The Pen Addict 133/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	133
Title:	A Banana Explosion
Release Date:	December 15th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 133
Audio File:	Audio Episode 133
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 133
Length:	6262 min <br />1.033 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 133. This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com. This is where you're going to find thousands of courses created by industry experts for a 10-day free trial. Visit lynda.com slash penaddict and ArtSnacks, your monthly serving of the best art supplies. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by a specific type of geek, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I like that, and I hope I didn't ruin your intro too much, because I decided I needed to start writing with pens and paper right when you're starting to do the intro, so I hope you didn't hear my chicken scratch going to town.

Myke Hurley: Well, everybody needs to write with pens and paper sometimes. I heard that that was a thing that people like to enjoy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so apparently pens and paper are still a thing. Who knew? I mean, did you know that? I'd heard rumblings. I thought there was... How many times have we died has the death of pen and paper happened since we've been recording this show?

Myke Hurley: It's about monthly.

Brad Dowdy: I was going to say, wow, you're much more intense than me. I was going to say at least once a year pen and paper dies. But yeah, we keep it going. We keep it alive, and all of the listeners keep it alive too, because our listeners are awesome.

Myke Hurley: You bet they're our best listeners around.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's how I know about these links that we got. So, you know, I just wake up like 30 minutes before we started the show, and I'm going through all my links and everything, and what do I see? Like, top, front, and center are these new Starbucks field notes. So, we need to discuss this, Myke. So, this actually popped up on the field notes page, right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I saw somebody tweet about it, I think.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery Edition

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Edition. So, Starbucks opened this big fancy roastery and tasting room in Seattle, because that's where they're founded. So, apparently there is a field notes roastery edition. They're involved in this.

Brad Dowdy: It is the big size, right? This is the arts and sciences size book.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Not the normal size book with the shelter wood covers.

Myke Hurley: Yes, well, I think it's the shelter wood covers. It is wood, right? It's birch.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's birch. The shelter wood was cherry, I believe. So, yeah, field notes is all in on the wooden covers, which for something like this looks amazing, doesn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they've got like this copper foil stamp on them as well. They've got copper staples, and yeah, it's just beauty. A real beauty.

Brad Dowdy: It is a real beauty. And it would be nice to just drop like a little coffee stain from your mug right on the top of that cover. I think that would be a perfect match. And from the time I woke up to the time we started this podcast, I've already got someone pinging me that is going to try to hook us up.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've had one or two.

Brad Dowdy: Aren't our listeners the best?

Myke Hurley: They are the best.

Brad Dowdy: That's how cool is that? So, yeah, I guess you can only get them at that location. And, you know, I don't know if this is going to be a permanent edition. Does it even say? So, yeah, I think you just have to get them there. They'll probably be like a permanently on site type of thing. And I'm just like I said, I'm just waking up and reading this now. So I think it's pretty neat. So I think people will be all over it. Totally. So another neat thing happened while I was sleeping today, Myke. Did you see this? We got flossed.

Myke Hurley: Yes, that's why I called you. Well, I called you a very specific type of nerd. I should have called you a very specific type of geek.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. So apparently Mental Floss, which a lot of people on the Internet know, is a really good magazine and online site for, I guess, pimping out your brain, you know, making you think. They have lots of puzzles, lots of games, lots of facts, lots of things that people should be interested in. It's a pretty big site and a pretty big deal. And all of a sudden they come up with a post today, 15 podcasts for extremely specific kinds of nerds. And who was in there at number two? Michael. These guys. These guys. Two thumbs pointing at these guys right here. The pen addict. So that was cool. That's pretty awesome to see. And man, we're among some good company here. I know some very popular ones. I know your favorite, Hello Internet, is on there. And my favorite, Song Exploder, is on there. So anytime we're in the company of greatness like that, I'm pretty happy. So this is cool. And yeah, so that was very nice. Thank you, Mental Floss and Chris Higgins. I don't know, Chris. But you're the man, Chris. You are the man, Chris.

Myke Hurley: What I like is that Chris credited me with helping out with the pen addict. Which I quite like. You know, the site is our site now. I like that bit.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: It's mine now. There's nothing you can do about it, buddy. I'm taking over. I'm going to cut off your login.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wait. You don't have one. So yeah, I feel pretty good about that. We, speaking of addicts, we are, we're pretty good at creating addicts, apparently. Because I got this email from Matthew. That, it came in last week. And I wanted to read it last episode. And I totally forgot. So I ended up having to apologize to him. And I said, oh man, I forgot to write, forgot to read it last week. So I wanted to make sure to get it in this week. Because this is the kind of emails I love. And you can tell someone's, you know, kind of been listening. And kind of new to the pen geek world. And new to our podcast. Or new to our site. And has kind of like really listened and taken in things. So I'm going to read this email from Matthew. He says, dear Myke and Brad, I've been listening to the pen addict podcast for around two years. During which time I went back to episode one to catch everything you have done. First off, well done on keeping the content fresh, informative, and fun. Well, that's awfully nice. Because that's a lie. We're boring and unoriginal most of the time. At the start of listening, I owned one Montblanc. The large 149 fountain pen. Which was an anniversary gift. But struggled to find excuses to use it. I also just used standard notepads from the office. And the only ink I owned was the black ink that came with the 149. Through indirect encouragement from your podcast. I began to find more and more reasons to use fountain pens. And now I have truly got the addiction. Having bought the following in the last 12 months. You ready, Michael? The TWSBI 580 and 580 Rose Gold.

Pen Brands

Brad Dowdy: Faber Castell on Dorro in Smoked Oak. Platinum 3776 in Chartres Blue. A Delta fountain pen. A Kaweco Sport. A Lamy Safari. A Leuchterm Brown with Blue Bland. Blue Band.

Myke Hurley: Blah, blah, blah.

