The Pen Addict 581/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	581
Title:	A Wand, a Skull, and Two Octopuses
Release Date:	September 13th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 581
Audio File:	Audio Episode 581
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 581
Length:	5050 min <br />0.833 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 581. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey Myke, how are you? I'm good, how are you? I am good. I am back from the Orlando Pen Show. I'm recovered and I'm ready to talk about it today.

St. Jude fundraising updates

Myke Hurley: I am very excited to hear all about it, but I'm also very excited to hear about the update to the St. Jude raffle.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah buddy, so we had update number two this week, so we'll have a couple links in the show notes for what I'm doing to help raise money for St. Jude this month. And Myke will go into all of that while we're doing this. And my part is to run a raffle where I've collected a bunch of pens, a bunch of stationery items, and you donate and you get put in the raffle and we draw some winners for pens. So we have the original post up there with all of the items available, but whenever I get new items in, I'll put like a post up a week if, you know, if warranted, like if we have new stuff in. And boy, do we have new stuff in this week. So we have two Canalea pens joining the raffle this year. So we have the Aolani fountain pen, the beautiful purple and blue swirl fountain pen, and one of the newer pens, the Kilauea Kai fountain pen, have both joined the St. Jude raffle. So if you've already participated, you know, and donated and sent your receipts, you're in for all these new things. This is one big raffle pool, no matter when you donate, when you send me a receipt this month within, you know, the raffle open. All of the products go into one big pool. You don't have to keep entering. I mean, you're welcome to continue.

Myke Hurley: What I will say is if during these updates, you're like, oh, man, I would love one of those beautiful Canalea pens, and you've already donated. Maybe if you wanted that bad, donate again, and then you have an even higher chance of winning something. That's exactly right. I am happy to report that I have moved my Kilauea Kai to the pen, safe pen storage here on the recording desk from last time. So don't worry, it's all taken care of.

Brad Dowdy: That was a moment, and I am going to have to, like, rein myself in from that because my moment is coming, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, Judgment Day is getting closer and closer for you, my friend.

Brad Dowdy: Judgment Day is coming. I can barely, like, I literally, my laptop is squeezed in with my microphone and squeezed in between my notepad and squeezed in between my pens. It's a hot mess. So I'm going to refrain from getting further commentary.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to send it to our goal right now. When we meet the goal, the Brad Dowdy, was it Desk Tour Brad's version? Desk Tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to drop, and I can't wait for it. It's going to be a mask. I might dedicate an entire episode to roasting you. That's true. We'll find out.

Brad Dowdy: We could do that. Go frame by frame. Also, new this week in the St. Jude Raffle, Enigma Stationery has donated several items, number one being the special edition number seven PDX pen that they did for the Pacific Northwest pen show. It's a beautiful, to represent, like, Portland's flag is a beautiful blue and green and yellow swirl pen that they have. They have, this was, they donated one of these last year. It turned out to be a very popular item, which people were talking about. They're 31-day ink sample stands. So, if you're familiar with ink samples, which if you follow along the pen addict, you definitely are, given my recent dalliance into making samples. This is a stand where you can hold 31 inks if you want to do, like, a month worth of inks, which right now a lot of people are doing a September project, so 30 inks in 30 days. This is a cool way to store and access your ink samples. And then also a $50 gift card. So, these are all new items this week. They have their own individual post up on the blog, and then I've added them into the one main post. So, you can click either post, find out all the ways you can enter. And I really, really appreciate everyone who has donated, who has joined the raffle, all the vendors and retailers who have provided goods to help us raise money. And it's going very, very well so far. So, thank you to everybody involved.

