An easy change for the sake of the environment...

Buy a nice fountain pen.

That's it.

Well and an ink converter to go with it.

Here's why.


If you buy a good fountain pen, it will be the last pen you will ever need to buy.(With care and cleaning) Also if you buy a converter to go with it, you will be able to refill the ink anytime that you need some.

Rene and I were talking about this yesterday(mostly because I bough a new fountain pen yesterday, I'll explain why in a minute) and we figured most people go though a pack of 10 ballpoint pens in a matter of months, because of how cheap and disposable they are. "Forgot your pen today? Here you can borrow mine" and then later they usually end up keeping or or you give it to them. Cause why not? They're cheap right? They are also easy to misplace because they are so unimportant. I've seen people use up more than 10 ballpoint pens in less than a month. Honestly that is a lot of plastic. It's kinda stupid.

Therefore... 1 fountain pen that you like and are willing to take care of, with a converter can last you a looooong time. the only thing you will need to buy is a bottle of ink, and depending on how much you write, could last you... like forever... But seriously, most bottles of ink are sold in 50 ml bottles. I have 5ml cartridges right now(They were a gift given to me 5 or so years ago I'm still going through them) I figure that a 50 ml bottles would last me 25 days of writing 7 or 8 FULL pages of notes. So really about 200 full pages of writing. Big pages. That's a lot of writing. The ink writes smoother, and it smudges less(If you let it dry that is)(Ball point pens are still "tacky" for quite a while after use. Also, you are going to go out of your way to NOT loose or lend out this pen without getting it back, since you payed so much money for it.

And it automatically makes your writing look nicer. Once your pen get's used to your writing(That's what my friend who I got my last pen from told me)

Anyway, the story behind my pen.

It was a gift from a friend. When I lived in Japan half way through my school year a guy from France, Pierre, came to our school. He always used to write with fountain pens. I was SO intrigued. It was SO cool. I'd never really written with a fountain pen before(Except in heritage towns around my hometown, and then it was just a few scribbles anyways). So he let me write with it one time. I was beside myself. The pen just flowed so smoothly, my writing was a little bit wonky, but that happens when you write with a VERY different pen.

Pierre though it was funny that I was so intrigued by his pen, so when it was time for me to go home, he gave me his pen that he used for blue(He had one for every color) and all of his blue ink cartridges and told me to take good care of "him" I've written with that pen every chance I get since I got it. But to be honest. I haven't really written a whole lot not being in school or having a job where I need to write stuff. So when I started school last week, I was excited to be using my pen on a daily basis again(I really do love that pen). But being that it was an old pen, and Pierre was a pen chewer(EW) that pen has really seen better days. It leaks ink at the tip sometimes(Not on my writing, just onto my fingers) the end is missing, and the lid was cracked and missing a small piece. Then last week. I made the mistake of leaving my pen in a very precocious spot in the bakery and of course it fell on the floor, and, another piece of the lid broke off. So now the tip dries out and I have to shake the pen LOTS to get it to work.

But as luck would have it, when Rene and I were downtown so I could get a few of the kitchen supplies I needed for school, we walked past a pen shop advertising that they sold fountain pens on their sandwich board. I didn't even have to ask Rene he went and opened the door for me. They had fountain pens ranging $25 to $500. I found a beautiful red pelikan fountain pen. I used it all day at school today, and to rewrite a bunch of my notes tonight, ALSO to write a letter to a friend last night.

Wonderful.

Oh and for those of you who are worried about not being able to erase: there is a solution for that.

Fountain pens... are just... the bomb

Get one. It's worth it.