The Pen Addict 148/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	148
Title:	Like an Internet Radio Show
Release Date:	March 30th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 148
Audio File:	Audio Episode 148
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 148
Length:	4747 min <br />0.783 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 148. Today's show is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts. For a 10-day free trial, visit lynda.com slash penaddict. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as always, by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hi, Michael Hurley. How are you?

Myke Hurley: I am very well, sir. I am very well indeed. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. And I'd like to say hi to one more person. Hello, Alan O'Reinert. How are you?

Ana Reinert: How's it going today?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, great. So happy to have you.

Ana Reinert: Thanks. I'm glad to be here.

Atlanta Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so you're here for a very specific reason, which we're super excited about, and all of our listeners are super excited about, and that's for the Atlanta Pen Show pregame planning podcast.

Ana Reinert: Woot!

Brad Dowdy: So it's going to be a pretty insane adventure, if you will, even for me, who doesn't have to travel very far, for you guys who are traveling far, even more so. But we wanted to get you on and get Myke to talk about everything Pen Show related and kind of get everyone ready for the show. So we got about, what, two and a half, three weeks to the Pen Show, and there's going to be lots of people traveling in. There's going to be lots of cool events, and there's going to be lots of pressure on me to deliver.

Myke Hurley: I do have a quick question, something I just realized. I don't have a ticket to the Pen Show. Like, do I need to get one?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but we can do that, like, when you show up.

Myke Hurley: Okay, that would suck, wouldn't it, if I arrived, like, Noah sold out. But I came from London.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, well, go home. Go home. I'll give you one of our vendor badges. I think I have four, so you can be a special vendor. But, yeah, you don't need to buy tickets in advance. You can get them at the door. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the Pen Show in general. I am no expert. This will be my third Pen Show. But, Anna, you have never been to a Pen Show. Is that correct?

Ana Reinert: I have not.

Brad Dowdy: I've only ever been to one. And Myke's been to the London Pen Show, like, two years ago, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because I forgot about it last time.

Brad Dowdy: Right? It was, like, afterwards. It was, like, the week after someone said, Hey, didn't see you there. You're like, what? Where? Yeah. When? So, Anna, I'm going to put you on the spot right away. Sure. What are you the most worried about?

Ana Reinert: Probably spending too much money.

Brad Dowdy: That's a very valid concern.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, the way I have tackled the Pen Show, and let me give you my experience from what I've seen, and for all these listeners who are coming to the Pen Show for the first time, it's a really, really amazing experience. All the people you meet, all the vendors, all the other attendees, so nice and so willing to help, just like the whole Pen community online. It's like the same thing, but in person. So, don't be afraid to talk to anyone. Don't be shy about saying hi to someone. I remember people last year tweeted me after the show, Hey, I saw you there, but I was too nervous to come up and say hi. It's like, don't do that. Come say hi. I'm a hugger, though, so if you do say hi, you're probably going to get a hug. So, you should know that in advance. So, you know, watch out for that. That was the court order, right? That makes you bring people in the car. Yeah, so I'm fulfilling my judicial duties.

Brad Dowdy: But seriously, I was very nervous the first time I went to a Pen Show, and it was this Atlanta Pen Show. And I felt like I just kind of walked around in a daze, and then I finally kind of got my bearings. So, what I suggest for everyone to do is kind of, when you arrive at the Pen Show, don't plan on doing anything except walking around the whole Pen Show and kind of getting a feel. Browse around, look around, chit-chat, kind of get a feel for everything that's going on there. And then you'll kind of settle down, and you'll settle in, and then maybe you'll do a little bit of shopping or a little bit of talking to people or a little bit of figuring out what's going on. You know, that's kind of the biggest thing that I found is, like, it took me a minute to get my bearings the very first time I showed up. It's not an overly large show. Don't think this is, like, a huge, massive event. Where you can't see one wall from the other wall. It's in two smallish ballrooms. So, get in, get comfortable, kind of get a feel for what's going on, and then just mingle. I mean, it's really, it sounds silly to say, but it's like a party. Everyone will be walking around with a smile on their face, and everyone that is a vendor there will be more than willing to help you out. So, that's kind of step one. You know, don't be shy. I feel comfortable being there. And, you know, we all have our, you know, our worries about, you know, talking to people we've never met. And, you know, I'll make that easy for you. You know, I'll be willing to help anyone out, help, you know, introduce people to other people, and, you know, kind of play the liaison, if you will, because I've been fortunate to go the past two years, and I've met a bunch of people. So, I'll be happy to do that.

Shopping Lists

Brad Dowdy: Secondly, and Anna, this is for you. So, you're worried about spending too much money. Are you making a list, or are you a no-list person for shopping at the pen show? What do you think?

Ana Reinert: I have started a list, only so that I don't forget sort of my, like, there's a couple things I really want to look for. So, I kind of set a goal to do those things first, and if there's still money left over, or I don't find the exact thing that I'm looking for, then I can kind of go off the rails a little bit.

Myke Hurley: So, I currently have not got any lists, and I haven't even set a budget yet. So, my feeling is I will set a budget, I just need to work that out. But I've decided that I'm probably not going to get a list, and what I'm going to do is get, it's just basically buy what Brad tells me to buy.

