The Pen Addict 209/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	209
Title:	There's Not Enough Pink Pens
Release Date:	June 15th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 209
Audio File:	Audio Episode 209
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 209
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 209. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined as always by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hey buddy, how are you? Hey buddy, good. How are you? So you're going to be working on your English accent, the proper English, our English, the American English accent, this week at WWDC. So we're recording this a little bit early, right? So I just want, I like people to know that so we're not like sneaking something in and don't say something weird about, you know, this week or last week because it's going to happen. So we're recording this episode a week ahead of time because Myke will be in lovely San Francisco.

NotCo Rumors

Myke Hurley: Yep, so if, I don't know, if NotCo has been bought out by Filofax or something, then we're not going to be able to report on it on this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, we're in discussions right now.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah, how's that going?

Brad Dowdy: It's going well. It's good. Just kidding, me and Jeff are going to be looking for flats in London here pretty soon.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know where Filofax is based. Are they based in England?

Brad Dowdy: Probably. Probably. Or owned by some conglomerate. I expect that's the case. There's no NotCo purchase rumors. We're just having fun. But there are NotCo rumors. I see Myke has graciously added to the show notes here because I never do.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and a rumor when you talk about it openly. We're going to talk about it more on today's show.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. That's true. But you're getting ready to travel and in your podcast player of choice, there's a new podcast you should check out. And that's from our good friend, friend of the pen addict podcast. Anna Reinhart has started up her own podcast called Art Supply Posse. Finally! Finally! Finally! She's been wanting to do this for probably over a year, just something in general. Been wanting to get into the podcasting and do her own thing. So she has started a podcast. It's called Art Supply Posse.

Brad Dowdy: Her and her good friend, Heather Rivard, who I think I follow her on Twitter. I know she follows me. We've talked on Twitter before. Actually, we talked about why isn't there an Art Supply podcast. And they made it happen, Myke. And it's wonderful. So they did the pilot episode, episode zero. And episode one is let's talk about sketchbooks, baby. So they're talking about art supplies, how to use them, you know, what's the good stuff, what's the bad stuff. It's fantastic. So have you had a chance to check this out? Or do you have this queued up? Or are you going to just ignore it completely?

Myke Hurley: I have this purposely saved to listen to on my trip.

Brad Dowdy: I thought that might be the case. So perfect. So I won't spoil anything for you, but it's wonderful. I was listening. I listened to episode zero when it came out a couple days ago. And then I listened to episode one yesterday when I was driving to knock from my house. And it's summertime here. The kids are out of school. My wife was working yesterday. So the kids had to come with me to knock, put them to work. So we broke some probably labor laws. That's OK. Don't tell anybody. So I was listening to episode one in the car. And my daughter thoroughly enjoyed it. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. But I didn't even know she was paying attention. But she said two things that Anna can take to heart here. Why her podcast is so great is number one. Elizabeth asked, when are they going to talk about markers? So she's like already ready. Right. She's ready for the ready for the markers episode. When are they going to talk about markers? Was the first thing she asked me. And when this episode ended, she said, Daddy, can we hear the next one? And I was like, oh, baby, this is the first one. There is no next one yet. They just started it. I don't have a bunch I can listen to. So she was already ready for the next one. She enjoyed hearing Anna and Heather so much talk about all this fun art supplies that that she uses and gets into. So you have the Elizabeth seal of approval. You have the Penn Addict seal of approval. And I don't know much what much more you could want than that. Right.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. I mean, it's not even so much you also live approval. That's important, in all honesty.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, I don't. I'm worthless pretty much. That's like, yeah. As long as Elizabeth's happy, everyone's happy. There's more truth in that than, you know. But yes, please check out Anna's podcast and Heather's podcast, Art Supply Posse. You can get it at artsupplyposse.com. It's fantastic. It jumps to the top of the list of the podcasts I've listened to. And congratulations.

Myke Hurley: Yes, indeed. Make sure you go subscribe. Everybody here should go and check it out because we all love Anna. So something I came across, which I thought was quite fun. Do you remember we did the Retro 51 giveaway a few weeks ago?

Brad Dowdy: Do I ever.

Myke Hurley: One of the winners, Alina, she won the Dr. Gray pen, the skeleton one. She posted on Instagram like a little picture of it and sort of thanked us. And I was completely drawn in by the photo on Instagram because it's beautiful. And it's like all set really nicely. I was talking about last week of Adam and his great photography. I just thought this was amazing. So I went and looked at Alina's Instagram profile and everything here is just stunning. And I just wanted to give her a shout out and think that people should just go and follow her Instagram along with like the other 50,000 people that do for good reason. Because she is totally in this camp and her stuff is amazing. The colors that she uses, her handwriting is so cool. Her drawing is fantastic. I just think this is a fantastic Instagram account that I've now come across through what I think is quite a beautiful circumstance.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think I'd been following her for a little while, not too long because I recognize the name. And then this is funny. I didn't know you'd put this in the show notes until just before we started this episode because Jeff and I were looking at this account yesterday because she had tagged knock in a photo of one of the lookouts that she had photographed. And I was like, Jeff, check out this account. I was like showing off it to him. Look how cool her her pictures and style is. She does a really good job. And yeah, and congratulations on winning the Retro 51, the Dr. Gray.

