The Pen Addict 401/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	401
Title:	Can I Touch the Pen?
Release Date:	March 11th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 401
Audio File:	Audio Episode 401
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 401
Length:	7575 min <br />1.25 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 401. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy. Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you doing today? Very good. Huge week so far. Yeah? Yeah. Why is that? Why is that? Let's talk about the Kickstarter campaign. Oh, something happened. 2020 Kickstarter campaign. We launched a few days ago. Doors have been blown off right now, which is absolutely unbelievable. This is probably, well, no, not. This is definitely the most successful Kickstarter campaign we've had to date, I think, from launching. We are currently at $48,753. We met our goal in like 12 hours or something. 661 backers. So, I will remind you, this is our 2020 campaign for pen show visits, and we're also doing the Retro 51. So, the Retro 51 celebration. You can find the link in the show notes to the Kickstarter page, which has the video, has some details. We're still kind of waiting on final, final imagery of the pen, but the imagery we have on the page will give you the idea of what it's going to look like, featuring the finial artwork of 51, Retro 51 top discs. As it stands, as you're listening right now, we have 326 pens left. We're only doing 950 of these. So, if you want one, you've got to go back it. Like, don't sleep on that one. And then, of course, as well, we have our videos that we're going to be doing every year. The plan, okay, the plan as it stands is to visit the Atlanta pen show as normal and the Dallas pen show in September. Dallas will be a new one. We won't be doing a live show at Dallas, but we'll be doing a vlog video. And typically, every year, we'll go to the Atlanta pen show and we'll do our live show and create the video and put it out.

Coronavirus Impact

Myke Hurley: I don't think it is absolutely wild for people to understand that we're about to bring up the big C word right now, which is coronavirus. The Atlanta pen show is in three or four weeks time. Events are being cancelled all over the place right now due to coronavirus. So, we are currently having to evaluate contingency plans for the Atlanta pen show. We are working on them. I think where me and Brad feel right now is pretty good about what we will do. But we might have more to say about that in the coming days. But I would just suggest to people to really be thinking about us not potentially being at the Atlanta pen show this year, if there even is one.

Brad Dowdy: This escalated quickly, right? Yes. I mean, all around the world. It's been around the world for months, but it keeps popping off in different areas. And now it's affecting travel. It's closing down countries. It's starting to pop over here in the US. Because the day I launched the Kickstarter, it didn't come across my mind to put something in there about a contingency plan. But by the next day of the campaign, I was like, I need to send out an update saying that there could be an issue. That's how quick things are moving. So Myke and I have been talking in the background. We have some ideas if we have to skip the live show at the Atlanta pen show. But we're not ready to make that decision yet. We're going to keep monitoring. But it's going to be like, I mean, the show's in three weeks and the way things are escalating. We're definitely concerned about everyone's health and safety and would be concerned about bringing everyone together and being responsible for that. And it's just sometimes the discretion is called for, even though nothing may be wrong specifically and we would all rather go and do this thing. We're very much looking at what other options we have if we have to make that decision. So I would expect like a, we're almost at a go, no go point here in the next several days, right? I would think that's fair.

Myke Hurley: Yes. And kind of to make it clear with the plans that we're currently working on, the only people that this will affect are the people that would be coming to the pen show. So like we will create additional video content for backers only in the case that we can't do the live show in Atlanta. So we're working on some stuff, which honestly, like I think some of the plans that we have for what we would produce in its place, people would actually enjoy more. So, you know, so we're working on some stuff. We laughed at ourselves. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So we're taking this seriously, you know. We have to and we should. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because ultimately we're responsible here, you know. Yeah. If we are encouraging people to travel long distances to come and sit in a room with us and record a show shoulder to shoulder with 90 to 100 other people, you have to consider that. And so we are and we're currently looking at that. And it would be really upsetting if we couldn't make the Atlanta pen show. But we will make good on the campaign. I can guarantee you.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.

Myke Hurley: But really, you should be backing for the pen anyway this year because the reward is so frigging good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think everyone's kind of OK. They're like, oh, yeah, but look at this pen. And like, that's going to be pretty cool. Yeah, that'll be fine. But I think the best thing we can do now is tell you all to pay attention to all of our feeds, social medias, my blog, things like that in the Kickstarter campaign for updates. I would think we will have a yes or no by this time next week. Yeah. Without question. Just because the way things things are moving very fast. So I'm sorry.

Myke Hurley: We had to start the show in such a somber way. It should be a happy time. Yeah. Yeah. But we had to consider. Yeah, we had to. We had to talk about it. But if you have backed the campaign already, like, thank you so much. It's, you know, this one has really blown my mind. The amount that we have done so fast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Quick update on the design itself, which you mentioned before. I'm going to try to finalize the design with Retro 51 this week so we can say, hey, here's the final layout. Let's send it to get the prototype made. So I will have a physical prototype before I sign off on the project. But I need to get it to that point. So once I get a final artwork, that'll be in an update to the campaign. And then we'll go from there.

Myke Hurley: That's nice. Nice, nice, nice. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So hopefully by next week, I'll have that too.

Myke Hurley: So last week was our 101 episode.

Episode Feedback

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Great feedback on that episode. Thank you all for the feedback. Thank you all for listening. It was really fun.

Myke Hurley: I know we have some new listeners because people have sent me tweets and stuff to say that they've now started listening to the show because of it. So it worked. Love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, totally. Like, I've had people that have started like five episodes ago reach out to me and say, oh, that was perfect. Like, perfect timing for that. So, yeah, it was really good. So what are we going to do this time?

Myke Hurley: Well, so we're going to do, we're going to expand upon it. There's a little bit more detail that we can give. And this is, I don't really understand 101 and 201, but we're apparently doing like 201. What does it even mean? We don't have this.

Brad Dowdy: It's a United States college course system. So if you were a freshman in college and you're going and you have to take a history class, your first semester would be history 101. Okay. So that's your very first college class. And then your second semester, you would take history 201 where 101 was the prerequisite for the second level class. And it'll go up to like 401. And then that's kind of it. Then you're into like other specialty type things. But it's your core level class assignments and their requirement level. So, you know, the basics are 101, 201 is the next one up and then on up with that.

Myke Hurley: Why the 01?

Brad Dowdy: I have no idea. I generally haven't. That, like why they're numbered that way, I don't know. There's probably some reason.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to put the Wikipedia article for 101 in the show notes if people want to.

Brad Dowdy: You should put it in the ungeniused show notes.

Myke Hurley: Ah, this looks super boring.

Myke Hurley: Like the page itself is really boring looking. Yeah. Because it's just the disambiguation for 101.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. So the chat room is correcting me. They're right. So like your first class will be 101 in your freshman year. Your second semester of your freshman year would be 102. Then your sophomore year would go to 201, 202. Junior year, 301.

Myke Hurley: But like that makes a little bit more sense. But then why does the O exist?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't know.

