The Pen Addict 554/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	554
Title:	Block Signature Signature
Release Date:	March 8th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 554
Audio File:	Audio Episode 554
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 554
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 554. Today's show is brought to you by Myke Hurley and our friends at Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy, who, I'm very aware, is very excited right now, aren't you? You're all giddy over there, you know, gonna rub it in my face, cause what are you doing this weekend? We're gonna talk about it later on, what are you doing this weekend?

Pen Show excitement and anticipation

Brad Dowdy: Pen Show week, baby. Let's go. First one of the year. You know it's Hype Train Central over here, so I am ready to roll.

Myke Hurley: Baltimore, as The Wire taught me to say. Baltimore, right? Baltimore. As I would want to say, Baltimore.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's probably more, I don't know if it's more of a Amsterdam situation, where we're just gonna be kind of like locked in the hotel, you know, never really leave the premises. But yeah, I'm okay with that. So yeah, we'll be up in the Balmer Friday afternoon through Sunday. So yeah, we'll talk about that later this show.

Myke Hurley: There was a Pen Show in London last week.

Brad Dowdy: I saw some of my friends taking pictures. I'm assuming you did not go.

Myke Hurley: That would be nice, but then looked at when it was and was like, yeah, I'm not gonna start the beginning of the F1 season, I'm afraid. I was too excited about Formula One. So nothing was getting in my way last weekend.

Discussion of recent race dynamics

Brad Dowdy: Another thing we could easily distract ourselves on for about 10 minutes, but I'll just say, good race. Like, fine. I enjoyed it. Good start of the season, right? You know, it took a while to get there, but it got there in the end.

Myke Hurley: The dominance, you know, I was maybe hoping for something slightly different, but the midfield, like from third down, like that was wildly exciting. So that was all I wanted from the race, just some fun and like who could have imagined the podiums that we got. So yeah. Yep, we got it. So it was great. To begin the season that way. But we have some follow up on handwriting. So on the two kind of things we've been talking about recently, Jack wrote in, said, furthermore, for language and handwriting practice, we've been talking about people trying to work on their language skills and how to write out different letters and stuff. Jack says, the dome paper spiral bound that I have has various lines for descenders and ascenders. Brad used to talk about dome paper a lot, which is why I have some.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So if you're not familiar with dome paper, it is a grid plus lines format. So you essentially have three rows of five millimeter grids contained within a deeper colored line. So it looks like you have like different spacings to work on different line heights, which is what I talked about when we talked about handwriting, like why graph and dot paper is good, because you can have like one, two and three like spaces of height or however you want to lay it out to practice your handwriting. And the dome paper is perfect. But it's so perfect, Myke, that yesterday I wrote up, I do this thing for pen attic members called the pen attic ratings, where I give my own personal score on products. And I didn't see this in the show notes before I had written an entire rough draft of the dome paper idea journal, which is what Jack is referring to here. There's different dome paper products with the spiral bound. It's called the idea journal. There's a large and a small I'm writing up the dome paper idea journal large. I should have that published tonight or tomorrow for pen attic members. So very, very appropriate follow up here that I'm writing about that for pen attic members. So, yeah, that's that's fun. Always a product. I love. Well, which was what Jack's talking about. I used to talk about it all the time. And I actually I actually went into this little write up that I was doing in my rough draft about why I did use it and why I don't use it currently.

Myke Hurley: So that was for Yvonne who asked that original question. Yes. I went back to check through our Google Notes history because I had a vague memory of the type of book that they were looking for. But it was just a blank workbook. I wasn't sure if the spiral bound was going to be an issue. But even if it isn't, there are just like notepads like with just individual sheets. Right. Which you could also use.

Brad Dowdy: So the good thing about the DONE is it is a front and back printed. Right. So like a lot of grid notebooks will only one side print, which is fine. But like if you're doing handwriting practice, the only thing you can't really do is landscape with this notebook. Right. So you would just because of the way the way the format is. Right. It's not. Yeah. It wouldn't make sense. It's not rotatable with the lines in there. It would not work. The second follow up, I'll let you read this, but it's handwriting related. But it's about the basically paying to get your signature done, which is a different handwriting follow up from last week. So I'll let you read this. This is from our friend Tony at Everyday Commentary.

Myke Hurley: So generally, I agree with you, says Tony, that you want a better signature. Be like a Home Depot customer and do it yourself. However, an experience I had in the law makes me think that there are instances in which a professional redo of a signature might be worthwhile. I'm a trial lawyer and enjoy the fighting drama that is inherent in trial, but I hate appeals. So when we have cases that need appeals, we usually refer the case out to a different lawyer. I don't know why that cracks me up.

Brad Dowdy: Why is that funny to you? I don't know. It's like, hey, this is my job. I love going in here and fighting in the trial. Screw an appeal, though. Forget that. I'm out.

Myke Hurley: It feels like a different form of law, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Anyway, the form for an appeal called a notice of appeal is, as all court forms are, hideously ugly. Blocks of text, way too small spaces, rules, numbers, letters. It's hot garbage from an aesthetic and design perspective, but it's largely because it is a purpose-driven document. One of the lawyers we use on appeal has, however, taken that form and changed it into a work of art. It has all the same language, blocks of text, and fill in the blank spaces, but it's all arranged in a way to make it more pleasing to the eye, and it also has fine calligraphic work throughout. It gives the appeal a real punch, and it is his calling card. I asked for a copy of the document, and he demurred, rightfully so. So, that gorgeous functional document was clearly made by a pro. If that had such a profound impact on me, I think there may be some very rare instances in which a pro's signature makeover might be worthwhile. I think what Tony is saying here, but not actually saying, is this person is potentially more effective at their appeal trials because of how pretty the document is. Yeah, yeah, I think that's good. It's a first impression kind of thing with the signature here, I can imagine. If somebody has a really beautiful signature, you maybe make a different judgment about them as a person. I don't know why, but maybe you do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and now they're known as a fancy handwriting lawyer, and that's a cool place to be. You want to be, for me, I like to be the nice handwriting guy. I like that. I am down with this instance of making the mundane, not so mundane, making it your own, making it colorful, make your boring day-to-day appeals form filling out into something fun. Let me work on this signature here, and I can really add something to this document and keep my sanity as I'm working through this mound of paperwork that I have to fill out. I'm completely down with this.

