The Pen Addict 335/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	335
Title:	A Very Peculiar Scale
Release Date:	November 21st, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 335
Audio File:	Audio Episode 335
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 335
Length:	7373 min <br />1.217 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 335. Today's show is brought to you by Cane 11, Pen Chalet, and Blue Apron. My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hey Myke Hurley, this show is also brought to you by Caffeine. I am feeling it this morning, Mr. Hurley. This is going to be a hype show, I'm feeling it.

Myke Hurley: Uh oh. Well, the best way to start a hype show is to talk about what we're using today. So I will ask you, what do you have in front of you today? What are you using and why is that funny?

Brad Dowdy: I'm laughing because I'm privy to the show notes and this is going to be an excellent topic and it makes me giggle. And you will see why in a minute. So I'm using a Field Notes Mackinac Autumn Pocket Notebook. I'm about halfway done with this, maybe a little more. And we're going to talk about this specifically later, why I'm using this. And my writing instrument of choice today is the Blackwing 16.2. It's the Ada Lovelace edition from their volumes edition. I guess it was three editions ago? That sounds about right. Something like that. Really nice satiny white barrel, black barrel, white eraser, the 602 core, kind of like perfectly right up my alley. So that is my, those are my writing tools probably throughout the day. And we'll, we'll talk about that later, how I'm kind of adjusting some of my writing and, and, um, things usage, if you will. And have a feeling I've let you down compared to what you've written in this, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I'm not let down. I'm not let down. I'm, more than anything, like, it's, it is just tantalizing and intriguing to me that you use the Mackinac Autumn. I know that you use them, right? Like, I know you use them. But like, as Bump is saying in the chat room, Brad is taking his notes on a $100 bill. So in case you don't know, the Mackinac Autumn was the fourth ever Field Notes edition. So it was Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue were the first ones. There was 500 of those each. Grass Stained Green, 1,650 packs. And then Mackinac Autumn, 2,500 packs. And I'm assuming you, like, cracked open a fresh three-pack to get one of these.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, I didn't. This was a previous cracked three-pack. So I want to make sure I use them all. So this is, I think, the second one I've used out of that three-pack. And this is the orangey-orange ones. Like, there's, there's a range of colors with these covers, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's one that's more red, there's one that's more yellow, and there's one that's more orange.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this one almost looks like Butcher Orange, but it's not, you can tell. But it's that, it's the orangest one. It's just wild to me. Like, it doesn't, so I have my every edition sealed up of all the field notes. Like, I keep that to the side. And these extra ones, I don't mind cracking them open and using them because I want to use them.

Myke Hurley: No, you should, you should. I mean, we talk about this all the time, right? I believe it. But it is still just funny that, like, Brad's every day, just like jotting notebook. That single notebook is probably, like, $50 or something, right?

Brad Dowdy: Like, someone would take that off your hands. Yeah, it's been very close to my butt.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I'm not sure if that, I guess depending on who you are, that either increases or decreases the value of the notebook, right? I mean, it's a back pocket notebook. Well, yes, exactly. Exactly. So I have more things. A lot more things. Yeah, so in front of me right now for my show notes, I am using, I have in my hand a TWSBI Go. That's what I'm using to take my notes today on the Studio Neat Pano book, which is my, it's always the same, right? That is my show notes notebook of choice. You may be aware of the fact that I take my notes in one fountain pen. This is how it always tends to go. But I write my headings in another one. And today I have chosen the Aurora Optima Flex for that. I enjoy using that pen for these purposes. I actually have in that pen, I just think it's a specific ink, which is fun to bring up, the Toronto Pen Show maple color, right? I have that in here.

Brad Dowdy: That's a good color. I'm not a red person. That's a good color.

Myke Hurley: And like my other KWZ pen, ink, I should say, it has a smell to it. I don't know what KWZ do, but this smell is more pleasing to me than the smell of the purple or pinkish ink that I have in one of my pro gears. I mean, it's maple syrup. I think I maybe owe Anna money for this ink.

Brad Dowdy: She bought it for me too, and I never paid her. Yeah. Thanks, Anna.

Myke Hurley: Anna, can you get at me and then we'll just sort that out? Yeah, because she stood in the line and got the ink for all three of us, but I don't ever recall giving her any money for it. Also, like a fun pen show thing that I didn't mention before. When Anna left before, like kind of the way that we all departed, because I was sticking around, is you left, then the next day in the morning, Anna left, and then I stayed for like another two days. But when I came, I went out to, I think I was going out for a meeting, and I came back, and there was in my room a box which had a thing, like a little piece of paper in it that said like, please take inside. So like the housekeeping board inside, and it was some cookies and a box of Ziploc bags.

Myke Hurley: Those Ziploc bags were awesome, because I put all my ink in them.

Brad Dowdy: She actually yelled at me for not traveling with that ahead of time, right? She's like, you don't travel with the empty ones to put, and I was like, you're way smarter than me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I put my pens in them, but I didn't expect I was going to end up with like four bottles of ink, because that's typically not what I do. So like my plan was, oh, I'll just buy some Ziploc bags, like I'm here for a few days, but I didn't need to, because Anna brought them. And I ended up like, I took the box, because these bags were awesome. I don't know what they were exactly, but they were just really good, like big Ziploc bags. It was like Canadian milk bags. And then also, yeah, I don't want to get that on the milk bags. I'm also using my walnut penwell from Good May Better. Love that little thing. So I've got my Twisby Go's cap sitting in that right now, and that's where I'll store the pen when I'm not taking notes during the episode today. But that's not the only thing that I'm using today, because I also have my journal. So my Hobonichi Techo, which I am still doing every single day. Love it. Every single work day, I should say. And we're going to check in a little bit later on about journals. So I'll put a pin in that for now. I'm not sure if I'm going to get a Techo next year. I haven't decided yet what I want to get. There's nothing wrong of it, but I have the opportunity to do something different. So I might do that, because my system is so simple. It's my own system that I write into a notebook. So the notebook system itself, the pre-existing ones, I don't want a system. I just want something plain. And Techo is good for that, because it offers me that. Anyway, so I write, again, because I like to use as many pens as I can every day. I write my headings in one pen and my actual notes in another. And today, my headings were written by a Maui Makai from Canalea. It's my original. It's my OG. Love that pen. And a Lamy Safari, too, today I'm using to take my actual notes with in my journal.

Myke Hurley: So that's me. That's my day.

Brad Dowdy: Which Safari are you using? We'll talk about that a little bit later. Oh, okay. It's top secret. I wasn't even trying to set you up there. I was genuinely curious, but I get it now.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, that is my whole setup today.

Brad Dowdy: So this is kind of backwards from what I would expect. But I get it that you're at your podcasting throne, right? And all of these things are set up perfectly for your world. All around me. Yeah. For your world domination days where I actually kind of go off to the side to record the podcast because I'm not sitting there in this spot all day to record. So it makes sense. So mine is a more portable kit, what I'm using today. And Myke, this is kind of your desk.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't have a portable kit. You know, like I don't.

