surprise!  I have seen the pens that say "Extra Fine" or "Super Fine" and generally they crank out more ink than a tattoo parlor. 

These are made in Korea and Morning Glory is the manufacturer.You can buy them here:  Who Knew?  And Googling shows me The Office Supply Geek reviewed a similar pen here.  Surprise! 

A couple days later and I am still pretty amazed by these things. they have stayed on my desk and my old pens are staring at these guys like they are cutting into their territory. (Sarasa's can be so sassy.)  The ink stays crispy on most paper and I while I doubt that I will ever really use the red one- the blue is growing on me.  

Clicking makes the picture bigger and clearer.  This is recycled paper and I had very little faith the pen would hold up here.  I am very happy with this set...good price, nice lines, unexpected quality...and that is a good surprise.. or is it?

Update Jetpens also sells some pens from this manufacturer.  Surprise!

JZ Designs Key Pen

Lately,  even as much as I love my #dailyarsenal-- that I admit has some disposibles in it....I have interests in the not so traditional pens.  The ones that you have to seek out to own or to gift or to write with and this one fits those bills perfectly. The more permanent the better.  It's a fun trade off... carefully spending the extra money wisely on items that you want to keep and maintain and enjoy vs. buying crap that you could care less about.

This gem is one of keepers. Welcome the key Pen from JZ Design.  I have said it before,  but pens that designed to be kept and used and cherished already rank a lot higher to me than the traditional trash it and forget about it as soon as it starts skipping plastic pens.  This world can use things that are not at all disposable. I hate losing things and there are certain things that I make sure I want to keep as close as possible because I don't want them to go away.

I know I shot this pen backwards,  it should be reversed so that the JZ logo is facing the correct way,  Sorry...but old habits die hard.  By the way, I do appreciate the thought that went into this.  Did you know that the little dangly piece that goes into the lock is called a Bit?  Now you do. Nice touch.

More Bits

I also like a pen that you can "unbox." In this case...two refills and those are very much appreciated.  There's just a pile of stuff here that adds up to a quality pen built right and ready to go.  Too often a gift pen gets forgotten about about because a refill can sometimes be too hard to order a refill. Odd right?  Including them saves time and keeps this one used more.

Voila,  with a twist of the Bow (that the loopy part on the far left) out spins the writing portion of this pen. (You are so much smarter now for even reading this post.)  It's called research and it's all for you. 

Key..get it?  I try.  I admire a designer who takes the time and the energy to put together a solid product with a bit of thinking behind it. Fun to write with, fun to shoot and a Good Pen.

SG

A Sheaffer Fashion Ballpoint....For the ladies.

Don't take any offense.  Some pens are designed for female hands, or guys with really slender fingers.  I do not have sausage fingers but I do wear a large glove. (Please remind me not to blog on Saturday mornings after killing an entire French Press of the good stuff, this could get personal and rambly.)  I cant help but think of the man hands episode from Seinfeld as I write this.

There are certain weight watcher pens that I like.  The Le Pen is one and that's really all I can think of now that my heart has hit the caffeine induced targeted rate for the day.  But generally I like my pens fatter (and usually full of drippy ink.)

I do respect the fact that this one still has the factory sticker on it. It's nice to know someone had the restraint to not reach up and scrape this one off and the white dot still screams Sheaffer.

This one still has the original Sheaffer refill in it. I am pretty sure if I wanted to I could still find a replacement fill for this one.  Unfortunately,  if this one runs out during the writing session of this post it might remain dry forever.  It's just not my type of pen. Why you ask?

OK, here's the scenario: Business meeting, Friday afternoon, high powered execs just trying to crank through this last meeting in order to get closer to that bottle of Ketel One. "We need a pen!" comes a shout from across the room,  apparently the contracts are agreed upon and it is time to sign,  I reach into my Brooks Brothers Regent Stripe 1818 Suit (so fancy) and pull out a pretty little baby blue ballpoint that slides out of every one's hands because it's too thin and then a fight breaks out and the world ends. Wow. Bad pen choice.

No cheating...did you notice what this pen doesn't have?  Did you notice?  That's correct. No clip. No dress shirt means no reason for a clip.  Good thinking Sheaffer.

Don't sue,  I borrowed this image from Vintage Paper Ads. Yep, that's mine in the center.  The ad from was from 1984 so assuming this one is dated close to that.  It was 12.50 back then which seems kind of high to me, but whatever.

I am convinced every pen has a person that loves it, this one just isn't for me.  It has so many strikes against it that it's not funny but it is a Sheaffer and that is a plus.. Man hands... still funny.

Have a great day.
Next post:  It's not your handwriting, it's your pen.

Doodles

Pen people are also doodlers correct?  You have pens,  you have paper...naturally you want to use the two items together.  Drawing for me is a normal part of my day.  If my phone rings- I grab a pen to take notes, but inevitably- I will cover the paper with drawings and 1% phone call related content.  I am listening.. I am just also doodling. (trust me.)

