Hero 9201 Fountain Pen is Garbage

I've been getting into fountain pens lately.  I bought my wife a Lamy Safari (Neon Coral) and she loves it.  I also got myself a Pilot Petit1 and a few Platinum Preppys to play with.  So I thought, maybe I'll get something that looks a little nicer, less plastic, but still cheap.  I wanted a pen I could use at work, but if I left it in a conference room I wouldn't be that upset about.

I thought about the Fountain Pen Hero 616 , which is a Parker 51 knock-off, but I don't like the look of the hooded nib.  Instead I saw on Amazon a Hero Fountain Pen 9201 . Nice black pen with gold looking features and a built in converter. I did a little looking online but found no real reviews of this pen.  Since it was cheap I pulled the trigger.

The Pen

A simple classic looking black pen.  Nothing remarkable, but better looking than a plastic Bic or Uni-Ball. Respectable weight, and i like the feel unposted.  Posted it's back heavy.  There is also an overly tight clasp that I can't seem to attach to anything. 

The pen comes with a converter.  The converter doesn't use the usual twist piston but instead has a slider attached to the piston.  Loading it with Noodlers Baystate Blue took about four piston pumps up and down and its still only about 70% filled.

The nib is nice looking.  the gold around the grip is textured.  Again, unposted its got decent hold and balance.

The Problem

It writes like crap.  I'm new to using a fountain pen.  My Pilot Petit1 is very smooth, and a bit overly wet, but I enjoy writing with it.  This thing is scratchy, hard to start, dry, basically everything bad about a fountain pen rolled into one. 

There is a tiny bit of flex in the medium nib, but it starts and stops constantly at a decent rate of writing.  In some cases most of the first word is just missing and I have to find scrap paper to get the pen going again.  I hate it. Its junk. Its like a dried up ball point you get at a hotel.

Save your money folks, a Platinum Preppy writes way better for half the price.  Otherwise get a cheaper Lamy and be happy.

October Investments

As you've no doubt seen, the market has taken a bit of a tumble.  I'm viewing this as a moderately god thing since I'm not really a short term trader, and it gives me a better opportunity to buy some stocks at a better price.

A few months ago TradeKing made a boo boo and to correct it, they gave me $30 in commission money.  All well and good... until I noticed it has an expiration.  It seems they can only give you three months to spend that trade commission money so I have some "use it or lose it" money. Normally in my TradeKing account I don't want to make purchases less than $500 to keep the commission below 1%, but since this was basically free trading I made a few smaller purchases.  I will likely add to these positions later, so they just get my foot in the door and assist in diversification.

First up: AT&T (T)

AT&T is an old company.  It's known as a solid, steady, slow growing juggernaut of a company.  My interest in AT&T is the high dividend payout (over 5%) and the fact they've been paying higher and higher dividends for over 25 years.  As I don't ever plan on selling (at least not in the short or medium term), I like the confidence that by the time I retire I will have received enough dividend payouts to cover the initial cost of the stock, that on top of any changes in value of the stock itself which will retain value in one form or another.  I bought AT&T today at $35.00 a share.

Next: Realty Income (O)

I like the concept of owning a piece of a company who owns a lot of property they rent out.  and Realty Income has been doing it for coming up on 50 years.  They also pay a dividend over 5% annually, but they pay it out monthly, which is different than most companies who pay quarterly.  I was able to snag shares at $41.00 a share, which is less than 10% off the 52 week high.

(I bought this through Tradeking, but if you're just interested in investing in Realty Income, you cna invest directly through their site and pay no commission.  Further they have a free dividend reinvestment program that lets you take additional shares instead of cash [look up DRIP investing].  Thats a pretty good set it and forget it approach to investing.)

Finally: iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (REM)

 

This is a gamble, but since I had some left over cash to invest I wanted to try it.  This is an EFT, similar to a mutual fund but traded like a stock.  This fund focuses on companies who invest in mortgages, borrowing and lending money at different rates.  I chose this because of its mouth watering dividend of 13% paid in quarterly increments.  I bought 18 shares at $11.75 each.  I'm hoping to get between $5 and $7 a quarter from this investment and use that cash to pay the commission on future investments.  If it goes belly up I'll be out $200, but if it works then it funds future investment decisions and makes me less concerned about the commission overhead.

Simple Freeze-Ahead Pesto

Invariably, my basil plants will grow faster than I pull leaves for pizza and salads, so eventually its time to make a big batch of pesto.  I always start with the Pesto recipe from the Betty Crockers New Cookbook (8th Edition) and then make a few mods.  Here's my modified version

Simple Pesto

• 2 Cups washed and dried basil leaves (packed down)
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 Cup pine nuts
• 1/2 fresh Parmesan or similar cheese
• ~3/4 cup olive oil

  (I've switched to using the Grana Padano cheese sold a Costco for this in place of Parmesan.  I think it has a similar taste, and with either the basil is the strongest taste here, the cheese is a second stringer and therefore the savings in cost is worth the substitution)

 

To make the Pesto, simply put all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything is well mixed together and minced to tiny bits.  Then add half of the oil and start blending.  Add additional oil until you like the consistency.  I like to leave mine a bit on the lumpier side if I'm going to freeze it for future use.  I can add oil later, but removing oil is harder.

Speaking of freezing, I got these Ball Silicon Ice Cube Trays and they work great.  A cube of pesto is good for about two people's worth of pasta.