The Pen Addict 371/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	371
Title:	Very Friendly Pens
Release Date:	August 7th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 371
Audio File:	Audio Episode 371
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 371
Length:	6464 min <br />1.067 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 371. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by a very excited Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I am pretty excited. I mean, I'm generally excitable. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is about this show. You know, after 371 of them, you'd think I'd be less than excited. But I just am, Myke. I just love doing this show with you and our listeners and talking about stationery.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Brad Dowdy: Kind of weird. That's what we do, man.

Live Show Announcement

Myke Hurley: Talking about kind of weird. We're doing a big live show in San Francisco. A big RelayFM celebration for our fifth anniversary. We've spoken about that in the past. If you're going to be at the SF Pen Show, you should get yourself a ticket to this if you haven't already. There's not a lot of tickets left, actually. So if you haven't done that, don't sleep on it. Get it now. And we're going to be playing Family Feud with RelayFM hosts. If you're not sure what Family Feud is, so there'll be a series of teams and they'll be answering questions. The question is basically for you to guess the most popular answer amongst a survey of people. The people that are going to be surveyed are RelayFM listeners. You will find a link in the show notes to the RelayFM anniversary Family Feud survey. Please complete the survey because you will be going towards helping us with the answers for the questions that our wonderful RelayFM hosts will be participating in. So that episode, by the way, will be released on the Connected feed a couple of days later. So maybe probably the next day. So you will be able to hear this live show. So if you can't make it in person, it will be recorded, obviously, because we are podcasters and it will be released within probably 24 hours of the recording.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just so we're clear, I'm not allowed to look at this document, right? No, it's best not to. It's probably suggested. Yeah, like I don't want to ruin it. You don't want to think about it beforehand. No, and I'm very familiar with the Family Feud style of things.

Myke Hurley: It's known as Family Fortunes in the UK. Same format. If you're familiar with Family Fortunes, you'll know what Family Feud is.

Brad Dowdy: Same terribly awkward host? Just as a general style of hosting, it's very awkward. Sure, can be. Yeah, yeah. We have enough people for four families. This is going to be a very large, awesome event, and I can't wait to see. We're all just going to be like randomly assigned teams, right? Kind of like drawing names out of a hat or whatever.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if we've mentioned this publicly yet, but I do. So me and Stephen are going to be together in the days leading up to it, and we're planning on doing a live stream random drawing of the teams. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I need to. Yeah. Hopefully I'm there or available to listen because that'll be that show in itself will be a blast.

Myke Hurley: And it will be up to the teams to assign their team captain and their team name. So you've got that in your future. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Great.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because we all like to step out and be the leaders of our own little teams. You know us. This is going to be fun. I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. It's the Thursday night before the Friday of the pen show. FYI. You did mention that just to kind of paint a picture. If people are going to have time early to be out there, consider this. It should be fun. It's going to be nuts. And I'm very excited and definitely avoiding clicking that link. I'm a good boy and I will not go down that path. But I will share it with all of our listeners to go in and see. And don't spoil me. Don't tell me what questions are in there about the things. All right. So what have we got next? I launched a, well, launch is maybe too big of a term, but I started a Panatic newsletter option on the website. And this is something that came out of my retreat a few weeks ago. You know, just working on business things and other things. And people were like, well, how's your, what kind of newsletter following do you have on your site? And I'm like, well, I don't really have one because I've never really had any need for one or don't really have anything to say. Other than people have always asked for, hey, can I get your blog posts in mail? So I figured, well, let me at least start with that. And so I did. So I created just a newsletter that you can sign up for to get all the Panatic blog posts in your mail if you would like. And as a bonus, I'll be moving the infrequent Tuesday tool set feature that I used to post on the blog as a more permanent feature for this newsletter. So every Tuesday, I'll write like one extra post, one extra newsletter a week outside of the blog feed. Just talking about things that I've used this week and the past week. And, you know, I like kind of having that little current, current what I'm using conversation. And the Tuesday tool set seems to be like a good feature for that. And I wanted to give an impetus to sign up for the newsletter for a little bit something different than just getting all the blog posts in your inbox, which can be a lot. It's daily. You know, like this is all kind of up in the air. Like I could schedule like a weekly digest or whatever. But, you know, some people seem to like it daily. I'm getting feedback.

Myke Hurley: I would like to be able to just have the tool set.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's the feedback I've gotten. And I think I'll be able to manage that without like changing hardly anything. I think I can just, I mean, one of the other reasons I wanted to do this is I wanted to use a new platform to me called ConvertKit, which is a different email platform than I've used before. And I got to meet with one of the one of the higher ups in that company and really like the product. So I wanted to to do that. So, yeah, I think I'll just be able to take this list segment out the Tuesday tool set people who just request that. So I just got to figure out how to do that and not have, you know, like multiple lists going, just have like this one sign up list. And then we can just have like a Tuesday tool set email list.

Myke Hurley: Yes, I would like that. Like I would totally like that because then you would have my email address. And if you wanted to use it for things in the future, like I can choose if I would let you do that. Right. Which is another way that you would manage that kind of thing. But I would I already subscribe to the pen addict and an RSS reader. So I don't. They also need it to my email address, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So that's something I'll be looking at this week just to see how to segment that off. And it's also this is like a learning experience for me. Like, you know, newsletters are newsletters are good. They're good business practices for someone who runs their own business. And this is something I should have. So I'm also using it in that aspect. Right. This is not the pen addict members newsletter, which is very different and much more thorough.

Myke Hurley: That is a part that I spend a lot of time, which is a very different situation.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So like I put a lot of time and effort in this and not that I'm going to put not put a lot of time and effort in getting this newsletter. Right. But once I do, it's kind of, you know, kind of self-fulfilling type of thing. It's just something that I should have on the blog if people are interested in it. And I'm still working on figuring out the best way. But I announced that this week and I was excited about it. So, yeah, it's cool. I'm glad to have done it.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Mail Time

Brad Dowdy: You got real mail, not digital mail this week. Right. And what did you get in the mail?

Myke Hurley: I got some smoke pens.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, what? Multiple? Like more than one?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I need to ask you about this because I ordered two. Okay. But I got three.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. What did you order?

Myke Hurley: So I ordered the two, the limited ones, the Orange Crush and the Joker.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Pen Discussion Begins

Myke Hurley: They were the ones that I ordered and I have a blue one. Okay. And I don't, I don't know why. And I wanted to ask you as the, the, the, the, one of the men behind the plan.

