The Pen Addict 141/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	141
Title:	Shiny Happy People
Release Date:	February 9th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 141
Audio File:	Audio Episode 141
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 141
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 141. Today's show is brought to you by Hover, Simplified Domain Management, and Hoban Cards, affordable and beautiful custom letterpress printed calling cards. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined as always by the one and only Mr. Bradley Dowdy. Hey, how are you doing? I'm good, how are you? I'm good. Welcome to The Pen Addict, a weekly show where we look at pens, paper, notebooks, and such.

Brad Dowdy: I always feel like we should have one of those masterpiece theatre intros sometimes, because it just sounds, it's just, it's funny. The Pen Addict podcast is just funny. It's just like this thing actually exists, and, you know, it's, you know, just have a parody of ourselves sometimes. We should do that. Welcome. We'll have to sit in our tweed jackets and our pipes.

Myke Hurley: Welcome to Calligraphy Corner.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. I needed a laugh. I need a laugh. I've been stressing out, Myke. I needed a laugh this week. I know you have, mate. So, yeah. So, let me take some time in the beginning of this show to get a little analog-y on you and talk about the feels. Because I had an interesting week last week, and it was a very kind of hectic week in the online realm, especially for me. It was very busy in my brain a lot last week, all the way up until yesterday when I was planning for this show. So, for those of you that follow me on Twitter, you will know I got a little bit involved in a couple of things last week. One was the Estabrook, the new Estabrook launch, which, you know, I've been talking about for a few weeks now. That took another step last week. And also, the Lee pin on Kickstarter. It's a new titanium pin that is launched on Kickstarter. So, both of those things were kind of on my mind last week. And I spent a lot of time following up on those, tracking some things down, putting my thoughts together, raging, admittedly, a little bit on Twitter. And, you know, going through this, you know, I get pretty ticked off when I feel that people aren't doing the right thing. Especially when it comes to the pin community. You know, I'm nobody's savior. I can't protect everyone. But I do feel a little bit of a responsibility to point some things out. From time to time, I take that not too far, but I come up to the edge. I mean, I'm like really close to that line sometimes of going too far.

Myke Hurley: You are a very passionate person.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't like being toyed with. Sure. And I will make my opinions known in that case. And when I see people, when it involves other people's money and I can do something about it, I tend to get involved when I think there's something nefarious going on. So, that takes a toll mentally on me. And I didn't realize that as much until Sunday. So, let me tell you how my Sunday went. So, it's just me and the kids on Sunday. And my wife's working. And I'm meeting Jeff that afternoon to drop off some Relay t-shirts. So, yeah, I don't have a whole lot going on on Sunday. So, I'm just chilling with the kids, with the family. And I know that I have so much to talk about on today's show that I start the show notes early. I usually don't start the show notes until like Sunday night, early Monday morning, something like that. But I knew I had just a ton I wanted to talk about, about the leap in and about Estabrook. So, I started writing the show notes for this episode, knowing that it's going to be a bunch.

Brad Dowdy: So, I'm putting everything together. I spend probably well over two hours putting together about seven pages of show notes for this show. Putting together all my notes on the leap in, what I think is going on there. Putting all together my notes on Estabrook and what I think is going on there. And, you know, I'm done. I spend that time doing it. And I'm fine. You know, I'm like, this is what I'm going to talk about on Monday. And we're going to cover this. We're going to get down to the nuts and bolts. And we're just going to, you know, let everyone know what's going on with these things.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, I'll let you know I was firing off tweets. I was still kind of fired up. And, you know, so I go through the day. And Sunday, I'm just in a rotten mood. Like all afternoon. I've got the kids. We're just hanging out. You know, we should be having a good time, chilling. And we do. You know, we just do some normal things. But I've got a headache all day. You know, I tell my wife, like, man, I'm really down today. And I don't know why. And it's just kind of, I've just kind of had a rotten afternoon when there was no reason to have a rotten afternoon. So I don't think anything of it. I go into work Sunday night. And I'm just cruising along through work. And it hits me sometime. I don't know what time I texted you or tweeted you. It's like 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, my time. I was like, hey, you know, it's hit me how much brain time I have wasted on the negativity of the Lee Penn and Estabrook.

Brad Dowdy: And it really kind of hit me at that moment how negative I had been all last week when talking about it on Twitter and getting my blood pressure up about these types of things. And it kind of hit me and I was like, you know, I'm kind of my own worst enemy in this case where I latch on to something like that. And I'm like hunting it down to the nth degree. You know, I just can't let some of these things go. And there's just really, you know, I feel like there's something I need to say about these things. And I want to pound on, you know, these people who I think are doing wrong. And I was just, I didn't realize just how negative I was being. And it was really getting to me. It was like really getting in my head. And, you know, that, you know, I have a passion about this stuff. And it kind of affects me negatively when I see just creepy things going on like this. And, you know, I want to point them out and do this thing. But I want to do a little better job of myself being a little bit less negative and forceful and aggressive about the things that I'm ticked off about. I think I need to approach it from a different way.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know the details on how I'm going to approach that. Because we're still going to talk about these things, right? We're going to talk about the leap in today. And we're going to talk about Esther Brook today. But we're not going to do it the way I wrote the show notes up. Which is a really aggressive, negative type of thing. I want to approach it in a little bit of a different manner. I want to provide some information. I want to provide my opinions on what's going on. And then I want to let it go. I can't solve these problems, right? I'm just a guy on a podcast about pins. I can't fix Esther Brook. You know, I can't fix Lee Penn. I can state my opinions on what I think is going on. People can make their own decisions. And then I want to move on. I've been letting these things linger in my brain too long. And they're taking a toll on me, to be quite honest, in just a mental capacity. So, that's my thoughts on, you know, kind of getting this out in the open. And just kind of how my week went late last week and this weekend. And I wasn't really thrilled with myself. I guess is the best way to put it. So, with that said, you want to get into it just a little bit?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm happy for you, though, that you're doing this. Because you allow yourself to get too upset about it. And not that these things aren't upsetting. Because they are. Especially when they affect you personally.

