The Pen Addict 662/transcript

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 662. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. I'm the returning Pen Daddy, Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by the OG Pen Daddy, Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Pen Daddy's in the house. Let's go. Myke Hurley is back. Let's go. That's my first from that I've gotten to do. I recorded with Jason on Monday, but he did a little fake out for the listeners, but he continued introing the show. I saw that. So that was really fun, but that means I was looking forward to giving my returning intro, but didn't get to do it. So we just got about eight weeks of Pen Energy.
• And did it come back just naturally? Did you have to rewrite it down? Did you have to think about what you're going to say? Honestly, I've actually been quite surprised at how I've just slipped right back into it. Just in general, like show prep has been fine. You know, like all of the normal that I've just moved right back into the normal time. But I do feel like I've been gone for a long time. Like this isn't one of those things where, oh, it feels like I just left. No, I feel like I have been gone for a long time. But that was the point of it. That's good. I will actually just rejigger the show here and just say I want to thank you, Brad, for holding the show down for the last couple of months. Because you had the hardest job because not only did you have to do the show, you had to learn how to do all this stuff. There's a lot of stuff. The back end. That happens and you did it all. And I don't know if maybe it didn't get to me or whatever, but I didn't see any problems in what you did. You did a great job. Oh, I think it was one thing. Actually, it was one thing, right? It was one and you caught it. I was so mad at you. Oh, well, you know, the date on an episode was wrong, right? Yeah. So just behind the scenes, the way our CMS is set up, I create the show in a draft form, right? Yeah. And I'm a person that gets ahead of everything. So if the show's coming out on Wednesday, I'm making sure I'm the file star editor. Big shout out to Jim Metzendorf for doing all the editing. He was flawless the entire time and working with some sketchy files. You know who you are.
• We're going to run down everyone. I'm not going to call him out by name, but we put Jim to work.
• Let's just say that. I think I've said it on the show before, but whenever there was a guest, I always ask Jim because I just can't. Because some of the audio files that we get, just. You would die. They're horrific.
• And so I just need the help, you know. I will tell you this now. And they know who they are. I'm not going to call them out by name. Like I said, we got one full file, like 150 meg file of silence. It was freaking amazing. I loved it.
• Yeah, I bet you did. You had me prepped. We had all the backups. Everything was fine. This is why. No one would know. This is why I wanted to make sure you were using. So big shout out to Audio Hijack, saving the day. It always does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Yeah. So anyway, the only mistake I made one time is so I'm like halfway through. Like this is maybe like the fifth or sixth episode I'd recorded. And I just, I published it without updating the draft date, like from when I created it. So it put the podcast in wrong chronological order. And I think you texted me within five minutes of, hey, you did this. I think I probably wanted to listen to it and couldn't find it in my queue, right? I think that was why. And I was like, I am going to, number one, whoops. And I see what I did. Number two, I'm going to kill you. Like, what are you even doing? Like, it was so fast. I was like, how did he even know? And so anyway, it was all good. I listened to a few podcasts and I'm not going to name names. But it's from people that should know better. It's like one of my favorite podcasts. They should know better. They do this once every two episodes. They do the exact thing that you do where they just, they, it's just dated incorrectly. I don't know why. It's like, but like a day or two. And then, cause then I opened Overcast to get it out of my list to put in my queue and it's not there. So I'm like, now I have to look for it. And that was, that was how I found it. Yeah. Yeah. So let's flip these topics. You did a great job, Brad. You, you seriously, man, I'm so thankful. And, and I also want to give a big shout out to the, to all of the guests. I know you want to list them more in a second. I've, I've still got a couple of episodes to listen to. I'm catching up, but I've listened to more than half of them and every single one of them has been excellent. So I'm really looking forward to catching up on the rest of the guest interviews. Yeah. It's been really fun. Got a lot of great feedback from the listeners, from all the guests. So let me give everyone a shout out. I just want to say thank you to Aziza from Gourmet Pens, Dan from Enigma Stationery. Every, all these people were taking time out of their schedule, working around a weird schedule. I recorded on so many Sundays, which was so helpful for me, just to be honest.

