The Pen Addict 257/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	257
Title:	I'm Not Gonna Do Homework
Release Date:	May 17th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 257
Audio File:	Audio Episode 257
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 257
Length:	7373 min <br />1.217 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Podcast Intro

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 257. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's and Casper. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am very happy to say, as much as I love having guests on our show, today I'm just joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was actually going to comment about that as well. It's going to be nice to talk to you this week, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I have had an ever-growing list of things that I've been wanting to talk to you about. It's been getting a little bit out of hand.

Brad Dowdy: I was actually surprised the show notes were as short as they were today, even though they're long. I thought it could be really, really crazy. Oh, I have more. Crazy long.

Myke Hurley: I'm just saving some stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, good, good, good. But yeah, let's just say our guests were fantastic. We got tons of great feedback on the last two episodes, which were Ryder Carroll from The Bullet Journal and Joey Caffone from Baron Fig. And we got a ton of great feedback on those shows, so thank you for everyone who listened and let us know what they thought about the episodes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was really pleased with how last week's show went. It was, for me, I think especially, a real like, what's going to happen? But it was great.

Brad Dowdy: So, just so everyone knows, and I don't think we mentioned it during the show, but when I told you that Joey was coming on after I'd already gotten sideways on Twitter, you're like, I don't, you said, I don't know if that's a good idea. And I was like, I've got it, Myke. Don't worry, I've got it. And so, yeah, your faith was rewarded, I think, in a very good episode.

Myke Hurley: I always have faith in you. I was just concerned about it being the regular way that we have a guest on the show, right? I don't know what that means. As in, you do all the talking?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you didn't talk for two weeks, and we actually didn't get any nasty grams this time. Sometimes I get the ones that say, you should let Myke talk more.

Myke Hurley: No, no, the interviews, they work way better. I mean, we've done this for five years now. When we have a third on the show, it's just way better to just let you talk to them, and then I chip in and press the buttons. That works way better for us, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yeah, you're good at that.

Myke Hurley: And then I get to save up all the things I want to talk about for when I finally get my time in the sun again.

Kickstarter Video

Brad Dowdy: Well, let's talk about that one very awesome thing that we should lead the show with that people have been waiting for, so why don't you spill those beans?

Myke Hurley: We've been talking about it for a couple of weeks, but we can now confirm that the Kickstarter video is complete of episode 253. So if you backed the show, you backed the Kickstarter campaign, maybe before you've even heard this episode, you will have received an email with a link and a password for you to go and watch episode 253. From a video production standpoint, it is the best quality video that we've had put together, and Mark and Stephen did an incredible job. Just the cameras are way better, so like technically, but just from a production perspective, it's way more engaging visually to watch than it's ever been before, and I think they did a fantastic job. We've both watched it, we're both really happy with it, and it will be in your inboxes very, very soon. So check your email or check your messages on Kickstarter, and you'll get the links that you need.

Brad Dowdy: So I was really impressed with everything that you just said, how the technical editing and camera work turned out, plus the clarity. I mean, it's really sharp. Yeah, it looks great. All the cut-ins of the products we were talking about, they did a phenomenal job. I was grinning from ear to ear just seeing all those things, all the parts where we weren't necessarily talking, but where the other things were coming in and getting cut in. It was fantastic. They did a great job. I can't wait for everyone to see this. It was totally fresh, even though I was there and I re-listened to the podcast. I couldn't take my eyes off the video the whole time. It was that good.

Myke Hurley: It was fun for me to watch back because I realized, I think I blacked out during the show. I don't remember anything that happened. It just happens to me a lot with live shows, especially, because there's so much happening and so many things that I'm trying to focus on, right? Like making sure the show's running, having stuff to say, making sure it's recording, making sure everybody's okay in the audience, right? Like it's such a massive difference to me just sitting here on my own in Meg or office recording, right? Like I was watching, I was like, I don't even remember talking about this. So it was a lot of fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I just fidget the whole time. Like I can't sit still. You even had to stop me one time.

Myke Hurley: I don't think, I think they ended up cutting away from it in the video, like I told them about it. But there's one point in the show where Brad keeps like putting his hands down on the table and the table's creaking. And I'm worried that like he's gonna, he's gonna like, it's gonna come through in the audio. So like I'm tapping him and stuff, but he's not noticing. Like I keep doing it a couple of times. And then at one point, like Anna's talking. I'm like, great. They could show her on the video right now. And I like elbow you. And I'm like, quit it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So in the video part, that wasn't in there, except they cut back wide right when you pulled back from that. And I think you can see like a little acknowledgement in my head. So there you can see that part in there.

Myke Hurley: Now you know we did it. You can find it. That's awesome.

Brad Dowdy: So you were, you were coming back from leaning over 10 hitting me. And I think it finally clicked with me at that point.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, it was great. It was awesome. And Vito and Jonathan did such a good job.

Myke Hurley: Oh, they really did. Right. They really did. Yeah. That's what I think I was most impressed about. It's just watching it back. Like you felt that way at the time, but watching it back, like they really, really nailed it. So if you backed the Kickstarter, you'll get the video. If you didn't, just listen to the episode again, if you feel nostalgic for it, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Pin Shows

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So since then, I've been to another pin show. We don't get to talk about these things. We've mentioned the Chicago pin show in passing. And I thought I'd take a couple of minutes just to talk about the show as a whole. That cool with you? I would love that. I've been waiting for it. Yeah. Because it was a weird show for me that I took knock on the road for the first time.

Myke Hurley: You've never done this, right?

Brad Dowdy: Like, well, we did DC in 2015.

Myke Hurley: Did it count though? I felt like you were kind of just like bolted onto the end of Venice.

Brad Dowdy: We were pretty much bolted on the end. And maybe had like a half table. We threw out some stuff. I was like, I was working for Lisa. Jeff was there. And we sold some things. It like wasn't an official deal. This was the first official road trip for knock. And I got to say, it blew away any expectations I could have come up with. Oh, that's awesome. You know, you don't know these things when you're first going out as a vendor. And the, you know, it's hard to set expectations. Like, you know what your expenses are going to be. You're like, man, I hope I don't lose money, right? That's like the big sweat. It's like, I hope I don't lose money is phase one. Phase two is I hope I make money is phase two. And phase three is I hope we really profit from this. And we were well into phase three. So like we sold a ton of stuff. I had some before and after pictures of the table. Like I had, when I set up the table, you know, I had the table fully stocked. I had back stock under the table. And then by Sunday afternoon, I took a picture of the ravaging that happened at the table. And there was no back stock left and the table was completely wiped out. So it was cool from a business perspective. It was pretty cool to see. It was exceeded any like made up expectations I could have had in the beginning. I figured it would go well. I figured we'd make money, but it exceeded all that. Like it, it, the feedback was great. The new customers were great. That's always fun when you see people who have never seen our products try to figure out what it is. Then it clicks with them and they go, oh, this is really great. And, you know, I'll have one of these. So it was cool to see. So from a knock perspective, it was fantastic. And I would do it again. From a show perspective, it was outstanding. The Chicago Pen Show has really stepped it up. We talked about it last year. And when I went, this was the last year was the first year with new promoters and they got a new hotel. They kind of created a different vibe around the show. And, you know, it's really come to fruition by this second year, like really quickly. This was kind of a. That's awesome. Yeah. It's kind of like a must attend show now. Like it is really, really, they stepped their game up. The place is absolutely packed. The entire weekend, the bar area is wonderfully set up for morning and night hangouts. And you're only steps away from the show floor itself. So you like you can sit in the bar and see the show floor. Like everything is right there. And it's wide open. It was packed the whole time. I got to see a bunch of friends that I haven't seen in a long time, like Lay and Thomas and Dan Don and Cindy and Tanya and everyone that I'm going to forget all kinds of names. Critter. Critter's there.