Myke Hurley: So, I'm going to remind everybody again why they should be donating. So, throughout the entire month of September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we come together as a community to raise money and awareness of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And we're raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. When we started the campaign this year, we've raised $2.2 million as a community, and we're aiming to surpass $2.5 million this year. And we are 90% towards that goal. As I'm recording right now, we've raised $264,000 for the kids of St. Jude. And we want to keep it going, because St. Jude will not stop their life-saving work until no child dies from cancer. With your support, we'll be one step closer to that day, one cure closer, one child closer. More than 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year, and nearly half of them are never even diagnosed. In the United States, more than four out of five children survive cancer. But in many developing countries, this statistic is horrifically reversed, with fewer than one out of five children diagnosed with cancer that they live. It's a horrific thing. The most significant predictor of whether a child will survive cancer is, therefore, where the child lives. And that is an unacceptable outcome. Which is why, in 2018, St. Jude became the first and only World Health Organization collaborating center for childhood cancer. The goal of this initiative is to raise the survival rate of six common childhood cancers to 60% by 2030. This is a huge job, and it is an example of the global reach of St. Jude. They are based in Memphis, Tennessee, where I'm going to be by the end of this week. But they are a global... They share their research. They share what they know, what they've learned with everybody. In 2021, St. Jude and the WHO launched the global platform for access to child cancer medicines. It aims to provide free chemotherapy medicines in the next few years to as many as 120,000 children around the world with cancer. St. Jude is now in the pilot phase of that initiative. In April this year, they met with representatives from the program's first few countries to figure out all the logistical details of how this process will work to get medicines from ports of entry to hospitals. This is the work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It is an incredible place that does incredible things. They are focused on one thing, and it is to make sure that no child dies from cancer. And how on earth can you argue with that message? They are a place deserving of your donations, and they need donations to continue. The incredible generosity of our community over the last five years has raised millions of dollars, and we are asking for your support once again for the life-saving mission of St. Jude. Donors who make an individual gift of $60 or more receive a digital bundle of wallpapers and screensavers. If you donate $100 or more, you can get a pack of stickers. When you make your donation, please click the blue Search Employer button on the Donation Summary page because your employer may offer a matching gift program. You can also sign up to fundraise yourself. You can set up a fundraising campaign. It's really easy to do that, and then you are joining with us to raise money for St. Jude. You can put your donation through your fundraising campaign. Then you can also share this link with your friends, your family, your co-workers, and you are able to expand the amount of money that you are able to help contribute to our campaign. You know, if you get your co-workers to donate an extra $50, that's $50 that St. Jude would not have seen. So you are able to help us expand this message. Go to stjude.org slash relay where you can donate and find out more about fundraising, including seeing images of the exclusive merchandise that you can earn if you start a fundraising campaign. There is some awesome stuff there. So that is stjude.org slash relay to learn more and donate. St. Jude will not stop until no child dies from cancer. If your support will be one step closer to that day, one cure closer, one child closer. This month and every month, let's cure childhood cancer together.

Myke Hurley: And there will be a link in the show notes, which has all of the deets on the Panatic Raffle as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was just going to say it's been fun to see a bunch of people rolling their own this year. I know we had it last year, but it's been fun to watch. Yeah, it started last year.

Myke Hurley: It was a big success. And again, it seems to be a very big success so far in this year's campaign. And what I really love this year compared to last year is there is so much more inventiveness that I'm seeing in the community. People are doing some really awesome things. Yeah. This is, if you are a RelayFM member and you're in the Discord, you should check out the St. Jude channels because people are sharing the stuff that they're doing. It's fantastic. I'm having a great time.

Current stationery and tools in use

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Speaking of good stuff, Myke, what are you using? I figured it's probably a good time to check in, even though I'm just back from a pin show. So I have lots of new stuff to talk about later. What are you using right now? What are you enjoying?

Myke Hurley: So there's this thing, this notepad that I use every day. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called the Sidekick notepad.

Brad Dowdy: I mean. How is that, Myke?

Myke Hurley: This is one of those things, like I will always keep talking about this in the same way that I spoke about the panel book forever, right? Like I love the panel book, used it every single day for years. But then I wanted things to be slight. I wanted like my own twist on it. Things that I wanted form a desk pad product. And so I made the Sidekick notepad. And that is why I use it constantly every day. I currently have three inactive use. Okay. Doing different things.

Brad Dowdy: Seven different purposes. Can you tell me the three purposes?

Myke Hurley: Well, it's okay. I have one on my recording desk. And that is to take notes while I'm recording a show. So it's where I'm taking our edit notes today. My other one sits on my typical work desk. Because I have like the two desks. That's the one that I did the desk tour video, right? So the half. Okay. That's where I take like meeting notes, call notes. I have a little idea. I write it down. Like that one is like the true purpose of the product, right? Yeah. That's your daily driver. Yeah. Then I have one on my PC, my streaming PC, where I'm keeping notes about the things they need to do in Starfield.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, nice. Yeah. I do video game books. Yeah. Yeah. Like I totally take notes on like some of the detailed games that we play. Like you need to keep track of some of the stuff. So how's that going? Is that going well?

Myke Hurley: I'm having a good time with it, if I'm being honest.

Brad Dowdy: You've already told me I need to get it.

Myke Hurley: I recommend it. Like it's one of these things where like, so I don't know. A lot of people are having a lot of different feelings about Starfield, but I'm having a good time with it. Like it is far from a perfect game. Yeah. Yeah. There's a bunch of weirdness to it. So many loading screens. Yeah. But I'm enjoying it. So I wasn't asking for the world. I am feeling the pull of Baldur's Gate 3. Okay. Because I keep hearing like, this is a real game of the year contender. And so I'm going to start that soon. Maybe if I start to get the lull a little bit with Starfield, I might boot up Baldur's Gate, but I haven't done it yet.

Video games discussion (Starfield and Baldur's Gate)

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I haven't bought, I would have bought Starfield. I also have no time to play video games. Yeah. Also have no time. Exactly. I would have bought Starfield. I've had a system capable of running it. So my PC can't handle it. And I don't own an Xbox. So I'm out on that for the time being. Baldur's Gate 3. I don't know if I can handle the turn-based gaming. I've never done that before.

Myke Hurley: If your system can't handle Starfield, your system can't handle Baldur's Gate.

Brad Dowdy: Well, Baldur's Gate, I can get on the PlayStation.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway. Hi, this is, oh man, I forgot the name of your video game podcast. Remaster. Hi, this is Remaster. What else? What are you writing with?

