eraserhead 2.0

Just a quick update:

I went to my local art supply store today and got this, the Pentel GraphGear 500 with 0.5mm lead. (I deliberately went to the architecture/drafting section, where they sell all the weird rulers, figuring there I would be among my people.) It's pretty nice. It made suffering through the rest of my Biostats problem set a relative pleasure. (I shouldn't overstate things. I finished the problem set. Period.) The pencil feels good (despite having a non-padded metal grip), the balance is satisfying, and the eraser and lead are of nice quality. I would have preferred a metal body (while the weight is overall substantial, only grip and tip are metal, while the body itself is made of plastic), we can't always have everything we want, at least not in this price range. Or, I guess I could spring for the Pentel GraphGear 1000, which has an aluminum body through and through, and must be nicer if for no other reason than 1000 is twice as much as 500, right? MATH.

If I'm willing to splurge beyond the Pentel GraphGear 1000--and I'm not sure that I'm totally willing to go here yet, since I do tend to lose things, and I also have clumsy kleptomaniac kids which is why I can't Have Nice Things--I might go this route:

The rOtring 600 Drafting Pencil. I was originally looking at the Uni Kuru Toga Roulette (by the way, if you ever feel like you're a little too fanatically ardent about your pen and pencil choices, go look at the literally THOUSANDS of reviews on JetPens and realize you're not alone) but after hearing a few opinions about how the rotating lead-handling mechanism felt "spongy" and "bouncy" I was like NO THANK YOU MA'AM and turned my gaze towards to rOtring. Again, it's a textured metal grip, which I'm not crazy about--I really don't write as much with pencil as I once did, but I still do want to guard against sore spots and grip fatigue, in case I devolve into pathologic graphomania somehow--but the reviews seem good, and from a purely superficial standpoint, it really does look like a handsome writing implement with a price point to match. Anyway, I'll keep it in mind. I turn 40 in a few weeks, and if I decide to treat myself, maybe I'll go for it.

(Yes, I did say that I would consider treating myself to a mechanical pencil on my 40th birthday. Carry on.)

As I mentioned in the comments section yesterday, we are taking a trip to Japan in July, so if there's some crazy Japanese Hotness Mechanical Pencil (or any kind of Japanese Hotness office supplies of any flavor) that I absolutely need to source while I'm in the country, please do let me know. I know it's a family vacation and we should be visiting temples and eating sushi and doing karaoke or some shit, but hey, let's keep an eye on what's important. How else am I going to source cutting edge retractable click eraser technology except in Tokyo, I ask you? It's not possible. In America, we just have to use those giant pink hard trapezoid erasers like a bunch of savages. I know, it's tragic.

eraserhead

I want to talk about mechanical pencils for a second. No, I don't have many friends, why do you ask?

So I'm in the market for a new mechanical pencil. I would like to use it for math-ish homework, but also for precision line drawing--not so much shading, so a firm fine-ish point would be better. The platonic ideal I have in mind is a pencil I used ages ago as my primary drawing tool, but I've moved literally 6 times in the past 12 years and I can't for the life of me find the one I used to use. (Yes, I've looked. Yes, I only had one.) But here's a description. It was a metal-bodied mechanical pencil, which likely held 0.5mm lead (my preferred note-taking lead in med school). It had a nice weight to it, and though it was a narrow barrel, it had a wider foam rubber grip that made it easier to hold. The grip was SOFT but NON-TEXTURED (I cannot emphasize this enough) so that it relieved grip fatigue but also did not produce any unpleasant pressure points. The hold of the barrel on the lead was firm, so it did not have any unsettling give to it like some tips do (are you familiar with mechanical pencils that have some "bounce" to them when you write? That's some bullshit) and because of this it delivered exquisite control over the line. The eraser was but a nubbin, but it was a dynamo at erasing fine lines, and if you used it judiciously for detail work, it would last for quite a while. I can't remember the brand of this pencil--I want to say it was either a Zebra or Pentel, but neither maker has anything on the market at present that looks quiiiiite like what I'm looking for.

Here are some other pencils I've used in the recent past.