Brad Dowdy: I would love to see any other instances of this where you just add the flourish of the beautiful handwriting. It's always going to stand out. It's always going to get a comment from somebody, even if they're not a writing or handwriting person. I think it's pretty cool. I love hearing this really, really special instance to work on your handwriting. As I think about handwriting and rolling it back into the F1 chat, and I also just finished the Netflix series Breakpoint, the tennis chat, I look at all the signatures all these people sign, all the drivers, all the tennis players. They're just like, let me grab the end of a Sharpie and just draw a bunch of circles on there. I hate that. That drives me crazy. I want a real signature. Take your time. No, but that's not a thing. I know.

Myke Hurley: How are they going to take their time when they've got these hundreds of people shoving hats in their faces?

Brad Dowdy: Well, they're never going to finish them all anyway, so why not just make the ones that you do really important? I mean, half the time, they're just taking selfies anyway. That's the thing. I don't want a Lando LN signature. I want a Lando Norris number four. Throw me a Lando number four on there at least or something. I don't know. That's just me watching all these signatures because you get all this footage of the crowds and everything and all these events. So I just always look at these Sharpies just flying around, and it's like done. It's like, okay, whatever. I'm not into that.

Myke Hurley: It's the way to go. So what you're saying is at the Baltimore Pen Show, people should be asking for your autograph, and we can judge it on speed and loopings.

Brad Dowdy: So I've started to do a block print signature for this specific reason. Like, I'm going to practice what I preach. I practice what I preach, Myke, and make it legible. Yeah. Block signature. Block signature, signature.

Brad Dowdy: That's how we roll. All right. Yeah. And I always drop a hashtag Pen Addict on there. In the signature. I take my time. I take, yes. I take my time.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not just going to go, like, beady.

Introduction of Sailor pens

Brad Dowdy: Who wants that? Okay. Let's talk about Sailor.

Myke Hurley: All right. So. I want you to just read what you've written in our show document.

Brad Dowdy: How about you read what I wrote in the show document? All right.

Myke Hurley: So we have a link. I'll read what you wrote in the show document. We have a link here. So it says, new Sailor Jellyfish. And there is a link. This is the new Sailor Pen 1911 overseas exclusive. 1911 S, the small one. And it is a, it's called the Jellyfish release or line or whatever. It consists of five different 1911s. They are all single color demonstrators. They have different names. The red one is called Japanese Sea Nettle. The kind of, there's like an amber color one called the Fried Egg Jellyfish. Yeah. There is a purpley one called Violet Jellyfish. A blue one called Freshwater. And a green one called A One. And they're all available. Brad wrote in our show document, Imagine getting to make everything that comes to mind.

Myke Hurley: Savage. Savage. This is absolute. That is, I read it this morning and that was all that came to mind. Just savage. That is like a viscerating cut into the core.

Brad Dowdy: So let me explain this a little bit because like, that's my initial reaction, but I'm going to, I'm going to get to a point and we'll see if you agree or disagree. I actually have a little bit of a dissertation here. Shocker. I know. Right. All right. So yes, you explained these well. The first thing I see when I, when I see this is like, literally, didn't we just do this like one or two weeks ago? Right. The amount of product. And this is like the mainline sailor, right? This is through sailor. These are not store exclusives. These are like the, you know, different regional, you know, releases, things like that. So we just did that with the tequila stuff, like literally like two weeks ago, a series of five, all these colors, like mix and match pulling parts from the shelf, whatever. This one, um, the first thing I just rolled my eyes when I looked at this, right? Because they just did the compass, um, two years ago, which is the 1911 steel nib pen. And they just did them in the basic translucent barrel colors, like literally this pen, but with steel nibs between like thinking of all this and thinking of sailor in the big picture. All I could think about is how many pens must they sell to just be able to literally make anything that comes to mind. The first thing that comes to mind goes into production over and over and over and over again. And then all I could think about is they must sell a lot of freaking pens for this to be their design ideas, right? For the amount of product they create, they must absolutely sell a crap ton of pens. And that's impressive to me. So I'm actually saying that my contrary to your, um, your savage comment, I'm actually commending them on the amount that they make because it does not make any logical sense from any business standpoint, unless you are selling an absolute enormous amount of pens and they must like, I am, I'm kind of impressed that they can just do this on a weekly basis. Like we don't get like a quarterly single pen release from them and they're done. Like we get that and then we get a monthly release and then we get a weekly release and then we get a daily release. Like if it's a day that ends in Y, sailor has released a new pen. And all I can think about is I'm, I'm not like mad about this. I'm more impressed because if I think of it this way, that they just must sell so many pens and then you contrast them. That statement I made was twofold. Imagine getting to make everything that comes to mind. When you take that statement applied to sailor and then apply that statement to Lamy, it's the exact opposite, right? Lamy is, you know, disciplined and refined. And guess who's yelling at them all the time to make more pens that I want? Me, right? So I, I'm literally yelling at Lamy to be more like sailor while on the, on the other hand, like half time, half the time making fun of sailor for it's like it make it stop, make it stop at some point, but they don't. And it's kind of impressive. So like I am all in on sailor, Myke, making literally a pen a day for the next five years. All right. Let's just go. Let's go sailor. Like pedal to the metal, make everything that comes to mind. And that's where we're at right now with sailor. And you know what? Like, I'm not going to buy any of the tequila ones from last week. I'm not going to buy any of these, you know, but I don't care. Like it's cool. They must be selling an absolute metric ton of pens to release the amount of pens that they do. And like, I just think about that in, in context of me yelling at Lamy to, Hey, give me my color translucent Vista and never getting it, even though they're kind of like tease a little part here, a little part there that, you know, I just want more from Lamy. It was like, well, sailor's doing that for me. Right. Sailor's doing exactly what I want to see. So props to sailor. So there you go. It is not exactly savage, Myke. I don't know if that blew your mind or not, but like I have come 180 degrees around on sailor. Make literally everything all day long. If they can sell it, it's only impressive. If they can move this much product, shout out props to them.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I agree with you. All right. I do. And, and I agree with the idea of like, must be nice, right? Like to be able to produce at that level.