Myke Hurley: Mine's stuck somewhere in the postal service. I got one of the Tiger Sharks.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: But it will be here. Maybe by the time this show goes out, I would have had it.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe, maybe. And my Dr. Gray has been sitting on my desk for like a good week, week and a half. I think I might do a giveaway for that pen.

Myke Hurley: What a beauty. It's a cool pen. What a beauty.

Brad Dowdy: Totally.

Myke Hurley: All right. You. Now, come on. Playing your games as you love to do. And I won't accept it any other way. I know you're playing games. You have some kind of new little club that you're a part of as well, right? In Atlanta. There's like an Atlanta pen club or something.

Atlanta Stationery Lunch Bunch

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, we have Atlanta Stationary Lunch Bunch. So there's a bunch of us in Atlanta that actually got met up through the Slack channel that are into all these things. And I know some of them are in the chat room this morning. And, you know, there's a handful of us that meet up for lunch once a month. We just try to get together. Go pick somewhere new for lunch. Meet up. Bring our pens and paper and whatever. And just really just hang out. You know, no official thing. But just go grab a bite to eat with your stationary friends in Atlanta. So, yeah, we did this this past Monday. And Jeff and I had been monkeying around in the shop in the afternoons kind of once we get everything, you know, kind of done and shipped for the day. And, you know, we're getting ready to just like, you know, make some standard stuff. We take breaks sometimes when we get ideas in our head that we've sketched down on a piece of paper. And Jeff and I have always wanted like a little briefcase type tote. It's basically like a mini briefcase. So we had some time a couple weeks ago to sketch out a pattern, talk out about what we want, talk about what it needed. And then Jeff threw down the fabric on the floor, grabbed the chalk and the ruler and started cutting patterns. So our idea was to make. Basically, an A4 size carrier, like a case to carry an A4 size pad. And we both enjoyed the look of the briefcase style, just the simple folio, large folio style with a briefcase handle. So we wanted to make something simple around that. So we chopped up a couple patterns.

Brad Dowdy: Jeff sewed together a couple of samples, figured out where we made some mistakes. You know, this is how kind of how we test out products, you know, when we're prototyping stuff. And, you know, we did that. We said, OK, let's change this. Let's change that. Then the next day comes and the next afternoon, you know, after like, you know, Jeff's taking a break from the regular sewing. He sends me a picture. He says, I think I got it. And I talk about this all the time. This is how it happens. This is how Jeff works. You know, we took the feedback, our own feedback from that first case that we were just playing around with and saw what was good, what was bad. Kept all the good stuff, fixed all the bad stuff. Jeff goes, I think I got it. Sent me a picture and I was going to be in the office the next day. And it's like, it's like this is the one you're going to start carrying to see if it's any good. And it's really good. So like the case, it looks like a briefcase, you know, when you're carrying it, but it's very thin. So the back, the large A4 size pocket fits my 13 inch MacBook Pro and an A4 size pad. So that's what I've been carrying in it. You know, it'll fit things like iPads and other tablets. Um, then the front of it has a zipper and it's just a straight pouch in the front. But what we're doing is including an A5 case inside that pouch. So it's basically two cases in this. It's like a set. So inside the front zipper pouch will be an A5 case, which is actually in this picture. A bag in a bag. Essentially, it's a bag in a bag in a bag. Um, it's definitely, we'll call it the inception or something like that. I don't know. Um, it doesn't have a name yet because it's way too early for that. Um, so the A5 carries like an A5 notebook and it's got two internal pockets in that. So you can put some smaller items like pens and, you know, I have power cords and things like that.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, you know, I love our stuff and I like to brag on it. This is, it's pretty darn cool. So this is just something we, you know, it's hard not to share this stuff when we make cool stuff, but it's also kind of unfair because we, maybe this product never exists. You know, I don't think that's going to be the case, but, you know, I think we'll, we'll eventually make this product. But, you know, we don't have answers yet, but we also want to share like the cool stuff that we do. And, you know, I think that's, that's fun to do. And, you know, our customers like seeing it and, um, you know, we like to dream on a few things. And, um, you know, I know you mentioned, you know, well, if you're doing this, where's the folio, right? Because we're done with, we're done with the folio, like as far as patterning and prototyping, um, everything's set for that. So the question is, well, you're teasing this now, where's the folio that you've been teasing for so long?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I mean, we're going to make it. We need a partner to make that with, because we're going to sell so many of them and they're kind of complex. And, you know, it's just kind of a big production and what we've been working on in the past couple months. I know we keep saying, we're going to talk about that, Myke, on the show. So I think maybe in like whenever the last, like the last podcast of this month, we'll be able to like talk about really what's been going on at NOC and what are the things that we're doing, you know, and where's the folio and are you adding new colors and things like that. We'll be able to elaborate that on more, but I don't have a date for the folio. I sure don't have a date or this briefcase, but those are things we want to do. We plan on doing. We don't have an ETA on them because we need to make Sinclairs and Brasstowns and Lookouts and everything that we make now that everyone wants to buy. So those are the things we're working on. We like prototyping. We like playing around. We like sharing fun stuff. We're going to continue to do so. And hopefully, you know, we'll be able to get these things to a point where we can make them and sell them to everybody. You know, that's certainly the goal. So it's if we do this, this, this briefcase, it will be like a blue label item, which will be a limited run. You know, we don't know when, where, what. There's no details on it, but like the folio would be like a standard product I think we would offer. So two separate products and then we'll just see how this briefcase goes separately from that. So you'll see me carrying it around. I brought it to lunch the other day. Everyone really enjoyed it. They like the setup. I'm real happy with the setup of it and we will see what we do.