Myke Hurley: In honor of one of our sponsors of this week's episode, I'm using the Enigma special edition pen from Enigma Stationery. It's like the blue and like the blue swirly one with the Heinz blue nib. It's a really cool pairing. So I'm using that today.

Brad Dowdy: You set me up here because I didn't know what you were going to put in here. I didn't know Enigma was sponsoring. And that pen is a candidate for my pen of the year. It's one of my favorite pens I've acquired this year. I don't do like an official pen of the year. But a few years ago, I know, a few years ago, I bought a pen, the Edison Newark Orion Nebula from Gold Spot. And I enjoyed it so much and liked it so much, I named it my pen of the year. And I didn't continue that contest on. But this Enigma is one that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy. It's really at the top of my personal list. And that is not an ad, even though they are sponsoring us later.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we'll get to that later on. But that's not the product we're talking about in the ad today. Yep, yep. But I will send it for free. Yes. I will just state that. You know, you've got to get your, what is it, like your disclosures. Disclosures, yeah. You really, really should do pen of the year. That should be something that you can bring back. I think that is such a good idea. And you could even do it in categories. Like you could do job pen of the year, fountain pen of the year. I really think that that is a good idea. You should put that on your content calendar.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I should do it because I need to start in January and keep some official tracking. So that's only a few months away. So I could definitely work on that for like 2024. I really think that is a good idea for you, yeah. Yeah, I should. I like that kind of stuff. It's always fun to do. And it's like super personal type of thing, right? Like I don't do like very general things, you know, like what would be, what was like the popular, like the most popular selling pen this year. Like that doesn't interest me. I want to know what I got. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to know what I had the most enjoyment with this year. So I have.

Myke Hurley: I mean, a way that you could do that is like you could like to help you, you could apply the PAR to things like the Panatic Rain system. Right. And that could be a way for you to keep track of that throughout the year.

Brad Dowdy: True. I could just do it kind of separately. Even if you just kept it to yourself. Right, right, right. Just because I would have to keep a current release kind of calendar-ish type of thing. So as I acquire things. So like what I currently have, the Panatic rating is a backwards looking system. And I could morph it into a forward looking type of system for like a pen of the year type of thing. Yep. Good stuff. I like this. I like this. We should have more content discussions. Anytime. And hold me. Like last week, I said, I'm going to do a video of my desk. And like this week, I'm committing to doing pen of the year for 2024. So this podcast isn't really going well for me, Myke. It's what I'm saying.

Myke Hurley: I'm still content, baby. Content is king, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Content is king. All right. So I'm using a couple of new pens I inked up in the last two weeks or so that I'm really, really enjoying. They have been long-time top-tier pens in my collection of fountain pens, number one. And I've talked about it a million times on the show, the Kasama Una in Ultem. It's just the coolest pen. And I wanted to ink it up to bring to the Orlando Pen Show because I like to show off some of these weird pens that not everyone has access to. And that's always a great one to bring for other people to see because I've talked about it so much. And you can see them on Instagram. And they're so unique looking. So I have that in use. And every time I ink it up, I'm like, yeah, this is the ticket right here. So it has a fine steel nib with a nib grinder blade nib grind. That's Mark Bacchus' kind of Naganata togi shape. And it's a very kind of a sharp edge blade-looking tip, as the name indicates, which I enjoy writing with because it's still fine. And I ink that up with Akramon number 28, one of the greatest inks of all time. Not just great green ink, but one of the great inks of all time. So that's right up there with Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai. That's probably my two most inked inks is Shinkai and Akramon number 28. So I'm getting down to like the bottom quarter of each of those bottles. Oh, and Robert Oster Fire on Fire. I don't want to give that a shout out as well. Those are all like quarter bottles left in all those. So we'll have to rethink what we're doing here. Next up, I had San Francisco pen show FOMO from all of the Aboya pictures that I was seeing. And I bought an Aboya at, I think it was the show before you came in a previous year. I bought it. The model is called the Hauga. It's just basically a long cigar-shaped pen. But it's in a green and black swirled ebonite. It has the only Bach gold nib that I own. And it has a fine cursive italic grind on it done by Myke Masayama. It is one of my favorite nibs. It is so firm, which you don't normally expect from a gold nib. But I think it's just a 14k nib. But it is a firm, crispy italic that works really well with this pen. And I have it inked up with Papier Plume Rebirth, which is a new ink Papier Plume just launched at the DC Pen Show. So this is a very pen show filled pen here. So it's a pen show pen and a pen show ink. So there was a pen show grind from Myke Masayama as well. So and then the notebook I'm using, I am going to talk about this more in coming weeks. So maybe like by the time, you know, October rolls around, we'll have a notebook discussion. I'm currently using the Life Noble book, A5. It's kind of my everything notebook. I really, really enjoy it. And I'm not quite using it enough. So I've made the point to pull it forward, if you will, to where it's the accessible, always to be used notebook for everything that I want to do. So like I'm still like, that's just like my journal, my notes, my sketches. You know, like I'm still using my plotter. Like I didn't put down like the things I use on the daily, like the plotter and the Hobonichi 5 year, like all that stuff's still good to go. But these are the new things. And then trying to get this notebook more dedicated to the rotation because it's a really good product and something I love very much. So that's, those are the ones that are getting me right now. I have a third pen that I'm actively using, but we might save that for the Orlando Pen Show recap.