Brad Dowdy: Like, yeah. So I think about it for myself and I was thinking about it for you too. Like we will spend 18 months on a single notebook.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right. To get it correct and get it to market and to be happy with the thing that we sell. So sailor, like someone probably like type something in Slack. Hey, what about these jellyfish ones? Cool. Can we do five? Yeah. Easy. Do you want 10? No, five's good. All right. Done. Send it to production.

Myke Hurley: Because they just know how to do it. Right. Yeah. They got it all taken care of. They have their production. They know the quality. Like they, you know, it's just like, it's a well-oiled machine, which is just not a thing that me or you have right now.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So I am, I am impressed with what sailor's doing, even though like it's a lot, like it's, I am, I have come completely around.

Myke Hurley: These pens are not particularly impressive, right? Like they're fine.

Brad Dowdy: People are going to like them. Yeah. Like my downside to these pens is like, you just told me I could buy this pen with a steel nib for $30, like two years ago. And now this one's going to be, I didn't look at what's the current 1911 S price is probably two, is it two 80 or three 20? I forget. So yeah, like it's a very, but their, their golden, their basic golden pins, I think start at two 80 without me looking. So I'd have to verify, but yeah. Like you just told me like two years ago, Hey, here's a lime green 1911 looking barrel with a steel nib and it's like 30, $35. I was like, yeah. What are you referring to? It's called the sailor compass.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: So like, this is fair. This is kind of the same pen just with the 14 K nib for the 1911 S model. And I think it's, I'll have to look up the price. I'm too busy rambling to look it up, but they're like two 80. I think the 1911 S starting price. Hell, I'll look it up now. 1911 S.

Myke Hurley: I remember this pen. And it had like, so it's like slightly different, right? Like the bands are different or in the middle, that kind of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Like it's definitely less detailed. Right. But it's not that far different.

Brad Dowdy: So let's see. So we got to find, so here's the other problem. The 1911 S starts at two 80 for the new models. You can still find the old price was two 20. So, but the standard ones now go for two 80. So these, I'm assuming these are two 80 without looking them up. So anyway. But yeah, shout out sailor. It was not savage. And it's more being, me being like, man, it must be nice. And I'm kind of impressed with that.

Pen Chalet sponsorship and product highlights

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by pen chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls and fountain pens, ball points and mechanical pencils, and everything in between. Whether you're looking for some ink, maybe looking for some refills, maybe you want a carrying case for that pen show that you're going to. Pen chalet have got it all. They have fast and reliable customer service. And they stock products constantly. Every month, they're adding new stuff from your favorite brands. They run special discounts twice a month and close out specials every two weeks as well. They ship internationally. They have great shipping rates. And if you're in the U.S., they do free shipping on all of over $75. Pen chalet has low prices on high quality pens. And they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go take yourself right now to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password, Pen Addict, and you'll be able to get a 10% off code for anything over at Pen Chalet that's exclusive for Pen Addict listeners. And a selection of offers that are also exclusive for Pen Addict listeners. Brad's going to tell you about some stuff that he's found there. But if you're like, oh, man, I'm so jealous of these people going to pen shows, just have your own, you know. Go to Pen Chalet. Have your own private pen show. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And they really have some choices that are very pen show centric this week. So what Ron does, he's like, hey, look at these deals I have. And they're great. And I want you to check these out. And then, oh, my God, what is this? That's how I treat this page. It's like, hey, there's some really good deals. Like these two Conklens at the top, these are like some real showy fountain pens, right? If you want like the all rainbow metal looking fountain pen, this Conklin's great. And the price is like we're in complete no-brainer type of territory. If you just want to test out and try some pens like this. And then you have an overlay model, Conklin, the Endura Deco. It has like some silver overlays, gold overlays, things like that that just look wild. And like if you're into that style and aesthetic, it's like, dang. And I think they even have like, do they have a flex nib in the option in this one? Let's see. Yes, there's like even a flex nib option. And like for the price point, like it's crazy. It's crazy. And then I scroll down on the not quite infinite scroll, but it took me a minute to get there. I think I know what you're looking at. There's two things that are sneaky. One, an all-timer in my book is the Y Studio resin fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: I should buy another one for the price that this is because I love this pen so much. This is not a pen for everybody. This is one of Brad's pens that he finds like completely, like particularly endearing. And I literally just love this pen so much. And the price is, it's probably half of what I paid for mine, right? Like it's that, like I should buy another one just to have. The second one, I don't understand whatsoever. There's a Leonardo messenger at a price that does not compute.

Brad Dowdy: Like I'm not going to tell y'all it's a mistake, but for Leonardo pens, it's, it's, I don't have the words like for the price point. Like if you, like we just put up a Leonardo review today that Jeff did on the blog. It's a different model, but the Leonardo's like the base cheap Leonardo's like that. I love so much start about 150, 160.

Myke Hurley: This says a special offer.

Brad Dowdy: It is listed as a, it is a special offer. Like it's like, it's a, it's a two digit price instead of a three digit price. Like that's how, like you don't see Leonardo's price at that. So anyway, and that, that's not it. Like I could go on and on. Like there's all kinds of really wild stuff on this page. So yeah, definitely go check out everything at penchalet.com and have your own pen show at home.

