The Pen Addict 202/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	202
Title:	We Ship On Time
Release Date:	April 27th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 202
Audio File:	Audio Episode 202
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 202
Length:	5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Welcome to The Pen Addict. Good, man. Good.

Myke Hurley: Good. I feel like I'm getting back on track today. Last week was a super quick turnaround. And even though we still had lots to talk about, we had plenty to cover, I feel like, okay, we're back on schedule now. Feels right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're getting there.

Myke Hurley: So one thing we haven't done in a long time is talk about what we're using. I know everyone wants to know what we sit down with when we do the show. We always have some type of writing implement and some type of paper sitting in front of us. So what are you using today?

Rotary Mechanical Pencil

Brad Dowdy: So I wanted to mention this today because everything's different. So I've been using Field Notes, Arts and Sciences and my Rotary Mechanical Pencil for a very long time. But I'm going to be completely honest with you here, Brad. I haven't yet unpacked my pens.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's interesting.

Myke Hurley: All of the stuff. I don't think I could function, but yeah, go ahead.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, well, so let me make this a little bit clearer. So I had some in my carry-on, which are here. They're around me. But everything else was in that big pen wallet holder thing that I had. And everything's still in there. I've not taken them out and put them all back in their respective places yet. So I only have a small number of pens. I have like three or four pens on the desk here, which are my top tier pens. But the Rotaring Lava was popped into the big case, so I haven't taken it out yet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's your go-to Show Notes pencil.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and when I came back, I was using my other Rotaring 600 that I have. I was using that for a couple of days. But now, I did this yesterday. I'm doing it today. I'm using the Pilot M90.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. That's kind of hard to avoid, I would say.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because one of the good things about this pen, is what Thomas is explaining this to me, is it doesn't really dry out. So I don't need to... One of the reasons that I stopped using fountain pens was because of this.

Brad Dowdy: You just keep hearing this in the background. But with this one, I post it and just leave it. And it doesn't really take much of the tool to just get started again. So it's easy for me to just leave on the desk. It doesn't drip or anything. So I'm using that. And I've also changed my paper again. I'm back on the NotCo Spiral bound.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha. Yeah, that's right. You were using that a bunch. I know you love the arts and sciences. And I know you love the NotC Spiral bound, too. Those are like your two... Like sitting on the desk. Those are your pads, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I've gone back to this. I actually think... I'm back to remembering why I prefer the spiral bound for what I'm using it for. Just because it takes up 50% of the desk space. Because it doesn't open out. It flips over. Right. So there's a benefit for me there that I'm remembering, again, why I love. So back on the spiral bound train, my friend.

Myke Hurley: Well, plus it's going to work better with your fountain pen. Yeah, no doubt. And your ink. Yeah. So good. Cool. Cool, cool. Well, I've really switched it up today. And there's a reason behind it. I was sending out a bunch of drawing pens to someone we met at the Atlanta Pen Show. And I wanted to get those out, so I was digging through a bunch of my pens to send to him. And I found a purple Secura Pigma Micron 01 that I forgot I had. And this is a pen that I've loved for years and years and years. So I broke that out. I'm actually writing with the Micron today. And we're going to talk later in the show about kind of resurrecting some of these old pens and some of these classics that I've always used and had laying around. But kind of get pushed to the side, you know, when you have a desk full of fountain pens and inks. So it's cool. I love this pen. And I'm using the Notco, the Neko Blue pocket notebook, which I love. So big fan of my products.

Brad Dowdy: If you weren't using them, though. That sounds so terrible. Well, if you weren't using them, nobody should use them. Right? Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's very fair.

Brad Dowdy: Because, you know, you got to, what is it? Well, it's not getting high on your own supply. That's what you're not supposed to do, right? Right. Is it like eating your own dog food or something?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I don't know that that's exactly the quote, but I get the gist of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Don't get high on your own supply, though. Yes. I know that. I know that one.

Myke Hurley: At least. That's very good. Those are words to live by.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a whole different thing, though, I think.

Myke Hurley: I think so. I don't know. It kind of relates a little bit. So, well, you had an awesome interaction the other day. I want to let you drive this, but it's related to the most, one of the greatest show titles we've ever had in last week's episode. And it was based on your Jonathan Brooks pen and still not knowing the name of the pen or the material used. And what happened from there? Yeah.

Jonathan Brooks

Brad Dowdy: So, I was having a conversation over Instagram comments, basically, with Jonathan Brooks. He mentioned that he listened to the episode where I spoke about my beautiful pen that I got from him. And he said that he hadn't yet named it. And in the comments, he said, if you'd like to name it, please feel free. So, which I suggested, obviously, it should be called Sky at Night. Jonathan has not gotten back to me on this suggestion.

Myke Hurley: I noticed there was no reply after that.

Brad Dowdy: Well, now I know he listened. So, now I'm saying it on the show. Jonathan, this pen should be called the Sky at Night. There's nothing wrong with this. And then if you do that for me, if you do me that honor, you will be retroactively fixing my mistake. So, then I never would have made a mistake. It was called the Sky at Night.

Myke Hurley: So, basically, you just want to be right at any cost.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Myke was right. It's my brand. And that's true. Talking of that, actually, I went ahead and threw the belly band on those notebooks and took some more pictures of them.

