The Pen Addict 299/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	299
Title:	Mail Time with Brad
Release Date:	March 14th, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 299
Audio File:	Audio Episode 299
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 299
Length:	8585 min <br />1.417 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 299. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Blue Apron, and Curf Case. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello Myke Hurley, how are you?

Myke Hurley: I'm good. All is right in the world.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, good. Why? Is our long podcast nightmare over?

Pink Love Pen

Myke Hurley: Yes, the podcast nightmare of the Pink Love is over. It was not without drama, but I have it right here in my hand today. I'm using it to take our show notes. So my Bung Box Special Edition Sailor Pro Gear Slim Pink Love 2018 has arrived, which I'm very, very happy about. Hallelujah. It's been quite a drama to get it here, but we have it. But there were two things that occurred during the final stages of procurement. Of course there were. Of course there were. One was a £50 customs bill, which I think might be my most expensive customs charge that I've ever received. I, Brad, I can't work out why they charged me the amount that they did. But I just, at that point, I just couldn't argue anymore. Like, I just, just whatever. Like, that's what it was going to cost, that's what it was going to cost.

Myke Hurley: I've never had anything from Japan before. I have no idea if for whatever reason that is considered to be different or more expensive. Like, the value of the pen, I think, was written, you know, correctly. And, you know, I've had things of that value shipped before and I haven't got that kind of charge. Maybe that is just what it is and I just don't remember. But I was surprised at the cost, especially because there are, like, two different handling fees, which drive me mad. And then what gets worse is when you pay the fee, they do allow you to choose your delivery day, which you don't typically get from, like, an incoming delivery, right? Like, it just comes when it comes. But you can arrange a delivery day and they didn't deliver it on the arranged date, which was a Friday. So I then had to wait until the Monday for it to show up. So it's like I pay all these handling fees, these two different handling fees, and still doesn't get delivered to me on the right day. But it is here now. I love it very, very much. It is exactly what I was hoping it would be. What I didn't think about, which I'm really pleased with, is the Slim Cosmos, the Purple Slim Cosmos. These are basically the same, like, they're very similar, these pens, right? One is purple and glittery and one is pink and glittery. So they look great next to each other. I'm really excited about that, actually.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, my favorite with the pink is the dark hardware, which they rarely do. I love that, too. That's what makes it so amazing.

Myke Hurley: I now have two pens with the dark hardware, right? Because the fifth anniversary was dark hardware, too. Ah, right. But what I love about this sweet pink, the sweet love pink, is that they actually write that around the band that goes around the cap. It doesn't say Sailor Pro Gear. It says 2018 sweet love pink, and it has little hearts on it. I like that. I like that a lot. So I'm very, very happy with this pen. Even though this situation has been fraught with drama, it was worth it, because this is what I wanted. This was like, I wouldn't say it was like a grail pen or whatever, but it has been top of my list for months. And it was just serendipity that they ended up selling another one so I could get one. And now I have one. And I'm really, really, really excited about it.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Yeah, it's an amazing pen. And I lied, I didn't ink mine up last week, but I need to go ink that up before I head to Little Rock tomorrow, which we'll talk about in a minute. Yep. But I'm so glad you have this pen. Honestly, I know it was a complete mess. And the thing that other listeners don't understand and what frustrates me, like hearing you talk about customs fees is not only are they sticking it to you, they're doubling down the challenge of actually getting it. Right? So I wouldn't say it would be fine if it was just, okay, here's your 50 pounds and we're done. It's that now there's even more onus on you to like figure out other things about this challenge. What frustrates me the most. And that's what makes me mad.

Myke Hurley: Is that when you're tracking a parcel, it says like customs charges raised, right? You have to wait for a letter to arrive. Like just let me pay it online immediately. Like I don't know why I have to wait for this letter to arrive. Like all of these things are just so frustrating. There was actually, so my next little thing that I wanted to talk about actually also has some customs fund to it. Um, this is from a listener by the name of Alan who contacted me out of the blue and he said, I've been trying, you know, I've been tooling around, playing around with some woodworking stuff. And I want to make you some personalized blocks for your pens to go in, um, and like make large holes and stuff so you can fit your canalea pens and all that sort of stuff in. I was like, okay, great. Like if that's something you want to do, like I would love that. Um, and then Alan sent it to me and this was like a whole big situation. Like for, for a while I've been wanting to get a PO box so people can send me stuff. So I've sorted out this PO box, set it all up, sent the information to Alan and then found out that Parcel Force, which is one of the UK package carriers, which is part of the Royal Mail group, will not deliver to post PO boxes.

Myke Hurley: Even though it's a Royal Mail PO box that I set up because it's not a real PO box with the Royal Mail. Um, they just deliver it to you. It's like a, it's like a fake address basically. But even though it's not an actual real box, Parcel Force won't deliver it. So I now have a useless PO box for six months because there's no point in me giving this out because every single time that someone tries to send me something, it's like a toss up as to whether the Royal Mail or Parcel Force will deliver it. And if Parcel Force are delivering it, it will go through this system, which has taken me and Alan three weeks. This, this thing has been in the UK for three weeks. And the poor guy. Is Alan in the US? Is it coming from the US? The poor guy paid customs charges on my behalf, which was very kind of him. And I ended up having to get it like sent to a post office. I had to call them. It was like a real, it was a real mess, but it was worth it because I now, I've now replaced all of my pen stands on my desk with these two fantastic pen, pen stands. One is Relay FM. One says Myke was right. And I now have more space than ever. And all of my kind of big bodied pens have space in these. So I'm really, really excited about this. And I wanted to thank Alan for sending these to me. And Brad, you can see, I put a picture of my current situation going on there. I have a redacted pen. You notice that?

Brad Dowdy: That's my favorite thing. Yeah, you know what that is. People started replying to it and like, what's going on with the picture? And then Myke's like, well, I had to redact the pen and I know exactly what pen it is.

Myke Hurley: Honestly, I couldn't be bothered to take the picture again. So I kind of just thought, this is fun. I'll do this instead. It was fun. I'm glad you did that. That pen will become clear about that very soon, actually. Very soon. So we'll be able to talk about that. That's something that me and you are excited to talk about. But yeah, so this is my current situation. Look at all those beautiful sailors right at the front.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're going to talk about this. I want to circle back to this picture before we really dig into it. There's a question later because we're going to do a mostly Ask TPA show this week. And one of it's kind of about what we're currently using. So I want to refer to this picture. But I want to say two things. Number one, looking at Alan's picture versus your picture, it looks like the pen holder is like the size of a die, the way it's kind of staged in the photo. It looks tiny, doesn't it? Then you flip over to your picture and it's like the size of a head. Yeah, it's a beast. Or a grapefruit or something. It is a beast.

Myke Hurley: It's huge.

Brad Dowdy: It's really big. But I love it, right?

Myke Hurley: I don't know why, but I love that it's so huge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was like, wow, those pen slots are tiny except the perspective's off on the picture. Yeah. Like it fits the big retro 51s with room to spare. It's kind of funny.

Myke Hurley: I can fit my Canalea pens in those holes. Yeah. Right. So like these are serious. Like these are pretty serious. So yeah, I'm very excited about these. And I thought it was worth thanking Alan on the show just because of the mess that he had to go through just to do something nice for me. So I really appreciate that. Yeah. But so this is me saying I'm very sorry, but like I hoped I was going to get a PO box set up. I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I'm probably never going to have one now because the parcel force situation, I don't, nobody wants to have to deal with that every time. And it's a real shame because I've wanted to have one so people could send me letters and stuff like that even. Right. But setting up a PO box and every time having to say, please don't send me parcels or only send me parcels via DHL. It's like it's too much. So it is. I'm looking into other options like for like third party companies that do it, like where there's actually a place to deliver. And it's like so it's not a PO box address, but like it's like a secondary. You know what I mean? Right. Right. It's like it's got an actual address and then that company just holds on to stuff for me. So I'm still looking into that now, but I have a useless PO box for the next five months.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that brings up my second point. And we've talked about this before is we need another podcast called I Hate the Mail. Yeah. Because we talk about we've talked about my shipping troubles with Nock and Pen Addict. We've talked about your customs issues and we could even include email because you're going through a challenge right now and I'm perpetually challenged by email. So, yeah, we need to make that that podcast happen one of these days. But we have talked about it before. It would just be like a total bitch session about mailing services, analog or digital. So, yeah, we'll work on that. I worked on leaving you last week, Myke. It didn't work out because I am here today. But I was seriously considering making the jump over to the Erasable podcast. I was on Erasable number 91. Did you get a chance to listen to that? Probably not. You don't like pencils.

