Question: what's the difference between ballpoint and rollerball pens? And is one considered more fancy than the other?

Also, I like the good Christmas music -- the stuff with trumpets and sopranos and lots of Latin, or the stuff in minor keys. Not a big fan of "Jingle Bell Rock" (mostly because it's a whole lot easier to get that irritatingly stuck in your head than, say, "Adeste Fidelis").

Finally, what the hell do I get my brother? I don't even know what he's planning to do with his life now, but I need to get him one nice unexpected present, to go with his wish-list stuff.

Ballpoint pens use more visc(i)ous ink (and a simpler ink feeding mechanism, I think), Emily. Rollerballs may be more fancy because they're newer, but really, they both pale in the face of a proper fountain pen.

Ahhh. Wikipedia, how do we love thee??

Rollerball pens use a ball point and a water-based ink. By comparison, a typical ball-point pen uses a ball point and an oil-based ink. The ink in a roller ball tends to saturate more deeply and more widely into the paper than the ink from a ball-point pen.

they both pale in the face of a proper fountain pen.

Yeah, I thought about a fountain pen, but I'm not sure it's really his kind of thing.

The ink in a roller ball tends to saturate more deeply and more widely into the paper than the ink from a ball-point pen.

And is this a good thing?

Wait, so the difference is just the ink? But... but...

More from Wikipedia:

There are two types of roller ball pens: those that use a liquid ink and those that use a gel containing ink. A roller ball has two advantages over a ball point: first, less pressure needs to be applied to the pen to have it write cleanly. This permits holding the pen with less stress on the hand. Second, the ink is brighter. Gel roller ball pens use a jelly-like ink: the ink sets just after it is applied to the paper and is no longer being "rolled" around. Gel inks do not sink into the paper as much as liquid ink. Also, gels carry color better that liquid ink, so gel based pens are available in a brighter and wider range of colors than liquid ink pens.

Disadvantages

There are two disadvantages inherent to roller ball pens: first, the ink is more liable to smudge than a ball-point pen's ink because the ink dries more slowly, and second, the ink may seep through the paper. Thicker paper must be used with a roller ball pen than with a ball point, because the oil based ink does not penetrate deeply into the paper. The problem with gel inks is that they do not flow as readily as a liquid ink. This increases the likelihood of intermittent inking, where the flow of ink will randomly cease.

I like rollerballs, because I can write more gracefully with them.

Aha. Okay. So, um... well, I still don't know what to get. Crap.

I hate fountain pens, because I hold my pen strangely, and I somehow end up with an ink stained ring finger.

How's Little Jandek?

Doing just fine. Here's some photos from around our post-Thanksgiving camping trip.