The Pen Addict 547/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	547
Title:	Peaking at Average
Release Date:	January 18th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 547
Audio File:	Audio Episode 547
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 547
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 547. Today's show is brought to you by ExpressVPN and micro.blog. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, Myke. How's it going?

Myke Hurley: Pretty good, man. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: I am average. I'm peaking at average right now. That's good. That's good. That's good. So that is my highlights or average over the past day. And you're about to find out why. All right. You opened a show doc to an interesting note today.

Myke Hurley: It was unique. I'll say that much.

Family accident and personal challenges

Brad Dowdy: It was unique. So I had some issues yesterday, like some family issues. My wife and my daughter was involved in an accident. She was completely fine. A deer ran out in front of her and she smashed into it and on the way to school in the morning. So that just sets off a cascading event of a day, right? She and Tyler, her and my son were perfectly fine. They were okay. Other than just like completely shocked and the car is like trash, right? The car is bad. So that was a call I got at 730 in the morning.

Myke Hurley: AKA a great start to the day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Great start to the day. So that's how my Tuesday started. So again, fortunately, everyone is a-okay. You know, my kids are perfectly fine and good to go. So no injuries. Except for the deer, unfortunately. The deer is definitely not a-okay. The car is definitely not a-okay. So that kicks off a chain of events, right? Like your day at 730 in the morning is now a different day, right? So, you know, that's fine. Like I'm fine with dealing with all that. I, you know, spend all day dealing with, you know, making sure, you know, my daughter's fine and, you know, making sure she's okay. Getting my son to school, like my daughter stayed home from school, rightfully so. And, you know, dealing with car insurance and just all of the things, right? Like all of the things. So, by the way, I also like have a job. I have work to do, right? So I have things I have to do. And one of the things I do on Tuesday is write the show. Write the show notes for the podcast. And let's be clear. If I called up Myke or sent Myke a message, like, hey, Myke, I can't do the show tomorrow. Myke would go, absolutely no problem. Just tell me when we can do it. So it wasn't like that. It was just like- Or if you said to me, I ain't doing the notes. Can you do them? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So generally, and I've talked about how I build a show in previous episodes from the time last week's show ends till we record this show. I kind of keep like a little note of things I want to talk about in the next episode. And I had plenty of things I'd built up before yesterday, like in this doc. So I was like, about 5 o'clock last night, maybe even later, I was like, oh, no, it's about 4.30, about 4.30, 5 o'clock. I was like, let me start putting together the show. Like, I'd gotten everything I need to get done. I'd settled mostly down. And I started looking at things to put in the show notes. And I was like, I love stationery. I don't want to talk about any of this. Like, I am not excited to build this set of show notes, right? Like, I was just like, okay, just like, stop. Just like, I literally had to stop myself. And I was like, you know what? I'm still not in a good headspace at this point to write the notes. So I was like, you know what? It's pizza time. Like, I'm just going to go comfort food for dinner instead of cooking, which I would normally cook for me and the kids. And I would just like, forget it. Like, I can't do any of this. Let's go. I'm going to get a pizza. I'm going to go pick up a pizza. The kids, I'm sure, would be happy with a pizza than, you know, whatever I was going to cook that was much more healthy than the pizza.

Brad Dowdy: And so, yeah, like, I just needed to, like, rage eat a little bit. So I got the pizza, had some beer planned for this. So I went to go pick up the pizza. And, like, I'm just rolling through this in my head. This is how I operate. So welcome to Brad's Brain.

Myke Hurley: There's a version of this story where this isn't what happened, but you're about to tell me you hit a deer. No. Right? There is, like, a version of this story where that's what happened.

Brad Dowdy: Thankfully, no. But they are everywhere around where we live. So I'm going to pick up this pizza. And I'm like, fine, get the pizza. I'm heading home. And all I'm thinking about is writing the show notes, right? Because that's how I am. Like, I'm a very responsible person as far as, like, things I, you know, need to do. Like, things I owe, work I need to complete, all that stuff. Like, I'm very responsible. So I've already, like, quit this set of show notes and, like, rage-ordered pizza. And I'm going to get the pizza. I'm on the way back. And I'm thinking about, okay, like, what can I do to, like, make this show interesting for me to do? Like, I don't care about anything right now except, like, hey, let's put together a good show. And it just hits me. Like, I just need to, I started thinking about, it's like, why do I do this show? Like, what is the impetus behind this show? Like, the Pen Addict podcast. And it's because I love stationery, right? So I was like, well, that's it. Like, let me just talk about today. Let me spend some time telling you about the stationery things that I love. Like, so I got home and I scrapped all, like, the specific, like, individual topics I wanted to talk about. We might hit some stuff later in the show. But that freed me up to write an entire show document. I just came home. I had my pizza. I had my beer. And then I just started writing. It's like, what do I love about stationery? And why do I love these things? Like, specifically. Like, we don't have to talk about a product, right? Like, last week we talked about the pilot friction. That was going to be something I talked about today because I got all these new frictions in and there's changes in the frictions. I wasn't excited to talk about that yesterday. Today or next week? Yeah, maybe so. But, like, today I just wanted to hit a few topics that are the reason why we're here to begin with, right? This is the stuff that gets me going. And it's kind of general-based, right? I mean, there's a couple of, like, specific brand type of things. But I really wanted to talk about why I love stationery. The things that I love the most about stationery. And I thought that would be a fun way to kind of reboot my brain, have a little fun today, and do something a little bit different. So, how does that sound?

Myke Hurley: I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Good. Good.

Myke Hurley: Whatever you need today is what I am very happy to provide for you.