Myke Hurley: I'm kind of a little bit weirdly old school in that I use my pens when I'm sitting at my desk. You know, like I'm dealing with my correspondence. Right. So my pens are for that. I don't have pen and paper in my every day. Like I never leave the house with like a pencil and a pad. I used to, but I just don't do that anymore. Because typically for me, anything that comes up in my day, which would require that I put in a digital form. Like they are digital things for me. Like pen and paper for me personally is a considered thing. It's like I know I'm going to be using pen and paper for this. Even if I have like, like I have like a call with someone, I will use my panel book for that. Right. And I'll take down some notes during the call and then I'll translate them to a digital form if I want to. But like pen and paper usage for me is a much more considered thing. It is a thing I go to rather than like it. Or like it's a thing that comes to me rather than me going to it, if that makes sense. Where like you always have it, you just grab it. And again, like we're doing a lot of like, we'll talk about it later. But we do, we have some themes that are going to run through today's episode. And like one of them for you is you need your journal with you or your notebook that you are doing like your system with you. Where I don't. It's actually at some point in the day I begin it. I write my headings out. And then at the end of the day I come back to it and enter my information that I'm tracking. Right. We have just different systems like that, which is why on a daily basis I probably like I would use more stuff than you unless you're testing things. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yep. Totally. I gotcha. I love it. I, I, and plus like this is like a killer setup too. Like all the things you listen, I'm like, yeah, that's the good stuff. Yes. I'm very excited about it all.

Myke Hurley: I love my stuff. But I like that I'm using it all more.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's one of the keys. That's one of the things we always talk about.

New Topic Introduction

Myke Hurley: All right. We have a thing that we need to get to. But before we get to that thing, let's talk about an awesome thing. And that is our friends over at Penn Chalet. Penn Chalet have all the stuff you're looking for. They have the brands that you love and they have the things that you need. Whether you're looking for fountain pens or converters, bottles of ink or mechanical pencils, whether you're looking for Pelican or Lamy, Namiki or Sailor, Kaweco, maybe you're looking for a carrying case or a pen holder. No matter what it is, Penn Chalet can help you get your hands on it. They have free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US and they ship internationally with great shipping rates as well. Penn Chalet offer high quality pens, low prices, and they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Go to PennChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password PennAddict for this week's special offer to get yourself a code that is 10%. You can get a 10% discount on absolutely anything at Penn Chalet at any time just by going to PennChalet.com, hitting that podcast link and using the Penn Addict password. But of course, as always, we do have an array of specials just for Penn Addict listeners over at Penn Chalet.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if special is a complimentary enough word to what I'm looking at in this list. Can I say prices or no? Because I'm going to go with no. I don't know, but I'm looking at these and I'm going to say no. If you have a Platinum 3776 of any variety on your shopping list, you need to stop what you're doing. Go to PennChalet.com, put in the offer code PennAddict, and get you a nice Christmas present because you're not going to find prices that are better than this. on all of the special edition 3776s from the past year. So I don't know what kind of inventory he has on these. I would say that he probably doesn't have all of them, like maybe all nib sizes, but these prices are crazy good.

Myke Hurley: Oh, and also, actually note, because I've gone to the special offer page, there is a 15% discount actually this week because of Black Friday.

Brad Dowdy: So this is the Black Friday, yes.

Pen Recommendation Discussion

Myke Hurley: So there's a special code, 15%. So Brad, I'm going to ask you, I don't have a 3776, which one of these shall I buy?

Brad Dowdy: That's impossible.

Myke Hurley: Do I want the Lilas, the regular Nice, or the Lavendi?

Brad Dowdy: So the Lavendi would be number one, Lavend for me. The Nice Pure would be number two, and the Nice Lilas would be number three. The Nice Lilas would be number one on looks, but it has a really rough edge barrel that if you haven't tried before, it might feel funny to you. But I think it's the best looking. It's also the best price. God, that's a good deal.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I'm buying it right now. I'm buying the Nice Lavendi in broad. Okay, cool. Feels like fun.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's my favorite. That's the one I would buy if I was buying. And if I liked the gold furniture, the Nice with the gold furniture is really stunning. It's just not my style. It's really, really good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm all over this. I've been waiting. I've been like, I've seen them. I've been waiting to get one for a while. At the price that Pinchelet is offering right now, it is a no-brainer. So I'm just going for it. Cool. Very excited about getting one of these finally. Actually, as well, I should mention, there is a Black Friday sale starting this week. So keep it locked to Pinchelet. And you can get, like, just, Ron's been giving me, like, he's got some crazy stuff that he's working on. So Pinchelet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Don't forget, Black Friday sales starting this week. So keep your eye on Pinchelet. Our thanks to Pinchelet for their support of this show and RelayFM. All right, do you want to set up this next topic while I finish my checkout process?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So I didn't see this when it came out, but I think it just came out yesterday. So there was a post from NYMag. They started this sub-site called The Strategist this year, like only a few months ago. And they've been doing lots of pen and paper stuff, lots of analog-y stuff. I think they're trying to be, like, a wire cutter style Amazon affiliate link. Let me tell you what's the good stuff blog. Right? That's the way I see this stuff, which is good. Like, I love these lists, and I love finding out about new things and what people think about old things and all that stuff. So they've done a lot of stationary stuff over the few months that The Strategist has been in my purview.

Brad Dowdy: And yesterday, I think it was yesterday. Yeah. They came out with an article called The 100 Best Pens as Tested by Strategist Editors.

Brad Dowdy: Michael, where do we start? So we're going to link this in the show notes. I suggest you read the intro. Because the first thing I did was jump down. Let me see what's number one. And we're going to get to that. We're going to go through the top 10 one by one when we get to it. But read through the intro before you get into the list like I did. And then you'll get an idea of what they're trying to do. Even saying that, Myke, I'm not sure what they're trying to do. I don't think this is a best of list of any, in any way, shape, or form. I think it's a favorites pen list. Because in a lot of areas of this list, they don't know what they're talking about. Like, it shows that they don't know what they're talking about.

Myke Hurley: Or at least, let me try and qualify that a little bit. Because that is a harsh statement. Like, I know you feel it and I get you. But I think what it is is they are testing some pens that are clearly above their comfort level. Or their understanding level of what they're looking at. Right? Like, there's auroras and pelicans and stuff like that in here. And some, like, the Platinum 3776 is in here at number 86. Like, there's just, like, and then some of the ways that they rank and rate some of the pens, it doesn't match up. Because what they, one of the things that they've got going for them, which is where a lot of the problems lie, if you're looking at this from a pen addict's perspective, is they judge these on a five-point scale of these criteria. There's five criteria and they give a score of one to five. Smoothness, smudging, bleed through, feel, and looks. And some of the issues come around, like, the bleed through. And some of the pens that they're saying are not bleeding through do bleed through on lots of paper types and vice versa. So it's all just very, it's a very peculiar scale. Especially when applied to some of the pens that they're applying it to. And all of this would be fine if it was called a favorites list, but it's called a best list, which tries to make it an imperative ranking. Which is strange because it's, doesn't, like, they consult people. They're saying they've got, like, consultants, which are, like, very smart people. People you know and love. The superstars. Yeah, but they were not involved in the actual final ranking. It's all very, like...

Brad Dowdy: They definitely were not.

