July 28, 2008

You know you are a Pen Addict if.....

1.  You have a pen cup on your desk, but it only contains crap pens that you don't care if they get stolen by your co-workers.

2.  You keep your good pens stashed away in a safe spot, away from grabby hands.

3.  You check the office supplies section of every store you are in for new pens.

4.  If they have new pens, you buy them.

5.  You start writing but you don't like how the pen is performing, you switch pens and recopy what you already had written with the new pen.  Sometimes, this is a several pen event.

6.  You carry more than 2 - ok 20 - pens in your backpack/purse.

7.  You write a blog about pens.

8.  You read a blog about pens.

Those are the ones I could come up with off the top of my head.  What else makes you know that you are a Pen Addict?  Leave some comments and I'll update this post with some of the best ones.

Update:  There are some great ones in the comments section - thanks everyone!  Here are some samples:

From ellie:
You can't understand how people can write with 1.0+mm pens.

From teabird:
Before you write a letter, you spend more time deciding which pen to use than you spend writing the letter.

From moon'slark:
You keep a moleskine JUST for your pen addiction.

From alwayswrite:
The whole Staples or Office Max staff knows your name.
You don't consider BIC stick pen a real pen.

From Kataish:
You have a favourite pen but don't tell the runners up for fear of hurting their feelings.

From nicolelynn:
You hold pen try-outs to determine which one to use for any given written item.

From Matt:
You build this thing from scratch to display pens on your office wall.

From cool:
When you keep checking jetpens everyday for any new pens that are in stock.

24 comments:

Ellie said...

You say "It feels like a soap day" when looking at your collection of scented pens.

You don't understand why people question having 20 pens in your bag.

You can't understand how people can write with 1.0+mm pens.

When showing someone your new planner/notebook, you demand they feel the paper.

The first thing you do when getting a book is feel the paper.

You suffer through 2 hours of mass transit just to get giant moleskines.

teabird said...

Before you write a letter, you spend more time deciding which pen to use than you spend writing the letter.

(Substitute writing project of your choice...)

Pam said...

You spend hours pouring over your pens and keeping lists of favourites, prices, and reasons why you like one pen versus another pen.

You keep a moleskine JUST for your pen addiction.

alwayswrite said...

The whole Staples or Office Max staff knows your name.

There are certain pens allocated for other co-workers.

only certain pens are allowed to write in your Moleskine.

The Pen Addict is your homepage.

You had a bad day a new pen will cheer you up.

You don't consider BIC stick pen a real pen.

You consider the back to school season to be the "most wonderful time of the year" because all pens are on sale.

kataish said...

You cry when you can't find a refill for your favourite pen.

You spend more on pens than you do on groceries.

You have a favourite pen but don't tell the runners up for fear of hurting their feelings.

Stephanie "Biffybeans" Smith said...

OMG!!!!! That's me, that's me, that's me!!!

nicolelynn said...

The most exciting part about starting school is an excuse to buy pens to use for taking notes

You hold pen try-outs to determine which one to use for any given written item

You obsessively buy notebooks so you have someplace to write in with each pen

You study how each pen impacts your hand writing and make adjustments accordingly

Unknown said...

You build this thing from scratch to display pens on your office wall:

http://www.acr0nym.com/IMG_0118.JPG

dowdyism said...

OMG Matt - I think we have a winner! :) That is awesome!

These are great responses gang - keep it up! I'll update the main post a bit later this afternoon when I get a chance.

Unknown said...

hahaha I love this most of them happens to me too...

You find a pen in your friends/co-workers/family house and have instant thoughts about it.

When more than half the time you're in a office supply store you're staring at pens.

When school's about to start you're excited to take notes with your new pens.

You start to write small

Start making pen tests of all the pens you have in the house.

Start stealing pens from mom/dad/siblings that you don't have.

When the only paper you'll only want to write on is high quality paper, not the crap recycled ones from office depot.

When you keep checking jetpens everyday for any new pens that are in stock.

F said...

When you are at work and you stare at the kinds of pens people have on their desks to see if they have something you've never seen before.

When you refuse somebody's offer to use their cheap ballpoint dime store pen even when you are very much in need of something to write with.

