The Pen Addict 403/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	403
Title:	Stationery Makes Me Feel Things
Release Date:	March 25th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 403
Audio File:	Audio Episode 403
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 403
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 403. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy. Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you doing today? I'm good, my friend. How are you? I'm pretty good, like all things considered. We don't have to talk about all the world events. We're here for some escapism, but you know, there is always a little overhead going on in these times. But I'm here for this, and I'm excited about this episode. Good. Should we do a quick, very quick update about the Kickstarter, which doesn't have any bad news related to it this week, which is awesome. It's a first. Woohoo! So this, we're doing great. We're super excited about the campaign. It's still firing on all cylinders. 813 backers now, which is an absolutely astounding number. Thank you so much to everybody that has backed the campaign so far. How are things on track with The Pen, Brad? So we have, I sent out new artwork last week, right? I sent out, hey, here's what we're submitting to the factory, knowing that, you know, we might have to relocate and reshape some of the locations of the designs because of the taper in the pen. Did I mention that last week? I think I probably did. You didn't. That was new to me. Okay. So towards the tip of the retro, it tapers, right? So the space gets a little bit tighter. And we submitted what artwork is posted live on the campaign right now. And the factory came back, said they would like to shuffle the deck a little bit to have some simpler designs in the bottom two rows.

Brad Dowdy: So they won't look too distorted that way, right?

Myke Hurley: Right, right. So they're actively working. What makes me happy is that they are taking a hard look at this and ensuring that it's going to print in the best way possible, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great.

Artwork Resubmission Details

Myke Hurley: So we submit that artwork to the factory and the factory knows, hey, this is what the result's going to be like. So they've come back. We have, I have a reshuffled artwork. Like you wouldn't know hardly if like if you weren't paying like microscopic attention to detail, right? And so it's generally the same, but we did have to shuffle around a little bit. Once I'm sure that that one is the one going into the prototype chamber, I will post that artwork on there just so people have the most up to date piece of artwork. But like the file I have shared with me right now is like not, it's too marked up, I guess you will, to share. So once it's approved, I'll get like a clean version to share. So yeah, that's what's going on with it, which like I take completely as a positive type of thing, right? Like we want this to work out the best we can. This is something new for them. This is a weird layout that we're trying to do. And just that they wanted to work with us on this is great. So here's the question I have for you. 10 days to go, 188 pins left. Will we sell out?

Brad Dowdy: I think it's going to be extremely close, but I don't think we will.

Myke Hurley: I'm kind of feeling the same way. Although I have, I've pushed this like zero. Retro hasn't pushed this at all. Yeah. I mean, other than the launch, right? Other than the launch, we pushed it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's it. I've, I've, this, this campaign's felt a little bit muted to me. Like I haven't really wanted to scream about it as much as usual because we're not able to do everything that we wanted to do. So I think we have both kind of kept it more on the down low than previous years.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But I think in the last five days, I'm going to, I'm going to get after it because like, I want it to sell out like that. So we can have a 999 number. And at this point, I might just do it anyway. Right. Yeah. We're close enough for us to be able to support whatever. If it stopped today, right. We could almost do 999. I'd have to think about it, but you know, whatever. But I think by the end, it's going to be like 50 or less. That's what I think means it'll sell out or which means it'll probably sell out. So I hope it does. But between us and retro 51 pushing it in the final days, I, I think it's going to be a 999 edition, which is what I really want. Yeah. Well, we'll just, we'll just do it. At this point with 10 days left, I'm certain we'll be ordering 999.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Also on next week's episode, we'll be able to confirm for sure when you'll be receiving the video that we're going to be doing in place of the Atlanta show video, which will be a video of me and Brad from our home offices showing off some of our favorite pens to you via a fun webcam like call. So that if you're, if you're doing a lot of zoom calls right now, it's going to be like that, but it's going to be me and Brad showing off our pens. And that will be the first video available to backers of the campaign, no matter what level you've backed at. So if you want to get that, which I think will actually be a lot of fun, it will be a kind of more relaxed and obviously much more visual version of this show. So if you hear us talk about like X pen of our, in our collection, this will be a way that you can actually see what they look like. So you can still back the Kickstarter campaign. You'll get that video. You'll get yourself a pen if you go in at that level. And there'll also be more video content throughout the year. And maybe if we're all super lucky, there'll be a pen show somewhere in there, but we're not sure yet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we're not sure yet. But like you said last week, people might be more excited about this type of video than, than other things we've produced. So, you know, hopefully, hopefully people will enjoy it. I think they will.

Brad Dowdy: I think people get a kick out of it because, you know, if you've seen one Atlanta pen show, you've seen the Atlanta pen show videos. Like they don't change massively and this is going to be something new and different for the campaign. So I'm really excited that we're going to be able to do that. And we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll probably be recording it within the next week or so, probably even the next 10 days. So on next week's episode, we'll know for sure when it will be recorded. And I'll also know when we're going to put it out because I don't think it's going to take a lot of time for me to edit it.

Myke Hurley: No, it's going to be, this will not be a highly produced video. With, well, you know, we're not going to have like, it's not going to be highly produced.

Brad Dowdy: It will just be produced.

Myke Hurley: Yes, it will be produced. It will not be Michael Bay explosion style cut-ins and things like that. So, you know what else people are excited about, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: What else are I excited about?

Myke Hurley: Lunkers. Yes. Have you seen the Lunker hype? Yes. On the Twitter machine?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: How, I'm, I, I'm not going to apologize for this. I get extremely excited when I see these. It's just me. Like, I am so happy for these stupid little fish that Retro 51 did. Like, you know, we're getting tweets. Retro's getting tweets. So what do we have? We have Leonardo Da Finci, right? Which is pretty sweet orange looking Lunker. We have Myke Rainbow Trout, which is my personal favorite. Do you know who Myke Trout is, Myke? If I asked you who is Myke Trout, do you know?

