The Pen Addict 340/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	340
Title:	It Seems Official
Release Date:	January 2nd, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 340
Audio File:	Audio Episode 340
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 340
Length:	6464 min <br />1.067 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 340. Happy New Year, everybody. Today's show is brought to you by FreshBooks, Pen Chalet, and Eero. I couldn't think of a better show to start my year than The Pen Addict. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by the one and only Bradley Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Michael. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year, Bradley.

Myke Hurley: That's your name this year. It's just Bradley.

Brad Dowdy: Bradley's fine, as long as there's no E in it. No, never. Why would you do that? Never. I don't know. You're just doing it wrong if you put an E in there. So, yeah, this is the only show I wanted to be on for New Year's. It's also the only show I do.

Myke Hurley: I was going to say, where else are you going to pop up?

Brad Dowdy: I'm doing a watch podcast, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Don't even. Please. I can't take it.

Myke Hurley: I have to have one thing, right? One thing in my life that's just mine that I don't do a podcast about, and it's watches now. My Instagram, man, is just wrists. Photos of people's wrists. It's all in it now. Oh, Lord.

Brad Dowdy: It's good, though. Yeah, it is good. I like a nice watch. And did you get any nice watches, or more importantly for this show, did you get any nice stationery for Christmas?

Stationery Gift Giving

Myke Hurley: Nobody ever dares buy me stationery items, which I think is a good thing. Exactly. Right? So, you just shouldn't do that. I did get a bunch of watch-related stuff. Like, Adina had a watch box custom-made for me, which is amazing. So, that, like, sits on my dresser, and, like, I open it up and get my watch out every day. And I have, like, my Apple Watch in there and stuff. So, like, it's like a foundation for building a collection. And I also got, like, a traveling one from my mother, which I will send you a link to, because I absolutely love this thing. And I saw it, and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm 100% going to buy you. Yeah. Let me find it, and I'll share that with you. But I'll ask while I'm finding this, did you get – I mean, I assure you're probably in the same situation as me, right?

Brad Dowdy: I 100% do not buy me stationary, and nor do I ask for it for the holidays. If there's anything I want, I will take care of it myself for that, which makes me honestly hard to shop for, because I don't use much other than, like, stationary stuff. I don't have, like, the watch hobby. Like, you were probably very easy to shop for this year. This year I was, because, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Generally difficult. I have, like, a new thing, right, which is, like, watches. And there's, like, a lot of paraphernalia around watches. So I just sent you – I put it in our show document – the watch roll that my mom bought for me. Oh, nice. What do you think of that? So, yeah. It's nice, right? Let's see. Let's open this up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, that's great. Yes, we're all good. So it's like a leather case, and as you open it, it's just, like, a huge Union Jack inside. It just looks super cool. I love that look. They do – this company does them. The name's Wolf is the name of the company. They do these watch rolls in, like, with a bunch of different flags. Mm-hmm. So they do, like, U.S. flag, Canadian flag, Swiss, Japan, Italy, France, China. Like, they do, like, a ton. So they look really good. But I just figured if I was going to get one, it had to be. It had to be the Union Jack. Although I do really like the way that the Swiss flag looks. And obviously with watches, that kind of would make a little bit of sense. But it's kind of the motherland, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So that's pretty cool. We have dabbled in watch wraps at Nock. We'll have to send you one of our prototypes one day. We have all kinds floating around. Oh, come on. Just a little random thing. Yeah, 100%.

Myke Hurley: I found some companies that make stuff that looks like your stuff. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Right? Like, bright colors and, like, the material that you use. Right. Like, similar-ish, you know? But I would 100% want a watch. You should do that. Like, I think you should really do that. Like, just like a single watch case. Mm-hmm. Very much, I would like.

Brad Dowdy: We have several, several prototypes floating around. But back on the stationary, you know, which we're known for more than the watches.

Myke Hurley: Because I do feel like if anywhere, any show is, like, it's going to creep in every now and then, the watch stuff is this one. Oh, absolutely. And I'm perfectly happy with that, right? Like, every now and then it might come up. But, like, we're not going to turn, like, a regular watch segment. And I don't want to have a watch podcast. And it's, part of the joke is, like, oh, the money, right? Because it's, like, I started buying more pens when I did The Pen Addict. And I don't really necessarily want to end up buying more and more watches than I would buy normally. But it is a lot of, like, this feels like a little thing that I can enjoy, like, just as a little hobby and read about this stuff and look at this stuff. Right. And I don't have any hobbies that I don't have a podcast about. So, it might be nice to have something that's just kind of for me. So, that's kind of why I feel, the way I feel about it right now.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. That's great. That's great. Well, independent of each other this week, Myke, we both landed on a pen that maybe we should have asked for for Christmas. Oh, my God. The, we talked about, obviously, we're just complete Sailor fanboys. And, you know, Myke's bought a bunch last year. I bought several myself. And one of the things I wanted to see, which we mentioned in our last episode two weeks ago from Sailor, was a change in the stock Rialo model, which is their piston filling model, which doesn't really hit the style and the price point sweet spot for a lot of people. Like, it's just kind of floating out there, a little bit overpriced and a little bit boring. Well, we both ran across this link from different places this past week. And it's these two new limited edition, of course, store brand Rialos. What's the store? Pinto Note. Yeah. And, Myke, when I went over to the Instagram page to look at the link that you put in the show notes, I noticed that they were following me already and I was not following them. That has been rectified at this point. So, what do you think about these two, not ones, but two limited edition Rialos?

Myke Hurley: There's a blue one and a white one. The white one is nice. The blue one I'm dying about. Because it is blue and the gold furniture looks like it has a matte finish. It's killing me. I have, like, how do you... I've been trying as normal, like, how can I buy this pen? I can't find any way to buy this pen. Yeah. But I want it. I want it very much.

Brad Dowdy: I want the white one. See, the blue one does nothing for me. The white one is amazing. Like, white with platinum trim is killer. Like, I don't do white with gold trim. White with platinum. And it has the metal grip section, like you said. Man, this pen is very, very good looking. I'm not going to buy it.

