The Pen Addict 378/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	378
Title:	I Have a Whole System Around That
Release Date:	September 25th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 378
Audio File:	Audio Episode 378
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 378
Length:	7070 min <br />1.167 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 378. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Backblaze, and Care Of. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello Myke Hurley, how are you?

Myke Hurley: I am fine and dandy, my friend, fine and dandy indeed.

Brad Dowdy: Are you sure? Like, you've been all over the world, here and there and back again, but with good reason. I want you, even though you've probably done this a million times already, I would like you, if you don't mind, to recap the wonderful St. Jude Twitch podcast-a-thon that RelayFM did this past Friday that you were a part of, that you travelled to Memphis, Tennessee for. Can you give us some details? Because my mind's so blown, I'm not sure I can encapsulate it very well.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think the easiest thing to say is, you ask, how can I be fine and dandy? When you've raised a quarter of a million dollars for charity, you're pretty fine and dandy.

Brad Dowdy: Right, it makes the jet lag go away a little bit easier, right?

Myke Hurley: It does. Yeah, we, um, a couple of, I don't even know when it was, it was a few days ago. Friday? Yeah, it was Friday the 20th. We put on a six-hour stream. You can watch it on YouTube if you want to. If you didn't see it, you should see it. It was actually really fun. It's definitely worth watching. Just spending some time. You can watch it over a couple of days or whatever. It was really engaging. I think we did a really great job. I'm very proud of how it all came together. We had an incredible team behind us, like an actual literal team of people that made us make this happen while we recorded at St. Jude. And we raised, during the stream itself, we raised $60,000 for St. Jude. And overall, since then, up to then and more, that's put us over, we're nearly $260,000 that we raised against our initial goal of $75,000. So thank you to everybody that has donated. We had so many people watching, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people watching for the entire time, which was incredible. Me and Stephen did terrible things to our faces. We had some great, really, really wonderful people that we interviewed, and we had some guests. And yeah, it was brilliant. And Brad was an absolute trooper. He was in the chat room for the entire time moderating for us, which was awesome. So thank you again for doing that, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, not much to moderate.

Myke Hurley: But still, we needed it just in case. There was some time that we were on the Twitch front page, and you never know what was going to happen when that kicked off. So that was really amazing too. But you can still donate to help fight children's cancer. You can help donate to St. Jude and help forward their incredible work. It was amazing to see the hospital and see all the things that they were doing. If you go to stjude.org slash penaddict, you can do that. And if you're looking for reasons why, I thoroughly recommend tuning in to the podcast-a-thon. We also had some beautiful videos that the St. Jude team have put together for us, so you can see exactly where their money is going and what the work is that they're doing. So go to stjude.org slash penaddict, and you can donate. But yeah, it was really just a wonderful, absolutely wonderful time. And I don't say this lightly, and I really do mean it. And Stephen agrees. That day, that Friday, it's the best day of my career, without a shadow of a doubt. Being able to put that together and to do everything that we did, it felt like the culmination of so many things. And anybody that's donated to this campaign is really, it's a light in my life right now. And it's just an incredible thing to see, so thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I keep repeating how big of a deal it was, just because it really is, and I don't want that to get lost in the shuffle. This was a big deal.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I feel like as it's been ticking up, right? Like I'm losing sight of what we've done. So it is very helpful to me to remind myself that together, we have raised over a quarter of a million dollars for this charity, which is unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and we have one more thing in the hopper that I'm working on, getting the Joey Feldman, Le Reyes, Dan Hosner artwork up for bid on eBay with all the proceeds going to this campaign. So we're still working on that. I'm working with an artist assistant, which is always a fun thing, but they are working on getting it up on eBay as soon as possible. So yeah, we hope to have it up before the month is out. It may not wrap before that, but still all the proceeds will be going to St. Jude. So we'll make sure we share a link once that gets up and live for bidding.

Myke Hurley: Wonderful.

Sheen Inks Discussion

Brad Dowdy: All right, so last week before you went on your trip, or actually you were in the U.S. already when I made you order from a site back at home, in the U.K., I asked you about sheening inks just because I thought you might actually enjoy these for something a little different, and you were sitting in Memphis, Tennessee and ordered something back in the U.K., and did they arrive, and are you using them, or have you not even had time to breathe yet?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so you asked me to order the Diamine Colt pens inks, the Christine, Maureen, Phillip, or Robert. You told me to pick one. I went with all of them. I only arrived home yesterday because we were delayed by two days, which was an experience. Oh, wow. I don't even know that. Yeah, we got waylaid in Chicago. We had a flight cancellation, and then we couldn't get rebooked on a suitable flight for another two days. Oh, my gosh. We were supposed to be home on Monday, and that's why. Oh, Sunday. We were supposed to be home on Sunday. So we got home yesterday, Tuesday. So the ink was waiting for me, and I've played around with them, and I am currently today using both Robert and Phillip, and I feel like I don't understand the colors that they are talking about.

Brad Dowdy: As far as what you're seeing for Sheen?

Myke Hurley: Just in general. I'm kind of confused, to be honest.

Brad Dowdy: What paper are you using?

Myke Hurley: So that's one of the kickers. I know. I read this on their website. And so this is like a whole thing, right? I mean, I realize why you challenged me with this, because this isn't exactly as I thought it was going to be. So I'm using Robert, which is supposed to be purple with green, and I can see no green. Their image on their page is all green, right? And there's none of that. I see no green Sheen at all. No, so yeah, that's on Robert. It just looks red to me, which I'm very confused about. And then Phillip, which is supposed to be a purple with a gold Sheen, I just see purple. So I clearly need more work on this. I don't exactly know what I need to do, but I can keep working on it, I suppose. They say like papers can be a problem, and I get that. Yeah. But the inks and the colors are nice, but I'm not seeing any of the sheening.

Brad Dowdy: You're not seeing the specialness. I like that you're going through this right now, because it is like a thing. Like if you're not using the right paper, which is like one of the things I always talk about when I review it, like you're not going to see the full sheen amount or get the effects of what you're actually buying.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I feel like in a blood nib and Robert in a stub nib. So like I'm going fat nibs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, your nibs are good. So now you just need to test paper. So Rodia, Tomoe, like your Crossfield or something like that. And you'll see the effects of why I like these inks so much. And they're just good writing inks anyway. But yeah, like when I review them, I do a picture on Rodia and a picture on this Yoseka notebook I have, which shows sheen a lot, and they're completely different looking inks. So it's a really cool, cool ink. But I can understand if you're not using the right paper, you go, what did I just buy? It's just a regular old purple ink.

Myke Hurley: All right. So I need to try it out on some Tomoe.

Sketchnote Notebook Review

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It might actually work on the sketchnote notebook, Myke. You know that the sketchnote idea book from our friend Myke Rodie, that's on Kickstarter. How many days left? Like two days left on this Kickstarter campaign? Yeah. I got one. It just came in the mail. I just opened it up. Me too. Yesterday. Oh, you got yours too?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I got one as well.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, look at you. Fancy man. Mr. Fancy man over there.

Myke Hurley: There's 62 hours to go as we're recording this. So just a couple of days left.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So give me your thoughts. It's unbelievable. Right? Okay.

