The Pen Addict 413/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	413
Title:	Ana Does Best
Release Date:	June 3rd, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 413
Audio File:	Audio Episode 413
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 413
Length:	8383 min <br />1.383 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hey Pen Addicts, before the episode begins, unfortunately we had some technical issues, which results in us only being able to use the Skype call audio for Brad and Anna today. So, it's not going to sound as good as usual, there's going to be some weird volumes in places. I promised I'd try to do the best that I can with it, but it's a great episode and I know you're going to love it. So enjoy. Anyway.

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 413. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, ExpressVPN, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello Myke Hurley, how are you today?

Myke Hurley: Fine and dandy, my friend. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm very good. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one here today though. Did we do something different for a change?

Myke Hurley: Yes, it's been far too long because of all the disruption to our traveling schedules, but we're very happy to be joined by the one and only Anna Reiner today. Hi Anna.

Ana Reinert: Hello, how are you guys today?

Myke Hurley: Very good. You know, are you familiar with the show This Is Your Life? That's a thing that you have there too, right?

Brad Dowdy: I think so, back in the day, right? We used to have that when we were younger, Anna, right? Like in the 80s-ish it seems like? 70s, 80s?

Ana Reinert: I think nowadays they do more of the roasts, so I'm a little worried.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah, no, I don't like the roast style. But yeah, today is basically like a This Is Your Life for Anna. Because we're going to be celebrating and talking about the 10-year anniversary of the well-appointed desk. So that's going to be the main crux of the conversation today. It was the perfect time. Brad noticed the anniversary and was like, we've got to have Anna on the show. And of course I agreed with him because I can never turn that opportunity down.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's been too long to have Anna on. People ask all the time. I don't like to inflate your ego too much. I don't tell you like every time someone asks like, oh, they're asking me to have Anna on again. But it's pretty much a weekly thing. So yeah, it's been too long and we didn't get to see each other. So we're going to explore. We're going to make you dig deep into 10 years of the well-appointed desk. I hope that's okay for you later in the show.

Ana Reinert: Thanks. I'm kind of surprised because I'm not sure that there's a ton of facts to provide. I'll see what I can do there.

Black Lives Matter Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Well, before we get started today, I want to talk about a post I wrote on Monday. And it's really a tough time that we're all living in right now. And I'd be remiss if we didn't take a minute to discuss Black Lives Matter and the problems that our country is seeing. And it's not exclusively our country in the U.S., but worldwide problems. And I had a really tough weekend coming to grips with everything I was seeing online.

Brad Dowdy: And also just feeling guilt because this is not a new thing, right? This is an escalation that we've rarely seen before. But this is not a new. This goes back for pretty much the existence of history where Black people were not treated with equity in our world. And this weekend, we're seeing some of the worst actions by people against Blacks that we've all ever seen. And I just felt that Monday was appropriate for me to speak up, use my platform to express how I'm feeling, to say that I'm going to do better. I'm going to work harder. I'm going to make this a better country and a better situation for Blacks. Because it's really challenging to see people go through this. And I've always said that how proud I am of the diversity in our community, in the stationary community. I've felt really good about being part of a community that believes in diversity of all forms.

Brad Dowdy: And this is a worldwide community, right? We have listeners from all over the world. We have readers from all over the world. I know all of us in our individual blogs and podcasts and other areas have worldwide listeners. And we're all unified by paper and pen. That's what we're here for today, generally. But I don't think today's the day and today's not the time to just take that gold star from our teacher and pat ourselves on the back to say that we've done a good job. I think it's a time to shine a light on the inequality that's still happening and try to figure out what we're going to do. And I think the fountain pen community as a whole is uniquely positioned because of how we exist right now in a very humane way, in a very equal way. But I think the individually people in these groups, in our fountain pen communities, in our stationary communities, and collectively, we can change. So, like, for example, I wrote about this post. We'll put a link in the show notes about some of the actions I've taken. And I've taken more actions since then. And that's what it's going to take to help solve these problems. You know, I'm adding more diverse voices to my media consumption, right? I've always been a champion of women and of LGBTQ causes, and I've been super supportive. But I've noticed just somehow there's a lack of black voices in my social media feeds and my Instagram feeds, on my Twitch streams that I follow, on my podcasts that I follow. So I've actually made a change to listen to these voices more.

Brad Dowdy: And that's started to change. I've also learned over these past few days that it's not enough for me to say that I'm not racist, right? I live my life that way, that I'm not racist. But saying you're not racist is a passive statement. It's ticking a checkbox on a form next to your race and gender.

Myke Hurley: Also, it doesn't mean anything. That just means you as human beings should be. Right. Right.

Brad Dowdy: So the statement should be is I'm anti-racist. Yes. That means I'm actively working on changing policies and procedures and laws and regulations that force inequality into people's lives. You know, we should all be living equal lives. And to say I'm not racist is not enough. I have to be anti-racist to progress and move the world forward and build these, change these rules and regulations that are in affecting, that are affecting people to support disproportionately. So it's more of a statement of action. So these are the things I'm learning. And I just want to talk about this out loud because it's not going to get said enough. We're going to continue to talk about pens and paper and stationery. We're going to have a heck of a show today. I'm excited about talking to Anna about, you know, 10 years of the desk. It's like really important to me to discuss Anna and have her on. But I just want to say that it's not the time to ask us to be quiet about what's going on in the world. And I don't think we're having much of an issue. Myke more so than some of us because he's a little bit more exposed in different areas than like myself, you know, in a wider range of things. And I'm proud to be part of Relay FM, a network that lives its diversity and works to maintain diverse voices in the podcast network. And I have Myke to thank for that. And, you know, to see people, you know, our famous stay in your lane comments that I love to use. It's like, I'm just I'm not I'm not going to. And it's that's going to be the way it is. So, you know, it's it's hard to discuss this thing eloquently in, you know, a few minutes of a podcast. And I tried to say how I was feeling in the post I made Monday. But just know that it shouldn't have taken things to get this far for me to make more active changes than just saying that I'm not racist and let not be good enough. That's not good enough anymore. So it's it's time for change. And I'm starting with myself and I I hope you all are along for the ride because you're going to see it a lot more for me, especially like on my my social media feeds and my activism being more public. And then as I normally keep my activism in the background because, hey, stay in your lane. Right. Let's talk about pens on Twitter. Well, you know what? That time has passed. We're in a dangerous time in in all of our lives. And I don't want to see it go downhill from here. So I'm going to do my part.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I echo basically everything you're saying just to underscore a couple of points. One, it's why you're hearing it here and why you will see me also talking about and retweeting things in my social media feeds. And I usually try and stay away from political current events issues. It's just a thing that I've done in my life. But there I have lines and this is past the line that I'm willing to stay quiet about because it's something that I believe in and I'm believing in more and more as the days go on. Right. About just how ridiculous and wrong all of this stuff is because I'm seeing more of it. And also, I'm working on some stuff myself as to what can I do to actively change things in my community. And that's something I have some ideas and I'm working through some things right now and hope to share some stuff pretty soon about what actions can I take with what I have, which is my voice and my influence. So that's the thing that I encourage everybody to do. Like, what do you have that you can give to others? And so, you know, that's where I'm working right now.

Ana Reinert: One of the things that I've heard a lot of people say, which is being the privileged white people that we are, one of the best things that we can do is listen and ask what we can do to help, what we can do to support.