When you relieve boredom during work by taking out your favorite pen and writing random things for long periods of time just to see how great your new pen is after you buy it.

When you plunk down an mildly obscene amount of money for a pen only to see that amount increase the next time you see something shiny, new and highly recommended by a pen blog.

When you run out of refills for your favorite pen and you boycott every other pen until the refills finally get to you from Ebay, Jetpens or your local fine pen/art store.

When you start negotiating with Ebay sellers to convince them to sell you different varieties of the same pen so that you can decide which variety is best for you and throw away the pens you don't need. (Anybody want my 0.4 dark blue Slicci's?)

F said...

I meant "new or favorite pen" in my 3rd "you know if".

And finally...

When you enjoy the Slicci more than any other pen but you still check The Pen Addict blog weekly or more to see if anything has surpassed the Slicci as the author's favorite.

I have the 0.4 Sliccis and I stopped using pretty much every other pen at work or home.

Beowulfa said...

Oh that is awesome! I love pens! I just bought this awesome new one from Barnes & Noble-very nice heft to it and the ink is constant and smooth. And it's pretty.

dowdyism said...

Hey Wulfa!

That's funny you said that, because I literally just walked in from my local Barnes and Noble, and noticed some nice pens they had at the checkout counter. I resisted though! :O

Gaius - I keep meaning to update the list, but the number 1 and 2 spots won't be changing. :) I consider flip-flopping the Slicci and Hi-Tec-C from time to time, but the Slicci's consistency keeps it in the top spot. I hate "priming the pump" on a pen, and I have to do that too frequently with my Hi-Tec-C's.

Unknown said...

Hello, My name is Jhon.

I haven't made a Jet Pens order for 1 week. ;-)

Ms Meghan said...

You carry back-up pens to lend out to other people in order to reserve your precious stash.

Speedmaster said...

My name is Chris and I have a Jet Pens problem. ;-)

Hello Pineapples! said...

you've told someone that 'sorry, you don't have a pen with you' because you don't want them using/stealing your pens.

you keep dead pens, just in case you someday find the re-fill for it.

you feel a bit lost not putting a pen in your purse, even though you know you are heading out to go dancing and are using a very small purse.

you use your own pen to sign credit card receipts or when playing board games at a friend's house.

you buy every available refill you can find for your discontinued pen.

it's been over five years, but you still feel sad when you think about your discontinued pen.

you've never understood how anyone could use plain papermate pens. Particularly the kind that are "erasable".

sunt_lacrimae_rerum said...

....your primary "crush" is on Richard Binder....

Felipão G said...

You have different types of pen to write on different types of paper

If you have an important test, you carry several different pens as a safety blanket, and you find yourself using several pens to write the same exam

You look for innovative ways to make better pens (like swapping a Pentel needle point cartrige into a 207, which I did)

More than once you have entire sheets of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" tests

Jetpens is a website, a store, a noun and a verb

You're one of a few who knows about the existence of exotic sizes like 0.4mm, 0.38mm, 0.18mm.

You look everywhere for exotic pens

You keep pens that are no longer produced as a souvenir

Even if you have 300 pens, you can notice that one was stolen.

You know that Cross, Waterman, Montblanc, etc make really nice and expensive pens which are regarded as the best of the best, yet, you think of Pilot and Uniball as being the best.

You adopt lost pens just like Angelina Jolie adopts kids

You still collect a ton of pens found in hotels, yet, you barely manage to use one in a year

You took advantage of Uni's 207 giveaway and got one, even if you still have 12-packs of brand new 207s

People don't understand why you always keep pens handy, yet refuse to lend them

More than once you have gotten several pens of the same just "in case the store runs out of them"


Felipe (airbridgecargo)

dowdyism said...

That is some great stuff Felipe!

Felipão G said...

lol thanks, and all of those apply to me

Violet Dragon said...

@ellie I love my 1.0mm+ ballpoints. :( They are some of my current favourite writing pens. The line they put down isn't 1.0mm+ though; it's closer to .07mm.

@cool and anyone else with a jetpens addiction. If you use firefox you can install this add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3362 and set it to scan Jetpens' new products page and it'll alert you when there are new items added.

Unknown said...

You miss out on an eBay auction for that must have pen, and cry yourself to sleep!!