Myke Hurley: But, you know, as a friend, I just worry about you. So, I'm happy that you're seeing it. And sometimes you have to get into a place yourself to realize. And I think you kind of got there. Which is good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. You know, I can definitely see it. And it took me a little while. And it's been a long while, you know. I mean, you know, I haven't necessarily gone, like, berserk over so many things. But, like, when we were doing the Visionaire stuff, you know, that permeated my thoughts for, like, a month straight. It was just constant. And there was no positive coming out of that. You know, but there was some jokey type aspects. And those were always fun to point out. And that's what I enjoy doing. You know, I like to keep it light and fun here. I don't want to get serious and have this big negative podcast where we're just, like, pounding on people. There's no reason for that. So, I want to talk about these topics. And, you know, we'll go from there. We'll see how it, see where it takes us, see where it goes. But, you know, I don't want to. I'm going to work on myself, Myke. And, you know, it's a work in progress. Hopefully, I can stick with it. I think I can. It's something I want to do because I've seen how it's affected me personally in this past week. So, let's get started with the Leapin, okay?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, let's do it.

Brad Dowdy: So, I was first introduced to Mark Anthony Lee, who has launched a Kickstarter project called Leapin. And he emailed me before the Kickstarter, said, you know, he wanted to reach out to me. He's gotten a bunch of good feedback on Reddit about the pin design and wanted to know if I wanted to review the pin. And, you know, I looked at, you know, what he had done on Reddit. And I told him I was a little uncomfortable with how he handled himself on Reddit. I thought he basically bait and switched the Reddit thread. You know, he posted a picture of his new pin, asked everyone under the premise of, hey, tell me your favorite pin. And then people asked him about, hey, what's that pin in the picture on Reddit? I said, you know, I actually replied to him. I said, that was a little bit underhanded. I didn't think you'd handle that well. So, I turned him down. I just didn't, you know, you can tell right off the bat. I didn't feel that. I didn't feel good about this. So, I let it go. That was it. He said, Mark's been nothing but nice through this whole thing.

Brad Dowdy: He honestly reminds me a lot of Morgan from Visionaire. Morgan was never anything but nice and, you know, very positive. And, you know, no, that's not how I see it. You know, I've created this pin. And a lot of the similarities are with Mark on the Lee pin. So, you know, we talked about the Reddit thing and I passed on reviewing the pin. A couple weeks later, I hop on Kickstarter and I'm looking at I don't know what. And then I remember about the Lee pin that it's launched. So, I go look at it and I see it's done like $30 something thousand dollars. I was like, okay. And then I started reading the comments and there were a few people mentioning this pin that, hey, this looks awfully familiar. You know, I see this pin from a company called Titaner. We're going to have a bunch of links in the show notes for this podcast, which everyone can get at relay.fm slash pin addict slash 141. So, there'll be all the links that I found about this pin and, you know, just some of the other products that look similar to the Lee pin. So, I brought that up to Mark and, you know, I told him I was really concerned that, you know, this is another Visionaire in the making. I don't even know if he knows what Visionaire is, but he can look it up if he wants to. And, you know, he basically says, you know, I appreciate the criticism. Let me tell you what I'm trying to do. And, you know, he says my design's different. I'm familiar with Titaner. I'm friends with them. You know, do things, you know, I've talked to them about it and my pin's not the same. It's like, okay. So, I said that wasn't an acceptable answer to me because this is what I see. And I laid it all out there. There's a company called Four Sevens, which we talked with our friend Tony Scullambrini from Everyday Commentary a couple weeks ago. They make flashlights, right? They're in like an outdoor tactical type place. And at one point, they had a titanium pin. And guess what it looks like? It looks like this Titaner pin, which looks like the Lee pin. So, what I think is happening, and this is my opinion, putting two and two together. What I think is happening is Mark is going to contract with Titaner to build the pin that he wants based on their general design for a pin. Now, Mark points out a couple differences in his pin and what LightPen offers just in bulk. And the butt end of the pin is different. But as I pointed out to him on the Titaner website, they offer different screw-in accessories to the end of the pin, which is what they did for Four Sevens. They offered up a glass breaker for Four Sevens that screws into the end of the pin. And Mark's is a little bit different. You know, it's a little bit longer, so you can post the cap on the end of the pin. So, I said that, you know, my opinion is that he's going to work with Titaner to make this pin. And understand, as with the Visionaire, that's perfectly fine. You're going to get a fine pin. You're going to get something that writes. But you're not going to get an original design, I don't believe. You might get a tweaked design of an existing pin, which is what Morgan the whole time was getting, trying to get through with the Visionaire once he really got called out on it. And I think that's what's happening with the Lee pin. My opinion. I don't know for a fact. And I never will. So, what really kind of drove that point home to me was when Mark replied to me that, we're not purchasing, this is from an email from Mark, we're not purchasing this pin in bulk from Titaner. We have addressed this in our backers-only update. Which, his backers-only updates are private, by the way. Just mentioning that. We are in touch with local and nationwide Titanium manufacturers to get the Lee pin done in the U.S. So, this is where he messed up, in my opinion.