Myke Hurley: It was a shame this year that everybody wasn't there at Atlanta. There wasn't as many people. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because you can't travel to all the shows. Nope. You cannot. Yeah. So Doug's asking a question I want to point out, which I wouldn't normally distract myself this early in the show. I'll wait till later. So Doug in the chat room says they didn't hassle people about bringing liquor into the bar. So in Atlanta, we had a problem with that. And in Chicago, not only did they not hassle people about it, they worked with the show promoters to have a whiskey and scotch tasting event on Thursday night where it was all outside booze. The hotel was not involved. The hotel was not involved. You don't get that kind of buy-in from a hotel to allow you to bring in bottles of whiskey and scotch to set up on a table in their function areas and have a bunch of people around sampling liquor. That does not happen. So they have a great relationship with the hotel because they know this is Thursday night. We're going to be here all weekend. What's the big deal about letting these people bring all their favorite libations and sharing with other people for a couple hours on a Thursday night? Because we know they're going to be here the rest of the weekend. They're going to be at the bar. They're going to eat dinner and food and buy drinks. So why do we want to put up that wall immediately even though that's the hotel business, right? I mean that's the business that they're in is to get you into the room at a fair rate and then really kind of stick it to you on the bar and food stuff, right? So which is fair. I mean that's the business that they're in. So to see a hotel buy into what these show promoters want to do is super cool. It's really, really cool. So that was a very unique situation. We probably won't see that again all year going around to other shows. You always have to be stealth and sneaky or, you know, people like to, yeah, or not do it. And, you know, but we, even if I, we do do that, I always make it a point to support the bar and restaurant the entire time I'm there, right? Like on Saturday night I had an open tab for pen addict people, you know, just to go up to the bar because I want to give back to the hotel for, you know, they, I want to do that for the hotel for them doing these things for the show earlier. So I think it's great. So, yeah, that was cool. So, um, the entire vibe of the show was great. It was fun. It was exhausting. By Sunday night, um, I was absolutely smoked. I was just done. Well done. Um, and I could barely, barely stay up, um, by the time Sunday night rolled around. I think I went to bed around nine or nine 30. So, uh, yeah, it was a great show. Um, I didn't get around to buy many things, which was good. That was kind of the intent going into it, right? I'm working, I'm working by myself, you know, had Matt, Anna and Lisa right next to me and they'd cover for me, you know, if I'd go to the restroom or want to look around a little bit, but I just go kind of look around the vendors right in front of me. You know, while we're, um, you know, there was some quiet time at the table and I found some vintage, uh, Japanese pens at this one vendor's table, right around, right near the knock table. And I saw he had a bunch of, um, tubs under his table as well. So I asked him if he had some more and he said he thought so. So he, he gathered up a stack of pens, brought them over to me on Sunday and I picked out about six pens that I wanted from him. So I have some, some of it, I don't know what I have yet, but some of them are modern ish, like from the sixties and seventies, maybe one from the eighties. Um, I have a sailor old sailor eyedropper that I'm really trying to find out about that's from around world war two and has a falcon nib. It's just really neat. It's, I did things a little differently this time in that I just took a risk in buying something, you know, it was just not that expensive. All things considered it's given me something to play around with something to research, you know, something to dig into and have some fun with and try to figure all these things out. I was like, let me take this a different route this time and, and buy some older pens that kind of fit my style and aesthetic. You know, anything old and Japanese is right in my wheelhouse. So, you know, that's, that's what I ended up with. So I just kind of, I kind of went with that. Um, I still don't know what I have. I still haven't inked any of them up. I've cleaned them all. Um, some of them were awfully, awfully dirty, but, um, it's one of those things, you know, going into it. And so I'm going to see if I can figure all these out and start using them, figure out what I got. So it was, uh, different from a purchasing perspective. So that's all I bought. And then like a couple of bottles of show special ink. And that was it. I really wasn't into anything else. So it was just nice to go around and see some, end up with some random stuff like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I guess it was one of the good things, right? That like you can end up with a weird thing that you didn't know you wanted. Right. That's, that's part of the fun of, of looking at some of the stuff at these shows, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And that's what I ended up with. I, this is not something I go in intending to purchase because you usually don't see it at a show, but I just happened to stumble on a thing. And then asked the guy, did he have more of those? And it turns out he did. So, um, it was cool. It was cool. So it was, uh, I think Chicago is just going to be pretty much planned on the calendar from the jump every year. It's that good of an event. Um, they do a great job. Everything runs smoothly. I like the fact that everything is kind of in, I don't want to say it's a small space because it's not, it's a large space, but it's all kind of self-contained right there together. Like nothing is far away. Um, and then there's like places to eat, like right outside the hotel. And I don't know, Chicago is a great show. If anyone's in the area or wants to make a trip to, um, they, they do a great job. It's well, well worth it. And, uh, I think that's probably the, the vibe you get from pretty much everyone that was there.

Myke Hurley: Uh, last week at the end of the show, we, we took a moment to talk about Susan Worth who tragically passed away within the week and the run up towards the episode in between the Chicago Pen show and last week's show. Um, and you have some stuff that you wanted to add to that today.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's, I had a tough week last week. Um, you know, dealing with my emotions after Susan's passing. It still hasn't quite sunk in, but I'm getting, you know, the further away we get from events like that, the little bit more clarity we get. Um, and I don't think, and I don't know when this is going to happen, but we're going to know pretty soon how big of a hole she left behind in the Pen show world. She, the, I think what I'm going to have to figure out. And I don't, what I don't think most people realize out that don't listen to the show is the educational value she provided to so many people who attend Pen shows, not just what they get from her. If they go to her tables and are learning about their handwriting and pens, but the classes she gives, um, during the shows, the, the round table she gives after the shows at the bar. Like I miss seeing her for the last time Sunday night because I was exhausted. And then later that night, she'd come back down and hung out at the bar. It's like, you know, you don't want to miss those last moments. You know, you don't know at the time, but like, I regret, you know, being, being so tired. And I miss Susan that night, you know, you don't know it's the last time you're going to see somebody. So the educational aspect is something that has been stuck in my brain for the last few days. I don't have any answers, but I think that's where we're going to see the biggest effect in her absence. I don't know that there is a direct solution to that. I certainly don't know what it is, but that's what's been weighing on me since her passing. I mean, aside from her awesomeness and just being around her, right? And she lights up a room and you know, she's there and you know, her presence alone will be missed just because she's that type of figure. But the stuff that you don't see, like the knowledge she passes on to people, that's, that's going to hurt. Like what, what she did from an education and learning perspective, it can't be measured, but I think it is, you know, it's huge. And we're going to miss that greatly. And, you know, I don't have any answers to that. Is that something I can fix? I don't know, you know, but that's, that's what's in my head right now. Um, so her memorial, um, in Milwaukee takes place this weekend. Uh, we're going to do a big memorial in DC for her. Um, Bob has graciously donated her tables in DC to allow John to set up Susan's full table. Um, we'll have flowers, pictures, we'll have paper and pens for people to write notes to be compiled in a book, um, to give to John. Um, and, you know, we'll have some, definitely have some things in DC for her, for anyone going to the DC pen show. That's going to be the kind of the pen show memorial. And, uh, it'll be good. You know, we need to do that at a, at a show. Um, she certainly deserves it and she deserves more than that. So trying to figure out how I can honor her memory or the community as a whole can honor her memory. Those, and, you know, try to focus on like education and beginners and that type of work that she did is just really, I, that's what I'm thinking about these days. And, you know, I don't know what I'll come up with, but, um, that's, that's what I see aside from missing the chance to give her a hug, buy her a drink and take a selfie. Um, I'm just going to miss her teaching everyone who came into her presence. So, um, and if you missed it, uh, last year at last year's Chicago pen show, I sat down and did a little video. Uh, Lisa Van Es wanted to do it on Periscope and Periscope will save your videos. So it's a raw video from that aspect, but she published it on YouTube and it was just a funny talk with Susan. As you can imagine, we talked for about 30 minutes. She's amazing. And, uh, it was a really cool to go back and watch that. That made me laugh and made me smile.