Brad Dowdy: Blue Bland. He says, I never understood the moleskin craze. The paper is awful. Around 15 pots of ink. Is that what you call them in the UK? I don't know if Matthew's from the UK. Pots of ink is definitely a very European term. 15 pots of ink from Diamond G. Oh, blah, blah. Including Anniversary inks and Pelican. A range of colors from green to orange to black. And the reason for this email. Well apart to say thank you. Yesterday, I found myself in my favorite pen shop looking at the 90th Anniversary Mont Blanc Le Grand fountain pen. Which is in rose gold and thinking that it was normal to want to spend 400 pounds plus on a pen. I left the store with not only the pen, but a new Mont Blanc Royal Blue ink and Diamine Silver Fox 150 years limited edition ink. So this is the, this is the pair to me from going from zero to a hundred. Like really quick.

Myke Hurley: Zero to 400?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Zero to 400. That's more like it. It says, because of your show, I regularly plan my next purchases, which I hope will include a Franklin Kristoff and something from Edison Pens. I stagger to think how many other people have been affected by you guys in the same way. One aside is that I've often heard people on your show asking about proper pen shops in London. I can genuinely recommend the pen friend on the Strand, London, who stock a wide range of Mont Blanc, Sailor Pelican, Visconti, etc. Oh my God, Matthew, I love you. So, you're, that, there's your hookup, Michael. The Strand, the pen friend. The pen friend, which, that's a good name. The pen friend. I like that. So he says they have a very nice and knowledgeable staff. He wraps it up saying, apologies for the length of email, but I just wanted you to have another example of the dangerous influence you have on people. I believe everyone has a pen addiction in them somewhere. As an example, my work colleagues always wrote with an office applied BIC. Now, thanks to me and by extension, you guys. She is using a fountain pen and looking at different inks. Best regards and many thanks, Matthew. How cool is that?

Myke Hurley: This is so awesome. I'm happy to finally know that there is a place for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: London.

Brad Dowdy: So, you're going to have to, we're going to have to do a report from whenever you get a chance to go to the pen friend. Yeah. You're going to, you're going to have to, you're going to have to report back and see how it goes. So, you've never had been to like any like dedicated shops there in London. I know you've mentioned Waterstones and had some, you know, had some stuff, but never like a really dedicated, like real fountain pen shop.

Myke Hurley: There are places, I can't remember the name of them. I think, I think there is actually a very small chain called the pen shop. I think it's called the pen shop. I'm just looking now, finding, googling.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yes. The pen shop. But the problem here is that you're paying UK prices. Yeah. And they're also overpriced.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right. They're definitely full retail. Yeah. Straight up full retail.

Myke Hurley: And so, I'm paying in sterling as opposed to paying in dollars. Right. And, you know, obviously sometimes you take a risk with the customs. But some of these, I've been to some places like these where you really do pay like fruit and nose on some of these things. Like, I'm looking at the pen shop's website and a Pelican M600 is like 250 pounds. So, it's like approaching like $400, which that's not how much they are. You know? So, it's like, well, of course they are that much if you're paying in sterling. But typically I don't. And I'm happy to buy online from, you know, the places that we talk about all the time. Especially because a lot of those are like, I know those people. Like, I actually just know them. And I want to help support them and stuff like that. But, you know, there are some instances where it works out okay. Like, I'm looking at Pelican M205 white resin chrome trim found a pen for 100 pounds. Like, yeah. Yeah. That's doable. Totally doable. 100 pounds. But a lot of the time it doesn't work out that way. And I actually would prefer to support some of the American online retailers that we have and that we work with. Yeah, for sure. Because I think that those guys and girls are actually, they do a better job. And they do things in the right way. Yeah. But, you know, I'll take a look at Penfriend next time I'm in town and see what they've got. I'll take a look at it at least to get some ink. Because I don't really like to buy ink from overseas because I feel like there's such a risk. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know. Totally.

Myke Hurley: But, yeah, I'll try it out.

Brad Dowdy: Well, cool. We expect a report back sometime in the new year.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Listener Email

Brad Dowdy: All right. We got another, I got an interesting email in the inbox.

Brad Dowdy: And I don't have it up so I can't say her name because I can't remember it right now. But she sent me an email saying, hey, I have two friends, these two guys that do a YouTube video series called Pen Talk. Pen Talk with Tony and Santi. Pen Talk with Tony and I was like, I get a lot of emails. Sometimes I, you know, I don't blow everything off. But, you know, sometimes I'm just like, oh, well, yeah, okay. Let me check out your thing. So I went and looked at this. And it's actually pretty cool. These two guys looks like high school students. And let me stop this before I start blaring it in the ears. They go through, they have like this three episodes now, I think. And they talk for about 30 or 40 minutes each episode. And they're talking about just like the regular everyday pens. And she said it would make their Christmas. It would be a wonderful Christmas present if I could talk about them on the Pen Addict podcast and shoot them a link out. So there you go, Tony and Santi. We're going to put the link in the show notes, which you can find at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 133. And we'll send everyone your way to check out. If you have some time to kill, check out these guys. Do some pen reviews. It's pretty good. They're young guys. So it's pretty funny watching them go to town on this stuff. But they know their stuff and they get into it a bunch. So definitely check those out if you have a few minutes to spare. And Merry Christmas, guys.

Myke Hurley: Hey, this is cool. I like this.