Myke Hurley: It's like, okay, the thing is, they went too far with this and they brought in some stuff that doesn't make any sense. And, like, I don't even know where they got it from. Like, why is the Platinum 3776 in this ranking? Like, where did you find that pen? Like, I don't get it.

Brad Dowdy: So that sounds like, so that's like it showed up. So let's talk about the people they consulted. So, and I'm using this consulted because that's the word that they use. They consulted all of these people for the products, not their thoughts on the products. So I think that's where the 3776 comes in. Because when you're talking to Ed Jelly, Anna Reinert, Brian Goulet, and Elaine Koo, I'm pretty sure you're going to say, hey, what's a good fountain pen? The Platinum 3776 is going to come up. But that was the extent, from the way I read this, of all of those awesome people's work on this list, right? They provided a list of products these people should check out. And then that was the extent of it. Like, I don't think they had any say in the ranking the way I read this. Yeah. So, like, which, in retrospect, they should have used, they should have leaned heavily on them, or at least a lot more on them, to at least maybe vet some of the things at the end. Because there's one thing that broke the entire list for me, and that ruined the whole thing for me, is when you take the Uniball Jetstream and give it an average bleed-through grade. So its bleed-through grade is 3.

Brad Dowdy: Inherently, ballpoints do not bleed. Pretty much every ballpoint pen should be a 5 for bleed. Maybe a 4.5 if you think it's acting a little funny. If it's a terrible ballpoint, maybe it's a 4.5. The Uniball Jetstream doesn't bleed.

Myke Hurley: The Jetstream got a 3, and the Retro 51 Tornado got a 5 on bleed-through, which means it didn't. I don't know what paper they're using if the Jetstream's bleeding through, but the Retro 51 Tornado isn't. I don't understand what they're doing.

Fountain Pen Bleed Concerns

Brad Dowdy: That immediately broke the entire list for me when you have fountain pens at 4.5 and 5 for bleed. Like, it's just not physically possible for these things to be happening. You know, the Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph is one of the worst bleeding pens you will ever use in your life, and it got a 4.5. Because it's liquid-ing. And the Jetstream got a 3. Yeah. Yeah. So it's crazy. Like, it's just not an accurate statement to say these things about these pens.

Myke Hurley: And again, it's like, you can rank them however you want, but if you're judging them on this point scale, like, what is your testing method? Like, what are you using? Are you using consistent paper? What is it? Right? Like, what is the paper that you're using that is producing these results? Like, these are the problems that will rise to people that super... Like, maybe... I mean, they show a picture of the Muji Plantation paper notebook. So this... Oh, actually, they did do it. I apologize. To standardize the writing surface, we asked each tester to use the pens on the same Muji notebook and averaged each pen scores across the five categories. So I will stand corrected. They use the Muji Plantation paper notebook as their standardized testing notebook. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's good.

Brad Dowdy: Like, so...

Myke Hurley: But it still shouldn't show the results that we're seeing in certain cases.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Like, it just doesn't... It just doesn't make sense. Like, they have a Stadler permanent marker pen with a bleed through of one. That's exactly right. I mean, any alcohol-based Sharpie type permanent marker is going to go straight through the page. That's correct. Then a Jetstream gets a three. It's like, I almost wonder if that's a mistake because it doesn't work. Like, that's not an objective thing. That's pretty factual. You know, the bleed through of a ballpoint pen on any type of paper is pretty much a five across the board. It's just technically not possible for that to happen. So that kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

Brad Dowdy: But it's okay, like I said, if this was a favorites list. But they do some weird things like rating the same pen multiple times in different places. Like, they rated the Pilot Hitec C and the Pilot G-Tec C, like, really far apart from each other. But they're the exact same pen. You know, it's just weird stuff like that. That's something they may not know, right? Like, I give them a pass on that. You just may not know that that's the exact same pen. Like, literally the exact same pen without a different stamping on the barrel. So...

Myke Hurley: My big frustration point is they rate the Retro 51 a 4.75 on smoothness. Mm-hmm. But then they rate the Squire a 5 on smoothness. It's the same refill.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right? That's the things they're not going to catch, right?

Myke Hurley: But, like, that's the thing of, like... Well, that doesn't make any sense. It's the same. Like, it's the same. It shouldn't be different. So, like, this is the problem of, like... You can totally go for this if you want to. But if you're trying to be the Wirecutter, you did not get the experts. Like, the thing about the Wirecutter is they find someone who should be an expert in that field to rank the stuff, right? Like, that's what they're going for.

Myke Hurley: I can't say that these people are experts. And, like, again, totally fine. Oh, they're absolutely not. Totally fine if you are ranking, like, here are our favorites. But you're calling it the 100 best pens as tested by strategist editors.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No chance. That's an accurate statement. Like, it's just not. It's a favorites list. All right. You want to break down this top 10? Yeah. It's kind of not bad. Like, there's one... There's just some weird stuff in there. There's some super weird stuff in there. There's one really, really bad choice. There's a couple other bad choices. And then there's some good choices in here. So, let's go 10 to 1. So, 10 is the Pelican P205. Awesome pen. So, I bring this up. And this will come up when we get to number one. They haven't included price in any of these, any of their judgments, right? So, cost does not rank into any of this. So, you'll have a top 10 list with $150 pen and a $3 pen. You know? So, they're not ranking. There's no value judgment on any of these pens. They're just straight ranking what they feel in the writing categories. Pelican P205. Great pen. So, it's certainly a really good choice. Number nine is the Hay Bullet, which I've never heard of. Which is fine.

Myke Hurley: No, I've never heard of this pen either.

Brad Dowdy: But it looks like a standard fancy ballpoint pen. Yeah. It looks... I thought it was the... I thought it was a branded Fisher Space Pen the first time I saw it with the cap on. But it's not... It's just a long skinny ballpoint pen. Oh. So, I've never tried. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Huh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's not... All right. I don't think it's a capped pen. I think it's just almost like a desk ballpoint pen type of thing. So, maybe it closes. I didn't look at it too closely. Number eight, Retro 51 Tornado. Really good job. Like the Pelican 205. It's a really great pen. You know, we love that pen. Love the Pelican. You know, those are pens that I think, you know, I can see in the top 10 list. I mean, like we've said everything we can say about the Retro 51. That's a valid top 10 entry, I think. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm pleased that it's in there. I didn't think it would be in there when I left the rest of the list. I'm surprised, actually.

Brad Dowdy: Totally surprised it was in there. Parker Jotter, number seven. Yeah. Like I was saying, like I can get there with this pen. Like I see why someone would like this very, very much. It's a real good pen. Solid workhorse pen. Schneider Slider Memo XB Medium at number six. It's a like a 1.5 or 1.8 millimeter ballpoint. It's not good. It's average. Like this is maybe a back end.

Myke Hurley: It got a 4.5 on looks. Like I don't get it. Like this pen is like mega ugly. It got the same rating as the Parker Jotter. Like I don't understand. I don't get it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And like having this wide of a tip is just not functional for a lot of people. So like this is a favorites type of pen. I could see this being someone's favorite pen. This is in no way a top 10 best pen. You know, it's maybe a back end of the top 100 and that might be being generous. Just, you know, based on everything, all the other pens that are on this list. It's just, I don't get it. So number five, the Kaweco Classic Sport Fountain Pen. Another surprise. Great choice. Surprise. Surprise. It's in the top 10. It's a good entry level fountain pen. You know, we love it. So, you know, it's, it's good. Bleed through mic on this fountain pen five. So just wanted to get that on record.

