The Pen Addict 154/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	154
Title:	Extra Extra Extra Extra Extra Fine
Release Date:	May 11th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 154
Audio File:	Audio Episode 154
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 154
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 154. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, great deals on high quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Mashdrop, an online community for enthusiasts of all kinds and making light. Craft a daily ritual to focus on what matters most. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello sir, how are you?

Myke Hurley: All good, all good, how are you?

Kickstarter Video

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. Before we get totally locked in with all the stuff we have in today's wonderful show for everyone, I'd like to relay my feels if I have a minute.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, please do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I watched our video from last week and we'd already seen it, you know, the pre-release version, but I watched it again. And man, that was such a good time. I love that video.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the video is now out. Like for Kickstarter backers, if you haven't seen it, go to Kickstarter and you can find out about the video. Just log in and there'll be an update waiting for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so we released that last week and I think everyone should have that in their inbox. Give us a lot of good feedback and we'd love to hear more if you're still watching it. But I was getting pictures of it, like people watching it on their big screen TV. I'm like, oh my goodness.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, how great.

Brad Dowdy: And everyone seemed to enjoy the after show, which was not available on the regular podcast feed. That was my favorite bit, actually. It came out really well. It was just an off-the-cuff kind of a chatting thing. And it came out really well. So, yeah, I wanted to mention that primarily because you talked a lot about the Pen Show on Analog, your podcast with Casey Liss. And this week's episode that just came out yesterday, Analog number 39. You want to talk about that for a second? And everyone can chime in and listen to that. And it's a lot of stuff you've covered here, but you did take it a little bit different route on that show, which everyone should go listen to.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, we spoke on the show and we spoke in the episode afterwards about how great it was to spend time with everyone and stuff like that. But there was a topic that I wanted to cover and felt that Analog was a good place for it where it was kind of just like talking about nerdiness. Because Analog is a show that's focused towards the Apple tech crowd, right? Right. Where we're traditionally nerds and geeks, right? That's the thing. Although this stuff is now more cool again. You know, computers are cool now. Right. But, you know, we're still very nerdy about the things that we're nerdy about. But because we're all, because it's like this big community that I'm a part of, everybody that's in that community doesn't really see it as nerdy anymore. Because we're, you know, from a point, because we're all in it together. And whenever I go to these conferences, I'm so used to them now that they just seem like a normal type of thing, like conferences and events. But when I was at the pen show, I was able to re-experience the extreme nerdiness. Especially because it's a community that I'm part of. I definitely skew with the stuff that I do more in the tech community than in the pen community. Sure. Where, you know, you're definitely more in the pen community, right? Because 100% of your output, basically, is in the pen community. Yeah. Where the pen addict is maybe one sixth or one seventh or something like that of my output. So it's really interesting to go and be around people. And just the thing that I usually can only talk about once a week, I could talk about constantly for an entire weekend in the complete, completely unabashed and as totally as much as I want. And it was fantastic. And it was nice to talk to Casey about it as well, because obviously Casey wasn't there and he didn't really have a lot of frame of reference for it. So it was nice to talk to him about it as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I thought it was a good conversation and how you and Casey were trying to tie it into somewhere where you both had been like WWDC and how does these types of things compare and what the differences are. And, you know, how they compare and contrast. So it was a really good listen. I thought y'all did a good job. So everyone who listens to this should definitely check it out if they don't already.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: It's in the show notes. Yeah. And added to the show notes, we had several mentions since we released the Kickstarter video about getting the giveaway pins out to everyone. And I'll probably do that later this week. We've got three cool sets of pins or three cool pin packages to give away. And I'll put all the details on the Kickstarter page for backers. And I'm also going to send out the survey this week because the cases are well along in production. So I want to go ahead and get everyone's address. Definitely.

Myke Hurley: The pictures of me making the cases haven't been released yet, have they?

Brad Dowdy: No. Have you seen them? We're going to do that after. If people start complaining, we have these blackmail pictures. But no, I have not seen them. So I'm not sure I want to at this point.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no, no. They're really good. It's just they're great. But they're not like they're weird or anything. But there was like some pictures of me doing them like it was daytime, right? And then we're like, these aren't dramatic enough. So then Jeff shut the garage door. So it looks like I'm basically cutting the flaps from because they're all sewn together. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm cutting them in the dark, basically, of just one little lamp. And it looks like I've kind of, you know, just been left in the shop all evening. They're really good pictures, though. They're really good.

Brad Dowdy: I've got to check them out. Yeah. So we have all had all you have to handle everyone's cases or at least a lot of them. So, you know, these cases are definitely hardcore pen addict podcast cases. They have all of our love. Yep.

Myke Hurley: They were at the party. They're hanging around with us. Can we talk about the giveaway now? Sure.

Brad Dowdy: I just don't have all the details in front of me for I know pretty much what we have, but I think there's kind of some side items and I want to get the names right of the pens and things like that. But, I mean, we can talk about it in general terms if you want. Sure.

Myke Hurley: So you don't want to talk about the pens themselves?

Brad Dowdy: Let's do it next week so I'm prepared and have specifics, but I'll post it out there. And I don't know, maybe we can announce it next week on the show or something like that. I think we should do it on the show.

Myke Hurley: I think that would be a good idea. All right.

Brad Dowdy: So I will put all the items out in Kickstarter just so everyone knows what the things are and then we'll announce the winners on next week's episode. I like that idea.

Myke Hurley: That's democracy, folks. Democracy in action.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, it is. Yeah. You would think Myke and I would talk and plan these shows beforehand, but, you know, that's how we roll here at the Pen Addict Podcast. Yep. Episode 154. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, he's worked for us for 154 episodes.

Brad Dowdy: If it ain't broke, don't fix it, my friend. That's right. That's right. All right. I got...

Myke Hurley: Well, whilst we're on the subject of feelings and stuff like that, there is an interesting thing in there, which is how, like, I mean, I know that I have felt it recently. It's like, you know, I miss you because we don't get to talk very often because of the way, even though, like, our days line up a bit, they still don't line up very well. Right. I mean, mine and your day lines up better than you and anybody else in America. Right. But, you know, so it does always suck to me, you know, we actually don't get a lot of time to talk, which is one of the reasons I think we both enjoy doing the show so much because we actually get a couple of hours of each other's time every week. But... Yeah, I think so. It is tough. And sometimes... The show doesn't suffer, but sometimes it can be difficult. Sometimes it is tough for us to get the show prepped because, yeah, it just is. I need to be alright, I think, as well.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, I mean, you know, it's... Like I said, you know, we've been doing this a while now. We kind of know what each of us bring to the table and how it's going to work. You know, we both show up knowing what the other one's going to do for the most part. And I think we have it handled pretty well, you know, as far as I'm concerned. And, you know, every now and then, you know, I get a little bit worried. Do we have enough content to, you know, fill up a whole show? And every time I worry, we always do, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because as we're talking, I'm adding more and more things that are popping into my head.