The Bic disposable mechanical pencil. I've used these since college. They're...fine. I'd use it for taking notes that I didn't need to be particularly neat. It wouldn't break my heart to lose them, and so I did, often. But the barrel is a little small and hard, and my hand would get tired often if I used them for prolonged periods. Also, the eraser is shit.

This Pentel twist-erase situation. They're OK. The barrel is nicer (wider, and though the rubberized grip is ribbed, it's not ridged in an way that hurts your hand), and it sports nice long eraser refills. It clicks lead from the top, not like those pencils that have their clickers on the side, where the grip is, like some kind of LUNATIC PENCIL which doesn't understand that THAT'S WHERE YOU HOLD THE PENCIL WHEN YOU WRITE, WHY WOULD YOU PUT THE LEAD ADVANCEMENT BUTTON RIGHT WHERE YOU'RE HOLDING IT TO DO WORK? (Sorry. I have Many Pencil Opinions.) But the lead it comes with is garbage (yes, I know I can swap the lead out) and something with how the mechanism holds the lead it place feels not quite firm, like there's some wobble or give to it. Again, it's OK. I use it to do my stats homework. But I miss my old pencil.

These pencils are garbage, which is why I get them for my kids. (She said lovingly.) They cost $20 for a million of them and they come in that fat lead that is harder to break. I also keep a bunch of them in a jar on the piano, so that kids who come over for chamber music rehearsal can use them to mark up their music. If someone takes or loses these pencils, I could not give less of a shit, but I will not touch them to do my own work. They also have that illogical side lead advancement mechanism, because TRASH.

So I was looking at this pencil (the Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil in 0.5mm), because it looked like it might have some of the features I was looking for, but...I don't know. The eraser is spot on, and in fact makes me think that the pencil in my memory was a Pentel. But the nubbled grip and the textured metal looks...painful. The pocket clip looks kind of high profile, or prone to breakage. And the price tag. I can't remember how much my original Platonic Ideal mechanical cost (and in fact, I might not have purchased it at all in the first place--it's entirely possible I stole it from Joe and just kept it because MARRIAGE) but for upwards of $9, would I be too worried about losing it to use it? Probably I could find it cheaper off Amazon (Amazon does tend to charge a markup for teeny weeny cheaper items that cost more to ship than to buy), but...so lazy. I have also glanced at some of the pencils on JetPens, but some of the nicer ones cost, like, $20-$30 each, so if they're not going to make me breakfast in the morning, they're really going to have to be something special. (Which is not to say I am not open to being convinced--I have a gaping soft spot for office supplies.)

Tell me what pencil I should buy. Thank you for your pity.

tripping to the light linktastic

First off, you guys knew there was virtually no way that I couldn't respond to this Op-Ed in The New York Times from this weekend right?  In case you hadn't read it, a quick excerpt to whet your appetite:

Students who aspire to go to medical school should think about the consequences if they decide to work part time or leave clinical medicine. It’s fair to ask them — women especially — to consider the conflicting demands that medicine and parenthood make before they accept (and deny to others) sought-after positions in medical school and residency. They must understand that medical education is a privilege, not an entitlement, and it confers a real moral obligation to serve.

I recently spoke with a college student who asked me if anesthesiology is a good field for women. She didn’t want to hear that my days are unpredictable because serious operations can take a long time and emergency surgery often needs to be done at night. What she really wanted to know was if my working life was consistent with her rosy vision of limited work hours and raising children. I doubt that she welcomed my parting advice: If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor.

(Italics and bold face I added for emphasis, but the words of the actual article are reproduced verbatim.)  So! Thoughts? I had a few. And I posted them here. I hope this doesn't count as some sort of cop-out substitute for an entry, but as both article probably highlight, the role of a physician parent is fairly busy, and there's only so much time in the day for writing, as much as I might love to do it.

For those somewhat less interested in the issue of out-of-home-working parenthood, here is a video from this weekend. As you can see, Cal went from being somewhat nervous in the water to staging his own underwater Cirque du Soleil.

And finally, remember to check out the awesome JetPens and book giveway in my guerilla marketing contest! Don't stress, your entry doesn't have to be anything XXX-treme, it could be as simple as starting a Twitter word-of-mouth campaign or sharing a link to the book on your Facebook page! Just e-mail me with a link to your entry to officially enter the contest! (This is just so I can keep track of everyone.) They're really good pens, guys. And it's a pretty decent book too, on an issue--the balance of medicine and parenthood--that clearly needs to be shared and discussed.

