Thursday 29 April 2010

Zebra Tect 2way 1000 0.5mm

What an awesome pencil.

I bought this pencil less than a month ago to give it a try, since it looked cool. It wasn't until I started using it that I found out it had a shaker mechanism, which is awesome. I've been using it a lot, and just ordered a 0.3 and a 0.7 from JetPens, and the next order will include the light versions to try them out.

My first shaker pencil was the classic Pilot "The Shaker" that I got from my dad (he loves those pencils) and still have it somewhere in my house, but now I've been using mostly drafting pencils, since I like them more, they're good for... well, drafting and graphing, and they're slim enough.

Hopefully my order will be here by Monday or so (yeah, I'm in AZ, so shipping from San Jose is quite fast), still in time for most finals so I get to use them.

Oh yeah, and the guy who sits next to me in Calculus liked it a lot and asked me where did I find it because it was really cool.

And it's 2:40AM, so I'm not making a lot of sense, sorry.











Tuesday 20 April 2010

Sharpie pens

Well, after I got the Sharpie Pen in 2008 the lineup has expanded considerably, and I've tried most of them. I just found out about the medium tip, which I'll have to try at some point.

After trying the original one, the RT and the Grip versions, I have the following conclusions.

-They all write the same
-Seems like the blue ink on the original one is indeed lighter than in the new ones
-There are no color choices for the newer pens.

Size
The original pen wins the prize for size and appearance, it has the dimensions of a regular pen, looks and feels like one

Ergonomics
There is a tie between the Grip and the RT. I liked the thick grip of the RT, but after writing for a while that just doesn't really work, on the other hand, the Grip is too comfortable to be used during long periods of time. Ergonomics on the original pen are, sadly, terrible. Mostly due to the sharp edge where you normally hold it to write, hopefully Sanford will address this eventually

Portability
The original pen, its size means you can take it everywhere. The Grip takes the 2nd place because it is slightly bigger, and the RT takes the last place because it's huge.

Miscellaneous.
One thing I noticed is that both versions with a rubber grip tend to pick up a lot of lint, it is an issue for me because they normally travel in a specific pocket in my pants, and they pick up a lot of lint, but the Grip one has at least some form of protection
The RT is very prone to leakage, because if the clicky thing is pressed accidentally when the pen is in a pocket, the tip might actually come out of the body and the ink is then transferred to the fabric (my pants are living proof of why you shouldn't carry the G-2 Mont Blanc in your pockets, and the Pen RT to some extent).

And the classic pen is available in 8 colors I believe, while the others are just available in blue, black and red.

I came back

So first of all, I must apologize for disappearing suddenly. I was extremely busy with real life matters that i wasn't having enough time for this (heck, I wasn't even having time to sleep). Hopefully I'll now be able to make at least a weekly post.

I'm also going to focus a lot on drafting pencils, which I've been using a lot recently, and I've had the chance to try out most lead sizes (except for 0.9mm - so far).





Oh yeah, I'm writing this post at almost 3 AM, and decided these lyrics by They Might Be Giants are appropriate, in fact, this has been a constant for the past few weeks.

Am I awake?

What time is it?

When I get through this day
Can someone tell me how
And how much longer now
Am I awake?