The Pen Addict 301/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	301
Title:	Bingo!
Release Date:	March 28th, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 301
Audio File:	Audio Episode 301
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 301
Length:	6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: For RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 301. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy. Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you doing today? I'm pretty good, my friend. I'm pretty good. I think that before we begin, before we even start making any jokes or anything like that, we need to give everybody a good enough time to get their bingo cards ready. Do you want to explain what The Pen Addict Bingo is all about?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this is a reworking of an old, I guess, recurring theme of the show. We always talked about doing Pen Addict Bingo, and back in episode 86, John Hume created a PDF for Pen Addict Bingo. You know, you listen to the podcast, you mark off the things on your bingo card, try to make a bingo. So, recently, one of our collaborators, Anna Reinhart, and a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, her husband Bob and Alexander Kramer, who are always up to something, created the Pen Addict Bingo online. So, you go to tpabingo.com.

Myke Hurley: Wonderful URL, by the way. Wonderful URL.

Bingo Card

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. There's an interactive bingo card for the episode, for each episode, because this is a, I guess, I don't know what the official term is for it, but it's like a living card. So, there's always updates. You can, there's more squares, you know, in the background that you can refresh your card and get a new card if you want. So, there's lots and lots of squares you can fill out. So, you know, first off, on my bingo card, I have technical difficulties listed. So, I have, me and Kate in the chat room have already clicked technical difficulties because Myke is having a tough day today at home with the internet. So, we have technical difficulties marked off. And I gotta say, I love everything about this. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I think it's wonderful. I have my card put right here. I don't know if it's like cheating for me and you to be filling it out, right? Because we can just, you know, if we get to the end and like I need one square, I'm just like, oh, by the way. But no, I love this. What I really, really love about this project is that it is not a static card. Like, that is great fun, but that's the same. Like, the fact that this is like every card is different and there are, as you say, like more cards, like more like squares than, you know, than you can see on a board. The center square is always Retro 51, right? Is that right? Yeah, as far as I can tell. Which is, I guess, is a given.

Brad Dowdy: Your free square. Yeah, your free square is Retro 51. So, that's pretty amazing. And on my board currently, my favorite square is not on there. And since it's not on there, I can't read exactly what it says, but it's essentially knock is running behind or knock is running late on a project. No, let me tell you mine. So, that's my favorite square so far.

Myke Hurley: Cough, sneeze, snore, or mic bump. That's my favorite because these are the issues that you give me during the recordings on a week-to-week basis.

Brad Dowdy: It's mostly snort. Let's be perfectly honest. I do greatly appreciate the mic is confused square. That one's kind of...

Myke Hurley: I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Brad Dowdy: It could go a lot of ways. Yeah. That one could go a lot of ways. Brad is getting in trouble. We're going to try not to fill that square out this year. I'm doing a great job. We're almost to April, Myke, and I haven't gotten in trouble yet this year. I'm very proud of that fact. Are you sure about that? Are you sure about that? I don't know. No. I'm never sure about that.

Myke Hurley: Might have a bit of selective memory on that one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But if I keep reading off all these squares, that means people are ticking these off and making bingos. So, if you're a live listener... So, yeah, join in the fun.

Myke Hurley: TPAbingo.com. We want to see your filled out cards. You can tweet them to us. I'm at imike. Brad is at dowdyism. I want to see people's completed cards for the episodes that we do. I think it's a lot of fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, this is really great. And definitely shoot us a screenshot if you're listening. You know, at any time, go in, fill out your card. And I have to close this card because I'll just read off all the things and you'll mark all the squares up and get a bingo before we even hit our first sponsor break. So, I should go ahead and close. I was going to keep it up and try to do it during the show, but I think that's actually a bad idea for me. It is probably a bad idea. Yeah.

Stationery Updates

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, before we get into the nuts and bolts of this show, people were asking both you and I for an update on a couple of different things. One, they were asking about your journal and how it's going, what the setup was. And secondly, they were asking about my Hobonichi cousin that I had planned to use for the year. So, why don't you give a quick update on how your journal is going? I know you have some news.

Myke Hurley: I think you should go first because mine is no quick update.

Brad Dowdy: I have some pretty serious updates. Okay. Mine is quicker. So, I still carry my Hobonichi cousin in a Notco Seed A5 case pretty much every day. Notice I didn't say I fill it out every day. It is with me at all times. I absolutely love this notebook. It's one of my favorite products ever. I love the case that it's in. I mean, I helped design it. So, there's no doubt that I love it. But the way it's functioning is everything I ever wanted in a notebook cover. However, I've stopped my daily ritualizing in my journal or my diary or my notebook, whatever you want to call this. And it's become more of just a catch-all, which I kind of thought was going to happen. So, I actually don't have entries on every day. But I'm really good with that. Like, that used to bug me with my Techo, the smaller format Techo. If I didn't fill in a day, I was like, it bothered me. Like, it weighed on me. And with this one, the larger format cousin, it doesn't bother me because I've gone back and used the pages are so large. They're A5 size pages. I go back and use them regularly. And just for anything, ink swabs, you know, I've done Kickstarter budgeting. You know, I've done NotCo project listing, you know, just on, you know, a page from two weeks ago that happens to be blank because I love using this notebook. So, I don't have, I had a pretty good daily routine through January where I did the same specific steps every day in my notebook. And I don't do that anymore. So, now I just use it as I want to use it. I have it with me at pretty much all times. I don't freak out if I don't use a specific day. Like, if I have a blank page for, you know, March 20th, that's okay. And I've been just real, real happy with this setup. And I hope to use it, you know, throughout the entire year. Right now, it's been going good. So, I'll try to keep it up. But I love it. Oh, real quick, the pens I'm using. I always have my Pilot High Tech C pen type B in my seed case. And then I'll usually pick a fountain pen to rotate into the second slot. Today, I'm using the Aurora Optima with the silver cap that I picked up in Arkansas. And it's filled with a really neat ink that I'm having trouble with. It's the Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve. It's one of the prettiest inks I've ever seen. And I can't get it to be as special when I see it in a nib as when I see it on a swab. It's one of those where, you know, the swab tricks you in that wide swath of ink. You know, you get to see all the range of colors. And I'm actually even using a medium nib. And the colors are coming out better. But I want more from this ink. It's such a good-looking ink when you see it swabbed. But on the page, it's a little bit flatter. Even though I'm using a standard medium nib on here and getting as much ink as I can, I'm seeing a little bit of the character. But I want to see more. So, yeah. Interesting ink that I continually play with but can't always thoroughly enjoy. That's why it never makes any of my lists because it's just a little bit off sometimes.