Brad Dowdy: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, I had a few things, like, right at the top of my brain. And the number one thing that I put down was graph paper. So, if you think about all these things I'm going to talk about, think about it in the context of how we even started a podcast about pens, how I even started a blog about pens. This is all, like, in the before times, right? Like, graph paper is what got me going when I was a kid, when I was a student, when I was in college, when I was, you know, an office, you know, business type employee later in the day, later in my career, things like that. So, graph paper really got me excited about stationery and is still my favorite paper format to this day. I prefer a five millimeter grid. That's the standard graph paper measurement. I can do a four millimeter grid, which is a little bit size smaller. Some brands, like Kukuyo, will go all the way down to, like, a two millimeter. Like, that's fine, but, like, for my day-to-day, for what I love about stationery.

Two millimeter grids and paper usability

Myke Hurley: Two millimeter grids are for masochists.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's basically, let's just paint the paper with lines. And no one can use it. Like, you cannot write in there. Like, you just have to have it in just a clean slate. It's basically a blank page, right? Because it's just lines. So, I like the traditional bright blue graph paper. When you think about graph paper, what do you think about? Well, you think, like, mostly a blue grid, right? I think that's just kind of the traditional color. But one of the things a lot of companies don't do, and I wish they would lean into a little bit more, I want a light pink grid. I want a light green grid. An orange grid. A gray grid. Why don't we see a little bit more of that in brands? Life Notebooks does a good job with some of the alternate colors. They'll do green. They'll do a light red, pinkish one. They're kind of the only company that I think that messes around with it. But it's usually in side products, not in, like, a main product. Some companies do do a gray. Usually, you'll get the blue or the gray grid. So, graph paper is, like, the most freeing paper to me. You know, even though, you know, there's lines everywhere. And people are like, oh, how do you write on this? And how do you write on, you know, how do you write sentences? Or how do you just, like, keep anything organized? And it's almost like freeing that you can do anything with it, right? I don't have to write on it. I could draw on it. I could sketch on it. I could write all of my letters within one five millimeter width. I could use 10 millimeters worth of lines or 15 millimeters worth of lines. You know, I'm not, I don't feel as restricted as with a line paper, things like that. So, what do I love, Myke? I love graph paper. So, that is one of my very biggest highlights.

Myke Hurley: Can I jump in with one?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, please. So, yeah, you should jump in as much as you'd like here.

Myke Hurley: Dot grid.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: For me, dot grid is just the best of all worlds. You get everything from a dot grid. You get a plain piece of paper. You get graph paper. You get line paper. It's all there for you on a dot grid. That's why I love dot grid. That's why all the products I make are dot grid, and I have no intention of changing that. I love dot grid. I think it's the best one. I really love it. You know, closely tied with reticle grid. I love reticle grid, but that's too particular for me to make something with. But I personally love a reticle grid. It's where they're like tiny little crosses instead of dots. First saw these on one of the field notes notebooks. The night one, sky, everything sky at night for me. Night sky? Night sky. That's it.

Night sky and stationery preferences

Brad Dowdy: Night sky. So, my next love of stationery. This one actually admittedly came later in my love for stationery. More when I started the blog and the podcast. Blue black ink, Myke. It's the goat of all ink colors. It just is. Like, I will not take arguments against blue black ink. Like, it's classic. It's modern. It's usable anywhere, anytime. Like, it's stunningly beautiful. Like, I get emotional about blue black ink. And that sounds dumb. But it's this one little thing that you can see, like, on paper. Like, a blue black ink. When someone uses blue black ink, it's kind of like the first time that they've made a choice to go to think about the stationery they use outside of the standards, right? Especially in fountain pens, right? This is mostly a fountain pen ink thing. Fountain pen ink, fountain pens generally ship with black ink or blue ink cartridges. And, but a lot of fountain pen companies sell blue black ink. So, to choose to add in a blue black ink instead of your blue or black, I think says a lot. Says a lot about what you think about inks. And even though, yes, it can be boring compared to, like, all the choice we have these days, right? We have just infinite choice of fountain pen inks we can use. I will always default to blue black ink because I think it's that beautiful. I think it works so well on the page.

Brad Dowdy: It's got enough character to make me enjoy what the letters look like on the page, right? I'm not just writing notes, right? I'm writing notes. And, oh, by the way, look how cool that looks. That's what I think about blue black ink. So, it's just one of those things that I love. Do you have an ink choice or do you have anything in, like, kind of this category? I didn't really break it down by categories. I just, I just, this is literally just a riff off the top of my head in this document.

Myke Hurley: So, you know, you said about blue black being a choice, right? There is another choice that someone can make, which I think is a better choice, which is orange. Yeah. That's a big choice. That's a big choice. Similarly, you can use orange ink everywhere. I mean, you know, you can, you just can. I mean, it might not necessarily work. But that's what I, that's how I live my life.

Discussion on orange ink and its appeal

Brad Dowdy: On the list of things you're not going to get me to argue about is orange ink. That's probably number, that's number two on my list, right? Blue, black, orange. Like, I'm good. If I just had blue, black, and orange inks, I'm covered. Like, I genuinely believe that. Like, I love other colors like purples and magentas and yellow greens. But, like, if I just had blue, black, and orange, I'd be pretty happy. There's quite a bit of range.

Myke Hurley: You know, there really is so many oranges. It's a great, it's just a great ink color for me. I've always been a fan.

Myke Hurley: Orange ink makes me happy when I see it put down on a page, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think we should have, like, little stickers made or something like that. Because Brian in the chat, it reminds me of this. We could just have, like, a little sticker that's a hashtag never red, right? Like, red is never the right choice when you have orange available, right? Like, I'm on team never red, which I'll probably get some mail about that.