Myke Hurley: If you don't know who Susan is, like if you're listening to this, which would be a lot of you, I expect, like, you know, you may be heard her in passing on other episodes and you want to understand why this is affecting people the way that it is. Watching that video will probably give you a really good sense for why this is a blow to the pen show community. Um, but I will say, Brad, if there's anyone that could pick up that educational mentor, it would be you. Um, it's something you could do, but you are a pretty busy man at pen shows as it is. But, so it's definitely something to think about.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's not something that I have to do or I'm looking to do, but it's something I want to be a part of. Yeah. If, if it's, it's healthy, it's healthy for the community to have that available. And I don't think people realize what she did. Um, you know, a lot of the regular show vendors, you know, that, you know, don't travel in our circles probably don't grasp that. Susan laid the groundwork for a lot of their customers that they have now. Sure. So this is going to be, it's just a massive, massive loss. And, um, yeah, it really stinks. It really stinks. So I don't know. I, I don't have any plans certainly, but, um, that's all I can think about these days. So we'll see. I mean, I, yeah, I haven't put any thoughts into it. I haven't talked to anyone about it, but you know, maybe in DC, you know, I can talk to some friends there and, you know, see, you know, maybe we can do something. Who knows, who knows, but, um, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Talking about doing some stuff. Uh, on the, when I was watching the live episode, I was, uh, reminded that we should maybe mention the wiki again. Yeah, for sure. If you haven't checked it out, it's stationary.wiki and it's a thing that people are compiling. And I kind of wanted you to maybe just touch on it again, Brad, like for, for what people can do and how they can contribute towards this.

Stationery Wiki

Brad Dowdy: So what you can do with this wiki is absolutely anything. So for example, Susan worth needs a page on the wiki. Anyone can go in to this website and write a few sentences about anything and link them back to a pen addict podcast show episode that they were discussed in. So this episode, episode number two 57, it's going to have a page on the wiki. It'll have links. It will have a link to, you know, Susan's YouTube video that she did with me that we just talked about in the show notes. But like Susan worth's name could link to her own page. Like any, if you've ever just gone on Wikipedia at all, you know, how to follow the links through and get more context to different stories or things that you're following. And anyone and everyone can contribute to this. It doesn't take a lot of time. You know, you create an account, you can go to a page, you can write about a product, you can write about a time Brad cried on the podcast. You can write, you can just have as many entries. You can have as much fun with it as you want. It's just something that Matthias of Blystiff did that just kind of still boggles my mind. I haven't added anything yet just because I've just haven't had the time. But a bunch of you have and I really, really appreciate it. I know Matthias appreciate it, appreciates it. And it's just such a good thing for the community as a whole. And like I talked about on the podcast from Atlanta, it's not just a pen addict wiki. It's a stationary wiki. So it has all the podcasts in it. Like it's got erasable podcasts in it. And you can go edit the notes on those pages. And it's got as general manufacturing information. If you want to learn something about a wood case pencil manufacturer, things like that. So it's a great resource and it's community driven. So we need your support as far as adding pages, creating content just for the betterment of the community as a whole. And it's just a really, really cool thing. So we need to talk about it regularly. So, you know, hopefully this summer, maybe I'll have some time to contribute. Then we can have a little bit on the show where on what pages I've edited or created or things like that. I think that would be a cool thing to do.

Myke Hurley: So I'm going to use this time as a call to arms to people to give people some direction to what you can do here if you want to do something. So I'm including a link in the show notes to the episode one page of the podcast, the pen addict podcast. The way that page is filled out is amazing. It has a lot of context as well as just the links. And there are a few episodes in the early beginnings of the show where that's happening. So what I would love to see people do is to go through and maybe fill out some stuff like that in some of the later episodes, maybe some of your favorites or maybe some you've listened to recently or pick a couple of episodes and go through and make some notes on them. If this is something that you're interested in doing. The other thing is, I don't know how to do this, if anybody can do this, but to fix the podcast category page, because there is an issue where it's being listed, I think, in alphabetical order. So it's completely breaking the number order. So there may be a way to make that better. And so that's maybe something for someone to think about, because, like, for example, all of the episodes that begin in one are listed first. So it goes 110, 100, 101, 102. So, you know, that's not ideal, I think, for what people might want from that. So that's just a couple of things. We're going to do this. I want to do this more often, because the idea that we originally have for this and what we wanted was that. So in the future, you know, as we're approaching episode 300, we can now start referring to the wiki as one of the primary sources to help people go back and listen to more. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It really helps with that threaded information. So basically, like, the recurring themes. Yep. On, you know, the podcast, if we talk about Susan again, you know, you can see, you know, have a link into, you know, what all we talked about.

Myke Hurley: Because then, you know, I know that what I'll end up doing is in our show show notes, our episode show notes, I'll be linking more into the wiki as a source of information for people.

Brad Dowdy: Right. There you go. Right. So it's fantastic. It's just so cool that this comes out of this awesome community that we're in.