Myke Hurley: So, if I might see some things that I like, but then I'm going to say to you, and be like, Brad, I'm here, what shall I buy? You know? This is the service that you can require from a man such as Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, and I'll be happy to provide that service to anyone in need. And so, what I did, the first Pen Show I went to, I had a list, and I had a budget, and I found pretty quickly that the list went out the window, because I'd never been before. I didn't know what everyone kind of carried. I didn't know, you know, things I would be able to find, things I wouldn't be able to find, things like that. Second Show I went to, I went with no list, but just kind of a general idea of some things I wanted to look for and see what happened, and a budget. The budget's definitely a good thing. The list is definitely good for just kind of checking some things out, but I've found both times, I've gone, I've gone way off the list, because you just run into things that look really interesting or something you hadn't thought about. And so, a list is good for ideas.

Brad Dowdy: Just don't feel like you're going to be able to be strict on your list. That's certainly, certainly what I have found.

Brad Dowdy: You know, when you're shopping around. There's also going to be probably two, three vendors there doing work, like nib work, repair work, things like that. Do you have, either of y'all have any plans for that?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I do.

Brad Dowdy: So, what are you going to, what do you want to do?

Myke Hurley: I want to bring my, my Edison that I had custom made, and I don't know what I want done to it specifically, but I will probably try and just describe it. It just feels a little too scratchy and a little too dry for me. Okay. It's a, I think it's a 1.1 italic nib, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I want it, there's something about it, it just doesn't feel quite right. Sure. So, I want to, I want to, I really, really love, love this pen, but I don't use it enough because it's not, it doesn't feel as good as I would want it to. So, I'm probably going to, going to try and get something like that done as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What about you, Anna?

Ana Reinert: I don't think I have any pens with nibs worthy of having them. Most of my pens are under, were under $100, so, unless I buy something at the event that I feel like could, could use a nib tuning.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's also a possibility. Yeah, so, that's, if I have any recommendation, if, for anyone coming, for you, Myke, for myself, is if you're getting nib or repair work done, you want to do that first thing. At least, you want to get in the vendor's queues to do that because a lot of times you'll get in their queue about 10 o'clock in the morning and it'll be about 2 o'clock in the afternoon before your turn is ready. You know, most of them will take a phone number they can text you when they're ready for you to bring your pen over and things like that and it's probably best to bring those pens un-inked. Like, for Myke, that won't be a problem because you're probably not going to travel with it inked.

Myke Hurley: you know, obviously I'm going on a flight on Saturday. I just took all of the fountain pens out of my bag and replaced them with, like, rollerballs

Brad Dowdy: because I'm not,

Myke Hurley: there will be no ink in any of my fountain pens when I travel. Just not going to do it. Oh, I meant to say, I meant to bring this up. You know, on last week's show when you mentioned about the, um, the Nexus, is it the Nexus fountain pen? Yeah. You said about how they had cartridges in them and the cartridges exploded. How did that happen? Yeah. Huh? You said something about pressure, huh? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See?

Brad Dowdy: See? I'm with you. You're not going to get an argument out of me. Good. Yeah. Science.

Ana Reinert: That's probably more because it, it went underneath the plane and not in the pressurized cabin.

Myke Hurley: Well, like, when,

Ana Reinert: when you ship, when you ship packages, they go in the bulk, which is not pressurized, which is why they exploded.

Myke Hurley: Well, what if we lose pressure in the cabin? Well,

Ana Reinert: then I think you have bigger things to worry about.

Brad Dowdy: So how many inked, inked pins are you bringing, Anna?

Brad Dowdy: Some. Yeah.

Ana Reinert: No, I'm going to bring some and I, I don't ever take the ink out of them. I leave them in there.

Brad Dowdy: Put them in the same

Ana Reinert: quart-sized plastic bag with everything else that qualifies as a liquid.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Well, good. They look at me funny,

Ana Reinert: but.

Brad Dowdy: We'll get a full, full report upon your arrival, how the, how the pins travel.

Ana Reinert: I've done it before. I've never had a problem.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't think anyone ever has. I think I even,

Ana Reinert: I think I even flew from here to China with inked pens. No problem. I think,

Ink Travel Concerns

Myke Hurley: I think I remember you saying that. Yeah, for sure. I feel like it's another myth, but I'm just terrified. I know. I'm with you, Myke. The deal is if you

Ana Reinert: stick them in a plastic bag, the worst thing that can happen is you have to clean them up when you get to where you are.

Myke Hurley: Right. Maybe I'll just do that. Yeah. I'll just get a really,

Brad Dowdy: really good plastic bag.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I'm lucky since I'll, I'll get to drive on this one. So I'm not too worried. I'll be bringing a bunch of stuff just to have laying around if people want to try and get an idea.

Myke Hurley: What are you bringing with you?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I'll probably bring as many pens as I can. I feel like I can carry, you know, I'll bring all the Nakayas because I know you want to try one and I don't know. I'll bring a, gosh, I don't know. Pretty much everything that I think someone might want to try. Pelicans, Vanishing Point, I've got a bunch of Edisons.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, you'll be able to try out some of those and then when you have someone like the Andersons, they're going to have, you know, a bunch of stuff that you can test as well. You know, like they carry Sailor and Edison and all these brands that they'll like, they will gladly allow you to test and Franklin Kristoff has like a whole testing pen and nib and ink set up. You can test, you know, they have chairs sitting out there. You can just test to your heart's desire and just go to town on all the testing stuff. So there'll be lots of opportunities like that for you to try stuff out well, well, well before you make any kind of buying decision and everyone's really happy to do that for you.