Brad Dowdy: So Brian, my partner in SpokePen packed and filled your order. I was not involved in this at all. Um, so when I met up with him this weekend, we spent all weekend, um, this past weekend building pens and yours had already shipped before then. He told me that he sent you a little extra. I guess we'll, we'll consider that like podcaster perks, you know, blogger perks, you know, he's just like, Hey, I like this blue. And I think maybe Michael like it too, or maybe he can give it to someone. And, you know, that was like the outside of the Orange Crush. That was the single most popular color. Just the straight blue. Yeah. Just the straight blue. So, you know, he just thought, Oh, maybe Myke would like to see a different color.

Myke Hurley: And I'm very thankful for it.

Brad Dowdy: What do you think about the pens? Cause did you get to, I guess you've tried some of my early prototypes. Like when we were together in Atlanta, like I've had various models floating around unfinished or just randomly built all kinds of things. So what do you think about the final version?

Myke Hurley: I mean, they, they look wonderful and they feel great. They're nicely, they got a good weight to them. Of course, the, the real money is in the cap, right? The magnetic click that I just did. Um, the magnet makes it funny to have more than one of them because they won't leave each

Brad Dowdy: other alone. No, they're very friendly pens. Very friendly pen, Myke.

Myke Hurley: And I've noticed as well, like, I mean, I'm sure this is the same with any pen with a magnet in it. It sticks to things or things stick to it. That's just a thing, right? They, they are attractive. Yeah, they are. That's a good, that's a good way of putting it. Um, yeah, I really like it. I mean, like this is, this is not a typical pen that I use, right? Like it is not a fountain pen. But in the same way that I undeniably love the spoke pencil for reasons I can't explain, I feel very similar about this product too, because the lineage is, is 100% there. Right? So like, the refill is great. Like I got the 0.5 refill, right? They were the ones that just came in the, in the packaging. Um, which, which refill is it again? Can you remind me?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It's the Uniball Signo DX. That's it. Signal DX. That's it. Also referred to as the UM-151. And even the refill has a different name, but generally they're referred to as the DX.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So like, I'm, I have used that refill many times in the past, right? And, and like it, right? Like it was one of the first pens that I would use, like I pick up in the office, like the Uniball Signo or whatever. So. Right. I like it a lot. I would like some recommendations from you for color refills, because I want them to do some color matching. Okay. So what would you recommend for me to be looking at?

Brad Dowdy: My personal favorite DX refills are Lavender Black, which has a good, like I like purple in general, but purple gel links tend to be a little bit bright. This one's a little bit darker and which I, which I enjoy. I also like the blue black, which is great. Um, the orange, I actually don't use a lot. It is really bright. It is like eye searing orange, which is, it's a little, it's a little, little bright. Um, and then whichever they call their bright blue color. I don't know if theirs is called sky blue or just light blue, whichever one is that it's actually not as light as you would think it would be. And it pairs up really well with like the blue black. Um, and then their stock red is good if you want like a, like a highlight, um, highlight color for whatever you're writing, things like that.

Myke Hurley: So I'm looking for UM 151, right? That's my, all right.

Brad Dowdy: That's actually the pin model, but then you'll be able to search, Hey, these refills fit this pin model. And I'll have to look in. Yep. So there should be like 30 colors available in 0.5, 0.38 and 0.28. I know you want the teeny tiny 0.28, right? You know me. Yeah. Not even, I don't even, I don't even use those regularly. They're a little bit too sharp, too sharp and fine. Yeah. I use the 0.38s. All the colors that I use are 0.38s. Um, and they're great right now. The one I'm using the most is a blue black, but lavender black is a close number two. It's a really good color.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm going to have to track down a good place to get some of these refills. I think I get some different colors and try them out. But yeah, I really like it. Like this is, this is going to be one of those pens. I will serve a couple of different purposes for me because I have multiple of them. So it's great. It will be a pen I keep on my desk as a quick grab pen, you know, like grab something, scribble something down. And also it's going to be a perfect backpack pen for me because it is durable. Yeah, that's where. Sure. It's easy. It's not going to explode on me, right? Like this is like a really good throw in a backpack pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I've traveled with mine a bunch. That is my backpack pen of choice. Um, it has not even blinked in the last two flights I've taken and it's just really, really easy and hits the road. It's durable, throw it in a pocket, throw it in a bag. I've been real happy with how it has traveled so far. And, uh, I have one that just lives in my backpack. Totally.

Myke Hurley: Wonderful. And you've, how are things going with the spoke pen in general? Are you, are you happy? Yeah.

SpokePen Feedback

Brad Dowdy: Um, we're generally, we're happy with the feedback on the pens. People are loving the pens. The feedback has been spectacular. Um, we're really happy with that. We're not happy with the assembly process taking so long. It's taking longer than both of us anticipated. Uh, especially Brian, who is very analytical about these things and like, you know, like has like build timers down to like seconds, like everything's timed and known. And it's just taking longer than anticipated. So we're a little bit over 50% fulfilled. Um, we're cranking out pens every day. We, we built probably parts for 300 pens this weekend and shipped probably 150 orders just over Saturday and Sunday. So that was a big chunk. And that's still that, that, that, that's what got us to like the 50% fulfillment. So we still have a ways to go. Hopefully we get done in August. It may trickle into September, but I mean, big picture. We're like good on timeframe. We're great on quality and we're a little bit behind on assembly time. So that's kind of our takeaway so far. Um, especially after, after this weekend and seeing like how hard we work this weekend, how far we got and how far we still had to go in the process. So it was a, it was an eyeopening weekend for just how hard we, we pushed it to get everything done this weekend. And then by the time the weekend was over, it's like, there's still a lot to go.

Myke Hurley: You'll get the, we'll get there.

Brad Dowdy: No, we're the feedback on the pen is what keeps us going. Yeah. Right. Like that. Everyone's loving it. We're ready to get this fulfilled so we can then have it in the store. And then we can start even doing more crazy stuff. Like the assembly process is what it is because we designed it that way on purpose. Right. So we could have all these different colors and different types of pens and different things like that. So it's just, you know, sorting all that out, figuring out the best ways, best practices and realizing that the assembly time, since we are assembling the pens ourselves is longer than we anticipated. So not, no big deal. We just, you know, as usual, you never know about timing these things correctly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, and yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, it's all this work and this will never happen again with this product, right? That you'll need to be shipping out this many at once.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Exactly. So it's good for us to sit there and do this because we just come up with like, we've spent, you know, countless hours together and we just come up with all these other product ideas while we're doing it. So we're, we're excited to get out there and get into kind of phase two of what spoke pen and spoke design is going to be. So we're just, we're just, we're more anxious than anything, right? We were anxious to get the pens in people's hands because we personally are anxious to get into like phase two of what this is going to be long-term. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Cause this is like a thing that you two are in together now, right? Like that's one of the big differences.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. This is not a one-off like campaign product. We're going to continue on with this. It's based on like all the feedback that we've gotten. We're just, we're in like, this is going to be a go.