Myke Hurley: I know that this stuff takes a long time. Yeah. I understand all of that, but you're still the worst.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. It's not fair. We're admittedly the worst.

Myke Hurley: But I get it because you're excited about it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And plus, you know, it helps to get feedback or other people excited about it. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And they ask questions what it's about and they say something that, you know, maybe we've overlooked. You know, it takes a long time for us to bring a product to market. Right. Because we make everything, you know, here in the U.S., you know, like Tony says, just outsource it to China like a good American company. You know, we've had those opportunities several times and we're just not going to do it. But that honestly, that slows our role quite a bit. You know. Right. It's just, it's a hard, hard, we're in a tough business, you know, as far as like time goes. Right. This is not a fast product to make. Right. So, you know, those are things we're working on. So, we're doing a really, really good job right now. Props to us with the things that are going on that I'll be able to share in a couple weeks. We're doing it. We're in a good place with like inventory stuff for things that people want right now as we've been this year, I would say.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Production Costs

Brad Dowdy: But it comes at a cost, right? I can't produce, I can't do that and make the folio. Right. So, that's the things we're trying to figure out next. So, it's all in good time. It's not a fast paced industry, unfortunately. It's not a digital good we can crank out. It's not a widget I can make a thousand of in eight hours and have that timed and things like that. And it's not something we're going to send to China. So, you know, we're kind of, you know, playing the hand that we're dealt and it's working very well. And we would like it to go faster. And, you know, maybe one of these days it will. So, we'll see.

Myke Hurley: Man, I want all this stuff. Just, you know, fix it.

Brad Dowdy: I've said it from the beginning that we make stuff we want to use, right? We're making this because I want to use it. And I want to share it because I think it's cool. And I want to use it because I think it's cool. So, hopefully other people think it's cool too. And I can't help but tease it from now and then.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've got to say that this kind of idea of a bag type thing, a briefcase, is more exciting to me than a folio. Yeah. I will say that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, definitely. Completely different style of carry. And, like, this could be my only, like, little bag to use, like, a day bag, like, back and forth to the office. It's perfect. It's really, really good. I'm very happy with this.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure everyone else will be if they ever get it. What have we got next up on the docket here, sir?

Brad Dowdy: We have some follow-up from, I forget which episode. It was a couple of days, a couple of episodes ago. It was recent. I think it was the last episode, actually, 207, where we had some Ask TPA. And people were, someone was looking for a Hobonichi alternative that had kind of a weekly layout. And we'll put this link in the show notes. I got a couple of emails on this. And this one had a thorough amount of options from a couple of notebooks that I haven't used. One of them is called the, is it the Steyology notebook, I think? I don't know. Yeah. So it has these monthly and weekly type of options that you, yeah, Steyology 365 days notebook. So there's just some different shapes, some different formats. And then there's, you know, some different styles to look at. And yeah, so the Steyology 365 days, I've heard of them. And it seems like someone's reviewed them. And I can't remember who, but it looks like a good option. The paper's fountain pen friendly, according to Michael, who sent this in to us. Did I get that name right? Yep. Yes, Michael. So Michael, thank you for sending in that feedback. I think the best thing to do, it's such a good email that I copied it off. We'll save it so we can link it. So you can see all the links into this product. But it looks pretty cool. It's made in Japan where all the good stationery is made, apparently, except at NOC here in the U.S. That's where the awesomeness is made. But yeah, this looks like a good alternative. And actually, I think this was reviewed on Unroyal Warrant. Now that I'm looking at it, it looks familiar. So I'll have to look at it from there. So anyway, check that out for whoever was looking for other Hobonichi alternatives. That seems to be a very, very good choice.

Myke Hurley: I'll put the link to the Unroyal Warrant review in the show notes, too, if you want to get that.

Brad Dowdy: I was actually right for a change.

Myke Hurley: You were completely 100% correct.

Brad Dowdy: Look at me. Feel me. All right. This next email is amazing. This is more follow up. And this is from Ralph. And Ralph lives in Holland. And knowing Myke and I, as you do, you might understand where this is going to go.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm going to read the beginning of Ralph's email. And I asked him if I could share this. And he was more than glad for me to share this. So this is an email from Ralph. As I was listening to the podcast, and every time you and Myke try to pronounce a name from the Ackerman Inc. line, it just breaks me up. In one of the earlier podcasts, you told us about, see, now I'm conscious of consciously thinking about these pronunciations. And it's going to make Ralph mad because our pronunciations are so bad. So I'm not even going to read that. But he basically says, I didn't even realize you were trying to speak Dutch until you said the store was located in The Hague. I think that sums it up, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no.

