Inky T O D - Are You An Office Supply Junkie?

[HalloweenHJB]

Amberlea, I do believe you've been spying on me! Why yes, I have an obsessive love of all things office/desk related: paper/stationery, sticky notes, crazy colorful clips, titillating tape dispensers, the peculiar paper weight, wonderful inkwells, etc.

 

You caught me.

[thudthwacker]

(When I was in college, I was one of the Computer Science majors that the engineering students used to sneer at. I think they were mostly equipped with Ti graphing calculators, though I thought they were all RPN fiends, so maybe I'm misremembering.)

 

I used to love Back To School when I was a kid. New notebooks, binders, loose-leaf paper, backpack, pencil case, box of Crayola crayons, pack of pens, pack of pencils. These days, I definitely wander the Staples aisles where they keep the notepads, notebooks, and similar. Though, honestly, most of my aisle-wandering is done online -- Staples doesn't generally have a lot worth looking at. JetPens, now -- there's a place to wander aimlessly among the notebooks, notepads, and mini-staplers.

[amberleadavis]

Amberlea, I do believe you've been spying on me! Why yes, I have an obsessive love of all things office/desk related: paper/stationery, sticky notes, crazy colorful clips, titillating tape dispensers, the peculiar paper weight, wonderful inkwells, etc.

 

You caught me.

I wasn't spying on you... I was the one standing next to you buying the same stuff.

[amberleadavis]

(When I was in college, I was one of the Computer Science majors that the engineering students used to sneer at. I think they were mostly equipped with Ti graphing calculators, though I thought they were all RPN fiends, so maybe I'm misremembering.)

 

I used to love Back To School when I was a kid. New notebooks, binders, loose-leaf paper, backpack, pencil case, box of Crayola crayons, pack of pens, pack of pencils. These days, I definitely wander the Staples aisles where they keep the notepads, notebooks, and similar. Though, honestly, most of my aisle-wandering is done online -- Staples doesn't generally have a lot worth looking at. JetPens, now -- there's a place to wander aimlessly among the notebooks, notepads, and mini-staplers.

 

If they had a B&M...

 

even worse ... Goulet's B&M.... I'd be doomed.

[HalloweenHJB]

I wasn't spying on you... I was the one standing next to you buying the same stuff.

 

Indeed you were! By the way I have a tape dispenser that you may find intriguing. Or tacky. I'll have to send it to you for your reaction...

 

[FYI: Tried to PM you, but got an error message; your mailbox must be full or over quota. ]

Edited October 28, 2015 by HalloweenHJB

[ac12]

As a tangent to office supplies...drafting supplies.

 

I'm getting back into drafting, the old fashioned way; drafting board, T-square, triangles, architects scale, 2mm lead holder, electric eraser, etc.

Too bad I don't have space to set up a drafting table with a drafting machine...ooooo fun.

When I was a student, we could not afford the 2mm lead holders, that was what the rich kids had. We used the cheaper wood pencils. Now I have more lead holders and lead than I can use. I got a couple of good eBay lots.

 

There are things that are easier to do with paper and pencil than a CAD program.

Edited October 28, 2015 by ac12

[amberleadavis]

 

Indeed you were! By the way I have a tape dispenser that you may find intriguing. Or tacky. I'll have to send it to you for your reaction...

 

[FYI: Tried to PM you, but got an error message; your mailbox must be full or over quota. ]

 

I'll be fixing it... my gmail account is full too.

[dcwaites]

As a tangent to office supplies...drafting supplies.

 

I'm getting back into drafting, the old fashioned way; drafting board, T-square, triangles, architects scale, 2mm lead holder, electric eraser, etc.

Too bad I don't have space to set up a drafting table with a drafting machine...ooooo fun.

When I was a student, we could not afford the 2mm lead holders, that was what the rich kids had. We used the cheaper wood pencils. Now I have more lead holders and lead than I can use. I got a couple of good eBay lots.

 

There are things that are easier to do with paper and pencil than a CAD program.

 

I agree, in Port Moresby there was the Theodist shop. It supplied me with all my slide rules, HP Programmable calculators and A3 drafting board. I used the last, with a photograph, to re-design a missing rudder from a catamaran the Marine Station had bought.

[jmccarty3]

This seems an opportune place to ask the artists and designers here: what sort of removable tape do you use to secure paper to your writing surface? I like to use a plastic shield between my hand and the paper, but it moves the paper around too much, especially if I have a lined guide under it.