Ana Reinert: And one of the best pieces that I've heard written or read written from our community was what Myke Madison wrote on his blog this week about a situation that occurred in his past, which he found shameful and that he wished he could have done differently. And addresses situations that I think at some point in our lives we've all faced where being white, we were in a situation that someone looked at us and assumed that because we were white, we shared their racist views. And rather than challenge someone making a racist comment, we stayed quiet instead of saying, no, dude, that is not cool. I do not agree with you. We let it pass. We let it go instead of challenging someone's comment. And that is the thing that we have to stop. We cannot let other people say those things anymore. They're not right. They can't be, they can't, we can't let it go on. And that was probably one of the strongest pieces I've read from somebody. I mean, it took a lot of guts and a lot of honesty for him to write that and to, you know, sort of come clean about it. Mm-hmm. And those are the moments where we have an opportunity to come forth and say, these are the shameful moments in our past. And it's not outward racism. It's the moments where we stayed quiet when we shouldn't have. You know, because I know that most of the people that I know are not racist, but we also, you know, in a situation where we put our own physical bodies at risk in situations where someone might be bigger or seerier than us. We don't challenge them when they say things like that. And being a woman, that can also be, you know, even more fearful. You know, when a guy says something like that, we don't challenge them. We try to get out of that situation. Mm-hmm. So now it's our chance to stand up and take those chances and say, no, we won't accept that anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I agree completely. Now's the time to put in the work. And Myke's post was great. We'll put a link in the show notes to that for anyone who has missed it. I know that had to be tough for him to write, and I appreciate him immensely doing that. All right. So now the task is going to fall to me, Myke and Anna, to transition us into a stationary podcast.

Myke Hurley: Like we said what we say, and now we move on, right? Like the point has been made, people have heard it, and now we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Transition to Pen Topic

Brad Dowdy: Yes, knowing that this is not the end of the discussion in our lives, right?

Ana Reinert: It's funny that you said that because that's actually what I titled Link Love today.

Brad Dowdy: Wonderful. So to get into our show, I'd like to pose a question. Will you say I if you currently have a Jonathan Brooks, a Rushi Lamy in your hand? I. Oh, wait, that was only two I's. Did your microphone cut out, Myke? Are you still there, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Have you mailed it to me yet? No. No. Well, then how am I going to? Right? This is in your hand, my friend. Quite literally, it's in your hand.

Brad Dowdy: You might never get this pen. I just want to be perfectly honest with you.

Myke Hurley: What is wrong with you? Like a massive part of your job is mailing things. Why do you refuse to mail things to me? Do I have to buy something from you? Is that how this works? No. No. You know what?

Brad Dowdy: It's pure laziness because I know I have to get more than this pen to you. Right? So I have to go to other areas of the house to collect other things that I've set aside.

Ana Reinert: Oh, it sounds like such hard work. You have to look around the house.

Brad Dowdy: It's like at least 10 feet away from my desk. Here's the thing, Brad.

Myke Hurley: If these things are causing you so much problem, send them later on. Just send me the frigging Lamy.

Brad Dowdy: So I sent Anna hers the other day. You got it in, what, Monday or so? When did you get your pen? Tell us about your pen and your thoughts on this whole situation.

Ana Reinert: Honestly, I never actually thought it was going to happen. Yeah. When you told me that, like, you messaged me and said that they had arrived, I was like, seriously? Like, I didn't think it was, not that I doubted that Jonathan could do it, but I honestly thought he was like, I tried. I don't, I just can't be bothered. Go away. All three of you, just go. I love you, but go away. And then I knew he had lots of other things going on in his life. And then the pandemic and then the pen show didn't happen. Like, I just figured he was like, nah, I'm going to shelve that project. But when you told me that they showed up, I was like, okay, cool. Wow. And then I saw the pictures that you posted and the video and I was like, I wonder what it looks like in person. I mean, because the pictures showed, you know, 75% of the story. But to actually hold it in my hand and again, like seeing the, there's little tiny details, just like threads of color. It's like the only word I can think to describe it. Plus the, like the little, there's sparkles, like little iridescent sparkles. I'm just speechless. Like, I can't believe why anyone would spend this much time putting Urushi on a Lamy, like honest to God.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's, it's crazy.

Ana Reinert: I can see why he does not want to do it again. It was a labor of, I don't know if it's love or insanity, but probably a little of both.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think I'll, I'll have to double check with him. I think he made just made one for himself, right? Like he made the extra one for us to give away, but I think he made one for himself too, just so he will never have to answer the question again. Like he wants a reminder of how terrible of an idea this was. So he doesn't have to try again. He can look at that pen and say, no, I will never do this again. But what he did for us was pretty amazing. Like yours, I can't wait to, until we all get to see each other again, because I've been the only one to hold all three pens. Yours feels very different from ours in a refined way that I'm wondering if it comes from the aluminum barrel, as opposed to the plastic barrel. It is noticeably different feeling in, in like the most wonderful way possible.

Ana Reinert: Um, are you saying the aluminum is better?

Brad Dowdy: Maybe for a Rushi. I will not, uh, I will not.

Ana Reinert: I would like that noted for the record.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. We'll note that down for the record. But, um, yeah, there's something about that pen that is, is really special. And you're right about the colors. Like these pictures don't do it justice. We'll have to show people like there's a depth to them that you, you can't photograph really, really well. It kind of shows up on the black and brown one that we're going to use for the giveaway. That's like our single color pen has that kind of depth to it in the same shade. So it's not as noticeable as the opposite shades of the black and brown.

Ana Reinert: I can read the notes that he included about the pen details. So mine was done on a, the Lamy All-Star Bronze. Um, and the Rushi was marbled pink, which doesn't exist. So this was my first time trying to create a color, which is difficult when you're starting with brown. Tiny flakes throughout of rotten abalone. Tiny, uh, both upper and lower finials were replaced with handmade ones and this allowed for abalone inlays. Those were his notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great. Like, okay, I'm going to take this impossible project and then I'm going to invent a new color. Like he didn't have enough trouble as it is. It's, it's pretty fascinating to be able to talk to Jonathan. I'm glad, I'm glad he is in our lives and can work this magic. Like, so Myke, I don't want you to feel too bad that you don't have yours yet because on the individual Instagram posts that I made, the one of your pen is like 2x the amount of likes of both. I think if you added up mine and Anna's, we wouldn't have reached the amount of likes that your pen got. So just know that, uh, that you definitely have the most popular of the three, but I know we love all of our pens.

Myke Hurley: They are all amazing. But like even because Jonathan posted a bunch of pictures as well, um, on the Carolina Penco Instagram and he very, it was very sweet. Actually said that he, he went a little extra with mine. Yeah. Um, so I really genuinely very much appreciated that and, and I could see it right. Like, cause there's details that I didn't, uh, that I didn't see until, um, the, uh, and until I saw the pictures from Jonathan, like how on the grip section of the Lamy, you have like the two inlays and then the part that's going down the middle. And there are four discs of Raden of different, of like, uh, decreasing sizes placed. And it's like, I see stuff like that. It's like, oh, that was a lot of work. Right. So like, uh, you know, I cannot wait to one day sometime in the distant future. I have this pen.

Brad Dowdy: It will ship before Thursday.