Myke Hurley: Yep. And now I have given it a permanent link on the pen addict website, on relay.fm.com. It will be there on the left-hand column, the stationary wiki. So if you have any to find it, that's where you can find it. Although, to be honest, if you know what you're looking for, stationary.wiki is a really good URL. URL. It's awesome. All right. We've taken way too long to do the follow-up this week. There's still so much to talk about. So let me take our first break and thank our friends over at Harry's for supporting this week's show. For decades, huge rates of companies have increased prices at the expense of customers. So Jeff and Andy decided to create Harry's to stop this. Jeff and Andy knew that there was one way to ensure quality and keep prices low. They needed to make their stuff themselves. So they went ahead. They bought their own blade factory. And then, by taking less profit and selling directly over the internet, Harry's offers their blades at half of the prices that you're used to paying. With Harry's, you will pay just $2 a blade compared to the $4 or more that you'll be used to paying at the drugstore. Brad, I'm sure that with all this travel that you've been doing recently, Harry's has been kind to you on the road.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and that's my travel hack pro tip. I essentially keep two sets of Harry's goods. One at home on my counter in the bathroom and the second in the beautiful Harry's dop kit that I have from a year or two ago. And I keep the smaller travel sized Harry's shave cream and lotion in my travel kit along with the razor. And then have another set of the larger Harry's items on my counter. And I did the subscription thing for a while for blades. And I just don't shave enough to get the concurrent blades just like to keep them coming. So I stopped my subscription. But then I just when I have like two blades left, I just click on the Harry's app on my phone now and just order it from then. So I order the blades and the two different lotion sizes whenever my travel kit's running out or my home kit's running out or my blades are running out. The little app has come in handy. I thought it was weird to have a Harry's app, to be honest.

Myke Hurley: But I use it because it's... It needs an app to learn how to shave, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but I use it just because I'm just quick ordering that stuff, right? They make everything easy, including shaving, including the actual using of the product. It's by far the best I've ever used. And I've been on this earth for a while, Michael, and I've used lots of crappy shaving products. This is an awesome shaving product, and I'm glad they're a continued sponsor of the show.

Myke Hurley: It's also good for you to have the two sets so when one of them goes missing at home, you always have a backup.

Brad Dowdy: That is true. I still have one handle stashed just as the backup backup handle.

Myke Hurley: Harry's is so confident that you're going to love their blades as much as Brad does. They want to give you their trial set for free. You just need to cover $3 of shipping. This set includes a weighted ergonomic razor handle, five precision engineered blades of a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, their rich lathering shave gel, and also a travel blade cover as well. This is $13 of value for you to try out. Look, if you haven't by now gone and started to get your shaving products from Harry's, then stop messing around. Go and claim your free trial offer right now by going to harrys.com slash penaddict, and you can get started. That's harrys.com slash penaddict. All you need to do is cover the $3 for shipping. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM. So, Lamy petrol, right? I still haven't got my bottle of ink because the delays are strong on this thing. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a store that we have here. It's a greetings card chain. It's a kind of stationary store called Paper Chase. Sure. And they had, like, just a whole rack of the ink cartridges, the petrol ink cartridges. Oh, wow. Like, they're just there because they stock Lamy stuff. And they had all of them. They even had some of the actual Lamy safaris as well just sitting there. They're not specially priced in any way. Right. Because to them, it's just like, whatever. Yeah, it's always. So, I bought two boxes of the cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: I'm like, I'm taking those. Well, that's a good move because the cartridges are already no more. After whatever exists, you know, whatever's been available at stores, no one's getting them now. The petrol ink did start to arrive in the States as of yesterday, maybe two days ago. Okay, cool. So, hit your favorite vendors up. I know I've gotten some texts and emails saying, hey, we've got the ink now. So, if that's something you're looking for, you need to. I mean, if you're not buying it this week, when it becomes available, you're probably not getting it. So, I don't know if I'm going to get a bottle or not. I'm not giving up on limited edition inks. But it's just like, I've got so much ink. Do I need it? But then I say, well, it's only like $10.50. So, yeah, it'll end up with something else in the cart, that's for sure. But it's awesome. I mean, I'm loving the cartridges. That's what I have for my petrol right now, and it's great. It's just a cool color.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I got a bit impatient, and I just threw the cartridge into the Lamy, not remembering that I'd already like kind of – I tried a blue cartridge with it that came with it and popped it out and just like got rid of it. I was like, oh, wait. And now – so, I'm now going through like the transition of color. So, it's becoming more and more petrol. I do really love the ink color. I mean, I said this before, it's the Relay FM color. So, that bottle of ink will last me for a long, long time. But like it's very, very close to the color that we use for our branding. So, I have some cartridges right now, and then I'm going to kind of stash the second box of cartridges away. It's great. It's really, really great. I like the petrol color a lot, a lot, a lot.

Brad Dowdy: You should get the petrol ink bottle with the Relay FM logo.

Myke Hurley: Ooh, see, I have the bottle. Or maybe I could try and see if I could get that etched in there somehow. That might be kind of nice. I received a present a couple of weeks ago from our friend, the wonderful Glenn, who is just one of the best people on the planet. I think he might be. He's one of the best people ever, and he always takes care of us at the pen show by providing us with throat sweets from Hong Kong. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: He made, a while ago, he tried to convince me to get a chop made. And for people that don't remember what a chop is, this is, a chop is what makes the wax stamps. You know, you see those beautiful wax stamps, those old-timey wax stamps. You put some wax on an envelope, and then you press something into it, and it makes a shape, or like it makes an initial or something like that. Because he was getting a bunch, and I think this happened in the Pan Addict Slack. He was getting a bunch of people together, and they were making a custom order of stuff. And I never got around to it, and I was like, oh, I mean, I don't really send letters to people. Like, I can just, I'll do this next time. Like, I just, it just fell off my radar. And then I get a box in the mail from Glenn, which is a semi-regular occurrence, by the way. Right. He sends me gifts a lot. Another thing that makes him just so wonderful. And I open it, and it is a hashtag Myke was right chop.

Brad Dowdy: It is so good.

Myke Hurley: It is wonderful. And I put a link in the show notes to it. So I now have a chop of my own that I can just brand things into. And I think he wrote in the thing, you can also use this for chocolate, which I thought was just, I nearly died when I read that. It was so funny to me. I don't know why, but I was just like, why? It's just hilarious that he felt the need to tell me that. So that is something that I own now. And then I went ahead to Amazon. And Amazon Prime had like a whole set, like an antique sealing wax stick set, they called it. All these different colors and this little thing that you put the wax into to heat it up like a spoon. Makes it look like I'm doing drugs or something. It's very peculiar. It's got some candles. So I then basically just bought a bunch of this wax, a bunch of different colors, and was just stamping like a crazy person and made a big mess. I made a lot of mess. But it was awesome. And I now have this whole kit that if I ever want to wax seal something, I can. I actually have a letter that I have yet to send. This is my problem, right? Like I write letters. I've written a joke letter to Stephen and I keep meaning to send it. At this point, I'm just going to take it with me when I see him in like three weeks because I haven't sent it yet. But like I just put the seal, three of them, just like all over the thing. Yeah, exactly. It's awesome. I love it. I don't know if this is something that I ever would have bought for myself in the end. You know, like I just don't know if I would have done it. But I'm really so happy that I now have one of these. And I never would have thought to do. Myke was right with it, I think.

Myke Hurley: But that's way better because I'm making a severe statement every time I send a fancy letter. So, Glenn, you are the best. Thank you so much.

Brad Dowdy: So, I have a confession to make. I also got one from Glenn. And I keep leaving it at knock so I haven't been able to use it and give him a proper thank you. So, I will try to remember it on Thursday. So, mine's completely different from yours. It's round. And then there's like an x-axis of words across the middle. One direction of the word says hype man. Yes. And then the other direction, I can't remember if it just says pen addict or what. I'll have to get it back out again. I really hoped that it was going to say hype man. It's pretty amazing. And I'm just the worst. So, I have, yeah, Doug still. So, I have gifts from Glenn and from our friend Julia and Ponta. She made me a beautiful pen stand, which I think I showed you at the shop. They're still sitting at the shop. I just, I got to get them home. So, hopefully this weekend, I will correct the errors of my ways and get proper thank yous out.

