Current Addictions

The March Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:49:00 +0000

The March Carnival of Pen, Pencil, and Paper is hosted at Notes in a Book. Although I don't have a Filofax, I especially enjoyed Time Management with a Filofax. It's a super informative post and I will be keeping those tips in mind when I update my DIY Planner. =)

Also, it's currently Spring Break for me, so expect a review soon!

Pilot Coleto 5 Color - Blue Black, Aqua Blue, Apple Green, Cherry Pink, Apricot Orange 0.4mm

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Sorry about the quality of these images! I was in a rush to get this post out before midterms overwhelm me!

Product: Pilot Coleto 5 Color Body Clear with 0.4mm cartridges in Blue Black, Aqua Blue, Apple Green, Cherry Pink, and Apricot Orange

Where to buy: jstationary.com for $3.75 for the body and $1.80 for the cartridges

Color thoughts:

Blue Black - Really like this color. It can be used for notetaking and looks really unique.
Aqua Black - I thought this color was going to be a lot lighter and closer to the color of water (like.. sky-blue-ish since it reflects the color of the sky...) but it's more like what people portray water really deep in the ocean to look like. I was surprised by the darkness of the pen and now close it was to a dark blue.
Apple Green - Very cute color! Reminds me of apples. =) It's a really soothing and happy color, but somewhat light so I wouldn't want to write large paragraphs with this. Too much eye strain...
Cherry Pink - So when I got this pen, I thought that it would be a "Cherry Blossom Pink"... Next time I will pay more attention to the actual name of the pen... That being said, it's my favorite color! It pops off the page and it's really pretty. I've been somewhat traumatized by red pens but I can use this color without wanting to run away screaming or hide under my bed.
Apricot Orange - Was kind of disappointing... =( I thought that it would be a really unique color but it looks pretty much the same as my Orange Signo DX. If you squint, you can say that the Signo DX is somewhat paler, but that's about it...

General thoughts:
This was, for me, a really expensive pen... and I'm kind of sad that I'm a bit disappointment by it. It's really picky about not only what type of paper it wants to write on, but also which section. The pens wrote fine without skipping for the first half of the page and then started to skip like crazy for the later half. Then I flipped the page and they wrote beautifully again. I'm not sure I've ever seen this behavior in pens... Ever. How weird! Also, my Aqua Blue skips a lot so I'm probably going to have to try cleaning the tip or something to encourage it to write smoothly. I notice myself holding the pen somewhat diagonally to try to get ink to flow smoothly. Because I usually hold my pen so that it's pretty much perpendicular to the paper, the new position puts a lot of strain on my hands so I have to take a break every 10 or so minutes. I also notice scratching with these pens that I don't notice in my other 0.4mm tips but I don't really mind that. Also, the ink is water... soluble. I usually don't care about how my pens react to water, but for the Coleto, if even one drop of water gets on the page, the ink dissolves. It's horrible. I am in constant fear of my cheat sheet dissolving because I started crying during the test. Just kidding, but it would be annoying if I accidentally spilled something on an important document I decided to write with the Coleto.

Other than the skipping problems (which are really frustrating!) and water solubility, this is a really fun pen. I love the variety of colors and the ability to customize it. The tops of the cartridges are the plungers so you can easily see which color you want to use. The plastic barrel seems somewhat fragile, but is smaller than I expected for a multipen barrel, which is great since I prefer pens with smaller barrel diameters. I also really like the grip.

What I use it for: MULTICOLOR NOTES! YAY! See below for a cheat sheet I did for a midterm.

Pros:

Large selection of colors and tip sizes
Plunger is the top of the cartridge so can see which slot belongs to which color
Barrel is smaller than typical multipens (BIC) and the grip is pretty good
5 pens in 1!
Really fun to write with.

Cons:

Picky about paper. Lots of skipping. =(
NOT WATERPROOF!
Really expensive! The cartridges are also really small so I doubt they'd last for long.

Recommend?: Probably.

My DIY Planner!