Myke Hurley: I have a list of pens that I'm bringing with me.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. See, I haven't even started that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, because I have some specific stuff that I need to bring, right? So I have some pens that were sent to me as loaners that I've just held on to for reasons.

Brad Dowdy: You have some returns to make.

Myke Hurley: I'm a horrible person and I still have Thomas Hall. He sent me a couple of Edisons like nearly, probably like two years ago and I still have Dudek's prototype ink here and he like sent me this message the other day. He was like, don't forget to bring, you know, he's like messing around, don't forget to bring it but I think he was like really angry. You know, he was just like, you better bring that pen. That's how I imagined it. So I'm definitely bringing that. I thought I'd bring a couple of my favorites for people to try because they haven't like the Lamy 2000, the Twosby 540. I'm going to be bringing my ink just to show that I did actually find it. My Pelican. Do you know what? I'm going to bring one for you, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah? What? Visionaire. Is it a secret? Oh, yes. Yes, you did say that. We need to save that. I want to see it too. We need to save that for the podcast. It's going to be my gift to you. Oh, nice. You know? Man, we just missed Bruckwicky's birthing. He used the TI2 Techliner to sign his son's birth certificate so he missed that. Visionaire. Yeah. Yeah, look at him. Yeah. So let's talk about kind of the schedule of events. Do you want to talk about our wonderful sponsor for this episode and then we'll kind of get into that a little bit?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at lynda.com. They are the online learning platform with over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. If you go over to lynda.com slash thepenaddict, that's l-y-n-d-a dot com slash penaddict, you will be able to sign up for a 10-day free trial. lynda.com is for people that are curious, that want to solve problems, or just people that want to make things happen. They want to learn some new stuff, advance themselves. They want some new skills. They want some new hobbies. They want to tackle Excel, or they want to learn how to build a website or learn Photoshop. That is the people that will love lynda.com, and I'm pretty sure everybody listening to this show is like, yeah, I want to be one of those people. It's really easy to do that. You just go sign up for lynda.com. You can go sign up for the 10-day trial, and once you're there, you'll be able to see all these fantastic videos. They're all taught by top experts who are super passionate about teaching. You can stream any of these thousands of video courses on demand. You can watch them at your own schedule, at your own pace, wherever you want as well. Not only can you watch them in the web browser where you'll see their fantastic transcripts as well, which are all searchable and clickable, you'll also be able to watch them on your Android or iOS device because they have great apps for that as well. When I was browsing around the other day, I saw a couple of interesting things. There's a lot of very entrepreneurial people that listen to this show. They have some courses about bootstrapping your own business. They have some viral marketing courses which I thought was really interesting for people that maybe want to get some of that sort of stuff done. Oh, while I'm talking about getting things done, they have a getting things done course as well which is great for people that really want to just get a little bit more productive. This is just a small sample of the thousands of courses, the hundreds and hundreds of topics and categories that lynda.com have. They can teach you something for sure because they've got a bit of everything. So all you need to do is go to lynda.com that's lynda.com slash penaddict. You can sign up right now. Your lynda.com membership will give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics all for one flat rate. So go to lynda.com slash penaddict. You can get your free 10-day trial there. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're passionate about a hobby, or you just want to learn something new, lynda.com is for you. Thank you so much, lynda, for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Thank you, lynda. I think before we get into the schedule stuff, let's talk about the pen show just a little bit more. Do you guys have any questions, anything you're expecting, not expecting, or not sure about, Myke or Ana? Do you have anything, any concerns about the show or anything like that?

Ana Reinert: I see some comments in the live chat about do vendors take Square or some other way to take credit cards or do you need to come prepared with piles of cash?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So most of them will use the Square reader. The ones that I've shopped with before will either have some type of Square or some other type of credit card reader set up. So you don't necessarily have to have piles of cash. There might be a few smaller, you know, more like individual dealers that might take cash only, but I've never run into that yet. So I think most of that it should be able to handle by, you know, Square or something like that. So that's going to be pretty easy to make a purchase from from all the vendors. So, and a lot of these vendors are kind of the same group that travel all over the country. So you'll have this big group of similar vendors that, you know, kind of like I always talk about the Andersons, but there's a whole group that does the same thing that they do where they travel to all these pen shows. So all of them will be set up perfectly. It'll be more, maybe if there's some local yokels like the guys at NotCo that they have a table set up, you know, that don't get around, they don't get out their house very often. But I know NotCo will have, you know, a Square reader set up. We use that and that's integrated with our stuff already. But there might be one or two smaller type vendors that don't, but it's generally not going to be an issue. And Dan is saying in the chat room when he was at the LA pen show, there were a lot of cash only people.

Myke Hurley: So that's crazy. But I think you will find that cheap stuff like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I think you end up finding that with some of the older vintage type vendors and some of the people that don't necessarily travel all over the country that, you know, make their one or two pen show stops and don't just really deal in anything except cash.