Myke Hurley: I've never met a red ink that I like. Yep. I've tried.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It doesn't work. Hashtag never red, I think, is the correct decision. It's going to be orange or another alternate color. So, all right. As I'm sitting here thinking about, like, what I'm, like, really, really passionate about, about stationery. So, we have graph paper. We have blue, black ink. The next one, Myke, I wrote 192-page hardbound A5 notebooks. I love that notebook. Because there's a reason. Like, it's, I mean, there's, okay, there's not a reason. There's not a reason that this should be, like, the canonical notebook. It just ended up being that way somehow. I don't know who first made this size, shape, dimension. But it's the right format. It's the right shape. It's the right structure. It's the right thickness. It's the right everything. Notebook. Size. Shape. Page count. Like, when you think notebook. Like, if you are on, you know, a movie set team. And you needed to have, like, you know, these aesthetically appealing notebooks. This is the size that you're just going to end up with by default. Like, this is the default, like, journal type notebook for me. Like, I'm not talking about a school notebook or anything like that. And I'm not talking about maybe something you use at your office. But when I think about, hey, what does a journal look like? Or what does a hardbound notebook look like? This is the picture I have in my head. And it's very generic, right? If your next question is, Brad, tell me who makes this notebook. I mean, I couldn't list off but maybe two or three people, right? Leuchterm.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe some of the Rhodia ones do. It's just not very, very common. And despite it being a very basic. Because you know what, Myke? Everyone thinks they can do it better.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like, and I'm talking to you. And spoiler alert, you can't do it better. That doesn't mean you don't make a good product.

Myke Hurley: I'm surprised that you say that because, you know. I just wanted to get a little rise out of you.

Brad Dowdy: You know, my take on smart sizing and all that stuff. Like, hey, other notebook sizes are great. Like, I'm looking around, though, at my desk. Okay. Like, sitting on my desk as I'm podcasting with you, I have an A5 pad, an A5 journal, and an A6 Hobonichi. That is literally the paper on my desk. So, the A5 journal is this 192-page hardbound A5 notebook. And I didn't even think about that when I was writing this. But that's literally what's on my desk right now. The other pad, A5 graph pad. Shocker that I love these things. That I have these things on my desk that I love. Funny how that happens. So, I didn't even intend that. But it's just kind of, like, second nature to me, all these things. So, I mean, I'm not going to, you know, go to the mat for this is the only size notebook that should exist. Of course not. Like, I love my weird-shaped notebooks. I love, you know, tall, skinny notebooks especially, right? Tall, skinny, and, like, landscapy-type notebooks. Like, keyboard rest type of notebooks. Or vertical type of notebooks. Like, I like, the further away from traditional, the more I like it, right? But if you're going to go A5-ish, like, I'm just going to go, come on. Let's just make it A5. It'd be okay.

Myke Hurley: A5-ish would be mine here. Like, it doesn't need, it can be A5. It can be around A5. I just think that that size, like, that's what I like in a notebook. I just think the size is just right. Like, A6 is too small. A4 is too big. Like, A5 is the Goldilocks. Yeah. I'm not as particular about standards as Brad, obviously. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, again, like, I'm looking at this from, like, a passion. Like, I love of products. Why do I love certain products? Next on my list, Myke, is fineliners. Not ballpoint pens, not microtip gel ink pens, not fountain pens, but the good old fineliner. That is a stationary product that I love so much.

Brad Dowdy: You know, microtip gel ink pens are why the pen addict started. You know, 15 years ago is my discovery of microtip gel ink pens, like, sub .5 millimeter gel ink pens. But before that, it was fineliners. Like, specifically the Pilot Razor Point, which nowadays is actually a terrible pen. I'll go ahead and say it. But back in the early 80s, that pen I would buy by the dozen. Not because, like, I wanted to make sure I always have them, but because they were, like, technically flawed. You would wear down the tips pretty quickly and you actually needed replacements more frequently than ever. But what fineliners give you is this really sharp edge line, which I love, until the tips break down with the aforementioned razor. I was very, very guilty of that. But that technology has improved over the years. You can get pens like the Secura Pigment Micron, Statler, Statler Fineliner, Statement Pigment Liner, excuse me. And anything in that category, my favorite, the Kuretake Zig Mangaka is one of my favorites because that point retention has been mostly solved. Whereas I needed a box of a dozen Pilot Razor Points. If I'm buying microns for, like, a project, like, if I was an artist, you know, I would buy, like, two or three, right? I don't need to just jump into the dozen because I'm going to get more use out of a singular pen. They're going to be structurally stronger. But why I like those pens so much is because the lines are very clean. The ink is usually very dark. And those pens have almost an immediate dry time. So they're different than something like a rollerball or a gel ink pen where you might smear or smudge them. They're almost instantaneously dry when they touch the page. So that's a really, really great feature. So I get as much joy of opening a fresh fineliner as I do any other stationary product, any other writing instrument. You know, if you give me a new pen or a new fountain pen, like, I love all of these things. But, like, starting up a new fineliner, like, that's something I will always find just, like, completely romantic about stationary in the way I look at stationary personally.

Myke Hurley: Broad nib fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Incredibly impractical.

Myke Hurley: Just a ton of fun. It's enjoyable. Like, it is the most enjoyable. It gives me all of the things that I like about fountain pens, right? Like, smooth, thick lines, tons of ink. Like, it just looks great. It is not, you know, if I counted up all of my nibs, I would definitely have more mediums than anything else. But I really love broads. You know, I like stub nibs too. But broad fountain pen nibs is, like, just, again, that, like, sweet spot of the fun part without being completely unwieldy. Like, I am using a broad nib pen today. I'll mention in a minute which one it is because it's part of another pick. And it's just a joy to use.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I don't discount the love for broad nib pens. They're just so expressive. You can put a lot of ink down on the page. I could probably count the broad nibs I own on one hand, but I just inked up one last week, and I'm enjoying using it. So, for something different, I definitely like it. All right. Next on my list. This is a simple, straightforward one, Myke, and it's note cards.