Brad Dowdy: Here's my problem.

Myke Hurley: I have no idea where this comes from.

Prismacolor Outlier Discussion

Brad Dowdy: This is such an outlier that I, it's number two in the things I had wrong with this list, besides the Jetstream being a number three bleed, is the Aurora Ypsilon Fountain Pen at number four. And it's the best fountain pen. I mean, it's the highest ranking fountain pen. I get it. It's a perfectly fine pen. It's not better than any other fountain pen that they've listed so far. In fact, it's worse than all of these other ones. Just the value, the price. I mean, I think they're looking at it from a style and looks perspective. One of the comments they made, not necessarily on this fountain pen, but on a lot of pen, a lot of the fountain pens, they said, well, it's too wide without mentioning the fact that, oh, by the way, you can buy a finer nib. Like they called fountain pen nibs tips. They didn't mention that you could, that they're writing with a broad nib, but you could buy an extra fine nib. Like they don't mention these types of things. So it's super weird. Favorites list, knock yourself out. Aurora Ypsilon all day. Best list, I don't know that this would make my top 100 just fountain pen list. So, and it's not a bad pen. It's just, it doesn't belong on this list. It does not belong.

Brad Dowdy: Number three, Prismacolor Premier Fine Line. Best felt tip pen. Yeah, I mean, I get it. Like a lot of the felt tip pens and plastic tip pens and drawing pens and art pens, they're very similar. It's hard to differentiate, you know, this between a Secura, between a Statler, between a Pilot. So like, yeah, this is fine. Like no, no problem here. Number two, the Oto Horizon Needle Point Knock. What?

Myke Hurley: What? What is this?

Brad Dowdy: I have this pen. I own this pen. I love this pen. It's a very much an outlier. It no way would be like in my, it's not going to make my favorites top 10. It might make my favorites like top 30 or something like that. So I don't know. Like it's a fine, it's a good pen. Like, but as far as best ballpoint pen, you're telling me that this is the best ballpoint pen and almost no one is ever going to get to try it. Because there's nowhere to buy it from. Like, you know, all these are, most of these are Amazon affiliate links, right? So that's like, that's how these sites make money, which is fine. I have no problem with that. But like, I'm not going to ever say the best, the number two best pen is going to be hard for you to get, right? That just seems to kind of be defeating the purpose. Like I want to tell people, hey, these are the, these are the best 100 pens you should go out and try. And here's how you can get them pretty easily. Like this is not, I guess you can get Amazon's easy these days, I guess, but I just find it. I don't know. I just found it a little bit weird that it's number two. It's a good pen. The refill is actually not that great. It's okay. I swapped out the refill in mine.

Brad Dowdy: Number one, Myke, the Baron Fig Squire. It's like, I get it. I think that's a decent number one choice. It fits. It's, it's the perfect pen for this website, right? Like it is the pen for the strategist in YMAG. Like I get why this is number one and it's a good pen.

Brad Dowdy: This is the one that I thought where they should have said something about price. I mean, they did. They're saying it's expensive. So I don't know if I can like totally, like I'm saying this is the best. I guess so if it's a best list, but it's expensive relative to the other one. But I think it's actually a pretty decent number one choice. It's a really good pen. So yeah, that's kind of, that's, that's the top 10. There's some good stuff. There's some horrible stuff. And the overall list is certainly quite sketchy from a best pens perspective. You know, favorite. If this was a favorite pens list, I'm not sure we would have even talked about it, right? Because then that's like the most objective of objective lists. These are the things I like. And, you know, this is what I have fun with and what I enjoy using. And maybe you'll like it too. The best takes on a completely different connotation. And I don't think this is anywhere near what a best pens list would look like if I was doing it. So that means I need to put... I need to put...

Myke Hurley: Let's just say top five and best, they're effectively the same thing, right? Like, but like to the world, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not saying like, because we've been through this or this whole thing, right? About your personal favorites and what this list is. And you've tried to build an objective list. But I feel Brad Dowdy is better qualified to create this list than the editors of The Strategist.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I mean, there's lots of people that are better than the people who do the thing that they do.

Myke Hurley: Pretty much all of the consultants that they picked. Yeah. I want to see Anna's list. I want to see Brian Goulet's list, right? Like, I want to know how Brian Goulet ranks the top 100 pens. I'm actually really interested to see what that list would look like, right? Yep. But look, the strategist editors, like, we're not trying to rag on them, right? No, no. It missed the mark. To someone who super cares, it's like we can see where you may have needed some different guidance going into this. And again, totally fine for you to create a list of pens that are your favorite pens. But it just becomes tricky when you're trying to say this is, like, this is the wire cutters almost scoring, right? Like, we're trying to be the authority here.

Brad Dowdy: And, like, here's the list. Yeah. Yeah. They pretty much failed at that part. But, like, it's, hey, it's good for the clicks, right? Like, I mean, that's what it's here for. So I think I should make a top 100 best pens list.

Brad Dowdy: That would be cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that would take a lot of work. I mean, that's a lot. That's a long process. And then I would have to, like, pick, okay, which one's number two and which one's number three. I mean, I would like to see you try and do it. I'm saying that, not knowing what's number one. It's a tough task.

Myke Hurley: So it's like, here's what I'll say, right? So the wire cutter has their list. And, again, whilst I don't agree with it, I can get on board a bit more because it's refined. So they have a thing called the best pen. And it's the uniball gesture, right? And it's like, I don't agree with that. Right. Personally. But I can get on board with it. Because you've got the Pilot Precise V5 RTs in there, also great. And the uniball signal is in there, also great as well. And then they have some other things going down. But, like, this is... Plus there are parameters around that. Right. But it's like, you know your audience here. And you're picking a pen for your audience. The 3776 should not show up on the strategist's list. Shouldn't be there. Like... Well, that's... Yeah. It doesn't make any sense to have it there. Because, like, that is a pen for a very specific type of person. Like, there shouldn't be multiple Pelicans on this list. But there are. And it doesn't make sense. Right? Like, it's not right for this... Like, 66, the Sailor Pro Gear Slim.

Brad Dowdy: It's, you know... Are you saying that shouldn't even be on the list? I feel like it shouldn't be. Yeah. Because I don't think it should be. Honestly.

Myke Hurley: These... There are, like... What the Wirecutter did, I think, was better. In that they seem to kind of restrict it to rollerballs and ballpoints. Because, like, fountain pens... I just don't think that... They're different conversations. Right? It doesn't feel right. It's like... Here's the 100 best cars. It includes Ferraris. And it includes Minis. Right? Like, when you come to that, most people are going to understand that list.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Like, you can go through this list and see the pens that our friends picked for them to check out. And that I guarantee they didn't spend, you know, a lot of time with to be able to rank them. Like, the big guy designed T.I. Arto. I'd be shocked if that was on anyone's radar before one of our friends told them, hey, this is a great pen. Which it is.