Myke Hurley: P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. Thanks to Penchalet for the support of this show and Relay FM. And I wanted to mention here, like the next couple of pens that we have both available. We're going to talk about them also both available at Penchalet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I didn't do this. Like I don't look at the sponsor calendar, right? Like I just put up things that I like to talk about that I want to talk about. And just so happens that these are new products from like main brands like Lamy and Kaweco. Like I like to talk about their new releases. And of course our good friends at Penchalet have these both in stock. The Kaweco ones didn't surprise me. We'll talk about those second. And the first one, the new Lamy Joy Red did surprise me. And I just want to give a special shout out to the Lamy Joy. It is one of the great underrated Lamy pens. It is essentially a desk pen, right? So if you think about what defines a desk pen, it's usually that long extended barrel, right? It's an artist type pen. It's not something you put in your pocket or in your bag or purse because it's too big. But there's something about these designs and I've used the platinum ones before. I've used the Lamy Joys before with this long skinny barrel that just makes them such a joy to write with. And they're relatively inexpensive. And it's a pen lineup. I wish Lamy would make a special edition joy every year. So what this is, is a special edition in strawberry. So again, I can't get on a sailor if I don't get on Lamy. Lamy has some extra strawberry resin, Myke, from last year's strawberries and cream release. So we have strawberry parts here. And they've added in the extended Lamy Joy barrel. So like I want to play fair here. Like this is not like exactly completely unique. They've gone, oh, look at all these strawberry parts we have, all these grip sections and all these caps. How about we just make a barrel for that and do the special edition like two years later of the color they did with the Safari. But I'm happy, right? I'm happy that we have an extra joy color. I would probably try to pick one of these up at the pen show this weekend, which we'll talk about in a minute. Because I love using this pen. It stays on the desk, right? It's not portable whatsoever unless you want to stab yourself in the side. Like if you try to stick this in a pocket or something, it's just like ridiculously big and long. But for the price, it's like 28 bucks. They ship with a stub nib or Lamy calls it an italic nib. It's not really like a crispy italic nib. It's like a 1.5 millimeter stub to me, the way it writes. But it's great. It's such an enjoyable pen. I like seeing Lamy mess around with this. They have very few colors in the Joy. So they have an all black one with a red clip. They have a black barrel with an aluminum cap. And that's it right now. So the red one's the third one. In the past, I've bought a white one with a red clip. They do some very basic standard Lamy colors. Black, white, red. Give me a yellow Joy. Give me more Joy in the Joy. Fountain Pen Lamy. Once a year. I'm not asking for much. I'm not asking for like sailor type releases here. Once a year, make a Joy. Make it joyous. Make it a Joy Day. And for the price point, even if they make just a few hundred of them, they'll sell. It may not be worth it to them. But it's such a great pen. Very underrated. We don't talk about it enough. And I just love it. So I actually want to go get mine to ink up. All right. Flipping over into Kaweco. I've hesitated to put these in the show notes for like the last two or three weeks. Because there's really not a lot to say. Until I found the price point of one of these. So there's two new Kaweco releases. One is the new collection series. Which is your basic plastic barrel sport series. This one's called Toyama Teal. It's a beautiful deep blue color. It's fantastic, right? Like you don't even need to like discuss this. You know, it's your basic sport model. Short pen. Silver, silver trim. Blue, sparkly. Acrylic plastic material. I mean, like there's nothing else to say. It's great. It's fantastic. Then we get one of the new metal sports. Which have been around for a long time. Mostly made popular by the brass sports. So Kaweco has always done a few brass barrel models. In these metal series. They've also done a stainless steel one. Which is my personal favorite. And now they've added bronze to the lineup. And I kind of choked on the price. Even though it's probably fine. Like I think. I'm just not used to it. We used to be able to get the brass sport for under $100. I don't know what the brass sport is now. It's probably more than that. But I still have stuck in my head. That the metal sports were. Yeah. So like the brass one is still $100. The bronze one is twice as much. And is it twice as cool? As. Or twice as like interesting. As the brass one. Is bronze like that much more expensive of a metal material? I don't know. Like maybe I should have done. Check the spot prices on bronze. Myke. Before we. Before we did this little bit.

Myke Hurley: Has anybody got the market prices?

Brad Dowdy: Maybe it's more expensive. But for twice as much as the brass. I don't know what you're going to get from this. It might be. Slightly lighter. Slightly softer. I don't know exactly how bronze compares to brass. But for twice the price. I'm not feeling it. Even my steel one that I love.

Brad Dowdy: I thought I paid under $100. But no more than like $120. Like and it's a stainless steel one. And I don't think they really have. I think you have to kind of hunt those down now. I don't think that's a stock item. Like the brass has always been stock. But that one kind of caught me off guard. So maybe I would like to hear from the chat. Via pinaddictfeedback.com. Why should I be cool with the bronze sport being $200. While the brass is still $120. And this is one of those things where Koveco says fine. We'll just make the brass $140. Are you happy now? You know. Brass price has gone up. So like I don't want that to happen. But it caught me a little bit off guard. Even though it's probably an accurate price. Like it's probably fine. But that's just it was something I questioned in my little stationary loving brain here. That something's not adding up with the rest of the product lineup here. So anyway that's it. I hope to get to check. I actually want to check out the bronze sport. Hopefully someone has one at the pin show this weekend. Which let's get into Myke. We have the Baltimore pin show this weekend. The first pin show I'm attending in 2023. Obviously not the first pin show of the calendar year. But it's the first time I'm getting on the road. And this is going to start a run for me. So probably.

Brad Dowdy: Let's see in the next eight weeks. I'll probably be doing three pin shows. So we're going to do a lot of pin show. Chat over these next few weeks. And my goal. With these first three pin shows of the year. So Baltimore. Atlanta. At the end of the month. And then Chicago. At the beginning of March. Is to.

Brad Dowdy: Take it a little bit slow. And steady.

Brad Dowdy: I am purposefully. Tightening my travel schedule. Since I'm not working any of these shows. You know I don't have to be there Thursday night. To set up for a Friday morning. Or get in you know the crack of dawn Friday morning. To start setting up. And then staying all the way to Sunday night. To break down. And probably not leave until Monday morning. I'm flying out. Late Friday morning. Getting to the show. Late afternoon. You know I'll probably catch a couple hours. The show on Friday. Hang out all Friday night. Be at the show literally all day Saturday. From open to close. Like just really kind of make Saturday my day. To do the things. Even though that's probably like the busiest day. And then leave before the show opens on Sunday. Like I'm trying. This is a test run for me. Right? Atlanta will be mostly similar. As will Chicago. This is my test to say. Hey. Can I get all the things done. In this compacted schedule. That works better for me. Like on a personal level. Like my life. You know my family stuff. You know. Getting home on a Sunday afternoon. Things like that. So. That's my schedule. For this weekend. I will mostly be hanging around the hotel. And taking in all the events. And that's kind of what I want to talk about. For Baltimore. Yep. It's. It's literally. You know. Pretty much all day Friday. Saturday and Sunday. Is. Is your show schedule. Something I noticed. That I haven't noticed. At any other pin shows. As I was going through their website. They have a VIP pass. Myke. Hello. Hello. Yo. VIP. And so. It's. It's not just a weekend pass. Or like. We've done the weekend pass. Like in Atlanta. That includes like a meal. Right. We get like. Like an event. Like a Friday evening cookout thing. So this is. The weekend VIP. Is something they're trying. That's. You get in an hour. Before the general public. You get a guaranteed seat. In all free seminars. And you get a VIP swag bag.