Brad Dowdy: You cannot say you're in touch with local and nationwide Titanium manufacturers to get the Lee pin done in the U.S. if you haven't done that previously to launching your Kickstarter to set the price. There's no way you'll know what the price will be.

Myke Hurley: Isn't that also against the current Kickstarter rules anyway?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean...

Myke Hurley: Because he doesn't have any idea on how the thing's going to be produced.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, that's where I think he messed up in providing that information. That gave me a lot of information.

Myke Hurley: I think the fundamental problem, like... My concern with this stuff, like when I was reading it... Because I've read the emails. I don't know if I should say that. I don't even know if we should... Well, no.

Brad Dowdy: I put the epic show... No, I put the epic show notes in just mine and your document, and I'm not sharing all of that. Right. I'm backing down on a lot of the things I was going to say.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But I wanted to... I'm trying to paint the picture, though, of how this all came together and how I'm coming up with my opinion of what's happening with this project. Totally.

Myke Hurley: Totally. I get it. I get it. The thing is, though, with this stuff, it's kind of like... And I think that you feel this way a little bit. It's like your word against... His word against your assumption. Mm-hmm. And where it seems obvious what's happening, there aren't facts, and facts are the issue. Like, when I looked at it all over, like, I looked at the Titana products. I was like, that looks different. But then when I looked at the 4-7s one, I'm like, ah, okay. Because I didn't get from the email conversation what you just said then, which is, like, that they can customize it. And it looks exactly like the 4-7s one. So it looks totally like it. And he doesn't... Well, he kind of addresses what you're saying, but I don't know. I think fundamentally something that I can't get my head around is if he is lying to you, like, how people can do that. That's kind of, like, where my kind of logic breaks down, which is where I tend to try and think that people are ultimately good, which is a failing of mine. Because not everybody is, right? And it's got me into some sticky situations in my life. Sure. But that's... It does seem weird, but, like, you can't prove it with the information that you have. But he has stopped contacting you. Not to say he won't, because he may do, but currently, from what looked like a very active conversation, that has gone dead. Right. He may have just thought the opposite of you, like, I'm not getting through to this guy, clearly. Right. So I'm just going to stop. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: So here's what I think. I 100% do not believe Mark is lying to me. I believe he is telling me the truth insofar as he is designing this pen. But what he's... What my belief is, he is designing this via Titaner. Titaner will produce what he wants. The additional accessory that I haven't mentioned yet is there's a screw-in back in the back of the pen. And that doesn't show up anywhere on Titaner's page. So I think he's probably working with them to make this pen. What I think is going to happen is there will be eventually, when this Kickstarter wraps up, that he will discover, miraculously, air quotes, that he can't get it done affordably in the U.S. And therefore, he's going to get it manufactured in China. And that's fine, you know. So I just wanted to point this out that, you know, I was asked in an email by someone, and I can't remember the name. He's like, how do you know if a Kickstarter project, you should back it or not? And I was like, you don't know. You absolutely don't know. But what you need to do is take advantage of Kickstarter's extended time frame for these projects. You have 30 days to figure it out. You can back it on day one and back out of it on day 29 if you're not comfortable with what you've discovered in that interim. That's the best advice I can give anyone. You know, I did a review today trying to point out the positive conversations I had with someone doing a Kickstarter project. And those are the type of conversations that make you feel good about a project. The conversations I have with Mark only raise questions. So you have to determine, you know, who you're going to put your support behind. And, you know, with Titaner, I'm sure Mark's going to deliver a pen to you. I just don't feel, in my opinion, that it's going to be some new original pen. And that's kind of it. I mean, you know, I think it's coming from a, just like 4.7's worked with Titaner to get a branded 4.7's pen based on Titaner's designs. I think that's what's happening here. So, you know, I just, that's where my questions are with this. Take it for what it's worth. My opinion, you know, Mark's doing real good on this project. But he's going to end up making a pretty good chunk of change. And, you know, we'll all move on with our lives, with our, with our leap in, you know, except for me. I'm not backing that one.

Myke Hurley: I feel like there's something that you've mentioned it and we've mentioned it every time. But I always feel like it's important to stress when we talk about these projects. It is not bad to have a pen made in China. It's not. It's absolutely not. It's about, and again, not saying that Mark is doing this because we don't know.

Myke Hurley: But if you are getting it made in China, you need to either be upfront about it or when you're asked, tell the truth.

Kickstarter Project

Brad Dowdy: You know, that's funny. That kind of leads us in right into the next topic.

Estherbrook Pens

Myke Hurley: I'm sure it does.

Brad Dowdy: So, you ready to talk about Estherbrook?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't. I haven't read this part, by the way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's not too much you need to read. I mean, there's a lot. Yeah. You know, I spent hours doing this and I just so regret it.

Myke Hurley: Well, no. I didn't get a decision. No, no, no. Because without doing this, you wouldn't have come to the realization that you came to, which is ultimately a good thing for you. All right. You needed to go through this whole thing to come out the other end, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, hopefully I can deliver on that. I don't know if I am or not. I'm trying. I'm trying real hard.