Myke Hurley: Oh, will it? Yeah. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Or no later than Thursday. How about that? No later than Thursday, which means today or tomorrow it will ship. Well, I look forward to that. I look forward to you receiving it because I hate shipping stuff like this, that like very important things. Like even to Anna, I was like, oh my gosh, please tell me like the minute you get it because I want to know what arrives safe and sound and shipping to you is even more of, more of a stress factor.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Cause this isn't like, there's no insurance for this. Right. Right. Cause this is an irreplaceable object. Yep. All right. Let's take a break and then we can get into talking to Anna about everything we wanted to talk about today. Uh, today's show is brought to you by Harry's. Now is not the time to be overpaying for raises at the drugstore. You want to stay inside. Harry's knows that they ship directly to you so you can experience the quality of a Harry's shave in just a few days from the convenience of your own home. You should join the 10 million people who have tried Harry's and claim your special trial offer by going to harrys.com slash pen addict. Harry's is a return to what's essential quality, durable blades at a fair price at just $2 per blade. They've cut out all the stuff in the middle manufacturing blades in their German blade factory that they have. That's been honing precision blades for a century, which means you can get incredibly high quality blades at factory direct prices. And Harry's is super convenient with their blade refills being delivered directly to your door on your own schedule with or without a subscription. So Brad, can you tell me something about Harry's? Can I, Myke? Yes, I can. I would like you to.

Brad Dowdy: The trials that I'm putting Harry's hair paste through during these quarantine times is stuff of legend. I haven't cut my hair in three months or so. And Harry's, my wife thanks Harry's every day that I actually decide to use their product for my hair because any other day I look like Albert Einstein or something like walking around and she's like, oh, thank God you fixed your hair today. And that's all because of Harry's hair paste. So thank you, Harry's, during these quarantine times until I get my next haircut for keeping me in check.

Myke Hurley: And you can feel good about your purchase too because they have a 100% quality guarantee. So if you don't love your shave, let them know and they'll give you a full refund. And 1% of proceeds are set aside for non-profit organizations devoted to helping provide access to better health care for men and veterans. Listeners of this show can redeem their Harry's trial set at harrys.com slash penaddict. And you'll get a weighted ergonomic handle for a firm grip, five blade razor with lubricated strip and trimmer blade, rich leather and shave gel with aloe to keep your skin hydrated, and a travel blade cover to keep your razor dry and easy to grab on the go. Go to harrys.com slash penaddict to start shaving better today. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Anna Reinhart, congratulations on 10 years of the well-appointed desk.

Ana Reinert: Thank you. So I was a little surprised. It came up a lot faster than I thought it was going to.

Celebrating Blog Anniversary

Brad Dowdy: That's actually what I want to know first. Like when you realize not just, oh, anniversary coming up, but, oh, this blog has been in existence for 10 years. Like what was, what were you thinking like to yourself?

Ana Reinert: Well, okay. So last year when you were announcing like 10 years of penaddict and everything, I was like, wow, my tenure is coming up next year. And then this year rolled around and the world's biggest dumpster fire happened. I lost my job. The pandemic happened. Like, you know, I mean, just everything. And I was like, okay, what do I do? Do I make a big deal about this? Or do I just like quietly stick it under the rug and have a big 11th anniversary celebration next year? And I kind of went back and forth and trying to decide. And I'm like, you know, things like leading up the last, you know, two weeks or whatever, things like, you know, businesses were starting to open back up and things, you know, I thought, okay, well, maybe it'd be okay.

Ana Reinert: And so I started contacting some of my regular sponsors and kind of ask them how they felt about it. And they said, no, no, no, it'd be a really great idea. You know, people need something that would bring them a little joy, you know, and we are totally, we totally support it. We would love to help. And so I thought, okay, well, let's do this. And so I started putting everything together to do the celebration. And then all of the stuff happened that we talked about at the beginning of the show. And I was like, do I keep doing this? Or do I just like, I don't know, like pull the plug. And I decided to just keep going. Because at this point, I feel like, again, people need some light in their life. I want to celebrate the hard work that not only I've done, but also the people who have continued to support the blog, which are the vendors, the people. The manufacturers, everyone who reads the blog, who continue to come back looking for something to keep them entertained, distracted, and as well as everyone who writes for the blog. You know, this is something that gives them, you know, they're as much a part of this and contributor as well. And I need the outlet more now than ever before. So it's been, you know, as much, and I know for sure you can probably relate because you've kind of been on the same roller coaster of being fully employed and then jumping ship. You chose to jump ship. I was sort of forced off my ship. But still, doing this full time is a different, it makes it a very different job. You know, now it's a job, not a hobby. But still, I mean, I didn't think I'd be, you know, when I started this 10 years ago, I didn't know how long it would go. Maybe a year, two years, kind of fun. Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: So is there an origin story to the blog? Like what made you decide to say, you know, I'm going to get this domain and I'm going to write about stationery?

Ana Reinert: Well, this is a story I've probably told several times. And I may have told this story, the podcast before. But I went to a presentation about a woman, that a woman did who had started a decorating a blog, decorating her apartment all in turquoise. And the site was the house of turquoise. And she basically said that at that particular time, if she could make a website all about turquoise, that the internet was big enough to have a website about any super specific interest. She's like, if I can do it, anybody can do it. And I had always been fascinated with stationery and office supplies and pens and paper and all of that. And I wanted to focus on that. It brought me joy. I knew other people that loved doing it. I was already friends with you at that point and Johnny from Pencil Revolution. And I had seen what you guys were doing. And I wanted to do it too. So I literally went back to my desk. And I started the Well-Appointed Desk. And at the time, I launched it on Tumblr and just started posting things that I liked. So it was really at that point in time, just sort of reposting like pictures of offices, cool office supplies that I found. And so it really started off just kind of a real quick repost dump for a couple of months before I kind of started writing more solid reviews and things. But I just was like, hey, if she can do it, I can do it. Like, let's just, I'm just going to do it. So after a couple of years, I moved it over to, you know, as I started writing more and more reviews and Tumblr really didn't service like comments and giveaways and things like that, I moved it over to WordPress where I could have more control over, you know, everything the way that you kind of need to as you develop things.

Ana Reinert: And it kind of went on.

Brad Dowdy: Is the site still on WordPress now?

Ana Reinert: It is. It's still. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You've done a great job with it.

Ana Reinert: Thank you. I've switched templates many, many times and added plugins and things like that. And I've debated moving it, you know, to another hosting service. But at this point, there's over 4,000 posts and I just can't bring myself to move it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I haven't gone through it. And I did the math years and years and years ago. And I was like, woof, that was a lot. I'd be hesitant to do it now. And like, you know, it'd be scary to. We're definitely like locked into our platforms, you know, for, you know, our sanity right now. If nothing else, Myke, Myke Hurley has a question that I'd feel weird asking this question. So I'm going to make Myke ask.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Well, I did write in our document too. So in the post, you mentioned that when you started the Well Appointed Desk, you and Brad were already friends. And that was surprising to me. And I wondered how that had happened. Because I just always assumed that like you were both already doing the stuff and then found each other that way because you were in the kind of pen blogging community. Like that's how I've made friends with lots of people in the podcasting community is I find out about them or we find about each other because we're in that already. So I was just keen on understanding like how that happened.