Myke Hurley: We're on the same page. I cannot fathom how they are producing a notebook of this quality and selling it for $20.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So y'all need to go to Kickstarter and back this notebook. If you're... So it's... Think of your standard Moleskine Rhodia Leuchtturm A5 size notebook.

Myke Hurley: With the most beautiful texture on this cover. Oh my God.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And those notebooks are normally like 192 pages or close to that 200 page range. This is the same size and it's only 128 pages. So it's thick sketchnote paper. Like it's made to handle a lot of media.

Myke Hurley: It's almost like cardboard. It's so thick. Like this is genuinely like just from a paper and feel... Like it's one of the nicer notebooks that I've handled. I haven't put it through its paces yet completely with pens and stuff. But just in general, like the quality of all of this is bananas for the price.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It really is. And like it lays flat mostly. You know, when you're drawing, you don't want to have to deal with like the spine and the curvature and things getting, you know, out of whack. Like it lays flat and you can make your drawings and your sketchnotes. It's just... It's extraordinarily well done and it looks fantastic. So I look forward to giving it a full test run. You know, they had so many prototype testers on their campaign page that use so many different products on the page. You can see how they perform. You can go look at it. There's no doubt it's going to handle like anything I can throw at it. Like all the people that were in there testing them out early. Like they could find no wrong with it, which is wonderful. So I look forward to it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like these are just production samples, but like, I mean, they seem ready to sell to me, right? Like I think they've done a incredible job.

Brad Dowdy: So I got a prototype and I'm wondering if Myke Sciano from Airship sent the same note that he sent to me, said, hey, this is a prototype. There's a couple little things on here that you might catch that we changed in the final version. Okay. I haven't looked yet. And I was like, yes, this is the challenge I'm up for. Because as you're about to find out when we talk about the theme system journal, that's our big topic today, that I'm kind of in a retentive at looking at products like this. So I look forward to going through my sketchnote idea book and, you know, seeing what little things he might have changed in the final version. But these prototypes look great. So yeah, they're awesome.

Myke Hurley: It's a really wonderful thing.

Brad Dowdy: So I opened this up on, nah. Okay, maybe you should be. Yeah. Oh, so no, we'll get there. We're almost there. But I want to talk about one more thing. So I did an unboxing stream yesterday on Twitch. And that's where I opened the sketchnote idea book and talked about it and all those things. And I also opened up the new Kaweco Lilliput stainless steel cap ballpoint. And like for a normal person, this is, you know, a no big deal type of pen. But for me, it's a big deal type of pen. Because I love the Lilliput so much. I just think it's like this little feat of engineering. And I understand it's not for everyone. It's a small pen. It's, you know, not everyone's going to like the format of it. And I use the fountain pens regularly. And I use the ballpoint pen in the aluminum retractable version, which is actually too small for me. Like I don't recommend that one because it's too small and too light with the retractable click mechanism on it. And it's an awesome feat of engineering. But it's too small. So I've been waiting for one of the capped models to come in a material that I like. It already came in brass and copper. But I generally like the no after smell of stainless steel metal on my fingertips. So I've been actually clamoring for this pen for a while. I have it right here. I'm unthreatening it. I need to take a lot of pictures of this pen because it is really unique. Like the refill holder, I guess. Like it's not really a mechanism because it's a capped pen, but it holds D1 refills. Like it's this metal part designed to just fit a D1 refill. And then you screw that part into the barrel. Like it's super crazy. So I know this pen isn't for everyone. But this pen is one of my favorites. And you're going to be sick of me talking about it and sharing it on Instagram and other places. Because I don't know what it is about the Lilliput that gets me so well. But that's like one of the perfect Brad Dowdy Pen Addict pens. And I just wanted to throw that out there that I now have my perfect ballpoint model. The only thing left for me to do is figure out my perfect D1 refill for that. I haven't done that yet. I just opened it yesterday. And in the closet of Doom, the location of D1 refills is not something I currently have indexed. So it might take me a little while to find my D1 refill stash because they're really, really small. And I don't know where they are right now. And I don't want to order any again. So I need to go work on that.

Myke Hurley: Stainless steel is a good material for this pen. I agree with you. Because brass and copper, I just can't deal with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I can't deal with it. And this is a very hands-on pen being this small. The entirety of the pen fits in your hands. So it's very metal-rific, I guess you could say. You could. That's a word, right? I'm pretty sure it's a word.

Myke Hurley: I'm so scared of this next topic we've got here, Brad.

Theme System Topic

Brad Dowdy: I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. While you talk about our wonderful sponsors, I'm going to get out my notes. I have an additional page of notes just for this next topic.

Myke Hurley: I just wonder if you could just tell me this stuff in private. Nope. Nope. Nope. You're in dirty laundry for me all over the show. But that's where we are, I guess. That's what we do.

Myke Hurley: Take our first break, and then we'll get into that. Our thanks to Backblaze for their support of this show. Backblaze has the unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs that starts at just $6 a month with no gimmicks and no add-ons. Backblaze backs up your documents, music, photos, videos, drawings, projects, everything that is important to you on your computer. And they have backed up 750 petabytes of data and counting. That is equivalent of 750 million gigabytes. These people over there, they know what they're doing. And Backblaze have helped restore over 40 billion files for their customers. That is a ton of saved assignments and family photo albums. Data disasters are a terrible thing. We've all had them. But we shouldn't have them. You shouldn't have to worry about a data disaster because you should be backing up with Backblaze. I do it. I have my Backblaze set, and I have that peace of mind constantly. Everything is backed up for me, my entire computer. So no matter if I have stuff being saved to other cloud services, it doesn't matter if it's on my computer, it's also going to Backblaze. It's giving me that extra peace of mind. All of my photos, I wouldn't want to lose them. All of my documents, I have important things on my computer, right? Like our entire lives are on these things. You don't want to lose any of that stuff. And that is why you need Backblaze. Go to backblaze.com slash penaddict for your fully featured 15-day free trial. And tell them that you heard about them on the Pen Addict. That's backblaze.com slash penaddict for your 15-day free trial. Go try it out today. Thanks to Backblaze for saving us from countless data disasters and for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So have you backed up your theme system, journal, work files?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I have a whole system around that that needs to be solidified because it's been such a harried process of getting everything created. And I'm now starting to make my notes for what I want to make amended. So that's like a whole other thing. I'm good.

Brad Dowdy: You're right in that process because, as you know, you handed me off a theme system journal, one of the early editions at the San Francisco Pen Show. And I said, like, my history is like, I don't think that's probably a product for me. And then as I got into, you know, some changes over the summer that I wanted to make, I was like, oh, well, maybe this is actually a perfect product for me. And you said, OK, well, let me get you one. And then, you know, like I had some general questions and you said, well, I'm working on the website to give you ideas on how to use it. And I said, OK, well, I'll wait for that. And that way I can go through it all at once. Because the big caveat here is that you talk about this on Cortex and I only sparingly listen to Cortex. So what I'm about to bring up, you may have.

