The Pen Addict 163/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	163
Title:	I'm Just Wasting Ink Here
Release Date:	July 13th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 163
Audio File:	Audio Episode 163
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 163
Length:	6363 min <br />1.05 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 163. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's, an exceptional shave at a fraction of the price, and Fracture, photos printed in vivid colour directly on glass. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by a man who refills me with energy every week, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: That was pretty darn good, I like that one.

Myke Hurley: Thank you, thank you. I thought of that one when I was on my way up to the room today to record.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was nice. I'm glad I refill you with energy, and this podcast refills me with energy. I've talked about that a million times, right? Like how, you know, I wake up, you know, an hour or two ago, and I'm kind of dragging, and I'm like, oh man. I never dread doing the podcast, because it always gives me, like, a bunch of energy, and I'm always kind of bouncing, you know, skipping across the floor when I'm done recording. So, yep, yep. So, I want you to say hello to our special guest today. Oh. Well, I didn't do it to you today. I didn't drop a special guest on you today.

Myke Hurley: Wouldn't that be terrible if there was someone, and I'm like, oh, this guy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I didn't drop it on you today, but you were chastising me in the pre-show that I didn't get the show notes up earlier for you, so something must have got into you this week, and you were ready to put your one sentence into the show notes, you know, a little bit before I got into it.

Myke Hurley: I think it was the fear of having a surprise guest again, because you definitely didn't tell me about Ed last week. I did forget the week beforehand when we were speaking to the gentleman stationer, but I definitely did not know that Mr. Jelly was joining us last week. I won't accept any explanation.

Brad Dowdy: All right, all right. So, you had an opportunity to discover that, but that's okay. I'll take the fall for that one, but it turned out to be awesome, and we appreciated Ed coming on. We got a lot of good feedback on that show. People liked hearing about the Emerald of Shibor, Inc., so that was pretty cool, and everything else Ed is into.

Myke Hurley: That was good. I listened back to a big chunk of that whilst editing, and it was really fun to listen to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, it came out real good, and I was being hard on myself last week after the show, too. I was like, oh, man, I didn't bring my A game in the beginning, but once we got interviewing with Ed, I stepped it up. It happens sometimes.

Myke Hurley: That was my fault. No, no. It's all good. I'm just going to take it. It was my fault. Don't worry about it, bro.

Pelican

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. No biggie. No biggie. We did get a very nice correction from last week. We were talking about one of the latest Pelican models, the Gustav. I called it the Stressman, which is very wrong, and Lars emailed to correct me.

Myke Hurley: I assume it should have been Stressman, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's Stressman.

Myke Hurley: Oh, really? It was spelled out like that? Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so he sent the link to Gustav Stresman's Wikipedia page, and it's got the pronunciation thing. You know, you click the little name, and it plays the actual pronunciation, so I appreciate you sending that, because that's one of those words where I didn't really look at it close enough. It just kind of runs together, and you're just thinking Stressman, and it didn't really hit me that I was way, way wrong on that one, so I appreciate it from Lars with the correction. We always love our pronunciation corrections, right, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, how long were we saying Kaweco for?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so we've got German, French, and Japanese listeners that correct us all the time, and there will be plenty more as well.

Myke Hurley: And we really need them. Oh my gosh, we really do need them. Between the boy from Atlanta and the boy from East London, we definitely need the pronunciation corrections.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, these are not things that offend us in the least. It's like, please correct us, and we will apologize and do a better job next time. You know, it's stuff we've got to work on, especially some of the stuff we talk about. It's from all over the world. And when you're on the internet, like we are, you don't actually get to hear these things said out loud, right? You're just reading it, and you don't know the actual pronunciation of it. So yeah, that was perfect. Nakaya, right? Nakaya? That's still hard for me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I still feel like I'm not getting it completely, but I think it's Nakaya.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that sounds right. I'm not even going to try, though. All right, we got another reader email from Alan. I wanted to read this one. This one, I didn't share it in here because I wanted to spring this one on you because you're going to enjoy this one. This is kind of a two-parter email, but it was so good. I asked Alan if I could share it on the podcast, and he said yes, so let me get into this. He says, Anyway, the point of this email is just to let you know that my casual listening has now been converted into actual spending. It's a small start, but who knows where it might lead. And whilst listening on my iPhone to your discussion of the Retro 51 Tornado Popper Liftoff Special Edition, I was curious enough to switch over to Safari and hunt one down. I landed on the Anderson Pins site and promptly ordered one to be shipped to the UK. Just one week later, it arrived, and I'm absolutely delighted with the Apollo Saturn V-inspired design. And I was also pleasantly surprised at the lovely dark ink and smooth writing experience. Yay, we're happy about the Retro 51, love. The service from Anderson Pins was great, too. They shipped the pen instantly, and the calling card and mint included in the pack were a nice touch. All right, so that's part one.

Myke Hurley: I've seen this email.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, did he send it to you?

Myke Hurley: I've seen this email, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right, so we're going to let you fire off right here. All right, so that part was for both of us. Now this part is for you.

Myke Hurley: So I don't have it in front of me, but I read it. And when I read it, I was like, as much as I love you, Alan, I can't help you, and I can't talk about this. Alan was very upset because of the customs charge that he received. And I kind of read it. I kind of glossed over it. Like, I glanced it, and I was like, this is just making me mad. I can't even continue. So that, my understanding is he, from my memory of reading this, was he wasn't blaming anyone. No, no. Which was just really annoyed. And, buddy, I am so there with you. Like, I can't. Let's be like, I'm so angry reading the email. I couldn't even, I had to close the email. Because every time I think about it, and it's like, you spend this money, and then you get this huge random customs charge. Because that's the worst part about it, is they're random. Like, I've bought $50 pens, and I've bought $200 pens, and the $200 pens got them through. Like, it just feels like it's completely random.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so if you're a long-time listener of the show, you know customs in the UK is a huge, huge issue. And if you live there, it just stinks for all kinds of reasons. But I did want to drop this on you, because I didn't realize you were copied in on the mail. But let me just read the, it's one little short paragraph, just for those who aren't aware of what we're talking about and how crazy it is. Alan says, I paid US $35 for the pen, plus $15 for shipping to the UK. After currency conversions, the total came to about 32 pounds. Pretty good. Annoyingly, UK customs folks then decided to charge me another 12 pounds. And then another 4 pounds for the vat. And then another 8 pounds for handling fee.