Brad Dowdy: I know the name. Mm-hmm. Why do I know the name?

Myke Hurley: He's the best MLB baseball player right now. Okay. Okay. So he's like, I don't know. He would be like your, your Harry Kane English team type of guy, level guy. Like, he's the number one, number one guy in the MLB right now. Then we have, what's this last one? Carp EDM. So these are hilarious. Um, I think that's about five of them now. Four. That's three plus the one. Yeah. So there's still plenty out there. So I don't know. I, y'all are going to have to just deal with, with Brad talking about these retro 51 fish whenever they get found. And they're not all going to get found because some people are going to, um, some people are going to, you know, not open these and there'll be Lunkers out there waiting to be discovered years from now. I'm sure.

Brad Dowdy: That's so cool. I didn't think that they were going to be all individually designed.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I didn't either. This is so awesome. Um, when he emailed me, he said, there's 10 unique designs and with all with 10 names and it's, that's pretty cool.

Brad Dowdy: I'm really like, it's kind of amazing the amount that have been found. Uh, and also like this, it kind of point, it was like the, the, the point that you were making about how many people maybe listened to the show. And I was like, I don't know if we're going to find any, it was like three people so far that heard the show and then, and then shared it.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I think only one has just been like random, like not to us. Right. So it's pretty funny. It's pretty funny. Oh my gosh. I, I'm, yeah, I'm not going to apologize for just getting a huge kick from this entire thing.

Brad Dowdy: Who, who could be annoyed at you about that? All right. Like it's kind of amazing. Uh, I wanted to commend you on your Instagram game and download your daily sharing of, uh, what's going on on the note cards. You've kept it up. You've kept it going. Mostly daily. Oh, I would say you're doing it. You're good. Right. Good enough.

Myke Hurley: You're good enough.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, so I think that you've done a great job of it. You've given it a name. The name is analog download, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And that, I did not come up with that name that came out of the Twitch stream. I forget the exact user who said that. And you know what? Like we're still thinking about names, but it's an, it's an impossible thing to name. And I'm usually good at naming things. This one's really tough.

Brad Dowdy: But I like that. Totally works. Right.

Myke Hurley: If you stick to that, great.

Brad Dowdy: If you change it, you know.

Myke Hurley: I think it totally works.

Brad Dowdy: That's why I went with it. But yeah. So I think it's, it's going really great. I love reading it. I love the naturally, I have to zoom in always. If you don't, I don't know if people know you can zoom in on Instagram photos. At least on iOS you can. So you can just pinch and zoom and it will, it will make the photo larger. You have to hold it, but then you can read it. Especially yesterday's post, which you even noted in the post. Can anybody even read this?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Someone saw that. Someone said I was, I was expanding the image. And then I saw the part where you said, can you even read this? And I giggled. So it was, I'm having fun doing this, right? Sometimes.

Brad Dowdy: You're inspiring me, Brad. I will say. Like, I feel like I want to do something too.

Myke Hurley: So the whole premise of this is just like a release of ideas in my head. They can be good. They can be bad. They can be angry. They can be sad. You know, I'm not Dr. Seuss here on purpose. That's just kind of how it rolls. They can be, it's just something. I want to remove from my brain so I can do other things. And I decided instead of like having those things bounce around all the time, that I should get them out. And I don't, like a notebook wouldn't work for me in this. Hey, let's have this idea notebook that you need to, you know, fill up when your brain gets full. And just start unloading all these things into this notebook. Because notebooks intimidate me, right? And I think that goes for a lot of people. Like, especially like if you have a hardbound 198 page notebook, that's intimidating. Mm-hmm. So, I kind of boiled it down to one of the smallest formats that I like, which is the note card. Yep. And just try to let my personality come out, which really isn't like a tough thing for me. Like, I like being fun and funny and doing stupid stuff. Like, I don't take myself too seriously. And I try to get that out on the note card. And like, I have these funny ideas or stupid ideas or sometimes I'm angry. And I just need to get it out onto a little note. And I do. So, it's been fun for me. It's good because I don't have to think about it too much. Like, it comes naturally, right? Like, they're all at different times of the day. You'll notice, like, I don't have like a 9 a.m. post. Like, it doesn't work that way, right? And if I don't have anything to say on a day, I just won't do one. But I bet five or six days out of the week, I just feel like posting one. It could be in the morning, at night. It could be about music. It could be me making fun of bullet journaling. It could be about the weather or the songs I'm listening to. You know, it's just, it helps me, right? And then I enjoy sharing that stuff and like making people smile. And that's kind of why I'm doing it. So, it's fun.

Brad Dowdy: Good. Yeah. All right. Should we take a break? Yeah, let's take a break. All right. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Pen Chalet. They have all of the products that you're looking for from your favorite brands. If you want rollables, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, carrying cases, pen holders, fountain pen converters, refills, ink, so much more, they've got it for you. They're always running special discounts. They have fast and reliable customer service. And they're adding new styles of pens all the time. Pen Chalet, stock your favorite brands. Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Sailor, Kaweco, and many, many, many, many more. And they're adding new stuff all the time. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. But they also sell internationally with great shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens. And they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website right now. And enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time over at Pen Chalet. And Mr. Brad Dowdy, is there anything that catches your eye on Pen Chalet this time?

Myke Hurley: Have you seen the newest Platinum 3776s? I say this knowing that they're not new anymore. They came out last year. But we don't see a lot of the green and the white ones. They have the white 3776 for... A very good price, we'll say. An obscene price. Yes. I... I... Again, I do not understand. But you should go and look at this price. Because it's pretty amazing. You know what else they have in here, Myke? They have the Star Wars... Oh my God. One of the cross Star Wars pens. Uh-huh. For like... It's 60% off. Like, I'm just gonna tell you that. It's tagged on here. What is this? Is this BB-8? What is this? Yeah, this is BB-8 fountain pen. Wow. Um... Looks like Hans... If this had some orange on it, I would go... I would be in. Is this Hans Solo and Carbonite? Is this the other one? Mm-hmm. Okay, these prices are outrageous. They are bananas. And it just keeps going. The Visconti Opera Metal, which is one of those Viscontis that I've always picked up and enjoyed and kind of like checking out. That's on there. Like, good grief. This is a good time.

