The Official Ink Pen of The Glass is Too Big
It's no secret that I love pens and paper. Of course, you'd never know it by looking at my handwriting, but that doesn't stop me from pursuing my quest to find the "right" pen for me.
Over the last few months, I've settled on what I think is the perfect pen. It's affordable ($2 each), works beautifully, is light and trim and durable. It is the Zebra F-301. It's a great compromise and has become "J's official pen".
Technically, it takes refills, but I have a much bigger issue misplacing pens than running out of ink. In fact, I can't remember actualy running out of ink before losing a pen, so the fact that these things aren't $30 or $300 pens is a much better setup for me. If you can manage to hold on to a single pen for 10 years, one of the nicer pens that takes inexpensive refills might work for you.
If that ever happens to me, I'll maybe reconsider, but any replacement has a tough battle given how much I like these dang things.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:24 am
OK, This is totally bizarre. I just sat down at a coffee shop, at a table that had a pen left on it. Not thinking much of it, I took a sip of coffee and cracked open the laptop and started burning through feeds. I got down to this pen post of yours and stopped… I took a look at that pen on the table… picked it up. Any guesses as to the model? Right, a Zebra F-301. Now, this would have been an even better story if though this strange coincedence I had found my official pen, but alas I like those gooey gel ink type monsters that leave globs and blobs all over the page. Even so, it's definitely not a bad pen.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Bizarre.
I definitely understand the appeal of the gel ink monsters myself. I've fallen victim to their allure repeatedly. I've just been bitten by that particular monster too often: smears on the page, ink blobs on clothing, etc.
I also keep wanting to use full-on fountain pens and other pens that would fulfill my "snob" desires, but as a simple, portable writing instrument, these Zebras are hard to beat.