Myke Hurley: That's the bit that bites me the most, by the way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's like, I didn't ask you to handle it. Why are you charging me? Right. You decided to do this. See what's happening to me already? That's why I can't read these emails. That's why I wanted to read it.

Brad Dowdy: So his approximately 23 pound pen ended up costing about 45 pounds, which is just about double the original price. So he says, still a lovely pen. I'm glad that I own it. But he had to give me the customs rant that I knew you would appreciate.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I'm still waiting to get mine for my liftoff. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm confident that I'm going to get one. I always expect I'm going to get one now for every pen that I buy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That stinks.

Myke Hurley: That stinks. I have to say, though, Alan, you are a special breed of human. And I love you. Because just because you listen to the show. I can't even understand why someone would listen to this show, let alone it go to the top of their list if they're not really interested in pens. And I'm happy that you're buying some stuff, you know, because you will get endless more enjoyment out of this show once you start buying and enjoying the fine things that we talk about. But that is a very, very interesting and fantastic thing to me that somebody could enjoy this having not really too much of an interest in pens. I feel like there can't be many people in the world that listen to this show with that sort of persuasion.

Brad Dowdy: We've actually gotten that a few times. Like, you know, people just say, this is really interesting. I'm not totally, like, deep into it like you guys are. But just, you know, I enjoy listening to the conversation.

Myke Hurley: Usually those emails, though, are like, oh, I started listening about too much and then I listened to five episodes and now I have 65 bottles of ink and 400 fountain pens, right? But, like, it seems like Alan is, like, he's way deeper into the show and with way more money still left in his pockets.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. So, good move, Alan. So, we appreciate the email and sorry about your customs issues.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm very, trust me, I'm very sorry.

Journaling

Brad Dowdy: So, I want to talk about this post by our friend Ben Brooks on personal journaling. He posted it last week. And I read it. I read Ben's blog and I read this post and it's me. This is, like, exactly me, which is why I wanted to put it in the show notes. I have trouble keeping a journal and I've tried to use day one. It's really one of the most beautiful apps on my iPhone and it's wonderful to use. I just don't use it. I ended up deleting it about a month ago just because I'm never typing in there. So, before I've even read Ben's post here, like, a week or two before that, I had actually started writing in a journal a little bit more, which is not something I ever do. And I just thought it was a good take on the state of, like, a personal journal. And it's a real short read. Y'all check it out. And I just wanted to take this one paragraph towards the end. This pretty much sums it up. He says, Journaling is something different to each person. And for me, it's the fleeting thoughts and feelings of the late night at the tail end of a long week where I sit on the edge of my bed, weary and tired, trying to form coherent thoughts that one day my kids might read. I don't have time for lies, exaggerations, or creative prose. Only honesty seems to exist at that moment. But so, the way I read that is, like, I've never been someone that can journal on a schedule, right? I don't have a set day, a set time, which is why I never turned on, like, the day app reminders. Okay, go journal now. It doesn't work that way for me. And that's kind of what I get out of Ben's thing. It's, you know, it's kind of that recap of whatever personal journey you've embarked on during the day or the week. And it's something, you know, interesting that someone else might read later down the line. It's not for, like, I don't ever want my journal to be, like, a forced writing thing, which is why I don't do a schedule. And this is kind of a new thing to me. I'm kind of feeling it out. Maybe we can talk about it more later as I go with it and see if it sticks. I've never stuck really hard on a journal, but I'd like to this time, and I'm not making it a daily requirement. You know, that's important to me. I can't do that. That doesn't work. I've tried time and time and time again. I know personally that doesn't work for me. For some people, it's the best way to do it. So, I don't – you don't really keep a personal journal, right, Myke?

Myke Hurley: No. I use day one, but I use it as, like, a memory box is probably the best way to describe it.

Brad Dowdy: The way you've told me you use day one, and I've heard this conversation. I don't know if we had it on here, but the way you use day one actually would work for me really well. You, like, take snippets from – I almost want to say your online world. Yeah. And then paste them into day one and say kind of, like, this great thing happened today, and here's a link to it or something.

Myke Hurley: They're personal achievements or, like, things that – they tend to be either big days in my, like, online life. You know, like, we've had a big day of some description and a new exciting thing has happened. Or they're things that if I could send my day one back into time, they would be really impressive. So, like, if I could show me five years ago, look what happened today, they would be very impressive to me of five years ago. Right. And then basically I maybe look through them every now and then and just be like, you know, oh, that's all these nice things. Because when you collect them all up, it's like a nice collection of stuff. But that tends to be what I use it for. It's like a retroactive time capsule or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. See, I like that. I think that's a good use for day one. I think that's how I could use day one. But, like, I was telling you in the pre-show this weekend, this past weekend, was my son's birthday. And, you know, I want to write, you know, just kind of about the cool things we did and how we had fun and whatever. Just really just stuff important to me. I can't type that into day one. That doesn't work for me. That digitalness doesn't feel right when I'm doing something super personal like that. Like, that's just for me. And even though day one's just for me, when I'm putting it digitally, it just doesn't feel like that. It doesn't feel like it's just for me. Does that make sense? Yeah, I do. It's a little bit odd. It's a little bit odd. So, anyway, I thought I wanted to share this post because Ben and I agree on a lot of things. And, you know, some people love Ben. Some people hate Ben. And I tend to agree with Ben way more than most people. So, I appreciated him writing this. I could totally see myself in this. So, yeah, there you go. Now, this next thing. I gave Myke homework last night as I was putting together the show notes. This video made the rounds last week around the pen blogosphere and really around the world. It's a video called Ink, written by hand. And it's an ink documentary. And I'm sure a lot of you have seen this. And I just watched it this weekend. And I sent Myke the link to watch it before the show last night. So, what did you think about it, Myke, just in general?

Myke Hurley: Loved it.

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty great, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: It's, you know, it's one of those types of documentaries. You will have seen these before on the internet. It's like a person candidly speaking softly with nice music in the background and lots of close-up shots. And then walking around the town that they live in and being at home. You know, you've seen these. This is like a style of documentary which has been quite popular on the internet in the last couple of years. That is not a criticism because I love that style. But it's just, you've seen a style, you've seen documentaries in this style before. I thought it was very well made. The lady who they had on there, she seemed like in a really interesting place with her pen nerdiness. She seemed quite new to it, it seemed. It was the way that it came across. But seems to have found this thing that she loves and has turned it into a business. And she lived, looked like she lived in a building that I could not comprehend but is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, if that's her apartment slash workspace, it's amazing.

