The Pen Addict 275/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	275
Title:	Field Notes X
Release Date:	September 20th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 275
Audio File:	Audio Episode 275
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 275
Length:	6060 min <br />1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 275. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Casper. And Brad, I would like to thank you for giving me a safe respite from the rest of my world that I have been living in for the past week or so now. The Pen Addict provides me with a nice safe haven away from iOS and iPhone and all that sort of stuff. So, I'm happy to be here with you.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you're welcome and I'm happy to be here too because it does give me a respite from the other things that I'm not into as much as you are. And literally the first question I asked you when we got online today was, Hey, did you survive the last week? Because I know it's just been constant Apple news. And I'm pretty, I mean, I'm ancillary, like I'll read the headlines, but I don't read any of the stories and stuff. But I know people like you and TG and Steven and Jason and everyone who's like knee deep into this stuff. It's been 24-7 news cycle for like a week straight, right? And yesterday was kind of the culmination, even though not really because the 10 hasn't come out yet. But yesterday, okay, the new OS got released and we pushed our buttons and now we're kind of past that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there is just a constant stream and it's stuff that I love and enjoy, but it's nice to not think about that for a little bit as well. And that's what we're here for today. So, I wanted to start with some follow-up. If you remember in Hashtag Ask TPA last week, we had Lola and I asked about what we would recommend to fill up multiple vials of ink at a time.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Penvelopes

Myke Hurley: It ended up that Lola and I went with pipettes. And they asked because they're going to be a Pelican Hubmaster. Right. So, they needed to fill up a bunch of ink with Edelstein stuff, the eight Edelstein inks. So, yeah, that was what I think that it was the best possible result.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm actually rethinking that a little bit. I got a ton of feedback on that. And, you know, one of my Twitter followers, TJ, who, he said, how about just like your basic nasal aspirator because of the bulk aspect of it to where the pipettes, you can probably get three vials maybe filled. And the bulk aspect of something like an aspirator can get you a lot more ink and still have that fine tube to be able to stick into the top of those small vials. So, I thought that was a pretty good idea. And then I got some really intense, intense suggestions from our friend Tony Scolombrini at the Gear Geeks podcast. He said his wife's a chemist and sent me like one of the robot parts that they use with like, you know, five, you know, needles sticking out of these things that, you know, move and fill vials. I'm like, yeah, I don't think that's going to work for the Pelican Hub, but I appreciated the effort. So, we got a lot of answers on that one, a lot of feedback on that. But I kind of think in retrospect, the aspirator might be a better option, you know, something big. I guess I was on the right track with the turkey baster last week, but the nasal aspirator would probably work a little bit better, I think.

Myke Hurley: It's like a tiny baster.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to leave that one alone and go right into the launch of Kickstarter Japan. I wouldn't have put this in the show notes, but you did. I think you're wondering what's my problem, I guess.

Myke Hurley: I don't think you have a – did you have a problem? I thought you were excited. I don't know where I saw this. It may have been in Refill, which is the newsletter that I read. So, point to point, as you can tell, because I'm always bringing up things that happen in the Refill newsletter, which you should sign up for. Go to penaddict.com slash members and you can find out more information about that. But I saw you make a passing reference to the fact that this has launched now, Kickstarter Japan, that you were very excited to see what types of projects might come from this. And I wondered why – like, what are you expecting from this?

Brad Dowdy: I don't really expect anything, but I'm hoping to see some cool textile things. Okay. Not pen and stationary things. I'm hoping to see interesting backpacks and bags and things like that because I follow that market super, super closely. You know, it's – I think a lot of companies over there do very, very innovative work. And so, to add a country into the Kickstarter realm that has such a different style and aesthetic than necessarily what we'll see in the U.S. market, but that speaks to me on a personal level, I thought it was cool. And anything we get stationary related would just be, you know, a bonus, I think. I certainly don't think it's going to be like a pen and paper revolution because of how that industry is so huge over there already with major companies being involved. You don't need, you know, someone, you know, sitting in their apartment saying, I can't find a good enough pen. Let me create one. Yeah. In the U.S. market, you get that, right? There's a frustration over here. So, they have different frustration points in Japan. So, I'm interested to see what kind of differing products we can get. Right now, I haven't pinned down any, like, specific project, but I'm super excited that it's at least an option.

Myke Hurley: Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I thought you meant that there might just be weird pens, which I'm sure there will be, like, weird and wonderful pens. Yeah. But, yeah, it's cool that you're looking at for maybe some more ancillary objects.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Speaking of which. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Speaking of wonderful textiles, we did a Kickstarter campaign. The Kickstarter campaign, thank you for everybody that participated in that.

Myke Hurley: It was for a wonderful penvelope, Cappello penvelope and videos. Well, we had the penvelopes made. Everybody's got their penvelopes now, or should. They've all been mailed out. I haven't got mine yet, I don't think. I'm assuming that's on the way. I assume they're on the way.

Brad Dowdy: It should be. Oh, yeah. It should be. I think there's only 12 Kickstarter backers that we haven't sent, because we don't have their address. And, like, I've sent extra emails to get the addresses. And that's about how many I have left. Cool. Well, I'm sure mine's on the way, too.

Myke Hurley: Actually, do you know what? Yeah. No, because I didn't back it. I just asked you to send me one. That's what it was. Oh, then it's definitely not on the way. Definitely not on the way, huh? Yeah. Definitely not on the way. There might not be one for me, because now the rest are for sale. And I would prefer people to be able to buy them than just have one sent to me for the sake of it. But, yeah, there is a small amount left. So we had to do a production run of a certain amount, right? Like, you have to do it for a certain amount. And we had to account for there being issues of some description. So we always go for a few extra. Well, we're actually selling off some of the extra ones as well. So it's over at knockco.com, but I'll put a link in the show notes. Do you know how many there are?

Brad Dowdy: A total overall, there's 700 cases. So we had about 100 left over to work through and see a little over 100, something like that.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, if there's 100, you can get me one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what I just wrote a note here, which doesn't mean I'll remember to do it, is to bring you one in Chicago.