Myke Hurley: You know? That's where it gets confusing.

Platform Preferences

Brad Dowdy: None of this matters.

Myke Hurley: No. Should we take a break and dive in?

Brad Dowdy: Let's do it.

Myke Hurley: All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They have all of the products that you want from all of your favorite brands. If you want a Monteverde fountain pen, you want a Pelican fountain pen, maybe you want a Lamy ballpoint. Maybe you want some Pilot Ink. Maybe you want an Amiki. Maybe you want a Sailor. Maybe you want some converters to put in those wonderful pens. No matter what it is you're looking for, Pen Chalet have got it and they have the best prices around. They're doing their best to get the best prices available to you and backing it up with fast and reliable customer service. They're always adding new products and they run discounts all the time. And they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. They sell internationally as well and have great shipping rates also. No matter what it is you're looking for, they've got it. They have pen holders, they have converters, refills, ink, carrying cases, and of course, rollerballs, mechanical pencils, whatever you want. But the top reason to go to Pen Chalet whenever you're looking to buy something is at any time because you are a listener of this show, you can get 10% off. Go to PenCalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password PenAddict. This will give you the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet and also show you this week's offers, which are, Brad, what would you like to talk about?

Brad Dowdy: It is the Montegrappa Fortuna fountain pen. And let me tell you about this pen. This is the barrel design and shape that I like so much from Montegrappa that they've recently started to use as their mainline product. It's a really nice shape to write with, good to hold in the hand, good when it's capped. It's just an all-around great design pen. I think this is essentially like the cartridge converter version of the Montegrappa Montegrappa, which is a piston filler. So this is kind of like the same layout, same design, same design shape as the Montegrappa Mule that did so well. Now this shape is available in different barrel styles, different barrel colors, and had a crazy good price. Like, you know, it's definitely the Ron deal of the day or the deal of the week for PenAddict listeners. It's a crazy price that I cannot say.

Myke Hurley: There's also some items that will come free with certain purchases as well. So Pen Chalet have coupled up some add-on products that you might want with some popular products of theirs, and you can get them for free, which are cool.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, and I scrolled down, I scrolled down, it goes, like, I thought the list stopped, but there's way more down here. There's way more. The Pilot Ageless Ballpoint is one of my favorite, just unique pens. I hate that name. Oh, Ageless. Ageless and Timeless are the two names of those pens. Timeless is better than Ageless. Timeless is better than Ageless. Without shadow of a doubt.

Myke Hurley: All right, go to PenChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website, use the password PenAddict to get your hands on these goods. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and RelayFM. So we're going to do our 201. So one of the first things we're going to talk about is the community, the Pen community, the community that we are so lovingly a part of and indebted to, especially at times like this with the Kickstarter campaign. You know, these are, we are able to do this Kickstarter campaign that we do every year because the community is so strong and supports each other. And so we do what we can on this show to give a little back to the Pen community itself because it's full of many people who run really great blogs, podcasts, Instagram accounts, that kind of stuff. And that's one of the things that, without a shadow of a doubt, like over the history of our show, over its seven years, 400 episodes, if you would say to me, what is the main thing that has changed? It is the way in which the community is expressing itself. You know, we were the only pen podcast around in 2012, but now there are many. Some have come and gone, but there are many. Lots of options now. Lots of blogs, right? Lots more social media activity. That's, I think, it's one of the biggest things that's changed over the history of our show.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, and the more, the merrier, in my opinion. And that's how I've always tried to present anything that I've built as far as, you know, the pen out it goes and the podcast goes. You know, people ask for advice to start blogs and they say, well, there's already other blogs out there doing this. I'm like, you still got to do it because it's still your voice. Same with the podcast. I want to start a podcast. You need to do, I want to hear what you have to say, right? And, you know, if you're going into those things in the pen community, you'll find it to be one of the most open and receptive communities around on the internet, bar none. And I don't think that's overselling it. So, you know, we're in a different area of time where our internet relationships are as stronger, stronger than, you know, previous generations in-person relationships have been. I mean, that's how me and you became friends, right? 100%. So to be able to find a like-minded group of people who not just share the same passions that you do, but who share the same like attitudes and thought processes and willingness to teach and to share and to give back to all of these things. Like I can't ask for a better community. So, you know, we've done things in the past on the show where we've done, you know, pen blogs of the week or different podcasts and things like that. So I've tried to collect as many links as I can to other blogs and podcasts and, you know, YouTube channels. Like I can't start listing them on the podcast because I will guarantee, well, one, we'll be here for two days and two, I will just leave someone out.

Myke Hurley: We won't get them all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we won't get them all. But I'm always open to share anyone and any content anytime, you know, as much as possible. I very much believe in the rising tide theory, raising all ships. And I just want all of this stuff to be out there and more people to read it and more people to see it. So I do have a collection on the pen addict called Pen Friends. And if you're not on there, just yell at me. I'll put you on there. I sometimes I forget. But yeah, I think it's just important to know that this community is open to the most inexperienced beginner users all the way up to like the most experienced advanced users all in the same place at the same time. Right. Yeah. Like you and I are in a different place with our pen collections right now. But if someone walked up to me today and said, hey, Brad, I'm trying to figure out which ballpoint works best on the copy paper at my office. I couldn't be more happier for that question. Right. Because everyone has that question at some point. And I just really believe in sharing that type of information. Some of the places aside from Pen Friends, if you're trying to look for, you know, new new content, new stationery content to read.

Myke Hurley: What are your favorite platforms personally to get information or to just enjoy what the overall world can provide you, you know, like with pen stuff?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I read all of the pen blogs that I know of and with an RSS reader. And then I love Twitter. Like I'm a huge Twitter fan. I'm not afraid to admit that. It's sometimes hard to find the content on there, but I've tried to manage my account to allow me to at least see different things that I'm not reading in blogs. Right. Like I can I follow a lot of the Japanese feeds. Right. So I'm into all the Japanese pens and I want to see what these stores are launching and things like that. Instagram's obviously great, but there's an algorithm issue that sometimes comes into play that is hard to fight against for the most current information. But it's a fun way to engage in the visual part.

Myke Hurley: Instagram is without a shadow of a doubt my favorite way to consume pen related stuff because it's visual. And I think that that is just that just fits. I mean, obviously it fits for good reason, but it fits well for me. I prefer the visual aspect of this hobby. Right. So I follow like my proportions on all of my social networks, which have pen content. It's way higher on Instagram than it is on, say, Twitter or something like that. Like I follow way more pen accounts and pen related people and people in the pen community on Instagram than I do on Twitter because I care more about. I don't have the desire for the most up to date information that you do because I get it here on this show like many other people do. Right. So like I don't need to consume. I don't need to feel like unlike with my tech stuff. Right. I don't feel like I need to be on the like the bleeding edge finger on the pulse of what's happening in the pen world, which I do in the tech world. So I get that information on a slower cadence, but that works for me because I just don't need to have that.