Brad Dowdy: Is there a more useful stationary product on the planet?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I don't think there is. I mean, these are kind of sticky notes are worse to use, right? Like, I enjoy using note cards. I use sticky notes out of spite, right? I was like, fine. I need to stick this thing right here for right now, but, boy, I'm not going to enjoy writing on it. That's generally how sticky notes go. Usefulness, sure. Like, they're very useful. But just a note card is just – can be used anywhere, anytime, for anything. And I just, like, I love note cards. Like, I think anyone who knows me at all knows what I think about note cards and using them, even if I don't use them every day. Like, they're stuck in a book somewhere, or they have some random note on there somewhere, or I've done a little sketch on there and have a little stack of product designs on note cards. Things like that. So, I just – I love note cards.

Brad Dowdy: And this is probably a whole little group between fineliners, note cards, and this next one, Myke, freshly sharpened wooden pencils.

Brad Dowdy: That's hard to beat. I know you're not a pencil guy at all. But even, like, back in school times, like, doing, you know, your schoolwork and going to sharpen your pencil and getting that fresh point and getting that smell of cedar wood. Like, yeah, okay. I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty happy with a freshly sharpened wooden pencil. Now, like, pencils in general, just, like, wooden pencils in general are really, like, a romantic item to me as far as stationery goes. Like, they bring a smile to my face even if I don't necessarily use it at the time. Like, if I see one and pick one up, just the feel of one, like, they feel really cool. Like, I love how wooden pencils feel. So, I don't use them as much as pens. Like, never have, never will. But when I do use them, every time I use them, I'm like, ah, this is fantastic, isn't it? So, they just don't come in as handy as some of my pens. You know, I don't have that type of writing set up for that. But when I do, it's hard to beat a good wooden pencil.

Myke Hurley: Landscape notebooks.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I don't agree. I don't disagree with this whatsoever.

Myke Hurley: I like notebooks that sit on my desk in front of me. I like those. Things that are always open, ready for some kind of note to be added, you know? I like that kind of style.

Brad Dowdy: I've always said there should be more of that style of notebook. And I'm not saying this because I know things that you're working on. But this has been a stance I've had for a long time since, like, around the Pano book time came out. Yeah. And before that, if I could ever have that type of option for, like, a desk pad, I would choose that 100% of the time over, say, like, a traditional bound notebook. Like, I was talking about my traditional 195-page A5 side bound notebook, right? Like, for certain situations, nothing beats a landscape notebook. And I will use other notebooks I have in landscape format just because I like that aesthetic.

Nib grinders and platinum nibs

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Next up, nib grinders. Myke, I have a love for the people who make my things better. So, once you get into fountain pens and you figure out you enjoy fountain pens, you start to get this little bug of, hey, I see other people now put these fountain pens and they're doing things to these fountain pens. They're making the nib do something different than what it was intended for when I bought it. So, having people who are skilled at modifying and manipulating fountain pen nibs into something that's very personal, right? Like, a lot of these things on my list are, like, very personal, right? I think about how they make me feel or how, you know, my desire is to use them. And when you get a good grind on a pen you enjoy and it changes your writing for the better, it's really hard to beat. Having a wonderfully ground nib. Any shape, any size, it doesn't matter what you get done. It matters that you are now having an object customized to you, right? Customized to your handwriting. And it kind of changed everything with my fountain pens. Like, I probably bought more fountain pens because I know I could do something different with the nib. Like, if I didn't ever have the option and I could only choose between extra fine, fine, medium, and broad fountain pen nibs, like my entire life, I'd own way less fountain pens. But I have these options now to work with a nib grinder to say, hey, I love this pen. Let me adjust it in this way that's going to make it even better. Like, it's going to take this love up to another notch. And, yeah, I just really appreciate that about, like, stationary as a whole. That when you find something, you can sometimes tweak it and make it even more customizable and make it even more suitable for yourself.

Myke Hurley: Platinum nibs. God, that's so good. I'm using a platinum today. They're just the best. I love them. They're just perfect. Again, never met a platinum nib I didn't like, especially the gold. I mean, I've used the gold. I use the gold ones the most, and I just love them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're completely aligned on our love for platinum nibs and the way they write, the way they feel.

Brad Dowdy: Their nib sizes fit my style and your style very well, even though we commonly use different sizes. It's funny. So my next one kind of relates to that, and I didn't even mention the nib. But my next one is the only brand I put on here, and it's Nakaya. So with Nakaya, it's not just a pen. Like, it's a feeling. They evoke something a little bit different, right? Like, it's art. It's got its technical aspects. It's emotional in just the way it feels or the design that you choose, right? Like, it's ideas, and it's hope. Like, it sounds silly for me to say this, but I think Nakayas are more than a pen. They're the first pen that taught me, hey, this is more than just a physical tool, right? It's important to me, like, specifically, right? And everyone's kind of got their own Nakaya. It doesn't have to be the Nakaya itself, right? Like, someone else could have a different favorite brand, Pelican. Or it could be the Pilot G2, for all that matters. Everyone's got their own Nakaya that makes them feel different about writing and wanting to write and using an instrument that brings out that emotion or those ideas or that hope when you're writing. And for me, that's Nakaya. But it could be anything, right? Like, I just think it represents more to me than a writing instrument. Like, it's kind of hard to, like, put in words, but that's what Nakaya is to me.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Myke Hurley: Different track for me completely, but just, like, pens that make me happy, make me smile, become a horrific collection again is the Studio Neat Mark I.

Brad Dowdy: We have very few other show notes in here, but you better believe we have a certain show note in here. Do you want to talk about that real quick?