Myke Hurley: Did you see this? No, I haven't looked at your Instagram. I haven't been on Instagram much the past couple of days. So, I will check that out today. I haven't seen that. So, you have the new, you have your Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue opened up. Yep. And swapped over the belly band to the thing. So, yeah. Let me open this link here. So, what do you think about the, oh, your band looks so good on the-

Brad Dowdy: It looks sweet there, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's like doubling down. Yeah. The mic was right notebook. And then it's got the Michael Hurley belly band on it. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And then I flipped it over and took it with a Relay FM other side, too. Yeah. I really wish I could make the Get These Made, something that's made. I really do. But it's too many. You'd need to buy too many.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. There's probably a quantity that would be worthwhile for the network. We can look at that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Maybe you can ask someone. Yeah. We'll get to that later in the show, I suppose. I suppose. Most likely. So, yeah. That's a couple of things that I've been up to this week. And I've got to say, like, I've got my Sky at Night. I'm just going to call it that now. It's just sitting on my desk at all times in its little holder. Great. Like, it just sits there along with my brain balls. Yeah. And it's just, I just love looking at it. It's so beautiful. I picked it up now. Oh, I just, this is just so stunning. Do we need to do a whole episode on this? I would, I think. I think you would. I absolutely love this pen. Absolutely love it. I'll plug Carolina Pen Company again because, wow.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're very happy with it. That's kind of an important thing when you lay out that kind of cash. I mean, you want to be...

Brad Dowdy: The nib that I have in it, I have a music nib in it, is like a pro and con at the same time. Sure. Because I love that it has this, like, mad nib, which does these crazy things. But it also means that I don't use it every day. But I think I'm kind of happy with that. Like, I was talking about this in episode 200, about the fact that I don't really have a lot of crazy grinds or anything like that. Because I tend to have work done and stuff like that on pens that I really like. So I want to use them a lot. So when you kind of... Some of these crazy grinds make the pen less usable on a daily basis. And I guess a music nib kind of is the same. But I bought this pen specifically for this, to have this nib in it. You know, like I wanted to get a music nib because I wanted something crazy. And I was going to pick up a Franklin Kristoff, as I mentioned. But instead I saw this and then Jonathan said he could put the music nib in it. And it was like, well, this is a must now. Because it makes it this kind of really peculiar, weird, and I think a little bit more special of a thing.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yeah, I totally agree with that. It's mad. Very good.

Brad Dowdy: And I love it.

Myke Hurley: I love to hear you loving a pen like that. That's very cool.

Brad Dowdy: This has been a while for me, isn't it? You know, and I've got two pens now. The M90 is just knockout. Like, it's a perfect everyday pen. But it's also one of the most beautiful pens that I've ever seen. And then the sky at night is like a whole different scenario, you know? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Very cool. I'm a happy man. So did you catch a picture of Jonathan Brooks in this 360 degree image I shared out of that? He wasn't quite in the room in this one. He didn't make the 360, even though, you know, there was a wall in between us. But what do you think about this picture? This is crazy. Like, what happened here? Yeah. So this guy just walked up. I'm blanking on his name as I'm staring right at him. He's, you know, he said, listener, fan, just came to the show. And he's like, look, I've got this 360 degree camera. I want to take a picture of you. And I'll kind of get this whole room into the shot. And I was like, wow, that's really cool. Show me how this works. And so he did it. And it came out great. You're in it. Jeff's in it. There's so many people in it. You can see all the details in this picture that, you know, if you haven't seen it yet, you need to check out the show notes to take a look at this because it's really cool. I thought it came out great. And it's funny when I sent out the link, people were saying, well, there's me. There's me. It covers so many people in this one image.

Pen Show Images

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I, yeah, this is crazy. It's a crazy little thing. And I think it's great. And it gives a real view of how the pen show looked. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And the comment I got the most is, who's the guy with the beard? Because Jeff's making this look. He looks like a serial killer. He looks like he's ready to kill. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: He looks like he's ready to murder. But I'll tell you, that beard is beautiful and soft.

Myke Hurley: Yes. He wouldn't murder a fly. No.

Brad Dowdy: So it was. Isn't Jeff a vegan? Yeah. Yeah. So he wouldn't even kill an animal.

Myke Hurley: No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't. So it's when people were asking me, I said, I basically said, oh my God, we found Bigfoot. So it was a Bigfoot sighting.

Brad Dowdy: That's what you were referring to. I didn't get that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just fun to play with. It is. I keep, every time I look at it, I see more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I didn't, I was just, I didn't even look at, at Myke Masayama sitting right across the table from us. And there's so many people in here that we know. It's. Joe Crace is in there. Oh. Thomas is in there. Dan. Bump. Tanya. Bump. Everybody. I mean, it's just like a million people. Lee. Yeah. Anderson's carry. I missed the pen show already. I know. I miss it. I miss it. I know. I'll be back at one this weekend. Are you jealous?

Brad Dowdy: We'll talk about that in a minute. I'm a little bit, I'm a jealous of the location, but I know it's not going to be like Atlanta. So.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Should be cool. So one of our, one of our Atlanta topics was the, the Moleskine smart writing set. And then we talked about it last week, um, that it's this, um, company Neo smart that makes the actual makes the products. I won't, I don't know that they actually make it. It's their technology, either Moleskine's just, you know, it's like a white label type situation or whatever their agreement is. I don't know. But the Neo smart is kind of where this recent pen originated from. And one of our listeners hit me up on Twitter this week, Myke, and said, Hey, I got one when I was, I was doing some reviews for a tech site. They sent me one to review and I've just never really used it. Um, you want me to send it to you? So I have one of those coming my way. So I'm interested to see how this is going to work out. I'll, I'll get one in hand, have some time to, to play with it a little bit more. I don't know exactly what all's coming. Like if there's got like the notebooks or I I'm sure it does, but I'm sure it was a, like a press kit so they could interview like the whole pack, uh, review the whole package. So, um, it'll be interested to see.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That'll be good. Some good follow-up outcomes.