Myke Hurley: I was really hoping that you were going to say that your chop was like a tiny version of that artwork of you.

Brad Dowdy: That would have, that's scarily what I definitely thought it could be.

Myke Hurley: It's like, oh no, he's found a way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I'm the worst. They're still at work. That's okay.

Myke Hurley: You'll be forgiven, I'm sure.

New Products

Brad Dowdy: There have been a bunch of new products come out. Holy moly. Like, we just have a few notes in here, honestly. But there's so much more. The first one is something. We teased this. We teased it at the time. It's the new Baron Fig Squire. And we didn't know what it was exactly. Joey said it was going to be good. I got the advance, what do you call it, like the PR packet with all the photographs in it. And immediately, the best Squire they've ever done. Like, it's looked awesome.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God, it's sold out.

Brad Dowdy: Or is it really?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I didn't get it in time. Oh gosh darn it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm so frustrated. So, that doesn't surprise me in one bit. This is the highlight release for the Squire so far. I'm so annoyed at myself right now.

Brad Dowdy: I just thought it wouldn't sell out so fast, you know? If anyone was going to do it, it was going to be this one. Yeah. It's called The Experiment. It's this bright green awesomeness. And the photographs they took are stunning. They make this metal. On the website, they call it nuclear green. On the packaging, they call it chemical green. But it's just this bright metallic green that's just really, really sharp on the pen. And I do have it here. Oh, beautiful. Nicely done. Nice fully work. Yes, yes, yes. The packaging on this is fantastic too. Because it's a white tube with green lettering. And for some reason, I really like white packaging. Just like I like some of the white cover feel notes. This one, I mean, this is the one so far in the Squire. Just like I think the Infinity Vanguard is like the standout Infinity. I mean, standout Vanguard. The Experiment is the standout Squire. We haven't seen a standout Archer Pencil yet. Because they've only released one. And the last one was not a standout. The Askew for all the love-hate it got is a standout Confidant. And this is the one. So, I'm not surprised at all. It's already sold out. They're going to sell a lot of subscriptions for this one. This is going to be the one that's going to throw them for a loop. It already looks like it has, right? I mean, if it's sold out on the site, they've got to have enough for subscriptions. Which they already sent out. But I imagine this will increase the subscription count for the Squire for future versions. Because even Joey said, like the one, I don't know what he was saying, the one in the fall. I think the Squire was just going to be knocking your socks off. And, you know, he didn't say much about this one. But this one clearly did. And it clearly resonated with a bunch of people. I didn't open mine up until this morning. And I do see an issue because I'm that guy, apparently, right? There is a gap at the end of this pen, which you can actually see in their product photos. That's not available. That wasn't shown in the standard Squire or the Alphabet Squire. You can actually see a gap in the cap where the twist mechanism is. And it's like the tolerance chain is a little bit looser on this one. And I can't stop looking at it. It bugs me a little bit. It doesn't mean it's not a great pen and not the best one that they've ever done. But I can't stop looking at this gap. It makes me want to click the pen instead of twist it. It's so wide. I can help you with that, actually.

Myke Hurley: I have an idea. If you don't like it, you just send it to me. Yeah. Because I'll take it. I'll take it from you.

Brad Dowdy: Because I sent my regular, once I got the Alphabet, I sent my regular Squire to Susan. So I will give you this one. I'll give you this one. Because I backed the Kickstarter project so I could get the Plum Squire. Right. So I'll have that one coming, too. And I'm going to get a blue tote bag as long as it gets to 100K, which it looks like they will. They still have a couple, two, three weeks left. And it's like an 80-something. So once they released the blue color, I didn't want the gray or the fig. I keep forgetting what they call that color.

Myke Hurley: It's Plum something, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But when they released the blue one, I was like, okay, blue tote. And that way I can get the Squire as well. So I did that. And I will give you this experiment in DC. I'll save it for you. I love you. It's really great. The color is awesome. The color is awesome. And it comes with a green refill. So it's got the Schmidt P8126, but in green.

Myke Hurley: Tony has corrected us that they call the color fig wine.

Brad Dowdy: Fig wine. Yeah. I can never remember that. Fig wine. All right. So definitely the best Squire and the people have spoken because it is sold out. So good job, Baron Fig. So now they're going to have to start ramping up production, I guess.

Retro 51 Pens

Myke Hurley: Talking about the best in a series. Now, I may be going to make a bold claim here that I think I can back up. I think I feel pretty confident in this claim. But, you know, like time helps clear up these things. And it may be a too short time period. But I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I got both of the Bioworks Retro 51s. Right. I bought them. I have numbers 120 of both of them. We were talking about this for a while ago. A couple of weeks ago. This is the Vaness Artist Edition. It's the second in the artist series. And they worked with Bioworks, friend of the show, Ben. And they produced a set of two Retro 51s. One is blue and red. One is orange and turquoise. And it features these like owls, right? Like something like owls flying around. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: He calls that type of work like an ornate animal. So this would be an ornate owl. So there's, you know, other ornate in the ornate series. The ornate elephant was his first that really blew up.

Myke Hurley: I think these are the most beautiful Retro 51s I've ever seen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to get any argument from me.

Myke Hurley: They are stunning. They are stunning. They look so good. The colors are so amazing. And the owls are like, it's a relief on top of the pen, right? Like there's a ridge. They're raised. My gosh. They are just absolutely unbelievable. There are still some of these available. I don't know why. At Van Espen's, you can get the set still, which I thoroughly recommend. Yeah. That's what I got too. Or you can get the blue and red. They're still available.

Myke Hurley: The orange and turquoise are sold out. I think the orange and turquoise is the better of the two colors. So if you still want to get that one, then you should get the set still. And it comes with art.

Brad Dowdy: The blue and red is the one that comes with the artwork. So it's more expensive to begin with. Ah, okay. That's the price point. They don't both come with Ben's signed artwork. The blue and red one does. And it's 20 bucks more.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Okay. But get either of them. Get both of them. You really should. If you like Retro 51s, even just a tiny percentage of the amount that I do, you're going to go crazy for these. Because they are absolutely gorgeous. They are so good looking, Brad. I'm dying. They're so good. My gosh. Love them. Absolutely love them. Love them.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So something else I love.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't seen this. I don't love this pen, but I love the video of the Eureka pen on Kickstarter. And I'm not sure how many people have seen this. But if you haven't, you need to watch this. You might need some alone time during or after you watch it. It's like a five or six minute video. It's the most amazing Kickstarter pen video I've ever seen. You'll just have to watch it to live it yourself. Our friend Harry Marks sent this to me. And he was like, have you seen? He didn't say, did you see this pen?

Myke Hurley: What is going on here? I'm just like clicking through the video.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you just have to listen to him.

Brad Dowdy: The pictures and the project are amazing. Everything about this thing is amazing, except the pen. I have no, I don't, I have no desire for this pen. I'm not going to back the project. But just watch it and tell me you don't just come away amazed by the video. My world.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Okay. No spoilers, right? Like no spoilers.