Myke Hurley: That's really exciting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited. I did hear that you might, there might've been something else besides like an extra spoke pen in the box. I did hear a story from Brian.

Myke Hurley: What do you want to tell me what these are? I've got some fancy Bic pens, right? What is it? B-A-U-X. Is that it?

Brad Dowdy: Box. Yes. It's the box pen. So that's Brian's company on his own. He did this project on Kickstarter. I remember this. Yeah. He made like the fancy barrels for like the Bic stick ballpoint pens, like the fancy barrel for the cheap pen. Right. But, and it's still like a super inexpensive barrel, like all things considered. It's like 12, 15 bucks, something like that. The, I guess selling points, I guess it's twofold selling points for the box pen. It's one, it's an upgraded barrel. If you like that style of pen, right? You get a fancy barrel and cool colors. Two, you can get them laser etched with various words, phrases, sayings, logos. What? I don't, I did, I swear, I'm not like, I'm not setting you up. I do not know what is on these pens. I genuinely do not. He just told me he did it and that he put stuff on there, but I genuinely do not know what is on there. If anything, I'm assuming there's something on there. That's kind of his thing. I mean, the laser machine sitting in the room where we're making the pen. So I'm sure he did something.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the, uh, he made two. I've got two sent to me. One, uh, says at iMike on it. Okay. And then the other is for, it just says, uh, Idina on it. He sent one for Idina too.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, smart man. Yep. Smart man. Smart man. Well, maybe, yeah, maybe he's figuring like, uh, this maybe isn't a mic pen. So, you know, maybe I'll, I'll, uh, butter up his wife and see, see what she thinks about it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What color are they? I don't even know what color they are.

Myke Hurley: Uh, mine is blue and Idina's is like a pinky purple color. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. It was very nice of him to do. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Got lots of extras.

Brian's Interests

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of Brian's thing. He is into so much stuff like between, like, I don't know. That's a whole nother podcast. We'll have to have him on one day just to talk about all the things he's invented and created. Um, I got to actually learn about some of the things he like was part of creating in his previous life, which, uh, that's a good story for another time. We'll save those for him.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So my spoke pin is going pretty well. You know, it's, we're a little behind dates wise. You have a product that I wanted to status check on because as it turns out, like I'm gonna have to eat my word saying like, I didn't think this would be a product for me. And even you thought it might not be a product for me. And I'm kind of thinking maybe it is a product for me. And that's your theme system journal.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And so now I was not in the first run because I was like, uh, I don't need this. Right. Like, um, we've talked about this, like I'm buy things because I think I'm going to use them. And I think I do need this now, which means I can't get it because you sold out the first batch in like three minutes. And where are we at now with the rest of them?

Myke Hurley: I tend not to talk too much about it because like to describe exactly the, where we are in the process, because I get nervous of people then expecting something to be arriving when it might not be. But as it stands right now, my understanding is today I am being sent production samples of the second run from China. So they will should be with me in a few days. And if I'm good with those, then they will be sent over to Cotton Bureau, our fulfillment partner, ready for sale, hopefully very soon. But a million caveats, right? Like this time we were delayed because of rolling blackouts instituted by the Chinese government.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Right. Right. This is fun stuff. Good times. It is fun. I do find it fun. But it's just kind of my idea of like, I get so hesitant to mention things because it's just like, oh, well, I actually have no idea how long it's going to, it's going to take until I can get these things. So.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I thoroughly enjoyed the last Cortex as you were going through the, like the manufacturing steps and just like what changes would involve. And like some of Gray's points were like right on about like you change one thing and you might like you add one page to the thing and you might push back the whole project by a year. That's not a joke. Like. Oh, yeah. Seeing you in this involved in this now, it's, it's just a whole different world. And I'm glad you're getting to experience it. And I mean that in a positive way. Like it's fun. Like the outcome is fun, but it's just, it's messy to get there sometimes. It just is.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's wild. It really, really is wild.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'll, I'll put a date out there for you. So if everything goes good, all systems go, people might be able to get them in a month or so ish.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yeah. Because, because they will be put on a plane to me, but the rest will be put on a boat. Maybe. Right. We are still put on a plane, but it still takes weeks. Actually. I think we're still going to put them on a plane, but it takes weeks because of customs, because the customs process is becoming so much more complicated. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Shocker.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, September-ish just in time for planner season. Planner season is going to be fun this year. I'm like hyped up about planner season. I'm also hyped up about the San Francisco Pen Show. I'm like, I know we already talked about the relay, the relay part of it. But after hearing all the feedback from our friends at DC this year, neither of us made it to the DC Pen Show, but I heard lots of great things. You know, I heard some, you know, some small issues like you're familiar with that hotel and ballroom and set up and they still attempt to use that back hallway way in the back where we were the first year, which is just a travesty. And I hate that they use that. And that was an issue for some people. But I think just overall, you know, DC kind of is what it is now. It's big and huge and busy and fun for a lot of people. And, you know, it's got the regular downsides, like the hotels, the location's not that great and whatever, but just hearing people's experience from DC has me ready for San Francisco. Are you ready for San Francisco?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There is a lot happening in my life between now and the San Francisco Pen Show. But I am very excited for it all the same.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. You have even more to do than me.