Brad Dowdy: We also have a pen addict Slack channel. I wanted to mention that. It's a very active chat room. Very active. It's essentially a water cooler chat. You know, none of the content lives long on there. It's ephemeral. You know, you post something and it's gone tomorrow, essentially. But it's very busy and it's very topic centric. Right. You can talk about specific topics and ask questions about specific topics. How does one join? Oh, yeah. It's Slack. Because of what it is, you need an invite, but it's not it's not, you know, a private thing. You just can't have an open access to it. You do need to email me hello at pen addict dot com. And then I'll just shoot you over an invite link and you can come on in. You know, Reddit slash our fountain pens is a very, very large Reddit group where you can find a lot of good information on there and along with other stationary subreddits. Yes. You know, there's a ton of people. We've seen a little bit of a resurgence in pen meetups around, you know, around the country and around the world. So that's a little bit harder to find those first the first time if you've like moved to a new town or you're in a town that you're not sure what's going on. That's a place where you might not stumble into. That's where your online communities like Twitter and Slack and, you know, emailing me say, hey, do you know of anything in this area? And I might not, but I might know the person asked. So there's things like that. So and I also like sharing things on Twitch where we can do a little bit of show and tell and unboxings and just have a little bit of silly fun time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, of course, there are other YouTube as well, right? Like video content is big for massive. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, you definitely want to if you're a YouTube fan, you definitely want to be following like Fig Boot on Pens and Stephen Brown and Pinboy Roy and all these other people that, you know, I said I wasn't going to list because I know I'm going to leave them out.

Myke Hurley: Well, all of this stuff will be listed in your pen friends list. Yeah. And it's always changing. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's always changing. So I always need to put in more. It's usually the best thing about pen friends is I'm adding way more than I'm removing, which is kind of cool. Like right now we're getting a lot of content creation around pens and stationery. I think it's pretty neat. I'll always support that wholeheartedly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, it's just a wonderful thing to have seen. And it must be weird for you in some ways, because obviously you are responsible for a lot of it, right? Like for people having even thought they could have a blog.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I've never thought of it that way.

Myke Hurley: But you kind of are though, right? Like you do understand it because you've been around for longer than basically anybody else doing this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, technically, yes, I understand it. But like it never registers me. It just does not register with me because all I want is to be able to help someone else. Like people want, like I get the question from time to time, what do you want to be known for? Right. I want to be known for helping other people find cool stationery, like and helping them spread their wings.

Myke Hurley: I know somebody used to ask that question in a really cool way.

Community Stewardship

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I just want to help. I just want to help people. Like that's it. Yeah. Like I share all my stuff. I spread the word. And, you know, I just try to be a good steward of the community and, you know, practice what I preach.

Myke Hurley: So there's like Tony in the chat room is calling you the John Gruber of stationery, which is means something in my world. I mean, I refer to you as as that as like so in in the Apple technology world, which is what I'm mostly in. John Gruber is like one of the most important people in that community. He's been doing it for longer than anybody else. And his kind of model for creating a blog has proliferated out and lots of tech focused blogs, especially run by individuals or small companies, mirror some of the ideas that he created. John Gruber is also the creator of the Markdown language of text. If you're familiar with that, like it's like a text markup language called Markdown, which is used everywhere now. Like Slack's text markup languages Markdown.

Brad Dowdy: Reddit's is pretty close. Yeah. A lot of it is based on that. It's used everywhere.

Myke Hurley: One of my favorite things that I like to say to people that I'm sure makes Brad want to kill me is that the pen addict has higher traffic than Darren Fireball, John Gruber's blog. So I always find that kind of funny. Because both you and John, I mean, at least I know that you both used to at one point, if not still, like on your advertising page, publish your page views. Yeah. And yours are larger.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't updated mine in a while. It varies. You know, I stopped writing for Google, right? Like I don't concern myself with the numbers anymore, right? You get to a point. Like I think you should, like if you're starting your blog and you're just getting started and you're a year or two into it, you should absolutely be concerned. Like you should look at the numbers all the time. I haven't looked at Google Analytics and probably since the last time I updated that, which was probably like a year and a half ago. I literally have no idea. Because it changed. It changes. It may have changed. But there was a time.

Myke Hurley: I know there was a time when your website was larger. But it makes sense though, because the pen addict itself and the content that goes on it is very Google friendly.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It is. That's why I don't worry about doing more, right? I don't have the bandwidth to care what my SEO is. Yeah. Or what keywords I'm using.

Myke Hurley: All the time when I'm looking for a pen, you come first. Like even if I'm signed out in Google, like if I search for a specific pen, the pen addict comes first and it's one of those inertia things, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Time helps. So that's why I tell everyone if you want to start, start. Because, you know, the only thing you've missed out on is time. And you can correct that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You certainly can.

Transitioning Topics

Myke Hurley: So do we want to move on to talking? Is there anything else you want to touch on with this?

Brad Dowdy: I, you know, ask a lot of questions. You know, that's how we get to know you. That's how I'm best able to help you. You know, whether you're emailing me, hello at pen addict dot com, getting me at me on Twitter. Do not Instagram message me. I will never see that message. Email or Twitter are the best ways to just find out and ask me anything. I genuinely am wide open to the most, you know, basic or the most complex questions. And if I don't know the answer, I will do my best to help you find it.

Myke Hurley: Do you want to talk about pen shows?

Brad Dowdy: I do. This question comes up a lot.

Myke Hurley: So obviously this is something that we care about a lot, right? We both try and attend multiple pen shows every year. And we do get the question very frequently of, you know, I'm starting out with going to a pen show for the first time. What should I do? We'll give a little refresher here. But I do recommend that people go back and listen to the episode that we did with my wife, Adina, before she came to her first pen show, like serious pen show, which was the San Francisco pen show. So that's episode 372. And then maybe follow up with her return episode after the pen show. You know, I think it's a kind of like a fun before and after for somebody who was going to their first major pen show. So that's a good, I think that's a good place to go listen to it. But just for psych of posterity, what would you recommend people bring to a pen show? It's not about just what you leave with.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Pen show is a lot about prep because...

Myke Hurley: Especially for traveling for one.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. It's like a little mini trade show. Like if you've never been to one, it will probably be smaller than what you're thinking about. Oh my gosh, I'm going to this pen show. It's going to be this big, huge, massive thing. It's generally not. But what it is, is once you even get into this space, it's overwhelming because a single table can have hundreds of individual things to look at. Right? So you get, while you might not be like physically overwhelmed with the size of the space, you might be mentally overwhelmed with the quantity of items that are physically present in this small space. So always advise people to bring some type of small bag, definitely some type of beverage and some type of snack. Like before you even consider what station area or anything you're going to bring. Because you're going to be walking around a lot. You're going to be, you know, around a lot of people. You're going to be moving. It could be hot in the room. You might need to take a break. We'll talk about all that stuff later. But, you know, bring a small bag. You know, a lot of people bring backpacks, tote bags, sling bags, messenger bags, those type of things. You don't want it to be too big and bulky because not every hotel ballroom is laid out the best. So you can be just bumping and knocking into people all the time. Some have wider house, some don't. But you definitely want to have your hands free to look down at the various tables and, you know, talk with the vendors and be able to pick up a few items that you've maybe seen online and want to test out in person. And, yeah. So that's the very basics that I'd bring. A small bag to carry some things in.

