Thursday, January 8, 2009

GRAPHITE!

Dear QotD-ers,
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There was honest to goodness ice on our windshield this morning. Ok, actually it was more like really thick frost, but that still counts as wintry! also, 32°F! BRRR! I'm very thankful for electric blankets.
Saturday morning I was awake at 8:30 and ran all my errands by 11:30. I was very impressed with myself.
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Today's Question of the Day? is:
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When did you make the switch from traditional to mechanical pencil?
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probably sometime between college and career. I held on to the regular pencils for a long time. There was something very satisfying about a newly sharpened pencil. They also made great hair 'chop-sticks.' (Boys: those sticks/rods that girls can use to keep their hair in a bun or a twist) But, especially at work where I have an unlimited supply or pencils and lead, I use mechanical pencils almost exclusively.
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Love,
The Asker

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not exclusive to either mechanical or regular pencils. I find both very useful and appealing in their own right.

I definitely started using mechanical pencils in college. Always the 0.5mm lead, never 0.7mm.

Anonymous said...

i think i was using them (although the cheap ones) in elementary. i remember my art teacher getting upset with me because i was "shading" with a mech pencil.


0.5mm B or 2B all the way

mike

Anonymous said...

Sometime in high school I think, because I could continue writing without the interuption of sharpening. Also, I deplored how rapidly a fine point would dull and become smudgy. Or break off entirely!

Anonymous said...

As the Asker well knows, she has tapped into a line dear to my soul!

A mechanical pencil for ART??

Charcoal pencils for art.

Mechanical pencils for serious work.

An abundance of pencils already sharpened for everyday work.

ALWAYS a Staedtler erasers, no matter what pencil you are using.

Anonymous said...

I actually use map pencils ten times more often than mechanical pencils, and my other coursework calls for pen, having nothing math related in my schedule.

However, Matthew turned me onto mechanical pencils last semester when I had to borrow a pencil from him before a test. I used to just grab a standard yellow #2, but now my scantron preference is a .5 mechanical pencil with a squishy grip.

groovysabrina said...

I have been a mechanical pencil lover since elementary school, when I started using my dad's pencils.

I always wed my 0.5mm pencil with a long white clic eraser. The two are inseparable.

These days, however, I seldom use pencil at all.

Anonymous said...

I have yet to make the big switch entirely. I didn't work much with pencils in college, seeing as pens were preferable in my non-analytical major, and in high school I was still sporting my Eagle No. 2s.

Now that I do math again, I'm looking more dapper with a mechanical pencil in hand. I would say I made the switch in 2008.

Anonymous said...

Ah......
I haven't made the switch. Teaching math in junior high and I still use a No. 2 pencil. My morning starts off with 5-6 nicely sharpened pencils.
Almost every day there is 'some'
7th grader that uses a mechanical pencil and 'fiddles' with the lead, replacing the lead, etc. etc. for at least 5 minutes( instead of working on math!) and then does come up to me and ask me if I have
some 0.5 or 0.7 lead and when I say "No", they ask for a 'regular pencil'. Usually it is a boy. Girls will have a 'back up' pencil in their bookbag.

Word verification is "fries"
ha!

Anonymous said...

That question leads me to ask you
a question........

Have you ever had a math class where you did NOT have to use pencil, mechanical or regular?
If so, where and what grade or level?

Anonymous said...

Oh! Kathleen, you KNOW that pencils are always required in math!

When I go to help on Wednesdays at Nick's school, I always have a handful of pencils, new, sharpened regulars, as well as some mechanicals and also a few pens so that I can make happy faces!

Last week one of the girls eyed my very cute and chosen by Jessica mechanical pencils. She noted that her pencil did not have an eraser. I asked her if I was ever going to see my mechanical pencil again, and she smiled and said no, she wanted to keep it. I hate people with pencil envy!!