Myke Hurley: I've gone to Memphis, Tennessee first. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you have work trip preceding the San Francisco trip, which is a lot of work trip as well, but then some fun as well. So super busy. I know you'll be heading out soon. And I've started to see like some of the San Francisco Pen Show exclusive stuff pop up on the internet. It's like Papier Plume is going to have one of their inks there. I didn't even know they were attending the show. And I love Patrick and Renzo. And I'm not sure. Patrick's usually been the one traveling. So hopefully I'll get to see them there. And, you know, speaking of manufacturing, Nock is trying to get two new cases done for the show. And that's been a nightmare for me. And if I don't get them, it's going to really affect our production, our sales at the show, I believe. And so I'm sweating that hardcore. You know, we're going to have a new color of the Coleman, which is our standup pen case that we sell at Pen Shows. And we're going to launch a new case, which that's the one I'm having. I'm most excited about. And that's the one I'm having trouble with the dates on to whether I'm going to get them in time. So I'll be on a phone call as soon as we hang up from this. So, you know, it's like I'm stressing about that. But, you know, there'll be lots of show exclusives that I'm looking forward to. I know Van Espenz and Joey Feldman will have some. I'm sure Rickshaw will make some cases. I'm sure lots of companies will have some inks. And we're going to have all kinds of companies from the Asian market over there. We're going to see Daryl from Musuba, who you never met, and you will thoroughly enjoy his presence. He's such a good guy. And I'm excited to get you into the San Francisco Pen Show experience. So it's going to be fun. I need it. Like I typed into the show document, not the curse word part, but the inject it all into my veins part. I'm ready. I think I just really missed DC. Like there's no physical way I could have gone to DC this year. So like I'm fine with that fact, but like watching it just made me like anxious for the next show and that next show for me, San Francisco. So I'm like, I'm there. I'm ready.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm really excited too. And it's soon. It's because it's very soon. It's going to be fun. It's something that I haven't experienced before. So I'm excited for that. So yeah, I really, really can't wait.

NotCo Help Needed

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So I put a call out for help at the NotCo table, which I've never like totally put out a call for help before. We're going to be very busy this show in non-show floor aspects of the show, if you will. We have a lot of responsibilities all weekend for the show. So I am looking for help if you get this message. I have a bunch of people lined up already, but shoot me an email. Maybe we can see what spaces I have for table help. I just have one table, so I don't need 10 of us back there. But I will have some times where I will be away from the table and Myke will be away from the table for maybe hours at a time. So we're looking for a little bit of help this weekend. And I did get everyone's messages on Slack and have been talking to people, setting some times up. So we should feel good about that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Thank you to everybody that tries to chip in and that kind of stuff. Yeah. We could really, really. We do actually really need to help. Because usually I was talking to a dinner about this.

Myke Hurley: Atlanta, we do with like four people sometimes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And so. Five even with Kevin. Yes. Kevin there. Well, I guess Kevin makes four. So yeah. No, it's a lot.

Myke Hurley: And so, you know, I'm expecting San Francisco to be much busier because it is much busier. So I was thinking, hmm, we might need some help.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So that should be good, though. I'm looking forward to that. It should be easy.

Myke Hurley: Easy peasy. All right. We've got anything else? Or should we move into our break?

Break Announcement

Brad Dowdy: Well, let's hit our break and then we'll talk about some other things that I'm working on just in figuring out my stationary life.

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Brad Dowdy: Can I elaborate on that real quick? Yeah. They pushed an update this morning. They do a lot of just behind the scenes updates, which is why I use them that I don't have to do updates for. So in your posting page now, they've added two completely new tabs to your post, to like your content post when you're editing and, you know, putting in all the words and images. They have a tab now for SEO, which gives you search results previews and you can do extra SEO titles and SEO descriptions. I don't do any of that. I never have. I've never written for like Google search purposes, like, you know, to my detriment, maybe who knows. But, you know, I don't I don't really I've never found the need to do that. But you can do that. And there's a complete new social tab, which gives you like the social preview and you can add extra images. So like the features that they add sometimes is just like really impressive. And it's just like, boom, they're there. And here you go. Start using the start using these new tools. And I was like, so I spent some time playing around with this with them this morning. It was really fun. So good job by you, Squarespace.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If you've got them, want to give it a go, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I gave the closet of doom ago yesterday, Myke. So one of our recurring themes is how much stuff I have. And like, I like my stuff. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to pretend I have too much stuff, even though I do. But I enjoy the stuff. Like, I'm happy to have the stuff. I'm a stuff guy. And my stuff happens to be stationary based. And I love it. The problem is I don't get to use all that stuff, which we've talked about for years and years and years. And how do you best do that? And, you know, what are ways you can rotate through your pens? And we've shared spreadsheets and databases and all of these things. And that's kind of not my jam and how I use pens and papers and pencils to make sure everything kind of gets gone through and gone through fairly and used regularly. It's just for me, it's not really possible.

Brad Dowdy: But that puts me in the position of kind of losing track of some of my favorites. So what I did yesterday when I was having this thought, it was actually while I was writing the Tuesday tool set post, which was completely unrelated. I wrote it about a backpack. And it just got me thinking, was like, what other stuff am I not using in my closet? So I went in the closet of doom. And I didn't go, like, with my eyes closed or in the dark because that could end up badly with all of these sharp objects in there. But I did kind of just, like, look around, reach around, and grab things randomly to use. I said, I'm going to go into the closet of doom. I'm going to grab five things. And I don't care what those things are. I'm going to take those five things and I'm going to use them. And I'm going to write down something about them. It could be good. It could be bad. It could be whatever. The impetus for this is the Lamy Pico stares at me every time I go into the closet of doom because on one of my shelves about eye level where I have one of Dudek's blocks, I have the white Lamy Pico just sitting there. And it stands out. It's a really, really uniquely designed pen. So I always see it and I never, ever use it. I bet I haven't used this pen in six months. And I love this pen, Myke. I love the Lamy Pico. It's just such a unique pen. It's extremely well designed. I don't know in retrospect that white was the best choice for the barrel design for reasons you can suss out when you look at pictures of this. This was your choice. With the Lamy. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm just saying like I wanted to just say like in case people thought you meant that that was the choice that Lamy made. But like a bunch of colors.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I picked this one on purpose because I really like white pens. In retrospect, this one's a little interesting in white. But the other colors look great. And the mechanism to where it retracts and extends is very unique to this pen. And the refill is proprietary to this pen. And I have a fine blue ballpoint refill for this. It's called the M22 is their refill. And it's a really good ballpoint. Like I talk about Lamy's ballpoints. You know, they're not the best. They're not jet streams or anything like that. But they're pretty darn good for what they are. So I want to use the Lamy Pico. So I grabbed it as part of this group. And now it's in my hand right now. And I just adore this pen. So I have to figure out ways to use things that I like this much on a more regular basis. So trying to figure that out. And this little discovery game I'm playing is kind of forcing me to do that. And hopefully that leads to other things and other thoughts and other ideas. That's what I'm looking for here, right? You know, we get, or I say we, me, I get stuck sometimes with, you know, two or three fountain pens, use them until the ink's gone and not making room for other stationery in my life. This is my idea on how to kind of freshen up the stationery rotation on my desk. Like once a week, I would like to do this once a week, play with these new toys and then put them back up. And, you know, maybe some will stick around longer. Some just go back away because they're not that useful. And then I get a new batch of goods. So the second one, I have two gigantic pencil cups in the closet of doom. So I just reached in, grabbed out a singular pencil. This time it was the Musgrave test scoring pencil. I remember receiving this pencil. I think I got it in a CW Pencils subscription box, like their quarterly subscription. And I was like, oh, this is a cool pencil. And then it just gets set to the side. Like I didn't have time to use it then. And at some point it just got cleaned up off of my desk and put in with all the rest of the pencils. Well, what I got to learn about this in this little discovery process, I grabbed the test scoring pencil, sharpened it up, looked at it online, and learned that this is made from artificial graphite. I didn't know that was such a thing. I mean, like I've seen like the Wopax and those fake plastic kind of pencils that are awful. But this one's obviously made for like computer score testing. You know, we call them in the U.S. Scantrons. I don't know what they were called in the U.K. If there was a particular system where you, you know, basically fill in the bubbles or squares and those sheets get run through a computer and graded. But this pencil was made specifically for that because it has a reflectiveness. Like you can't see it with your naked eye. Like to me, it just looks like a dark pencil, right? I'm not looking at it like, hey, there's a runner's reflective outfit running down the street reflectiveness. But it makes it easier for those test scoring systems. And therefore, it's the test scoring pencil. It's really, really dark. It feels completely like graphite. Like you wouldn't think it was some artificial graphite, which is what the description on CW Pencils said. And it's really nice. Like I love this pencil. It's cool. It's silver. It looks like it's from someone's desk in the 1970s, right? It looks like it's like out of the IBM labs in the 1970s, you know, and there's probably like a coffee stain probably somewhere on this pencil from, you know, probably a cigarette burn maybe underlying this silver thing. Like it just looks like a super old classic pencil. It's kind of kind of my jam. I really like it. So these are the things that I enjoy. As you can tell, I get a lot out of this, right? I'm sitting here like giddy telling you about my Lamy Pico and my stupid Musgrave test scoring pencil. And I don't do this enough. Like I really need to do this enough or do it more. And that's when I get to yell about the Pentel Energel Clean-A. Clean-A? Clean-A? Fountain. A fountain pen. Gel ink pen.