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:52:00 +0000

One of the items that I can't live without this semester is my planner! It helps me keep all of my events, tests, homeworks, things I need to do, and basically, my whole life organized. Also, since I made it myself, I feel obligated to use it. It's great!

I got the idea of making my own planner from DIYPlanner, which is a great site that has pre-made templates for your planner and advice on how to get yourself organized. It's really useful, but I have to admit, I don't really understand most of the "Organizing Your Life" articles there. The only thing I really know about "Getting Stuff Done" is that my Gateway (to Engineering...) professor has a system like it where he goes through and deletes all emails that he's read or replied to to keep his inbox uncluttered. Unfortunately, I'm a hoarder, so that method didn't work so well for me...

Anyway, it's made from two pieces of cardboard (from The Body Shop, if you didn't notice - they have very beautiful boxes) with plastic over them to keep the water out and to make a makeshift folder for slipping in small pieces of paper, like my schedule. The very pretty border around the cover is actually masking tape... used for taping the sheet protector to the cardboard. The pen loop is also made from masking tape and was used to hold my Signo DX 0.38mm in Purple. I use "was" because the pen holder fell off a couple of days ago. Will have to make a new one... Preferably not from masking tape. The whole planner is held together by two pieces of ribbon, Krazy-Glued to the back cover. The idea was that I could tie the two pieces into a very pretty ribbon to hold the planner closed... except I didn't make the pieces long enough. So, instead, I stuck a piece of velcro to each ribbon and it closes that way. Not very pretty, but hey, it works! In the planner, I have three main sections: Calendar, Research, and Misc. Everything is held together by binder rings for easy removal.

The "first page" of my planner. It includes my contact information in the form of a shipping label, also from the Body Shop box. I also used leftover sheet protector to make a pocket that's uh... also held together by tape. I'm surprised that my planner hasn't fallen apart by now. Also included is a small sheet with the office hours of all of my professors. It's suppose to remind me to study since it's the first thing I see when I open my planner. So far, that plan hasn't worked so well...

The first page of the Calendar section includes a year view (12 months on one page) and then I have two pages for each month. I write important dates like tests and problem set due dates on the small column on the left. I somewhat color code what I need to do - tests are in orange, quizzes and repeating events are in purple. But nowadays, everything goes. I really like this 2 pages-a-month layout because there's enough room to write in the boxes. My friend complained that she thinks the boxes are too small, but I don't write the problem numbers for homework (none of my classes assign problems from the book - the teachers/TAs always write the problems), so it's fine.

At the end of my Calendar section, I have a couple of small sheets of paper (taken from the Sheraton Hotel where I stayed for the EWB International Conference) that are hole-punched. They have a small cut so that each sheet can be transferred to different places easily without opening the binder clips. They're used for pretty random stuff. I think initially, I planned to use them for homework - I could insert one of them in the middle of the calendar and write the problems I needed to do on them.

After my Calendar section, I have my Research section, where I write down all of the notes/questions I have. It's not pictured because it's just all lined paper, so nothing that interesting. I really like this section because I can keep my notes organized. Before, I used pieces of scrap paper and stuck them in my lab notebook, but I'd have a really hard time finding them afterward. This way, I have everything in the same place and can refer back if needed. Also, the pages are removable, so I can just remove the page with the stuff I need (like ingredients for MES Maintenance Media) and take it with me instead of jotting everything down on a separate piece of paper. The pages are numbered and there's an index in the back, consisting of topics and the pages where they appear for easy reference. The index is really helpful and once I finish my current lab notebook, I plan to implement one there too.

The next section is Misc, where I have my To Do lists, pieces of lined paper, and blank paper. Shown above is a To Do list. I really like this section for the same reason I like my Research section - having everything in one place. I used to use either notepads or post-its for To Do lists and I'd always lose them or start a new To Do list before finishing up the other one, so I'd end up with a million lists. It's great to have to look in only one place to see what I need to do.