Myke Hurley: If it, I say this, I don't know. I don't know if I like it, if it would still push me to buy it though. Like, do I need this in my life? I think that's the biggest question. No matter how awesome it works, do I need this in my life? Is this how I work or is this how I get things done? Or is it just another diversion from keeping me from doing what I really need to be done? So we'll see. That's, that's mostly what I'm concerned with because we know the technology is really tight and works well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But there's, you know, for you and me, there's a bunch of other things in regards to the quality of the writing experience, which could make you not want to use it. But if that doesn't bother you, this is, I think it's a great product. Like if you're not too fussed about the way that the pen and paper feels, I think it's, you know what I mean? I think it's fine. Do you know what I mean? Like, because then you're getting a writing experience, which works pretty good. And also you're getting everything saved digitally. So you can throw the notebook away and it's not a problem.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I, I still don't know if I can, I can make that full connection. We'll see. We'll see.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Okay. Let's take our first break this week and thank our friends over at Penn Chalet for sponsoring this week's episode. Penn Chalet are a vendor of all of the brands that you're looking for. Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, and many more. They're an authorized dealer of all of these and sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more, including all of the accessories that you'll be looking for, carrying cases and refills and converters and all of that fun stuff. Penn Chalet offer high quality pens at low prices and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They do free shipping on orders of $50 in the United States, but they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Go to pennchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password Penn Addict for this special offer, which is a doozy this week. And to get your code that you'll need to save 10% on anything at Penn Chalet. So you just enter that password Penn Chalet when you go to the website, click the little microphone at the top, little podcast at the top, and you'll be able to get your hands on the coupon code and the special offer. This week, Penn Chalet are offering a Visconti Michelangelo blue black fountain pen at 50% off. Plus, you can still apply the additional 10% coupon as well. They also have some Delta pens at exclusive prices for Penn Addict listeners. So exclusive, I actually can't tell you them. You have to go and find out for yourself.

Myke Hurley: Seriously, I'm not allowed to say. I know, I know. That's a thing. I'm going to riff on that one day because I was talking to my friend, Dr. Deans, about the way manufacturers make retailers jump through hoops for certain pricing. But whatever, that's their business. This Visconti, right? Yeah, this Visconti. So if I wasn't going to the Penn Show, I'm leaving tomorrow for Chicago, and we're going to talk about that more. If I wasn't going and allocating funds for maybe another, actually, I'm going to look at a Visconti there, the Homo sapiens is one I've been really, really wanting for a long time. If I wasn't doing that, this one's right up my alley. I'm like staring at it now because I'm not super familiar with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I want to just give people a little bit more on the price of this one why it's so fantastic. So this pen retails $450, but you can get it at Penn Chalet after the sale for the listeners and for the coupon for $202. Mm-hmm. Like, it's a good-looking pen. I mean, I'm not a big fan of Viscontis, but basically everybody else I know loves them. This is a real good-looking pen. And, you know, if you're looking to add a Visconti to your collection, this could be a real good start for you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and it's a 36-faceted barrel. That's kind of cool. I bet that feels really cool in the hand and using it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm, I like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so that's a really sharp look. It's not a cylindrical barrel. It's faceted. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: When you do the preview on the site, you can see how it's got the lines in it as opposed to just being smooth.

Myke Hurley: And the Deltas. I'm going to end up with the Delta one day, only because they are kind of known for this orange material that they use.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And there was actually several people at the Atlanta pen show that bought Deltas and came by. It's a good-looking one.

Brad Dowdy: The Delta Dolce Vita. That looks good.

Myke Hurley: So this material, it's going to end up on my desk one of these days just because I can't stop looking at it. They make all kinds of different pens and pen styles with the same material. So I just got to figure out which one is the one that I want. So it's very nice.

Brad Dowdy: So there you go. Go check it out. Penchalet.com. Thank you so much to Penchalet for their continued support of this show. It's a good one, that one. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Notebook System

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. So something else I had to figure out was this great product that I was sent called Keep a Notebook. I don't know if you saw. So when they reached out to me, wanted me to send me this stuff, I thought it looked fantastic. But I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into. You know, in a first look type of situation, it's a very Midori Traveler's Notebook setup kind of thing. It's got that shape notebook. It's got different types of notebook. It's got all kinds of accessories you can use. But what confused me, well, not confused me, but what surprised me when I got the package is there's not really, it's not held in like the Midori Traveler's Notebook leather style cover, right? It's not just like the single flap cover where you slide in the notebooks. You actually have to build the, it's almost like a folder. It's a folder slash notebook holder.

Brad Dowdy: It's really hard to work out what's going on here. I'm not kidding.