Myke Hurley: Although Brody, Brody MCD in the chat room is making a great point. Take your budget in cash so you don't go over. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a good point. It's a very good point. It's a good point. I got a lot of work to do on like the pen show, like the actual shopping at the pen show. I'm wondering if I might have time to shop. I haven't done a budget. I haven't made any kind of general list. I don't know what I'm going to spend, what I'm looking for. You know, I'm more worried about having a good time and hoping everyone else has a good time. So that's been my focus.

Myke Hurley: I have a question about the Atlanta pen show. Is there any like early access or anything like that? Or is it kind of just when it opens, it's open for everybody?

Pen Show Schedule

Brad Dowdy: So let's talk about the pen show schedule. There's kind of two schedules that we need to kind of intertwine. There's the actual pen show schedule. And then there's going to be the pen addict stuff that you and I and Ana are going to be doing. The real schedule. Not the real schedule. So the pen show on Friday, it's just 12 to five. It's really kind of a setup day for the vendors. People will trickle in in the afternoons. A lot of mingling. That's a real low key event day. So if you're in on Friday, that's a great day to come in, hang out, mingle around, ask a lot of questions. You'll get a lot of time with all the vendors, all the people there, just because it's not going to be overly crowded. So Friday is super straightforward for the pen show. Then on Saturday and Sunday, they actually do have early hours for the weekend pass holders, which people that are traveling in, like all of us, and a lot of people that are going to be here for more than one day, they have a weekend pass. So if you get the weekend pass for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, well, I guess it's theoretically just Saturday and Sunday, you can get in at nine. And what that's good for is getting in line to get nib work done, something like that. You know, you get that. That's when you come in at 10 o'clock and see 10 names on the list in front of you. That's what's happened. People with early access get in there.

Myke Hurley: When you say getting in line, do you just put your name down or do you have to stand in line?

Brad Dowdy: No. So the, say, take Myke Masayama, for example, he'll have, he'll have a list that he's working off of. Um, he'll probably have his wife there helping him. She travels with him a bunch or he'll have some other helper there with him and they'll keep a list. Um, and they'll take your phone number and they'll usually text you. And, um, you know, when you're, when your time is, is getting near, like when you're one up or one behind the person that they're working on. So they kind of give you a timeframe and you can always swing back by and check and they scratch them off as they go and you can see how many people are in front of you. And it's, uh, it's, you know, when there's one or two people ahead of you, it's nice to sit there and watch him work too. You know, you can just hang out until it's your turn and, uh, make sure you don't get buddy jumped. So, cause I will, I'll take your spots. Cause I do.

Myke Hurley: Hi, I'm Myke Hurley.

Brad Dowdy: I do have some work to get done. And so, uh, I hope I can, hope I can swing that.

Myke Hurley: What do you have in what, Don?

Brad Dowdy: Um, I have a Pelican that I just got, a 605 that we haven't talked about cause I just got it. It's got a really, really wet medium nib that I want to get knocked down a bunch. Okay. Um, and then I have my orange Nakaya, the, the, um, one like, like look like, it looks like it's cracked, you know? Yeah. I want to get that. Yeah. It's an extra fine nib and I want to kind of get it fine tuned. Like it's really close to being good, but it's such a nice and expensive pen that I want to use. I want it to be perfect. So I just want to get that, uh,

Myke Hurley: yeah. See, that's how I am about my Edison. Cause like that's, that was Nakaya money. Right. Totally.

Brad Dowdy: Um,

Myke Hurley: so I, I want it, I mean, it's, it's perfectly fine, but I want it to be like, I want it to be a pen that I feel bad to not use.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. You know?

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So back to your question, Saturday and Sunday for like all of us, you know, that are there, uh, 9 a.m. is when it opens up. Actually there's 8 a.m. is you can get registered. If you're just coming in Saturday, you can get registered early, you know, buy your tickets early, whatever. And, um, we'll have vendors set up there. So yeah, I'm saying all this stuff, like I'm just going to be attending the pen. I'm going to pen show. I'm going to be working a lot of this time. So, you know, this doesn't necessarily apply to me, but at 10 o'clock on Saturday and Sunday, it opens to the public. And I don't know if y'all have checked out the actual pen show schedule. They have seminars during the show that are great to attend. I have not personally attended, but I've talked to people that have done it and they always rave about it. Um, two women, uh, Susan worth. Um, this is one for you, Myke, how some pens can make anyone's handwriting look good and how to find them at a pen show. So I'm going to sign you. I'm going to sign you up for that one. Oh, please, please do. And then Anna, I'm going to, you need to sign up for the Italian calligraphy and cursive handwriting from Deborah Basil. Both Susan worth and Deborah Basil travel around to all these shows and do these seminars. So they're, they're super good. Um, both of those are set up for Saturday.

Ana Reinert: I love going to calligraphy classes because they get mad at me because I'm left-handed.

Brad Dowdy: They're like, they're like look in a mirror and follow.

Brad Dowdy: It's just, it, uh, do you frustrate them to no end?

Ana Reinert: I work with so many people who do lettering at Hallmark. And when I asked them to help me with something, they just go, there's one guy there who started off as a lefty. And when he went to college, he actually went to a program that had calligraphy and they taught him to write with his right hand. So he does all this calligraphy, calligraphy with his right hand.

Myke Hurley: That makes me sad. So when I asked him, he says,

Ana Reinert: learn to write with your right hand. And I'm like, no, not happening.