Brad Dowdy: This pen, Myke, is so good. And Pentel is doing the thing that they do with their secondary Energel products and that is not pushing them hard enough. The Pentel Energel is a spectacular gel ink pen. There's no doubt about it. It writes wonderfully. The colors are great. People love them for their smoothness. So they have their base Energel line and they have like 10 colors in that. And then they do some randomness. Like they did the Pentel Euro needle tip. Which I find to be one of their best pens. Because it's a needle tip and they go down to 0.3 millimeters and 0.4 millimeters. The Pentel Energel Clean-A is the same idea.

Brad Dowdy: And they're just doing kind of different barrel colors. And going down to like 0.3, 0.4. And black and blue and blue black maybe. But what happens here is they don't go all out and use all the ink colors in their main lineup. When I think that would actually make these products more successful. Because they're really good. This Clean-A lineup needs to be the Zebra Sarasa Clip lineup or the Pilot Juice lineup. Something right under their main lineup like the Pilot G2. Or this mainline Zebra Sarasa that are the most popular products. The most sold products. And then they have the sub-brand like the Pilot Juice. That just takes that and just runs with it on colors and tip sizes and barrel styles. I just think they get lost in the shuffle. Like I don't know why Pentel makes these pens. And then they just kind of exist for a minute. And they're hot because they're really good. And then they just kind of go away. They don't ever expand on them or put anything behind them. Like Pilot really put a push behind the juice. Right? I remember, you know, they had that whole website that we played around with. With all the different juice colors and things like that. The Zebra Sarasa Clip. Zebra did like a whole campaign where you could like vote for all these colors. And neither of these are their mainline products. And I just think Pentel is kind of dropping the ball here with the Energel. Although, if you remember back to, I don't know, a couple months ago, Kukuyo bought a stake in Pentel. So, I wonder if maybe things will change. Get at me, Kukuyo. We'll see if I can help you out.

Brad Dowdy: Hired gun here for all your product ideas. Kukuyo. Lamy. Still waiting on your call, Lamy. Where you at?

Myke Hurley: Yep. What were you going to be? Creative director or something? Creative director. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Creative director. Yeah. Yeah. Not CEO. I don't need to run the business. But, man, they could just do products so much better. Like the Uni Propos double-sided highlighter, Myke. You know you were waiting for this. Like, this is the highlight, get it, of this entire podcast. Just to have you sit there and listen to me talk about highlighters. Highlighters don't get enough love, Myke. But Japan does highlighters better than anyone else. All you Statler highlighter folks, you can get at me. I understand, like, the Statler highlighters are awesome and they're refillable and have, you know, all kinds of cool stuff. I like me a Statler highlighter. They're classics. I like me a Statler highlighter.

Highlighting Discussion Shift

Brad Dowdy: Japan does it better. Japan has ink windows or clear windows in their highlighters so you can actually see what you're highlighting. Now, I'll admit, as I was retesting this highlighter this morning, you kind of have to be, like, right over the top of the page to see through the window to actually read the text. Me, you know, I'm kind of leaned back, you know, my arms out ahead of me. I'm not sitting at, like, a school desk right over the top of my writing to get the benefit from that. But, you know, there's also things that Japan does, like the Kukugyo Beetle Tip highlighter.

Myke Hurley: But the Beetle Tip is one of my favorites.

Brad Dowdy: That's, yeah, that's my number one highlighter. But I grabbed this randomly out of a bag. Like, I have a bag full of pens, like, still in their packaging that I've never reviewed. And, you know, it's just, they kind of get pushed to the side. You know, I don't have a lot to say about highlighters. Hey, these are good highlighters. They're in good colors. They work well.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's not your area of expertise, is it really?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. And there's only so much you can say about a highlighter. But these are really good. The colors are light. The yellow, especially in this Propos lineup, is more of a banana yellow as opposed to, like, fluorescent yellow, like you think from a yellow highlighter. It's a really interesting color. The green is very light, which I like. And it has a really good purple that's not too, too bright. And too saturated. That's what I like about these Propos highlighters.

Brad Dowdy: And finally, Myke, if I'm going to do this game of Discovery, I don't have a name for this. The Closet of Doom Discovery game. I don't know. That's kind of bad. So Chad will come up with a better game name. I have to have paper to write on, right? So I got to pick all these things out. If I'm going to pick all this stuff out, I might as well pick out a new paper, notebook, pad, whatever I have. You'd be wild not to, Brad. It would be just ridiculous. It wouldn't fulfill the needs of this game that I'm playing. So I picked out the Midori MD notebook. They have one called the Light A5 gridded notebook. This is their A5 48-sheet notebooks that are sold in a three-pack.

Brad Dowdy: They're spectacular. I mean, these get so much love in our community, and I never use them. As I was using this, I realized the primary reason I don't use them is because they're a little bit too yellow of a page. Right? I generally like white background pages. Or if it's ivory or cream, I like them to be light. Like Moramun has an off-white background page, and it's nice. This one gets a little bit yellow for me, but the writing experience on the page is excellent. It handles all these pens I just talked about. The Pico, the Musgrave, the Pentel Energel, the highlighters. They all worked well. I used a fountain pen to write about the Midori. It handles fountain pen ink well. There's no bleed. You know, there's no feathering. It's just exceptionally well made. My problem with Midori MD is a problem that they have never really solved, and they just kind of lean into it. Back when the Traveler system was under Midori and not its own product lineup, it's hard to tell what is what in that product lineup because the scope is so huge, and they all look the same. So with the Traveler system, they ended up just numbering them. You know, notebook 01 was blank. Notebook 02 was grid. On and on to like notebook 20 was, you know, trip report agenda. You know, I may have these numbers wrong, but you get the point. They all look the same, and they were differentiated by the number. These Midori MD notebooks, if you pull up a page of Midori MD products, you'll be hit with like 50 of them that all look the same. They all have the same color, the same cover, the same logos, the same designs. And you're going, what is what, and how do I figure all this out? It's a little bit tough. So that's my only kind of takeaway with this Midori MD. It's spectacular, but you're making people work to figure out the product that's going to work best for them. So that was my discovery game, Myke. I enjoyed this. I'm going to do this more often. And I probably can't get to it every week, even though I should, like just for my own personal benefit, because I get to revisit things or I get to try things that I've skipped in the past. And I get to talk about things and share things, which is what I like to do the most. And I like to learn about these different products. And then I can, you know, look at the Pentel Energel Cleaner and say, boy, this is such a spectacular pen. Why don't they do more with this? And I can say, hey, Midori, you know, your paper is spectacular. Make it easier for me to pick out the one that I want. So that's kind of my kind of my jam, even if I only have to have these conversations with myself. So thank you for listening.

Myke Hurley: I should probably play this game at some point in the future, I think.

Myke Hurley: What do you think?

Brad Dowdy: It's yeah, it's refreshing, right? It's like I have all these things and I have these things because I like them. Um, and you get to just kind of mess around with like just different, different things. Like the Pico is an enjoyable pen to write with. Like it's a small pen. It looks like it might be weird or funky, but it's actually a very traditional feeling pen when you write with it. And it's enjoyable and it looks cool and it's fun to click. And, you know, just every little pen. The reason why I have this blog called The Pen Addict, I'm not sure if you've heard of it, is because I obsess over the little things that these little one and two dollar products do that are different. Like this Musgrave pencil is a 45 cent pencil, but I could sit here and talk for five minutes about it because that's how I think about these types of products. And it's fun to me to do this kind of thing. So I need to do it more.

Myke Hurley: So at this point in the episode, we'd usually kind of stop to take an ad before we do. So I'm asked TPA. But today we have something different. We do this every year. It is August, right? So there's a lot of stuff going on. We spoke about like the fifth anniversary show and stuff like that. But that also means that it is RelayFM membership time. We have membership running the whole year. We very, very seldom talk about it. But we do in August. RelayFM memberships start at $5 a month. As a RelayFM member, you get access to a bunch of members on the content, including a monthly behind the scenes newsletter and RelayFM host crossover show, which you can only get as a RelayFM member. You can also get access to some wonderful 5K desktop wallpapers of all of the RelayFM shows. You can get some beautiful wallpapers of your favorite shows. And you get access to a feed full of bonus episodes of RelayFM shows that are published throughout August and September. We do fun things every single year. And last year, we did something a little bit weird and wonderful that was recommended to us by Jeff to try out where I built a Lego set, but Brad had the instructions and we recorded that in real time and it ran for about three hours. Me and Brad were terrified about the response to this or what people might think, but people seemed to love it. So we're doing it again. This time, Brad is going to be building the San Francisco architecture set. I will have the instructions and will be guiding Brad on how to do it. We are recording this tomorrow. It will be out as the first members bonus episode this year on Friday, August 9th. So if you sign up to become a RelayFM member now or at any point in the future, you can get that episode along with every other bonus episode that we've ever published. If you want to go back and listen to last year's Pen Addict special, you can. But if you sign up to become a member of this show or any show, you get access to all of these perks. So you can show your support for this show and RelayFM by going to relay.fm slash Pen Addict and you can see the buttons there are even easier in the show notes. It says support this show. You click that link and you'll be able to sign up immediately and become a member supporting the Pen Addict. But if you want to learn more or support other shows, go to relay.fm slash membership.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. I'm really nervous. I'm really excited. I know because you've done it and now you're on the delivery end and I'm on the execution end. I have the hardest job. It's frightening.

Myke Hurley: I have the hardest job. I know that. You had the hardest job last year and I had the hardest job this year. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because as the instruction holder, you're in charge, right? The builder can just say, well, you need to figure it out and tell me what to do. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Or like describe that piece better.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But I'm actually more intimidated by being on the building side of it. Interesting. All right. Yeah. So like last year, I don't know that I was particularly nervous. I seem to be more nervous, even though we were taking a huge risk last year of whether it's going to be good or not, but the actual task itself, I wasn't nervous about. This year, I'm more nervous about the task itself. So we'll see how it goes. I don't know. I'm sitting here. My desk is surrounded by Legos because that's kind of the room I record where my kids kind of build their Lego sets and things like that. So yeah, don't get them mixed up. I already have a desk sort of cleared. So can I say one comment on membership and then we'll jump into some Ask TPA and get the show wrapped up?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I talked about like the Squarespace and like I don't use the SEO and worry about getting the traffic because the most important thing to me are direct support models like membership. Like you get to support the work we do directly. And that's where I want to put all my effort to, right? I don't worry necessarily about Google search terms because I'm not running Google ads on my blog because I want you to support the blog directly to me directly. Like I don't want to have to worry about metrics and things like that. I want you to enjoy the content we create, hopefully see some value in it, and maybe you want to support us with a membership. That's the model that I try to work with. So having Panatic memberships and Relay FM memberships go to support me and Myke and our families directly. Like this is the big ask that we ask from you guys. Like, you know, I appreciate you like supporting our ad sponsors and things like that. But to have a belief in the work that you do to offer up memberships for people to give you money, like that's a weird thing to me. And it's a big ask. And we try to deliver on that quality in everything that we make. And we just really appreciate y'all supporting us through memberships and buying merchandise and all of these things. So thank you very much. I just wanted to say that.