Myke Hurley: Empty pen storage.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. On top of that, yes, I'd bring pen storage, your favorite notebook to write in. And Sarah, who writes Notebook Joy, just reminded me, I think, of something that Anna said years ago. Bring a glass nib dip pen or a dip pen of some kind that's easily cleanable because you'll end up meeting pen friends and you can, like, swab their inks in your notebook. I was like, that was a smart idea. I remember Anna saying that years ago and I totally forgot about that until I just read it this time. But if you don't have that, that's fine.

Myke Hurley: That's the one we were looking at on that JetPens video a few weeks ago, right?

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. Just something that's easily cleanable and it's not going to contaminate other inks and things. Something you can do quickly and efficiently just to get an idea of the color. And then bring some of your own pens that you want to talk about and share with others. That's kind of, like, the main thing that I bring these days is I'll bring, like, a pen roll of just a handful of pens that I've always talked about on the show or that are my current favorites. And that I want people to be able to use. So, yeah, you know, definitely watch what you pack. You don't want to, you're going to probably leave with more than you came with. So, be wary of bringing too much. Mm-hmm. So, you don't want to also overload your bag and be uncomfortable all day carrying it around. Mm-hmm. So, when you get to the pen show, our advice has always been, especially if it's your first show, this is more important than if you're an experienced show goer, is to take it all in first. Yes. Before you start reaching for the wallet. Make a loop around the show. Yep. Kind of see. You don't have to even stop everywhere. You don't have to stop and individually look. I'm not saying stop at each table, look, talk, take it all in. I'm like, get a feel of where things are at, who's selling what, what ideas you want to come back to. And then you can kind of decide, okay, I've seen it all in the general sense. Where do I want to go see things more specifically? And then that's where you go and you really kind of find a space in front of a table. Start talking to the vendors, which they're more than glad to talk to you. Please ask them questions. They would be glad to help you.

Brad Dowdy: You know, it's always one of the big questions is, can I touch the pen on the table? And the answer is always ask. All you have to do is say, may I pick this pen up? And then if you're not sure if it's a pull cap or twist cap, you can just say, is this pull or twist? Just say, is this pull or twist? And they'll say. And then if it has a filling system, like a piston filler, don't shoot ink across the table like Myke does.

Myke Hurley: Like I did. Not does. Did. I did it one time. And the guy was explaining to me how to fill the ink. And I thought he wanted me to do it. But he was just telling me. But I thought that he was saying like, oh, just to give you kind of a run through, just twist it. And I did. And then the ink went everywhere. But I did buy the pen. So I feel like, you know, it wasn't the worst. I think that was my pen. That was the golden web that I bought you. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So let's talk about that. Vintage pens. Oh, boy. People always want to know about buying vintage pens. That was one of the most popular questions I got at the Baltimore Pen Show. Where can I buy X vintage pen? And so it's a little, I don't know if it's unfair, but I guess it's totally fair. I tell people my favorite vintage pen vendors that I've had great experiences with. Yeah. Right? I'm not going to send you all around the room looking for all these things. I know this vendor is here. And I know that vendor is here. And I know that they have good quality, good support. They're friendly and helpful. So I will send people directly to buying vintage pens. But the biggest thing with vintage pens is you want to know if the pen has been restored or not. Right? So that's the hardest thing to determine, especially if you're new. Is this pen going to write when I leave the show, ink it up for the first time? Is it good to go? So that's a conversation you need to have with any vintage pen dealer. Um, so yeah, I, um, also the other thing that I noticed just at Baltimore was how many people had a physical list of some time to either see or buy, you know, a lot of the lists I saw were, I want to look at this thing, right? Like I'm not shopping for this. I want to look at this thing. I want to look at this thing. And that way later on, I can make decisions because now I've seen these things that I've only read about online or did my own research on, or I've seen them at a different show and want to see what that thing looks like here. Um, so yeah, lists are very valuable, um, in that, in, in pen shows, um, budgets go along with that list, right? We're going to talk more about budgets later in the show, just in, in general, but, um, definitely, you know, have a budget and stick to it if at all possible. And the last thing I think for just the basics, and I, we really cover this more in the episodes, Myke will link in the show notes, take advantage of any additional events that shows have outside of the show floor. It's not, every show is not created equally outside the walls of the short, mostly generally inside the show. They're all pretty equal, right? You know, the vendors will vary, but you're going to have the same opportunity to see the same types of things. And that's why you're there is to check those things out. But a lot of shows put a lot of work into extra, either after hours events during show hours, classes, always take advantage of those if you can. Yeah. Classes are fantastic. You know, especially if you have more than a couple hours to spend at a show, it does, it does take time. Like you need, if you're planning on taking classes and seeing the show, you need like a full day, right? But that's kind of the benefit of this. You know, you take that full day, make a plan, say, I'm going to go to the show for these hours. I'm going to take this class for these hours. And then, you know, I'm going to hit the road. So they always do a lot of shows put a lot of effort into that and they've proven to be very successful. And a lot of them do some unique things. So it's always worth checking what the event schedule looks like outside of the show floor.

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Brad Dowdy: So this next little section, Myke, I took from... We asked for feedback before we went into the episode 400 and the penaddict 101 episode. And we got an enormous amount of feedback. I could not... I was shocked at how many replies we got to that. And we took a lot of that advice and that's what landed in episode 101. But then looking through the rest of the replies, there were a few topics that were a little past like the 101 level stuff that I wanted to discuss like, you know, what is a pen nib? That were repeated enough in these questions that I thought they were worth a little bit of elaborating on. Okay. So I want... That's not too many, but I put a few of these questions here. Some of them were a little bit deeper than the other ones, but some of them are, even if they aren't deeper, like super valid questions that come up all the time that I want to hit. So I want to take these first two little paragraphs and kind of... If you'll read those and we'll kind of discuss them as a whole because they're both kind of similar and there were more questions or comments like this, but I thought these two kind of fit what I want to talk about.

