end/less

a loop, a routine;
it makes me fall in
(makes you fall out of)

the 1+4+3 bin

=8, infinity.
i go back again
and it’s only me–

a loop, a routine.


© 2009 Cat Ramos

August 10, 2009 @ 2:45am

Markers are Forever

Markers are meant to be permanent. It’s the kind you want to write on your boxes when you’re moving out and shipping packages. Or for presentations on a manila paper, old school style. It’s not my most favorite piece of writing instrument because I am notoriously known as someone with an illegible writing with bonus doodles on the side. I write fast but not in the “automatic writing” sense because that would classify me as creepy.

It’s a different thing with whiteboard markers. It’s temporary when used on plastic-ky surfaces, obviously on whiteboards. You write on the board, you erase it, it’s gone, and you write again. It’s a great invention, really. You could write or doodle forever and change your mind; the whiteboard marker just doesn’t care. I like it because they’re so easy...to remove.

But it’s a disaster when you write with a permanent marker on a whiteboard surface. Once it’s there, it’s there. Any attempt on erasing it with an acetone or soap is practically futile. Not to mention the easiest and most convenient ‘cleansing’ material available for emergency cases, the alcohol, makes it even worse. It’s always a misconception that alcohol can totally remove or dissolve anything unwanted. But it just dilutes the problem, even spreading it. Alcohol is not that reliable sometimes.

The board can somewhat still be functional but the stain always gets in the way. It’s still there, microscopically speaking. Well, the marks could fade a little but it’s never completely removed. There will always be distractions. Magulong intindihin, mahirap nang basahin.

As suggested by a friend of mine, there is probably one solution for this problem. How ever unpopular it is, it could still work. Apparently, this tip came to me through word of mouth or for lack of a better term, a hearsay. This is some chismis that I cannot ignore and I ought to try it myself. Many people have tried it and it worked, according to them. There’s even an instruction from Wikihow on this.

Steps on how to erase marks left by permanent marker on a whiteboard (my shortcut version):

1. Get a whiteboard marker.

2. Outline or shade the marks of the permanent marker on the board using the whiteboard marker.

3. Once completely shaded, get an eraser.

4. Erase all.

Expected result: All marks will be removed.

So I did try it. There was one large whiteboard in the office with permanent marks all over it (figures, drawings, notes). The condition of the board was poor and no longer useful for presentations. It was a good board to experiment on. So I got myself a black whiteboard marker and followed the steps on how to remove it. I shaded it, outlined it, tried erasing it and Voila! It failed. Even the whiteboard marker ink could not be erased. It became permanent. Now it just compounded the problem.

You may say, something must be wrong with the temporary whiteboard marker. Or maybe it was clearly the permanent marker’s fault. Or even the eraser’s. You could even blame it on the given set of instructions. But rarely do we think about the board itself. I found my answer through this.

At a glance, the board may look like a victim of misused permanent markers. But if you examine closely the surface of this board, you would notice small scratches, little wounds that it has collected over time because of numerous marks and erasures. And here’s the catch: The original unremovable marks were not really caused by a permanent marker but by a whiteboard marker instead. Even the temporary becomes permanent if your board is a mess.

Removing something permanent through something temporary is unusual and at the same time, effective. For some.

But not for me this time. I’d rather fix the board first.

© 2009 Cat Ramos