Myke Hurley: So I didn't know when I started it that that's what this was. I knew this in this bag was the note, was the thing you put the notebooks in. I didn't know I was going to have to like put it together. It's like an origami thing. I had a lot of fun after being like really confused because there's no English instructions, but you don't need them. The pictures and numbers worked out perfectly. Like I made this whole thing perfectly and it took me probably 20 or 30 minutes to do just because it's very involved. But the end result is like a file folder that holds like I think I have three of the notebooks in it right now. It's got two different pockets on the side where you can just like slot thing in. It's got a it's got a like a button button wrap pouch where you can put things that might slide in or out. It's like this whole kind of kit that you end up with when you're done. It looks like a notebook cover, but it's really more of a file folder if you're familiar with like a traditional file folder type of system. But that fits like the I don't know the exact size of it, but it's the Matori Traveler's notebook size. That's what the size that everyone is familiar with. It's kind of a generic term almost these days. It's really kind of cool. And they have about I think nine or ten different styles of notebooks you can use from standard journaling to scheduling to calendars to planning to travel. They're they're all kind of all kind of different choices you can make and I need to play more with it. I really like it. It's super unique. The one thing I haven't figured out is why I would carry it around as opposed if I was a Matori Traveler's notebook user. Why would I choose this file notebook system over the Matori? I mean, if you need more storage in your system, I could see that. But it's it's paper. It's not leather, you know, I mean, it's thick, you know, paper that's probably going to wear very well and hold up to a lot of things, but it's still paper.

Myke Hurley: Why this would be the choice if you're looking for this type of system. So I still have to play around with it, but it was so crazy putting this thing together. I mean, I'm sure you can't even make it out what I'm even doing in the one picture I put on Instagram, right?

Brad Dowdy: Not at all. Yeah. Seriously, I can't work it out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's I need I need the 360 degree camera for this thing, but it's like a huge. So it's almost a I'm going to go with two foot long, maybe two and a half foot long piece of paper that's laid out and it's all, you know, scored and and it's got all the flaps. Everything's built into it. Then they have these double sided stickers that this whole system walks you through putting these stickers on as you fold up the holder into the final product. These things stick to each other and it ends up, you know, you put basically put together the puzzle. It ends up in its final final form and it's pretty cool. So I have it sitting on my desk right now. I haven't really gotten into using the system yet just because I haven't had time, but I wanted to sit down and make the notebook holder because it's it's kind of cool. So there will be more on that for sure.

Brad Dowdy: Cool.

Coloring Books

Myke Hurley: So I got this this next link. Are you familiar with? I'm going to drop that. You're you're too young to remember this. No, I know exactly what this is. So this is if you're if you've been in technology at all in the past 20 years or more, you're familiar with the O'Reilly books and you're familiar with the animals that they use for the cover. That's their thing. That's, you know, people who are in IT field or in programming, any kind of technical field. They have these books you just see on people's desks. It's as reference books on their desk. And it's the lion book or the camel book or, you know, in my case, I use the armadillo book a lot and what I used to do. And so O'Reilly has always been a technical bookstore. Well, now they've taken those animals off those covers and made an O'Reilly animals coloring book. And I thought this was totally cool.

Brad Dowdy: Genius.

Myke Hurley: It was genius because the the animals that they use are so detailed already. It has to be just like. It had to be not much to to do this, but they even they added on it more. I mean, they're not just like the images from the covers. They took the images from the covers and then put them in different type of situations, you know, native situations like the one on the on the cover on the on the page is the iguana. And then there's other ones in other iguanas and trees. And there's more foliage, a lot more for you to color. How smart was this? It was really cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it's a great idea.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And so for people who aren't familiar, we'll put some other links in the show notes with why this is a thing. There's been all kinds of articles on why O'Reilly uses animals for their books. And there was a good one from the best one I found was from the all a couple of years ago. And just kind of interpreting. And it was more of a funny article on on what they're doing with the animals on the books as to actually why they're doing it. But I was when someone sent me this, they said, here's the perfect mashup of of your current and former life. And I was like, that's just great. Except the last thing I need is another coloring book. I think I have three that I need to work on. I don't need a fourth.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I haven't been doing a lot of coloring recently in a long honesty.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. I will, though. I always keep them handy so I can jump in there. Yeah. Yeah. Chameleon. What did I say? That was that is a chameleon on the book. Sorry. Wolf.

Myke Hurley: They need a wolf. All right. So this next link I sent I put in the show notes and you hadn't seen it yet because it's a video. So why don't you explain what just took place on your laptop prior to this show?

Brad Dowdy: So I went ahead and watched this Montblanc video. It's called Pioneering Since 1906. And they're celebrating 110 years. And, you know, we spoke about this with the Rouge Noir that Montblanc kind of calling back to their history a little bit. I don't know why they've chosen to do this at 110 years, but they have decided to do that. Right. It's just a big round number. So they're, you know, kind of really going back through the history again. And they've done something kind of crazy, but amazing. They created a kind of like an ad. It's like a history video in the style of a kind of an advertisement. It's like a couple of minutes long featuring Hugh Jackman. And Hugh Jackman does. It's kind of one of those like one take type videos where the camera just follows him along as he walks through a bunch of sets. And he does. He talks about the history of Montblanc, why they started and then started making pens and started talking about making watches. And it's a great video that talks about the history and also shows up a bunch of their products. And it is so well done. It is absolutely fantastic. Like when I first saw this, I was kind of rolling my eyes a little bit. You know, it's like, really? Montblanc? But I want to buy a Montblanc now. So I think it did the job.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, Hugh Jackman's awesome for this. He does a great job.

Brad Dowdy: And all of his pronunciations are fantastic, right?