Myke Hurley: They have a, at the time we're recording this, it's available for, like, another day or two. It's one of their new limited editions. It is a iridescent purple. I don't even understand how they're doing this one. Like, it's wild, and I'm very excited about it. Best edition yet. Of course I bought it, right? Kind of can't ignore that, right? So, yeah, I, you know, the Mark I is my favorite refill inside of, like, the perfect designer mechanism. Like, it's why, you know, we work with them on Cortex. We've had a couple of special editions. We'll have more in the future, I hope. It's just, for me, it's, like, the perfect pen in, like, in its entirety, right? It's just, like, it does exactly what you need it to do in a great package. I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's awesome. I'm a huge fan of the Mark I. I'm sitting here staring at my Cortex one right now. And this iridescent purple is just off the charts. Off the charts good. It's spectacular. All right. All right. So, my last item. It's probably pretty obvious in retrospect, but it doesn't necessarily fit in with the rest of this list. But what I love about stationery is I love sharing stationery. Y'all had to know I was going to talk about the people, right? Like, that's what I do. Like, I do this because I enjoy talking to people about pens, right? Like, that is my passion. I like to talk about stationery. I like to share stationery. I like to share the love for stationery. I like to share news for stationery. I like to share products. I like to share how I use things. So, but it's not just those physical goods. You know, if it was just physical goods, we wouldn't be able to tell these stories about the people that make the goods. Or use the goods or sell the goods, you know, or create content around the goods. And just, like, generally support this hobby in the broader sense of the term. So, one of the things I love the most about stationery is that people like to share their stationery. And they like to tell you not that, hey, this is the best pen, but this is why I like this pen for me, right? Or this is why I use this notebook and how I use it. You know, it may not work for you, but here's some ideas. And here's the way I go about it. And everyone has these different thoughts and different ideas. And just the broader sharing of ideas. Like, it's super healthy and super useful. And this community does it very, very well. And I just think stationery people are the best in that aspect of things. And wanting to help others, you know, they want to, you know, I've found, like, I want to share what I love. But I also want to hear about what you love and why, right? And we all have these different thoughts and different tastes and different desires and different needs. And it's very cool that we can all share all this stuff together. So, I love that the most about stationery.

Myke Hurley: Again, different, just like another thing I love is just putting my pens on display. If you got them flowing, that's how I feel, you know, just put them out there.

Brad Dowdy: I wish I did that a little bit more. I wish I had a little bit more visual setup. Because one of the things, like, if you couldn't tell, like, when I'm just talking about pencils, sometimes I just like looking at this stuff, right? Right? It's really cool to see. Because you think, like, even if you're not using something at the time, you might look at that sailor in your pen stand and go, oh, yeah. I remember when I got that. And, oh, I used this one ink in this time. And this. And it was great. And I should probably do that again sometime in the future. Yeah. It's cool. It's cool to have, like, that visual aspect of it. Yeah, I think it's great.

Myke Hurley: Well, you have something important to put your pens in at some point.

Brad Dowdy: What?

Myke Hurley: Your beautiful. I know.

Brad Dowdy: They're already in there. So, like, I've. Maybe we'll follow up. We'll do. We'll do. I'm going to make another note here. Pen Addict 100 next week. We'll talk where I'm at with that.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: Because that box is playing a major role in that. So, there is some progress. It's been a little bit light. But, you know, that's how I roll. But we have. We are. We are matriculating slightly down the field.

Myke Hurley: All right. I'm excited. Because I want to hear about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's take a break and thank our friends over at ExpressVPN for their support of this week's episode of The Pen Addict. You will have heard me talking about in the past how important it is to have a VPN available to you to protect your online privacy and Wi-Fi networks that you're not comfortable with. But choosing a VPN that you trust is just as important. And there are tons of VPN providers out there. But I use ExpressVPN and we have them as a sponsor because they're good. ExpressVPN doesn't log your activity online. Lots of VPNs could make money from selling your data. ExpressVPN doesn't. They developed a technology called Trusted Server. That makes their VPN servers incapable of storing data at all. They keep the information in RAM so it's not written to any disks. Also, speed is incredibly important. ExpressVPN uses something called Lightway, which is a VPN protocol they engineered to make speeds faster than ever. Sometimes VPNs can slow your connection. ExpressVPN is always blazing fast and lets you stream videos in HD quality with zero buffering. That's important to me. My main usage of ExpressVPN is for content, especially when I'm overseas and I want to watch something that's on a service I have in the UK. When I'm doing something like that, I want speed on my site. And ExpressVPN will give me that. The last thing that really sets ExpressVPN apart is how easy it is to use. You don't need any technical skills to get it set up. Just fire up the app, tap one button to connect, and that's it. CNET, The Verge, Business Insider, and many other tech sites have rated ExpressVPN the number one VPN in the world. So protect yourself with the VPN that I use and trust myself. Go to expressvpn.com slash penaddict and get an extra three months free on a one-year package. That's expressvpn.com slash penaddict. One last time, expressvpn.com slash penaddict to learn more today. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. To put a bow on our previous segment, if any of you have anything you love about Stationery that you want to share with us, Myke, tell them how they can best get in touch with us right now.