Brad Dowdy: It is cool. It's totally cool. So hopefully they'll do more. I think the last one was like a month or two ago. So, you know, hopefully this will give them an incentive to keep doing it. And, you know, keep putting that content out there. And, guys, if you make a new video, send it my way so I can see it and I'll link to it. And I'd be happy to. So very good job. One more bit of follow-up from last week's episode. We talked about pen spotting in public. And we got a bunch of feedback. Got a bunch of email feedback. Bunch of Twitter feedback. And here's a couple of them. Kim lives in Budapest, Hungary. And she said, here's some feedback on spotting fellow pen addicts. She says, I live in Budapest and can't help but wonder whether I'm the only Hobonichi planner owner in this city. I see lots of moleskins and reasonably good gel ink pens in coffee shops of Budapest. But no fountain pens at all. Which is surprising. And thanks for the great show. If not for the pen addict podcast, I wouldn't order Hobonichi in the first place or go back to using fountain pens. So I think that was the general consensus in all of the pen spotting emails I got. That it's still all of us pen addicts really don't see our compatriots out in the wild, if you will. They're there, maybe hidden in the shadows a little bit. But still, we got lots of work to do to infiltrate the mainstream and get awesome paper and awesome pens in people's hands. And that's what we're efforting to do. Right, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Yep. There's nothing stopping us.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So our favorite pilot, Jimmy Reeks, he gave the airline pilot take. He said, all the pilots I know fall into four pen camps. Cross Sentry, Pilot G2, Uni Sino 207, Zebra F301, and free hotel pens. So that sounds about right. And we haven't done a pen blog of the week in a while. And we'll make this unofficial, official pen blog of the week. Jimmy started a new website called pensandplanes.com. So you can check that out. We'll have the link in the show notes. And he did a great review on the Pilot Elite, which I have to apologize to Jimmy. That's what got him started down this path of fountain pens. He won that on a giveaway I did. That was a fountain pen giveaway. Fountain pen day giveaway I did on the pen addict. And he won. And he reviewed that pen. And he didn't have any fountain pens before owning a Pilot Metropolitan like a month or two ago. And now I think he has a few fountain pens. And he's gone off the deep end in a quick, fast pace. And he decided to blog about it, which is even better for all of us. So we can all see the pen in action. What a beauty that is. It's a really neat pen, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, very much. Really neat pen.

Brad Dowdy: Very much. So I was happy to be able to give that one away. So I love it. I don't even have one of those. I'm going to have to get one of those one day. So it's pretty cool. And check out pensandplains.com.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com, an easy and affordable way to help individuals and organizations learn. With lynda.com, you get access to a growing library of hundreds of thousands of high-quality, well-produced video tutorials that can help you learn something new. Lynda works directly with people that are experts in their field, sometimes creators of specific software or hardware products that they're actually making the videos about. So you're going to make sure that you get the very best person to help you learn. All of their courses are broken down into bite-sized chunks. This allows you to jump in and jump out at your own pace. And you can really kind of learn when you want and wherever you want as well because they're great apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android that puts the power of lynda.com in your hands. For just $25 a month, you get unlimited access to Lynda's courses. And it was something that I wanted to highlight this week, actually. lynda.com released a video on their Vimeo page. They do this from time to time to give people a taste of the service. And it's actually with unofficial friend of the show, Mr. Aaron Draplin. And he has an incredible video, which I just devoured, about creating a logo. And it's like a 15-16-minute video. And it's just him talking about how he goes about his process. And it shows some of him actually doing design. It shows some of his office. He talks about what it's like to be a freelancer. And it is fantastic. This is an actual video that was and is a lynda.com course video. And they have so much more incredible stuff there. So if you want to get a kind of an idea just to see how great these videos are and the type of content that lynda.com puts out, you should go and watch it. And I'll put a link in the show notes to that video as well, so you can go watch it there. But lynda.com subscribers can watch it at lynda.com, as well as many, many, many more videos on all types of courses. If for some crazy reason you haven't yet tried out lynda.com, now is the time to sign up as we have a special extended 10-day free trial for listeners of this show. Visit lynda.com slash penaddict to sign up. That's lynda.com slash penaddict. Thanks so much to Lynda for the continued support of this show.

Brad Dowdy: So that video was hypnotic.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I could. It was unfortunate because I looked and this is the only one of these they have so far. And I hope that lynda make more of them because I was just like blown away.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I could watch that over and over again. And it's mostly watching Aaron go through Photoshop and just like talk out his design as he's clicking. And like the way he works, like I said, it's hypnotic. I just watched him. I was just like my eyes were bugged out. I don't even know if I blinked. It was a very cool video. And I had a bunch of people send me that link, including Mikey Reak in the chat room. I'm going to give him a shout out because he's the one that sent me the link. But we got a bunch of those.

Myke Hurley: Mikey sent it to me too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's super good. It's super good. And everyone should check that out. And then if you want to learn how to have those mad skills that Aaron has, you got to check out Lynda because that's what they do. They help you do that.

Myke Hurley: They do indeed. I know we've threatened this a bunch of times, but we need to get him on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we do. We do.

Myke Hurley: And I'll do the editing necessary.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because we got to let him go. You can't restrict him.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You can't restrict him at all. I would love to have him on this show.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I will effort that. I'm going to scribble, scrabble right now. Effort Aaron Draplin.

Myke Hurley: That's a term that I'm not familiar with.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. To effort something. It's not a common term, and it's probably not the exact use, but I'm going to make an effort to get him on. So it's certainly not a proper English usage, I don't think. So, and Mikey's asking in the chat room, did we see his TED Talk? Yes, I've seen the TED Talk. It's super good.

Myke Hurley: I have not seen that.

Behind Scenes Videos

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a good one. And they do like a behind the scenes one too, where they don't just straight up do the talk. They do like the lead up to the talk and some of the after talk notes, you know, behind the scenes type of stuff. So it's good. So definitely we'll put that in the show notes there.

Brad Dowdy: The links are popping up fiercely in the chat room. So we've gone, what, all this time now, Michael, good 20, 25 minutes, and we haven't even mentioned what we're going to talk about today, which people are probably wondering because they've been clamoring for it for weeks, if not months, and that's the bag and backpack episode.

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: So, yes. We, we being me and Michael, aside from pen addiction, I don't know how deep Myke's bag addiction runs, but I know it's there. But once I put the show notes together for this episode, I realized how big of a problem I have because I finally just had to cut myself off with all the bags that I wanted to talk about and all the brands that I like and all the brands that I don't have that I want to try.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm going to go through.

