The Pen Addict 130/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	130
Title:	Stop Spending My Money - Holiday Gift Guide 2014
Release Date:	November 24th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 130
Audio File:	Audio Episode 130
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 130
Length:	7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 130 of The Pen Addict podcast on RelayFM. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet, great deals on high quality pens of a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Dash, where you can create beautiful dashboards with just a few clicks. And Drafts, where text starts on the iPhone and the iPad, now easier and more powerful than ever. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined, as always, by The Pen Addict himself, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey Myke, how's it going?

Myke Hurley: Very well, sir. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. And we're also joined by, you know, I don't want to discount any of our other guests, but maybe the people's favourite guest. The people's champion. That we have on the people's champion, Miss Anna Reinhart from the Well Appointed Desk. Hey Anna.

Ana Reinert: Hi, how are you guys?

Brad Dowdy: Good, good, good. No pressure. You're like the crowd favourite.

Ana Reinert: Well, we'll see after today. They might change their minds.

Holiday Gift Guide

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I doubt, I highly doubt that. So, we brought Anna on, I think this is our third annual holiday gift guide show. Am I right about that?

Ana Reinert: It's actually the second, the first one I just, I just sort of squished myself in.

Brad Dowdy: The first one you just complained about.

Ana Reinert: I did.

Brad Dowdy: And, and then I said, fine, we'll just have you on to talk about it. And then it's worked out perfectly ever since then. So, yeah, that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about all of our recommendations for, for stationary gifts coming up this holiday season. And there's no one better to have on to talk about that besides you, Anna. So, I appreciate you coming on.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, before we get into this, we're going to talk about Field Notes real quick. And, Myke, you got yours in this week, the new Field Notes?

Myke Hurley: I sure did. They came yesterday.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Wow. Okay. I was thinking they came like almost a week ago. So, what were your initial thoughts when you got those in?

Myke Hurley: I liked the gold. What's it called again? Gilding. The gilding. I liked that. I liked the colors. I especially liked opening them. Now, for the Pen Addict audience, in case you haven't opened one of these, our good friend of the Erasable podcast, Mr. Andy Welfie, he had a great video, an unboxing video that I watched. And he mentioned about the crack on the gilding as you open it. So, I was very excited for this. So, I thought for the listeners at home, I've opened my second pack here so I can give you an idea of what it sounds like to break open one of these things. Are you ready? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'll do it again, just for good measure.

Myke Hurley: Nice. Oh, so good. Love little things like that. I love the colors. I think they're really interesting. I'm not going to buy any more because I actually don't think that I would use them with any quickness. I would love. I think I'm the kind of person. I think to myself how much I would love to keep like a paper date book. But I'm not that kind of person. I have to have things like that in my calendar in Fantastical on my phone or I'm just never going to use them. Like if they're not there, they're just never going to get used. So, that's how I do that. I haven't set up that way, but I love them. And also with the colors edition subscriber thing, because I am a color edition subscriber, you get these little cardboard cardboard.

Myke Hurley: I don't really know what to call them. Like it's like a ribbon, but made out of card that you can slide in. So, it's, you know, like marking your day where you are in the date book, for example.

Brad Dowdy: Very nice. Yeah. It's like a bookmark and it says something on it, right?

Myke Hurley: What does it say on it? Now and later. So, now on one side, later on the other side.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. Gotcha. So, Anna, what do you think about these new editions?

Ana Reinert: These are some of my favorites. I've been super excited about them. I really like the date book because I use like a date book more to keep track of things I did on a particular day rather than tracking what I'm going to do. So, like if I went out to dinner, if we went and saw a movie, I'll just key those in so that at the end of the year I can kind of go back and see what I did. So, it's not really a journal or a diary. It's just sort of real quick notes. So, I think the little, the pocket size of the field notes will make that super handy. And I love the ledger paper from the American Tradesman. So, I was super excited that they put it in another edition. I know nobody else likes it. It's my favorite. I don't like it. I am willing to trade somebody my graph paper for another ledger. So, it's out there.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's heresy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but what's the other thing? I'm kind of outnumbered because you guys both really like the ledger paper and I don't like the ledger paper. So, you know, you kind of got that going for yourself, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I do like the ledger paper. I've actually, this is the, I've always tried in the past to not use multiple field notes books at one time, but they kind of force you to this time. And I was like, well, I guess I'll just bite the bullet. And I just finished an unexposed right before these came in. So, I'm using a graph notebook just for my notes. And I'm using a ledger notebook just for some other things. Like, I'm a big baseball nerd. So, I'm keeping some, like, baseball stuff in, like, the ledger book, which is perfect for that type of list writing. So, yeah, the ledger's great. I probably won't use the planner, the daily calendar, though. It's just not my style like you, Myke. I don't think I'll use that. But I think that's been pretty popular. Like Anna says, I've seen a lot of people kind of just gravitate to that and start using it. But overall, I think it's a good addition. It's not going to be one of my favorites.

Brad Dowdy: It's probably a one and done. When I use this book, I'll probably grab something else to use first. And, you know, I bought several packs. I've given one away already, which I think these are great. You know, these are great gift field notes packs. And I think that, you know, that's something we're going to talk about today in this gift guide. I think this set of field notes, the Ambition Edition, is probably their most giftable edition yet. So it's just perfect for the season and perfect for what they're trying to do and perfect to get people into field notes. So that's pretty cool.

App Gift Guide

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we're going to we have a huge, huge episode and pages worth of topics. So we want to get into it, Myke. Me and you and Anna are going to go through various categories in our holiday gift guide. So before we get into that, once you talk about one of our very good friends.

Myke Hurley: This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Drafts. Drafts is the quick and easy way to capture and share text on iOS. And it's become one of the app store's most popular productivity apps. And it's got even better with Drafts 4. In Drafts, text comes first. You open the app to a new blank draft ready and waiting for you to type. Drafts stops you from getting distracted when you want to post to Twitter or Facebook. It stops you from having to tap through multiple screens to send an email or an SMS. You don't need to navigate through folders or create files just to jot down a note, phone number, address or create a to-do. It's the one-stop shop for getting something out of your brain and to anywhere you need it to go. This is because Drafts has tons of output options that let you send the notes that you put into Drafts to services like Twitter, Facebook, Mail or Messages. It helps you quickly create a calendar event. This can be in the official calendar or in an app like Fantastical. It allows you to quickly save items and notes to Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive and Evernote. It also features support for advanced multi-step actions and JavaScript integration, if that's your bag, to combine all of these options into a single tap. So you can say, I want to do this, this, this and this and it will go and do all of them at once. Quite simply, Drafts can make any workflow shine. It's totally distraction free. It has a fantastic customizable keyboard. It allows you to add tons of cool buttons in to do extra stuff. Like I write in Markdown and I have a keyboard row that's dedicated to helping me with all the things that you need to write in Markdown. But you can do all this stuff for HTML as well if you need help with that. And there's a community that works on this sort of stuff. And they share all of these different extensions and actions into the action directory, which is hosted by the guys at Agile Tour just to create drafts. And you can get to it from the app. And it allows you to add even more functionality to drafts. It's really, really cool. I love this app. It's become my primary note-taking app on iOS. It's so nice to write in. They have iOS 8 extensions for the Today View and to share with as well. It's a universal app. It looks great on the new iPhones. It's great on the iPad as well. Go right now to agiletortoise.com slash drafts to find out more or just search for Drafts 4 in the App Store. Thank you so much to Drafts and Agile Tortoise for sponsoring this week's episode of The Pen Addict and helping us out at RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, drafts. Are you going to do an app gift guide on one of your other shows, Myke? No, but I probably shouldn't have done. Because we're going to spend a bunch of people's money here today. I figured I could at least listen to one of those other shows and y'all can spend my money for a change because I end up buying half the stuff y'all talk about anyway and all of our sponsor stuff to begin with. All right. So our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide. We have several categories that we hope kind of give everyone a good idea or you can latch on to one or two of these categories and get some ideas. Something for yourself. Something for a friend. Something for your family. Something for your non-stationary friends. So let's get this rolling with some pens under $50. I think that's a pretty good price point for gifts for Christmas and for the holidays. So, Ana, why don't you start us off? Because the very first thing you put in here is something I've never heard of and I'm already fascinated by it.

