Review: TUL 0.5mm Retractable Gel

This pen was designed and created specifically for Office Max, so they are only available at their stores or website.  Since I don't have an Office Max nearby, I never had the opportunity to pick any up, and it looks like I was missing out - that is until a wonderful reader sent me a couple to try out (Thanks Marilyn!).  The pen design is solid, with a plastic barrel and a brass tip, as well as sharp looking graphics.  The pen performance reminds me a lot of the Pilot G-2, which is a pretty big compliment.  On top of that, the TUL is very wallet friendly, checking in at approximately $1.50 per pen.  My only complaint so far is that the grip is a little slick, but it is already starting to get better with use.

If you have an Office Max convenient to you, or feel like placing an order online, I think you will enjoy the TUL.

Labels: Pilot G-2, Reviews, TUL

Erasable Pen Olympics

The real Olympics are taking place in Beijing, China, but I bet you didn't know that the Pen Olympics are taking place right here at The Pen Addict!  I have been wanting to do a side-by-side comparison of all of my erasable pens for a while now, so I figured lets give them the Olympic treatment by awarding medals to the best performers.

Gold - Pilot E-Gel 0.7mm

The Pilot E-Gel has the best ink color, the best writing performance, and the best erasability, so I guess you could say it won the all-around competition.  The eraser is located in the right sopt, unlike the FriXions, which goes a long way in my book.  This pen writes the most like a regular pen.

Silver - Pilot FriXion 0.7mm

I prefer the black ink of the 0.7mm over the blue ink of the 0.5mm, so thus it garners the silver medal.  The shade of black is still a little off, and I'm no fan of the FriXion eraser.  It smudges the paper too much compared to the traditional eraser models.

Bronze - Pilot FriXion 0.5mm

This ink color is way too pale for my liking.  I like the finer 0.5mm tip, but the performance (and location) of the eraser just doesn't cut it.

India - Uni-Ball Signo Erasable 0.5mm

The ink color is great, and the eraser does a good job, but the writing experience is so bad I can hardly use this pen.  The line skips and it is very scratchy.  Hopefully you will win a medal one of these decades Uni-Ball!

Labels: Pilot e-Gel, Pilot FriXion, Uni-Ball Signo Erasable

Charitable Cause - Pens for Kids

Last week, I was discussing what to do with extra pens laying around that aren't being used, and the topic of donation came up in the comments thread.  Lily mentioned an organization called Pens for Kids which sends pens to kids in need in Africa.  According to the website, education is paid for by some African governments, but supplies are not usually covered.  Pens for Kids has taken up the cause to try and get school supplies to those children in need.

I exchanged emails with Linda, one of the volunteers for Pens For Kids, and here is what she told me:

I traveled to Kenya and Tanzania on vacation last year and it changed my life.  I took candy for kids as I usually do and they wanted pens, not the tart sugary candy I'd brought.  I met a man there and he told me about a guy in Denmark named Claus who was sending him pens.  I contacted Claus when I got home and then took his project up a few notches and incorporated here in the US.  We now have a tax id and we've filed 501(c)(3) papers so that we can help more kids with corporate support as well as keeping the grassroots efforts as well.   I've sent about 7500 pens in the past couple of months -- All of the pens I have collected so far are from people I know or people who have stumbled across the website across the US.  We are still very small and just have one simple goal -- to get pens to the kids to assist with their education.    Education is the key to everything in Africa.  We will be contacting pen companies for donations of pens and shipping as soon as we secure the 501(c)(3) approval.

For a bit more information Here is a link to an article in the San Diego North County times published in from June ( the author got it mostly right  :-) 

I would like to make the Pens for Kids organization the official charity of the Pen Addict blog.  I have added a section to the sidebar with all of the information and donation links for Pens for Kids.  If you are so inclined, please consider donating your old pens to the cause (or money also - they need it for shipping costs).

One thing I would like to do right out the gate is commit 50% of the Google AdSense revenue from this blog to Pens for Kids.  The money doesn't add up to much - from December '07 to now, I have just under $80 in my AdSense account, and they don't send out checks until you reach $100. I will be working on ways to improve that over the coming months.

With the other 50% of AdSense revenue, I am going to start doing giveaways and contests for readers of the Pen Addict.  I think this would be a great way to drive traffic to the blog and, in turn, have even more people become aware of the Pens for Kids program.

I hope this will work out well for Pens for Kids and for readers of this blog.  If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please shoot me an email or leave a note in the comments section.

Labels: Pens for Kids