Editing The Pen Addict 234/transcript (section)

== Ink Dependence Blog ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I want to talk about, so if you're not familiar with Myke Madison, he runs a wonderful blog in the PEN community called Ink Dependence. Mostly ink reviews. You do mix in some PEN reviews and other things from time to time, but mostly ink. So why don't you tell us about how you got started doing that? What made you start writing about ink and PENs and fountain PENs in this whole community and everything like that?

'''Mike Matteson:''' Yeah, so it's actually my wife's fault. It's totally Audrey's fault that this blog happened. So back in 2010, 2011, something like that, I took a job out in Greensboro, North Carolina at UNC Greensboro, where I still work. And Audrey was finishing up her PhD in Tennessee. And so we were living apart for about a year. And she was bored. And so she started a nail polish blog, which she still does. She changes her nail polish almost every single night, just for blog purposes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I'll go ahead and I'll stop you right there. Her work is awesome. She can definitely do some really, really cool stuff. I've seen it and I follow her on Instagram and everything.

'''Mike Matteson:''' Yeah, she will love to hear you say that. So she's been writing right on the nail for a long time. And then so she said, you know, you should start a blog. And I said, I don't I don't I don't care. What am I going to do a blog about? Nobody cares what I have to say about anything. And so, you know, every once in a while, I'd write about a book or I'd write about, I don't know, a beer or something like that. She's like, you know, you probably ought to focus on something that you that you like and that changes a lot. I'm like, I like beer and it changes. She says, no, no. But yeah, that'll become an alcoholic. Like, yeah, I said, you know, you like fountain pens. Like, yeah, that's true. But, you know, I've only just got back into them or whatever. And so around 2012, apparently like February of 2012, I started like really blogging about pens and ink and stuff. And that's, you know, around when ink samples became a thing that was easily available on the Internet.

'''Mike Matteson:''' So I started blogging about them because I could get them pretty cheaply and easily, especially on the kind of like just post grad student budget. That I was running with. So, you know, so that's how it kind of got started several years ago. And I was looking for for names. And actually, my first inclination for starting a blog, it was going to be called Pen Addict. And I was like, oh, let's see if that's taken. Son of a it was totally taken by some Yahoo. I don't know who it was.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's amazing. You never told me that.

'''Mike Matteson:''' At least that's how I remember it happening. I can't tell that's for sure. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. And actually, I think Audrey actually came up with the name Ink Dependence because I like mixing words together. I think that's fun. But yeah, that's more or less how I got started. And I just haven't stopped.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So were you always into pens and ink and things like that for the past several years since your childhood? You know, like you obviously had an inclination for this before you even started the blog.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Inclination.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, God, I was about to call him on that. Yeah. Hey, don't think that wasn't on purpose. I got game. Wow.

'''Mike Matteson:''' So, yeah, yeah. Since I was, I mean, as far as back as I can remember, I've been into, you know, pens and office supplies and all that kind of jazz. I mean, I have a, I saw Anna did a short video where she did like a scribble with every pen that she had or something like that. I was like, man, I want to do that. But I've got, I've got too many. I don't have the time. Maybe, maybe during the winter after I finished all my grading for the semester or whatever, I can get into that. But while I was browsing Myke's, you know, videos before this, I saw that standing desk thing. And I'm like, oh, I've got to go to Ikea. Well, I've got a couple of Ikea helmets, which is these kind of like tall metal drawer sets. I've got two of them basically full of pens. But, yeah, no, the original question about how I got into it. Yeah, I've been into it forever. I mean, I remember using my mom's pens when I was a kid. Like, she used to have these, I don't know who makes them, but Le Pen, L-E-P-E-N, I think. Marvy. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I used, I remember using those. Which is a Hallmark company, by the way. Really? Oh, that's neat. Yeah, I believe so. I think I learned that from Anna. Yeah. I used to steal those out of my mom's purse and completely ruin the tips, I'm sure, because they're kind of fragile. And then I'd steal my dad's mechanical pencils because he was an engineer. And, yeah, just kind of forever. And fountain pens, I got into, I don't know, later, like, I don't know, late high school, maybe early college or something like that. But, you know, I was too broke. So I had like two fountain pens for, I don't know, several years. That's kind of hard. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So would you bring those to class? Like, when you're teaching now, what do you use?

'''Mike Matteson:''' Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I've definitely had students comment on them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, a pen or some ink there. Like, do you ever bring that into class?