Ana Reinert: This popped up, I think, last week. Goulet Pens is starting to stock the Conklin Durograph. It's available in three different colors right now. There's a Cracked Ice and Amber. And the green one is coming, but it's not in yet. But from what I've heard, the tip of the pen is really nice. The colors are beautiful. And it's $44, which is a pretty sweet price point for a pen, even a gift pen. You know, it's not super expensive.

Ana Reinert: And a lot of people said they're really nice pens. So I've already been emailing Goulet, like, when's the green one coming?

Brad Dowdy: This looks like it should cost twice as much as it does. I mean, it's just a good-looking pen. It's very, very nice. And I hadn't heard much about it until you said it. I saw the show notes and I saw you put this in there. I was like, what is this? And then I started hearing about it all of a sudden. So I guess it's really just a brand new pen to the market, not just, you know, new for this show. It's a new creation by Conklin.

Ana Reinert: So that's super excited about it. And then on the other side of it, I thought I would make sure that at least one pen was accounted for that wasn't a fountain pen. And I just recently got the Pentel I Plus pen, which will allow you to put in three various refills. And it'll take Mechanical Pencil, an Energel, a Vicuna, or the Slickies. And you could trick one out for somebody as a gift, even somebody who wasn't sort of a pen geek. And they'd have a fun, cool pen to have for about $10.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I reviewed that pen not too long ago and I was pretty impressed by it. I love the Vicuna refills. And plus, I think this is the first pen that has the Energel as an option. I know a lot of people swear by their Energels. So for a multi-pen, getting the choice to use an Energel ink cartridge is kind of a big deal for some people. And I know they very much enjoy it. And it's a good pen. It reminds me a lot of the style fit, uniball style fit. And it's, you know, super, super compatible with all kinds of different Pentel refills. So that's awesome. All right. So I'm going to go with the Karis Customs Retract, but not the regular Retract. The new two-tone Retract. Because the moment I saw it, I said to myself, this is the Parker Jotter for this time. It's for our age. You know, not the 60s Jotter or the 70s Jotter that was so popular. Those two-tone, great-looking Jotters. And they've made some revamps of the Jotter in these recent years that I actually have a couple of. And I love that Jotter style. You know I love colored barrels. And having the two-tone Retractable barrel like this, I mean, it really reminds me of just a modern Parker Jotter. And I think it's a great look. I don't know. I'm going to have to get one of these for myself. So if anyone's listening in the chat room or anything, you know, on my Christmas list, this might be a good one. Maybe an orange or blue or something like that. And I would combine it with the Pilot Juice refill, which is my favorite. The Retracts fit the G2 refills. And my favorite .38 blue-black juice refill is the Killer Combo. So I love the idea of this Retract two-tone. So that's my pin under $50. And you can throw in the refill and you'll still stay under $50. So, all right, Myke. Kind of know where you're going with this one. But it's hard to argue with. So what you got?

Myke Hurley: Well, just before I do say my extremely obvious pick, the show notes for this episode are going to be huge. It's going to have everything in it in order. So you want to go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 130 for that. And even if you are in the chat room as we speak, and when I say that in case you don't know, we do actually stream the show live, and you can go to relay.fm slash schedule and you can find that. But if you are in the chat room and you go to that URL that I just mentioned, which is relay.fm slash penaddict slash 130, you will also see the show notes updating as I put them in. Oh, wow. I don't usually do that, but I'm doing it today.

Brad Dowdy: Crazy. Yeah, it's a lot to keep up with. So what's your pin under $50, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Retro $51. No way. I know, crazy, right? I just, like, you can get these things for like $20, right? Some of them are like $21, some are $25, some are $30, and it goes up from there depending on the type of version you want. You go to JetPens, you pick one up for $21.

Myke Hurley: These things, I just don't think you can find a better pen. This is under $25, you know. I don't think you can find a better pen all around, in my opinion, for this price. Because they look fantastic. They're really distinctive. They're really interesting. They have an incredible refill. And you can get, like, there are so many different models, and you can get one that fits you personally. I love them. And this is, their naming has become quite difficult to follow. I actually can't. They have, like, a few different types of Retro 51 now. They have, like, the popper and the...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they've extended the naming convention a little bit. It's getting a little bit long. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

Myke Hurley: So, what one is it? It's not the popper, is it? It's just the classic.

Brad Dowdy: No, there's a popper.

Myke Hurley: No, I mean, the one that we want people to buy.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, just the Tornado.

Myke Hurley: Just the Tornado. Yeah. Just get the standard Tornado. This is the rollerball one. That's probably the easiest way, because the other ones can, like, sometimes I think ballpoints. But you want the rollerball. Absolutely fantastic. I love these things. And, yeah, you should go pick one up, because if you haven't got one, this is something that all pen addicts need, I think.

Brad Dowdy: So, did you see the pinball limited edition one?

Myke Hurley: On JetPens? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not buying all of the limited editions anymore. I just buy the ones that take my fancy, like the crazy Christmas one that we found.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that Christmas sweater one is awesome. Oh, and Jimmy Reeks in the chat room said the ballpoint is the snapper. That's the word we're trying to think of.

Myke Hurley: There you go. Snapper. It doesn't make any sense.

Brad Dowdy: But there's a popper and a snapper and all kinds of other things. So, Ana, are you still digging the Retro 51? I know you have the green one, right?

Ana Reinert: Yeah, I do have the green one. I find that the standard refill for it is a little wide for me, and I tend to muck in my ink. So, eventually I'll try to update the refill. But I kind of like to keep it around because lots of people are familiar with it. So, for me, it's a good comparison when I'm doing other reviews. How does this compare to a Retro 51?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's beautiful. Every time I buy a Retro 51, I always add in the Schmidt P8126 refill, which is the finer of the two refills that fit in there easily without hacking, modifying it. So, it's just a given that my Retro 51s will have the 8126 instead of the 8127 refill. But they're both awesome.