Myke Hurley: I'm excited.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think you're going to like this pen. I think you're going to like it. I'm scared. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take our first break? Let's do it. This episode is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. Like the whole proceeding beginning of this episode. Yeah. Enigma Stationery, they offer unique items made from in-house designs, along with top brands and hard to find imports. They also have a new exclusive Vinta ink, which is available while supplies last. It's called, oh boy, Pala, yeah, I'm going in.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going in. Hang on.

Myke Hurley: I'm pulling it up here. Palazapan. Palazapan, which is Filipino for Enigma and is a beautiful turquoise ink with blue shimmer. You can get your 30 milliliter bottle for $20. This is a good blue, Brad. I don't know if you've seen it.

Brad Dowdy: It looks like their logo color.

Myke Hurley: Yes. This is a very good blue. How would you say this word?

Brad Dowdy: I think you did a good job. I'm not even going to try.

Myke Hurley: Palazapan?

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Myke Hurley: Yeah?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Palazapan. Yeah, we're all on board with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Palazapan. So what do you think of Vinta inks, Brad? I love Vinta inks. I am, they, one of their original inks is called Armada, and it is still something I use on the regular. Vinta has really good quality, really exceptional, like, color characteristics, right? Like, it's not, Vinta inks, every Vinta ink I've used is not just, like, a flat color. Like, you see, okay, you know, if this is a turquoise color, there's lots of different shades of turquoise. It's not, like, a singular flat shade, and you can kind of see this in the sample images that they have over on Enigma. So all the Vinta inks I've ever experienced have this same type of characteristics. They're one of my favorite ink makers going.

Myke Hurley: Palazapan.

Brad Dowdy: Did you pull up the pronunciation guide?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I did. I did. I think I did an okay job. I just stumbled on it at first. You know, it's hard. Words are hard. You know what I'm saying? Words are hard. I love the packaging and the, like, the stickers that go on the bottles and stuff that show the ink and the information. Like, that just looks very high quality. I like the look of that a lot.

Brad Dowdy: They've done this from the jump, and it's always been one of my favorite things. Just, like, aesthetics do matter, right? Like, you're not, you know, the bottle and the box, like, that doesn't really affect the end product, but it makes you feel good about the product that you're getting. And this is, that's something Vinta does very well.

Myke Hurley: While you're picking up your Palazapan ink, why not check out the limited quantities that I cannot believe are still available of several exclusive pens, including the Navalure Nautilus Brilliant Bunny, the Studio Neat Mark I Enigma edition, which straight up, I just cannot believe they have any of those left, or the special edition number eight, Fogged In. Like, you've got to go and check these things out. Like, you must go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get the Palazapan ink and maybe a limited edition pen while you still can. And if you use the promo code penaddict to check out, you'll receive a free gift and discounted shipping on orders of over $40. Come on. Enigmastationery.com slash penaddict with the code penaddict. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Orlando Pen Show recap

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, we're heading into the Orlando segment of the show, and that relates to the shout-out of the week. Shout-out of the week. Thank you. Thank you for that. One of the cool things about going to pen shows is you get to meet a lot of people you see sharing things online that you may not have met before. And in this case, in Orlando, I met three people. I had not seen their work online, and that they all do different things online, making videos, doing journaling on Instagram. So I wanted to give a shout-out to three creators that I met at the Orlando Pen Show. And I apologize if I leave someone off. Like, that is bound to happen. Like, I meet a lot of people. But these are people I talk to. Well, the Brad Dowdy. You know what I mean? Of course you meet a lot of people. I mean, come on. Do you know who I am? The Brad Dowdy. But, no, it's always great to make new friends and see all the work that everyone's creating, and I love to share everyone. So Tori Palumbo from Feed Your Creativity. I'll have links to everyone here in the show notes. You bet. I got to meet Tori and her husband there. They were shooting videos. They have a YouTube channel and Instagram. I got to meet Claire Massa from the Ginger Ninja Journals, which I just love saying. That's an awesome name. And I got to meet Lori Tata from Time with Tata, who does a lot of journaling on Instagram. So I ran into them pretty much all weekend. They were there all weekend. We got to chat and, you know, got to take some pictures. And I got to enjoy their company. And I really, really appreciate everyone who shares their work, like on Instagram and YouTube and all that. So please go follow Tori and Claire and Lori. And I apologize if I left someone off. Shoot me an email and yell at me. Say, hey, man, you left me off. And I'll give you a shout out, too. How dare you?

Myke Hurley: Say that. Say, how dare you?

Brad Dowdy: How dare you, Brad? So, yeah. So let's get into the show, Myke. I came home Sunday. So this was a Orlando, just in general, if you haven't listened. It's a Friday, Saturday show. But they do a really nice Thursday evening event for weekend pass holders and vendors, which we'll get to in a moment, which brought me in earlier than Thursday because I was invited to play golf, which we mentioned before, with my friends at Kenro, Carrie and Neil.