Myke Hurley: Perfect. I would love that. That would be amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Thanks again to everyone that did support us. And this is kind of just a lecture for the people that missed out, maybe.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And normally we wouldn't sell them online if we had more pen shows to go to. This is normally we would bring the extras like this to pen shows. Yeah. But it's six months till the next pen show at least.

Myke Hurley: We're going to be into 2018 and the case is, say, 2017. Right? Like, it's, you know, it feels like we should just do it. Now everybody gets a chance. Because the thing about bringing this stuff to pen shows is then still there's only a small amount of people that actually get an option to do this. And you may end up with a case of like, I don't know, people getting multiple ones. So, we wanted to make sure we could have it for everybody. They're available online now to buy if you're so inclined.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, there's still some available. So, if you were interested and didn't get in on the Kickstarter, you should because we have the Field Notes event coming up. Gosh. Three weeks now? It's awfully close.

Brad Dowdy: Awfully close. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I can't. Yeah. I can't believe it. We'll go with that. Three weeks. Oh, my gosh.

Myke Hurley: Oh, my gosh.

Brad Dowdy: Something else that's been awfully close for like a month now. Talking about three weeks. Three weeks ago.

Brad Dowdy: Our seed notebook cases. Oh, this is going to be the end of me. This is the manufacturing is hard talk. And it's nothing new. It's just standard frustrations. So, I get a phone call. I mean, we've been supposed to be having cases for at least like the past two weeks now. And so, I get a phone call like Friday was going to be the first big shipment. Nothing happens Friday. I call them Monday. They have to call me back, find out what's going on. They go down and inspect the first batch of cases ready to ship and they reject them all because of a binding issue. So, it's like I super appreciate that, right? Like, they know what we expect from our cases. We have really high quality demands that they're not used to manufacturing. So, they have specific things, specific specifications that they have to meet specifically for us that they don't normally do. And they caught them before they left. So, I should have the first batch arriving today. But that doesn't mean they're going to be ready for sale because we have to have enough to be able to, you know, fulfill initial orders. So, we're going to wait until we have a few hundred in, which might take another week or so. But, yeah, it's been a super annoying, frustrating production week at Nock. Just trying to get the final details hemmed up, if you will, on these cases. And once they start rolling and they're perfect off the line, they roll and they don't stop. But, man, I swear getting them started sometimes is just like pulling teeth. You know, I put in this order in April, just so everyone knows. This is how it goes. So, and I would like to say this is abnormal. It's just not. I can't build in enough lead time for all these projects for everything to go perfectly, no matter how much I do. So, I'm trying. We're very much trying. We're very, very close. But I know I've been saying that for a few weeks. And, you know, it's two steps forward, one step back. And hopefully what I see today or tomorrow, whenever they arrive, is perfect and we're ready to go. And then they start arriving every day for the next several weeks. And they'll be up on the site very, very soon. And everyone will be able to get their cases ordered. So, good times, Myke Hurley, good times.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry, man.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, nothing to be sorry about. It's just I wish, you know, I could give everyone exact dates and times. And I try to give general ideas and say, hey, maybe this week, you know, it's looking good for this week. And then when that fails, that's when I start getting ticked, you know, when it's out of my hands. So, that's what frustrates me is getting information, getting good information, passing on good information, and that good information failing. So, oh, well, it happens. Like I said, I'm used to it. It doesn't make it less frustrating.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I understand. Yeah.

Roll Gut

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, one of our favorite Kickstarter projects I think we've talked about, this will make the third week in a row now, the Roll Goot. Is it Goot or Gut?

Myke Hurley: I like Gut, but.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, we'll go with Roll Gut because we're Englishers and we butcher things. So, my friend Brian at Office Supply Geek got an early sample of the Roll Gut and reviewed it. I say that in air quotes. Like he took a lot of pictures and talked about the specifications. And aside from the pin holding aspect and the construction of it, which all look great, I really, the only thing I care about is what's my paper look like when I unroll it and how do I use it? And he didn't cover any of that. I was like, well, that's kind of the point of the thing. And I was very disappointed that he didn't have more on. Here's the paper I used. When I rolled it up, it did this or it didn't do this or it worked perfectly. It came out perfectly smooth or it was curved up and wrinkled. I couldn't write on it. That's what I need to know about this product. So, I was a little disappointed in that fact. But I like seeing all the pictures and technically it looks good. But like the only question this product has to me is how does the paper work when you're ready to go write on it? And he didn't answer that. So, maybe he can do a follow-up and, you know, kind of figure out how to use the actual feature of the case. So, I was a little disappointed there. So, Brian, get back to us on that. Maybe do a follow-up. Say, here's the paper, the A5 paper I used and here's how it worked. I think that would be cool to see.

Myke Hurley: And speaking of Pelican Hubs earlier in the show, there's going to be a special attendance at one, it would seem.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. So, I'm going to try to get to the Atlanta Pelican Hub. It's this Friday. I think most Pelican Hubs are this Friday. Chat room can correct me if I'm wrong. At least in the U.S., I'm guessing they are.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think they're supposed to be on the same day. Right? Like, it's like on the Pelican Hubs website. It says Friday 22nd at 6.30 p.m. local time. I think they like to do them as like a rolling thing throughout the world.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I think what I'm going to do is it's at 6.30. And I think I'm going to get my kids from school that afternoon and head up there to the Pelican Hub. It'll be my first one I've attended. My friend Stacy is putting it on. It's at a very, very cool location if you're in the Atlanta area. So, yeah. I think me and the kids are going to make it up there on Friday. So, that's the plan right now. It could change, but I'm certainly planning on it. And I think it would be fun and be fun to take the kids to, too, as well.