Ana Reinert: And correct me if I'm wrong, Brad, but I had had a personal blog where I had done several like pen paper related reviews before I had started the Well Appointed Desk. And at that point, Lily from JetPens, who's one of the founders of JetPens, had actually contacted me and asked if she could send me samples. And I think you had actually commented on my personal site. And so you and I had started communicating there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's exactly how I remember it. Anna had a blog called Snow Angels. That was right, right? Wasn't that the name? Yeah. Snow Angels actually still have some like little icon of yours, some black and white icon of yours floating around somewhere in some of my contacts. We've known each other so long. We've gone through so many like little avatar changes. But, you know, sometimes you can't get rid of the old ones in some places. I think I have one back from like the Snow Angels day somewhere on there. But, yeah, that's when I was I had started the pen addict and I was searching the Internet, right, for more people who were into the same kind of things. And, you know, that's where like, you know, in the heyday of blogging and I still try to do it now is like cross posting and cross promoting and linking to other other similar content. And so I would always share Snow Angels posts. And that's how I got to talking to Anna in the beginning. And then we just hit it off from there. And it's like still like one of my one of my best friendships to this day. It's it's pretty wild. How these things started that we've started these so long ago and seeing where we're at today. It's like kind of hard to wrap your head around a little bit for me. I don't know about you.

Ana Reinert: Oh, totally. Because I remember way back then I was doing some like craft show stuff with my friend Annie. And so the two of us were like screen printing like tea towels and things like that. And Lily from JetPens had offered to do a trade with me for some of the tea towels in exchange for JetPens product.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was back in the day when JetPens was still basically they were probably just out of their apartment at that time. Right. And like like 50 percent of the SKUs were pilot high tech C's, you know, and things like that.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. Yeah. Dell pens and pencils or something.

Brad Dowdy: So back in back in the heyday. Gosh, I really if I think about that too much, it's like mind blowing. Like where some of these companies are at now that we started with back in the day. I want to talk real quick about how just your processes have changed from back in the day. For example, I would like I look back at my original post and it's just this very simple like short, quick, terrible photography, you know, weird grammar kind of. Let me tell you about this pen thing. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And then now I feel like I write more, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Personal specific stories. So have you seen a change in how you approach, say, just like a product review? Because you write a lot of other things besides product reviews. But have you noticed a change in your approach over over all these years?

Ana Reinert: Oh, yes. Yeah. Well, I mean, for starters, like there's a real consistency when we when we do reviews. I mean, we have macros for like specifics that we add to each of our reviews to make sure that there's like consistency across the board in terms of at the end of each review, we'll include a list of the materials that were used so that people know for sure. Like what paper was used, like what paper was used, what ink, you know, those sorts of details that wasn't necessarily included in earlier reviews. Like, you know, in some cases, like it was never the same paper for pen reviews or it was like I used to use them. Was it McElriss notebook? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. But I used because it was like a giant. Absolutely. Like early on, I had this ginormous McElriss notebook that I used.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because you could get them at Barnes and Noble.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, exactly. And it was not a good notebook to use. And so now it's like I always, you know, to this day, I use the same Rodia because I feel like it's something that everyone has access to. So it's something that should they want to replicate the results would be something that was available to them. And because I've used it so frequently, then they can go back and look at earlier reviews and compare and contrast one pen or ink to another. And then, of course, now every ink is tested on coloring paper so that, you know, when we compare and contrast the colors from different brands, you know, it's like it's like there's so much more consistency and we try to keep everything. And I have studio lighting so that I have control of my lighting situation. So everything is photographed in very similar circumstances each time. So, yeah, I feel like, you know, it's like I go back now and I look at like older ones and it's just like I know that I was trying to take pictures outside. And I remember one day like trying to shoot outdoors to try to get the best lighting. And like the wind was blowing and things were blowing across the yard. And I finally hit a point where I was just like, that's it. I'm buying lights. I don't care how much they cost. I'm just doing it. I was so furious because it was like chasing things across the yard and the neighbors were looking at me like I was crazy.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's hilarious because I would totally delay a post because I couldn't get good lighting outdoors because that's where I always took my product photography. And I was like, I can't take this picture today because it's raining and it's due tomorrow. And what am I going to do? And I just have to cancel the post.

Myke Hurley: It's so funny. Photography is important in this type of work, though. Like especially when you are starting out because you have to have the visual element to draw people in so they can understand your voice and trust your opinion. Like it gets to a certain point where for both of you, your readers, they just want to know what you have to say more because you can get pictures of a pen on the company's website. Right. But they want your point of view. But you have to establish yourself first. And I think that the visual component is an important part of that establishment. So people will actually come and read what you have to say and see that you have something interesting to say.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's one of the things Anna does best. Right. I mean, Anna, you pretty much stage like all your photos. You have like a whole staging set up pretty much. Right.

Ana Reinert: I do. But it's it's pretty simple. Like I don't do a ton of set dressing. Occasionally, I'll do a little bit for like sort of a glory shot. But I do tend to keep it fairly simple. And I noticed that I use the same like tabletop. Oh, just like I found I found one from like six years ago and I'm like, that's the same the same table surface. I'm like, I need to get some new table surface.

Brad Dowdy: All you have to do is look at two of my posts to go. Oh, yeah, they're all the same.

Ana Reinert: In terms of like the writing style, like I also feel like I'm I've become a better writer. Like after 4000 posts. Yeah. And it's a very uncomfortable place as someone who's been a creative, like visually creative my whole life to ever describe myself as a writer. Because I feel like I've I've stepped my toe over a line somewhere like you can't call yourself a writer. You'd not go to school for that. But I feel like at a certain point, it's like. As a technical writer, like I can describe the details of pens and ink and I feel like. Maybe that's a safe territory to go into. And I hope that in many instances, I'm at least entertaining when I write a lot of my reviews. Like I try to make some of, you know, like there are cases where I've I've pushed the boundaries. With my reviews in terms of being a little tongue in cheek with them. There was a color verse ink review where I was particularly cheeky.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I enjoy those types of posts and getting to see like your personality come out in there. And I think it's important, like I definitely transitioned from a more technical writing review style, like here's the specs and all this type of stuff into trying as hard as it is to explain what it feels like to use this product. Right. Which is is hard to put in words, but I feel more comfortable these days doing that. So, yeah, I want to throw you under the bus here for a second because people enjoy taking me to task for a statement I said early on about I hate fountain pens and look at me now. I vividly remember a point in our friendship where you said you would never go over. You would never spend more than one hundred dollars on a pen. And you like had a hard stop and like you would even put this into reviews. Like, am I remembering this correctly?

Ana Reinert: I suspect I probably did say that at some point.

Brad Dowdy: Like in the early days.

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that that's long gone at this point. Right. And there's, you know.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I pretty I jumped that shark a long time ago.

Brad Dowdy: Just like my I hate fountain pens idea. Like that's that's a long time ago. In Internet years, it's like infinity years ago when we said these things. So that's not only has our blogging style changed, our tastes and appreciation for different types of product has changed, too.

Products Discussion

Ana Reinert: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of products, Myke.

Myke Hurley: You want me to talk about pen chalet now?

Brad Dowdy: Let's do that because we got a lot more to get to with Anna. She's she's so interesting. I got I have questions.