Myke Hurley: I haven't listened to it yet, no. I didn't actually know the episode was out. I knew the episode was coming out, but I haven't checked it out yet.

Brad Dowdy: So, you were actually kind enough to record an intro for the show. Andy, Andy Wellfley was not on the episode last week. So, they asked me to fill in with Johnny and Tim. And Andy, while we were all chatting about this, Andy had a funny little comment. He's like, we should get Myke to record the intro. And we all just thought it was great. So, we sent over a little bit to you to record for that show. And I thought it came out wonderfully.

Myke Hurley: This is a perfect example of my blind trust in you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because you just said, can you just record this?

Brad Dowdy: I'm like, all right. I sent you like two sentences of text. I said, record this, send me the file.

Brad Dowdy: Right? And I had it within 30 seconds. You're like, okay. Bloop. But it was fun. I enjoyed talking to them. I giggled a lot during the show, which I like to do. And I re-listened to it yesterday in my travels. And I giggled some more. So, whenever I giggle during a podcast, you know it's a fun podcast. So, thank you guys for having me. And we'll have to complete that trade. And we've had Andy on the show. So, we'll have to see about getting Johnny and Tim on the show in the future. So, it was fun. Go listen to it. Link's in the show notes. And I wanted to discuss really quickly, related to that podcast episode, I talked about the Uni Mitsubishi 9000 pencil in 3H lead grade, which is very, very hard. It's on the very firm and light side of the scale. I did a review of that pencil for the Pen Addict on Monday. And if you haven't read that review, I'm not that big of an in-case-you-missed-it guy. Like, I don't retweet myself on Twitter or, you know, constantly post my article, you know, like all through the week and things like that in case you missed it. But this was a good one because I thought I just had fun writing it because it's such a weird pencil, but it goes to, like, the core of what I believe in when I'm finding stuff for myself.

Myke Hurley: You had a bit more of a story to tell than just talking about the pencil, which I liked.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I had fun writing this review and you should all go read it because it gives you a little bit of insight about how my brain works, which is honestly kind of a mess. And it came out, spilled over to the page this time. But now you read that and you'll understand a little bit more why I am who I am and why this stuff is important to me. So, that was a fun review to write. And that's one of those things where I had no intention of reviewing that pencil. Then I started writing the review and then that's what came out of my head, right? There was no pre-planning to it. I just started typing and that's what happened. And that's how that appears from time to time. It's not just a straight review of tech specs and performance and things like that. This was more of a touchy-feely review. And I don't know. I'm proud of it, even though it was just like this little simple funny thing. I enjoyed it. And I like looking back on that one. So, that's going to be one I'll bookmark for future reference for my own sake. So, yeah. I enjoyed it.

Myke Hurley: Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, a couple more things before we get into all these questions. We got a lot of questions, too. I am heading to Little Rock for the Arkansas Pen Show tomorrow. It is from Friday through Sunday in Little Rock, Arkansas. I will be there. Anna will be there. Matt Armstrong will be there. Lisa Van Ness will be there. Michael Soule will be there. Jimmy Dolliv will be there. Lots of people are going to be there. I'm leaving a bunch of people out. Sean Newton. It's a cool show because it's so small and quaint. You get to kind of hang out and do lots of things. I just go to hang out and help Lisa with Van Ness Pens. They have an open house on Friday night. I help out with that event. And I do a little party after Saturday night in the bar, which I like to do. But if you want to follow me on Anchor, which is this really neat little podcasting service where you can just upload quick files and they turn them into basically an episode, I'm going to try to road trip. I'm driving on this trip. So in Baltimore, I end up getting busy and not recording as many Anchor episodes as I wanted to. I'm going to record from the car whenever something pops into my head, which is super dangerous. So check it out tomorrow. I'll have links in the show notes. I'm trying to leave at like 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. So hopefully you will see a quick episode of how bad of an idea that is tomorrow morning. But that's kind of my thought. I'm going to drive. It's about an eight to nine hour drive. So I don't know. I might be two episodes. It might be once every hour as I'm anxious about going on this trip. So I'll do that. Then I'll have some more from the show itself and then probably on the way back too. So check me out on Anchor. Follow me over there and enjoy the fun.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Anchor is really great. They are a RelayFM sponsor, which I do want to mention. I'm just. Yes. Sorry. I'll mention that. No, it's no. Don't apologize. I like that you're using it, but I do just want to mention that.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I didn't realize that. I knew you had a. What would you call?

Myke Hurley: We have an agreement. An arrangement. We were a launch partner of their new platform. Yes. We have a show called Subnet, which is a daily tech show, which you can get at Relay.FM slash subnet. But it's also available on smart speakers as well, which is the first show that we've done because it's one of these like headline shows. Right. So we're doing that. But yeah, they have been a sponsor on some shows and we have worked with them on this project too. So I just wanted to mention that.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Thank you for doing that.

Curfcase

Myke Hurley: And speaking of sponsors, let me talk about Curfcase. So you've heard me talk about Curfcase a couple of weeks ago. They're the company that make incredible, beautiful items from reclaimed Pensylvania hardwood. They are the people behind the studio case, which is the magnetic modular portable studio for creators on the go. It is a fully customizable modular design that you can stack when traveling using high power magnets. Everything is securely attached, but easy to separate. They have a bunch of different individual trays, which I've spoken about before. The pen tray, which holds up to six pencils, pens, and any Apple pencil. The marker tray, which holds up to five Sharpies or thick pens, plus eraser sized compartment as well. And I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago and they've gone and done it. They have a new fountain pen tray. It holds up to four fountain pens or thick markers. And I worked with them on this. I have one. They sent it to me to check and to look at. And it's really great. So I wanted to say like what this does is it gives you like four different slots inside of one of these trays to put some fountain pens in. And I've been playing around and trying it out and it holds the majority of my fountain pens. So like all of my sales and stuff go in there. You know, it can get as, as I would have expected some of the huge thick acrylic stuff. It's a bit hit and miss as to what will fit and what won't fit. But that was what I expected. Because if you were making a tray for these, basically you could put two, which doesn't really feel like a, like a great option. Right. But this is a great way to carry some stuff around. What I really like about this system is like now they've sent me a bunch of these, right? I have like five of these things. So I have this like huge box where I can put a bunch of stuff in. So like if you're going somewhere for the day, this is just like a great way to be able to take a portable studio with you and you can put that. It's all customizable. You can go on their website and you can choose what configuration you want. So you can add all of the things in separately. They have a bunch of customization options as well. They have a utility tray is one of them, which is completely hollow. So you can kind of just throw whatever you want in there. This is fantastic. It makes my office smell like beautiful wood. Now I'm, I really, really love this product. I think it is awesome. And I'm going to be using it like this is just a great way to like throw a bunch of stuff and like transport it in a system that what makes this better than just like a regular pencil case is that when you get to the place, you just separate all the trays and lay them out and everything stays in the trays. And then when you're done, you just stack the trays up and go. I think this is really awesome. You should go check them out. They don't just make these, these cases. They make a bunch of other things like phone cases and stuff like that. So go and check out their stuff. It's kerfcase.com slash studio. That is K E R F case C A S E dot com slash studio. So that's K E R F C A S E dot com slash studio. And you will get 15% off when you use the code addict, A D D I C T. The studio case starts at $99, but you get that extra 15% off with the code addict. This is a really awesome company. They've been fantastic to work with. I can't believe that like just on my feedback, they went ahead and made another part of their product. Like they really care. Just go and take a look, right? Like even if you don't think this is for you, just go and take a look, look at their products. You might be surprised how much you would love one of these things. So go check it out right now. Kerfcase.com slash studio. Thanks to Kerf case for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: Like I said, last time they were here, I was going to purchase one, but I waited until the fountain pen one came and now it turned, turned it around quickly. It reminds me of like a little Japanese bento box set up, like lunch boxes that are stackable and modular. And I don't know. It's just really, really cool. I like this idea a lot.

Myke Hurley: Me too. It's really nice. Just before we get into the RSTPA, two super quick, funny things. One came from you and one came from a bunch of listeners sent this to me. The first is Lamy Korea posted a Lamy Minions set, a picture of a Lamy Minions set, which they would probably sell a billion off if they put them into mass production.