Myke Hurley: His acting range is amazing. And his humor that he can inject into something like this without being purposefully ha ha funny. Yeah, or cheesy. Yeah, or cheesy is just, he's really good. I mean, I love Hugh Jackman. They picked the right person for this. They picked the right person. And then the way they integrated like all the sets as he basically walked through the history in two minutes, they killed it. This is an amazing video. It's hilarious. It's smart. It's funny. And yeah, Myke wants to buy a Montblanc now.

Brad Dowdy: I just want one of those Rougie Noirs. A little bit of follow up actually on Montblanc. So after episode 200, I did go and see a Montblanc M in the show. And it just didn't speak to me. Yeah. Like we were looking at it together, weren't we? Do you remember? Yep. And I picked it up and I was like, I'm not in love with this pen. Like I thought I was going to be. So I didn't get one, which is probably a good thing. But now I want one of these Rougie Noirs. They are beautiful. I love the orange one. I know it's coral, but I call it orange. But yeah, this is a great move by Montblanc. They've created something really fun. So yeah, I think that's awesome.

Kickstarter Update

Myke Hurley: Before we move on to the next little bit, we're going to update on the Kickstarter. Something we didn't put in the show notes. I wanted to be sure you saw because it just popped up in the chat room and I forgot. Have you seen the new surfing retro 51?

Brad Dowdy: I was just about to go through this with you. Yes, I have seen it. Um, I don't have one on order because I'm waiting for, um, the pen shed, which is funny, uh, which is a UK company that, um, they, they stock retro 51s.

Myke Hurley: That's the place where you kind of get all your, you know, old and new, right?

Brad Dowdy: I've used them a bunch in the past, but they don't always get everything. Mm-hmm. Um, but I was having a conversation with whoever it is that runs the retro 51 Twitter account about this new pen. Uh, and they said, you know, talk to the pen shed. They'll get one set aside for you. And the pen shed tweeted at me and told one, there'd be one set aside when they come in. I don't know how this process is going to work now. Like of me actually ordering this pen, but I'm putting my faith in, uh, in everybody involved in this process that I will be able to order one because this thing is a stunner and I love it. I love it so much because you know, it's like the whole beach boys thing. Right. Um, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to hopefully getting one of these.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you'll, you'll get one somehow. Even if I, I'm sure they'll, they'll take care of you. And even if not, this one is a little bit, uh, higher quantity than the vintage surf, which is my all time favorite one. The, the wood, the wood style surfboard one. I think they only did 500 of that one. They're doing like 1200 of this one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I get the feeling I might like this one more. Like it's got like an acrylic barrel on the antique silver. Like it's different.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I, this was an insta buy for me, like the moment it came up and I, I, I've definitely slowed my role on the retro 51, like limited stuff. I, it's not totally my thing, but just because I don't use them that much. Um, but I always keep like my vintage surf ones always on my desk and that's the one I use. So I had to have this one to, to, to match the vintage surf. Um, no, no brainer purchase for me. I love, love this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I, um, this was one that. You know, I try not to buy all of them because that's crazy, but this was one that I was just like, yeah, I really want it. And I went to Farnie's cause Farnie's have got it right. Yeah. Um, and it's so expensive to ship. Um, oh no, or was it? Um, I don't think it was Farnie's gold spot. And first gold spots, uh, ordering process was crashing on me. And then it was like, it was super expensive to ship it again. Yeah. Um, and then, then the retro 51 account kind of got involved and was like, Hey, you know, pen chat's going to get it. I was like, great. Cause they don't, they don't always get them and it must be because it's a higher quantity. Uh, is why, why they're getting this one? Cause they, they don't get all of them. Makes sense. So yeah, still available on gold spot. So go, go and get it like this one.

Myke Hurley: Vanessa has them. I know we'll have them at the Chicago pen show this weekend at the Vanessa table. They're bringing there. They got them in, in time to bring them to the show. So if you want to, you want to come see them, I'll try to remember to pack my vintage surf, uh, to, to bring up there too. So I can show it off. Love that pen. All right. So we did, um, the Kickstarter notebooks are shipping. Woo.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Look at us. Look at us all on time.

Myke Hurley: Um, we're all kinds of on time with not just the notebooks. So those started shipping out this week. I started on Monday, uh, working through most of it. I mean, it'll be done this week and I'll have to talk with Jeff because he picked up part of it, uh, today to see if we're done shipping. I don't want to say we're for sure done, but we're really close to done shipping. So everyone's notebooks will be in the air by the end of this week, if they aren't already. And I would say probably 90% of them are done already. Um, and then on the even awesomer front, the video is done. It's edited. It's uploaded. It's ready for me to give all the secrets away to everyone. What did you think about this video, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: It's even better than last year's.

Myke Hurley: Totally.

Brad Dowdy: Um, the guys did a great job. They, they, they did an extended intro, which shows some of the pen show and something they did this time that I really liked. Uh, it was when, when we're describing in the show, the rooms, they actually show B-roll footage of the rooms, um, and, and that kind of stuff. And that made it really special. Uh, and there's video of everybody that asked questions and stuff like that. That's all in there. So yeah, this is, it came out really well. Uh, I'm super excited for people to, to see it. And I guess that's going to be super soon, right?