Also in the Misc section, as mentioned above, are lined paper for jotting down random stuff. The illegible handwriting on the left page is what my handwriting looks like when I'm writing quickly and don't have anything to lean the planner against as I write... They're notes for a SURF poster presentation that I went to for Bio extra credit. We had to hand in a photocopy of our notes... Anyway, to the right is something that should look very familiar to followers of my blog - my Pilot Frixion review! I tend to write my pen reviews in my planner because I'm usually writing them when I'm on the go and I like to keep them all in one place. I also have a list of all of my pens there too.

The back page of my planner contains an envelope with small sheets of paper inside. Sometimes when I'm outside, I have a thought about something but don't have my journal to write in. It's really frustrating when I come back to my dorm and couldn't remember that really interesting/annoying/sad/etc thing I wanted to write about. That's where the pieces of paper come in! I can jot down my thoughts and then either reference them or paste them into my journal later on. I also have some reinforcements because every binder ring-bound book needs them! The small cardboard pieces are an attempt to cover up/hold the ribbon in place... Except you can see that some Krazy Glue has leaked through...

All in all, I'm particularly proud of my planner, especially since this is the first crafts project I've done that's not "glue the moon to the sky!" or something. I feel so grown up and inventive! It also didn't take that long and was a lot of fun. If people want, I can also post a tutorial up, but that probably will end up being after midterms (which start next week! I'm avoiding studying for them, if you haven't noticed).

JStationery Haul

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:48:00 +0000

As promised yesterday, here are pictures of my JStationery order!

I got the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Multipen 5 Color Body in Clear Silver along with 0.4mm cartridges of ブルーブラック (Blue Black), アクアブルー (Aqua Blue), アップルグリーン (Apple Green), チエリーピンク (Cherry Pink), アプリコットオレンジ (Apricot Orange). It's so much fun to play with! It's also my first multipen ever, so it's super cool!

I also bought two Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4mm in both Tomato Red and Sapphire Blue. I love the Tomato Red color! I needed a red pen but I was really reluctant to get one because, as a student, red is somewhat of a traumatizing color for me. The last pen pictured is the Pentel Slicci 0.3m m in Purple. I've never actually tried a 0.3mm tip pen before, but I think it's a little too fine for me. =( I do like that it feels pretty sturdy though!

Expect reviews of these pens to come soon!

Giveaway at Notebook Stories!

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:31:00 +0000

Wow - NotebookStories has been having a lot of giveaways! Unfortunately, I've never won a giveaway once in my life... But it doesn't hurt to try!

This time, Notebook Stories is giving away a Tom Bihn Field Journal, which looks really cool. Enter here!

JStationery Review

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:22:00 +0000

After I woke up today, I found an email from Columbia Mail Services telling me that I had a package. I went to pick it up and to my surprise, it was an envelope from JStationery! I had given up on ever receiving anything from them since the crappiness of USPS (delivered the package to the wrong zip code and then denied ever seeing the package when I contacted them...) and our mail center (the first month of the semester, it apparently took our mail center one week to process a package when the site promised 24 hours) caused the first package to get lost in the mail. Of course, I was horribly upset that after waiting for a month, I saw no package from JStationery so I contacted their customer service.

JStationery doesn't have an email address or a phone number on their website, so I was unsure if anybody would actually reply to my email. To my surprise, one day later, Ray emailed me back telling me that they would reship the package. Yay! I was surprised at the speed at which they solved my problem and how stress free it is. I'm used to how Columbia deals with problems... which is basically either denying that anything happened or shuffling you off to someone else. So thank you JStationery for making a college student's life less stressful, especially during midterm season!

I am looking forward to buying from JStationery again. Although the choices are very limited and the website could be better designed (if I didn't know people who have bought from JStationery, I would have avoided the site because it doesn't look very professional...), the prices are comparable or cheaper than other online Japanese stores. And the customer service, which in my opinion is the most important, is wonderful!