Myke Hurley: Like, what was that building?

Brad Dowdy: It's almost like an open loft concept but the inside was built out. But it was like inside outside. Yeah. It was really beautiful.

Myke Hurley: It was like they took a prison and turned it into a beautiful thing. Because that's what it looked like, right? It was like this big inside courtyard area and these apartment buildings that were around the perimeter but facing into this courtyard. Like, it looked like a prison, right? Can you get what I mean by that?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Sure. The way it was set out. But if anyone knows what that building is, I would love to know.

Wonder Pens

Myke Hurley: But yeah, it was great. She went to this little pen shop, this great looking pen shop. It's called Wonder Pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Wonder Pens. It's in Toronto. And that's my kind of pen shop. It was like stuff everywhere. I mean, boxes in the windows but just like shelves filled with ink and pens and paper. She was flipping through all the paper. It was really good. I thought I just really liked hearing Tanya speak. She was like super calm and relaxed. And, you know, it wasn't like a handwriting video, right? They showed her, you know, and she talked about writing, you know, handwriting and how, you know, it's a lost art. And we've lost a whole generation of people who, you know, can't even read cursive, much less write it. But it wasn't just like straight up focused on her with ink on the page. I thought the ink on the page parts were totally complimentary to the rest of the story they were telling. And I thought they did a really good job. And Ryan Coldry was the director and who filmed it. And I thought it was really spectacular. I really, really enjoyed it. I mean, it's seven minutes. It's seven minutes well spent.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It was a beautiful video. And I'll be watching this again. I've definitely got this saved so I can pick it up and get some inspiration sometimes. In the video, she's a huge fan of Noodler's Black. Yeah. So that's the ink she was using for her dip pens. It's waterproof ink. This is how she was stating. And that's the thing she uses the most. And she has a tray full of pens on her desk.

Myke Hurley: She had one of the fancy J.O. Barnes as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. She did. Did you notice that? I did. It's the Stormy Gray. She actually made a... She's getting a lot of feedback. I followed her on Twitter and Instagram after I saw this. And on Instagram today, we'll post a link into the show notes. She posted an image of all the pens and ink she's using. So we'll put that in there. She just did that a few hours ago. And you can see all the pens. You know, she's got like a Lamy Safari, a Schaefer. You know, her various dip pens and things like that. So very cool. So well worth your time to check out and save and watch anytime you need some inspiration or just want to watch some good filmmaking done. I thought it was a really, really nice job.

Myke Hurley: I do have an opinion. A potentially controversial opinion.

Brad Dowdy: It's why we're here.

Myke Hurley: When she was... And you just mentioned it then about the... About her feeling that it's a problem, maybe. That people these days, like kids these days, don't know how to write in cursive, that kind of thing. Mm-hmm. I don't think that's a problem.

Brad Dowdy: I'm... That's an entire episode. That one little statement. Because... Go ahead and elaborate, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So the reason I don't think it's a problem is because if you don't care, right? Like we do. Mm-hmm. So like we like that stuff. She likes that stuff. And there are people that will pay her good money to do it because it is this retro-y kind of feeling. Mm-hmm. But the reason that... The reason that kids or people don't care about it these days because they don't need it...

Myke Hurley: It is not required to write anymore. Like it just isn't. Like you just need to face facts on it like computers, right? We all use them. We know what they are, right? They're our computers. And as long as you can write, it doesn't matter how it looks. And it's probably more efficient and better for the time that you're going to write to write in block capitals. Because everyone can understand them. Mm-hmm. Like cursive is beautiful, or as we would call it here, joined up handwriting. Did you know that we call it like that?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. I think we've talked about that before. I always forget the phrase that's used. But yeah.

Myke Hurley: Joined up handwriting. It's not a requirement. Look, don't get me wrong, guys. You know, you are preaching to the choir in saying that this is a beautiful thing that we should never lose. And I agree with that. It should never be lost. But it doesn't need to be learned by every single kid in the world. I think.

Brad Dowdy: Let me help you out here. And I agree with the overall sentiment. What I disagree with is that kids should not learn handwriting, period. And what you're saying is they shouldn't have to learn cursive. I'm okay with them not learning cursive. That's fine. But as long as they have good, proper handwriting, can use a pen on a piece of paper, and it be legible. I'm good with that. But that should never go away in schools. And we're seeing that. We're seeing that happen. Not just cursive as a whole, but writing with analog tools as a whole is disappearing. And that's what I don't want to lose.

Myke Hurley: So I 100% feel that way, that you should still learn to write properly. Like, you just should. And that should be a thing that you learn. I also think that when you're taught, you should be taught cursive. Sure. I believe that you should be, and that shouldn't go away in teaching kids to write that way. I just don't think it's something we need to be concerned about that people don't do it past that point.

Brad Dowdy: I think it's unhealthy, to be quite honest. I think you have to do it. I just think it's part of being a well-rounded human being, you know, and being able to have critical thinking. I think it's really all linked in. And you can't just say it's one thing, well, handwriting is going to change everything. But I think it's the mentality of that type of writing and that type of thinking that I'm afraid is going to get lost in the future. And, you know, that's my primary concern. Not, you know, I don't want kids in the third grade to only be using a computer to do their work. I think there's value in teaching handwriting, at least through high school. Not necessarily, you don't have to teach it to the older kids, but it has to be part, write your papers. You know, turn in your first draft of your papers by hand, not on the computer. It's challenging. It's thought provoking. And I just think it makes for a better person. So that's my rant. I think we're generally on the same page. But, I mean, I see what you're saying and I'm just a little bit afraid that we're going to lose it completely from school-age children going forward. So we'll see. Hope not.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Cheer us up.