Myke Hurley: I will do it after the show. So I just want to, we, we haven't talked about it. So we, I mean, you saw it. I saw it. We want to make sure everything, everything's good. It just, it just finished uploading yesterday. It's a, it's a long process to convert and get all this stuff uploaded. You got to see it yesterday. I finished it up last night. So here we are talking about it. We haven't talked about it, you know, behind the scenes at all. If you're good with it, I'm good with it. And I will release it when we're done with this show. What do you think?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think we should do it. Okay. So most, how great, how great, man? Like a week or so.

Myke Hurley: That's crazy. I mean, like middle of May, I wouldn't even blink. I mean, it's a lot of, a lot of data to go through. What was it? 200 gigs worth of, worth of data.

Brad Dowdy: They were doing like that a day. I think. Yeah. Yeah. It was hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of video and photos that went into putting that thing together. And some of the, some of the shots that they got this time, some of the products and like, uh, they were able to get some footage of Myke Messiauma. And yeah, the whole thing is, is really, really great. It's really well polished and it gives a real good feeling for what the show and the episode were like. So, uh, I can't wait to see people's, uh, reactions to it. So.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So look for that this afternoon. Um, it'll probably be, uh, the link will probably be in your inbox before you hear this episode, unless you're listening live right now. Boom. Boom. All right. So we have, we have one more thing on the Kickstarter, which we haven't finalized yet is we have a few more giveaways to do. Yeah. Right. So we have, we have the prints to give away. We have, um, Anna has contributed another, uh, set of awesome goodies that she gave away in the live episode, um, to do. And then we have, uh, some gift certificates we're going to do, um, instead of giving like a pin set, like that we each picked out last year, we're going to let y'all pick out your own pin. So Myke and I will finalize that here the rest of this week. So don't unsubscribe from the Kickstarter updates yet because there's going to be giveaways coming soon. So no later than next week, I would say this week if I wasn't traveling, but, uh, Myke and I just need to coordinate a couple of things. Um, and I'll get that done. Um, probably, you know, within the next week's time.

Brad Dowdy: Great. Look at that. We, we ship on time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Amazing.

Brad Dowdy: I'll take it. I expect this. I expect there's going to be more discussion about Kickstarter projects in the not too distant future.

Myke Hurley: Hope so.

Brad Dowdy: Hope so. That's the plan. That's the plan. Exciting times. This week's episode is also brought to you by Harry's. Harry's, it was started by a couple of guys who decided that they needed a better product that they needed to not have to go into a store and fight with people to get inside of a locked plexiglass case to get razor blades. They, you know, when you think about this, like why are, why are razor blades so difficult to purchase? And it's because they're really expensive for what they are size wise. So they're actually more likely to be able to steal. So which is why they're locked away. So why do we have to pay so much money for razor blades? This is the question that Harry's asked. And this was the thing that they went and solved. Harry's sell high quality blades that provide a close, comfortable shave for half the price that you're used to paying. Harry's know that the quality is good because they make their own blades. They have a factory in Germany that produces five blade cartridges that will give you a close, comfortable shave without cuts or razor burn. They offer this product to over 1 million people who have made the correct decision and switched to Harry's. Harry's offer a guarantee of the quality of their blades. They will give you a full refund if you're not happy. Be one of the over 1 million people that have switched to Harry's and who are now saving over $150 a year because they use these great blades. You'll be able to get everything that you need from the Harry's website into the checkout process in 30 seconds and they will be shipped to your door for free. They have a set called the Truman, which is their great starter set. For just $15, you'll get a razor, moisturizing shave cream and three razor blades. But I'll tell you right now, you can get it for $10 if you use my special $5 coupon, which is PenAddict to checkout. Use that word, use that coupon code with your first purchase and you'll be able to get $5 off your first order. So you could pick up that Truman set for just $10. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. Coupon code PenAddict to checkout for a special $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for the continued support of the PenAddict and RelayFM.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm such a Harry's fan. I didn't even have to unpack my Atlanta travel kit to go to Chicago because I have like all the full size stuff on my counter at home and then all the travel stuff just stays in the travel bag. I'll just grab it tomorrow when I'm heading to my flight and I'll be all Harry's up for the Chicago Pen Show.

Brad Dowdy: Good one of that. Harry's ready to go, man. Just sit on the waiting lines. All right. So I like this topic you've got here.

Myke Hurley: Okay, good. I was curious what you would think. It's come up a couple of times recently that I should update my thoughts on some of the classic pens that kind of built PenAddict and made PenAddict what it was. Like the first one that comes to mind is the Uniball Sino DX or the UM-153. And that was the specific email that I got saying that you recommend this as the best gel pen. The review you link to is about seven or eight years old at this point. You should think about redoing it. And I was like, you know what? I absolutely should think about redoing it because it's still an awesome pen. It needs an updated review and it needs to be talked about more. So I wanted to throw it out there to the listeners. Pens like the Sino DX that have just are staples of my desk and a lot of our desks. What are the other pens or pencils or paper that, you know, we almost take for granted at this point. They're so good. They're so available and they're so cheap that we all have them laying on our desk, but they kind of get pushed aside with all the new fancy stuff we have going around.

Brad Dowdy: I love this review that I've found here. Is it the DX? It's the DX 0.38. Yeah. The review is one paragraph. Yep. One paragraph. The more I use this pen, the more I like it. And I may like the 0.28 model even better. If there wasn't that indentation just below the grip, this pen would be just about perfect. Hopefully black will be back in stock the next time I order. That's it. That's the review. Yeah. You need to redo this review. That was a young Bradley right there. Yeah. It's not even a review. It's just like a paragraph. I like it.