Brad Dowdy: It's like discrimination.

Ana Reinert: It's totally discrimination.

Brad Dowdy: It's total discrimination. Well, you could probably teach the class, um, knowing you.

Ana Reinert: No, I'm not. My skills are still way low.

Brad Dowdy: So that's both, both Saturday and Sunday, both, uh, Susan and Deborah, um, have these various classes. And when you get there, if you're interested in those classes, they'll have the time set up, um, when you can go. I don't think they cost any extra. If I'm remembering, uh, from last year, if they did, it was something very small. Um, but they will have the schedules on the day of on exactly what time they're doing it. And then both day five o'clock on Saturday and Sunday, the show ends. That's when the party gets started. That's what we're all here for. The after the after show, the show is going to be awesome. And, um, you know, I'll be in the room the whole time, probably at the knock booth and then maybe a little bit mingling around. I'm gonna have to figure out some time to do some shopping for myself, maybe on Friday and, um, maybe some shopping for, um, we got it. We all have to decide, you know, what we're going to shop for our backers for the Kickstarter project. So we're all going to, we're all going to work on that. Maybe we can sit down when we get there and we'll figure out what we're going to do for that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: We need to set some budgets and then, and then we can, we can go out and buy some stuff. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So set, set the budget for each of us and then, uh, figure out how we're going to do it and how we're going to present it to everyone and how we're going to give it away. So that'll be really, really fun. So let's talk about the party stuff.

Myke Hurley: So I was wondering like, Brad, do you, do you know off the top of your head, like who's going to be there? Give like a rundown of, of the, the, the names and faces that you can expect to see at the Atlanta Pen Show.

Brad Dowdy: So let me preface this. Number one, I'm going to leave someone out. I just know, because I haven't, I'm going to take a roll call as we get closer for sure.

Myke Hurley: You're going to leave me out. I know. Yeah, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: And number two, Jeff is already making with our print shop, um, name tags for everyone, like little stickers, like, hello, my name is, except they say something to the effect of, hi, you'll never, my name, remember my name in real life, but my Twitter handle is blank. So, so we're going to have some name tags for people. Um, so, so we all can, uh, remember, like I keep talking about Punky in the chat room. I know his real name, but I keep calling him Punky because that's what I see in the chat room. But off the top of my head list,

Attendees List

Brad Dowdy: me, you, Anna, uh, Mr. Bruck wiki, um, from knock, um, Thomas hall, our enabler, um, Lee Reyes, which is just blows my mind that she is going to be able to be there. The timing just worked out perfectly for her. Um, she's going to be in the country and she's going to make a special trip just to come see, uh, Thomas and us at the pen show. Um, Myke Dudek.

Ana Reinert: Traveling from,

Brad Dowdy: huh?

Ana Reinert: How far is Lee traveling from?

Brad Dowdy: Uh, Singapore, Singapore.

Ana Reinert: Okay. Thanks. I knew she lived somewhere out East.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. But she's going to be in the country for work and is going to make a stopover, I think on Saturday to, uh, come to the show. So that's, that, that's, that's the one that's tripping me out the most so far about this whole thing. Um, Myke Dudek, Dan Bishop, Karis customs.

Brad Dowdy: Um, gosh, so many listeners. Oh, um, boy, I'm blanking. You put me on the spot. Cursive logic is going to be there. Oh yeah. Yeah. On, uh, on the lady that's running that and I'm blanking on her name, but we're going to see her there. Um, Joe,

Ana Reinert: so many gentlemen stationer is coming.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yep. He's coming. He's in Tennessee. So he's driving down. I think Tim Wassum might be coming. I haven't talked to him recently. He was trying to come down on Saturday. Um, you know, from the erasable podcast and the writing arsenal, uh, Jeff Abbott, who writes for the pen addict among all of our, all of his other, um, online homes like tools and toys and, and great stuff like that. Um, who else? I'm missing lots more people. Um, it's too many listeners. I can't count, but what I'll do is I will kind of get a head down head count in the next week or two.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And I'll put that in the pen addict Slack chat room. I'll, I'll make a file that we can do that. Yeah. David Ray will be there. The gentleman who just created indexed, um, that new website, he's going to be there. Um, but we'll, we'll get a kind of a running list. I'll keep that and we can have all that, um, going together. So everyone knows, I think our general communication outlet will be the Slack, um, the Slack room for the, uh, Atlanta pen show. I think that's probably the easiest thing to do. And then we can all, once we're in the same space, we can share however we want to communicate, um, outside of that. But I think all the, the main information will be in this, in the pen addict Slack room. So if you're not a member of that and you're listening to the show and you're coming to the show, um, get in touch so I can send you an invite to get into the Slack room. Um, who else am I missing?

Myke Hurley: I think that's all. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's crazy.

Brad Dowdy: It's going to be, there's a good two, three dozen people that are coming specifically from like us, like the pen addict stuff,

Myke Hurley: man. They're not going to know what's hit them at the pen show.

Brad Dowdy: No. And I think from the email I got yesterday, they're getting pretty excited about this. They don't know what to make of this, right? I've told you this. I don't know if I told you this on the show or off the show. One of the ladies I'm working with the, my, uh, kind of conduit, uh, to her. That's really putting on the pen show. A guy named Mark Backus. He, he kind of, he doesn't run the pen show, but he kind of handles like everything for the pen show, like the website and, you know, kind of handles some of the detail stuff. He had to explain to the lady who's actually part of the group that runs the pen show, what a podcast is,

Myke Hurley: right?