Myke Hurley: Even with you need the instructions, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But what I'm saying, like the things I'm finding as I use this, you may have discussed already and I don't know. Right. So I might have a question for you that you have already answered on Cortex. And I purposely didn't listen to the last two episodes because I know there were a lot more specifics during those episodes. So I purposely didn't listen to them until after I talked to you about it. So I started using it Monday. So I just started it and I used it in conjunction with the themesystem.com. So the little website you set up. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Because I needed that big picture to just kind of, you know, give me the glue for what this whole thing is going to be. Kind of put it all together just so I have before I started, I have a big picture idea. So like I read through the whole site. The site's great. So we're going to talk about that. Yeah, it was I'll tell you how it was. It was super helpful to me. Overall, like construction quality, you know, all of that stuff, the build, the paper quality, it's all exceptional.

Brad Dowdy: I don't I don't have any like I don't have any technical like issues with the with the book, like I have other issues with the book.

Brad Dowdy: But like, you have to write on the backside of the page on this book, right? It's designed for 90 days. Yeah, you do both pages. Front and back page. So you need so if I'm going to use a fountain pen, which I have these first two days, I need to make sure the backside of my page is legible once I write on it, right? And it is not perfect.

Myke Hurley: But I think it passes the mustard with it.

Brad Dowdy: It passes them. It's going to pass the majority of the test. There'll be some issues with certain inks, certain very heavy inks and broad nibs. It might be an issue. But I've used a stub nib and a sailor medium nib and I've had no issues so far. So.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, the the the notebooks broken down into the yearly theme, which is like four pages up front. You have a yearly theme. So let me get mine out here. So, like, I'm going to I'm going to tell you mine. So I was hoping you would. Yeah. So my theme is the year of experimentation, which we talked back in the beginning of the year, but I never wrote it down. Right. Like I talked about it and like I've talked about how I failed throughout the year of experimentation. But then so I filled out my theme. I have my description. I'll read some of these things and I won't read all of them just for time.

Myke Hurley: If people need like if you go to the theme system dot com, you can get visual ideas of what the pages look like. There are no straight on scans of the pages for what should seem like an obvious reason, but you can get an idea of the pictures like you can see what the pages look like. So you can kind of follow along with what Brad's talking about.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So that's how I did it. So I took the yearly theme section on the website and then filled out my yearly theme. Yeah. OK, so I did that. And then in the ideal outcome section, I have one, two, three, four things filled out for, you know, what I believe my ideal outcomes should be. So then you go to the journal pages section. And this is kind of the meat of the notebook and the main part. And this is what you're going in and doing every day. Pretty much. Right. So there's four sections. There's two blocks up top, one huge block in the middle and then one smaller block at the bottom. So what you use these for, which you talked about on the page, and I don't have the page pulled up right in front of me, but you can talk about it like your top section is good, like good. What happened?

Myke Hurley: What was good in the day? Then the second section is what was bad in the day and they're equal sizes. The larger box is kind of what I'm proud of. And this is where I try and go into a bit of detail. And then the final box at the bottom is like, what is one thing I'm looking forward to?

Brad Dowdy: OK, so knowing. Knowing that I want to do something similar and that if I use your terms, I'm going to fail. I sat there and went through your terms, took an extra sheet of paper and kind of figured out what are the terms that work for me? Yes. That are going to allow me to enjoy filling out these pages every day because you really need to do it every day. So, you know, like good, bad. What was it? What was your middle section? The good, bad, proud and forward. Proud and forward. So like those are like I took those as the general rule and then I tweak them into what's going to make Brad use this. Yeah. So my top my top section, they're my headers are generally the same, but my header for the first one is stoked. What am I stoked on right now? Yes. Like what's making me happy?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: My second my second section is joked. Like what happened today that was stupid or made me mad or was annoying, you know? So I've stoked and joked at the top. So proud of you right now.

Myke Hurley: This makes me, no, seriously, I cannot tell you what a gift you are giving me right now. I know we've got bad stuff to come, but the fact that you, the fact that you have like worked something out for yourself. It's like, yes, this is what I want, right? Because I was going to say, we spoke about this in the last episode. The first run that we did, there were 200 of them. And then the second run that we've done, there were 2000 of them we sold. Right. So the level of feedback that I'm getting now is very different. And so like I'm starting to get more people telling me how they're using it. We didn't really get a lot of that. We got some of it last time, but the sample sizes were just too small because there'll be a bunch of people that will get it and realize it's not for them. It'll be a bunch of people that get it and they use it, but they're just not the type of piece of person that would feedback. So we're getting more feedback. So it's just like a really emotional experience for me to hear this kind of happening to me live. But you can keep going.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's why I didn't put any of this in the show notes because I wanted to do it live and get your reaction. So my third section, I'm going to ask you for the third time. What is yours called? The main section. Proud. Proud. Okay. So mine is called Moments. So I've taken like what happened today that was memorable or what was the thing I wanted to remember from today? So like, so let me, I'll finish them. Then I'll read my examples. So that moment is kind of like, you know, my picture of the day, like good, you know, expanding on other things. And then my bottom section is called Let's Go. Like, all right, we got to do this. Like this is coming up soon. So it's like, it could be called like hype train or something like that. Like for me, this is the kind of thing I need. So my, my bottom section, like my carried forward section is like, let's go. Like, so stoked, joked moments and let's go. So that's what works for me. So like stoked on Monday was I ordered new buttons for NotCo. So we do like sticker pack ins for our products for when people order. So I'm doing buttons this time. So I was stoked about that. My joke section was the price of enamel pens is stupid. So I'm looking at getting enamel pens for NotCo. And like, I was never happy with like any of the quotes. I got to work on that a little bit more. So that was joked for me. My moments, I won't read like the whole thing, but you know, I filled out like three quarters of the box. And it's like, my friend Jay was in town from the product productivity and tech podcast. He actually did something for us for the show. I'll show you later. So like I talked about like Jay stopping by, we hung out for a couple hours and we talked about those types of things. And then, you know, Mary Beth is working on the NotCo product photography and we're going to have a refresh of the site. So like those were my moments for the day. And then my let's go, this was Monday. So I had big unboxing stream tomorrow on Twitch. So that was, you know, leading into Tuesday. Okay. So that's the journal pages. That's how I decided to set them up. Like I thought I could do it. I wanted to do it, but I wasn't sure. Okay. What are the things that are going to make me do it? Right. So I had to figure out those things and it took time. Like I said, I stared at the website and I scrolled, I read all the examples. I looked at the pictures and I still wasn't sure. And then back and forth and I finally got it.

Myke Hurley: I want people to spend time on it because it's important. But one of the things that I've tried to impress in the instructions and I want to do more of like, just change it if you don't like it. Right. But just begin. And that's why there's like four pages for themes at the front. Not one. Yes. Right. Change your mind. Right. Like I have changed my mind multiple times and will continue to. Like it does. And that's like part of the idea for me, why it isn't printed with any prompts from me. Right. Like create your own reproducible framework that you feel free to amend as your life changes. Because that's how I use this book. That's why it's just boxes. Right. Like make your own. And honestly, like I feel really proud. I've had some incredible examples sent to me so far of like the way that people are using this thing. And it's bananas. And like, so something that I want, I want people to send me examples once they're using it. So I am going to ask you to send me some pictures when you find a day that you're comfortable sharing with everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Probably, probably these first two.