Myke Hurley: So it's feedback.com, or you can just click the link in the top of the show notes, leave us a note. Thank you to everyone that's done. We've got some RSTPA questions later on today's episode that came from the feedback tool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's going great so far. So yeah, if you have some Stationery or product or an idea that you really want to share with us, we would love to hear it. I would love to see what y'all are thinking. So as I was doing this little brain dump topic here that we just completed, and I got down to the sharing bit, I remembered something we had done in the past. Gosh, I don't even remember when we were doing this, probably in like in the 100s, maybe episodes. We did an episode called Blog of the Week. And that was at the time, you know, I was sharing a bunch of Stationery blogs, a bunch of Stationery blogs were coming online. And, you know, it just eventually got to the point where like I just, you know, not that I wasn't finding anything unique. It's just kind of like that kind of ran its course a little bit. And over the years, I've obviously continued to share blogs, share podcasts, share Instagram feeds. But I wanted to get back into doing this, having a dedicated segment on the show. So just kind of like shout out of the week where I can point out some other cool stationery things going on in the community, whether it's a blog or a podcast or a cool Instagram feed or something weird I saw or something fun to talk about. I think it would be nice to bring this little segment back. And the impetus this week was a new podcast called From Our Desk to Yours. And that's our friend CY from Tokyo Inklings and Tokyo Station Pens has a new podcast with a new podcast partner named Esther, who is also local to CY in Japan. And they're basically talking about Japanese stationery. So CY's current podcast is going to continue with Jacob where they talk about fountain pens on Tokyo Inklings. So I think they're going to move that to monthly, I think they said. But that's a fountain pen focused podcast for all intents and purposes. And what CY wanted to do with Esther was to bring a more Japanese stationery focused, because that is a really broad category where the fountain pens are very much more specific. So this will include, you know, your general stationery, journaling, planning, all the tools that are available in the Japanese market and really Japanese stationery focus. Listen to the first episode yesterday. It's fantastic. I'm enjoying it. And I look forward to what they're creating. So we'll have a link in our show notes. And welcome shout out of the week back into the podcasting fold. So I'm glad to be doing this again.

Myke Hurley: Love it.

Myke Hurley: One of the pieces of follow up that was requested via the feedback tool was from Alan. Alan wanted to remind me that I have yet to talk about the Bulbasaur Lamy pen. Yeah. Which I have received recently, weeks ago, in fact, and just kept forgetting to bring it up on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we'd bring it up and then we'd say, let's do it next week because we want to spend some time on it.

Myke Hurley: But I mean, I don't really know what to tell you. It's the best limited edition pen I've ever had. Like, it's unbelievable, like, what they ship in the box. Like, I even got the bag. So, like, in the Instagram image, they've got, like, the bag that it comes in. Like, the whole thing, which is just... Like a shopping bag. Yeah, you'd walk out in the store. They shipped that to me. It was in the box. They shipped me the bag, the shopping bag. The whole thing is awesome. It's really interesting. You've got the Pikachu one, right?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: They both come with the Pokeball, like, holder. Right. The Bulbasaur one is much larger. The holder? Mm-hmm. Interesting. Like, the Pokeball is, like, much, much larger and not as heavy. Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Because the Pikachu one is pretty heavy. I didn't... I thought it was decent size, but it definitely, like, it's got a good wobble to it. Like, it's rolling around pretty good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Let me correct myself. It's larger and heavier, the Bulbasaur one. Interesting. I prefer, physically, the size of the smaller one, like the Pikachu one, to the Bulbasaur one, but it's whatever. Like, the overall presentation of this thing is just bananas good. Like, I don't... I still don't understand why anyone went so hard on this.

Brad Dowdy: Like... That's a good way to put it. It is so far over the top... Yeah. ...in the best way possible.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It should not exist. Like, who did this?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It does not need to be at the level that it is at. Like, the box has these, like... When you open up the large box, it has these, like... Like, scapes in them. Like, landscapes in them. Which are fitting with the Pokemon, right? Sure. Like, in some of the images you can see it. It's like, why? And it's that kind of, like, rubber where it's, like, layered on rubber, right? So, it's, like, it's a 3D effect. It's like, why is it like this? Or, like, the ink cartridge holder looks like a little Pokedex or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, I really want just, like, the holder. Like, those ink cartridge holders are sweet.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. And, like, there's all this information in the box where it's like, hey, you can open up the box and put your little bobble saw figure on the top. And he's, like, walking through the landscape. And it's like, why? Why are you telling me all this? Like, I love it, but, like, why is this happening? Or, like, there are three little badges to put on the pen clip, right? Like, they have, like, two separate... Like, so for the bobble saw one, you get, like, a full bobble saw body. You get a bobble saw head. Or you get, like, a leaf icon of, like, the type icon. Yeah, it's just... Oh, right, right. This thing is fantastic. The colors of the pen are just so good. Like, they nailed it. It's just a good green on green. It's, like, three different greens on this pen. Like, the finial, the clip, and the body are all different colors.

Brad Dowdy: See, like, I'm even forgetting about that because I'm just so enamored with just the overall design that they really leaned into some of the pen design elements, which are honestly quite simple, but they never make the choice to do that. And they did it on this, on a lot of these.

Myke Hurley: And on the cap, so you don't really see this in the image, on the cap, on the reverse of the clip side, there is a little leaf icon, like, screen printed onto it.

Brad Dowdy: Whatever design team did this, why don't they do all the things? Don't know. And I don't just mean for Lamy, I just mean for everyone. Why aren't they, like, the universal pen designers? It's so good, man. It is so... It looks to me, and I think why you and I are both surprised over this, is it's not often that someone gets carte blanche to design something. Yeah. Like, they literally, I think, dreamed up everything that they wanted to do and were allowed to do it, and they didn't have to charge a fortune for it. Like, it's expensive, but it's not reliculous.

Myke Hurley: Right? It's either, like, Pokemon gave Lamy the license or whatever, and then Lamy went wild, or Pokemon just said to Lamy, we'd like this and this and this and this and this, and Lamy said, okay. And again, it's like, it's so cheap comparatively. I can't imagine anyone's making money on this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's... Yeah. I love this so much. I really, really do love every single one of these. So, it's a knockout of a purchase.

Myke Hurley: You know, if you are a Pokemon fan and a pen fan, and you are on the fence of these, and if you can find it available, get off that fence, because this thing is so good. It makes me so happy. I now have Pikachu and Bulbasaur sitting on my desk at all times. Yeah. It's so good. So good.