Website: http://www.jstationery.com/

Pros:

GREAT customer service - solved my problem quickly and efficiently
Comparable or cheaper (pens that are usually $3 on other sites are $2.80 here)
Free shipping over $20

Cons:

Not very professional website
Stuff restocked very slowly
Does not give tracking number except if you use PayPal (I think... I might be wrong, but I don't want to risk it)

Recommend?: YES! I would definitely shop at JStationery again. =)

I got so caught up in talking about JStationery that I haven't talked about what I got yet! I got some nice pens, so will post about them tomorrow.

Signo DX 0.38 - Orange

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:23:00 +0000

Product: Uni-Ball Signo DX (UM-151) Gel Ink Pen - 0.38 in オレンジ (Orange)

Where to buy: jetpens.com for $2.25

Color thoughts: So bright and pretty! It's slightly more red than what I would expect orange to look, but I think I prefer this shade a lot more. This is actually the first orange pen I own because I always thought that orange would look really flat and one-dimensional. However this color really pops off the page. I wouldn't use it for long paragraphs of writing because it gets hard to read, but I love it for writing short things!

General thoughts: So I've heard so many great things about the Signo DX line, so I decided to try it out. when I first used it, it put out blobs of ink all over the place - I was using it to write really tiny Japanese for the days of the week in my planner and half of the words were unreadable because of the blobs! However, after using the pen for a while, the blobbing problem lessened. It still appears sometimes, like in the smiley face in my writing sample. It seems to only happen when I hesitant in writing or wait too long to put the pen to the paper. Other than the blobbing problem, I really like this pen. The grip is great and doesn't attract particles like the Zebra Sarasa Clip does. I love the fine tip (for people who have this pen, did you notice that the sticker says .4 オレンジ as opposed to 0.38? I thought that was kind of interesting). This is probably one of the pens that I will use when making cheat sheets! One weird thing that I did notice though is that sometimes I see air bubbles in the ink barrel. How does one get rid of them? They seem to pop up and disappear spontaneously...

What I use it for: Highlighting important sentences or words in my notes when going over them. The orange color really attracts the eye. It's a great alternative to highlighters since some of my highlighters tend to bleed through the paper.

Pros:

Really fine tip
Super bright and pretty color that really catches your attention
Nice solid line
No skipping

Cons:

Ink blobs...
Not good for writing long paragraphs - will tire out eyes when reading
Weird air bubble problem
It doesn't feel as "solid" as the Zebra Sarasa Clip... Maybe because the Signo DX is thinner and thus gives the illusion of fragility?

Recommend?: Yes! It's a great little pen and the color really brightens up my mood. =)

Notebook Stories Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:13:00 +0000

Notebook Stories is having another giveaway! This time, it's one of Michael Riger's notebooks. Read the review and enter here. =)

Sharpie Industrial Marker - Extra Fine

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts! I had a midterm today so spent all week studying for it. I finally have a break... until my next test on Monday! Anyway, I present to you: Sharpie Industrial Marker!

Sharpie Industrial Marker - Extra Fine,

after I attacked it with water and ethanol

Product: Sharpie Industrial Extra Fine (Super Permanent Ink)

Where to buy: Available at Amazon.com - $10.75 for 12 markers (I'm not sure where we bought it though)

General thoughts:
I don't like writing with Sharpies since my handwriting comes out looking really horrible (see Exhibit A - my writing sample above). I'm not sure how other people do it (maybe there's something wrong with the way I hold my pen? I don't tend to hold my pens slightly diagonal like most people do) but I just can't get my handwriting to look good with a Sharpie. There's also the fact that it bleeds through the paper like crazy - I like to be able to use the other side of the page! I'd much rather use Sharpies to draw than write.

However, pens can't write on plastic, so we're stuck using markers in the lab. We used to use normal Sharpie permanent markers, but they didn't do well with ethanol... The ink would run like crazy and we'd either end up with a really smudged label or one that we accidentally wiped off with the kim wipe. It got to be so annoying that one of the grad students bought (with lab money) a box of Sharpie Industrial markers made especially for laboratory use (and industrial and commercial, but who cares about those right?). Sharpie states that they "remain permanent under most chemical washes and extreme heat and steam."

