Why do I use fountain pens?

Fountain pens cost more than regular ball points and rollerball pens. Many of my peers have asked me why I use fountain pens. I shall take this opportunity to detail the reasons behind my choice.

Zero hand fatigue. Ball pens requires you to press down on the paper to roll the ball in order to write. This introduces unnecessary hand fatigue and may cost issues with your hand muscles and tendons as you grow older. Fountain pens require no downward force to write. You just glide the nib over the paper.

Environmental-friendliness. Instead of supporting consumerism and polluting the environment by throwing away metal and plastic materials every single time you finish a refill or a pen, fountain pens inks come in huge bottles that lasts for months and even years. You no longer pollute the environment by buying a manufactured item that only lasts you a few weeks before you add it to the landfill.

Low cost. While fountain pens are more expensive than ball pens, they are not that much more expensive. Fountain pens can be purchases for under S$10, and the refills which come in huge bottles provide better cost per volume ratio compared to disposable or refillable ball pens. In the long run, you save. Big time.

Freedom of expression. Fountain pen inks come in every single color and shade you can think of. Most big time ink manufactures provide more than 10 shades for just a single color alone. You can choose the exact color and shade that best express your individualism.

Duo-point nibs. Duo-point nibs are special fountain pen nibs that writes with one stroke thickness the normal way (e.g M size) and a different thickness (e.g F size) when you flip the nib over and write with the other side. Most fountain pen nibs can do this out of the box, but specialty duo-point nibs are designed to excel in this. Duo-point nibs are particularly useful when writing notes or drawing, as you can write in different stroke thickness without switching to another pen.

A piece of history. Fountain pens have rich history. I love things with history.

Weikiat October 6, 2009 2 comments full post »

Break? What break?

This week is SMU’s mid-term break.

A break? Finally a break? Is that why I am finally blogging properly?

No. I am here to rant.

Lets examine the tasks to be completed this week:
-Prepare answers for LTB Individual Assignment
-Prepare slides and rehearse for IS101 Presentation on IT in Finance Sector
-Study for AS Exam
-Study for Econs Quiz
-As Homework
-CT Project
-LTB Course Materials

And lets examine my schedule this week:
Monday: LTB meeting from 12-4
Tuesday: Mug in school from 11-5
Wednesday: CT meeting from 8.30 to 11.30, LTB project from 12-5
Thursday: IS Project Presentation Meeting from 11 to 2
Friday: Meeting for my upcoming R/C Drift Meet event which I am organising for the school from 6.30pm to 9
Saturday: LTB Project Execution from 2pm to 5pm
Sunday: Prepare for the 2 exams on Monday.

Now, not to mention ongoing assignments that are due very very soon and affect a huge part of the grades
-IS101 Individual Assignment Part1+ Part 2(Proposal)
-LTB Learning Journal 2.

Break? what break? Don’t kid me.

Still, work aside, the lack of quality blog entries in recent weeks is disappointing. I love to blog, but I simply couldn’t find time to do it. I used to blog to exercise my writing skills which eventually lead to an A for A Level General Paper (without doing a single piece of General Paper homework in the 2 years I was in AJC). Now all my bottled up urge to write had been diluted on all my different assignments. What Individual Assignment la, learning journal la, observation journal la. This is the first time I’ve done more writing for school than for blog.

Still, I feel I owe readers and myself an update. Myself because I read my blog to remind myself of what had happened; my memory is terrible.

When I study I do alot of scribbling on foolscape paper. I seldom study, but when I study, its 100% concentration, and I block out every distraction around me. I would stay in the same position with only my writing hand moving frantically, and that could carry on without any pause for 2 or 3 hours at one stretch before I decided to take a quick break. Therefore, I’ve always been plague with the problem of hand fatigue. Because of the peculiar way in which I hold my pen, my hand get tired very quickly. Thus, I decided to such for a perfect writing tool which gives me lesser hand fatigue, and I purchased the Uniball Jetstream. Because of the angle I hold my pen, it skips like mad. The ink doesn’t come smoothly at all. I promptly gave the pen to my girlfriend.

Then I chance upon the merits of using a fountain pen online. People claim that unlike regular ballpoint/rollerball pens where you have to press the ball down on the paper in order to write, when using a fountain pen u just have to glide the nib over the surface of the paper. I promptly bought a Pilot V-Pen, a cheap disposable fountain pen that costs only $2.30 from my school’s bookshop. I was hooked. The mechanism is amazing. And it really gave me much lesser fatigue. Although Pilot V-Pen is a sad excuse of a fountain pen in the sense that the nib is rather badly made and writing with it is not as smooth as a “proper” fountain pen, from it I could appreciate the merits that a proper fountain pen could give me.

After much deliberation, I decided to spend $50+ on a Lamy Al-Star, which was voted the best pen under USD100 for its smoothness and durability. I completely love it. I scribbled almost non-stop for 4 hours while studying for econs today, using up 3/4 of the ink in my pen and nearly 20 pages of econs formulas, my hand didn’t feel tired at all. I don’t feel as if I have written anything at all. Normally, my hand would have developed sweaty palm after prolonged writing, but not with Lamy Al-Star. Ink is cheap as well, a bottle of Pelikan ink that could probably last me for months only costs around $3. The only 2 disadvantage with fountain pens for me is the fact that I am afraid I may run out of ink while using it during my studying sessions, and also because of the way I hold my pen, I keep staining my forth finger with ink.

Fountain pen is certainly for me. And I’ve poisoned 2 other schoolmates to get their own as well:)

Weikiat September 30, 2009 0 comments full post »

The Lamy Al-Star

After much consideration… the Lamy Al-Star Fountain Pen is in my possession.

Fantastic.