Myke Hurley: I know. Right. This this episode is brought to you by friends over at pen chalet. They're the company that sell you authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils and so much more. No matter what you're looking for, pen chalet have got it. Even if you're looking for ink and refills and converters and carrying cases and pen holders, they sell all of the accessories and the products that you've been looking for from your very favorite brands. Pen chalet believe in the fastest and most reliable customer service possible. And they also have great deals for shipping. So if you spend over $50 in the US, you will get free shipping. And if you're an international buyer, then you will get very great shipping rates, the best that they could possibly do. And I've been really happy with both the price and speed of pen chalet shipments to me here in the UK. I've bought stuff myself from them personally. Pen chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be happy with the great stuff that you buy from them. So as a pen addict listener, you can get your hands on some special deals. You can get 10 percent off anything at any time by using a code of pen chalet. If you just go to pen chalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password pen addict. This gets you through to a special area where you will find the 10 percent code to get to save on anything at any time, but also some special offers for listeners of this show. What's catching your eye this time, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: This whole page is just wrong. There's too many good deals on it. I don't understand. The Pelican M101 bright red, which is one of my personal favorite pens, is way less than I ever paid for mine. There's a Pelican M205 demonstrator. There's one of the limited that he must have found in inventory. The Pelican M120 special edition, the blue with gold trim, one of the smaller pens, but it's a really unique, you know, kind of a retro design that Pelican brought back, I think, last year. It's fantastic. And you just keep scrolling. You get to this, the Diplomat Arrows. That's not the right price for the Diplomat Arrow. So it's such a good pen. And that's just crazy talk. So you should go check out Pen Chalet today. Check out all the deals. And don't stop scrolling when you see the first deal, because this is a chock full of awesomeness today at Pen Chalet. So thank you, Ron, for your continued support of our show.

Myke Hurley: So that's PenChalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password PenAddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So, Anna, can you pull out any major turning points, like in the 10 years of the Well Appointed Desk, that you knew something was different than it used to have been? And, you know, whether you were just, you know, writing reviews one day and then, I don't know, did you ever notice any, like, big turning points?

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Ana Reinert: There was, I mean, there are moments that were, I guess, big moments for me. I mean, the first time I got asked to be on the Pen Addict podcast, it was a big moment for me. But, I mean, there were lots of things, like, you know, when we had giveaways where we had lots and lots of entries, which was always really great. When sometimes just having posts with lots of comments, both good and bad, always make us feel great. Because, you know, there are lots of times when we do posts and there are no comments at all and you're like, okay, well.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Ana Reinert: I'm sure you know what I mean. Oh, yeah. You know there are views, but oftentimes people don't comment and that's fine. Yes. You know, a lot of times it's just an informational post and people read it and they get the information that they need and they don't feel a need to comment. But when you get a post where people comment a lot, it's always very nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a great validation.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. And there's occasions where, you know, I've had people email specifically because they found the blog and want, you know, and they thought the content was really good. So they've asked me to contribute to other websites, which was very validating. So there have been occasions where it's like I was asked to contribute. And I know you have been to other websites like Fast Company and some of the other websites, which is always like, you know, I think print, which is a design publication, which is like I would have loved to get in for design. But, hey, I got in for writing for the desk. So that's okay. That's good.

Brad Dowdy: Those are never things that would have crossed my mind ever in writing a pen blog that would come up later.

Ana Reinert: No, not at all. Like those are things, you know, because I've been, I've been, you know, job hunting and having to put together my resume. Like it never occurred to me that the well-appointed desk would end up on my resume. Right. You know, because of things like this and what it has led to in other circumstances, like. Who knew? You guys can't see me, but I'm shrugging. Like I had no idea that it would actually become a line on my resume because of all of the opportunities it presented.

Career Impact

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like when back in the day when I was working at the bank, I ended up getting a marketing position with having no experience, training or qualifications because I was podcasting and as well. Right. So like I was able to show that I could do something. I was a self-starter and could show like, oh, by the way, when I start something, I keep doing it.

Brad Dowdy: But, you know, yeah, that's it's pretty wild when you think of all the real world implications are now work has has has led to. It's it's yeah. If you think about it too much, it kind of breaks your brain. So one thing I wanted to talk about, which you do very, very much is travel to a lot of pen shows. I know we're in the quarantine times right now and none of us are getting to travel and I know we all miss it very much and miss seeing our friends. But can you tell me kind of how you got started, like first attending pen shows? Do you remember the first pen show you went to and how did it escalate from there to where you're going to probably five, six, if not more shows a year?

Ana Reinert: Well, the first show that I went to was Atlanta to record the pen addict.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Ana Reinert: And that was a huge experience. I actually found photos. I don't know what I was doing. I must have been digging for through my, you know, my photo stream or whatever. And I found the photos from that that year. Mm hmm. Atlanta show and just yesterday. And it was, I mean, like it practically brought tears to my eyes. Look at those photos because that was the first time that I met so many people who to this day are still so important to me. You know, I met Le Reyes at that show. I met Thomas. I met just like so many people. We went to the knock shop.

Brad Dowdy: Mm hmm. God, that was the party year.

Ana Reinert: That was the party year.

Brad Dowdy: One and only. That was a big deal.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. Leigh and Thomas kept me up so late showing me Nakayas that I fell asleep holding a Nakaya in my hand at a table. Like, it was just that. I mean, like that was a true turning point when I realized how amazing the Pen community was.

Ana Reinert: Just really a gobsmacked year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I will. I have a lot of stories from that year. Now that you say that that was a huge turning point year, I think, for a lot of us. But the thing I remember the most is that was our first live recording and we didn't have an audience. It was just the three of us and the Hackett brothers. And I've never been so nervous in front of a microphone than for that recording. All the audience stuff doesn't phase me. All the, you know, guesting on other shows. For some reason, I vividly remember being an absolute wreck trying to record that show in that room. Like I felt just like undue pressure for some reason. I don't know why. But that was a weird one for us. And then we fixed it next year with the, we started having audiences. So that was a, that was a weird moment for sure.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, that was crazy. And since that, that show, like after that, I think that was the show that then you, was that when you suggested that I should start helping Lisa Van Ness?

Brad Dowdy: Probably. Because we had, I had just met Lisa like at the Atlanta show previous to that, where I was just a person, you know, like walking around. Like I didn't have knock to bring to the show or anything like that. And I had just met her. And like that was when she, Atlanta was like one of her first shows too, like in the previous year or two. And she had decided that she wanted to do more. And I think y'all just kind of hit it off. And then she was asking you and myself to, to travel with her to, to go to shows. And that, that was, had been a great experience for me. I'm sure it was for you too.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. Yeah. So then I started helping Lisa at a lot of shows just in order to help sort of fund the opportunity to go to shows. And so I think that year I ended up going to like four shows. And then for the years after that, I want to say I was going to at least six, seven, eight. I think last year was nine.

Brad Dowdy: Wow.

Ana Reinert: I think the topper was the year we went to Toronto. I went to nine shows that year.

Brad Dowdy: I think I remember you saying that it's just like getting to the, that was kind of the end. And we did a lot on that event. And that was like one of my favorite events that we, we did books. We did a, we did a New York stop on that trip too. And it was just crazy, crazy cool. So, um, but yeah, to, to wrap up a year of nine shows in October, I think it was late October, early November is just like, that's a lot. Like I couldn't see doing that. Yeah, that's, that's fantastic. So I know we're all anxious to get back to, to show going here pretty soon. So hopefully you will see Anna and myself and Myke at shows in the future. We just don't know exactly when. Um, I want to talk about the current setup of the desk. See what I did there? That was an accident, but it came out pretty well. Um, you have added writers to the desk. You have added a shop to the desk. Um, tell me what it was like to bring on kind of your first, uh, partners in writing, writing blog posts there. So, uh, all good, good, awesome people, Laura, Jesse, Tina, tell me about bringing them on. What that was like and, uh, how that's, uh, helped things out over there.

