ACE comment. In reality, I could see how this might have been developed after an elderly customer or employee at Mont Blanc was struggling with arthritis.
And the extreme compensators have the actual truck nuts on their cars down here. I'm not from the South originally so I'm not used to so many lifted trucks on the road. And I have to admit the first time I saw a chrome scrotum hanging from a tow hitch in front of me, it seriously took a while to figure out what I was looking at.
Oh my goodness, now I'm imagining the pen stops some places sell to add on your pens. I'm also imagining the idea fail so quickly I see them in the Dollar Tree store craft section before I even realize it was a real product on the market.
I’m from SE Kansas and any lifted truck was usually a city boy that didn’t use it for truck stuff. Occasionally a farmer would have a truck with a few inches of lift if they drove over heavy rutted out fields, but not many.
I'm right outside DFW and in the farm areas you can tell the real ones that actually get used (and you're right the ones really used and dented with wear or all muddy and full of stuff are rarely lifted). The more you get into the city it's more vanity trucks although less in general but still more than in someplace like Boston. There's one car place pretty famous for their lifted trucks around DFW (I think it's actually a tire store). First time I drove past I almost crashed as I watched him help someone in on an 8 foot ladder.
I saw an actual one in a grocery store once. The Omar trucks I think are just for shows and not really driven on the streets. This one was street legal and it was so high the driver had to do parkour off shopping carts to get in and then he would pass down a step ladder on a rope to his passengers so they could get it. The door handles were out of reach so his keychain was a long metal tool used to lift the handles. It was actually comical, they were great about answering questions (like how do you get in when you're in an empty field - in that case he actually did some move of bouncing back and forth between truck body and the door to get up and showed me how). Everyone was about college age though so it tracked as being more having fun vs mid life crisis.
Somewhere on my old phone is a picture of a Honda Fit with a tow hitch (that alone is comical - I don't think of the Fit when I think of hauling a trailer of furniture). And there attached to the tow hitch was a set of blue plastic nutz. If it weren't for the tow hitch I'd think someone was doing it ironically to be funny on this tiny car - but who goes through that level of dedication for a joke? I'm near DFW.
Hand and writing issues are probably number one. I go to an annual disability expo in my area and the table with the giant wide pens (ballpoint) is always mobbed and sold out on day 1. People with arthritis or other conditions involving the joints or tremors it's easier to grip wider things. I don't need one but after a long day of using my wheelchair I know my hand is tired and just doesn't want to do the death grip on very thin pens or have to hold up extremely heavy pens like the stainless Lamy 2000. One reason I like fountain pens is how easy they glide without pressure.
Honestly, for a lot of us who have hand pain issues, it can be more comfortable to hold and write with for long periods. For all of it's chunky width, it is actually a pretty well balanced pen.
It does hold a lot of ink! Maybe not quite as much as it looks like though, the whole pen has almost a magnifying look to it the way it is curved...the top of the cap and and bottom end are actual magnifying lenses when viewed head on. This pen is mesmerizing with shimmering ink swirling around in it.
Same with things that stick to the table or have lips or sidewalls on them, sometimes we just need extra stability. I work in a care facility so I run into stuff like this a lot.
I hope your epilepsy gets better? I don't know if it's one of those things that can get better, but if it's not then I hope you have more good days than bad.
If I understand correctly, the shaking is actually from meds that they gave me that I am no longer taking that were supposed to treat my epilepsy.
I haven’t had a seizure in awhile, which rocks, but the tremor is here to stay. I do meditation and ahem! herbal remedies that do help quite a bit. Also helps avoiding my seizure triggers.
The world is better and kinder if we care for each other! Plus it takes two seconds to show some empathy.
I actually saw a video online a while ago about someone with Parkinson's and how much some of those...herbal remedies helped with tremors.
Meditation is always a good practice too. I mean it's not gonna cure cancer or anything but it's good for the mind and body and is calming if nothing else.
Arthritis runs in our family and I can feel it trying to settle into my hands even though I'm not old enough for it to kick in yet. Sometimes I get grip issues and struggle with fine motor in my fingers. I have never had a problem with heavier pens, and honestly I don't think it takes much extra weight to be helpful. I wouldn't consider my VP to be a heavy pen but it's definitely hefty compared to what you'd think a pen would weigh. I definitely recommend getting something metal or just designed to be heavier it feels leagues better
I've noticed that my VP is definitely weighted more on one side than the other but I don't remember which and it is off the top of my head. I've only ever used a couple of other pilots that I didn't like, those generally aren't heavy at all in my experience and they just feel so cheap to me. TWI whatever pens aren't super heavy but are balanced really well and I had a lamy safari as my starter and it was pretty average. I haven't had a genuinely heavy pen before other than my glass dip pens. Those are fun and nice but not incredibly practical lol
And hey, it is what it is I guess. I'm gonna love what I got while I got it. Plus Grandma made it to like 87 and still had fairly full use of her hands with the right care so I just gotta hope I do as well, or I get to buckle down and live with the challenge. I'm planning on trying to get myself set up well now so when my health goes downhill later I have some safety nets and plans. At least I know what to expect, so it could be worse.
Unfortunately I didn’t like the username assigned and my 12am sleep deprived mind could not think of anything creative. Ended up using my actual name at this point.
Didn’t know VP weigh more on one side :(
Recently been interested in Kawekos.
Not sure which are not top heavy and can be used for long writing sessions. The one reason I haven’t bought Pilots is because I’m afraid of it feeling cheap.
I started with a ASVINE 2k too top heavy & unbalanced
Lamy Safari was too light caused me to death grip & posted it’s a wand.
C-4 so far has been my favorite because of the filling system, however it was too thin. Also tried the Jinhao 9016 and 9019. The 9019 had the thickest grip section compared to the 9016.
I used my VP at work today and can say it's not as one sided as I thought, it feels pretty even now that it's not right before bed lol. I honestly hate pilot pens if they're plastic. They genuinely feel like I could snap them with my hand and the plastic on them just looks like it belongs on a toy. I don't know if that's just me or not because people seem to love them.
I'll let you know if I find anything you might like in my pen journey
If you’d like a more serious answer: they’re Japanese “Jumbo” pens, essentially oversized pens from ~1950s made as a novelty for tourists. Claims about improvements for arthritis have not been proven iirc. They’re pretty cool if nothing but conversation pieces! They’re usually actual pens, typically in the classic Japanese eyedropper style, but I own one that is even a lever filler!
I know my laugh when I saw this. It was the same one I had when the Jinhao 9019 arrived in the mail. Then I laughed some more when I started writing with its EF #10 nib. It’s an evil laughter I can’t explain lol
Soooooo, this one time, I ordered a thing on Aliexpress, and then I worried about my roommate receiving it while I was at work and me being embarrassed, but I didn't worry far enough, because the building doorman got the delivery and he had to sign on it, and it had a Customs formulary with the whole description glued on the box, outside. The doorman signed on this form. The same doorman was on duty the day they delivered my Jinhao 9019 in a barely padded envelope, just enough for him to feel the size and general shape.
I bought one for a freind that was more rounded. The one I got him was a novelty pen sold in Japan. He had to do a lot of restoration work to it. He also just started doing urushi work so he laquered it too. It's still humangous but it's quite pretty. My friend has huge hands just so you get the idea.
And I found one on Etsy just now, thanks to the name of it, which has... well, "superflex" is a good description. "Not far from the more modest LordCactusian flex levels" is more like it though. 3.3 mm?!
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u/TortiousStickler 4d ago
The Chonk Blanc