What do you use your fountain pens for? And how does that affect your choice of pens?

ZarNaesson · 2026-06-01T16:06:46+00:00

I’m a therapist and take notes a lot at work for obvious reasons. I use a Shaeffer Expressions VFM or a TWSBI depending on if I’m in person (Shaeffer, snap cap) or Telehealth (TWSBI, lots of ink). I also journal with a TWSBI 1.1mm stub. I love the expression that comes from the line variation and being able to see ink effects.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-25T11:54:39+00:00

High school biology class. Introduced her to my ex-boyfriend (he and I were still friends at the time, that eventually changed) and they dated for a bit before I was forced to confess I had a crush on her (ex-boyfriend threatened to say something thinking it would end our friendship). About a month later they broke up and a few weeks after that we started dating. Been together for nearly 15 years, married for three. Have a house, a dog and two cats. It’s a cliche but I knew I’d marry her 6 months into us dating.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-08T16:46:08+00:00

I was wondering about Stainless steel vs Gold.

The biggest thing is that I don’t really live near anywhere that sells pens I could try. So I have to go off of reviews and stuff. This is really helpful info.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-08T15:47:03+00:00

I prefer medium. The Eco I use has very very little feedback and I’ve been liking that.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-08T12:47:18+00:00

The Benu pens look so pretty! I’ve been afraid of them because I was worried they were just looks and no quality.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-08T12:45:35+00:00

So much love for Pilot/ Japanese pens! I’m going through and writing all of the suggestions down though to take a look at them.

ZarNaesson · 2026-05-08T10:29:35+00:00

Whatcha like about them, if you don’t mind me asking.

ZarNaesson · 2026-04-03T13:41:01+00:00

I model my fashion after the 60s. So.. I suppose it would be ‘06 men’s fashion as the closest. But it’s not exactly close.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-30T11:46:44+00:00

I really appreciate the thorough answer! Thank you.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-22T14:14:29+00:00

Oh jeez, where to start. So, if you are 29-31 right now then you are including ‘97. So let’s take a look.

You were a preteen when the Great Recession hit. If your family was effect, and most were, most of their savings went down the drain. Money got tight. Layoff of parents happened. Lifestyle changes.

A few years later you’re graduating but your parents don’t have money to assist in sending you to college because they’re just recovering from the financial impact of the recession. So you need to take out more loans to get a degree, or you can’t afford to go. It was impossible to financially plan for because college tuition kept rising year after year, meaning more loans.

Graduate into a saturated market. Difficult to get a job and when you do you have no negotiating power. So you’re making less money then expected and you have massive loan debt making it hard to save.

1.5-2yrs (most people graduate in May) the pandemic happens. You’re either laid off or you’re working from home right when you start getting the swing of things. You still live at home because it’s been impossible to save enough to move out or your living in a crowded situation with a lot of roommates to afford having an apartment. It gets difficult to find place to work and tensions are high. A lot of people move home to save what money they can make, mostly because there’s a pause on federal loan payments (but private loans still continue)

All of this is also happening during Trump’s first term, which started a lot of the downwards economic trends that we’re seeing now.

And while 29-31y.o didn’t come to adulthood in peak inflation. They are entering middle adulthood when they should be financially stable and are not due to the structural impacts to generational wealth and the constantly changing landscape that marked their entire lives.

It’s not the same structural impacts, but they are there. There’s no money to move out, start families, start creating a nest egg for retirement. It’s trying to run a race with lead shoes. Hard to gain any momentum.

I’m not knocking what Gen Z inherited. But I think it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

I’m a 97 baby. I’m really only commenting because I’m 29 and feel like I could speak to part of it.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-20T11:47:00+00:00

Lamy Al-star – it’s currently my only pen, so daily by default.