Brad Dowdy: So Ralph sent us a one. It's actually a wonderful email, but he was dogging us out pretty good in the beginning. And I can accept that. I appreciate that type of feedback, Ralph. That's very important. So what Ralph did was we didn't get a pronunciation guide. But what he did was even cooler, I think. He gave us the meanings of all the Ackerman inks. Like, he has lived in that area the whole time. His whole life. And understands the naming conventions that Ackerman's used. And he went through 0 through 30. I think there's, we go through 30? Or 31. Yeah, so 0 through 30. Ralph took each name and told us about each area or each specific that these inks were named after. And I thought that was just a fantastic thing to do. So we're also going to share this in the show notes. You can go read about Vorhoot Violet and where that name came from. Vorhoot is a borough in the district city center. The Beinhof is located there. One end of the passage ends where the Vorhoot begins. So there's this whole list of me butchering the names. But there's this whole list from Ralph talking about these. And I just loved it. And he did a really good job. And I shared this with our lunch bunch. And they thought it was pretty amazing. And they decided, Myke, that we need to get someone to create an Ackerman Inc. soundboard for the show.

Myke Hurley: Like the J. Herbon.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like the J. Herbon video. We need a soundboard to where we're at when I say number eight. And you can go, deep, doing water, blau.

Myke Hurley: That would actually be extremely useful.

Brad Dowdy: So maybe we can twist Aziza's arm or we have a bunch of listeners in the area. So I thought that was fantastic. And I got a big kick out of having an Ackerman Inc. soundboard for this. But anyway, we'll share this link. Thank you, Ralph, for putting this all together. Yeah, for sure. It's a really comprehensive list. And I thought it was fantastic.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm happy to know where my ink comes from. Number 28. Hoff... Whatever. I can't do it. I can't say it. I know it's a green. But it's based on a borough. So again, I like that it's named after little areas and stuff. That's real cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes.

Lamy Screen

Brad Dowdy: So this next pen we got linked to us this morning or last night. One of Lamy's new pens. I have not seen this, Myke. Nope. What is this pen?

Myke Hurley: This is called the Lamy Screen 2-in-1. And it was sent to us at Bureau Direct, which is a UK-based retailer. And basically, this is a ballpoint dual-function pen. It is also a touchscreen stylus as well. So I'm a little bit amiss at the mechanism for this thing. It's like you twist the barrel one way to launch the ballpoint pen and back the other way for the stylus. Like the little round ball pops out of the top of it, I assume. It's difficult to kind of work it out from the pictures. I hate these pens. These like stylus pens. I have absolutely no love for them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's why I wanted to put it in here. Because I saw it and I was like, okay, this is cool. It looks totally like Lamy. I'm exactly like you. I don't understand the mechanism. Because a normal twist pen is going to twist out from the tip side of the pen. And this has the pen in the tip, but the stylus also retracts from the end of the pen, right? So there's like the dual mechanism is out the front and out the back, depending on which direction you're going, I guess, because the stylus retracts. Which they don't show a shot of the end of the pen. If the stylus retracts and it's not covered, there's no point in having it retract, I don't think. Because there would just be a hole up there, which is kind of a weird design. Just have the stylus out the whole time if you're going to use this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Can you have the stylus and the pen out at the same time? In the picture with the stylus actually in place, the pen tip is retracted. So this is a really pointless kind of pen. But I thought it was interesting because I'm not sure how it works and why you would want it that way.

Myke Hurley: I assume it's like a double turn, right? You turn it to the left and the ballpoint comes out and then you turn it right, everything's in and turn it right again and the stylus is out. It's what I would assume how this works. But I just have no love for these types of styluses and I have even less love for them when they're on the back of pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I'm just wondering why Lamy's number one doing this and why now? Because I think it's pretty clear that this is not a thing that's going to do well. Everyone's tried it. No one's stuck with it. They're available. These pens are available.

Myke Hurley: Apple nailed it by making something completely different that only they can make.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And people that use styluses generally have a specific stylus. They don't have a combo tool. It's generally specifically stylus only, which I enjoy using a stylus from time to time. But it's just a stylus. It's never a combo pen. I never need both of those things. So this is a weird little pen. I don't know how well it's going to do. Maybe I'll get one to review just to see more about the mechanism. And I'm sure it's going to work completely fine. It's not overly expensive. 17 pounds. And, you know, Lamy, it's going to be good quality. You know, like I enjoy using my Pico. I actually have been using my white Pico and I just got like the flame orange one I'm going to review soon, which is really, really cool. But, you know, it's not necessarily a pen for everybody. And I would certainly choose the Pico over this type of pen. So anyway, I just want to throw that out there because it was kind of new. We're still waiting on Lamy to give us news on the Lamy 2000 limited edition that's going to happen this year. But instead we get the Lamy screen two in one. So there's that.

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TWSBI

Brad Dowdy: So did you see what our friends at Twisby are up to, Myke?

