Fellow pen snobs chime in

Follow up to last week's work from home instant classic, "Excalibur and other work from home quirks"

Last week’s My HOH drew much interest from those of you who appreciate a fine pen. Okay that may be putting it mildly. As a pen snob, it goes a bit deeper than appreciation. For some of us, it becomes a body part. All right, it might not be like that. But it’s really important.

So, if the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, here’s some hardware fellow pen snobs are wielding:

• Pilot G2

• Cross pen

• Bazik Oil Gel Pen

One of My HOH readers, Ella Krishtal Burns of Tri Tec Solutions, has made the big leap to reMarkable The Paper Tablet. As a pen snob, I was a bit curious and had questions:

My HOH: Don't you miss putting pen to pad? Does Remarkable come anywhere close?

EKB: I miss the procurement of new notepads and seeing different colors on the pad. I don’t miss trying to find the notes I took or trying to recall when I took them or which notebook I had at the time.

My HOH: Can reMarkable read your handwriting? I get the feeling many people with poor handwriting would have to edit a lot.

EKB: As far as transcribing to text, not really, but I don't have to transfer to text to save the notes. I can just send the page as a pdf or a jpg, which is helpful when my bosses ask how I derived at certain proposal numbers or my colleagues want my meeting notes.

My HOH: Does it read only print? Can it do cursive?

EKB: It’s built like a etch-a-sketch, it reads anything. print, cursive, pictures, etc.

My HOH: Breakability? It's so thin. I know I beat up my notebooks. How has it held up?

EKB: So far, so good. I'm pretty rough on things

My HOH: What would you say to somebody who takes a lot of notes but doesn't want to give up putting pen to paper?

EKB: Just try it, they give 100 day trial. It has completely changed the way I collaborate with my team and my clients.”

Thanks for the feedback, Ella.

When it comes to technology, I revert to something I used to tell my kids. If they were in doubt about whether or not to do something, I told them to ask “is it helpful or hurtful?” I use the same approach with technology. The question is more like, “how much is it worth to you to not have to type out your notes?”

While you’re deciding that one, here’s reMarkable.

Home office SWAG

Received an interesting e-mail from an old friend in the promotional items field. Seems that work from home items have become a thing. And it goes way beyond pens and water bottles. WFH tchotchkes include everything from computer backpacks to heating bowls, noise canceling headphones to your own brand of Colombian coffee. Check it out:

Work from home SWAG

Inspiring quote of the week

See all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a call for love.

— Marianne Williamson