# I love pencils

> I fell in love with writing again after discovering that I much prefer pencils over pens.

> This post is the second of at least 31 daily posts as part of [WeblogPoMo2024](https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/weblog-posting-month-2024). Expect (and forgive) more words and less editing.

I have a gorgeous fountain pen: a [Pilot 'Vanishing Point'](https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Vanishing-Point-Fountain-Pen-Black-Matte-18k-Fine-Nib/pd/7246). Mine's black and has developed a Leica-like patina such that the underlying brass shows through.

I love it. And I never use it. Because I rediscovered pencils.

Pencils are easier. They're more adaptable. They smell better and I think they're prettier. They're cheaper; you can have a collection of pencils. I have at least 30, mostly sourced from the wonderful (Australian) site [Pencilly](https://pencilly.com.au).

I spent a hundred-ish dollars on my ridiculous pencil collection. About the price of one fountain pen.

Pencils are objectively better than pens. Fight me.

## A few of my favourites

Here's the daily drivers.

### Mitsubishi 9850 HB

If I could only have one, this would be it. The lead is perfect for daily writing, and it has an eraser. It's cheap and available. [It's the best all-rounder](https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2022/11/21/mitsubishi-9850-hb-pencil-review)...

### Colleen 2020 Super Drawing

...but not my favourite. That's the discontinued Colleen 2020. [This guy doesn't love it](https://timoweaver.com/guide/2022/12/12/wooden-pencil-masterlist.html#colleen-2020-super-drawing) but for me it's just a beautiful writing instrument.

These are not readily available, and they're a couple of dollars each. I have a supply that should last me a good few years, but as a result I don't use it every day.

### Blackwing Pearl

The pencil snobs just turned up their noses. Blackwing! Isn't that a little _common?_

I hate snobbery. And I love this pencil. Actually this is the reason I rediscovered pencils. Me and Lucy were on holiday in NYC, staying at the [Arlo](https://arlohotels.com/midtown/), and they had these in the cutesy little lobby shop.

I didn't buy any at the time – we travel light, and aren't souvenir collectors – but the memory stayed with me, and I ordered a set when we got home. This was the realisation: that pencils aren't dull. Every pencil isn't the cheap thing you were given at school.

Pencils can be beautiful things. Crafted. Designed.

And it turns out the [Pearl](https://blackwing602.com/products/blackwing-pearl-set-of-12) – my preferred of their standard range thanks to its slightly-harder-than-the-darker-one lead – is a terrific daily pencil.

I have them scattered all over the house. I Blu Tack them to the back of notebooks. I use them down to the nub. A+ pencil.

_(Also, snobs, I use Global knives and I love my Lodge pan. Up yours.)_

### Caran d'Ache Swiss Wood

This one's a little _fancy_ and [so is the price](https://pencilly.com.au/product/caran-dache-swiss-wood/). But they last _forever_ thanks to their you-must-be-joking-if-you-think-that's-HB-it's-more-like-2H lead.

So they're great for finer work, such as writing on tiny little Post-it notes.

Oh and they're made of Swiss beech wood and they smell amazing. Also I'm a sucker for Swiss iconography.

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# On doing-one-thing-at-a-time

The index card experiment continues and I'm loving it.

Here's today's story of not doing one thing at a time and having it bite me in the arse. There's an issue with [Astro](https://astro.build), which I use to build this site. One of its plugins is turning "curly quotes" in to "incorrect" curly quotes.

I'm working round it by running a regex, `grep -r '\w>"\w' ./dist`, over the built site. If this picks up any bad quotes I just go in and hand-fix them. But when I add this to my `build` step in `package.json`, it breaks the Netlify build.

Long story short, I didn't realise this because here's what I did:

1. Fixed some quotes.
2. Did a build.
3. `git push` to send it to Netlify to build for prod.

...at which point I should have **waited** and just watched it complete and then checked it. But what did I do instead?

I immediately switched to doing something else. So I come back later, check my site, the quotes _aren't_ fixed (the build failed at Netlify), and now I have to context-switch back to that and figure out why and fix it.

**It would have taken less time if I'd stared vacantly at the build process for one minute and seen it fail.**