Myke Hurley: So, we'll see. First step is the realization, right? It's the admitting to the problem. Yep. Yep. I tell you what. Sorry. Let me take a break. All right. I'll let you calm down a little bit. Okay. Because we have a new sponsor today that I'm really happy about and I think they might make you feel a bit better. I'm pumped about this.

Brad Dowdy: I'm legitimately excited.

Hoban Cards

Myke Hurley: So, this episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Hoban Cards. Hoban Cards create affordable, beautiful, custom letterpress printed calling cards. Just stop what you're doing right now and go to HobanCards.com. That's H-O-B-A-N-C-A-R-D-S.com because they're just beautiful. So, you should just stop what you're doing right now and go and look and then you can come back and listen to me say the rest of this. Because their stuff is just fantastic. I've known about these guys forever. Hoban Cards is perfect. People who don't need a lot of business cards but they want a small batch of cards for special interactions. Maybe you're going to a conference and you want to impress people or you're going to a really important business meeting and you want to be able to give a card to someone. They're going to go, hmm, it's a pretty fancy person I've got right in front of me. You want to make that kind of first impression that's like you've made it and you want to make an impact. That's the type of thing that Hoban Cards does because their stuff is just such fantastic looking. They have 18 gorgeous pre-designed templates to choose from. These guys and girls are totally focused on typography and simplicity. The cards that you'll see from Hoban are just beautifully elegant. Elegant is like the perfect way to describe them. Like, because they're just classy, handmade, fantastic goods. This is just what every pen addict needs. It's like a perfect pairing. Each card is hand printed on thick 100% cotton paper with great texture using a £1,500 letterpress from 1902. This is the real deal, right? There is no messing around here. This is like, it's kind of like a pen addict heaven type product, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, totally.

Myke Hurley: If you want as well, Hoban can also provide you matching stationary items like note cards and writing stationary if you so desire. And they can really help you up your correspondence game, you know? Like, if you want to push that up to the next level, Hoban. Hoban Cards, Hoban Press, that's the company that you need. There are free samples that you can get from their website. And when you choose to buy some Hoban Cards, because I'm sure that you will, you want to use this discount code, it's Washburn, that's W-A-S-H-B-U-R-N-E. That's going to get you free shipping anywhere in the world. Hey, guys, anywhere in the world, right? I know that's something that people in the UK and Europe love. You get free shipping. Come on, this is awesome. So it's Washburn of an E, W-A-S-H-B-U-R-N-E, but that will be in the show notes, of course. If you haven't already, go to HobanCards.com to find out and see more for yourself. Thank you so much to Hoban Cards for supporting this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, thank you, Hoban Cards. These are beautiful cards, and I've known about them for a while and have never bought anything from them, but I need to go through this site, and I especially want to look at these gift cards and do some different things maybe with that. So very cool. Thank you, Hoban. All right, so let's talk about Esterbrook for a few minutes. And what, were you going to say something?

Myke Hurley: No, no. Okay, okay.

Brad Dowdy: So everyone's wanting to know my latest opinion on Esterbrook, and we've talked about it on previous episodes in passing and how everyone's kind of disappointed in how the new owners of Esterbrook, which is a company called Harpen Brand Holdings, and Harpen is run by a gentleman named Robert Rosenberg. Everyone's kind of disappointed how the new Esterbrook pens look, and they're not really loyal to the history of Esterbrook as far as the design of the pen goes and things of that nature. And to compound the situation, Mr. Rosenberg has taken a very aggressive, extreme tact in dealing with questions about the brand insofar as deleting comments on Facebook, asking just basic questions like, where's the pen made? He's purposely vague, or he'll just flat out delete. He's banned people from the Facebook page. He's, you know, responded really aggressively from his personal Facebook account to other people questioning. You know, he's called people liars. You know, he's just really, really not handling the question and answer part of what he needs to be doing as his job very well at all. I think he needs help, you know, not from a mental perspective. I think he needs, I don't mean that. I think he needs help in his brand. This doesn't have to be this way. This doesn't have to be this way at all, Myke. I'm so adamant about that. Running a business, it does not have to be like this, Mr. Rosenberg. You need some help in presenting the brand in a better light. The things you're doing in this day and age on the internet for everyone to see don't fly. The way you're trying to build this brand is not going to be successful if you continue doing this type of thing. You have to present a better, you have to be a better representative for your brand. If you don't believe in what you're doing right now, making these pins in China and passing them off as a new Esterbrook, if you don't believe in that, deep down inside, your business is going to fail.

Brad Dowdy: And it doesn't have to. You have to enlist the help of the community to understand what you're trying to do with this company. If you need the money from this first batch of pins for this Esterbrook J to build on the company and to make the Esterbrook Made in America pins that we all want to see, you need to tell us. You need to say, look, this is what we're doing. I'm making these pins in China and I'm making them out of this design and I'm making them out of these acrylics because that's what we need to start this company. This is why I'm doing this and this is exactly what I'm doing it, why I'm doing it. And the feedback you'd be getting would be so much different than what you're getting right now. It would make a massive difference. People would understand what you're trying to do.