'''Mike Matteson:''' Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I've always got at least a couple of fountain pens on me. Oh, a couple. I've usually got a couple of cases of fountain pens on me. I usually got one in a placket or a pocket of my shirt or something in one of my pocket. And then I've got a ballpoint that I'll hand out to other people. And usually a retro 51 just to bring that into the show early. And, yeah, I've had students say things like, you know, your handwriting looks like it's from the past. I'm like, okay, cool. That sounds good. But my handwriting is not good, y'all. But, you know, it looks old-timey to them. I actually had a student that I made really angry one time. And he said he was just – he came to me in class a week or so later and said, I was really fuming about that thing that you said. And then, you know, I Googled you to get madder. And he's like, I found your pen blog. And I'm like, I really like fountain pens, too. So now we're bros. Oh, man. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, I haven't seen him in a while. So maybe not that much of a bro. But at least, you know, he caught me out of trouble that time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, for sure. For sure. So you focus on the ink because, like you said, you're getting the samples and things like that. So when you're reviewing – let's talk a little bit about, like, kind of your review process. When you're reviewing an ink, what are you looking for? You've done so many now. Like, I'm sure you have a pretty good, you know, feel in, you know, what the ink's going to be like or how it's performing, how it relates to other inks. So what are you looking for when you're reviewing an ink?

'''Mike Matteson:''' So my reasoning behind my ink reviewing is that, look, ink and such is going to depend so heavily on all the other components of your writing setup, right? I mean, it's the three-part thing. You've got your pen, your ink, and your paper. And so inks are going to depend – their performance will depend more or less on how those things work. So I know that everybody's mileage is going to vary. But what I can do on a blog is, yeah, I've reviewed a ton of inks. I mean, several years of inks, four or five years, something like that. And I have hundreds of them. And I know how my pens work. So I can say, you know, this is an ink that's going to be more free-flowing or it's going to be a drier ink. I can show how it performs on different kinds of paper. I can sort of talk about it over the long term because some inks will change into your pen a little bit. Some of them condense faster than others and get darker or that sort of thing. And so I think I can give people at least a pretty good idea of how that ink is going to work for them when they start using it. And so that's what I try to do. I think of it like a resource.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think it's important that you brought up like the whole pen, ink, and paper thing. We tend to forget that like a lot. Even me, you know, sometimes when I'm like getting fussy at an ink or a pen, I was like, well, maybe I should try a different paper. Or maybe it's not the writing for this pen or maybe this nib can't handle this type of ink. So, yeah, I think that's like always important to consider. Like when you're looking for an ink, it's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison when you're, you know, looking at a review or shopping around for different inks. It's going to be how you're going to use it, what pen you're going to use it in, what paper you're going to use it in. And that gets lost in the shuffle even for those of us who do this like all the time.

'''Mike Matteson:''' Yeah, that's why I started using Rodia as my, you know, my my review medium pretty early on. I originally started doing it in just kind of like printer paper type stuff. I found a template on FPN, I think. It was a pretty cool template. A lot of people use it. But printer paper varies so wildly. I mean, sheet to sheet, it can vary. And so I figured, you know, I'm going to use a paper that's pretty popular. It's easy to get and it's not super expensive and it works well. And so that's why I settled with Rodia. And not every pen, not every ink works super well on Rodia. But it's at least one that's kind of a common denominator and people know how it works, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you've got all these years worth of ink cataloging, essentially. Do you have a few brands that like stand out from the rest or, you know, that you really have high expectations for every time you try one out just because they've proven to be like really good performers in the past?

'''Mike Matteson:''' Um, yeah, I mean, I've got a couple. So, like, there are some that are kind of controversial. I know every time I mention Private Reserve or Noodlers, people like feel the intake of breath. But, I mean, they're huge brands that have like these wide catalogs of inks. And some of them are great and some of them aren't. And so my early expectations were kind of very low, like per ink. I wouldn't say this is going to be a great ink because it comes from X company. But since, I mean, there are some manufacturers that just make really good ink. And so I always have high expectations for sailor inks. I haven't had too many of those let me down. There's a couple I don't really care for, but the rest of them are very good. And I really like Franklin Kristoff inks. Some of them aren't really my favorite, like they're not quite the right color. But all of them have flowed well for me. All of them seem to work just as they're supposed to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I have a black ink made by them that I really like, but I don't remember the name of it.

'''Mike Matteson:''' It's probably classic black. They've only had a couple of blacks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think the one that I have, they don't make anymore. Like, they just stopped making it. And I picked up a bottle in Atlanta maybe two years ago.

'''Mike Matteson:''' Oh, I don't, because they had one that was called like black magic black or something like that. That's what I have. And you like it?