Pen Woes... >.<;
Well, I decided to look for my old notes and scribblings for GH fanfics as well as a fountain pen that I misplaced ~a year ago. No problems... I found some of my stuff (apparently I have (had?) a thing for notebooks; I found ~6 completely empty books for scribbling in), and I found my pen but... when I opened the pen, the nib remained in the cap?? Ummm... yeah, the pen literally went to pieces on me. @_@ The good thing is that it was a pretty cheap pen, and since I misplaced it, obviously I didn't take care of it. (Poor abused thing. At least my Waterman is properly loved.) But having the nib literally go to pieces was... different.
So... I ended up spending a bunch of time hunting down a new everyday pen. >.> Of course, while I was doing that, I saw a bunch of discount pens and... I ended up buying two more pens because they were on sale. >.> And since I really want a pen, I decided to dig out the one I bought in Japan a couple trips ago. I was pretty sure I'd bought a Platinum, but over the past 1.5 years, I essentially became very uncertain about it because I could never find the pen online. ^^;; It wasn't expensive, but it was pretty. I finally found it. It's the one with cranes and Mt. Fuji. ^^;; I still haven't decided if I'll actually use it though. (I don't have a converter for it... actually, I have no idea if it takes a converter). ^^;
And now the plan is to hopefully go to Reid Stationers and see what they might have. If I'm going all that way... I'm hoping that *maybe* they'll have the pen I've been thinking about ever since I laid eyes on it in Japan in Oct. That pen is the Mont Blanc Mozart. I've never really paid any attention to Mont Blanc, but for some reason, that pen just reached out, grabbed me by the throat, and said, "you want to buy me!" Thinking in hindsight and over the many times I've thought about that pen, I should've just bought it then. (My problem was that I couldn't decide between gold trim and platinum trim.) >.< How sad is it that I'm more willing to consider using that pen than I am the Platinum? Weird, I know.
What's really sad is that there are two other pens and two basic pens I wouldn't mind getting on top of the one's I've already ordered. And that's just on looking for a regular use pen! What would happen if I looked for a really nice pen?! >.<
But... does anyone have any suggestions for a good pen that's not too expensive? I really lucked out when I bought the Waterman, but I have no idea how the three I bought today will go. ^^; I think I'm going to have to hunt down some info on proper care for pens, just in case. I don't want to accidentally kill my other pens. >.<;
Do you have a preferred nib size? For the past few years, my default fountain pen has been a slightly older model of what's now called the Namiki Vanishing Point; I bought one when they were first being sold in the US under the "Pilot" brandname instead. The nib peeks in and out with a push of the button on the back, just like a ballpoint; the fine-point nib is *very* fine, and a cartridge converter is available for it. A lot of prestige pens are big monstrous things that I actually have trouble wrapping my fingers around to write with, but this one is very nicely sized.
I'm still carrying around my previous favorite pen, a fine-nib Sheaffer Targa, but I gradually lost my writing calluses, and the last time I used it for a really extended period I ended up with blisters from the little ledge where the barrel meets the cap :b
And I wish there was a fine-point model of the Lyra Calypso; it's a cute rollerball that can use fountain-pen cartridges, or the proper size of cartridge converter for bottled ink. Only available in medium point, though, and the liquid ink does tend to wick outward and broaden the lines even more.