Listener Support Mention

Myke Hurley: So now that you've been roused into support, click the link in the show notes. It says to become a Relay FM member. Just click the link and then you're good to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So check it all out. The member episodes are awesome. So I don't listen to every... We have too many shows for me to listen to all of our podcasts. I don't even listen to our own podcasts. But I listen to all the member shows because they're generally pretty amazing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a really fun thing that we do every year. I'm working on some wild stuff. Just wild stuff this time, as always.

Brad Dowdy: Cool.

Myke Hurley: Should we do some hashtag RSTPA?

RSTPA Questions Begin

Brad Dowdy: Let's do it. We didn't get to all of them last week. So hopefully people stuck around for at least one more episode to hear their questions. Like this first one from Phil Arley. What do you think of the Platinum Azumo series of pens? There aren't many reviews of them around and I'm interested in what you guys think. They are spectacular. They are... I don't know why I don't own one. They are perfectly priced. They're really high quality. This is Platinum's... We'll have a link in the show notes to what the Azumo is. But we'll have a link in the show notes. And it's kind of Platinum's Arushi series where they do different artwork and just make really nice pen barrels. Really nice nibs. They just feel really, really good. I've picked these up countless times at pen shows going, wow, this is a great pen. Wow, this is a good price. And then never buying one. I just generally have something else. I mean, it's not cheap. They're a lot of money. But relative to what they are and what the landscape of this type of pen brings, I think they're pretty spectacular. Like, I don't know. I just find them to be a good value, a good quality, a good build. And you get those Platinum nibs that are just fantastic. So, yeah, I will... One of these years, I will end up with one. Maybe they'll do a rhodium-plated nib, which is kind of always my thing. That's probably why I've hesitated in the past. Gold nib, gold clip, things like that. But, yeah, I think they're a good deal. And they don't get enough love.

Myke Hurley: Hey, Matt Brady asks, I'm looking for a nice blue-black ink that will work on a variety of paper types. I generally use a fine or extra fine nib on my fountain pens. But some inks that I have tried in certain notebooks, like Moskens, don't dry and set well. What would you recommend?

Brad Dowdy: So, my favorite... I call it kind of the copy paper ink, where you just don't know what paper you're going to be using on a daily basis, whether it's at the office or you're having to grab a legal pad or a notepad. The ones I find to work well are generally the stock manufacturer brands, like Pilot Blue Black is going to be near the top of this. Roaring Cleaner Salix is an iron gall ink, but it's a very well-behaved iron gall ink. That tends to work well on these type of papers. And then Lamy Blue Black, it's a little bit of a dryer ink, which also works well on these type of papers, where you don't want a lot of ink getting into the fibers of the page, because they're generally not designed to handle a fountain pen type of ink. So, those are kind of my off-the-top-of-my-head recommendations, and I just use those inks a lot in general, and they perform very, very well.

Myke Hurley: Next one's from the Inky side. With the magnets in the spoke pen cap and the warning about mag-sensitive objects coming with the pen, did you do any testing with credit cards and phones? I've been worried about EDC-ing in the same pocket as my phone or wallet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'd like to say yes, but no. But I carry the pen around my phone all the time, and that's been a non-issue. I never, like, jammed it next to my credit card on purpose, you know, things like that. It's just a general magnet warning that you kind of need to be careful when you think about it. And there could be something. Yeah, I mean, they're not that strong. I mean, you know, come on. Like, mine's set by my phone all the time, so I don't really, I've never seen any issue with that, but I've never drug it across the back of a credit card. And I'm not very, like, careful with my credit cards. Like, I put hotel room keys next to my credit cards, and that's never been an issue, like, those types of things. So, you know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, my hotel room key goes in my wallet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's just kind of one of those things we need to mention, you know. Don't be crazy or ridiculous with the magnets and the pen. You know, just think about it a little bit, but we've never had any. I've never once had any issues with any of the magnets in these pens and pen caps before.

Myke Hurley: What is the word of, asks, have you ever thought about writing in cursive again? No. No, I don't either. I mean, I do a little, right? Like, I do that mix and match thing, but it's not something that anybody would say was any good.

Brad Dowdy: Right. The reason why it's a no for me, and this is particular to each individual, it's because my print handwriting is very distinctive, and my cursive handwriting is not distinctive, and I don't like it as much, right? So I don't practice it, therefore it's bad. The reverse of that is, well, if I practice it, it could be better and distinctive, but I'm just not interested in putting in the time. If I ever did cursive, it would be more of a hand lettering style that I was just essentially drawing shapes, not writing, like, the alphabet, if that makes sense. So, no, it's not really my thing. But I did have a guy at my retreat a couple weeks ago that was talking to me about practicing his handwriting to make it better again, and he was practicing cursive, and he said, you know, he was, like, showing me the differences, and, like, it really worked. Like, you just, the kicker is, for basic cursive practice, you're going, you're having to pull out manuals that are 100 years old, right? There's no modern cursive practice, because those were kind of done, you know, back in the day. Palmer Method, different things like that. So, I'm never going to go down, like, full cursive writing again, because I enjoy what my handwriting looks like right now. If I didn't, I'd think about it.

Myke Hurley: Alv Writing says, Do you have any outside perspective or recommendations on what a teacher could or should carry and how? I don't worry about price of pen to carry, as I want to hear what you guys think, and I'm open to case, backpack, paper, ink suggestions.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I should do, like, a whole Tuesday tool set on, like, what I think a teacher should carry. Teacher's Tuesday. Teacher Tuesday. You know, paper is probably the main thing for a teacher. You know, I'd want to carry, like, some rhodia pads or notebooks just in my bag or backpack or stashed in my desk that the kids don't get a hold of or other teachers.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I would say, I bet as well. I mean, I don't know why I think this, but it makes sense in my brain. A pad that you can easily pull the pages out of would be useful to a teacher.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. Which makes the rhodia thing kind of, you know, the right answer, because they have either perforated or spiral bound with perfs. So, and it's just a good quality paper. It works on all kinds of different pens, things like that. I would carry a good mechanical pencil. Rotring 600 might be overkill, might not be. I don't know what your budget is. But, I mean, for 30 bucks, that's a pencil that'll last you your whole career.

