Ballpoint pens are an incredibly interesting thing to me. They're cheap and crap, always some issue with the nib where ink leaks and smudges, or you have a black pen in your white shorts without a lid because some pens just don't have lids and it explodes ink all over and you've been unable to get the stain out ever since then. So, clearly the craftsmanship and mechanics about them isn't really what I find interesting about them, ballpoints aren't that exciting to me and they tend to just mess things up sometimes. But what I do find interesting about them is their very malleable ownership, or lack thereof, at least in my experience.

See, I haven't bought a ballpoint pen in years, yet somehow over time I've miraculously accrued a bunch from God knows where that ahve claimed squatters' rights in my drawer! Pens I've knicked from work, remnants from teacher's lent pens in school aeons ago, borrowed from friends and forgotten to return (I do my best to ask about them and give them back alright) or just kinda found somewhere and dumped in a jacket pocket that somehow made it's way home. I've lent plenty of pens too, many of which I've never gotten back, because I just kinda always have a pen on me with how they seem to accumulate around me. I don't mind! Ballpoints are crappy little pens, I'm not gonna get annoyed about not getting one or two back, and generally no one seems to mind lending one out, often forgetting about it almost immediately after. When I do remember to give a pen back, the lender tends to have forgotten they ever gave me one in the first place.

And, I dunno, I just find this kinda beautiful. This kind of communal resource, sometimes I need to borrow a pen, sometimes someone else does, and we just keep trading pens between each other when needed and stealing more from work or the shops and I just think it's really nice to have a thing like that. I like sharing my things in general, if I'm cooking I'll offer some to my roommates, buy a cuppa for a friend at a coffeeshop, buy a round or two at the pub, and I just think that pens are a really good decently common example of this. Maybe sharing pens so freely isn't as common as I think it is, maybe I just like to share things no matter how much my bank account begs me to stop, but I think ballpoints are just like, really ideologically beautiful in how they're given out amongst us and I wish more things were like this! Obviously there's some more significant things we share, foodbanks, lighters amongst smokers (and cigarettes in general I'll give them out to anyone who asks for one,) rubber bands and bags, etc. small little things that are cheap and simple that no one's too upset over when we lose them. Obviously the homosexual transgender far leftist political extremist would want more things to be communally owned, but like. C'mon reader. I think it's beautiful how we share things like this together and I think more people should share small things, and maybe even bigger things if you can! Sharing food, cleaning supplies, carpooling, any little thing you may able to give away because building support networks and shit is how we stop relying on companies and shit. I'm not going to dump my whole manifesto here but I think you should just lend a pen to someone sometimes! It's like, nice and stuff!

Like I didn't really have a whole lot to say with this one, I kinda just wanted to briefly talk about how much I like this aspect about ballpoint and pens and stuff. And honestly, I wouldn't pay for pens these days anway, if I really needed new ones from the store you know I'll conveniently "forget" to pay for them. That's my. That's my money saving tip for the article. Steal pens don't pay for them. Also whenever you go out no matter where just go to the toilet and steal a loo roll stop paying for toilet paper. Also it's actually really easy to shoplift and get away with it if you know how to do it, I'm just saying, even if you don't need it to survive (no one expects you to starve if you really need it just do it) you should really steal something here and there because these big companies are still harmed by it and that's awesome! Maybe shit's harder in the US I've seen you guys lock candy behind a key and shit that's insane but like I swear all you need to do is bring a bag and-

A fraction of my collection of pens over the years.

she pen on my ball till I point. Annesiac 2026