Backpack Transition

Myke Hurley: Can I, can I set this up? Yeah, go ahead. Um, because this episode came about because I wanted a new bag. Um, like I currently, uh, own a North Face backpack called Surge. Um, that's what I've used for years now, actually. That thing has been a real trooper. Like, all weather, it's fantastic. Like, I've had, uh, once I had a banana explode in there, that was a terrible day. Yes, bad day. And, uh, it contained everything within the pocket that the banana exploded in, even though that took a long time to clean out. Ugh. Uh, when I say exploded, I, like, forgot it was in there for a couple of days. And then... Oh, Lord. Yeah, it was bad, man. It was... Oh, it was so... Anyway, um, but I have some back issues. Um, it's been getting worse. I mean, you know, whatever I'm dealing with it. Um, but carrying a backpack around like this was causing me some issues, I think. Uh, especially because... Because it's so big and it's got so many pockets, it's full of crap. Like, just with nothing extra in it. So I just take everything that I think I'm taking out. The bag's super heavy. Because it's just full of stuff. Like, little things. Little bits and bobs. So I wanted a new bag. And plus, I wanted a new bag that was more sort of focused around me going out and doing some work and stuff like that, right? So something to throw a laptop in, maybe a couple of small notebooks, uh, maybe a charger and a couple of cables. And leave it at that. So I kind of had spoken about it on Connected. Asked for a bunch of, uh, recommendations. Got some recommendations in. Checked some out. Did the girlfriend test, right? What do you like the look of? And I have bought one. Um, and I'll talk about that in a bit.

Brad Dowdy: So, your transition and the things that you talk about and what you want in a backpack are the same transition I've had over the past, probably, 10 years. Um, being in the IT field, I use the backpack similar to, like, what you're talking about with your, uh, with your North Face. I use, like, one of those big computer bags that's heavy. It's got a jillion pockets. Um, can fit all the laptop and the cables and, you know, anything I needed to do my job. If I had to travel to do something. You know, whatever. And it ends up just becoming this black hole of crap. And it's so heavy. And it's miserable to carry. And I finally realized I didn't need this big, huge, wonky bag to be an efficient carrier of stuff. I needed something more slimmed down and just carry the essentials and be made better and be able to carry it better and be more comfortable and be nicer and even more durable than one of those just big honking computer backpacks. And y'all all know the ones that I'm talking about, like, from Targus or Victorinox or some of those are some of the big brands you see in just those computer bags. Those are just misery. Those are like carrying cinder blocks on your back. And I've gone through a lot of bags over the years from messenger bags to standard backpacks and daypacks. And we'll talk about a bunch of these. But I've, like Myke, we've both settled on kind of the best work bag that I've found. And that's the Topo Designs Dome Paper Mountain Briefcase.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That's what I got.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So I have version one of it, which is kind of the the chocolate brown with the blue interior. And Myke has the version two. of it. And I want you to go first, Myke, because I've talked about mine a bunch and I'm going to talk more specifically about it. But we've covered it, my feelings for the bag a little bit. And I'll cover why I carry it and why I choose to carry it. But you're only recently got this. So I'm going to hear like why you settled on this. And really, if you're liking it, I don't, I don't even know if for sure you like it. I mean, you've only had it a week or two. You know, maybe you hate it. So tell me about tell me about why you like that bag or don't like that bag.

Myke Hurley: One of the things that I like about the Chad Dern version is it has some some slight modifications that are quite, I think, quite important. For example, it has leather on the bottom and on the sides. Now, considering this is made of the same Cordura like Cordura material that our favorite pen cases are made out of, having a waterproof bottom is quite a smart thing, I think, because if I put that down on public transport, it could suck up some liquid or something, you know? Right. So a leather bottom is good for that, I think, and I'm happy. Does your version have a leather?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. I think really the only difference between yours and mine, I think, is in color. I don't think there's any design differences, really.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Because I think that the standard Turbo ones don't have that leather on the bottom?

Brad Dowdy: They do not. They're all canvas, all nylon. Yep. So it's good,

Myke Hurley: you know, I like that because I took a look at all of the styles too, you know, just on the Turbo site just to make sure that I was happy with the color configuration like it was the best one because I love the sort of the burgundy and blue. Right. Really, really cool. So it does look, it looks incredible and I like that it has the Cordura material because I was able to put some badges on it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Oh,

Brad Dowdy: for sure.

Myke Hurley: And that was quite a fun little thing because I have the, you know, you collect up these little pin badges going to conferences and stuff, so where do I put them? Well, now I have somewhere to put a couple, which is kind of nice. It doesn't have a lot of pockets. Some are just like this. For example, it has inside the main compartment, it has a laptop sleeve which has like a Velcro strap on it which you can sort of, you can, you know, keep your laptop from falling around. It has a little zip compartment and then it has one compartment for some notebooks and then three little pen compartments. Then it has one large zip pocket on the front. Now, that's, it's not a lot of pockets and there was part of me that was like, oh, there's not a lot of pockets in this, but that's actually exactly what I'm looking for. So I was looking for something that was going to restrain the amount of stuff I was carrying around and not having a lot of like pockets to put something in and forget about it is actually exactly what I need.

Myke Hurley: You know, because if, otherwise I would just fill up loads of crap again which was the whole point of me looking for a new bag in the first place. It's super light. Like, it's really light. It's lovely to carry it around. Like, even when I put like my laptop in it and stuff, like my MacBook Pro, it still doesn't feel very heavy and I like that there's multiple different ways the bag can be carried. You can carry it like a briefcase, you can carry it like a messenger bag or a backpack. Like, that is amazing. Like, I love it. I don't like the handles and the strap, though.

Brad Dowdy: The messenger strap?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Or the backpack strap? The messenger strap. Right. Agreed. So I don't use the messenger strap at all. So I do. Mine's removed.

Myke Hurley: Right. So what do you use? Just the handles and the backpack straps?

