Original Pac-Man pencil and graph paper sketches

via crunchgear.com

Posted via email from Slow Burn Productions

Pencil of the Month Club, Vol. II

Don over at Pencil Things has decided to resurrect his much beloved feature, Pencil of the Month Club!

This time around, there’s even a limited edition for special collectors:

We also may offer a Limited Edition, for $8.00/month. The Limited Editon will include a vintage pencil and/or a special pencil. American Pencil Company’s Venus Velvet is an example of a vintage pencil. Mitsubishi Pencil Company’s Hi-Uni is an example of a special pencil. I characterize a pencil as “special” if it is unavailable to individuals living outside the pencil’s country of manufacture, or it is unreasonably expensive to acquire. But PencilThings.com may purchase special pencils from foreign businesses and distribute one to each Limited Edition member — a co-op purchase, in effect.

Exciting news for pencil dorks everywhere.

If you ever doubted the power of pencils…

Learn how to turn a pencil into an emergency light source, via Lifehacker.

This looks like a great hack for roadside emergencies or amazing the kids.

Pencil pocketability

From Ask Metafilter:

Is there a Pencil equivalent to the Space Pen?

I love my Fisher Space Pen but I’m finding I need a mechanical pencil with me more and more often and I was hoping there would be a small pencil and can manage the where and tear of a pocket. Anybody have any recommendations?

The Graf von Faber-Castell Twisting Pencil looks pretty good, but there’s no way I’d put that kind of money into a pencil. The closest thing I can find is the Zebra Mini Pencil which appears to be pretty good but the body looks a little thin and maybe not the easiest to hold.

Check out the answers: Is there a Pencil equivalent to the Space Pen? Fair warning, though – if you’re a pencil geek, you’re likely to find some things you’ll want to immediately add to your wishlist.

New pencil community on Livejournal

I’ve just started a community called Pencil Crazy over on Livejournal. If there are any pencil enthusiasts or collectors that still hang out on LJ, please join and post a picture or two of your collection.

Ever since joining the American Pencil Collectors Society (thanks to Angela for that geekerific Valentine’s Day gift I’d been wanting!) I’m beginning to wonder if most pencil collectors are in the 55+ age range, since that seems to be the target audience for the APSC publication. I know there must be some young professionals out there who completely geek out over an amazing instrument like the Rotring 600 or the Ohto Super Promecha just like I do, but they’re probably all in the pencil collector closet.

No one should be ashamed – office supply fetishes are so in.

Zodiac “down to the Eagle pencils”

Zodiac author Robert Graysmith talks about the faithful (re)creation of the movie’s set, right down to his favorite brand of pencils:

“He re-created, on a block-long set, the Chronicle of 1969,” Graysmith says. “It literally took my breath away. . . . I open a drawer and it’s a phone directory for all the reporters. There’s an actual Chronicle (directory), all the extensions are correct. Nobody’s going to see in that drawer. They have Eagle pencils like I used to use, they have grease pencils, the phones worked, the pneumatic tubes worked, and across the ceiling they have this lighting pattern that was sort of unique that I had forgotten about and certainly probably doesn’t show in the film. It was exact. And I asked Brad Fischer, one of the producers, “Well, who would know, Brad?’ And he said, “David Fincher would.’ “

– Source: Asbury Park Press Online

The best mechanical pencils

There’s an excellent Ask MetaFilter question today regarding the best of the best when it comes to mechanical pencils. The dozens of answers contain some great pencil links and a whole list of new pencils to try.

I can’t be the only MeFite who with a mechanical pencil fetish, help me find the ultimate mechanical pencil.

I have just recently discovered the joy of writing with an excellent mechanical pencil. After years of your basic cheapy 10-pack affairs, I finally bought a Pentel Sharp, and it’s a wonderful thing. The thing feeds super smoothly, feels solid as a tank and fits my hand quite well.

There’s just one problem: the eraser. It has this metal sleeve that fits around the eraser. The eraser inevitably slides around inside the sleeve, which means I have to adjust it back out every time I erase something. On this latest pack of erasers, the sleeve actually fits into the barrel for some reason, which causes all kinds of problems with the eraser getting stuck inside the pen, meaning I have to get something sharp and jab it out!

So help me, hive-mind, what have been the best mechanical pencils you’ve used?

Check out all the cool answers.

Pilot Pen UK announces BegreeN product line

Any productivity pr0n lover’s favorite cheap pen is probably the Pilot G2 – maybe even a mini version for those pocket Moleskines and hPDAs. If you also care about the environment (and if you don’t, you should!) then you’ll be happy to hear that Pilot now has a line of more environmentally friendly pens called BegreeN.

Yeah, I don’t know why the N is capitalized, either.

BegreeN is a complete range of recycled products and a real innovation in the world of writing instruments. The range has been selected to match most writing needs and covers just about every category you can think of including: ballpoint, gel and rollerball pens as well as mechanical pencils, hi-lighters, markers and erasers.

Order some from the UK if you have to get yours hands on BegreeN immediately. No word on a US release.

Environmentally friendly pencil lust

While flipping through this month’s issue of body + soul magazine, I was thrilled to find an article about more eco-friendly office supplies. Though most offices now have at least a paper recycling program, there is always a lot more that can be done to make your workplace greener. Enter Tree Smart.

Tree Smart, Inc. produces newspaper pencils – extremely cool writing implements that help you save the world while you write. The pencil casings are made entirely from rolled up newspapers surrounding a #2 lead.

No mulching or mixing with toxic recycling chemicals is required. A special adhesive formula is used to bind the newsprint together into a cohesive trunk as hard as wood. They sharpen easily, just like wood.

After drying, pencils are smoothed to a consistent round barrel. Newsprint images are still visible on the pencil surface. U.S. made quality ferrules and rubber erasers are attached to the pencil ends.

Tip to top, beginning to end, pencil lead to eraser, Tree Smart, Inc. has developed a product that everyone can use and reuse and feel very good about it. Enjoy!

Visit http://www.treesmart.com to learn more about how the pencils are made, and to order some for your desk or your collectionl.

Pencils, pens, Moleskine, Backpack and Blackberry

It’s the beginning of the month, and we all know what that means – another exciting package in the mail from the good folks at Pencil Things. This month I received a California Republic Golden Bear 2B, a Mongol Trio, and a rare Faber-Castell Autograph HB, no longer in production. I must admit that I sharpened and tested the Autograph before reading the description, and I was just marveling at how inky and smooth it was when I realized I’d just sharpened away a collector’s item. Oh well! It was fun to use. I also received a special addition to my pack of pencils this month – a 5X5 orange Rhodia pad emblazoned with pencilthings.com. It was pretty cool since I’d just been considering picking up a Rhodia pad the other day. I like the pad, but I’m still a Moleskine loyalist all the way.

I was also able to make a trip down to Paradise Pen last weekend to pick up a yellow Lamy Safari rollerball, and I noticed a flyer for the Austin Fountain Pen Society. I didn’t even know such a thing existed! Apparently they coordinate meetings and other events on Fountain Pen Network. I hope to be able to make the meeting on September 10th.

In other news, Backpack has added a calendar feature, something I had almost given up hope of seeing from 37signals. Combined with notes, to do’s, images, shared writeboards, SMS reminders, and killer mobile access on my Blackberry, I can run nearly my entire life with my Blackberry + Moleskine + pen + pencil. Backpack remains the best $5 per month that I spend.