Brad Dowdy: And really nothing to say about this project. I mean, back it if you want. I mean, I have no interest in the pen, but just the video and the photography and the story of this pen are absolutely amazing. And it's, it's basically must see TV for anyone interested in, in pens and stationary. You have to see this. So we'll, we'll leave it at that. I just wanted to drop that in there real quick on you because it definitely blew my mind. Last thing for, well, not even the last thing for the new items, but one of the many more new items. I just noticed this morning when I was scrolling through Twitter that Edison pen company has a new filling mechanism. And what's interesting about this one is that it's called the draw filler. So it's essentially kind of like a push button vacuumatic type of filler. You push the button, it draws up ink and you keep pushing and then it draws it up till it's full. It's a very cool, very simple system. What's interesting is none of the existing pens come. It's not a, he didn't make a new model of pen, but you can choose any of the existing pens and have used this filling system added to that pen.

Brad Dowdy: And it was made to solve a problem that I've seen with my Menlo. The Menlo has a latex kind of seal on where the pump is and it's not great. I've had problems with it. Mine started leaking recently. Brian knows it's a problem. So this one uses a different materials. It's got these, it's, you can go read. We'll put the link in the show notes. Brian has the details on, on why this is not going to get damaged like this latex system used in the pump filler and it looks fantastic. You know, I'll have to eyeball these when I see them in DC, see if that's something that I want to get because I like that type of filling system. It's very simple, but works well.

Myke Hurley: I want to see if I can have my pen changed. Do you reckon that's possible? Oh, I don't know. So that's a great question though. Because I love my Edison, but it leaks on me now and it leaks from the side that it shouldn't leak from, right? Right. It's leaking from the back, which is not a place. If your pen is leaking from the back, that's a problem with your pen and mine has been. So there is an issue with my Menlo and it would be kind of nice to have it changed.

Brad Dowdy: But that's a great question. I mean, I can't answer that obviously, but looking at it, it looks really close. Like he has it pictured in what looks like a Menlo shape barrel. Yeah. So maybe the dimensions can be retrofitted into that exact new system because I would vote for that too. This is definitely like, looks like the replacement for the Menlo pump. Yeah. And it looks much simpler and much better. So it's very cool. I look forward to seeing these pens because I love that shape and design of the Menlo and it'd be cool. Like I love the Beaumont. I would like to see maybe a Beaumont with that filling system in it or something like that. And he also released new Perlet colors of the, what does he call it? The production lineup that the vendors will carry. So there's three new colors of Perlet as well. If you haven't seen those Sonoran sunset, Azure skies and Canyon trail all based on a Arizona desert theme. So it's fantastic. They look great. So if you've been looking for new stuff from Edison, they've been a little bit quiet for a while, but I know it's only because they're so busy. Here's working on some cool stuff. That's fine. Yeah. Working on some cool stuff. So always Brian's always got something cool up his sleeve. So, and I like that he keeps messing with filling systems because you know what? It's not easy. He takes a risk when he does something like the Menlo. That's a massive risk for him because no one makes these in a modern pen these days. So it's very cool. It's cool to see him playing and experimenting like this. And I'm happy to support him while he does that.

Casper Mattresses

Myke Hurley: Today's show is also brought to you by the fine folk over at Casper. Casper is the company focused on sleep. They make the perfect premium mattress that they sell online for just a fraction of what you would be paying in a store. Their award-winning mattress was developed in-house. It has a really sleek design and is delivered in an impossibly small box. And in addition to the mattress, Casper also offer an adaptive pillow and soft breathable sheets as well so you can kit out your entire bedroom environment in Casper products if you so desire. Casper's in-house team of engineers spent thousands of hours developing their mattress. It's an obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price. So it's no surprise that they have an average of 4.8 stars across more than 30,000 online reviews. To hit 4.8 stars with that many reviews, that's pretty amazing. Their San Francisco research and development team have developed a proprietary fund that relieves pressure and increases airflow. They've combined it with a springy comfort layer to contour to your body and keep you cool as well. This means that the Casper mattress has just the right sink and just the right bounce. All of their mattresses are at great prices and they're designed and developed in America and they cut the hassle and cost of dealing with showrooms and they pass those savings to you. Now Brad, I believe you have a Casper mattress, do you not?

Brad Dowdy: I do, I do. And I want to talk about a feature I've probably mentioned in the past, but I don't know if that it comes up normally in their copy. It's a cool as in temperature mattress. So I know a lot of us are very particular about the temperatures we sleep in. Some like it hot, some like it cold. I need it to be very cold and cool in my room. I'm a hot sleeper. So I don't need a hot mattress underneath me. Casper stays cool. That's why I enjoy it so much. Not only is it, is it comfortable and useful and easy to set up. It's very cool when I lay on it. I appreciate that as someone who usually burns up no matter, unless I'm sleeping in the Arctic, I'm usually like burning up at night, but not with the Casper mattress. It's awesome for that. I really, I really like that.

Myke Hurley: That's great. That's really great. So let me, let me tell you a little bit more about the Casper because there's some exciting news. If you're based in the United Kingdom, Casper now ship there. They also ship, of course, to the US and Canada and buying a mattress from Casper is completely risk-free. You get to sleep on their mattress before you make your decision. You can try it out for 100 nights and decide if it's right for you. And if you don't love it, they'll pick it up and refund you everything. So there is no risk at all. And because you're a listener of this show, you can get $50 towards any purchase, any mattress purchase by going to casper.com slash penaddict and using the code penaddict at checkout. Terms and conditions apply, casper.com slash penaddict. Thank you so much to Casper for their support of this very show.

Brad Dowdy: So are you ready for the test, Myke? I think so. I haven't received my exam papers yet, so no. Yeah, so I've gotten my exam papers and I gotta say, just go ahead and give me the F or the zero because I'm not planning on doing homework this summer. I already do enough homework with my kids. And Field Notes sent me a cool thing in the mail and sent all their subscribers a cool thing in the mail for homework. It's hilarious, right? This is hilarious. It is very hilarious. So they've put their collective brains together and come up with this nice little subscriber bonus, I guess they're calling it.

Brad Dowdy: So the header of the school, I guess, or the name of the school is the Field Notes Correspondence School. Getting Smarter One Letter at a Time. So there's this whole letter, Myke, that comes with it. It's typewritten. They give you exam... Mine's still on the way, right? Yes. So yours should still be on the way. We got an email, what, like two weeks ago that said, hey, something is coming your way.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And then this shows up. And I was like, what is this? And I pull out these blue books. So you get these blue books. And I don't know if this was a thing in England, but when I was growing up, and this is pre-computer testing and all that, if you had to do an essay portion of a test, you get this small kind of self-contained blue book. And that's where your essay answers would go. It's cheap. And, you know, it was called the blue book because that was the cover of the color, the color of the cover. And it just... This just has like eight pages in it. I think they normally came with about 12 or 20, not that you ever used them all. And I always hated seeing these in class, right? Because I knew I was going to have to write an essay. And I never wanted to... I never wanted to take an essay. So if your test came with like multiple sheets and you had, you know, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, and then you had an additional book, additional blue book, you know, I would just cringe. I was like, oh, there's essay questions.