Myke Hurley: All right. Are you ready for mine? This is pretty serious.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm ready. But let's hear it anyway.

Myke Hurley: All right. I had two problems that needed to be solved. So, problem number one, people that listen to Cortex on a regular basis may have heard me. Because basically, this topic right now is spanning across both of these shows because it hits in a couple of different ways. And we just read a book called Triggers. And in that book, there is this stuff called Active Daily Questions, which is like a small list of questions that you can ask yourself every day. And you can score them to kind of be like, yeah, I made work towards these today. I worked towards these today. So, like stuff like, for example, I'll just give you a couple of mine. So, like, did you generate revenue for your business today? Did you do something to make someone you love happy today? Like stuff like that. And the idea is you don't sit and write a whole thing about them. But, like, I'm going to give myself a score every day out of, like, five or something like that. And I couldn't in my setup with my Hipponoto, I couldn't work out a way to do this that didn't require me writing out every one of these five questions every day. And then I just want to rip it all up and start over. I couldn't work it out, right? So, that's been something that's been playing on my mind. Like, what is a good way to, like, create some kind of table or something like that? But in a way which isn't like me drawing out a table every time. Like, I don't want to draw out a table every couple of weeks because I fill it up, right? Like, I couldn't find an elegant way to do this. The second problem may be something that eagle observers of the show may have picked this up when I first spoke about the Hipponoto. And it has come to pass. Do you remember that I said, oh, I had to rip some pages out of my Hipponoto? Yeah. Yeah, that was a death knell for this notebook, unfortunately. The cover is coming off now, off of the front. Because I don't know what it is. I don't know what I've done. Like, you know, because it's one of those notebooks where it's lots of little notebooks sewn together. And it seems like I tore off enough of the first notebook that the cover is coming off. So that was a frustration for me. And I figured I'd have to replace it. The Hipponoto book that I want is, like, just not available, right? Like, I don't know what the situation is there. Like, I don't know when they're going to go back into stock or not. But so I've been like, I'm in. Yes. Okay. I'm assuming that they will. And I hope to buy another one because it's just a wonderful notebook. But the cover's coming off of mine. So, you know, I don't want to keep using it. Or I just basically was like, I need to prepare myself for this. So I thought, okay, what can I do that can get me a new notebook that I like, which has a lot of the qualities that I like from Hipponoto? And it also tried to give me something to solve this daily question thing I have going on. Can you imagine which brand I turned to when I was trying to fix this issue?

Myke Hurley: Do you want me to guess? Yeah, I want you to guess.

Brad Dowdy: Midori. Nope.

Myke Hurley: I turned to Hobonichi to solve this problem. Oh, nice. Yeah, so then two things happened. So I thought to myself, okay, let me finally get a Hobonichi. So I was looking around and they're not super easy to get in the UK, but there is a company called The Journal Shop, which I bought from before, and they have a small selection. And I was like, okay, I want, I think, so I was kind of like tossing this up, right? What I wanted was the cousin, right? Because I wanted the A5, yeah? So I was looking around and they had some cousins available, but I think it's in Japanese, their one. I don't know if they do one in English, but it's in Japanese. They do not. Sorry. So I didn't know this, right? So I'm poking around and looking on their website and like, oh, they have those covers and they have the covers that I want. The Earthbound, like the mother covers. Yeah, right. Because they're like this amazing SNES graphic, right? It's fantastic. So I saw one, I was like, oh, okay. They have the, this is Magicant, which is a 65 pounds and it's the Hobonichi and it's English inside. I contacted their customer support and asked them and it arrived today. Something I did not pay attention to. This is a Techo. This is an A6. So I was like, huh? Okay. So this isn't the size that I wanted. So I'm in this little situation right now where I'm, I'm weighing up my journal system because I think I need to sit down and plan this out and I haven't done it because this only arrived a couple of hours ago. But I believe that what I'm going to be able to do is on the individual monthly calendar pages, I will be able to write out my questions around the borders and then score myself on a daily basis. So I'm only writing out these questions once a month, right? And then every day on the calendar section, I can give myself my scores out of five. And then I thought like maybe I would add it up to a total and then that's my score of effectiveness for the day. But then on the pages, the pages are significantly smaller, right? So I'm going from an A5 to an A6 and from double page to single page, right? So it is like, I am basically a third probably of the overall page per day that I was using before. So I was thinking to myself, right? So my current journaling system consists of the following questions. Priorities, where I write down my priorities for today. Something good, something bad, something I'm looking forward to, something I've learned, things that are on my mind and the pens that I've used. So I was thinking like, okay, can I distill this a little bit to make it smaller? And I think that I've got an idea. So what I'm going to do, I'm now just going to do four sections on a daily basis. Good, bad, think slash feel and looking forward. So I'm going to remove the priorities thing because honestly, this was just me giving myself needless pats on the back. So like today, like the pen addict would be one of my priorities. I'm just tick it off. Well, I have a to-do system. Like, you know, like really it was just a way for me to be like, oh, look, I did my things. But my hope is that my daily questions will provide me with that instead, because it's like, well, they're the actual like overarching things that I'm working towards goal-wise. So that's going to fulfill that part. The learning, what I've learned and what's on my mind, I never completed those every single day in full. There was always just like maybe a little bit in one, a little bit in another, or I didn't complete one of those sections. So condensing that to one section works. And then I write what pens that I'm using on the top little right hand side of the pages, because it's like a little blank thing. So I actually think that I might be able to condense my entire journal down to this A6 size, because it has additional features to it. So I think I might have done it. I'm not sure. And then it's got like, you know, the cover. This is going to be an interesting project. Yeah, the cover has the two loops, right? For the two pens, like for the pens. I know it's like you're supposed to like put one pen through it or whatever to like lock the notebook up. So I can kind of pull one out when I'm done with my headings for the day. Yeah, I don't know. I think this might, I think this might do it. And it's in a smaller form factor. So it's easier to travel with.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, well, we're definitely gonna need some follow up on this. Yeah. Because I think it's interesting. It's a huge change from what you were using. And you just started using one system and you had this whole layout thing going on. And now you're putting it down to a style that like I couldn't even deal with because it was so small last year. But I think it's, you know, if you set it up right, you know, I think it might work. So I'll be interested to see.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, basically, I had six headings where most of the day I was writing one sentence. So I might not need it that much. So this is kind of where I'm going for. So I think it could work. I mean, it's working today so far, at least. I'll let you know.

Myke Hurley: Cool. But I'm pretty happy about the fact that I finally got Hobonichi.

Myke Hurley: Is this your first one ever? It's my first one ever. I bought it at the wrong time of the year. They only have the January to January's. So like, sure. I have like January to February's as wasted. But yeah, we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: Just in a general sense, they do. Some of their models are April starts. Yeah, I saw those. I don't know why, but they do have a big batch of April starts. But I don't think in the Techo or the Cousin, not in the big, not in the large sizes, most of the smaller sizes.

Myke Hurley: Because April start would have been pretty great considering we're just about to go into April.

System Changes

Myke Hurley: So that is my update. My update is the system is all changing and the products are all changing and everything's different. So there's a lot going on there. There is a lot going on. I love it. I think that's pretty normal though, right? Like in establishing a new system. Like I've been doing it for about a month every day, basically. Like I miss the occasional weekend day. But like I've been basically doing this every day and I've added to it. And now I'm kind of seeing what's working, seeing what's not and adapting it. And I think that the constraints that the Hobonichi is posing on me will actually help me refine the system to be more effective. Yeah, I think so. I think that's exactly right. So cool. I like it. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils. They have refills, carrying cases, pen holders, everything you want from all of your favorite brands. They have very fast and reliable customer service with great special discounts twice a month. We have obviously some special offers that I'm going to get Brad to go take a look at so he can talk to us about those in a second. Pen Chalet are always doing closeout specials every two weeks. Whilst they're also doing fantastic deals and offers, they're also adding new styles of pens all the time. They ship internationally with great shipping rates and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go right now to penchalet.com. That is P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And at the top of the site, you want to find the podcast button, the radio podcast button, the little microphone. You click that and you use the code PENADDICT to get into our special area where you will get yourself two things. One is the 10% off code that you can use absolutely anywhere. So you can get the 10% off on absolutely any product over at Pen Chalet. And also you will find our special offers for this week. Brad, what is taking your eye here?

Brad Dowdy: So we have three top-notch offers right at the top of the page. One is the 30-pin display case that we have talked about before. If you're looking for a desk setup for storage, 30 pins in a really beautiful wooden box with a glass lid and drawers, it's a crazy good price for that. The two pins on offer are the Conklin Mark Twain Crescent Filler and the Platinum Plaisir. The Twain Crescent Filler has been one that's been on my radar and I've never bought because it has, you know, the filling system is unique. The whole idea around this pin is it has basically like a bladder system on the inside and a clip on the outside that you just push down to, you know, to fill the pin, you know, just like you pump it a few times and then the crescent loops around and locks that in place so you can't accidentally hit it and spray ink everywhere. So it's a really neat setup for that pin and I know a bunch of people that have them and have tried them and liked them, but I don't own one yet. The Plaisir is a pin that I do own and one that I use quite frequently. It's the upgrade to the Platinum Preppy, if you will. If you like the Platinum Preppy and you like those nibs that they have, this gives you an aluminum barrel for essentially the Preppy and it's really cool. I love the fine nibs and extra fine nibs that are available from Platinum and the Plaisir. So yeah, these are really cool. And then once again, down below, Ron snuck in the Monteverde 36-pin zip case for just a dumb price, which we always sell. He always sells a bunch of when he puts them down at this price because it's kind of the, it's in the no-brainer territory for a 36-pin pin case.

Myke Hurley: And I will note that the Platinum Plaisir is available in Nova Orange. I've mentioned this just so people can tick off something on their bingo cards. You can find out about all these offers and many more by going to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and using the penaddict password on their special offer at the top of the website where you hit the podcast button. Thanks so much to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: A couple of new items I want to get to before we have a few small topics. One is when you come to Atlanta, I'm going to send you home with like a dozen pencils, including the new Blackwing Volumes 54.