Transition to Coronavirus Impact Discussion

Brad Dowdy: The 3776 in general has got a fantastic price. But the white one is even more discounted. So... Yeah. There is a ton of absolutely fantastic stuff available right now over at Pen Chalet. All you have to do, because you listen to the show, you can get access to all of this stuff. You just go to penchalet.com. You click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password, Pen Addict. And you'll get your hands on these deals. And 10% off at anything at Pen Chalet at any time. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, I wanted to talk a little bit this week about the environment that we're living in. You know, with the coronavirus going around, everyone's lives kind of changing day-to-day, hour-to-hour. And how we're handling it from a Pen Addict perspective, right? You know, just how we're dealing with what work we're doing, with what stationery we're buying or using, things like that.

Myke Hurley: Because, like, as we talk about this, and I was thinking about this, like, my day-to-day doesn't change, right? Because I already work from home. Your day-to-day doesn't change because pretty much all of your work is done online. But a lot of our listeners, like, I want to give a shout-out to Kat, who's in the chat room today. Her life has completely changed because she's a doctor on the front lines and having to deal with all the things that this world is dealing with. And I just appreciate that so much. But I also feel, like, a little bit strange because my day-to-day is sitting in my house playing with my stationery, working on my computer. But I still want to explore those things that I'm doing, that I'm using during these times, that I'm enjoying.

Brad Dowdy: Nobody is unaffected by this. Right. Like, even if you are already a home worker, like, your life has been changed significantly at the moment.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you know, me and you, just from a work perspective, and this doesn't discount anything, like, it literally did not change other than my mental state, right? That's what's really affecting me. Like, my mental state is very changed right now, as probably everyone is. So I don't want to necessarily go into, like, the psychology of it and how, like, you feel doing it. You know what I want to do, Myke? And what I would do best is talk about stuff. Like, that may sound superfluous and, you know, ridiculous at these times, but I got new pens on my desk, and I want to talk about them because I'm liking them. I know there's other things going on, but, like, this is what we do. This is what I do every week. And we want to be here for that type of escape, you know? Yeah. And I think that's important, too. So, you know, like, I don't know. That's just how I'm feeling about this. How do you feel about where you're fitting in, like, your work in kind of the world we're living in right now?

Brad Dowdy: It's a difficult question, right? Because really, as you said, like, a lot of my stuff just isn't changed. It's not affected by this. There are things that are more difficult to do on a daily basis, but, like, the work is mostly the same. Yeah. And stationery hasn't changed in any way, really. I did just run out of panel books, which is funny. But my day-to-day is the work is the same, but the feelings are different. Like, my feelings. Yeah. My general state is not good right now. Right. Then, you know, I'm having to work on that.

Myke Hurley: Right. And I totally agree. And you know what? For me, the reason why I'm lucky enough to be able to do what I do for a living is because stationery makes me feel things. Like, it just does. I get pure enjoyment from this. And to be able to share that with other people, it gives me enjoyment. So, I want to talk about some of the new pens I got today, Myke. Good. Like, I went and ordered things. So, this is a whole different topic, and we won't necessarily, like, get way into this. But, you know, the businesses in our industry are certainly going to have a downturn. You know? They just are. And like I mentioned last week, it's also hard for me to say, hey, come out and buy all of my Knox stuff right now. Right? Because some people lost their jobs last week. Right? So, it's this weird balance of things that, like, I'm trying to do, trying to figure out. But, like, if you have the opportunity to and are able to support, you know, one person, you know, in the next three months, like, that's something. Right? And that's the way I've kind of looked at it. So, like, I placed orders from a couple of vendors that I use. You know, JetPens order. I got a Van S. Pens order. And surprisingly, something I ordered a long time ago, Myke, which I want to talk about first, showed up at my door two days ago. I'm so jealous of you. It's the Studio Neat Mark 1 Apollo 11. Am I allowed to talk about this without you having it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Go on then. Because I don't know when I'm going to get it.

Myke Hurley: So, Tom and Dan get the technical details right more than anyone that I know.

Myke Hurley: Outside of, like, you know, some other people that I know, like, the behind the scenes of, right? You know, like, people who make stuff. But as I was going to say, let's say, not stationary natives like we are, right? Like, they like stationary. They make good stationary. They make notebooks. They make pens. But what they get right in the technical aspects of building something is special. This pen is outrageously good. Like, it was worth the upgrade without a question. Like, these were, like, what, around $100? $100, $110, I'm thinking, and the regular Mark 1s were around $60. Yeah. I mean, both of those are like a deal. This pen, Myke, let me just give you a little click in there. A little ASMR clicky. The coating on this pen, it's crazy cool. It looks great. The Apollo etching is very subtle. It uses the Space Pen refill, the Fisher refill, which I personally enjoy. But I am going to switch it out. My Fisher Space Pen refill of choice is fine blue. The standard shipping Space Pen refill is medium black.

Brad Dowdy: But it ships with it inside, but you can still change it out to the Schmidt refill if you want to.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So what, gee, the way. Yes. So the way. I'm going to keep a Fisher in this because I already have one with my Schmidt. So this will give me an option, but I'll put in the blue one. Like, I buy, like, three or four of those at a time because I like them. But the way the Fisher refills work is they have a standard length and then the Fishers ship with a plastic add-on piece to make up that difference in length to the Schmidt. So you can totally use the Schmidt in this.

Brad Dowdy: And it's worth remembering, just as a recap. So, like, the Mark I, the regular Mark I, is aluminum that's coated with Cerakoting. And it gives it, like, a kind of a almost soft, warm finish, which is nice. But the Apollo edition is stainless steel that is polished and PVD coated. So it's a very, very different process.