Brad Dowdy: We've already added... Since we've come on Skype, our togetherness, we've already added, like, three new items. Yeah, we're good.

Morse Code

Myke Hurley: So, I was away this weekend and I stayed in a hotel and it reminded me of something from way back in the show's history. Like, I don't know where it was, but it's way back in the history of this show. I stayed in a Marriott hotel and they had one of the Marriott pens on the desk. Now, the Marriott pens have these dashes on them and I took a picture of it and sent it to you because I can't remember. I think somebody wrote in and asked us where are these from.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, someone sent it to us and said, does this mean anything? Because it looks like Morse code, but just the dash portion of Morse code. It's a non-sequential pattern of dashes on the Marriott pen. And we spent a long time on that. That had to be... That was in the early days of the show. And I don't think we ever got a clear answer. I don't think we ever got anything beyond that's just the design of it. And they did some, like, pinstripes on the side of the pen. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. But it was funny when you sent me that. I couldn't believe when you did that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because there is no... There is a reason, but we don't know what the reason is. Because this pattern was specifically chosen. It must have been because it's not random.

Brad Dowdy: It's not random, yes.

Myke Hurley: It's like a dot and then a small dash and then a bigger dash and a bigger dash and a bigger dash. It means something. We just don't know what it means. So now, I mean, the show's audience is larger. There will be new people that didn't hear the first episode. If you know what this means, we want to know. It's not Morse code. Yeah, it'll be in the show notes. Relay.fm slash penaddict slash 154.

Myke Hurley: I really still want to know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I guess they are progressively evenly longer. I don't know. It drives me crazy.

Myke Hurley: Either you or somebody contacted Marriott, right? Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'll have to dig through my email because we got something in the email. I don't know if I ever brought it back up on the show after that. I'll have to see if I have something that can bring us to closure. But it's just one of those things that drives me crazy.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And it kind of ties in with this next link I have, Myke. Have you seen this picture I put in the show notes? Let me send it to the chat room. So Apple on their jobs page has a picture of, you know, it looks like a team looking at the Apple Watch. They all have sketchbooks, pencils, and pens out on the page. And someone tweeted this picture to me, said, hey, do I know what these pens are? They said the pencils in the cup are the Muji colored pencils. But they said I can't make out the pen. And I'm wondering if it's a Muji pen, too. But the first thing I thought of was the Pilot Razor 2, which is one of the really, really old school pens that I love. It's been around since the 70s, I think, at least the 80s, if not before. And, you know, I sent them that link. And it really looks like it, especially the one with the guy on the right holding it in his hand. But it looks more like a rollerball tip instead of like a drawing tip pen. But the barrel looks really like it. And the cap looks like it. But then you flip over to the one laying in the middle of the book, in the middle of the picture. And it's got some markings on the cap, which the Razor 2 does not have. And then the woman holding it on the left, the end of the barrel has a recessed bit, like for your cap to rest on when you post the pen. Which is another non-feature of the Razor 2. So I came up with the Razor 2 just in looks because that cap looks dead on. But there's lots of other things that don't make it add up. So we have two research items for our listeners. The Marriott pen and the Apple Jobs page. What pen are they using? They even snuck another pen. It looks like the same model pen, but in orange in the pencil cup. Which makes me wonder if they're from Muji as well. And it's just not one we've seen before.

Myke Hurley: So I may be blowing this wide open here. Good. But do you know they're Muji? Because I know that Apple have for sale in their company store coloring pencils. Okay. That are Apple branded. That look just like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not 100% sure.

Myke Hurley: Because I've seen them in a presentation box of an Apple logo on the front. So they may actually be just white label goods with Apple logos on.

Brad Dowdy: But they don't publish their store online. You have to physically go there, right? No. Like you can't see what they sell. No.

Apple Store

Myke Hurley: You have to go. So, I mean, there are a couple of ways you could do this. I could maybe ask someone. Maybe there are some people who work at Apple that listen to the show that I think there actually are a couple.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've got some friends that I can get in touch and see. Or. I can make a trip to the store.

Myke Hurley: I'll be there. I'm probably going to go to Cupertino for the first time.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's true. Yeah. I've never been.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've never been to Cupertino. Okay. To the Apple campus. But I think we might go this time. Because I want to. Everybody else has been. Like that goes to WWDC on my quad. And I've never been. And I really want to go. So we might make the trip out there this time. So I'll be going to the store.

Brad Dowdy: Well, if they have these. If they have these pins, I'm definitely interested. So they look interesting. So yeah, I'm just. I'm more interested not to have them and use them. But to see what they really are. And try to decipher what they've. If it is an Apple store product. Who they have white labeled it from.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I would have said that they were like the. I thought they might have been like the Pilot V. The V tech or something like that. Yeah. But then they've got that. They've got a rollerball or a ballpoint end at the bottom. Which totally ruins that for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Because they're needlepoint on there. It's definitely favors. Favors that. Those pilot. That pilot design. So we'll see. That'd be cool. You can figure it out for us.

Myke Hurley: Way too many. Way too many mysteries for the first 15 minutes of the podcast this week.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. And I don't think we're done yet, honestly, in mysteries. So I think I'll probably elaborate on a couple more that I don't even have written down yet. So we'll have some more. But not until we talk about our first sponsor, Michael.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Here's something that's not a mystery. And that's Pen Chalet. Brad, go take a look at the Pen Chalet page. There's some amazing stuff this week. I want you to tell the listeners about what's there in a moment on our very special, secret page. You know Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they have all of the favorite brands that you love. Brands like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Anka, Vaco. And they're an authorized dealer of all of them. As well as all of these pens and the brands as well that they have, Pen Chalet also sell limited edition stuff. They have pen accessories as well, like carrying cases, refills, converters, pen holders, and so much more. They're always having special discounts. Twice a month they have them and close out specials every two weeks as well. Pen Chalet have extremely fast and awesome reliable customer service. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality pens as well. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. What you want to do, if you want any kind of pen, you should be going to Pen Chalet first. One, because they're awesome. Two, because they're super awesome. And three, because they help support this show. So it helps us when you buy through Pen Chalet as well. So go to PenChalet.com and whatever you find on Pen Chalet, if you use the code PenAddict at checkout, you'll get 10% off your order. But if you want to get our super secret special deals that we have every couple of weeks with the Pen Chalet, because they're the best, you want to click podcast. The podcast link right at the top of the website at PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And enter the password PenAddict for even more savings as well as your 10% off. So this week, there is 25% off. Plus then you can put the 10% coupon at the end when you get to checkout on a bunch of Lamy pens in different colors and different nibs on the bunch. So Brad, what do you see when we're at Pen Chalet this week?