Myke Hurley: So first one, demystifying fountain pen elitism to make it more accessible to a newcomer. For example, most steel nibs are just as good as most gold nibs. A cartridge only pen isn't a bad thing because cartridges have some great travel uses, right? So like, this is the idea of not saying that you have to always have the very best, the most complicated thing to be a pen fan. And then also, I'd like to hear some commentary on the economics of the hobby in general, how to navigate the acquisition phase, the grail pen buy. The idea of a grail pen is like a pen, your dream pen, basically, the holy grail. Then not going into ridiculous debt just to buy that next pen. What are some tips for safeguarding overspending and getting that feeling that you just have to buy that pen that's way out of your range?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so these are two different questions from different people, but it's the same idea, right? I definitely dislike any type of elitism, especially around pens and stationery because that's what I do for a living. That's what I, you know, am most passionate about. And like, I get the idea that elitism does exist, right? But I think as a whole, how we were talking about with the community, even if a person owns a very expensive pen, I don't find, at least in this community, and I'm talking in general terms and as a whole, you know, there's obviously specific exceptions, that anyone will lord that over anyone else and tell them that, you know, my Nakaya is so far superior than your platinum preppy. Why do you even come here, right? That's not what this community is about. This community is about saying, I am really glad you found that platinum preppy and are happy with it. And you should be happy with it because it's an amazing pen and it suits you and it suits your budget. It suits your economics. It suits your use case. It suits your feel. And you should never, ever like worry about those types of things. And that's one of those things that I think the community is very helpful with, right? It's your pen. Your $2 pen is just as important as someone else's $200 pen. And I firmly believe that. And that's why, you know, I'm someone who's in a position, in a very fortunate position, to buy some expensive pens that I really, really enjoy for myself. And I always make it a point to bring those pens out in public and throw them on a bar table and say, here, please try this pen. Because it just takes down that elitism completely, I think. You know, even though you're like, you're holding this crazy expensive pen, like I want to share these types of things. And I find the community very, very helpful in that.

Brad Dowdy: There's definitely people who will take stands on things like, well, I'll only buy a pen if it's got a gold nib, or I'll only buy a pen if it's a piston filler. And that's just something that you'll learn over time, what your particular tastes are, right? So that's not something that came quick to me. I've learned over the years that gold nibs can be, or steel nibs can be just as good, if not better than gold nibs in some situations, and vice versa. So that's more of a personal taste thing. You know, a cartridge-only pen, it's a perfectly wonderful pen if it suits your needs, and it suits your use case, and you like to use the cartridges that come with it. Like, that's a great thing, because you found something for you. And that's what I try to present as much as I can, to say, I'm here to help you find something that's better for you. I'm not here to tell you the thing so you can compare yourself to someone else, right? And that's hard to, like, that's hard to do, like, all of the time. Like, when we talk about, like, I spent a crazy amount of money on a Namiki Milky Way, like, well over $1,000. And how can, like, Brad, how can you turn around and talk about the Secure Pigma Micron? Well, I love that pen equally for what it is, because they're not the same thing, right? I can love that $3 pen just as much as my Milky Way, because of what I can use it for, what it represents, you know, how ubiquitous it is, how successful it's been. Like, I wanted, like, these stories are, like, important to me. So, demystifying the elitism, I think in general, it's mostly demystified in this community. Outside the community, I understand. It's just like any other community. There's always different layers of understanding. Like, if you're coming at it from the outside, it's harder to understand what's going on on the inside. And therefore, people will just jump to conclusions. And you just have to just, like, shake your head and go, yeah. I mean, they just, you know, they're not in it every day and don't really know. And just kind of, you know, let that go. So, inside the community, I'm glad to say that the elitism has definitely died down in the years that I've been doing this.

Myke Hurley: I think it's one of those things where, as there's more and more new people that are coming, that are younger coming into this, it helps bring down some of the old school ways of doing things.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And now, to expand on the economics part of it, I do have some specific advice on this. And it's easy to say, but it's hard to execute. And it goes with anything, really. It's you have to go slow. You have to go measured. You don't go out there buying anything you see that... When you're very new to a hobby, you want to buy all the things. I did, I'm sure. You know, most people did. And I'm sure now they have a stash of pens that they don't use. The best thing, best advice I can give you, but it's really, really hard to do, is to go slow. There is also the real fear of missing out, the FOMO that we talk about. Mm-hmm. It took me a long time to get over the FOMO. But I've definitely gotten over having to buy the thing because I miss out on it. Yeah. Because I learned years ago that there's always a next thing. Mm-hmm. It's not going to be the exact thing, but there's going to be a next thing. I really learned that with fountain pen ink. In the beginning, it's like, I learned my favorite inks going away. Well, I need to hoard it, and I need to go on the secondary market and stack up on it. Stock up on it. And then later on, like three years later, the ink gets re-released, or there's a new color that's almost exactly the same. And now I've wasted all this time and energy and money for fear of missing out when that was just a bad decision to begin with. So you have to know your budget. Your safeguards are to go slow. Utilize limits. Make sure you're actually using the products that you purchase, which I'm definitely guilty of failing with a lot of times, but working on correcting that. And never overextend yourself. Never, ever overextend yourself. Under any situation, these are non-essential items. We're not talking about food and shelter and clothing here. We're talking about luxury items, even if it's a $3 pen. It's a non-necessity item. So you just have to have these conversations with yourself. Understand what your budget is. Understand what your needs and requirements are, and go from there. It's a complex topic, and there's no one answer, but it's always worth talking about. To kind of wrap that little section up, I got a letter this week, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's a long letter. It's a three-page letter. I'm not going to read it all, but there's one paragraph that kind of, this makes me around, it relates to these conversations we just had. And this is what makes me as happy as anything. This is like in the third page of this letter, I get to this paragraph. It says, to wrap up this long story, in almost no time, I've gone from perpetual pen envy to finding my favorite writing pen, the one I'm using right now, the Pentel Energel 0.5. I couldn't be happier. I still love fountain pens and have whole lists of pens, inks, and paper I will buy when I win the lottery one day. But even if I never own a Pro Gear or a Pelican, I know I'll still get to appreciate writing with good pens, and I have you to thank for that. We're talking about a Pentel Energel, and I just want to bust into tears. Like, that's it. That makes me endlessly happy that we can have that discussion. Like, it's all I could do to not cry yesterday when I was reading that. It's all I can do to not cry right now. Like, that, I take this stuff seriously. You know, and it's important to me that everyone finds the thing that makes them happy. And that's what makes me happy, is when other people are. And when I get that note in the mail, like, that's it. That's it for me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's pretty great. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Do we need to carry on with these? Do we need to carry on with reading here so you can compose yourself a little bit?

Preparing for Pen Shows

Brad Dowdy: Let's see here.

Myke Hurley: I can do this one, right? This is the next question.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, hit this one up. Yeah, and the ones right after that are really quick. All right. So let's do these, and then we'll get into a little bit of fun to wrap it up.

