My Collection of Pens - Part Two of a Trilogy of Two

Second and last part of my Pen Collection.
Click here for the first part.

A relatively new type of personalised pens, used often as merchandise. The one at the bottom, I got myself (I nicked it) in Graz last year when visiting this amazing Austrian city for a HIVE meetup. I never posted about it. If I had done so, an image of this pen would've been on our blockchain already. The other two have inscriptions as well. One with my company name on it, received from I don't know which company anymore, but one that wanted to sell me more of these. The other one with the company name on it is of a good friend.

One of those merchandise pens I got at a tradeshow. Don't remember when and where exactly, but it must have been a trade show. The name, Epox, doesn't ring a bell, but I suspect it's some company in the telecom segment. The website doesn't seem to be active anymore. In fact, the domain name doesn't resolve, leaving a blank page when trying to access it.

The cool thing is the little chain with the white circle 'button'. It is a magnet. It sticks to the metal part of the pen, but also to anything else that is of metal and interacts with a magnet. Super Cool! This pen I am going to try to use again, that is for sure!

Although I rarely used these pens, I LOVE them. Simply because the one on top is wooden, and the one at the bottom is cardboard and recycled plastic. Both merchandise. The top one from a training agency. The bottom one is from one of our 100% green energy service providers. In the past, I had a contract with them. By now, I have switched to a 100% green energy provider charging me per hourly rate instead of monthly or annual rates.

I have never been to casinos that often. I think I can count this on two hands. But for some reason, I ended up having two pens with a casino logo and name on them. One from the UK, and one from Romania, Bucharest. Must have gotten them while travelling for business. But must admit, I have zero recollection. Perhaps I lost too much money? Who knows 😆

Pens from what we call "Hyperscalers". Those public IT clouds being under dispute since Mister Trump is able to control operations for specific customers and users. Regardless of the situation, we have quite a few customers for whom we run their applications in one of these public clouds. More in Azure/Microsoft than in AWS. Europe likes Microsoft for some reason. Although I am not an engineer, someone who rolls out and configures solutions in these clouds, I do know Azure is easier to configure than AWS. However, AWS seems to have more flexible solution elements and building blocks. But that is beside the point.

In terms of pens, it is AWS that has more than a pen to give away. The top one is a kinda touchscreen pen. I never tried it, perhaps I should. But it doesn't have an ink cartridge or an ink tip. Also, no laser as a tip. Therefor it must be to operate touchscreens.

This is again a pen I received as merchandise. However, no band on it at all. No inscription. Am I mistaken? Is my memory serving me wrongly? What I do know is I really like the ergonomics of this pen. It is easy to operate, it feels good in the hand, and it writes nicely. It is quite heavy compared to the everyday pen. Almost like one of those more expensive fountain pens.

Again, branded pens. Well, they used to be branded with the name and logo on the plastic 'holders'. But that faded away. Not sure why. Likely not because of using the pen, since I wasn't using them a lot. Sunlight may have done the trick. The pen itself is a spring, a real one. It bends...IF the ink cartridge is not in the pen. Funny pen! For sure! However, the spring is more of a gimmick than anything else. It isn't super comfortable in the hand.

More merchandise pens. From banks. One doesn't exist anymore, the other one re-branded. Nice looking pens, being so slim and all, but terrible to operate. First. These pens are too slim. Second. The ink tip rolls itself back into the pen when applying the minimum amount of pressure needed to get ink on paper. Is this Italian design? The looks: Great! The usability: Terrible!

Not long after I finished Uni, I was called in by the army. Back then, we still had this mandatory draft. It was in its final days, but I didn't want to forge some kind of mental illness or hire a lawyer. Not as the first option.

I managed to get a research job at one of our renowned research institutes. They had a spot for drafted people through the Air Force. My job was to convince the army to let me be drafted by the Air Force. First, I thought, I shall pick up the 2nd or 3rd option, the mental illness or the lawyer. But to my surprise, a phone call and a letter was suffcient to arrange it all. At the research lab, more researchers around in the same boat. Ie Uni educated, drafted, with a job as a researcher. Twelve months.

All of us were given the time to form a kinda 'student' body. Organising nice outings for ourselves. Like beer breweries. Like shooting lessons and practice ranges. Like night outings resulting in hangover days, in which we couldn't research much, at least not efficiently. Great times.

At the end, when our draft was done and over with, when we were promoted to whatever it was (2nd lieutenant as far as I remember) we received this Parker pen with the inscription 'Dat Hij Leve', which in English is something like 'That He May Live'.

I thought, again, a merchandise pen. But no signs at all of a brand or logo. Nothing. Nada. Not outside. Not inside the pen. Wooden, for sure. Or perhaps fake wood? I don't know. But I do like this one. Can't remember ever using it, but nice nonetheless. Not so fond of the gold, though, but then again, I shall not be so picky.