Brad Dowdy: With one of our good buddies.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Harry's. You've heard us speak about Harry's a bunch. And there's a really good reason for that. It's because we love their products. For many of us, shaving can be a thing that we don't even like to do or that we don't like having to spend a ton of money on to get a good result. And this is exactly what Harry's was started to be able to fix. Because what Harry's do is they make their own blades, they make them at a good price, and they make them a good design. So you get everything all in one. They have high-quality, high-performing German blades. They're crafted by shaving experts from a factory that Harry's owns in Germany. They love the blades so much that they wanted that factory in Germany to be part of the Harry's family. So they made that happen. Harry's razors offer a high-quality shave at about a fraction of the price of other big brand blades. They ship for free to your front doorstep, and their starter set is an amazing deal. For just $15, you can get yourself a razor, moisturizing shave cream or foaming shave gel, and three razor blades. On average, an everyday shaver who uses Harry's products is going to be saving themselves $150 each year. Because their blades are just better priced, and they're just great quality. With Harry's, your satisfaction is guaranteed because that is something that is so important to them. Brad, could you please reiterate for our friends out in the podcast listening world what you love about Harry's products?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you mentioned the cost, and I certainly haven't done the math, but just to put it to rest, not only are they less expensive than your main store brand blades, I find that they actually last longer than those store brand blades. Like, you're not getting some... Harry's not selling you a cheaper blade that you're going to have to replace more often, and your cost ends up being the same. So it's as equal to, if not better, than, like, the big-name store brand blades. I switch my blade off. It, you know, it is infrequently, as I did with my other razors. And the other thing they do that they've done recently, Myke, is they started making some of their products, the not-shave product, the not-razor products, but, you know, the gels, the creams, and the lotions in bigger sizes, where before I would restock, I'd buy, like, three of the small ones. Well, now they're making, like, one big one, so I can get, like, one big, you know, after-shave gel, which I'm happy about instead of having the three small ones. So it's definitely a company I love and support. You know, you guys know I love them. And my house is full of Harry's products, so there you have it.

Myke Hurley: Awesome stuff. If you want to grab some of these products for yourself as a really easy way to do that, go to harrys.com right now, and they'll give you $5 off if you use the coupon code PENADDICT with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. And use the code PENADDICT at checkout. It'll get you $5 off, support this show, and let you start shaving better today. Experience a clean, close, comfortable shave with Harry's. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show.

New Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's talk about some new pens. I've gotten a bunch of things in recently, new pens, new inks, new blog posts that I want to talk about that we've kind of been alluding to, you know, over the past few episodes. But we've had some great guests, and, you know, we want to give them the floor, and we'll save up a few topics like this. So, like, my Shinobi. Like, everyone wants to hear about my Shinobi from Newton Pens.

Brad Dowdy: There is obviously going to be a review coming on the PENADDICT down the line. I hadn't even started or considered it because I'm having too much fun using this PENADDICT. It's one of the most interesting PENADDICT I own, if not the most interesting PENADDICT I own, from how subtly great it is. Like, the first thing you look at when you see the Shinobi is an expensive PENADDICT. You know, it's a very expensive PENADDICT. It's not for everyone. I think mine cost me $350. That's no joke. And you get it. And the first thing that struck me about it is it's lighter than I thought it would be. You know, mine was just in acrylic material. Sean does them in all kinds of different materials. You know, like I've seen some in the Tibaldi material that we have in our Edisons, Myke. That would be much heavier than the PENADDICT that I own. It's got this light and airy feel that when I use it, I'm like fascinated by how this PENADDICT feels in my hand. It really fits me well. The wider diameter barrel in my hand fits really, really well. And the fine cursive italic nib in combination with the barrel feel makes my handwriting like flawless. There's something I can't. This is one of those PENADDICT I can't explain. Kind of like the Nakayas. It's hard to explain that in words and pictures. This is definitely a feel PENADDICT. You have to feel this for yourself. And not just like one time. Like it definitely, like after a couple days, like I loved it immediately, right? And then like a week or so into it, I was like, wow, this is something else. This is, it's really hard to explain. It's just, I'm kind of at a loss for words just because it's so different than anything I've ever used. And I knew that would be the case, but I didn't realize how different it would be. So I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I love it. I've eyedropped it. I was sweating what ink I was putting in it. I used a Pelican Edelstein Topaz, which is a real bright blue. Think, you know, Konpaki or, you know, something along those lines. It's got some nice shading, some nice sheen.

Brad Dowdy: It's, I'm going to have a hard time not having my Shinobi inked up at all times. It's that enjoyable to write with. So I'm thrilled with this pen. And, you know.

Myke Hurley: And what's the nib in that again?

Brad Dowdy: It's a fine cursive italic. So it's, I can write real small with it and still have kind of that block shaping of the lettering that I like. I need to do a writing sample of it. I don't think I've done a good writing sample and posted it on Instagram, but I will do that soon. And who makes the nib? I think these are, they're either Joe or Bach nibs. I can't remember what Sean uses.

Myke Hurley: Right, but then he grinds them himself.

Brad Dowdy: Then he grinds them himself. And then he has them, he gets them in blanks. And he has like his end for Newton pens engraving on the nib. So it looks real nice.

Myke Hurley: Nice.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I'll take a, I'll take a close up shot of it. But yeah, he does the grinding himself. And it came out really good. I'm super happy with it. So, and I know a bunch of people are interested in that review and it will come. It just won't be, you know, it's not next week or the week after, you know, I like, I want to spend some more time with it and see if I can formulate my words better than I'm doing on this, on this show. But it's one of those pens that's really, really hard to describe in words and pictures, but it's wonderful. Very happy with it. Did I talk about the Uniball 307 before? It seems like maybe I mentioned it in passing, but I don't know if I had reviewed it yet the last time I talked about it. Are you familiar with this pen, Myke?

Myke Hurley: No, I don't know why it would be significant. So that wasn't meant as a burn. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Brad Dowdy: That's, you should read my article on this. I'm serious. You don't have to do it now, but when you're done, that's your next homework is go read my article on this because. All right, I'm going to read a paragraph of my own article, which is something I never do. What exactly is Uniball trying to do with this pen? Is this a replacement to the Sino 207, which is likely their top selling Joe Link pen of all time? Or is it to sit alongside the 207 on the shelf? I check with Uniball, but the 307 is not listed on the North American site or the Japanese site for that matter. The latest press room document is from 2008, and both their Twitter and Facebook feeds have not been updated since December 2013. The lack of social media updates is somewhat shocking in this day and age. So, that goes to your point, why should I care about this pen? Well, if it's the replacement for the 207, the 207 is probably the best on-the-shelf gel-ink pen. So, if the 207 is going away and the 307 is taking over for it, then that's kind of a big deal in the pen world. And I kind of think it is, just by looking at the design of this pen, the ink they're putting in the pen, the aesthetic changes they made to the pen. And it's really, really great. I love the 307. I would prefer it over the 207, as a matter of fact, if it starts coming in something besides 0.7mm gel-ink tips. So, not only is it a great pen that you can just go pick up at the store, this is also a refill that's used in gobs of machine pens that we like, like Carrot's Customs and, you know, TI2 Designs and Tactile Turn. And all of these machine pen manufacturers use the, what is the 207 refill for the Sino, and now the 307 can replace that. It's the exact same refill size, shape, specifications.