Brad Dowdy: So this is a Lamy fest on Pen Chalet. And one particular thing stands out, and I'm going to hold that for a second, because I've been dreaming about the Lamy Safari mic. It was my first big boy fountain pen. And I really haven't had one in the rotation for, I bet, more than a year, if not more. But I think about that pen all the time, because every time I used it in the past, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like how it feels in my hand, and I like the build quality. And I like the sturdiness of it, in that you can just take it and do anything with it. It's a real durable pen. And they have a bunch of cool colors. What color is the green? The neon lime and the neon coral. I don't have either of those. I love when Lamy does the bright, bright colors.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow. They're the new limited edition ones, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I believe so. I think the coral is the last one, and the lime is the current one. Don't quote me on that, but that sounds right. And for some reason, I've always wanted the white Lamy Safari, and I've never gotten that. So if you don't have a Safari, or you can actually prefer it to the AL Star, which is the same barrel design.

Myke Hurley: Way better.

Brad Dowdy: Way better. But the aluminum barrel, there's something about that ABS plastic Safari that I just like better than the AL Star, and I don't know why. I don't even have the orange AL Star, but Pen Chalet has that one. That would be my choice out of those. Because the standout on this page, though, is really easy, and to me, and it's the Lamy Studio for $60. That's a steal and a half. It's a great pen.

Brad Dowdy: It feels real sturdy. It's real well built. It's a metal barrel. They have the Wild Rubin, which is the new red one. It is a glossy-type barrel, as opposed to a brushed barrel, which some of the other colors are. Like, I have a dark gray one, which I don't know if it comes in this model or not.

Brad Dowdy: For $60, the Lamy Studio is a steal. It's a great pen. I love the clip design on this pen. And they're also, if you are a Safari fan or you have an AL Star, the nibs are compatible with the Studio. So, if you have a certain nib, like, I'm one that, like, a lot of my Lamy's, I'll use, like, the 1.1 stub nib, and I'll just trade it around between the pens. And that's something that you can do for the Lamy Studio as well. So, yeah. This is a really good deal on a bunch of great Lamy products. And you really can't go wrong with any of them if you find something that fits your needs. But the Studio is a real, real standout to me on this pricing that they have. $60 after the coupon for the Lamy Studio is a really good deal.

Lamy Pens

Myke Hurley: I'll just give one quick rundown. So, we have Lamy Safari, the Vista, the Logo, the AL Star, the CP1, the Studio, and the Lamy 2000, which is $134 down from $199 retail. And they have extra fine, fine, medium, and broad in that. So, as always, like, whenever the Lamy 2000 is on pen chalet, if you don't have one, you should just buy one. And for $134, seriously, you need to buy that pen at that price. And they will go quick. So, if you're listening to me right now and they're still available, you should get one. Because they're not always on pen chalet, but when they do, that's a great deal. But if anything, as Brett said, for $25, you should be getting one of those safaris. Every pen addict should have one. They're a staple. It was my first founding pen.

Myke Hurley: It's a great one. And also, you know, pick one or two of them up to give to people. People are always saying to me, like, you know, what's the right pen for a starter? And I always say either the Lamy Safari or the Pilot Metropolitan. And I think you can't go wrong with either of those. I think this is one of the best deals that we've had with pen chalet is this selection here. So, you should go and check them out. Thank you so much to pen chalet for sponsoring this week's episode of the pen addict.

Myke Hurley: You blew my mind when you sent me that email and told me what was on there. I was like, what?

Brad Dowdy: Someone, I'll have to scroll back in the chat room. Someone jumped in and hit the code before we even started talking about pen addict. And they're like, whoa, look at all these Lamy deals. It's pretty cool. So, you know, that's a definite positive reaction you want to see when you hit the pen addict code over at pen chalet. That's pretty sweet. So, thank you, Ron and pen chalet. All right. I'm going to butcher this name, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway, Myke. I'm going to go with pen show. It's P-E-N-X-O. It's a new Kickstarter. Oh, I say new. I don't even know when it came out. Pen show.

Myke Hurley: Pen show. Oh, do you know something that came across my radar the other day? What was the name of that? Was it the mechanical pencil with that crazy freeway ruler? That we spoke about a long time ago.

Brad Dowdy: So, just hold that thought. Okay, great. Okay. You know what I'm going to say, I think. Remember the mystery stuff? This is not this, but in relation to this, I had another Kickstarter question. It's a Kickstarter project called the Apollo technical pen and pencil set. So, yes, we're going to talk about that in just a second. Oh, interesting.

Brad Dowdy: You're reading my mind. So, Penso is a lead holder. Someone sent it to me on Kickstarter. I mean, on Twitter. Sent me this link. And I'm not a lead holder person at all, but this design fascinated me.

Myke Hurley: I want one of these. This is beautiful. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, when I sent it, when I first opened the link, I was like, wow, this is stunning. And then, you know, I closed it out and I said, if I come back later to it and it's still like speaking to me, I'll back one. So, I, yeah, I ended up backing one of the black ones.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I won the black one. Does it come with a red pencil lead?

Brad Dowdy: I think it just comes with stock leads, but you can get the lead refills at pretty much any retailer. Any pen retailer has the two millimeter width leads, which is what this holds. But it's basically just a simple clamp design to where you just push open the barrel of the pen, like the notch in the barrel. And it kind of frees the lead just enough to scooch it out and you can reverse it, pull it all the way back in and protect the lead. It's a great design. It's already won a red dot award design for 2015, which is actually a pretty big award. So, to have, you know, that backing already and that award for this pencil, you know, it's at least a cool design, you know, whether they can deliver, make the product and deliver the product. That's what we're all going to find out, who back it. But it seems pretty top notch to me. And I love the design of it. I was actually kind of surprised to hear you say how much you liked it, but it's just a fascinating little pen.

Myke Hurley: Oh, it's stunning. Pencil, pencil, I should say. It's beautiful. This is beautiful. Like it's, I mean, again, I don't think I would use this really, but I can appreciate good industrial design. And this is that.