Ana Reinert: I should probably get one of those, too.

TWSBI Diamond Orange

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're very good. They're very, very good. All right. So, let's up the game here. We're going to go over $50 now. Anna, what do you got?

Myke Hurley: Just before we do, this is some important news. This is coming over Twitter to us from John Hume. Brad, have you seen the Twisby Diamond Orange 580 AL?

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, hot news. Anna, when we first got on Skype, she sent me a link. She said, did you see this? And what was it?

Ana Reinert: I'm sorry, Myke. That news is, like, so 30 minutes ago.

Brad Dowdy: So, you're a good, like, 15 minutes late, Hume Dini. It's, yeah. I'll be getting that one.

Myke Hurley: That is a stunner. I think I'm going to have to buy one.

Brad Dowdy: It's really good looking.

Myke Hurley: What a beauty.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I don't have, I've tried the regular aluminum section Twisby's, and they're really, really good. I don't own one. So, the orange one would be a first, would be a first foray into that. So, I will pick that up eventually. Yeah. The orange looks great. Looks really, really good.

Myke Hurley: So, please carry on.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, yes. That was a worthwhile digression.

Ana Reinert: And that probably qualifies as a fountain pen over $50.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think those were in $60. That's $60. Yep. Yep.

Caveco Dia 2

Ana Reinert: Well, the one that I put on my list for a pen over $50 is the Caveco Dia 2, which I just recently got to take for a test drive. And I am in love with this pen. It's, I'm surprised at there's just something about it. It definitely feels like Caveco's sort of higher end. It's smooth. It writes beautifully. It's well-weighted. It's classic looking. That's my pick.

Brad Dowdy: So, I felt the same thing when I tried out this pen. It reminds me so much of the Pelican M205 and maybe even better.

Myke Hurley: Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: That's... It's... Well, just in the way it feels. I would pick the Pelican over this. Okay. But it's that close. I just like the Pelican filling system. The piston filler. That's the really only difference. They look very, very similar. They feel similar. The other thing with this, with the Dia 2, is it takes all of the nibs from the Sport series. So, I've talked to a bunch about how I have particular nibs. I have so many Caveco pens, but I only use one or two nibs that I swap out between the pens because I like them so much. The Dia 2 takes those same nibs. And it's just... What they did with the grip section on those, Anna, they're really smooth. They really did a good job on that pen. Like, when you're gripping it, it's just kind of... The transition is, like, really smooth and neat. And it's a very comfortable pen to hold and a good writer.

Ana Reinert: I completely agree. I had purchased the Caveco Student about a year ago. And it has a metal grip area that changes the weight of the pen overall. Where the Dia 2 is... The body's all the same acrylic. So, the weight is a little more evenly distributed. And the grip is a lot more comfortable. It's definitely worth... I think the Student was maybe a $75 or $80 pen. And the Dia is closer to about $100, $120. And I think it's worth the extra money for the Dia 2.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree completely. And I'm not a huge fan of the Student. It's a fine pen. But I would rather have the... Spend the extra money and get the Dia 2 easily. So, my pick is also a Caveco. And it's the Brass Wave Lilliput. This is... I have a bunch of the Lilliputs. And the basic aluminum ones are really, really lightweight. And they're great pens. Great pocketable pens. This Brass Wave that they came out with this year really stepped it up. And has been my everyday, like, pocket carry pen. You know, it's real small. But being made out of brass, it has a great weight to it. It just feels so much better than the stock Lilliputs.

Brad Dowdy: And I don't know. I just can't say enough nice things about this pen. It's just a really cool pen. And, you know, it would make a very interesting gift to someone who is a fountain pen fan. Because it's very different than a standard traditional fountain pen. It's smaller. But, you know, extends to full size when you screw the cap on. When you post the cap. And it's surprisingly comfortable to write with. Which not all mini pens are. So, that's my pick. Alright, Michael. What do you got?

Kaweco Brass

Myke Hurley: Just a quick question about the... This brass bodied Kaweco. Does it leave that, like, brass smell on your hands?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Okay. That could be a negative.

Myke Hurley: Some people might like it.

Brad Dowdy: I don't like it. Some people don't like that. But I'm okay with the brass and copper pens. Yeah. I don't mind them. If I like the pen, I'm going to use it, you know, regardless of the materials. But, yes. It does. It's brass. And it... You know, and that's part of it. It ages, too. You know, it's going to wear differently than a lot of pens. It's going to get that patina on it. But, you know, the brass, not as much as the copper. But still, yes, it does leave that metallic smell on your fingers. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So, I think if you've been listening to the show recently, this should be no surprise as well. I think for me, the Karas Customs ink is currently my favorite pen over the $50 range. I just think that the fountain pen, the Karas Customs ink fountain pen version is just absolutely fantastic. I love using mine. I use it every day. And I also use the rollable version as well, every day as well. I just think they're fantastic. They're built so well. The colors are so vibrant. They've got all these nice little touches about them. And, you know, they're made by people that are just great in the community, people that we really like. But they're made with love and care. And I think that they're absolutely fantastic. And I couldn't recommend these high enough. This is one that people keep picking it up when they see it. And they're like, what is this? Because it's so interesting and well put together. You know, it's like strong.

Brad Dowdy: And you're still doing the two-tone thing, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think that's my favorite thing, buying two of them. Because I went in on the Kickstarter and having the half orange, half blue. I love that. I'm not necessarily saying buy two. If you do buy two, great. Good for you. I think you made a good choice. But, you know, I think this is a fantastic pen. And we have a discount that we can give you if you really want it. This episode isn't sponsored. But you kind of, you know, if you want to get a discount, then we can get you a discount. Gotcha. And all you need to do is I'm just opening up the document so I remember the code. The code is PenAddict. The Karas Custom Store is going to get you 15% off. Use that if you want it. But, yeah, I love them. Fantastic. Love that pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Very much. Anna, did you get on the ink bandwagon?

Ana Reinert: I got a brass ink before the Kickstarter started to test drive it. And Dan and I have continually joked that he gave me the biggest, heaviest possible pen. And in the chat room, he's been teasing me about being a leprechaun. So it's a little bit big for me. So eventually, I think I'd like to go ahead and get one of the lighter aluminum ones. I just haven't done it yet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Ana Reinert: Because there are so many pens I need.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I couldn't do the brass. Like, I have a brass bolt. And it's too heavy for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've had the brass render K and it's too heavy. So I definitely like the aluminum on the larger size pens.

Ana Reinert: I also have a brass. I think I have a brass retract. But my husband stole it.

