Tag Archives: “review”

Review – Zebra Sarasa Colors Black, Blue, Red, Navy, Mahogany

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I’ve talked about the Zebra Sarasa before, and it’s an alright gel pen. The saving grace of many gel pens is that most come in a variety of colors at least partially unique to them, and the Sarasa is no exception there. Let’s take a look at a few of the colors.

The colors are always a bit off in the digital space

The colors are always a bit off in the digital space

First, Black. It’s a cool black that covers well. It works in an office setting and generally doesn’t get lighter even with minimal pressure. I’d say it’s black almost as soon as it gets on the page. The drying time is moderate and it’s water smudge-able.

Next, Blue.  The blue is quite dark, darker than most office-type blue colors. This makes it easier to read and more professional. It’s also natural looking, more like a deep sea-blue than an in-between blue that doesn’t really exist in nature. It’s the least smudge-prone of the bunch, but that won’t entirely stop it from lifting off the page.

Third, Red. It is a bland red, with no real pop to it. Though it is brighter than some of the competition, it isn’t really eye hurting. It’s quite noticeable and quite red but has no character — and no real flaws, either. It’s the color that fades the most when exposed to water.

Now, Navy.  Navy is a very deep, dark blue. It’s really almost black. You’d need a good light on to tell which one is which, though you could tell that black and navy are different colors with minimal light. It’s a wonderful dark color that is almost soothing and quite free flowing.

Finally (for this set), Mahogany.  It is really more like maroon. It’s a slightly purplish red which is also very dark and quite nice. It is much more noticeable than the navy, and still quite natural, giving an almost brown appearance from far away. It’s probably my favorite of the five, though the one with the fewest applications, and while you might get away with it at the office, it could be a hard sell. Unless you work for Texas A&M University.

That’s the five colors for this week. Next time I’ll be looking at the other five colors in the standard ten color pack.

Review – Q-Pins Pushpins

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Pushpins can be a problem. But they are what they are, right? There’s no getting around them. That’s what I would’ve thought until I heard about Q-Pins pushpins, which claim to have updated the pushpin to a more modern and easy-to-use design. How do they hold up?

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Full disclosure before I begin: I was sent these to review by the company. With that out of the way, let’s look at the features: Q-Pins are designed to deal with the problems one encounters when using regular pushpins. They’re shaped like a capital “Q” and use the tail to hold paper to the board, rather than the pin itself. If one doesn’t use the pin on a regular pushpin, the amount of force required to hold the document up will leave an unappealing mark. I used to get around this by using thumbtacks, which has less grip for your fingers, but more for the document. I’d best describe Q-pins as a cross between the best parts of a pushpin and thumbtack, with a little more ergonomics. The edges of the bowl on the Q are curved inwards, creating a nice grip for the thumb and index finger that is more than enough to get it out.

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They come in either packs of black and white opaque or a pack of green, blue, purple, and yellow translucent. Personally I wish there were more color sets, but these work well.

Now, it’s kinda hard to talk about what a pushpin does, even though I have done that quite a bit, it looks like. In any case, I decided to try and beat up a q-pin by throwing it across the room and at the floor with a moderate amount of force. The results were not a scratch, and I’ve seen pushpins shatter under similar conditions (though rarely). I tried bending the tail off, and my fingers began to hurt as the plastic started bending. I’m sure they can be broken, but it almost has to be intentional. And for a bit of fun, I grabbed the metal pin itself with pliers and pulled firmly in both directions. The pin and its plastic case are not easily separated.

So, are they better than pushpins? Yes. Are they perfect? No. If one is very careful or hangs up thick documents, the pin can be used to hang an object without a mark.  But sometimes even a natural amount of force can lead to a straight indent in the document being hung. This is certainly better than a hole, and in my opinion it’s also better than the circular indent coming from a pushpin or thumbtack used with friction. In this scenario, the Q-Pin also has superior holding capability, though it is quite close. Removing the Q-Pin is also much easier than either of the two other options. It’s a clear winner, but it is a bit more expensive. If you don’t lose things and want a better pushpin, possibly for life, you should try some Q-Pins.

 

Book Review – Rommel as Military Commander

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Rommel: as Military Commander  is the possibly-grammatically-incorrect title of a book by Ronald Lewin about General Erwin Rommel as a military commander. It’s less biography and more overall command study. And less overall command study and more a “Rommel in the Desert” book. But I can’t really fault it for that. It is quite good at what it intends to be.