Myke Hurley: There were a bunch more Sino DX reviews. I did deeper reviews on the orange and the pink and some other ones, but can you tell what notebook I used when I did that review? Oh, let me go take a look. I know what it was, but that's a Moleskine. That's the Moleskine Reporter. Yep. That was my original review notebook. It was just like the top flip, which maybe that's why I make the Nock ones now that way because I like that format. Top bound, hard bound, Moleskine Reporter. I don't even know if they make that one anymore. I guess they do. It's not one of their main product lines. But yep. So I have a bunch of reviews like that. That's embarrassing to look back on now. So what other pens need to go in there? For me, it's the DX and it's the Zebra Saracic Clip. That's an amazing pen that doesn't get enough love and needs to be revisited. What else you see out there that needs to go?

Hitec C Pens

Brad Dowdy: So I actually looked at this and four pens right off the bat came to my mind. The Hitec C because that was for you the best pen in the world, right? Still pretty much. I remember me and you having that argument a bunch. Kuretoga. Yeah. Because it's the, you know, we have for so long of just like de facto said, this is the mechanical pencil. I think it should be looked at again. The Jetstream because it sucks. But you love it. I would say the Retro 51 as well. Like really to go into looking at that pen again from trying to look at it from a fresh set of eyes compared to other things like it. And even now, because the refill inside of that has become so popular, comparing the Retro 51 to some of the other pens that hold that refill now could be quite interesting.

Myke Hurley: Good. I like your style. I like those. Those are right up my alley.

Myke Hurley: I don't, I think that's a great starting point. The Secura Pigma Micron and the Statler Fineliner and some of those drawing pens that I love so much, those are on the block too, to have another look. I'm trying to think of anything else. I think that's kind of like a good core group, right? I mean, those are, those have been around for a long time. They've stood the test of time. They're still very, very much in use to this day. So yeah, that's, I think this is a good list. So any, anyone else, you know, if you have any ideas, tweet at me, you know, get me somehow. Online, let me add to the list. I'm going to start creating a list and start working through these as the weeks and months go by. And I think it'll be nice to get these, get these back out there. I mean, this is, this is what, this is how the pen out it got started. And it's, it's, it's great to see these pens still, still live on. And it's time for a little refresh, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because, you know, we were talking about, we've been talking about this. It was, I think it's come up, it come up episode 200 as well. Like the way that our kind of tastes have changed and our feelings have changed over time. And I think that's going to help inform those reviews in a different way, especially because you clearly think about this stuff now. You're more verbose about it now than you were then. You know, I mean, it's not, you know, I'm not trying to poke fun, but it was a one paragraph review, which you just flat out wouldn't do anymore. So I would be interested to see what Brad Dowdy of 2016 would say compared to Brad Dowdy of 2008, because you were really kind of green then, you know? Oh my gosh, for sure. So I would be very interested to that. I, what I've done is in the show notes today, which are at relay.fm slash pen addict slash 202, I've put the original reviews of all of those pens in there so people can go and see them if they want to. So we've got the Uniball 0.38 and the 0.28, the Hitec C, the Kuro Togo, the Jetstream, the Retro 51, and the Secura Pygman Micron. They're all in the show notes today. Great. That's my Google skills, man. I was doing that while we were talking.

Myke Hurley: That's awesome. Pow, pow, pow. That's mad skills. And especially, you've got some mad skills on the link into the old show notes too. We'll get on that wiki project soon, I promise, because everyone keeps looking for the old show notes and we, I definitely, I feel like I need to do that for the listeners.

Brad Dowdy: We have a URL, right? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to tell people what the URL is going to be? I figure the more we talk about this, the more we're going to commit ourselves to doing it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So what is it? Isn't it penaddict.wiki? I think it's penaddict.wiki. I think that's the one I went with, right? Yeah. I didn't go. Yeah. So penaddict.wiki. So I think that's pretty sweet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I know that those domains are not used so much, like seriously, but I feel like that's the perfect domain for what we are attempting to do here. So the wiki will live there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You'll, yeah. I mean, there's nothing there. Y'all can click on it if you want. I'm sure it's like a hover splash page. I've never even looked at it. I just bought it. And so, yeah, that's going to be the home for all the old show notes and to be able to find some of this old information well. So I actually look forward to that project. I am trying to figure out when I'm going to get it done, but it needs to happen.

Brad Dowdy: We. I'm going to help.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yes. And we've had tons of... Everyone's going to help. Everyone's going to help. Yeah. But we have to open it up, set the groundwork, lay the groundwork, I should say. Set the rules. Get the rules set, and then everyone will just have at it. Yeah. And that'll be super cool. And I've had lots of people volunteering their time to help with this project. So it's going to go great. We just got to get to that, get past that little beginning hurdle, and then we'll be off to the races.

Brad Dowdy: So you're going somewhere else this week. You're leaving me.

Myke Hurley: I am leaving you, but I'm not leaving the podcast. You know, it's the right schedule for me to record this podcast today. Pack up my suitcase. Fly out to Chicago tomorrow for the Chicago Penn Show. That's this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We'll be there at the Chicago Penn Show working for Van Ness Penn. So come see us. We'll have some awesome, awesome stuff there. I know Lisa got a bunch of the hot items in that she's bringing to the show, like the lilac safaris and the Directro 51 surfs. And I think she told me five new bung box ink colors, which those always fly off the shelf. So it'll be cool.

