This awesome clock is not only streamlined and retro but features a fabulous countdown flip section. Countdown to 33 different occasions like She’s Back (or He’s Back), Baby’s Due, School’s Out, Reunion,The Big Night, and many others. Currently on sale at the MCA Store online for $49.95.
You know you’re an office supply nerd when you think a good way to spend the weekend is to do a highlight head-to-head. Yep. That is me. I pulled out all the highlighter tools I have to see which ones I liked best.
In the pile:
The industry standard for highlighting is the yellow so first I wanted to see which yellow looked the best. I was a little disappointed by how light the NPW neon pencil was. I really want to embrace pencil highlighters but I’ll definitely have to keep looking in regards to yellow pencil highlighters as this one left me wanting. Poppin’s Thin Highlighters had a bright clean neon yellow I was quite happy with. The Sanford Accent looks more like a yellow orange but I have to wonder just how old the marker is. The Sharpie Accent mini was an acceptable yellow but the Platinum Preppy and Poppin Thin Highlighters had the best yellow color, IMHO.
When I started looking at the colors (and I did not have a full range of colors for every brand) I ended up really liking most of the colors in the Poppin set. I still think purple is an awfully dark color to highlight but it would work well for underlining or otherwise marking a passage in a book or notes.
In the NPW pencils, I think the orange was the most effective highlighter color. The pink and green work pretty well too. I definitely prefer the other colors in the pencil highlighters to the yellow.
When tested over various writing tools, using highlighters with pen or pencil is a fine balance. Ink that dries to a water resistant finish work best with the marker highlighters. The reason I’m so keen to find a good pencil highlighter set is that they can be used over less water resistant inks like fountain pen ink and they are less inclined to bleed through in books or textbooks.
Surprisingly, Marvy Le Pens, which are not particularly water resistant, held up well to the highlighters. The Sakura Pigma Micron and Uni Jetstream also did well with all the various highlighters. The Staedtler Triplus did well with everything but the Sharpie and Stanford Accents. And pencil performs with wet and dry highlighters. My Retro 51 Rollerball is not highlighter-friendly.
The NPW neon pencils (from Target) came in a set of four in an acetate box. I found them on clearance for a few dollars.
The Sharpie Accent Minis came in a set of four on a blister pack at my local Office Depot. This particular set was in their clearance bins up front so I got them for about $3. While I love the idea of being able to attach them to a keychain or something, I never do so they just end up being really short highlighters that fall to the bottom of my pen box.
The Platinum Preppy highlighter is a refillable highlighter. It uses the Platinum ink cartridges and I believe the tip can be replaced as well. I like that its reusable and refillable and I could probably even use my bottled Noodlers Firefly ink an syringe fill the cartridge. Its one of my favorites because of this. Highlighter is $2.50, set of three refill cartridges is $2.50 and replacement tips are $1.65 for a package of two. The Platinum Preppy Highlighter is available in five colors: yellow, green, orange, red and blue. A set of all five available highlighter colors is $12.50.
The Poppin Thin Highlighters are available in boxes of 12 for each color or an assorted box with 2 of each color. $10 per dozen.
For more about highlighter options, check out the Highlighter Round-Up, The History of the Highlighter, Office Max Liquid Highlighters and the Kaweco Highlighter Pen.
Now, for the giveawayI have a set of six Poppin Thin Highlighters — one of each color — available to one lucky reader. Just tell me what you like to highlight to be entered to win.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, October 25, 2013. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Saturday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 30 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money.
DISCLAIMER: Some items were sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens and Poppin for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
It’s shown in just about every glamour shot of an office or desk but I’m not sure I ever pointed out where you could find the iconic Fliqlo screensaver. Its available for Macs (up to Mountain Lion) and for Windows and it’s free.
While I’ve always been attracted to the look of the Rhodia pencils, I never bought one. I guess I’d assumed it was all looks and little quality performance. Consider this a case of judging a pencil by its flashy looks before actually having used it.
