Review: Swim Gel Ink 0.5mm

This is the first of many pen reviews you are going to see from a package that Pen Addict reader Bryan sent me from Okinawa, Japan.  I can tell just by reading his emails that he is a real pen junkie, and was kind enough to pick up and send me several pens to try out.

Bryan mentioned that this Swim Gel was one of his favorites, and I can see why.  It is very comfortable to hold and to write with, and performs decently to boot.  I put it in the same category as the Pilot G-2 and Uni-Ball Signo 207.  It is a well made, solid all-around pen that just gets the job done.  I think the G-2 writes a little better, but if you have used an 0.5mm 207 before, then you have a good idea of how the Swim Gel writes.

Big thanks again to Bryan for sending me these pens.  Look for more reviews from this group in the near future.

Review: Pentel Slicci 0.4mm Sky Blue

I have been on the Pentel Slicci bandwagon early and often, but I haven't really explored different colors and tip sizes like I have been doing with my other two favorite pens, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C and Uni-Ball Signo DX.  But now that the 0.4mm width is available, I have been adding to my Slicci arsenal frequently, including this nice Sky Blue.  This review, and other Slicci reviews I have done, all pretty much say the same thing - the performance of this pen is about as perfect as it gets, at least for me.  The only negative is that the width of the barrel is a bit skinny, so hopefully one day there will be additional options in the Slicci line (like a multi-pen for example) that will address this issue.

One can dream, right?

Get Social with The Pen Addict

I have enjoyed playing around with the various social media sites on the internet recently, and I am going to try my best to use the sites I'm on better, and more frequently.  I keep my FriendFeed widget on the sidebar with quick links to all of them, but if you want to follow or friend me on any of the main sites I use, here are the direct links:

Plurk - I use this a lot for just general chit-chat with friends, status updates, video and picture links, etc.  It took a while to get used to the layout, but I really like the threaded format.

Twitter - I have been tweeting mostly blog updates, but I think I am going to start a pen log and more on Twitter.

Flickr - All of my review photos plus many more extra shots live here.  I'm usually pretty quick to respond to any comments on my photostream.

A few others I use a bit are Delicious for general bookmark tagging for stuff I may want to circle back around to at some point, and Last.fm, which I scrobble to, but I'm not necessarily super active on the site itself.