Why did you take a photo of that?
Given the fact that most of my posts this weeks have covered some pretty heavy subject matter, I thought I would lighten things up a bit today and follow the prompt by @mipiano for the Hive Collectors Community.
This is one of those posts where I take a bunch of photos and then at some point in the future @mrsbozz is going through our shared album and she says "why did you take a picture of that". She has actually gotten better, knowing the answer will most likely be "it's for a post", but every now and then she falls back into old habits and has to question me.
It's okay though, it keeps me on my toes.
So the topic of this prompt is "ball point pens". I actually have far fewer than I used to. While I wouldn't consider myself a pack rat, I do tend to hold onto some things far longer than I should. Thankfully (sometimes), my wife admires the simplify lifestyle which requires me to part ways with a lot of this junk from time to time.
It makes me think of this meme:
In any event, we must have recently done a purge, because it turns out I have far less ball point pens than I used to.
As you can see, my current stash of pens at work are housed in an old DVD+RW bin that was floating around my office. We do have some pens in an old crock at home, but as I was going through it, it was mostly screwdrivers and not so many pens.
Pardon the mess, but I also have this cool pen caddy that @iikrypticsii 3D printed for me a year or so ago. It actually has a lot more cool pens that I had totally forgotten about.
For the most part, the majority of my pens are your typical stock models that companies have produced en masse to give away at trade shows. In my case that would include a ton of Education Technology and Information Technology companies. I even have a nice VMWare pen from before they got bought by Broadcom (or whoever it was) and went to crap.
One of my favorite pens is this fancy one I got from Radio Shack when I worked there. It's all metal and actually a really nice pen. While not an official Cross, it has the same feel. Sadly, the logo on the top has become yellowed over time. It used to be a solid white behind the Red "R". I used to have a similar pen that instead of the Radio Shack logo on the end it had an LED flashlight, but I must have lost it.
I picked this pen up a while ago at a trade show from a vendor I can't recall now. It's pretty cool because it has an LED in the clear end to light it up. I've had pens in the past where it cycles through colors, but in this case it is just blue. Depending on how many times you press the button it either flashes, pulses, or stays solid.
My mother in law got this pen for me for Christmas a few years ago. In fact, all the men got one for Christmas that year. As you can see, not only is it a pen, but it is also a ruler, a level, a stylus, and it has a screwdriver in the end that you can flip the bit around to either be a phillips head or a standard head.
I actually use this pen quite a bit because it writes really well and it came with a couple replacement cartridges.
This one isn't a pen per se, but I found it in my pen bin along with the others. As you can see, it is simply a flashlight that looks like a pen. You press the tip to turn it on and then press it again to turn it off. On the other end is a stylus. They also included a little yellow thing to keep it from accidentally turning on and draining the battery.
Finally, I am not really sure where it came from, but I have this cool Darth Vader pen that I picked up somewhere. I have a feeling it was a gift from someone, but I can't quite remember. It doesn't do anything special like the other ones besides having the little Vader figurine on the top of it. I apologize for not getting a closer shot, but I think we all know what Darth Vader looks like.
So there you have it. That is a glimpse of my pen collection.
Thanks for humoring me after a pretty serious week so far!
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WOW! You have a really useful 3D printed object!
More than a decade ago, I spend quite a bit of time discovering the 3D printing market and all possibilities. Also experimented a bit with object design and printing by factories such as Shapeways and iMaterialise.
That is a nice pen! Interestingly, it was given as merchandise by some company without branding it. A lost opportunity for them, or maybe the symbol in the LED section tells something about them?
Love it! So much tools in the pen. The top tip screw driver I love the most. Is it useful? Strong enough to use? Somehow this pen reminds me of a similar one (less tools though). Not sure if I had someone in my classroom at Uni back in the days who had one like that, or I used to have one. Just looked around a little in my pen container, but wasn't able to find.
Very useful. Those who go around wearing a suit, easy to carry in either the inside pocket - or when one likes to show the world, in the left breast outside pocket - and have at hand whenever one needs light.
A nice touch for those who love SyFy! I know when I would've this one in my collection I could've made a good friend very very happy. Am sure you will hang on it and protect it with your life since this one may have value! Or will get more valuable over time.
Yeah, 3D printing has really come a long way. I like that there are more useful things now instead of just novelty items. I'm actually looking into getting my own printer at some point. The LED one is my favorite as well and yes the screwdriver works quite decent in the tool pen.
SLS printing seems to be something that is becoming kinda affordable at home.
Read somewhere a few k$??
No idea about operating costs.
I was a bit detached from the 3D market segment for many years, but got a spark of interest again last weekend when I went to see the works by fashion designer Iris van Herpen. She uses quite a bit of 3D printing techniques in her creations. Actually, that was the reason for me to go and see her collection š
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That yellow one is a very good idea, I've never seen them before, but by the sounds of it they seem to be popular Christmas presents on both sides of the pond
If that LED light would change colours, I'd definitely keep on writing all the time!!
I've never seen them before either, so it is interesting that so many people have come across them.
I do believe you that you had many more in the past... I still have ticks in my head remembering my father asking for a "WORKING" pen in the house... š We had like 40-50 pens, and maybe 1-2 were operational, but you couldn't know which one until you tried all... lol...
Maybe you don't have a huge collection, but you have some really cool pieces there... MiPiano had a wrong guess about my favorite one... hehehehe... I do like the yellow one, which is a multi-use pen, I still like the blue LED-glowing more... It looks so cool! š
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I think the LED one is my favorite too, but it doesn't write quite as nicely as some of the other ones. Writing with each of them to see if they still even worked was part of the process when my wife had me throw some of them out.
Yay, so your collection of pens arrived!! š¤©
My nieces (when we visit our families every summer) used to ask me why I take a photo of this or that hahaha š
I think just Hivers can understand this, although I see your wife is also on Hive.
šš
Wow, the one with the led light is so cool and of course the Radio Shack is very pretty, it would be my favourite too. However, I am sure that the yellow one with the ruler, level, screwdriver would be the favourite of @ph1102 š
Thank you very much for your contribution to this monthly theme! š
I created an account for my wife, but she doesn't really use it. She used to do Actifit posts back in the day, but she got tired of it. When I was a kid, they used to sell these souvenir pens that had a boat or car in them and when you tipped it from side to side you could see the thing inside move back and forth. I wish I still had one of those to share here.
Oh, I remember those!! Someone from the family had such pen, it was some kind of liquid inside and then the boat or other item inside would move as you flip the pen, right?
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You got me checking my pen pot.
I also have one of those ruler/spirit level pens that everyone got one Christmas. Also got a sonic screwdriver (of course), a tyre pressure gauge, another multi-tool and a vintage pocket microscope.
Those are awesome. I have one of those multi-tools as well. Just picked it up this past October at my conference.
However, I am not someone who carries such things around in his top pocket all the time 'just in case'.
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I have pens galore like that too and need to get rid of them. i do miss Radio Shack. They always had components I needed and didn't have to wait for in the mail.
I miss Radio Shack too though I don't really miss working there. I have a feeling a lot of these pens are probably all dried out since I just don't use them anymore these days!
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OMG, I love the one with LED!!
I know right!?
Lots of interesting pens. I think I had that LED one at some point, or one very similar!
Hmm.. I have no ballpoints anymore. I think I'm going to to write out a fountain pen post instead.
I used to have a lot more of the LED ones, but I think after time the batteries either died or started to leak. It's almost not worth replacing them as most of them take like 3 of the button cell batteries like they use in hearing aids.