Guest Pen Cup #1

I am at my parents for Thanksgiving and wanted to try a new thing called "Guest Pen Cup" I decided a long time ago that I can tell all I need to know about people by taking a quick look into their pen cups. It's like a window to the soul.

In this case it's strictly utilitarian along with a comb just to increase the odd factor a bit. I am pretty sure I had that Sanford King Size marker 15 years ago. I am not sure how the American Pencil Co. Brown 1212 drawing pencil crept in there, it's at least 50 years old.  There are some Sharpies and a few run of the mill crappy ballpoints (I thought I taught them better.) But if push came to shove, the contents would cover just about any situation Macgyver would come across. (including wind blown hair.)

Platinum Preppy Fountain pen

I thought I already reviewed this pen simply because I use it so much, but looking back, I don't think I did. I really love this pen, possible the best modern, low cost disposable I have ever used. (In a heads up battle, I probably would give the nod to an old school Sheaffer School though.) The great part is, I have no fear of losing this pen. It's very easy to replace and it writes like a dream on most paper. I am not sure why they named it "preppy" but it works for me.


There are currently 1.1 million students who are home-schooled, or 2 percent of all school-age students ages 5 to 17. Those are the lucky bastards... I wonder how many of those are preppy?

In High School I had a slight preppy period, which I think lasted about a week and consisted of popping the collar on my knock off Lacoste shirts.


Jetpens sells these for $3.00 each here, and you can get refills there as well. Well worth the money. It's a Good pen.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone and I should have a fresh post for you tomorrow morning.

Capless Pilot Fountain Pen

Or the vanishing point as it is known here in the US. One click and the nib draws in and is protected, another click and it pops out ready for action. I still mostly just use this at my desk. I know it's meant to be carried around, but I like it safe and secure right here. Fine point and a perfect pen. Good pen.

Pilot is the 3rd largest pen manufacturer in the US. *If* I were to categorize all of my pens by age, color, tip size, roller, felt, fountain and ink color, I bet that I would have mostly Pilots in my collection. (by 17%) (I am kidding...or am I?)


When we were renovating our kitchen my wife ordered custom tiles that would "pull all the colors together" being a man, I nodded and went back to sports talk. When the custom tiles came in they were "all wrong" and "disastrous." I nodded and we decided to reorder new tiles. The key word I missed was "custom." Long story short, I have 4 boxes of very nice green subway tiles that I have to do something with. Here two are being used for expensive props and we went with a white tile. Lovely.

Zebra Jimnie Gel Rollerball

Every now and then I feel the need for a semi-fat writing, traditional rollerball  and this Zebra usually fits the bill. Yes, it skips a bit, but if I am using cheap notebook paper for something, it seems to be a good bet for a quick drying, smudge proof pen. Plus it's acid free so I don't have to worry about my pen tripping out.

I re-watched Office Space again over the weekend. 2 in the morning, can't sleep and a perfect movie. It's so hard to believe that the movie only made 10.8 million in box office revenue. Mike Judge is a genius.

It's a true medium point without any surprises when pen hits paper. Good, but not great. I wish the rest of the pen was a little better, because when writing, it feels really nice in your hand and has a decent weight to it. On Amazon, it's less than a dollar each so don't be afraid to try it.

Thanks again for all the emails and comments over the weekend, I appreciate the feedback. As a reminder, feel free to join the Good Pens Group in Flickr, it's lonely right now, but hope we can put another good group of pens together. Click the link or visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/goodpens/