London Pen Show

Myke Hurley: Talking about that, actually, the London Pen Show is in a couple of weeks. Are you going to be in town? The London Writing Equipment Show. I will be in town and I'm hoping to attend, but I'm not sure yet because I'm recording some stuff on that day. It's on a Sunday, which is peculiar for me to be recording podcasts on a Sunday, but I have to. But, yeah, it's October 1st, 10 to 4 in Bloomsbury. This place it always is, the Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury. It's on our shared calendar right now. Me and Idina were hoping to make it there, but it's TBD right now.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. Gotcha. I was going through some of my domain names that I own the other day, just making sure all were set to auto-renew. And I happen to stumble upon, and I didn't even remember that I own LondonPensShow.com. Shh. Shh. Shh. Why did I do that? Shh. I don't know why you did it. I know, right? I remember why you did it. I mean, I remember too, but I didn't even remember that was a thing. That was like two years ago.

Myke Hurley: I can't believe you own that domain name.

Brad Dowdy: I can't either.

Myke Hurley: Well, step one, I guess, is by the domain name.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, right? Then step two is make it happen.

Myke Hurley: Step two, have a wedding first. Step three, maybe think about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: So, 2019, we are in you. 2019. Coming to a Kickstarter campaign near you.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, too funny. All right. So, when I go to this Pelican Hub Friday night, it means I'm not going to get home till late. And when I get home late, Myke, I sometimes get kicked to the curb. And when I get kicked to the curb, I sleep in my guest bedroom on my Casper mattress. So, tell me about our wonderful sponsor, Casper.

Myke Hurley: Lucky you, Brad, because Casper, they make the outrageously comfortable mattress. That is what they have created. And not only is it so comfortable, it's well-priced as well, because they will sell it directly to you. There's no inflated prices, no commission, no showrooms that have to be thought about. Casper just sells you a mattress directly from their website. It's all online. And it's completely risk-free to buy a mattress online because they offer free delivery and free returns to the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. With Casper, you actually get to sleep on your mattress before you make your decision. You try it out for 100 nights and decide if it's the mattress that you want to keep and then maybe spend a third of your life on. If you don't love it, they'll pick it up and refund everything to you. Now, let me tell you why you're going to love it. Casper took a ton of time, and they have a lot of people that developed this mattress. It's all made by them. It has a sleek design. It is delivered to you in a fantastically small box. Casper's engineers spent thousands of hours developing their mattress. It's obsessively engineered, which is why over 30,000 online reviews have rated Casper with an average of 4.8 stars. The proprietary foam that Casper created relieves pressure and increases airflow. This means that you're going to be nice and comfortable, but also you're going to sleep cool as well. It's all temperature regulated. All of this is combined with a springy comfort layer to contour to your body and keep you cool, which means that as well as everything else, Casper mattresses have just the right sink and just the right bounce. You can get $50 towards any mattress purchase by going to Casper.com slash PenAddict and using the code PenAddict to check out. Terms and conditions apply. I guess even though it might be in the guest bedroom, Brad, but I'm sure that every now and then you don't mind snuggling up inside of that bed with the Casper mattress on it.

Brad Dowdy: No, it's an awesome mattress and it would be in our primary, our master bedroom if we didn't just have a mattress like a few years before, but the guest bedroom needed a mattress. And anytime I've ever used it, I prefer it over our regular mattress. So, yeah, so that's the thing. So, yeah, I very much like it and it's very comfortable and very cool, like temperature wise. Like it's nice to sleep in. Always like it when I get kicked out of the bedroom to go sleep on the Casper mattress. It doesn't happen very often.

Myke Hurley: I'm just joking, guys. Casper.com slash PenAddict. $50 off. Use the code PenAddict as well. Thank you so much to Casper for their support of this show and Brad's Late Nights.

Field Notes Dime Novel

Myke Hurley: So what are we talking about today, Myke? We're going to talk about the Field Notes Dime novel.

Brad Dowdy: Hashtag shocking.

Myke Hurley: Fall 2017 quarterly edition came out a little bit earlier than normal, which is perfect because it means that we don't have to play the guessing game for the show. As in when it's going to come out. However, I want to play the guessing game that we played last time, which I really enjoyed, which is where me and Brad, we have not spoken about this edition at all. And we're going to try and guess what each other think of the edition. But before we do that, let me give some deets, some of the deets of this. I'm going to give you some of the specifications that we're working with here. Obviously, you can find this all on FieldNotes, brand.com and on our website. You can find links to all these pages as well. So you get two 72-page blank books for this edition. They are four and a quarter inch by six and a half inch, which is bigger, right? Yes. Standards three and a half by five and a half.

Myke Hurley: 100-pound French paper co-construction safety orange cover. So it's an orange cover with a bunch of really interesting looking print on it, which I assume is... They say this is how they print that, right? It's like some old press that they're using, like an antique press.

Brad Dowdy: It's a very vintage-based edition. So it's related to that.

Myke Hurley: 70-pound natural white Strathmore premium plain paper, which are numbered. There are 72 pages in each book and they are smith-sewn in three 24-page signatures. So when you look at it, it looks like three mini notebooks of a cover around it. Because it's glued to that cover and the notebooks of a glue to that cover the paper is. 27,500 packs. This is a slightly smaller edition by a couple of thousand packs than some of the previous runs. And subscribers get a free one-inch button. Do you want to take the first crack? Do you want to guess what I think of this edition?

Brad Dowdy: So as excited as you are to play this game, I'm not as excited because I failed last time on the campfire edition. So now I have a greater amount of pressure. So yes, I will go first. And I'm going to say you love it. I'm going on taking another risk here. I thought you would love the campfire. You did not. And you had very, very good reasons why. So I'm not fully in your head. But I think you love this primarily for the larger format and the unique shape and style of the covers. I'm going to go that you love it.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I am going to say that you love it too for many of the same reasons of Campfire. Because it's got some real Americana in here again. And I'm going to assume that you would really like the way that they have put the covers together with the glued cover and stuff like that. I'm going to assume that you really like that. So do you want to go first? Did I get it right? Do you like it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I really like it. I don't have it yet. I was hoping it was going to come yesterday. I love the format. The thicker, wider format. It's blank pages, which I'm super happy it's not lined. I thought for sure this would be a lined edition. I did too, actually.

Myke Hurley: I was worried about it being lined.

Brad Dowdy: I was scrolling. When I saw it come up and I saw the size and I saw what it was related to, I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling until I found whether it was lined or not. If it was lined, I would really not like it as much.