Myke Hurley: And I'm going to say, I don't remember what the, I didn't go back and look at the campaign pictures. My pen is darker than I thought it would be, which I like. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think for me, like, a lot of people thought that, like, originally, especially when they were explaining it to me, stainless steel would mean silver. And it would be, but they PVD coated it, which makes it darker. So this is closer to, like, the original, like, PVD Apple Watch.

Myke Hurley: Yes. I'd say that's accurate. Yes. So it's a gray. It's a shiny mirror-finished gray type of thing. It's wild. It's, I am very happy with this pen, if you couldn't tell. Not just because Tom and Dan are friends. I would tell them their pen sucked if it did. And maybe not, you know, publicly, maybe privately.

Pen Appreciation

Myke Hurley: I know them well enough to have those honest conversations with them. And I just want to tell them, well done. Like, when you can get a pen and hold it in your hand and not use it and still really appreciate it, that's something that I get from this pen. And I will be using this a bunch. So I'm very, very happy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm looking forward to my incoming results. Yeah. It's just super limited. It was on the UnKickstarter for eight days. Is that what it was? Wow. Yeah. Because it synced up with the... Oh, that's right. It was the anniversary. Yeah. They did it because it was the anniversary of the Apollo. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You're never going to get that pen. We'll just assume it's going to get lost in shipping. How dare you? Or cost double, maybe another hundred pounds out of customs, something like that. What do you think?

Brad Dowdy: Actually, if I'm... I don't want to speak out of time, but if I know from the way that Tom and Dan have done stuff in the past, they collect up all their European orders and ship them to their European warehouse and then they're posted locally.

Myke Hurley: See, those guys are smart. They're smart. They know what's up. Mm-hmm. That's... Know what's up. Speaking of... Speaking of stealth shipments to the UK, have you received any other shipments that you cannot speak about? Yeah. But have they arrived? Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to have a shipment probably today, I'm guessing, but, you know, who knows? Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: I have something exciting that I can't talk about right now.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Interesting. Not even to you. Ooh.

Brad Dowdy: Sworn to secrecy. Wow. But I'm using it right now.

Myke Hurley: Okay. That was a little too far.

Brad Dowdy: I am. That's what I'm using to take my notes of today.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That was one step too far, Michael. So, we're going to have to cut you off there.

Brad Dowdy: When do I ever get something first? It never, ever, ever happens. So...

Personal Shipments

Myke Hurley: I got something first in relation to you this time.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I didn't tell you something that I bought, but it stuck somewhere. Yeah. I bought Idina the Bongbok Sweet Love 2020.

Myke Hurley: Nice. So, the new pink one. I love the Jester artwork on the... Did you get the ink bottle and the ink packaging? We just bought the pen. Just the pen. Yeah. So, it has that on the finial too. Yeah. I'm a little bit more questioning on the finial design than the overall artwork, but I get what they're trying to do. It's pretty cool. So, I mean...

Brad Dowdy: I think it's fun. I wouldn't have bought this one for myself, but Idina really likes it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I had that pin on a show until I did on Twitch with my kids the other day. Neither one of them liked it. And I'm going to have to disown them, I think. I mean, I think that's grounds, don't you?

Brad Dowdy: I think so. I just wanted to say, though, just as like a fun aside. And it's gotten to the point where I'm getting personal emails from Bung Box now. Like, not just ordering emails. Yeah. Where they're thanking me for my continued support and love. That's kind of where we're at now. Because I think I've bought their last three editions. Because I email them. That's how I procure the pens, right? Yes. So, it's a bit more of a personal service anyway. That's funny. They can be bought online, but I can't do it. Like, I can't work out how to do it. Because, obviously, the site's not in English. I don't even know if you can buy them from outside of Japan on their website. But I always email them. Which is a channel for them for outside of Japan, I believe. But, yeah, that's kind of where I'm going to. I would have skipped this one. But I bought it as a gift because I didn't really want it once. She knows it wasn't a surprise. But it's currently stuck somewhere in a customs. Like, it has. I need to pay customs charges on it, which I was expecting. But I have not received the letter. Which would indicate that, you know, like these are the charges that you have to pay. So, I figure I'm just going to be waiting a while, understandably, for that one. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, good. What nib for Adina? What did you go with?

Brad Dowdy: Again, it can be difficult because you've kind of just got to go with what they have. True.

Myke Hurley: Because they only do, what, maybe 100 of these or so?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And when, you know, when we get to them, by the time we get to them, you just get what you get. But she got what she wanted, which is a medium. So, she got a medium nib. Oh, perfect. But, you know, it's like I typically end up with Zooms and Broads because they're the ones that people don't want. Especially in Japan, I think. But they tend to be my favorites. But like most of those Bongbuk pens, I end up with like not fines, not mediums, not extra fines, whatever's left.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. So, you're on the VIP list though now. No, no, no. Any nib you want.

Brad Dowdy: That is not true by any stretch of the imagination. But, I mean, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if at a certain point they just start emailing me when they have them in. But this is my advice. Just put your, yeah.

Myke Hurley: This is my advice now. Just have your card on record with them. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Limited edition, pro gears. My justification for this thinking is like, well, I don't think we're going to any pen shows this year. So, I don't mind spending the money that I spent on that Bungbox 4B anymore. Yeah. That was like my 2020 pen show budget right there in that pen. Yep. Fair enough. Because, I don't know if you saw, but obviously, the Capital Pen Show, the London Pen Show in June has cancelled now.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I did not see that. And that's the new one.

Brad Dowdy: That's the new one, yeah.

Bung Box Pens

Myke Hurley: So, this was going to be their first year or second year?

Brad Dowdy: This was going to be their first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, okay. Dang. That stinks. But I get it. It's a real shame.