Brad Dowdy: And while they still, they may still not buy the pin, but at least you've put it out there on the table. And you're not doing that right now, Mr. Rosenberg. You have to be accessible and transparent and open and honest. You cannot be vague. Your words will get misconstrued. You cannot attack people on the internet. You cannot threaten people. You cannot call people liars in public forums. Deleting your account doesn't make those words go away. It doesn't have to be this way with Estabrook. You can make this company successful. The community can help you make this company successful. But you have to buy into us. You can't force your will on everybody else. It can be done. We want this to succeed. We want the Estabrook that we all love buying these vintage pins from. You know, none of us were around when Estabrook was around the first time. But we've used their products. They're part of America. We love them. And if you're going to take that name and do something with it, you have to have the buy-in of the community. You cannot just force your will on everyone else and try to mold it into what you want. So we're here to help, Mr. Rosenberg. I'm calling on you. Let us help you. This can be done. It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be contentious. It does not have to be rage-filled. It can be helpful, supportive, open, and honest. And that's my call to Mr. Rosenberg. And I would love to talk to you about it sometime. But I'm not going to take your phone calls if it's going to be like I've heard a lot of these other phone calls have gone. So there's going to have to be some change. There's going to have to be some buy-in from you up front in changing this. It's not too late. So that's my call to you. And that's what I have to say on Esther Brook, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Proud of you, man. I like that. All right. Okay. So basically, I mean, that's what Brad said. Effectively, it just doesn't look like anything good is coming out of it at the moment. And I completely agree with you. Like, there is just a lot of weirdness. And it's a shame. And like, I don't know. Like, initially it was funny, I think. But now it just doesn't feel that way anymore. And it's like, you know, just come on. Like, why do, you know, why do things have to be this way? Let's just, why can't we all just get along? You know? I don't know. Right. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So when I had my minor epiphany this morning, I told Myke that, you know, we, as our theme song, he needed to play Shiny Happy People from R.E.M. today. Because that's what we're trying to do today. I want, when I put together this show yesterday, and when I got done and had my change of heart in the morning, I was like, this is going to be the biggest depressing negative downer show ever. And I do not sit in front of this microphone to do that. That's crap. I want to have fun. We have so much fun on this podcast, Myke. And I don't want to sit here and just kill people left and right because that's not fun for me. And there's more positive ways to go about things. And I'm going to work on that. And this is the first step. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: Good. Because I'll say to you as well, this was maybe the first episode of the show I'd not look forward to doing. When I saw those notes that you typed up, I was like, I don't want to do it. Because I felt like no good will come of it. Like, especially if you, as you have had some recent interesting requests sent to you in a legal matter. Sure. I was like, I don't want to go through this. I don't want to do it. So I'm pleased. But I wasn't going to say that to you because, well, I didn't want to say it because I could tell you were going through a thing. But now, it's good because now you came to what I think is the best thing. This is very, like, we're really going deep today, like, on our feelings. I'm sorry, everyone, for this.

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm not sorry. I mean, I think it had to happen. I mean, I got to a breaking point, to be quite honest. It was too much for me to take. When I'm sitting there and my brain is just fried because of negativity around some pen products, I just got to stop. I mean, I cannot function that way. It's stupid to even try. So I want to have this show and my blog and this whole community. This is the most fun, positive, uplifting community I have ever seen in my life. It's freaking amazing. We talk about that all the time. So I want to focus more on that and all the good stuff and fun stuff we talk about instead of, like, really dwelling on the negative. There's a place to discuss this, and I'm fine with discussing it on the show. But I need to do it in a different manner than I've done some things in the past.

Myke Hurley: So there you go. Let's talk about some fun stuff, but let's take a second break. Okay. This week's episode of The Pen Addict is also brought to you by Hover. Hover is the best way to buy and manage domains. I'm always seeing Pen Addict listeners. They tweet at us and they tweet to Hover, which I love, by the way, when people do that, to say that they bought a domain from this show. And everybody always says good things. And the reason is because Hover are good people. They know how to do what they do, and they know how to do it with great customer service in mind, right? It's a theme for this week's episode. Hover are in a world selling domain names, which is usually full of scams and just nastiness or shady practices, right? Or just doing things that are icky is kind of a good way to describe it. But Hover don't do any of that. Like, they don't try and upsell you on everything when you go to their site. They give you what's called Whois privacy for free. And this basically means that your private information, like your name and your home address, aren't published on the internet. Because if you don't have Whois privacy on your domains, and you should check this with your registrars because you should have it, all of this stuff is really easily found out about you. Right, Brad? Right. Like, Whois privacy is something that you need.

Brad Dowdy: I've gotten a phone call from off my Whois that I didn't know expired, which is honestly on me. But with Hover, I don't have to worry about that because it's never exposed.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because they just give you it for free. Hover have all the domain options that you're going to need, like .com, .co, .net, .me, loads of different country codes and some of the new vanity URLs and stuff as well. They have .coms that start at $12.99, so they're really well priced. And you get so much more as well. You get great customer support. They have no hold, no wait, no transfer telephone support. They have great email support that I've used a bunch. If you have a bunch of domains elsewhere, it doesn't matter how many you have, they will transfer them over for free for you using their valet service. So they do all of that. I really love Hover. I've used them for years, and you should go try them. So go to hover.com, and you'll want to use the code ATLANTA at checkout, and you'll get 10% off your first purchase at hover.com and show your support for this show. Thank you so much to Hover for their continued support of RelayFM. And whilst we're mentioning it, thank you again to everyone who has continued to back our project. Where are we now? $12,910, Brad. We're at 414 backers. So I think we're going to make the $13,000 mark. And we've got some little ideas. We're cooking up some little ideas now, and we've had some calls about the video production. So I'm really excited about where we're going with the Kickstarter and the pen show. And it's given me a great idea for something next year. But I'm not going to say anything about that yet.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. So we'll definitely talk about that more when we get some more firm ideas. But thank you, everyone, for your support on that. Yep. It's been awesome.