Myke Hurley: We'll see. I'll reread them. No rush, but just do it. But also like, I'm going to get people to share on Instagram and stuff as well. And I want to create a hashtag that people, so that's all in the works, but like, I'm going to start putting examples on the website. Right. And so, but like, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm really pleased with the fact that you're doing, but like, that is the thing. If you do have one of these and you're not sure about it, like I've had people saying to me, I'm not sure how to start. Just start. Like this notebook is not a precious thing. Right. Like I know we are limited in stock, but we will fix that eventually. But like, just go for it. Like just start writing. You've got 90 days worth of stuff in there. Like you can mess it up. Go for it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So that's like the keys. Like I can change those headers if it like something's not, not, not jiving how I want it to do. So that's what I think. That's why the daily themes is actually the hardest part for me. Um, because I've never done like habit tracking. Yep. Um, which is this, what this kind of is. So like, I don't have a thing to say drink 32 ounces of water today. And like those things don't work for me.

Myke Hurley: It can be habit tracking, but it doesn't have to be habit tracking. It can be anything you want it to be. It could be a checklist, right? Like just a general checklist of a project that you're working on. Like you could have, there's a bunch of pages in there. You could set every double page spread as a different project and track it over 15 days or whatever. You know, you know, I understand that this is, this part is one of the parts that is trickiest for people. Um, but it's been working really well for me as an idea of like, you know, for your year, your year of experimentation, what if there were like 10 things that you are trying to work harder on and then you can mark off on days of like, oh, I experimented with a different ink today or whatever, you know, like think of it in that way.

Habit Tracking Content

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So I went through like, like the website really helped me kind of solidify my thoughts and how I would apply them to me. So I ended up with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven things that I want to track daily. All right. You ready for these? Yeah. So the first one is love. Was I a good husband and father today?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, boy.

Brad Dowdy: So my second one is laugh. Did I smile and have fun today? My third one is create. Did I make something today? My fourth one is refresh. Did I meditate or relax today? My fifth one is read. Did I learn something from reading today? My sixth one is share. Did I promote positivity on social media today? And my last one is promote. Did I share my work or others work today? So those are my like daily themes. So I'll use the circles, like the full circle, the half circle or the blanks for those things so far on each of the just the first couple of days that I've done this. So I'm pretty happy with those. So I like how those worked out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's great, man. Yeah. So that's done a good job there. That's, you know, again, what you've done is you've created your version of what I recommend. But if this doesn't work for you, find something else to do on those pages. You know, but I think that those are like talking from my own experience, like it helps me some days if I feel like I had a crap day today. But then I sit down to my daily themes and I can tick something off for every box. I'm like, oh, you know what? Maybe it was better than I thought it was. So that's been something that's been quite valuable to me. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like I'm going to keep using those things like those types of things work better for me than like your standard black and white, you know, like habit tracking, like, like what your Apple watch might track your stand goal or your activities or your consumption of things. And like I can't really do that in like a notebook. All right. So that's how I built my theme system journal so far. All right. So feedback.

Brad Dowdy: It's screaming for a double ribbon bookmark.

Navigation Marking Systems

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I have a different way of fixing this problem because we can't put a ribbon in this book. Right. So for me to put a ribbon in, I have to make a new completely new format. I don't want to do that, but I have a different plan, which I'll share with you later because I don't want to talk about it now in case they can't do it. Sure. But I have a different plan and I think I can fix it. But it's just a different way to mark the pages.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I have two index cards in mind right now. One on my journal pages and one on my daily pages.

Myke Hurley: Right. So like I say you can use I encourage people to get bookmarks. I don't use bookmarks and I'm fine just looking through the pages to grab it. But I know it needs some kind of marking system and I think I've worked it out. But we are confirming if they can do it. But it's not going to be in the next set because we're having to reprint this one again for the holidays. Right. And so I'm hoping Q2 will be version two of the book.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. Cool. So like I mean that's easy. Like I mean not everyone wants it but like it really the way it's designed it calls for that type of thing. I agree. Secondly so it's designed for a quarter of the year essentially 90 days of the daily journal which I think is the right size. Like I wouldn't want like a full year single book. The confusion I have and you kind of alluded to it and answer to this before is I have 90 days of the journal pages. But I have what's essentially 192 days of the daily themes. Right. This is the thing that people bring up a lot.

Myke Hurley: So here's the thing with that. I just put as many pages as I could put in.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: There isn't really a match between the two. So there's 90 days of journaling. There's more than 90 days of habit tracking. Right. Because I was my thinking was well why don't I just put in as many pages as I can put in. And this seems to be like a sticking point for people but I kind of just shoved as many pages as I could get in there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think that needs to be cut in half. And then so that's eight pages give you 96 days if you keep 12 on a page. I'm not going to keep 12 on a page. That I'm going to fix. Okay. Because people also don't like that there's 12 on a page. Because that's a different math too. Yeah. And then eight pages of notes. Like why don't I have pages that I don't have to commit to my day to keep notes in. Like if I had that split in half to where my daily habits are ballpark based on formatting the same amount of days as my journal. Otherwise I have eight wasted days. I know you said people might use them for separate projects or things like that. But for me and I would wager the majority if they use one column a day they're going to end up with eight pages they cannot use. And there just be blank circle pages instead of why can't there just be blank dot pages for notes.

Myke Hurley: I will say to you now that I love that idea. I will not confirm anything but I like what you're saying. What I want to do is get 14 days on the daily theme pages. Yeah. So you've got two weeks. Right. I think you can. Because that is like a number or I might do 15. So it could do three weeks if you're tracking on a day. Because the way I don't do this is the weekend. Right. Gotcha. So it would be probably 14 or 15. So I'll be making a change from 12. But then I need to like make it fit. Right. Like I've got to make it fit. So I'll probably make all the circles a bit smaller. Again, none of what I'm saying here are promises. Sure. I just want to make this very clear. Right. Like. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And I assumed the things that I'm saying have come up already. I just. We don't talk about it. Nor do I like hear the feedback. Yeah. Or the discussions on Cortex. Bits and bobs. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: People have had like. I've got a lot of feedback where like people get super confused. Like they get hung up on the fact that the journals and theme numbers are different. I understand that like. But I kind of my thinking was just like. Well, I've got the pages. Let me just put them in. I haven't thought about maybe just doing blank note pages. But. And I like that. That's. That is a solution that I have not considered yet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because based on the numbers. I. There's eight pages in this notebook that are unusable. Well. There's eight. Eight pages of circles left. Well, the way I'm using it. Right. And everyone's use case is different. But if they were just a blank note page, then I could choose to use them more than I can write on a page with a bunch of circles on it. So that's actually my main feedback. Like I don't have anything like awful. I like that.

Myke Hurley: That is a good solution to that problem.