Brad Dowdy: Ah. Now that one might work. That one I haven't tried. It's a little bit smaller dimension-wise. So it might be a little bit weight. A little bit less weight. So yeah, I'd be curious to try that. So that one might actually work. All right. Let's fill these fountain pens up with some ink. What's your favorite ink right now for the gift guide, Anna?

Ana Reinert: This is the ink that I most want someone to find for me. Because it's sold out everywhere. I haven't gotten to try it yet. But I've read everybody else's reviews. And I'm super envious. But I really want the J'ai Herban 1670 Stormy Gray.

Myke Hurley: J'ai Herban.

Ana Reinert: J'ai Herban.

Myke Hurley: J'ai Herban.

Ana Reinert: And I can't say Stormy Gray in French. I should probably try.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we need to look that up. We need to see if they've got a new video for that. So this is the ink that's, I guess, taken the internet by Storm. It's kind of a dark, stormy gray. But it has these gold flecks in it that, I don't even know if it's flecks, but I don't even know how to describe it. But they really come out in the ink. I think it's flakes.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. It's flakes of gold. And it's, the rouge hematite, I think, also has a gold undertone to it.

Myke Hurley: Oh my word, I've not seen this. I'm going to find it. I'm going to bite.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I think it shows up better in the gray than in the rouge hematite. The rouge hematite, it seemed like more part of the ink. And in the gray, it seems more separate from the ink. So it actually pops out a little bit more. It's almost like the gold pools together more in the gray.

Brad Dowdy: I know this because I have a bottle on my desk. I shouldn't tell y'all that. I hate you.

Brad Dowdy: So I've been playing around with it. It's really cool. It's really cool. Um, this, uh, yeah, I, I can't say enough about it, but there's a huge but with this. It, um, it's going to clog your pens for sure.

Myke Hurley: Then I'm not going to buy it. You got to be into it and out of it. Like immediately.

Brad Dowdy: You got to be like super diligent in cleaning your pens with this ink. Um, there's even a warning label on it, which I took a picture of on Instagram when I got my, when I got my bottle.

Ana Reinert: So this is, this is what like the, uh, the noodlers flex pens are for, you know, those nibs. If you, if you totally choke it, it's not a big deal, but that's, yeah. For these, these 1670 inks that do these, that have all this gold flake in them.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. That's what they're for.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. All right. So my ink is one I wasn't positive on when I bought it, but as turned out to be probably one of my all time favorite inks is the, uh, the sailor Yamadori. Um, it's like, it's called, uh, copper pheasant teal. So it's a blue green ink and it has a little bit of a red sheen to it. And sailor inks have become some of my favorite just from a performance performance perspective and a price perspective. I just wish they didn't discontinue two of their best inks ever. Um, so I'm hoping they come back with sky high and apricot soon or in some other form. But in the meantime, the Yamadori is where it's at for me. I love this ink. Um, what's the, um, what's the Orochizuku you like a lot, Ana? That's like the peacock. Is it Kujaku?

Ana Reinert: Kujaku.

Brad Dowdy: What, what'd you say?

Ana Reinert: The Kujaku.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it's, I don't have that, but looking at pictures of it, I think it's real similar, real similar to that. So, um, that's my ink. I just inked up, uh, I'm getting ready to work on my Nakaya, my first Nakaya review. And that's what I just inked up, uh, the Nakaya for those purposes with the Yamadori ink. It's a perfect match. So, all right, Myke, what's your, what's your ink pick?

Fuyugaki Ink

Myke Hurley: Surprise, everyone. Uh, I'm gonna go with the Pala Iroshizuku Fuyugaki. Um, it's... I love it. I love, I love this orange. Um, it's, it is the ink I have used exclusively for the entire year. Um, as I've said on the show before, I'm not big in, in finding inks because I, I actually hate cleaning out my fountain pens. I hate doing it. Um, so doing it to change inks frustrates me. Uh, and every time I think I find a new ink, I kind of don't ever really follow through and buy it as in just shown about like two minutes ago. Um, this is the ink that works for me. It gives like a level of personality that I like, which is this big bright orange color. Um, and, and it works and I love it, but I have a couple of Iroshizuku inks. I think they're all fantastic. So just take a look at the Iroshizuku range and pick your poison, um, because they're all great, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's funny. As much as I like orange, I've never like latched onto orange inks. I like them in moderation, like the Sailor Apricot I just mentioned and the Fuyugaki, but I always tend to go back to like the, the blues, blue blacks and things like that. Um, what about, what about you, Anna, just for like daily use or, you know, the, the most common inks you're, you're inking up your pens with. Like I, Myke, you're, you impressed me by sticking with orange like forever. I couldn't do that. So what about you, Anna?

Ana Reinert: Um, I tend to actually go for sort of the, the, those blue teals. Um, Deatramentis, uh, Pigeon Blue is one of my favorites. It's, I've actually almost used an entire bottle.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. That's awesome. I think I saw your review on that and I was, I was, I think I was like, I need to add that to the, to the wish list.

Ana Reinert: So, um, it's a, um, the, I find that Deatramentis is, um, is a really, um, watery ink, which is really good with, um, fine and extra fine nibs. So it kind of, it's one of those inks that matches really nicely with a lot of the pens that I have. But, and I do use the Kujaku a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Ana Reinert: That's the other one that I use a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm gonna have to get that. I think, um, just once I, once I've run out of this Yamadori, so I'll, I'll try to hold off on, on that, but, um, probably not.

Faber-Castell Pencils

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's get into something a little bit different. And I don't know that we've, uh, I think we've done it before, but, um, let's talk about pencils. So what, uh, what pencils are you recommending these days, Anna? Yeah.

Ana Reinert: Well, I still love the Faber-Castell, uh, grip series. They're sort of the kind of like soft triangular shape. Um, and recently discovered that, uh, Pen Boutique actually stocks, um, dozens in a bunch of these like new metallic colors. Oh, wow. So they have, there's like a, like metallic plum. There's a, there's a lime green. Everybody be shocked. I found a lime, a dozen lime green triangular shaped pencils. I'm very excited. Um, but they have a bunch of different colors and, um, it just seems like the perfect stocking stuffer. I always love to put a dozen pencils in people's stockings, even people who aren't, um, pen pencil geeks, because they always come in handy. And if you find a really, you know, some that are really nice or color that somebody really likes, um, it's just nice. They can put them on their desk.

Brad Dowdy: Man, these look cool. I clicked through to the link. I was like, Oh, check out those orange ones. Then I clicked. It says neon orange is discontinued. I was like, Oh, so yeah.

Myke Hurley: Anna, why do you like the triangle shape? Is it, they're easier to grip or they don't roll off the desk or?

Ana Reinert: Yeah. Um, a little of both. I just find them really comfortable. And, um, the Faber-Castell's, they write really nicely. So you've got the, it doesn't roll off the table. It has the little nubbies all down the side. So they're pretty comfortable to hold on to. Um, and I, I discovered the, the grips like, I don't know, maybe five years ago. And it's sort of, it, they end up being the pencil that's most often on my desk. It outranks a black wing. I'm sorry. Shh. Don't tell.

