Ok, I know it has been some time since I posted a pencil review. I have a couple nearly ready to go but remember I got to use them to review them and this has been a light writing couple of months with my job changing.
Great new tool I found online called Urtak. Have fun answering the questions about pencil obsessions, or add your own pencil obsession question.
You will find the urtak on the right hand side of the blog.
An independent guy who loves pencils, writing about them, reviewing them, promoting the use of them, sharpening them... He loves the smell of them, the feel of sharpening and using a vintage pencil... You get the idea.
Showing posts with label Pencil Insanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pencil Insanity. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
“The yellow pencil basically became a Chinese commodity,”
This is a quote by "Jim Weissenborn the CEO and owner of General Pencil company in an article posted on Bloomberg this week. I am sitting here with a box of made in the USA General's SEMI-HEX Pencils sitting in front of me on the desk and I am wondering if these gems will go the way of the Ticonderoga?
If that is the future of the SEMI-HEX pencil I may need to stock up on a rather large supply of them before this happens. After all, if nothing else I'd like my grandkids to know the pleasure of a quality Made in USA classic. What do you think? Should I buy a few gross of them and set them aside? You can still get Made in USA pencils from a couple of other companies out there.
If that is the future of the SEMI-HEX pencil I may need to stock up on a rather large supply of them before this happens. After all, if nothing else I'd like my grandkids to know the pleasure of a quality Made in USA classic. What do you think? Should I buy a few gross of them and set them aside? You can still get Made in USA pencils from a couple of other companies out there.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Whatever happened to innocence? I had a Herbie Pencil when I was a kid...
I just got done reading an article posted on the Guardian newspaper's website. The writer asks this:
How do we get from pencils that have a little white VW with a personality of its own emblazoned on them to pencils with the logo of a grown-up company on them? Hugh Hefner is not one of the icons that come to mind when I think of Pencils.
Will anyone look back on a Playboy pencil and think fondly, "That is what got me into my sex career"? I don't think so. Pencil advertising has always been about giving the customer something that would remind them that your company appreciated their business and you hoped they would come back. Let's keep kids pencils safe for kids.
My Herbie Pencil was about reminding me about Herbie's adventures and setting my imagination free to daydream and even to draw a picture of the Volkswagen Beetle I hoped I would someday own.
Just a thought.
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| Photo Courtesy of guardian.co.uk |
"What goes through the mind of an 11-year-old girl as she picks a Playboy bunny-emblazoned pencil case from the shop display? I want to be a lap dancer when I grow up? I can't believe I've been co-opted into the mainstreaming of soft porn?"That got me thinking... part of what I like about pencils is the idea that a pencil is pure, untainted and innocent. My love for pencils started when I was young. My favorite pencil when I was a kid was a Love Bug pencil. My first grade teacher (I love you Miss Halbmeier) gave it to me and I loved it so much. I used to daydream about driving Herbie around my desk (during class). That year "Herbie Goes Bananas" came out and I can remember watching it with my parents and whiny little brothers at the drive in theater. The only thing that could have made that memory any cooler would be if my parents had owned a Bug.
How do we get from pencils that have a little white VW with a personality of its own emblazoned on them to pencils with the logo of a grown-up company on them? Hugh Hefner is not one of the icons that come to mind when I think of Pencils.
Will anyone look back on a Playboy pencil and think fondly, "That is what got me into my sex career"? I don't think so. Pencil advertising has always been about giving the customer something that would remind them that your company appreciated their business and you hoped they would come back. Let's keep kids pencils safe for kids.
My Herbie Pencil was about reminding me about Herbie's adventures and setting my imagination free to daydream and even to draw a picture of the Volkswagen Beetle I hoped I would someday own.
Just a thought.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Am I insane?
So I recently did a review of the Palomino Blackwing and I must say this is definitely the week for Blackwing fever. Tonight at midnight (Pacific Time?) the new ones go on sale but only for the subscribers of the Pencils.com newsletter. Everybody else has to wait until the 9th. Just to let you know I will not be staying up that late. You may need to have this information as you evaluate my sanity later on in this post.
Somebody at work caught a glimpse of my Palomino BW today at work and they reacted with a, "you need help" look and said something that was even harsher. Let me show you my pencil.
I'd rather not waste the buttery goodness this pencil has provided so I took the famous ferrule off the thing and put it in a pencil extender. The end result was something like this.
It is definitely a bit of a bummer to not have the ferrule and eraser on there but the thing still writes beautifully.
So tell me, am I insane?
Somebody at work caught a glimpse of my Palomino BW today at work and they reacted with a, "you need help" look and said something that was even harsher. Let me show you my pencil.
I'd rather not waste the buttery goodness this pencil has provided so I took the famous ferrule off the thing and put it in a pencil extender. The end result was something like this.
So tell me, am I insane?
Just tell me in the comments area.
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