Myke Hurley: You know what? I didn't. And you put this link in here after I looked at the show document this morning. So this is the first time that I've seen whatever it is you've got here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I keep meaning to put this in. It came through my Twitter feed or Facebook. Like I follow them on Facebook, but I'm not in there looking at it all the time. I'm kind of popping in out of Facebook, but I never spent too much time in there. I just scrolled by my feed and I never saw it until someone, I think, I don't know if I got tagged in it or whatever, but they're re, okay, they're not redoing the orange color, but they say due to popular demand, it's coming back with a slightly different shade of orange, the 580 AL LAVA. I don't know what they're doing here. I think they're losing their effing minds.

Brad Dowdy: Because all they're doing now is pumping out different colors of the stuff they do, and that's fine. But in, like I was talking last week with Adam, you know, I have all these safaris that I enjoy picking off the different colors. But these, I don't because there's not that much difference between them. Um, there's just the aluminum, um, is anodized a different color. And they're just running through batches of anodizing, putting them out as a limited edition, then picking the next one. They look awesome. They're going to sell out immediately. And, you know, I still have, I only own one. I own the original orange one. Um, I've had the blue and green ones to give away to readers of the blog because everyone loves these pens. But it's like, it keeps being the same thing over and over with just a little color change. And the other one I saw was pink. I mean, that's going to fly off the shelves. It's going to sell really well. But I'm ready for something new, Twisby.

Myke Hurley: Didn't they get rid of this for a reason?

Brad Dowdy: Get rid of what?

Myke Hurley: The Twisby 580.

Brad Dowdy: No, this is the AL.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but didn't they stop selling it? No. Okay. I thought that they were selling the AL.

Brad Dowdy: No, this is the good one. This is the best one that they've done, just like mechanics and mechanics wise. It's a great looking color. It's a reddish orange other than just like a brighter, lighter orange like I have. And that was one of the first ones that came come out, if not the first color, which is great. You know, I'm happy for Twisby. I guess I'm just anxious for something new. That's all. You know, they they're. You know, they're kind of like us at knock. They tease all the good stuff and then never make it and then just redo the same thing. It kind of sounds familiar. It's like, well, Brad, you can't really complain about them for not doing it because you don't do it yourself. But yeah, maybe so. But it's just like another thing. You know, I don't need five ALs in different colors. The Eco Clear, you know, came out a couple of weeks ago. It's the same Eco with the Clear Barrel. It's pretty cool. I kind of want it. But, you know, it's just kind of like a recycling thing. I can't really complain too much, I guess. But it's just kind of meh. I guess I'm kind of over it maybe a little bit. I don't know. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I want to see some new stuff from them, really. Because the AL still suffers with a lot of the problems that were fixed in the Eco, right, from a quality perspective. I want to see them moving more down the Eco line and away from their other stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, maybe this is their thing. Maybe this is – I just – I think, like, maybe people with NOC and see it the same way as Twisby is they actually enjoy the products. So, they want to keep buying them. But they're fans of them. So, they want to see something new and different and hot. So, you know, it's some of that same thing that we're going through right now. So, maybe that's it. Maybe I shouldn't be too hard on them because I'm doing the same thing.

Myke Hurley: It's easy to be.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But love the original orange. I don't need reddish orange. The pink looks awesome. I like the blue and the green better. And I'm a huge pink fan. I just bought a new pink pen, which we'll talk about when it arrives, which is pretty amazing. So –

Myke Hurley: Pink is a good color choice to do because – Yeah. It's a popular color, rightly so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And there's not enough pink pens. And I'm adding to my pink pen collection. I have made a purchase. I'm just waiting on it to arrive. So, that leads us into this next topic, Myke. When am I going to update top five pens update? I'm starting to get the emails. So, I always get the emails about four to six months after my last update. I didn't even look at the date of my last update, but it's been a while. And the thing that I changed – this has been a year or two ago – I changed about the top five pens. This is like more of a recommendations page, not a personal page, right? So, this is the change that I made. But that makes it harder to update it because you have to be really good now. The product's got to be exceptional to kind of crack the top five recommended pens. You know, the amount of things I've reviewed is vast. And finding these new things that jump into that list and kick out one of the other top fives – Well, I want it to be – I don't want it to be phony, right? I don't want to switch things in and out just because of how I feel at a certain time. That's kind of how the old list was. Because, you know, it changed on my personal feelings about the pen. The recommendation list, which is there now, don't necessarily change that much. So, I've got some tweaks and some little things here and there. But in the grand scheme, the top five pens page is due for an update. But it's not going to be a huge update. But I should mix in some more personal stuff, right? I mean, people still want to hear about that. That's why I try to put some notes in, you know, what my personal feelings are. But it's still a recommendation page.

Top Five Pens

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I get that. Now, I did go ahead and do my new top five update because it's way easier.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it's good. I'm glad you did because I wanted to hear about it.

Myke Hurley: So, the Sailor Pro gear remains top of my list. I just think that for the price that that pen is, I think you would be hard-pressed to find something better. They're a couple of hundred dollars, so they're not cheap. But they look fantastic. You can get them in great colors. And those things are just a dream. They're just an absolute dream to use. You know, I could talk about the Pro gear forever. I love that pen so much. And I don't even need to use it often to know that I love it so much, if that makes sense. Like, I never forget how much I love the Pro gear.