Ana Reinert: Well, um, the first person that came on to help me was Tina, um, from, uh, fueled by pods and coffee. And she started doing some reviews sort of periodically, um, just to sort of help provide a little bit of additional content between doing shows and a full-time job. I was starting to feel stretched really, really thin. And she gladly came aboard and brought in a little bit more of the sort of creative content because she does a lot of urban sketching. So she was, um, doing more sort of pencils and like sketch materials, sharpeners, sketchbooks, um, that kind of thing, which I thought brought a different spin to the blog than some of the other stationary community. And so I really liked having that perspective and thought it was a great addition. And then maybe about, I think it was probably about a year later, I brought my friend, Laura Cameron, um, who actually is, um, a local friend of mine. She's a knitter and she does, um, the corner of knit and tee, which is a vlog for knitting and spinning. And she was just getting into pens. And so I kept kind of sort of giving her different things as she was expressing interest. And after a while, I'm like, you know, if I give this to you, you're going to have to write a review. And she's like, okay. And so that led her into starting to, to add content as well, because the longer I was writing, the less I felt in touch with sort of the experience of someone who is new to fountain pens and new to sort of the, you know, sort of all of the stationary product. And so it's been interesting to watch Laura sort of go through a lot of sort of what we went through when we first started of like, oh, I only like this one thing. Oh, wait, no, I really like these, you know, cause it's like, I think we all go through that where it's like, nope, I just like this one type of pen or this one type of nib or this one type of material. And then as you develop your experiences over time, you're like, no, I like lots of different materials depending on the circumstance or the situation or even the maker, you know? So it's just been nice to have that brought back into it, you know, because as you know, it's harder for us. Cause it's like that, again, that whole thing, once you cross that a hundred dollar threshold, you're like, you know, it's hard for me to like get real upset about the quality of a $29 pen. Like I know what to expect with a $29 pen, but for someone just getting into the hobby, like $29 seems like a lot of money to spend on a pen. Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And you're going to get that email is like, Hey, I bought this pilot metropolitan and like I'm ticked off and it's like not working. And you, you lose sight of that sometimes that, you know, that's, you know, there's, there's new people reading the site every day.

Ana Reinert: And then Jesse came in about a little, just about a year ago. And as our resident Estherbrook, vintage Estherbrook expert and ink enthusiast. Um, and so I had her take on more of the ink review responsibilities, um, which just helped to sort of spread everything out a little bit. And so as that has progressed, um, it's allowed me to sort of kind of funnel things in different directions and give everybody, let everybody sort of take a different focus sometimes. And also find things that I know specifically people will enjoy, um, reviewing, you know, so it's, it's that kind of thing of like shifting things around a little bit or giving people new opportunities to try different products. I don't know if you have that experience as well.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. Absolutely. And like one of the things that I think about it in that, you know, over the years of having people write for me, I've definitely gotten past and I think you have too. But in the beginning it was very, not difficult, but it was a weird feeling to give up some of the kind of creative control, like to give up the byline on the post, right. To like, this is like my blog, it's, you know, represented by me and then to have this other content created, um, to understand that, Hey, this is only going to make things better and not to like overthink, like adding new people to the blog. Did you have a challenge? Like with just some of the control things in the beginning of like trying to, I had a problem of like being overly cautious and now I'm just like completely like they're a hundred percent on their own. And, and have like no guidance from me whatsoever. So how has that been for you?

Ana Reinert: I think initially my biggest concern was when people commented and they addressed their comments to me, whether they were good or bad. And I really wanted them to, to know, like if they were bad comments, I didn't want the writer to take it badly just because I've sort of built up a little bit thicker skin about that. But then also if they were compliments, I didn't want people to think that it was, you know, like directed towards me. I wanted them to understand like, no, this was Jesse's post. Like, please like direct your, your accolades towards the writer, whether it was Jesse or Tina.

Myke Hurley: I've seen that kind of stuff a lot with like friends that write online and end up bringing on help in the tech space as well, where people get used to it all being one person. So they don't look at the byline because they just think it's all you, right? Because they've been reading you for years and it was just you. So they're just like, oh, so everything that comes from this site, it's all Anna, right? Yeah.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. So, and that's probably the biggest stumbling block. And early on, I think I did go through and make a point of like reading through each of the posts, you know, just as an, from an editorial standpoint, making sure there wasn't any issues. And now if I do at all, it's a cursory glance to make sure there aren't any, you know, it's more just like double checking, make sure there isn't anything. But it's not, I don't find tooth comb like I might have in, in the beginning.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like I'll, I'll manage the, I'll make sure the links are going to where we need the links to go. And then that's about it. Right. Yeah.

Ana Reinert: There's a good deal of trust that I, I'm familiar with their writing style and how they write. So I, I don't have to, you know, unless someone specifically asks, like, I'm not sure this, like this part right here makes total sense. Can you look it over really quick? Otherwise it's.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. Well, I think it's, it's a great fit and it's a really good feel to, to the blog. Not that it was ever not a great feel, but I, like, I think you've done it right. The way you've kind of integrated new writers over time, they each kind of have a general area, not meaning they can't do. Anything on the blog, but you know, like Tina is going to do a lot of sketch and art stuff. So like, I know when I read Tina's stuff, I'm like, Oh cool. I'm going to learn something about this today. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a really cool setup that you have going. And I, I definitely glad that that's a part of the desk now.

Ana Reinert: Thanks.

Brad Dowdy: Thanks. The other thing.

Ana Reinert: I also love that three out of four are lefties.

Brad Dowdy: That is pretty funny. We have, uh, I, I guess we're, we're like predetermined to have a greater percentage of lefties in our, in our midst. But whenever like I talk with you and talk to Myke and, or I'm sitting with you at a bar, you know, at a, at a hotel pen show, it's just, I'm surrounded by lefties. I'm definitely outnumbered on more occasions than not when I'm with you. All right. So one of the things that you've added to the shop is you've gotten into the merchandise and the creation of products. And you're very, very, very well known for the highly successful coloring. And I just wanted you to talk a little bit about deciding to make your own stuff to sell.

Ana Reinert: Well, um, you, we've talked repeatedly about how the coloring came out was there was a hole in the market and we figured out that we had the capacity to fill it. So we took a chance and we, we did it and it worked out. Um, and then from there we just sort of continued trying different things with the same paper and that's seemed to work out for us. So I say that very tentatively, every, like the coloring has been the most successful, like the color decks is a little bit more specific. Um, the oversize we have not made, um, as widely available just because we sort of did it on a smaller scale, um, in terms of our original production run. Um, just because it was like, we just wanted to see how it would perform. Um, so we may do a larger production run soon and then make that more widely available to some of our retailers. Um, we're still sort of in debates about that just from a standpoint of whether or not our retailers would be interested in it. And then, um, we did the dipper most recently just for picks. Yes. And that, that we've talked about before, I think, um, in that we probably won't ever have that available to retailers because it really is, um, labor intensive for its price point. It's just such a, just such a small, like it really is. We, we don't want to waste paper. It seemed like a really good way to make the best use of the paper and create a product that served again, another purpose for our community. So it was like lots, you know, many pronged solution and it's fun and it's cool and we dig it.

