The Montblanc Ballpix – at the centre of all of this searching
I pay attention — honestly, I do. I even take notes, whether at the time or soon after, yet sometimes things come to pass where the elusive (though likely straightforward) name and model of a particular pen simply escapes me. In some cases it would seem, never to return. Of course, this is unlikely to ever happen when ordering pens online or shopping in a store (receipts, order confirmations etc), but for those acquired like this, or perhaps in an antique or second hand store, you might occasionally be in the same predicament.
When recently considering options for an EDC type of pen to carry with a pocket notebook, I had a few specific requirements, as you’d expect:
reliable knock mechanism unlikely to accidentally engage
related to the above, a standard top clicking pen would be unsuitable (if not a twist, some sort of side mounted knock mechanism)
very light and on the thinner side of average
probably a ballpoint for maximum utility
Thankfully, I wasted only an hour or so trawling the internet before realising the very pen was in my drawer awaiting its next occasion of use. It was absolutely spot on in terms of that list above, and not only that, is a really enjoyable pen to use.
Of course, I thought — that’s it! I’ll use this Montblanc… err… ummm… yes, this one(!?). What is it again? It was then I realised I had no idea what it was actually called, probably to the horror of the wonderful pen-friend who kindly passed it on to me. Had I written it down? Did I ever know it? Of course I would have — though I’m not sure, and proceeded to open Safari to get to the bottom of this quandary.
It couldn’t be that hard, surely, as I began searching: ”vintage Montblanc ballpoint with click mechanism in the pocket clip” and every version of a similar term to no avail. It might have been buried in the search results somewhere, but I certainly didn’t find it. In any event, it seemed a little more difficult than it should have been.
Enter the Camera Search function in the Google App on my iPhone.
Point, shoot, search and bam! Results (see screenshots below). Nothing could be easier. I guess depending on what you are searching for, a certain amount of verification might be needed with the results. That said, I’ve not had it fail me so far on any pen, refill, or whatever stationery product you’d care to be looking up. The worlds of analogue and digital colliding with utmost harmony.
Ready… aim…
Fire…
A good bundle of accurate search results
Oh, and the pen? Yes, well, that is a Montblanc Ballpix, and the search yields a good page or more of accurate results similar to this one. As I’ve mentioned in my requirements list above, this pen is perfect for the task at hand. Slim, light weight, perfectly designed to avoid accidental engagement of the refill from the tip. Topping it off is the rather ingenious clip/knock mechanism, preventing it from being placed in a pocket or clipped anywhere without the knock being disengaged automatically — no pocket leaks here. Love it.
Perhaps given most of the search links provide seller links, someone needs to write a bit of a review just for posterity on the internet… Oh, right you are, I guess that would be me. I’ve just added it to the list.
Meanwhile, I highly recommend the camera search feature in the Google app for those times your search terms don’t quite hit the mark. Maybe even for those times when, like me, you are a bit lazy and can’t quite find the motivation to look back through notes when a pen model name escapes you.
A phone and a tech giant — handy companions to the humble pen and paper.
Gel pens! Though one could certainly make the case the Alpaka Pencil Case Pro is the real hero here
Did I ever really leave? Really? Well, no I didn’t — not quite, however the relentless march of everything pen and stationery towards fountain pens is — rightly or wrongly — hard not to fall into. We each have our path (it just seems to be the same one, and boy is it worn…). I’d simply say, progression towards a fountain pen habit doesn’t always need to be at the exclusion of all else.
One area gel pens continue to flourish is in the planner community. Those people gel pen hard — and good on them. There is much joy to be had. Speaking of planners, as I mentioned in a recent post, it was a foray into the Traveler’s Notebook and Hobonichi Weeks which triggered my own renewed vigour towards gel pens. Those Hobonichi Weeks daily entries are not overly endowed with page real estate, that’s for sure.
The pens
Having a certain fondness for the Pentel Energel over the years, you’d be right in thinking these feature fairly prominently in the current line up. Incidentally, I’ve also harboured mostly the opposite feeling towards the Jetstream line of ballpoint pens, and part of this process involved throwing out the last one remaining in my pen drawer. I don’t know, I’ve just never really liked the overall feel when I write with them.