Brad Dowdy: And it's. Yeah. It's $75. For the weekend. Normally the weekend passes. I'd have to look. They're usually around. Like $50. So it's just a little bit. Of a premium. And that seems like. Yeah. If I was going to be there. Thursday night. Until like. Sunday evening. I would probably get that. But. Because. I just have like. A two day pass. That's good for.

Myke Hurley: But also. In some instances. Depending on who you. Are bad for. Is. Depending on how the vendors. Play this. And I feel like. Vendors should be. Smart about it too. Maybe. If you have limited edition. Products. Yeah. They could be 100% secure. By the VIP people. If you're just going to put them out. On your table. Yep. And so like. That's a reason to do it. But I. I would hope that. Some vendors. You have like. The super limited stuff. Maybe. Keep a little bit. Like I know some do that anyway. For days. Right. So like.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to talk about this. Specifically. All right. In a minute.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because there's one thing. I really want to talk about. I saw in the show notes. Like my mind is kind of blown. Right now.

Brad Dowdy: Right. We're going to talk about that. For sure. Because I wouldn't have put it. In the show notes. If I didn't feel the same way. So yeah. Like that's an interesting way. Like if you're like. Making this an event. Right. So we talk about pen shows. You know. Where people who are local. And may just come for the day. Or you have people. A lot of times like myself. Who make it an event. Where you're spending two or three nights. At the hotel. And doing. You know. The different shows. And the different events at night. Things like that. You know. Maybe something like this. Is worthwhile. Especially. Like you're alluding to. Getting in an hour early. Hey. That's not such a bad thing.

Myke Hurley: Like. Yeah. That's what I would do. Like if I was attending. Because then I would get. An hour to just walk around. And it'd be more empty. Like. Mm-hmm. I could do my. You know. If there's anything like. Urgent. I want to buy. Or whatever. Like I could just go find it. You know. Right. Right. Like you know. There was a. One pen show here. In Atlanta. Where I wanted to get. King of pen. King of pen tangerine. Right. Right. 1911. And so I had to like. As soon as it opened. I had to just like. Storm around the show. To find one. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You split for like an hour. Yeah. I remember this specifically. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because I really wanted it. And I assumed someone would have it. And Nib Smith had it. Right. So I got it from Dan. Right. But. That was a hot pen. At the time. Right. Right. And so like. I would do this. Because. It would allow me. To. Get that first run. In the morning. I think it's a great idea. Like. Yep. Especially. I mean. If you're staying. Right. Like. Mm-hmm. If your plan is to stay the whole time. Like. You. Why would you not do this? Like. You've already laid so much money into it. Like.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: I think it's smart.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So I generally do. That type of ticket. If I'm going to be there. Like. Especially. All. All day Friday. And all day Sunday. This one. I just bought like. Two days ticket. Yeah. So it's like. Since I. I know. I'll probably just be there. Mostly on Saturday. So. Which is fine. Another thing I found. As I was going through. Hey. What do I need to see? Or do I need to look at any classes? Or anything like that? One thing I did find. Which I think. Baltimore's done this in the past. Or some other shows have done this in the past. They have some evening events. So like. The pen show after dark. They are actually space limited. So. It's like. Free to attend. But you need to sign up ahead of time. So if you're going to the Baltimore pen show. And you want to do like. The pen show after dark. There are actually. Like. A registration. Thing. Like you put your name on a list. And get like a little ticket thing. It's all for free. But like. You might want to consider doing that. If you want to do. Like the pen shows after dark. Or. Or things like that. So. If you're going. And spending more. Than just like an afternoon at the pen show. Bounce around the site. Figure out like. What you want to do. And figure out. Like. Make sure you're signed up. For the things you want to do. So that's just a little. Little check in there. That you want to do. Things I'm looking for. I don't really have. I definitely don't have a personal shopping list. Like if I see something great. Whatever. Like I'll. I'll buy something. But like. Just from. A pen addicts perspective. And a discussion perspective. And a review perspective. I. Don't know. I sent a message. To luxury brands. Who carries the. The endless. Paper. Company. They. They carry all their notebooks. And stuff. So this is the endless creator. Retractable fountain pen. I don't know if it'll be ready yet. For this show. I definitely want to talk to them. About getting. One of those. Or at least getting on the list. For one of those. When they arrive. I don't know if they'll be here. At this show or not. I'm kind of thinking not. But I don't know. It's. We're probably getting pretty close. They've had pre-orders. From endless. Designs already. But I haven't seen anyone. Receiving any pens. So I don't know what the exact. Dates are on that. I will get to see. Baltimore's a great show. For having a lot of vendors. So many vendors. And distributors.

Myke Hurley: My word. Like I'm looking through it now. Like. It's huge. And there's so. I mean. So many like heavy hitters too. Right. Like it's. Yeah. This is.

Brad Dowdy: This has been a good show. Yeah. And the vendors. Have seen that. You know. They're able to get. The right attendance. The right space. The right feel. For the show. So. That makes the vendors. Want to come to the show. So. We have. Kind of like the who's who. Type of vendors here. Plus a lot of the distributors. Which is important to me. To get to talk to them. About like new products. Coming out. Things like that. And then a lot of retailers. That I don't necessarily. Get to see from time to time. But people that I work with. You know. On occasion. Getting to just. Like I really. Use these events for me. To just like talk to people. Right. It's. I. I end up with a lot of stuff. Right. Pens and inks and paper. And. But it's more. To me. About like getting to see people. That I haven't seen. In person for a while. Or like we've only. Been able to exchange. A couple of emails. Or. Or people I get to meet. For the first time. Right. Like there's. A lot of new creators. And new makers. Which. You know. The thing I put in the show notes. Was this Edison Pen collaboration.