That about sums it up.  Hope you had a good Monday!

oh my stars, another giveaway!

Long-time readers may be aware that this site is not run for commercial purposes at all (that is to say, I don't run any outside ads) though as a citizen of the planet Earth I do interface with commerce from time to time and as such will occasionally talk about businesses or products that I find particularly delightful.  I am also aware that I have turned a good many of you onto becoming drooling, mindless zombie addicts of a site called JetPens, which features stationary products from Asia, and...well, I'm sorry, but it's not going to get much better.  (I myself have a relapsing remitting course of the disease.)

A few days ago, Brad from JetPens e-mailed me and said that he'd noticed that I, you know, enjoyed JetPen products (to put it somewhat mildly) and wanted to send me some samples to try out, as well as a gift to pass on to my readers.  I said, hmm, I don't know, I don't really have strong feelings about pens and stationery and nerd stuff like that but OH OK FINE SEND 'EM OVER.  I told him that much of my readership was medical, and as such, my interest were pens that were precise, smudgeproof, in colors reproducible by photocopy, and preferably retractable.  He sent me a few, and to be honest, I haven't really tried the others yet, but that's because the first pen I grabbed was this one.

THIS ONE:

OK, so before you tell me, let me save you the time.  I KNOW IT'S PURPLE.  That's the one he sent me, so that's the one I'm showing you.  It comes in other colors too, so don't, you know, freak out yet.  There's more freaking to be had a few paragraphs down.  Anyway, my childhood pediatrician wrote with a purple pen through the entire decade I was with his practice (I believe it was a purple Pilot Precise V5, now that I think of it--funny that I can remember that, but I DO) so, you know, it's a legitimate choice.  My pediatrician was a delightful gay man with a diamond earring who practiced out of an office in Greenwich Village and who smoked cigarettes in his office--sometimes while we were sitting there, holding his ashtray for him--so I'm not saying it's an orthodox choice, but I loved my Pediatrician and I love purple pens so there you go.

Anyway, let's get down to brass tacks.  It's called the Pilot FriXion Ball Knock Retractable Gel Ink Pen in 0.5mm point.  Why does it have so many parts to its name, like a member of British royalty?  UNCLEAR.  But it's a gel pen.  It's retractable.  The ink is waterproof and (I read somewhere) "alcohol proof."  It writes well.  But let the pen speak for itself.

Holy shit, guys, it's an erasable gel pen!  I DIE.  I'd had erasable pens in the past--they were something of a fad when I was in, oh, I want to say the fifth or sixth grade.  But this erasable pen is nothing like those sad, sticky, ballpoint pens of yesteryear with their unweildy grey gum erasers packed onto their readily displaced pen caps.  First of all, the ink is phenomenal.  Smooth, dark, rich, no globs.  Just like the best gel ink pens.  Secondly, the eraser is amazing.  It's not like a pencil eraser at all--it doesn't leave all those little eraser bits to brush away.  I think the erasing process actually works by friction (oh, I get it...FriXion!  Ah!) and it's the heat produced by the eraser rather than rubbing off bits of ink and paper itself that make the line disappear.  But it does erase, and it erases well, as you can see above.  How does it work?  Do I look like some kind of scientist?  I don't know.  Therefore, it is MAGIC.

OK, now for the bad part.  First of all, I'll probably never use this pen at work, because, well, I don't think you should write anything in the medical record that could be erased.  It doesn't erase just from touching it, mind you, but it's possible, over time and with a lot of rubbing, that the line may fade.  So that's one.  But remember, I work at a hospital--if you don't work at a hospital, or if you use pens for anything that's not archival, I really don't see any problem with it.

Secondly, I think that it is somewhat temperature sensitive, due to the aforementioned erasing capability.  I think that if you subject the erased ink to temperatures below - 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), the erased lines may reappear.  But that could actually be kind of fun--I'm going to do an experiment later on and write a Super Secret Spy message for Cal that he can expose by sticking it in the freezer.  It'll be like Freaky Freezies--remember those gloves with the designs that would appear when you went out in the cold?  Anyone?  The '80s?  Yes well...they were cool.  Also, for the opposite reason, they don't recommend you leave the pen in a hot car, or on a tar roof in the middle of the summer or what have you.  These are all limitations, yes, but for most people, under most normal working circumstances, it is a really, really cool pen.