Myke Hurley: It seems like it is only available, like, in their physical store. So, it's basically impossible for us to buy this pen. But I want it. So, if anyone can help me.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Like, I had not planned on, like, linking any type of, like, this type of products in here. Then we both said, oh, this is the one. We both snuck it in here. That's pretty funny. It's stunning. Mainly because you put this Wancher Sailor 1911 Turquoise that our friend Dries reviewed on the Pencil Case blog. Like, this I would go gold trim for. Right? Yeah. I mean, this is really, really good looking. I love that one.

Myke Hurley: This looks so much like a 3776. Yep. Like, a lot. Like, I was, when I saw it, I was like, oh, look at that. It's another 30. Oh. Right. Like, it really does. I don't know what it is explicitly. I think maybe it's, like, the gold furniture. It's the gold furniture with the clear, like, the demonstrator body, right? I think that's what makes it look so good.

Brad Dowdy: The 1911 round end caps, right? It's not the flat caps.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. Yeah. It's a very, very good looking addition. Like, I like this one a lot. I like it differently to the orange one. What is it called? The 1911? Oh. Tangerine. Tangerine. And it's because it's very different, right? Tangerine is great because it's, like, this solid color that's super vivid. But this one is just, like, a really good looking blue that's demonstrator. So, yeah. I like this a lot, too. But this isn't one that I'm, like, going to die to try and get. Although, you know, I do want to really, really get that Rialo. Their website, there's, like, a website that has a bunch of them. Like, a lot of different colors. So, they did some really cool looking additions, to be honest. Yep. Yep. And I don't know that I'm going to buy any.

Pen Purchases and Resolutions

Brad Dowdy: So, like, I don't know. I'm trying to be, like, super, super particular buying. We'll talk about that stuff later. But, like. Yeah, yeah. I am, too.

Myke Hurley: Now, it's, like, I know that I've said that, like, I desperately want that Rialo. And I do. Right? Like, we spoke about it. Because it's not even just that it looks great. It's a Rialo. And we were both talking about wanting more, like, wanting some of those. But I am going to be more restrained with my sailor purchases this year, for sure. Yeah. And that was, like, a thing. It was, like, I wanted to buy a bunch last year. Build up a collection. I've got a collection. Now, I'm going to stop. Like, he says. But, like, that's the plan.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: I know. We're both in the same boat as far as that goes. Yeah. Hey, speaking about that kind of stuff, we should address some resolutions. Some stationary resolutions.

Brad Dowdy: We should. We should. Maybe we should set a budget, too. Oh, no. Let's not do that. No. No budgeting? I don't know. I thought we might have something that could help us with that.

Myke Hurley: Oh, very nice. Sorry I didn't leave the lead-in. We have a new sponsor, which I'm really excited about for this show. It's FreshBooks. Now, FreshBooks, they have the most simple, amazing cloud accounting software available. It is wonderful for freelancers. It's wonderful if you run your own business. If you send invoices to anybody or you track expenses, FreshBooks is the way to go. We have been using FreshBooks at Real AFM for five years, nearly, since we started our company. We started using them, and we loved it so much that I started hounding them to be like, you should sponsor because I can tell people how much I love your product. And I do. I save so much time using FreshBooks for a few reasons. The system that they have to actually get invoices sent out is really easy. It saves a bunch of information. So, like, if I type in, like, the pen addict into a field, it just pre-fills everything with the amounts and all that kind of stuff. So, I don't need to write everything out every time. And I like that their invoice system is a WYSIWYG system, which means the way that I see it, the way that I'm building it, is the way that the invoice is generated and shown to the client that I'm sending it to, which is nice. And you can do some visual customization and stuff like that. But then they also save you time once the invoice is being sent because you can track everything. You can see when it's been sent, when it's been opened. You can even see if it's been printed. And you can see every single time that the client that you send it to has gone back to the invoice, which is really useful. So, you don't have to send those emails and be like, hey, did you see the invoice? Because you know that they've seen it. And then you can also automate late payment reminders as well. So, if you have people that pay late, you can have all of that stuff automated. So, you don't need to be going in and checking it yourself. There are a million other things that I love about FreshBooks that I'm going to tell you about because they're going to be sponsoring the show for a number of episodes now. So, I can tell you more about why I love it. But if for any reason you're not using FreshBooks and you send invoices to anybody, you should try it out. And I can get you a 30-day free trial. No credit card required. Just go to freshbooks.com slash penaddict. And when they say, how did you hear about us? Say, hey, I heard about you on the penaddict. So, they will know that you came to them from this show. So, that's freshbooks.com slash penaddict to get a 30-day free trial. Our thanks to FreshBooks for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: If you're any type of freelancer or do any type of side business, you need something like this to manage your invoices and your books. It makes life so much easier. You will wonder what you did, what you were thinking when you weren't using something like this. So, yeah, you got to do it. All right, Myke. So, neither of us are big resolution guys. We're not like hard, fast, traditional resolution guys. But we do go into the years trying to make some changes in the way we do things. And, you know, last year I had a pretty successful year in, you know, the way I wanted to manage my online social media presence and how I handled things. Like, I did things differently. And I was very proud of, you know, the accomplishments I made in that area. And I also... Oh, well, thank you. And I also wanted to do different things on the blog where I committed to doing 52 weeks of giveaways. And you know what? I didn't miss a week last year. Like, those types of things. You know, it's not purely like a resolution. But it's, you know, changes and things to work on. And just, you know, being consistent in doing the things you say you're going to do. This year, I'm... The way I look back on my year last year, as far as stationary goes, and I felt like it was a little bit flat in the way I chose to use things. And what I mean by that is I really didn't step out of my comfort zone to try different things. Like, if I got a new fountain pen, I didn't get up with my favorite blue-black ink, right? And I'm in a position where I need to experiment more and try new things. And so, experimenting is my theme for 2019 in that I want to use more things that I'm uncomfortable with. And I don't mean that in a negative way. But I want to consider what I'm using that is not something that I would just easily pick up. Like, I want to try new things. I want to be able to talk about these things. You know, this is my job. I need to have a more experimental side of me that's just not stuck in what Brad loves all the time. Let's try something that makes Brad a little bit worried and see if Brad likes it or not. You know, that's kind of the way I want to take it. One of the primary things I'm going to do that with is fountain pen ink. I bought very, very few inks last year. Part of it was a little bit being overwhelmed at the time. You know, I remember saying last year, it's like, it's too much ink. I don't know what to do. I'll just stick with my blue, blacks, and oranges and go from there. And I bought very few inks. This year, not that I'm going to go crazy with inks. I'm not going to be the mountain of ink. Like, like our good friend Kelly is who reviews so many inks all the time. But I'm going to try different things. So for my own Christmas purchasing, I bought four new inks. So, and these hopefully are things that I wouldn't try. So I bought Robert Oster Honeybee. That's not normally an ink. It's like, you know, a brownish yellow like you would kind of think of. That's not something I normally put in my pens. Myke, I bought a shimmer ink. I bought a diamine shimmertastic. I did go in my color range on this one. I'd got, I bought starlit C, which is kind of the bluish silver sparkle. I'm going to use that. I bought a Kyo Nooto. This one is number eight or a hero. It's kind of a grayish green. That's not a color I would ever normally use. And then I bought a three oysters. What color is this one? I don't know the color name. I got to open it up here. I think it was one of this. It was a weird yellow color. I think so. Oh, where is it? Oh, I lied. I failed on this one, Myke. It was a blue black. It was a blue black ink.