Brad Dowdy: So, I think it's actually really interesting, and I'm interested to see, and I'd like to ask Uniball some questions on how it's going to proceed in the future. But they are kind of missing in action as far as being accessible in social media, online, anywhere, their site's outdated, which is really, really funny for one of the biggest pen companies. In the world. So, I found a lot of, or I didn't find a lot, as a matter of fact, of information on this pen, because Uniball didn't really squat about it, which I just find endlessly interesting. So, that's why I think the 307's important, just because I'm weird like that. And those are the things that bug me. And, you know, they may not bug you, Myke, but that's why you have me on the show, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think that this pen is just weird, and I don't know why. Well, like, I don't know why you would make the changes. Like, the aesthetic changes that they've made, I can't see one aesthetic change that looks better than a 207. Like, everything looks worse.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, see, I think it looks better.

Myke Hurley: No, I think, what is, what are those little grooves in the end of it? Like, the little cutouts at the nib, when the nib is, not the nib, the, what am I trying to say here?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, in the tip cone there, the front end of the pen. What are those guys? Those are on the 207. Really? They're just in chrome. Yeah. It's the exact same design. It's just a chrome tip instead of a black tip. Interesting. But they have those notches cut out on there, too.

Myke Hurley: Maybe it sticks out to me more, I don't know. I have just realized now how, I'm like, looking at your website, and I'm like, how have I missed all of these reviews? And now I've realized what the problem is. I am not so much a Twitter completionist anymore. So I used to, that's how I keep up with, like, all the sites that I like is via their Twitter accounts. So I would see you tweet a review, and I would go and look at it. But I realize now that where I've not been reading all of my Twitter feed anymore, that I'm missing your blog posts. And now I'm trying to think of how I can fix that, because I don't really like to use RSS. It's just not really a...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I created an account for that by itself. You can just follow pin underscore attic for just blog posts.

Myke Hurley: Do I follow that?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I hadn't looked.

Myke Hurley: Let me see.

Brad Dowdy: And is that even my right address? I never post to it. You know, it's all if-t-t-t-t-t-t-t or things like that. It's an account I don't ever reply from.

Myke Hurley: No, I don't. That's perfect. Thank you. You've saved me.

Brad Dowdy: So that account is strictly posts.

Retro 51 Pens

Myke Hurley: That's great. That's going to help me out a lot. And also, like, why did I not know about this, like, this Retro 51 with, like, so it looks like a piece of wood with the heart in it?

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. That's you, man.

Myke Hurley: I didn't even know anything existed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a really cool one, Juliet. That's a really neat design how they did that.

Myke Hurley: That's probably not limited because it's a metal one. It's not. I don't know what you want to go out and say. Yeah, it's a standard one. I might grab one of those in the future. That's a quite nice looking pen. Yeah, yeah. See, this is what happens when I don't see your website for as much as usual.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, Myke, FYI, I write a blog called PenAddict.com. I don't know if you've heard of it. I don't know if you've heard of it. Not sure if you've heard of it. On this blog, I wrote a review today of an ink I'm really happy with, a new brand for me, a brand that I've been watching online for a year or so called KWZ. I don't know if it's supposed to be Quiz or if it's just KWZ, how you exactly pronounce it. But it's a gentleman in Poland who's making these inks and he's been on Fountain Pen Network selling these inks for a year or two and they've gotten popular enough. He does a good enough job and the quality is high enough that he's starting to sell these inks to shops and Vaness Pen's got the KWZ inks and a good friend of the show, Lisa Vaness, sent me a sample of one called Gummy Berry in their Iron Gall ink lineup and it is spectacular. It's like the perfect shade of purple for me. It's like it's deep, but it's not black. And even when it dries, you can still kind of see the depths of the purple. It behaves really, really well. I love how it looks in my pen. I love how it looks on the page.

Brad Dowdy: I'm extraordinarily happy with this ink and I'm going to get some more in DC when I go to the DC pen show because there's not a lot of Iron Gall inks that come in different colors. Black, blue, black and blue are the standards. Roaring Cleaner makes Scabiosa, which is one of my all-time favorite inks and it's kind of a purple. But KWZ makes turquoise and green and orange and all of these great colors in Iron Gall, which I do like. I like the lightness that goes on the page and then dries darker. I think that's a neat feature. Plus Iron Gall inks are waterproof. They really bond to the page as they dry. And so far, this ink is extremely well-behaved. It feels like a Diamine ink would in a pen, which is a high compliment. Diamine is a very standard ink. It's kind of, you know, the... I don't know, kind of right in the middle. It's the most moderate ink out there, probably. Most of their standard inks, anyway. There's some special cases to that, too. But I'm really, really happy with this ink. And how can you pass up an ink that's called Gummy Berry, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I like the look of this. It's a nice color. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I definitely want to try the turquoise. The orange is actually pretty much brown, but I think it's kind of a neat color. I want to try that. It's just colors you don't see very often, and that kind of gets hard in inks, you know, when you're an addict like myself, and, you know, you have 20 different blue-black inks. Finding something different to make you branch out from your wheelhouse is hard to do. So I'm happy to see these different colors from KWZ, and I will be looking for more. So it's great. Very happy with it. I'm also very happy with our friend of the show, John Bemis. Another post you missed on the blog I write called ThePinAddict.com. Why are you being this way?

Myke Hurley: I explained the reason to you.

Myke Hurley: Now I have identified a problem. I will fix the problem.

Myke Hurley: Because it's fun.

Brad Dowdy: And I've had a lot of coffee, so, you know.

Myke Hurley: So I can tell something's going on over there.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't been drinking like you and Casey.

