Pen of the Month Club / Pen #9 / Pilot FriXion

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Pen of the Month Club / Pen #8 / Zebra Z-MulsionEX

(All smears and blobs are a natural expression of the pens and remain uncorrected for authenticity.)

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #7 / Bic Cristal vs. PaperMate Write Bros

A Bic Cristal pen will cost you about $.19 while a PaperMate Write Bros pen will cost only $.14. But cost may not be the only factor to consider when choosing a quality inexpensive pen. What will an extra 5 cents get you? Twenty-one PotMC members responded to the Bic Cristal vs. PaperMate Write Bros survey and their responses are below:

The PaperMate fizzled out after writing "PaperMa", so 95% of this is done in Bic.

I noticed a problem with the way I'm displaying this data, but I won't tell if you won't.

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #6 / Stabilo Mini

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #5 / Pentel Energel

(Each square represents one person.)

(I didn't want the right side to look as long as the left side when the list of criticisms was actually shorter, so I colored some of the lesser worst aspects blue because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.)

(No significance to blue or black text.)

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #4 / Zebra Surari

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #3 / Uni-ball Signo

Thought I'd try pie charts instead of box plots this time. What do you think?

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #2 / Bic Clic Stic

Worst Aspect

Best Aspect

Best and Worst word clouds made with Wordle. Beautiful purple pen in last handwritten picture courtesy of my December Pen Pal, Becky! It's a Stabilo. I looooove the color. You will probably see more of it used in future pen club statistics!

Pen of the Month Club / Pen #1 / Sharpie Pen

The Pen of the Month Club Pen Preference Profile Results

The Pen of the Month Club is a real thing that's really happening! All because of you, my 22 lovely pen-loving friends! Thanks again for coming on this adventure with me. I am loving the PotMC emails and discussions, and it has been a lot of fun to purchase, package, and deliver the first pen.

As promised, here are the results of the PotMC Pen Preference Profile survey that I sent out to members to discover what kinds of pens they like. Drawn largely with my collection of Sharpie pens, I took this opportunity to experiment with different visualizations of the same kind of data ("check all that apply" for a given category). I tried to channel my inner Tufte, but admittedly, it's been a while since I read his book, and I dropped out of the Data Visualizations course in grad school after 1 class.

For those of you feeling like you are maybe missing out on a little something special, you can still enroll for October, and begin enjoying the emails now.

Introducing the Pen of the Month Club

[EDIT: The Pen of the Month Club is no longer seeking members under this structure.] 


The Idea

You like pens. Maybe one day you'll even find the perfect pen. But there are still so many left to try! You like having a lot of pens to choose from, but you wish you didn't have to buy a 5-pack just to try one out. You wish you were a member of a pen of the month club or something so you could try new pens and discuss their merits with other pen enthusiasts.

You do? That's perfect! I'm starting a Pen of the Month Club and I'm looking for friends to join! I want to send you pens, for fun, to gather your opinions, and to bond over a mutual interest. Doesn't that sound like so much fun???

Wait, you're telling me that you aren't really into pens that much? As long as it writes, you're happy? And you don't care what color it writes as long as it isn't orange? First of all, that's probably because you use a computer too much. Stop reading this blog right now and go pick up an honest-to-goodness book. Second of all, come back and let us make a pen lover out of you! You probably just haven't found the right pen yet. The Pen Of The Month Club is exactly what you need!

You're ready to sign up? Great! Get on the email list, and then get super excited for your first pen. I can't wait to get started!!

The Plan

I have no idea if or how this is all going to work, so if it does, I'll refine the process as we go. But, here's what I do know:

The first pen will be the Sharpie pen, of course! Towards the end of the month (September, in this case), I'll send out a web survey to PotMC members to gather some stats so I can report back the findings. And then we'll do it all again the next month with a new pen. Yay!

While I gauge interest and figure things out, the club is my gift to you. I want to share what makes me excited! If you already have a sampling of Sharpie pens and don't want another, sign up to let me know that you're going to participate in the club/survey, but write in the comments of the form that you don't need me to send you another one.

The PofMC email list will deliver updates and reminders, and possibly animated discussions about the ink flow of a Pilot G2 versus a Uni-ball Signo. Sign up for the email list now to find out!

[EDIT: The Pen of the Month Club is no longer seeking members under this structure.]