Water/Ethanol tests: I only did these two since we spray stuff down with 70% ethanol all the time and water was pretty much a default test. Also, these two are pretty much all that matters - I mean, if you drop your 50mL tube into formaldehyde, I think you have more important stuff to worry about than the permanence of ink...

Water (dH2O) - I soaked a kim wipe with dH2O and wiped it across the first paragraph. As you can see, the ink didn't run at all! Yay!
70% Ethanol - The marker didn't do as well with ethanol, but I admit that I did use a lot more ethanol (soaked a kim wipe in it) than I usually do in lab (I usually just spray the bottle). The ink spread out a bit, but it's still legible. On plastic, I can just use a dry kim wipe to gently wipe away the smudges so that only the original text remain.

What I use it for: Labeling stuff in lab and writing on kim wipes.

Pros:

Permanent! Waterproof! Kind of ethanol-proof!
It's a Sharpie. Everyone loves Sharpies!

Cons:

Bad for ordinary writing... (Feathering, bleed-through, etc on Staples Copy Paper) But who really uses Sharpies for that? I like to draw with them!

Recommend?: Definitely if you want something to be ultra-permanent! ...Actually, what can wash Sharpie marks off...?

Image courtesy of gabpauto.com

Giveaway at Notebook Stories!

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:09:00 +0000

NotebookStories is giving away Brandbook.de notebooks here. There's also a review so be sure to check that out! =)

Carnival of Pen, Pencil & Paper #18

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:47:00 +0000

The 18th Carnival of Pen, Pencil, & Paper has been posted! Head over to Notebook Stories to check it out.

There's a lot of great posts and I especially enjoyed the new Artworks category!

Pilot Frixion Color-Pencil-Like Gel Ink Pen - 0.7mm in Ultramarine, Purplish-Red, and Cherry Blossom Pink

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:12:00 +0000

Product: Pilot Frixion Color-Pencil-Like Gel Ink Pen - 0.7mm in Ultramarine, Purplish-Red, and Cherry Blossom Pink

Where to buy: jetpens.com for $1.95

Color thoughts:

Ultramarine: A really dark navy-ish color. I really like it!
Purplish-Red: I don't like red pens. Nor do I really like purple pens. Purplish-Red is okay - I'm not particularly fond of it, nor do I really hate it. I might buy the color again since it's somewhat unique.
Cherry Blossom Pink: A really cute color with a really cute name! Who doesn't want a pen in Cherry Blossom Pink? Actually, I'm not that fond of pink pens either, but Cherry Blossom Pink is just so pretty! It looks a lot lighter in the pictures than it actually does.

General thoughts: Actually, I came upon these pens when I was searching for a Christmas present for my PI (guess what he got for Christmas!). He saw me annotating my notes with colored lead (which is horrible in comparison to these pens) and wanted to know where I got them because he had wanted to use something erasable to grade his students' tests. Apparently, if he scribbled out a grade to change it (and give them a higher grade, according to him), his students always think that he changed their grade from a higher one to a lower one and would complain. Anyway, so I set out to find colored lead for him, but all of the reviews I've read were pretty horrible and didn't erase well. Luckily, I found these Frixion pens! They're really fun to play with, but I wasn't too fond of the ink flow or how easily the eraser gets dirty. Read the writing sample above for more on what I think.

What I use it for: I use these pens to write the sections on the margins of my notes in order to organize them. (That was a really horribly structured sentence - good thing I'm not an English major!) For Biology, because we have a lot of handouts that the professor references, I use Ultramarine to write the handout number in the relevant section of my notes. I use Purplish-Red for major categories (ex. Cell Structure) and Cherry Blossom Pink for subcategories (ex. Cytoplasm).

Pros:

ERASABLE!!!
The eraser on the end of the cap as opposed to the end of the barrel (so that the eraser is readily available if you post cap onto the barrel)
Colors are vibrant and not faded
Heat sensitive ink - how cool!
The "click" the cap makes when it's in place. It makes me feel like the cap is secure! And also, it's just a fun sound.

