In no particular order, and without me remembering what 99% of these organizations that aren’t universities are, here goes!
1. Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory
Overall a good pen, wooden ballpoint, writes very smoothly and with no delay. Wish it had a little more heft, but definitely not cheap-feeling, which is a major plus. Do wish it had a grip, but that’s not a major negative for me. 8/10.
2. Wildcat Technologies LLC
I like this pen, the textured grip is nice (and doesn’t pretend to be rubber) and I like the ruler/stylus additions. It shows that more thought went into this than just slapping a logo on the pen. It writes well, normal ballpoint. Again, wish it had more heft, and I’m also not fond of the texture of the non-grip part. 7/10.
3. Soils and Soil Processes Division of the Geological Society of America
Yikes. It’s very cheap feeling, the ballpoint for some reason didn’t work for a little when I started writing, and the clicker feels VERY flimsy. Do better. 4/10 but only because I know there are worse ones.
4. Earth Sciences History
I really, really wanted to rate this one better. I really did! I love puns, and the people at the booth were very nice from what I recall. But the pen took a solid few seconds to work when I tried writing with it, the clicker has a weird amount of resistance that makes it almost unfriendly to use, and it’s in that space between matte and glossy in terms of feel that I really do not like. 2/10.
5. National Cave and Karst Research Institute
One of the only non-ballpoint pens, which I appreciated. I like the sleek design, it feels like it’s pretty good quality, and the rubber grip is really nice. However, the ink is very prone to smearing and it doesn’t write very consistently in terms of thickness, and it negatively affected the writing experience. 5/10.
6. Texas Tech University, Department of Geosciences
If there is one thing I cannot stand in a pen, it’s when they feel cheap. And believe me, this thing feels CHEAP. It’s another ballpoint and the writing experience is smooth, but it makes a weird rattling noise when it moves and it’s uncomfortably lightweight. Also, the grip isn’t rubber, it’s just more plastic, and the clicker has the same weird resistance as the Earth Sciences History one did. Add the fact that the logo is so dark that it’s barely visible and this pen is faring VERY badly indeed. 1/10.
7. Central Washington University
I could write paragraph upon paragraph about how much I hate this pen, but it’s all summed up by the fact that it broke almost immediately when I tried to write with it. -1/10. Christ.
8. UTSA Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
This one is pretty nice! I don’t like the really plastic-y ones as a general rule, but it felt good in my hand, was well-balanced, and wrote smoothly. The clicker was damn near perfect in terms of tension and resistance, too. Honestly I can see myself using this one regularly, 8/10.
9. AASP: The Palynological Society
I’m a fan of adding things to pens. I’m a fan of adding styluses to pens, even if I never use them. But why on earth would you put the stylus on the tip end of the pen? It made the writing experience very negative, which wasn’t helped because the pen once again felt very cheap to me. It also did the weird rattle thing (though far less noticeably), and it took a moment to actually write when I tried writing with it. 1.5/10.
10. The University of Kansas Department of Geology
FAKE RUBBER GRIPS, MY ETERNAL ENEMY. Bad feeling in the hand and weirdly scratchy writing experience for a ballpoint. I will never use this. Not nearly the worst of the bunch, but still pretty damn bad. 2/10.
Well, Tumblr won’t let me add more than 10 images per reblog and I’m going out for sushi, so that’s all for now! There will be a part 2, probably a part 3, and maybe a part 4 when I get back.