Myke Hurley: Right. I'm going to be putting in, and this is a tricky one for me because this is currently, like, my favorite, which is the Pilot M90. But I struggled with putting this on the list because you can't get them. Right.

Brad Dowdy: That's why I had to change the top five pens list. Because, like, the Pilot Murex is a top five pen for me. That's not what should be necessarily on my top five pens page. Right. They're completely different.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I don't really hold that distinction so much. I don't, you know, use and know as much different models as you. So, I just go with, like, you know, I just go with whatever drives me because, again, the M90 is just a joy to use. I use it nearly every day now.

Myke Hurley: It's just absolutely beautiful. And it's so, so fantastic to use. And I love it. And it's just superb. And then, of course, they say, my list is a bit of a mixed bag because number three, you know, never let them go. The Retro 51 Tornado. So, this is, without a doubt, like, you know, we talk about good starter pens. And I think we focus on fountain pens all the time. I genuinely think if you want to, if you think somebody might be interested in pens, get them a Retro 51 Tornado and see how they react. Because it's close enough to pens that they've used in their lives, right? Like, it looks like a regular pen. It has a twist. It has a ballpoint. But it's unlike anything you've ever used before. In quality, in my opinion. Like, the way these things ride, the refills that they use. And then you can get all those amazing colors and styles to get one that fits your personality. That's why I love the Tornado. And this pen will always remain high in my top five list.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. And, you know, we always talk about not every pen's for everybody. And not the Retro 51 Tornado isn't always for everybody. But there's a whole group of people that it's perfect for. And I recommend it to them when they're, you know, I get these emails and you can kind of suss out what they're trying to get at. And I'll say, like, the Retro 51 sounds like it's going to be a perfect pen for what you need. And almost inevitably, I get the reply email like a month or two down the line. I was like, wow, this is really good. Like, that usually is what ends up happening with that pen. So, it's very cool.

Myke Hurley: The next up on my list is the Lamy 2000.

Myke Hurley: This pen, it can be tricky to get a good one. But if you do get a good one, it's amazing. The way this pen feels in the hand, I've never had another pen like it. Like, is it Macrolon? Yes. The material that they make this thing out of is kind of mind-blowing. It's like something between metal and plastic. It's very peculiar. And I love it for that. And it's just beautiful, right? Like, it's just... It is the most beautiful executive style pen that I have used. And, you know, I think it's so sleek. It's such a great look. It's weighted so well. I love the little, what would you call it, the ink window. It is an absolutely fantastic, fantastic pen. If you get a good one. Mm-hmm. And then last up for me, Pelican M205. Classic design, great size, great pocket pen.

Myke Hurley: And I have a gold nib in mine, and it has always been a dream to use. Mm-hmm. I do have a couple of honorable mentions, though. Of course. So, the Sky at Night, as I call it, from the Carolina Pen Company, this is the only pen that I've ever displayed on my desk. And it has its little stand, and it sits there in its little display. And every now and then, if I'm, you know, just doodling, I'll pick the thing up with the music nib on it, and I'll just throw down gallons of ink onto a page and just have fun. I don't consider this a pen that I will ever really write with. It doesn't really make sense for me to write with this. I can't take notes of this, but it is just something that I absolutely adore using.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's wonderful. I know you love that pen. That's a cool pen.

Baron Fig Squire

Myke Hurley: I really, really do love it. The Baron Fig Squire I'm going to throw in here because it uses the fantastic ink refill that Retro 51 does, but it's also a great-looking pen. It's very nicely weighted. It has a great mechanism. For a first try from Baron Fig, like, I just wanted to mention this because it is great. It's really, really great. I'm using it a lot. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, when I drop that in pictures, people always want to know, what's that pen? It really kind of stands out.

Myke Hurley: Surprisingly good job they did with this. And then the Twisby Eco I wanted to mention. Twisby is something that's been, you know, that brand has been on and off my list for a long time, and I think the Eco is a really great pen. And as I said just a moment ago, this is the model that they should be working on more, not the previous models, and they should be adapting from the design and quality that they've worked out with the Eco to push their life forward. And I think it's a shame that we're not at least seeing anything like the Eco or more from the Eco line, because it is really, if they can expand it out more with color options and stuff like that, I genuinely think that in a couple of years, it could become the starter fountain pen, like just flat out. But I think they've got a bit more work they need to go through first.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. I didn't put together a personal top five for this, but I can tell you one and two are pretty clear for me right now. It's my Nakaya portable, which is pretty much locked in at number one. And then that stinking Pilot 823 that I can't stop talking about. I love that darn pen. I think that's probably number two. After that, it kind of gets into, let me look at a few things and decide. The Sailor Progear is definitely up there. The Pilot Murex is definitely up there. Pilot Vanishing Point's up there. The Edison Menlo is up there, because I love that shape.

Brad Dowdy: You know, there's quite some competition. The Pen Type B, which is a non-fountain pen. I love that stinking pen. That's up there. So I'm going to work, I'm going to do some work on my personal stuff. So maybe when I do the top five pens update, there's the main page update, and then I'll write a post on my personal things because, you know, it wraps in a lot of things into talking about, you know, your current top five because you have to put ink in them. Well, what's your favorite ink? What's your top five ink? And then you have to write on a certain paper. What's your favorite paper? So there's a few things that go into it. So I'm going to get active on that and do that here pretty soon, I think.

