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In class today I had to do something I haven't done in a long while, something I have dreaded for years - I had to write in pencil.
As long as I can remember, I've wrote in pen, for every subject, including math. But today I misplaced the only pen that I had in my backpack - and I had to relive the harsh, graphite-like memories of writing in pencil. Whereas pens write ever so smoothly, pencils grate harshly on the surface being written on. Not only that, one must be very adroit when applying pressure, so as not to break the lead. Pressing too hard is only rewarded by a time consuming trip to the pencil sharpener in order to expose more of the lead.
I was just wondering if anyone else shares my feelings towards the despicable #2 pencil
Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Yes, I certainly do. I love pens, and I have no problem just scratching out mistakes instead of wasting time and effort (and material!) erassing each detail and turning the page gray doing so.
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I love writing in pencil. I have a few pens that come close to the sheer joy of writing with a freshly sharpened pencil, but even they are poor substitutes. I like the scratchy sound, I like the primitiveness, and I like the ADD break of getting up to sharpen it in the middle of class. I love the desctruction of sharpening a pencil to the nub. I'm sorry you don't love your pencil. It's always said such nice things about you.
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There was an art program on educational TV today and we could only find a pen Sketching is awful with pen. Moreso with blue pen.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I'm with Katharina.. I like the scratchy feel of using a pencil, but I like to keep a sharp tip, so I always use a mechanical pencil.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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I love those disposable mechanical pencils. Which is good, because I lose expensive pens and pencils as fast as cheap ones.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I can't write anymore. I take notes on my laptop, take exams on my laptop, write shopping lists and print them out on my laptop. When I took the LSATs, they make you write out (not print) the honor code. I didn't know enough cursive anymore - I basically made curly-looking print.
The essay - about one page - had to be written in pencil. I thought my hand was going to fall off by the time I was done. I actually eliminated a school from contention because it didn't let us take exams on the laptop.
Analog writing is so ... 80s. No cut and paste, and you can't do anything with it afterwards.
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Black ink. Non water soluble. I usually bust out a pencil for midterms and finals though. Generally speaking, it looks bad to have big sections of work just crossed out on your test.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Pencil. There is no other. I only write with a pen when I have to, and it always makes me uncomfortable, and I always resent it. When I write with a pencil, I feel safe knowing that any mistake I make can be quickly erased and corrected. I therefore make few of them. When I write with a pen, just the knowledge that I have to live with spelling/grammar mistakes and/or smudges makes me make a whole lot more of them. I am not at ease. My handwriting changes. My ideas are stiffer. I don't like pens.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I prefer pencils for sketches and class notes. I love mechanical pencils, and yes, Pentel is the best. Their click erasers also erase without smudging, Hobbes. I have a zillion Pentel pencils and click erasers. They are very engineer-like.
But I do love pen for everyday writing. I like the waterproof kind, an old fashioned Bic medium point ballpoint, for instance, because the writing lasts and is readable even if you sweat on it at a jobsite or it gets rained on or whatever. Pencil tends to be wiped away off old papers, so that stuff one wrote in pencil a decade or two ago is barely readable.
I also love to draw or doodle in ball point. I don't really know why. When I sketch something I'm planning to build or make, I use pencil because I must have it eraseable. And of course, the official version I draw in AutoCAD. But when I draw stuff just for fun, I prefer pen.
Did anyone else buy gel pens in every color imaginable when they came out? I love those things! I've got a pencil and pen fetish, though. I just can't have too many pencils, pens, markers, crayons, or whatever.
[ July 12, 2004, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Mechanical pencils are best for writing Kanji. I love using Gelly roll pens. They are nice and smooth. Medium point.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Mechanical pencils if it needs a pencil, like for math (I had math teachers all the way from elementary school through high school who insisted that we use pencil -- it stuck); otherwise pen. Pencils that have to be sharpened are evil (although some brands are worse than others). Pop-point pencils are fun but run out too quickly.
I found out today how little hand-writing I do these days. (And I used to do TONS! Except for the brief time period where I was lugging a (quite heavy) laptop to my college classes (which stopped when I needed to be able to draw complex molecules quickly), I took all my notes in HS and college by hand.)
I'm doing secretarial work at a high school. Right now we're TRYING to get the darn report cards sent out. (Let's not discuss the teachers who STILL have not sent in their grades, after repeated reminders, hmm?) Due to various changes decided upon by the administration, I am currently copying over most of the report cards.
All three semesters. Including the long comments that many teachers squoze into the teeny tiny boxes (instead of sticking with the numbered list OR a short comment). Ow.
Then I got to fill out a bunch of forms for the camp my kids will be attending the last two weeks of the summer. Owie!
Tomorrow (and almost certainly Wednesday and Thursday too) I get to copy more report cards. *whimper*
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Pencil is awesome, but it always gets smudged and it fades over time. Since I keep every scrap of paper I make a mark on, I prefer ink for sheer preservation value.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I usually write in pen - preferably inky pen because I love how smoothly they write, though ballpoint works too. Pencils are generally reserved for standardized tests and art. I have a nice set of pencils ranging in degree from HB to 8B that's great for sketching.
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My senior year I was told by a professor I had four or five times in the course of my college career, "You know, if you had better handwriting, you would've had A's in all my courses."
She tells me that right THEN!?
