Sharpies

I love them.

There are many reasons for this love.

I'm pretty sure it began the summer I was going into 9th grade. I was at camp, and it was the weekend. I was with all the kids that lived to far away to go home on the weekends, because I was lucky enough to stay at camp for two weeks (!!!). We went to Kmart to buy hair dye to highlight our hair, and while we were there, we picked up a fuzzy poster. We liked the air conditioning in Kmart so much that we decided to go to a movie. It was mid afternoon, so we had to wait about an hour and a half for the movie to start, so we sat on the floor in the lobby of the movie theater and colored our fuzzy poster. And so began my love affair with the sharpie marker.

First of all, seriously? Have you ever seen so many colors (besides in the crayon box)?
Second of all, they are permanent. There's something to be said about creating something, and knowing that it's going to stick around. It's more than you can say about some people.
Thirdly, meetings are more fun with sharpies. The fine pointed version are excellent for note taking. And, when you are bored, having several colors on hand make it possible to make your doodles much more interesting.

ok, enough with the numbering, this could go on for a while...

It's time to move on to varieties, and the pros and cons (if applicable) of each variety. It is important to remain as unbiased as possible.

Fine pointed:
-Pros: as mentioned above, the fine pointed Sharpies are excellent for writing things. Cute boys phone numbers on your hand at the bar, for example. In this scenario you can be assured that after sleeping on your hand, you will not have the boy's number written backwards on your face, and you'll still have the number on your hand after multiple bathroom excursions throughout the night.
-Cons: it is hard to fill in large amounts of space when drawing pictures.

Original:
-Pros:They last forever, the most colors come in original, and you can fill in large amounts of spaces, like in bubble letters and fuzy posters.
-Cons: sometimes the line that is drawn is too thick. not good for taking notes or anything like that

Metallic:
-Pros: they are so cool! also the write on any color of paper. or object. i wrote my name on my silver cd case with my silver sharpie, and it had a very neat effect.
-Cons: I used them so much they ran out really fast. They are more expensive than the rest of the sharpies.
(side note: I bought Roseart brand metallic permanent markers, and they are NOT as good as Sharpies. The only reason I bought them was because Roseart had more colors. It was a mistake.)

Retractable:
-Pros: no lids.
-Cons: maybe they run out faster? I don't know, I've never used them.

Highlighters:
-Pros: They have tons of colors, and they last a long time! My coworker had some generic highlighters that she bought a few months ago, they ran out after about a month, mine are still going strong from fall of 2006. And I use them a lot.
-Cons: The lids seem to break with heavy use. Two of my highlighters I have to be very careful with in order to prevent them from drying out.

If you have any questions about this, let me know. I can go on more about Sharpies, but I need specific direction. I'm also very tired right now so I'm going to bed.