Myke Hurley: You mentioned personal stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Uh-huh.

Personal Experiences

Myke Hurley: Why don't we get personal, huh?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let's get personal. Let's do this. This is something I want to talk about. And I don't know where it's going to go, to be quite honest. Our friend, Ed Jelly, friend of the show, we didn't get to his question a couple episodes ago when we were doing Ask TPA. It came after we'd already started the show. But he sent us a tweet that said, how do you guys combat burnout? Is that a thing for either of you? I would love to hear about it. And I thought that was a really good question. And I've had that more, I've had this question actually come up twice from two different people in the past week. And I was like, well, maybe we should talk about this. So I threw it in the show to see if you, show notes, see if you wanted to talk about it. And I thought you're a good person to talk about it too because we're now both responsible for ourselves in a different way, you know, business-wise than we were a year ago, or you a little bit, you know, almost two years ago, right? So how do you handle the stress of your new job? Do you worry about burning out, doing the same thing all the time? You know, how is your work-life balance structured these days? And how do you handle all these things? Because I do think, you know, with people who have a presence online, even if it's not your job, just keeping up with the blog itself is a ton of stress and a ton of work. And how do you keep from getting burnt out on that? Do you have at least some initial thoughts you want to share?

Myke Hurley: Yep. One of the good things I find for me about burnout is my profession is based around a skill, but I produce many things of different themes. So I am a podcaster, but I create podcasts about everything that I'm interested in, and they're all different.

Brad Dowdy: I never even thought about it that way, but that's absolutely right.

Myke Hurley: Whilst some other people, you know, yourself included, it's good that you have NOC because it's an offshoot, but you're maybe, you know, focus more around a specific thing. So like if I get bored with the pen industry, the pen industry starts to upset me in a few years' time, and I, you know, and we don't want the pen addict to continue anymore, that could go away. It's never going to, I mean, look, it ain't happening, right? Look at our history. We're not going away. I'm just playing with you. But like, you know, if I was fed up with that industry, that's an industry and a show I could leave behind without having to change career.

Myke Hurley: So I think that is something that helps me, and it's something that I focus on. And if I start to have a new thing that I really enjoy, I look at pursuing this podcast about these things, right? It's something that I am happy to do, and will always do, and always have done. And I think this really has helped me over the years with combating that aspect of it, especially considering that I've been podcasting for six years now, and there are things about it that frustrate me, but I'm not at all wanting to change what I do for a living. And some of the things that frustrate me, as they begin to frustrate me more and more, I know I can bring people in to help. So, you know, if I'm fed up of wanting to edit anymore, I can get someone to edit for me, you know, and I know that I can get help in other areas now because I run this as a business as opposed to just a hobby. I think it's easier to get burnt out when these things are a hobby. You know, I've felt that, I really have felt that, you know, years ago when I was, you know, a couple of years into doing this thing and didn't feel like I was going anywhere, that was, there were some real feelings of burnout in there, right? Like, what do I have to do to try and get people to notice this thing? Or like, what do I have to do to get to the point where I'm able to quit my job? Because that was many, many years coming for me. So, it can be hard, but my feeling is, with this stuff, is to try and take breaks. But that can be difficult if you want to get things out on a schedule. So, the advice section of this is difficult. Really, the only thing that I can say is, if it is something that you believe in, something that you enjoy, stick with it and try and offload some of the parts that upset you the most as a way to try and combat the burnout.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, I've actually burned out twice, I think, in the run of Pin Addict from the blog perspective. And, you know, once, one time that included the podcast. It, you know, at the time, before it was my full-time job, you know, life just gets in the way. And there's things that have to give. And writing a pin blog at those times years ago was the thing that had to give for me. It was like, I can't keep the schedule and the pace that I'm at and continue to live a happy, healthy life. You know, to have that work-life balance, even though, like I said, the Pin Addict wasn't my job.

Brad Dowdy: And I burnt out, you know, pretty hard the second time when I stopped the podcast and stopped the blog for, it was about two or three months, right? I didn't go back and get that show episode. I, I don't refuse to listen to that episode where I said we were going on a break. But I really don't want to. It's like in the 20s, like 26, 27. It was pretty, pretty early on in the run. But it was just like, I have to stop or I'm really going to hate this forever. And the question that was posed to me recently was how did you come back from that? I was like, you don't try to come back from that. That's not the point. Like I burned out because I did not enjoy doing it anymore. The only reason I came back is because there's something inside me that loves this. And it's not loving the products and it's not loving the pens and the paper and the stationery. It's the loving the people, the community, the sharing, the communication. Those were the things I ended up missing that I came back for, right? I didn't come back because, woohoo, I got free pens I can review for somebody. I came back because I missed the people. I missed talking. I missed sharing with other people. I missed helping other people. And I realized, you know, hey, I'm actually pretty good at this and I want to keep doing it. So I figured out a way. You know, those few months off helped on this second break that I took where we stopped the podcast for a little bit. That was the biggest help. You know, just I had things going on in life at that time that were more important than blogging and podcasting about pens. Nowadays, I don't, I'm nowhere, like burnout isn't in my vocabulary at all. Stress is, like I stress to get things done. But I love it so much that the burnout I know is not going to happen because I love doing it. I'm working as hard as ever. The stress levels are high because everything's on me now, right? I have to deliver to, you know, to be able to allow myself to continue having this for a job. I mean, this is my job now and it's very important to me and I love doing it. So I'm working on that stress. You know, I wrote a big post in the members for the members newsletter for the pen addict. It's called Refill. If you're not a member of the pen addict, I really hope that you will. You know, I just sign up. I hope you will consider signing up. I decided, you know, recently, I have to be more, if I'm doing this for my job, Myke, I have to be more aggressive about saying those types of things. Yes, you do. You know, I don't like saying those types of things. Hey, come give me money, right? It's not my style. I told myself about a month ago, I need to change that mentality. If this is my job and it's going to be my job for the rest of my life, I need to change my mentality. So that's one of the, that's in my stress bucket, right? But that's not in my burnout bucket.