Brad Dowdy: That they've been teasing. For release. With. Stormwinds. Blanks. Who. I follow. Jennifer Early. Of Stormwinds Blanks. On Instagram. And have been enjoying their work. Well. They have a material. That they sent to Edison Pen. And Edison. Did something cool. With the pens. Sick. What do you. You talk. You talk about. What do you think about. So what's it called here. So it's a Beaumont. Which is one of my favorite shapes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: What. It's unbelievable.

Myke Hurley: This is an unbelievable looking pen. Like I don't even know. How to describe it. Like it's kind of like opaque white. It's like the major body color. With these like swirls of blues. And purples. And blacks. With what looks like a glitter. Right. That runs through it. But then Edison have paired it. With ceramic white furniture. Right. This pen is incredible. I want it so bad. It's beautiful. Some mega dust now.

Brad Dowdy: Like this is. And this is kind of what Myke was. Was talking about. There's only 15 of these pens. Like.

Myke Hurley: There's only 15.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So there's going to be 10 available. On Friday. And five available on Saturday. They will all sell. Like pretty quickly. The Beaumont is a personal favorite shape of mine. Right. It's a smaller size pen. But like you. I'm mostly compelled. By the stinking clip. And cap band. That's ceramic white. Like it just pairs perfectly. I like seeing. You know. We're always talking about like. Hey. What can someone do new. Yeah. And different from everyone else. This is. I don't want to say this is simple. Because this is very difficult. To like. Get this material right. To be long lasting. And wear well. With pens. But like. I'm not asking for much. Right. For like. Something new and unique. To buy and check out. Whether that's like a plated nib. You know. With different colored nibs. Or something like that. But something that makes it. A little different. A little fun. And like. Seeing this white hardware. On this pen. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Like. I am. I am down with that. I really like. The. The looks of it. And I also. Like the shape of it. So yeah. Maybe. Like. If I see it in person. Maybe I get one. Maybe I don't. I don't know. But I just like the look of it. I like the. I like the changes. That they've done. With the clip. And. In the cap band. To match with the pen. And yeah. Maybe we'll see some more stuff. Like this. Like I said. Like. It's. It's. Complex. And complicated. But at the same time. It's. Not. Right. It's like. Just a clip. And just a cap band. But no one really does this. That much. Or at least they don't do it that much. So. You know. That's something I want to see. I want to talk to Brian. And Andrea anyway. I want to talk to them about. You know. Their price changes. That we praise them for. Like. Actually. Lowing the price on the signature pens. You know. I just.

Myke Hurley: I haven't. Will come up to me like. What's wrong here? Like. Literally.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think I've seen them. And since. Baltimore. 2020. I think was maybe. Like. The last time they were there. I was there. And like. That's the last time. I've gotten to talk to Brian. And Andrea in person. So. You know. That's a lot of what. These shows are about. When I went to like. Atlanta. And San Francisco. And Orlando. Last year. Getting to see these people. Some of them I haven't seen in years. Right. So. Baltimore is a good show for that. You know. I'm definitely going to. Stop by Gingy Chocolates. Like. Which. Like. That's like a Baltimore stalwart. At this show. It's just like. A chocolatier. A local chocolatier. Just comes and brings all their stuff. And. Everyone's just like. Passing around this chocolate all weekend. It's like. Ridiculous. Like. I came home with like. You know. Espresso beans. Chocolate espresso beans. And stuff like that. Last year. It's like. I want to go do this. At the Baltimore Pen Show. There's so much more. More than like. The. Just the. The Pen Station. A part of these shows. That are important to me. So. I am just. Really looking forward to it. I am. Taking it. Kind of as it comes. To me. Right. Not a lot of plans. Not. Not overstaying my welcome. Just kind of try. To do this. Efficient. Travel trip. And we'll. We'll see how it goes. I was thinking the other day. I was like. Oh man. Maybe I should change my flight. And come in Thursday night. And it's like. No Brad. Stick with the plan. Let's see how it goes. Let's have a little test run. Because. It's like me. To spend. Like three or four nights there. And just. Take it real slow. And I'm just going to. Not. Like speeding that up. But I'm going to try to be. More efficient with my time. And. Going to these shows. So. I'm looking forward to it. I hope to see you there. Not you. The people who are listening.

Myke Hurley: You would hope to see me there. That would be interesting. Yeah. That would be an exciting moment. If I just. Happened to appear at the Baltimore Men Show.

Brad Dowdy: But. Yeah. If you're there. Don't hesitate to. Come up. Say hi. I won't. I'll. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you there Myke. Yep.

Myke Hurley: You just wait. Can you imagine. If I've been planning this the whole time. That would be fun. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: I haven't been.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So. Like. I could literally talk about everyone who's going to be there for an hour. But we'll do that in the post. We'll do that next week. Yeah. We'll do. We'll do a little recap of the show. See how my plans go. See how. My non-budget. Budget crashing. Goes. So. We'll see. I'll always get up to something. So. Uh-huh. I look forward to it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's always like the inevitable. Like. Oh. I'm not going to spend too much. And then two days later on Instagram. Just like a table full of stuff. Exactly. You know. That's the Brad Dowdy way.