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: So maybe I'll try that out but I do like the messenger strap. Like, the idea of having one. I just don't like the actual one that it has. So what I'm probably going to do is try and find like a leather strap and replace it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a non-padded strap. Exactly. For the messenger carry. The backpack straps are padded and the handles are handles. But the messenger strap is not padded. And I don't like, I've just discovered over the years that I don't like carrying bags messenger style. It's just kind of become not something I enjoy. I don't feel, you know, like as secure with the bag and, you know, it moves around, swims around too much in my space. So I've stopped carrying any messenger style bags including the strap for this bag. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You see, messenger is quite new for me. I haven't had a messenger bag in maybe five years. I think that's why I'm using it like that a little bit more. But the handles, like they should, I feel like they should be padded in some way. And so what I really want, and if anybody can point me to somewhere, which is good for this, like a replacement messenger bag. And I would like something to, you know how you can get those handles where you have like, like a little, maybe like a sleeve or something that goes around them and you can kind of Velcro them together.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Yeah. Like a snap or Velcro. Sure.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Something like that. And I will then put it on here to make the handles more comfortable to hold. That, they're my only gripes is just that the straps could be better. But the bag overall is just superb. I'm so happy. It makes, it actually makes me happy, which is quite weird in its own little way. Like I love using it. I really, really love using it. Like I could not recommend it enough. Like it has some foibles. Nothing's perfect. But just overall, this thing is just superb. It's exactly what I was looking for.

Work Bag Use

Brad Dowdy: So I found like, this is the perfect bag for me for work. Like this isn't an overnight or a day trip or a weekender type bag. This is a work bag.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I actually have used it to like, cause you can, I mean, you can't put a lot of stuff in it, but I've been able to have like throw like a t-shirt some fresh underpants and some small toiletries in it, you know? And I, and I have been able to use it for an overnight bag, but you kind of just have to be super sparse with what you're, what you're taking.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, and that's kind of the feature, right? I mean, you can't overdo this bag and which is good. You know, you'd have to be aware of what you're looking for and what you're trying to use it for. So I, mine, I use it for work five days a week. It carries my work laptop, uh, some notebooks, some pen cases, some pens, um, small set of headphones, small set of cables. And I think that's about it. And, you know, I carry it single strap backpack style or in the briefcase handles, which they don't bother me. Um, like I don't need any extra padding for that, but I'm also not carrying it like super long distances either. Um, and if I did, I'd, I'd throw on the backpack straps. Um, so yeah, it's, you know, I, I echo everything that you said. I love the bag. It's my favorite bag I own right now, but it's also, I don't use it for bigger stuff or for overnight stuff. Um, like you're saying, I actually, there was a couple bags that I thought, um, you know, I might use like in combination work and be able to use it to take on a trip. You know, like if I go see my parents, even though I'm not flying, you know, but if I'm in a car and then going to stay at their house for a week and, you know, I want to carry some extra things that I wouldn't normally carry for work and that bag doesn't cut it for that. So I, I use, I basically have three bags in my bag rotation. If you can imagine that, um, you know, I am a bag addict, I guess too. Um, looking at these show notes. So I have another bag that I use for like air travel and it's called the A-Lite Design Shifter and a few years ago someone on Twitter pointed this bag out to me. I was like, that is a beautiful, awesome bag and I didn't buy it at the time and he kept pinging me when it'd go on sale because they put them on sale quite often and I, I just never needed it at the time. I've got plenty of other bags um, and, you know, just like another pin. The last thing I need is another pin but I still need another pin, right? So, I eventually broke down and bought this bag um, this fall to take to Portland to the XOXO. I bought it specifically knowing I don't, I don't fly very much but I knew I needed a little bit bigger bag to carry some more things like I wanted to be able to put a jacket in there you know, if I needed it, you know, I needed a bag that I could stuff some stuff in and this bag worked awesome. It's got a, uh, it's got a big zip open top where you can really pack things in. Um, it's got a great handle on the front side of the bag which I love that, um, just for quick moving around and carrying it around um, you know, moving it place to place like in the room or just picking it up from, you know, short distances. Um, it's got a great, two great front pockets on the inside. It's got the easy access to the laptop on the side of the bag and it's super durable, super comfortable um, and they're really in the grand scheme of bags they're pretty inexpensive and they put them on sale all the time. I mean, I think they're on, they're, they run out of stock a lot of color so if you ever see a color from A-Lite like I miss the color that I wanted the most um, they go out of stock like really quick and then you just have to wait for the next ones to come out. Um, so they're pretty low on stock right now but it's a bag to keep an eye on and it's something I like and it's not one you hear about very much and um, so yeah, that's, that's something that I wouldn't want to, you know, carry on the train for you Myke and going or just carrying around town. It's not like a day pack, it's a little bit bigger but it's a great travel bag and I'm super, super happy with it um, for that but it doesn't get a lot of use for me otherwise like during the week or throughout the months when I'm at home it stays in the closet so, you know, you have to decide if you want to spend money on something that's not going to be like, you know, used super frequently. Um, I actually use the, a smaller day pack for like, day excursions like, we live an hour and a half from Atlanta if we're going to go to Atlanta and walk around the city or whatever and I want to carry a bag or a backpack I kind of have a medium range backpack that I use and it's called the Patagonia Yerba backpack. Um, the model I have is several years old and I haven't really found anything better. Um, the new model looks a little bit different from the one that I carry in that some of the zippers are in a different placement and the pocket in the front doesn't look the same so I can't vouch for the new model Yerba but I love the old model Yerba and it's a smaller it's literally what I would say is a day pack. It's, you know, let me put my bottle of water my notebook maybe a lightweight jacket maybe some snacks um, you know, and, you know, a few pins and just some things you want to carry like if you're with your family too and, you know, everyone, you know, you have two or three water bottles and, and things like that so, you know, those are the kind of the three bags I roll through. I have the Topo Mountain Briefcase that's my work bag and that stays set and then I have a bigger travel backpack that's the Alight Design Shifter and then I have an Around Town Day Pack if I just want to, you know, throw some things in and go and that's the Patagonia Yerba backpack. So, am I overkilling this? I'm sure, by far, I have a lot of overkill on this and, and we're going to talk about, you know, moving things between bags and, and things like that. Do I have, you know, are each of these bags set up differently? Do I have similar items, you know, in between them? And then I also want to talk about some other bags that I've used and don't really use anymore and some of them are kind of a surprise. So, I definitely want to talk about those things, but I think we should talk about some things we can maybe put in our backpack if we're, if we're going around, Myke, what do you think?