Future Product Strategy

Brad Dowdy: And then the only thing. Like the other thing I see for the future is like a year from now. Like once you have good data on how it's going. I mean, you're just right for a subscription at a maximum or at a minimum. A four pack of people who buy them annually. I have. Of course. Get a break on the annual. Consider this. That's an easy thing. Right. But like that's a year from now thing.

Myke Hurley: Like I am also considering there would be different additions. Right. Like to make that a more of a enticing prospect for people. Like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like my four pack should be specific to the four pack. Like if it's, you know, red, blue, yellow and green books or whatever. Like that should be specific to that. If I. But like it's hard to come out with that now because people haven't tried with that. But like a year from now.

Myke Hurley: Also, it's difficult to do anything like that right now because I can't keep these things in stock. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been so difficult. Like I'm really struggling with it because I don't. So. So what happened was. Right. So again, it's funny. Like pen addict listeners. If you are. If you are a cortex listener who listens to the pen addict, you get a lot of extra detail. Um. Because. So the last episode of cortex that we did, we recorded it before we put them on sale. Um. And we revealed some of the numbers and stuff. And then me and Gray had this conversation about what the ideal was and like what we thought was going to happen. And my ideal and what I hoped was going to happen, but did not happen that way, is that we sold kind of like half of them pretty quickly. And then had a stock that would trickle away because then I'll understand a little bit more about how sustainable this business is. Right. That did not happen. We sold all 2,000 in a week. Right. So I know nothing about how sustainable this business is. Right. So now it's like, well, how many more do I order? I don't know. Like I've made an order, but I don't know if it's the right amount again. Because we sold 2,000 of them. What if only 500 of those customers want another one? Right. Right. So then, but now, what if, what if we have another 5,000 people that want them? Yep. So I don't know. So I'm still trying to work it out. Plus, I don't want to order an obscene amount because my plan is that next year, what we are calling the first edition is no more. Right. So my plan will be that we will order, I don't know, like lots more of second edition because then that will be hopefully pretty much the final product. Right. Because genuinely, the product that we have, I could keep selling it forever because I'm really happy with it. Sure. I want to make changes to it, but like for what we are selling at $20, which may also change if we are making changes to the book because I might be doing some more difficult things to it. I think for a $20 product, you are getting a very good quality product that works for people. But it just needs tweaks and I want to make those tweaks and I want to keep pushing it. But this is a very difficult business. You know, because people are saying, why don't you take pre-orders? That will help you work out demand. And like, yeah, that's logical, but I still am not sure exactly how long it takes to make these things. Right. Because the timelines have changed. Both times it has been different. So I don't want to say to you now, go and, you know, go and pay and we'll give you a book in two weeks because it might be nine or 12 or 20 weeks. So I don't want to do that yet. Eventually we will do that, but I don't have, you know, so there is a possibility that we might take pre-orders on this next one once I know these things are in the air. True. Right. Because once they're in the air, I now have a better idea of what that takes, but it's the production process. And it's like a whole, this is a very difficult thing to do. It is a very difficult thing to do as a side business. So I'm working it out. But like, I tell you, this is a very stressful thing, but I am really enjoying this part of my life right now. It is a very exciting and interesting challenge that I want to keep doing more with. So if you want a theme system notebook, there are two things you can do. And so you can choose which one you want right now. You can go to the Cotton Bureau page, which is also a cortexmerch.com. And you can put your name in to be notified when they go in stock again. And that is like a one-time thing. So you put your name in, you get an email, and then that's it. Right. The next time, you're not going to find out. The other thing you can do is go to the themesystem.com and sign up for the theme system newsletter, which will be a consistent thing, which I will be adding more to over time. Stock changes, examples, more information. I'm working out what that's going to look like.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah. Cool. Well, that's all the feedback I have. I am pleasantly surprised at how I've taken to it, even though it's only been a couple days. I'm like, oh, I got it. Like, I'm feeling like, oh, okay, this is, I can make it me. So yeah, because I was pretty hesitant up front, just from the style and format. That's nothing I've ever done. We've talked about this a million times.

Myke Hurley: It's true to me that you genuinely think well of this product.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So it goes in my, I keep it with me so I can have it, even though I only fill it out once a day. It's not like an ongoing note-taking notebook. Yeah. I want it around and I want to keep working on it. So I'm very happy with it so far.

Myke Hurley: That is, I feel pretty good about that, Brad. I'm not going to lie. I feel very, I'm very happy about that. So thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I'd tell you if I wasn't. Are we good? We're good. I got more cool stuff to talk about, though.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm trying to get my composure here. I was very nervous about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Myke didn't know what I was going to say. So that's how we like it.

Myke Hurley: What did it say in the notes? Boy, does he have questions. Then I'll put you on the spot. That's what it says. That's the notes that I have here. Yeah. Yeah. This is, you know, I'll talk about this more as I have more to say. But we have more being made. So.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you actually listen to Cortex. Like, we're not going to talk about this all the time. But if I'm going to use it, like, we're going to talk about it. Yep. Tough.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's take a break and thank our friends over at Pen Chalet for their support of this show. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have very fast and reliable customer service and they're always doing wonderful discounts. Twice a month, they have discounts on great products. They have closeout specials as well. And they do this stuff with all of their favorite brands. Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco. They have all of them available. They're an authorized dealer. And they're doing the best prices that they possibly can. They also have inks. They have limited edition stuff. They have pen holders and refills. They sell international. They have great shipping rates. And if you are in the US and you buy over $50 worth of stuff, you'll get free shipping on that. They have 100% satisfaction guarantee. And they do special offers for Pen Addict listeners. Always go to penshalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password Pen Addict to get your hands on the special offers available this week. And to get the code you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. They have some great stuff available right now. But we want to highlight a specific product in a moment. But you can get 10% of that product and anything else by going to Pen Chalet and clicking that podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password Pen Addict to get your hands on all this stuff. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM. And we're now going to talk a little bit about the Team Fox Montegrappa pen that Pen Chalet have.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so Ron and Pen Chalet have been a huge supporter of this podcast for years and a huge supporter of the blog for years. And the funny thing about Ron is I rarely hear from him. Like, we just go about our business. He does, you know, he lets us know the ads. And then, like, that's kind of it. So when I get a text directly from Ron, which rarely happens, like, my, you know, eyes kind of perk up. I'm like, oh, what's going on with Ron? What does he need? And he's like, hey, can you do something for me? And Ron's not that kind of guy. Like, he never asks, like, for the favors. So I was like, yeah, absolutely. I'll do anything you need. He's like, we have this project that we're part of with Montegrappa. They made a pen called the... A series of pens. A series of pens. So it's ballpoint, fountain pen, and rollerball. So it's Montegrappa tulip for Team Fox. And what Team Fox is, is Michael J. Fox's organization for Parkinson's research. So that's a, you know, a debilitating disease for a lot of people that you can go read about some information on that. And the designer behind this pen was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. And they decided to team up with Team Fox and Montegrappa and make this pen where the proceeds of all the sales of these pens go to Parkinson's research. And Ron asks, he's like, can you take a look at this pen? And would you mind promoting it? Because I really want to support the Parkinson's research. And, you know, I would appreciate it if you would, you know, do anything you can to help promote this pen. And I said, absolutely, I will do that, Ron. Like, so I'm being super transparent. But I'm doing it because it's something that Ron believes in. It's something that I believe in, in giving back and supporting different charities. If, you know, if you couldn't tell by now, we really, really believe in supporting others, you know, throughout. Throughout this podcast, throughout our podcast network, throughout our lives. Like, that's part of who we are. And I am super happy that Ron reached out to me specifically for this product. It's really cool looking. I have it in my hand. I just got it yesterday.