Myke Hurley: Well, we just don't really like lined very much, me and you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, I mean, it's not a shock that I like this edition. I'm anxious to see the covers and I hope they're more orange in person than in the pictures, but I don't even care if they're brown like they look. You know, that's a weird color to photograph, but they look kind of brownish, but it's this vintage style. And we'll talk about more what it was based on in just a second. But what do you think?

Myke Hurley: Oh, I love them, man.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I felt better about guessing you on this one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this one is a clear win, like for me. You know, based on the things that I like about Field Notes, this is just like ticks every box. It's got a super strong story, which isn't alienating in its Americanness, right? And they took the idea, turned it into a real good product that embodies the idea and played around with their format, right? Like they didn't just make a book that looks like craft with this print on it, which is what they could have done, right? They could have basically just taken a craft notebook and put that stamp on the front of it, everything they've got. But instead, they made a type of notebook they have never made before. And if you look at two of my favorite editions of all time are Arts and Sciences and Byline. And they are two notebooks that are completely unlike any other notebook that they make, right? They're completely different formats. So I expect that this is going to end up being a favorite of mine for very, very similar reasons. Like I love the standard format, but I love it when they break it because then I have more variation and the notebooks are sitting in my drawers.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So the size and shape of it was what I was hanging my hat on that you, in guessing that you would love this edition. Yeah, that was a real good bet. As opposed, I think that overweighed the Americanness of it because it's not truly an American like thing. It's a thing that existed everywhere.

Myke Hurley: But as JVK in the chat room said, we had Peny Dreadfalls, which is a similar kind of thing, right? Right. Like this is just a people were publishing as opposed to like sitting around the campfire, which is in my mind more kind of like just like a thing that I never did and has more of that Americana flavor to it than this does, I think. Right. But yeah, I think that this is just a wonderful edition. Because again, it's like, I don't mind when the theme doesn't appeal to me if the notebook has something about it and like Campfire for me just didn't. It just didn't have something that I was looking for. But this is incredible. It's wonderful. And I can see, I think when you see this, you can see why they were fretting over as much as they were, because I expect this was an incredibly hard edition to put together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so you said it earlier on, if you're going to create a Field Notes edition in your head, this one checks all those boxes of what you expect from a very traditional, lives up to the brand name Field Notes edition, I think.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: But I think the paper signatures are hopefully the right move. I would rather see that than, you know, a perfect bound, all the sheets, 72-page sheet book, because I think it will break in a little bit better with the signatures sewn in.

Myke Hurley: And signatures means the individual, like, notebooks inside of the one notebook, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're almost like mini packets within there. You don't really notice it unless you look at the binding and you see, like, three curved, you know, little inserts, if you will. And I hope that's going to improve, like, the flexibility and openness of the notebook, because it is a weird size, but I appreciate the weird sizes. They made a point to say this is the thickest stock paper that they've ever used. It's a 70-pound paper.

Myke Hurley: I'm so excited about that.

Pencil Use

Brad Dowdy: And the funny thing is, all I want to do is use a pencil in this book. Like, this seems, like, tailor-made for pencil. It's with the traditional styling.

Brad Dowdy: It's like, I cannot wait to use pencil in this. Like, I don't even care what my fountain pens are, even though, you know, they've done a very fountain pen paper, fountain pen-friendly paper. I can't wait to use pencil in this. Like, it's kind of, like, cool. It just seems, like, tailor-made for pencil to me. Yeah, I think it's a really, really good addition. I'm going to enjoy using it. The video was fantastic. This was, like, one of the least, sometimes they do, like, technical things on the videos, like they've done with, like, the different solar things, the different space things that they've done. You know, the lunar and all these other things. They'll do some wild things. But this one, they just basically interviewed a librarian. I think it was Northern Illinois Library who has a huge collection of these dime novels. And I thought it was just interesting because I wasn't really familiar, other than, you know, maybe seeing pictures of these types of things and seeing some ancillary comment on them. What these really were and how they were kind of the precursor to paperback novels. And just how tragically, awfully written they were kind of amazed me. Like, they were apparently just garbage. But they sold because of the format and the quick reading style. And, you know, they were talking about the cover designs and things like that. So I really got a lot out of the video. So really good job there by Brian and Jim.

Myke Hurley: So obviously we're going to talk about this when we are going to be interviewing and talking to Brian and Jim in a few weeks time. But there's one other thing about this. So I stumbled across this a couple of days ago. Field Notes turns 10 years old this year. In October. The original announcement for Field Notes was published on October 7th, 2007.

Myke Hurley: So Field Notes is going to be just over 10 years old as an idea, as a public thing. When we sit down with Jim and Brian. So obviously this is what we're going to be focusing on. When we talk to them for the special episode that we're doing in their offices. So I want to just petition now for our listeners to send in any questions that you might have. When thinking about looking at over the 10 years history of Field Notes. So please send those in to us. You can tweet them at us. I am imike. I am yke. Brad is dowdyism. What's a good email address, Brad, for people to send questions to?

Brad Dowdy: Hello at penatic.com. Just put something in the header so I know it's the Field Notes interview.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, just a thing to think about. If you have any burning questions, then please let us know. But obviously otherwise we're going to be preparing to talk about all things Field Notes with them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'm looking forward to the trip. It's shaping up to be a really, really good event.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was really excited when I saw Jim post that on Instagram. I was like, oh.

Brad Dowdy: Thanks. I did like his notch Field Notes. I couldn't help but retweet that. That was kind of amazing. That was fantastic, right? Yeah, that was so good.

Myke Hurley: That was a beautiful mixing of my worlds.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That was perfect.

Myke Hurley: And I would so buy that edition. Oh, I know you would. Just for Fonzies. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Field Notes X. The Hunters. Pink Field Notes with a notch taken out of them. Well, it is real to me. I wonder if they actually did it or if it's just Photoshop skills.