Brad Dowdy: It is a real shame. I hope that they're able to do something as soon as they can. But I was really bummed out to see that. Like, obviously, it had to happen. Like, if they would have continued pushing on, then I would have been annoyed. Right? Like, but, you know, they've done the right thing. But it's a real bummer because, I mean, I just hope that this isn't the end of it. Right? Agreed. That they will give it another go. And, you know, because I think it would have been a great thing to have. But it makes sense that we can't look at it now.

Myke Hurley: Well, yes. I hope they give it another go. And I, because I think it would be successful. What they were trying to do was very interesting to me. Yep. So, hopefully, they will regroup and try it again next year. I would certainly hope so. You're not the only one that got a pin from Japan, Myke. And mine might be more interesting. Although not. I mean, pink glove is pretty amazing. What I got was the Jetstream Edge. And this is a pin that I have fawned over since the announcement came out late last year sometime. That they were making a .28 millimeter needle tip Jetstream in a fancy barrel. And I was like, yep. I'm getting that. I need that. Like, this is on the have-to-have list. This is not a want, a wish list item. This will be buying it at the first opportunity item. And JetPens got them in. So, I ordered them. And it's amazing. It's the pin I used for yesterday's analog download on Instagram. So, we can put a link into that. You can see how tiny it writes. The Jet... I wonder what that pin was. It looked like a weird Lamy Safari. Right. So, they have that kind of turned up clip. Like, wire clip. Like, Lamy does. It totally looks like a Lamy style clip at first glance.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of like if a Lamy and a Rotring had a baby.

Myke Hurley: I'd say that's very accurate. That's exactly what this pin looks like. Yeah. It's very cool. This pin is not for everybody. So, when I recommend the Jetstream, I recommend the .7 millimeter. They have them in 1.0. And then they go down .5, .38, and now .28. Anytime I've ever recommended .5 to people, they're like, oof. Yeah. Like, I tried this. It's terrible.

Brad Dowdy: Do they only do the .28 in this body? Yes. Because this body looks cool. Jetstreams are ugly as heck otherwise. Generally, yes. So, I don't know why they're just... Like, why do they have a different body design for every nip's, like, point size? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And they also made this a needle point instead of, like, a standard conical tip, what all the other Jetstreams look like. This is a very needly type.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think that makes sense for .28. You might as well just lean into it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And the only... The problem you were talking about, the refill, the refill is pretty small for a pin this substantial. It's basically their multi-pin refill shape that they use for, like, the uni-style fit. I think you could actually use this refill in the uni-style fit 3, 4, and 5 slot barrels, I'm pretty sure. So, it's a thin refill. It's not, like, a substantial ink-filled refill like you would normally see in a single-use pin like this. A single refill pin like this. It's a little bit small. That's a little disappointing because this is not a cheap pin. This is a $15 pin, so you're paying a lot for the barrel design, which is great. You know, it's... This is one of those pins that Brad loves and would probably never recommend to anyone unless they had a very, very specific thing they were looking for. So, I mean, I absolutely love it. Like, I'm gonna... This is gonna live on my desk. I'm gonna use it all the time. It is teeny, tiny, fine printy. So, it's pretty spectacular. It's a very Brad pen. It is a very Brad pen. If Brad had this pen when he was a kid, who knows what would have happened. Like, this pen is... This pen is setting a bar that very, very few other pens can cross.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. That's quite a bold claim. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Just for the writing line. So, the line width on ballpoint pens. So, you take a gel ink pen. Say you take a gel ink pen that's a 0.5 millimeter, right? And you lay down a line. If you take a ballpoint pen that's a 0.5 millimeter, it's gonna be like one or two levels thinner than what you'd expect of your gel ink pen. So, that same 0.5 ballpoint line would be like 0.4 to 0.3 millimeters in line width, right? So, like a 0.7 millimeter ballpoint is generally equivalent to a 0.5 millimeter gel ink refill. So, extrapolate that into this 0.28 millimeter ballpoint and you're talking like stupid levels of tiny.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's super small. Yep.

Myke Hurley: So, it's probably like a 0.15 to 0.2 millimeter line width. It's extraordinary.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Should we take a break and continue on this wonderful train that we're on right now?

Myke Hurley: You mean all the Brad's new stuff train? Yeah, I'm good with that.

Brad Dowdy: Brad, this is like medicine for my soul.

Brad Dowdy: This is what I need.

Myke Hurley: I have a very fancy pen to talk about next that you will probably like. Don't show Adina this next one, but yeah, let's talk.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they will let you easily create a website for your next idea. With a unique domain name, awarding templates, and more available to you, they will be the home for your next project. If you are at home right now and you've got a little bit of extra time on your hands, maybe now could be the time to start that blog, that project, that little side business that you've been thinking about. This is honestly like the perfect kind of time to be thinking about these types of things. Squarespace makes it so easy. If you have that idea and you want to get it online, they are the all-in-one platform. You don't need to install anything, patch anything, upgrade anything. They take care of all of that stuff for you and back everything up with 24-7 customer support. You can integrate store functionality, blog functionality, so much more into your website. The templates are really customizable, so you can go in and you can tweak them. You can use any template that you want, no matter what they're set to do, and you can tweak them, change the fonts, change the colors, change the sizing. Everything's drag and drop in your web browsers, and they have a fantastic iPad app as well where you can build your website. I love their iPad app. You can try it out for yourself. Just go sign up for a free trial. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. The great thing about the trial is you can build your entire website, and then when you want to launch it to the world, you sign up for one of Squarespace's plans, which you can get 10% off of your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show by using the offer code penaddict. So go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. Use the code penaddict, and you will get 10% off your first purchase. Thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Myke Hurley: Squarespace does this one thing. I think it's called CoverPage. Do you recall that off the top of your head? But it's basically the single page offering for just basically a personal homepage or landing page.

Brad Dowdy: Here's who I am. I mean, I should set one of those up because...