Cons:

If "eraser" is dirty, will leave smudges on paper
Very inconsistent ink flow
The sometimes heavy ink flow makes the lines laid down look wider than 0.7mm
Heat sensitive ink - think about what a nightmare it would be if your notes suddenly disappeared during the summer! (or if your Housing Services decides that it would be fun to crank the heat up to torture you)
No clip - although pen will not roll off (there's a slight protrusion on the cap), you can't clip it to anything
Solid barrel - I like to see how much ink is left!

Recommend?: Maybe - not for everyday use but for the fun and coolness factor. People will be jealous you have an erasable pen that works!

Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen - 0.4 mm - Tea Brown Review

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:39:00 +0000

(Image Courtesy of JetPens.com)

First of all, I just wanted to say that I am addicted to pens. There, I've admitted it. It's a very new addiction for me; one that I don't think will go away as easily as some of my other addictions (like making my own notebooks, which lasted... 2 notebooks.) Pens are used in everyday life and there's nothing comparable to the joy of having a great smooth pen to write your notes with.

Shown above is the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen with a 0.4mm tip in Tea Brown. I never thought that I'd ever like a brown colored pen since it reminds me of less pleasant brown things that you are very likely to step on when walking the streets of NYC. However, I really like this color - it's somewhat hard to describe, but it's somewhat like tree bark but with a little bit of gray and red mixed in. Viewing in the image on my computer, I can tell that the hint of red doesn't come through, which is a pity because the red gives the ink a very nice warm feeling.

The pen skips a little, but I haven't encountered too much blobbing. For a 0.4mm tip, it's not very scratchy, unlike my Signo DX's (0.38mm), which is really great. I wrote up the review (which I'm not currently following...) on my new (!) Moleskine Large Ruled Notebook and I noticed that if I run my fingers over the ink a couple (5...? actually that's a lot) of lines later, the ink still smudges, meaning that the drying time is pretty high. However, it's not something that you would normally notice though, unless you were actually looking for it. I'm really glad that the ink is so vibrant and yet it doesn't bleed through the page (I've always been hesitant to use pens other than ballpoints since I'm scared to death of seeing bleed-through).

I really like the size and grip of the pen. It feels really solid. One slight problem is that something about the material of the grip attracts dust like crazy. =( It's a little annoying, but doesn't detract much from the joy of writing with the pen. The push clip on the pen is one of the things people seem crazy about, but I don't really get it sine I've never felt the need to clip the pen to anything. It's pretty cool how the clip can be pushed and it seems to have a really tight hold on anything I clip it to.

Along with the writing sample, I've also posted a slide from my Quantitative Physiology II class. I really like taking notes with this pen since my professor likes giving us PDFs with 3 slides per page and lines next to it for us to write in. I really hate that format since the lines are so bold and there's no room to write on the slide themselves. However, since the tip of the Sarasa is so small, it's pretty easy to actually write on the slide. I could have written smaller, but I like to see my notes without the use of a magnifying glass. =)

I'd definitely recommend the Sarasa and I'm looking forward to trying the other colors! I also bought one in Viridian Green that I haven't tried yet. You can get these from $1.50-$2.00 (depending on color and tip) from jetpens.com.

Writing sample

Quantitative Physiology II notes - we're learning about neurons

Greetings!

noreply@blogger.com (Arisu) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Hello! Wow, I don't know what to say! This is my first blog ever, unless you count the mandatory blog I have to do for my Japanese class (which is actually really fun but it's all in Japanese so it's limited by what I know how to say... Or how great I am at googling Japanese terms.) Well, I'm currently a Junior in Columbia University: SEAS studying Biomedical Engineering. I'm Pre-Med and hope to become a Pediatrician. =)

My reason for starting this blog is to just have a space where I can review my current addictions (hence the name!) and to chronicle the daily life of a Pre-Med Biomedical Engineering student who pretty much lives in Mudd, the (only) Engineering building on campus. Thus, this blog is the only way I can connect to the outside world. =( Just kidding! I have a social life... ...Really.