The Pen Addict 114/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	114
Title:	Butchering The Orange
Release Date:	July 8th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 114
Audio File:	Audio Episode 114
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 114
Length:	5151 min <br />0.85 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 114 of The Pen Addict podcast on 5x5. The Pen Addict is your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and all of the analogue tools that you love and we love ever so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined, as I always am, by my partner in crime, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Howdy, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Hey, man. How are you doing?

Brad Dowdy: Good. You always put a smile to my face. Did you know that? I try my best. Yeah, when we start talking, I'm like, ah, yeah, this is good. I'm excited to be here. So, and I'm always excited to talk to you. It's all the accent. Yep, yep. So we have an interesting show this week, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Show Production

Brad Dowdy: You know, I think as most listeners know, I generally put together the majority of the show. Like, you know, I'll work out the topics, put in the notes what we're going to discuss, kind of things like that. Sometimes I've really planned ahead. Like, if we're going to do, like, we've done some of the 101 episodes, you know, where we talk about products. Like, I still need to do the Fountain Pen 101. And I was actually thinking about doing it this week. But when we, from the time we stopped recording last week, in the week span to this week, you know, that's when I plan for this show. So, I don't plan too far ahead. Well, you know, usually for the first couple days, I don't have really an idea of what I want to do. And I have a couple fallback topics, you know, like the Fountain Pen 101, which I need to get to. And I was kind of planning on doing that. And then all these things happen, like, in the span of, like, the last five to seven days to where I was like, well, I want to talk about that. Oh, and this happened. I want to talk about that. Oh, and this happened. I want to talk about that. So, this is the kind of episode that I like that just kind of comes together by itself because it's topics that I've been involved in, like, during the past week. So, we can talk about them and, you know, talk about some of the new products that I've gotten and talk about some of the, you know, things I've been involved in online. And it just, yeah, this is my kind of episode. So, I just wanted to throw that out there for the people, let you know kind of how it gets put together sometimes. Sometimes it's a well-defined, well-oiled machine with topic, topic, topic, topic that I've planned weeks in advance. Sometimes it just happens naturally, which is what happened on this week's show. And it's full up with lots of good stuff.

Myke Hurley: It's a bit of how the sausage is made.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, once I started putting a couple of things in there, I was like, well, you know, a few days ago, I don't know if I'm having enough to talk about. And then things just kept rolling and rolling. Oh, yeah, we can talk about that. Oh, someone wants to hear about that. So, yeah. Anyway, so that's my mess. How has your week been in pen and paper goodness? You know, everything, status quo, any issues, any, you know, magic refill moments that you had again?

Myke Hurley: No, I'm continuing to just use the Retro 51 all the time. That's good. I think that's a good thing. I'm happy about it. Like, I'm very much enjoying using that pen again. I had genuinely forgotten just how good they are, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we actually got an email. I got an email last week, and I didn't put it in the show notes to talk about. But just in general, this guy sent me an email about refilling. He refills his Retro 51 rollerballs. Because we were talking about how they were drying out last week. Like, he actually removes the end cap on those refills. And I think the rollerballs have, like, a sponge-like system inside the cartridge. And he refills them with fountain pen ink.

Myke Hurley: That's crazy.

Brad Dowdy: It is totally crazy. He wrote me, like, an epic-length email. Actually, two epic-length emails about it. So, I'll see if I can get permission, and we'll talk about it. But how that's... My response was pretty much, whoa.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I need to understand a bit about this, I think. Because that could be really, really interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I will sort out the emails, and maybe that's something we can do for next week. And get permission to talk about it and things like that. So, yeah. So, keep that on the radar. But, yeah. It was an interesting conversation I had about that. So, I will work on that. So, I got a bunch of new stuff in this week. And I kind of wanted to talk about it. One of them being the Midori Traveler's Notebook. And we've kind of talked about it on and off in the past. And it's a notebook system. I've always wanted one for years. It's been... This is one of those wish list items for years. That it's kind of always there. And just never makes it to the top of the priority list. Because I'm never sure exactly if and how I'm going to use it. Things like that. But I finally broke down and I was on vacation and actually broke down and bought this. So, I wanted to... I also wanted to try a shop called Resource Shop. Which is where I ordered it from. And I got the black... What do they just call it? Black. The cover. It's a black leather cover. The full size notebook. And I've lost my link. Magically.

Brad Dowdy: But it's basically just like a leather cover for notebooks. And it has a very functional refill system. So, yeah. Mine is called the Midori Traveler's Notebook in black. Your only other option is the Midori Traveler's Notebook passport size. Which is smaller. So, mine's like a long skinny. Like an 8 by... I don't know. 4.5 or 5 or so. Maybe a little bit longer.

Myke Hurley: It's 4.5 by 8.5. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: See, I was close.

Myke Hurley: I didn't even look at that. Bravo.

Brad Dowdy: And then the other size is a smaller size. It's a little bit larger than a Field Notes size. So, I went with the large size.