Brad Dowdy: I need to, I need to, uh, the, um, that's one of the first pencils I bought and I haven't used it in probably a year or two. It's just sitting away in a box. But now that I have more pencils to compare it to, I need to break it out and see how it stacks up. Cause like my, my pick right now is the Tombow Mono 100s. I can't get over number one, how good of quality of graphite these, these pencils have. And two, the black, like paint job on these pencils is to die for. This is like one of the coolest looking pencils. Um, you know, I feel like a ninja when I'm using it and I actually carry these with me, um, in my backpack just so I have them from time to time, which is such a change for me. I would have never thought I would have been into a woodcase pencil as much as I have been. Um, and you know, the, the Tombow Mono 100 is, is definitely the top of my charts, um, right now, but I need to, uh, I need to get that, uh, that Faber-Castell grip back out and, and see how it compares.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Michael, what do you got?

Myke Hurley: The only pencil that I use, uh, which is the Uni Kuru Toga. Um, I, I can, for me personally, I like mechanical pencils more than woodcase pencils. Sorry, everyone. Um, because I, I, I just like the fact that they're easy to use and it requires sharpening and that sort of stuff. And if you're going to go for a mechanical pencil, in my opinion, the Kuru Toga is the best because of the way that it, if you don't know, um, whenever you press the lead down onto the page, uh, it actually rotates slightly inside the case. And what that does is it stops the, uh, the pencil lead from being worn down on one side. And that makes it really make sure that you're going to keep a consistent line because it doesn't like end up with like a point or a flat part. So I really love them. You can get them in plastic. You can get them in metal versions too. Um, big, big fan, big fan.

Brad Dowdy: What's your barrel of choice?

Myke Hurley: Uh, the one that I bought when we started this show, which is a, a blue clear, uh, plastic one. I think I bought it after maybe our first or second episode and have kept it since and still use it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They came out with, um, a couple of limited colors for the plastic barrels, a red one. I know I have sitting in my desk and I keep waiting to see if they're going to redo them. Um, and if not, I'm, I need to, uh, give this pen away. So someone pencil away. So someone can have a, a really neat Kuru Togo that doesn't seem to be, uh, on the market anymore. I keep waiting to see if they're going to come back out with them. But, um, yeah, I, I really, really liked the Kuru Togo. You can't go wrong with those. I, the metal body ones are great for, I think they're about 16 bucks. The roulette and the, uh, I forget what they call the other aluminum one, just the high end. I think they call it, I can't remember the name. Anyway, the, the roulettes are great and the aluminum barrel ones are great too. So, and they're really a great deal. Um, the pricing is, is superb on them for the quality.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we got, um, we got a bunch more to get to. So let's, uh, let's talk about another one of our friends first and then we'll, uh, then we'll carry on up the charts.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode of the pen addict is brought to you by our friends over at penchalet.com. The penchalet sell the very best in rollables, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands, brands you have heard us talk about today, like pilot, and the Miki, sailor, Kavehko, Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, and many, many more. And are an authorized dealer of all of them. The penchalet have very fast and reliable customer service and they run discounts and specials all the time, multiple times a month. And they have closeout specials and items that, you know, that are running, they're running down on. They're always adding new styles of pens. Every single month they've got new stuff and they sell loads of different accessories and other pen items for the pen addict in your life, like carrying cases, pen holders, refills, converters, and so much more. They have free shipping on any order over $50 in the continental United States. And they also have very reasonable shipping rates for international buyers too. And don't forget that you benefit from the exchange rate in those instances in some cases. So penchalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you use the code penaddict, that's all one word, you'll get 10% off any order at penchalet.com. But if you go to penchalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter that same code penaddict, you'll be able to find a bunch more savings as well as this week's special offer, which is on the Pilot Custom 74 fountain pen. The pen retails for $200 and will be discounted by 25% to $150. And then if you use the penaddict code again at checkout, you'll get another 10% off, taking the price down to $135 for the Pilot Custom 74. Also, keep an eye on penchalet.com on Black Friday as they will be having a huge discount sale with tons of pens included whilst supplies last. Thank you so much to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, this is going to be a problem. I think I'm trying to hold off on buying any more pens right now. But this orange Pilot Custom 74 has always been on my wish list. And that's a really, really good price. And I'm looking at it. It also takes the Con 70 converter, which is the big boy converter by Pilot. Holds the most ink. Man. Okay. I think, um, should I buy this while we're on the show or should we wait until we're done? Do it in case everybody else goes and buys them. I don't know if I have, I don't have my, I don't know if my credit card information's in here or not, but, uh, I don't know. I'll, it's, it's in the cart. Okay. I need to look at this. The orange one? Yeah, the orange one.

Ana Reinert: What nibsets?

Brad Dowdy: Um, I think I'm going to get a medium because I have several other Pilot Fine and Extra Fine nibs. I think I might get a, get a medium. The violet barrel is really, really nice too. Golly. And the smoke barrel. Okay. Well, um, I'll, I'll report back.

Ana Reinert: I wonder exactly how many we'll sell in the course of this show. Yeah. Because, because I'm hovering over the add it to cart now as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a, that's a really good deal. All right. So I'll, I'll report back, uh, after the show on Twitter, um, what, what I went with, but I'm going to buy, I'm definitely buying the orange one. I just need to, I just need to look at it more and, and I don't have my, I don't know if my credit card information is in Penn Chalet. I'm sure it is. Um, cause I bought other stuff from them. So we'll, we'll come back to that. So I guess I should add that to some gift, gift item here on our list, uh, at some point. All right. Back to the list. Let's get into some paper goods here. So, uh, what notebook for the holidays, Anna, are you, are you looking at?

Ana Reinert: I was, um, I thought I was thinking specifically about like things that I would give to people that may not necessarily be Penn people, but since I'm shopping in Penn places, what can I get them? Um, and I really liked the Loic term, uh, 1917, uh, um, notebooks in that they sort of fit that. They kind of look like a Moleskine, but the paper is a little bit better. Um, they come in a huge variety of colors. Um, so you, and, um, they also have a bunch of different form factors, lined grid dot grid blank. Um, so it's another gift that would just be like, you know, I could give it to my sister, that kind of thing.

Ana Reinert: That's not too expensive.

Brad Dowdy: They've been doing a really good job here recently. And I love all the colors that they do. And I don't know. I just think it's one of the best, um, you know, hardcover Moleskine type notebooks, um, that that's on the market. So it's, uh, it's really good. I'm going to go with the field notes arts and sciences edition. I really like the dimensions of that notebook and the different grid, uh, in the, in the sciences book and the lined edition for the arts book. I think it'll make a, it's a really good gift item. Um, just because the size of the book, and I think it fits good on a desk. Um, but it's not too big to carry around very easily. Um, and it's super cool, super cool colors on the covers. And I just, it's, it's an addition. I hope they'll eventually, uh, morph into a stock edition just because I like the dimension so much.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I'm a big fan of the arts and sciences too. And I thought about selecting them, but then thought that I would mention the Rodeo web notebook for, for a couple of different reasons. I think that the web notebook, um, is actually just a great notebook. Uh, the, the, the paper inside there is some of the best that I've used, especially for fountain pen use. But even if it's, this isn't something that you're going to buy for yourself, I think this is something that you can buy for many people. Basically, if you know somebody that owns a Moleskine, buy them one of these instead. Because they look pretty much the same. The covers feel nicer. They have like this sort of rubberized, uh, feeling to them. I really like, they have a bunch of different colors and special editions, different textures, that kind of stuff. Um, and the paper's 10 times better.