Brad Dowdy: And the thing is, it's $29. You know, it's not like it was $89. Then I would have had a hesitation. But for $29, I can get behind this. And, you know, when I have this laying around the desk for when the inspiration strikes, it's just.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I'm booking. I'm backing it right now. Only $7 shipping to the UK as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's good.

Myke Hurley: I wish it came with the colored LEDs, though. I bet they sell them. You know, like in the, you know, like when people do the final bit, like add-ons when you do the surveys. I hope they do because I'll just back to it. It's way too easy to back on Kickstarter these days.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It is. Just a few clicks and you're done. Yeah. So, yeah, there's all kinds of different LED colors you can add in there on your own separately afterwards. But, yeah, I thought I'd bring that up. And thank you for whoever sent that to me. I apologize. I'd have to go back and look. But, yeah, it seemed kind of like a no-brainer. And I really enjoyed it. Reading about it and watching its functionality and just the simplicity of it. I can, like you said, I can totally get behind something like this.

Myke Hurley: I know this is going to be one of those ones that I forget about. Like it's got an August date, which probably means maybe more towards the end of the year. But, like, I know I'm just going to forget that this thing even exists. And then it will be a nice surprise.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, the not nice surprise you were referring to, which I did not put in the show notes because I just thought I was going to mention it. In addition to the Penso. Is someone going to correct me on that in the chat room? Maybe they did already. Penso sounds pretty good. I mean, it sounds kind of like pencil. Penso.

Myke Hurley: Penso.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, Brad Thornborough, I think, tweeted me this earlier this week, wanted me to talk about it. And I don't have, like, all the details. I really don't have any details other than what they've posted on here. But what I gather is what's happened. When we talked about it before, we talked about huge manufacturing delays that they were having. And then compounded by huge shipping delays and rejected shipping. And it's a mess. I mean, it's what they're 1,844 comments into this, which is an absurd amount of comments. And they're mostly of the Where's My Pen variety. They shipped out some of the backers who just ordered the black pen. And, like, I got mine. I have my Apollo pen. Unfortunately, there's a flaw with it that they're supposedly going to correct one day. I can't even remember what it is at this point. But the problem, they had the problems with the scales. They're now having problems with the clip design, the new clip manufacturer. They're snapping when they install them. It's a straight-up catastrophe. And I don't know what to say about it other than, you know, the founders haven't done a great job communicating, it seems like. It's like on your big thing, Myke, which is actually should be everyone's big thing. It's common sense. It's communication is key, right? Don't say two weeks, you know, if you don't even have the clip order in. And, you know, when you install the first clip, it breaks. And then you have to say, well, that two week's not really because now these clips have failed. Well, it was never two weeks to begin with. So you have to be consistent in your message on what information you're providing. And they failed a bunch of times on that. So I don't know what to say to Brad and other people who have not received their pins or their tri-scale sets. It was such a beautiful design, such a successful project, money raising money. They raised a lot of money, $141,000. But they are way in the hole, way late, and have, I think the last time we mentioned it, I said they've pretty much ruined any chance they have of bringing this to market regularly because people will research this pin and see how much of a catastrophe it was to produce. So, you know, a lot of these people, you know, when they start these Kickstarters, like when we did Knock, we wanted to build a company around it. Well, they have failed so miserably that I don't see how any future company they build around this pin would have any shot just for all the failures they had in this project. So I don't know what more to say about that. I do have mine, Pin. And Brad said, I wonder if it's a coincidence that a bunch of pin bloggers got theirs and a bunch of regular people didn't. I don't think so. I think I just happened to order, like, the normal pin without the scale. And probably the easiest first pin to make is the only thing I can think of. And, you know, I don't think there's anything nefarious going on with who they ship the orders to.

Myke Hurley: I don't know about that. I thought this came across my radar about a week ago. I can't remember who it is, but, like, I follow a few, like, cartoonists on Twitter. And they complained. There was, like, another Kickstarter project that I've backed that, you know, just never has come. And then, like, they follow it up with another tweet being, like, it's funny how a bunch of people in the press got theirs.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, really? Okay, see, I'd have to do the math. Someone could probably do it for me and figure out who got theirs and who didn't.

Myke Hurley: They put the pen addict on the page. Oh, really?

Pen Addict Artwork

Brad Dowdy: You'll have to send me the link, yeah.

Myke Hurley: So on the actual Apollo Kickstarter page, they have our old podcast artwork.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I see. I see what you mean. Yeah, because we talked about it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So they made sure you got yours. Don't worry about that. And, again, I don't have a problem with that. And I also don't have a problem with there being problems. I don't have a problem with there being delays. Like, you know, you mentioned this, but I always feel like I want to reiterate it. But if, like, you are issuing updates, it's great. But if you have this happen at least twice where you have an update where you say we're shipping, we're starting shipping on Monday, and then something happens. And then you do it again and something happens again. You need to be more careful about what you're saying in your updates. Because you're clearly having some fundamental problems of your manufacturing, and maybe you need to reconsider that a little bit. Right. You know, it's difficult.

Brad Dowdy: I think the sad thing at this point is I think there's a greater than zero chance that some of these backers do not get a product out of this. Which is a weird place for the Kickstarter failures. Usually when they fail, they fail at zero, right? I mean, they fail at 0% shipped, right? Or what's successful ones will be 100% shipped. This one's like, I'm pulling this out of the thin air, 28% shipped. It's very, very strange that it's in kind of this middle area where some of it's complete and delivered and people have the product in their hands. And some, like I said, I hate to say it, quite honestly, may never see this product. It's been a very strange ride for the Apollo technical pin.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I didn't expect that to go on and on. But, yeah, it's an interesting project for sure.

Brad Dowdy: Back on kind of the Kickstarter bandwagon, I wanted to talk about Knock real quick, if you don't mind, Sir Michael of Hurley. Our friends at Goulet Pens, Brian and Rachel Goulet, they have always been big supporters of the Knock pen cases. You know, I've sent them some samples. They love them. They get good feedback. They recommend us all the time on their Goulet Q&A for people looking to leather alternatives for their pen cases. Like, a lot of people are vegan or, you know, want to be more animal friendly. And, you know, we believe in that at Knock. And that's how our pen cases are made. And Brian mentioned that as a vegan friendly option.