Myke Hurley: The small one is 3.75 by 5.25.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, I know on the smaller one, a lot of people use their Field Notes as inserts. But I wanted the bigger one because it seemed to be like the traditional size. It seemed like a cool format to lay out. So, I got it. And, you know, I've always followed people. Midori is one of those... The Midori Traveler's Notebooks is one of those things online where people do like unboxings. And there's great resources for people to share all the types of inserts they put on there. So, it's kind of got a really big, like, thing online. Like a Hobonichi Planner or like a File of Facts. You know, it's got these huge groups of people that, you know, make things for it. You know, and, you know, the Chronodex that we've talked about the past couple weeks has always got me. This is kind of where Patrick Ng built his Chronodex system around this style of notebook. And, you know, there's other things you can get replacements for. The Midori Traveler's Notebook. It doesn't have to be the exact Midori. There's... People call things the Fodori, which is just a generic cover that, you know, people can buy from different leather workers. You know, that are just making these leather flaps and things. But, anyway, I digress. But, I just went with the traditional Midori Traveler's Notebook because I wanted to see what it was about. And I opened it up. I actually joked on Instagram. When I got it, I still had it in the packaging. I said, am I supposed to burn candles and incense as I opened this? Because people make such a big deal about opening these. And it's like this, oh, angel singing moment. So, I joked about that. And then the next thing I did, I slid in the first insert. And I ordered three graph notebooks to go inside of it, right? Because everyone, all the pictures you see of the Midori Traveler's Notebooks, you see them, like, built to the hilt, right? It's not made to hold one, like, 48-page notebook.

Myke Hurley: You are talking so fast about this. You're like, you're very excited. I can tell you're very excited, actually.

Brad Dowdy: So, let me explain something to you. Okay. So, you know my sleeping pattern, right? Mm-hmm. So, I wake up about an hour before we do this show. And normally, you know, I'm just chilling out, you know, maybe have a Coke, maybe have some water. I had coffee today. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I can kind of tell.

Brad Dowdy: I usually don't have that before. I usually don't have that right when I get up in the afternoons. So, maybe that's why. I'm jacked.

Myke Hurley: You are. It's fun. I'm happy to hear it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I have lots of happiness in my life, Myke. And you're part of it.

Myke Hurley: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: And all the listeners are part of it. And I love everybody. But anyway, yeah, I'm on a coffee caffeine high. So, sorry about that. Yeah, you're not actually listening at 1.5 or 2x speed, everybody. This is like normal speed for today's episode. So, you might have to turn down your 2x if you're listening in your favorite podcatcher.

Brad Dowdy: So, I open up this Midori. And I slide in my first insert. Here I am. I've ordered this thing and thinking I'm going to slide in these three notebooks and have different things for each notebook. So, I open it up. It's got one band down the center. Slide in my first notebook. Grab my second notebook and go, wait a minute. How do I get this thing in here? Well, it turns out, like, it's not necessarily made to hold the extra notebooks right out the gate. You have to have, like, they sell these extra rubber bands to where you can band all these notebooks together. But it turns out there's lots of videos. As soon as I said that, people started sending me videos out the woodwork. There's one from Goulet Pens. And then there's several other ones on YouTube and things where you can find out, okay, here's how you put together your Midori to where it's functional. All the notebooks and inserts are how you want them. You can fit, you know, three notebooks or two notebooks in a calendar or three notebooks in, you know, different envelopes, folders. People really, really pimp these things out. So I just wanted to say that I've got it and I haven't written the first word in it yet. I've been so busy. I'm actually carrying it around in my briefcase completely empty. So anyway, there will be more about this because it's a product that I've wanted for years and years and years. So, and I put a picture up on Instagram too of my pink Karas custom bolt goes wonderfully with the black leather of my Midori travelers notebook. So you'll be hearing more about the Midori. If you're a Midori user, I know a bunch of you have already reached out to me and given me some tips and tricks and how to use that. But if you have any more resources, any more ideas on how you set up your Midoris, definitely get in touch. And how can they get in touch with us, Myke?

Myke Hurley: You can go to 5by5.tv slash penaddict and hit the contact button or you can get us on Twitter. I'm iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. And Brad is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M.

Brad Dowdy: Did you like how I threw that to you? Was that very professional just so I could catch my breath?

Myke Hurley: And also to check I was listening.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, make sure. Because sometimes you won't listen to me when I get on a roll.

Myke Hurley: No, I always listen.

Brad Dowdy: You've left the room before, I'm pretty sure.

Myke Hurley: I may have done that once. I need to ask you a question about the Midori. Please. Why?

Japanese Stationery

Brad Dowdy: That's a good question. It's this whole Japanese stationary porn fetish.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, I get that. I'm looking at the website and I'm like, oh my god, I want all of this. I want the shipping. What's it called? The star shipping?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the star fairy.

Myke Hurley: Star fairy stuff. I want the really cool paperclips that look like a pig. I want it all. But I'm just wondering what about the Midori notebooks and Midori stuff makes it worth it? Like, why not use a Pele journal? Do you remember those?

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Oh, no. So I was actually going to bring that up. When I was working at JetPens, they started carrying the Pele's. And it was basically a take on the Traveler's Notebook. Very, very similar setup. And I just never got around to getting one. I actually got one and I sent it to our friend Joe Lebo. Because I wasn't using it at the time. I was like, I've just got this thing sitting here. So I eventually sent it off to him because I wasn't using it. And then Pele vanished.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm trying to find them for the show notes now.