Brad Dowdy: So it's one of those things like when you're actually making stuff that I've had to explain to people many, many times over years, the smaller you make something, the more relatively expensive it's going to be compared to your other products. It just is. It's really challenging to make it small and inexpensive. Yeah.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. I mean, that's, it's that whole volume thing. It's super fiddly. It's super fiddly to make, like it takes literally it's me hand assembling each one of those and putting the little ball chain and closing it and sticking in the little baggie for each person who wants one.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Well, the color ring.

Ana Reinert: You are paying me to assemble that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Well, the color ring itself is the canonical, you know, ink swabbing book these days. I use, I tend to use the oversized a lot because I have a big honking stamp that someone made for me. So, I like the space I have on there, but I do love just the traditional color ring. I think it's pretty, pretty freaking fantastic.

Ana Reinert: So, yeah. And since then we have added more things like, you know, and one of the things like, and I haven't talked in great detail about it in the past, but partially because of the job that I had before. I was a little, my hands were tied a little bit about the type of paper products I could make. So, my hands are no longer tied in regards to the kinds of paper product I can make.

Myke Hurley: Uh-oh.

Ana Reinert: That's not to say that we will make a lot of paper products because I think the market is very saturated in terms of paper products, but it does open up the possibility. It just, like, the list of things that I could not make was very long.

Brad Dowdy: And just for people who might be listening the first time, Anna was a former Hallmark designer for many, many, many, many, many years.

Design Constraints

Ana Reinert: And so, if you think about what you would see in a normal card shop, that is the list of things I was not allowed to do. Right. So, that's partially why the coloring actually happened because it didn't fit into any of those categories. Right. A book specifically made to test fountain pen ink didn't fit into any of those categories. So, it was, like, without anybody in the pen community realizing, I managed to skirt all of the rules. So, and the same thing with, like, the rubber stamps that we were doing. Like, that also skirted all of the rules that were in place. So, it was, like, I was having to kind of play some, do a little dance.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great. I always love your stamps, too. Like, the little good mail stamps. I'm giving away the new ink bottle stamps this week on the blog. So, all that stuff.

Ana Reinert: And we have more of those right now on the shop. We are sold out of them again. We've sold out of them twice already.

Myke Hurley: Nice.

Ana Reinert: But they should be back in either today or probably first thing tomorrow. So, if anybody wants to buy some, we'll have them in.

Brad Dowdy: So, tell us a little bit about what you have going on on the site this week to celebrate your 10 years of the well-appointed desk. You have a lot of things planned.

Ana Reinert: Okay. This has been the most ridiculous amount of planning and, like, strategery I forgot to do. But it's actually two weeks. It is 10 days for 10 years. It's 10 days. I know. It's nuts. But so, for the next two weeks, there is a giveaway every day.

Ana Reinert: And there are 10 top 10 lists. One every day. I know. Did I tell you? This is nuts. I don't know what I was thinking. I've lost my mind. So, every day I've done a top 10 list. And when I say top 10, it's like a 10 something. So, it could be 10 favorite, 10 best, 10, like, I don't want to say top 10 because I know I'm going to get so many comments.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Ana Reinert: People saying, like, that's not actually.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. So, hold your comments. I posted yesterday was top 10 notebooks. Mm-hmm. And I posted it in the paper thread on the Slack group. And I was like, agree or disagree, go ahead. So, there were a lot of comments. But it was, like, genuinely my efforts of, like, these are the 10, like, best options. Like, I know there are more. But if you had to narrow it down to 10 to recommend to people. And these are the 10 that, like, I would most often recommend to people who are either just getting into notebooks. Or, like, here's where you start. Here's where you finish. Like, on the list.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Ana Reinert: So, it's like, if you had to tell people these are the 10 notebooks you need to know about in the stationary community. Here's your list. Kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: So. And it was a good list. I've got no comment. I read it yesterday. I thought, hey, that's a great list. Perfect.

Desk Accessories List

Ana Reinert: Today's list is desk accessories, which was really hard to do.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And what's the giveaway? What's the giveaway for today?

Ana Reinert: Today is Fanta Plumo.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Very cool.

Ana Reinert: And tomorrow will be non-fountain pens is the list. Oh, cool. Yeah. So, yeah, it'll keep going. It's craziness.

Brad Dowdy: Well, everyone who listens here better be reading all of that and signing up for all the giveaways because you're awesome. Your site's awesome. I'm glad we could kind of talk about a little bit of the history and the building of the site. Like, that stuff always interests me. Even if I already know the answers, I want to ask again just because I love talking about those kind of things.

Ana Reinert: Thanks. It is interesting. It's always interesting to see how people change, how things develop.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Especially, like I was saying earlier, 10 years in internet time is like infinity. Like, that's a lot of time, a lot of posts, thousands and thousands of posts, and just so much awesomeness from you. So, we're not done with you yet, though. We, being Myke and I, have been holding on to a lot of Ask TPA because we have so much to talk about these days. We're not getting to all our questions. So, we're going to put you to the test to answer some of our listeners' questions. And we're going to let these be the Ana answers. And I'll be glad to chime in if you want me to. But I want you to, you're going to take the reins on these after we talk about our good friends at ExpressVPN, Myke.

TPA Questions

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Brad Dowdy: All right, let's knock out a few ass TPA, Myke. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Yes, at lauryspenser68 asks, I want to get a cursive italic grind on a new TWSBI 580. Should I order the medium or broad nib to start with?

Brad Dowdy: All right, Anna, we're putting you on the spot. You have full responsibility for the answer to lauryspenser68.

Ana Reinert: Oh, good grief. Okay, well, I suppose it depends on what size cursive italic grind you want. If you want a broad cursive italic, then I would start with a broad. If you want a fine cursive italic, you could probably get away with a medium.

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't agree more. It really depends what you're trying to solve, what your handwriting style is, what you want your writing to look like. And yeah, it's really going to be up to you knowing that the TWSBI, even the medium, is not going to be crazy, crazy fine. You know, it's a good medium. Like, it's very, very traditionally sized. So, if you want that wider line, broad's the way to go. I think I couldn't agree more. It really depends. Like, we can't give you a definitive answer.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, if you want to be on the safe side, I would say go with the broad. Because they can always thin it out a little bit. But it might end up costing you a little bit more money if what, in the end, you want is a finer cursive italic.

Myke Hurley: Lynn LG asks, I have trouble getting a good fill with the TWSBI minivac, particularly from bottles with more horizontal shapes. Do you have any thoughts about ink bottle shapes? Do you ever choose an ink with this in mind?

Ana Reinert: Okay, I might have to throw this over to Brad because I don't have a lot of experience with the TWSBI vacs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, the vacs are hard just because you have to get below the ink line very, very well. Like, sometimes with pistons, like, you can skate with a, you know, like a moderate seal around there. But with the vacs, you're going to have to tilt and get, like, a full, full depth of everything down there to get the proper fill on it. But I think it comes down to more how bad do I want the ink over the bottle shape of the ink? And will that prevent me from buying the ink? And most of the times I'm going to say no because things like the TWSBI vac in particular, you can unscrew the nib unit very easily and syringe fill it. So I will forego worrying about an ink bottle shape if I want the ink bad enough, knowing that I might have to take some extra steps to fill certain pens, if that makes sense.