Brad Dowdy: It'd be pretty easy for them. I'm sure it's just Photoshop, but it'd be pretty easy for them to walk over to their printer and say cut.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, yeah, it's 10. Everything's turning 10 this year. I didn't realize that the Field Notes thing was there and the iPhone and then the Pen Addict is 10 in November. So, all the things.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I have to prepare for that, too.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to do a special episode of this show and that rolls around.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, we'll have a whole new set of questions. We'll let the listeners send in on the 10-year Pen Addict blog-a-versary.

Myke Hurley: That's a terrible word. Blog-a-versary. Is that what we call that, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm going to put that on my vlog. I'll put that on my vlog.

Myke Hurley: Vlog is bad. And my pod. No, don't even. I'm not interested in the word pod. I don't like that. I really don't like that. There's lots of words that I don't like. Pod is one of them and blog-a-versary is another one. Yes, I agree with you. Anniversary works perfectly fine. Yes, it does. Blog-a-versary is not needed.

Brad Dowdy: You will not see blog-a-versary in my typing. Type-written word. Come on. In November, you will not see that.

Myke Hurley: Well, I thank you in advance.

Mini Topic

Brad Dowdy: All right. Good. All right, should we take a second break? Let's do it. I have a mini topic that I wanted to discuss, and then we'll wrap it up with some Ask TPA.

Myke Hurley: Sounds good to me. I want to also thank Squarespace for the support of this show. Use offer code INK at checkout, and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Make your next move with Squarespace. Stay there. You easily create the website that you have for your next idea. Whether you want to make an online store, a portfolio, or a blog, or a site for your restaurant, a site for your band, a site for your business. No matter what it is, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that will let you do it. There's absolutely nothing to install, no patches to worry about, no upgrades needed. Both me and Brad have used and continue to use Squarespace for projects in our lives because it's so easy. You don't have to worry about anything with them, and they have a great support team if you need any help. All of their templates are beautiful. You can customize them to your heart's content, and you can also get domain names to Squarespace as well. They are the full package for anything you want to put on the internet. Their plans start at just $12 a month, but you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required just by going to squarespace.com and use the code INK at checkout, and you will get 10% off your first purchase, which is awesome, especially if you sign up for a year. If you sign up for a year and use the 10%, you get a real good discount on that. And you'll be showing your support for the show as well, which we really appreciate. I want to thank Squarespace for their continued support of RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: Thank you, Squarespace, for making my life easier. That's what it's all about. That's why I love them so much.

Myke Hurley: Yep, we just finished building the website for the wedding, which you'll see. You've seen. Brad has been invited to my wedding, everyone, so you can all stop worrying about that.

Brad Dowdy: Were people actually worried about it? I wouldn't worry about it because I didn't expect it. Can you imagine that, right? I'm going to make it happen.

Myke Hurley: If you post pictures at the wedding and you're not there, it'd be like drama. Drama.

Brad Dowdy: But no, he's going to be there. Going to be there. So the other anniversary happening this year is my 20th wedding anniversary. Remember the part where I'm old. So we're going to forego doing anything big for that and hold off and go to London for your wedding. It'll be our 20th anniversary trip, if you will. So yeah, looking forward to it.

Myke Hurley: No better way to celebrate your love than to come and celebrate mine. How about that? That's right.

Brad Dowdy: And I love for each other, me and you. That's right. All right. This next topic isn't like a huge topic, but it was something I was working on a bunch of paper reviews and testing the other day. And the paper market has really, really expanded in the past, you know, five to 10 years since, you know, we've been around doing this and getting more access to things from more countries. And we tend to talk about a lot of the same things, you know, like my recommendations, you know, having used so many things, my recommendations have become very narrow and, you know, I can pinpoint what I feel is the best for the best use cases. And then there's this whole subset of products that I just adore that I don't necessarily recommend as much. So I feel that they're really, really underrated. So this was a list of underrated stationary brands that, or items specifically that, you know, and this came up with me working on the top five pins list too. I was like, you know, why doesn't this pin get more love or why doesn't this brand get more love? And I came up with, you know, four different headers and one product for each header. And the first one's paper. And this is what kind of got me set off on this little sidetrack for underrated brands. And for all the Japanese paper that we talk about, anything with Tomoe River and anything life stationary, anything Morimon, anything Midori, we never talk about Apica, except me. I bring it up all the time about how good it is. They have so many sizes, shapes, formats, rulings, price points, and up and down the lineup, no matter if you're buying like a $3 Apica or a $35 Apica. The paper is some of the best I've used for every pen, pencil, anything you throw at it. I've talked about my undying love for the Apica Premium CD notebook, which is a very expensive notebook. And I haven't found any hardcover notebook better than it. But they have so many lower price point notebooks that are just as good a quality as that, like in the $5 to $10 range, that it doesn't get talked about enough. So that's a brand that I feel is super underrated. It's one I adore, use all the time, and just wanted to give some love to the Apica brand. The next one that I feel is underrated is not an underrated company by any means. They're a very popular company, but I think this one specific subset is underrated, and that's Montblanc's inks. And I'm not talking about the special edition inks. Montblanc's standard color inks are some of the premier colors in their specific color spectrum. Like green inks, Montblanc's Irish Green is considered like the top green. In grays, Montblanc's Oyster Gray is one of the tops. In browns, Toffee Brown is one of the top inks. They're really high quality inks. And guess what? They are not even remotely expensive. You know, I think 50 milliliter bottles run about $20, something like that. 60 milliliter bottles, $21. So that's a lot of ink. That's a fair price. The one I want to try is lavender purple. That one gets raved about. All the Montblanc inks I've used perform and behave really, really well. They have good colors. Do you use any Montblanc inks? I know you were an original, back when we started the blog, you had a Montblanc pen. Did you have Montblanc, like black ink with it?

Myke Hurley: I have Montblanc black, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I just, I, the basic blacks and blues from Montblanc don't get a lot of love. And I, that's probably, you know, normal. I don't really hear anyone using them, but Irish Green, Lavender Purple, Oyster Gray, and Toffee Brown are at the top of the list of all those colors. And I never use them. I have an Irish Green bottle, which I love. I just never ink it up enough, but it's always great and always spectacular. So they have some really, really good, good inks. And I, for a company as big as Montblanc, that's part of their product lineup that I think is underrated. For the pens, I put Zebra Japan just as a whole.