Brad Dowdy: I can't stop staring at this. It's so good. It's so good. So, yeah. Oh, fantastic.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take our second break?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Let's take a break, and then we're actually going to do some STPA this week, I think.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think we're going to. All right. This episode is also brought to you in part by our friends over at micro.blog. We mentioned this very recently. If you are a pen addict who wants to share your love of pens in constationary, go on over to micro.blog, and you'll find Kindred Spirits. Micro.blog is an easy-to-use personal blogging platform where you can write short or long blog posts, share photos and video, or even host a podcast of your own. But more than just a place to post your stuff, it's also a friendly community of people with a wide range of interests who share and comment via micro.blog's social timeline, backed by strong community guidelines that are enforced. Micro.blog is different. There are no ads, and there's no algorithm behind the scenes choosing which post is going to appear in your timeline. If you've always wanted to share your love of pens but have felt lost or discouraged by big social media sites, or if you've recently had a bit of an upheaval in your social media life, you can go to micro.blog and meet fellow enthusiasts and the rest of the community who share interesting things that they love. Micro.blog hosting starts at $5 per month, and you can use your own domain name. You can even cross-post to other services like Tumblr and Mastodon and Twitter. You can also follow and be followed by Mastodon users directly with conversations threading across both micro.blog and Mastodon, which you're doing, Brad, right? You have some cross-posting going on with your micro.blog and your Mastodon.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So micro.blog is my new social media home base, if you will. And it's not even... I hesitate to even call it social media. It just feels comfortable. It feels like home. It's an enjoyable place to visit when I have some time that I want to spin. Hey, let me just scroll and see what's going on, see what people are up to, you know, in that social media aspect of scrolling things. But it's a great place for me to share and to talk. It's also a great place to, like, you know, I do post, like, my blog posts over there and can have a conversation about it, and those get cross-posted over to Mastodon, which I find myself using just as frequently as micro.blog these days, as my two main, like, social media outlets. But kind of everything for me starts on micro.blog. The coolest thing for me, personally, is the way I like to look at things for, like, my own personal content. It ends up on my micro.blog, literally. Like, it's not just a feed of what everyone's talking about. And my posts get lost in that feed. You can then jump over to, you know, brad.micro.blog and see, like, all of my posts. And it's kind of visually appealing. Like, I'll put some just, like, image posts of, like, some, like, design feature that I want to keep and look at later on my own little blog. And, like, I will just go put that in my micro.blog. And it's just, it's so, such an enjoyable experience, such a good environment. The people behind it are fantastic. They're easy to access. You know, if you have, you know, like, a technical issue, you can get help, like, almost instantly. The community is really helpful in that way as well. And I just absolutely adore it. I was an original Kickstarter backer because I believed in the vision that Matt and Reese, the creator of micro.blog, had. Even, you know, maybe for a few years. Afterwards, I didn't use it that much. But, like, I'm all in on micro.blog. It's where I, kind of my home base now. And I just love it. I can't say enough positive things about the experience.

Myke Hurley: If you're ready to try a different blogging and social media experience, head to micro.blog and sign up for a 30-day free trial. You can use the coupon code RELAY and you'll get a special deal. With your standard subscription, you'll get a premium account at no extra charge. That's $5 a month for hosting that includes premium features like podcast and video hosting as well, which is a 50% savings. Our thanks to micro.blog for the support of this show and all of RelayFM. All right, let's hit... Unless we finish out with some RSTPA?

Brad Dowdy: Let's do it. Let's do it. You read this one because, like, I was not prepared. I keep threatening to answer this question, Myke, and, like, I'm unprepared. So, let's go.

Myke Hurley: All right, let's see what happens then. Sue asks, I'm looking for a good and affordable refill for a Moleskine Kaweco ballpoint. Do you have any suggestions?

Brad Dowdy: No, I do not. Okay. And I'm going to be more specific than that. So, here's what they use. They use for this pen, which is kind of cool. Like, it's this... So, what Moleskine did was work with Kaweco and made a Perkyo rollerball. Okay? They call it the ball pen, but it's a rollerball refill, I think, in this one. But it's the Kaweco Perkyo shape, but not the fountain pen model. So, what they use is traditionally called, generically, a rollerball refill. Right? So, this is like this basic shape that Cross, I think, made famous. I could be wrong about the origins of this shape of the refill. But you found them a lot in Cross pins back in the day. They do not make many options for this refill. Not a lot of companies use this refill shape. So, the best thing you can do is go... Schmidt makes a really the best one for this shape. And I forget, it might be the 880. I'll have to get the exact number, but you can go to refillfinder.com and if you just look at the Cross rollerball refills, you'll see this very basic classic generic shape. Unfortunately, a lot of other companies have not picked up on this shape to continue to use in their designs with their pins. But, there's not a lot of options. I would use the Schmidt version of this. It actually might be the 888 now that I think about it. I think I said 880. I think it's actually the 888 without looking it up. So, take a look at that. That's going to be your best choice and you're not going to find many other options besides that. But, I will say that that Schmidt refill is a really good one. You're just limited.

Myke Hurley: Alright, next question comes from Kenneth. I'm looking for a blue or blue-black ink that dries pretty quickly, has some shading, and is water resistant for work. Have I dreamt up a unicorn? No,

Brad Dowdy: but again, like Sue's question, you are a little bit limited. The first one that comes to mind is Pilot Blue Black. You might, it's not the fastest dryer. It's not a slow drying fountain pen ink, but it has some of the other qualities that you like. So, it's not reported on the bottle that it's water resistant. It's not full like waterproof like Iron Gaul archival stuff, but it has, in test, it is water resistant. It has a good blue-black ink color. It has a little bit of shading. It has a little bit of sheen. It's probably just one of the top universal inks on the market, aside from being something that I love because it's blue-black.