Myke Hurley: The Karos Customs bolt is in there. Which isn't even the right choice for Karos Customs.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right? So... Yeah. So, look. More power to you, NYMag. You know, go crazy. And I hope this is good for you. But the pen addicts do not agree with your ranking system. And Brad, if you want to try and do this, my friend, you go for it. But I really wish you the best of luck.

Brad Dowdy: Because I don't think it's possible to do. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to write that check yet. I got to think about that. I'm not going to take a stand. I've thought about it since I've read this. Like, could I do this? It's not easy. It's not easy.

Myke Hurley: Because, like, here's the thing. I would accept your list. But I know I'm not going to agree with it. Absolutely. But I'll accept it. I don't accept this list from the strategist. I don't accept it. But fine. Like, you go crazy. All right. You go, strategist. Today's episode is brought to you by Kane11, the company who make ridiculously comfortable socks precisely in your size. So here's the deal. The socks that you're wearing right now, they're either one size fits all or you've picked within, like, a size range. You know, you might be going from, like, size 7 to size 10 or whatever. But, like, we don't have the same size feet. We don't buy shoes that way. We don't buy, like, oh, I'm going to buy these Nike shoes in size 7 to 11. Like, this is not how we wear shoes. And the folks at Kane11 thought that since we wear socks every day, in fact, we wear socks more than we wear shoes, that maybe that they deserve some innovation. So Kane11, they do their socks, they're men's socks made in merino wool. They offer a precise fit with the option to choose from 11 different shoe sizes from 7 through to 17. These Kane11 socks are engineered for a precise fit and for an even better fit, comfort, and performance that you've seen elsewhere. They're high quality and will hold up through the wash. And they're available in smart, confident styles to suit your look or just provide daily comfort. Now, Brad, I know you were really, like, looking to talk about these last time.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's one of those products that I never would have considered before. You know, I started reading about them, and they obviously sent me some. And I'm a size 11 shoe, so I ordered the size 11 socks. And they came, they showed up. They're this nice gray, really pretty patterns, patterns that I like and fit my style. And soft and comfortable and thin. These aren't big bulky socks. And, okay, let's see what this sizing thing is about. So I went to put them on the other day. And, you know, I started putting, you know, like, my left sock on. And it basically just goes snap right into place. I go, huh. Like, wow, this really fits, like, exactly like it said it should. Like, the heel cup's in the right place. There's no extra, you know, fabric in the toe. It's just like, it was almost like a snap-on sock. And just, it just, I just pulled it up. And it was just there. And it fit perfectly. I was like, I literally audibly go, huh, like, it worked. Like, that's kind of cool. So I really enjoyed them. And they were comfortable to wear all day. I really, really like them. So, yeah, very much approved.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's like, it's one of those things where you think you might not need this or might not want it. But why don't you just give it a go? Like, I'm wearing mine right now. And I agree with what Brad is saying. It's like, I didn't think that I necessarily needed perfectly fitting socks. But then I was like, oh, these fit perfectly. Like, it makes sense. Like, I...

Brad Dowdy: You usually have to, like, adjust the heel or pull up the heel more. Or you have to straighten up the toe box area.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you get that thing where you can kind of start to see your feet through the socks because you've had to pull them. Right? Yeah. But these socks aren't like that. And the other thing is, like, even if you take away the perfectly fitting part, they're also really well made, really comfortable socks. Like, and they look great, too. All purchases come with the K&11 promise. If you don't love them, just send them back and you'll get an exchange or a return, no questions asked. So there's no harm in giving it a try. K&11 socks make the perfect gift for the guy who has everything. Because the people you're buying these for, they don't have them. Yeah. Right? Like, they don't have those perfectly fitting socks. That's what K&11 can do for you. To get your own, go to kane11.com slash penaddict. That's K-A-N-E-1-1 dot com slash penaddict. And enter the promo code penaddict to get 20% off your order. That's kane11.com slash penaddict and the promo code penaddict for 20% off your first order. Our thanks to Kane11 for their support of this show and RelayFM.

New Stationery Items

Brad Dowdy: All right. We're going to get into some new stuff that has crossed our desk. But before we do that, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Mavis podcast, Myke. Your country mates. I was on with Julian and Andrew on the Mavis podcast last week. Episode 28 has been released. And we just had a fun talk about pens and papers. So Julian K. and I have followed each other on Twitter. We couldn't even figure out how long. It's been like seven, eight years. He's always been into pens and paper and stationary goods. And so it was nice to get on there. And he's hooked his friends into the analog world. So they talk about pen and paper on their podcast regularly. So they had me on to talk about it even more. And I just want to say, Myke, they are huge fans of the Pano book. So we spent quite a bit of time discussing how I use the Pano book and why I like that product so much. So it was a good show. So feel free to feel free to add it to your downloads list over this long holiday week here in the U.S. You'll have some time to listen to it. So that's great and all, Myke. But I want to talk about this next topic. Actually, I want you to talk about this next topic because this is something you did, something you wanted very badly. And it happened. So what do you got?

Myke Hurley: Let me see if I've got some audio for you here.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: I would like to thank Pen Addict listener Derek for getting me the Lamy Pikachu set. Oh my gosh. From China. Derek got one for himself and one for me. I have it. The box is huge. It's massive. One of the reasons is because I didn't know this until I opened it, that it makes those noises. That's unreal. So there's like a little sound box inside and it makes those noises for as long as it's open. And as I realized earlier in the episode, sometimes, weirdly, when it's closed, I don't know why it's doing that. I am so happy with this pen. So I want to run through what you get, right? So you get the box, this presentation box looks like a Pokeball. You get the Lamy Safari pen. The pen is yellow. The little band that goes between the grip section and the pen body is black, right? So they're picking up all the colors here. The clip is red. So you've got Pikachu's body. You've got the color of his ears, the color of his cheeks. And then there is a brown Pikachu tail painted onto the back of the cap. Oh, no way. And it comes with these two little charms that you can put on, right? You clip it onto the cap. One is a sleeping Pikachu and one is a Pikachu face, right? So you can choose one of those. It comes with a Pokeball, which is a pen stand, which is cylindrical. It does not have a flat bottom and it's weighted. It's weighted so it wobbles.

Myke Hurley: This is... And you can put the Lamy Safari right on top of it. It's perfectly fit to put the Safari in.

Brad Dowdy: This is so far superior than anything I ever thought it would be. Yep. You're blowing... The more you talk about it, the more you're blowing my mind about this. I didn't realize how detailed this was going to be. Like the sounds and the pen rest. I didn't even notice like the tail on the pen.

Myke Hurley: And I have a Pikachu's Tallulah case.

Myke Hurley: They made a little case. It's like zip open. It's got two pockets. It doesn't have a specific pen pocket. It just has two wide pockets and a little net pocket on the front, which comes with it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I see it now in the picture.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So you get some Lamy ink cartridges in a Pikachu box. They're blue, which is a shame, right? But I understand. And that's their stock. Yeah. But they made a special box, though, at least, which I think is cool. And then... Zipper has a little charm, it looks like. Yep. The Pikachu tail. And the pouch itself on one side has like debossed Pikachu and Pokeball kind of icons. And then what I love inside is it's got Pokemon in Chinese. Like the logo in Chinese. This is for sale in China only. Ha ha. Suck it, Lamy. I've got one. I am thrilled with this.

