I think I need an inter”pen”tion

I bought a Lamy Al-Star a few weeks ago.  That fed the urge to order two more – but with different nibs:  a medium nib and a 1.1 mm nib.  I had hoped they would come this week, but perhaps not.

But I digress.  I was reading Crazy Life of J’s post here about FriXions vs. Hi-Tecpoints.  I’d always liked the Hi-Tecpoints and knew I had a couple here.  Hmm.  I dug through my pen cups/cases:

is there a name for this affliction?

I quite like them all,  each nib “point” depending on what sort of paper I’m writing on.  This is on Staples laser paper, 24 lb, 98 brightness:

yeah, I also found four Pilot “fountain” pens, two Varsity and two V-Pens

I’d been thinking a lot more about the non-archival quality of the FriXions.  I do keep my diary/planner pages for posterity’s sake and I wouldn’t want to end up with blank pages.  Plus I’d been using the pens for my work notes.  I keep my rough notes on the files and some of these files will be two years before they’re complete.  I don’t really want to chance having some crucial notation or proof of action to be obscured or lost.  Gonna miss that erasability, though!  So I will use the FriXions for grocery lists, etc. – things of a temporary nature.

Interestingly, these pens are marketed as “precise point” in the US, not Hi-Tecpoint as they are in Canada.  And wow, they have a lot of pretty colours that I haven’t seen in my Staples!  I am not having issues with show/bleed through on the Filofax cotton cream diary pages, and the little bit on the other Filo pages will be ameliorated by the fact that the ink is permanent.

ETA – I meant to put a link to Kate’s excellent post and review about the Pilot V5s.

(one of) my other stationery vice(s)

I use Post-its on my files to track progress.  Instead of having to dig out a 12-14″ deep file, I can look at the sticky on top and see what information I’m waiting for or what my next action is.  It’s all documented inside the file via my notes, but this is a quick visual cue for me.  When I was in Staples (twice so far this week!) I picked up those big ones at the top of the photo – they call them “meeting notes“.  They are 8 x 6″ and lined.  Nice!  I’ve needed them this week as I have had some complicated files on my plate.