Posts by reudaly:
[Pen/Pencil Review] Owl Stress Pen Novelty
I love Back-to-School time. It’s one of my Most Wonderful Times of the Year. All the lovely office/school supplies ON SALE. It makes my poor heart flutter. Especially when I can hit a Walgreens or CVS or other store and find some awesome novelty pens. This year was no exception. Walgreens had these amazing Owl Stress Pens for $1.99. I had to buy one for my friend, Meredith (she loves owls) and if she gets one, I get one.
This is a novelty pen, so the expectations are not high with pens like this. This one is top heavy, obviously, there is an owl on top. The pen barrel is a bit short – the whole pen is short, it’s only 6.5†long. There’s a flare to the base of the barrel, so there’s a slight nod to ergonomics. It’s not a pen for long-term writing unless you have a small hand.
The surprising part is the smoothness of the black ballpoint ink. The conical tip is smooth. There’s very little skipping or glopping. The point is on the fine side – like a 0.7mm. Which is AWESOME. Always like when something doesn’t default to 1.0mm or larger.
The selling point is the owl though. It’s a stress “ball†of sorts. Have a co-worker, family member, or random school mate that makes you want to pop someone’s eyes out or pinch their heads like a zit? (Eww, I know, imagery!) This pen lets you DO THAT. Squeeze the owl and the eyes pop out. SO MUCH FUN! And keeps you out of HR or the principal’s office. Win/Win.
The fact you get this in a pen that actually writes decently for $1.99? PRICELESS!
The numbers:
1. How does it work? – 1 It’s works fine, solid ink flow and a decent tip. The therapeutic aspects are just a bonus.
2. Grip and feel – 0.5 – There’s a nod to ergonomics, but it’s short and not well-balanced
3. Material – 1 It’s a cheesy plastic novelty pen. You get what you pay for.
4. Overall Design – 0.5 – The cap doesn’t post – in fact the cap is probably superfluous. It’s short, oddly balanced, but so much fun you can’t quite NOT use it. Though I’m using it for less a pen and more for the stress aspects.
5. Price Point – 1 – It’s not outrageous. It’s $1.99 on at Walgreens. For Back-to-school on a budget, it’s not necessary. For stress-relief that has a functional purpose? $2 is a good price.
4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils
[Writing Post] Geekinomicon and Deadlines
Annoucement (Especially my OKC folk!): GEEKINOMICON!, September 2-4, 2016 – I will be a panelist – and have a table in their Small Press area. One of the panels is already on the schedule – stuff is always being added. But there will be so much more to do than autographs and buying stuff. I […]
[Pen/Pencil Review] Premptive Post
I am in a training class for 2.5 days for work with yoga tonight (yoga is becoming very important). The likilyhoodnof there being a review today is prett slim. I gave actually started my inventory/purge of my massive amounts of pens, so we will see where we head from here. I will do my best […]
[Writing Post] And hey…It’s Wednesday
Yes, this day nearly got away from me. But here I am once again, getting a blog post in. These four day work weeks are AWESOME for the long weekends, but heck on knowing what day it is. We spent a lovely weekend in south Texas – beyond San Antonio – in the middle of […]
[Pen/Pencil Post] Wooden Pencil Sampler
Pencils are hard to review. I’ll try to do some for these on an individual manner, but in the last order from JetPens.com, I did pick up a “Wooden Pencil Sampler – B” I am a fan of wooden pencils. There’s a sense of accomplishment when you use one down to the nub. And by […]
[Writing Post][Convention] ArmadilloCon 38
I totally meant to do this blog post earlier in the day – but here we are. But it’s still Wednesday. I’m on track. The word counts have been a bit…less awesome…but I’ve been doing random bits of things since getting back from ArmadilloCon. ArmadilloCon is in the rear view. It was awesome as always […]
[Pen/Pencil Review] KUM Scribble Tip Top Pencil Cap and Sharpener
I’m a huge fan of the Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. No bones about it. That little sucker is the thing I’ve always needed that I never knew I needed. So when I was on JetPens last, I found something similar but different and decided to try the KUM Scribble Tip Top Pencil Cap and Sharpener. The […]
[Writing Post] Oh, Hey… it’s Thursday
It’s been one of those weeks. Again. But in getting ready for ArmadilloCon tomorrow – and having a short week at work – I totally lost track of what day of the week it was. We have done some work on the house. I’ve finished up the edits on a short story.I got three of […]
[Pen/Pencil Review] BIC Xtra Precise Ballpoint Pen – Multiple Colors
I have a problem. Back-to-School displays are my weakness. I went into Walgreens and discovered a new line of BIC Cristal stick pens – Xtra Precision multi-pack with “fun and colorful capsâ€. Neither cap nor color drew me to these pens. The “Xtra†and the “Fine†point did. I had to give them an “Xtra†[…]
[Conventions] ArmadilloCon 38 Schedule
As it stands, here is my programming schedule for ArmadilloCon 38 next weekend. Come see me and all the awesome creators there. Welcome to ArmadilloCon Fri 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Ballroom D Bobo, Crider, Eudaly, M.A. Finn, Keller, C. Siros*, Swendson Our panelists will talk about the essential elements of SFF cons in general and ArmadilloCon […]