Myke Hurley: It's okay. It's okay. You know. Two or three ain't bad, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I wanted to try that brand. So I went safe on that, on the initial brand. So I failed that one. But, you know, I, and it's not just ink. It's using different paper products, using pens and, you know, just general stationery. That is not part of my everyday carry. I fall into the trap of using the things I like all the time, which is smart. You know, that's what you do. But I also have a job to do where I need to know more about a wider variety of things. And I think last year I didn't explore enough. So exploring, experimenting, things like that. So that's what I'm going to work on.

Planners and Paper Discussion

Brad Dowdy: I say all that, and we hadn't even talked about planners or paper. And I'm going to try to expand on that as well, too. So I think I'm going to do, you know, my pocket notebook system's been going okay.

Myke Hurley: I was going to ask if that stuck to the new year.

Brad Dowdy: So far, yes. But it was very lightly used in December. Like, December, I didn't use it as much. Number one, you know, I was doing so many other things, you know, with family and just getting around. Even though I might carry it with me, there wasn't the opportunities to where I was going to use it as much. And then I kind of sliced my finger open, which we'll talk about later. So I didn't really write much for a while. So I had like a week and a half, two weeks, just randomly, that I didn't really use the notebook. So, but it's still something I want to use. But it's also not enough. Like, I need more, you know, just daily or weekly space to use my paper. So, you know, I need things. I need areas to plan more. I need areas to journal more. So I'm keeping my A5 Elemental Notebooks Oxygen Notebook. That's my visual journal. I've been using that. I just did a post with that the other day. I'm trying out this thin A5 weekly planner. It's called the, I'm going to butcher this name. It's called the Sumkin. Sumkin? Sumkin? It's a French notebook that I got from JetPens. And it's laid out like, my favorite calendar layout is the seven-day week on the left side and the blank page on the right side. So Midori's Travelers does this very well. But this is in an A5 size. And what it allows me to do, and the thing I've always wanted to do with the A5 seed notebook is use it like a traveler's notebook, right? Because with the seed, you don't just need a singular A5 hardbound notebook. I'm going to use three softcover A5 notebooks. And it's like a Midori Traveler setup where you have individual notebooks in there.

Myke Hurley: Do you not think that's maybe going a bit much?

Brad Dowdy: No. No, because I'll have the, so I'll have, so I have my visual journal. That's separate. That lives at my desk. That doesn't go with me anywhere or do anything. So then I have my pocket notebook, which goes everywhere with me. And then I'll have the one seed case with a weekly planner and then like a blank notebook if I need something bigger. That's it. I mean, that's a lot. I mean, that's a lot. Don't get me wrong.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But I want to try, the one thing I've always wanted to do last year and the year before, and I've never really committed to it, is to have like a publishing calendar, like style, like setup, right? I don't have a publishing calendar. I don't have a travel calendar. I don't have a NotCo release calendar. You know, that's what I want to use this weekly agenda for. Like my day-to-day tasks are digital. Like I keep those in Todoist. Like I don't need anything for, you know, recurring weekly, daily, monthly tasks, right? I don't use paper for that. But I use it for planning, ideas, some scheduling, you know, random notes, things like that. So we're going to try. I, you know, who knows? Like I don't know whether it's going to work. I know the pocket notebook is going to work because I just carry that with me as much as humanly possible. So, you know, that's kind of what I'm going into 2019. One, experiment more and two, kind of get my planning, my long-term planning into a better situation. You know, I've never had a publishing schedule for the blog. It's in my head. I know what I need. I know what it needs to get done and I just do it. It's, I've been doing it for years. So I know on, you know, Thursday morning, X happens like every Thursday. But I don't know sometime. I know that X happens, but I don't necessarily know what X is. You know, is X a fountain pen review? Is it a pencil review? You know, I want those specifics in. And then, you know, I just want to have like the travel calendar and those types of things. Some forward looking planning as opposed to any type of journal or task or to-do system. So we'll see. That's kind of where I'm at. So again, it's the experiment that is going to be the most fun. And I've got other new things planned for the blog, new content I want to put on the blog. And different things like that. So, you know, there's going to be a lot of experimentation for me this year in 2019. And that's what I'm looking for the most. Get outside of my comfort zone a little bit. Work a little bit harder on just trying to try different things and see what I think about them. Maybe I don't like them. That's cool too. That's just as a post about something that didn't work for me is just as good as a post about something that does work for me, right?

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So I know you've been pretty consistent about your journal. Are you going to keep it on with that? How is that working out for you?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I used it for the majority of last year. Basically, every work day is when I journal. And I have a new Hobonichi Techo. I got it in English this time because I was paying attention. And yeah, I'm going to be using it every day. I have some refinements that I want to make, but like I'm still nailing those down. But the majority of what I'm going to be doing is basically the same as what I did for last year. Like I'm not looking to change anything up, but there's some stuff that I might just tweak a little bit. But I plan on doing this again every day this year. And I want to maybe, you know, maybe the thing that I do is like looking at the way that I augment the journal. You know, this could be like complimentary products or like maybe making some additions like you have where it expands out to something a little bit bigger. I'm not basic, but the idea is my general practice of journaling every day is remaining the same. So just as a refresher, because I'm pretty sure people will ask.

Brad Dowdy: We've actually, I will stop you now. We had an Ask TPA that I don't think made it to the list that said, Myke, can you go over the areas that you use for your journal? That was Joe. Joe Lebo. That was Joe. Yes.