Brad Dowdy: Our Knock pen cases. And poor Brian and Rachel and a bunch of other retailers have been waiting for us so, so long to get into the retail market. And we're just struggling with that. You know, I want to be perfectly honest with everyone. We're having, we're working on our capacity issues as we speak. We have things going on in the background right now where we're trying to increase capacity. And, you know, for everyone who's looking for cases, not just directly from us, but looking for their favorite retailer to carry our cases, just know that we're working on it. I feel like we're the, we're the Apollo technical pen. We keep saying, yeah, we're going to get them out to retail. And we're like, not yet. It's like hard to promise dates. So I'm doing exactly, you know, some of the things I say not to do. But, you know, we keep the communication lines open with all the retail partners that we want to work with at Knock. And it will be coming one day soon. I just don't know exactly when that date is. But I appreciate all the support we get in the retailer community for our products. And we will get that settled out and straightened out one day, hopefully soon.

Myke Hurley: I want to just clarify something on your behalf. Sure. Because, you know, I just want to make sure that people understand, like, the struggle is not, there isn't a problem. The struggle is you guys are selling more than you can, than you can make. Yep. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We have no problems. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's a, it's a great problem. Yes. To have. The problem that, that Knock are having is the online stores so popular that they can't even fulfill all of those orders as quickly as they would want to. Like, I was there with Jeff after the pen show and we, you know, I was helping him count out some stuff.

Myke Hurley: And, you know, we were, we were putting them on the store. Uh, and basically as soon as we could get them, as soon as we had them up, as soon as Jeff put them up on the store, they sold out like straight away. Like it was just like instantly just sold out. So, you know, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of crazy to see, but you guys are very, very popular.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, to, to clarify your clarification, um, we, it's, it's a good, we're in a good place. You know, we're in a very good place. We're very busy. We're trying to keep up. Um, the demand is super high. And so we want to deliver and meet those expectations that everyone has. And so we're just having to work on that, you know, as a, as a new business, these are kind of the things you go through. And this is a good problem to have to try to solve. And so we're trying to work on that solution right now.

Myke Hurley: It was funny. It was just like me, father, Kyle, and Punky sitting on the floor counting pen cases.

Copic Markers

Brad Dowdy: I saw some of those pictures. It was good. It was good. So now I'm, I'm, I'm going to change. This is like a 180 on, on subject matter. And I want to talk about something that I don't think we have ever talked about on this show. And that is Copic sketch markers. And we've talked about the Copic brand before because I use their multiliners just for writing the multiliner and the multiliner SP, which is their aluminum barrel refillable replaceable tip marker. It's like a drawing marker. It's like a drawing marker, which I love. I've started to become fascinated with the sketch markers and how they work with the other Copic products. And this is not more of, not so much of a commentary on my part, but more of a question to the listeners out there. Who are Copic fans? Who are some of your favorite Copic artists that use Copic products? Like where I, where I get my mind blown is Jen Jean Osmond. A lot of people know her blog, Drawing with a Squirrel. And she actually does freelance work for Copic. Her work was so impressive that Copic like hires her to do some of their branding work. So I follow her a lot.

Brad Dowdy: I'm fascinated with how these materials work together and how this artwork works and how the whole Copic setup works. Because I know people swear by these products. So I've ordered a few pins, a few markers to play with. And, you know, to try to live up to my failed New Year's resolution for the past two years is to draw more. Well, I've kind of got this bug now. And, you know, unfortunately sometimes I get a little bit out ahead of myself. You know, I could use the products that I have more than ordering more products to make me do something else. But I want to get some resources. You know, I look online and I see a lot of Copic tutorials and things like that. And it's a lot of scrapbooking and things of that nature. I'm looking for more like just pure artist work and artwork that you see. Out there with Copic markers. So send those to me. Tweet me. Email me. Whatever you want to do to get in touch. And I'm just anxious to see all this work because I'm very impressed by it. And I want to see, you know, if I can at least dabble a little bit in this world of using like a full Copic Sketch marker setup. Not like purchase all the pins but have like two or three markers and kind of do some neat things. So it seems pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: I think I have one of these or two of these. It came with ArtSnacks.

Brad Dowdy: So you know what prompted this? What? ArtSnacks. I have a, I have a, I ordered a six month subscription that started this month. And I'm getting all these cool products. And I'm like, yeah, I got to use all this stuff. And I'm going to have this whole little art setup for myself. And I've got some Stillman and Bren notebooks that I know a lot of people use for artwork that I'm going to review and try to do these things. And, you know, try to learn a little bit something as I go that's different, you know, from, you know, our regular pins that we always talk about on here. So, yeah. It is definitely ArtSnacks fault that I'm going down this path.

Myke Hurley: I want to just give a, we've mentioned a full on plug to ArtSnacks right now. Because Lee has recently gone full time on ArtSnacks. So if you, I mean, they're a previous sponsor. So you should know the button. If you don't, you should go and check them out. The Rubensteins do a great job. And Lee now is 100% working on ArtSnacks.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And since I'm a disclosure guy, in full disclosure, I will say that Nock is working with Lee. We're at least talking with him about some stuff. So I don't want, you know, anyone to think anything nefarious is going on about that mention. I wasn't even planning on mentioning it at all. But since I have mentioned it and I am a full on subscriber of their service at full cost of my own money. I just love the service that much. But we have been talking with Lee from a Nock perspective on other things. So, yeah, we'll leave it at that. But I felt like I should mention that.

Myke Hurley: Well, that's exciting now, if anything.

Brad Dowdy: We'll see. We'll see.

Myke Hurley: One day I'll mention a company and you'll say that you're not talking to them.