Myke Hurley: About two weeks to go. We're about halfway through. Well, we're halfway through now. So about two weeks to go. If you still make sure if you want to get the video of me and Brad, you want to go and back the project, I'll put it in the show notes again this week. So you can do that.

Bigfoot

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So did you know Bigfoot exists? I got a picture of Bigfoot.

Brad Dowdy: See, now this is the show I want to have. I want to make you laugh.

Brad Dowdy: I know what this is, and what a great way.

Brad Dowdy: So did you see this picture I posted on Twitter this morning of an Instagram picture I found?

Myke Hurley: No, I saw it in the show notes today. That was where I saw it. But yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So I just happened to be scrolling through Instagram, and I follow a ton of Japanese accounts on Instagram. And there was a picture of a pen shop. And it had the first thing that caught my eye was this orange vanishing point. Well, that's not that abnormal. They came out with like the metallic orange vanishing point last year. And it's very cool. I've never gotten one. I kind of, like if I had one of the metallic ones, I'd really like it. But it doesn't totally speak to me. And actually, I'd probably pick the blue one if I did. But this picture showed the stormtrooper vanishing point that I've raved about and never own because it's, you know, it's a little bit more expensive. It's made as an exclusive. And then they sent the orange one right next to it. And then they, on the shelf, they put the gunmetal gray right next to it. So the metallic ones are on the bottom, red, purple, blue, and green. And then this tray has the white, orange, and gunmetal. Wow. And that got me thinking, is this a new orange vanishing point? Or is this just the orange metallic vanishing point in a different little display? So what are your thoughts on this, Myke?

Myke Hurley: That is not metallic. That is matte orange. The same as the, it's like an acrylic plastic. It's not metal. It's the same as the, because the shine on it is exactly the same as the white one next to it. And the metallic ones that are below it and even the metallic one next to it, you can see it's different. That is definitely a matte orange.

Brad Dowdy: So how cool is that, if that's like really the case? I love that.

Myke Hurley: Like, this is all, what language is this? Japanese?

Brad Dowdy: This one, I believe, is Japanese. And if you go, if you take this to Chrome, it'll insta-translate that on Instagram, which I didn't realize that until last night.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So it doesn't really say too much, but that wasn't. But then when I tweeted it, I had one of our followers, our good friend, Dwayne Lively, who lives in Japan, says, I know that shop. I'll go check it out for you.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow.

Brad Dowdy: So maybe, maybe. He said maybe. You know, I don't want to put anyone out, but he might have a report back. He believes it's the metallic one. I find it odd that they don't show the metallic orange one with the rest of the metallic. So that's my hesitancy. But the way they have it displayed, and it looks more like a flat color instead of a metallic color, I got my hopes up. So we'll see.

Myke Hurley: I like that you commented on it. Like, in English, everyone else is in Japanese. You're like, okay, I need those orange and white VPs. I'm like, who are you saying it to?

Brad Dowdy: I didn't care. I was excited.

Brad Dowdy: I was excited. So that made my morning. So I wanted to point that out. But that leads us into the next topic, Myke. So you're having some issues. Talk to me. Let me help you. Like, I can help Mr. Rosenberg. Let me help you.

Myke Hurley: I'm in a rut right now. I haven't bought a pen in a long time.

Myke Hurley: Like, quite some time.

Brad Dowdy: Like, since the ink, probably, huh?

Myke Hurley: Do you know what? Yeah, probably. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Do you ever find your... You still lost your ink, right?

Myke Hurley: Please don't. Let's talk about it. I just don't want to talk about it. Don't make me talk about it. Okay. Never found it. And it just stops. I've forgotten about it. And the pleasure reminded me about it. I still have, like... Do you remember that Nexus fountain pen? Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. The Kickstarter project. Yeah, that's just delayed to, like, Kingdom Come, that thing.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's actually about to ship. I just got the final, hey, confirm your address. And it should be shipping in the next couple days.

Myke Hurley: Not if you ordered a titanium one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, way to go. Titaniums are delayed. So, yeah. I ordered the titanium nib, but, yeah, the titanium bodies are delayed. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, like, that thing... I mean, I understand, like, this stuff happens, but we were looking at November 2014 shipping. So, it's... Yeah. The problem is, like... And, again, there's nothing these guys can do about it, because these things happen. But the problem is, every backer update that they've sent out since they began, it's like, they're going to be shipping next week. And then it's, like, two weeks later, it's like, hmm, didn't ship. Yeah. You know? I understand a little bit how production works, and I know you do, too, but... Yeah, I can't really say anything. Yeah, but, like, you should have better ideas of your timescales when you're supposed to be a week away. Like, if you're a week away from shipping, you know if you're a week away from shipping. Like, anyway. Anyway, these things happen. Like, who am I? I've never made a pen. I've never made a pen. Put my hands up. Like, I haven't. So, I don't know. Yeah. But, anyway. I've not made any big purchases, any small purchases, for a while, really. And I have no... I mean, there's a couple of things that I would like, but there's nothing that I'm really after. Like, you know, I would quite like the orange aluminium Twisby. The 580. And a bunch of times, I've, like, put it in a car, but I've never bought it. I've done that, too. I keep going to buy it, and then just don't buy it. Because I don't know what I'm looking for. Because I feel so content with what I have right now. Mm-hmm. So, like, I've been using the Twisby 540 every day, and I was writing with it today. I was taking some notes for upgrade. Mm-hmm. And I just wrote one sentence, and I was like, God damn, I love this pen.