Myke Hurley: And I sent him links to some Cortex episodes, which is where I like detailed in quite deep, in like a lot of detail the why I'm doing the journal as well as what it was. But like I did, we did talk about it here too. But I will, again, for the, just for reference, I'll mention it now. So my journal consists of five elements. So the first element is writing at the top of the page, the two pens that I'm using to do the journal that day. I then with one pen, write the following headings, good, bad, think, looking forward. So this is on like my daily journal page. And then with my second pen, probably later in the day, I will write something potentially under every heading, but I don't fix myself to that. Every day must have a looking forward. So one thing that I'm looking forward to, and it cannot be the same thing as the day previous. That also goes for the two pens as well. I cannot use two pens, the two of the same pens day after day. I have to change pens for each day. Nice. And then I'll write something good that happened, something bad that happened, and something I'm thinking about. They're the other things. That's kind of what it will be. So it's something good, something bad. And if I'm thinking about anything specific, I'll write it down there. And then I have a list of like kind of questions that I ask myself every single day and track my progress on them. This is like on a separate part. This is on like a calendar page. As it stands right now, those seven questions are be creative, advance new ideas, generate revenue for my company, make my colleagues feel valued, do good for Adina, engage with my audience, and improve my health. So I give myself a mark every day of have I done something to advance those seven things. I like that.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think I've heard that part yet, which I think that's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think that came along after I set up the journal. I read a book for Cortex called Triggers, and this was one of the things in Triggers. And then I have since adapted it for my own purposes, and I'm going to talk about that more later in the year because I'm still kind of like fiddling with that a little bit to kind of make that work for me the way that I want. So because I've been scoring myself out of five, and I think I'm going to stop doing the scoring. Gotcha. Because the scoring is so esoteric at this point. Like what is different between a three and a four? Right. It's just all my mind. So I'm thinking about doing like a three, like a binary state of like binary is not three, but it'll either be like zero, like I have done something like one. A zero, I've done nothing. One, I have done something. Two, I have really succeeded in that today. Gotcha. So like the difference, like I'll give you an example. So let's say generate revenue, right? So this is like working with sponsors or whatever. If I have done nothing on that in a day, I'll be like zero. If I have maybe like contacted some people or worked on some paperwork, it might be a one. But if I have done an actual deal or signed deal on that day, then that would be a two. Right. Gotcha.

Brad Dowdy: That makes complete sense. Yes.

Myke Hurley: And I'm kind of just working out how to visually represent that. Maybe the way that I want to do that. I'm still working on that. That's like a work in progress, but that's something that I'm going to be changing up. But the basics, the bones of the journal remained the same since I began it in, I started doing this in April. And I, so for like nine months of the year, I was doing this every single day and it stuck. Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm, I'm really proud of you for sticking to this. Cause like, this is, yeah, it's not a complex system, but it's a specific system to you that you worked on, which is important. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's my own thing. Right. Like I, I kind of built something for myself, which I'm pleased about. Cause there are a million journaling systems and ton of them are great. But like, even mine I feel is very open. And, and, and it's easy for me to complete it every day, but I'm pleased that I was able to just keep it up. Like that I actually did it. Like I wanted to do it for the rest of the year. And I did that. And that's a, I feel that's an achievement for me because there's been many things that I've dropped off of, of this ilk in the past. Like I remember when I was going to start bullet journaling and I never did it once. Speaking of which though, Adina is going to. Nice. Yeah. She read the whole thing. She's ordered the book and she's listened to our previous episodes of writer. She's, she's all in. She, she loves to do, make lists. Um, and she wants to like a system around the lists. So I think she's going to go for it. I'll, I'll let you know how that progresses. Maybe if it works for her, we could actually have her on the show to talk about it. Cause that'd be great. She's very not into the visual side.

Bullet Journaling Transition

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's actually something I want to talk about. And I don't know if it's worth talking about with just you and I, um, even getting, you know, someone like Adina on who's trying to do this or even having a writer back on because he just put up a post yesterday or two days ago, but maybe like the 31st of the first, I think it was called back to basics. And it was a post that he wrote. It was exceptional. Like he, like, you know, he was doing his book tour and he basically, you know, someone came up to him and he knew her from like all of us. And he wrote one of her Instagram posts, um, about bullet journaling. And he said, why did you stop? And she's like, I, I, she had stopped doing it. And she was essentially like, well, I hated all of the fanciness basically of it. And, you know, so I just couldn't do it anymore. And like, it was, I was spending too much time trying to make it look good and using what it was usually for. So it was, it was a whole article about that. And it was, it was a really, really good article I felt. So we'll put that in the show notes, but that's something I'd like to explore, um, with someone that's not you or I one of these days, because we're on the same page.

Myke Hurley: Somebody who's actually doing it, right?

Brad Dowdy: Who's actually doing bullet journaling, which neither me or you are. Yeah. But we'll, uh, I'll grab that post and we can, we can put it, pop it in there. Yeah. Pop it in the show notes for someone to read. I thought it was fan. I thought it was very good for a writer to write something like this. I enjoyed it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that is cool. I mean, I would be interested to have him back on the show at some point because his world seems to continue changing so massively.

Brad Dowdy: It's nonstop.

Myke Hurley: It's amazing. Yeah. It's a cool guy. Uh, also as well, like just, I want to thin the herd a little bit again, but I feel like this is not really a resolution as much as like at some point every year I need to maybe get rid of some stuff. Give away some stuff, sell some stuff, just clear out, uh, some, some of the stuff that I've accumulated over the year previous, um, which I'm going to do at some point soon.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Absolutely. I'm, I'm totally with you on that. And we'll talk about it a little bit more in, in not exactly thinning the herd, but being more, um, particular about what joins the herd.