Brad Dowdy: So, I just bought the orange custom 74 medium nib. I couldn't wait. Good man. Um, so, yeah. Oh, wait. Let me click finalize and pay. I forgot they take, uh, they take, uh, PayPal. So, I didn't need to put my credit card in there. Hooray! Because I have, because I have space credits. Hooray! So, yeah. Uh, 135 bucks. Free shipping. Grand total. 135 bucks. So, I have a pilot custom, I have an orange custom 74 on the way. I've always wanted this. I really like the, uh, the rounded ends on the barrel of this. So, I'm sorry. I totally, like, hijacked, um, this. That's a good deal. Um, back to your web notebook, Myke. Mm-hmm. It's hard to find anything better, I think, in that category. The paper is super, super different. Um, it's great for fountain pens. But, you got, you have to, um, you know, there are some dry time issues. But, I think it's worth, you know, the, the benefits of how smooth and nice the paper is.

Myke Hurley: So, yep.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, this next category is called miscellaneous stationery and gadgets. So, it's a little bit, um, maybe it's something a little bit different from the standard. But, uh, something probably we're all familiar with. So, um, uh, what's, what's your recommendation here, Anna?

Ana Reinert: Um, I went with planners. I came up with two in particular. Um, the Word Notebook, um, is doing their standard memorandum again this year. Um, which is just a, like, a tall, thin, pocket planner. Um, and they also have, uh, a, uh, a selection of beautiful leather covers to put it in. So, would make a great gift. Um, I think they're really cool. And if I, if I wasn't a loyal Hobonichi Techo user, I would probably buy one in a heartbeat. But it seems like something that would be good, a good gift for somebody because maybe not quite as, um, paper geeky. The Hobonichi is definitely for the fountain pen and, um, pen obsessed, uh, just because of the quality of the paper. Um, where I think the, uh, um, the standard memorandum would be sort of more traditional, um, paper stock.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I did my list, you know, I tried to, I did my list, you know, separate from everyone else. And just, you know, going through the, um, going through the list and seeing, you know, afterwards, you know, if we had any common commonalities. And there were a couple along the ways, and one of them is definitely the Hobonichi Techo. Um, I don't use it, but it's one of the coolest things that has ever crossed my desk. And I could see this being for anyone who is into stationery and is looking for a planner and actually, and cares about, you know, like the pens and paper they're used. I don't know that this would go over well for someone who is like brand new to, you know, the stationary world or doesn't really care about, you know, the pens they use. I wouldn't drop this on someone, uh, unknowingly. But if you knew someone that is a, uh, kind of a pen addict and they weren't familiar with this, I think it would kind of, um, open their eyes to something that's really, really neat and really, really cool. And, um, I, I, I definitely, I'm with you on, I, I can't recommend that highly enough.

Myke Hurley: Why don't you use yours?

Brad Dowdy: I'm just not, I don't like the rigidity of dates.

Brad Dowdy: So I use just the regular field notes and like, so let's see in my field notes right here, I have Monday 1124 and the list of things I do. And then Tuesday 1125, but I'm controlling that. I don't want to be forced into, okay, I have to write something on today's date. And it just feels like a thing. It's a little bit overbearing for me where just a blank page in a field notes is easier for me to work with.

Brad Dowdy: It's just the, just the way I work.

Ana Reinert: I'm going to be devil's advocate here. Um, you don't have to pay attention to the, to the dates on the pages. They're simply there as direction. You're writing dates down anyway, right? Oftentimes my Hobonichi, I skip a day or two days or I was sick for a whole week and there's just nothing in it for that week. But the paper is so thin and the book is so small that the fact that there are six blank pages is not, I don't feel like I'm carrying around a volume. Just saying.

Brad Dowdy: Stop spending my money, Anna. It's, I know. It's, um, no, I bought it last year to try and it's so good. It's such a great product. This is one of those things that I wish I could use properly. And I just end up with huge chunks of blankness and then I just get mad at it and just say, oh, I'm just going to go back to my field notes or whatever.

Myke Hurley: So I, to play devil's advocate against the devil's advocate. Uh, I, if, if I had dates in something, I would, I would feel really hard pressed to not stick to them. Like if, if it's Tuesday the 26th and I'm writing on like Wednesday the 27th, that would really freak me out. You know, but I get it. I get it. You don't have to, you don't have to follow them, but that's what you can use. They have the, just the blank ones too right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And they're in, uh, um, a five and B six sizes. Don't totally quote me on that. Cause I'm not looking at it, but yes, you can just get the paper notebook, um, gridded paper notebook. It's not as thick as the, the Techo planners, but, uh, you know, they're more of a field notes thickness, um, with the Tomoe river paper in it and it's gridded and they're great. I have those at my house. So one of those things that I need to get reviewed one of these days, it's a big stack, big stack of things to review. So what's your pick for a stationary gadgets, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Um, mine would be, I kind of have two, I would say something either from the, the Dudek collection or from not co. I think that there, if you don't own one of at least one of both of the products that Myke Dudek makes or that Brad and Jeff make at not co, then you have something that you need to rectify very quickly. Uh, I own multiple products from both of these fine companies and I love them and use them all the time. And I'm a big fan, uh, that it's all made in the U S of A, if that's something that's important to you. Um, but they're all handmade stuff. And I think that's really important and you're helping to support some small growing companies. Uh, so you should definitely get on board with that if you haven't already.

Brad Dowdy: I like the Dudek collection. That sounds very, uh, very official.

Myke Hurley: You're not a fan of the not co stuff though. You don't like those guys. I'm a huge, I'm a huge fan of the not co stuff. You like those guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: I like those guys. Big, big things planned for 2015 had the, had the meeting of the minds at the knock shop yesterday. Oh yeah. Um, uh, for 2015. So we're getting, getting our, getting our plans made. So for world domination. So yeah, we're working on that. All right. Next topic is stationary gifts for the non stationary fan. So what, what are you sneaking into people's, uh, under people's trees and, uh, into people's stockings this year on a, who aren't necessarily. The crazy addicts that we are.

Ana Reinert: Well, this, this was completely swayed by, um, my husband who occasionally will look at the blog, but not always. And he saw the post about the Kickstarter for the cube and immediately said, Ooh, well, this is cool. And I'm like, well, that's what you're getting for Christmas.