Myke Hurley: Be honest, Brad, you wrecked it, didn't you? I kind of did.

Brad Dowdy: You crushed it. I was shocked. Yeah, baby. I was shocked.

Myke Hurley: You crushed it.

Brad Dowdy: Did you win? I was, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh, here he goes. Come on. Cats out of the bag.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, there was no real competition. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, the good way and the bad way. Like, number one, we weren't competing for anything. And number two, Carrie and Neil, no competition. Let me tell you, Brad. Right here. Two thumbs pointing at this guy.

Myke Hurley: That's BS. Everyone's competing. Everyone's competing when they think they're going to do well. And then when you come in and you start driving it 5,000 yards down the fairway, no one's competing anymore. Now it's Brad's time. I don't know if you know, but this is the Brad Dowdy. Come on. Get out of here.

Brad Dowdy: So golf's a cool sport in that you basically compete with yourself, right? Sure, you can compete with other people. But you're really, it's like, hey, what am I going to do here? And from not having played in two years, but in the past being a very good golfer, I had no clue. Like, my expectations were very low. And I far and away exceeded how I hit the ball, like my expectations. I was thrilled.

Myke Hurley: Just for new listeners, it is worth noting, in a previous life, Brad was a golf pro, which means like you, I assume played in competitions, but you also, you were stationed at a golf range, right? And you were the store pro. Well, at a club, yeah. Like a club, that's it, sorry. And you were the store, you gave lessons, advice, all that kind of stuff. Like you were a serious, like serious golf player.

Brad Dowdy: It was my job for like about, yeah, for like about four years, it was my job. So my job was to, you know, play golf and work in golf. And my golf game was very good at the time. And so I had good muscle memory. Like I was shocked. So I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of straight shots, hit a lot of long shots. And that was quite the surprise. So yeah, I was very, very happy with how I played. I had a real good time with Carrie and Neil. And shout out to Vanessa Langton, who also rode along with us, shot some video. We have a bunch of stuff on Instagram, either in my feed or Vanessa's feed, which I'll make sure to get a link for the show notes. But yeah, we, I mean, we just had a good time. I mean, those are great people. Some people I've known for years and years and years that I always have fun with. So getting out on the golf course, getting to do something I never do at a pin show is just kind of take an escape from the show, either before or after or during the show. It was pretty cool. So I enjoyed that very much.