And, you know, I would give it away to you, my readers, only Cal has claimed it for his own, and therefore I have to give away this other thing, which is even better.

I have waxed rhapsodic about the Uniball Signo RT UM-138 pens before (I believe Brad noted that they were "my favorite," which is pretty close to accurate), and he sent along this 8 pack in all colors to give away to one lucky reader.

You may have noticed that I had to substitute a black Pilot G2 in 0.38mm point for the original black one that came in the pack, because SOMEONE (I suspect Cal) got into this pack before I could and now I can't find the black pen.  But I think I have a new black Signo RT UM-138 lying around somewhere from a previous JetPens foray, so if I find one of those, I'll sub it back in.

I'm also going to throw in, because it's going to be fitting for the rules of the giveaway, one free copy of my book.  It's OK if you already bought a copy, you can give it to a friend, because you're just that generous, and, might I mention, good-looking.  (I would like to point out, of course, that July 1st fast approaches, and there may well be no better gift for the new intern or resident in your life than this book, which many are calling "the new 'House of God'.")  How can you qualify for this fantastic giveaway?  I'm so glad you asked.

I've been doing promotion for my book.  And I'll not lie to you: it's hard.  Book promotion is one of those things that involves lots of time and energy and connections (and, let's be honest: money), and as a first-time author, albeit with a lovely and hard-working team behind me at my publisher who are doing a wonderful job, getting the word out about a book when you're not a Big Name can be difficult, especially in a choked summer market.  To be honest, it feels at times like wearing a sandwich board reading "WE BUY GOLD" in the middle of Midtown Manhattan next to a Sbarros as everyone rushes by avoiding eye contact.  There might be more that I could be doing, or should be doing, but the thing of it is, writing and this book is not my sole career.  So there's only so much time I realistically can spend, you know, pimping myself.

I've been thinking a little bit about guerrilla marketing, which is to say modes of marketing that involve unconventional and imaginative (and often interactive) devices rather than just, you know, a pile of cash to buy ads or shelf space.  Nowadays, I'm sure that using social media could be a big part of that kind of marketing approach.  So.  Here's the dizzle.

Think of some novel and imaginative way to get the word out about my book, which, in case you haven't been paying attention, is called "This Won't Hurt a Bit (and Other White Lies)."  If you're doing something online, do try to link to a site that sells the book, and/or the book website.  DON'T SPEND ANY MONEY TO DO THIS, I'm not telling you to go broke, I just want your help in trying new approaches and new avenues.  Also, don't break any laws.  (No murder, you guys.)  The aim is to not just to increase awareness of the book, but to get people to want to read it.

Use your blogs, use your Twitter accounts and Facebook, make a funny video on YouTube, whatever.  Just don't make it so that people are less likely to read the book after your efforts, you dig?  So do some novel publicity, something new and different that we haven't seen before, and then tell me about it.  You can e-mail me, with a link or a picture (preferred, so I can keep better track), or you can tell me on Facebook or Twitter.  (I am @scutmonkey on Twitter, and I friend all comers on Facebook, so go ahead, just ask.)  I will look at all the entries, most likely share them, and pick the most effective one by...oh, you want to say July 11th?  That's a month from now, that gives you enough time, right?  The winner gets the pens and the book and a personal thank-you note from me on my personal embossed stationery, which is something that I have now because I am a grownup, dammit.

Spread the word!  These pens need a good home!  Also the books, think of all the poor, orphaned books out there that need nice warm shelves or night stands to sleep on!  WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE BOOKS?

Go!  Fly!  And thanks!

pen nerds, unite! take back the night!

You may have noticed (though certainly the misguided companies that e-mail me soliciting product endorsements have not) that I do not run ads on this site. Never have. Sometimes I have used a free service that ran sidebar ads as part of their own business plan (Haloscan comes to mind--I used their service to run my comments section until that company imploded) but overall, I have never accepted money in exchange for ads or endorsements of any kinds. The only kind of endorsements I give--see the last blog entry, for instance--are ones that I do for free, in the spirit of a friend recommending something to a friend.