Myke Hurley: Speaking of which though, like one, for me, one of the reasons, one of the reasons, since I've been the herd is so I can have more space to bring new stuff in and a great place to get that new stuff is at pen chalet pen chalet have all of the pens you're looking for. They work with all of the brands that you love. They believe in very fast and reliable customer service, and they're doing great discounts and amazing deals all the time, as well as pens and pencils and ballpoints and all of that stuff. Pen chalet also do a bunch of limited edition stuff. And they also do carrying cases and refills and inks and converters. They can get you the whole kit and caboodle over at pen chalet. They sell internationally and they do free shipping as well on orders of over $50 in the U S but their international shipping rates are really reasonable. Pen chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So whatever you're looking for, always go to pen chalet first. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Because when you click that podcast link at the top of the website, you'll be given a password. You'll be given a password field. You enter pen addict there and you get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at pen chalet at any time. So you go there and you'll be able to get that code. You can put that in at checkout and you'll save 10% and also be supporting the show. But as always, pen chalet has a selection of wonderful products available just for pen addict listeners when you do go to that link.

Brad Dowdy: So the Nemo scene singularity is a very popular pen in like the entry level price range, normally around $15 to $20. The price Ron has here, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say. It's best not to. I think sometimes I've learned. I've learned. But the reason I'm bringing this up, because this is something that's kind of perfect for like my ink sampling. You can get this pen in so many different nib sizes to test with that, you know, you could buy three of these for what you'd buy like one, you know, Twisby or something like that for. And you can use all kinds of different nib sizes for all kinds of different testing. You can even buy these to like player. I know people will buy these in bulk and play around with like nib modifications, you know, buy like a medium nib and try to modify it into a different shape where you're not getting like caught off guard by, you know, using some crazy expensive nib. It's kind of a really good tester type pen. And it's a good quality pen. Anyway, I've tested some of these out. We've reviewed them on the blog. They always do well. And the price is redonkulous, as they say.

Myke Hurley: There's also a really good price on a pen display case, a 10 pen display case. It looks really nice. So there's a bunch of interesting stuff there. As always, go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of RelayFM and this very program.

Brand Hopes & Wishes

Brad Dowdy: So this next topic, Myke, is half new and half follow-up. Because we have talked about our hopes and wishes for some of our favorite brands in 2019. Hope to see them do new and different things. And Pilot has just announced new colors in the Pilot Custom Heritage 91. So did you see this link that I popped in here? I did, yes. Yes. So this is good. You need to do more, Pilot. So let's talk about this real quick. So the Custom Heritage 91 is essentially their entry-level gold nib fountain pen. It's an exceptional pen. This is like the 3776 basic of Pilot's lineup. And as I saw this link and as I thought about what we talked about in the last podcast about what we want from these brands. And how much I've loved Pilot for pretty much the entirety of my fountain pen life. I don't think I bought a Pilot fountain pen last year. Like I had to really think about this. I didn't buy any of the vanishing points. I didn't buy any of the stock pens.

Myke Hurley: But it's not a surprise though when you think about it. Because you were probably waiting for something.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. Like they had me on hold last year. I don't understand. Like and this is just me being me. I don't understand why they didn't say here's Navy and Orange Pilot Custom Heritage 91 for our 100th anniversary. Insta buy.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know what they... It's like they were asleep at the wheel for the entirety of 2018. Anyway, the 91 is an awesome pen at a great price point. They're announcing these at 12,000 yen, which is about $110. And that's a great price for a 14K nib. They have done this before, right? This isn't... Colors in the Custom Heritage 91 are not exactly new. They just don't have them all the time. They did a set of Oro Shizuku barrels probably three, four, five years ago where they did three different color 91s. They did the Tsukiyo, which is like a blue-green. Yamaguri, which is the brown. And Yamabudo, which is a maroon. So like I owned the Tsukiyo pen for a time and I'd sold it, you know. And they've done store-limited editions in the 91. Like I have a bung box, like a sparkly bung box one the time they went to the DC pen show years and years ago. I bought one of those. Still own that.

Brad Dowdy: It's... I want to see it in the 912. The 91 is the entry level. I understand it's a start. They've done it before. It's... It looks good. I'll buy the orange one. Like there's no doubt that I'm going to buy the orange one because I enjoy the pen. The 912 is a difference-making pen that I don't think they're utilizing enough, which, you know, you just have to go back to last episode to hear me speak on that. So I won't beat that horse. But it was... This was good. Like I was happy about this. Like this is fine. It's got to be more. I am expecting more from a company this big. They're getting trounced by Sailor and Platinum. Right now in custom and limited edition in the realm. They're getting trounced in every realm as far as I'm concerned because they just haven't kept up with the product lineup refreshes as much as the other companies have. So it stinks because the product is exceptional. And I will definitely buy the orange one when I can get my hands on it. And I'm sure I will love it. But let's go, Pilot. More. Give me more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I like these colors. But like I just like them. I already own pens that look just like these and they're pro gears. Right.

Brad Dowdy: It's not super compelling.

Myke Hurley: No. I mean, you know, great. Like I'm pleased you're doing some stuff. But like this is...

Brad Dowdy: Hopefully it's a start. Hopefully it's a game plan. I'm not going to hold my breath. You know, I held it for all of 2018 and I died. So this is the ghost of Brad doing this show. Pilot killed me last year.

Brad Dowdy: So I've learned not to hold my breath with Pilot anymore. But yeah, we'll see. It's a start. And, you know, the one thing, the reason why I wanted in the 912 is because they have all the nibs there. Yeah. It's just a bigger, better, awesomer pen. Obviously more expensive. Way more expensive pen. But that's the pen that needs the focus. So we'll see what happens.

Lamy Limited Editions

Brad Dowdy: Lamy, Michael, has released a few more limited edition notes. And I wanted to talk about this because I was a little bit surprised to see...

Myke Hurley: I don't think anything's been released, has it?

Brad Dowdy: No, no, not released. Information has been released. Officially?

Brad Dowdy: As official as our Lamy Safari AL Star information is in that the Asian market has leaked the press photos. Cool. Cool. So we'll go with most likely official, but don't get upset if it's not. But it seems official. And I remember when we talked about the AL Star and Safaris, the minute we saw them, like they were down. By the next day, I was going back to get links. So take it for what it's worth. I believe it's true.

Brad Dowdy: Lamy Ion is getting a color special edition, which is a shock to me.

Brad Dowdy: I'm an Ion fan. That's a love-hate pen. You either love it or you hate it. I'm on the love side. I don't need... This is the wrong pen to do color special editions in because it's kind of... And I don't mean this the wrong way. It's kind of not a sexy pen, right? It's a utilitarian pen. It's a blocky, Lamy design, brutalist... It's the brutalist pen of the Lamy design, right? And it's fine. I think it's a good pen. I enjoy my Lamy. I think this is fine to do.