Myke Hurley: I just cannot wait until I guess some point next year that I can witness this majesty in person.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're going to do it. Yeah. We are definitely going to do it. So yeah, I was thrilled, honestly, with how I played. I'm still like in shock. It's like it should not have been, it should not have gone that well. And it did. So it was fun. So golf is over and we got back to the hotel pretty late afternoon ish, like 430. And one of the things that I wanted to shout out the Orlando pin show is for actually putting on an official event Thursday evening. Now, I think other shows do something similar, you know, have like a pizza party for, you know, vendors, you know, weekend pass holders, things like that. And have like trading hours like Chicago, I know specifically does this as well. But I've never seen something as well attended and as organized as the event held on Thursday night at Orlando. And that's like a recurring theme with what Joe Cortner, the show runner does. He really, really dials in everything and it runs so smoothly. So from three to six was like a trader and just hang out for vendors and weekend pass holders. Then from six to seven or seven to eight, there was a pizza party sponsored and like by pilot and then a bunch of giveaways. So, I mean, Joe must have given away like 50 pins throughout the weekend. It was unbelievable. The amount of giveaways and promotion he does. And that requires a lot of buy-in from a lot of the vendors too who are asked to donate goods and specifically make things, which we'll talk about here in a minute. So just shout out Joe for running an exceptionally smooth show. It just goes really well from the jump. And like usually Thursday, I won't say Thursday nights are an afterthought. And, you know, you don't expect many people. But it's just kind of nice to have like this option for people who are coming in for, you know, a two-day show or three-day show to have something to do. Because you're going to be there, right? Yeah, especially the vendors, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So it's great. At a minimum, for your vendors that have to be up early Friday morning to set up, it's nice to have something because they're already going to be there. And they can all get together and hang out. So it was fun. It was really, really enjoyable. So that brings us into Friday. And I wanted to shout out another thing that Joe did that I haven't seen at another pen show. He had a maker pen competition that ran all day Friday and all day Saturday where he had 11 different makers, I think it was, all donated a pen, all created a pen. And these are all, you know, fountain pen makers that are designing, creating something unique. You know, it's not just something from their inventory. And the idea was to support a charity called Reef Relief, which helps restore the reefs down in the Florida Keys. So it's a great opportunity to support, you know, a great charity. And all of these individual makers spent a lot of time and effort making a pen that they put into this competition. Then you would buy raffle tickets for these to be able to vote on these pens, right? So, like, for example, you could buy three raffle tickets for $10. And then for each pen, you could put in however many raffle tickets you wanted to try to win that pen later in the day. But that also served as a voting proxy to see who had the favorite pen of the maker. So, like, a maker would win, like, the competition because it had the most votes. And then someone would actually win the pen from their raffle ticket in the drawing. So it was a really neat thing to do. It ran, so we did, like, five of the pens on Friday and then six of the pens on Saturday, right? So you didn't have to be there all day or all weekend to participate. So there was a separate vote on Friday, separate vote on Saturday. I thought it was really cool. I shared some images of that. Those images are all over social media. You can probably look at the Orlando Pen Show 2023 hashtag on Instagram, something like that. There was some really cool stuff. I was like, if that wasn't in the competition, I would totally buy that pen type of stuff, right? There was some really, really cool stuff. And I thought the makers did an exceptional job and was cool to have. So that was neat. I also wanted to make a comment on the show space, which last year we were in the same hotel, but we were, like, on the second floor in two smaller ballrooms. Yeah. Very small, smaller spaces. And they were really, like, pretty close to each other. But you had to cross, like, a little hallway to get from one room to the other. This year was one singular large room, which I think always works super well for a show. The flow worked good. There was enough space in there for the aisles to not be overly crowded. There was enough space between the tables. And something you don't always see, this space is unique in that it kind of had its own foyer area. So out in that area, before you actually got to the show floor proper, there was, like, you know, the big, like, six and eight foot round tables out there for people to just come and hang out. Like, take a break between the shows, share their pens, look at stationery, do some ink testing, things like that. There was, like, I don't know, five of those tables sitting out there, like, in the kind of in the show floor area, but not on the show floor. So it was kind of a cool little feature that was just kind of, like, the luck of this space allowed for. So I thought that was really nice. So, yeah, like, I think the space was good. There was a good vendor representation. Last year, this was a makers-heavy show. And I think this is the same this year, which is, like, played right into Joe's hands doing this makers competition. But you had your big retailers as well, like Drumgools, Feddler's Pens. You know, you had your distributors, like Kenro Industry and Pilot. And you had all kinds of makers and then all kinds of vintage dealers. So it was a great mix. You had a lot of locals, a lot of people that I would only see at this show, either local artists or local pen makers that may not travel to some of the other shows. So it's really, really cool. Like, this is a good vibe show, right? It's never going to be the biggest or the most attended or the most vendors. And I don't think we want that, like, every week, right? Like, I'm good with having, like, the big pen shows, and I'm good with having the smaller, cozier pen shows. And that's exactly what I think Orlando is in my mind. More in the, like, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore type of range of shows. And that is something I personally love.

Myke Hurley: Is there anything else that you wanted to say about the show specifically before we talk about some of the stuff that you acquired?

Brad Dowdy: No, I think that's it. And if I think of something, we'll talk about that as we go. But let's let you talk about one of our lovely sponsors here. And then we'll talk about some of the stuff that came home with me.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that lets you build your brand and grow your business online. You can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage directly with your audience, and sell your products, services, and the content that you create. Squarespace has everything you need all in one place. It is so easy to get started. You just choose one of their best-in-class website templates, which you can customize every single detail of with a reimagined drag-and-drop technology for desktop or mobile. This is called Fluid Engine, and it's Squarespace's next-generation website design system. It allows you to unlock your creativity more easily than ever before. You can stretch your imagination. It's built in and ready to go on any new Squarespace site. If you want to set up a blog, it's very easy to do so, right? And this is how Brad runs the pen addict. It's how I've run sites in the past with, like, Squarespace blogs. It's very simple to do that. They have all of the tools that you'll want for publishing your content, scheduling your content. They also have something called the Asset Library now, which allows you to upload, organize, and access all of your content from one place, so you don't need to scramble to find the right stuff. All of your files can be managed from one central hub, and you can use them across the entire Squarespace platform. You can even have that online store. Whether you sell physical or digital goods, Squarespace has the tools you need to start selling online. This is like they have analytics as well, so you'll know where your customers are coming from and what products are most popular. They have flexible payment options. You can do PayPal, Apple Pay, credit cards, and buy now, pay later services like Afterpay and Clearpay. It really is the full package, no matter what type of website you're looking to make. Go and check it out for yourself right now at squarespace.com slash penaddict. You can sign up for a free trial there. Then when you're ready to launch, use the code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com slash penaddict. One last time, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict when you decide to sign up to get, I should say, 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of the Penaddict and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: I bought a magic wand, Myke. Oh, that's good.

Brad Dowdy: A magic fountain pen wand.

Myke Hurley: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: So this was a benefit of that Thursday night event that I was speaking about. So several of the vendors had set up just, you know, random tables. We used the, what would end up being the classroom for events during the show, Friday and Saturday, the Thursday night before. Mm-hmm. And a lot of vendors set up their goods, you know, just like a partial amount of goods, like at small tables and things like that. So I got a good look at some things ahead of time. And one of them was this fountain pen wand from a maker named Wyatt Carlisle. And it's literally like a full-sized, I don't know, probably 18-inch long wand, you know, for your magic, right? Like we all do that. You know, I haven't turned my dog into a cat yet or anything like that. But, you know, it's magic. And you unscrew the end of the wand and there is a fountain pen nib in it. And it's a cartridge converter fountain pen. I was like, OMG, I'm going to end up with one of these, aren't I? And I texted Sarah, who writes for The Pen Addict. Given her preferences, I thought she might be like way into this. And she basically said the same thing that I did. So I bought one. And it's really cool. I'm going to send it to her. And we're going to review this on the blog.

