NaBloPoMo #4

NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month

Question #4: When you are writing, do you prefer to use a pen or a computer?

My Response: The question didn't specify what I was writing, just the mechanistic method, so I am not restricting my answer to just blog writing.

When I am making my groc store list I use a pen. I love to be creative with fonts. I sometimes write left-handed for the fun of it. My pens are eXtremely fine point gel pens.

MITSUBISHI uni-ball Signo bit, size 0.18 mm

I have a whole buncha colors, maybe 14 or so, a mixture of size 0.18 and 0.28 mm. I draw cartoons with pens and pencils. There are also strange, surreal landscapes. All other times my writing, such as blogging, is performed almost eXclusively on my iPad. My favorite computer font is Trebuchet. My margins are usually justified, unless it's poetry, most of that is centered.

By pen I write a few personal letters per year (3 to 12) that go by regular mail. I usually write to either my mother or my longest term pen-pal, my best friend from childhood who lives in south Texas. My current local best friend lives near by and she never receives paper letters, only electronic media.

I spent about 8 months of my life making daily to-do lists for projects in a certain elaborate manner. This was during my final days as a chemist. I wrote on plain unruled paper, but there was a framework of lines and margins on a template sheet tucked underneath that allowed for beautifully spaced writing.

The to-do lists used a system of rotating 4 color pairs which I stepped through daily in a pattern of

Day 1  A-B

Day 2  B-C

Day 3  C-D

Day 4  D-A

Day 5  A-B

.

.

.

I had so many colors that I don't remember eXactly which 4 colors belonged to letters A,B,C, and D.

The first color would be used for the chronological header, then alternate with the second color for each item on the to-do list for the day. Color A was the first header color alternating with B, then the next day color B would be the header color alternating with color C for that day. Then I would continue on through the pairs cycling every four days back around to A-B.

One day before morning meeting someone asked me if my "notes" (to-do list) were printed on a computer. I thought my to-do list was elegant and organized, but I didn't think they looked quite that good. But I was flattered. I remember my elementary grade teachers telling me that I wouldn't be able to print when I got older, that I would have to use cursive. Hah!

When I lost my job I left behind approximately sixty-six 8.5x11 inch beautiful pages of to-do lists. They were most likely destroyed by barbarians. The pens were my private property so they were eventually returned to me. Our group secretary had refused to buy them for me so I found my own at Jet Pens.

Pens are available at Jet Pens: www.jetpens.com go to "Gel Pens" category