Interlude: WINTER EDC – EDC 2016-17 Part 2.5

As a quick little interlude here, I wanted to do a short list of stuff I carry/use in the winter as part of my daily-carry systems that are omitted from the rest of this list, which is essentially a summer list since I live in an area of the world where it doesn’t get cold very often (people in Alaska would probably say it never gets cold here). But, with it being winter (barely) now, they’re on my mind.

  • Overcoat (London Fog) (Pretty generic beige color. Keeps me warm with the liner, and keeps the snow/rain off of me with or without it.)
  • Fleece(y) Headband(s) (I don’t know the brand of these but they come from Wal-Mart {probably} and my ears love them.)
  • Driving Gloves (A nice pair of warm leather gloves that used to belong to my father and whose only identifying markings say “made in Hong Kong”.)
  • Other (Touchscreen) Gloves (Champion) (Basically, Target brand gloves that aren’t as warm but are much more useful if I want to use my fingers, grip, or manipulate a touch screen {phone probably}.)
  • Silk Handkerchief (An essential item for wearing layers. I wear it over my neck under my shirt to prevent 4 layers of clothing from chafing it into oblivion.)
  • Scarf (Cashmere)
  • Hand Warmers (Mostly Grabber) (Isn’t it obvious why?)

And that’s basically it. I don’t go overboard for winter since there isn’t much of it here (where I live), but I just thought I should include a little bit about how I prepare for it since it does affect what I can carry.

Review – Bic Tech Ballpoint and Stylus

Well, sometimes now-a-days art isn’t always done on a physical medium. Tablets, smart phones, and touch-screen devices are becoming more prevalent these days and for artistic purposes your finger isn’t the most precise thing in the world. Fortunately, Bic has a solution for both mediums (maybe) the Bic Tech pen and stylus.

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The barrel of the pen is a fairly standard Bic barrel with a slightly grippy (grip) section, a hole for the ballpoint and a logo. Halfway up the pen is where things get interesting. The top half of the pen is a chrome-colored plastic which I personally don’t like but doesn’t look terrible. Just above another Bic logo in the center is the click mechanism, which is unique in its side mounting. The lever protrudes out to the side sightly, but not enough to really get caught or accidentally pulled. It has a slight curve to it, making it a great finger place and making for easy disengagement of the fingers or caught objects (again preventing accidental usage). I would say my only problem with it is it gets scratches from fingernails far too easily. The clip is absolutely nothing special, in fact it doesn’t even clip, it more just hangs on a pocket or something so that’s cheap. At the top is the stylus which I’ll talk about in just a second.

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The pen itself is nothing remarkable. It does appear to be smoother than a normal Bic ballpoint. But it is almost the exact same shade of unimpressive grey-black as every Bic pen.

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Now on to the stylus, which is the standard stylus end that has been popping up all over the place recently. It works. It is obviously not the most expensive or precise thing but it gets the job done. It is better than a finger, I can tell you that much. I can’t attest to the durability of such things, but I can say that it feels likely to break, though the pen isn’t expensive and by that time you’ve probably gotten your money’s worth out of it.

So what is the Bic Teach pen like overall? Mediocre. It does an alright job at being both a stylus and a pen, but does neither fantastically. But for the money it really shouldn’t. If you’re looking into the prospect of such a device or are on a very slim budget (or possibly don’t care) this might work for you, otherwise I’d suggest looking elsewhere.