The Pen Addict 66/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	66
Title:	Epically Trolled
Release Date:	August 6th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 66
Audio File:	Audio Episode 66
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 66
Length:	4545 min <br />0.75 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, episode 66. This is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by a man that if he was a Kickstarter project, he'd break all known records. That's Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I would like to think so. That's on the bucket list, break all Kickstarter records. I'm pretty sure you would. I've got to come up with the project first. That's kind of the hindrance, right?

Myke Hurley: The Pen Addict pen. Yeah. You could source all of your parts from China, imagine that.

Brad Dowdy: You're going to get me right out the gate, huh? Uh-huh. We're just going to go there.

Myke Hurley: We're going straight for it.

The Visionaire

Brad Dowdy: Let's go there. I said last week that I was done talking about The Visionaire.

Myke Hurley: It's too big a story, man.

Brad Dowdy: I know. It is. I'm just tired of talking about it because I don't think anything's going to change. Morgan emailed me last week. I don't know. It was a couple of days after the podcast. I don't even know what day. Morgan's the project founder on Kickstarter for The Visionaire Fountain Pen. If you've listened to the show, you know all about this story that I've been dealing with.

Brad Dowdy: I'm kind of over it. But Morgan, to his credit, sent me an email. Well, unfortunately, the email is pretty standard issue to the way he's been answering all the other questions. You know, everything's lumped in together, and it's just one big generic pile of stuff. You just kind of got to read between the lines and pick out some of the pieces. So, I mean, it's an epic-length email. I'm on a 15-inch MacBook Pro in my Gmail account, and the text, the body of the text does not fit on a single full screen. So, that's the email he sent me. But to recap, the first episode we talked about it, I had sent Morgan an email with a list of questions. So, he says, you know, in his email to me recently, he says, you know, he apologizes about the day and the delay. And he's getting lots of emails and trying to keep up. And then he goes into answering my questions. So, let me recap a couple of the questions because they're really short. I tried to keep them short for him. And just so, you know, I didn't want it to be, you know, I didn't want to try to kill the guy and have all kinds of deep, detailed posts, detailed questions. So, he lumped, I asked him five questions. He lumped the answers to one, two, and three into one answer. So, let me read those questions real quick. So, my question, one, was you talk about designing the Visionaire, but you also talk about not having much fountain pen experience, how much of the actual design is yours, and how much is pre-made parts. Second question is, did you fit your specs into an existing design, or is this 100% original design? And the third question is, are any new tools or dyes being made to produce these pens, or will existing tooling be used for the manufacturing? So, that's all kind of around design.

Myke Hurley: That's three, like, pretty important, pretty sort of technical but high-level questions, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah, and those are all around the design and building of the pen, right? I mean, they all kind of sort of go together. So, his answer, his reply, it says, one through three. The answer says, it's true, I'm not a pen expert. I really like fountain pens. As I learned to write with one of these, to write with one and use them for quite many years at school since it was compulsory at the time. And then, right there, he goes straight into side story. When I was a kid, there were some plumes, a stick with a nib that you dip into ink at my grandparents' house. And this goes on for several sentences. I'm not going to. So, that's what I'm dealing with here, okay? So, he does what he does best. This is how he answers lots of his questions. So, then when he gets down to it, he goes, I have imagined and designed what would be my perfect pen, not from the technical aspect, but more from the emotional side of it. What I mean is more look, feel, hear. So, I wanted a simple, slick look, the weight in your hand when you hold it or write with it, the sound of the nib on the paper, and of the cap when you close it. To me, these are the most important features. So, I did send a design of the pen with these specs, and he put specs in quotes, which are all the touchy-feely stuff he's talking about, I'm guessing, to the chosen manufacturer and asked them if this could be done. They said yes, they could make a pen like this and sent me a prototype after a few weeks.

Brad Dowdy: I do know they took some standard parts to make it, but believe the body cap details on the clip were done for me since it matches my design. And really, I did not think about asking what percentage of exclusive manufacturing is done on specific tools since the pen came out the way I wanted.

Myke Hurley: If I can stop you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's, no, that's the stopping point. So, go.

Myke Hurley: All of that is perfectly valid. Yes. It would have just been so much better if that was the way he wrote it. Yes. Because that is a perfectly, in my opinion, that is perfectly fine. So, unfortunately, I don't know how to make this stuff. I know exactly what I want. These are the things that I want. I sent them to a manufacturer. They sent me a prototype, and it matches all that stuff. If this is stuff you want, we've got the pen for you. The problem is, you say you design it, and you show CAD images, so it will show that you designed it. You. Right. You, Bob Smith, opened AutoCAD and created a pen. That's the problem. Right. Yep. We're on the same page. But those reasons that he gave, and that explanation, I find that perfectly acceptable.

Brad Dowdy: I do, too.

Myke Hurley: But. It just wasn't presented that way. Exactly. Not at all.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So. Please continue. No.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know that there's much to continue on. The questions four and five were, you know, it was about the, you know, it being a Chinese pen, watching someone buy this instead of a hero. And then, you know, my question five was mentioned that the margins are low for the product. But he increased the early bird backers. And let's see what he says about this. This answer wasn't as interesting as the first one, I thought.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Let me just. I'm sorry. I'm rereading this part real quick. But.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. He was just talking about, you know, wanting to create something meaningful, meaningful. And manufacturing expenses are going down because the quantities are going up. And that's all. That's all good.

Myke Hurley: And that was what we established. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So then. Yeah. And that's. Yeah. And the answers to question four and fives really aren't. It's just nothing really interesting out of there. And he just said, you know, Brad, I hope it. I hope this answers your questions and you'll be able to understand a little bit better what Visionaire is about. So he sent me this three days ago. And then yesterday on the Visionaire project page. You got an update. Right, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Mm hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, the updates, even if you're not a backer, you can click on updates and see. And to Morgan's credit, he did what pretty much everyone had been asking him to do. One, get in front of the camera and show me you're a real person. And two, some people had some questions about the filling mechanism. So he did two videos. And you know what? Just like everything else he's done for this project, he does a really nice job. I mean, you watch him do the updates and it's like, I don't want to talk bad about this guy because he seems like a totally likable guy. I mean, either we're getting epically trolled or he's as genuine as can be. And I think it's probably the latter. I mean, he seems pretty genuine.

Video Updates

Myke Hurley: Yeah. What did you think of the videos? I mean, the one where he's talking to camera, there's not really anything to say about that. But what about the filling video? What do you think?

Myke Hurley: He didn't really seem like he knew what he was doing.

Brad Dowdy: He doesn't because he uses drawing ink for one of his samples in the video. What one was that? You know what I'm talking about? Huh?

Myke Hurley: Was that the one in the pink bottle?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's not fountain pen ink. That's like dip pen ink that no one would put in a shit. Are they putting in a fountain pen? At least I think that's what it is. I've never. I mean, it was so thick looking and it comes in a bottle.

Myke Hurley: It did look strange, didn't it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Weird. I was like, look at it.

Myke Hurley: I was like, you Americans have weird ink bottles.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's not a fountain pen ink. Why is there so little in there? You know what? I just did a search for it. It's called Higgins Fountain Pen Ink.

Brad Dowdy: And I think it's for, but I think it's really for, yeah, it says excellent for use with airbrushes. Oh.

Brad Dowdy: It does. You know what? To its credit, it does call itself. No. Okay. This site's calling it fountain pen ink, but the packaging says waterproof drawing ink. What this really is, is like something you'd use with a dip pen or something like that. No one would ever put this in a fountain pen in a converter and run it through a nib. I was pretty, I was cringing while he was doing that. I was like, oh no. But, you know, yeah, whatever. That was kind of funny. But he did have one regular bottle of fountain pen ink. Then he had some fountain pen ink cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: He does a good job on the video that you could barely hear him sometimes for the music overlay, which was very strange.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, that's. I don't think that that part was very good at the video. Like him talking wasn't very good, but.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's really irrelevant to what the thing is. But that was just a little weird. He did a nice job on the video. But when I saw those ink bottles, I was like, oh man, I've got to watch this and see what he does. And sure as heck, he dipped that fountain pen right in there and sucked up that ink. But if you did that more than, you know, pulling it into the ink cartridge and drawing and cleaning it right out, you're going to, you're going to have a bad time. So I don't, I don't recommend using the, his ink choice there for the pink ink. That was pretty scary.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. And again, you know, it goes back to what, what I was saying previously, but you know, people saying he's a Bic or whatever. He, he clearly isn't a pen addict. No. You know, he, he is a guy who wanted to make a nice pen for himself and thought that other people might like it. That's kind of where he comes from. Like, cause just hearing him try to explain ink cartridges was painful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I think, I think we can put a bow on this one. I mean, I think.

Myke Hurley: I don't think so, man.

Brad Dowdy: You don't, you don't, you think I'm going to be talking about it next week too?

Myke Hurley: I don't think next week, but it's going to come back. Especially when I get mine in, but. I know. No, I definitely heard that. This is a big story. This is a big story in our, in our world. I think the guy has raised a quarter of a million dollars. I know. Is it the biggest pen Kickstarter now?

Brad Dowdy: No, but I think it's going to be by the time it's done. I think pen type A was like in the two nineties. I'd have to look, I'd have to double check. It's got to be second and it's got 20 more days. I imagine it'll be first by the time it's done.

Myke Hurley: Pen type A was $281,990. So yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think any of them have been bigger than that.

Myke Hurley: It will be, won't it? Yep. And he explained, you know, why he did the 60 days, which makes perfect sense. You know? Yeah. He didn't think anyone would, he didn't know if anyone would want to buy it. So.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So he's, I mean.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. $276,000 he's made. It's 20 days to go. He's going to, he's going to probably get to 300. Yeah. I think.

Brad Dowdy: He's going to make, he's going to make way more money than the pen type A folks did. Yep. Yeah. They, if they made anything by the time they were done, I'd be shocked. They made very little, but.

Myke Hurley: Whoa. I've just checked. Have you seen what Karas Customs are up to?

Brad Dowdy: Uh, no.

Myke Hurley: There's 69 hours to go as of time of recording. That's $109,000.

Brad Dowdy: Whoa. That's awesome.

Myke Hurley: That is incredible. I'm so happy for them.

Brad Dowdy: I'm really happy for those guys. Um.

Myke Hurley: $1,300 backers.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And let's have the quick, uh, quick public service announcement. If you're an international buyer, um, of the retract pin, they've, we're able to get lower international shipping. So you need to go and change your pledge amount and you can, you can save a few bucks. Yeah. I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure they'll get in touch and say that, but they've got it on the site now. And this is international shipping is only $10. And $10 international shipping is pretty standard for Kickstarter projects. Okay. Seems like everything that I've ever backed has been $10 for international shipping. Okay. That's great though. I'm really, I'm really, really happy for Karas Customs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's nice to see it across that, uh, that magical, uh, arbitrary threshold of a hundred grand. That's a, that's a pretty big deal. And this is, uh, my, I'm excited to get this pin. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm really looking forward to it. And, and Dan and, um, Bill Karas, they, they crack me up with their, with their marketing stuff, their promotions. They do it. They're hilarious. Like, you know, the, um, they've added pocket protectors on there, which is like the geekiest thing in the world. I am so in love with those things. I'm just dying. Dan showed them to me beforehand and I was just crying. I was like, you've got to be kidding me that you're even considering do this. And it's genius.

Myke Hurley: I'll see if I can find an image or something for those.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're on the Kickstarter page.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There we go. It's in one of the, uh, one of the updates. So I can link directly to the update. If you want to find the show notes to this week's episode, go to five by five dot TV slash pen addict slash 66. And you will find the links there, including the visionary, uh, visionary update. You'll find, um, and you'll find the, uh, retract update with the, with the, uh, pocket protector too.

Brad Dowdy: And then I got to say in, uh, politically correct or not, they went and did another update where they were trying to get a backer for the, the day in the life thing where you get to go visit, um, visit the shop and, you know, have lunch and get your pen made right there. And they did that. They took this picture that's, uh, in their, in their workshop, um, you know, based around the, the famous last supper image. And I, I, they just, they just kill me. It's hilarious. They do a good, they do a super good job at their, uh, their updates. They, they keep it fun and that's, that's important.

Myke Hurley: So if I lived locally, I would, I would do that.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, totally. That's a fair price too. It's like 250 bucks. 250, yep. You know, to go, yeah, go spend the day with the, with the gang there. So yeah, good job by them. Uh, 69 hours to go. So, um, I know they're excited. Um, I talked to Dan last week. He's pretty pumped. So, um, and I'll be talking to him as the, uh, production goes on.

Myke Hurley: So, um, have you seen Bill, Bill's going to shave his beard if they reach 150,000?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. I don't know if they will.

Myke Hurley: That's, they've only got 69 hours.

Brad Dowdy: I doubt it in that amount of time, but that was, that was pretty cool. Like I said, they, they make it fun and funny and just, you know, do cool stuff like that.

Myke Hurley: So can't you just put some of that pen addict money behind this and get it up to 150?

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. So y'all have 69 hours left by the time we're done recording and, uh, and, um, get this posted. You'll have 68 hours left. So get on it.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: All right.

Myke Hurley: Um, can I just say very quickly? Yeah. You didn't think you can have much to talk about today. Yeah. 16 minutes.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. Myke, Myke has to listen to me usually, usually on Sunday or Monday before we record on Tuesday. Oh, Myke, I don't know what I'm going to talk about. Do you have anything? And I always ask Myke, Hey Myke, you have anything? No.

Brad Dowdy: I'm like, Oh, I guess I got to come up with something. So, um, yeah, good. I know we've talked about it all the time. Sometimes it just flows and, uh,

Myke Hurley: It always does. It's not sometimes every week.

Brad Dowdy: I know. It's because like Kara's customs, we have fun doing it. So we're able to just chat about it.

Myke Hurley: And we're good at what we do, Brad. We try. We try. I certainly try. We're the best pen-related podcast on the internet.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, there's no doubt. We're number one with a bullet.

Field Notes Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: So I did, I made a little list last night. Um, I was getting ready to, I was wrapping up a single field notes notebook and starting a new one. And when I get down to like one or two pages left in a field notes notebook, I generally don't know what to write. I want to, if I'm going to write anything new or that I need to remember, I want it to go in a new one. So it's not stuck in a, in an old one that I'm going to go file away. So I decided, I don't know what made me think to do it. And I've kind of talked about it before, but I just made a big list of my, of all the colors, field notes, colors, additions. And I just went through the list and ordered them in my favorite, um, my favorite field notes, limited editions. I ranked them based on how much I enjoy looking at them, using them, the design of them. They're not ranked by, you know, rarity or collectability or anything like that. Just how much fun I've, or how much I've enjoyed those editions. I'm not going to go through the whole list. There's 19 of them so far, but just to, just to hit it. And we'll have a link to my list in the show notes. Cause I just did it. I wrote it in the last second to last page of my field notes, um, and just took a photo of it and put it up on Instagram. So we'll have the list, but number one, and it's really, it's number one. And then there's a huge gap to number two for me. And number one is grass stained green. And it's really not even close to what number two is. I liked that edition so much that it's, it's just far in a way beyond any other.

Myke Hurley: You sent me one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I wanted you to have one. So, cause I, cause I like it that much. I want to share those things that, that I like that much and, you know, want to share it with other people.

Myke Hurley: It really surprises me that you put night sky so far down. Night sky is at number nine.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think just maybe cause it's fresh. And you know, when I look at all these other ones, how much I've enjoyed, like I've been able to spend time with a lot of these other editions, you know. Night sky is still fresh in my mind, I guess, if you will. So we'll, we'll do the top 10 real quick. So one is grass stained green. And that's really covers about the top five for me. Two is Raven's wing, which is just an all time classic. Three is butcher orange, just because I love the orange craft paper cover on that. I think it's really striking. And that was their first. So it's kind of got that, got that little extra cachet to it. Four is kind of a surprise, but it's one I've enjoyed using as much as any of them is the American tradesman edition.

Brad Dowdy: Five is just below zero, which is an older edition. But that was, that was one of the, I don't think it was the first three color books they did. It might've been Mackinac Autumn, but where they did three individual colors in the three pack of the three individual color covers.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to, sorry, I'm going to include your field notes page on your site so people can follow along with the images.

Brad Dowdy: You can see pictures of them and stuff. Six is national crop. That one grows on me as the days go by. I think that's one of the best editions ever.

Brad Dowdy: It's got that history aspect. And I think the designs are killer. And I like the specificity, you know, where they made each, each book, you know, had its own name, like cotton and soybean. And corn and things like that. Seven is butcher blue. Again, that's just a classic, classic, simple design, but it's still one of the best. Eight is day game.

Brad Dowdy: We've talked about the white with red. This was one of the first dot editions.

Myke Hurley: Did I say that's what I'm using now after I finished my first night sky? Oh, no. I went on to a day game. That's what I've been using for my daily field notes. Do you know, I'm using two field notes books concurrently now. Okay, cool. So I'm working on a new project. So I broke out an XOXO. Cool. Which has not held up very well. No. The purple's just coming off, man. Yeah. They can tell that they, I mean, naturally, they don't put the same amount of effort into these ones as they do the ones that they sell. No doubt. But it's kind of got a bit beaten up on their back and it's like the purple's just wearing away. Yeah. Yeah. They get so beat up, field notes. I love it.

Brad Dowdy: I know. It's cool.

Myke Hurley: Because I have them in my pocket, right? So I'm standing up, sitting down, fronting it around. And I love how they feel when they're beaten up.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And they wear perfectly. I don't know. It's just put together properly. And when you're done with it, it looks as it should. And it's all together. And it looks like you have a piece of your little history there. So yeah, that's cool. Yeah. So Day Game's eight. Night Sky's nine. And Mackinac Autumn is 10. Again, I like the three different colored books, like Just Below Zero, Day Game, Mackinac Autumn, where you get three separate. But in the three pack, each cover's a different color. So I'm a big fan of those. And just to, I'm not going to read the whole list, but just the last one on the list is Balsam Fur.

Olive Green Edition

Brad Dowdy: I hate that edition.

Brad Dowdy: Why? I guess I'm not an olive green guy. It's the color. I mean, it's the colors of it and the colors of the grid and the colors of the cover and the colors of the printing and things like that. I don't just, it doesn't appeal to me at all. I even put Expedition Edition above it. Just one step above. But those are the bottom two, Expedition and Balsam Fur. So it's good. I've had some good conversation around this list. And it's funny. You know, people say, you know, Balsam Fur is my favorite or, you know, it's just like pens. You know, everyone's got their own favorites and their own reasons for having it. And that's why, that's what makes this town of stuff so fun, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I've been, last week we mentioned that new Field Notes group on Facebook.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Apparently they are in love, and I didn't realize this, with that yellow capsule edition that I sent you. That's like some of the people's on there is very, very favorite. So I still have a set of those and sent you one. So those have been super popular. I didn't count any of the alternate editions like that. These are just the basic Field Notes released colors subscription edition. So anyway. I've been enjoying that group. That list is out there.

Myke Hurley: What? I've been enjoying that group.

Brad Dowdy: The Facebook group. It's so much fun. I've learned a lot. I've seen some new stuff. It's a great conversation. I think since that group started, the eBay market has picked back up again. Yeah. Like I still watch that pretty regularly just to see if anything crops up. I'm not really shopping for anything right now, but I still like to watch it just to see what's going on. And it's been kind of down just with basic editions and standard edition that anyone can get from if they're shopping at the right stores and things like that. But it's picked back up and got some more rare stuff up there now. And I think that group has played no small part into it.

Myke Hurley: I have to stay away, man. Yeah. There's a Raven's wing on there. National crop on there. Traveling salesman. Day game.

Brad Dowdy: There's a Levi's on there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That one seems to be. That's kind of a holy grail one for a lot of people.

Myke Hurley: It seems like it. Do you have those?

Brad Dowdy: I don't have those. I'm not going to pay that much for that.

Myke Hurley: I saw a post that went for like $200.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. These are already like $177.

Myke Hurley: There it is. Yep. $177.50. Four days. 15 hours left.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Crazy.

Myke Hurley: Notes along the road.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just think I like. I think one of the reasons why I like the American tradesman so much is I like the whole red, white, and blue kind of layout and context around the notebooks. And again, that's a three color, three pack where each cover is a different color. One red, one white, one blue. So it's really well done. And using those primary colors, that just appeals to everyone. And especially when they weren't easily available like a lot of other editions.

Website Redesign

Brad Dowdy: I put up a new post on the Pin Addict today. And I just wanted to talk about it really quick.

Myke Hurley: I just want to say you've changed the site again. Haven't you?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I'm a fidgeter. And we're going to talk about that in kind of our main topic today. How much of a fidgeter I am. I was getting really tired of that banner. I was getting tired of not reading, being able to read it. I was getting tired of the size of it. I thought it was too wide. It pushed the text of the, pushed the content of the page too far down the page. So I just changed it to a basic text until I can figure out. I'll eventually have some type of image or logo image up there again. So I just changed it. I just found like a font that I liked that I thought made a good title, a good header. So I've put that up there. So it's just very simplistic. But I think it looks good. It's gotten me off the ledge a little bit about that image because it was starting to wear on me. I was starting to not like how it looked. I didn't care for it that much when I did it. And then I've just never done anything with it. So I wanted to take it down and just make it simple. Does it look okay to you?

Myke Hurley: I like it. I really like the font you've chosen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I hadn't really seen that font. And I'll have to go look it up again and get the name of it. But I was very pleased with this font. And I said, okay, I think that'll fit for what I'm trying to do. Just kind of have a simple header. So we'll see. It'll change again. There's no doubt.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah, if you look on the top post on my page right now because it was the post I did this morning, I did a post titled Help Wanted. And I've always had kind of an open-door policy for guest posts. It hasn't been wide open where anyone can post anything that they want at any time. It's just been if I've had someone who's interested in reviewing some pens and we have a good conversation and I think it's going to be a good fit, we do some guest posting. Well, I want to get someone who can do something on a more regular schedule, a more defined schedule. Because I don't – any of the guest posters that I've used have been fantastic. And I just – when they get a post done and they want to post it, they'll send it to me. No set schedule, no time constraints or anything. But now I want to do something where I can get someone to do at least one review a week. And I'll put all the details in the post. We'll have the link in the show notes. But you can go to penaddict.com and you'll see it. So I just wanted to throw that out there to anyone who might be interested in writing for the penaddict. The details are on the page. And I made a fatal error this morning when I launched the post, didn't I, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I'm not talking to you.

Brad Dowdy: So the issue, I forgot. And I knew it when I was writing it. And I said, okay, I need to put this in there. And then for some reason I hit publish and left and went and ran some errands. And I wasn't around to change it. I need this person to be U.S. based. And the reason I need that is because shipping is going to – You hate everyone else. That's the problem. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just – I really don't like you, Myke. I didn't want you applying. Understood. Yeah. But I just – I don't have that much money to allocate to this position. And shipping will eat into that very, very much. So that's the only reason why I'm doing it. But, you know, the shipping cost of products will be too high for what I have available to allocate to this person who will be hopefully writing and writing very well for Pen Addict. So that was my reasoning behind it. So U.S. base is really going to help me out a lot. So that's all. Does that get you off the ledge a little bit, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. So basically they are like the Pen Addict's apprentice.

Brad Dowdy: That would be great. I didn't think of it that way. But, yeah. Yeah. I would just love to have something firm and regular and scheduled and just that I can count on.

Brad Dowdy: Sorry. Hey, Myke. Who is our sponsor today?

Myke Hurley: We are joined today, of course, by the fine folks over at Squarespace, Mr. Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. They make changing the banner on my site very easy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You're able to – the reason Brad can change his site design so fast and so quickly and so often is because he has Squarespace's amazing design tools to do that. So Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to create your own website. Sign up for a free trial when you come to get 10% off. Go to squarespace.com. That's S-Q-U-A-R-S. Oh, A-R-E. Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me try again. Now, squarespace.com, that's S-Q-U-A-R-E-S-P-A-C-E.com and use the offer code TALLYHO8. So Squarespace are constantly updating their platform with great new features, new designs, and great support. As I said, Brad was able to go in. He's able to easily change the themes if he wants to. He can change the images if he wants one in the top header. He has access to loads of great fonts like the Google Fonts Library. There's some Typekit fonts in there as well so he can make his site look and read. Fantastic. Squarespace take care of all of the hosting, SEO, and they even make sure that your great design looks fantastic on any device. It's so easy to use, but if you need any help, they have an amazing support team that work 24-7 to get that done. Go over to squarespace.com now and you can sign up for a free trial, no credit card needed. There are some great videos on the site as well which show you how different people are using Squarespace for their business, for their band, for their love, whatever. If you've got a restaurant, you want to start a blog, Squarespace has all of the tools that you need. For me personally, my own website, mikehurley.net, is on Squarespace. I would never put a website anywhere else other than Squarespace now. It just makes it so easy for me. I've been a customer of theirs for about three years. There's nowhere else that I would go. Squarespace gives me everything that I need. Their plans start at $8 a month and they include a free domain name if you sign up for a year. Don't forget you'll get 10% off and you'll support this show if you use the offer code Tallyho8. So go check out Squarespace, everything that you need to create an exceptional website. I've got another couple of examples.

Myke Hurley: We mentioned this previously that I wanted you to send in and to tweet me and Brad or just me and at imike, I-M-Y-K-E, and at Squarespace if you have set up a site. So we can see some examples. I've got one, it's eastlandoil.com, it's the Eastland Oil Company, which is a very interesting one. They're based in Texas and they've set up their website on Squarespace. So you'll find that in the show notes. So you can see an example there. It's a very cool one. It's a nice full bleed imagery. I like that one a lot. And I have also ionsomnia.com, which is I-O-N-S-O-M-N-I-A.com. Ion's blog is really interesting. He's used a really cool template which shows images and they like zoom in when you scroll over them, which is really cool. And he's got a bunch of pen reviews and pen images here as well. So it's really cool. He's got a Twisby ROC I can see there. He obviously must have posted some images. Of a Twisby ROC edition, which we're big fans of. So, yeah, you can see those over in the show notes as well. So that's at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 6d6. Thanks to everyone for sending those in. If you have a Squarespace site, just tweet me at imike and throw at Squarespace in there as well. If you've set up a site and you are a penaddict listener, send it in because we'd love to feature on the show. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Yeah, those sites look great. And Squarespace makes it so easy. So thank you, Squarespace, for continuing to sponsor us. We're very, very pleased and very happy customers ourselves.

Myke Hurley: Indeed we are.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I talked before about how I think it's a known thing that I have issues as far as fidgeting and messing with stuff and kind of having too much of a good thing and then having to rip it all down because I get frustrated because I've got so much going on and things like that. So my latest venture into the complete pen addiction problem that I'll need an intervention or at least a meeting or two on is I'm having an issue with how many fountain pens I have inked up. But I know this is not something you necessarily – you're very, very much more calm and tame compared to me as far as how many pens have inked up or using at a time kind of in a rotation that you're taking with you and using to – I'm not talking about the stocks of pens you have at home or things like that but like the things you're actively using, taking to work or using at your desk and things like that. So you don't – you're a big fountain pen fan. You have lots of fountain pens but you don't necessarily keep too many inked up at once, right? Like how many – we've talked about this before. We've talked about it several times. But like how many do you keep? I'm thinking it's only like two.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean I only really use like two at a time max. I mean I have some that have ink in them. Like I was sort of just playing around with some stuff here a couple of days ago and I've got a bunch of pens lying around like the Kaweka stuff that's still got a cartridge in. I'm maybe not that OCD that I remove the cartridges and clean them out. Sure. I don't really do that but they still work.

Brad Dowdy: I get into this cycle of where I try to keep just the few pens inked that I want to use at work or carry with me in my backpack and want to have inked up and available to use because I enjoy using them. And then I end up either trying new things or making changes or get a new ink and I'll ink up a different pen. And the next thing you know I've got somewhere between 10 or 15 pens inked at one time. Well in my situation I'm not going to say no human being can use all those inks because there's certainly people that can. But in my situation that ends up just being a waste and fountain pens just sit. It starts to bother me when I've inked a pen and then it sits there for weeks at a time and I've never used it. But I inked it up for a reason to test something out or try something out or to use it for a day and filed it back and didn't like it as much as my other pens and set it back down. So I got into that cycle again where I'd gotten myself down to using just a handful of pens and all of a sudden I was back up to a dozen. So I've tried to make a hard line this time to where I'm limiting myself to five fountain pens and five inks obviously to have inked at one time. And I'm trying to not have more than that. Like if I need to change something or have a new pen or a new ink, one of the five that I currently have inked gets cleaned, put a what's stored, and then I get to use a different pen. So I decided that this weekend when I had some spare time that five was my number. One, because I think it's a good amount, and two, because it fits in my pen case really good. The roll pen case that I use has five slots and I just think it's a good amount. It gives me a good amount of variety and things like that. So there were two kind of two phases to putting this list of five pens together. And I had a hard time with it and I actually picked out the pens, didn't ink them, and slept on it overnight just to make sure that these were actually the pens that I wanted to commit to. For a good period of time, I'm not setting a period of time that I have to use these pens for, but I've just set more of a number to be more manageable. So how crazy do I sound so far, Myke? A little crazy? A lot crazy? Just a tad. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: And the real crazy part is that I could talk about this passionately for like an hour on how I decided to pick what pens and inks I'm using. But anyway, I digress.

Myke Hurley: That might be a follow-up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, definitely need a pen intervention.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think maybe, what do you think maybe next week talking about the five and why?

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: Because they're not necessarily, especially when I saw that image of the pens, they weren't the five that I expected.

Brad Dowdy: Right, and there's a definite reason for that. So we're going to tease that, you think?

Myke Hurley: Next week.

Brad Dowdy: There's a clear reason for that. So you can see the five.

Brad Dowdy: The image will be in the show notes. I've been really active on Instagram. I've been really having fun since I didn't think I'd miss Instagram so much, but I've been really having fun. Lots of good conversation on there and seeing some good stuff. So you can see the five pens that I picked.

Brad Dowdy: They're all really great, great pens. So I picked them out like on a Saturday night or something, slept on it, and woke up, looked at the pens again, looked at the pens I didn't have chosen. I said, yeah, okay, this is a good group of pens. And then I had to pick inks for each of those pens, and that's equally as challenging in my situation because I have, I don't know, 15 bottles of ink and who knows how many sample vials of ink. Just crazy amount of ink.

Brad Dowdy: Heavily leaning towards the blue-black color. That's my favorite fountain pen ink color by far. So that took me a little while, and I had the pens laid out on my desk, and I knew like for the Namiki Falcon, which is a flex nib pen, I wanted a brighter ink. So I picked out the Edelstein Topaz, which is a real bright blue, turquoise-y looking ink. So that was easy. So I'd set the bottle in front of the pen and say, okay, that one's committed to it. And then I would just, I did that for all the pens, and I'd have all these bottles of ink sitting on my desk, and I'd take the bottle, and I'd like, look at this color, okay, lamy blue-black, and I'd set it down in front of this one. Oh, no, that's just not right, and I'd pull it off and back and forth with ink sample vials and bottles. I mean, this was like an ordeal for me. But I finally got the inks matched up into the pens. So I got them all inked up on Sunday night, took them to work with me the first night, and I had problems with two of the pens, or one pen and one ink. So after one day, I've already swapped out one of the pens and swapped out one of the inks that the pen uses. And you can see kind of this trail through my Instagram feed of the issues that I'm having. But you know what? After I made those first changes, I'm pretty content. Like, I'm not, like, panicking or shaking. I don't have, like, the shakes that I need to go clean a fountain pen and use something else. So I think I'm, I might can make it through the end of the week, Myke. I think that's a, I think that's a big, that's a goal I have. Wow. I'm not going to change any or ink up any fountain pens more than the five I have or swap any inks, at least through Friday. Woo-hoo!

Myke Hurley: So do you know what's coming around soon? What? The 6th of October, the London Pen Show. Oh, nice. Thinking about, thinking about going down.

Brad Dowdy: You have to, man.

Myke Hurley: I'm thinking about it.

Brad Dowdy: That'll be cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Pen Shows

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Speaking of which, not to totally hijack your, your thought process, the biggest pen show in the U.S. is next weekend. No, this weekend. Is this weekend the 8th? Yeah. This weekend is the Washington, D.C. pen show. It's the biggest in the country over here. And you will see all of our pen friends going to that and having, so we'll see some good posts on that. I know Aziza from Gourmet Pens is going. Ray from Fountain Pen Quest is going. My friend Thomas, who loans me all the pens, is flying in for a day to go to that show. So, you know, the Goulais are going to be there. Brian Gray from Edison.

Myke Hurley: You're going to be at the pen addict booth, right?

Brad Dowdy: I wish. I wish. What's the, what's the five by five travel kitty looking like? Can we get me a, give me a ticket in our hotel room?

Myke Hurley: Will it cost you $10?

Brad Dowdy: A little more than that. A little more.

Myke Hurley: Then we can't help you.

Brad Dowdy: No. Okay. Dang. Dang. So, yeah, we need to. We can get you there, but can you afford it when you're there? No. That would be the hugest mistake, right? Getting there is only about a tenth of the battle. It's the, can you afford it once you walk in the door? And the answer is definitely no. I'm still recovering from the Atlanta pen show. You know, I took care of business there pretty well. And last thing I need with the fountain pen and ink problems that I'm having right now is to add more to the arsenal, but I keep doing that. So, we need to get you prepped for this London pen show.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Still got a little while. Yeah. You still got a little while. You need to think about some things you want to look for and what might be interesting to you and come up with a list and a game plan. That's pretty awesome. I think you should definitely go because you haven't been to like a pen show like that before, right?

Myke Hurley: No, I'm definitely going to go. It's on the 6th of October. So, leading up to this, listeners, we need to start getting things. We need to work out how we're going to do this. We need to coordinate me. We need to get me some things to look for and some prices that I should be haggling for. So, we're going to do this, guys, together. We've got two months. Two months today to get Myke ready for the London pen show.

Brad Dowdy: I like it.

Myke Hurley: I'm going in.

Brad Dowdy: I think we can do it.

Myke Hurley: Surely some pen addict listeners will be there as well. I hope so. We've got to be if they're UK based. It must be, surely. So, maybe if there's anyone around, we can say hi. We can get a drink or something. That'd be cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that'd be good. Lots of UK readers and listeners.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: So, they've got to be there, surely.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Make an event out of it.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Awesome. You should come down to the London show.

Brad Dowdy: I would love to. One of these millennia. I'll get over there.

Myke Hurley: You should definitely make it coincide with a pen show.

London Show

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think I'm on vacation that week, as a matter of fact. Perfect.

Myke Hurley: I'll see you there.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Booked. Booked. I'm there.

Brad Dowdy: Stay with William and Kate. They have an extra room.

Myke Hurley: Do you mean the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge? I'm sure that's what you mean. I don't think they have an extra room anymore now that they've got old Prince George.

Brad Dowdy: I think I could find a closet, like, at least as big as my house to roll up on the floor. So, yeah, I'd be covered, I think. I'll just go knock on the door. Will, what's up?

Brad Dowdy: All right. I think I've lost it now. Yeah. I've officially lost it. I told you I was tired before we started recording. So, I think now I'm just getting into loopy. Mm-hmm. So, we should probably, before I really get off track, we should probably wrap this up.

Myke Hurley: So, you can find Brad's ever-changing website at penaddict.com. He is at dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the Pen Addict Podcast. If you enjoy the show, think about leaving us a review in iTunes as well. That would be swell, and we'd be very happy with you. Very happy, indeed. So, we'll be back next week. Thanks again for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Bradley.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Bradley. With no E.

Brad Dowdy: Bye.