Brad Dowdy: So Field Notes is trying to make me do homework. I'm not going to do homework. It's a cool to see. I mean, I'm just going to stick these in the closet and I don't know, do what, maybe give them to the kids or something and let them do it. But what they are doing, they are actually asking you to do homework and they have this whole submission process for filling out one of these books.

Brad Dowdy: Let's see. What do they say?

Brad Dowdy: There's like a quiz that you can complete, right? No, it's not a quiz. It says, using one of the enclosed blue books, please submit a written essay relating a notable, dramatic, or humorous event that happened to you while you were in elementary or high school.

Myke Hurley: That's amazing.

Brad Dowdy: These will be graded on creativity, punctuation, spelling, and penmanship. Penmanship is in all caps. Please mind your margins. The prizes are, there's actually two of each of these individual prizes. A run of 250 customized Field Notes memo books with your logo, signature, or trademark on the back. A copy of the Draplin Design Co. Pretty Much Everything book signed. And a free one year renewal to Field Notes quarterly edition subscription. So those are the three prizes and there'll be two of each of those. So it's great. I mean, it's just, it's just a cool extra. I mean, I mean, I'm not going to do anything with it. After today, it'll sit in my closet and I'll never look at it again. Or I'll give it to my kids if they're not going to destroy things. I'm not going to do anything with it. I certainly don't, I'm certainly not up for the homework.

Myke Hurley: Nobody's subscribing for these, right? But like, they're just, if you are a subscriber, it's a fun little bonus, right? It's just like, oh, they sent me this thing. Like, it's nice, I think. I mean, you know, as usual, I saw people complaining about this online. People were unhappy. I mean, people are always unhappy with everything. But here's my take on this. There's nothing to complain about. Well, yeah, you would think so, Brad, right? No, okay. You would think so. But turns out that there is. My take on this is, I look at this and I'm like, I bet this is something that they've always wanted to do. Like, they wanted to make an edition that looked like this, right? Was like the exam books. But probably didn't feel like it was right for a regular release. Because it's so far removed. So they were just like, oh, we're going to do this thing and we can give it to our subscribers. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what's the complaint? I didn't pay extra for it.

Myke Hurley: I saw some people complaining in various groups. Stop sending me free things. Basically about the fact that they were unhappy with a gift this year and that they feel like that a precedent has been set with gifts from last year and that this gift didn't live up to that. And I'm like, oh my God, like it's a gift.

Brad Dowdy: Like it's free. So I'm not a member of the, if you're talking about Field Nuts, I'm not. I wouldn't say. I left that group. I left that group a long time ago.

Myke Hurley: I left and then went back because I was auctioning some things. Now it still pops up. And I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough, honestly. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't. Yeah. So, I mean, heck, they did a great job last year. I mean.

Myke Hurley: It was, look, last year will be an anomaly because that was so incredible to do the commemorative reprints. Like, I don't know if they could ever top that. But like, the thing is, not only do they not need to top it, they also don't need to give me a gift. But they do. They have these fun little ideas and just send me a free thing. Like, if anybody's subscribing for the gift, then I would recommend that you probably unsubscribe because I don't know what you think you're getting out of subscription. Right. You subscribe to get the four editions of the notebook every year. Like, that's what it is. I don't know, man. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think when, do they say they, is part of the subscription an annual gift? No. Okay. Like, I know you're paying for all of it, right? I'm not saying you're not paying for this, but it's an extra that's not in the written bylaws of the Field Notes subscription. So, yeah, get over it and throw it away if you don't like it.

Myke Hurley: I know. I just, I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know what to suggest people.

Brad Dowdy: Have you seen that Brad guy on Twitter?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people complain about things, right? Good grief. It's a thing that they do. Something you didn't complain about. I read your review of the Field Notes, Bullroy Everyday Inspiration. I've spent some more time with these since I had lunch with somebody, coffee with somebody yesterday who had one.

Brad Dowdy: The pocket notebook, not the big, you're not talking about the big notebook, you're talking about the sleeve, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the sleeve, the everyday inspiration, the little pocket cover.

Myke Hurley: I will get one of these one day. I'm reserving it for a gift, right? Like, if somebody says, like, you know, it's like the holidays come around and someone wants to buy me something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, when people reach out to me and ask what to buy you, this is on the list, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is top of the list right now. This is the thing that happens. And this is it, right? Because this thing is beautiful. It's beautiful. It is such a lovely way to carry some notebooks around. And Bellroy are amazing. And Field Notes are amazing. And together, they have made something double amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I totally agree. I haven't been using it. I've had a weird week of non-stationary usage. It's been very minimal. So I haven't got to use all these cool things I have. But this is one that I keep, like, right on the top of my desk. It's like, I'm going to start using this. I'm just going to start using this because it is that cool. It is really cool.

Myke Hurley: We did just get some follow-up, real-time follow-up. Oh, yeah. That apparently on the spreadsheet about calculating the benefits that they made, subscriber extra is on that spreadsheet. I still don't think that it's worth, like, honestly complaining about. Like, the name is extra. It's an extra. Like, it's just an extra benefit. But I don't think that it should be taken into your point of the cost because, I don't know, it just seems weird to me. I mean, as well, like, subscriber extra could also mean all of the other crap that they throw in the boxes, right? You get a bunch of field notes. Yeah. You get a bunch of craft, pencils, pens, rubber bands, right?

Brad Dowdy: We got the bottle opener last time. Those are the subscriber extras that I think about. That's what I expect for subscriber extras. This is above and beyond that.

Myke Hurley: That's 100% what I would consider to be in that. And this is an extra thing. This is a gift. Like, you know. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Hey, ho.

Story Supply Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: Anywho, let's talk about another notebook that's a gift. This is a gift to writing, writers everywhere. Story Supply Edition 407.

Myke Hurley: So, I picked some of these up in Atlanta. I bought them with my very own money to support Story Supply after they were so amazing on the show. And a couple of days ago, I broke out the 407, the Edition 407. It's the maroon one staple bound. And I thought I would put it... Because I heard you mention on the show that they are friendly to fountain pens. So, it's like, ha, we'll see about this, right? So, I got out my collection of weird and wonderful nibs from my stub nibs to my few-day nib. And I'm like, I'm going to put this thing through its paces. Flat out, this is the best pocket notebook I have ever used for a fountain pen. My word. What are they using? Cardboard in this thing? How? There's no bleed.