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I find that I think best in pencil. #2, sharpened to a point so sharp it could draw blood. I despise mechanical pencils. Whenever I try to use them, the lead breaks or retreats into the barrel when I push down. Yecch!
Nothing is as satisfying as a freshly sharpened pencil and a crisp white sheet of notebook paper.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Pen, most definitely. My current favorite pen for writing is the uni-ball Signo RT gel pen, 0.38 - it writes on most types of paper without bleeding, rolls very smoothly, and comes in a tip size small enough for my handwriting. Having to stop to sharpen a pencil or click out more lead interrupts writing. I write my exam essays in pen, and I bring white-out tape for backup. I cross things out as I go, as necessary, and then spend a few seconds at the end cleaning up.
For inking, at least what I'm working on recently, I favor the Sakura Micron pens. If I had to cover more space, or didn't have to lug my materials around everywhere I went, I might go for Rapidograph pens and a brush and india ink.
Pencil is for sketching before inking, or for drawing. I like my cheap mechanical #2 for sketching. I haven't done any finished drawings in pencil for quite a while.
Posts: 188 | Registered: Dec 2002
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I'm a pencil junkie. As a kid, I gnawed on erasers. Now, I MUST have my Papermate Clear Point 0.5, in grey, with a side-click advance - and there have to be enough lead refills to rattle when I shake the pencil. Whenever there's a meeting, and I have to take notes, I use pencil. When the situation calls for a pen, I have two favorites. At work is my Dr. Grip blue-barrel blue ink with the well-broken in rubber grip thingie, and I usually carry a Stabilo Sensor fine tip felt for "fun" writing.
I hoard office supplies, pens & pencils in particular. If armageddon comes, and you need a writing implement, come to my house. Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote: I find that I think best in pencil. #2, sharpened to a point so sharp it could draw blood
In junior high, a girl stabbed me in the arm with just such a pencil, and the lead broke off inside my arm. I eventually dug the lead out, but a lot of graphite stayed in there. For probably 10 years you could still see it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Mr. Opera and I both have graphite marks under our skin. My arm was stabbed by a friend of mine in 6th grade. I'll never forget the look on his face when I started bleeding!
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Favorite pen: Pentel. The thick kind with medium ink. I hate when pens scratch against the paper. Medium ink in a pentel rolls so smooooooooth.
I HATE pencils. (Unless I'm in an artsy mood, but that's different.) I hate the way they scratch and break. And as a teacher, I hated trying to read papers written in pencil. Usually, the writing is way too faint to read, causing me much agony and annoyance.
As for what Hollow Earth said about it looking bad to have sections crossed out on your test, who cares? Last year, I had to give several writing tests to college freshman. Writing in pen was required by the professor (for the very reason I mention above). I told the students to simply cross out what they want to remove with a single line. We have a lot of papers to grade and we are neither inclined nor care to read something you've crossed out. That looks a lot better than messy scribbling (and worn and/or torn paper from furious erasing). ALSO, you waste valuable time on a timed writing test erasing things. Just cross out and move on!
I must admit, I had little tolerance for the pencil loving students. Wanted to tell them to grow up.... Sorry!! I realize now that loving pencils is a passion that runs deep.... just don't try to use them in MY class. Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Oh yes, forgot to mention this... I've also been attacked by a pencil! I've had a graphite mark on my foot for so many years that I've forgotten what originally caused it. Probably some run-in with a pencil monster--a blocked childhood memory.
Perhaps ALL of us who hate pencils have some similar story.
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Was never (that I recall) stabbed with a pencil. Don't much care for the sharpen-able kind anyway -- probably because many wouldn't sharpen properly for me.
quote: I despise mechanical pencils. Whenever I try to use them, the lead breaks or retreats into the barrel when I push down. Yecch!
My mom has this problem too. I don't, EXCEPT when I'm around her. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I have two different permanent graphite marks beneath my skin from pencil stabs. The first was in third grade. I didn't think they would EVER go away.
It's true that I've almost forgotten how to write by hand. I can still print, which I use in my work a fair amount, but cursive writing I'm very rusty at. The pen keeps making all sorts of extraneous movements that I think are my fingers trying to type the word I'm thinking.
Typing is not something I even think about anymore. I just think words at my fingers and they spit them out. When I get very tired or sleepy, my fingers start spitting out different words than I've told them to type. They are still words, usually, just not the ones I thought at them. Then the resulting sentences don't tend to be very sensical. Does this happen to anyone else? I think it is an odd way for fingers to behave.
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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I got almost-poked in the eye by a pencil. The graphite tattoo has never gone away. That was over seven years ago. Woo. I are hardcore. It is pretty cool, though.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I've heard that activated charcoal poultices can cause tattooing if applied to broken skin. Charcoal poultices are the #1 recommended treatment for fire ant bites and many other types of inflammations, since the charcoal somehow is able to draw the poison out through the skin.
A doctor friend of mine said he discovered a way to remove tattoos. You abraid the area of the tattoo with some rough surfaced material (like fine sandpaper), then apply salt, grit your teeth and let it sit for a while, then wash. Repeat the treatment as often as you can stand it, before your skin becomes too raw. It may take a week or two, but it will eventually raise to the surface the tattoo pigment and cause it to be sloughed off. Repeated sunburns would probably do the trick, too. Obviously, a bit of pain is involved, either way. My doctor friend said he was going to patent it, when he found out that someone else had beaten him to it.
[ July 14, 2004, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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