Myke Hurley: Gimme, gimme, gimme. Want one real bad? Have you seen this? Yeah. Yes, this is a stupendous looking pencil. I love it. I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So as much as I ranted and raved and praised last quarter's edition, the 16.2 black and white, I mean, the 54 just knocks it out of the park. This is next level. Every which way. Yeah. Yeah. So it's based on a surrealist art and a, an exercise or a thought process called exquisite corpse, which I've heard of, but I didn't know all the details, but it's basically a way to randomly create. And that's kind of what Blackwing did for this. And they created a, an almost perfect pencil in my mind with the pink barrel, teal stamp, blue eraser, silver, ferrule, and extra fine core. That's like, if I was, if I had all the check boxes to go on their site and build a pencil, I might come up with this because it's really, really perfect for what I want in a pencil. And I've been using it, uh, for the, the past two days. And, you know, I love the extra fine core, which you can't, you can only get in the volumes editions right now. And I just think it's an absolutely fantastic pencil. So I want to get some of these into your hands and some other pencils that a lot of people have sent me, um, you know, over the years and get you testing out some pencils and see what you think. So reminder to me to set you up with some pencils, including this volume 54. It's fantastic. It's like, I don't want to like oversell it because I feel like I just did that with the 16.2. And I think this one's better. I'm actually tempering my, my love for this pen because I just, I just raved about the last one and this one's better.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I really think this is a fantastic looking pencil. Like it's so weird and wonderful. Um, I like that, like they are a brand like black wing is a brand with great history, right? Like kind of a lot of, um, kind of a lot behind them. Like they have a lot of people that like really believe in them and they have like a lot going on, right? Like it's, because it's a brand of like a really respected, well known name. And I like that they're still willing to do something so wild that probably upsets some of their like staunch and like real big fans because it's so weird. Um, so I really liked that they're willing to do stuff like this because that's what makes, and we're going to talk about field notes in a second, right? But that's what makes these subscription things. Great is when, in my opinion, when you get some super weird and wonderful stuff that you would never have expected until it arrives. Right, right. So let's, let's talk about that field notes.

Brad Dowdy: Did you get yours? It came today.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So mine have not shown up yet, but I did get my shipping notification. Um, if you're hearing this episode and miss last episode, I let my subscription lapse. So I was running behind, but I was super curious about how the paper worked on the coastal edition and I haven't seen any reviews yet. So have you had time to like test out a few things and see how the paper and the, the reticle ink, uh, printing all work together?

Myke Hurley: So I tried, um, a couple of pens on this. I tried out my Sailor 1911, the tangerine with the zoom nib, which has a Roshisuku for you got gear in it. And I tried out a medium nib pro gear with, uh, Califolia and Trenopil. And I made a purposeful point of writing over the reticles and I can't feel or see anything wrong with it. Obviously when in the lighter inks, it will show through, right? Because it's darker. Like the reticles are blue or green, but I didn't notice anything going strange or weird when I was writing over them. Like it's not, I know like what you were, I'm assuming that you were thinking and I can see why you would get that way that like, it's almost as if the reticle grid is like painted on, right? Like, you know, like you can imagine it being like it's on, on top of the paper.

Brad Dowdy: Like it's on the surface. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. As opposed to like integrated, like a line or a dot would normally be what you would consider.

Myke Hurley: But from my experience and from looking at this right in front of me, it is as integrated as well as a dot grid would be into a paper. Like it's normal. Like there's nothing to this, which I can see, which is out of the ordinary in that way. All right. It's just like printing on paper that you write on like everything else. So, um, straight up, Brad, this is, I think my number one favorite edition of all time. It is stunning. It's stunning. So like my, my, my previous number one, right, was, um, dark sky because it had a reticle grid and I love the reticle grid and it has a pretty killer theme with holographic foil on it. This has all of those and every single one of those things is more.

Myke Hurley: Right. So like this, these covers are covered in the foil and it is stupendous to look at. Like every time it hits the light, it goes rainbow colored. It has the little depressed reticle grid on the front. It has reticle grid on the inside, which changes color throughout the book. Like, and it's in this pretty killer gray color. Like the, and there's, and it's a, there's six, right? It's like one of the six, which I love when they do a six. I think we both love that. Right. When they have two packs of three. Yeah. I think that this is shot to the top for me because it's everything that I loved about my previous number one edition, but more of it. However, I'm not going to buy any more. Cool.

Myke Hurley: Because I just, it's silly to keep buying more and more.

Notebook Discussion

Brad Dowdy: We're going to, we're going to talk about this stuff later, you know, not necessarily for notebooks, but it all relates, you know, we, I have some questions about buying all

Myke Hurley: the things. Because I have six, six notebooks, right? In the coastal edition. I'm not going to use all of those. And I can keep one if I really want to. Like, I absolutely love this. I'm not in the, in the, in, I'm not trying to just hoard these things right now. It's like my collection is my collection and it's building and I'm going to keep collecting. I'm going to keep collecting because I like to collect them. Um, and I know I'm never going to use them all, but it's part of my collection again. Yes. We're going to talk about collections later on. Um, so I'm going to keep these and they're going to be my number ones. And I think they absolutely knocked it out of the park because this is just a wonderful, wonderful edition.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I can't wait to get mine hopefully in the next day or two. Uh, so we'll see. Um, yeah, I am, I, I don't know. I, I don't even have them in my hand yet, but I know that's not going to be my favorite. It might not be top five, but it's going to be one of the best ever. I'll go, I'll go that far without seeing them just because it's so photogenic. Like, and I know that sounds dumb for a notebook, like to be one of its selling points that it's photogenic, but I think it's just really cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. No, I, I, I feel very, even though I'd like, I've literally had these for a couple of hours. Um, it confirmed everything I thought I was going to feel about it. Right. Like, oh, you give me everything that I love, but more of it. Right. Like, why would I not fall head over heels for it? And it turns out I did. So this, this is a, just a hall of fame edition in my opinion. Yeah. I think that's fair. I think that's fair. One last thing. One last thing on it. One of the other, one of the other things that I love, this is also, I love it because it's one of those themes that like, whilst this is focused on a specific place in the world, it is not dripping with a, like nostalgia that I need to have.

Myke Hurley: Sure. Right. Right. It's not like a Americana edition because sometimes they don't land with me. Like, this is just what a coastline looks like. And I'm not really familiar enough with the intricacies of the American coastline to be able to pick them all out anyway. So like, it doesn't even really matter. It's just like, this is just some coastline, which many of these books to me could just be literally anywhere in the world. So that's just like one of the other reasons that I really like it. Well, I think about anyone could pick out Florida. That's the only one that I've been able to pick out. It helps that I'm watching Dexter right now. So like, the coastline of Florida is all over everything because it's like the badge for the police department. Right.