Brad Dowdy: It's amazing. I'm not going to lie. I mean, the pen itself is not because it looks like the standard yellow they've always made. But you get the additional clip accessories. You get the fancy box. It's like a gift set of Lamy Safari goodness. And I'm a huge Minion fan. I just thought this was super neat when I saw it. And gosh, Lamy always frustrates me. I guess it's a lot of companies. I shouldn't pin this on Lamy. When you see some things cool like this and you can't go get it very easily if you really want it. I'm not interested in it enough to hunt one down to purchase, but I think it's really cool. And I would like that really cool stuff to be available more easily. But I guess that's an argument that I'll never win and maybe I shouldn't. But it's just neat to see Lamy doing this and it'd be nice if they spread their wings a little bit more.

Myke Hurley: The other is a Supreme branded Kaweco AL Sport fountain pen in the red. So are you a Supreme fan? Ballpoint pen. I have a lot of respect for the brand.

Myke Hurley: I don't own any Supreme clothing and a lot of it doesn't really speak to me. But I have a lot of respect for a company that's branding is so strong. They can put it on literally anything and make it fashionable.

Brad Dowdy: So I agree with that statement 100%. I love watching what they do. I will never own any of their clothing, but I watch them from a design perspective and marketing perspective because they are one of the best. I didn't notice this until our good friend Bump posted it on Twitter said, hey, I bought one and these pens are already sold out. But it's really neat. It's your standard Kaweco with a nice red color and the Supreme logo on the side. I mean, it's like perfect and it's sold out.

Brad Dowdy: Kaweco won't work with someone as lowly as me, but Supreme, man, they're a big deal and they can just push on through and get those custom Kawecos made.

Myke Hurley: But as is usual for me, I am fascinated to try and understand how this partnership came together. Like, how did Supreme find Kaweco? How did that happen? I think it's really cool. What I also like about this, right, because of how strong the brand is, this is sold out to people that don't care about the product. They just want to own it. About the Kaweco side of the equation. Exactly. Like, I don't even know if Kaweco's branding is on this thing, right? Like, it might be on the other side. It might not. It doesn't matter. Like, none of it matters. This is Supreme. But they've got their co-brand on the title of the thing. So maybe it's, I reckon it, like, it says Kaweco on the other side, but they just don't put that in their stuff. But like, you know, and also as well.

Brad Dowdy: I imagine it's the standard tin box.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm sure it will be. I love that for everything. I'm really surprised it was £60. It's £60 here. I don't know what it was in dollars, but. But that's £69. I mean, it's not a huge markup, really. I would have expected a much bigger markup. Because you could charge $100 for that thing or whatever, because it's the Supreme Pen. But yeah, I just thought that was really funny. I love seeing these crossovers, right? Like, I remain persistently fascinated and interested to try and understand how Retro 51 and Apple work together. Still, no one will give me that story. Like, I don't know who I have to buy a drink for in a bar somewhere to get them to give me that story. But the story's still out there. Yep. We'll work on that. We have been holding on to an absolute mountain of Ask TPA. And we're going to start with some Twitter questions. The first one comes from Hobby Beth on Twitter. Any recommendations for a purse pen? I'm looking for durability and consistent performance, preferably a gel ink with a pretty color section. Any thoughts?

Brad Dowdy: So this is a tough question out the gate, because what I think of immediately when I think of a purse pen is something in the smaller, pocketable size, like the Kaweco AL Sports. Something in that size range. Something that's durable, can take a beating, just be thrown in a purse and go and not have to worry about ink, you know, getting around and, you know, not worrying about a retractable tip to accidentally eject and get ink all over the insides of your purse. But she didn't really specifically discuss size. She just talked about the durability and performance. So if you want to go with durability and performance and solve the gel ink refill with color choices question, you go straight to the Uniball Signo DX. It's a durable plastic barrel. It comes in a huge range of tip sizes. It comes in every color imaginable, and they're the best colors. It's a capped barrel, so it's not going to be clicking open in your purse. But, you know, it's a standard length pen. It's not what I would consider a pocket pen or a purse pen per se. But it kind of meets the criteria that Hobby Beth laid out. Because the issue you run into is when you actually do move into the pocketable size pen, you run out of your gel ink color choices. So that's the differentiator. That's the challenge you're going to have to answer for yourself. Do I want these great, cool gel ink colors and a very good barrel and a full size pen? Well, then I think the DX is a no-brainer. If you want more of a mini pen, you want to shop for something that is a style you like that fits a D1 refill. And there's more and more pens that fall into that category for D1 because you can get some gel ink refills for that. The color range is small, but it's better than just black, blue, and red. You can get, you know, greens and oranges and blue, blacks and purples and things like that and a D1 refill. So, you know, for those, I obviously prefer the shown design pen. You can get the D1 adapter for. There's other small D1 refills. That's the other thing. Cost. You know, the DX will cost you $3. The shown will cost you $70. So, it just depends on what problem you're trying to solve. And if you are okay with a standard size pen that's really going to take a beating and you can get awesome performance and awesome colors in, I think the DX is far and away the answer. But that may not be what the question was. So, if you want to reach out for more Hobby Beth and nail it down a little bit more specifically, let me know. Hit me up on Twitter.

Sailor Pens

Myke Hurley: Next up, we have a question from at 24h100miles, I'm assuming, which is, that seems like quite a goal to do, on Twitter. Sailor Progress Slim versus Pilot Custom Heritage 91. How do they size up with the size, weight, nib, performance, etc.?

Brad Dowdy: This is a very fair question, but the answer is completely unfair. It's Sailor. I say it's close just because of the size, shape, and weight of the pen, but really Sailor's the choice here because of the variety they offer in barrel colors and even nib choices in that size and price range. I also think the Pro Gear Slim is slightly heavier, but that's just me not going to check the weight measurements on a site that if you go and pull them up right now, I'll probably be proven wrong. But it feels like a more dense acrylic than the Custom Heritage 91. Those always feel really, really light. The Sailors feel light too, but they feel a little bit more durable. But the problem with the Pilot Custom Heritage is you're very limited in color choices. So if you like a basic black, black and gold, or black and rhodium trim pen, the Heritage 91 is awesome. The nib's great. The Sailor Pro Gear Slim has infinite more choices. So the specifics, size, weight, nib performance, they're virtually identical. I mean, you're not going to go wrong with either one. So aesthetically is where Sailor wins out for me. And I'd say for you too, right?

Myke Hurley: Oh, 100%. One of the reasons that I never got and have yet to get a Custom Heritage 91 is that the design just doesn't excite me. It feels a little bit boring, right? Like they tend to just be dark colors, gold trim, right? Like is the usual. And there doesn't really seem to be much movement on that. But obviously, as everybody knows, if you've been listening to the show over the last couple of weeks, a couple of months even, I'm going wild for Sailor because the pens are absolutely out of this world. And the designs, you can get some really cool looking pens. And not even just special editions, right? Like just the general lineup has some just really fantastic looking colors and materials and stuff like that. So that's why I would go that route. And it's why I have gone that route. Like I have not yet really spent any time with Pilot Custom Heritage 91. So I don't have a lot to say on performance. But just from like the type of pen I want to own, it's not that, right? Like it's like we were talking about this a while ago about like how many pens there are that are black with gold trim. I think it was after the DC Pen Show. And for me, it was just kind of like all of these pens look exactly the same. Like I just can't feel myself getting excited about them. Because part of my hobby, part of my love for writing materials is design. And my design tastes tend to be things that are different and stand out a little bit.

Brad Dowdy: So one pen to consider if this is the comparison, the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 is actually a differentiator because it's a piston filler. The few colors that it comes in are not often readily available in the U.S. market. Actually, I don't know where 24 hours 100 miles is from. But you can get the clear 92 with the piston filler for the same price as the Pro Gear Slim.

Myke Hurley: The other colors are harder to get. And it's 155 pounds. And this is way more interesting to me. It is a completely clear demonstrator, which is good looking. And it's a piston filler. This I would consider buying. You've nailed it on that one for me. That is different enough. It's cool enough. It's got two really wicked cool things to it. It's a demonstrator and a piston filler, which means the ink is always going to be slushing around inside of there. And it actually looks really good. And it doesn't have gold trim. It doesn't have gold furniture. So great. I like that. That looks like a lot of fun. This next question comes from Nick. I'm doing these for you today, by the way. I'm reading them. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Thank you. I'm glad we hashed this out before the show.

Myke Hurley: No, it's fine. I decided to just go for it. And it's mostly because a lot of these questions, only you have answers for them. So it just saves you from losing your voice. So this comes from Nick. Nick asks, I just received my Nemisu Ixion in titanium, which is a first for me. And after I opened and closed the cap twice, neither my partner or my dogs could stand it. Is there a way to prevent the intolerable screaming the pen makes every time I use it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So this is the metal pen barrel dilemma. It's titanium mostly, right? Like titanium is like... Yeah. You know. Yeah. It's extra squeaky. The only answer that I've ever received on this, and I think it's a terrible answer because I personally, it would drive me insane if I did this, is to grease the threads. People want to, say, put silicone grease on the threads. You know, just a microscopic amount will do wonders. But it would bother me having that on there.