Brad Dowdy: It's great, isn't it? Those are the ones that I recommend for everyone on the Story Supply bandwagon. The 407 has been the best edition so far. I haven't tried the new pencil one, but I think it's a different paper because it's made for CW pencils. And you want a little bit different paper if you're going to focus on pencils. The 407, when I used it, it's one of those things where I, do I believe what I'm actually seeing? Is this really happening kind of thing, right? So, and it does. It's the truth. So, those books are great. And I've given a bunch of those away because I like sending those off to people and surprising them with a little something. That's one I definitely choose. It's very cool. It's great.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've got to say, like, again, I love your notebooks. They're really nice. Sure. But this is, I think this is the best that I've used. Yeah, yeah. It's incredible. Like, I cannot believe how well they handle some of the nips and the ink I'm throwing at this. Yep. It really is. I mean, I even have one of my crazier pens. It burped a little, which is one of my favorite phrases. So, if you don't know what that means, it just, it spat out some ink.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like there was an air bubble in there and it escaped and it brought some ink along with it.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. And it was, and it dealt with it, it even dealt with that with a plum. Like, I'm very, very surprised at how good these are. And they are sitting on my desk now awaiting use. I will say something real quick, Brad. I have taken the bullet journal that Ryder gave us and I've put some stickers on it because I want to start bullet journaling. And this is the beginning of a path, right? So, I'm like, I put stickers on the thing, claiming it was mine. And I was like, right, okay, here we go. Step one. I haven't done anything with that yet, but like I've read about all the system. I've gone through the whole page. I've made notes. Like, well, this is how the system works. And I'm trying to work out how it can fit into my life.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. You know, I've, I haven't used anything else yet, but I also haven't used it in the past few days because I'm one of those people that when they get so busy, I stop writing things down, which is a horrible habit. That's when you need to write things down and organize your thoughts and your plans. Me, I just pick up the laptop and dive head first into whatever's in my brain at that time. And I usually, I forget other things. Writing it down in the bullet journal is super helpful. So, I've missed the last few days. I got to get back into it, really since the end of Chicago. And if it's the only notebook I'm kind of carrying with me when I leave the house or on my person, you know, if I go to knock, I keep it on my desk in the house. So, it's kind of my primary stationary item. I just haven't been using it. And I need to because I totally see the value in it. So, I just, the most important thing, which I said it on that show, is committing to five minutes in the morning, five minutes at night, or ten minutes to update your list.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I just haven't yet worked out how I will be running this and my Todoist system together because that's, I mean, I'm not going to stop using that, right? Because that is more important that I keep that up to date. But it's like taking the stuff that's in that system, putting it onto the paper, dealing with it, and then putting it back. That's what I'm like. I'm trying to work out how that's going to look for me. But I basically have just come to the realization that I think that I would be helped a lot mentally if I'm writing these things down. I think it would mentally help just with my feeling of work. So, that's on my horizon.

Brad Dowdy: And that's how I do it too. And, you know, paper doesn't do recurring items very well, right? So, we need our Todoist and things like that. But I still can write those things down to help me get a better grasp on, okay, here's what's expected of my time today. that works better for me on paper than in a digital form. So, it's something I need to continue down that path.

Housekeeping

Myke Hurley: Should we end the show on some housekeeping?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I have Nock updates, Kickstarter updates. We are most of the way through shipping black linears for the Lanier Kickstarter project. The olive lanier started to ship out very slowly yesterday with bigger batches going today and tomorrow.

Brad Dowdy: So, we're gaining on it. I appreciate everyone's patience. You know, it's one of those things where we do our own fulfillment. Every bag passes through our hands. We inspect them all. It's just kind of like that's what we do, right? So, it takes us time. We're not the fastest at shipping out a huge project just because of the way we do things. And, the feedback has been wonderful. I love seeing the Lanier's and the A5 notebooks out in the wild. Feedback's been hugely positive and I really, really appreciate all of the support and the kind words that everyone has. So, we'll keep pumping those olive ones out. We'll finish up the black ones here soon as well. Not much longer. I'd say if we got done in the next week and a half, that might be cutting in a little close, but hopefully by the end of the month. So, we'll see. It'll be really, really close to being at a completion state by the end of the month. So, two weeks from now or so, we should be, we have to be 90, 95% done by then, I would imagine. So, with what we're going to get out this week and next week. So, yeah, we're good. That's awesome. Yep. Then we have, so what we said at the beginning of the show, the Pen Addict Kickstarter video is going to go out today. So, look for those in your inboxes. The Sapelo pen envelope looks like probably an August time frame. It's still a little bit of variance in that. I don't think it should be much later than that though based on the timelines I'm getting. But, just like the Lanier, one week turns into two, two turns into three. Then every week, I'm saying next week and I say that for four weeks in a row. So, you just never know how it's going to go. That's the time frame I'm shooting for.

Brad Dowdy: And, we'll see how that goes. We do have the DC show from August 4th through the 6th. Myke and I will be there. We're going to be doing our live recording there but not in front of a studio audience. I don't know, maybe we'll have to have a whiskey and scotch tasting in the room while we're recording. What do you think about that, Myke? Myke. Great idea. You're thrilled with that one, right? Oh, yeah. Just what Myke needs. A bunch of rowdy, rowdy people in the room while we're trying to record.

Myke Hurley: But,

Brad Dowdy: we'll see. Oh, I just thought you meant me and you. Oh, no, no. Oh, yeah. No. I don't want to just drink with you. Oh. I need to drink with the crowd. Okay. And then we have the Field Notes show coming up in October. Yep. Which we'll still, we got to talk to Jim and Brian to finalize the details but so we'll have more on that soon. So we got a lot going on. So I'm going to be in Raleigh the first weekend of June which is coming up. Gosh, that's only like two weeks away and it'll be my first time in Raleigh. I'm bringing one of the young pen addicts with me which I haven't mentioned yet. My daughter, Elizabeth. She's going to come help run the knock table with me. She is pumped about that so y'all come say hey to me and Elizabeth. I'll have some of our new prototypes there to check out. We're doing the A5 case, the A5 Slim case or the A6 case for the fall. I'm going to try to bring some of those with me so you can check them out. You can tell me what you like, what you don't like about them. We're not quite done with them yet. They're not in production or anything yet but the colors are picked out. You won't get to see those yet but they're going to be awesome. I'm pretty excited about that. So, there's a lot going on. A lot of kickstarting, a lot of updates, a lot of shipping, a lot of pen shows, Myke. Lots of pen shows this year but it's fun. This will be the second knock show outside of Atlanta so figuring all these out is very cool and that way we can see what we want to do next year, what works, what doesn't work. So we got a lot of good, Chicago was a perfect learning experience to know how much do we take? You know, what are the quantities we need of these things? How heavy can we make Brad's bag when we overpay for shipping for baggage at Delta? So, it's a good thing to learn all these things. We'll get to drive to Raleigh though so that'll be good. And that's it. There's always something going on. I feel like as much as we talked about today, there's 8,000 things we didn't talk about so I'm sure our listeners will let us know, right? I have no doubt about it. I have more things.

Myke Hurley: So next time, I've got more stuff. I've got more stuff I want to talk about. But you can find our show notes for this week over at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 257. Don't forget that there is a penaddict subreddit which is slash r slash penaddict on Reddit so you can go and you can go check that out if you want to. It's a little community growing there which is fun to watch. I see these things go by every now and then so you should go check it out if it interests you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and that little community is growing. It's gone from just like a couple hundred people. I'm looking at it now there's 767 people in there so that's cool. It's gone well and I know there's show links in there to talk about the show to talk about the podcast what it's done. I'm missing the last couple of episodes but that's cool. It's a really really cool thing and some good comments in there so yeah, it's fun.

Myke Hurley: You should set up a little action to have it auto-post. I should. You can do that IFTTT or something will do that for you. Take care of it. Take care of it. You can find Brad online over at penaddict.com knock.co and he is dowdyism on Twitter d-o-w-d-y-i-s-m and penaddict on Instagram. I am imike i-m-y-k-e thanks so much to Casper and Harry's for sponsoring the show but most of all as always thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Brad. Thank you.