Myke Hurley: All right. I'll never be a high-end fountain pen buyer. The cost is just prohibitive, and for me, not worth the outlay. I started with the Preppy, then the Lamy Safari, and was lucky enough to win a Lamy Ion, which is not my thing. My grail pen would be a pen that can be eyedroppered and have an ultra extra fine nib on it. So far, I haven't found that pen, so would love your input on one. I would also love to see you do a segment in the future on the extreme low-end fountain pens like the Preppy and talk about how easy it is to convert the Preppy to an eyedropper and the convenience and fun of that. I think more people would take the leap to fountain pens if you encouraged them at the lower end. I know you guys love all the big bucks fountain pens, but there are a lot of us out here who are just trying to get to be a different, more regular buyer.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this is all in the same line. We got question or reply after reply, this type of thing, and I love it. I don't have an answer off the top of my head for an eyedroppered UEF Asian nib, but now I'm interested. These are the kind of things that I don't have all the answers, right? We talk about that all the time. I was like, but I'll see if I can find them. I'm sitting here wondering, well, can you eyedropper a Platinum 3776 or is that section connector metal and it wouldn't seal up well? It's like I can't remember off the top of my head and I have a bunch of those pens. So, you know, yeah, like I love this type of question. I love how important like a pen like the Platinum Preppy is to so many people and that you can not only have your stock Platinum Preppy that you get from, you know, just right off the store shelf, but you can then take it up a notch very inexpensively by using a little silicone grease and getting a bottle of crazy orange ink. And now you have this really wild eyedropper fountain pen with a nib on it. Like it's a little bit hard to go deep, deep dive into that on a podcast, right? That's kind of very visual and video-y type of thing. But I love the idea of this comment, right? It's like they say, I know you guys love the Big Bucks fountain pens. And like that's my point. Yeah, we do, but like I'm about to ball over this guy's Pentel Energel 0.5 that he's found his pen. Like that's it for me. Like, you know, it's – I like hearing about all of this wide-ranging thing, things that we all are attracted to in the stationary world because that's what I'm attracted to. Like that's why I started this blog, right? It's like basically $3 gel ink pens. So, yeah, I love this type of comment and feedback and we can do more with that and, yeah, we'll work on that.

Myke Hurley: The psychology behind pen collecting. What do you think drives a person to collect pens?

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. So, I – this can go for anything that we buy outside of the necessities, right? You can be a backpack guy, a shoe guy, a watch person, you know, anything, you know, sunglasses, whatever.

Brad Dowdy: The psychology as a non-psychiatrist, it obviously makes us feel good, right? There is – we definitely feel something different when we're able to have a thing that we thoroughly enjoy.

Myke Hurley: It helps you belong to something, too. It helps you belong to a tribe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, and I always go back to the storytelling aspect of it. Even, like, my basic Pilot Hi-Tech C. Do you know how many stories I can tell about a black Hi-Tech C gel ink pen? Like, so what drives me to continue to buy other Pilot Hi-Tech Cs and then other pens that are similar to that? And then, oh, you can have a fountain pen that writes as fine as a three-millimeter Hi-Tech C. So, like, that's what drives me is discovery. I always – like, I refer to the totality of the pens we own as a collection of pens. But I would say that we're not necessarily pen collectors, right? We're pen users. And that's where you have to make a distinction. You know, are you collecting a thing to collect it? You know, do you want a shelf full of Retro 51s and their boxes still sealed up? Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Or do you want to buy every Retro 51, crack them open, throw them on your desk, and start using them? Those are both, like, two different valid ways to do things. So, it depends on, you know, how you're going about it. And there's no right or wrong answer. No one will look at you differently for that. But I think in general, we think of ourselves as pen users, not pen collectors. So, that psychology is, well, I'm going to find something that makes my handwriting look cool. That's it for me. You know, and then there's, you know, extraneous things that go on top of that. It's like, oh, how does it look? Are there fancy materials? Or is there something interesting about this pen? But, yeah. Like, that's a... That we need one of our psychology friends online to discuss that. And, you know, and then still never reach an answer. Because it's not an easy question.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, next one. Kind of a fountain pen 101. Do you put ink back in the bottle if you want to change colors but haven't written your pen dry yet? No. Never do this. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is a hard left turn from all the other questions. But it comes up a lot. And it should be like in the fountain pen 101. And, Myke, I will tell you, for the first couple years, I did this. Yeah, yeah. I get it. I put the ink back in the bottle. Right? So, this is the type of question I want to see asked. That's why I included this. Because this is a thing I did. And the more I talked to people and the more I realized what was actually going on, the more I realized that that's a big no-no. You don't want to do that. Just for contamination's sake, it's generally not a good idea. Yeah. And no matter how, you know, protected you think your ink bottle and your ink cartridge or converter is, it's never a good idea. You just want to go ahead. If you want to get rid of that ink, you just flush it down the drain and don't do that. So, yeah, there you go. So, this goes into the last one. How Not to Be Scared of Fountain Pen Ink and Maintenance. The best thing I ever learned about fountain pen maintenance was to accept the fact that your fingers will be inky.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Like, yeah, that's going to happen. I still get my, every time I fill any pen still, my hand is just covered.

Brad Dowdy: Once you accept that you're going to get ink on your hands, everything else comes into place. If you're trying to avoid getting ink on your hands at all costs, you're going to be endlessly frustrated just by cleaning the pen or inking the pen or having to open an ink bottle. Part of the fountain pen fun is that they're a little bit particular and you have to be, you know, meticulous in doing certain things and they can get a little bit messy. And that's part of the pleasure that a lot of us enjoy. You know, there's a payoff at the end for going through an ink bottle that you can barely get open and you're squeezing like you're wrenching it. Then you get ink on your hands opening it. Then you get ink on your hands filling it. And, you know, you just have to own that stuff. And once I got past that point, I used to be the person that didn't want a drop of ink on my hands or a drop of ink on my nib. I would endlessly like paper towel, you know, twist the paper towel into a little point to get the little dabs of ink off my nib because I wanted it to look pretty. Once you realize that that's normal and that's accepted and that's okay, everything else comes so easy. You'll do anything to clean a fountain pen and switch an ink out and things like that. So, except the fact that you're going to get ink on your hands, everything else is easy.

Myke Hurley: Get a rag.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I have a singular rag that I use for like all my fountain pen cleaning. It's got ink all over it. Yeah. It's great. I love using it because it's loved. It's a well-loved rag.