Myke Hurley: Because they're not doing it at the behest of other pens. Sure. Right? If this was all they were doing this year, I'd be like, really? But it's in conjunction with a bunch of others. That's the problem.

Brad Dowdy: Oh. So, the Lamy Ion... Let me talk about the next one first. And then I'll circle back to what I want to say. Okay. Okay. The Lamy Studio is also getting a special edition colors. And that one always does. It's traditionally gotten one or two or sometimes three or more special colors per year. They're getting a beautiful aquamarine. So, back on the Ion, they're doing red and navy. So, it's kind of like the orange and navy of the 91. Those are the colors. So, the Lamy Studio is getting aquamarine. And it's beautiful. And it's kind of the perfect pen for this type of setup. Because the grip sections are always silver. And the clips are always silver. It kind of matches. There's a lot of, I don't know, areas, different areas, that makes this design work. And it's really sharp looking. It's really bright. And the Ion and the Studio are almost the exact same price. So, what I want from the Ion is not, like, I'm not going to, you know, say, like, the colors are the wrong thing to do with the Ion. But that pen needs something. It's built to make something different, I think. It needs, if they're going to do special editions in it, it needs to have different metals, like brass or copper or stainless or titanium. That's the style of the Ion. But it's a big, bulky pen. And the colors will do fine on it. I think it would be better served if it was a materials special edition and the Lamy Studio was the colors special edition because they're almost exactly the same price. So, I don't know. It felt weird to see the Ion in these colors where in the Lamy Studio it just sings, right? Like, it's perfection. So, I don't know. You know, they'll probably do fine. Or maybe it's just that I want to see something brighter in the Ion, like the aquamarine of the studio. You know, do those in conjunction with each other. If the Ion was an aquamarine, maybe I would feel differently. So, maybe it's just that the colors aren't popping. And these pictures, you know, they're a little bit hard to see. You know, they're a little bit compressed and you can't totally tell. So, in person, I think they're going to look really good. I just think there's an opportunity for the Ion to do something different for a color special edition, right? If I'm... I don't need to buy another Lamy Ion that's a different color. Like, I'll buy the Safaris and AL Stars and Studios that are different colors because I enjoy those. The Ion, I need that in... Give me a stainless steel Ion. I would buy that in a heartbeat. So, I don't know. I guess I was just hoping for something different with that pen than your basic colors. The one other thing that they showed in this link that we'll put in the show notes is they're doing a Lamy Studio in all black and they're doing a PVD coating on the barrel. That's going to be cool. Like, I'm about this. The PVD is that durable coating that doesn't really ding or scratch. I'm wondering what the price point will be on this. It'll be expensive. It looks... The other thing I couldn't tell in these pictures, the Lamy Studio Aquamarine, I think it's a steel nib. And the Lamy Studio PVD looks like a gold nib the way the nib's designed. But you can't totally tell. And all the specs weren't there. But I'm very into both of these Lamy Studios. I'm meh on the Ion. But I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what comes up. Sometime next year.

Brad Dowdy: So, the last thing. Last new colors, Myke. It was apparently new colors after Christmas releases for everybody, right? Platinum 3776. New colors. They're okay. So, they did a translucent green with gold trim. And then they did a solid white with gold trim. They're fine. I mean... The Lamy... The base 3776 needs something besides Chartres Blue and Bordeaux Red. Or Bourgogne Red. So, these green and white will be a good complement to those. I mean, they don't move the needle for me. But for, like, entry level 3776, it gives you another option. That's fine. Like, nothing I need to run out and grab.

Myke Hurley: What did you think of the other Lamy's, though? Like, because I got the white and red Joy. And then they have, I think, a new LX in coffee bronze. And then, weirdly, a bronze AL Star. So, they have two different bronzes.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, we talked about the bronze before when we did the Safaris. And they're just kind of... They're fine. It's a good color. It's just boring. It's not going to compete with the Safari in that. The Lamy Joy in white red, they've already done. So, I did not find that compelling at all. So, I don't know what the difference is in this one. Right. The LX...

Brad Dowdy: I'm surprised that line still exists.

Myke Hurley: Me too. I imagine a sell, though, Brad. I really think that it would sell. But to, like, the kind of, like, going to the stationary store, buying a pen type crowd. Right. Because, like, again, I think they very carefully, very cleverly matched the iPhone. Right. Yeah. That's what we're going for. They should just call that

Brad Dowdy: the Lamy Boutique pen. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. When you go into the Lamy Boutique, that one grabs you. Mm-hmm. Like, all along... I mean, from the jump, I've said that they're beautiful, they're stunning. It's just that they're $20 to $30 more than the AL Star, which just doesn't make any sense.

Myke Hurley: Well, you're paying for the luxury point. Right. Like, I totally get that. I have no real problem with it, but it's why I've never bought one. Yeah. It's the Lamy Boutique pen.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. But the Joy I found really interesting. I didn't understand it because I think I might even have one of these. I don't know what's the difference in this pen that I can tell. Maybe the 1.5 nib? No, they've done that before. No, I didn't remember it. I do like the color combo. The white and red, I think, looks good. Oh, it's great. It's great. They've done black and red and white and red in the Lamy Joy, so I don't know what's different about that one.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's take our final break for this episode and thank our friends over at Eero. With Eero, you can build a Wi-Fi system that is perfectly tailored to your home. Considering the high-bandwidth world that we live in these days, you need a distributed system in your home, to make sure you get the best speeds available. And with Eero, you can install an enterprise-grade Wi-Fi system in your home in just a few minutes. It all starts with the second-generation Eero device. It has three 5 GHz radios, which allows for increased speed and range. It will sit flat on any surface, and you can connect it either over Ethernet or wirelessly. Then once you've got that set up and you've got some great speeds coming from the main device, you can then expand the coverage throughout your whole home by adding in Eero beacons. These are small devices that plug directly into your wall and allow you to reach and extend to every single corner and inch of your home. Eero now also has a product. They have an addition called Eero Plus. This is designed to provide simple, reliable security to help you defend all of the devices in your home from malware, phishing, and unsuitable content. It's a software package, which is really, really awesome. Eero Plus can automatically tag sites that contain violent, illegal, or adult content, so you have powerful parental controls at your fingertips. It includes an ad blocking function to help you improve load times for websites that are full of privacy invading ads and full of tracking. And it's also possible to have Eero Plus check the sites that you visit against the database of millions of unknown threats to prevent you from visiting any malicious websites. Eero Plus even includes subscriptions to 1Password for password management, which is awesome. I freaking love 1Password. And malware bytes for antivirus solutions and encrypt.me as well. So Brad, I believe that you have some Eero stuff as well in your home.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so Eero sent me the set. And the highest praise I can ever give any company is that their product just flat out works exactly as I anticipated. It made a difference in the Wi-Fi coverage in my house immediately. From the moment I plugged it in, I'm like, oh, I can now get Wi-Fi here where normally my phone would switch over to LTE. Like in my own house, like in certain parts of the house, it would just not be able to get a Wi-Fi signal. I knew those spots. I placed the beacons in the right spot and it was instant. And it was full. It was really, really good. The second thing is it comes with an app that I can control what devices access the Wi-Fi. So, and I can schedule them so I can make sure the kids aren't squirreling away a tablet in their bedroom and logging into it at 2 a.m. in the morning to watch YouTube videos. So, I can cut off that device at like 9 p.m. So, those are my two favorite things. One, that it extended the range like instantly in my house. And two, I can control access to all devices through the app.

