Micrology Monday

micrology ~ study or discussion of trivialities

Anybody else out there keep a journal? Anyone?

I’ve kept a journal off and on for most of my life. Normally my journals are some form of hard covered note book with lined pages - sometimes plain, sometimes fancy covers. While I love the idea of those awesome journals with the moleskin covers, they’re a little bit out of my price range, so I usually pick from whatever the nearest Chapters bookstore has to offer.

However, when it comes to pens for my journal, I’m a little pickier. In the beginning I vaguely remember using a fountain pen, as much for the coloured ink you could get as for the feel of the pen. However, the ink was totally washable and tended to fade easily.

At that point I started keeping an electronic journal. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a while I missed the tactile sensation of writing by hand. Now I have four or five years worth of my life locked away in password protected WordPerfect files which I am unable to access. Not only have I long forgotten the password, I don’t even have a program capable of opening them.

So I shopped around for a new pen and found the Pentel Superb pen, black ink only please. It was a slender fine point pen that had just the perfect glide to it. But then, of course, they stopped making them. It seemed to take me forever to find a replacement pen.

It couldn’t be just any pen, it had to fit properly in my hand and it had to have the right glide to it. Too fine a point and my hand would start to cramp after only a few minutes. To easy a glide to it and my handwriting became illegible. Markers were a little too bold, ball points tended to leave a residue behind.

Then I was in Staples (an office supply store) and there in the discount bin was a package of three Jetstream Retractable pens. The colours were green, indigo, and purple, but the shade was so dark it was almost black. Perfect! I’d been toying with the idea of adding a little colour to my journals and these pens would make a nice transition.

However, I started with the green one and I didn’t even get a whole page written before the ink began to sputter and faded right out. So I switched to the indigo one. That one lasted about three-quarters of the journal before giving up the ghost. So sad!

I tried looking for a replacement on-line and they just don’t make them anymore. I did see a bunch of pens that were insanely expensive though. They were nice and all, but not that nice.

I remember the office supply store Grand and Toy fondly. You could go into one and test various pens until you found the right one. Now they’re all sealed tightly in packages and you pretty much have to cross your fingers that it’ll be as good as it looks.

I did find three-packs of Jetstream Retractables, but not, of course in the colours I wanted. My choices were black, blue, red, or green. And the three colours looked a lot brighter than I was comfortable with. Basic black it is.

Just as soon as I can figure out how the darned things work. ;-)