Brad Dowdy: Everyone check out the latest analog. You'll get the joke then. Mm-hmm. John did an awesome post called The Black Wing as a Gateway Drug. And I'm not going to bother recapping or reading any of this to you. You have to read this. John is a fantastic writer. Way better writer. Better storyteller than myself. Like, I can write about products. John can tell stories and anecdotes. And he did a really good job with some black wings in his office. And, you know, getting someone else involved into this pencil thing. And I think it was really cool. And it's worth pointing out in the podcast if you haven't seen it on the blog prior to this. Because it's really, really great. I read this several times over just because I like John's writing. And he's done some poems. And he's made some. He's done some other stories on the blog. So you shouldn't miss it at all. It's really, really great. So thanks, John, for allowing me to post your prose. It's wonderful. Thank you.

Myke Hurley: All right. I've got it as a tab now. It's an open tab here.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Cool. You can check that out at your leisure.

Myke Hurley: Or leisure.

Brad Dowdy: Uh-huh.

Myke Hurley: That's what I would say.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let me take a break. Thank our second sponsor for this week. And that is Fracture. Fracture is a really great company that have a really great product. And I think that you pen addicts are going to love it. Fracture is transforming the way that people print and display their favorite images. And they do it in a really, really unique way. What Fracture does is very simple. They print your photo onto a piece of glass. Now, this isn't even necessarily as it may initially seem as to how fantastic this is. This is what you do. You go to their website, which is fractureme.com. And you upload a photo. You select the size that you want. They have a bunch of different sizes. They have five rectangle sizes that go all the way up to 21 by 28 inch. And they also have three square sizes as well. They use Instagram photos and stuff like that. You upload your photo to them. You choose the size that you want. And then they will print it. And they print it onto a piece of glass. And they're all printed in Gainesville, Florida by a small team there. And they're all checked for quality. Every single print is checked to make sure it looks fantastic. Then this thing will arrive to you. I've had them shipped from Florida all the way to my home in the United Kingdom. And I've had about six or seven. Every single one of them has come through fine. Not one problem. And what you get is a beautiful piece of glass with a picture that is printed directly onto it. So it is right on there. Right? So this doesn't look like when you put a picture in a frame. It doesn't look like that. Because this is like something completely different. It's like how if, you know, like maybe with your nice cell phone that you have, it looks like the screen is directly onto the glass there. And it looks like it's right there. Like it's all one thing. And that is exactly what fracture prints are. It is an absolutely beautiful way to display your photos. You don't need to put them in the frame because it is itself the frame. It comes with everything that you need as well. It has this nice foam back. And it comes in the box of everything you need to mount and display it. If you choose one of the small square ones, you can get a little optional stand that you can put the thing in. So you can display it on a desk. Otherwise, they will send you a screw and everything that you need right in the box. So you just put the screw in the wall. And you can just hang the picture straight on it. Right done. Just perfect. And these things are absolutely fantastic. I love them. I have bought them for myself. I bought them for gifts. I've had them sent to me as gifts. It is a completely unique and awesome way for you to display your own pictures. You will not have seen a picture displayed like this ever before. It is super, super awesome. And really, seeing it is believing it. And I want you to trust me on this. I know you guys, you buy stuff that we tell you to buy. Trust me on this one too. These prints are fantastic for pictures of your family, your friends, pictures of things that you make. I have podcast artwork and stuff like that I have as a fracture print. And these are great gifts for other people that you care about as well. Their prices start at just $15. And you can get 10% off your first order with the code PENADDICT when you go to FractureMe.com. And you can get started there. Trust me, go and get just one of these to start with. And then you're going to be hooked. Trust me, they're absolutely fantastic. You will want to put all of your favorite photos as Fracture prints. Thank you so much to Fracture for supporting this episode of the PENADDICT.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm all over this. This looks awesome. And plus, you know, I need to go take a tour of the Fracture facilities. They're only about three, three and a half hours away from me. I can hook that up for you if you want. Yeah, we'll go take a tour, do some video, do some advertising for Relay.fm. But yeah, I'm happy Fracture is on board. And, you know, all of our internet friends talk about getting their podcast artwork done by this. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to get some stuff for Knop done for the shop. And I can see all my wife's beautiful photography getting Fractured as well. So this is sweet.

Myke Hurley: I love their company name.

Brad Dowdy: I do too. They really killed it on that one.

Myke Hurley: It's just so funny because it's like, you know, Fracture is maybe a name you shouldn't choose for if you make things out of glass. And that's why it's so perfect.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. All right. Tease time, Michael. I got pinged a bunch of time on Instagram over the weekend that my friend Myke Bond that makes the TI2 Techliner that I enjoy so much. He's making an orange edition of the TI2 Techliner in a limited model. And they were only available. He put them up over the weekend. I don't know how many he had. Maybe 20 or so. But it's the TI2 Techliner orange crust. We'll put a link in the show notes. But we almost shouldn't because it's sold out already. And I did get one. I really like this pen a lot. And the orange looks really, really sweet. So I wanted to get that. I need to get you a Techliner one of these days. I've got one. You do have one? Did we give you one before?

Myke Hurley: One from Myke? You compensated my hard work in Atlanta by giving me one of the special camo ones.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you got the sweet camo one. Yeah. I don't even have one of those. But you know what? We have a new one of those coming out maybe this week or next week. It's going to be awesome.

Myke Hurley: Look at you.

Brad Dowdy: So this is what your Uniball 307 refill can go into, Myke. And I use the Uniball RT1 refills. I'm actually using my Blackwash Techliner today. Myke was mad at me playing with it before the show started because it's kind of loud with the magnets. And I have the 0.28 millimeter blue-black refill in this Blackwash edition. Works great. And I'm excited to get this orange edition. It's got some special coating on it, which I don't even know what it means. Or the paint was done some special way. I don't know. Some kind of fancy.