Myke Hurley: That's perfect. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Art Snacks. Art Snacks is your monthly serving of the best art supplies. These guys and gals are constantly searching the globe to find interesting and cool art materials to send you every month. It's like recurring Christmas for pen addicts. Once you subscribe to Art Snacks every month, they deliver 4 to 5 unique and high quality art supplies right to your door. These items have all undergone rigorous testing from art professionals to ensure they meet the highest standards that Art Snacks sets for themselves. And each box comes with a little card that explains each item in detail and details all of its best uses as well. I really like that card. It's a nice touch. It was able, when I, I have had many Art Snacks boxes and when I get them I can like open them up and I can take a look at the little card and read what each of the things does and what it's best for, which I really love. And they also include some candy in all the boxes, which is good for me being in the UK because I get to try all these weird little American candies out. It's a nice little way to broaden my mind to different sweets too. Art Snacks is a great way for you to broaden your horizons a little and expand your pen addiction into new and exciting areas. I now have some great tools in my arsenal. I have some great pencils, some brush pens, some like double tipped pens. I have some erasers and sharpeners as well, all because of Art Snacks. And it's also a great gift for the artistic person in your life, perfect for the holiday season. They offer month to month as well as yearly subscriptions, no contracts and you can cancel any time, plain and simple. Art Snacks send you cool stuff to draw with so go sign up right now at artsnacks.co. Whilst you're there you can also check out their previous boxes to give you an idea of what you'll be getting and I bet you're going to love it. Thank you so much to Art Snacks for supporting this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: That right there is an Art Snacks box.

Brad Dowdy: That is an Art Snacks box and it's my first ever Art Snacks box and it's the December Art Snacks box and I've opened the box up but they do a nice job of wrapping up some of the stuff so I haven't even unwrapped everything. Yeah they put it in

Myke Hurley: a nice like crepe paper.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah yeah and this month's candy is a candy cane for Christmas so I have a candy cane for that but like you mentioned the card that comes with it that's one of the coolest things because not even I'm familiar with some of the products that they send so it's great to be able to get a description of each product and this month is a Pentallic set of six drawing pencils which what it is it's a range of lead grades in a six pencil set and it comes in a nice little tin it contains one of each of 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B lead so you can get a wide range of graphite shades when you're drawing. It's got a Faber-Castell colored kneadable eraser which I have a neat little pink eraser and it comes in a neat little case and there is a Posca paint marker that must be what's in this little guy right here so let me open this up. This is, I'm sure this is thrilling for all the listeners but I wanted to, wanted to save it. That's probably loud and annoying isn't it?

Myke Hurley: I like the sound effects that are occurring right now. Ding!

Brad Dowdy: Oh, where'd they go? Oh yeah, so these Posca, it's, I've never owned a Posca before, I've always wanted one but Poscas are some of the best like art markers around. I know a lot of big projects and installations use the Poscas just because of the quality that they are. It's a, this one's a paint marker and then it also comes with a Prismacolor Premier illustration marker which I've never used and this one is really intriguing. Let me open it up. It's like a plastic tip pen which you know, you guys know I like that style of pen, like an art drawing pen. So it's really cool and it also comes with a very cool Art Snacks Snick sticker.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, every box has a sticker in too which is cool so you can stick that right on your laptop.

Brad Dowdy: So this will be going on the laptop, their logo is great, it's a pencil twisted into a pretzel shape like a snack so it's absolutely spot on, wonderful. Lee at Art Snacks does a great job putting all this together and you really should check it out at ArtSnacks.co. So a huge fan and we will be talking more about these guys because they do a great job.

Myke Hurley: Thanks ArtSnacks. So I want to ask you about bag switching because you mentioned you have a few different bags here. Like do you have equipment in all of them constantly or are you always moving things around bag to bag?

Brad Dowdy: It's a tough question. A little bit of both. So I have a fourth bag that that has a permanent loadout in it but I'm going to stop doing that. So that's the only bag I keep loaded separately otherwise I will move things from bag to bag if I need them so I don't have all the bags loaded out. The other bags I just talked about are empty right now except for one but it's going on the chopping block and that's the Topo Rover Pack. That's that red and blue backpack that you'll probably you know if you follow me on Instagram you've seen me post it a few times and it's that bag actually made me buy the A-Lite shifter because the Topo Rover Pack has ended up being too small for what I need to use it for and it's become redundant with the Patagonia Yerba backpack which I prefer over it but I do keep the stuff that I carry when I go to Atlanta to go to knock and visit the shop like my keys and specific notebooks and some product stuff that's always been my knock shop bag so when I go to Atlanta I'll just grab that bag because I know like my shop keys are in it and I'm not going to lose them. So that's the only bag I kept separate things in but I think that bag is going on the chopping block and I think I'm going to sell it and I have a bunch of bags that I'm probably going to sell as I went through this I was like man I've got all these bags just sitting here some of them are brand new like the Topo Rover it's just ended up being too small of a bag it doesn't fit the need for when I it would fit the day pack need just for you know like a day trip but I prefer the Patagonia Yerba backpack it doesn't fit the longer term trip bag like if I was going out of town for a week and wanted more stuff so the A-Lite shifter has actually replaced that the Rover pack is not big enough for that so it's kind of not getting used right now and it's a beautiful bag it's just not for me so yeah that kind of sort does that kind of sort of answer your question I don't really except for this one bag I keep some stuff when I go to knock so you know I don't so I make sure I don't forget certain things I need to bring every time I go there like keys so I can get in yep so do you do that you just you switch between your other bags are empty and if you need to you swap into them whatever you need you bet

Myke Hurley: yeah yeah so I

Brad Dowdy: definitely do that to although I'm

Myke Hurley: starting to well I am considering a basic kind of set of things that I want to always have in in my in my topo bag like I'm thinking about grabbing a MacBook like a MagSafe charger to throw in there sure in there which is a couple of little bits you know that that I'm constantly having to like pick up or unplug or grab or something like that from somewhere else and I want to be able to just have them all in in one place