Myke Hurley: That pencil at $30 is not overkill for anything. It's perfect.

Brad Dowdy: No. I agree. I agree. And then for pen, the pen is actually the hardest thing for me, just because you're probably using lots of different papers and I wouldn't go fountain pen. I wouldn't go fountain pen. Yeah, I'd be looking for like a good gel ink pen and maybe an upgraded barrel like the spoke pen or any of like the Mark 1 or, you know, the tactile turn. Just something that fits the refill you enjoy. Something resilient. And has an upgraded barrel. Something nice.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I actually agree. I know like I enjoyed the Usain spoke pen. I'm liking this. You could take that ball by the horns. And then also I would recommend, you know, considering that you'll be doing a lot of planning in your life, that you should probably get your hands on a theme system notebook at some point. You know, you can have like semester-based themes. That would be my other recommendation to you. Genius. Genius.

Brad Dowdy: I love it. I love it. So, yeah, I wouldn't – the one thing I wouldn't do is carry too much stuff, right? I'd carry my one good pen, my one good pencil, and then figure out what paper is going to work for the best – for the situation that I'm in. And what paper is going to work the best as far as format goes, whether you're getting like a big Rodeo A4 pad or you want some smaller A5 pads or you want a hardbound type of journal for your personal stuff.

Myke Hurley: I bet a messenger bag is pretty good for a teacher.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like a messenger bag is kind of a perfect setup. You can carry like your water bottle, your lunch, probably, things like that.

Myke Hurley: Because I just assume that you are quite frequently picking it up and putting it down throughout the day and moving around the school or whatever. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: The only thing we didn't take into account is grading. If you're doing hand grading papers, I'd just go straight for something like the Paper Mate Flare and get those felt tips, buy them by the dozen, get red or orange or purple, whatever color you want to grade in. And that's just a fun upgrade type of pen to use for grading.

Myke Hurley: Uh, Whalen Lab asks, any recommendations on red ink that is similar to diamine oxblood?

Brad Dowdy: The only other red inks that I use with any regularity, one is kind of close to it and that's the Sailor Grenade or Grenade. I don't exactly know how to pronounce it, but it's their red. I almost guarantee it's not grenade. I'm probably even getting the name wrong, but it's a really, it's a darker red, not all the way as dark as oxblood. Um, and it has a green sheen to it, which doesn't show up a lot, but when it does, it's kind of cool. It's just an enjoyable red ink. What a weird color pair. Yeah, it is, but it looks good. Like it, it gets recommended a lot. So you'd look up some pictures of that. And then the other one, the other red I'm using is still brighter than oxblood, but it's their Robert Oster red candy. It's not as bright as the name would dictate, which I enjoy. It's kind of got some deeper red to it, but it's not all the way oxblood. So I may not be totally answering this question because I don't use one that's as dark as oxblood. And oxblood is the pinnacle ink of that descriptor. You want an ink similar to diamond oxblood because it's the best of that ink. So there you go.

Ink Discussion Shift

Myke Hurley: And this is one you're going to have to explain to me from Alex. Will the bear cam spill over from the pen addict slack to the podcast?

Bear Cam Topic Begins

Brad Dowdy: So this, this one we should have answered, uh, last week because it was more timely. And fortunately for me, it has kind of died out a little bit, but about two weeks ago in the pen addict slack, all of a sudden every channel or the main general and random channel channels were filled up with people watching these live cams.

Myke Hurley: This bear's catching a bunch of salmon. It's like happening.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Yeah. It's no joke. So I started getting all these messages. Like you just need to make a bear cam channel in slack. So we could just go talk about bear cam and sit there and watch it all day. I'm like, I'm not making a bear bear cam channel. And it didn't stop. It was amazing. Did you make the channel? No, I didn't make the channel. Good man. And it kind of stopped since then. Standing by your guns. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, the bear, the bear cam chat slowed down a little bit in the slack, but this is just going to ramp it back up again. Isn't it amazing? So like, it's, it's kind of amazing. Wait, is it just one camera? It's a, it's, it's a page. There's different cameras on different pages, but it is really majority. I think people watch the one cam. But like, how do they know the bear's always going to be there? I don't know. Oh, this is why there might have to be a bear cam channel on the pen on the slack. Well, Bert just flew by.

Myke Hurley: Well, I know what I'm going to be leaving up all the time. This is, this is like just the most chill thing.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's amazing. Like, I'm not even mad. Like, I get it. Like, I'm down with bear cam. We're just, I don't know if we're going to have a bear cam channel.

Myke Hurley: Oh, this is good. I could just leave this in my window, like, just like the window open all the time.

Brad Dowdy: I'd pull it up and watch it with you right now, but I'd probably kill my internet in doing so.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't want you to do that.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. There you go. Hashtag bear cam.

Myke Hurley: I am on, I'm on the bear cam life. This is great.

Myke Hurley: This is very good. I'm very happy to have found this. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. And you turn it off and end the show now, or you might not.

Myke Hurley: Oh, what is happening? Pop live cam. You can't do it. Oh, yeah. Pop out window. That's what I want. There you go. Oh, love it. This is the best. There's the bear doing his thing.

Brad Dowdy: You're going to end up with a monitor just for bear cam. I can feel this already. That's not a bad idea.

Myke Hurley: Oh, they're moving the camera. I was enjoying the bear. All right. Whatever you're going to do. Oh, there's more bears. That's why. Thank you. Someone's monitoring this. This is like. Yes. They got where the action's going. That's where the bird went. Okay. This is terrible podcasting. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Pen Addicts. You can find our show notes at relay.fm slash penaddicts slash 371. Right at the very top is the link that you're going to need to tap to become a Relay FM member so you can get your hands and your ears on our wonderful special episode that we'll be releasing on Friday, August 9th. You don't want to miss that one. Trust me. It's going to be fantastic. Me and Brad had a little fight last time. It was brilliant. Thanks so much to Squarespace for the support of this show. You go to penaddict.com where you can find Brad's work. You can also go to knock.co. What is the Spoke website? I never say that one.

Brad Dowdy: Spokedesign.com.

Myke Hurley: Oh, my God. This bear just ripped the head off a fish.

Myke Hurley: The situation has changed here, everybody. All right. Twitch.tv slash penaddict. He's Dowdyism on Twitter. Penaddict on Instagram. I am imike. I-M-Y-K-E. It's really going to town on that fish. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.