The pencil features a sloping triangular shape similar to one of my favorite pencils, the Faber-Castell 2001. The orange paint on the exterior has a matte sheen, not a shiny gloss. It reminds me slightly of the texture of the new Field Notes covers, not rubbery per se, but indescribably matte. The wood is linden wood and has been dyed a stunning black to match the black metallic ferrule and matching black eraser. The logo is stamped in black foil on all three sides of the pencil but its quite understated at about 1/2″ wide.
The Rhodia is a standard HB (#2) pencil and I admit to being surprised at how smooth it was on paper. I ended up grabbing my Blackwing Pearl for comparison and their performance on paper was quite comparable. The Pearl was a little bit darker on paper and a tiny bit smoother on the paper.
As for the eraser, its adequate but when compared with my favorite Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser, there’s really no comparison. It makes me wish the Rhodia pencil skipped the eraser cap altogether and just had a dipped orange finish at the end.
Overall, wow. I’m quite impressed with the quality of the writing experience. And the flashy looks are starting to grow on me. The black wood is a particularly appealing detail.
For more reviews, check out A Penchant for Paper, Pencil Revolution and Pencil Talk.
DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by European Paper for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
The gold standard for graphite erasers is the Steadtler Mars Plastic. I’m not sure if its filled with unicorn horn powder or what but I’ve never found a better eraser. So I was wondering if I could figure out a way to make a replacement eraser for my Palomino Blackwings. It turns out, I can.
You’ll need:
The end of a Mars eraser is just about the same width as the Blackwing eraser so I just needed to slice off an similar width piece and then trim the excess. Then slide your newly created eraser into the clamp and slide it into the ferrule.
The new white eraser is a little flimsier than the black/pink/colored erasers that you can buy to fit but it erases much better so I’m willing to accept its shortcomings for better erasing power. One Stadetler Mars eraser can easily make refills for about a dozen pencils.
(Pictured above: Hallmark Address Book, Leuchtturm Pen & Pencil Loop, US Mail Stamp, G. Lalo notecard and Letter Ledger)
This may seem like an arcane topic in 2013 but I think paper address books are still handy and, that if you don’t have one, its not a bad idea to start one.
Why? Digital data can get corrupted, lost, or inaccessible due to disaster (natural or otherwise) so having all your really important contact information in a paper form can prove hugely useful in a time of crisis (be it hard drive failure, mobile phone loss or power outage).
A paper address book can also be a repository for shared contacts like Great Aunt Sally, the family physician and even your alarm company and credit card 800 numbers. It seems antiquated but sometimes the safest place to store sensitive data is in a book on your shelf. After having my house broken into twice, calling all those credit card companies and banks was easier because a lot of the info was in my address book and/or planner.
When traveling, its nice to keep a small address book so that you can send postcards to folks without having to find an Internet connection.
If, God forbid, anything untoward happened to you, a paper address book would be an easy place for a spouse or loved one to start to access your accounts and contacting people. Think of it as an ICE (in case of emergency) file or as my friend Chery darkly calls hers ICID (in case I die).
I find that addressing Christmas cards is a perfect time to review my paper address book and make sure that all my friends and family addresses are up to date. I also update phone numbers and email addresses. Then, when I sit down to handwrite addresses, I don’t have to have my computer open. I can have a quiet, tech-free afternoon handwriting my cards.
So, where can you find a paper address book these days?
Do you use a paper address book? Do you have a favorite?
This week I watched a well-dressed, articulate co-worker scratch out some notes in her on-trend, black Moleskine with a G2. For all intents and purposes, her set-up rivals any of the pen and paper bloggers out there though she is not a pen geek. When I looked at the writing, I was shocked at how awkward and unrefined her writing was. I didn’t expect her to have text book-perfect handwriting but she is fashionable, intelligent lady and I had always assumed her penmanship would matched her outward appearance. Instead, her writing made me wonder if she was a serial killer.
My handwriting is not as neat as it could be and seeing her writing makes me think I should continue to focus on improving my writing. In this day and age where emails and text messages are the most common means of communication, handwriting can still color your perception. Or worse, could color someone else’s perception about you. I don’t think its a good career move to have handwriting that makes you look dangerous or unbalanced. Unless that’s the look you are going for.
There are some excellent books to help adults improve their writing. Check out my previous post on handwriting recommendations.