Brad Dowdy: If you want something that's a little bit even drier and maybe a little bit lighter of a shade, Pelican's Blue Black is extraordinarily quick drying. It has a little bit of shading, maybe not as much as the Pilot, and it's a little bit water resistant as well. So, we're not completely into unicorns here, but other than that, you're starting to look into some Iron Gaul inks, which Roaring Klingner Salix, I think, might be. Like, if water resistant is at the top of the list, you want to look at something like Salix, I think, and then probably like Pilot Blue Black second, but I think those three choices, you should find something that's going to be suitable for you. I know there's more, I'm more experienced with the Blue Blacks in that category, I can't think of a Blue directly that would fit into these categories. It seems like the Blue Blacks tend to have more of that water resistant property for whatever reason that I can't be sure of.

Myke Hurley: Eric asks, is there a Vantablack or Black 3.0 kind of fountain pen ink? You know I love

Brad Dowdy: this question.

Brad Dowdy: The answer's no because it would ruin your fountain pen, right? yeah, well, just the concept of a Vantablack type of ink, you're not going to get any type of ink consistency that would technically work in a fountain pen. But, if Eric wants the blackest black, and I don't mean that in a Stuart Simple sense. Stuart Simple makes the blackest black, and they make an ink in bottles, but it's designed for dip pens, right? It's not something you want to put into a fountain pen. But that's called The Blackest Black, and it's by Stuart Simple. That's not my recommendation. So, if you just want like a legitimately very black, very cool looking ink on the page, Kiyo Neoto Nurobiro, Myke, I'll give you the link of that. I did a review on the pen addict. It's one of the coolest blacks. It's very, very, very, very dark, and it also has a little bit of a sheen, so it's kind of this really, talk about a unicorn. It's a really unique black ink that is just kind of pitch black, but also very cool. If you want something more basic, platinum carbon black, you know, even though it's a pigmented ink, and you kind of have to be careful using it, I think those are your two choices if you're looking for some permanence in there. So, it's platinum carbon black. Otherwise, I would test out Kiyoneoto Noribaro for just a wickedly cool black ink, but Vantablack, you're not going to get unless you're going to use a non-fountain pen, something like a dip pen, or, you know, something like that, dip pen brushes, things like that. So, if you want something like that to not use in your fountain pen, use the Black is Black from Stuart Simple.

D&D themed writing challenge

Myke Hurley: And I've been working on a D&D themed writing challenge, says Andy, called Dungeon 23. Many of the people working on the challenge are using Hobonichi Weeks notebooks to keep track of their progress, and using all kinds of other interesting stationery to make some cool art to go with the writing. Do you have any product recommendations that might be fun to try out with this challenge? So, the Dungeon 23 challenge is, I give a quote from the creator of it, Sean McCoy, a dungeon room a day, every day, for 2023. That's 365 rooms. I do a level a month, so 12 levels. Every week, there's a little area of seven rooms, so I can keep my focus small.

Brad Dowdy: God, this is cool. You want something right up my alley? I like this. Oh my gosh, this is cool. So, like, all I can think about to answer Andy's question is just that tall, skinny notebook. And it sounds like Andy's kind of open.

Myke Hurley: Like,

Brad Dowdy: I feel like Andy was like, well, I could use a big A4 pad, or, you know, I could just get an A5 notebook. But the question is, do you have any product recommendations that might be fun to try out for this challenge? It may not be the size that you want as far as amount of pages, but when I look at the link sent here, I would look at something like the Robiki note from Yamamoto paper, it's a tall, skinny notebook. You can get it in grid patterns, which actually helps with, like, the dungeon art. But it's great for writing, great for notes, great for all types of inks. It's tall and skinny, like, in a vertical format, but you can obviously use it horizontally because it doesn't have the dates, like weeks, right? So it's an undated notebook, but it's essentially the format of a weeks without the dates. So you can use the left side for writing, the right side for the actual mapping, and it's kind of a similar layout to the picture that was shared. We'll put this image in the show notes so y'all can see it, but it's a Hobonichi weeks if you're familiar with that. So, yeah, I think the Robiki note is one of the more underrated notebooks on the market. I love them. They're just such a good quality, such a good feel, and built really, really well. So we'll have a link in the show notes to that as well. So check that out, Andy, and if you actually have something very specific that you're looking for, hit us up at panaticfeedback.com and I can get even more detailed for you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was thinking for this, something with a grid pattern is good, right? It can help you draw the rooms. I feel like pencil is probably good and then maybe ink it so you can erase stuff, and something pocketable but not tiny.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's, that's, all of that lines up to say, hey, use the Robiki note for the notebook, use the pencil of your choice, either a wooden pencil or a mechanical pencil, and then you could ink over it with platinum carbon black, which you can fit into a platinum preppy, right? So you can get, like, you could have this entire setup for like $12 or like under $15, right? By the time you bought a notebook, a pencil, a pen, and ink cartridges for like $15 and just have this like legit like little creative kit. It's really cool. Yeah, I love this.

Myke Hurley: If you would like to send in a question of your own, there's a bunch of ways you can do it. We'd really love it if you went to penaddictfeedback.com and sent in something that way or click the link in your show notes. You can also send them via email to hello at penaddict.com. You can use question mark penaddict, no, question mark ask TPA. See, now we've got three things. Question mark ask TPA in the RelayFM members' Discord as well. If you want to find Brad online, you go to penaddict.com and spokedesign.com. You can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict which Brad streams multiple times a week. You can find me online at mikecully.net. I host many shows here on RelayFM and you can find my products over at cortexmerch.com. Thank you so much to micro.blog and ExpressVPN for the support of this week's episode and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad.