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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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2009-11-11, 01:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
NSFW? NSFRm?

Spoiler (click to toggle):


Pen porn?
Spoiler (click to toggle):
Those have been my day-in-and-day-out tools for years -- until I found the 207 Micro. I'm not sure if it comes in purple, though...

...but the best thing about Uni-ball pens is that the mascot for their "Super Ink" is a giant robot. Sexy.

I want to try the Sharpie Pen, too, but I'm always scared. Has anyone used one? Is it literally, like, an ultra-fine-tip Sharpie? (Does it smell?)

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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Freewell
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Join Date: Sep 2006
 
2009-11-11, 01:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
Spoiler (click to toggle):
...

I want to try the Sharpie Pen, too, but I'm always scared. Has anyone used one? Is it literally, like, an ultra-fine-tip Sharpie? (Does it smell?)
Yes, I have used them for years. It is exactly like an ultra-fine-tip Sharpie.

Mine doesn't stink, neither before or after I use it... but yours might... never know till you try it!
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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2009-11-11, 02:09

Thx Freewell.

The 207 Micro does not come in purple. I wonder if Uni-ball takes requests...
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Freewell
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
 
2009-11-11, 08:01

No problem.

The only thing about them I do not like, is when attempting to use them for extended writing, they can readily bleed through. I tend to reserve them for signing cards, or "drawing" on heavier stock paper. I love the wide spectrum of colors available, and the fine tips enable me to define somewhat intricate details. I am actually going to pick up a whole set for a family member for Christmas, who likes to make their own greeting cards.
  quote
Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2009-11-11, 09:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by Freewell View Post
Mine doesn't stink, neither before or after I use it... but yours might... never know till you try it!
Quoted out of context for lulz.
  quote
hflomberg
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
 
2009-11-11, 20:23

if I need to read it - Word, though Open Office is sneaking up
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MBHockey
skates=grafs
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: New York
 
2009-11-11, 21:41

mechanical pencils all the way!

0.7 mm though. I'm not a savage.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2009-11-12, 00:50

Well I can't follow Sean Connery, but will say that I like using the disposable "Varsity" fountain pens... only they're actually reusable if you pull the nib straight out with some pliers, allowing you to refill them over and over.

I also enjoy writing with Speedball nibbed fountain pens you use to dip into an inkwell. Recently did some illustrations for a prop for a popular vampire-themed show using that setup.

At my computer I insist on using a Wacom stylus setup, am worthless with a mouse at this point.

When writing writing on the computer I use Microsoft Word to just flat-out WRITE. I have Final Draft 6 but don't really use it unless I honestly want to write screenplay in proper format.

...
(I'm also a big fan of the Uniballs, but also like solid graphite pencils)

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
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rollercoaster375
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2009-11-12, 14:59

I think we're all missing an appreciation here for the best (sub $5) pen I've ever used... The Uni-ball Jetstream (Black, of course). The smoothest writing I've ever experienced in my life, without the smearing of gels. It's amazing.

Spoiler (click to toggle):

I really have nothing to put here, but I feel it's rather strange to not have one.
  quote
cosus
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2009-11-12, 19:58

Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencil!

Always had a pack on me with a sharpener, collected shavings and a one of those rubbery erasers. Last writing utensil I actually used before I lost function of my writing hand.

Whenever I had to type a paper, from high school to college, I used an Olympus mechanical type writer. The satisfaction of every key-stroke made the experience that much greater. It was the sound, the direct effort in ever key and the lack of the #"1" key that was just an exclamation point. God bless those line white outs, they saved my life.


But now I don't even have the strength to type on that machine and it just lays in the closet in it's rickety case. For the most part I just use Google Docs & Spreadsheets for my typing and I enjoy it's simple and yet effective design, especially when I have to collaborate.

Really now, I can't even use a mouse and had to buy a special keyboard with a touchpad in order to use a computer and I assure you, that's a product that lacks a significant selection. The extent of my writing by hand today is the scribble I write as a signature on checks.

Retired 8 years ahead of schedule.
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Swox
OK Mr. Sunshine!
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Toronto
 
2009-11-12, 21:14

I use Pages almost exclusively now. I don't miss MS Word one bit, though I still have it for reading .docx files (Pages seemed to have issues with footnotes with it last time I checked).

I type with my aluminum Apple keyboard, and I use any pens or mechanical pencils that have soft/squishy stuff where I pinch them.

Do not be oppressed by the forces of ignorance and delusion! But rise up now with resolve and courage! Entranced by ignorance, from beginningless time until now, You have had more than enough time to sleep. So do not slumber any longer, but strive after virtue with body, speech, and mind!
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-12, 21:21

Despite the fact that they didn't quite hit 500,000 downloaders, it looks like MacHeist has unlocked Mariner Write for all. I have a feeling that is going to be my new word processor - I hate booting up NeoOffice just to...process words. And it just seems so complex and open-sourcey.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
Capella
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2009-11-18, 15:37

This answer is split off from the college prof thread because it turned into a sidenote.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
A pen is my wand, my athame.
As a pagan and a writer both, I wholeheartedly agree. A pen (or in some cases, a keyboard) is a tool with which to create words, worlds. I am actually considering getting another keyboard in a color I am not very fond of for my "standard" writing (general IMs, homework, gaming etc), and then ritually purifying my graphite keyboard. Then I could my fiction-only keyboard, and I will explicitly switch keyboards when I'm going to be doing concentrated fiction so as to get in an appropriate mindset. Likewise, when I am doing writing in class, I only use black pens for classwork. If I'm also writing fiction, I use blue pen for the fiction. This segregation helps me focus, and having a "dedicated tool" gets me in the mood.

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
twitter ; amateur photographer ; fanfiction writer ; roleplayer and worldbuilder
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Mugge
Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
 
2009-11-18, 15:41

A Tombow Havanna



But mostly my unremarkable HP keyboard at work.

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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-18, 15:48

Haha. I was speaking metaphorically, but whatever floats your boat.

I agree that it is a very apt metaphor, though. One only needs to look at, well, our literature, to see how often a pen (or a paintbrush!) is portrayed as a magical artifact (I can't wait for Epic Mickey) to see that there's something to it. While I was exaggerating slightly in the other thread (hence the analogy to touching someone else's athame, which I am told is verboten) I do take my craft, that of writing, seriously. And there is something miraculous about it, that act of creating something on the page.

I, ahem, may be writing a book of essays about writing, which is an interesting turn, and the essays deal with this in more detail; however, it's not the sort of thing that's marketable until I'm an established writer elsewhere, so...

Oh, and I color-code ink (and notebooks and paper) all the time. It's more OCD than paganism though.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
CitizenTony
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Dallas
 
2009-11-18, 16:27

I use Word for long documents. Full sized aluminum Apple keyboard. Best keyboard I've ever used.

I have a thing for pens and pencils. Always have. I have a small collection of favorites.

Recently I found the Uni-ball micro that Roboman is boasting about. Great pen for a great price. I'd been using Bic sticks previously due to the ability to turn them into flying crafts when I get bored.

I use a Koh-i-noor Adapto that my granddad gave when I was small. I cherish the thing. And I stick with Koh-i-noor Rapidomatic for my other pencil needs.

I can't use normal pencils. Something about the way the wood feels gives me the shivers. I can't stand it.

  quote
Capella
Dark Cat of the Sith
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
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2009-11-18, 18:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
I agree that it is a very apt metaphor, though. One only needs to look at, well, our literature, to see how often a pen (or a paintbrush!) is portrayed as a magical artifact (I can't wait for Epic Mickey) to see that there's something to it. While I was exaggerating slightly in the other thread (hence the analogy to touching someone else's athame, which I am told is verboten) I do take my craft, that of writing, seriously. And there is something miraculous about it, that act of creating something on the page.
Nobody in RUPagans right now is a Wiccan, or I'd ask for confirmation about the verboten thing. However, my friend B has 3 tarot decks; one anyone can touch, one that only those of us who can "keep their energy tamped down" can touch, and one that absolutely no one but her can handle. As I get to the stage in my personal evolution where I start doing energy work more often, I can forsee a stage where I would want to handcraft something that I would want purified and charmed and keyed absolutely to me and that I would never want anyone else handling.

And I can absolutely see how that could extend out to a pen. You're letting your creative energy run through it; why would you want someone else's hands on it, leaving a residue of not-you contaminating it? There's also a mindset thing; if you have your "this is my fiction" pen, then when you pick it up you think fiction, and you get into that mindset, and it's easier to work. And this is why I am strongly considering the dedicated fiction keyboard idea.

For the same reason I am also considering making Scrivener fiction only. Yes, it was really useful for aggregating notes from all over the Interwebz and being able to refer to them in the bottom document while typing in the top document, but I feel like if I dedicate Scrivener solely to writing fiction, then I can get myself in a mindset where I open Scrivener and I start writing because I have associated Scrivener=fiction. We will see.

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
twitter ; amateur photographer ; fanfiction writer ; roleplayer and worldbuilder
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-11-18, 18:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
Nobody in RUPagans right now is a Wiccan, or I'd ask for confirmation about the verboten thing. However, my friend B has 3 tarot decks; one anyone can touch, one that only those of us who can "keep their energy tamped down" can touch, and one that absolutely no one but her can handle. As I get to the stage in my personal evolution where I start doing energy work more often, I can forsee a stage where I would want to handcraft something that I would want purified and charmed and keyed absolutely to me and that I would never want anyone else handling.
In as much as I pissed myself laughing that there is indeed an outfit called "RUPagans" (yes, Rutgers, I get it, but still), tarot decks are really not to be fucked with. I have three different decks myself, none of which can be just tossed out willy-nilly.

Do you know offhand which decks your friend has? It'd be interesting for me to know what the kids are playing with nowadays.

So it goes.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-18, 19:03

I read it as "are you Pagans?," like a question. But the Rutgers thing makes more sense.

And tarot decks are awesome, even if you don't "believe" in them (I guess that makes me one of those "willy-nilly" people). I dig the symbolism, and the art. If Baptists had anything that awesome, maybe I would have stayed.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-11-18, 19:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
If Baptists had anything that awesome, maybe I would have stayed.
Singing! Jahweh almighty can the Baptists ever belt it out. I remember a year when I was at JazzFest on acid and got absolutely stuck in the Baptist tent. If there is a god, it listens to the Baptists on its Walkman (god won't carry anything Apple...he still holds a grudge).

So it goes.
  quote
Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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2009-11-18, 19:25

Quote:
Originally Posted by 709 View Post
Singing! Jahweh almighty can the Baptists ever belt it out. I remember a year when I was at JazzFest on acid and got absolutely stuck in the Baptist tent.
Not my baptists. My baptists sounded pretty...dead. They were cold Minnesota baptists, not awesome friendly southern baptists. (See? How's that for "northern elitism"?)

And that's the best sentence ever.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-11-18, 19:36

Yeah, Southern Baptists. Black, robes, clapping, smiling, dancing....waving back and forth... "lift up your hands brother!" ... OK! .... "Jesus smiles upon you! RAISE your hands to Jesus!" .... OK! OK! I LOVE IT! .... "clap your hands together brother!" ... CLAPPING! I LOOOVE THIS!!!! WOO!!! .... "praise Jesus and you will be SAVED brother!" ... YEEEEAAAHHH YOU BLACK PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO PRAAAAZZZEEE JEEZZUUSSSS!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!


***record scratch***


Well fuck.


Yes, yes, I'm leaving.

So it goes.
  quote
Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-11-18, 19:45

I have no idea what happened there, but I love the idea of just putting ***record scratch*** in the middle of a post.

And not all southern baptists are black. Bob Jones probably won't let a black person on campus. But then again, I don't know if they're good singers...

All I know is that my parent's church was the deadest group of "living" people you will ever see. I kid you not. It was like, whoa.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-11-18, 19:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
I have no idea what happened there, but I love the idea of just putting ***record scratch*** in the middle of a post.
I'm making a new years resolution that all my posts in 2010 will read like bad movie trailers.


That was practice.
  quote
Kickaha
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2009-11-18, 23:20

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
I read it as "are you Pagans?," like a question. But the Rutgers thing makes more sense.

And tarot decks are awesome, even if you don't "believe" in them (I guess that makes me one of those "willy-nilly" people). I dig the symbolism, and the art. If Baptists had anything that awesome, maybe I would have stayed.
At the very least, they're really effective taps into the subconscious, giving the reader a wide panoply of imagery and associations to play with, letting them become a creative outlet for expressing patterns that otherwise would remain unexpressed.

OTOH, I have a friend whose grandfather was an accomplished tarot practitioner. When he died, he willed his tarot deck to her, but... her aunt snagged it instead, saying she'd always wanted it. Unfortunately, she found that it was missing a card... but she was never able to pin down which one. Every time she counted it out though, it was one card short. Eventually she gave the deck to my friend, since it wasn't usable. And every card was there. oooooEEEEEEEooooo....

It's kind of like totemism - it's an amazingly rich set of archetypes for psychological expression and shorthand, regardless of whatever cultural mysticism it's wrapped up in. It *can* be an effective tool, regardless of your belief system.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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2009-11-18, 23:46

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
At the very least, they're really effective taps into the subconscious, giving the reader a wide panoply of imagery and associations to play with, letting them become a creative outlet for expressing patterns that otherwise would remain unexpressed.

OTOH, I have a friend whose grandfather was an accomplished tarot practitioner. When he died, he willed his tarot deck to her, but... her aunt snagged it instead, saying she'd always wanted it. Unfortunately, she found that it was missing a card... but she was never able to pin down which one. Every time she counted it out though, it was one card short. Eventually she gave the deck to my friend, since it wasn't usable. And every card was there. oooooEEEEEEEooooo....

It's kind of like totemism - it's an amazingly rich set of archetypes for psychological expression and shorthand, regardless of whatever cultural mysticism it's wrapped up in. It *can* be an effective tool, regardless of your belief system.
Oh totally. I've featured tarot cards in my writing before, for exactly the reasons you describe. Though (getting this thread back on topic), I've never actually used them to write.

Stephen King has, though. Well, not tarot cards, but a deck of cards. He used them to decide the order of the stories in his most recent (I think) collection, and he says it actually worked out rather well (creating a rather nice balance between serious and light-hearted pieces).

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
  quote
Capella
Dark Cat of the Sith
 
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2009-12-13, 20:18

Has anyone played with OmmWriter yet? Chucker showed it to me a couple weeks back; I love the default snowy landscape, and I find 2 of the musical selections very effective. Sometimes I need the complexity of Scrivener, especially when I'm doing fanfic (where I often have to reference dialogue from in the original texts) or when I'm doing heavy-duty outlining or backstory work, where I might need to reference other things. But when I just want to sit down and write a scene, OmmWriter is amazing. Amaaazing. Go try it now!

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
twitter ; amateur photographer ; fanfiction writer ; roleplayer and worldbuilder
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Dutch Pear
Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
 
2009-12-14, 04:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
Has anyone played with OmmWriter yet?
I am liking it as well. Even though it is quite new-agy with the meditation bells and soothing landscape and such, it does work wonders for me. Being a huge procrastinator who is easily distracted, I find that it really helps keeping me focussed when writing. Mind you, I'm in a room with three other people and right outside the door is the department copier...
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-12-14, 04:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
Has anyone played with OmmWriter yet?
That looks waaaay too much like OmniWriter. For a second, I was all excited.

I'll still try it out though. I looooooooooove the website.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2009-12-14, 14:09

My mind is indeed a wild monkey, so I should give it a shot.
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