Brad Dowdy: She, he had the, the email that he sent her said he records, they record the pen addict podcast. And in parentheses, it says like an internet radio show.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, I'm trying to take it in stride. That's just, you know, what we're dealing with, you know, trying to, um, get everything ready for the show. But I think they're excited because they emailed me yesterday. They said, Hey, can you send me like a blurb about the podcast and a link to the show so we can put it on the Atlanta pen show page. So we can see that you guys are coming. So I think they're like totally on board with this whole thing.

Myke Hurley: That's so fantastic. That's, that makes me feel really good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I, that made me feel, that's exactly what I said too. I'm like, I'm so excited that they asked that question because I'm like getting worried, like,

Myke Hurley: that we're going to overwhelm it. Like, or they just don't want it or, you know, like, yeah, like, it's kind of like, okay, you're coming, but like, just, okay.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I don't, I don't want to tick anyone off or get in anyone's way and things like that. So it sounds like they're pretty, pretty on board with this whole thing. Um, so yeah. And, and we have some, some more to work with them that we'll, we'll talk about in just a second. But so after the show, all right, let me back up. So Thursday, we're all coming in. I know Ana, you're coming in Thursday. Are you sure?

Ana Reinert: If I printed out my ticket today.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Just making sure. Cause, uh, our conversations, you're scaring me a little bit, not knowing what day you're arriving.

Ana Reinert: I don't know why I thought I was coming in on Friday. I just feel like an idiot. I, not only did I double check my airline ticket, I double checked my car rental as well to make sure that it was the same day. Called the budget rental. Is my car going to be ready on Thursday? Yes. Okay. We're all good.

Travel Logistics

Brad Dowdy: So you're coming in Thursday. You'll be there way earlier. I'm going to be there than Myke. Um, so Myke's coming in.

Ana Reinert: So I can get the good room.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, you can get the good room. That's one thing we got to figure out. Cause all the rooms are in my name. So I'll have to sort that out. Um, but, and Myke and I will be in late Thursday evening. Um, so I'm thinking Thursday night, there's probably not going to be anything going on. Maybe we can meet up in the hotel bar or something like that. But I, I would be surprised if Myke and I got to the hotel before like 10 o'clock because I got to pick up someone else from the airport right after Myke lands. So it's kind of a two for one deal. So, um, we'll probably be there like around 10. And so if anyone's, if anyone's coming in Thursday, I think there's not a lot of people coming in Thursday, to be honest, most people are coming in Friday or Saturday. So on Saturday after the show is the big knock party. And I say big, it's really not. It's like our space is really small and we're just going to like show up and hang out and chit chat. But it's really just something that we did in the fall at knock and it worked really well. Had a lot of our friends and some of our customers come and just hung out. We, you know, just drank and ate and chit chatted and, you know, had like a, uh, pen show and tell and things like that. So this time we're going to, um, we're going to have starting at seven o'clock on Friday night. We're going to have a party at knock. And I got all the quotes for the buses today, Myke. So I'm going to get that. I'm going to get that booked. Um, it's not good. I'm not going to go full party bus, like with like neon and stuff. I'm going like, like business, like generic bus because they are super expensive, like way more expensive than I imagined. Um, so we'll have transportation, everyone from the hotel to knock, which you never know in Atlanta on a Friday night at six, between six and seven o'clock, trying to get everyone back and forth. It should only take about 20 minutes. It's not like it's forever away, but you never know with Atlanta traffic. Um,

Myke Hurley: we'll sing bus songs or something. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We'll sing bus songs.

Myke Hurley: So 99 bottles or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And there'll still be people driving. So, you know, other people can pick up and, uh, and help drive, um, as well. But most importantly, the bus will help everyone shuttle back from knock to the hotel, because we're going to have beer and we're planning on food. Um, I'm not totally a hundred percent decided, but it's probably going to be pizza. Yes. Um, we'll order, get all that brought in and, you know, we'll just have music and have fun. You know, we have a field note swap. If anyone wants to bring field notes to, to share or trade or do any of that, we'll have a raffle. Um, a bunch of our, our supporters for the party, such as Kara's customs and dudek modern goods have provided goods to give up for us to give away, to raffle off at the show. I mean, excuse me at the party. And, uh, it's just going to be a really fun hangout time. Um, everyone can see the shop at knock, um, see what we do there. And it's just kind of something we wanted to do for everyone. And hopefully, you know, I'm going to be able to get the Anderson's, there. Um, you know, I still might want to ask them. I keep alluding to the fact and I keep teasing. I'm like, yeah, I should probably ask y'all, you know, if y'all can come that night. So, um, I'll work on that. So it should be a really good, really good time, really good, fun crowd, a kind of a place where all like the pen addict people that have come to the show can come and mingle together. Um,

Myke Hurley: I was just thinking this episode must be killer for the people that ain't coming. I've just realized that it must be like, Oh, you're killing this guys.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sorry. I feel guilty. I feel guilty about that. I do. I have like this guilt about that, but, um, we'll, we'll try to make a good product for everyone to, uh, to see what it's all about. And hopefully maybe next year they can come too. Yeah. So, so Friday night is the big party. If you're, if you're can only make it one night, you want to come Friday night. Um, even if you don't go to the pen show, come, come hang out with us at knock and we're going to have a good time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's probably going to be the best hanging out time. Like the whole time.