Brad Dowdy: No, they up and vanished. So no one carries them anymore. The company doesn't exist. I actually probably would have bought one of those because I had the one in my hand and I really liked it. You could have saved the company.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's totally the same system. And like I said, most people will make their own out of just a strap of leather.

Brad Dowdy: Or use people like Davis Leatherworks who makes like a faux Dory cover. All you need is a piece of leather with the same dimensions and a strap running through it. It's a very simple product. But Midori's just got this aura to it that makes it special. It's marketing. They've done an excellent job of marketing their product, making it a thing that people enjoy, that people are able to customize to fit their needs. It's not – a field notes notebook is generally standard. People can do different things with them. They can make it their bullet journal. They can make it their calendar. They can make it their whatever. But the style and format is the same. With the Midori, it's customizable to your heart's content. Kind of like the Rotor Faden.

Myke Hurley: Toschenbegleiter, you mean.

Toschenbegleiter

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Toschenbegleiter is actually the product. That's what I should call it. But, yeah. I mean, it's just – it's this thing with stationery that people like to discover something and then that fits their needs and then modify it to their perfect item. Right. And Midori gives you this blank slate plus all the tools to, you know, further it, you know, further that journey. And then they've just marketed so well that there's this whole community around it to where, you know, you can just build on top of what you're – the base that you started with that. So, you know, I don't know if I totally answered your question why. And obviously I haven't totally flushed it out myself because I've had it for a week and haven't put one word in it. But that's because I've been using another notebook for this past week and we're going to get to that later. So, yeah. But I got a couple other things I want to get to before we get to that tease. Okay. So, I re-reviewed a pen that I've reviewed in the past and had a bad time with. And I didn't get so much grief with it, but people didn't understand why I didn't like it so much. And it's the Parker Jotter. It's an all-time classic ballpoint pen. It's been around for 60 years because I just – obviously I just reviewed the Parker Jotter 60th anniversary ballpoint pen. And I almost didn't order it from JetPens because I had such a bad experience with the first one I used. But it turns out that it looks like the first one I had had a bum refill. So, I was happy I gave this pen a second chance because I pretty much killed it the first time. And, of course, you can – you know, the whole Parker-style refill, Myke, you know how we use that term for a lot of other pens that are currently on the market. I used the Parker-style refill. This is kind of where that refill originated. So, yes, I could take my other Parker Jotter and put in, you know, a Fisher Space pen refill, a Moleskine gel refill, you know, a bunch of Schmitts. There's all kinds of refills I could swap it in. But when I reviewed it the first time, I want to review it in its natural form, which means the current refill that it comes with. And it was really bad. So, I never used that pen again. This one, the original one was a 1.0 millimeter black ballpoint.

Brad Dowdy: And it just, like, dug into the page. I really think in retrospect now after using this one, which – this new one, which came with a 1.0 millimeter blue refill, super smooth, super clean. I really think my original refill was a bum refill. So, I wanted to tell everyone that I've come around on the Jotter, and I think it was the refill. And, you know, I'm definitely a second-chance type of person. Unless something is, you know, legitimately bad and there's no hope, like you can see there's all kinds of manufacturing flaws and, you know, the company just actually does a poor job, you know, then I'm not as willing to give a second chance. But, you know, I gave the Parker Jotter a second chance. And I think readers will be happy to know that I'm a huge fan now, and I think it was all the refill. And, like I said, I could switch out the refill into the previous barrel and, you know, it carried them on my merry way. But I just really like the colors that they released for this 60th anniversary. I got the – what is mine called? Gray green. It's just this really classic. It's like if you open up a magazine from the 70s and look at some advertisements or something, these are the kind of colors you would see in there. So they're pretty neat.

Myke Hurley: That's such a classic design here. Like you see so many people – or I've seen so many people in my lifetime use those, use that Parker. Like Parker is a huge, huge brand here. I don't know if it translates as much in the U.S. as to how big of a brand Parker is. Like I don't think they are as big. But here they're like the middle range. Like if you want a pen that's not big and you don't want to spend money on Mont Blanc, you'll get a Parker. And they're in all the stores. Like they are the brand, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, totally, totally. I actually think they – someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they have manufacturing in the U.K. somewhere. I think one of their factories is or at least was over there. So I know it's a huge brand in the U.K. So, yeah, it's just a great pen. It's a classic. And for less than $10, you can get a pen that's just got great style and great looks and works pretty well. It's obviously not a Jetstream quality refill, right? But, you know, you get this little extra cool factor using a pen like this. So I'm really happy with it and I'm going to keep it handy so I can use it from time to time.

Myke Hurley: I'm looking at Wikipedia. I think that the U.K. factory is now closed.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's possible. I know. I mean, they're way past their heyday, so they've probably consolidated quite a bit.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, in 2009, the U.K. factory was shut down and moved to France.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: So.

Brad Dowdy: That's actually pretty recent.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting.

Myke Hurley: Still a big brand here.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So one other thing I did on my blog, which came out today, I've got a giveaway for this winter session, dome paper flap jotter transport small. This is a letter. Just try and say that again. Winter session plus dome paper flap jotter transport small. Good man. Wow. That's a hard one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: This is a cool product. Did you see this thing?