Myke Hurley: You've got a, you've got a hustle, man.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So I have to hustle more.

Brad Dowdy: So I wrote up, what I was getting at is I wrote a piece on work-life balance for refill last week. And I've kind of hit my stride in that. There's definitely bumps in the road, but I feel real good about what my work-life balance is right now. I'm working as hard as ever. My life is as busy as ever, but I'm able to make those things work in conjunction. You know, that's working for me right now.

Brad Dowdy: It hasn't always been easy and that's caused me to stop in the past. And you kind of have to.

Brad Dowdy: There's, at the time when I did stop, there was things more important than writing about stationary, which I said a minute ago. So one of the points that you made is, well, can you offload some of this work? And for me, I'm lucky enough to where my blog was successful enough that I could pay guest writers. So I wanted to keep pumping out at least three reviews a week, sometimes four. There's no way I can do that by myself. So I found a good group of guest writers who are actually, I shouldn't even call them guest writers anymore because I pay them. You know, they essentially work for the pen addict. Thankfully, you know, they have stuck with me. Jeff and Susan have been with me for years now. They're wonderful. They are so helpful. I way underpay them. And it's, you know, I don't always pay them in money. Sometimes I pay them in product. Sometimes I pay them in money. This is the behind the scenes look at how the pen addicts run, but I'm lucky. And again, that falls in the stress bucket. My hard work has paid off by luck. You know, I get, you make your own luck. I very much believe in. So I do a good job on the blog. I'm able to grow it. I'm able to afford to pay somebody to write content for the blog. That's awesome. That helps a lot. So that's part of the work-life balance thing. You know, not everyone's able to do that. So you have to find out what works for you. If you write a blog and you normally post it twice a week, but you're so burnt out right now, you either need to take a break. And I understood what I told. It wasn't Ed that I was talking to. I was talking to someone else about it. When I took that second break, Myke, and this was when I was working my regular job and before this pen act was a business, and this was pre-knock as well, I told them I was okay if I never came back. That would have been okay for me. You know, I knew my mentality was it's okay that I'm taking a break. And if that break at the, whenever the, it's an indeterminate end, but when that break ends, do I still want to do this? Is there something pulling me to come back? And if there's not, it's okay if it goes away. I had that mentality. So that just kind of led my head to be clear. I understood that there's a chance that I don't come back at all. So, I was okay with that. And fortunately, you know, I came back and all kinds of wonderful things have happened since then. So it was wonderful that I did, but I only did it because I was happy with doing it. I was enjoyed doing the work. I enjoyed the time I spent and I was able to fit it in with the rest of my life. If I couldn't fit it in, what, those four years ago, Myke, we wouldn't be doing this, you know, and that would have been okay. That would have been my decision in life. I would have been okay with it. You know, I'm glad I chose to come back because my life has been made even more wonderful by all the things that have happened since then.

Brad Dowdy: But there were certainly some burnout factor going on. You have to step away. You have to get away from it. It at least gives you that clarity to decide, do you miss it and do you want to come back? So.

Myke Hurley: Wise words, my friend. Wise words,

Brad Dowdy: indeed. So, and there's more we could talk about this. I mean, if y'all enjoy this topic, I would love to talk about it more. I'm happy to share things with you guys. If there's specific questions that you want to hear, let us know. Shoot us an email. There's a lot more I could say. I just don't want to keep saying the same things. And if there's specifics you want to know about how we handle certain things, I'm more than happy to answer. I actually, I enjoy this and it's kind of a good respite from talking about, you know, we can talk about the things we don't normally talk about, pens and paper, but it still kind of relates to this whole scene that we're in. So, I think it's a great, great topic and we can certainly talk about it more if y'all are interested.

Myke Hurley: We can indeed. But I think we should wrap it there for today.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find our links and show notes for today's episode, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 209. If you want to find Brad online, you can head on over to penaddict.com and of course knock.co as well for all of his great stuff. Brad is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter and he is also the lovely Instagram. You should go and follow Brad on a penaddict Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on both and I want to thank our good friends over at Harry's for sponsoring this week's episode and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Brad.