Brad Dowdy: That's like, if you want to talk to people and meet people, um, that you've only met online, that's going to be the place to do it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Um, because Saturday after the show ends, we're going to record the live, uh, podcast and video. And I keep saying live. I mean, we're recording it live, but the biggest question of all is, are we going to have a live studio audience? And that's what we haven't defined yet. Also streaming live.

Myke Hurley: Ooh. I, we may still be able to do that audio video. Um, provided we have a good enough internet connection. Yeah. And so if, but yeah, that it should still be, we should still hopefully be able to hook that up, um, to make that work. So people will be able to tune in live as normal so they can hear us at the show, which I think will be a lot of fun for people, um, who can't make it. That would be great.

Video Production

Brad Dowdy: That would be great. So here's the hang up with the, the video that we're trying to work out. So I can't say everyone come watch us do this live recording because I haven't solidified the room yet. That's what I was talking about alluding to earlier, um, with the people that run the pen show. I've asked for their classroom to shoot our, um, to shoot our video in, you know, the classroom where they're going to do these calligraphy and handwriting classes. And I haven't gotten a definitive answer that we're going to be able to use that after the show. So I'm still waiting to hear back. If we get that, we might be able to have a few people show up and watch us, but I wouldn't hold your breath for that. It may be not possible.

Myke Hurley: cause I've also like fundamentally as well, we need to make sure that we can make the video look and sound as good as possible because they're right for the people that have paid for it. Um, and a back. Yeah. It needs to be good quality. So we, yeah, we need to make sure that wherever we're recording, like we need to make sure we had the best way for that. So it might mean that, that you can't be there to watch us, but probably by Saturday, you'll be sick of our faces anyway. If you are coming. That's true. You know, you might want to put a bit of time away from us so you can talk about us behind our backs or something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I want to do that. We're going to do that reasonably early Saturday. Um, after the show, the show ends at five, I would like to get the recording started by six. And then, um, that way we have the rest of the night free to hang out with anyone and everyone, you know, maybe we can just hang out at the hotel bar. Maybe we can all go grab a bite to eat somewhere, whatever we want to do. Um, and then Sunday we all recover and, and, uh, zone out and, uh, just kind of chill out and relax and have a nice day at the show. And I don't know when, when are you heading out? You don't leave till Monday, right?

Ana Reinert: Yeah. I leave Monday afternoon.

Myke Hurley: Oh no, don't tell him that. Oh, cause yeah, cause because they're making me work in the shop. They'll make you work in the shop too. Tell him you're leaving. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So anyone that's in town on Monday can come watch Myke work and knock until his flight's ready. Cause he doesn't fly out till the evening and I have to get back home. So, uh, Jeff is going to be babysitting, uh, Mr. Hurley, um, at the shop.

Myke Hurley: He keeps sending me messages about all the things we're going to do. It's quite funny. So tell him, you're like, what we're going to eat, like the tacos are going to get and stuff like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So he's very, uh, very much going to get you to our, our favorite not co lunch, um, lunch spot, which is Hankook Taqueria, which is, uh, a really awesome, uh, Korean barbecue Tex-Mex kind of place, which is just.

Ana Reinert: Okay. I'm all in for lunch.

Brad Dowdy: It's one of the, I'm not working, but I'm eating. It's one of the best spots in all of Atlanta. And it's basically just, they, they, they cut it out of like an old convenience store. It's like a total dive, but it's like one of those places that where the lion will come out the door kind of thing. So it's legit. So it's, uh, it's one of those places that you kind of have to do. So, um, what else gang? I mean, I just, I'm so excited to meet the people more than anything. Anna, you, especially Myke, you, especially y'all are going to get big hugs from me. I can't wait to see you guys. I'm so excited. Um, that it's actually beating down my anxiety about getting it all planned. It's going to be so much fun that I'm not letting all the other little stuff, you know, like I would normally, normally stressing out to the hilt. I just know how much fun this weekend is going to be. And, you know, I just appreciate you guys and I appreciate all the listeners and all the people that are coming to the show. Um, I want to, it's going to be pretty amazing.

Myke Hurley: I want to just thank everyone who put money in. Like to make this happen. Like we literally could not be doing this without the people that supported the Kickstarter campaign. Um, like to make this possible. So just thank you so much. Cause we're really excited. I hope that you're really excited. We're going to do our very best, like to get the best footage that we can. Steven sent me a picture the other day, Brad, they got it. They're bringing a drone.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we're going to have a drone, um, especially for the party for the party. Yeah. Pretty good.

Myke Hurley: Um, so that like, cause basically my, my co-founder Steven and his brother are coming down and they're going to be shooting the, the stuff cause they, they've got like a bunch of equipment. Um, Steven. That's right.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't even, I didn't even say Steven was going to be at the show. Yeah. From relay FM. So all you relay FM people, uh, connected fans and, uh, everything else, Steven Hackett will be there. Um, we might have an Aaron Mankey sighting. No way. Bradley Chambers. Yep. Bradley Chambers. So I forget all the, uh, the, all the podcast brethren that will be there. So it's going to be really, really great. It really is. And Anna, I can't wait to, to meet you in person. Finally.

