Pencil Review: Mitsu-Bishi 9800 HB

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My pencil haul from my Thailand trip was mostly composed of obscure makes and models that most readers are likely to be unfamiliar with (outside of any Thai friends…sawadee krab!). However, I picked up one type of writing implement that every pencil-lover should be aware of, because it’s the one that kicked off the Japanese pencil industry over 100 years ago. I’m talking about the Mitsu-Bishi 9800, the oldest pencil that the company currently manufactures. This general-purpose pencil has since been overshadowed by the more fashionable offspring of the Mitsubishi/Tombow office supply arms race, including its own younger sibling: the Hi-Uni. However, this venerable mainstay continues to roll off the production line, and given the reputation Japanese pencils have for punching above their weight class, being relegated to a second-string utility role is hardly an indication of quality.

But first off, semantics: it it “Mitsu-Bishi” or “Mitsubishi”? The hyphenated version seems unusual to those of us who are used to seeing the household brand name spelled as one word. The company’s name is officially unhyphenated, and the brand written on the dozen-box of these same exact pencils is written in contracted form. But I’m going to go with Mitsu-Bishi. That’s what it says on the pencils, and that’s how I started writing this review, so I’m not going to go back and change them all now that I’m nearly finished. I’ll also talk more about the Mitsubishi brand and how the pencil-maker fits into that scheme later on in this blog post. Now, let’s talk about to the pencils!

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Look what came in the India Post today…

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I won’t be satisfied until I’ve reviewed every pencil ever manufactured in any country the world-over. India, your time is near!

I plan to do a write-up on these bad boys soon. I have about 38 other half-baked pencil reviews in the works, and I should probably push some of those out — and write about something else, I guess — before I get to these, but it’s gonna happen soonish. I’m stoked.

Unpopular opinion: don’t schedule time to journal.

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I journal, in one form or another, almost every single day. The most prominent in my life is my personal journal, diary, or whatever you want to call it — the one where I write about the experiences, thoughts, feelings, goals and ideas that I experience in my daily life. It’s probably my most significant and regular self-care activity, and I simply love writing in my journal.

I was not always a journaling type, though. I have always been interested in the idea, but have rarely found a form I’m able to stick with. I spent a lot of time researching “tips” for journaling, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong that prevented me from sticking with it. One of the most popular tips I read was, “set aside a time of day to write in your journal, and make it a habit to write at that same time every day.”

If your life is anything like mine, this is a sure-fire way to fail. I say don’t schedule a time to journal — journal whenever you feel like journaling.

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Pencil Review: Prismacolor Turquoise, HB and 2B

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Today I’m going to test my hypothesis that an “art pencil” that you write with is a writing pencil. The Prismacolor Turquoise, a pencil widely known in the sketching community but rarely seen in the hands of a writer, is today’s review subject. Let’s take a look at both the HB and the 2B grades; the ones likely to be most relevant to writers.

The very first thing I noticed about the Prismacolor Turquoise pencil is how damn good it looks. The barrels are finished in (you guessed it!) a silky turquoise lacquer that really pops on the shelf against all of the black or nearly-black paint jobs surrounding it in the high-end pencil section. I was debating about which of the usual suspects to pick up for my next review when the Turquoise caught my eye the next shelf down. It had me thinking, “whoa, what’s that?” Closer inspection revealed an impeccable silver imprint with the usual information (brand, model, grade and such). There are some perceptible tool marks near the top ends of the barrels but it’s not really a turn-off. And to top it all off — literally — this pencil features neither an eraser tip nor a dipped end, but a unique aluminum cap with a single red stripe. A very smart, attractive look indeed.

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Tip for rookie pencil junkies who need to get straight

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Ignorance is bliss. Once your office supply third eye is open and you discover that there are wooden pencils out there that don’t suck, the agony is finding them in regular supply. Most office supply joints and big-box stores carry a few different kinds of pencil that range from garbage to “pretty decent”. But rarely will you find one that’s squarely in the good category.

So then it becomes an issue of brainstorming places to look beyond the most obvious. I’ve had good luck at art supply stores. The problem is, they have so many damn pencils, in all shapes and sizes, with all manner of weird core material, and they tend to be marketed, packaged, and organized in a way that makes sense for artists (as opposed to writers). So it feels like they don’t have that much to offer to those of us whose whole lives aren’t a dark room or whatever.

But allow me to state the obvious…any pencil can be a “writing pencil” if you, ya’know, write with it. Still following me? Here’s one that will blow your mind: a drawing pencil with a HB/B/2B/etc. core is exactly the same as a writing pencil.

I write that with sarcasm but I’m not judging, because it took me a while to figure this out…and when I did, I felt a mixture of wild giddiness and complete embarrassment. I felt dumb for having walked past so many fun pencils that were hiding in plain sight, but super stoked to have so many more options at my fingertips. All kinds of models brands I’d heard of but thought I’d never find in town — Tombow Mono, General’s Kimberly, Koh-i-Noor, and more.

So if you’re looking for an upgrade for the writing sticks in your pencil bag, try an art supply store. Don’t be discouraged if they only have a few offerings in the “writing pencil” section; keep walking. When you get to the million cubbies filled with a cornucopia of pencil varieties, stop! Then narrow down your choices by filtering out the “hardcore drawing pencils”– look for the sections for graphite cores, and then cubbies for the most popular writing grades like HB or 2B (unless you wanna get wild and try an 8H charcoal or something — in which case do you, Boo). They’ll likely be sorted in theory but in practice lazy shop clerks and indecisive patrons have probably mixed them all up. Eventually, though, you’ll find what you’re looking for: a cool new writing pencil.

Sorry to write a post about something so obvious, but I sure wish someone had told me this when I was on my pencil honeymoon and all bummed out that my local art supply store was sold out of Blackwings.

There you go. Mainline that shit.

Pencil Review: General’s Supreme 550 #2

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As enthusiastic as I am about working through my backlog of Thai pencils and vintage thrift-store finds, I understand that reviews of exotic products mean little if we haven’t looked closely at a few more mundane benchmarks to rate them against. So today I want to take a look at a pencil that checks all of the boxes when you think “classic pencil”: the General’s Supreme 550.

A little backstory on where I found these guys. As you know, I’m always on the lookout for new types of pencil to test out, and keep brainstorming for new places to look. A campus bookstore seemed like a reasonable enough place, and the other day I happened to be in the U-Med District for some personal business with a little time to kill (funny side-story: I misread my watch and left work, drove across town, paid for hourly parking, and sat in the waiting room for my therapy appointment without realizing that I was an hour early), so I swung by the University of Alaska Anchorage bookstore.

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Not stoked on the M+R “brass bullet” sharpener

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Just a quick “review”/rant of a product I decided to try: the Möbius & Ruppert “brass bullet” pencil sharpener. I’ve been looking for a good, basic hand sharpener. I have about a million of them kicking around but they all seem to last about a week before the blade goes dull on me, and have weird blades that I can’t find replacements for. So, I’ve been in a market for a sharpener for “hardcore” pencil pushers.

I swung by the art supply store and found a jar of these, going for $4.25 each. Not a bad price, they looked solid, and I’ve heard good things. Also, they had boxes of M+R replacement blades available, which I figured would be great if the bullet sharpeners were as good as I’d heard. Sadly they just didn’t live up to the hype.

My gripe with them is that, well, pencils never seem to actually get sharp. Which is kind of the point of a pencil sharpener. You can sharpen them to a blunt, squared-off tip and then…snap! I managed to get a Blackwing 602 sharp, so maybe this is only for people who write exclusively with fahhhncy pencils. But I tried several other makes and models of pencil and the M+R bullet sharpener repeatedly broke the cores off every single one until I gave up and used a different sharpener. Am I doing something wrong? Do I really want to use a sharpener that I need special instructions to use? Did I get a lemon?

I don’t know, but I’ll be moving down on the list to the next candidate in my quest to find a great sharpener.

The quest for the perfect TN notebook insert (I found for $2 on AliExpress)

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[Full disclosure: I included some “associate links” to the products I mention here because, why not? However, my intention with this piece is to share my sincere thoughts on products I’ve actually used and spent my own money on — not to try to push monetized links on people. If you buy a product I link to and I make a little side cash off the sale, cool, but that’s not what inspired this piece and it hasn’t influenced my writing.]

For those of you who have just tuned into the Rad Dad blog for the first time, I’m really into writing by hand. In fact, I’d say I try to spend as much of my day as possible gripping a pencil, which implies that I’m very frequently writing on something, ostensibly paper. However, I don’t talk a lot about paper on this blog; mostly because I don’t think I know enough about it to do full-blown paper reviews. That said, paper is important to me. In fact, when it comes to the journal/diary section of my Traveler’s Notebook, I’m downright anal about it.

My journal is the most important notebook I carry around with me, maybe even more important than my Midori 019 “Weekly Diary” Planner, which I would be a total mess without. But my journal? My whole life is in there! I also don’t subscribe to the notion of setting aside a specific time to journal; I bring it with me everywhere so I can purge whenever I need. So my number-one criteria for choosing a journaling notebook is enough durability to stand up to a buttload of writing and a lot of abuse from being hauled all over hell’s half acre. Fortunately, my traveler’s notebook cover keeps it pretty protected, and I’ve simply not run into a notebook insert that was garbage-quality.

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If investing is gambling, be the casino

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One of the biggest oversimplifications commonly made about investing in the stock market and other securities — and one which I believed myself, for a while — is that it’s “just another type of gambling.” This is a common refrain from people who are apprehensive about investing themselves, or who for whatever reason want to discourage other people who are interested in investing. Or, for people who have actual gambling addictions and want to make some sort of false equivalency so they won’t be as harshly judged by others or themselves (gross).

Either way, I think that it glosses over a lot. But we can run with that analogy and use it to show why investing — whether or not you consider it a form of gambling — can be a reliable way to build wealth, with no dumb luck involved.

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Rad Dad Goes to Thailand: Eating and Drinking

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(Updated 3/19/2019 with pictures, because how could I have blogged about eating in Thailand without including food porn?)

I’m going to be honest: a big part of the reason I wanted to go to Thailand in the first place is the food. One thing Anchorage is blessed with is an abundance of restaurants serving delicious Thai, Vietnamese and similar cuisine, so eating nothing but Thai food for two weeks straight actually sounded awesome to me. If you are enthusiastic about food and drink, you’ll love Thailand.

Making banana roti on the streets of Ao Nang
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