Myke Hurley: Some manufacturers... You get it on your hands every time. I would hate that. You feel it.

Brad Dowdy: I would hate that. Some manufacturers will oil the threads, especially like the internal threads. Like if you're removing the section from the barrel, you'll notice it and you'll get like a faint smell. But the only thing that I've ever tried to do to fix this without putting something additional on the pen is to like go in the closet and stick my hands in like my heaviest jacket and twist the pen like a maniac for about five minutes. And hopefully I can break through the sound barrier and make the sound go away. Like I wear it in purposefully, but like without hearing it. I swear to God, I've done this. I need to ask you real quick.

Myke Hurley: What does the jacket do?

Brad Dowdy: It muffles the sound.

Myke Hurley: Ah, okay. Okay. I was like, is this some kind of like special trick that I don't understand? No, no, no, no, no.

Brad Dowdy: No, I just like reach my hands in somewhere where it's not so loud all the time. So it's a sound barrier. Um, and you can, you can cut like the newness out of it. You'll probably never all the way go away, but you can cut the, cut the newness out of it. And it does get better over time, but I just kind of force it that way sometimes.

Myke Hurley: So, cause I guess a lot of the time that sound is the slow wearing, right? Like that's what it's doing. Right. It's slowly wearing. So if you can, right. It makes sense, right? Like if you can force it to occur, like if you give it what would be six months worth of opening and closing in the space of two minutes, it might, it might wear it down a bit.

Brad Dowdy: The chat room, Doug Beal also says graphite would work, which I've seen that before on threads as well. That may be something. Well, I don't understand. How does that help? It's essentially, it's essentially a lubricant that's softer. It's softer than the metals itself and we'll take, we'll absorb that sound. Right.

Myke Hurley: And then doesn't get your hands all greasy every time you use it either. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, but some of the, some of the graphite like that are used on, on threads is not like raw powdery graphite. It's, it's more liquefied.

Myke Hurley: Oh, okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, but, uh, I don't know. Maybe if you could just write with a pencil around your threads, maybe that would work. I could get behind that. I'll have to try that one day. All right.

Pen Cases

Myke Hurley: What's next? All right. So our next question, um, in our mammoth ask TPA, uh, comes from Jeff. Jeff asks, what is the best case to put a high tech C refill into? The plastic cases keep breaking long before I finish it off.

Brad Dowdy: Can you believe that the market for high tech C barrels has fallen off the cliff?

Myke Hurley: Because everybody just discovered better refills than I'd say C.

Brad Dowdy: Well, because it's particular, right? It's not necessarily that they discovered better refills. It's that they can fit more things if you go with a pilot G2 base. So everything's with a pilot G2 base. Yeah. So it's actually harder nowadays to find a great high tech C barrel. And I'm the wrong person to ask about this because I use the most expensive high tech C barrel on the market in the pen type B, which is maybe my all time favorite pen. It's also going to set you back like $200 for a $3 refill, but that's a terrible, that's a terrible suggestion of mine, but there's not a lot of great options other than the big eye design. T I Arto. That one fits the high tech C well. It's a good pen and it's more in the 60, 70, $80 range. Um, Cara's customs made the best one, the best normal one in their render K, but they moved, moved it to a pilot G2 fitting. So it no longer fits the high tech C out of right out of stock. So their original one was based around the high tech C then they, they, they changed the front end to fit the pilot G2 sizes because, you know, I mean, that's the smart business move. It fits more things. You can sell more pens if you can fit more things. So, um, you had a suggestion on this that I didn't even consider, but I think is a really good suggestion. And that's the, the high tech C Colito, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, so this is, I mean, part of the problem that, uh, Jeff is having is that he's breaking the plastic barrel. So that might still continue. Uh, but I think that this is the coolest way to use a high tech C to get a Colito, which you can get those in a bunch of different fun designs. And then you can have four, right? It's the, it's the multi pen, right? So you have two or four or five in some instances. Um, the, the high tech C Colito is the only way that I have enjoyed using a high tech C because it's fun. And you can have a bunch of really awesome colors. Jet pens has like a billion options, um, for the high tech C Colito.

Brad Dowdy: And pilot used to make a pen called the Cavalier. They still make it in the fountain pen size. It was made specifically for the high tech C refill. I've had people try to buy mine off of me because they don't really make them anymore. If you can find one on eBay or something, it's a skinny barrel, but it's all metal barrel. They ran about 25, 30 bucks when they're new. I don't know how much they go for now. They're really, really nice. Um, but they're not made anymore. I don't think unless they've redone them or something like that, but a Cavalier barrel would be a good one to find out.

Myke Hurley: All right. So next up we have a question from Johnny. Um, I can't find a top five pocket pens list. What is the best besides the space pen?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I have, I figured we talked about this before because I love pocket pens and I actually, it took me about a minute to find the episode where we talked about my list of pocket pens and an episode 267 of this show. So we, we did just that. And I had a related Instagram picture where I put my most frequently used pocket pens and it was the Paca pen, the Fisher space pen, the Cavico lily put ballpoint and fountain pen, the shown design pen and the timber twist pen. And that's a really good list. I'd say that's pretty consistent. I have three shown pens. I use all of those the most, like I just grab one of those and go. That's far and away my most used. My second would be the Lily put fountain pen out of that list. And then my third would be the standard Fisher space pen. Those get used more than everything in this list. So if you want to top five, I think this, uh, this, this image kind of sums it up pretty nicely. But right now the shown pen is my runaway winner. And then after that would be something from Cavico, either the Lily put fountain pen or the one of the AL fountain pens, probably. Uh, maybe the steel, maybe the, the, I don't know what they call it. The sport steel. So those are really, really good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I don't really use any pocket pens, so I can't help too much on that. You're missing out. You're missing out. I'm okay. Um, someday Ray asked, uh, there may, this may have been asked before, but do you have any shopping suggestions for a pen addict going to London? Me personally, no, I, I don't buy anything in stores here, but we have a ton of, uh, fantastic articles and references. So all things stationary, stationary shops map. You should check that always because it's not just London. Uh, Tessa has done a great job of putting together, um, a map for kind of all over the globe. There are lots and lots of different options. Um, and you've got that for you, right? If you, if you want to get that, uh, what else? What else do we have, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: So both, uh, Jenny Mason, who runs the FinerPoint blog, and Priya, who runs the London Parchment. They're both, uh, Londoners or at least, uh, Englanders. And they constantly, they actually went on a shop visit together that Jenny just posted, uh, a few weeks ago. So there's a post there, but then there's other posts sprinkled throughout both of their blogs about different visits they've made to shops. And, uh, in London and surrounding areas. I definitely want to hit some of these shops up when I go to London this summer. And maybe I should pick a hotel like around the Present and Correct shop just so I don't have to carry everything that I buy.

Myke Hurley: I think maybe me and you should try and find time to go there together. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah, we could do. That'd be, that'd be a nice vlog. That would be.

Myke Hurley: It should be a nice dramatic moment for us to share, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That, that will be our honeymoon. We're getting married this summer, if y'all didn't know.

Myke Hurley: This is what we haven't done. It's, this is, it is a wedding and it's our wedding.

Myke Hurley: That's what happens. You do 300 episodes with somebody and you have to marry them. Right. It's a podcaster's rule.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Unwritten rules y'all didn't know. So think twice before starting a podcast, boys and girls.

Myke Hurley: Uh, Dan the Sword asks, if you were given the full lineup of any one ink brand, but you could only use those inks, not inks from any other brand for the next year, which brand would you choose?

Brad Dowdy: I'm going sailor and I'm hesitant because they're starting to make me mad with their price changes and reworking of their ink lineups. Quality and color wise, they're my favorite, but I'm starting to give them the side eye a little bit. And it's like, they make me not want to recommend them as much for what they're doing. So I, I'm a little torn on that. Like, I don't know how to handle this. I haven't figured this out yet, but I, they're making me uneasy with what they're doing, uh, in the market. And, you know, if that's a, that's their business decision, that's fine, but I can choose to shop somewhere else. And it might be in the Robert Oster aisle, you know, their colors, they have some really bright colors. That's what I like sailors for. So they're bright oranges and blues and Robert Oster makes some really amazing inks that I, I use a lot. So we'll see how this plays out in the longterm. And, uh, if sailor is, is, ends up off the list, but right now it's still sailor just because I own so much of it already. And, uh, I, it's what I ink up the most, like far and away. I love their, their, their colors and their performance. What about you?