10 times out of 10 they hit the trash can.  A few years ago I was riding a train about 3 hours a day and was cranking out some decent doodles and saved some of those, but normally my stuff gets tossed aside. I have done some pieces for people and really enjoy them (there's a pointillism AK-47 hanging up somewhere in Boston that I loved to create.(don't ask)

Sometimes I get inspired by something...like a house:

Or a song: This one has been clanging around my head for a few days now.  Powerful stuff.

You only need to go back a post or two to hear about my Bon Iver addiction. To me, music eases the mind, I can think and draw and listen to music and don't expect perfection from my work.  I also generally don't care about paper, just that the pen puts down the line or a dot I need.  I never expect to need any sort of archival quality anything.

Click for bigger views.  Not perfect, and not a care. I did it for me and that's all really.

For this one...sometimes I grabbed a ruler, or just free-handed it.  The pen is a Pentel CeramicMicron 500 II 02.  The paper is normal typing paper that I just tweaked a bit to look a little more antiqued in the photos. And no,  I am not saying you need to go doodle to relax. Some people juggle, some people close their eyes and imagine themselves dancing  in a sea of dolphins being played piano to by Yanni. (Freaks.) 

Seth

Restocking Time!

As promised from my last post,  I was putting some new pens in rotation and stumbled upon one of my favorites that was sitting in the vault completely un-inked. It's sort of a sin for this monster.

And yes,  that pen is resting on my new sweet skim board. I am pretty sure this is the first time in blogging history that a pen was ever photographed on a skim board.  Actually I doubt it,  there's probably a site somewhere dedicated to pens and surf paraphernalia. I had an awesome idea once to dedicate a website to my fish taco addiction. Yep,  been done...multiple times. So sad.

I didn't take the time to research this one tonight,  but my gut tells me this is from the late 30's based on the filling mechanism.  You know I am not a huge fan of gold in pens... but with the dark red it just looks so good. Piston filler and perfect nib.  Speaking of the nib. Here's my favorite part:

Do you see it?  Click the pic for a larger image. There it is. It's the little details that make you smile.  Some say the white dot is what reminds them of Sheaffer pens- but its the heart for me.  I hope there's some awesome story about an engineer that was professing his love and created this nib, but I can't verify.

The paper is cheap, the ink is Lie De The and the pen is just about perfect. It needs a shine,  but that's it. Buddha was right.

 Late night multitasking writing a post at 12:43 a.m. finishing up the Open on DVR and staring at Facebook. And the good thing is...a really solid pen has been put back into rotation.

Have a good night.

Vegas Baby...let's ramble for a bit

I know... I know... Another long period of time has passed since I have even thought about blogging. I take full responsibility.
Any who..I have a tremendous amount of time sitting at gate 50 in Vegas Airport so I thought I would let you know what is going on.

Here's the problem. I *gasp* haven't been writing with pens a lot. I now have an iPad. It's dreamy but the bad part is...it keeps pens out of my hands. And that means I haven't been dragging my good pens with me when I travel.

I was embarrassed when I realized that this is all I brought to Vegas and I actually found the Signo. Granted the pencils that I did bring are Phat. The Kuru Toga is monumentally good.
(taken on my iPad, sorry for the quality)
Click on the pic for a better view.

2 sharpies and 2 mechanical pencils and only 1 Sarasa. It's a little sad. I think I need to go home and load my bag back up. Historically I over carried pens. Going to extremes was part of the routine that I had when it came to what I carried with me.

I tried to simplify and it backfired. The movement to reduce has a place in this world...but not with my pens. Before I post this I need to do some deleting. I am going to smile and delete the two note taking tools that I downloaded for the iPad. The journal will go back into action and I will compromise. iPad- you have your place, but when technology takes away from me putting ink on paper I want it to stop. Oh and yes I realize that I am writing a post about using more pens on my iPad. That irony is thick.

For those that like music updates from me, the new Bon Iver is on heavy rotation and although the lyrics don't usually make a lick of sense...the songs are beautiful. I highly recommend a good set of headphones and a little quiet time for yourself to enjoy it.

So thanks for sticking with me through the long drought and expect more soon.

SG

Pilot Explorer Source!

My Pilot Explorer post here remains one of the most popular on the blog.  I didn't realize how popular this pen was.  It's also probably the number one email I get asking where to buy these.

And after searching through some pen sources came up empty... I found them on some warehousing and random stores.. And I found some more this morning at a reasonable price.

http://www.nationalcompsupply.com/pilot%C3%82%C2%AE-explorer-retractable-roller-ball-p-19013.html

http://www.e-rackonline.com/store/pens-refills/pilotreg-explorer-retractable-roller-ball-pen/35361/

No affiliation,  and I don't know how many they have,  Just passing along the info if you want to pick up a good pen.

Seth