Brad Dowdy: See why we're so busy?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I can feel it. I feel it.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Should we take a second break?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Let's take a second break. I actually have a bunch more to get to, which is pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: We have a new Grail pen as well for you. Oh, have you got it?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. Interesting. Okay. Let's see what our next sponsor says. Let's see. This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Making Light. Right. Today's world is full of distractions. You know that. We've mentioned these guys before. Making Light are a super cool company that can help you try and keep your focus and help you find ways to engage your senses a little bit more. Like, we listen to the type of music that we like. It engages our hearing. And we make the nice cup of coffee or a nice cup of tea or a soda that we grab. It engages our taste. These are things that we surround ourselves with so we can get our work done. Well, Making Light is there to engage your sight, but also your scent. Because Making Light, they create these beautiful candles that smell absolutely fantastic. And believe it or not, lighting a candle, the act of actually getting the candle, lighting the candle, putting it down with you, seeing it flicker and having the smell fill the room is something that can really help you focus like on your writing, maybe on meditation or any type of thing that you have that requires focus for you. So when I'm doing some heavily intensive work at the moment, like I'm working on something that I've not been looking forward to, I've been putting off or I know is going to be hard. I like Making Light Candle and it helps me focus and it helps me do what I need to do. Making Light Candle is a premium quality. They're really reasonably priced. Because, you know, these people, they're like us, they're pen addicts, you know, they understand these kinds of stuff. They love tactile things. They love them when they're made well and made of care and they pour, no pun intended, that into their candle making. That is what Making Light is all about. You know, we love things like we love our handmade notebooks, you know, we love instead of our phones and laptops because we understand that and appreciate that real things are crafted by hand. That's what we love. They're made from 100% botanical slow wax with fragrances that are infused with essential oils. They have reusable and recyclable tins. They're sustainable, green and clean. Each candle is hand poured by a small Indiana family business with a 40 years history of candle making. They even put a handwritten note in with each of their shipments. You can go to their website, like they're not being done out of the kitchen somewhere. Like they have a full on workshop. They have a team of people that they have there. They do absolutely incredible work. Each month, you'll receive everything you need for around 20 daily two hour rituals of focus. Whose scent will linger even after you blow out the candle and move back into that busy, distracted world. This comes in the form of two candles, a box of wooden matches and a previous sample of next month's fragrance. Making Light costs $24 per month with free shipping anywhere in the USA. They have Canadian shipping for an extra $5 a month and UK shipping for an extra $10. But once you factor in the exchange rates, it's totally worth it. And these candles are way better than anything you're going to find in your local mall. Listeners of this show can get $5 off their first order with the promo code goldenweb. So go find out more for yourself at makinglight.us. They have a great video there as well, which is really fun. And it's very funny, actually. I like it a lot. But it also helps show the product off a little bit more and give you some more kind of ways that you can use making light candles in your life. Thank you so much to Making Light for supporting this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: You know, it's funny since I got the samples from Making Light when they were going to sponsor us. I find them relocated and lit all around the house for my wife. She loves them. She's moving them around, lighting them. And we're big fans of Making Light here at the Pen Attic household. So another thing I'm a big fan of, Myke, is baseball, as you may know and a lot of listeners know, because they all sent me the link for the Retro 51 Home Run, which is the baseball-themed Retro 51. And I ordered one, of course, when I first saw it. I think there was only 500 of them or so made, so I did want to miss out on this one. Like, you have the basketball one. I forget the name of that one. Do you remember the name of that?

Myke Hurley: Swish?

Brad Dowdy: Swish, yeah. So this one's called Home Run. It's got the baseball stitching, kind of an off-white ivory. Looks like a baseball with the brass accoutrements on it. And I got it in today, right before the show. So I added it in. It's great, just like all the other Retro 51 products. I'm usually not a... Kitschy's not the right word, but, you know, like these...

Myke Hurley: Novelty.

Brad Dowdy: Novelty pen. Thank you. I'm not a novelty pen guy, but, man, Retro 51 makes some good-looking stuff. And it doesn't hurt that they write so well and we have, you know, have some refills that I like using in them. And just, I like everything about Retro 51, which everyone listening to this show knows that you and I are both fans. And so, yes, I got my home run in today. Number 148. Which, baseball is a big historical numbers thing. So 148 doesn't really mean anything. But, like, Mary Collis got number 9, which is a 9-inning baseball game. It would be nice to have some other, you know, like a 162-game season or some of the records, you know, like a 56-game hitting streak. It could be... There's lots of neat numbers you could get in the limited edition. I'll have to figure out if 148 means anything at all. You can retrofit something. Yeah, I can retrofit something. I'll come up with something. So, anyway, I got my home run in. So, thank you for everyone who sent me the link so I could get one ordered before they sold out. So, I'm excited about it.

Myke Hurley: I was very excited today to see the Retro 51 people tweet that they just had their new catalogs printed. They've got some new products. That always excites me. That always excites me.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. We'll have to see what they come up with. I don't follow them super closely, like on their website. They come out with a lot of stuff. They push through lots of goods every year, which is kind of impressive. So, it's neat to see. And I like kind of the small batch stuff that they do. Vintage Surf is still my favorite. That's one of the best pens ever. So, that pen, it rides with me in the Topo Mountain Bag.

Myke Hurley: I think it's a genius business. Because if you can get it to the point where you understand your manufacturing, right? And you're able to do this and you're able to make a profit off of every run. What you end up doing is like two things. You have people like me who collect, right? I own more Retro 51s than I do any other pen, right? I just own a ton of them. And the other thing is you're also opening up your product to more people. Because you have been more styles. You might attract people. There'll be people that will buy this baseball pen that have never heard of Retro 51 before. Sure. Oh, absolutely. And then they get indoctrinated into the thing. I also have a super rare one now. I have a commissioned sketchnote workshop pen from Myke Rohde. Cool. Yeah. He's a very, very nice man. And I hinted that I would like to buy one from him. Because he only had a very small amount made. And he very graciously said that I could. So, it's one of the all black ones. Yeah, I've seen pictures. With a sketchnote workshop on the side.

Brad Dowdy: So, I told Myke Rohde that we'll need to get him back online. Because he was traveling over in Prague. His sketchnote workbook has blown up. It was published in Czech. So, he was over in Prague doing a book tour. And he was on television. And they were interviewing him about the book. And he sent over some pictures from the television feed. And he had his NotCo pen case laying on the table over there on the Prague news station. Filming a thing. I said, that's amazing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'd love to have Myke back on. He's such a great guy. It's been way too long, actually. Let's make that happen.

Pen Blog

Brad Dowdy: We will do that. We will do that. So, we'll get you back on, Myke. All right. So, let's jump to the pen blog of the week, Myke. And I'm going to fess up. I almost forgot it. And you reminded me. I'm out of my routine. I have a very strict blog planning routine. And I usually have like a spot built in for the regular segments like pen blog of the week. And since last week was the first reoccurrence after the reboot of the pen blog of the week, I didn't have it, you know, fixed into the show notes like I normally do. So, you reminded me right before the show. And luckily, I had a really good one, which I can't believe didn't make the first run of the pen blog of the week. And that's pen, paper, pencils from our good friend Ian Headley over there in your neck of the woods. Ian's an awesome guy. He's done three questions on Pen Addict. He's got a post up right now, Myke, that he will make you. He's a man after your own heart. He has a Rotor Fodden Toshen McGlider, which we haven't talked about in a while. He did a big review on that last week. And you'll have to see the pictures of this thing. It is packed to the hilt. I don't know that I've ever seen one packed so full before in my life. And I love every single thing about this. When you see a product being used to its fullest extent, and I have a hard time with allowing myself to, like, use items. And what I mean is, you know, getting them banged up, destroyed. I'm a bit of a neat freak, right? So, you know, taking care is one thing, but not worrying about what happens to these products is great. And it's awesome to see Ian carrying this book with just papers flying out of it, corners dinged up. And it's like, I'm jealous of that. It's like, that's not in my mental makeup to roll out a setup like this. And I just find it supremely fascinating. And it honestly makes me a little bit jealous that, you know, some of my own personal insecurities are going to get in the way of me just, like, throwing down in a wicked notebook like this. So, yeah, definitely check out what Ian's doing at penpaperpencil.net because he's awesome.