Myke Hurley: That is a pretty great parenting tip right there, right? Like that's really fun. I love that. You need never think about Wi-Fi again with Eero. And you can get, this is a wonderful deal, $100 off the Eero base unit and two beacons package, which is the perfect set for setting up in your home. And you get one year of Eero Plus. So, go to Eero.com slash pen and at checkout, use the promo code pen. That's E-E-R-O dot com slash pen and the code pen for $100 off the Eero base unit and two beacons package and one year of Eero Plus. So, thanks to Eero for their support of this show and RelayFM. I will say, if you've been holding off, like I think this is the first time Eero have done a money off deal with us. It's previously been like free shipping. Yep. You should get this deal if you've been holding off because that is a great deal and I honestly don't, I don't know how long it will be around for. So, don't delay on that.

Listener Question Segment

Brad Dowdy: All right. We got some ass TPA to round out this first of 2019 episode, Myke. And I love this first question and it's very simple. What is your next grail pen? Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't exist yet. No. Because I'm in a spot where I'm so happy with what I have. There's nothing out there I'm like lusting over. Like we talked about that Rialo in the beginning. Like that's not really like grail pen category. But like in the past like when I didn't have all these other pens to choose from I would be like chomping at the bit to try to like hunt one of those down and add it to the collection. Right now I don't need to add anything to the collection. So there's not a pen or five pens that are calling to me that I just have to have. Like I have no intention of, you know, I would love to buy some kind of hand-etched Nakaya but I'm not interested in spending that kind of money on a fountain pen anymore or not that I ever was. And I don't, can't think of anything on the market right now that I would enjoy more than what I have. So that's kind of the position I'm in right now which I think is a good place to be for me. Like I'm not looking, I'm not buying like all the fountain pens anymore right now because I'm really happy with what I have. There'll be something, you know, like that'll hit that grail pen category at some point and I'll buy it for sure. Like I'll be spending, I'm sure, plenty of money on fountain pens but I probably bought fewer fountain pens this past year than I have in the previous few years because I've gotten to a place where I'm really happy with what I have and I enjoy using them. So my next grail pen doesn't exist but when I see it I'll be sure to let you know. How about you? Do you have anything?

Myke Hurley: I have no grail pen. Again, it's like Nakaya for me definitely still want one especially now that I've used the platinum lib. Like it's actually made me want one more but it's not like a grail pen because I'm not actively pursuing it right now. At some point in the future maybe but I don't really have anything that I'm like dying for. The king of pen, the king of pen was that because I always thought it was the Nakaya and then I used the king of pen and realized how much more I wanted one of those. So that became the true grail pen. I have one now. I love it. I use it like nearly every single day and I'm perfectly happy with what I have right now. Plus I'm not keen on spending that kind of money on a pen at the moment because that kind of money right now like four figure money is going into watch funds. Right? So like I'm much happier with the couple of hundred dollar range of pens at the moment than the $900 range for example. So that's kind of where I am. Yep. And I think it's a good place to be.

Brad Dowdy: Like I am super happy with what I have right now.

Myke Hurley: Me too. I'm just looking at my collection here that I keep on my desk and great setup. I'm very pleased.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So Bijou asks, how's the finger? So you follow me on Instagram. You saw me making an obscene gesture at everybody, both Americans and British. With a bandage around my right middle finger, I sliced it doing dishes on Christmas morning. How do you do the dishes, man?

Brad Dowdy: It was a rogue piece of broken glass down in the drain. So like the drain clogged. Oh, man. So the water was filling up. I stuck my hand down and did a little swish maneuver and came up not good. Well, plungers are for it, Brad. So yeah. So I had an emergency room visit and four stitches later. It's much better now. We took the stitches out this morning at the house. Dr. Dowdy took the stitches out this morning and it's looking good. So it'll be just fine. So much better, much better shape. But my Christmas morning involved an emergency room visit and four stitches. So glad that's over with. So. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Mord Schoengrig. Brad, do you have a theme of the year? And I kept this in here, even though we already talked about it because I wanted to reiterate it. I think experimentation is going to be my theme of the year. Like get out of the norms, get out of what I expect out of myself and try new things, try different things as far as the stationary world goes. I like to experiment. Like I've always experimented with like Japanese stationary, you know, the weird and wonderful Japanese stationary. But I want to experiment, you know, with other things and fountain pen inks is kind of the start of that. And we'll figure out what else it is from there. But year of experimentation for me. Nice. Do you actually have a theme? Yeah, man.

