I have to admit...

I have to admit, I am obsessed with a certain writing instrument. When I first started my current job I didn't like the selection of pens that they had in my office, so I went in search of a new one for myself. Anyone who knows me, knows that I write freakishly small, in block letters, all capitals. Yeah, I'm that guy. People can't help but comment on it, so I needed a pen to help me with that small writing problem. What I found was pure gold. 

I found the Pilot P-500 extra fine (0.5mm) pen in blue ink. I bought 3 of them, they lasted me for a year, actually slightly longer. I was hooked. And now, I will not write for any sustained length of time with any other writing instrument. I just won't do it. It's not the same. Even when signing credit card slips or something like that, I still pull out my own pen. Yeah, it's sad, I know. But hey, if we can't be excited about our writing instruments, what can we be excited about? OK, there are tons of other things that we can be excited about, but alas, I like my pens. 

After I rolled through those first 3 pens, I went in for the big purchase. I got a dozen. This was in 2002. Take a look at what year it is now. 2007. I just cracked into my last pen from that initial dozen. Typically, I come pretty darn close to finishing off one of these pens, but something always gets in my way. I drop it, and break the nib off for instance. Or, I might lose it somewhere along the line. Set it down somewhere, or something like that. Anyway, in the 6 years that I've been using these pens, I have never, repeat, never ran one completely out. That is, until today. Yes indeed folks. I finally ran one of these beauties out. I was in the middle of my 4th conference call this morning, and lo and behold. It kicked on me, the bright blue ink started to fade, and finally, it winked out of existence. I shed a little tear for my accomplishment. Took a few snaps of the dead soldier, and then unceremoniously tossed it into the trash can at work. Of course, it is now immortalized for all to see on these pages, my dead pen. Run out of ink. Completely. Kaput. Done. Finito. And so on and so forth. To give the dead pen a little contrast though, I placed the new one next to it so you can see the suffering I went through the squeeze every last amount of ink out of this bad boy.

And now, the new hotness (actually, they are identical in appearance, it's just that this one is loaded for bear, and ready to do some serious writing). You see, I'm not sure what I would do if they stopped making this pen. It's bad enough I have to mail order them, as I can never find them in any store. Anywhere. I've tried other extra fine pens, but this one is a lot more precise, and "extra fine" for some reason. The ink, waterproof (it takes a little bit of "curing" time), and it doesn't run. I've dumped water on my notes before, and Diet Pepsi, and they survived quite nicely, no smudging (again, if the ink was already dry that is). I've tried writing with other pens, nothing doing chief. It drives me a little nuts. And pencils? Holy sheep shit, forget pencils. 

And for my last picture. check out the comparison, old to new. Also, if you look in the background, you can see a small sample of my writing on the green paper in the back. This is also something I will not skimp on. Do I take notes on regular white line notebook type paper? Of course not. Why would I do something like that? I use an engineering pad. This is a habit that I started back in the college days, and carried it over with me to the working world. All told, I think I have in excess of 2000 written pages of notes that I've taken over the years in various jobs. Last year, was the record note taking year for me. I had an astounding 600+ pages of notes by the end of 2006. Sad thing is, on my track to beat that record this year, easily. Thinking about it though, it's not all just notes. When I have some defect parts that I take pictures of, I print out small versions of the pictures, and tape them into the notebook, scrapbook style. I have lots of data tables in there as well, for different various things I've taken data on. And notes, tons of notes. Part reviews, and so on. I won't get into any further detail since the life of an automotive quality engineer is well, kind of droll. But if anyone wants to take my notes someday, and archive them, let me know. We can preserve the inane ramblings of a quality engineer for all to see and read. Especially if you're having a hard time getting to sleep. This would do the trick for sure.