It’s here that we should acknowledge the term ”gel pen” is quite a broad one. After all, we have the EnerGel’s “liquid gel pen”, and the pigment archival quality of Uni’s “Super Ink” being just two manufacturers’ riffs on the category. No doubt there are plenty more, however we’ll go with the origins of the family tree and stick with “gel” for simplicity.
As for tip size, well, 0.38 or 0.4 mm are a little too fine for me, and to be perfectly honest, I feel if more existed, 0.6 mm would be my goldilocks size. In the absence of a widespread, spoilt-for-choice line-up in 0.6 mm, I’ve settled on 0.5 mm as my go-to. There are of course some 0.6 mm options further afield (the Schmidt P8126 refill for example, of which I own several), however there is simply not the any-colour, any-type of pen range which exists in the other sizes.
Delineating at a glance through colour
Colour? Go wild. Anything goes really, and I’ve found within the confines of those daily entries in the Hobonichi Weeks (minimal, tight, feintly ruled lines and separators) colour is my best bet to delineate each one. As you’ll see from the associated image, it carries a certain rainbow-like joy.
Writing performance
Comfort in the hand is fairly important, and the diameter of the Energel I find to be most comfortable. To be honest, nothing I write with a gel pen typically runs longer than a couple of hundred words at a time, so I wouldn’t say there are any real limitations here.
Perhaps the Uniball Signo DX is a little thin for longer than a few bullet points, yet there are all manner of ways to obtain these in a thicker package (say the Uniball 207 or 307 series of retractables). This does bring me to one caveat of my “no real limitations” statement above.
I’ve never enjoyed using a pen where the grip section runs thicker in diameter than the rest of the barrel (or at least that portion of the barrel immediately preceding the grip) — a reverse taper, if you will. Many plastic barrel gel, ballpoint, and liquid ink pens seem to have this design. The retractable Energels and Signo DX you see in this post have successfully incorporated that rubber grip in a way that minimises any perceptible change in diameter. Enough said on that, however it is another (subtle though it is) factor in my lack of fondness for the Jetstream.
When available, my preference is probably 0.5 mm
The need for quick drying (those Energels a tad longer than the Signos mind you), fine-ish tipped, comfortable enough, colour varied pens was satisfied with the fistful I picked up from my local Officeworks. I’ll no doubt work my way back around to others I’ve had before from Zebra, Sakura, and the like.
Signing off
With things rolling (gelling?) along fairly well in the current Hobonichi Weeks / Travellers Notebook combo, I intend to continue this personal resurgence into the gel pen universe.
And I’ll say it once more. In turning my mind to these matters, I cannot help but again question the all-roads-must lead-to-fountain-pens journey of just about every blog, podcast, and social media feed across the stationery community (I’m also guilty as charged…). If we’re talking fit for purpose, in the couple of notebooks I’ve mentioned above, for me at least, fountain pens certainly won’t cut it.
Yearly planning. Goals. Themes. It’s that time of year again. A time to decide what type of system you might subscribe to, align with, or have a go at this year. At times, the superimposed complexity we add to reviewing the year’s end and planning for the next can be stifling. We force our way into a system or way of thinking we’d read or heard about, only to be left with more uncertainty rather than a clear, well-defined path. Go on, ask me how I know…
With the opportunity comes the dread.
So Far
Over that quiet, relaxing Christmas/New Year Period, I entertained the following, amongst other things:
Some of the above remain ongoing, as you might imagine, and the irony of my introductory paragraph when compared with the list above is not lost on me. That said, it wouldn’t be this time of year without such a list…
Guiding light or railroad
Of course, without some sort of intention, we are just meandering through space and time. Yet, at the same time, perhaps a simple list will do. Or maybe three?
More of this
Less of this
Try this
Wait… the year of the list perhaps?
In recent years I have tended to have a somewhat meandering January followed by some kind of realisation (epiphany?) at the start of February, and then we’re underway. In seeing the same pattern develop again this year, I will simply embrace that and begin whatever it is I settle upon in late January or when the calendar turns over to February.