Brad Dowdy: Can you tell me... Like I've done the conversion for what this cost. Can you tell me what it cost you? Can Pikachu tell me what it cost for you to get all this shipped to you?

Myke Hurley: So there is a slight wrinkle in the story where the shipping was really expensive. Sure, sure, sure. For various reasons. About like the size of the box. And then it was like you could choose to have it like quickly or it's going to take forever. Right? Like there were a couple of different options for it. The entire thing cost me 204 Canadian dollars.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So...

Myke Hurley: So 164 US dollars.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's crazy. Like... Not like egregiously priced. Like I'm...

Myke Hurley: So the shipping was like 100 Canadian dollars.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That was how it ended up working out. And it was like various issues around the shipping. Shipping can be difficult. And this was just the shipping that we ended up choosing. Yes. I would say for me personally, 164 dollars for this, including shipping. I would pay more than that. This is like a limited edition set of something that means so much to me. And I would want it. And I've got it. So...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Just the base Chinese translation. Like if you picked it up over there, just like if you were in store, it would cost you about 70 US dollars. Which I don't get it. Like this is a lot of stuff. Like for... Like they've done... Like the Bear, the Line Friends safaris were more expensive than this. And you got way less stuff than you're getting with this. That sounds like the right price. What you ended up paying for it, even with all the shipping in it. That's crazy. I really had no idea. Because I didn't pay this much mind because I'm not a Pokemon fan. But I saw this. I was like, oh, that's really cool. But it's even better than I thought it would. Very cool. Yeah. I like it.

Myke Hurley: Again, it was better than I thought. Like I didn't know that it all made sounds. And I didn't know like the level of detail that is in some of these elements. Like I am thrilled with this. I am absolutely thrilled with it. And I filled it with the yellow Robo Oster ink that I have.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, cool. That was smart. I didn't even think to ask you that.

Myke Hurley: So I am very, very excited. I think this will keep a permanent place on my desk because it has its own pen stand. So why would it not?

Brad Dowdy: And it's a Pokeball pen stand.

Myke Hurley: A Pokeball pen stand with a yellow Lamy Safari and a little sleeping Pikachu attached to it.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I want one of these and I'm not even a Pokemon person. Yeah. Well, I miss Pokemon was the generation like where I wasn't interested in that type of stuff. It was right in the middle for me. Like it could have come before or later. I would have been in, but it wasn't. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, there is still a possibility that I have a second one of these. So I'll let you know about that. Yeah. This is one of those things where I have multiple people offer me and I took all the offers because I wanted it that bad. Right. Well, they limited them pretty much. Exactly. And it was like you had to get it in China. Right. Like, yes. And I think that I think Derek was in China, I think, which was how he was able to get it. So I got backups and I'll deal with the backups if I need to. But this was something I wasn't going to let pass me by because I would have been really upset. I tried to get it on my own and I couldn't. Like I tried as many ways as possible and it just wasn't going to work out for me to get it on my own.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Harder to buy direct from China than Japan and some of the other countries.

Myke Hurley: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

LegalPad Discussion

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's talk about a product that I really wanted to love as much as you love the Pokemon, but it didn't quite get there for me. And that's the Retro 51 Tornado Dimitri Mechanical Pencil, the Tornado Mechanical Pencil. So let me start by asking you, Myke, do you have any of the Tornado Mechanical Pencils from Retro 51?

Myke Hurley: I have the LegalPad one. Okay. Yeah, sure. Right. Which I only bought because I thought it was super cute because it's a paper, right? It's paper and it's a pencil. I just and it just seems to be cute to me. So I got it.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So I never owned one of these because I never thought I needed it. It wasn't really like how I like to use a pencil, but I always wanted one to try and test out. And I saw this Dimitri one for Dimitri Medvedev who, you know, created the periodic table of elements. And even though I'm not necessarily like, you know, someone who's hardcore into science or anything like that, just the looks of this pencil just knocked my socks off. Right. This is what Retro 51 does the best. Right. They does their their design department just is killer. And this this came out so great. So I figured this was the one I was going to jump. I never jumped on any of the previous pencils, you know, like the crossword or the legal pad like you you you were talking about or like Myke Dudek did the system pencil to pair with the pen. And it's like, I probably won't use that. But this one, this one got me going. So I ordered it and it was kind of a letdown. Like it's not the expected feel and style and use of a mechanical pencil that I want. So maybe I'm being a little unfair tying it completely personally to how I use products. But the way this one worked, I wouldn't use. The lead felt kind of weird. It was very hard and plasticky, which means it doesn't wear down fast, but it just wasn't a pleasurable writing experience. The lead also moved sometimes when it hit the page. Right. Because it's not a knock based mechanical pencil. It's a twist. So I felt like the twist would twist up on itself sometimes when I started writing and you could see like the lead move because the lead is thick. It's a 1.5 millimeter lead with. So you can see it happening and it's a little disconcerting. And it just didn't get there for me. And by getting there, I mean to make it a product I want to use regularly. So like I have it now and I'll keep it just because it's the only one and I can, you know, revisit it or I can test it against other things. So I'll hang on to it. But I don't see me ever using this pencil. And I kind of wanted to just because it looks so cool. But I but that's OK. Like it's just not the pencil for me and maybe other people like it. But I just want a more traditional styled mechanical pencil that that works better. The looks in this case did not beat out the functionality of the pencil to me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I genuinely think of these like the retro 51 mechanical pencils more of a novelty in the tornado. Like the hexamatic is a is a better mechanical pencil. Absolutely. I can't. The tornado ones feel like fun ones to me. It isn't their best work. Right. Yeah. It's like the current or like the previous fountain pens haven't been that great either.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm totally surprised that this pencil didn't make the the the list of the on the strategist. Like this is the perfect product for them.

Brad Dowdy: Although it's a pencil, not a pen. That was a pen list. So but yeah, like I yeah, it's a it's very cool looking. This would be it's a great gift purchase for someone who's, you know, looking for something like this or who's really like science based because man, they they can they can nail a design. But this is just this and a great, great product. You mentioned the fountain pen. It looks like we didn't have this in the show notes, but it looks like they changed the section. Myke, it looks like the feedback is happening. Goulet pens have one of the new retro 51 exclusives and it's a fountain pen and the sections completely changed. It's molded and it's shiny. So I'll be anxious to get one to see if they have really changed. If they've changed, that'll be good because everything else about their fountain pens is great. It's just I didn't like the grip section.

Myke Hurley: Huh. OK. That's exciting. Is this the Montana? Yes. Christmas. Yeah. Christmas. Yeah. Look at that. That's different.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So it's it's molded. Oh, it's got a Joe. Shiny. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Joe. Everything.