Myke Hurley: I think if I'm going to go on this, right? Like I maybe want to think practical. Um, and if I was going to, like, if I'm just going to be using one ink line for an entire year, I'm going to need ink that can suffice everything I need ink for, right? Like every issue that I can throw at it. So in that, in that mindset, I would go for the pilot Hiroshi Zuko line because of the same reasons that I chose the Hiroshi Zuko line as one of my big ink purchases many, many years ago. Because the ink's quick drying, they have good colors, they don't ruin anything. Like it's good. Like it's just good, solid, all around inks. And I still use, uh, Kompeki and Fuyugaki to this day. Like I love those inks. They're fantastic. Um, so that's probably the line that I would go for. I would say that like Robert Oster, like I have a few of their inks now and I love the colors and the performance of those. Um, but I haven't used them for as long and they don't have some of the quick drying like uses, right? Like I still kind of get a little, I can still smudge those pretty easily, um, in a way that I don't with, with Hiroshi Zuko. So that's probably where I would go on that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. If I was answering the question for you, I would have bet you would say Hiroshi Zuko. And contrary to Sailor, they actually lowered their prices last year.

Myke Hurley: Huh.

Japanese Market

Brad Dowdy: So I don't know what, I don't know what's going on in the Japanese Inc. market, but it's interesting for sure. All change.

Myke Hurley: Today's episode is brought to you in part by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell all of the stuff that you're looking for. Like whenever you're listening to this show and you're like, ooh, one of those sounds interesting. Head on over to Pen Chalet immediately. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com and see if they have it. Because, let me tell you a few reasons why. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S. They sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates and they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their purchases. They're an authorized dealer of so many of their favorite brands. And they believe in giving the fastest and most reliable customer service that they can. Pen Chalet are always working on discounts for you. They have always discounted stuff. They have closeout specials. They do special discounts twice a month. There's always cool deals going on at Pen Chalet. And of course, because you listen to this show, you can get 10% off any purchase at Pen Chalet. When you go to PenChalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. This is where you will get your code at any point to get 10% off literally anything in the store, which is fantastic. And of course, we have some special offers. Brad, there is a selection of things this week. There's some pens and there's some display cases and stuff like that. I'm interested in what has caught your eye.

Brad Dowdy: One of the things that we've gotten Ron in trouble for and blown him out of inventory for is back this time. I think it actually might be a smaller version. The Monteverde 36-pen zip carrying case at this price is a no-brainer. I think they make a 48 and maybe that was the one he sold before. But even at pen shows, people are always looking for cases like this to hold a high quantity of pens that's easy for portability. You have something similar. I know you carry some pens in. I have one of these. Yeah, this is... We're in the no-brainer price range on this. It's like practically free for what it is. So that's really good. And he also has the Platinum 3776 on sale. And it comes with a case, which I'll have to look at. It's you order a pen and you get a tan pouch or a black pouch with the pen you order. And it's still like way cheaper than what the pens normally sell for. And you know how much I like the 3776, which is really, really good. So yeah, these are excellent offers as always from Ron. And I had someone recently link the display cases that Ron's selling, that they bought some and used some. I forget who that was, but they look really cool. And for the price, man, that's a lot of storage and a really, really nice setup.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is like a 30-pen display case with drawers and stuff like that. So you can have an actual nice little thing to put on a countertop or something to put your pens into, which is cool. So there's also a great deal on a Platinum 3776. That's just a bonkers deal. Like the price of that thing, I kind of can't believe. So there's a lot of really, really great deals, as always, as you can expect from Pen Chalet. And you know what? You need to go and check out these prices for yourself. That's what I'm going to say. What do you think, Brad? Should we keep it a secret?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, we should. We should, because we even got to the point of Nasty Graham's the last time he had one of these pen cases for sale, because they flew out the door so quick. So go get it.

Myke Hurley: Because the prices are good. These are just a good thing to have. Especially if you're going to pen shows, as you said, right? It makes a lot of sense to go and check those out. So head on to PenChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and hit the password PenAddict, and you'll get your hands on these special offers. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM. So next up, we have a question from Fanon. And Fanon asks, I have some great orange inks for the fall. Any suggestions for a great spring orange?

Brad Dowdy: So this is Pat Hannon. It's not Fanon. Well, I'm going with Fanon. I only know that because I know him. He comes lately on the Pen Show. So you've met him and his kids. I know. Oh, okay. Yeah, I know. We'll call him. You know who this is.

Myke Hurley: That was one of my very favorite moments, whatever year that was. I think it was like two years ago. Right. Pretty much every year.

Brad Dowdy: But, Pat, come on. Do you even have to ask this question to me? A great spring orange ink? Sailor apricot. I mean, you may not be able to buy it, but that's what I'm going to use.

Myke Hurley: That might have to be on my hunt down list.

Brad Dowdy: But I just got a letter with the Robert Oster. It's called the NG Special 16. There's some story behind the name. They did it. I don't even want to get into it. And I was really impressed with the shading in that orange. It looks really, really nice. So that may be one to check out.

Brad Dowdy: Edelstein Mandarin is really nice. And then if you want an eye searer, the Ackermon, is it number 16? I'm going to think is their orange. It's really, really nice. It's practically fluorescent. But I'm an apricot guy through and through. Any orange with yellow in it is my game. And that makes for a perfect spring orange.

Myke Hurley: I've had a thing recently where I have my new diary journal situation. And I write down my pens in it. So I write down what pens I'm using each day. And I also write down the ink that I'm using. And every single day that I use my primary manipulation Eastman, I have my green Ackermon in it. And I never remember what the number is. I just write down a number. Like, I know I don't know the number. I'm like, I think it's 28. Maybe it's 24 or 26. I have no idea. So I just write down whatever number in the 20s range. It might not even be in the 20s range. So that's always a fun thing for me to do. I'm just like, yeah, okay. We'll work it out later on. It doesn't matter. I know it's a green Ackermon. Yep, exactly. All right. We have from Carlos. Carlos wants to know what our current bag setup is.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't changed much. So I try to change in Baltimore. But generally, my daily bag is the Notco Lanier. I carry a 13-inch MacBook Pro and a Seed A5 case in it. And that's everything I need for my day-to-day work and travel. When I do leave town, my favorite bag is the Bogier Bullpup, which you can no longer purchase. But I can't shake that bag because it's so good. I actually tried the Brown Buffalo, my backpack that I have. I forget the name of it. I didn't pull it up. I'm in Baltimore. And I love the insides of the bag and the exterior of the bag. But I don't like the straps on the bag, which I showed. A lot of us looked at that bag in Baltimore. A lot of people wanted to check that one out. But for larger, broader, shouldered people, the straps are not great. So for someone that's into bags and likes to change things up as much as I do, I'm really consistent with the Lanier and the Bullpup as my backpack. So that's pretty much it. I keep searching for that next new backpack, but I haven't nailed it down yet.

Myke Hurley: I'm in a backpack bag situation right now. So I'll just run through my generals. So if I'm kind of out and about, like just popping into town, going to a coffee shop or whatever, I'm going to be out for the day, then I'll pick up my Tom Bin Ristretto.

Myke Hurley: I'm kind of falling out of love with the Ristretto a little bit, though, because messenger bags just ruin my back. Like, just destroy it. I can have nothing in the bag, but I walk around with a messenger bag on my back and it ruins me. It's like the displacement of weight, right? It's just on the one side. It doesn't do very good for me, honestly. So I'm rethinking that. I use the Lanier when I'm at conferences and stuff because you kind of just walk into and from a room. But I don't trust myself to get on a train with a backpack with just a briefcase because I will 100% leave the briefcase on the train. Like, there's just there's no two ways about that. Like, it's never unless it's physically attached to my body. I have absolutely no faith in myself to remember it. My regular backpack right now, kind of my travel bag is my Tom Bin Synapse 25, which I bought when I was in Seattle. I like that bag a lot, a lot. It is very useful is the best way that I would describe it, right? Like, it's got a million uses, a million pockets. It's fantastic. And I use my Manal bag as my gym bag now. So when I go down to the gym, it's great. It fits everything in it. It's perfect. However, I'm thinking about replacing my Tom Bin with the Peak Design Everyday Backpack. Have you seen this thing?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Actually, when I was traveling back from Baltimore, there were a couple in line when we were boarding the plane. There were a few people ahead of me, so I didn't, like, jump ahead to quiz them. But they both had them. They each had their own Peak Design backpack. I think it's a little too fidgety for me, like, too much going on. I like it, though. But the way they look is amazing.