Brad Dowdy: That happened to me in Atlanta. Atlanta was the big one. It was like. Oof. Oof.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Micro.blog. If you're a pen addict who wants to share your love of pens, ink, and stationery. Come on over and join Micro.blog. Where you will find kindred spirits. Micro.blog is an easy to use personal blogging platform. Where you can write short and long blog posts. Share photos and videos. And even host a podcast of your own. But more than a place to post your stuff. It's also a friendly community of people. With a wide range of interests. Who share and comment via Micro.blog's social timeline. Which is backed by strong community guidelines that are enforced. Micro.blog is different. There are no ads. There's no behind the scenes algorithm. Choosing which posts appear in your timeline. If you've always wanted to share your love of pens. But have felt discouraged by the big social media sites. Go on over to Micro.blog. Meet fellow enthusiasts and the rest of the community. Who share interesting things that they love. Micro.blog hosting starts at just $5 per month. You can use your own domain name. And even cross post to Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon. You can also follow and be followed by Mastodon users directly. With conversations threading across both Micro.blog and Mastodon. Mastodon. If you're ready to try out a different blogging and social media experience. Head to Micro.blog and sign up for the 30 day free trial. Use the coupon code RELAY. R-E-L-A-Y. And you'll get a special deal. Of your standard subscription. You'll get a premium account at no extra charge. That is $5 a month for hosting. Which includes premium features like podcast and video hosting. Which is a saving of 50%. Thanks to Micro.blog for their support of this show. And Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: So you know I love Micro.blog. Yeah, I know. And I really appreciate what the creator, Manrese, his philosophy on things.

Myke Hurley: He was ahead of the curve, man.

Brad Dowdy: He was ahead of the curve. And that's paying off for him right now.

Brad Dowdy: But the point I wanted to make is that has just made him more excited to do more things for Micro.blog. He does not rest on his laurels. There is so much cool stuff coming down the pike. And like just with this Mastodon integration here recently. Like I follow people on Mastodon on my Micro.blog. I love the concepts of having essentially if I'm making a post on Micro.blog. It's literally going to my blog, my blog name. But it also appears in like a social feed. And it's easier to follow the comments and commentary on any of those posts. And the same thing with other people's content who I'm reading on there. Where it's essentially, it's kind of even hard to explain. But it's really just like this social timeline. But these blog pages actually exist of all the content that you've created and consumed on there. So it's really amazing. And it's so much fun. So yeah, I'm a big fan. Big fan right here of Micro.blog. So. All right. Shout out of the week. Yes, please. We have Weirdo Forest Pens, Myke. All right. You have probably seen me sharing Anne's content. Because it is just so cool. It's pretty infrequent, which is good. Like I don't like, I don't want people to get overwhelmed with like blogging. And Anne has kind of just like slowly started to share things. Like over the past few years that I've been following. Mostly, I got really like sucked in by Anne's artwork being, you know, like a designer architect, I believe.

Brad Dowdy: There's always fun drawings and pictures when they do a review of products. And it's just so compelling and so interesting to look at and really, really neat. So this is a blog you should definitely follow, you know, and post maybe like once a month, like which is great. And they're always just these great product reviews or ideas that I can't wait to read. I just get a lot out of the imagery and the aesthetic. And I think Anne does a great job. So y'all definitely go check out Weirdo Forest Pens. And I also love that name.

Myke Hurley: Product photography is good too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, it's stunning. One of the best. One of the best.

Transition to Ask TPA questions

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we do some Ask TPA questions? Yep. Thank you to everybody who's been sending them in over at penaddictfeedback.com. Paolo asks, I've recently gone down the wooden pencil rabbit hole, but I prefer firmer cores similar to 2H. I've tried the Tombow Mono 100 in a 2H and loved it. But I would also like to know what your favorite options are, Brad, for firmer cores like 2Hs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think the Tombow Mono is a great choice. That might be the core choice. No pun intended. Okay. There. Tombow also does their less expensive 2558, which is their office pencil. In a 2... Do they do it in 2H? It might just be H. So maybe it's just H on that one if it's not 2H. So the other ones I like, the Tajima Carpenter's Pencil, I believe is a 2H. That's one I use very, very frequently. And then the Faber-Castell 9000 also comes in the H grades. So I like the 2Hs there.

Myke Hurley: What are the differences in the grades, Brad, in a nutshell? Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, yeah, yeah. So H, so the easiest way to think about it is you have kind of like the center, like the middle grade is called HB. And then if you go to the H grades, that's H, this essentially stands for harder, right? So you'll go into 2H, 3H on up to like 8 and 10H. So the higher the number, the firmer the core is in the H side.

Myke Hurley: And when you're writing in a pencil, with the pencil, what does that translate to? Is it less like...

Brad Dowdy: Lighter and lighter line, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so it's less actual pencil core left on the paper when you're done. There's less lead on the paper.

Brad Dowdy: Right, so the graphite gets firmer and firmer, which translates into a lighter and lighter line, right? Like I wouldn't want to write, like if I was just writing things, like 2H is kind of like my max. I have some 4Hs laying around that are like fun if I just want like a really stabby type of pencil to do something neat with. But they're not as enjoyable as like 2H. And then on the B side is mostly known as like the blackness side of it, right? So it goes from the higher the number, the darker the graphite is on the page and softer, right? So once you get into 2H all the way up to like 10H, and I think there's even some like 12H pencils, those like 10 and 12Hs are like this really bold black core that's very soft, not quite charcoal-y. Wait, do you mean H or B? Sorry, B, B, B, B.

Myke Hurley: All right, so let me just restate this. Sorry. H is the hard thin lines. Yep. B is the softer thick lines.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Cool. Yep. So yeah, and then the larger the number, the more extreme that is, right? Yeah. So if you put HB in the middle, and the further away, 2, 3, 4, 5, like it stages out like that all the way up to 10 mostly, then there's a couple outliers.

Myke Hurley: Are there numbers in HB or is it just one HB typically?

Brad Dowdy: It's just HB. There's a one, a couple companies use a one, like you can get like a one, number one or a number two pencil, and those are usually just in that ballpark, HB or H or B, you know, however they call it, but it's all like right there in the center, center of the line. So those are my favorites. If you can find the Tadgema Carpenter's pencil, it's kind of a neat pencil. It's a little bit made on the, it might even be like made by Tombow. It might even be the same Tombow core, but it's just a little bit different, and I believe it's a 2H. But I like the Faber-Castell 9000. Any big brand, like if you can find Caran d'Ache 2Hs or, you know, Statler 2Hs, like all of those are going to be fine. But my favorite, the one that I grab is the Tadgema Carpenter's pencil and the Faber-Castell 9000 are the two that I use the most.