Not a single cover of this book looks good, and I couldn't take a photo of mine because it's a hardback without one

Not a single cover of this book looks good, and I couldn’t take a photo of mine because it’s a hardback without one

The book starts out briefly in the First World War and then the Inter-war period. This and the Battle of France are glossed over in two chapters. The book really begins when Rommel sets foot in Africa, and is given command of the Afrika Corps, which will eventually become the Italian First Army. The book mainly follows the events of 1941-43 and the fighting in the desert (spoiler: Rommel loses {but not entirely due to his own actions}, and so do all the Germans and Italians). Rommel’s return to Europe and his death are again given one chapter each, with a closing chapter to follow.

The ten chapters devoted to the war in Africa are quite detailed and very well researched (the author was in the desert war, so it might be something he would know quite a bit about). Unit movements are all laid out, and the war is painted very much as it was without too much as to why it was that way. This is because the author rightly assumes that he can never know truly why Rommel made the decisions that he made (though this makes the point of the book rather dubious). If the author was simply trying to talk about each of the battles that Rommel fought in the desert in some detail, then the book would be quite good. But it keeps coming back to Rommel’s character, his frustration and sickness during and before the battles, and why he can’t be compared to other commanders that had many more divisions on much larger fronts.  This makes things seem confused, honestly, though I quite enjoyed the bits about Rommel presented, they continued to acknowledge that they were not the book’s focus and took away slightly from the overall book.   That being said, as a reference for “what happened where” in the clashes in the desert , it is excellent and well told.

The units are kept track of to a degree at which it may be confusing at times what is happening if one reads too quickly. Unfortunately, the maps don’t really help. They show the battlefields in great detail, but unlike the writing, provide one with no larger picture of what is going on, making them seem isolated and confused. (Make any war parallels you like with that.)

The book is, overall, a nice look at Rommel’s rise and fall. It would serve as a good introduction to him past his pop-culture persona, as Rommel, and his various attributes are presented quite nicely. And it is a good reference for the Axis in the North African campaign. It’s a good book for those casually or slightly more interested in the Second World War, but those who are very interested have undoubtedly read more detailed works.

Review – Pilot G-2 and G-2 Mini

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There are some pens that everyone knows about, standby pens that we all recognize and know the performance of. These are pens that even pen snobs would use in a pinch. The Pilot G-2 and G-2 Mini perhaps are such pens. But do they really hold up to their reputation? Let’s take a look.

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I’m not sure I really need to describe one of the most well-known pens ever, but I’ll start at the click button. It is simple and elongated, and there is nothing really special about it. Below it is a small section of colored plastic where the clip attaches. The clip has the basic pen info on it, though not much. It does its job well. It might be a bit loose, though the absence of a catch on it makes replacing it in and retrieving it from a pocket much easier. Down from this is a smooth, transparent, circular barrel. There is nothing exciting here, but I should note that the only differences between the regular and the mini are the cartridge size and the length of this barrel here. All other aspects of the pens are identical, which means the mini is a bit thick for its size. After the barrel comes a fairly distinctive grip with a small recessed and grooved area where ones fingers go. The grip style is good but the rubber is slick, so the net effect for me is that the grip is unnecessary. Below that there is a small plastic cone that leads to the retractable point on the pen.

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Now, I’ve talked about as many Pilot G-2 ink colors as I could get my hands on in the past, so I’m not going to cover that here, but I will go over the overall writing experience. The pens are gel pens and are quite a bit smoother that standard ball points, though the smoothest of ballpoints will almost rival the cheaper gel pens like the G-2. The G-2 has quite a bit of feedback, which is something I do like when writing. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t feel like you’re putting down any ink and instead just scratching the paper. There are generally no blobs unless you’re looking at the more outlandish colors, but on cheaper paper the ink absorbs very fast and will quickly create dots anywhere you decided to stop. Really, there are very few problems if one just sticks to standard black. All other colors do tend to have unique effects to them. Long drying time is a problem with all of them, I’m afraid.

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Overall I’d say the pen is still quite a good regular pen. Despite the many little flaws that it may have, it works, and it does the job of being a pen well. It isn’t the best pen, but it’s not very expensive and it’s far from the worst. It’s a pen everyone can use, but if you’re not a satisfied pen user and you’re looking for the best for you personally, you might want to try somewhere else.