The journey probably is the destination
Is a successful and robust “system” really a process, or some sort of completed state with a finite end point?
The distinction between having arrived versus being at your destination is likely important. One is simply a point in space (and perhaps time) — a finite conclusion. The other? Well, I think it infers some kind of arbitrary achievement in concluding whatever journey you were on. Perhaps there are others at the same destination; however, no-one can take that journey and arrive for you. That is for you and you alone. Here I am. I’ve done the work to get here, and my arrival marks the conclusion of that.
The problem is, maybe we never really manage to arrive at the destination we’ve set? What if the destination is sufficiently vague to the point where perhaps I arrived 2 years ago (hardly…) or I’m unknowingly powering along to somewhere I’ll never get to. Worse still, what if that destination wasn’t quite right all along, and now here we are and well… it’s a little underwhelming at best?
All that being what it is, if you never ask the question; do the work; consider your options; engage with the journey; then sure, that’s a guarantee you’ll never arrive. It only takes one thing, something, to make it all worthwhile, and you’ll often find that along the way rather than at the destination. I think it’s in accepting the journey never really ends is where the real magic lies.
Keep moving, keep evolving and learn along the way. Ask questions more about where you are now, where are you going, and embrace the journey as the destination. Going through the process is what’s likely needed to improve things. The destination being a perfect system that works all the time and never needs to change? A false god.
Tried and filed
Yes, correct. That’s filed, not failed. I’m a firm believer in that the best approach at any given time may be one you’ve used before and moved on from, only to consider returning as the situation dictates. You’ve got runs on the board. You know how it works and why it would or wouldn’t align with your current needs. Experience counts.
Maybe it’s just the thing to extricate yourself from a situation of overwhelm. Or at least inform your next steps. The airlines had it right all along: “remember, your nearest exit may be behind you…”
A perfect way to avoid yet another foray into a “new” system, which may take a good few months to really bed down.
Just a thought…
My experience has seen me in and out of a few “systems”. Twice filed Bullet Journal escapades (notwithstanding my analogue adoration, there was just too much digital in my life to make this work). A few years running the Theme System and associated journal (I was always too specific in theme and didn’t check in/reset often enough).
There are probably a few more that escape me currently, though my daily journalling habit is something which hasn’t waned over the past few years.
This Year
…to save me from tears — or at least undue stress and anxiety about what I’m going to use, things are a little less systematised, so to speak. That said, I do tend to ruminate a little through January on various topics, themes, plans, and the like (as you can see by that So Far list above).
Funny thing is, between the commencing the initial draft and completing this post (a period spanning much of January), I did manage to organise my thoughts a little better. I must thank you for allowing me to write through this out loud — always the best way to find yourself at least closer to, if not at the very foot of, a solution or answer.
I wish you well on whatever plan or system you might be embarking on this year. May it be a runaway success. If not, the tried and filed category will still serve you well for years to come.
Sure, everyone has long moved on from planner season and even the “my year in review” posts are done and dusted, though I guess you cannot say this blog has ever really been at the cutting edge of anything. So here I am talking of my initial foray into planners. Better late than never, I guess. Surely having been into stationery all your life and written this blog for over ten years now, this can’t be an initiation into the world of planners. Can it? Well, ostensibly friends, the answer is yes.
Yes, there were the yearly, very cheap appointment diaries of many years ago, and the Filofax years (loved my brown leather Timberland cover) in between, however since becoming really invested in all things pen and stationery over the past decade, I had largely been a notebook only kind of person. At least until now. Honestly, this makes me both excited and a little nervous all at the same time.
Why now?
Well, it’s not been a great year to be honest, and during the tougher times the tendency for me is to turn inwards and embrace what brings a little joy. Something to turn your mind to when it needs an outlet. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say the very topic themes on this blog (pens, coffee, stationery and the like) are generally the things that help me do that.