I know a lot of blogs--in fact, the majority of blogs--run some kind of ads to support themselves, and that is all good and fair. The reason I have chosen not to is multifactorial. First, this is a personal blog which happens to be written by a doctor. Corporate sponsorship is not necessary, nor would it necessarily be appropriate. Secondly, I need to keep things simple, as I have a hard enough time updating this blog as it is without thinking of peripherals like ad content and sidebars. Third, I have a job that pays the bills, and it's not worth it to me to run clutter-y, annoying ads in order to make whatever pittance in ad revenue I could generate.

So please just treat the following is a public service for pen nerds everywhere.

Full disclosure: after I talked about ordering from Jet Pens a few months ago, a representative from the company mailed me an envelope full of samples. I did not solicit the samples nor am I getting kickbacks from Jet Pens, but let it be known that I scroll through that Jet Pens website the way I page through the Ikea catalogue: pure visual porn.

First up, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto

Jet Pens very kindly sent a pen barrel along with three 0.4mm ink cartridges in the standard red, black and blue, though certainly for those more adventurous of us there are many more colors available. (For instance, a choice between "Orange" and "Apricot Orange." It's the subtle differences.) The pen is easy to use and very standard as multi-barrel pens go--just jam the ink cartridges in, press down what color you want to use, and start diagramming that Krebs cycle, you multicolor pen nerd, you. I had bought a few of the regular Pilot Hi-Tec-Cs to use before, and I did like the pen, although the pen tip was a little scratchy for me (my own fault, 0.4mm is a very fine tip) and the fact that it was a pen with an actual cap rather than a retractable pen drove me crazy.

People seem to rave about the Hi-Tec-C Coleto, as it gets past two of the commonly voiced displeasures about the regular Hi-Tec-C, in that 1.) it's retractable, and 2.) as multi-cartridge pen, the pen barrel itself is thicker and therefore easier to grip. However, two problems with the Coleto that I noticed were that there seemed to be a lot of "wiggle" of the cartridge within the barrel of the pen, to the point that it kind of affected my handwriting. To be fair, it's a very thin cartridge with a needle tip nib, and I do tend to push hard when I write, so perhaps it's operator dependent. However, with my personal writing style, I think I would find it too scratchy and too delicate for heavy use.

Next up, the Sarasa Zebra Clip Gel Ink Pen in Blue-Black with an 0.4mm tip

I'd eyed this pen before, because unlike many of the rarer Japanese or Korean imports (which makes it sound like we're talking about rare anime reel-to-reels or something, but no, WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT PENS) this pen is actually available at Staples. My source at Jet Pens also tells me that the clip (it is spring-loaded, which makes it open and close wider than the standard pen clip) has made it popular among nurses. I also liked this pen because it's retractable (cannot emphasize the importance of this feature--I refuse to use a pen at work if it is not retractable) and it has a nice rubber grip which makes it comfortable to hold.

It's a fine pen. It writes smoothly, the gel is nice and non-blobby, it looks like it has a decent ink supply, and didn't skip even after a couple of test drops from a respectable height. (The skipping gel pen is a major pet peeve. I drop my pens a lot, due to, you know, the Earth's gravity; and I cannot tell you how many 0.5mm Pilot G2s I've had in my life that just stopped working despite a full ink cartridge because I dropped them once or twice. HATE.) However, it's nothing special. And at two bucks each, they're fifty cents more than the Uni-ball Signo RT UM-138, which is a gorgeous fine tipped pen, with many of the same properties and (I think) a more handsome design. True, no springy clip, but I have not yet evidenced need for a springy-clip pen in my life to this point, so for my money, I'll stick with the Uni-balls.




(Also impressive about the RT-138s is that one time I had an anesthesia record that I got pretty wet--got sprayed with saline or something. The ink barely smeared. I have rubbed my writing with a latex glove bare seconds after laying down the line, and nary a smudge. That's a good hospital pen, friends.)