Zip Pouches

Brad Dowdy: yep for sure now that makes sense and what I do is I keep like a little zip pouch well with all like the specific things like iPhone charger and you know glasses cleaning cloth and headphones that I can just grab that bag and move that little pouch more like a pouch and move that pouch from bag to bag so yeah let me talk about a couple other bags that I own and have owned and currently own and don't use anymore one bag that I love but I don't have a great use case for it Topa makes one called the sling bag which isn't even on their site anymore but it seems to be still available through Huckberry maybe which is where I got mine first one it's a single strap backpack and it's like in the day pack style where it's just an open zipper you know open pouch in the front with a few little pin slots and pockets on the inside it's a very simple bag but it doesn't fit a laptop like it would fit an iPad in it that's one bag I want to use more but it just doesn't quite fit what I need right now but it's an awesome bag and actually I would recommend that bag over something like the rover pack just because it's a more unique design and if you find that it fits in your in your carry arsenal and if you need 10 bags like I do that's a good one to have the messenger bag I used for years Myke is the Timbuk2 deluxe messenger bag racing stripe I put I have a flicker image of it that we'll have in the show notes this is a fantastic messenger bag Timbuk2 makes really really good stuff in my opinion they're always very durable I've never had like any any physical problems with the Timbuk2 stuff they actually have enjoyed every Timbuk2 bag I've owned I've just always found another bag that's done it better and I got out of them this is the last messenger bag I've owned I've owned it for years and years and years and I haven't used it in years and years and years so I probably just need to sell it because it's still in great shape their bags hold up extremely well I'm just not a messenger bag guy anymore I don't like it slinging around on my shoulder and moving around so much and it's a pretty big bag this is the medium size one I have and it can get pretty heavy and load it out so I prefer having the backpack strap there's also the Timbuk2 shot well which I've used that was my computer bag for a while but the the Patagonia Yerba backpack is is better in comparison one of the worst bags I've ever purchased with this was kind of a fluke purchase I was like oh I could use this I need this and it's been a bag that I haven't used at all just because it's way overkill for what I need it's called the chrome falcon chrome industries makes killer backpacks and killer bags they're really focused in the cycling world you know for like bike commuters you know they make a lot of bike computer commuter specific bags and the one I have is really made for that and I don't use it for that it's got like a waterproof section on the interior so the bag is kind of split into like into half like vertical halves with one is kind of got a waterproof section and then ones for like your laptop and other things like that it's just a monstrous heavy it's the heaviest backpack I own and therefore it doesn't it's not really useful for anything but like serious hardcore travel and something that would just be beat and destroyed this is a very Portland Seattle San Francisco bag for bike commuters they would probably love it it doesn't work for me it's just too big and bulky on the complete opposite side of the spectrum of big and bulky is the nomadic wise walker which I've had that bag from jet pins for probably five or six years now and it's the exact opposite of the chrome falcon it's lightweight and actually almost too small for my back which is probably it's why I don't wear it as much because it's actually a little small and there's so many pockets in it that you almost get lost you can have too many pockets right you can be you can overkill on the organization by far and the nomadic is great quality and great styling but it's too small for me you and I are about the same size we're both around six feet it's it looks a little bit small on a back my size like I let my kids use that bag sometimes just because it's it's light enough and it's not overly big for them and yeah those are kind of some of the bags I own and I threw my old I found a pic old picture of my old Targus computer bag those are the worst bags in creation but everyone knows what those look like right you see those wandering through town through the airport I feel sorry for anyone carrying like the old style computer bags because they are so heavy I mean I guess they protect you know your computer and everything but have you ever carried one of like the traditional made for computer laptop bags

Myke Hurley: Myke I don't think so I mean well mine mine it depends what you mean by that really but my north face has a as a specific computer compartment well

Brad Dowdy: yeah no all my bags like have the computer compartments like the the Topo and the you know Patagonia but I'm talking about companies that make specifically market them as computer bags like you can tell the difference when you see them and they're just they're really massively heavy and uncomfortable and uh just not an awesome not an awesome thing so um so that's that's what I have and believe it or not I want more Myke of course you do of course there's you wouldn't be an addict unless you had everything you need right in front of you and still wanted more right exactly so I mean that's pretty much the definition of an addict and there's I had to stop the wish list I limited it to three because that could have had like probably six or eight here pretty easy and there's one bag that I put at the top of the wish list I don't know if I'll ever get it but everyone raves about it that has it and that's the Tom Ben Synapse um Tom Ben makes awesome products I've had one of their small uh I can't even remember the name of it but it was really a notebook cover it wasn't really a bag but they're super high quality um made in in Seattle they have they do great great work with their products every I've never heard a negative word about a Tom

Myke Hurley: Ben bag yeah I know so many people that have Tom Ben bags I'm so intrigued by all the little bits you can add into them yeah

Brad Dowdy: so that's accessories you know so that's kind of held me back from that because I don't want that right I don't need all of that I don't need to load out my bag even further and I don't love the exterior designs of them they're very plain and straightforward they look great and actually like the insides of the bag where you can get some you can kind of build your own and put all the materials together that's what I would have to do is just kind of put all the materials together that I want like the necessarily the stock ones but you know it's more about using it than how it looks and from everything I've read using these Tom Ben bags is amazing and they last forever um and they're just really really high quality and I put some links for the show notes they do some really cool stuff on their blog they do a video where they go like the some of the people that work there go through the bags that they carry so that's really neat to see um always like checking that out so that's one the something from Tom Ben would probably be my next purchase I would think

Myke Hurley: but that's Hackett has the smart alec or at least he did the last time that we were in San Francisco and I was so jealous of it

Brad Dowdy: yeah that's a cool bag um because he had a bunch of

Myke Hurley: the things as well like what do they call them like the I think they call it like the Freudian slip or something yeah funny you know what like all the little accessories that they have that you can slide into their bags and it adds like different pockets and velcro straps and all that cool stuff