Myke Hurley: Well, I feel like we haven't spoken about Zebra in such a long time. Like we spent so much time in the old days talking about their stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. I think they're completely underrated. And they don't, they don't push the envelope quite as frequently as Pilot and Uniball do in the same, you know, like $3 gel pen category. But it's because the push clip gel is so good. Kind of like the Sino DX is so good. They don't change it a lot, but they add a bunch of colors. They added a lot of tip sizes. You can get it in tip sizes from, you know, 0.3 to 1.0 and all kinds of crazy colors. They do scented stuff, which I don't really get into, but I appreciate that they do that. You know, they'll do brand marketing stuff. I don't really have collaborations with other, you know, other people. And, you know, like Uniball does with Hello Kitty. They'll do like the Chupa Chups, you know, suckers and lollipops and have Sinege links. But it's mostly about the performance. It's as good a pen as the Sino DX. You know, it just doesn't get the love that that pen does. And I think it's really, really good. On top of that, their brush pens are some of the best in the business. I use their super fine brush pen just to write with because it's very, very fine. And the Charbo X was one of my most expensive pens when I first bought it. And one of my entry-level, eye-opening, wow, this is interesting Japanese technology for a multi-pen that used D1 refills. And I actually think the price of the Charbo X has gone down since I bought it. I thought they used to be $45, $50. Now they're like $34, $35. It's just a good pen. It's really unique in its mechanism. No one's been able to make a quality multi-pen like this Charbo since it came out. It just happens to be expensive. And the D1 refills, if you use the gel refills, they're also very expensive. And you run through them very, very quickly. Gel doesn't last long in a D1 size refill. So I thought, you know, Zebra is kind of in their own market. They're not getting left behind. But in like, you know, what I, my perceptions of where things stack up. So Zebra Japan is such a good pen manufacturer. Now, one of the reasons I brought this up is because I get emails a lot to say, hey, I bought the Sarasa at Staples and it's terrible. What are you talking about? It's not the same pen. The Zebra USA Sarasas are not the push clips. They are completely different. They're not as good. So that's always something I try to point out when I talk about Zebra. It's Zebra Japan. And the products they make like the push clip gel that are really, really good. And the last one, and maybe the impetus for this article or this little topic. Like I was going through a bunch of pencils the other day for something I'm working on that hopefully you will see soon. And I have this whole cigar box full of pencils. And I was going through testing everything, writing things, you know, doing some drawings, making some examples. And I found this Mitsubishi 9850 pencil. Just a regular old HB pencil. It says for office use. You know, it's super generic. I won't say generic looking, but it's basic looking. It's like what a typical office pencil should look like. It's so freaking good. And I forgot how good it was. I must have thought it was good previously because I've used over half of it. It's getting to be a shorter pencil now. So I reintroduced myself to it, and it's as good as like the Blackwing 602s and everything else that I've been using that I've been fawning over some pencils recently. I was shocked at how much I loved this $1 pencil. I'm actually using it today for my show notes because ever since I rediscovered it on my own desk, I haven't wanted to put it down. So this is what I want to use when my new Field Notes Dime Editions come. So these are really good. It's a very basic, you know, burgundy pencil. Silver Ferrell, white eraser. It looks like the ones you'd find in an office, you know, in various dozens. And, you know, it's price. It's not cheap, but for $1 each, you know, that's, you know, something to try out. If you've never been into pencils and want just a quality writing pencil, I was fascinated with it. And then on top of that,

Brad Dowdy: Guinea Mitsubishi makes another pencil that I've just stumbled on. It's called the Marksheet pencil, which I purchased that. It's a little bit fancier. It has, you know, nice dipped ends. It looks like a Tombow. It's really well done. And it's this nice, firm, dark pencil that I like. And so they don't ever get talked about in the pencil world that much. It's usually, you know, some of the, we all hear about black wings. In Japan, we hear about Tombows. I guess some of the main line uni pencils get talked about, but some of the lower end uni Mitsubishi pencils don't get talked about. And it's a really good pencil. So I wanted to bring those things up just because I've been using a lot of these things recently. And they're never like at the top of any list, but they're such enjoyable products. That's kind of what I love.

Myke Hurley: Right. And I think for a few of those, especially, like they, they're really good as like basic stuff. And I think the reason we don't talk about them too much anymore is we've mostly moved on, you know? Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And I don't want these things to get lost in the shuffle. So I think it's good to call them out. Exactly. And I get some emails about that sometimes, you know, like, hey, don't forget about, you know, some of the stuff you started on. I was like, you know, I use that stuff all the time, except it hasn't really changed.

Myke Hurley: It's not exciting, right? Like there's not a new thing to it, which makes you want to talk about it. So you're eventually just going to stop mentioning it, you know? Like I think that's, you know, I think that that is a perfectly valid thing.

Brad Dowdy: But I still use this stuff all the time. Obviously, like all this stuff was on my desk. And it's, you know, I get a lot of enjoyment from this, you know? That's why I do this anyway, you know, so I can find this $1 pencil that I'm absolutely fascinated with. And that brings us to the Ask TPA portion of the podcast, Myke. And I got a postcard that is an Ask TPA question. And anyone who would like to submit Ask TPA through the mail, you can go to the contact page at the Pen Addict. It's got my PO box on there. And I'd like to apologize to everyone who sent me stuff over the past probably two months. Because I appreciate the birthday cards from like a month ago that I just got last week. Because I have a lame excuse. And it's that the PO box is on the way to my kid's school. And during the summer, I don't go that way for anything. So I didn't go out of the way to go to the post office to the PO box if I wasn't necessarily looking for something specific. So it was filled with wonderful letters and boxes and packages. I had two of those key things where you have to go into the larger boxes to get out. I don't know how long they've been sitting there. So I felt kind of guilty. But now that I'm back on the school path, I'll be hitting the PO box quite regularly. So if you have Ask TPA, you can send it there. But this postcard came in. And it's from Corey. And it's actually a postcard. It's kind of like a pen company postcard, Myke, of the Koala Sunset. But that's not what this question is about. It's about kind of what I was just talking about with these underrated brands. It says, Hi, Brad. Why so much love lost for the Pentel Sleechy? I looked in the archive. You used to rave about this pen. Now you never even mention it. I'm writing this with a purple .25. Signo doesn't even have a .25, do they? Sincerely, Corey. So settle down there, Corey. Don't bang on the Uni too much. They do have a .28. But yeah, you're right about the Sleechy. And what happened with it was they never moved on from that skinny barrel. And that was going to be required for them to compete with the Signo DX, with this Uni Sarasa clip, with other micro gel pens, even the Pilot Hi-Tec C, which is probably its closest competitor. They write wonderfully. They're probably some of the best .3 writing pens and .25 gel ink pens that I've used. But they never upgraded the barrel to anything like very comfortable. They use that style of refill in some larger Pentel models. I forget the exact name of them off the top of my head. But they lack the tip sizes and colors that they use in the Sleechy. And then the Sleechy multi-pen just kind of tanked completely because it was technically poorly built and designed. It was not a good pen. So they've kind of ignored it. And then I've kind of ignored it right along with them. You know, if they're not going to put the effort into continuing what's a really, really good gel ink pen, I mean, they just get passed. And then that's what's happened here. So I appreciate that as TPA direct from the mailbox on this beautiful Canalea postcard. All right. So we have a few more, Myke. And this one I've been holding in the email inbox. And I keep forgetting to put it in here. And it's from good friend and supporter Lisa who wants to know, do your pens have nicknames or names of some kind? I feel like we've talked about this before, but I couldn't remember. It says, she says, all, most, some, or none of your pens. If so, examples, please. You want to go first?

Myke Hurley: I think mine are very famous. Yeah. For example, the Jonathan Brooks Sky at Night, which is a nickname that became a material name or a design name, which is the wonderful, I don't even know how to describe it. Like, it looks like Starry Night, the artwork, but I called it Sky at Night accidentally, and then it stuck. And then also the twist pen that I own, I don't know the name of it, so I call it the Mother of Pearl design. Mostly, this seems to happen to me when I forget the name of something. Yeah. And I don't know it, so I just make up a name that sticks. Like, I don't call my Pilot M90 Mary or anything, you know? Like, I don't give the names like that, but, like, if I, I do it because I want to be able to describe a pen to you, the listener. So, if I don't know a name, I'll just make it up, because that way I have a name, you know? That's kind of the way that I tend to do this stuff. But I do like, I love the names that I give to my pens whenever I do it.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah, it seems like this is something I'd be really into, but I don't. I don't really name anything, you know, any inanimate object in my life. Although, like, I kind of think it's cool when people do, and they have a good story for it. But, like, I don't have a pen named Bob that I just kind of, you know, hangs out on my desk. And, you know, when I need to write an important letter, let me go grab Bob real quick. And, you know, because I know he's up for the job. It's kind of cool, but I just don't. I don't, I can't even think of any, like, anything. I'm trying to think of any single pen or pencil that I have that with, and I really don't. So, yeah, but I like it. So, if anyone has any pen pet names that they have, I don't just want to hear that. I want to hear the story behind it, because there's got to be a story behind it, right? Because I can't just go name a pen Bob now, because there's no real story behind it. There's got to be a reason he's called Bob. So, yeah, let me hear it. I'd be interested to see it, because I think it's kind of cool.

Antiquing

Brad Dowdy: So, Oscar wants to know if we've ever gone antiquing for vintage stuff, and did you find anything cool? Is that something you've ever done, Myke, where not even going for pens specifically, but have you ever gone just, like, antiquing or junking or anything like that?

Myke Hurley: Mm-mm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I don't really do it either, but I kind of get tempted every now and then when I see an estate sale sign. I'm like, I should stop in there. Then I get kind of awkward and uncomfortable. Like, eh, that's not really my place or my realm. But if I go somewhere new, like if I'm traveling and it happens to be convenient, I won't go out of my way to hunt down antique shops or stores. And what I find those places good for is more of ephemera than necessarily pens and pencils. I've bought, you know, empty ink bottles and signage or posters, things like that, that have hung around more than, you know, some $150 pen that I don't know if it's completely broken inside, right? You know, I can buy a $5 empty bottle and stick it on my desk as a display. So I've done that before, but I've never bought any pen stuff. But I've definitely bought some accessories.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've just never, this is never really something that's appealed to me too much. Probably in the same way that I'm not super keen on like vintage pens. I just, I just like tend to, tend to buy new.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So Jim, Jim caught me in a good position yesterday asking this question. He says, what fun, frustrating mail stories can you share on the podcast? And he said, he typed pod, but I'm not going to say pod because that's a bad word, Jim. And you should be ashamed for using it.

Brad Dowdy: So you, Monday? Yeah, Monday. So we, you know, mailing stuff as a business is always a challenge. It's always annoying. It's always a frustration. So right now we're in the midst of an O for two sending a Lanier briefcase to Germany. So first one didn't show, second one didn't show, and they're essentially lost. And that happens. Like we're used to that. I mean, it, it stinks. I mean, we hate it and we hate it for our customer. We hate that we've sent two that have not shown up yet. So I told the customer, you know, we sent those USPS. So I told the customer, I am going to go to UPS today and send this their international way. And, you know, maybe that's going to, well, maybe we'll have better luck sending out the third Lanier to our poor customer who still doesn't have their Lanier yet. And I go to UPS and they take the box and they weigh it and they measure it and all that. And she goes, that'll be $190, please.

Brad Dowdy: I said, nope. Nope. No, it will not be.

Brad Dowdy: This is not a heavy package or a large package. Anyone who got a Lanier, you know, it's a, it's a big package, but it's by no means any type of extreme type package. And she said, yeah, that's the price for like our seven day international. And I'm like, nope, this is a, you know, a hundred dollar bag. No, that's, you know, I'm not paying a hundred dollars, a hundred. And so she says, well, we have this other option where we don't know if it's going to get there and it might take a month or two. And that's like $40. I say, well, I can get that at UPS. That's what I'm getting at UPS right now. I'd USPS right now for half that price. Like it normally, it takes us to ship the Lanier to Germany's $22. I said, I'm not paying $40 for the same non-delivery that I'm getting now, nor am I paying $190 for your normal, your normal service. So I had to send an email to our customer. I was like, I'm going to find, I'm going to find something else, but it's not going to be UPS. So just hang tight and I'm going to work on this. So yeah, it's, uh, so that was, that was good timing, Jim, because that just happened on Monday. And that's the story of my shipping life. It's a pain in the butt. There's no, nothing good ever comes from shipping.

Myke Hurley: Most of my problems come from receiving. Just, just, just always a pain, right? Like just cause I buy things in the U S and, and look, the thing is, is right. That the idea of the customs and the VAT thing, like I understand that I need to pay them. The thing that frustrates me is the, the, the handling fees. That's what annoys me. Um, I get that I need to pay the amount of money, uh, for the taxes or whatever, but it's the, the, like the $13.95 handling fee or whatever that they charge you. I find that to be a bit of a joke, honestly.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I feel bad for, uh, some of our, uh, Sapelo recipients, uh, particularly, uh, Matthias, the founder of the stationary wiki. You know, he got hit, he got hammered, essentially double the price of what his backer fees were for Kickstarter. And that's just stinks. And I hate that, you know, it's just an unfortunate, unfortunate situation of, of having to ship around the world and the different rules and regulations in each country.

Myke Hurley: So if it was consistent, like you could just state it up front and be like, look, this is going to cost you this. And when it arrives in your country, it's going to cost you this. But the problem is it's completely inconsistent.

Brad Dowdy: This is the other issue. I would, if I live there, I would have like a whole blog just like, so I could rage, even though it wouldn't do anything because everyone's in the same situation. Like it's meaningless, but I would, I would have to have some kind of release. I'd be, uh, you know, some, I'd have some Twitter bot or something yelling at the postal service the whole time. All right. Last one. Matt Bikewith wants to know, is fountain pen ink mixing a thing? I haven't tried, but keep fighting the urge to. It's absolutely a thing. You know, we've professed do it with caution. Use similar ink brands with similar properties. Like for example, the one I've mixed in the past that has been wonderful were two iron gall inks from Roar and Klingner called Salix and Scabiosa. They're both by the same brand. They both have iron gall properties and I mixed them. I used them, tested them in a pen. I didn't really care about at first in case something weird happened and turns out it didn't. So a lot of people will mix similar brands, pilots known for some of their, they even make a mixing ink set where you can get kind of like eight or 10 basic ink colors and mix them together. But they're all kind of have consistent manufacturing properties. You don't want to, you don't want to cross pollinate brands necessarily. I'm not saying you couldn't do something to test with, but in general, you don't want to cross pollinate brands. And within the brands, you don't want to cross pollinate types. Like if some are considered a standard ink, some are considered a permanent ink. Mixing those is probably going to lead to bad things. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: The properties won't, won't gel together very well.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So do it with caution, have fun with it. A lot of people, you know, will do it. A lot of people will do something as simple as taking a saturated ink and adding like two or three drops of water to it and having kind of a more subtle faded look. Like I count that in the ink mixing, you're modifying what the ink's normal properties are. And you're just adding a little bit of water. That's never going to hurt. And you get a really good look sometimes. I've been very impressed with some of the things I've seen just from adding a drop or two of water into a vial of ink. So it's very cool. But I say go for it. You know, just be careful. Don't use it in your most favorite expensive pen, you know, until you know for sure it's going to be good. And you can certainly find some resources online about mixing inks. It's absolutely a thing. Just know what you're getting into right up front. So I think that's it, Myke. I think that's a good show today. I'm glad you were able to join us and haven't passed out from all of your technologizing over the past week. Yeah, that's what it's called, Brad. Anything technologizing? Technologizing. That's what I do for a living. On your other pods. You do that on your other pods. You narrated an audio book for TeeCee, right? I did. I could not want to listen to that less than I possibly do. Why?

Myke Hurley: Why would you do this to me?

Brad Dowdy: Because of the content. You're supposed to say it's amazing. It's like, oh, I'm sure I would listen to you read a dime novel before I'd listen to you read a technical book.

Myke Hurley: It's technical-ish.

iOS Review

Myke Hurley: It's not incredibly technical because there's a lot of opinion, like Federico's opinion. So, if you are interested, I narrated an iOS 11 review that Federico Vettici wrote for Mac Stories. It's five hours long.

Brad Dowdy: I got to admit, that's pretty great. You told me about this like a while back when you were starting to do it. I was like, wow, that's really kind of cool. So, I think that's a cool thing. I'm just busting on you. I know you are. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I would say it's an incredibly difficult project. So, if you are inclined, please buy it to justify the amount of time I put into it. It was like 35 hours of work. Wow. It is a labor of love that we all put on together. And if you are interested in iOS 11 and you are a podcast listener, this might be an interesting way to get that content. It's all broken down into chapters, so you can just listen to the parts you're interested in. I'll put a link in our show notes so you can get it. And our show notes are at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 275. If you want to find Brad's work online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co. He is at dowdyism on Twitter and penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on both services because I am a man who loves consistency. Unlike Brad Dowdy. And thanks again to our sponsors, Squarespace and Casper. And thanks also for you, for listening. If you have any questions for the show, send them to asktpa. I worked, somebody tweeted, remember last week we had that weird tweet about like putting things on High Sierra and the pens and the thing? Yes. It was a joke that I should have got, but it went over my head. Because we were joking around about this at the end of an upgrade episode. Because ask ATP and ask TPA are incredibly close together. So this was somebody riffing on that.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, it was great. For the people that got it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I didn't get it. Did you get it?

Brad Dowdy: I did not get the upgrade part, but I knew it was somehow related. I saw the tweet. I saw the cross-pollinated hashtag tweet though.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it was a riff on the Ask ATP. But if you have questions for this show, Ask TPA is the way to get those to us. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.