Myke Hurley: Great. All right. Let's take our final break. We'll finish up with some more memes and themes because we left some off, some stuff. Gosh. We're going to play a game that we play on this show every now and again. Today's episode is also brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace as though that you easily create a website for your next idea or project. They give you all of the tools that you need. You can register a domain name, customize award-winning templates. You can even set up an online store. Squarespace have everything you need for your next project. They are an all-in-one platform. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. You have to worry about any of that. Squarespace have got you covered and they back everything up with 24-7 customer support. The Pen Addict, the blog that we mentioned, penaddict.com, runs on Squarespace. It's run on Squarespace for as long as we've known each other, I think. I can't even remember it being anywhere else. So, you know, and Knock as well, your website there, that runs there. We use the RealFM blog, runs on Squarespace. I have used Squarespace for so many projects over the years. I will have lost count, themesystem.com, Squarespace website. It's just so easy to get set up. If you have something you want to do, something you want to promote, something you want to sell, something you want to show to the world, Squarespace makes it easy for you to get started so you can actually do everything you want to do rather than spending days trying to get a website set up from scratch. Their plans start at just $12 a month, but you can sign up for a trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. When you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% off your first purchase. So thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So when I was going through all the comments for last week's episode, we had a lot of people asking to explain things like the Visionaire and the Scribble Pen, which we did last week. Like what are the recurring, you know, funny things that we talk about? What are the inside jokes that come up every now and then? And I thought I did a pretty good job of hitting all the main ones. You hit the big ones. We hit the big ones. But I have to say the ones I put on the page for us to discuss today did not even cross my mind. And these were really fun and important things that came up a bunch of times. Like, for example, the first one is penaddict bingo. So I was walking Monday out to the NotCo shipping department, which is behind my house, and I get like halfway there. And I don't know how it hit me. I just like, oh my gosh, penaddict bingo. We didn't talk about that. But so frequent listeners of the show like to get on us a little bit, and completely, fairly, and rightfully so, of repeating ourselves, talking about the same topics over and over again. There are a lot of times we do that. That's just how the show rolls sometimes. So our listeners devised, along with our good friend Alexander, created this page. And our wonderful third host, who will come up again momentarily, Anna Reinhardt, created a physical copy when we do in-person podcasts. So you can go to tpabingo.com and tick off the bingo boxes and try to make a bingo just by listening to our show. Just to give you an example of this card, if you're not looking at it right now, the free space in the center of the bingo card is Sailor on this card. This card regenerates when you refresh the page. But Sailor's the free space, and then there's all kinds of other things on here. I bet we would have probably a bingo already on this card. So look, Brad and or Myke Tears Up. That's one. Check that box off today, because Brad almost lost it.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah, yeah, you did.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, I love Panatic Bingo, and we should bring that up more often. And we maybe need to, I'll get with Alexander, we might need a refresh of the board options, because there's a couple in there that aren't necessarily applicable anymore. When I mentioned that on my Twitch stream Tuesday, that I'd completely forgotten about TPA Bingo, you know what else I forgot about, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Something you want to forget about.

Brad Dowdy: Something you want to forget about. So we'll officially call this the Nightmare Coloring Page, because there's no other way to introduce this. But when you see this, if you've forgotten about this, if you're a long-time listener.

Illustration Catastrophe

Myke Hurley: There was an article that Brad was interviewed in for a website, BDC Wire, powered by Boston.com. And they interviewed Brad and included what can only be described as one of the worst illustrations any human being has ever commissioned and published. It's terrifying. And then this illustration was then expanded out to include me and Anna, and this was not done by BDC Wire. Who actually did the illustration portion?

Brad Dowdy: Alexander. Okay, Alexander did that too. Scroll down. Okay. If you scroll down, all of the sources of where he even got that image that he used for you is listed on the source material. And all of the other links to mentions of this article and this catastrophe of a picture. So, like, I did the interview. The title they chose for the interview is, This Guy Loves Pens More Than You Love Anything in the World. And, I mean, I think that's fairly accurate. And then, like, they published the article and this header image is up there. And I, to this day, I have no idea what happened.

Myke Hurley: One of my favorite things is that this image was printed out and stuck on the wall in the old Nock workshop.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. It had a prominent space in the office. Yes.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, with this coloring book, you can go in and actually color in the image to your heart's content and change all the colors. And it's a really weird thing. And it pops up every now and then.

Stationery Wiki Mention

Brad Dowdy: Yep. People will send us images. And, again, I've genuinely, like, forgotten about it. We've recorded a lot of episodes. We forgot some good stuff in here. And this was, that was a classic. I'm not going to lie. We had a ton of fun with that. One of the other frequent topics is the stationary wiki. So, if you go to stationary.wiki, you will find the hard work of Matthias from Blystift. Alexander's also got his hands in that. And it's a great resource for listeners of the show, people who are interested in stationary. People who are interested in sharing information can, you know, create and modify existing pages. It's just a very cool resource. You know, there's a lot of Pen Addict podcast information on there and different links and shows. All kinds of crazy, crazy stuff. So, it's really, really fun. So, make sure that you have the stationary wiki bookmarked. And contribute if you can. I think that would be a cool way to give back to the community if you were ever so interested. This next one, Myke, is when I started thinking about all these other things that I forgot. Yeah. You know what else I forgot? I forgot how bad. Yeah. I forgot how bad we pronounce certain items. It was G. Herban that started it all, right? Was that the first time where we were both, like, really stuck on pronunciations and had people... People would record the sounds as files and email them to us on how to pronounce things. Yeah. Is that it?

Myke Hurley: We've not ever really been very good at pronouncing things. And also, kind of, over time, just stopped worrying so much, you know? Yes. Definitely. Now, the G. Herban pronunciation, so this is G. Herban, J. Herban, or whatever you would call it, Inc. J. Herban. This was a video that had been produced. This video no longer exists. It is not on YouTube anymore. I've tried finding it, and I cannot find it, which is a shame. But they basically went through and listed out, had somebody in a beautiful French accent list out the actual pronunciations of every single one of their inks. It doesn't exist anymore. I can't find this video on YouTube. They've taken down the original one, and I can't find another version of it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Well, our listeners have a mission now.

Myke Hurley: If anybody knows where I can find it, please, we'll put that in follow-up. But it was actually very useful. It was. And helping round out some of our hard edges when it came to French pronunciations.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And that translated over to Ackermann as well, the Dutch Inc. brand. We had a soundboard at one time for Ackermann inks. I do not remember that. Where you could just push a button. I want to say our friend Chuck created that. But that was another one where I had an entire file of someone reading down the pronunciation of all. I think it's 30 inks in that lineup. They sent me a file of them pronouncing all of them. And it's fantastic. We don't take ourselves that serious to where we can't take feedback about how to pronounce things that are very tough to pronounce.