OK, one last review: the Pentel Sliccies Gel Ink Multi-Pen

Again, a multi-pen with 0.4mm tip, only the Pentel multi holds two cartridges, not three. The barrel is clear plastic, nothing fancy that you'd use to sign the Declaration of Independence or anything, but cheap enough that you wouldn't cry if you lost it. Easy to use, a large range of colors (in the blue spectrum we have blue, blue black, sky blue, and milk blue...yes, I said milk blue). One benefit of the Sliccies over the Hi-Tec-C is that the ink supply seems a little wetter somehow, which I like--makes the pen glide over the paper easier. However, again, the ink cartridge is small (probably a commonality among most multi-pens, just for mechanical reasons) so I'd be worried about running out of ink constantly. I guess I'm just not a multi-pen kind of person.

Oh, and unrelated to Jet Pens, I got a few of these guys yesterday:

(It's the Pilot Precise V7 RT, in case you don't have your bifocals on.)

I usually don't like writing in a 0.7mm tip, because I prefer a more precise line and anything too thick tends to blob up on me. But I had to write a letter to someone and I knew that if I used my standard 0.38mm pen (I have them in both the Uni-ball Signo RT UM-138 as well as the Pilot G2s, which you can find in 0.38mm at your regular big box office supply store if you look hard enough) then my writing would be too small. The Pilot Precise V7 RT really fit the bill. It's a fatter, wetter line, but great for scrawling larger notes, and makes signing your name feel awesome. The one caveat with this pen is that it does tend to smudge and bleed quite a bit on the wrong kind of paper, or if your writing gets wet, so perhaps more for your correspondence than for writing in the hospital.

I should get a show on NPR where I just talk about pens. And then I could squawk at my co-host in an abrasive Boston accent and make corny Dad-jokes. Oh wait, that's "Car Talk." Still, if anyone has a programming slot on their local public radio station, call me. As demonstrated, I can talk about pens for a long time.

(Idle aside: my dream--and I think it's a stretch, though not impossible--is to be invited to be a guest on "Jordan, Jesse, Go!" Yes, now you know that my self-professed life's goal is to be featured as a one-time guest on a marginally well-known niche comedy podcast. I REACH FOR THE STARS.)

new pen reviews!

OK, fuck the boards, let's talk about something really important now. Let's talk about pens.

I placed an order for some new pens a few weeks ago (and then tweeted abundantly about it). And now I will talk about it some more, because that horse isn't quite dead yet. Anyway, these are special pens! SPECIAL JAPANESE PENS! From the island of Japan! Where all cute things originate!

Let us begin. First let me describe my pen needs. Like any medical person, I use my pen a lot. Now that I'm not a Peds resident anymore, I don't have quite the need that I once did to have intricate pages of checklists and patient flow charts, nor did I need a pen that would enable me to write a full set of metabolic lab results in the 0.5 inch margin alongside a patient's progress note, but hey, I still have pen needs. Mostly I write consult notes, keep anesthesia records, and sign my name one million times a day. I do like a good fine-tipped pen for the anesthesia records--I don't know if you've ever seen one, but for those of us who don't have computerized records (I did in my residency, but at my current hospital we still do hand charting) we do have to cram in quite a bit if information in a very small amount of space.




Other concerns: I wanted a pen that would make my writing look neat--I find that the wider the point, the more sloppy my writing tends to become. I wanted a pen with a good ink supply that didn't smear. And I wanted to find a pen in a color that other people didn't have. The reason for this is not just because I GOTTA BE ME! but because sometimes if I'm reading over an anesthesia consult note that someone else has written, I like to go through it and circle the important things so that they jump out at me, or add little clarifying notes of my own. When my pen is a slightly different color, I can see my own additions better, and it reminds me to do stuff (or not to do stuff, as the case may be).

So with this in mind, I got three types of pens. First was the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Ink Pen with the 0.4 mm tip. The reason I got this pen, even though I've never seen it before or tried it in person, is that the pen enthusiasts of the world (and once you start to dig into this, you will find them all over the internet) swear that this is the world's greatest pen. I got a few in the blue-black color, because everyone else at work already has either a plain black or a plain blue pen, and if I got any of these other colors, people might start worrying that I was going to start signing my notes Mrs. Justin Beiber, MD. I don't think a pink pen flies in the hospital.