Myke Hurley: Yes, so that's what made me think of it.

Brad Dowdy: I have mikeheldy.net, right? Mm-hmm. And it was a blog, is a blog, with the last post being August 11, 2014. Right. Which I kind of like because it's the Welcome to RelayFM blog post that I wrote. But that's all it is. It's kind of funny.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so I have braddowdy.com, but I never promote that. That's never linked anywhere. But I wanted to have my name. And I was like, well, let me put one of those Squarespace cover pages on there. So I did that. It's like five bucks a month. It's like super easy. Ooh, this is nice. I need to flesh it out. I haven't touched that in probably two years. I wanted to put all the links to all the things that I do. This is beautiful. Which it's very just short and sweet, but I can expand on that a lot. So yeah, I want to work on that. But it exists, but you know, just technically. Yeah, it's a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: I should switch my website over to one of those.

Myke Hurley: Have you seen me post the Leonardo Memento Zero Lavand mic with rose gold trim?

Brad Dowdy: Where did you post that? Was that on your Instagram?

Myke Hurley: Just recently, I posted a review of the Ackermann No. 12 Inc. Oh, this is the pink one, right? This is the pink pin in that review.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was looking at that. I wonder what it was, honestly.

Myke Hurley: It's glorious. Like I saw this on, I don't know if it was Leonardo Instagram or somewhere. They released it before they were available. You know, like these are the pins coming. They had like three new colors and each of the colors had different trim options. Like you could get this barrel material in silver gold or rose gold. And I was like, that rose gold is just about perfect for me. Which I'm normally not a rose gold person. But I had to have this pin. Again, had to have this pin. Mandatory purchase. So it was at the Baltimore Pin Show. And I bought it. And I love it. And I got this really cool magenta ink, the Ackermann No. 12, to match with it. Because you have to do matchy matchy. And I haven't put it down since. It's just a joy to write with. The Leonardo's feel and shape really work with my hand. Work with my handwriting. Their styles work with, you know, the flair and flash that I want from a pin. And it's just kind of everything. I'm really, really enjoying that pin completely. I'll be talking about it a bunch more. Because it's going to be in use for a while.

Brad Dowdy: I look forward to seeing this pin at some point. Yeah. From you. Because I feel like I need to get my head around it. Because just like, Leonardo pens have not excited me before. This is the most personal aesthetic one of their pins that I've seen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. This one's a stunner. If I can ever, I have something cooking in the background. If I can ever get a hold of, you're going to have trouble not stealing it from me. But, you know, unfortunately, I can't spill the beans on that one. So, there's my secret for you. But I don't know if and when it's going to happen. But it's apparently in the works. So, it's something. So, yeah. That's it. Like, I'm not using any new notebooks. Which I started writing this up. I was like, okay. What paper am I using now? Right? Like, here's all the new pens I got. What paper am I using? Oh. Wait. There is no new paper. I'm using the paper I always use. Which right now is the Knock A5 Spiral Pad. It's the Rhodia Ice Pad. It's the Yoseka Notebook. And I'm using the Choosing Keeping notebook from Platinum. Or not from Platinum. The Choosing Keeping platinum imprinted notebook. Like, that's the paper that I'm using. And I'm using the NotCo note cards. Like, I don't have any new paper that I'm using in my normal rotation. So.

Theme System Discussion

Brad Dowdy: I'm almost scared to ask, but are you still using your theme system?

Myke Hurley: Not as much. Okay. But I also need you to ship me some that you said were going to ship me.

Brad Dowdy: I did, didn't I?

Myke Hurley: They have not arrived. And that was like two months ago. So. You should maybe double check on that one.

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty sure I did.

Myke Hurley: They have definitely not arrived. Because you said you were shipping me two of them.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. So, yeah. Like, I'm near the end of one. So, I've been purposefully, like, I haven't been doing it as much. But I will still continue to do it. Once I get restocked.

Brad Dowdy: As soon as I'm out of lockdown, I'll send you some more if I didn't already.

Myke Hurley: Maybe. Were you going to bring them to me in Atlanta?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Probably. And we held off. We held off.

Myke Hurley: That's probably what we did. Yeah. Yeah. So, yes. But that is on, like, my short list of things I need to be doing during this time. And continuing to be consistent with that. So, I lose a little bit of the consistency. Like, the analog downloads kind of took that time slot, if you will. The mental time slot. Not that there's a physical, you know, minutes and seconds time slot for that. But it took that mental time slot. I'm writing the things down that I want to write down. So, that's one of the challenges on my list. Keeping active with knock and spoke, right? Knock is pretty quiet right now. We don't have any new products. And now, like, with all this manufacturing issues going on or delays, who knows when we're going to have new products at this point, to be perfectly honest. So, always thinking about that. Spoke, we're going to have new products here probably in the next week. We're way behind on a restock. Again, factories, you know, and just delays and shipping and all of that stuff. So, keeping up with that. I'm also kind of taking notes for new projects. I don't know what that means, but I feel like I can create something. I don't know what that is, right? So, I'm just jotting down ideas for, oh, do I want to do this with the blog? Or do I want to do this on Twitch? Or, you know, and these are just the seeds of ideas. It's like nothing imminent, but you always have to have these seeds for six months or nine months down the line that you have the availability to do something like a new project. So, I'm always taking on that type of thing.

Brad Dowdy: I just, I did just confirm to me that we did ship you notebooks a while ago.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. All right. We'll check the tracking afterwards. We'll check the tracking, see if they got lost or see if they got marked delivered or something. See what they say. Hmm. Hmm. I'm escaping into virtual worlds like Animal Crossing. Yeah. I take a break and play that like twice a day for like an hour. Yes. That is it.

Brad Dowdy: That is my life right now is that video game. I'm so into it. Me and Adina are playing it together. We're having a great time. As in like she has her Switch, I have my Switch. It's just, I love it. It's really, really wonderful.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So, that's a new thing for me. Reading is also important. That's why I had the Bujo analog download card the other day because I'm reading the bullet journal book. Like it wasn't my knock on bullet journaling. Like that little card I made.

