chillax

Howsup all

Today I make my reappearance.

Yesterday we celebrated by watching The Dark Knight Rises (spoiler: Hermione dies. But seriously, how good was Anne Hathaway's condescending look!!). Then we played pool in #YOLO style. You know I've never used a hashtag before in my life because I came to the not-so-shocking realisation that nobody apart from people I know in real life actually give a fuck what I want to say about whatever is #trending.
Oh and today morning I watched several episodes of QI, then I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's (ladies, contain your orgasms). After that I set out with the intention of doing Mod C but ended up doing ??? instead until dinner.

Anyways today (Friday) I went to Officeworks to a) find a new desk and b) go find some of those hyped up pens and compare it all to my beloved BIC Ultra Round Stic Grip. I shall do some comparisons and you shall enjoy them. Then you have my permission to die.

Choosing a pen for HSC

BIC Ultra Round Stic Grip

Price: I bought them pack of 8 for $1 (12.5c each) on clearance, now they're retailing for between $2-3 I didn't check (25-37.5c each).

The pen is a ballpoint pen with "normal" ink, as in it does not have gel ink. Personally I prefer this normal ink because gel ink makes it feel slippery, not smooth. It's like the difference between a newly resurfaced road, and a icy road. One is jizz and one is "oh bollocks".
It is a very smooth pen compared to any other "normal" pen (as in those that are worth less than $1 each pen), but still retains enough resistance so that it doesn't fly everywhere about the paper. Hence, it needs a bit more pressure than the other pens (but not as much as pens like Bic Cristal).
Another downside is that it's a thin pen. Thin pens are pretty much impossible to hold properly. This is why I bought a squishy grip thing (brand Fooshy I think), which go for like 10 for $2, so a solid investment if you don't like how thin your pen feels.
Aesthetically it's not a very impressive pen - it looks about how much it costs. The plastic can be described as "flimsy" in that it's very light (not that it'll bend in your hand). I personally don't mind a light pen but I know some that may.
Unfortunately these are getting difficult to find in Australia for some reason.

The inkflow is less consistent than the other pens - I find this allows me to control the density(? whatever word to mean how dark the line is) of my strokes better when I feel like it, but I really cannot be bothered doing about 70% of the time. So in exams my writing just goes to shit but whatever.
So here's the same stuff with the squishy grip installed:

Papermate InkJoy (700RT 1.0M)

Price: Pack of 2 for $4.71 from Officeworks ($2.36 each).

This pen is great and deserves the praises sung for it.
It is closest of all the pens I have ever tried to being truly frictionless. The ink that comes out isn't really gel, it's still normal ink. It requires almost no pressure at all - the weight of the pen on the paper is (almost) enough to draw out a consistent line of ink. It is the only pen out of the three that will make a mark when grabbed by the other end, and the tip dragged across the paper under its own weight. This is slightly invalid though because the InkJoy weighs considerably more but whatever.
This is NOT recommended for heavy pressers - the inkflow turns fugly and it's pretty hard to control the pen (I'm not a heavy presser but I tried and it goes balls wonky with the InkJoy). I think hard pressers need just a little bit of resistance to keep everything in check. Like a moderator in a nuclear reactor.
The pen grip is on the thin side though. Not as thin as the naked Ultra Round Stic Grip, but also not thin enough to get a squishy grip on. I find it comfortable to hold with the tripod grip (not properly depicted in the InkJoy picture because I think I was having trouble pressing iPhone's camera with one hand. All the other pen pics show a pretty good tripod grip), so it's not uncomfortably thin. It's like a "plus size model" who is skinnier than average girls but less skinny than the really fucked up bones and skin ones.

It's a really solid feeling pen, and the weight is... nice I guess. It's like how the weight of blankets on you help you sleep at night LOL. It's a weight that you can feel but it's quite comfortable and quite natural.
It's also quite a sleek looking pen. In both pictures I managed to chop off the clicker but that's made of a metal with a chrome finish too. It's an elegant design.
However, the ink flow may be a little TOO smooth for day to day writing. It might save you a bit of energy in the English exams but the lack of friction might send your writing to crapland.

Uni Jetstream

Price: Pack of 4 for $15.59 ($3.90 each). That's fucking twice the price of InkJoy.

A birdie told me that on Instagram people also said the Uni Jetstream was good, so I snapped one up as well. Because I don't use Instagram because I can't be fucked sharing photos :L
It's got an ink more similar to the consistency of gel. Now as gel pen users (the more astute ones at least) would notice, when you lift the pressure off the page slightly between letters, there could be a slight smudging or a trail thing because of the increased viscosity of the ink. I don't like this, but as I will mention later, this will not be a problem for hard pressers.
It is a very smooth inkflow though, and has a decent amount of resistance that I think would suit hard pressers. I'm personally a relatively light presser and I find the level of friction between the paper and the pen, contrasted with the uber easy flow of the ink, disconcerting for my lighter strokes.
This is the thickest of all the pens and is only a little bit smaller in diameter than the squishy grip on my BIC. Hence its very easy to grab and nobody should have any trouble forming the tripod grip with this.

It's a more futuristic looking pen than the other two, so it's good if you're shallow like that. Despite how it looks, it's still pretty damn light (not as light as the Round Stic Grip though), but definitely much lighter than the InkJoy.
Judging by its price and it's very debatable advantage over Inkjoy, I wouldn't really recommend you go buy this.


A tout le monde (I hope that means what I think it means)

In summary,
The BIC is a cap pen, while the InkJoy and Jetstream are click retractable pens.
The InkJoy is great for light pressers who also take the time to form the letters properly. The Ultra Round Stic Grip is good for medium to heavy pressers, The Jetstream is good for heavy pressers but costs a dicktonne and it's probably not worth it.
The lightest by weight is the Ultra Round Stic Grip, then Jetstream, then InkJoy. The list in decreasing amont of friction is in the same order.
The Ultra Round Stic Grip is dirt cheap, the InkJoy is getting pretty expensive but affordable, and Jetstream is a little ridiculous.


Personally I think I will stay with the Round Stic Grip for the HSC because I feel that my writing style is most suited to it.
For others I would definitely recommend the InkJoy, because learning how to hold your pen properly so that you don't press so hard you can see the imprint of your essay 5 pages later is key to not getting tired over the 2 hours of English.
I managed to change the way I hold my pen in about 2-3 weeks sometime in year 11, to the proper tripod grip and it has worked wonders. I don't feel any strain in my hand or wrist at all over the 2h of English spam, nor does it hurt after. This is a combination of pen ergonomics and the fact that I handwrite my practise essays.

Vaish Mahen says (11:05 PM)
HAHAHA YOU SOUND LIKE AN AD
I MANAGED TO CHANGE MY PEN GRIP IN TWO WEEKS ONLY AND IVE NEVER LOOKED BACK
ITS GREAT
I FEEL MORE ENERGETIC
I GET OUT OF THE HOUSE MORE
ALL MY FRIENDS ARE ENVIOUS

Perhaps in the next post I shall detail how the tripod grip works, and also how I managed to get myself to change. Also I'll address the often poorly tackled issues of nosebleeds and hiccups.