Sailor Pro Gear

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I snuck in something on you last minute this morning because it snuck up on me too. And I want to know what you think about the upcoming Sailor Pro Gear Ocean. Have you seen this before? I put the link in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: I was just looking at it for the first time now.

Brad Dowdy: So this is a new color for Sailor. I guess it's going to be their annual limited color for the Pro Gear line.

Brad Dowdy: That it's not coming till the summer, but all the pre-orders, like every site has them up for pre-order now. And I'm pretty convinced that not a single vendor has been able to photograph this pin correctly. It looks like it's going to be an awesome demonstrator, blue, green, deep ocean. But a lot of the pictures, I don't know that are going to do it justice. And I haven't even seen this in person yet. I mean, no one has, but I think this is going to be a killer pin. It's like the Lamy Petrol in demonstrator style, if you will, I think. So what do you think about it?

Myke Hurley: It's not floating my boat. And the reason is this exactly what you've mentioned. So I'm looking at the picture on Pen Chalet here, and it just looks like a matte color pen, right? It just looks like a dark kind of greeny blue, but it's described as translucent. So like, okay, what does that actually look like? I don't think this is a pen that I'm going to buy sight unseen. I'm probably not going to get it anyway, just because that color just doesn't really float my boat. Great pun. It just doesn't really like, you know, I don't really like that kind of darky green blue color anyway. Like, it's just not, even if it's translucent, like that's probably not a pen that I would choose. But I'm with you. Like, I think that, well, I'm assuming that a lot of the photos that we're seeing right now have come from Sailor. So I'm keen to see what it's going to look like in hand or also what it's going to look like when some companies are able to try and take better pictures of it. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Like we saw that with the Pelican Ocean Swirl. Exactly. Where the stock photos were better than the reality photos. I think this one might be in reverse. I think the reality photos might end up being better. And I'm going to say right now, I want this pen more than I want the tangerine.

Myke Hurley: I don't understand you. What happened to you?

Brad Dowdy: Who are you? I just, I love this color. That's why I love the Lamy Petrol so much. It's a weird blue green color. It's dark. I'm not going to, it comes in king of pen. I'm not getting the king of pen size. I'll probably get the standard, the full size pro gear standard, not the slim. I love it. I think it's going to be awesome. And I think it's going to be even better in person. You know, I, that could change, you know, I've seen colors close to it. Like the Pelican Aquamarine in 205 is a really, really pretty color. I skipped that one. Um, but this one, because it has silver trim, I had, this is as much as I love the tangerine, I still may end up with a tangerine. I want this pen more. That's where it's hitting me right now.

Myke Hurley: Where do you expect to see this pen? Like, where are you going to get your hands? DC, DC. Right. Okay. DC. Yep. Sailor.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, all the, all the dates I'm seeing are either summer or July. Like all the, the pre-order dates are July or just the generic summer. So this is going to be a while.

Myke Hurley: I, I, I, I didn't even think about that. I just assumed it would be available wherever you went next, but no, they obviously have no release date to it.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: Well, but, um, yeah, I I'm in, I mean, at least until I see it firsthand, but I, I actually anticipate this is going to look better in person than in pictures. So we'll see. I could be completely wrong, but, uh, I'm right now I'm all in.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's thank Squarespace for supporting this week's show. Use the offer code Inc at checkout and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Make your next move with Squarespace. That you easily create a website for your next idea with the ability to grab a unique domain name, take advantage of award winning templates and more. They are the all in one platform to let you put your next project online. No matter what type of website you want to make, whether it's a store for your goods, maybe you have some stuff that you want to sell. Maybe you have a blog because you have some thoughts that you want to share with the world. Maybe you want to create a site for your business so people can find out more about your restaurant. It doesn't matter what type of website you want to make. Squarespace has all of the tools to help you put it online. It's all backed up with 24 seven customer support. If you need any help and with Squarespace, there's nothing to install. No patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. No security stuff to have to think about. They take care of all of that stuff for you. You can start a free trial today with no credit card required just by going to squarespace.com. Their plans start at just $12 a month once you want to decide to sign up, once you're happy with the website that you built during the trial. But if you use the code INK at checkout, you'll get 10% off your first purchase and you'll be showing your support for The Pen Addict. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and Relay FM, Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Nib Grinders

Brad Dowdy: So I have a couple of small topics that I asked for on Twitter yesterday. You know, I just asked for, you know, besides your Ask TPA questions, what kind of larger scale questions do you have? And there was a couple that stuck out to me. One, we've been asked a lot and I keep failing at getting a nib grinder on this show, but we're going to do that one of these days. But Pulp and Pen asked about getting nibs ground or, you know, either in person at a show or online. I'm going to take it from a show perspective, which handles a lot of the online perspective too.

Brad Dowdy: For a lot of people new to this hobby, and I went through the same thing when I was new to this hobby, getting one of your pens worked on is kind of a nerve-wracking thing to go through. I think you've gone through the same thing, Myke, when you've decided to do it. You know, I remember the first time I was getting a nib ground in person, you know, sitting in front of Myke Masayama, of all people, my first time. You know, I was a nervous wreck. But that's okay, because it's going to be worth it in the end. And I'm going to tell you how to get through it. So what helped me, and I understand not everyone has the same experiences, but if you're at a pen show, it's highly likely you can have this experience. Get someone to go with you who's had a nib worked on before or has worked with the person who is grinding nibs there. And I've offered this to a lot of people who say it's their first time. I was like, do you want me to come over and, you know, have the conversation with you to kind of help you get through that first time? Because you don't know what's going on. It's an intimidating place to sit down. You're sitting next to someone who you've probably heard a lot of people raving about their work online. So like there's this respect thing and, you know, there's a lot going on. And, you know, you don't want to be embarrassed. You don't want to screw up your nib. And there's just a million questions. So if you can, especially at a pen show, find a partner to go with to get your nib ground. I think that will just like that takes the edge off. That helps you, you know, ask questions that you might be too nervous to ask at the time. You know, someone can help you out with it. If you can or can't get someone to go with you, just remember that when you're sitting down with someone who's a nib grinder, that this is a two-way transaction.