Brad Dowdy: I know.

Myke Hurley: Like, just one sentence, I was like, this is just perfect.

Myke Hurley: Because I love my 540. And I don't own a 580. And then I think, like, will an aluminium one be worse or better? Because it's going to be weighted differently. And part of the thing that I love about this is it's all acrylic plastic. And it's just nice and light, and it's great, and I love it. Just love it. I love my 540. I've got the 540 ROC. If you don't have one, you should get one, because they sell it again now. I have the first edition, which Brad helped me get. Yeah, and just an absolute fantastic, fantastic pen.

Myke Hurley: I'll put a link in the show notes to Brad's review of the thing. And as I said before, look, they're not perfect. They have some problems. They crack, but their customer service is good, and they will help you out. So I've been like, oh, I don't know what I want. I don't know what I want, right? So I've been thinking, I've been tossing this backwards and forwards a bit, and I feel like I feel a bit bad about it, but I'm not sure why. Like, I feel like I should buy more stuff because of the show, but then think to myself, like, but it's not like we ever run out of things to talk about. Like, we've always got stuff to talk about. Right. So I'm thinking maybe now that the pen show will be the break.

Myke Hurley: Like, I've got to buy stuff at the pen show. So I'm thinking that the pen show might be it. Then, of course, I read your Nakaya review this morning. No, I haven't bought one. But I think that's going to have to be the, that's the next thing now. Because that review, like, ugh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'll definitely bring mine for you to try. And not just that one. I have three other ones now.

Myke Hurley: Do they have pens like that at the pen show?

Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Nope. Interesting. So let me talk about your rut real quick, and then we can get back to the Nakaya. So this is the time of year where I reassess. It's not on purpose, but it seems like with the late fall and the run up to Christmas, there's a lot of purchasing going on. And then once January hits all the way until the pen show, I buy almost nothing. And I found that to be the case for the last couple years. And I think just because there's a lot of excess towards the end of the year, when it comes to January and February, it's a little bit quieter, a little bit more downtime. And then a little bit, well, I'll just wait to the pen show and see what I find. So I get in a rut this time of year as far as purchasing goes. But I think it's just a down cycle, right? I mean, we can't buy stuff constantly. We'd be broke. So yeah, I feel exactly what you're saying. And I feel like that a couple times a year. And I've started to chomp at the bit here a little bit. And I'm still trying to hold off to the pen show. I don't know if I can totally or not. But I've started to make a list for either the pen show or after the pen show, if I don't find the things I want. So actually, I might have found your next pen, Myke. And I'm curious to what you think about this, if it's not a Nakaya, because it might speak to you, you know, regionally. So I'm going to put this in the show notes so everyone can play along because I just found this last night when I was looking for something else. And I was like, whoa.

Brad Dowdy: So check out that link and let me know what you think. And I'll tell everyone it's called the Sailor Professional Gear Piccadilly Night Fountain Pen. And by Piccadilly, they mean Piccadilly Street in London.

Myke Hurley: Piccadilly Circus.

Brad Dowdy: Piccadilly Circus.

Myke Hurley: They called it Piccadilly Street, but that's wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Piccadilly Circus. So it's this bright red demonstrator with a white cap made to show off the tint of the lights in, you know, like a Times Square or Piccadilly Circus that glow in the air. So I don't know if that's a style that you like in a pen, but I thought with the regional aspect to it, it might be something that goes on your wish list. So I'm going to spend your money.

Myke Hurley: I really like the look of this, but I feel like I have a confession to make that I've never said this before, I don't think. I don't like demonstrators because I think they look cheap.

Pen Accessories

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was kind of thinking, I think you might have mentioned that before. And actually, when I put this down, I was like, does Myke not like demonstrators? I kind of think he might not. So that was in the back of my head.

Myke Hurley: I'm not, I don't feel great about spending $300 on a clear plastic acrylic pad. Yeah, I can understand that. There's just something about that. Because like, I think that the Twisby looks better. It's also clear, but it cost me $40. This is $300. So that nib has to be like complete knockout. And I know that Sailor nibs are good, but I don't think, no, if they're complete knockout. Now, of course, I think you've got, is this a gold nib sitting on here? Which is probably why it's so expensive. But I look at it.

Brad Dowdy: And it's a limited edition. There you go.

Myke Hurley: And I really love the cap. Like, it's got little, it's got glitter in it. Which is why, but I'm not a big fan of the red. But just in general, I actually don't, I tend not to like demonstrators. That's why I don't own any. The only demonstrator that can pop into my head that I really loved the look of. And I don't think you ever reviewed this. Was that like highlighter pelican?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I ended up trading that for something else. But that's a really cool pin. I'll probably get another one one day. I can't even remember what I traded it for now. But yeah.