Myke Hurley: Is calling it lead like I did a British thing?

Brad Dowdy: No, I still do it, like interchangeably. Like even though it's not accurate at all. It's not actually lead. It's just, it's so ingrained into like what we call, what the terminology is that we use. Like I don't think people really flinch when you say lead. That's especially harder for me with mechanical pencils. You just call them leads that you put into the pencils, right? I don't call them graphites that I put into the pencils.

Refilling and sealing pen cartridges

Myke Hurley: Yeah, graphite sticks. Stefan asks, is there a way to refill and seal a cartridge? I use pens out and about, so when one dries out, I have to wait until I get home to refill it. I am already refilling cartridges of syringe and bottled ink, but the cartridge goes back into the pen immediately. It would be nice to refill and seal a bunch of cartridges all at once and then carrying them in a pencil case until needed. I don't want to just be buying new sealed cartridges because of the cost, environment concerns, because he gets to reduce reuse, and fun inks come mostly in bottles, not cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this is a great question, and I'm definitely pro like filling cartridges or like, you know, cleaning out of used cartridges, refilling it with, you know, a different bottled ink or the same bottled ink that you use. But what Stefan's referring to is to have backup like on the go. Usually if I'm going to do this, I'm putting it right in a pen, right, because the cartridge has already been punctured and it's ready to use. So now what if I want to do this and have a backup group of cartridges, which normally, you know, you would just have like a little box of cartridges. You take them all and go down to the disposable route. But if you're trying to avoid that, I don't know a great answer for this.

Myke Hurley: I think there's an interesting market opportunity here for someone.

Brad Dowdy: I wonder if you could try some of the wax seal type of stuff. I would worry, you know, I would I would almost want to test it out with some type of wax seal, do it very lightly and not use an overly hot wax like you want it to be kind of thick and dry quickly. Like I wouldn't because I wouldn't want it getting into the inside of the cartridge or melt like a little hole that's been punctured or melting the cartridge. So I would use like I would maybe test something that's getting close to dry and thick, dabbing it over the top of the cartridge. And then when it was time to use, I would test carrying it first. Right. Obviously, in a very protected way, maybe put it in a Ziploc or something extra. And then when it came time to use, I would want to peel off that material before trying to insert it just so none of that extra wax gets into my any of my pen parts. That's just at least like a thought that's worth testing where there would technically work. I don't know how it would attach to the plastic, how once it dries, how stable it would be to be knocking around and not come like knocked off. Yeah, just like popped off of there. You know, the other thing which I would it would be worse is getting like really tiny rubber bands and plastic. But that seems like a real, real pain. And I would I would rather put in the effort to try like something cool, like a wax seal than just doing something like kind of like taping it off. Which I don't think you can get some of those ceiling tapes in like rubber bands. I don't know. It's that would be less safe to me, I would think. So if anyone has any ideas on this, I don't know if you can have like maybe there's like a 3D printed plug type of situation that could be out there. They'd be really small. But maybe there's a market for like, you know, an international cartridge plug from like a 3D printer. Right. And just trying to have something that kind of you can stuff in there then kind of snaps out when you need it kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: But I have an absolutely different recommendation. Or I'm going to go in a completely different direction. But I actually think it's a better direction for Stefan. Put a converter in your pen and decant some ink into an ink testing vial.

Myke Hurley: So just carry a small sealed bottle of ink.

Brad Dowdy: That's not a bad idea. Just invest, use converters for your pens and invest in like a singular carrying tube to later just constantly refill. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because if you want to carry around a bunch of sealed cartridges, it's going to be, I mean, it's even more stuff to carry around. Like I think just move to a converter and just refill from a small ink. Something designed to carry that. Yeah. Yeah. Because you could easily find some tube or like, you know, I took a little ink testing bottles. Sure. They're sealed and they're not going to leak. So that's what I would do.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's not a bad idea. I'd be interested to see if that doesn't defeat any purposes. It may not. Like, yeah, that's not a bad idea at all. I want big brain love today. Yeah. Have a traveling ink vial ink well. So, yeah. I mean, if you're going to carry around like five cartridges, you may as well just carry on a small bottle. Yeah. If having that backup is important to you, maybe that is a whale. Is it Visconti that makes like a traveling ink well? I mean, that might be kind of expensive. That kind of might defeat some of the purposes. I'm also assuming small, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your thing, yeah. If you would like to send in a question for us to attempt to answer on a future episode, you can just go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can fill out the form that we have for that. You can even now tick to say it's RSTPA if you want it to be or if you just got general follow up, you can just send that in. But I always look through it before the beginning of every episode, pull some questions in. I appreciate everybody that does this. If you want to find Brad online, there's a place you can go. Go to penaddict.com. You can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict. We have Brad's dreams three times a week. You can go to spokedesign.com as well. If you want to find me online, I host shows here at RelayFM and sell products over at cortexbrand.com. We're both on Mastodon. You can find Brad. You're on mastodon.social, right? Correct, penaddict. Brad is on mastodon.social. He's at penaddict. And you can find me on mike.social. I'm at imike. I've been working on this, Brad. I've been getting compliments from people about the way that I have distilled how to say where to go. Yeah. And I like that. To say the URL of your server and then what your handle is. Like I'm trying to get everyone to get on board with this now. Yeah. Right? So like I'll say I'm on mike.social as at imike and Brad is on mastodon.social as at penaddict.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And trust me, y'all. It is not as complicated as people make it sound.

Myke Hurley: To you as a user, that is one of the more complicated parts. It's just like how to find someone. Figuring out where to sign up. After that, it's easy sailing. It depends on the app that you use. So like just you'll be good. Like I'm enjoying mastodon. I'm like I'm getting on board now. Right? Yep. I dip my toe in and now I'm like I'm having a great time. It's going great. Oh, yeah. Yep. Same. Thank you so much to micro.blog and penchalet for their support. And if you want to try out mastodon, micro.blog is a great way to do that. As we mentioned in the ad earlier. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. Brad will be back with a big green on his face next week. After attending the Baltimore Pen Show. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.