Brad Dowdy: You know, you're not sitting there handing over your pen and saying, do your thing. So the nib grinder, if they're good and everyone I've dealt with is good, they're going to start with, okay, what do you want? What pen? And show me how you write. They want to see how you grip the pen, what the angle of the nib is to the paper, how much pressure you're putting on the paper. I'll never forget Myke Masayama told me the first time he saw me write, he's like, wow, you press hard. And I didn't think I pressed hard at all. So talk to them, ask them questions, you know, discuss what you want. Like I was with Dan Smith in Arkansas and I had two pens I was getting worked on. And one of them was a Pelican extra fine nib. And I knew the answer before because I bought it purposely for this as can you take this nib to extra fine, to an extra, extra fine nib. So before Dan and I even, you know, came to an agreement for him to do the work, he heard my questions. He understood what I wanted to do. And then he took out his loop, looked at the nib, make sure the nib was fine and said, yeah, I can do that. No problem. So you want to be able to have that conversation with whoever you're working with, because once you've committed to what you're going to do and they can help you decide that if you're on the fence about what style of nib you want, do you just want it finer? Do you want a stub nib? You know, once you figure all that thing out, all those things out, they're going to hand the pen back to you and you're not done. You need to, they'll dip the pen and you'll start writing on the page. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: This is the most important part for someone who's new, like, and you're leading up to it. So I'm sorry that I butted in, but once you get that pen back and they try it out, like, please, please, please understand what's happening here. Like you are paying this person to perform a service for you. If you're not happy, you have to tell them, right? This was Brad's fatal flaw, right? I think, was it one of the first times that you did it, which led to me saying, why did you pay all that money for that person to let them ruin your pen? Right? Like you are, you are paying somebody to perform a service for you. If you're not happy with it at that point, they can still fix it, but you've got to tell them because otherwise you're going to be unhappy and it's going to cost you more money down the line to get it repaired.

Brad Dowdy: And this is where having a partner that one time would have helped me immensely because they might have seen that, oh, that line isn't really what your lines look like when, you know, it comes to, you know, writing. So this is like Myke said, this is the most important thing is when the nib grinder is taking the first pass at your pen and gotten it all, you know, essentially done for the type of work that you want. You're going to sit there and you're going to write with it and you're going to know whether it's perfect or it's not. And sometimes it's perfect right out the gate. I'd say if you just want a random number on how many times they've handed back the pen to me and it's been dead on perfect, no more work versus, you know, I feel a little bit scratchy here or I feel it pulling here. I'd say it's almost 50-50. I say about half the time I've gotten the pen back. It's been perfect. I've gotten up from the table and left. And about half the time we've had some back and forth to adjust this, smooth this. I'd like it finer. I'd like it sharper. I'd like it smoother. And you go back and forth with the person you're working with and just have a conversation and show them how you're writing, you know, what you're feeling. You know, a lot of times I'll feel like when I'm writing from left to right, I'll feel a pull and I'll tell them that. And they'll look at it, look at the pen, adjust the nib accordingly, give it back to you. You'll try again, tell them how it feels. And it's a back and forth. You have to go back and forth if necessary. Don't get up from that table unless you're completely happy because that's their job. And they want to make you happy because then you're going to spread the word that, oh, you know, such and such did work with me, you know, on this pen and I was having a tough time getting it smooth or tough time getting it straight. And we worked through it till we got it done. And now it's perfect. And now I love it. So those are the kinds of things like I don't want to get into like the technical actual grinding part of the nib because I don't know it as well. But just from a transaction based kind of Q&A here, I think it's just important to know that you don't have to leave that table unsatisfied because they can fix it. And I think that's a big thing. And I've been bit by that. I'm sure a lot of us have been bit by that. And I've had pens I've had to get redone because I was not comfortable. So I understand that it's really hard the first time, even the third time or the 10th time, if that's not a thing that you're comfortable doing. But, you know, find someone to help you. If there's not someone to help you, ask a lot of questions. You know, the nib grinders are there to do work for you. They want to make you happy. And don't leave that table until you're completely satisfied. So, you know, there's a lot more we can go through with this about nib styles and types. I'll hold that till I get someone online that can talk about it better than myself. But it's a big deal. Like, don't take it lightly. You know, you're spending a lot of money to get a modification done. And you want to be happy with that. So I'm glad to help anytime you see me. I will go and sit with you at a table. I've done it many times. And I've walked people over to Myke Masayama. And, like, I'll break the ice. You know, because now, you know, after all these years, I know Myke pretty well. And I can go over there and I can cut up with him. And I can talk. You know, you can tell me what you want. And I can tell him, you know, in simple terms, you know, what you would like done to that pen. And that goes for anybody. You know, I'm glad to help whenever I can. So definitely don't hesitate to ask. Like, so as I was tweeting back and forth on these questions last night, we had a couple of live follow-ups within these tweets. So related to the previous question from Pulp and Pen, ATP Colors. I don't know if that's related to the ATP Colors or if that means something else. I have no idea. But ATP Colors on Twitter. Yeah. Says, speaking of, and related to the nib talk, what if I only have one pen I know needs work but don't want to squander the opportunity of a pen show to improve some of my other pens? Pick my favorite other pen and get it tuned on principle? Get a weird grind on a boring pen or other? So I included this because he listed something I would recommend not doing and I speak from experience. Getting a weird grind on a boring pen will be a waste of your money in the long run. Do not spend that money.