Myke Hurley: I haven't actually seen it. I'm going to go and take a look now.

Brad Dowdy: So it's actually smaller than.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at that.

Brad Dowdy: Like your field notes leather holder.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because these memo pads are a little bit tinier dimension. This is a really cool pocket notebook that Chad collaborated with winter session to make in, you know, Chad's very famous leather with blue, dark chocolate leather with blue stitching style, which is one of my favorite looks on the planet. I don't have this one, but man, it is sexy. So I just wanted people, if you haven't checked the blog out, check that out because this is a really good giveaway.

Myke Hurley: Anyway, when will Chad Dunn stop making such cool stuff?

Brad Dowdy: He's cost me a lot of money.

Myke Hurley: What is wrong with this guy? Why does he make everything so good?

Brad Dowdy: He's got the next Topo bag coming out, like the one that I use every day. Yeah. And that's going to be a problem for me.

Myke Hurley: Replacing it.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, if it's super, super similar, then I won't worry about it. But if it's got some cool factor that I don't have in this one, it's going to cost me more money. So you've not seen it yet? I have not seen it yet. I got an early look at the last one, and I knew immediately that it was going to be a winner. So I couldn't wait for it. But I have not seen the new one yet. So if Chad's listening, maybe he can hook me up with a few pictures like he did last time.

XOXO Fest

Brad Dowdy: One last thing before we kind of get into our... I got a couple of main topics this week. I got into XOXO Fest, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I feel like we're ships in the night.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know. I know. So wherever you're going to be next year, I'll be there the following year. But, you know, I just wanted to mention that in case any Pen Addict readers, listeners are in Portland in September, from September 11th through 14th. Get in touch. I will be there. I'll be attending the XOXO Fest. I know I've already talked to our friends Sean Blanc and Matt Alexander, who will also be there. So I hope to hook up with them out there. But I just wanted to mention that I will be on the road in Portland for a few days in September. So all you Portlandites, get in touch. And, you know, let's see if we can meet up while I'm out there during the fest. I'm really excited. Should I be really excited? You went last year. You were pretty excited. I'm destroyed that I'm not going to be there.

Myke Hurley: It's one, it's an incredible festival slash conference. And two, the people that are there are just like the best. Like, yeah, because like Matt and Sean are obviously going to be there. But then you've got the Studio Neat guys are going to be there. My buddy Chase lives there. You're going to get to meet all these people and you're going to have the greatest time ever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it looks, I look forward to it. The one person I look forward to hearing speak most is Kevin Kelly, who writes the Cool Tools blog. He's been around in internet terms for decades, it seems like. He's a wise old man of the internet, but he does this great site called Cool Tools. And I've been following that blog for years. And he's kind of got a pin thing. And I look forward to hearing what he has to say. He's a very interesting character. So it's going to be good. The whole speaking lineup looks awesome.

Myke Hurley: So I was just about to say, cutting across you. Yeah, the lineup looks excellent so far. And they're going to add a bunch of really cool stuff. They add loads of really sort of fun things. They have surprises every year. Like, oh, I want to be there so bad.

Brad Dowdy: Plus there might be field notes.

Myke Hurley: There will be field notes.

Brad Dowdy: I hope.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure there will be. You better get me some this time.

Brad Dowdy: And assumedly, they're going to be black and white, right? Because they always do it the color of their logo.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. First year was purple and white. Second year was pink and white. This year, all their logos have been black and white. Or white and black, probably.

Myke Hurley: It might be different to the branding that they have on the day, though. You never know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you never know. You never know. So I'll go ahead and call it now. Let's see. White picket fence shelter wood with black. With black writing. It'll look like a picket fence.

Myke Hurley: It's definitely going to be shelter wood just to get you.

Pen Blog of the Week

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. All right. So we have a pen blog of the week this week. And it hit me like a bolt of lightning today when I was trying to figure out, all right, who's the pen blog of the week today? Sometimes I know in advance. And sometimes I don't know until the last minute. And I was like, oh, my gosh. I've never given Brian Green from Office Supply Geek a shout-out for pen blog of the week, have I, Myke?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't seem that I have. How did that happen?

Myke Hurley: Must have been a terrible oversight.

Brad Dowdy: Terrible oversight on my part. I looked through the list several times. I was like, certainly, I have done Office Supply Geek for pen blog of the week. But Brian is someone I talk to frequently. He's been doing this for about as long as I have. And he's always got great product reviews, great connections, gets some cool stuff in. And he takes it a little further than I do. He really does focus on, like, the office supply part of his title. Like, I'm mostly pens and paper. But he gets into things like whiteboards and staplers and paperclips and just all kinds of cool things you can add to your office. So if for some reason you don't know about Office Supply Geek, definitely look up Brian. Check out his site. And check out all the good work he does. So thank you, Brian, for being awesome.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Before we talk today, and I'm sure you probably popped in the show notes. Did you know what we were going to talk about today? I didn't. Like, you didn't have an idea?

Myke Hurley: Mm-mm.