Viewing a few planner videos on YouTube (and wow, dangerous as that is…), I began to see a slightly different angle on things. Maybe trying to develop my creative side a little? What began attempting a few basic drawings and sketches, morphed into accumulating a few stickers and templates. I also shifted gears a little from my fountain pens back towards a case full of gel pens. Needless to say, both my favourite Brisbane pen store, Pen and Ink, and online Japanese stationery site Bunbougu facilitated this transition nicely.
How it’s going
I’d have to say I’m fairly pleased so far. Sure, I’ve ultimately realised I’m not great with the drawing, nor am I overly creative, but let’s just call it a work-in-progress. An evolution if you will. Some days I give it a run, others are just words-only as they always were, and that’s more than okay.
If you can’t sketch… then stamp. The Everyday Explorers Currently Inked stamp set
The usual crew
Planner season or not, it’s always notebook season… in some form or another. So, at the current time, things are looking like this:
Daily Journal: Black Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover in dot grid (a left over from a second failed Bullet Journal experiment earlier in the year)
Everyday Notebook: new addition outlined below
Novel Writing Notebook: Montblanc #149 lined notebook (sounds grand, though when your last story was 2014’s NaNoWriMo and this is a follow-up — it has been a long time…)
Pure Capture: a mix of 2. above and a Field Notes Pitch Black
Travel Diary: again, that’s integrated with 2. above as well…
2024 Diary/Planner: the second new addition, further details below
I guess this is where things get a little more interesting — at least in terms of the purpose of this post. In the context of some of that list (numbers 2,4 and 5) above, it perhaps comes as no surprise I have delved into the world of the Traveler’s Notebook system. Having purchased an Olive Regular size Traveler’s Notebook cover in August before a 10-day trip away, it has now also become my everyday notebook of sorts as well. I’m still tinkering with various inserts and thinking about how I might “section off” various aspects of my writing life (travel, commonplace, general note-taking, writing etc) so I’ll say the TN lifestyle is also still a work in progress.
Notebooks and coffee – that theme thread is strong… the pen is a Caran d’Ache + Nespresso 849 ballpoint pen
Things seem to be working well at the moment though, and I have embraced various pockets, clips, and other accessories in my quest for something a little different to my typical standard notebooks of the past. Inserts are your standard dot grid, blank, and grid, though I’ll be adding a lined version soon. The slimmer, taller nature of the regular inserts seems to suit me fairly well, and a 0.5mm gel pen has turned out to be the tool of choice (currently a couple of Uniball Signo DX, however there are quite a few 0.7mm Pentel Energels’ that emerged from the second drawer when this all began).
Behold the results of sending your sister and niece all over Tokyo searching for additions…
The Olive leather on the Traveler’s cover is certainly something to behold, and is already showing a little lived-in wear which looks fantastic, and will no doubt become even better with age. I do have a matching Traveler’s Company pen loop attached, which is 50:50 both useful and annoying, though I think it will stay given its utility. I of course also could not go past Mal’s perfect monogramming for that personal touch — love it.
First comes the creativity…
You can say I’m very much enjoying the change so far.
This one I’m a little less sure about. Not because I have any doubts about the planner itself, just what I’ll use it for. I have a few ideas, and they are mainly around the wellness/habit tracking type of area, and I’ve been noting down some ideas over the past month or so.
Then comes the structure…
I seem to have mostly settled on a combination of personal development/self-improvement/wellness journal/health/habit tracker. I lump them all together because I’d like it to be more than a simple tracker, yet terms like “wellness” though valid, give me Instagram snake oil/supplement seller — vibes. Whilst I realise that sweeping generalisation is unfair; I simply cannot comfortably call this anything ”wellness”, and it will be more than simply a healthy habits’ tracker.
So, in the interests of something meaningful and relevant to the task at hand, the working title which has meandered its way into my consciousness: my TG37 Journal. This is simply based upon the writing of James Clear on “tiny gains”, and the “1% better every day providing a 37-fold improvement at year end” theory. We’ll see how things go.
The tracking options are many
For my first foray into Hobonichi land, I went with a cover design by Japanese illustrator Hiroko Kubota, called Another night of falling star sparklers. I was looking for something a little unique and upon seeing a shared birth year with the cover designer, it seemed a pretty good fit.