Brad Dowdy: Everything about the front end of that pen looks improved. So I'll be anxious to get one in hand to see. Are you getting one? If it really is. I'm not getting one of these now.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: I just don't need this one. I have this one in a rollerball, which I love. So do I. That's why I don't want them because I already have the design. I'll wait for a fountain pen that I want to use regularly. Yep. You know, and this one I won't. This one I would just buy and use and put away and not want to use it all the time. It's it's it's Christmas sweater, which is great. It's an awesome design. But I'll wait and see what the next round of official fountain pen releases are and see if they have the same section and nib. If they do, that's nice to hear them or to see them listening to feedback on on the fountain pen product. So that's great.

Myke Hurley: Next week is a horror stories slash ask TPA special. But there's a couple of ask TPA questions that came in that couldn't be missed because they were about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Food Preferences

Myke Hurley: So Sarah wants to know favorite Thanksgiving food. Sarah doubts me, right? She does. Sarah has no faith in me. Sarah says you can also attempt to describe these to Myke and have him try and pick a favorite. I have had three Thanksgiving dinners in my life. One of them in the United States of America. Two of them were had at American restaurants in London, which are all attended by expats. So they put on these dinners for Americans to go to. So they are legit.

Brad Dowdy: I had your back. I knew I knew that you partook in some of the Thanksgiving feasting that we do. So let's put you on the spot. Thanksgiving foods. What are your favorites?

Myke Hurley: There are two things. Really good pumpkin pie has to be really good. Otherwise, it's trash. And sweet potatoes with marshmallow, which is the greatest human invention of all time.

Brad Dowdy: Which happens to be our follow up question. Sweet potatoes with marshmallow or crunchy pecan topping. I am crunchy pecan topping, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Well, it killed me. So don't eat it. Yeah, that's true.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. But I'm actually neither because we do sweet potatoes kind of diced and baked with butter and cinnamon. So that's...

Myke Hurley: That also sounds very good, though.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's my sweet potato dish. But that's not my favorite. My favorite is a really simple creamed spinach that my mom makes with like the spicy cheese. So I only get it at Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite foods ever. And like it's not a complex kind of dish to put together. But that's what's so great about Thanksgiving. It's all the side dishes. You're either a bird person or you're a side person. And I'm a side person. Like I'm a side... Right.

Myke Hurley: So the big dinner here is Christmas, right? Christmas dinner is a huge deal. Christmas dinner here is the same level that Thanksgiving dinner is, right? It's like I know you all have Christmas dinners or whatever. But like Thanksgiving dinner is the big one, right? Yes. Correct. It's Christmas for us. And it's a very similar dinner, right? There's less sweet stuff, right? We're not putting marshmallows in our potatoes. But like, you know, it's like big sides and stuff that you typically only have at Christmas. Like sausages wrapped in bacon, which is one of my favorite. Yeah. Pigs in blanket. Right. Like that is a very Christmassy thing. Although now it's Christmas. You can buy these things like pre-wrapped and cook them. And I've been doing that a bit at home. I'm not going to be taking in a Thanksgiving dinner this year, unfortunately. We just didn't book anything. I would also point people, if you want to hear our two people try and rank side dishes Thanksgiving. Episode 22 of the top four podcasts on Real AFM. Tiff and Marco Arment rank Thanksgiving side dishes. It's one of my favorite episodes.

Brad Dowdy: It's a great one. It's a great one. So that's our favorites. Like I'm a sides person, you know, give me the stuffing, the dressing, whatever you want to call it. I'm getting hungry.

Myke Hurley: We have to stop talking about this.

Brad Dowdy: I'm getting very hungry right now. We do mac and cheese. It's lunchtime for me. We do the sweet potatoes. So we can't keep doing this.

Myke Hurley: We can't keep doing this, Brad. We have to move on.

Brad Dowdy: My mouth is watering. Okay. So related, but not exactly the same thing. Ionsomnia, my buddy Jim says, hashtag ask TPA, pick out a set of inks to represent your favorite Turkey Day foods. And I figured I have this one on lock because there's lots of orange and Thanksgiving foods with your sweet potatoes and your mac and cheese. So we're going Papier Plume Sazerac, which has a little bit of that brown caramelization you get with some of the sweet potatoes or the edges of a baked mac and cheese. We're going with the Faber-Castell Viper Green, which is like the spinach and greens type of look for that. And I just forgot the name of the Platinum Classic. Is it the Cassis? That's the red, which is the cranberry-ish color. So it's a deep red, a little bit of black. So you get that orange, green, and red type of palette. I think those are the three I would go for to represent my Turkey Day foods. I don't think there's any turkey colored ink. You'd have to get like a light brown for the outside skin of the bird, something like that. But the sides, sides are easy. So those are my three inks. I might have to ink up those three today and see what we get.

Myke Hurley: So I was about to say to you, like, we have to stop talking about food or I'm going to kill you. So now I would like to tell you about our final sponsor for this episode, and that is Blue Apron.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, feed me.

Myke Hurley: What is going on? Too hungry. Skip meal planning. Get straight to cooking. That's what Blue Apron can do for you. It doesn't matter if you're looking for quick and easy meals or a full culinary cooking experience. You can choose from a range of recipes bursting with flavor that will meet your skill level no matter what it is. Blue Apron will deliver fresh, seasonally inspired ingredients for step-by-step recipes right to your door. You can get rid of your grocery list and let Blue Apron do the meal prep for you. You can cook incredible meals in as little as 20 minutes. Get out of your cooking rut and experience the joy of chef-designed recipes with restaurant-quality food. You can get amazing meals like smoky chicken and sweet potato bake with cheesy cornbread biscuits and hot Italian sausage pizza with roasted peppers and olives. I can't do this. Yeah, this isn't helping. Like, Blue Apron food is incredible. Their food quality is amazing. Their ingredients quality is amazing. But literally the best thing, the thing that you're going to get the most out of is that they get the ingredients to you in the sizes that you need, and they help you cook it by giving you the recipes. That is what's going to change everything for you. Please trust me on this. Being able to use these great recipes and taking a lot of the stress out by doing the prep for you allows you to learn how to cook, which is a very valuable skill. Check out this week's menu and get three meals for free by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. That's blueapron.com slash penaddict to get your first three meals for free. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. Thanks to Blue Apron for their support of this show.

Brad Dowdy: All right, do me a favor. Reread that sweet potato cornbread thing again from the first meal.

Myke Hurley: Why are we doing this? I want to hear it. Smoky chicken and sweet potato bake with cheesy cornbread biscuits. Dang.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome.

Myke Hurley: My stomach literally just rumbled.

New Notebook System

Brad Dowdy: All right, we'll continue on with this next topic. So I've been alluding to the fact, and I've said it a million times, that I'm not going to do a planner for 2019. But I wanted to do something paper specific and give myself a goal for the next year and figure out what I'm going to do to use some more of the notebooks that I have. Notebooks, like I have a lot of pens. I have an obscene amount of pens. And I have a lot of pens that I don't use regularly. And I'm okay with all the pens I have. I have an even more obscene amount of notebooks, in my opinion, because I don't see me using so many of these products. So I'm trying to figure out a way to use them more in some kind of guided fashion. Like, I want to say I don't have any rules, which we'll talk about, for using your notebooks. But you've got to have some rules and you've got to have some guidelines on how you're, at least I do, on how you're going to use these things. If you actually want to actively use them, like using a planner, you know, you know, you have your planner. It starts on January 1st. And on January 1st, you'll start filling out that day. And then tomorrow will be January 2nd. And you fill out that day. So those are rules.