Brad Dowdy: So I did something this week. And I actually kind of mentioned to you that I was thinking about doing this, but I didn't really think anything of it. But what I did this week caused a little bit of a stir. Not in a bad way. But it caused a conversation.

Brad Dowdy: And I certainly didn't do it on purpose to cause this conversation. But I got this bug to start really using my field notes even more heavily than I have in the past. Like, just go really hardcore field notes usage. But I've been a little bit bored with the current releases. How about that? Like, I love Arts and Sciences. That's a great release. Perfectly fine release. Because the two previous to that, Shelterwood and Cold Horizon, those were kind of meh. I didn't really use, you know, I was kind of like, Cold Horizon, I used one book and was done. I've never used a Shelterwood. Drink Local, prior to that, I was very happy with. So I kind of got this bug. And I said, you know what? I am one of the lucky few who have lots of field notes from the early days. So I'm going to go way, way, way back. All the way to the beginning. I have a single Butcher Orange retail edition of 3,000 that I took out of my storage and started writing in. Wow. Wow. I'm using my field notes for their intended use.

Field Notes Notebook

Brad Dowdy: Okay, okay then. What is your initial thoughts when I say, I took out a Butcher Orange and wrote a grocery list in it?

Myke Hurley: I mean, good on you, for one.

Myke Hurley: It's kind of crazy. Like, it's kind of crazy a thing to do. But, and I can imagine there were a lot of very, very upset people. Because you posted it in the field notes group, right? Yeah. I'm trying to get a public share link for this page to put in the show notes, but I'm not having a lot of luck. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So the link, oh, that's right. It's a private group. I didn't think about that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I will put a link to it in case you're part of the group, but I'll also, I'll grab the image. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And you can put a link to the field nuts group on Facebook. And, you know, you just got to click join this group and they'll approve or whatever. They do keep it private, but it's open to anyone.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I'm, I say more, more power to you. But it is kind of crazy when you, you know, you know how much you could get for that. Right. You're effectively writing on $10 bills every time you turn a page.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So I took this picture, I took out the notebook and wrote in it. And I, I didn't really have any consternation doing that. I was kind of excited to use it because honestly, I've never used one. I've, and not many people have. So I took a picture. Is this your only one, by the way? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, so I took it out and I wanted to share it with the field nuts group. So I said, started a new book today. Can you guess which one? So I just took like an inside cover shot because they've used the butcher orange cover for lots of, um, what do you call it? Promotional notebooks. Right. So a lot of people were guessing, you know, simple bracket, his glass works, whatever ones they've seen floating around. Um, and so I spilled the beans, you know, a few comments later. And that's when like all the whoa and you're crazy and good for you. It was the full range. You know, I wasn't expecting a reaction like this necessarily. I mean, I certainly didn't do it, you know, on purpose or to get, you know, you know, magic internet points or something. Um, but it ended up, it ended up, uh, getting right now it's got 82 comments on this post because it ended up starting a fight. Not really, you know, a faux internet fight between a couple of guys and the thing. And I'm not going to refer to them by name because they're, they weren't, I mean, they're not, you know, being dead serious or malicious or anything. They're, they're just, there's two opposing sides. One is, you know, you just lit a hundred dollar bill on fire.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And the other, and the other is it's a $3 notebook. Do whatever you want with it.

Myke Hurley: Which I subscribe more to the letter really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But even, even though it's a hundred dollar notebook, do what you want with it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So I'm not going to sell these notebooks. I don't think I've ever sold any field notes, notebooks. I've traded plenty, you know, back and forth.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's different though, isn't it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It's totally different. So actually I got this one in a trade and actually the lady I traded with, she actually said, uh, this looks kind of familiar. And I said, yep, that's it. And she said, good for you. And so I just felt like, I just felt like using it, Myke. I mean, what am I going to do? I'm not going to sell it. Why don't I, why don't I use it and share it with the community? And pictures and usage and, you know, talk about my experience with it and just have fun with it. You know, I'm, you know, I'm, there's no shot that this book that I had sitting in the closet in a plastic bin, um, under lock and key in a nuclear grade safe with eyeball recognition to get in to my field notes stash. Um, there's no way I'm ever going to sell it. So why not use it? I, you know, that, that was my thought process behind it. Really nothing more than that. I mean, I, I'm not going to put this book on eBay and try to sell it for any reason. So I might as well use it, have fun with it, um, share it with the community. And that was, that was pretty much it. But, uh, let me read you some of the comments that I got. Um, one of them is, wow, that's crazy. I couldn't bring myself to write in a hundred dollar notebook just for the sake of it. When there's cheaper alternatives that are just as good. For example, simple black bracket, his glass works. That's what the ones I've talked about this for. Then someone actually replied to that comment. Just think of it this way. Brad just raised the value of the rest of them. I never think of it like that, right? This is, I didn't pay anything for this notebook. I traded for it. I've never, I guess I've bought a few field notes when I was trying to complete my collection. Um, but I've never really, you know, I've just been fortunate to be along for the ride for a long time. Um, so I had some, um, someone else says, oh hell they're meant for writing in. I've used all but one pack of my traveling salesmen for writing and have given more away to friends than I can count. They're meant to be enjoyed in any way the owner sees fit. And that's kind of the way I see it. Like I've sent, I sent, um, one of my grass stained green notebooks to someone who didn't have one was looking for it. They said, Hey, you know, I need this to complete my, my collection. I just sent it to them. You know, that's, that's what I do. I, I'm not going to put them on eBay and sell them. I had another friend that, uh, was missing the Mackinac autumn set. I had an extra set of them. I sent it to him the whole set of Mackinac autumn. Wow. I don't care.