Myke Hurley: There's two things which mean you're not going to use that pen. It's a pen you don't like and the grind is weird.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So in an effort to fix what you think is a boring pen, you're going to throw more money down the drain and end up not liking it anyway. So I've done that. And I would highly recommend to not do that. I would choose to not get anything done before I would spend the money on something I wasn't dead set on getting done. So if you have a favorite pen and you like how it writes, don't touch it. If you have a favorite pen and, you know, you might want to adjust it to write like a different pen that you own, bring both of those pens and say, make this one write like that other one. You know, that's good advice for the previous question too. If you have a pen that is perfect for you, a nib that's perfect for you, take it along with you because they can look at it and tell and say, okay, I can get pretty close to this. Here we go. And so that's the advice I have on ATP colors question. You know, do not waste the money on something you don't think you're going to use or something that you think is going to make better. In the long run, that ends up being a waste of money. And I speak, I speak that from experience. I've definitely taken the tact. Well, I'm here and I can get two pens ground and I'm going to get two pens ground no matter what, you know, and that was the wrong decision to make. Only do it when it's really needed or, you know, you want to change it or you want to modify it. Don't just do it because you have the opportunity is, I guess, the best way to say it. All right. Separate mini topic here and something that we talk about occasionally. And I always love this question. So this is from John. He says, how about debating the merits of owning more than one color of the same model? Seems straightforward with a Safari. What about a Nakaya? Crazy or no? So simple question. Hours worth of answer, right?

Pen Use

Brad Dowdy: It's very individual dependent. I think the main way to answer the question is trying to understand what you want to do. How do you use your pens? Do you use your pens as a daily writer? Do you buy pens because you have a favorite brand and you collect them? Like I put in the show notes that me and you are the wrong people to ask. I was going to say, like, we are bad people to answer this question. But we're actually perfect people because we had a live follow-up question to that too, which I'll get to in a minute. So I would say, you know, and I don't want to speak for you, but I think I can in the case of Retro 51, Myke, Free Square, that you buy them for multiple reasons. You love the style. You love using them. Also, it's cool to have a collection of these really neat pens. And that's kind of how I look at it too. Like I don't quite have the Retro 51 problem that Myke has, but like I enjoy my Sailor pens, right? So I've already looked at this Ocean pen that we just talked about. I'm going to buy that pen, you know, if it turns out to be the color that I want it to be when I see it in person. And I have a billion other Sailor pens. I just enjoy it. And I enjoy getting that updated model. And I still use all my old models. So as long as I'm not buying pens to sit there and collect dust, I'm okay with owning multiple models. I actually have a harder time with that on the lower end now with, you know, like Safaris or Twisbees. You know, I don't collect all the colors of Lamy's. I don't collect all the colors of Twisbees because I don't use those pens as much anymore, right? I used to buy several. I used to buy, you know, one a year or something like that. Or, you know, if the Twisbee came out with a cool color, I would buy it. But I've stopped buying those completely because I don't use them anymore. So you have to understand the reasons, your personal reasons for making a purchase. For me, it's use. I'll buy multiple pens if I know I'm going to use them. From a Safari to an Akaya, it doesn't matter. So I don't think it's crazy as long as you're going to use them. I'm very adamant about spending your money wisely. And I don't want people to waste their money just because they think they have to catch them all, right? And I think that's very important when you're thinking about making a purchase. You know, I know a lot of people have gotten in trouble for buying too many pens. And that credit card bill comes. And I just hate that. It's certainly an unavoidable thing. And we walk a fine line from, like, collecting and spending and hobby and use and all these things. So it's really, you know, it's definitely a personal thing.

Brad Dowdy: And the way I look at it is from usability. If I'm going to use the pen, I'm going to be in. And sometimes I slip. Sometimes I slip up with purchases. You know, sometimes you get caught up in the moment. And the good thing about fountain pens is you can get out of some of your purchases, maybe at a small loss. You know, it's not like a total loss. You know, if you kind of get caught in the heat of the moment, you can. There is a pretty good resale market for fountain pens. But I never buy anything to actually, like, resell them on purpose. I'll buy it. And maybe it wasn't at the top of my list. And I'll use it for a while and decide, maybe it's not for me. And I can use that money elsewhere. You know, that's kind of how I go about it. Do you have anything to add to that before I go into the live follow-up to that question?

Myke Hurley: More of the same, really. Like, only buy what you can buy. But I'm totally on board with having a collection. Like, if you find a thing that you like, like a pen or a type of pen that you really like, why not buy more than one of them? You know what I mean? Like, I really love Retro 51s and Sailor pens. Like, I know I love them every time. So, if there is other styles of that same pen that I like, why not get more of them? Like, I don't consider it like a one-and-done situation.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So, yeah, there's a few pens that I do that with Sailor being the primary one for me. So, the follow-up is an important question as well. And we kind of alluded to some of it, but this is from KVerk on Twitter. Maybe talk about the addictive behavior of collecting stuff. How do you guys personally justify owning that many pens? How do you go against logic? P.S. I also have tons of pens and ink and can't justify them. So, I just don't think about it. So, I mean, I giggle, but we all go through this, right? This is addictive behaviors are not good in any way, shape, or form. And it's something I'm very careful on not promoting.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not always the best at that. I certainly don't want to tell people to buy stuff. But the fact is we're in a hobby that costs money. So, it's a matter, we've always approached it from buy what you love and use what you buy. That's kind of always been our approach, our overarching theme on the blog and on the podcast. And when you see us in person, you know, I'm very concerned about addictive behaviors in purchasing. I don't want to see that ever. And I will try to squash that whenever I do. And I've had conversations with people that have gone overboard. And, you know, I don't want to ever, like, play into that behavior. We get caught up in the FOMO, the fear of missing out. And I used to be pretty bad about that a few years ago. Like, I was buying everything left and right. And then, you know, it got to a point where I realized that I'm not using the things I'm buying. So, I stopped buying as many things. But I'm also in a position where I get more things than just about anybody. And don't want to say, oh, you need all these things, you know, that I have. So, it's something I think about all the time. It's something I could probably do a better job of as well in just, you know, promoting the types of behaviors.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, like Kayvork says, how do you go against logic, right? It's illogical when, you know, you're saying, like, buy all these things. And we very much try not to do that because you know better. It's a hobby, but you have to manage it. You have to understand your behavioral patterns. You have to understand your budget. You have to understand that this is not as important as food or shelter. You know, this is a fun thing that we do. And, you know, Myke can justify owning a billion Retro 51s because he loves them. And, you know, he loves them and, you know, he uses them. You know, I justify, you know, the three fountain pens I bought because I enjoy writing with them and putting ink in them and getting nibs modified and doing cool things to them.