Myke Hurley: They look great. They've got insane organization stuff.

Myke Hurley: Magnet. There's a lot of things going on in this bag. And I have a couple of friends that have them now, and they, like, swear by them as the perfect bag. So I think I'm going to get one for Atlanta. So if you want to cool poke around in my bag, you can feel free.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Jeff and I would like to get in your bag in Atlanta.

Myke Hurley: Anytime. You just know we're going to stop now. Alex asks, if you had to make a new Nocco colorway using the at color schemes color scheme, which color scheme would you use? And please explain this, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: So I did a thing, I don't know, two weeks ago on Twitter. I am a very hyperactive Twitter follower and unfollower. Like, I'm following and unfollowing accounts, like, all the time. Because you don't care about breaking hearts. Like, don't think about it. You know? No. Don't worry about that. It's Twitter. No one should worry about whether someone follows them on Twitter or not. You know? Okay. Maybe. I don't know. But anyway, I'm in and out of follows. It's usually not people. It's usually things. Like, people I just follow and keep following. Sure. You know, other ones are, like, things or, you know, news or journalism type things I'll follow and unfollow. So I put out a request as I had just gone through and cleaned up a bunch of my follows and wanted to add some new things that maybe I haven't seen. And I put it out to my followers and said, hey, you know, tell me, give me one account I should follow that you follow and you think is awesome. And so Alexander, I didn't even realize it was him. But in retrospect, it had to have been him. I mean, I know it was him, but it was the perfect one. There's this account called Color Schemes, which if you follow me on Twitter, you've seen the problem that this account has posed to me. It's the perfect account for me because it's essentially a robot. You know, it's automated color picking and naming. So this bot tries to match colors and then it gives them these random names. So I put an example in the show notes. Myke, have you seen me tweeting these various things on the Twitter?

Myke Hurley: I've been watching you tweet them. I've seen it.

Brad Dowdy: I've annoyed you. You've blocked me. No, not at all. Not at all. So y'all will start unfollowing me soon.

Brad Dowdy: But the one I picked for the next color scheme for Nock, it's kind of something we've already done. It's called Helpful Barney, which is like this bright purple, cadaverous silver, which, you know, looks like skin on a dead body, and sluggish green yellow, which I think every hour this color schemer account sends one of these out into the world. And they're amazing. I just, I giggle and just laugh and laugh and laugh at these.

Myke Hurley: Do you know where the colors are coming from? Like how are they being put together? Is it just random? I forget.

Brad Dowdy: I forget. Like they try to make, do something favorable, right? They're not picking random colors. They're doing colors that should work together from what I've read. But I haven't, I don't know what the pool of colors nor the naming convention comes from. But it's, it's fan-freaking-tastic. Like I just, I adore this account. And I'm addicted to it and hooked to it. And I keep retweeting it and people are probably unfollowing me because I just, I think it's hilarious.

Brad Dowdy: What case would I use for the Helpful Barney cadaverous silver and sluggish green yellow? Brasstown is the best case to show off colors for us. Because you get to see the outside and inside open at the same time. The Sinclair, like the insides close most of the time. The Lookout, the insides close most of the time. The Seed Case, the insides covered most of the time. The Brasstown, you get to see it all together all the time. So that would be, that's the case when we want to do wild colors. We want to know what it looks like in a Brasstown. And if it works there, it's going to work everywhere. So I love this. I love this account, Myke. I'm not going to lie. I have hearts for a robot.

Myke Hurley: Of course you do. I don't know how I feel about some of these accounts because they tweet too often for me.

Brad Dowdy: This one's close. This one's close. That's why I'm trying to like not retweet more than like one a day. But I can't help myself sometimes.

Emails

Myke Hurley: All right. So we're going to move from tweets to emails. Yes. So for our RSTPA, the first email comes from Tracy. Tracy. And it is about the discussion we've been kind of touching over the last couple of weeks of like cleaning out belongings of a deceased loved one. So this is from Tracy. I've just caught up with the last two podcasts and noted the conversation about loved ones coming across old journals and having to settle affairs for people who have passed on. I've had to settle affairs for both of my parents and for my brother. Heart goes out to you, Tracy. That sounds like a tough situation. I didn't find any journals, but I did find some old letters that were interesting. Something I saw the other day, though, that caused me to pause. I sell on eBay and other online platforms. And there was a conversation thread on one of my sellers pages on Facebook about selling people's journals. Evidently, folks who source things from estate sales and so forth snag old journals and sell them on eBay. Tracy, of course, was horrified by this, and they seemed to get a decent price for them. It made me put a note in the envelope with my will to my best friend to destroy all of my journals if I go first, as I certainly would not want them ending up on eBay. So for listeners, remember, nothing is truly private anymore, and if you don't want your thoughts to end up out there in the world, destroy them.

Brad Dowdy: So this turned out to be an awesome question from an unlikely source, Bing Toffer, that has lived on, and I continually get emails. So I put three emails in this episode just for us to read and get people's perspective on these things. So these next two letters are on the same topic, and they all relate to individual situations. And, you know, hearing what Tracy says, I didn't consider that, right? I mean, is it necessarily going to affect something? No, probably, you know, the event's unlikely that someone could use that information. But it's weird, right? It's like, do you want your stuff out there? And Brandon, I'll take this one, and you can take the next one. Brandon says, I wanted to give a differing opinion on the save, recycle your notebooks topic. While I can definitely see the arguments for not keeping the notebooks, mine just mean too much to me. On a surface level, I started journaling when I got my first fountain pen, and shortly after I started practicing calligraphy. My notebooks are a catalog of the vast improvement of my handwriting and my skills as a calligrapher. On a deeper note, my journals are a window into my past. No matter how hard we try, we can never recall everything, so my journal serves as my reminder of where I've been and how I was feeling. I recently broke up with a long-term girlfriend and was really in a slump. I couldn't motivate myself to move on, and it was all really weighing me down. Spurred by this, I went back through my journals and read my entries about my past relationships. By doing this, I was able to go back to that time, to feel everything I had described, to know it gets better, and that it's all for the best. No matter how I'm feeling, those notebooks and journals transport me back, allowing me to relive my memories in vivid detail. And someday, if these notebooks help friends, relatives, or even my future children, then that makes it worth all the effort. And then he just says, you know, please feel free to share the feedback, and you know, he just wanted to lend a different perspective. And this is why this question is so good, because it's personal, right? All this stuff is personal. Like, you get to hear, like, you know, just really, really, you know, detailed ways people are using their journals for their personal uses, and do they want them to live on or not? And it's clearly not an easy question with all the feedback we're getting, you know. Like, this one from Lori, I'll let you take this one. I just got this one today, and I added it to the document this morning, because I thought it was perfect. This is what I think about a lot, what Lori says.

Myke Hurley: We're currently cleaning out my parents' home. We've had to place them in a nursing home. So I'm fortunate that they are still with us to help identify heirloom items, as opposed to just older items that they have purchased over the years, but have little to no sentimental value. The volume of stuff is so overwhelming. The whole process has made me rethink the contents of my house, and what my children will have to deal with upon my passing or placement in a home if we have to go to that route in the future. Lynn's response to Topher's question about what to do with old notebooks in episode 296 really struck home. Well, after going through my parents' stuff, I agree with just throwing them out. I also have another possible solution, though. I'd just begun journaling a few years ago. It's actually what got me into fountain pens. However, I wanted to feel free to write whatever I was thinking or feeling at the moment in my journals without worrying about someone prying through them when I'm gone. Look, let's face it. We probably all have memories or thoughts that are private and don't need to be shared, but we still need to get them out of our heads. So, I worked out an arrangement with my daughter. I keep two journals at all times. Some of them are tagged with highlights, and some of them are tagged with lowlights. The highlights journals will include happy memories of mine or times together with family. Those would be fair game to be read by the kids, grandkids, etc. after I'm gone. The lowlight journals are me venting in my self-therapy notebooks, and they are to be destroyed upon my passing. This way, I can journal about events, thoughts, opinions that I want to share or leave with my kids, and they can read them or toss them about thinking twice. I've even told them ahead of time that if they want to just pitch them all when I'm gone, they can. No guilt. After hearing Lynn's response, I may go ahead and pitch the lowlight journals myself. As of yet, I honestly haven't gone back to reread any of them anyway. Then, if the kids want to read what's left and relive my old memories, they can, or they can just chuck them out without feeling that I might have been disappointed if I'd known that they were just throwing them away. I'm trying to minimize my belongings so I don't have as much stuff to deal with when I'm gone, but it still gives me an opportunity to leave them something that they might treasure. That is a great solution.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I said, that just showed up this morning in my email. I was like, I need to add that with the other ones. We're getting a lot of really, really good perspective.