Myke Hurley: I assume that this individual is referencing the Cortex Yeli themes. Yeah, which I haven't, I haven't listened to that yet. I downloaded it. So I have two, but I won't spoil them. Okay. Just in case people got that episode in their queue. I will actually say as well, by the way, that this episode of Cortex, episode 79, might be my favorite episode we've ever done. Okay, good. So if you've never listened to the show before, I recommend this as a starting point because we also, if you also don't even know what Cortex Yeli themes are, we spend a significant portion of the episode explaining kind of why we set Yeli themes, what they are. We review our Yeli themes from 2018 and talk about 2019, which also includes a project, a new project that I think might be of interest to Panatic listeners. So I'll talk more about this as time goes on, but I don't want to, I don't want to spoil anything right now because the episode just came out the day before we record this. So go listen to it. It's, it is a couple of hours, but it, trust me, it's worth your time.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Look Tara says, my teacher friend pays me in pens to help her grade papers. That sounds like a pretty awesome gig. It's a pretty sweet, oh, it's a pretty sweet deal, but I am running out of pens in the Lamy Safari Pilot Metro price range. Any recommendations? Currently, I have three metros, a Safari, an All Star, an Eco, and a Go. School starts again soon.

Brad Dowdy: we got to go ink. I just, I think we need to get some ink into these pens. You're, if, if that's the range we're shopping in, you're, you've got it covered. Like, I mean, I could tell you other things like Pilot Preras or, you know, you've already got the best ones. Sailor Lacools, but all of these are better.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Um, I think you need to expand into notebooks and inks and I hate that I'm not answering your question directly, but it's so well covered here. I don't know what else to tell you. You don't have a Kaweco Sport. That's about the only thing missing out of this grouping, um, that I could, that I could recommend is one of the Kaweco Classics or Kaweco Sports, which are fantastic. They just came out with some new colors, but, um, you know, maybe you're covered up in ink too, but I, that's kind of where I'm, what I'm thinking. All right. Be Council 87 wants to go to their first pen show this year. St. Louis, Atlanta, and Ohio shows are within reasonable driving distance. I want to go for the experience and the people more than buying pens. Which would you recommend? No question. I mean, it's not really a fair question. No. We're not going to give you a fair and balanced response. St. Louis and Ohio.

Myke Hurley: We can't really help you here. Atlanta's the best one. I mean, and genuinely as well, I'm sure the St. Louis show is amazing. I'm sure the Ohio show is amazing. But if you listen to this podcast and enjoy it, Atlanta is the one for you because that's where we will be. And it's where listeners to this show will be. And we can guarantee to you that the experience of spending time with the people is going to be amazing in Atlanta because it always has been. So it's

Brad Dowdy: one of the best people shows that there is. It's a very, it's a small-ish show with not like a big bar socializing area, but everyone just makes it work and everyone gets together and we always have something to do. It's a very, since there's not a lot to do outside of the hotel in that area where the Atlanta show is, everyone kind of stays, kind of stays in, which makes it kind of... To go to that pizza place, that pizza bar thing,

Myke Hurley: that's going to make a big difference. Waffle House. Waffle House. Obviously Waffle House. But some stuff is open across the way, I think, because the Atlanta pen show has been such a success, obviously. They are a bunch of new things, so I'm really excited.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Atlanta pen show is more than a pen show just because I think we do, the podcast there makes it a really neat kind of show experience that you can't get everywhere.

Fibber McGee: Mm-hmm.

Pen Show Discussion Shift

Brad Dowdy: All right. Fibber says, what pen was on the desk of Queen Elizabeth during her Christmas speech? Did you see this, Myke? Oh, by the way, dates are up for Atlanta.

Myke Hurley: We should share those. Oh, yes. We should, but I don't have them right in front of me. Atlanta pen show will be April 5th to 7th, so it's early this year. Yeah. First weekend in April. We are working on the Kickstarter campaign. We are going to be doing that again, and obviously Atlanta is one of the huge parts of that, so book now, I guess. It's why we exist. Yeah. Yep, so we will be there. We can't wait, and we hope to see you there April 5th to 7th.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, perfect. All right, so the Queen Elizabeth Christmas speech, is that a must-see TV at home for you? Yeah, but I missed it by accident this year for, like, the first time. Gotcha. Gotcha. Did you catch it on replay? I haven't yet, no. So, apparently, like, I only saw the pictures afterwards where everyone was asking, what pen is she using? What pen is she using? So, I went to the huge Reddit fountain pens group, which is actually pretty amazing, and I knew they would have some dissertations on what pen she was using, and apparently, it's the same pen as last year, and it's a Parker Dual Fold International, and that's kind of what it looks like from the pictures. It's a lot to say it's the same pen.

Myke Hurley: It's probably not the same pen. They have the pictures, Myke. Are you doubting Reddit? I 100% doubt that it is the same pen, and we talk, like, I'm talking here that, like, it might be a Parker Dual Fold, but it's not the same one. Come on. Did you look at the pictures? Yeah, I looked at the pictures.

Brad Dowdy: You think she just has

Fibber McGee: one of them?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's a standard black double ring Parker Dual Fold. No, do I think she has one of them? No, but I think it's, she might have 20 of them, but it's the same. That's what I mean. It's the same model.

Myke Hurley: It's the same model, yeah, yeah, and I'm not saying that people are saying it's the same one, but I just wanted to say that, like, I don't believe it's going to be the same one. Maybe it's her favorite one.

Fibber McGee: Myke, it's not going to be, though, surely. Pedantic. Pedantic. I'm not being pedantic. I'm just trying to help.

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's wrap it up on some knowledge here, Myke. I love this link from Tautsu, and this is a link to a post on maybe my favorite pen blog in the world, which is Chronikos Estilograficos, which is Bruno Taut's treatise on mostly Japanese pens, and I'll just leave this link for y'all to read, because it's a little long, and I want to read the whole thing, but what we have always called, or I have always called, a kimono, like, that goes on a pen, like a single sheath pen wrap, like you get in a Nakaya. I've always called it a kimono. A lot of other people call it a kimono. Apparently, it might be called a katana bakuro, which means a bag for the sword. So, I think y'all should just go read this post, see what you think, and decide if we are actually using the term kimono incorrectly for this single sheath pen sleeve. So, it's very cool. I love this post. This is the kind of stuff that I really get into. I don't know why, it's just me, but I thought it was super cool.

Myke Hurley: All right, so that does it for this week. Thanks to FreshBooks, Pen Chalet, and Eero for their support of this show. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and knock.co. Brad is a Twitch streamer as well, twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me online, I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter and Instagram. Brad is penaddict on Instagram. Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. These are too many things. You should play this section at like 0.5 times speed so you can pick up all the stuff we're throwing down. And I want to thank you for listening. We'll be back next time for another episode. Once again, Happy New Year to you all. You can find links for this episode at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 340. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.