Brad Dowdy: Its colorway is right up my alley, right? Yeah, boy. It's orange. It's an orange barrel and kind of a brick red cap and silver trim, real rhodium trim, rhodium plated trim and a steel extra fine nib. I mean, this is like if I was working with Team Fox, I might have come up with this pen design. Good looking. Because it's pretty rad. And I'm a huge fan now of Montegrappa ever since they changed to the Yovo nibs. Their steel nibs are awesome. Like, that's really, really, they're so enjoyable to write with now. Like, Montegrappa, ever since last year, I guess was it last year when the Montegrappa pen came out, right? I have to say it that way too, you know, so it doesn't become like a who's on first type of thing with fountain pens. When that pen came out and that nibs switched, I was like, yes, this is it. We're there. Like, I love this pen. I love how it feels. And this one, the Team Fox pen is, you know, more of a cigar shape, rounded ends. Just a really, really great pen. Proceeds go to help Team Fox fight Parkinson's disease. And I couldn't be happier that Ron reached out and asked us to work with him on this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think it's beautiful. And I think people should check it out, right? Like, it's a good pen, but a great company in a beautiful colorway that helps support a charity, which is pretty awesome. So, can't complain about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. So, I'll have some more pictures. I just inked it up, like, literally right before the show. So, I'll have some more pictures of it up on Instagram. And I'll do a review of it. And we'll get the word out about this pen because it's fantastic.

Myke Hurley: So, you put something in the notes here. We got it.

Personality List Discussion

Brad Dowdy: We have to cover this, right? Like, this turned out to be the Brad wants to talk about the theme system journal to Brad wants to talk about all the things in one episode, which, you know, sometimes gets us in trouble with time. But I don't even care. Like, we got a lot of stuff. So, good friend Anthony at UK Fountain Pens did a post that I was sent multiple times by readers called The 15 Types of Pen Addict. And I'm going to read this to you, Myke. I'm going to read the entire thing because it's not that long. So, you're just going to have to deal with me. And then you're going to have to think about what type of pen addict are you? Do you fall into these categories? This list is very accurate. So, we'll have a link in the show notes. You can play along at home. So, Anthony's header to this post says, After careful research, I present a true and accurate dissection of our community. Number one, the curator carefully explores the pen landscape, buys one of everything, and tracks it all in a ridiculously detailed spreadsheet. Number two, the crazy cat lady.

Myke Hurley: I would like to request an amendment of the crazy cat person. Yeah. Uh-huh. That would just be my amendment.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The name. Mm-hmm. Yes, agree. Why have one Kaweco sport when you can have 50?

Myke Hurley: It's like me. I'm the crazy cat retro 51 person.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right. So, number three, the archaeologist. Believes that anything made after 1950s is junk. Lies trays of old pens at car boot sales and antique shops and hasn't quite gotten around to restoring them. Has incredibly inky fingers. It's super accurate. Number four, the magpie. Always chasing the latest releases, especially the limited editions with sparkles and shimmer inks.

Myke Hurley: I am a crazy cat magpie, I think.

Brad Dowdy: That's where I am in my life. Number five is Mr. Status. Only buys Montblancs and Montegrappas dusted with precious metals. Never inks them. Number six, Otaku-san. Lives in Surbiton, surrounded by Nakayas and bottles of rare ink you can only buy from a tiny village in rural Japan. I've been a little bit seen by that one.

Myke Hurley: That one's kind of, that one is kind of incredible. Like, Surbiton is a neighborhood of Southwest London. Okay. So, it's like, it's just a kind of like a, yes, I, yes, I feel kind of triggered by that a little bit.

Brad Dowdy: You say it, you say it, when you say Surbiton, you say it in kind of like a high and mighty kind of way. Oh, I live in Surbiton.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I live in Surbiton. Yeah. And yeah, and Otaku is a Japanese term for people of obsessive interests. Yes. Particularly in anime.

Brad Dowdy: It's the obsessive. Yep. So, number seven is El Minimalissimo. Through sheer force of will, only owns a single Lamy 2000 and one bottle of black ink. Reads pen forms every day just for the thrill of fighting the temptation.

Myke Hurley: God, this is so good.

Brad Dowdy: Number eight, The Mad Professor. Every pen is a Frankenpen. Desk is covered in nibs and tools and ink spatters. Can't leave anything alone. Voids warranties with a single glance. I love that. Number nine is The Bargain Hunter. Only buys pens from China for less than two pounds each, including shipping, a converter, and a free side of intellectual property theft. Ouch.

Brad Dowdy: Number 10 is Mr. Ordinary. Teetering at the top of a slippery slope, Mr. Ordinary has a few moderately priced pens that he enjoys using for work and letter writing. Number 11, The Hipster. Number 12 is The Goldfish. Buys a new pen. Gets bored. Sells it again in a matter of weeks. Rinse and repeat, sometimes with the exact same pen. God, that is, I have seen that. That one I don't get, but that is super true. Number 13 is The Big Game Hunter. Sets his heart on a true grail pen as obtainable, as unobtainable as possible. Researches its territory, its habits. Searches tirelessly for years, tracking it down pace by pace. It's an all-consuming passion. Then once he gets it, the hunt begins anew. Number 14 is The Hoarder. Buys any penny, seize. Never sells anything. Lives surrounded by huge Visconti boxes. Living off Tesco value baked beans. Number 15 is The Naive Enthusiast. Has no idea what they want. Backs awful Kickstarter projects with gay abandon. Asks perfectly Google-able questions on Fountain Pen Facebook groups, but too cheerful to be mean to. I think that covers it, right? It's very good. What are we missing? I don't think we're missing.

Myke Hurley: I feel like I'm somewhere in the realm of the Magpie and Otaku-san. I think that's kind of where I sit personally.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think we're about the same, I would say. A lot of them are definitely not me. I'm getting close to hoarder status. It's not quite that bad.

Myke Hurley: Also, it may be a sighting of hipster for me a little bit. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We need to turn this into like the Enneagram test. Are you familiar with that?

Myke Hurley: I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: It's basically like a personality test. Right. And it finds your classification for you by the list of questions you've answered, right?

Myke Hurley: Someone should make a shortcut for this. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, we'll have a list of questions you answer, then it says, you're Mr. Ordinary or, you know, whatever. Yeah. So, anyway, thank you, Anthony, for creating this list. We will get a lot of enjoyment from it.