Myke Hurley: This is something that's hitting home for a lot of people, it turns out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. What Lori's going through is the place where I was coming from when I was talking about maybe it's okay to just get rid of this stuff and not pass the burden down to future generations. But it's not that cut and dry. I mean, this is a really, really tough decision to make. And it's very important that these things get passed down to a lot of people. And some people don't want to pass on the burden. So there's no right answer, but it's good to see all of these differing options and things to do. So yeah, very, very good. I appreciate everyone sharing this with us. And keep it coming. You can always send these emails, send these letters to us. We'll have the details at the end of the show how to get in contact with us. But this is very helpful, I think.

Myke Hurley: We have one more email, but let me take our final break before we do that. And there are some letters that we want to get to as well. This episode is also brought to you by our friends at Blue Apron, the number one recipe delivery service and fresh ingredient service in the country. Blue Apron delivers fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step recipes right to your door. When you cook with Blue Apron, you're not just having burgers for dinner. You'll be making stuff like short rib burgers with a hoppy cheddar sauce on a pretzel bun or seared steaks and thyme pan sauce with mashed potatoes, green beans and crispy shallots all in under 45 minutes. Because Blue Apron deliver to you fresh, pre-portioned ingredients with step-by-step recipes right to your front door. With 12 new recipes every week, you can pick two, three or four based upon what best fits your schedule. And you can count on them for the best ingredients and meat with no added hormones as well. The Blue Apron menu changes every week based on what's in season. You have stuff like Italian-style shrimp and sweet peppers over fregola, sarder, pasta or what even? Parmesan crusted steaks with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Doesn't that all sound amazing, Brad? Doesn't it sound great? It does. Like good food. It does. I know that you've been cooking some Blue Apron meals. I know you're getting busy in the kitchen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I like to get busy in the kitchen. This last time was with hamburgers. And even I would think, okay, this isn't going to work out. Like I can cook a mean hamburger. Like I'm a real good grill master, right? Like I cook my own burgers. You know, people take pride in their burgers that they cook and it's their burger and it's really good. These Blue Apron hamburgers knock my socks off and my kids' socks off. And it's so much so that they're like dogging me out for like my regular burgers. They want the Blue Apron ones because they turned out so good. And, you know, following their directions even allows someone who is not a good chef like myself to impress the rest of the family. Because the instructions were easy, the cooking was easy, and the results were fantastic. So very happy with my Blue Apron, especially the sliders that they just sent me not too long ago.

Myke Hurley: Sounds pretty good, man. I'm feeling pretty hungry already. With incredible ingredients and chef design recipes, Blue Apron lets you see what the power of food can do. Blue Apron is treating our listeners to $30 off your first order and free shipping. Just go to blueapron.com slash penaddict. Check out this week's menu and get $30 off for free shipping at blueapron.com slash penaddict. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. All right, you've got to go get some letters now, right? We have like an actual physical mailbox situation going on today.

Brad Dowdy: We do. We do. I left them in the other room, so I want to go grab them. Do you want to read this email from Paula? This is a more standard question, but I actually do have answers for it. But I think if you read slow enough, I could be back before you wrap it up. So I'm jumping right now.

Myke Hurley: Go. All right, so this email comes from Paula. The penaddict is one of my favorite go-tos while walking to lectures or when I get stuck writing an essay and just need to think about pretty things for a while. So thanks for doing this. We all appreciate it. Thank you, Paula. I have a question that might be interesting for people more widely, and I hope that you haven't covered it a million times already. I have decided to buy my first expensive high-end fountain pen as a gift. I already own a Twisby, a Diploment, and a Mont Blanc, and I'm a little worried to order it online. I'm based in the UK. Do you have any good tips on what to look out for or where to buy online or what not to do? My partner is graduating from Harvard in May. We're doing long distance from Cambridge, UK to Cambridge, US, which is wonderful. He studies anthropology, and I decided to get him the Visconti Homo Sapien Bronze Age as a gift, as that seems like a perfect gift. That's a pretty bullet gift. I have been saving up for a few months now. It seems to be rather difficult, though, to find a retailer that sells them, and I am just a bit reluctant to order it online as it is a significant amount of money for a college student. I have heard some people have had problems with the nib and want to know where I can try it out first before buying.

Brad Dowdy: So I asked Paula if I could include this mail because it was a little personal, but I thought it would be a good, you know, ask TPA mail since we're doing this big grouping, and she agreed to let me share it. Number one, she nailed the gift, right? I mean, that was the right move. But she also realized the problem with that. It starts with Visconti. So their nibs are notoriously... I'll go with finicky. I'll be nice right now. Finicky out the gate. So, the question is, can we sort this out before he receives the pen? The answer is maybe. It's not cut and dry. Not every vendor... Okay, I would say most vendors will not take out the nib and modify it. They might check it. They might check for alignment issues or something like that. I'm not sure if the Goulais do that or not. They might... Most companies don't.

Myke Hurley: Oh, so you mean, like, you buy online, are they going to check it before they ship it, is what you're talking about, right?

Brad Dowdy: That's what she's looking for. She wants some sort of guarantee, buying a Visconti, that it's going to show up in perfect writing shape. In my opinion, you buy the pen, and you send it straight to a nibmeister, and have them go over it with a fine-tuned tooth comb. So, it's extra money up front, but it's more certainty, especially for an important gift such as this, that you lock down the quality and awesomeness of the pen. And any nibmeister will be able to take whatever words you say. You know, he likes a fine nib that, you know, is not too wet, and they can modify it as you need it. In this case, I wouldn't always recommend this. But I think in this case, it's worth the extra $50 or whatever it's going to cost you to move that pen to someone else that can look at it ahead of time before sending it on to its final destination. Sounds like a pain. I think in the end, it's worth it. So, you know, there's no awesome answer to this, because a lot of times, even if you buy a Visconti at a pen show, which you don't have that opportunity, Paula, anyone who does that knows going into it, at least if they listen to this show or follow any other pen forums, that their next steps will be over to a nibmeister to check out the nib and make sure it's good to go and get it modified if they need to. So, it's kind of a buy-in with Visconti, especially the Homo Sapiens. That lineup seems to be one of the more egregious ones for nibs. So, I would love to say it would be perfect out the box. There's, I'd say, a greater than 50% chance that it's not. And to me, it's worth spending the extra money up front to just go ahead and get that locked down, and everyone will be happy in the end.

Myke Hurley: All right, let's do some letters.

Brad Dowdy: All right, we're going with the short one first. This is from Kalen.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: The short ones are often the hardest ones. If you could only keep three pens, what would they be, Myke? Fountain pens, please. This is fountain pens for Kalen.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to say, right now, I obviously will want to keep a sailor, and I think right now, today, it would have to be the pink love, because, like, I've gone through so much to get that thing. Then I, oh, see, now I'm looking at everything here. But today, today, it's probably going to be two sailors. I'm going to go with the pink love and the fifth anniversary, just because of how much I wanted them, and I'll be sad to have to let them go. And then, like, they're fountain pens, so they might run out of ink, and then what am I going to do? So then I'll go with a Retro 51 or some description.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, liars. See, it's got to be fountain pens, so.

Myke Hurley: Oh, it was all fountain pens? Sorry, I misheard that part.

Brad Dowdy: Then I'll also throw the Pilot M90 in, too. Oh, that's a good one. I didn't think about that one. So, yeah, I mean, I think, I hate to say, like, super obvious things, but it's my Pilot 823, it's my Nakaya portable, and my Sailor King of pen. I think, if I just had those three pens, I'd be happy, so look for a big sale coming soon. Just kidding.

Brad Dowdy: All right, this one's from Ken, so maybe I'll see Ken in Arkansas. I got to meet him there last year.

Brad Dowdy: And this is, I have an email in my inbox from someone else who was asking around this type of question, too, so maybe this will help them. We're seeing a lot of action around brick-and-mortar pen stores lately. In 2017, Daly's pen shop closed its physical store to focus solely on online sales, and Paradise Pen closed all their stores and ceased operations. Looks like a few Mont Blanc boutiques closed last year, too. Amid all these closures, the Andersons are thriving in a smallish physical market, and they just announced they're opening a second location. Yay! Also, ex-Fountain pens transformed into Birmingham pens and opened a brick-and-mortar in Pittsburgh. To what do you attribute these wild differences in success? Why do established companies and large markets fade away when relative newcomers explode in smaller markets? Is it due to business practices, philosophies, successful leverage of internet and social media? Voodoo? What do you think is going on here?