Up until now I've been a big fan of the Pilot Precise V5 RT, which is an excellent pen except that sometimes the ink is a little heavy so it can bleed and smear a little, and that occasionally after you drop it, it'll just be real scratchy and skippy for the rest of its natural life, even if it still does have a full ink barrel. So I knew I liked the feel of a needle tip pen. So tiny! So precise! And indeed, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C was all of these things.




Two issues I had with this pen. First of all was that, after using it for a full day at work, I began to realize why I had been using retractible pens all along. Because dealing with a pen cap is a pain in my ass. I know they have a retractible version of the Hi-Tec-C, but from all my research (and yes, there was research involved) it looks like the pen barrel was much thinner in the retractible version, thus making it hard to hold, and the ink supply was smaller. As it was, my other beef with the Hi-Tec-C is that it wasn't very comfortable to write with. I hold my pen weird (it's certainly not a ladylike grip, more of a ham-fisted grip that my dad was on my case endlessly about until he finally gave up) and if my pen barrels are too thin, I get hand cramps. Also the Hi-Tec-C did not have a padded grip, which I didn't like. It had these hard plastic ridges where you held the pen, which I guess is good for traction or whatever, but in terms of comfort, not my cup of tea. (I am also aware that they have the Hi-Tec-C with the rubber grip, but they only make those in black, blue and red.) I tried to put on my own rubber grip--you know, those ones that they sell at Staples for kids to put on their pencils--but then I ran into the problem of the damn pen cap again, in that it wouldn't fit on with the rubber grip in place. So the Pilot Hi-Tec-C is a good pen, lays down a great line, and the blue-black ink is a classy joint. However, maybe better for home than for work, unless you have a desk job and don't mind dealing with a pen cap from time to time.

Second pen was this: the Uni-ball Signo RT UM-138 Gel Pen with a 0.38 mm tip. I got this in blue-black and lavendar black.





Now I know that you're going to see that purple pen and say WHAT THE HELL, WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT STUFF THAT YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT MRS. JUSTIN BEIBER, YOU GOT A PURPLE PEN FOR WORK? Hold on there, pen friends. It's not purple. It's lavender-black. The difference, which, I hope to illustrate here:




So there. The purple is even less obvious if you don't have the actual purple pen barrel next to it--I think the external cue makes the ink look more purply than it really is. I actually polled about five nurses, showing them an anesthesia record and a few notes that I wrote without showing them the pen, asking them what color they thought the ink was. Every one of them said either "black" or "dark blue." So it really doesn't look that purple, and it really is a nice pen. Fine point, smooth writing, beautiful lush line, not blobby, not bleedy, and above all, retractible.

Plus, it's not really that expensive, running you $1.50 per pen. I mean, yes, it's more expensive than a giant box of Bic ballpoints, but this is not your general distribution pen, this is your pen, the one you label with your name, the one you keep in your breast pocket and make sure no one steals. Both the blue-black and the lavender-black are fantastic colors, and after I let Joe try one, he insisted that I order him a box of his own, so see, just as much of a hit with the fellas as with the ladies.

(All photos and pens courtesy of Jet Pens, which is probably a really dangerous site if you have an Asian office supply fetish and have some time to waste.)

the one true pen

Someone recently asked me (and I'm going to paraphrase here) why doctors all seem to have such a hard-on for that One Perfect Pen. Well, I'll tell you. Short answer: we're nerds. Long answer: the more junior a doctor is (I'm going to include med students in this generalization too, because it applies to them as well) the more time they spend scrawling endless notes and lists and orders that, with rare exception, no one will pay much attention to. Yet the amount of time spent writing is seemingly endless. So what do you do? Much the same as we spend much time and thought into finding that perfect pair of shoes with which to endlessly pace the halls while on call (Sneakers? Crocs? Dansko clogs? Some sort of sneaker-shoe hybrid?), we need to find that One Perfect Pen to make the work a little less painful, less tedious, and in some cases, to even bring a little happiness into our sad, small lives.

When I am writing a note with a nice pen, it makes the writing go faster, it makes my handwriting look nicer, and it actually does lift my spirits. I don't write nearly as much as I had to when I was a resident (when I was an intern in particular, the importance of the One Perfect Pen hit its zenith) but I still do have to write consults and notes and especially orders every day, and while I could get this job done with just about any writing implement, I do like to have me a nice pen.