[amberleadavis]

I have a newspaper pad under my writing sheet.

[musicman123]

I was an avid mechanical pencil addict because in elementary school! I fondly remember my Dr. Grip's and Uniball Alpha-Gels back in those days. After a while, I moved on to gel pens, because pencil writes too lightly for my tastes. I stuck with the Uniball Signo and Pilot G2 series for most of the time, occasionally switching to a glittery one, because why not? Now, I'm onto fountain pens!

 

As a self-proclaimed calculator whiz, what's so wrong with TI calculators? I have an 89 that I love to death (got me through beginning calculus). I find the notation to be pretty standard without lots of frills. The ability to program in TI-BASIC is also nice, as I have some knowledge of regular BASIC. I used to have a fairly old HP calculator too, but it never got much use. Just couldn't really figure it out.

[Luma]

This seems an opportune place to ask the artists and designers here: what sort of removable tape do you use to secure paper to your writing surface? I like to use a plastic shield between my hand and the paper, but it moves the paper around too much, especially if I have a lined guide under it.

This:

 

But masking tape works fine as well. Another idea is to wear a glove and cut all the fingertips except the pinky.

[ac12]

 

This seems an opportune place to ask the artists and designers here: what sort of removable tape do you use to secure paper to your writing surface? I like to use a plastic shield between my hand and the paper, but it moves the paper around too much, especially if I have a lined guide under it.

 

 

There is/was something called drafting tape. Drafting tape is a low tack masking tape, so that it won't tear the paper when you take it off.

In high school, we just used masking tape, then CAREFULLY removed it.

 

At home for writing, I use a page protector with my guide sheet inside. Then I use a couple small pieces of blue painters tape to hold my writing sheet onto the page protector. Then I put that onto my light pad, so that I can see the guide sheet easily.

[jmccarty3]

Thanks, will try.

[mehandiratta]

ve become addict to inks and paper lately....

[HalloweenHJB]

ve become addict to inks and paper lately....

 

Come over to the dark side!

[mehandiratta]

 

Come over to the dark side!

Earlier if was just fountain pens... Now its inks and paper too

[VivienR]

I'm in a pretty good way to bee comparing myself for other FPN-ers, but according to my close friends, I'm an addict...

[Runnin_Ute]

That's me.

 

I love RPN calculators. I also have trouble with algebraic calculators for + and -, I'm too used to the adding machine logic, which is similar to RPN.

I remember working at a company where the president (a former accounting controller) was "offended" when one of the accountants mentioned "Reverse Polish Notation." Sheesh where was he when HP was producing their financial calculators. He must have been a TI calculator user.

Also a RPN fan - bought a HP12C in college for a Finance class (Accounting major) and except for a few months when I was "between" 12C's (first one stolen) I had a 10B - which was also stolen. I still use one today.

 

I have a TI 10 key - but I never use it. Prefer Sharp 10 keys, but since I don't use the one I have, it makes it hard to justify....

 

I have stuff all over the house. For years I used yellow Prismacolor pencils for underlining. I have a box of Staedtler colored pencils, 2 different Staedtler Mars 700 technical pens (3x0; 4x0) plus of course, pens inks, papers etc....

[drv1913]

This seems an opportune place to ask the artists and designers here: what sort of removable tape do you use to secure paper to your writing surface? I like to use a plastic shield between my hand and the paper, but it moves the paper around too much, especially if I have a lined guide under it.

Blue painters tape. It also works well for attaching flip chart paper to walls in hotel conference rooms when you are not supposed to. Masking tape works well, too, you just have to be more careful about removing it.

 

As for office supplies, I have always been a junkie. Buying new stuff was always the best part about going to school, and no one ever objected to whatever I claimed to need - sparkly notebooks, colored leads for my mechanical pencils, pens, pens, and more pens - because it was for my education - bwahahaha! The obsession continued through college, where I used to turn in math tests written in brightly colored marker (and aced them) and followed me through various jobs, where I always carried my own, superior-quality office supplies to and from work every day (I stopped leaving stuff at work after someone once went through the pencil cup on my desk and stole every single one of my gel pens). Whenever I had to put together reports or presentations, everything was coordinated and carefully chosen, from the paper to the colored staples or binder clips. And, of course, all of my writing is done with a fountain pen in purple ink - instantly recognizable.

 

I can never leave an office supply, stationery, art supply, or book store without buying something.