Brad Dowdy: yeah they do some great great names too they have the brain bag and they just came out with the parental unit which is a diaper bag that Casey List needs to look into um you know they they they have fun and but they take their bag making like super seriously and um it's a great great product and um that if the next I won't say it's the next bag I buy because Lord knows I don't need to purchase another bag but it might be a Tom Ben um because they're I just want to experience like the full one of the large backpacks for myself because I've had the little small um carrying case for notebooks in the past when I bought my a light shifter it was down between two bags it was either I was either getting the a light shifter or I was getting the clutter works clutter flip which is a really old school design from a very popular company called clutter works um I think they're in Montana based in Montana in the here in the US um it's just a really great design bag I thought it didn't quite have the size or capacity that I wanted for travel I didn't want another day bag I wanted uh like a week-long bag where I could stuff lots of things in you know not not to travel with as far as like all of your clothes and like be your you know live out of your the bag bag but just more stuff that I would need for a longer time frame away from home um I love the shape and design and the colors of all the uh clutter flips so um that's another one that's on my radar I'll probably never own it but I stare at it a lot um especially the uh the teal blue one it's uh it's a really really cool looking bag and then the last one is inside line equipment they have really been on my radar here recently um they're very much like chrome industries and like uh mission workshop if people are familiar with those brands they make a very cycling friendly bag um but they also make like photo bags and different uh packable things like you're talking about Myke with the Tom Ben the different accessories that get built into it and I just think their designs really speak to me it's a very basic clean lines um type of bag but has a lot going on looks like you can do a lot of things and um I don't know if that's one that's been intriguing me for a while so actually that's one I'd be curious if any listeners have any experience with inside line equipment one bag company I left off which I will probably get some emails on so I'm gonna go ahead and cover it now is go ruck are you familiar with those bags Myke

Myke Hurley: of course I am they're

Brad Dowdy: awesome looking and I would totally get one but I don't I don't know that they would do anything different from what I have now I'd rather get like the Tom Ben uh synapse next uh I've almost put the go ruck in my cart several times like over the holidays they had some deals on them I was like man I should get one of these because they're so well loved things that I'm going to do it and amazingly durable from what everyone says and I could just never pull the trigger I didn't know if it was different enough from what the bags I have now um are and what I use it and you know they're pretty expensive like I mean a lot of these bags are expensive the Tom Ben and the clutter works are you know they're all creeping up around 200 bucks each and the inside line is 200 plus

Myke Hurley: and to say that somebody's inside line bags like that transit backpack is just a stunning piece of beauty yeah

Brad Dowdy: they're I'm really intrigued with what they're doing um it it really looks amazing but you know you get down to I I'm pretty happy with the ones that I have and I'm already not using a whole stack of bags um so I need to sell those bags I'm I'm guessing because I'm just not using them um it's hard to part with some of them but um go rucks I mean go rucks should definitely be on this list and a lot of people swear by them and love bought love them um but I'm not doing any rucking I'm not going on any go ruck challenges anytime soon which is a really awesome event I know our friend Patrick Rohn participates in some of that so I haven't found the need to wear that the go ruck bag would fit in replacing anything that I'm currently using so that's kind of that's kind of my bag story um if you can't tell I I like bags a lot I like backpacks a lot um Jeff and I it's common bond aside from pen cases is backpacks um we talk about them we uh if you can get in real trouble looking at some of the Japanese sites that you know we didn't mention a single one here but I we have bought a couple uh samples just to check out what some of these companies um in the far east are doing they're doing some really unique stuff um you can lose hours of your time just searching those companies and seeing how different they are from some of the things that you know we talked about here today so yeah I have I have a pretty big bag and backpack problem um if you couldn't tell so Myke what what do you think do I have a backpack addiction

Myke Hurley: well it's not what I wouldn't have expected like everything you've said I'm kind of like yep yep sounds like Brad

Brad Dowdy: so I have I have problems is what

Myke Hurley: you're saying it's not like you've surprised me with the fact that you're as obsessed with this stuff as you are many of the other things that you're obsessed with

Brad Dowdy: yeah yeah so it's just one of those things man I I love a good backpack design and that gets me I mean that's you know the pen designs intrigue me bag and backpack designs intrigue me you know um yeah it's just one of those things you know I have a little bit of a sneaker fetish too I love sneaker design I don't have a big shoe collection um or anything but I really like some of the crazy unique shoe designs I just I like those type of designs those are the type of things that really speak to me so anyway I think that's our I think that's our bag episode that everyone uh has been clamoring for so I hope that I hope that answered uh some questions about what I use and what Myke uses um for what you guys were uh you know wanting out of this episode but if if not definitely get in touch and I want you to tell them how to do that Myke

Myke Hurley: you want to find the show notes for this week's episode go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 133 you'll find a button there where you can click a link to send us an email as well um or you can hit us up on twitter I am at imike i-m-y-k-e and Brad is at dowdyism d-o-w-d-y-i-s-m we'll be back next week of another episode of the penaddict podcast please support our sponsors for this week lynda.com and artsnacks.co great guys and girls over there helping us make this show for you every week if you want to listen to the show live please go to relay.fm slash live and check the schedule that's on that page you can click the link to go to the schedule to find out when the show records we've got some interesting scheduling stuff over the next couple of weeks with the holidays looming so you want to make sure you keep an eye on that too you can even add that calendar to your own google calendar so you'll know when everything is streaming live

Guest Announcement

Brad Dowdy: yeah can i make a quick note on that can i interrupt you you plan you please should can so next week's episode that we're going to release on monday night we're recording this thursday so all you all you live chat rumors um you know pay attention to that schedule because we're going to go live on thursday but um if you're not in the chat room you're not going to hear it till monday indeed and we have a we have a cool episode i'm just going to tease it i'm just going to tell you right now it's going to be a fun episode mike doesn't even know all the details yet oh my you're going

Myke Hurley: to spring a surprise guest on me again

Brad Dowdy: no no no guests just me me and you in a long serious conversation oh my i just i

Myke Hurley: don't know if anybody's ever known that but there have been times where i've shown up for this recording and there's a guest that i didn't know about

Brad Dowdy: i will admit that that has been the case once or three times or so oh that there is our guest for today yep there's our guest for today mr tyler he just appeared out of the blue there's your special guest

Myke Hurley: right on cue how incredible is that thanks so much for listening we'll be back next time bye-bye bye you