One of the most useless pens to write with is this antenna. Before we had laserpointers. Before we had digital PowerPoint slides. Before all that, we had this one. The nerds amongst the nerds had one. So did I. Whenever a presentation had to be given, I used this one to point to the slides. Those written by hand, on one of those plastic, see-through 'slides' which we put onto a slide viewer/projector. Sometimes I was a bit too nervous for a presentation, keeping this pointer in my pocket.

First thoughts that crossed my mind when seeing these pens again, and holding them in my fingers and hands: Beauty pens! Torpedo's!

Then I thought: What the Hell is Lucia? Google-ed and Gemini-ed it, but no conclusive answer.

Gemini in the normal Google search screen made me jump so hard I almost made a big ass hole in my ceiling! After I uploaded the still image to image search, it came back with: "likely a Fisher Space pen with lifetime ink, writing under pressure as well as in zero gravity, titanium construction and whatnot!" The F*CK?! Where did I get this one?! Two of them even?! They must be worth GOLD, well, at least SILVER?

Then I was put on planet Earth with my two feet again! Just by clicking the 'Deep Research' button in Google/Gemini. That one gave me: "Likely promotional items 'Lucia recycled plastic ballpoint pens.'"

Bummer. Real bummer! Orrr shall I try to dive 10 meters deep into the water and test the pen? Maybe it is what was promised to me first: A real Fisher pen! Two even!

A screenshot from the standard Google/Gemini response 🥳

The Deep Research response from Gemini 😔

Another flagship pen! Am pretty proud of this one. Not used often, but I like, I LIKE! Wow, I LIKE! I think I got a hold of this pen the first time I ever met HIVEans in real life. This was a few years ago, during a Buzzparty event in Krakow. In my first so many years at HIVE and its predecessor, I never went to any of the community IRL events. Not even when they were held close, very close to where I live. Not always in my control to not show up, like the first HIVEfest held in Amsterdam, when I already booked a vacation somewhere outside this country with the absolute lowest lands possible, where dykes need to protect us from wet feet, where we try and house almost 20M people on a piece of land which becomes darn small. The country is becoming more of a city-state than anything else. But WOW, a HIVE pen in my possession! One that I can use to write on traditional paper. A piece that couldn't be missed in this collector's post. A flagship, 100%! Oops, repeating myself.

One of the most useless pens I own is this one. A keychain. But even as a keychain, it is quite ridiculous. It can hold a few keys only, and it is quite difficult to get a larger key ringed into the ring. Nonetheless, a pen++. I remember I took this one a few times with me to some multi day festival. Added a key or two to the camper van. I tried writing with it on at least one occasion, but I wasn't very successful. Very difficult to handle this small of the smallest pens I have. And the ink, well, the ink was asleep as far as I remember. A tiny bit I was able to release, but I couldn't get anything readable on paper. Or was it my state of being perhaps? Could be 😆

I know I know I know. Again, pencils, while the collector's task was about pens. That said, I already left out my markers. And I had to record my memories around my refillable pencils. Therefore, I also have to include all the normal pencils, those with black/grey charcoal tips. As you see, some of them I used quite a bit, while others are more or less untouched. As for pens, I rarely use pencils. But that is beside the point.

And yet another pencil. A big ass one this time. One I can't sharpen up with a sharpener, due to its form and size. One that is used by professional handymen, construction builders and whatnot. Because of that, I have to own one. Uhm. Perhaps I also have to own one since I try to maintain my equipment at home, myself.

For instance...

Recently, my clothing washing machine and dryer needed a swap. The old ones with something like 40 years of operations on the clock degraded such that it didn't make any sense to try to let it be repaired. So I bought new ones. While swapping the old machines for the new ones, I discovered an old leak in one of my drain pipes. The one that is connected to my central heating and warm water installation and routed directly behind the washing machine and dryer. One thing led to another, and I saw myself replacing the whole drain pipe. For this, I needed marks. To mark whatever. So glad I had this pencil in the house with a mighty soft charcoal tip, so it easily sets marks on whatever soft or hard material I needed to mark. All the other pencils will not do the job, but this big ass one does what it needs to do. Without complaining. Without giving up. With much pleasure. Thank you, Mister Construction Pen!

Not sure why I put this one in. Nothing to do with a pen, or pencil for that matter. Nothing, you may ask? You are right, it has something to do with pens and pencils. Those that are refillable. A little bag of all sorts of refills. Didn't test them, none of them. Could very well be that all the refills are dried up too much for it to operate. We'll see over time when I am going to test all the pens I presented to you in this and the other post.

the END - almost!

After the photoshoot, most of the pens ended up in the bucket; most of them were sitting in it before. I left out the markers. Many of the Bics and Pilot fineliners ended up in some garbage processing factory. I was able to give all the remaining pens room, much room. Now they are able to breathe and relax without feeling cramped up.

BONUS

In a somewhat wrinkled coffee cup, those Bics and Pilot fineliners that made it without being binned, found a new spot to chill. One in which they will be used. All of them already tested. Somehow, they were not completely dead. But more about these in another post. As I wrote before, the hint: Handwriting Community here on HIVE.

=== END of Part Two of a Trilogy of Two ===
click here for the first part of my pen collection

^{an original}