Myke Hurley: You're like, um, the Robin hood of field notes.

Brad Dowdy: No, I don't, I don't want to see it that way. It's just that, you know, I've been fortunate to have been around this for a long time and have some extra things. And I'm not going to go out and charge people hundreds of dollars for something that didn't cost me anything. Um, so I'm happy to give them to someone, you know, like a lot of them I got given to me. So I'm returning the favor. Um, I don't, you know, necessarily see it as doing something like super gracious or anything. I'm just more returning the favor that I've been lucky enough to have lots of people do favors for me. So I want to return the favor kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: I like that way of living. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Um, someone else said their notebooks were writing in. Why wouldn't someone write in them? Ultimately, I think I'll end up writing or giving away all my, that's kind of where I'm at. Um, and then the older books are becoming out of reach for newer nuts. So it makes me a little sad that some value the price of the book more than its utility. I think that's kind of the main point in a nutshell. Um, I don't value the book, the price of the book more than its utility. I value the utility and joy of using it more than the price of the book.

Brad Dowdy: And someone replied back to that and said, I'd be sadder that people are using them up. I don't value the price more. I'm just aware of it. That's all. And I'm certainly aware of the price. But if my philosophy is that I'm not going to sell any of these notebooks and I'm never going to say never, if for some reason I need money for some catastrophe, I'm absolutely selling all my field notes, notebooks. You can guarantee it. Um, but I have no need to sell them right now. So why not use them and have fun with it? And, you know, a lot of people haven't had the opportunity to see the butcher orange or butcher blue or grass stain green or just below zero or Mackinac autumn, all these early, early sets. So I've got them. I'm going to use them. I'm going to write them in them. And this isn't going to be the last one. So how about that?

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm proud of you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I said, I didn't do it to like make a statement. It just kind of morphed into this thing, which, I mean, I knew it would cause a stir, but I thought it would be more of a, whoa, that's crazy. Whoa, that's crazy. Not, you know, you're shredding a hundred dollar bills or, you know, no one said that or no one's called me an idiot or anything like that. But, you know, it's, we all value things differently. For me, the value I get out of this notebook that's sitting right here that I'm writing show notes in today is that I have this record of my brain at the time that I'm using it to write in. So that's what I get out of it. And it's fun. And yeah, it will not be the last one. And I'll probably cause more of a stir with the next one. So you can pretty much book that. And it's pretty easy if you're playing along chronologically in your head.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So it became interesting. This is kind of what I was referring out about to what happened during the week. Like I had no intention of talking about this on the podcast. And it wasn't meant for a podcast topic, but it became a podcast topic really quickly. Actually, someone wrote in the comments, Richard Ashley wrote what he said with 62 comments. I know what Brad Dowdy is going to talk about on his next podcast episode. And I said, yep, I guess I'm going to have to at this point. So it was pretty good. So anyway, if you're not on Facebook or if you are on Facebook and you are a Field Nuts fan, definitely check out the Field Nuts group. It's a good group of people. It was a good conversation. I mean, no one was getting, you know, outraged or too pissy with anyone else. They were just, you know, having a conversation. They're on different sides of the track and we can all have this conversation. And it was good to have. It was pretty cool. So anywho, there will be, this will not be the last Field Nuts I use.

Brad Dowdy: That made no sense whatsoever.

Myke Hurley: No, but I think everybody gets what you mean.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Are you telling me to shut up?

Myke Hurley: No. Please continue. What else do we have?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So one more thing that came out of this past week, just out of the blue. So I was on vacation and we've talked about it in podcast episodes past. Whenever I go on vacation, I rarely use pens. It's just not a super functional thing for me to do. I did bring them this time, you know, to show, you know, my sister and my dad and my family some of the pens, but I just don't use, I don't have the situation to write very much on my vacations. So when I got back from vacation, I carry my Notco Brasstown, which holds six pens. And I had five of those slots loaded up. And I said, well, I've had these pens inked up for a while, probably three to four weeks, if not more in some cases. And I haven't used any of them hardly at all for a week, maybe bordering two weeks for some of them. So I think I need to just kind of get a refresh of what I'm carrying. So I wanted to take out all the pens I currently had loaded and inked, clean them all and put in, do a hundred percent change out, put in all new pens and inks into my loadout. Sometimes you need that mental reboot, Myke. Like sometimes it's just using the same pen, but, you know, really changing up the ink color. It gives you kind of this new motivation to use the pen, right?

Brad Dowdy: So what I did, I took a picture of all the pens I was cleaning out.