Brad Dowdy: I thought like we had this conversation at home. It kind of just felt like you were making fun of bullet journaling. Which I thought was hilarious.

Myke Hurley: I was. Good. But not in a malicious way. Like I love writer. I'm literally reading the bullet journal book right now. Like how can I like hate on something that I'm spending money on? But I did it because I'm reading this book knowing that I will never ever follow the bullet journal system because it doesn't work for me. Right. So, that's what that card came from. Right. But the ideas in the book are useful for other things. So, that's where I'm at with that system in the bullet journal. I was going to hashtag it not Bujo. But I didn't want to be mean. I wasn't trying to be malicious with that card. But I was like I'm pretty happy about that card. I like that one. But you put a link in the show notes which I shared as well. It's a fountain pen loves article on things to do with your fountain pens during a quarantine. Practice handwriting, ink journal, cleaning. Like these are all things like we can spend time. Like it's about escapism right now. And for me, it's escaping into my head a lot. So, I got to make sure my head's clear which is a lot of what we've already talked about in this about me. Okay. Getting these words out onto a page helps me clear my head. And then I have the room to like rebuild my brain health and my mind space by handwriting or inking or cleaning pens. Like if you can't escape from the world for a few minutes and regain some semblance of mental health, it's going to be a struggle. And like we're all going through that right now. So, these are the types of things that help me personally, right? I can clear my head by writing things down on a page. And then I can grab a pencil and draw or something like that, right? Where if I didn't have this moment to clear my head, the drawing would never happen. Because like I would be such a mess right now. Like I'd have the little pig pen circles that he has outside of his head, inside my head. So, yeah. Like these are the types of things that are good. And, yeah. Those are the kind of things I've been thinking about recently. You know, it's interesting times. That's for sure. And I kind of want to know what everyone else is doing. Like has anyone like taken on any new projects or have any new thoughts on, you know, meditation or, you know, regaining your sanity that, you know, we're not thinking of or that you have found helpful. Things like that. So, you know, definitely reach out to me. You all know all the ways to get to me by this time. Twitter, email, all that stuff. We'll have it at the end of the show too.

Starting New Things

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because we can – if there's things that people are willing for us to talk about, willing to share, they can be ideas for other people. Let's jump enough points for starting new things. Because it's just going to be like – one of the things that we can take as a benefit, you know, or a thing that you can find, a good thing that you can find in all of this that's going on right now is the ability to use this time to achieve or do something you've wanted to do for a while. Right? Like a lot of us, not everyone, but a lot of us have additional time on our hands. And being able to use that to achieve something or to do something that makes us happy or makes us feel more fulfilled could be, you know, a very, very small silver lining on the fact that for many people, you have no choice but to be at home right now.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. One more thing I forgot to write down, Myke, if you'll allow me real quick. In the pen show channel of the Pen Addict Slack, people are creating Zoom schedules and doing virtual pen shows so people can hang out with each other and share and talk about pens via Zoom and get to see other faces and hear other voices. Yeah. So that's another great thing that's going on. The community is banding together and doing cool things like that.

Brad Dowdy: That's one of the great things in many communities right now, right, is doing that kind of stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. All right. Let's hit some Ask TPA. We may not get to all these depending on how the schedule goes. I want to jump down. Where is one question? We'll start at the top after this question from D. Brian Collier. So much good stuff on episode 400. But my Ask TPA is, have you and ever, Myke, had a serious business disagreement or something that threatened your relationship other than the break, which was the break that I went on? If so, how did you handle it? So this was, I thought, was a great follow-up question from our episode 400 and 401. And I'm going to go first here, Myke, and say that we've never even had like a kerfuffle.

Brad Dowdy: I can't remember ever being annoyed at you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like, and that's a hard thing to do, right? Like, my wife is constantly. That's not normal in my life. Yeah, that is.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Yeah. To have gone the amount of time that we have gone without being frustrated at each other. Like, I can't think of any time that you've done anything where I've been like, oh, God's sake, Brad. Like, even that. Right? Yes. Nothing.

Myke Hurley: So not only have we not had a blowout, we've not even had like, well, you're being an idiot over something. Or like, this has to stop. Or just like a stern talking to. Never. Like, right? I'm not missing anything. I don't think. Like, and this is, you know, almost eight years on, right? I got nothing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, nothing. Which is bananas. Like, that's not normal. I mean, it's not normal for any relationship that I have in my life. And it's not that we don't have a personal relationship, right? We have both a personal and professional relationship. But we've never had any disagreements. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And as Chad's reminding us, they're here to call us idiots when we need to be called idiots, right? That's true. True, true. All right, let's get on to the real.

Brad Dowdy: If there's one thing I've learned about a decade on the internet, like as a creative person, is that people will call you an idiot when they want to, right?

Brad Dowdy: Hashtag truth. There's nothing you can do to stop them. They will do it.

Myke Hurley: It's a beautiful place, Myke. This internet is keeping us sane right now. All right, let's hit these other STPAs. You're the reader. Go.

Ask TPA Questions

Brad Dowdy: Transgender asks, do you have any resources for figuring out where to buy restored vintage nibs or for help with putting these nibs into new pens? I want a good flex pen, but a larger size than the 1911 S or Falcon. And I think a vintage, ever sharper, Walterman nib may be the way to go. But I just know so little about this.