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: What a good product that is.

Ana Reinert: It is beautiful. It's really cool.

Self-Defense

Brad Dowdy: And it can serve as a weapon. If you have a intruder into your home.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, I, I can't remember the timeline, but I have one. Did you know that?

Brad Dowdy: I did not know that. Right.

Myke Hurley: So I haven't spoken about it. I have one here. I have a silver aluminum one that's shown up, uh, randomly from some benefactor of some kind. Uh, you know that I, I have a habit of like knocking things against my microphone to show you the kind of sound that it makes. Yeah. I'm concerned if I hit my microphone with this, my microphone will go through the wall.

Myke Hurley: It basically a lethal weapon. Like I have it in my hands now and I have a glass desk and I'm very, I'm always very scared when I pick it up that I'm going to drop it and destroy everything in my house. This thing is incredible. Uh, an absolute solid block of aluminum, uh, with some beautiful, with nine beautifully cut holes in it. Yeah. Really awesome. Really fantastic product. And, um, I'm looking forward to receiving my orange one as well. And then I'll have two of them and then I can really get myself out of some jams if I need to.

Brad Dowdy: It's serious business. That's for sure. I, uh, I have the blue one that I reviewed and then I ordered, I backed for a red one. So yeah, I will have, uh, definitely a backer of that. Cause they're, they're really, really, really great. Um, my pick is the Topo Designs dome paper mountain briefcase. I bought the version one when it came out. Um, it's no longer available. Version two is out now with a few tweaks, mainly color. Um, I use this bag every day and, and Myke, we still have to do, um, you know, we've been asked to do our, do a bag, um, podcast one day to talk more about the different bags. But this is my, this is my going to work bag and it's perfect for that. Fits the laptop, fix all the pens and paper I need. And it doesn't fit things that I don't need. It's not big or bulky. It's just the perfect size. Um, and it's, you know, supporting two of my favorite companies, um, to that have a collaboration between Topo and Doan. And, uh, I, I just love it. And, you know, someone who's not a stationary fan, um, but might be like a carry fan or a bag fan, um, could really, really enjoy this case.

Myke Hurley: So, you know, we mentioned the bag show. I don't think we're going to need to do it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Cool.

Ana Reinert: We do the bag show.

Myke Hurley: I've made, I've made my decision.

Brad Dowdy: You've made the decision. All right. So yeah, we'll need to do it. We'll need to do it. Yes. It's a, it's a European carry. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's my nurse. So, all right, Myke, what do you got for the, uh, stationary gifts for the non-stationary fan?

Myke Hurley: Field notes. Yeah. Um, all, whenever, uh, whilst I was working a regular job, people were always so interested, um, in, in my notebooks, uh, they were small and they were interesting and they also had field notes on them and there were colors on them. So much so that it actually made its way into my leaving speech by my manager. Um, she, she said, if we offer you, uh, unlimited field notes, will you stay? Uh, which I thought was quite funny cause she's, she picked it up. Everybody in the office knew about them, uh, cause they would see me with these really strange, bright notebooks and I would go through them quite quickly. So they always saw new ones and everyone else is walking around with moleskins and putting them on the desk. And then I put like my, uh, neon yellow and purple field notes with my orange and blue Karas customs. Uh, everyone was always very confused by me, I think. Yeah. But yeah, I love, I love field notes. And we didn't mention at the start of the show when we were talking about field notes that there is a, um, factory floor edition at the moment. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Is that still available?

Myke Hurley: I have no idea. Probably not. Uh, probably. I'll, I'll put a, a, a link in the, in the show notes. Um, then people can, uh, they can go to Draplin and, uh, get the, which is, I didn't know this when I saw it originally. It's three different colors.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I didn't know that either. I just saw that. I just figured they were all the same as the front color, but yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, I put an order in and I'm waiting to get an email about international shipping. So I don't know what's going to happen.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha. They said that they would say, so we'll sort it out with you later is what the post says. So I'm just kind of waiting. Uh, I don't know if I'm going to, or what's going to happen there, but we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. There were, um, uh, I think is honestly, I think just Aaron and his wife shipped the stuff as far as I know. And with the pop, with the pop-up action, sometimes I'll place an order. Like I've ordered some t-shirts from them. It'll be like a week later. And, um, you know, they, they'll send me a note saying, Hey, we're just getting to shipping this now. Cause there's just super busy and, uh, running dom world, busy working on world domination. So yeah, I'm sure that we'll get back with you soon. All right, Myke, we got just a couple more topics to go and we have one more awesome sponsor to get to. So why don't you talk about our next friend?

Myke Hurley: This episode of the pen addict podcast is also brought to you by our friends over at dash dash is a super cool website that lets you quickly create real time custom dashboards that allow you to get a visual overview of the important data for your website, for yourself, your business, maybe the way you want to work out, maybe all kinds of stuff. That's what dash allows you to do. It allows you to pull in data from a variety of different sources around the web for services like Google analytics, Twitter, Pingdom. If you have a why things scale, you can pull in information from that. Uh, maybe you have stuff in GitHub. Um, maybe you have an app that's out in the, in the charts and you want to check the iTunes directories, the app stores directories. You can do all that stuff. Or maybe you want to get really geeky and create your own data to show up as little widgets inside of dash. You can do all of that. They have an API that allows you to share data from Dropbox all over the web to create your own little widgets as well. So basically what this does is it allows you at a glance to create like a hub of information. So you can just look in one webpage and one window. You can see what's happening for your business on Twitter, what's happening with your website traffic and all that sort of stuff. And you can pull in all these sources from all over the web to create your one stop shop for the information that matters to you. But if you've used it before, the pricing model is all like GitHub. Everyone gets unlimited public dashboards so that you can share live data with the dash community. And if you upgrade to their pro version for $10 a month, you also get unlimited private dashboards too. And these ones are just for you to see. So the public dashboards are shared to everyone so you can go in yourself and get inspiration for dashboards that you want to create. But you can also have private dashboards if you pay $10 a month. Dash is currently running an awesome limited time promotion. If you sign up right now at thedash.com, you'll also get one private dashboard in addition to your free accounts on limited dashboards. No credit card required and you'll keep this dashboard forever. And it will remain private too. That's a fantastic offer. You should definitely take advantage of this. You've got absolutely nothing to lose. So go right now to thedash.com and try them out. That will help support this show. You should support them too. Thank you so much to Dash for sponsoring this week's episode of The Pen Addict and helping us out at RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I really like this concept. I'm a dashboard guy. I like kind of homepage landing pages. I just built a simple one and it includes my top stories from Google News, ESPN.com feed, my Twitter timeline, my Instagram feed, and how many people are on Pen Addict currently. So it brings in the actual live Google Analytics information from the Pen Addict. And I shared the – it was a private dashboard and I just switched it over to public and shared it with the chat room if anyone's interested in what Dash looks like. It's super cool and I need to build it out some more actually. So it's very useful and this is something that I personally enjoy very, very much.

