Pen Problems

I think I posted earlier that I attended a technology conference for educators in San Jose in the middle of October. In one of the workshops, I received a pen and mechanical pencil. I was immediately taken in by the pen...it was different, both in its size and design. I've never seen a pen like this before. It was black, it had ridges, it was short and fat. It appeared to be ergonomically designed so as not to cramp my fingers. Could this be the pen of the future? I was immediately intrigued by the pen's design and I wanted to use it to take notes on the presentation. Oh, and by the way, here it is:

According to Daniel A. Norman, "well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation."(Norman, 1988)

Well, I initially tried to twist the pen to reveal the ballpoint, but was unsuccessful. I then tried to click the nobs at the top, assuming they were the "affordances" Norman referred to, or the visual clues used to operate the pen. Nothing clicked and nothing twisted. Even though, I had the mechanical pencil to use, I refused to even give it a second thought; I however became fixated on this pen. I was determined to use it. What Norman referred to as mapping, suggests that if you turn the pen, the ballpoint will appear and you are ready to write, right? Wrong. I ended up breaking the pen.

I sheepishly asked the presenter for another pen and explained that I could not figure how to use it and subsequently broke it. "No problem," she said and brought me another one, and in no less than one second, pulled it apart and presented me with a functional pen.
I felt a sense of relief once she solved that problem for me, but I was miffed as to why I was concerned about this silly pen which ceased to intrigue me at this point. I now found it ugly and when I finally tested it out, I didn't like it. Maybe, as Norman suggested, good design should connect thought with action and that an object's parts must be obvious and, "convey the right message." I don't know, maybe I missed something...