Myke Hurley: This is such a good question that I do not have a lot of experience in, right? But we see this a lot with people have handed you pens at a pen show. Hey, look at this Conid. And then you open it up and it's got some weird pilot nib in there or some old vintage flex nib in there or, you know, a Twisby that has been hacked to fit all these other nibs in there. The only resource I know of is the populace of the pen addict slack that can help you decide what nibs go in what pens for all the experimentation that goes on in there. Like there's not an online resource necessarily that I could point to that says, hey, try this Waterman flex nib in this Twisby 580, right? But people have figured that stuff out. I just don't know that there is a resource for this, but this is a great question because this is what a lot of people will do, right? You know, finding these great nibs and then figuring out a barrel to put the nib in, usually a more modern barrel than they were originally in. So the best thing I can do or the best thing I can say is get on the pen addict slack. There's definitely boards where you can talk about this type of information. And I guarantee you'll have an answer or at least a path to follow like in about in about a second. There's a lot of people that play around with this stuff a lot and know what works with with other things.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Next one comes from Mel Patrico. I want to play with all of the cool new pastel inks and I don't care about flex. What's the best broad nib under $200?

Myke Hurley: I mean, you could almost throw a dart, right? I know you want a specific answer, but broad nibs in that price range, you're not going to go wrong with something like Lamy Pelican. You know, the Japanese will be finer than those lines, right? Finer broads than, you know, a Sailor broad will be a finer line than Lamy broad. But all the broad nibs tend to work very well for the Japanese broad nibs. Platinums are really, really good. I will say that like you can get the platinum 37, 37, 37, 76 with a broad nib for well under $200. You can get a Lamy studio with a steel broad nib for like $70. And that's a fantastic, like lay down a lot of ink pen. So something like that. Outside of that, then you could go into just like your basic Twisby's all the way up to, you know, more custom brands like Franklin Kristoff who uses Yovo nibs. And you can get broads, stubs, music nibs, all of that for under $200. So that's a gigantic list. Like if you could tell me the style of pen you wanted, I could narrow it down. But there's just a ton of, ton of good broad nibs out there.

Brad Dowdy: So, DPLA Foil says, what is the best pen in your top five bracket with a stub or italic nib? Asking more about the nib or writing experience than the overall pen so the eco could beat the Safari despite piston filler and so on.

Myke Hurley: So, if we're talking about me personally, I like Platinum's CI nib. Do they call it a CI nib? They call it a C something nib. So, it's basically their cursive italic stock steel nib, which you can find in the Plumix, the Pereira, some of the other brands. And it's around a 1.0 millimeter width stub. That's my personal favorite because it's got a little bit of an edge to it. But overall, if I were to recommend a stub nib, I think Twisby's stub nibs are the best in kind of that price range because they have a more forgiving nib. I mean, stubs are generally more forgiving than like a cursive italic, but they have a rounded edge on the nib. I use those all the time to test my inks. Like if I'm doing a blog post ink testing, a lot of times it's filled with a Twisby because their 1.1 stub is probably the best out of that grouping of pens. So, if you're just looking for like the basics and getting into like your first stub nib, I would definitely recommend Twisby.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm a big fan of Twisby stub nibs. I think they're just straight up fantastic, right? Like irrespective of the price. Like I just think they're very, very good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're very good.

Brad Dowdy: And Miafet asks, I am looking for a modern pen with lots of variants to do doodling and writing. In particular, the Falcon nib from Pilot. It comes in three bodies. What would you recommend of these choices or is there a similarly priced option from a different brand that I should consider?

Myke Hurley: So, I've actually answered this question directly, but I thought it was good enough to leave in the show notes because I think it's a really good question. Because, so, the Pilot Falcon, there's a little bit of confusion around that nib and we've talked about it a million times, but it always bears repeating. It's not really a flexible nib, right? The Pilot Falcon nib is a soft nib. There is line variation, but it's not going to be your traditional flex writing nib, even though it has the appearances of, right? It's designed to say, hey, look at this fancy nib that's going to do cool writing, but you're not going to get a big line variation width in the Pilot. So, it comes in its standard plastic barrel. It comes in an upgraded metal barrel. And then, I think it comes in the 912, which is why they're saying it comes in three bodies. So, my answer to this question was, well, if I had to only choose the Falcon and only choose from the barrels that it offered, I would choose the basic plastic barrel. I think that's the best Falcon experience. But, the question left an opening saying, is there something else? And, it's the Pilot FA nib, which is completely different from the Falcon, but Pilot doesn't do a great job of letting people know that. Now, the FA nib comes in the 912. And, that will give you a good moderate amount of flex and line variation. That's the pen I recommend if you're looking for that. It has way more variance than the Falcon nib will ever have. It also can come in the 823, I believe, and that's a little bit harder to source. The 912 with the FA nib, not the Falcon nib, would totally be the way to go to get some interesting line variation. It's just a more flexible nib than the Falcon. And, Pilot doesn't do a great job at differentiating those two nibs. And, they are vastly different, in my opinion.

Brad Dowdy: So, I also just wanted to include, because the chat was pointing this out, LeRae, as a friend of the show, has written a wonderful blog post about putting vintage nibs into modern pens. So, I'll put that in the show notes as a good resource for people to look at.

Myke Hurley: She's the master.

Brad Dowdy: Alright, so I think that wraps up today's episode. If you would like to send in some questions for a future show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. Or, you can send them in via email at hello at penaddict.com. Or, if you're in the penaddict Slack, you can send them to Brad that way, I guess.

Myke Hurley: That'd be a terrible idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, don't do that, actually. Just email them instead. Because, I don't know why I said that. That was a bad idea. Don't do that. Just never do that. Never ask him anything. Ever. Never ask me anything in Slack. Brad streams live. You should go check that out. Twitch.tv slash penaddict. Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10am Eastern. This is a great time to be getting some Twitch stream action in your life. Put Brad on in the background while you're getting your work done. Awesome. Like, how great will that be? Please back our Kickstarter campaign if you want to. There's still some rewards available. You're going to love it. So, you don't want to miss out on that one. You can find us online. I'm imike. I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is Dowdyism on Twitter. And he is penaddict on Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: And you can find show notes for this episode at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 403. Thanks to Pen Chalet and Squarespace for their support of this show. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Goodbye, Brad.