Myke Hurley: So I don't need that, and I won't use that rotavon anymore. Why? I've got something else.

Brad Dowdy: Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Yeah. Is that for a future episode?

Myke Hurley: No. Well, I don't know. It's up to you.

Myke Hurley: I'd be very... Oh. I don't know if you know about that, but yeah, I have something else.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Kind of related to something we were talking about earlier.

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Well, let's get to our final sponsor because I still got... I still have a bunch I want to talk about, including my personal top five pens update.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. This week's episode of the Pen Addict Podcast is also brought to you by MassDrop, an online community for enthusiasts of all kinds, from audio and electronics to quilting and cooking. It is a place for you to connect with people like you, to discuss your favorite products and activities, and buy them together. MassDrop represents a new type of online experience that combines community, content, and commerce. MassDrop offers its users a place where you can meet and connect over the products that you love. It's a forum where you can vote on and discuss the products that you're passionate about, and it also gives you a platform to connect directly with manufacturers and buy products together to get bulk pricing. They're not a flash sales website. They're not a deal site. The thing that is most important to the guys and girls over at MassDrop is that they want to be able to build communities around things that people love. That's what they're passionate about. Ultimately, they're here to help you by making the products that you care about more affordable and accessible and provide you with a platform to connect with other like-minded individuals. I know that group buys is something that's really important to this community. Some of the stuff that we buy can be really expensive, and buying in bulk can help you with that. And this is where a service like MassDrop can help. They can help facilitate it. They can help get the people together. And this is something that's really cool for the community. I've taken a look at MassDrop in the past. I was looking very recently as well. They have some awesome deals where you can get 20% to 30% off brands like Pelican and Franklin Kristoff. I've seen Retro 51 there. I've seen Lamy stuff there. I've seen Karis Custom stuff there as well in the past. If you're interested in buying yourself something nice, go over to dro.ps slash thepenaddict and sign up. This site's totally worth checking out. It's a great service. You know, not even just to buy things, you know, just to go and find people like you, you know, other pen addicts that you can connect with. They have that great forum that you can get involved with as well. It's not, you know, it's not just pens for focus on that, but it's all kinds of great things. So go check out mashdrop.com. But you want to sign up at dro.ps slash thepenaddict, dro.ps slash thepenaddict. And that will also help support this show. Thank you so much for MashDrop for helping out this week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I don't do a lot of email newsletters in my inbox, but I let the MashDrop one come through because there's usually something pretty cool in it. And I've found lots of neat stuff. And, you know, I'm looking at headphones and speakers and all kinds of crazy stuff. So yeah, thank you, MashDrop, for sponsoring. And they definitely keep all the cool stuff stocked. So I appreciate that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, talking about the newsletter, I saw a couple of things that came through for me the other day. The Pentel Graph Gear 500 drafting pencil in a four-pack. They have Rodeo Unlimited pocket notebooks. A company I've ever heard of, Bexley Phoenix.

Brad Dowdy: Sure, yeah, Bexley. Bexley's an American fountain pen company.

Myke Hurley: There you go, Bexley. They have fountain pens. They have color bundles, the Pilot Friction, so much more. So, you know, just stuff to whet your appetite with.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. All right, so we're going to wrap this up on a hopefully new feature on the blog, which is going to be my personal top five pens, which everyone was asking for after I readjusted the top five pens page. And someone already caught my fatal flaw in the comments section of this post. I named this post completely inaccurately. I said current top five pens, May 2015. That makes it sound like I'm doing a top five pens update instead of trying to do this personal list that people were asking for when I did the last one. So I think I need to change the name of the title. I don't know if it's too late for me to do that. I mean, I can always do it, but I don't know if I should bother this time. I may do that next time. So good catch. John Bemis, about an hour after I posted this, I realized that's not really a good title. And I apologize for that. But what I wanted to try to do is give a good representation of the products I've been using. I'm kind of using the last month as a timeframe for this post. And that's how it'll be going forward.

Brad Dowdy: So the five pens I've been using the most. Number one, and it's actually, well, I won't say it's far and away. I've been using the first three more than anything. Number one, it's the Franklin Kristoff Pocket 66 ice that I got at the pen show. And the reason why I'm enjoying it so much is not just of how cool it looks and how nice it feels.

Brad Dowdy: The needlepoint nib I got in there is ridiculous. It's so good. I write so small, so clean. It's really smooth. It's, you know, when I first started getting heavy into fountain pens, Myke, I wanted extra, extra, extra, extra, extra, extra, extra fine. Like as much as I could get, right? The finer, the better. Because I wanted to write like the fine gel ink pens, you know, that I like, like the Pilot High Tech C. And then I realized that if you're into fountain pens, you kind of miss out on the ink properties, if you will, of using a pen that fine. You know, if you're using a basic, if you're using like a really neat color, like an orange, it doesn't really pop in a pen that fine. So I morphed all the way to the other end into these wide stub nibs so I can get some ink expressiveness. Well, this needlepoint nib has pulled me back in to these extra, extra, extra fine nibs. And I love it. It writes so well. Every time I use it, I always look at my page afterwards and go, yeah, that looks good. So, you know, that's a, that's a quality pen and a quality nib. So that's, I'm a huge fan of. The second one is the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Mangaka Outline Pen, size 01 in purple.