New Sponsor Segment

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's good. It's really good. I like it a lot. Funny. Very funny indeed. All right. Should we take a final break and then do some Ask TPA to round out today's episode? Let's do it. All right. We've got a new sponsor for this week's episode, and that is Care Of. Fall is a great time to set some new goals for yourself, get back into a healthy routine, reprioritize yourself. Care Of is a wellness brand that makes it easy to get the right vitamins, supplements, and protein powders for your specific needs. Care Of can help figure out what you need of a short online quiz that will ask you about your diet, your lifestyle, and your health needs. It only takes five minutes, and you'll get research-backed recommendations for everything that you need. Your Care Of order gets shipped right to your door in convenient daily packs, which is perfect for a busy on-the-go lifestyle. And it's super easy to see where the ingredients are sourced. Everything is made with the highest quality. And if you're a vegan or vegetarian, Care Of can also cater to that as well. Brad, I believe that you have gone through the Care Of quiz and received your first order.

Brad Dowdy: So I think you really enjoy having me part of the network because I'm willing to be a guinea pig for pretty much all of our new sponsors, right? Yes. That's one of your favorite things about me.

Myke Hurley: You'll do anything I ask. It's nice.

Brad Dowdy: And actually, I enjoy it because it's always kind of things that's like, well, that's something I've thought about and have never really dug into very much. So I went through the Care Of process, and they have this quiz like we were just talking about up front about the types of products I use. I don't really take any vitamins or anything like that. So it wants to know, the quiz asks different things like, what type of things do you use? Do you have any things like in your daily life that you would, do you want more energy? Are you getting tired? Do you need more brain power? Are you stressed out? All these kinds of things. So you can go through and take the quiz, and it asks you things like, they sell vitamins, and they also sell herbal products. So it's like, are you skeptical about herbs? And can we provide you more information? Or do you just want to avoid that completely? It's very open, this whole process. I was like, oh, yeah, those are kind of cool questions. So in the end, they sell a bunch of different supplement products. But at the end, it gave me maybe six things that I would, based on the answers to my questions that I might be interested in. So I went through that list and picked out two things, two vitamins, and then like one energy pack. So you do that, and you place the order. And then I kind of, you know, just didn't think anything of it. And, you know, the order showed up, and it's this box. And it's like this little kind of about half-sized shoebox type of thing. And then I open up the package. And like all of my pills, so like I take two pills a day now. And I'm going to tell you what all these things are in just a second. But they come in like this box, this single box with like a little hole you rip at the bottom, like a 12-pack, like a box or something. And each day's worth of pills slides out in this little package. And it says...

Myke Hurley: They're all individually wrapped.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're individually wrapped for each day. And just so you know, like the first thing I thought of was, wow, that's a lot of waste, like in paper and plastic. But right on the package, it says, please compost me. Learn more. Take care of slash P slash eco. So they're eco-friendly packaging. Compostable packaging. I was like, okay, good. I figured it had to be, but I was like, wow. Okay, good. So you take out this little package. And every day, the little package says, hi, Brad. Today's challenge. Unscramble this word. So it gives you like a little mind, you know, thing, little game to play with yourself or like a writing prompt or, you know, something to do today. You know, on each little package, it's all, they all say, hi, Brad, and here's your thing. And then you open up and take your two pills. So I got rhodiola, which is called the cosmonaut, which is for like brain endurance and recovery. Like, so you can continue to think like all throughout the day, you know. So, so you notice the things I got were mostly around brain health. The other one is called astaxan, which is called the coral king, and it supports cognitive health. So I got kind of like, I want to keep my mind going like all throughout the day. Like, I don't want to have like lulls or get tired. I want to have consistent brain energy. I want to be good or better at remembering things, you know, because I'm getting older and you start to slip a little bit, even though you don't think you are. Um, you do. So the first day I took a mic, I was sitting there, it was last Friday and I was writing refill. So writing refill is about a six hour process every Friday for me. So I booked my whole Friday to sit on my bum and write. And I'd taken my vitamins for the first day this morning. And I realized as I was writing, like I'm hammering through it. Like I'm just pounding the keyboard. The ideas are coming like hot and heavy. And then I posted this tweet when it hit me. I was like, whoa, am I in a good mood just because I'm in a good mood or am I in a good mood? Because I started these new vitamins today. And that was the day I started care of. And I didn't even think about it at the time until then it hit me. I was like, is this what happens? Because with like any type of new product, especially something you're putting in your body, you wonder, am I going to feel weird or different? And that's the thing is like, I never did. Like, you know, there was no heart rate spike or temperature change or, you know, anything that made me feel any different than I did any other day, except I guess maybe my energy level was higher and maybe it's still going. So I've been taking these every day. I've been enjoying them. Um, I also got one other thing. It's called extra batteries, which I haven't tried yet. It's just a little powder packet that like if you, it's called on the go energy support. So you just, you take these little, they look like those little sugar packets, those long skinny sugar packets. And you just kind of, you just pour it into your mouth. Yeah. Just dump it in. Like you don't mix it with water or anything. Um, I haven't tried those yet because it is just, it's essentially caffeine. So it's a hundred milligrams of caffeine in these little packs for energy packets. So instead of maybe sometimes I go for an afternoon coffee, if I'm dragging, um, I haven't had to recently. So when I do, uh, feel like I need that pick me up, I'm going to try that out, but, uh, that's on the agenda. So that's where I'm at. Yeah. Everything's like all personalized. Like it says, like I have this little form. It says made for Brad and here's Brad's, um, uh, pills that he's taking. And here's what all of these pills do. And like, it's very like specific and like, I only get the information for the things that I get. Right. So like, I don't have like all the product information that have to go hunt down my products. I get my product information specifically for my order. So it's very cool how they set that up. So I've been happy with it so far and I'm gonna keep it going.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to get 25% of your first care of order, go to takecareof.com and enter the code pen addict to check out. That's takecareof.com promo code pen addict for 25% off your first order. Our thanks to care of for their support of this show and relay FM. All right. Should we do some hashtag ask TPA to finish off today's episode?

Brad Dowdy: We should. And one of them relates to what I wrote in my first day of theme system journal. Like I mentioned, my friend Jay stopped by and we were just talking about different, you know, businessy things. Like he's into, um, into like business marketing and he has the productivity and tech podcast, which we'll link in the show notes, my appearance on his podcast. And he was in town, swung by and we hung out for a bit. And he said, have you ever made a word cloud from all of your ask TPA questions? I was like, oh my God, no, but that's a genius idea. And I was like, well, then I feel bad because I delete, like we have a scrolling Excel spreadsheet that gets, you know, 500 lines long and it's hard to scroll to the bottom. So I truncate it frequently. So I only had back until May. So I had a little over 200 ask TPA questions, sent them over to Jay. He, um, he manipulated the data to give me the word cloud and I put the results in the show notes. So it kind of goes like, as you think, but I thought it was a neat thing to do. So the, the words are weighted by size based on how often they were mentioned. And, uh, we'll link that in the show notes so you can check it out. I kept ask TPA in as the most popular word, just so it's, it was kind of like the header image for the word cloud than everything else, you know, pen, pen, sailor, Lamy, fountain, paper, notebooks, writing blue was a surprise architect was in there. So these were all the words with over five mentions in the word cloud of the last 200, um, ask TPA questions. So I see I missed get, I tried to take out all of the, you know, your standard, your standard, you know, a, the, at, why all that stuff. I took all those out. So it was pretty cool. I thought it was neat to look at.