Ana Reinert: I'm so excited to get to meet both of you in person and to see your shop and to meet everybody who listens to the podcast and maybe possibly reads my blog.

Myke Hurley: If people are listening to this podcast and don't read your blog, I don't know what's happening.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Must be crazy. Problems.

Brad Dowdy: Crazy people. Crazy people. So yeah, it, it's going to be really, really great. And I'm really, really excited. So it's, uh, not far away now. It's going to come a lot faster for you, Myke, than me and Anna. I think I'm like ready now. And you're like, I've got so much to do before then.

Myke Hurley: Well, but this is my last episode until the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So scheduling update. This episode is Monday. Um, whatever day that is.

Myke Hurley: Like the 20th. No, the 30th. 30th.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So this episode is Monday to the 30th. We recorded in a box in case you couldn't tell. Yeah. In case you didn't know what day it is. And then the following week I'm recording with the previously mentioned Stephen Hackett. Yep. And then we're going to hold off episode 150 until the pen show. Episode. So there'll be kind of be like a week and a half, almost two week gap. Um, from one 49 to one 50. But one,

Myke Hurley: one 50 is going to be the live show. Yes. It was the case of like, we could have recorded, like what we were originally going to do was record on the Monday and then just record the, the show in person and then release it the following week. But then just randomly did the counting and realized that that week is 150. And it would have been so stupid to record episode 150 and do episode 151. Yep. That was, that was,

Brad Dowdy: we did not even consider that. And it was just absolutely dumb luck that that math worked out. That was not on our radar at all.

Myke Hurley: I was thinking as you were there, it was like a year ago that we did the episode 100. Wow. Like how insane is that? Like that does not feel like that long ago.

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: Like when we had the t-shirts done and we did those crazy giveaways, like that was a great episode.

Brad Dowdy: That was a good episode. All right. So what else y'all got? Ana, you got anything else? You, you ready to, to get on the road and get down here?

Ana Reinert: Yes. I'm desperately ready to, uh, come and hang out and look at pens, meet people. And it's just going to be awesome.

Brad Dowdy: It really is. It's going to be so awesome.

Myke Hurley: I'm happy. I've got a trip in between. Because like, I don't have that like, oh, it's because I've, because I've got one thing in the middle. I'm like thinking about that thing. So I'm not like sitting here now. I've been like, ah, so far away, you know? Yep. So I'm so excited guys. I'm just, I cannot wait. Like, it's just going to be the, the best. Like I, I was, I was talking to somebody, um, meet up that we had, um, last week for, for upgrade. There was a couple of panic fans there. And we were actually talking about this. And saying like how me and you, Brad, we've recorded, uh, for like three years, maybe. Yeah. Let me see how long it's been. Cause I think it's a little bit longer than that because we took a, we took a break for a bit, didn't we? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: A couple of months we were off.

Myke Hurley: Um, so let me see when episode one was, no, not 138. That's, that was recently, uh, February 9th, 2012. So we're over three years now, um, that we've been doing this show together. And that's the longest that I've like worked with anyone and never met them.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. So we'll, we will, uh, take care of that in a few weeks time. Cannot wait, man. Can't wait either.

Myke Hurley: So we, are we done for today?

Brad Dowdy: I think we're done for today. We're going to have to get on or back on to talk about all the, the pens and paper. She's been doing awesome stuff at the well-appointed desk, reading her awesome, uh, should we be back on in two episodes? Huh? Yeah.

Baron Fig Review

Brad Dowdy: Just a couple of weeks. I was reading the, uh, the Baron fig review right before we got on today. So that was awesome as always.

Myke Hurley: Excellent.

Ana Reinert: Thanks.

Myke Hurley: Can somebody bring some Baron fig? Like, because I've never tried them. Certainly. Yeah. I've got an extra one. I'll bring you. Excellent. Yeah. I would like that. That'd be great.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. And, uh, we need to talk about that with you and the listeners. Like, does anyone want to see anything specific that I can bring or facilitate?

Myke Hurley: So I'm thinking I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring some field notes to swap, but I'm also going to bring some of my rarer ones as well. In case people haven't seen them. Yep. Like I might, I may bring, uh, the very, uh, nicely gifted grass staying green. Cause probably not a lot of people have seen one of those.

Brad Dowdy: That's true.

Myke Hurley: Um, so I'll bring that. You need to bring your collection.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I will. I plan on it. Awesome.

Myke Hurley: Great. If you want to, uh, see the show notes for this week's episode, then you want to head over to relay.fm slash pen addict slash one four eight. Um, if you want to find us all online, you can, I am, uh, at I Myke, I M Y K E, uh, on Twitter. Brad is at Dowdyism. Um, on Twitter, that's the O W D Y I S M. And Anna is, uh, at well, a P P, a P P T desk, right? That's correct. Isn't it? Yep. Got it. Nailed it. Um, if you want to catch Brad's website, he writes over at pen addict.com. And of course, Anna stuff is over at well appointed desk.com as well. Uh, thanks again to Linda for sponsoring this week's episode and we'll be back soon. And I'll see you guys at the pen show until then. Bye. Bye. Bye.