Something a little unique for the cover design
I think the challenge here will be not overthinking things, though it has indeed been a while since I’ve entertained the structure of a dated planner in my analogue tools. Overall, I’d say I am fairly optimistic though.
Wrapping Up
It can be a little funny putting together a post like this, in that when summarised on a page, what feels like a significant change in reality, perhaps doesn’t sound as grandiose when outlined on a blog. Then again, it isn’t meant to be either. Our interests, plans, and realities take many forms, and how we document this is unique to each of us. Thankfully, we have as many options for tools as there are approaches to doing it.
I hope the finish to your 2023 is a good one, and 2024 is looking promising as well — however you intend to plan, log, track, or document your own journey.
The same morning I read Mary’s account on From the Pen Cup of reaching the milestone of seven years of Morning Pages (well-deserved applause all round), I ended my own daily journalling streak which stood at 1308 consecutive days. A tip of the hat in either direction, perhaps. Congratulations Mary, I wish you many more years, Morning Pages, and words to come.
Myself? Well, I’m guessing it will largely be the same, and while 1308 days is no seven year run, I’m fairly content with my consistency, particularly given there were a few decent consecutive-day streaks (albeit lower in number) before that. If so, why the celebratory “I missed a day” post? It certainly isn’t to decry the act of journalling, and whether it’s a page a day in the Muji A6 notebooks I’ve used these past couple of years, or the mind map I’ve just dumped into a new MindNode document for this post, both have the same effect: thoughts are out (page, screen, blog…) and better for it.
Given the subtext of this post might read: a post related to journalling but not really a post about journalling, forgive me for the confusion. What I’m railing against a little here is becoming too wrapped up in my “streak” for its own sake — or the sake of my “system”. That said, I suspect this journalling example is simply bearing the brunt of a certain level of frustration with my other systems, habits, and routines as they relate to output when sitting at my desk. As the commonly used quote attributed to Peter Drucker states” ”if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Well, to that I’d counter: “if you can measure it, you can certainly obsess over it” – attribute that one to me…
Journalling is the first thing I do every morning and something I certainly see continuing indefinitely, as I find it a great way to ease into the day. Some days I write about everything, others it’s nothing at all. There are days I’ve Googled and rewritten song lyrics for goodness’ sake, and yes, there have been some significant life events mentioned in those pages as well. As you’d expect, there are (brief) tales of challenging and emotional times, however the last sentence of every entry begins with two letters enclosed in a box: GF (grateful for…). Whatever follows in that final line or two is a simple reminder of the good. Of course, this again runs the gamut: overcoming struggles, life events, a great cappuccino, or just how good the nib is on my Pilot Custom 823. The big and the small — it’s all there.
I guess that is where I’m coming from with my thinking on this — hastily scrawling a date and “nothing to see here” (or similar) on days when I’d missed the morning routine (usually when away from home), just doesn’t feel quite right. Of course, it’s not wrong either — if it had a purpose other than to simply fill in the circle on my Streaks app.
In many ways, the streak needed to be broken simply to put my mind at ease and confirm it could be broken without the earth somehow falling off its axis. It didn’t by the way, with the new streak now sitting at 7 days. I do feel quite ridiculous in saying some sort of weight had been lifted, when after missing the morning routine that day, I made a conscious decision to leave it that way as I walked past the journal sitting on my desk that same night. Be real and end it…
I started a daily journalling habit a good few years ago because I thought I should, though I’ll keep going for any number of great reasons. I never have to decide what the first task or activity is in my day; it is a perfect chance to work through a rotation of fountain pens; it gives the coffee machine time to warm up; and I do feel as though I’ve missed something on the few occasions I haven’t done it.
Now though? Well, I’ll happily continue this helpful and calming daily ritual without the overhead of a 1300+ daily streak to maintain. It is indeed ok to “break the chain” Jerry.
So today, I am indeed grateful for: ending a streak, but continuing one of the more valuable habits I’ve managed to form.
Pete Denison 