Editing The Pen Addict 337/transcript (section)

== Gift Guide Introduction ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 337, and ho ho ho, today is our gift guide episode, and it is brought to you by Kane11, Harry's, and Pen Chalet. My name is Santa Myke, and I am joined by Brad the Elf. Hi Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I didn't know if that was exasperation, or if that was actually a Santa ho ho ho that you attempted, because that was very interesting, Myke. It's both. Okay, good, good. That's an exasperated Santa, so there's our show title, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, that's what, like, exasperated Santa is the Santa that has to come up with all the gifts before giving them, which is what we've done.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a difficult job. Well, we had help with that, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' From the only person that truly can help us out in any situation, and that is the wonderful Anna Reiner. Hi Anna.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Hello. Does that make me a helper elf, too?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so Anna, we know our place now. Myke is Santa, and we're the elves, so just so we're clear on that.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Absolutely. I never doubted it for a second.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Brad, what are we doing today? We're doing this. We're doing our gift guide episode, and I know all of our listeners always enjoy when we have Anna on. We started this years ago when Anna yelled at me for my choices during the gift guide episode. I forget even what year that was. It's been so long ago. And we said, fine, Anna, you come on and do it with us. And ever since, it's been our routine. So every year, towards the end of November, early December, we bring Anna back for one of her many appearances throughout the year to talk about all the gifts that we want to get people. And this year, we're going to do it a little bit differently. We're going to take kind of descriptive types of entries into the gift giving. We'll have different categories of gift buying for all your gift buying needs, and we'll say what we think might fit this type of person that you need to buy a stationary gift for. So we'll give it a go this year, Myke, and see how it goes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I think this is a great idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so should we kick it off? Because there's actually a lot of topics here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, so should we run through them? So we have like a topic, like a category name, and then a quick description. And then we're going to each have our own picks for each different category. And we'll start with the stationary newbie. I'm going to be very particular about this one because we have a category called the novice later on. And there are some very slight differences here between those two. Now, the stationary newbie is somebody that already has a taste for good pens and paper. Like they've maybe gone and they've perused the aisles and staples, and they found the gel pen and the pad that works for them, and they know that they like it. Kind of like when I began this entire journey with Brad all the way back in episode one, right? Like I knew I liked stuff, but I didn't really know where to go. So, you know, this is for the person who is not sure what exactly they should be looking for or even where they should be starting, but they know that they like this stuff. So, Arna, would you like to give your first recommendation for the stationary newbie? Sure.

'''Ana Reinert:''' My first recommendation is going to be a multi-pen like the Zebra Sarasa, which I think is a really, really good option. There's a lot of colors available. So, you can buy the empty body and then fill it with several different gel pen colors. And I think it's just a good jumping off point. So, if someone's already got a G2, but they're looking to try some other things, that could be a good one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Arna and I kind of went the same route. I just remember back when I was using like the first gel pens that I found, like the G2 and the Energel and the Signo, I didn't realize how cool like some of the multi-pens could be. And that made my notes even better. So, I went with the Pilot Hi-Tech C Coleto, like the three-color barrel. You can pick different colors to go in there. It's gel. It's a needle tip. And it just works really well. It's really neat to play with. It kind of – this is the person who, you know, you kind of have the hook set, you know, kind of catching them in their first early stationary love. And I paired that with a Field Notes County Fair edition because, well, at least in the U.S., you can specify like what state they're in. And it gives it a little bit something extra. And pocket notebooks are super easy to use. So, it's kind of a neat little combo for someone who kind of has an idea that I think they like stationary. And this will be a little kit to push them off the deep end and start listening to the Pen Addict podcast in the future.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think the Coleto is a very good pick. Like, the Coleto was an early on for me, right? Like, that was something that was very early on. And I particularly liked how you could pick not just the body that you wanted to use, but all of the individual colors that you were looking to go for, right? Like, I think that that made it a lot of fun for me when going through that process. I had a lot of fun with it. Yep. So, that's a great one. That is a very good one. And, of course, Field Notes forever. So, I thought about this of like, well, it's obvious what you would expect I would say. So, I decided to not say that. And I am actually going to go with the Studio Neat Mark I in this. And the reason is because I think that people maybe in this bracket who are kind of new to stationary, I would expect if you're probably in some kind of office environment. Like, that would be my thinking, right? That like, you may be in some kind of office environment. You decided you want to increase your stationary wares. So, you maybe want something that still looks pretty professional. It looks really good, but also performs very well. And I think that the Mark I fits so perfectly in that range because it uses the Schmidt refill that I'm in love with. The mechanism is wonderful. And it's still very professional looking. And also, it will be shipping really soon. I think they're getting the Kickstarter stuff like out imminently. And you can buy it on the Studio Neat website now. And it's like a couple of weeks away from, I think, maybe from shipping out. So, it's very exciting. I can't wait to get my actual Kickstarter versions because I still just have the prototypes. But I think that this is a pen which would fit quite nicely in this category.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, the next category, and I want to explain the order of the categories in that there's no order in the categories. They just are. This was just how my brain dumped these categories out in this order.