Myke Hurley: What was that? 205B, right? Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Double B. Double B. Because it comes with the highlighter ink. So it's literally made to be a highlighter. But you can use any pelican nib or any ink in there, you know, just fine. And that was my plan. But I had an opportunity to trade. I actually traded it for another of the Franklin Kristoff, the small pocket 40 pins, the red one with a different, I bought the, I traded it for the fire to go with my ice that I already had. So, but I would totally buy the, the fluorescent yellow pelican again, and probably will one day find a good deal on it. I got a good deal on that. So, yeah. So start making a list, figure out what things you might want. And, you know, even if you don't purchase them, you know, kind of toy around with some ideas. You know, I've started a list. I want to get the Sailor Progear Sky, which is the blue demonstrator. I'm a huge fan of demonstrators. Unlike you, I really like that look. And, you know, like the Franklin Kristoff Model 66 Ice that I want to get at the pin show and things like that. So I'm in that rut, but I think it's just the lead up to the Atlanta pin show thing. You know, I'm trying to just hold off until then.

Myke Hurley: So it's the yellow one that I like. It's a 205 highlighter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they do a yellow and a green.

Myke Hurley: Yep, they do. Very pretty. And they do yellow and green highlighter fountain pen ink as well. I always want one. I've always wanted one of these. Yeah. It's only 80 pounds. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, that's I paid less than $100 for mine.

Myke Hurley: But again, I'm not going to buy that. That's dumb to buy. Like, I'm not going to buy. I don't. I already have a pelican. I've already said, like, it needs to have a gold nib in it for me because my pelican, I love it. Yeah. Swap your nib. The gold nib.

Brad Dowdy: Move your nib back and forth. That's what I do.

Myke Hurley: I could do it, but I don't. But then, like, I would only want to have that with the highlighter ink in it, which I'd never use. Yeah. So one of the things that has changed for me is I have started to become more practical with money because I kind of have to be now. So interestingly, don't worry about me. I make more money now than I ever did.

Brad Dowdy: But it's different. It's different. It's less. Because it's coming from a different source. It feels less secure. And it's built on you. Yeah. Right.

Myke Hurley: Because there's nothing to say that next month will be as good as, well, there is, but okay, the next month. Like, obviously, we book more than a month in advance of sponsors. Right. But like, you know, there's nothing to say what the future is going to actually be like, or there could be a hold up in payment or whatever. Absolutely. Or like, for example, I'm feeling really on edge right now because I like to have a certain amount of money in the business account. Right. But I have spent most of that money buying the flights for Atlanta because I bought the flights now and will just reimburse myself. So again, there's still money in the business and I have savings in the business as well. So I'm fine. But it puts me on edge. It's like, I'm not the amount of money. I like to be there. You know? Right. But that is, trust me, that's a good thing for me because I am a person who's always overspent. So I'm just being a bit more cautious now with it, which is good. It's part of growing up.

Brad Dowdy: Totally. Totally.

TWSBI Pens

Myke Hurley: But yeah, so I think that that's actually been part of it. It's like, I'm looking at things like spending 50 pounds or whatever on a new Twisby and I'm like, I'm not sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you know, back to the Nakaya and I think we'll end it on this, Myke. I had, and we have a bunch more I want to talk about, but we'll save some of these topics till next week, including the Nakaya review I did on Friday. But just in relation to that, someone commented on that post, you know, he loved the review. He, you know, has a hard time understanding why someone would spend that much on a pin. And I totally understand that. And the question he left it with is, what's the next grail pin? And I was like, hmm, I'm not sure I have an answer for that. So I think that, um, I think that little bit of discovery, um, we, we can look at next week. How about that?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's good. See, that's the problem with like buying a pen like the Nakaya is where do you go? Like, where do you go after that? I mean, we're going to look at it, but like, that is the thing about a pen like that, isn't it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, totally. Absolutely. You know, I've, uh, you know, I've bought other Nakayas since that one. And, um, but I don't know that there is something beyond that. And I'm okay with that. Cause I'm, I'm pretty excited to look at some other pens and some other price points. It's not all about price. It's about, you know, what appeals to me and what looks good and what I think I will use most importantly. So that's what it's all about.

Myke Hurley: So, so I'm definitely, I've definitely got my eyes on an Nakaya, but I'm not in a rush. Yep. Like, like, like how I always was about the Lamy 2000. I always wanted one, but was never in a rush to get one. And then when a pen Chalet had a great deal on it, they were doing one at discount. I bought one straight away, you know? Exactly. Because it made sense.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And I've done that with other pens before. That's why I keep a list to where if something on my list happens to pop for a really good price, I'll jump on it. Then, you know, you don't have to rush out today and buy a pen just because it's on your list.

Myke Hurley: Maybe, maybe the solution is just to force Ron to buy it, buy some of the Kais.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I can't see that happening.

Brad Dowdy: That's not going to happen. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I don't even think Ron could get a good deal on those.

Brad Dowdy: All right, bud. Let's wrap it up. All right. I think we've, we've had a, I feel good. Good. I feel, I feel positive. I'm working on some things mentally and I think it came out. Okay. We'll see. And we'll one step at a time, we'll take it from there. And I think, I think we got it, got it together.

Myke Hurley: Happy for you, man. If you want to find the show notes for this week's episode, you want to take yourself over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash one four one. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Hoban Cards and Hover. If you want to find us online, I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. And Brad is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And Brad writes at penaddict.com. And we'll be back next time. Thank you so much for listening. And thank you, Brad. Speak to you later. Thank you, Myke. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.