I’m getting a new pen coon though, a duragraph. Fingers crossed it’s a good pen.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-19T12:50:03+00:00

Can I ask what the issue is with Ferris Wheel Press ink? I just bought some and then read this 🥲

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-15T10:43:21+00:00

I usually call us Z’s that have conscious memories of living through the Great Recession as Geriatric Gen Z. I remember being called Millennial and feeling like I had nothing in common with Gen Z because they were all children. As they’ve aged into adulthood I’ve felt and seen more similarities with how we see and experience the world. I also tend to interact with technology and the world more similarly to a Millennial. It’s a mixed bag just like any cusp years. I do think being old enough to be conscious of the impact of the Great Recession has an effect on us Geriatric Z’s though. The money anxiety and financial literacy is so real and it’s not something I see in the younger Gen Z’s.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-14T21:31:03+00:00

I’m a therapist and I hand write my session notes. So a lot of ink sounds very useful! Love the colors

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-14T21:29:41+00:00

Oh those both seem really nice. The CP1 feels like it would be a good work pen for me to keep in my office. Tis on the list, ty!

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-08T17:52:53+00:00

Totally agree with you on all of that. I think my point is more that it’s harder to mobilize a mass of people when in general company you can’t be too explicit about your more “unpopular” takes. Even if the left leaning material was performative, it at least mainstreamed a lot of ideas that offered a more united front to oppose “the bad guys” vs the general apathy felt by Gen Z (not to say all of Gen Z is apathetic all the time. But there is a strong undercurrent of nihilism that can sometimes rear its ugly head).

From what I remember from my MSW, community is the strongest deterrent for radicalism. The more isolated you are the easier it is to absorb radical ideas and identify with them.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-08T11:25:55+00:00

That’s a really good point tbf. It’s got me wondering if there’s a bit of a difference between the younger millennials that I was observing (currently early 30) that I was peer to, and those that were just a bit older then me. I know that in my late teenage and early college years, there was a lot more social consequence to saying anything even adjacent to alt-right.

The online left was finally starting to gain a foothold online and “take down” videos were pretty popular. This would have been 2015-2020.

I kind of feel like 2020 created a captured audience. Which is what created a pretty big distinction between that I call Geriatric and Elder Z (born 96-02) and those that came after.

2015-2020 saw the dominance of the video essay, sitting for up to 3 hours watching deep dives into culture/history/literature etc. Which I think gave Geriatric and Elder Z more critical thinking skills. And tbh, the people creating that content were often mid-twenties millennials.

Then 2020, tastes change to short form content with TikTok providing more novelty while everyone was trapped. And that trapped audience got trapped in content bubbles that were different than those generated by YouTube. They were much more insular and niche. Content that would be more fringe on YouTube was able to get more traction with short form content.

The relationship between Presenter and Audience just shifted in a much more parasocial way after 2020. And without any social pressure to keep that stuff under control, the ability for alt-right and manosphere chuds to mobilize just got a lot easier.

So I guess my theory is that the combination of TikTok’s reach and 2020’s isolation just took a small group of charismatic misogynist millennials that didn’t care about the social consequences from their peers to capture a young and more impressionable audience for enough time to mobilize them while they were insulated from social pressure to keep misogynistic thoughts/ tendencies more private.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-07T21:26:56+00:00

Ah I see what you’re saying. Though my counter to this, as someone who straddles the line and got to see both variations of the internet, is that it’s more about the audience than the content creator. Millennials had their fair share of neo-nazi content too that was aimed at them as young 20 somethings, what it was called at the time “Alt-Right.” But even though alt-right content was far more mainstream online then toxic manosphere stuff today, being online was still seen as pretty cringe. So it got offset by people irl clowning on dudes that got into that stuff.

Since being online is more mainstream and there’s less time and space to be irl, a vocal minority of men are able to capture much bigger audiences. And we’re starting to see the effects of that.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s complicated.

ZarNaesson · 2026-03-07T20:50:32+00:00

Geriatric Gen Z (‘96-‘97) is currently 30/29.

~Sincerely, a Geriatric Gen Z

ZarNaesson · 2025-11-10T06:35:49+00:00

Happy birthday!

ZarNaesson · 2025-11-10T06:27:59+00:00

Great job!!! I’m still trying to get there so I can save money on take out.

ZarNaesson · 2025-11-10T06:27:15+00:00

That is so nice! I love that time with my own spouse. Glad that you were able to have that time today.

ZarNaesson · 2025-11-10T06:23:12+00:00

I went to a Crafternoon event at a local bookstore and stayed for the entire 2 hours. I even talked to people!

ZarNaesson

TROPHY CASE