Brad Dowdy: To me, it's easy. And I don't think we have to look very hard for the answer. And it's... Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I know who you're done with this.

Brad Dowdy: It's who's keeping up to date with all the changes going on in the market, which is social media, internet sales. Yep. Who listens to this show, has ever set foot in dailies? Has ever bought anything from dailies online? Has ever bought anything from Paradise Pens online? You might have set foot in a Paradise Pens before. Or who has bought from a Mont Blanc store. Every place he's said that's shut down is a non-player in our game, if you will. I don't know another way to put it. But they are... They do not exist in the realm of the modern pen shopper. Things have changed. Those who change with it thrive. You know who those companies are. And they're allowed to move that success into areas like new brick-and-mortar locations that I fully anticipate will thrive as well and bring in a whole new market into their business. So I think there's a pretty clear line of demarcation just in Ken's words on that page. Everyone who's closed didn't count. Like, they weren't... They weren't willing to adapt. Yeah, they weren't in this game. They're playing an old game. There's a new game that's been played for the last 10 years. And if you're not, you know, figuring out those rules for that game, you're going to be gone just like the rest of them. So, wow, that was mean, Brad.

Myke Hurley: I know. You're just throwing down the gauntlet today.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. This is a quick one. See, I haven't gone through these letters again. There's only a few. This was actually a short question. Okay. And this is actually a postscript. So it's a PS. This is from Andrew. Do all Signo 207s write like this? It skips mad. Ugh. So I think I saved this one because some of the 207s, especially .5mm, write like crap. So thankfully, the 307s do not. So switch over to the 307. They have a much more consistent ink. But I saved that because I've mentioned that in the past. Especially the blue .5 207s were really bad.

Brad Dowdy: That's a pen I love. You know I love that pen. But those are not real good. All right. I should have come more prepared for this letter writing thing. I still have them all in the original envelopes. And I'm doing a dance while I open this letter to see where the question is because this letter is two pages long. Hang on a second. And it's green. And I'm wondering if I'm going to get the ink on my hand. Why is this in the stack? Oh. So this letter says. There we go. All I've called in this letter so far is Mr. Hurley for shame. Oh, come on. I like this one already. Yeah. So let me just read this letter because I don't know why it's in the stack. It's got hashtag TPA at the top. So let me just go through it because I can't pull out the question. And this is from Mule. It's short for Samuel. Dear Misters Dowdy and Hurley. Because we want to see how Mule dogs you out. So thank you for the hard work each of you do to create such a wonderful show each week. Oh, that's clearly why I put this in here. While I cannot say I'm a longtime listener, I'm concurrently listening to the current episodes and all the backup episodes starting with episode one. I only have about a year left to go before I'm all caught up. Despite being a fan of the show, I must say I'm disappointed with Mr. Hurley's most recent episode of Myke at the Movies. This must be why I saved it.

Myke Hurley: What is happening? Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, this is great. The topic was a few good men and Mr. Hurley failed to mention Kevin Pollock's pen story from the set of that movie, which was discussed on episode 154 of the Pen Addict podcast. For shame, Mr. Hurley. For shame. We have a couple of things here. I remember that. I remember that. I'm taking umbrage with this already. This is a great letter, Mule. This is a wonderful letter.

Myke Hurley: This is terrible. All right. Let me tell you why. It frustrates me. Okay. I'm channeling a frustration here when people say, you forgot to mention this, right? Like, no, I didn't. It just wasn't in my head, right? Like, it wasn't like I was going to talk about it and then forgot to talk about it. It was just like, when we spoke about that on May 11th, 2015, on episode 154, I had no concept of the movie. I'd never seen it. So, I would not retain that information. So, that's all I'm going to say on this matter.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, I'm going to get to the Ask TPA, but let me continue. That horrendous moment aside, let us move on to my question.

Myke Hurley: Gosh.

Episode Milestone

Brad Dowdy: I will be starting grad school in the fall and would like to buy myself one pen, which I can use for long-form writing while I am in school. I typically write my first drafts by hand before editing and typing them up. Right now, I'm trying to decide between a Franklin Kristoff Model 02 with one of their 14K Sig Flex nibs and the Pilot Custom 823. The Pilot has a bigger ink capacity, but I prefer the style of the Franklin Kristoff, which would the two of you recommend? And as a note, I do not plan on using the Franklin Kristoff for flex writing. I would just want it to give my normal writing a bit more bounce. Thank you for your help. If you don't like the style of the 823, get the Franklin Kristoff with the bouncy nib. I love writing with the Sig nib. And I just said the 823 is one of my favorite pens, but if it's going to drive you crazy by the way it looks, by all means, get the Model 02. I mean, that's my favorite Franklin Kristoff model anyway. And the Sig nib is an awesome writer. Like, it doesn't really flex, but it gives you your line some character. I think you will have a very, very enjoyable writing experience. And yeah, you can always eyedropper it, like Chewbacca says in the chat room, to get even more ink capacity out of the Franklin Kristoff in the 823. So by all means, get the Franklin Kristoff. All right, last one. This one's from Poland, but not from my friend Emil. And crap, where's the... Oh, I know why I did this one. Okay, so this one's cool. So, sorry. That's a great story.

Myke Hurley: That's a great start, right? I'm super prepared. Why am I doing this? Oh, yeah. Okay. I remember.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I was looking for the letter and then I remembered why I saved it. Who's this from?

Brad Dowdy: Saza. I remember why I saved this. Yeah. Saza.

Myke Hurley: Can you imagine? Can you even imagine the fact, ladies and gentlemen, that we are approaching episode 300? Hey, this is professional podcasting. We're dealing with this stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Can you say that you've riled me? You've riled me now. I have. I have. So I'm getting it back now. Yeah. So why I saved this one is because I was sent a notebook and the letter to me was written in the notebook that they wanted me to check out. That's an interesting way of doing it. Yeah. So my dilemma was I reopened the envelope to look for the letter then remembered that the letter was actually in the notebook and they wrote the letter on the center page of the notebook so you can remove it from the staples and then have the remainder of the notebook. So.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. I think that was it. I don't think there was any STPA for this one. I just wanted to brag on the fact that I was sent a notebook.

Myke Hurley: Is this just mail time with Brad now? Do you want to go open an electricity bill while you're at it? Like, what do you want to do?

Brad Dowdy: If they talk bad about you, I will definitely read this. Oh, but OK. So here, this will make you happy and we'll end on this note. So the question was, you know, what did you think about the quality of this paper, which I'll need to check out. But they want my opinion on the notebook and they intentionally wrote in the middle and it says, thanks for reading through this. P.S. If this somehow made it to the podcast. Hi, Myke.

Myke Hurley: That'll do. Yep. I'll take that. That'll do for me. Thank you very much. If you want to find our show notes for this week, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash two nine nine. I will say at this point, I want to reiterate this in case anybody thinks that we're planning a big fake out. We have literally nothing planned for next week.

Brad Dowdy: Literally nothing.

Myke Hurley: Absolutely zero. The show will be planned a day or two before, as it always is. It will be a regular episode. We are going to celebrate our 300th in a few weeks time when we're in together in April in the Atlanta pen show. That is going to be our celebration of the show, as it always is, like another year kind of we do. It's like, oh, we did another year kind of thing. We're not we're not going to do anything special next week because I was thinking about it today. I was like, no, no, I think we're good because at this point, why are we even celebrating these big milestones? Because we're going to be here forever anyway. So.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Just another number. Just another number. So next. Yeah. Next week, just download and you don't have to listen.

Myke Hurley: No, you still have to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, OK. They still have to listen.

Myke Hurley: It's going to be a great episode. It's just not going to be like we're not going to do a special, you know, you will not believe

Brad Dowdy: what we have planned for next week.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Just you just got to. You got to click to find out. You'll never believe what they have planned. Can you imagine like the celebrities that we've got lined up that you'd never even expect? Exactly. You can find Brad online at penaddict.com. He is at knock.co. Penaddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. I am imike. I am YKE. Thanks to Penchelle. Blue Apron and Curve Case for the support of this episode. Most of all, thank you for listening. And we'll be back next time. Until then. Say goodbye, Brad Dowdy. Goodbye, Brad Dowdy. Goodbye.