Myke Hurley: It's nice to get this view into your life.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, it's small right now but I need to add some things to that for sure. But it's a great product. I really, really like – I like using these types of things.

Pen Storage

Brad Dowdy: All right. Two more topics left. This one is the GIFs for the Pen Pro. So you're the experienced Pen user. You're a junkie. You're an addict. And you need to, you know, get into some things that, you know, just outside the regular realm of what you're used to. So what do you have for this, Ana?

Ana Reinert: If you have a pen geek in your life, let them know that you support their habit by buying them storage boxes.

Ana Reinert: So Fountain Pen Hospital has a whole assortment of like pre-made beautiful stacking, glass top wood if you want to spend a bunch of money. They're pretty expensive. But I found a tutorial on how to retrofit cigar boxes into pen storage cases. So if you wanted to do something nice for the pen geek in your life, I thought that would be kind of cool. Anyone can make me one. I'd love one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're really great. I actually use cigar box pen storage for my pen, so I can highly recommend these things.

Ana Reinert: The crazy thing, my brother-in-law actually owns a cigar shop, so I could probably have kudos of cigar boxes.

Ana Reinert: I just, they are basically just empty boxes that smell like cigars at this point.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's amazing. You need to do that. You could start your own little store.

Ana Reinert: Yes, because I need another hobby. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I could see this happening. All right, so I chose anything from Edison. And Myke and I were thinking along the same lines, apparently. We're both huge fans of Edison pen, and not only can you get an awesome production line pen, like I would recommend the Edison Beaumont from the production line. It's super high quality, beautiful colors, great feel, great writing, great performance. But if you really wanted to stretch it, you can make a custom pen. I've got both from Brian Gray at Edison. I have the stock lines. I have a stock perlet. And then I have like a custom Menlo, which is a pump filler. And, you know, you can pick out the materials that you use on this. And the quality of Brian's work is unparalleled. He does awesome work. So go to Edison. And if you don't own an Edison, you should. This is a pen that any like fountain pen geek should own. It's just that good. So, Myke, I know you're thinking along the same lines. What did you have to say about that?

Myke Hurley: So my specific thing was to have a pen made for somebody. If you have a pen addict in your life, have a pen made that is just for them, that you know this was one pen that came off of some machinery somewhere that was made specifically for that person. And I suggest Edison for that because they do such incredible stuff. But, I mean, this is, you know, going back to my discussion a couple of weeks ago of having this Edison Menlo made for me. And the fact that, I mean, I don't even really use it that much because it's kind of like a memento now. And I don't actually have a lot of pens in my life that are mementos. This is now one of them. Just because it's this special little thing that is only mine in the world. And I love it. And I love that there is a pen that is mine that was made just for me. And I think that's a nice thing. And I think every pen addict should have at least one pen that is custom made for them. All the ways that they want.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I agree completely. And like my, the one I call the 3D Menlo, you know, that one's just for me. No one, I mean, someone else could go pick out the exact same colors, but that's not a stock pen. And, you know, Jeff worked with Brian to pick out those colors based off of something I said. And it was built just for me. And it's very, very special to have that done. And along those same lines, what do you want from Father Penmas? Father Penmas is coming, Anna. And it sounds like it might be something familiar that we were just talking about.

Ana Reinert: Well, after everything you guys said, I want an Edison Menlo.

Brad Dowdy: Not just any Edison Menlo, though.

Ana Reinert: No. Well, I went in and looked at the current inventory just to see, you know, if I were to customize one, what would I get? And I stumbled across one in the current inventory right now that is a light green swirl acrylic. And, well, you know, it's kind of made for me already.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yeah. That's a, I go through Brian's current inventory all the time just to drool. And I love these swirl acrylics because they have this translucency to them. And that one is just, you know, really, really, really good looking. And I don't know. I love the barrel design of the Menlo. It just fits my hand really, really well. And, yeah, this green swirl acrylic is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So someone get that for Anna, okay? Maybe I'll email your husband with a hint. So I'll work on that for you. Yeah, that's not going to happen. All right. So I picked up a pen that I talked about last week. And I'm drooling over this pen. And it's the Franklin Kristoff Model 66 Ice. I just look at the pictures I've seen of this pen. And it speaks to me. I mean, this is my pen right here. I'm definitely going to get one of these if Father Penmas doesn't bring me one. Hopefully in the Atlanta Pen Show when Franklin Kristoff is there. They're running in and out of stock. They're selling so many of these that they're on, like, their third batch. And they keep updating the dates on when the new batches are going to be in. And then they sell them out. But just look at the pictures of this pen. And you can see why I love it. It's an eyedropper. I mean, it can be a cartridge or a converter pen. But I would use it as an eyedropper. And it's a stunner. So that's what I want from Father Penmas. And what about you, Myke? Wrap us up.

Myke Hurley: I want an Akaia, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I can't believe this. I'm stunned. I'm literally stunned.

Brad Dowdy: When I saw this in the sheet, I was like, Myke!

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I really want one.

Brad Dowdy: Really? So what are you looking at? Like, tell me about this. This is a new revelation here.

Myke Hurley: I just want whatever you have, pretty much. I think that that is the normal thing for many people listening to this show as well. And the way that you talk about them and the way that everybody talks about them, you know, they seem really special. And I want one too. They look fantastic. I love all the different styles. I don't even have like a specific style or design that I want. I just want to own one of these pens. But they are way too expensive. So I don't... If I ever get one, I don't expect to get one for quite some time. Mm-hmm. Well, that's good. I'm very interested in one now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's... I mean, it took me almost two years to pull the trigger. So it's a long mental process, not just the monetary process. It's a long mental process to make that decision and that commitment. Because, you know, the key with me was if I'm spending this much money, I want to use it. And that was when, you know, I finally made that transition. So I was actually surprised and delighted to see that you put that in there. So that's pretty cool. So we'll have some to have to talk about some Nakaya action for you. So that's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Sounds great.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I think we have run the list here for the Holiday Gift Guide 2014. It's an awesome list. And if you guys have anything else out there that you're looking for from Father Penmas, what do you want from Father Penmas? You let us know and we'd love to hear about it. Myke, why don't you tell everyone where they can find us?

Myke Hurley: You can find us online on Twitter. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is at dowdyism. And Anna, I've completely forgotten. What is your Twitter handle? I know this. I don't want to get it wrong.

Ana Reinert: Well, A-P-P-T desk.

Myke Hurley: That's it. That's it. How could you forget? And also you can find us. I mean, I host a bunch of shows on Relay FM if you want to listen to this. No way. I apparently do. I've heard that rumor around. If you want to find me, you can. If you want to find Brad's writing, you can go to the fantasticpenaddict.com. And if you would like to find more from the lovely Anna, then you should go to wellappointeddesk.com. And of course, I'll have links to all of that stuff in the show notes. If you'd like to find those show notes, you should go to relay.fm.com. You will also find there a link to send me and Brad an email. Well, it actually goes to Brad, but you get the idea.