Brad Dowdy: And Joe Lebo, who I mentioned earlier, who's like, will you talk about this on the podcast and tell me why you're doing this and what you're doing and why you're taking these pens out and cleaning them and what you're putting in new? And I was like, okay, that'll be a pretty good podcast topic. So you can see how this show just kind of came together through our online community and friends, which is awesome. Makes my life easier. So the five pens I had inked up, I had one slot empty for whatever reason in my Brasstown. It holds six. I had five inked up. I had the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with a stub nib. It had the Ackerman No. 8 ink in it, the dark blue. I had the Pilot Falcon with the Sailor Yamadori ink. I had the TWSBI 580 RB with my special Roaring King Klingner Scabix mix, which is Scabiosa and Salix. I had my world-famous Edison Menlo with Roaring King Klingner Blau Schwartz, which is that limited edition blue-black ink that I like so much. And I had a Pelican Pura, which I bought from Pen Chalet, with the Pelican Edelstein Topaz ink cartridge. So those pens have literally been in that case and in use regularly. I use one a day. And, you know, for the past month, I'll use one. That'll be my pen for the day. Then the next day, I'll switch to a different one. So that way, all the pens that I have, I make sure that if I actually have a pen inked, I use them. The two you won't see on the list, which did not get cleaned out, are my two Nakias. Those pretty much stay inked and in use all the time. So discounting those.

Brad Dowdy: Took all those out, cleaned them up, and filed them away. So I'll replace them with the Pelican M215, the blue stripe, which you also own, from our friend Thomas Hall, which is such a great pen. Love it so much. Oh, man. I have a steel EF nib in that one. It's really, really good. So let me backtrack a little bit. Two things make me want to clean out a pen that I have in use. One, I want to use a different pen barrel, pen body. You know, I don't need 12 pens inked. Six is a good number, or eight, counting the Nakias. So I don't need 15 pens inked all of a sudden just because I have just some bug.

Brad Dowdy: But for me, more importantly, I want to use different inks. That almost causes me to change and clean out a pen more so than wanting to use a pen itself. I don't know how you feel about that, Myke. Like, if you ever want to get a change up, you know, in whatever pen you're using, are you more likely to say, let's move on to a new pen? Or does, like, well, I'm ready to use a new ink. Is that the impetus for you to switch?

Myke Hurley: It's always new pen for me. Really? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I think that's fair. And there were a couple of pens that I haven't been using that I was dying to use. But I swear it was almost more about the ink for me, which is interesting. As I was going through this, I was like, I really want to use these specific inks. What pen is going to go best with these inks that I want to use?

Brad Dowdy: So that's something I wanted to throw out there. I'd be interested to know what other people think. You know, are they dying to get a pen and a nib in the rotation? Or are they dying to get this really neat ink that they haven't used in a while in the rotation? So for me, it's honestly a little bit more about the ink. Now, that's not a hard, fast statement. But it's true a lot of times that the ink is almost more important. So anyway, I haven't had Pelican Blue Black ink in use in a long time. So I wanted to get that in use. So I used the Pelican. I almost did it backwards. I chose the ink I want. Then I found a pen I wanted to use that I think would do it well. And a lot of times I use the same brand. Like I went with the Pelican M215 Blue Stripe. It's a great pen for the Pelican Blue Black ink. And it's lovely. It's lovely to write with. It's lovely to use. That's a great pen. The second one, I said, well, I haven't used the Lamy Blue Black ink in a while. That's another one of my favorites. Let me go with the Lamy 2000. So you see what I did there. Using the same brand, same ink. I'm not steadfast about that. That's just something that I know that I enjoy and I know it's going to work.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Lamy 2000

Brad Dowdy: So I inked up the Lamy 2000 with it. The third one, new to the rotation, is because I wanted to use the pen, not the ink. That's for dang sure. It's the Pilot Murex. I told Thomas Hall, who gave me this pen, I am more concerned about protecting my Pilot Murex than any pen I own, including my Nakias.

Myke Hurley: Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: Even though it could be replaced for much cheaper. For some reason, that's the one. I've always said, you know, just like the field notes are made to be used, these pens, I'm not buying a Nakia for it to sit in my desk and look pretty, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: The only pen that scares me is my Pilot Murex. I love it so much, I don't want anything to happen to it. That's the only pen.

Myke Hurley: It's so different.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Out of every single pen I own, that's the only one I have extra concern over. And I can't figure out why. I just love that pen so much and don't want anything to happen to it. Plus, it was a gift, you know, so that was special to me and that kind of thing. So it's an old pen from the 70s or this one, I can't remember, this one might be 1980. I'd have to look at the date on it. But still, that's the only pen I own that I'm actually, like, nervous, like, taking out. Not my Nakia's, not any other pen that I own. Just that one. It's crazy.

Brad Dowdy: Now, these last three that I inked up were all for the ink. And it's a bunch of Sailor ink, which I've become a big Sailor ink fan. So I inked up my Rotring Lava Fountain Pen, which I haven't used in a while. And it really writes wonderfully. And I just love that pen. And I used the Sailor Ken Mosuke ink, which is very similar to the Sailor Apricot. It's a bright orange. It looks really good. I've reviewed it on the blog before. We'll have the link in the show notes at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 114. You can get all these links.