Vendor highlights and unique products

Brad Dowdy: Also with Wyatt was Nikki Harris. And she makes like resin pours, like skulls and like octopus and different things like that. So basically like desk accessories, like paperweights, things like that. So of course, I of course bought some of that too. So like my first purchases were a wand, a skull and two octopuses. So there you go. That's how my Orlando pen show kicked off.

Myke Hurley: Pretty average. Pretty average year then.

Brad Dowdy: Pretty normal. The normal show. So, and then I wanted to see Abigail Markov and their third house inks, which I bought all of. I tested them out on stream yesterday. So I'm going to be playing around with those. Um, you know, I get like, this is a very, like I, so far I was like local person, local person, local person. And guess what? Another local person, Bellow Leathers. Like this is why I like to go to shows in different parts of the country and see different people and find different local makers. Bellow Leathers. I bought these great, um, pen holders like this, a two slot pen holder. And the way that they design the, the holder is a really cool kind of, uh, I don't know, shaped or formed leather, uh, towards like this curve, curve piece over this base piece. And it just sits in there nicely and they have really good colors. Like I bought a teal and like a turquoise blue. I'm really happy with that. It's really cool. Um, then we got into the pens, Myke. I only bought two pens at this show, which is maybe the fewest pens I've ever bought at a pen show. And my only two pens came from Maverick pens. So I got to meet John and Abby Lewis for the first time at this show. New newer makers. Uh, this might've been their first pen show. I'm thinking. Um, and they brought the goods there. They brought like a couple of tables full where the pens, I really love, um, you know, their display. So Abby makes all the materials. She makes all the blanks. John is the pen turner. So this is an all in the family type of situation. And they did a really good job with a lot of these pens. And one of the things that they did, which I haven't seen, uh, before is making pen blanks, essentially out of the waste of other pen blanks when they're getting made. Right. So if you're familiar with how maker pens get made, you have basically a rod of material. Then that rod gets cut down to size to make a pen. Well, there's, you know, like one inch or two inch, you know, ends of these blanks that even after making like the section or the cap, like each, each rod has different parts that get made. There's still like little pieces left. So what they did was took all these pieces, these spare pieces and made rods out of those. And talking with Abby, like it's a crazy complicated process to make what they call their stratified pens. But the end result is so cool, but they basically have to get these discs, you know, you know, glue them. I don't know the exact materials that are, that are making them stick together, but they're essentially making a new rod from the excess of these other rods, getting them all to stick together, form them into a new pen rod. And then making a pen from that, like they say she, I think she was saying it takes them about a month to make these rods for these stratified pens. So I had to end up with one of these, Myke. Like I was totally into this. What do you think about this? Like, is that a pen style you would like? Like to me, it was, I was like all about it. Or would you just go for like a more traditionally poured acrylic?

Brad Dowdy: It looks pretty big. Some of them are longer than the other ones. Mine's a pretty standard size and shape.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I would say it's a very normal size pen, the one that I chose, but you could get a bigger one.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So that might just be the, is there a particular image of the one that you bought on this Instagram page?

Myke Hurley: Let's see. Or like similar to the one that you bought?

Brad Dowdy: Here we go. Yes. So I'm going to send it and I think it might be, my pen might be in this image here. So I'm going to put this right here. So other people can see it and let me double check because I can match the layers here. I'm pretty sure. Let's see here. Yeah. Mine is on the left. So they're holding three pens in this image. I picked the one on the one in the left is the one that I am currently using.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, the visual style of these, this is helpful because I was looking at some, I think I misunderstood what ones you were referring to because on their page, they do have way more typical like poured acrylic. Yes. And I saw a lot of these images in your refill newsletter of these ones and I love it. Like it reminds me of butcher block. Yeah. It's like the butcher block of fountain pens. Yeah. I think this style is really, really cool. Um, I would 100% buy one of these if I was at a pen show, like, cause it's so unique. I've never seen this before. Right. And so, yeah, I really like it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're really cool. Um, given the difficulty in time it takes to make them, they're like twice as much as your standard acrylic pens. Oh, I have no doubt about that. Just from the, from the process that's involved, like you're essentially paying for like the time and the extra work to make these pens. So this one was like $400 where your standard acrylics were like, you know, a hundred to, I mean, a hundred, like 175 to 225 type of stuff. So, yeah. But that's why like that, that was the one I bought. And then I bought another one from them, just a standard acrylic one, just to review and give away later. So I really just, I bought the stratified for me. Then I bought the other pen to review and give away at a later date. And that was literally all the pens that I bought. So, I mean, I could have bought 10 more pens from all these makers, but I'm trying to, trying to manage myself. I, this was a very, um, accessory heavy, um, um, shopping experience. Like I bought three notebooks, which I rarely do, but, uh, Smroody pens had these notebooks by dominant industry, which they're an ink maker. And I didn't know that they had come up with a notebook design. And what was compelling about these is they have the Takasago paper in there, which I was like, how do I, why do I recognize that name? And I believe this is the same bank paper that Yamamoto paper came up with. So I'm going to have to get some more details on like the sourcing of this paper. But once I realized what it was in my, um, preference for bank paper, I bought one of each of these notebooks. They have a blank, a line and a grid so I can review one and give away a couple. Um, but if they're like the Takasago premium paper that I use right now, the bank paper from Yamamoto paper, and then they're just in this bound format, like I am way, way, way in on these. So I look forward to testing those out. I also bought a bag. Like I did several firsts at several firsts at this show, playing golf, buying a magic wand. And I also bought a bag at a pen show. So, um, so, um, Marty and Kimberly who help with drum goals do most of the retro 51 stuff. Also bring the rickshaw stuff to, uh, pen shows and in partnership with drum goals. And so they have like all the rickshaw cases and like all the retro 51s, but then they had a few of the larger bags. Um, you know, the, not necessarily like the pen cases, but the bags that your pen cases could go in. So this bonsai bag, I had just brought like a little sling bag for, um, my pen show carry and I had already filled it up like the first day, just walking around, like it didn't hold very much. And then they had these bags and then they had a purple one with like a lime green interior. I was like, fine. Like it's, it was such a good bag at the right size at the right price. So like that was ended up being my show bag and now it'll probably be my permanent show bag. Right. It's just going to go with me to all the pen shows because it's, it's right size. Right.

Myke Hurley: It genuinely feels like they made a bag for pen shows. Like, yeah, it really does. I think that's what this is. Like it even references like such, right? Like perfect for pen rolls, notebooks more. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But it's not too big or bulky, like a big backpack or a messenger bag, right? It's a little bit smaller size. I don't know that I don't have the leader size pulled up here, but I imagine it's probably like around 15 ish, maybe, maybe a little bit smaller than that. So, um, it's a great size, great shoulder bag and, uh, cool colors, obviously. Um, so that was like the extent of my purchasing for the most part. And I did want to give a special shout out. And I think it was kind of like a very, um, very newsworthy item that was shared on Instagram and on social media throughout the weekend. My friend Sean at London Pen Co, his pens did not arrive to Orlando. So, um, he comes from Canada to some of these shows in the U S he was at the DC pen show and I saw him there. And what he did was he just left his pens with, uh, Jonathan Brooks to ship to Orlando. So like he went home to Canada, his pen stayed in the U S Jonathan held. The pens until it was time to send them to the show. So Jonathan sent them to, um, to the show and UPS managed to essentially lose them for about five days, which, you know, kind of screwed up, um, Sean show. He literally sat at his table with no pens for the full weekend and it was a nightmare. That really sucks. And at, by the end of the show, like we were getting further away from resolution than closer, right? By the pin to the end of the show, it was like, am I even going to, am I ever going to see these pens again? And it was like 120 pens, right? Like it was a lot. Um, but the pens did arrive on Monday at, uh, the show promoters house where they should have been all along for delivery to the show. So, uh, I wanted to give a special shout out to London pen co and Sean is going to run a virtual pen show, uh, online to help recoup some of the, some of the, uh, the travel and expenses. So I will be sure to promote that. Uh, you'll see a lot of us, uh, jumping on that bandwagon when Sean is ready to roll and, uh, see what we can do for him and, uh, getting some of these pens sold that never arrived to the Orlando pen show. So, uh, shout out to him for his, his really positive attitude, uh, throughout the weekend. I know he had to be boiling on the inside, uh, but he did a really great job on the outside, uh, trying to have as good a time as possible while we all joked about, uh, his demonstrator pens.

Myke Hurley: Maybe he should have used one of those magic ones.

Brad Dowdy: And like, that's right. I mean, come on, we should have just got, oh man, what was I thinking? We should have gone over there and had like a little, uh, little, little magic time and made, see if we can make some pens up here over, over there at London Penco, but, uh, to no avail.

Episode wrap-up and listener questions

Myke Hurley: All right. Is that it for this episode?

Brad Dowdy: I think we can wrap it here. I know we have a lot of STPA to get to, but guess what? We have a full STPA episode coming up for next week.

Myke Hurley: We sure do. And we have, as I expected, way more questions than we have time to answer, which is great. You can always send in your questions at any time by going to penaddictfeedback.com. You can send in your questions and your follow-up there and we'll get to it in a future episode. You can go to penaddict.com to find what Brad is up to. He is penaddict on social media. You can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict as well. And you can see Brad streaming three times a week. I'm iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Uh, you can find my products over at cortexbrand.com. And please go to stjude.org slash relay where you can donate to our St. Jude campaign. We'll be back on next week's episode. Thanks to Enigma Stationery and Squarespace for the support of this show. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.