Myke Hurley: That's a bit of a mouthful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So this is the drawing pen that I love. And I'm keeping a Field Notes Roastery Edition with a bunch of baseball stats, tracking, planning. You know, I do lots of fantasy baseball stuff. So that's my baseball pen right now until I got this, I got my real Retro 51 baseball pen in. This is the pen I use for that. It's the firmest drawing pen tip I've ever used. It's very sturdy. It's very clean, sharp lines, and it holds up really well. I mean, I've probably filled 20 pages full of notes in this Field Notes so far, and that's a little larger size. You know, the Roastery Edition is like 4x6 or whatever it is. And that pen hasn't broken down at all. And, you know, those, that's just part of, part of the deal with drawing pens is the tips break down. You know, they're the plastic or felt tip pens, and they just break down. This one holds up extremely well. The TI2 Tech Liner rounds out really the top three. Those three, the Pocket 66 fountain pen, the Kuretake drawing pen, and the TI2 Tech Liner for a gel ink pen, that's kind of my triumvirate right now. That's the three most used pens that I have right now. I use the Tech Liner for everything. I carry it with me everywhere I go. People were asking about the Gonzo Dyes Edition that I mentioned. That's a finish that was only available for Kickstarter backers. They don't, Myke Bond doesn't make that finish anymore. That's my favorite finish. I have two other ones. I keep one on my desk at work, a third one on my desk at home. I just love everything about that pen. You can use the Signo 207 refills, work on that, and the RT1, the Signo RT1 refills work in that, which I like the .38 blue-black refills. You can get other colors in that. Myke Bond has started making new magnets for the TI2 Tech Liner. I don't have any of those handy, but the camo versions that he makes for Nock, we have the new magnets in them that allow you to use the Uniball Jetstream refills because they weren't compatible before. All those refills were good in it. Then I have two more fountain pens that round out the top five. One of them I can't seem to ever un-ink, and that's the Pilot Custom Heritage 92. It's a blue demonstrator. I ordered it from Japan. It's not in the U.S. market yet. You can get the clear barrel in the U.S. market. It's a piston filler. I ordered it with a broad nib. I got Myke Masayama to put a cursive italic grind on it. And one of the things we skipped over today, which we're going to talk about, I had a lot of people in the Slack channel ask me more about grinds and writing with certain types of nibs. We'll do a whole segment on that in an upcoming episode on that. I had to cut some things out for time reasons today. But there's just something about this pen. I'm a big fan of Pilot nibs. Their gold nibs are fantastic. This piston model works really well. I love the blue demonstrator look, and the nib is straight-up killer. And if you couldn't tell by now, the third fountain pen I have is another demonstrator. I like demonstrator fountain pens, unlike you, Myke. You're anti-demonstrator. I'm a demonstrator. It's Edison Menlo. And this is a custom job I had done. Well, I didn't have done. Jeff, Brooke Wiki, had this done for me as a gift. And it's a really, really special pen to me, not just because of the gift part of it, but it's straight-out awesome. It's a Menlo. It's in a colorway that I love with the red and blue. I call it the 3D Menlo. It looks awesome. The nib's killer. It's really sharp, really clean. I love my handwriting. If you can't tell in the picture that I put in this post, you can see how clean my handwriting looks with all these pens. I think that's what sells me on a pen the most, is what does my output look like on the page? And there's things to consider, especially with fountain pens, what ink are you using, what paper are you using? But how does my output look on the page? This is my preferred style of pen. You can see what all this writing looks like. You can tell how clean and crisp and clear it is. They're very enjoyable pens. And that's kind of the group that has really been in heavy rotation here recently. You'll notice there's not a Nakaya in the list. I have three Nakayas inked right now, but I'm about to clean them out just to kind of give them a break because I've been using this group of pens more than any here recently, which doesn't surprise me. I have a lot of pens to go through, and I like to mix it up like I hadn't had the Menlo inked up for months and months and months. And now that I have it back in the rotation, I don't ever want to take it back out again. It's that great of a pen. So I'm going to try to do this every month, and I think after this one, I'm going to start incorporating other products as well, not just my top five pens, but maybe my top five products I'm using. You know, add in paper, add in whatever I might be using, just not always straight pens every time. So if you have any feedback on this list and how I'm doing it and, you know, what my personal tastes are and things like that, just definitely get in touch. So what do you think about this type of post, you know, to recur frequently on the pen addict?

Myke Hurley: I think it's worthwhile as long as it changes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like if June is the same, then there might not be too much point in posting it, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So it may not end up being monthly, so we'll just have to see how it goes. And that's why I want to add in other products as well. Just things that I'm more of a things I've used over the past month in like all of stationary type stuff. So, yeah. I think there's some adjustments to be done going forward, and we'll kind of see how it plays out. But I've had so many requests for it, I wanted to do kind of a what's Brad carrying right now these days. So I think that's the tact I'll take going forward.

Myke Hurley: So I've been using my Sailor Pro gear just like constant. It's just constant. Like I've already had to refill it. It's the pen I'm using right now, but I did want to mention that you sent me that whatever it's called. What is it called?

Brad Dowdy: The micro mesh.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the micro mesh stuff. And it has perfected this fragment crystal stuff. I'm not having any problems with it anymore, and it is a dream. I'm using it right now. I might actually have this on my desk in a couple of days because that blood red just looks so sweet.

Kevin Pollack

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great looking. Great looking. All right. So if we're ready to wrap, I have one more thing I want to let the listeners in on. And this is Tony Roman sent this in to me on Twitter. And it's a bit from, oh, God, what's the name? I didn't even pull it up.

Myke Hurley: Kevin Pollack's chat show.

Brad Dowdy: Kevin Pollack. Yeah. So Kevin Pollack did a show, and he records the audio, and they do a little cartoony type video on YouTube that they upload. And this one is about, woo!

Myke Hurley: Ooh.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. I hit play. I didn't mean to.

Myke Hurley: I wonder what was happening there.

Brad Dowdy: It blew out my ears. This is about the time when Kevin Pollack was on A Few Good Men, on the set of A Few Good Men, and telling a story about Tom Cruise and the pen Tom Cruise was using. And I'm going to leave it at that. It's only three minutes and 40 seconds, and it's got extremely not-safe-for-work language. And plus, I didn't want to send this early because everyone would go listen to this in the chat room and not pay attention to what we're saying. So we're going to leave it with this. We'll send the chat room the link. They can check it out. Let us know what they think, and we'll have the link in the show notes for everyone to go check out Kevin Pollack talking about Tom Cruise's giant pen.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. If you want to find those show notes, they should be in the app that you're using, hopefully. It should be in your podcast app of choice, or alternatively, go to see us on the web. We're at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 154 for this week's episode. If you want to catch me and Brad online, there's a couple of places you can do that. You can find Brad Dowdy. He is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. He is at penaddict on Instagram and also writes at penaddict.com. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and on Twitter as well. If you want to catch us there, you can do that. Thanks again to our sponsors for this week's episode, Making Light, Massdrop, and Pen Chalet. And thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Pen Addict Podcast. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.