Brad Dowdy: Cerakote. Cerakote painted titanium pin body. So we'll go with that. But it's Orange Crush. And I'm happy I got one. So thank you, everyone, for sending it my way. All right. We got a pen blog of the week. And it's our friend Harry Marks at Curious Rat. And I wanted to point this out because Harry's not a pen blogger per se, but he's a writer. And writers know the value of pens and pencils. You know, they probably learned it when they were in school, Myke. And, you know, with the greatness of using a pen and pencil to get your thoughts down on paper. And Harry made a great post called Penciling and a New Passion just about more so the community around pens, pencils, and paper than the actual products themselves. And it's a really great read. And I wanted to point that out if you hadn't seen it. And he gives a shout out to us and the podcast and, you know, all of our online friends, Ed Jelly, Stephen Brown, all of our sponsors, and a bunch of the, you know, all the pencil guys at Erasable and Caroline Weaver. It's just a really, really great post about community. And that's something we very much believe in here at The Pen Addict. And it really is something special. And I thank Harry for writing this post because it was really, really good. So check it out if you have not. We will have the link in the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Mr. Hurley. I bought a lot and I've done a lot of reviews here recently. But you have something new you would like to talk about as well.

New Purchase

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so last week at the end of the show, I teased everybody by saying that I bought something. And that it would be here in time. And I have it here. It arrived a couple of days ago. I don't think anyone should be surprised about this. Can you guess what it is? You don't know. But can you guess what I've bought?

Brad Dowdy: Like very specifically, can I guess what you bought?

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh. Yeah, it has to be specific. You can't say, did you buy a new pen?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right. I'm going to go with the new blue Retro 51 fountain pen.

Myke Hurley: Nope. Hmm. The new blue one?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They introduced a blue one. It's kind of pretty good.

Myke Hurley: Oh, it's one of the tornado ones.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that. So I'm wrong. I'm wrong. What'd you get?

Myke Hurley: Do you want to have one more guess?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I really don't. I don't think I have another guess.

Myke Hurley: A Rotary 600.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. You mentioned you were going to do that. Very good. Good on you. So let's hear it.

Myke Hurley: I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Colt Pens Pencil

Myke Hurley: Initially, I wasn't sure about it. And so I've been using the Colt Pens mechanical pencil in a .7, because somebody asked this recently, since they sent it to me. And then they sent it to me for free. They just sent it to me. I didn't know it was coming. They just sent it to me in a box because it was one of their new products.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They told me they were doing it and sent you and I one.

Myke Hurley: And they're proud of them. So they like to send them out. And they have every right to be proud of this thing. I love this thing. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. It's really nicely made, really nicely designed. I have a silver one. My very favorite thing about it is this thing. That is. So there is a button on the side. And I think a double knock. I think it's called.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've gotten a little bit corrected before. I don't want to. It's not actually a double knock. I don't think there's a different term for it. But yeah, it basically retracts the lead pipe. So you're not poking yourself is the theory.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So you have this button, which is the button you're used to. It does this and puts the lead out. Yes. Yes. And then you press this button on the side and the whole thing like the knock on the top flies right up and you end up with the lead pipe, as you call it. Is that from Clue, right? Yeah. By the way, that game here is called Cluedo. What? Yeah. It's not called Clue. That's ridiculous. Well, it's not really ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous that it's called Clue.

Myke Hurley: But yeah, it's called Cluedo. Like Ludo. You know the game Ludo?

Brad Dowdy: No. Is it called Lou here?

Myke Hurley: Probably because you guys do weird things.

Myke Hurley: They call it the Colt Pens Double Knock Mechanical Pencil. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Well, maybe that's the correct term.

Myke Hurley: Whether it is correct or not, but that's what they call it. I've just been looking that up. That is definitely what they call it. And I love this thing. It is really, really fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Can I, I'm going to interrupt you and say, I've never been so happy to see you fascinated with a mechanical pencil because this is like legit. I mean, you got this pencil, like you would have never purchased this pencil. Never. Never. And you've gotten this and you use it just constantly. It's like you found this, you found a new friend and you're in love with it. And now you've made a purchase on top of that because you got that first pencil, right?

Myke Hurley: Yep. So like the main, the main way that I use writing instruments these days is the show notes that I take. So when I say show notes, I mean, like as we're recording, I take little notes down of things that I need to edit later and stuff like that, like timestamps and stuff. That is the main use that I have with pen and pencils these days. I don't use a lot, do a lot of notes. If I have a telephone call or like a Skype call, then I'll usually grab a pen or whatever. But I have been using this. I've been using my current notebook here since episode 157. So let's say it's been about six or seven weeks. And I can't remember what was in the previous one, but every single page on here is written in mechanical pencil lead.

Myke Hurley: So the Colt Ben's mechanical pencil has taken over as the thing that I have on my desk at all times, like just out. Like I have a bunch of stuff in my, uh, my block. What is that? What is, what is, what a Dudek and Karas? Dudek. What do they call it? No, the cube. The cube. That's it. The cube. I have like, you know, my favorites in the cube. We were talking about our like, what did we call it last week? The number one tier one. So my tier one pens are there. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: But then I have the mechanical pencil that sits right next to me by my left hand side. So when I originally got the rotaring out of the packet, uh, I was underwhelmed initially. Um, I was sad that I didn't have the double knock mechanism because I like that. I like playing with that. I like just pressing that button. Right. Um, and there was like this thing about the rotaring 600, the rotaring 600, the rotaring 600, like it's this mythical being, right? Sure. Of a thing. Um, but I've been using it for about five or six days now. And I've really loved this one as well for completely different reasons. So what I love about the Colt pens, mechanical pencils, it's so light. What I love about the rotaring 600 is that it's so heavy.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: That doesn't make any sense. I know. No. But that's, I love about them both. I love that one is really light and one is really heavy. Uh, the Colt pens has a, a large clip on it, which stops it from rolling around. Um, and the rotaring has a, like a hexagonal body to stop it from rolling around. So they both have, again, they're completely different, but I love that they both have that. Um, the knurling on the rotaring is, is very aggressive and quite strong feeling, which is not so much on the Colt pens. Uh, and again, I love them both for that. They are, they feel like to me, this is no surprise to anyone, right? Like, I feel like I've just discovered this new thing here, but they are two very different pencils. And I love them both for their different things, which is just like why all the things that I love about pens. Right. Right. Give me two fountain, give two, give someone two fountain pens. And I like, these are two fountain pens. Like they're different. It's the same with this guy. And also the pencil lead. Uh, I don't know what is in the Colt pens. Uh, what, what the lead is. I don't know what it is. Um, it says Einstein lead. Yeah. That's the unit. I assume that's what they put in mine. I don't know what's in the rotaring 600, but I prefer what's in the rotaring 600. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Um, I really, I really, I think that, I think the uni Einstein is one of the, um, kind of the breakage, one of the breakage prevention leads. I believe I'm not sure. Like it's a little bit stronger.