Ana Reinert: A lot of online retailers will also sell you empty ink bottles for a couple dollars. So if you really want an ink that comes in a low, shallow bottle, you can always buy a tall, skinny bottle.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, perfect. Perfect.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't know if I've ever made a decision based on an ink bottle, but I tell you I would make a decision about rebuying an ink if the bottle was a pain.

Brad Dowdy: Right? That's fair. Like, one of my biggest challenges is as much as I love Sailor inks, and I love the design of the Sailor ink pot. It's such a traditional, beautiful design. It is not the best ink bottle to fill from because it is that horizontal shape that Lynn is talking about, right? You just can't get the depth after you've used a quarter of the bottle. You're starting to get into this challenging area where you're not getting a good seal when you dip the nib into the bottle. So, like, I understand it. It's not preventing me, though. But, like, I will think about it from time to time, but it's not going to prevent me in the end, I don't think.

Ana Reinert: I used to dislike Robert Oster's tall, skinny plastic bottles, but I can get a really good fill out of those, and I think I will end up holding on to one of his bottles once I've emptied it just for some of those Sailor inks.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Ana Reinert: Because they are very efficient face savers.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they really are.

Myke Hurley: I am a big fan of the Akamon ones because they have that little kind of chamber that you fill at the top. You turn it upside down and you fill it, so then I don't have to, like, stick the pen all the way down into the bottom, right? Like, it's the best that I've seen as a way to keep ink, to be able to get the bottom of the ink bottle, basically. You know, like, I've had bottles where you're kind of having to, like, awkwardly tip it and try and hold on to it, right? Like, you're holding it at an angle and still trying to, like, operate the converter, and I'm convinced everything's going to slip out of my hand, and I make a horrible mess. So I really like the Akamon bottles for that reason, because they give you that system.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Ana did a great post, I don't know, what, a month or so ago, Ana, maybe two months, where you kind of went through the history of just that bottle design in general from, like, a vintage perspective. I thought that was a super cool post. We'll find that link and put that in the show notes, because I think it was just a fun read for anyone learning about these new things. Yeah, it's very cool.

Myke Hurley: I love that bottle. That's a great, but they're huge and so unwieldy, right? That's the other thing about the Akamon bottles is they're massive.

Brad Dowdy: Right, because they have to get the top section correctly sized, right? The top section cannot be short.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. So it just, it all compounds.

Myke Hurley: This is a great question. I love this question. I love this question. I'm so excited when I saw this. It comes from the real nib.

Brad Dowdy: We're all going to answer this question, so.

Myke Hurley: I just got a new old stock Pilot Mayu, still with the sticker on. Should I peel off the sticker? Should I ink it up?

Brad Dowdy: All right, who wants to go first?

Myke Hurley: I'll go first, because I've done this. Okay. Yes to both things. Like, what do you have it for?

Myke Hurley: To use it. Okay.

Mayu Pen Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this is the vintage Mu. This is the 1970s. This is not the M90. So the question is, should I peel off the sticker and should I ink it up? And Myke's answer is yes to both.

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Anna. What do you got?

Ana Reinert: I'm inclined. This is the one case where I would not peel the sticker off, but I would still use it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, okay. I guess the sticker thing is your personal preference. It would drive me bananas. I'd be constantly picking at it.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. I would leave it on. Eventually, it's going to, just from rinsing ink out and things like that, it'll start to peel off. But I would leave it on for a little while just as a, you know, new old stock.

Brad Dowdy: I am shocked to say that I would leave the sticker on as well. And I'm absolutely inking it up, but I'm leaving the sticker on. I think that's the bigger question is the leaving the sticker on question than inking it up. I think it's such a great pen. You have to use it.

Brad Dowdy: And any modern pen, even if it's like a limited edition or some rare out of stock thing and it has a sticker on it, I'm taking the sticker off. On the Mu, I'm keeping the sticker on. Or if I got a MuRx, I'm probably keeping the sticker on. And I can't explain why other than, like, it fits the aesthetic of that pen. I don't know why. It just feels right. So I would leave the sticker on and definitely ink it up.

Ana Reinert: Either way, I would say make sure that you get a good photograph of the sticker just because the look of those is, you know, is so classic and so beautiful. You want to archive it one way or the other. If you decide to take the sticker off or if you leave it on, just to have a record of what it looked like.

Myke Hurley: Take some pictures of the pen before you inevitably destroy it by using it.

Brad Dowdy: And as you're wearing down the sticker, I think you're going to love it even more knowing that you did that, right? Like, that's part of using your pens, right? You're the one who has put the miles on and you know that that was your work that did that. I think it's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: And the last question comes from Tim underscore Loblaw on Twitter too. What is the best way to fill a cartridge converter and get as much ink in the converter as possible with or without the nib? What is what you would recommend?

Ana Reinert: I'll go first. Syringe fill it.

Brad Dowdy: A hundred percent.

Myke Hurley: I don't think I care enough about filling to also add another piece of complexity. Like, for me, like, you know, like you just, I just fill it up and as much ink goes in there is great. Like, that works for me.

Ana Reinert: There's a couple cartridge converters that if you try to fill it through the nib or just fill the converter on its own, tend to only get like half full, which is super annoying. So if your goal is you've got a big broad nib or something like that and a half fill is going to get you a day writing and you need to really fill that up, try syringe filling it. That's going to give you at least a full fill.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the Japanese converters are notoriously poor. At doing anything to get a full fill. So that's why I tend to syringe fill a lot.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, it's funny. This question came up in Twitch and people were, like, surprised that I would say, like, syringe. And then a bunch of people chimed in. It's like, no, that's how I do it, too. And I was like, yeah, that's how you should. It's okay to fill your stuff with syringes, listeners. It's okay. You don't have to stick the nib in the bottle if you don't want to.

Myke Hurley: It's okay to do that, but it's also okay to not do that and to do what I do, which is just to stick the entire thing in the ink bottle. That's how I go every time.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, if I have five pens I'm sitting out to ink, I will probably have, like, two or three different ways I'm filling them just by the design of the pen, right?

Ana Reinert: Yeah, and you can use a pipette as well if you don't have a syringe. Like, usually those will fit. So if you have to do a couple of pens and you don't want to have to rinse a syringe, you know, you can use three pipettes and then rinse those all out.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. They are a little bit easier to clean.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. All right. We did it, Myke. We did it. We did it, Anna.

Ana Reinert: Yay.

Myke Hurley: Anna, thank you so much for being on the show today. And, again, massive congratulations. Ten years is a long time to be doing anything, especially an online project like this. So congratulations. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, big congrats. We love you, and we hope we have ten more years and a thousand more podcasts to have you on.

Ana Reinert: I love you both, too. And I'm bummed I didn't get to see you both in person in Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Us, too.

Myke Hurley: You can find us all online on social media. You can find Brad. He's at Dowdy. He's on Twitter. Pen Addict on Instagram. Anna is well, apptdesk on Twitter and wellapptdesk on Instagram. I am the only one who offers any level of consistency. I am iMike. I-M-Y-K-E in both places. You can go to wellappointeddesk.com for our honors work. Go to penaddict.com for Brad. Brad streams live on Twitch Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern. You can check him out there. Thank you so much to our sponsors this week, the people at Harry's, ExpressVPN, and Pen Chalet for their continued support of the show. And most of all, thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye. Goodbye, everybody.