Brad Dowdy: And then I loaded up. I haven't used the Franklin Kristoff Model 40 Pocket Pen, which I love so much with the Masuyama Fine Cursive Italic nib. And this is the only, out of all the switcheroo I did, this is the only thing that I used twice, was the Sailor Yamadori ink. It's a new ink. It is so beautiful. It's probably going to crack the top five next time I update my top five lists. I think they call it like a teal peacock ink. But what's different about it is it has a sheen to it. So it's got this red. When it dries, it looks killer. I'll try to get a good picture of the sheen one day. But you can search online and you can see some people that have taken pictures of that before. So always with the Franklin Kristoff Model 40 Pocket, it's that clear acrylic barrel. And I use it as an eyedropper. So you want a really cool looking ink in there. Like I would never put black ink in there because it's kind of boring. So I usually put bright blue inks in there. And that fit the bill perfectly. And then my Edison Perlet. I usually always have an Edison inked up just because I like their pen so much. I took the Edison Menlo out because ever since Jeff gave that pen to me, I don't think I've ever not had it inked because I like it so much. The nib's great. The barrel's great. I love everything about the Menlo. But I decided to give it a break, give it a good cleaning, let it sit for a little bit. So I swapped it out, put in the Perlet. And I used the Sailor Shiger ink, which is kind of a dark purple, one of their new inks that they came out with, which is really good. So that's the ins and outs of me making the switch. But it was more, I think Joe wanted me to talk about why I was doing it. And for me, I do believe in good fountain pen maintenance. If I have a pen inked up and I don't use it, I'll clean it and file it away. But this time, I just wanted to take a whole batch of pens that I haven't rotated out in at least a month, move them all out, and just replace them with all new pens and pretty much all new inks except for one. So it kind of gives you a refresh, gets you excited about using pens and inks again. And, you know, you don't get bored, you know, using the same thing over and over again every day, which I really don't anyway. But, you know, I just wanted to make that swap. And it was fun. And I got some pictures up on Instagram of the before and after shots you can check out. But I have gotten good enjoyment out of it so far. I've been using the Pelican M215 and the Franklin Kristoff Model 40 mostly since I've swapped them out. But tonight might be the Murex night. We'll see about that.

Myke Hurley: I love that Murex. But I get what you mean, how it's so scary.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because it's like it's like nothing else. Yeah. The way it looks. Yeah. Yeah, I do love that.

Brad Dowdy: And I said that to Thomas and he's like, you know, you can replace that for way cheaper than you can in Nakaya. I'm like, I know, I know. And it's not that. It's just something about that pen. I don't want to lose that pen or don't want to ding it up or drop it or whatever. And I don't know what it is. It's like the Nakaya I'll shove in my jeans pocket, which I've done.

Brad Dowdy: The Murex, I'm scared to take it out of the house. And I can't pinpoint that. So I guess we all have our little things that we're super protective of. And for some people, it's the Butcher Orangefield notes. For some people, it's the Pilot Murex.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And you're kind of seeing all of those tour people at the moment. Yep. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Good. It was a good, fun week of lots of fun stuff I had going on. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I feel like an underachiever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, no. I mean, it's not your job. I mean, you're not the crazy guy. You're the sensible one.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: Am I? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Pretty much. Eh. Pretty much. Eh. Eh. You never know. You never know. But it was a, this is, this was a great week for, you know, coming back from vacation. You know, being refreshed. Kind of getting into some new things. Um, and, um, just being part of the whole online community that is pens and paper is fun and refreshing and exciting. And, yeah, it was, uh, it was good stuff. So, I, I don't know that next week can live up to the, uh, goodness that was this week.

Myke Hurley: I have no doubt that it will, though.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure it will. I'm sure it will.

Myke Hurley: Maybe you can break into another rare field notes.

Brad Dowdy: Mmm. I won't have this one quite done yet, but I'm actually moving through this one pretty well. Um, I know we need to, let's wrap it up. But one more thing on the field notes that was actually brought up by, uh, Todd, who, who is the, um, admin of the field nuts group. He said, but what did, what did you write in the, uh, the front cover? And I said, you know what? I never write inside the front cover. Do you put, do you put in your info in the front or put in whatever you want in the front?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Just for fun, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I have never once done that in any field notes and I knew that, but until he said that, I was like, didn't realize that I really had never done it even one time. I said, so, you know what? I'll do it for this one and I still haven't done it, but it's good. So I can put in the, uh, start date that I use this one on in the completion date, because I will go through this one faster than, um, than most. So anyway, I will do that Todd and, uh, get that going. But I couldn't remember if you said that you had, had done that before or not. I think actually most people do. I just never have for whatever reason.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I put the dates in, put the location in, I put my name and email address in.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. I will work on that. I will do that starting now.

Myke Hurley: If you'd like to find the show notes for this week's episode of the pen addict, of which there are many, go to five by five.tv slash pen addict slash one one four. My name is Myke Hurley. I am at I Myke. I am Y K E. And my colleague is Mr. Brad Dowdy. He is at Dowdyism D O W D Y I S M. And he writes at pen addict.com. Um, if you want to get in touch with us, go to five by five.tv slash pen addict and hit the contact button and you can send us a lovely email. We'll be back next week for another very special episode of the pen addict podcast. Until then. Goodbye.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Oh, sorry, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.