Myke Hurley: It does feel very strong. Actually. That's a great way of putting it because I was going to say the rotaring 600 feels soft. Uh, and that's what I really like about it. It's a very soft feeling lead. Uh, it has a 2B4, hey, uh, no, that's the lead grade indicator. Sorry. I'm reading something else. That's something I didn't understand. Like it had this little thing. You can turn it on the top. Right. Right. And you can say what leds in there. I'm like, is it changing the led? I'm like, I'm so confused. I was like, what is this thing?

Brad Dowdy: So back, back before the days of, of computer aided drafting, you know, the, uh, architects and engineers would have four of those rotarings laying on the desk and each one would have a different lead grade in them for different tasks. So that's how they would know which one to pick up. If they had all silver rotaring 600s, all loaded with lead, and then the, they would just turn the indicator so they could pick one up and, uh, know which one was, what was loaded in that pencil.

Myke Hurley: So I got the 0.7 millimeter again, and I assume this has rotarings pencil lead in it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't even know.

Myke Hurley: I don't know, but I'm going to assume that that's what's in there. And I prefer the lead in this because it's softer. Okay. It feels nicer to use over a longer period of time. I feel like I'm going to go deep into this, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: This is actually one of the best conversations we've ever had on the show. I love seeing you like discover this was like really random. I think that's what, what, you know, interests me the most about this. This was, this wouldn't have happened. Not, not expected at all from you. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: There is no way I would have ever gone down this, this road because as I had said, and I have, you, you could find the audio of me saying this. I believed I had found the perfect mechanical pencil, which was the Kurutoga because it fixes the problem. Right. But now that problem I think is a thing that I love. The fact that the lead wears down, I like that because like with a fountain pen, depending on where that I use it after a certain period of time, I can like get a thin line, I can get a wide line. And one of the great things that I have for using this mechanical pencil, as I mentioned many times on other shows, I like to keep my hands and eyes busy while I'm recording. It actually helps me focus on listening because I'm not being distracted. Some ways that I do that is by playing mindless iPhone games. Some people think that this is horrific, but I know that you understand it, but some listeners, they think it's really weird and they think that I'm not focusing. But trust me, if I'm not doing something, I'm not focused because I'm looking at my computer and there's things on my computer, you know, there's like the internet.

Brad Dowdy: Agree completely.

Doodling

Myke Hurley: But what I am doing with this, that I was never doing with fountain pen since it really works well, is doodling. Yeah. So I sit and I draw little geometric shapes. I draw little squares and cubes and circles and make little patterns because I would sometimes do this with a fountain pen, but one, it's not as easy to do. And the other, I was like, I'm just wasting ink here. And I never feel like I'm wasting graphite. Like, I don't know why. I mean, I am both, but it doesn't feel like that. So I'm really excited about this. I'm really excited that I just filled out my, uh, backer reward.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. For the pen show. For the pen show. Pen show. Pen. I call it pens. Penso.

Myke Hurley: Penso. Penso. The lead holder. Penso. I'm trying to bring it up. The fancy lead holder. Pen. Penso. Pen. Pen. Pen. Pen. Pen. X. !

Myke Hurley: Good. Good. Good. So I'm hoping that that comes soon. And I'm seeing like, well, here's another thing for me to deal with. I assume that's going to need to be sharpened though, right? Yeah, it's probably how that's going to work.

Brad Dowdy: So it comes with a sharpener. Oh, does it? Yeah, it comes with a, you know, I think they're called a pointer. It's called something different with those type of LEDs. I think it's a LED pointer as opposed to a sharpener because you're making a point on this long LED. I don't know. It's just terminology. Yeah, apparently it ships with that. So we'll see. But it was hard for me not to buy like one or two more because I got the black one. Then they ended up coming out with all these different colors. They ended up, you know, like they had a green. Did they have a blue maybe? Anyway, it ended up from like the original three colors and ended up being like a good six colors or so. And I was tempted to just add in another one, but I restrained myself just because I don't know how much I'll use it. And I know the black one is pretty sweet. So, you know, I'm anxious to get those. And they blew out their rewards.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they did $334,211. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, man, this was an amazing pencil conversation. And I feel like any continuation of the show after this will just be a letdown. And, you know, I promised some Ask TPA follow up and we got some good questions, but I want to spend some time on some of them. So I think that might be good for next week. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I kind of like sprang this on you anyway.

Brad Dowdy: It was wonderful. So I'm really excited about this.

Myke Hurley: I'm really excited about this. And I will now do something I shouldn't do. I would like suggestions from the audience. What should I be looking at in this mechanical pencil world? Because I'm sure there's more than just the Rotary 600, right? Because that seems to be what everybody suggests. But, like, is there really good graphite that I should be checking out? Or lead? I don't even know what the term is.

Brad Dowdy: I use them interchangeably. I don't think you're wrong either way. But, yeah, it just... Whatever. Whatever you want to say, I think it's fine.

Myke Hurley: Like, specific stuff that I should be looking at, I'm interested to know. I would be surprised if there's as much variation as there is in the Phantom Pen world. I can't imagine that's the case. I'm sure there's lots, but I can't imagine it's as varied. But I would love to know about anything else that you guys enjoy and why you like it. Because, you know, I might want to check some more of this stuff out. But right now I'm very happy with the two that I have. And I'm very, very happy that Colt Pens sent me down this journey. And I bought the Rotary from Colt Pens as well.

Brad Dowdy: Well, cool. And, I mean, this is the stuff I grew up on, you know, these engineering drafting style pencils. So, I'm obviously a huge fan. And it's kind of cool to see you get into this a little bit. It's a neat thing for sure.

Myke Hurley: Yep. If you want to find the show notes for this week's episode, you want to head over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 163. If you want to find us online, there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can find me. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E, on Twitter and Instagram. And if you want to find Brad, you can go to penaddict.com, which is a website I heard that existed once. Or you can find him on Instagram. He's penaddict on Instagram. Or at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M, on Twitter. And we'll be back next week with another episode of The Pen Addict. Thanks again to our sponsors, Harry's and Fracture, for helping make this episode possible. But most importantly, thanks to you for tuning in. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.