Myke Hurley: And there are times where we will give up on a pronunciation. You know? And just kind of be like, look, this isn't... We just can't... We can't get this right. You know? And then that just becomes part of the lore, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Speaking of lore, Brad's pen show wife comes up from time to time, which I didn't even think to mention this, but we actually talk about it a lot. So Anna Reinhart and I, if you didn't know, Myke, we're married, at least as far as pen shows go. But not really. But she is my pen show wife because, as the story goes, who I've become really good friends with Andrew, who originally, let's say, caused this story. But it's one of the greatest stories in pen addict and pen show history. And the story goes that I was at the DC Pen Show. I want to say 2016. It was at the old hotel. So 2015, 2016, and me, Anna, and Matt Armstrong from the Pen Habit are standing at the elevator waiting to go up to our rooms. And the elevator arrives from people coming down. And the gentleman gets off the elevator, sees Matt. And Matt is no longer blogging at Pen Habit or making his YouTube videos, but he's a very famous stationary YouTuber. And if you're not interested with Matt Armstrong, you should go find the Pen Habit channel because he has some great videos on YouTube. So this gentleman walks out. And whenever we're with Matt, he's the most recognizable because he's on video all the time. So the guy goes, oh, you're Matt. You're, you know, Matt Armstrong from the Pen Habit. And Matt's like, yeah. And then he kind of looks at Anna and her pink hair wonderfulness. And he's kind of thinking, he's like, I've recognized you. I'm not sure who you are. Then he's like, oh, you're Anna from, you know, the Well-Appointed Desk. And they talk for a second. And then he looks over at me and he goes, and you're Anna's husband? And we all just go, yes. And we like left it at that. We go, yes, this is, I am Anna's husband. My name is Brad. And we saw Andrew the next day. And we were like, look, we need to talk to you for a second because this was the most joyful thing that has ever happened to any of us at a pen show. To have this type of conversation to where I'm not the one recognized with all of us. And just Matt and Anna got so much joy out of that that I then became Anna's husband the rest of the pen shows from here to eternity.

Brad Dowdy: I love that story.

Myke Hurley: It's such a silly story.

Brad Dowdy: It's the best. Thank you, Andrew.

Field Notes Obsession

Myke Hurley: And then one other thing that comes up quite a lot. You know, we went through a very long field notes obsession on this show as both me and Brad were trying to collect up as many field notes as we could. And now we always talk about a new release. It's an important thing. It's an interesting thing. It's good to talk about. We're fascinated by the company as well as the products that they produce. And we have since turned the talking about field notes into a game where we will try to guess how each other feels about each edition. And luckily enough, there is a brand new field notes edition. So we'll round out today's episode by playing the game. Do you want to go first? What do you think I think about the vignette edition of field notes?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So quick explainer for those who haven't seen it. It is the spring 2020 quarterly edition called vignette. And the idea is that the cover has a circular area out the from the middle of the cover where you can insert a picture on the inside of the cover and basically create your own cover art by adding an image. Right. Is that a fair way to put it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And they come in gray and green.

Brad Dowdy: Gray and green. Um, so I get to the part of the game is I get to say what I think Myke thinks. And I think Myke likes these a lot because he likes creating things. He like, I can see him thinking about stickers and putting relay stuff on there. And I'm going to say, while it may not be a favorite, I think you'd like this edition a lot.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Uh, I would actually say it is a pretty similar thing for you in that one. Just cause it's unique and weird. Um, what, what, how are you feeling?

Brad Dowdy: I think this is like a five out of 10 at best. I'm not a fan.

Myke Hurley: Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Well, what's the issue?

Brad Dowdy: Um, the vignette portion, like the customizable portion. Like it's fine. Like I get it. Like the first thing I would do is slap a pen addict sticker on there, but like, I'm just going to stick that on the outside cover anyway. Like that's true.

Myke Hurley: If I wanted to customize it, I could just do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So this is like one step above base edition for me. It doesn't, it doesn't move the needle for me. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I think they're very cute. I like them. I'm not going wild for it. I really liked the green color. I wish they'd done more than gray. Like there's like kind of two colors of gray really. And then one really bright green, which makes me wish that they'd kind of done another really bright color. I would have been a bit more exciting for me. I did a bit more. Um, I do really love the customization and I think it's very clever. And just from a technical perspective, I find it quite impressive. Yeah. Especially that they built this little web app to help you like create your own images that you can print off and stuff, which I thought was cute.

Brad Dowdy: And that they created the cover with actual, an actual pocket in the cover, essentially to slide in the artwork. That's what I think is really clever. It's smart.

Myke Hurley: They include some little cards as well. So you can kind of get started. So I think it's very clever in that regard. Um, but like, I think this might be my last subscription in my subscription.

Brad Dowdy: This was the first one I did not get. So mine lapsed with the, um, with the last one, the copper.

Myke Hurley: I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think this is the final one in my subscription. And this is not one that I would have bought if I was out of subscription. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, mine ended with group 11. So I did not get this one and I will not be buying this one. It's this doesn't move the needle for me.

Myke Hurley: I think it's a fun idea. Very incredibly well executed, but it's just not something that I was personally looking for.

Brad Dowdy: It's funny. You say that about the green color. If they were all three, the same green color notebook, I think I would rank it a tick higher.

Myke Hurley: Me too. I would have liked to have seen a little bit because that green is so awesome and weird. Like it's so bright and strange. I would have liked to have seen three books in those kinds of colors personally. Uh, cause that, that would have elevated it a little bit more.

Brad Dowdy: But I do look forward to see what other people create with this. Like we'll see some cool stuff out of this. Yeah. I look forward to that. So yeah. Well, there you go.

Myke Hurley: All right. So that is it for this week's episode. If you would like to find out more about what we're talking about today, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 401. You can also find a link there right at the top to back our Kickstarter campaign. Get your hands on one of our limited edition retro 51s, the retro 51 celebration, which is celebrating both retro 51, the pen addict and the collection in general. People that love this pen. Um, did you see by the way, the little fish one that they've done?

Brad Dowdy: It's so cool. I saw that yesterday. It was great. I just looked at that and giggled. I was like, I'm not going to buy this, but it is so cool. I know.

Myke Hurley: Because I've, they're still producing these like super fun pens and they're going to go, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I know. And it was like, I had that fishing lure when I was growing up. I would totally be into this pen. Makes me so sad.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to cry now.

Brad Dowdy: All right. That's your turn. That's a double bingo.

Myke Hurley: Oh God. I just, why? Why do you have to go? Well, we're celebrating retro 51. You can get in on that. That's the real thing this year for the Kickstarter campaign is getting your hands on that pen. Like that is the best part of it. I'm so excited that we've been able to make it. And I, and I, I really can't wait to see how that pen turns out. So, you know, keep your eye on the page for lots of updates over the next week or so in regards to potential contingency plans. And also to, Brad's going to have some more info over the next week or so about the design, right? We're going to be updating that. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Trying to finalize that up this week. So, like, hopefully I can share, like, a final image later next week.

Myke Hurley: Mostly the differences of placements and stuff. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: The actual colors and the way it looks, that's locked. Yep. Yep. The idea is, you know, the idea is locked in. It's just going to be placement.

Myke Hurley: Thanks to Pen Chalet, Harry's, and Squarespace for their support. You can find Brad online. He's Dowdyism on Twitter, Pen Addicts on Instagram. Twitch.tv slash Pen Addict. Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern. And also go to PenAddict.com. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and Twitter. We'll be back next time. Thank you so much for listening. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.