Having been born in the twentieth century, I will admit that I only ever used a pen-and-ink-on-parchment recreationally (and no, I did not inhale; as a rule, it is better not to). As a writer I have been fond of Zebra pens and colored felt tip Bic markers, although as I age, or rather, as my hands have been aging, I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat and am increasingly doing my first drafts on my iMac. Having said that, I will admit that my iMac is 7 1/2 years old, just six months younger than my cat, who has not yet started slowing down, freezing or losing files, although from time to time, he will knock them off my desk to test if gravity is still working.
Note: it is. Phew. Thanks, Musashi!
My computer, alas, is not so spry. Last night I dreamed that a friend reminded me that this weekend would be Massachusetts Tax-free Weekend, which means no tax on purchases of $2500 or less: perfect timing for Back To School folks to buy computers and still be able to afford, for example, Apple Care Protection. (And for those of you who have ever read comics.com while drinking your breakfast coffee, you know how useful that can be. Keyboards are less expensive than they used to be, but still.)
So yes, I am breaking down and getting a new computer before I am in the middle of finals and lose everything. Did that before. Don’t recommend it.
And then there are people even more clueless than me.
buildingapoem 
I love my iMac. Though forced to labor on a windows pc for work, my electronic tool of choice will always be a Mac.
But at this time of year my luddite tendancies surface and I am drawn to black marble-covered composition notebooks and blue-ink fountain pens – the kind with the plastic tube cartridge refills. When I’m lucky I have found blue-green or purple ink cartridges. 😊
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I like fountain pens, but I find they are too heavy when my hands don’t like the hot weather. Also I quite like yellow legal pads, the really long ones, which I have had a hard time finding lately.
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We are a family of Apple users now…I was the last holdout, and finally caved. We usually buy refurbished products, you get a substantial savings and we’ve never had any problem. My 6th grader was required to have a laptop this year (yup), and we ended up buying him a refurbished MacBook Air. More than we would have spent on a run of the mill laptop, but not by much, and it should get him through the next 5-6 years. Fingers crossed. Oh, and I have always been a uni-ball gal myself, pen wise.
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I buy new, generally with an academic discount. They last me 8 years on average before the crazy kicks in.
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Gee, I’m NOT the only person working on an iMac that’s…oh, six or 7 years old?
I use a PC at work, so I’ve become–in my advanced years–fluent enough in two computer systems to be moderately dangerous.
But my writing tool has been and will always be a pen…arthritis hasn’t hit the fingers yet,
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Good for you! Yes, I also have to use a PC at work. It is quite likely even older than my late Mac. Humanities isn’t a priority for tech at MIT, alas.
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