Myke Hurley: Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: That is fun.

Myke Hurley: I like that.

Ask TPA Questions

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So there you go. You can check out the ask TPA word cloud in the show notes. So thanks to Jay for doing that. All right, Myke, this first question keeps me up at night and I've sworn to do something about it, but let's go for it. Anyway, Arden Burrell says I was just given a retro 51. I'm a colorful ink person in my fountain pens, mostly purple and orange are the retro 51 brand refills. All the retro 51 brand refills seem to be blue and black. What's a good color refill for the retro 51. I need to make the all encompassing retro 51 refill post. I just need to do it. So I have reference to answer this question that comes up a lot and it's a totally valid question. It's a great question. Um, but the answer for like the color refills that go in the retro 51 or Monteverde's refills, um, you can find the retro 51 match, um, refill, um, from Monteverde and it's, you know, it's your basic like Parker style refills fit into there. So Monteverde does some good gel color ink refills and that's what you want to use for retro 51. But big picture wise, Myke, I need the singular resource for this. So I need to either build a page or build a blog post that I can just a short link and say, here's as many options as I can find that fit natively. Here's as many options that you can hack and then let it keep growing just for the retro 51. So, and that style of pen, because it comes up all the time. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Really. Yeah. That would be a good one to have. I'd like being able to have resources like that. I think when people say to me like, Hey, where's somewhere I can go in London. Right. Right. Yeah. So like the old thing stationary map.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah. Anna keeps a general refill guide on her blog and I have a short link to that in text expander that I send everyone, but I want to do a retro 51 specific one. Like she has it, I think in part of the section on there, I just want to pull it out and like expand on it and do hacks and all the different things that people like to do with the retro 51s. All right. Fibber would like to ask TPA, is there a label or tape that would adhere to the spine of notebooks, composition books permanently? I have a quarter of a century of notebooks. I would like to label. That's pretty amazing and impressive. I like the Leuchtturm labels, but I want options. Thank you. The only thing I can think of is like the, the Dymo label makers, right? Like the, the printed, like machine computerized labels. I don't know what sticky labels you're going to get that. I mean, they might be the same generally, but like I would go for the little small handheld label printing machines where you can like just, you know, digitally print whatever information you want to put on those spines. And I would assume they're going to stick pretty well. I mean, they're made to stick on all types of different things, indoor, outdoor. I'm sure there's some, even some strength variants in the tape models, you know, for standard office use and maybe extreme. So I would look into, I don't know if, if Dymo is, is the king in that area or not. There's probably a lot of small handheld label makers that you should look at. I don't have a recommendation, but that's, if I'm taking on this project, that's how I'm attacking it as opposed to doing a handwritten label and probably a less sticky sticker, to be honest.

Brad Dowdy: Have you, did you ever label like your, your drawers on your, your cabinet where you keep everything in or, or no?

Myke Hurley: No, I never did that post, but obviously, cause it's kind of like it changes a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Sure. Okay. I remember, I thought that it might've come up and I can remember, but I mean, that's, that's what I'm leaning for this type of project. Um, you know, shoot me a message on Twitter if you want to get more specific on that and we can see what we can find out.

Myke Hurley: Next question comes from pens to what is the general opinion of noodlers inks? I've read fantastic reviews and some scary reviews regarding damage to feeds. Um, any recommendations for stationary or pen stores in San Francisco as well?

Brad Dowdy: So the first part is you've basically answered your own question. The reviews are mixed. So with noodlers inks, you just have to be aware. Like I would not avoid them. Like I don't have a problem saying that, but there are inks that are very, very strong. Like Baystate blue will eat parts of your pen. If you have to have that ink because you love that ink so much, you pick a pen for Baystate blue and that pen only gets Baystate blue and Baystate blue goes in none of your other pens because eventually it might cause internal problems for your pens. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. It means that you have to take extra care and that goes, I mean, that goes for more inks than noodlers, right? You have to have some level of responsibility to have good fountain pen hygiene when you're using any ink. Noodlers may be a little bit more for some of their inks. You need to pay attention even, even more. But then some of them are just like, you know, completely normal, regular writers, like, you know, Apache, Apache sunset, 51st mass, and then people's experiences will change. So I wouldn't not, I wouldn't avoid them. But if you like the colors, I would just pay extra care. But I think that just goes in the general statements of, of fountain pen inks and clean, keeping up with cleaning your fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, second part. I got this question in email the other day, and there's actually no great stores specifically like for fountain pens in San Francisco. But there are a few good stores you can check out. Mido and Kinokiniya in Japantown, and also the Lamy Boutique got high praise from some of our friends who were in town for the pen show. So those are the three. Mido, Kinokiniya, both in Japantown, and then the Lamy Boutique. So that's kind of what I would check out. I don't know anything other than that.

Myke Hurley: And our final question this week comes from Sarah. Sarah says, I love using fountain pens and always want to have one or two of them with me. The problem is, I also love to carry a nice handbag, and I get nervous that one day I will have some sort of explosion and ruin an inexpensive bag. Do you know of any pen cases that are leak proof? I've been on the hunt for a pen case that has a clear PVC interior so I can see my pens when I open the case, but I still want to have pen sleeves that will keep my pens separated. Have you seen anything like this? If not, could this be something that Nock works on in the future? I love this question so much.

Brad Dowdy: Just everything about this question I love, because that's a thing that people think about when they use fountain pens. And, you know, am I going to get it on my shirt or my pocket or my bag? Or is it going to make a mess somewhere that I don't want it to? So how can I protect against that? I've never seen a pen case that's leak proof, but we've always talked about, and I've never researched it further, is the cigar, like the sealed, like pressurized cigar holders that would hold there. They also happen to be kind of fountain pen sized. You know, would that type of thing work in this situation? It may not be the glamorous situation that I or Sarah would want, but it might be an effective solution to the problem of, hey, if it leaks, will it stay contained into this case? That's something I've threatened to explore over the years, and I don't have any good resources on that. But that's the only idea that ever comes up in these types of situations, because they make these little miniature pressurized cases. I don't know. I mean, if they're pressurized, that would mean that they should be leak proof because they should be airtight. So that's something I got to look into. I don't think that NotCo would get into that project. Although we do have a manufacturer that makes like the like plastic cases, you know, like Pelican cases, right, like the traditional spelling of the name, not the fountain pen spelling of the name, you know, that are the popular like camera hard cases and things like that. But I don't and like I have a pressurized case sample sitting here, but I don't think I would do that for fountain pens. It just it's a little bit bulky, right? So that's the kind of things you run into on that. So that's my only idea, but I don't have it explored enough to be able to give a definitive. All right.

Myke Hurley: If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show on a future episode, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA and it may be brought in to be answered in the future. Thanks to Backblaze, Penchelet and Carol for their support of this week's episode. Thanks to Brad for his great feedback and for not causing me to have some kind of heart attack live on air. So that's good news. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co. He is at Dowdy as I'm on Twitter. Twitch.tv slash penaddict as well. And penaddict on Instagram. I am imike on Instagram. I am YKE. You should go follow me there if you know it already. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.