Brad Dowdy: So I decided, I basically cut down the things that I know don't work for me, Myke. Which is, you know, one, having defined days, right, like with a planner, you know, on January 2nd, you know. Here's a day and you should write something on that day because this is a day in your planner. That doesn't work for me. The notebook size, the larger they are, the least I tend to use them.

Brad Dowdy: Like A5 size, 198 page notebooks. They are just intimidating to me. The only one I'm using right now is one I use for like my visual journaling, which we've talked about in the past. Like I'm fine using it for that, but not for like a day-to-day bullet journal, task list. I get bored with using that every day. The size is a little bit intimidating. Like what am I going to do with all these pages? So if I scratch those two things off, it leads me down a path. Well, the pocket notebook is smaller. It's more portable. It's got less pages. I can feel more accomplished by actually finishing something, right? Like we have a, I know I'm not the only one who will start a notebook and then never finish it. And you have a closet full of half-filled notebooks. So I'm trying to lead myself down a path of sanity by not forcing myself to use things that I'm not going to finish. So I'm using these pocket notebooks to keep what I'm essentially calling just a running list. And it's not necessarily a task list or a journal or a to-do list. It's all those things, just all in a row, just continuous page after page. You know, I'll separate them by dates. If like when a new day happens, I'll put a date header on and, you know, I could have three sentences on that day or I could have three pages on, you know, on that day. Like I was on a phone call the other day, take out this notebook and, you know, I wrote three pages worth of notes from a project that I'm working on. So, you know, it's things like that. I want to always have it with me. I mentioned that if my glasses are on, my notebook is with me. That means pretty much all the time because I all the time have one-off ideas in my head that I don't capture. And just writing down that one sentence in this notebook that's in my pocket helps me get those things out to have a place for it. And like I can't necessarily rewind my brain to figure out that thing that I thought of two days ago, but I can pick up this notebook. So the one issue that might arise that I could see arise is when all the things are in it, it can get kind of lost like with importance levels. So like I have very important things in here and I have very unimportant things in here. And I can see how mixing those things up might be an issue, but we'll see. But the thing is, they're always with me and I'm always looking at them and referring back to previous pages. So they're kind of always in my head getting refreshed. So I don't think I will forget them, but I could see that. So I'm just playing around with it right now. You know, I use three simple symbols in here for certain types of things. So I have a little blank box and checkbox for tasks. Like if there is something that needs to be completed, it'll have a box and it'll be checked off when it's done. I have, I use the pound symbol for just general notes and ideas. Like here's a new thought. It begins with that symbol. And then sometimes those thoughts have sub thoughts. So I just draw a little arrow underneath that and that's it. Like I don't really, it's not really official or, you know, it's not too many rules, but I do have to have some type of separation between tasks and ideas. And then I can go back and see which tasks I've completed and, you know, which I need to remember to do and, you know, things like that. So it's working so far. I'm not a prolific pocket notebook writer. Like I said, I'm about halfway through this notebook and we're three weeks into this month. So like some people will go through like one of these a week, you know, but I've used exactly half the pages in this notebook so far. And if I use them all up before the end of the month, I'll start a new one. But I have said that when the new month rolls around, I'm going to grab a new notebook because that just gives me that refresh that I need, that new product to use. It alleviates the boredom of using like one large A5 notebook for like an entire year. Like I would get bored with that. So I will force myself to pick out a new notebook on the first of every month, no matter where my previous notebooks are in the previous month. So I might use one notebook a month. I might use three. We haven't, I haven't really figured that out yet. You know, this is my first month trying to do that, but that's kind of where I'm at with it. And it's, it's basically common sense. Like, I don't want to say this is any kind of system or anything, but I'm basically keeping a notebook with me and writing all the things down. That's what it boils down to in an effort to try to use more of my pocket notebooks that work for me the best.

Myke Hurley: I keep referring to this as your no system system because there is a system. You have one notebook per month. Which will be filed. You have boxes for tasks, hashes for notes and ideas. And like, then you have your little return for sub notes. Like that's a little system built for yourself. Even if it's not particularly rigid, it's still, it's still a system.

Brad Dowdy: Those things are what I've always used. So I now I've just moved them into like this format.

Myke Hurley: Right. Okay.

Myke Hurley: I think the end of month deadline for notebooks is a good one because it's forcing you to use new stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you know, I will see how it goes. I want this to work. So this is going to be my goal for next year. I wanted to start it early. I didn't want to just start blindly. Like you can start these things anytime. That's one of the things we always talk about. That's also a hang up with with planners. You know, you still have to finish the year of the planner you're in right now. But you've had this other one sitting there for three months before you get to use it. So, you know, it's we'll see. Like I'm going to commit to this. So this will be my thing for 2019. We can follow back up on it. I failed every planner I've tried to do.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I adore the Hobonichi lineup across the board. Like it is one of the best products ever made in my opinion for planners. I can't make it work for me. So that's what I'm trying to figure out. What's going to work best for me in just capturing things that are in my head for later use. That's what I'm trying to get here and use more stuff. So that's where I'm at.

Myke Hurley: I think the system is simple enough that it has more of a chance of sticking, right? Like my system sticks because it's simple. It's just a couple of prompts that I have myself every single day, right? Like good, bad, think, and looking forward. They're the things that I write down every day. And then I have seven questions that I ask myself every day and I score myself on them. Like it's very simple. It's very lightweight. And it's something I built on my own. Right. And I think that makes a big difference because you tailor make it. And I think that that's important. And that's what you've done.

Brad Dowdy: I very much agree with that. I very much agree with that. So yeah, you found a thing that works for you and I find a thing that works for me. And, you know, it's a process. Like I've been, this is one of those things that I've been doing this long enough and don't have an answer for. I don't know if this is going to be it. I don't know if it needs to be answered, but this is something I want to do because I always need something to capture things in my head in. And usually that's all over the place in like every kind of notebook. And this doesn't mean I'm not going to use other notebooks because I review products. Like I'm going to use the heck out of other notebooks. But this is going to be my daily pocket, go with me everywhere type of notebook, you know, where my ideas go and my thoughts go and my tasks go and just things like that. So that's, I'm efforting that, Myke. And I feel pretty good about it.

Myke Hurley: I like the idea of creating basic structures for people. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's what I like. Like I want to say that it doesn't have rules, but it absolutely has rules. But it's just not many.

Brad Dowdy: Guidelines.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think so. Well, I'm proud of you that you've worked something out. I hope you're able to stick on to this one longer than you have some of the others.

Brad Dowdy: We'll see. Paper is tough, man. Paper is no joke for me.

Myke Hurley: I think you'll know, buddy, into this year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like by December, like by the end of 2018. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because you will have done a notebook change and you will, you know, like it's good right now because it's fresh, but who knows how it's going to end up last time.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find the show notes for this episode, go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 335. Thank you so much to our wonderful sponsors, the fine folk at Kane11, Pen Chalet and Blue Apron. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and you can find more of his stuff at knock.co. He's on Twitch, Pen Addict on Twitch. Pen Addict on Instagram. Dowdyism on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and Twitter. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.