Myke Hurley: So, we are both in situations where we can afford what we can buy and everyone is different. And you just have to be really, really mindful of that. Of course, this show is called The Pen Addict and it's called that for a reason because this is an addictive hobby like many hobbies are that involve purchases. But it doesn't have to be dangerous. It shouldn't be dangerous. And we definitely are mindful of that at all times.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we definitely don't want to promote like crazy spending and, you know, not thinking about your purchases and not being useful and mindful about what you're doing. So, it's a great topic. You know, I love to talk about this thing because being in the position that I'm in, I could see how I could promote that unwittingly. Right? You know, I could just get trapped in like, look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this. And I mean, I understand that it's also my job, but I do try to meter and manage myself in that way. And I try to present things in that type of manner when I'm talking about things. And I'm definitely careful to not go overboard. Like, I don't, I really try not to over promote anything, even though I'm sure I've, you know, done it many times. And I could probably get an example from someone from yesterday. But I'm really careful about that. But I try to keep it, you know, fact-based and reality-based and usage-based and those type of things. So, it's a tough, it's a tough line sometimes. But I do really, really consider it because that's how I try to live my life. So, I want it to come through in my work and my hobbies as well. So, you know, and if anyone ever wants to talk about this stuff, hit me up on Twitter. You know, y'all know how to get me. And if you, you know, if you think you have an issue where you can't stop buying things, please talk to me. You know, I'll be glad to have a conversation. You know, it's a serious conversation. So, no judgments ever.

Myke Hurley: I did not complete a bingo card today.

Myke Hurley: I told you I had to put mine down or else I would cheat. My line is if you talk about another stationary podcast whilst crying.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think that's going to happen today. Although, yeah, although we do have, I think we're going to hold Ask TPA for next week. I have a bunch and we'll add to more. But I am going to hit one so you can fill out your bingo card. Sarah from the BYOB podcast. See, there you go. Asked one very, well, two very important questions. These are running themes on the BYOB podcast. There's Team Cake and Team Pie. But we need to know other specifics, Myke. So, let's wrap it up on this. So, we have two questions. First one is waffles or pancakes?

Myke Hurley: Pancakes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it's pancakes for me. Unfortunately, the real answer is French toast. But between waffle and pancake, it's definitely pancake. So, I'm Team French toast if that's my choice. But it'll always be pancake greater than waffle. All right. On the ice cream front, Myke, this is a very important question. This is a challenge. This is harder than the previous question. Sugar cone, cake cone, or waffle cone?

Ice Cream Cones

Myke Hurley: All right. I have some problems. So, what is the difference between a sugar cone and a waffle cone? Because they look the same to me.

Brad Dowdy: Size. That's pretty much it. Oh, size? They're the same construction. The waffle cones are just gigantic sugar cones, essentially. Okay. Well, then. In my opinion.

Myke Hurley: I don't know. I don't need huge cones, but I like the crunchy cones with the lines in them. So, I'm going to say sugar cone. I don't even know what a cake cone is. What the heck is that cake cone?

Brad Dowdy: Cake is kind of the airy cone. Oh, I hate those. It's hollower. I hate those. Yeah, they're kind of. Like the McDonald's cones. You know what I'm talking about? They're lighter. Yeah. Yes. They're lighter in color, and they have, like, essentially, like, a bubble airspace in between the wall lining.

Myke Hurley: No, thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, I'm going to go with sugar cone. So, I'm all the way sugar cone. See, we made for each other. Yeah, we really are. I love waffle cones. They're just too big. Too big. Too much. I love my. Yeah, it's too much. And I don't like dipped cones. You know when they dip stuff around the ring? Like, they do like sugar cones. Don't do that. Just give me a straight-up sugar cone, and we're in business. Cake cones are fine in a pinch. If that's my only choice, sure, cake cone. Knock yourself out. Sugar cone, if I have a choice, will 100% be the answer. So, there you go. Hopefully, that filled some more bingos. I'm not going to cry over this. Oh, man. So, there will be. You're not going to, you know, completely get a bingo. You're going to be a bing for today. And then we'll see what we can do for you next week.

Myke Hurley: So, if you did complete a bingo card, you can send them to me and Brad. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter. Brad is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. They're also pretty good to post to Instagram because you can get them in a nice square. And if you want to tag us, I'm imike on Instagram. Brad is penaddict. You can go to penaddict.com where you can find more of Brad's work and knock.co for all of his lovely wares. We'll be back next week. Thank you so much to Penn Chalet and Squarespace for their support of this episode. We are... It's probably worth saying now, from a programming note, next week's show is the last show before Atlanta. So, it will be the Atlanta prep show. We're going to talk about what we're going to be doing. We're going to talk about kind of like how excited we are for the show. I'm very excited. Because then the next episode won't be on the 11th. It will be on the 14th. So, Saturday the 14th. Because we'll be recording it live with our audience in Atlanta. And that will be episode 303. That's a pretty good number. I'm happy with that one. If it couldn't be 300, 303 is pretty good. So, yeah. There's just a little programming note for you on.

Brad Dowdy: You just scared me with the timing of all this. I can't believe it's that close.

Myke Hurley: I just scared myself. It's like I'm looking forward to it. I'm very excited about it. But it's creeping up on me now. So, until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.