When I was a third and fourth-year medical student, I had a brief flirtation with the Dr. Grip. Unclear at this point now whether I just thought it was cool to have a pen that was called "Dr." while I myself was not one yet, but it was your standard refillable gel pen, available in a variety of clear plastic barrels (this was the era of the clamshell candy-colored iMac), and it made a nice line. However, time was not kind to the Dr. Grip pen, as it got dropped and lost and stolen (people always need to borrow a pen for "just one second" and end up pocketing the thing *, though I'd like to think more out of habit than malice), and given its relatively hefty price tag (more than $6 PER PEN, my god) it eventually gave way to its cheaper and more disposable brethren.
My intern year in Pediatrics, I loved the Pilot P-500, which was this needle-tipped gel pen that wrote smoothly and produced a beautiful fine line, which allowed me to write very tiny yet legibly. This was important because as a Peds intern, a ridiculous amount of my time was spent updating these "signout sheets," basically these multiply Xeroxed grids for each patient listing their names, medical record numbers, medical problems, meds, and all recent hospital events dating back to their date of admission. Basically, it was a running portable chart for each kid that we would tote around and pass off to each other, from the overnight call team back to the day team and so on. Do you need to write, "J-tube feeds held, vanc and Flagyl added, stool cultures pending, social work contacted for home care" very, very tiny in a itty bitty box the size of a postage stamp? Get you the P-500, friend! I loved this pen.

When I decided not to be a Peds resident anymore and my days of making teeny tiny check boxes were a thing of the past (well, except for my ICU months while in Anesthesia residency--but still, nothing rivaled the number of teeny tiny check boxes on a general Peds inpatient service) I switched to my current love, probably the love of many of you pen nerds out there, the Pilot G2.

I think I read somewhere (perhaps from Pilot's own propaganda, if it can be trusted) that this is the world's most popular gel pen. (I can believe believe it's the most popular in America, but the world--really? Have you seen the pens they have in Asia? Those are some office pen-loving people there, boy. Maybe it's not my fault that I'm this way--it's a biological imperative, written into my genome.) Well anyway, the G2 is a great pen, writes smooth, feels good in the hand, and thought it's a little pricier than some, you can still get a box of a dozen for less than $20. Unfortunately, it does have this unfortunate habit of skipping and leaking ink from the tip after blunt impact, just as I seem to have an unfortunate habit of dropping my pens, so I've killed quite a few that way. Nothing like a big blob of black ink bleeding through the front of your scrub top to shake your patient's confidence. Yes, I look like a mess, but please, TRUST ME WITH YOUR LIFE NOW.

As those on my Twitter stream probably know all too well, I just bought some new pens on sale, the Bic Velocity with a 0.7mm tip in black. They were on sale, two dozen for less than $20, and I'd tried it out before, found it acceptable enough, so figured what the hell.

People, I cannot even tell you with a straight face just how much time I've spent thinking about this pen. First I thought about buying it. Then I fantasized about writing with it. Then I waited and waited (and waited! For THREE WHOLE DAYS!) for the pens to arrive. Then I took them to work and labelled them. Then I wrote with them. Then I looked at them in the light. In the shade. Turned them upside down. Considered them. Compared them to other pens. Tried to figure out if I liked them more or less than the G2. (Less.) Tried to quantify how much less I liked them than the G2. (35% less.) Tried to figure out if I should just stick it out or get more new pens. And then I noticed that everyone around me had died of boredom, because dude, STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR DAMN PENS ALREADY.

So anyway, why do doctors have such a boner for That One Perfect Pen? Back to the first, shorter answer, which is probably all you needed to know in the first place. We're nerds. Or at least I am.

* This reminds me: after one too many pen thefts, I started to use a strategy called "The Decoy Pen," later renamed "The Sacrificial Pen." Basically, I'd have in my pocket a number of pens, mostly of my preferred brand, but one really cheap stick pen that I, like, got free from the bank. So if someone asked me to borrow a pen, I would give them the cheap one, and if they ended up walking off with it, no big deal. By all means, keep my ballpoint WalMart pen that I found on the floor of the second floor women's bathroom, YOU THIEF.