Brad Dowdy: And you did this little thing, which is so awesome. A little picture of you and Anna, just your hair with the different ink colors. It's so cool.

Myke Hurley: I don't know what... I was like, that would be... I had my pink pen, right, that I'm bringing to the show. And then like all my other pens are orange or have orange ink in them. So I was like, that'd be kind of cool if me and Anna are both going to be at Van Ness table. You know, me with the orange, her with the pink. I thought it was just kind of a neat little thing. And I was like, I wasn't even serious about like posting it like that. I was like, well, let me see if I can draw something. And I just did that. That was like first take kind of thing. And I was like, oh, that came out kind of cool. Let me post that. So yeah, I thought that was funny.

Brad Dowdy: So what have you got planned for the time in Chicago? Like you're going to be at the booth. You guys, Anna's going to be working with you, right?

Myke Hurley: Yes. At least on Saturday. She may be wandering in and out Friday and Sunday. But I know Saturday she's definitely working. On Thursday, when I arrive, she's actually picking me up at the airport. And we're going on a field trip.

Myke Hurley: A field trip? A field trip. I hate you! So we're meeting with our buddy Brian Bedell at Field Notes on Thursday afternoon. Getting the tour. Getting the Field Notes tour. We'll get to see all the top secret stuff that hopefully we can see some top secret stuff that we'll just be able to lord over everyone. Because we won't be able to share it. And, you know, hang out with Brian for a little bit. And get the tour that I've been wanting for a long, long time. I've been wanting to make a special trip to Chicago just to go see it. Just to go to the Field Notes offices anyway. So this is like the perfect opportunity to do. And Anna is friends with Brian and is from Chicago. So she knew she can pick me up, get us there, arranged everything. So I'm just going to show up with a big grin on my face. And it should be pretty awesome.

Brad Dowdy: You know, it's so good that we're such close friends. Because the past month or two, you've been really testing my friendship. How so?

Brad Dowdy: So, well, you know, we had the Kevin Rose thing. Oh, yeah, that's right. Now you're going to the Field Notes office. Yeah, yeah. Big tests of my love for you. You're going through okay. I have a request for you, actually, when you're at Field Notes. Okay, what you got? I want you to ask Brian if he'll come back on the show. Okay. To talk about how they manage the logistics of that special commemorative edition.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's like my top question for him anyway. Not that we're setting up to do any interview or anything like that. I just want to know because that seemed like a massive undertaking.

Brad Dowdy: This is something I just have to know the answer to this. So I'd love it if he would come back on the show to talk about that. And also, you know, to talk about all of the editions that have come out since the last time we spoke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so what we'll do is I'll try not to. Ask him too much about that. And I'll book a date for him to come back on where we can really pick his brain.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that would be amazing. I love that guy and it would be great to talk to him again. He's a great guy.

Myke Hurley: He's really good. Really good to us. Really good to the community. He's great for field notes and just an all-around awesome dude. So I'm glad to finally meet him in person.

Brad Dowdy: Anything else you've got going on while you're in Chicago? Chicago.

Myke Hurley: We're going to – everything else is kind of on the fly. Like Friday night, we have like a room to meet up. But there's no real official events planned. There's no like pen addict stuff planned or meetups. But we'll do some stuff with Kenro Montegrappa. We'll get it out to people who are there. You know, maybe Friday night. Just maybe hang out, meet up at the bar, something like that. And then Saturday night, there's a seminar by a gentleman named Paul Arano who is going to talk about vintage fountain pens and how beginners can get into them, which I think is a great idea. And they've asked me to come to that. I don't know that I'm going to be participating in that or if I'm going to be helping with questions or ask questions or what. But that's going to be on Saturday night in one of the rooms at the hotel. So that should be pretty cool. So those are kind of the plans. They're officially booked but kind of unofficially scheduled, if you will. But they're definitely going to happen. I just don't have full, full details. But definitely find me while you're there. You know where to find me at Venice. And, you know, I'll give you any more details if you need them for Friday or Saturday nights. And it's going to be really, really fun.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I hope anybody that does go. It was a great time. I'm going to look forward to your Periscope system show will happen.

Periscope Event

Myke Hurley: Oh, you know what? Speaking of which, there is going to be a scheduled Periscope event of me, Anna, and Susan Wirth. Lisa Van Ness has set that up with Susan. So we're going to have a great time with Susan.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you want to look out for that because if you don't know Susan Wirth, you want to get to know Susan Wirth. You want to see this video. That's going to be wild.

Myke Hurley: She's wonderful. I love Susan. And Anna and I are coming up with questions for her now. So we'll have – she's told us that she can live by a stopwatch if we needed her to. So she knows that she can go on and on and on for hours. She says we can stopwatch her if we need to as long as we come up with some good questions. So this is going to be fun. So this will be – I don't know exactly when this is happening yet, but we will share it everywhere once we know the time that it's going to happen and that it's going to be a must-see TV.

Brad Dowdy: So people should go and follow Brad, and you can find all of that out. So you can head on over to Twitter. He is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I'm sure you'll be tweeting about it, and that's probably the way to get in. Head on over to penaddict.com and knock.co for Brad's other work. And you can find me on Twitter. I won't be in Chicago. I'm going to be at home. And I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. If you'd like to find the show notes for this week's episode, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash two zero two. We'll be back next time. Thank you so much to Harry's and Penn Chalet. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.