Guest introductions and collaborations

• Everyone was, was super easy to work with schedule wise. So Eric from Amarillo Stationery, Rob Knight from the internet, Corolla, AKA from Corolla, Kimberly, all the hobbies who also writes for the pen addict, Annabelle from Opus Cenaris, formerly of Applebone Pens, and Drew of Farney Pens, Drew Brown, the new president of Farney's Pens. So I appreciate all the guests taking out their time. I appreciate all the feedback we got from each of these, each of these guests. And it was, it went well. So unlike you, I literally wrote down every intro to every episode in my notebook. And by like, by like the sixth or seventh one, I was like, oh, I think I could do this just for memory. Because I always say, like, how do you not mess like you do at the same time? So I literally, if you go back, oh, my only other mistake was in Kimberly's episode. I called it the wrong episode number. I wrote it down on my notebook wrong. I mean, I do it all the time though, so. Yeah. And I do this on our show notes doc. Because I didn't do a doc with anyone except Kimberly, because we had so many questions in there. We did, that was our Ask TPA recap. So I don't know if you've listened to that one. That was a full Ask TPA one. Yeah.
• So I called it episode 670 the entire time because I'm staring at my notebook and that's what I wrote down. But it was 660 instead of 670. Somehow I just jumped 10. It really just blasted into the future. Yeah. And I did. And the thing was, I said it like mid episode, like I couldn't change anything. It wasn't worth it. So just the next episode, I apologize and got back on to 661. So that was, that was my only like true mistake. Everything else. God, I'm surprised it went so well. And it's all thanks to the guests. I'm not surprised, but I'm just very thankful. Yeah. But lots of, lots of good questions, lots of good feedback, lots of great people. So y'all should go listen to, you should listen to this show if you're not already listening to this show. One of the joys of my paternity leave is listening to the podcasts that I'm on because like I like them, right? Yeah. Yeah. So all of the shows where people filled in from like filled in for me, you know, I got to listen to them just as a listener. And the thing is like about like, I just like these shows, right? Which is why I make them. Like I want these shows to exist. And it was just really nice to just enjoy them as a listener for a couple of months. Yeah. It's funny because you're not going to go back and listen to this episode. Absolutely not. No. Yeah, absolutely not. No, then I was on it. I've already heard it. You know, like I don't want to listen to it again, but I got to just listen to original content. And the funny thing too is like my life was very busy. I had no other way of keeping up with what was going on. And so like I just genuinely, it was hilarious to me. I feel like I'm just a listener right now because most of our listeners are not following the topics to the detail that you follow pens and I follow Apple, right? For like the various shows that I'm doing. So they just use our shows as a way to keep up with stuff, which is kind of the point of them. And that was exactly my life. And I was like, this is great, but I like being on the shows too much. So I'm back. Yeah, you're back. So let's talk about that. What have you been up to? How's life? Baby good? Family good? Baby's great. She came a week early, which was a huge surprise to everybody.

Personal life updates and new baby

• And it was not the way things were planned. We were, it was funny really because Idina was told on her final checkup a couple of days before, there's no way the baby's coming before the due date. And then the baby came a week early. Oh, absolutely. It was as old as, you know, as these things are often described, it was a traumatic experience for everyone. But it was fine in the end. We had a few days in hospital, which genuinely were actually really welcome. The hospital we were in, the care that we got was so good. There was actually part of us that did not want to leave, but we wanted to go home.
• And then there were, you know, various ups and downs of trying to work out how to do this. I feel like we've gotten to a pretty good point now. Like, so Sophia is our child's name. She's nearly nine weeks old, which is crazy. You know, I was, I was, this kind of only partly answers a question that you have for me here, but I was writing something down in my journal today and I wrote daughter, my daughter, and I'm not used to that. Oh, yeah. I'm not used to that. It's a, a lot of these things are very weird. Like even to me right now, like I'm not used to Sophia. I'm not used to it because we don't really call her that, right? We call her the baby, right? You know, like we often me and Nadine will be like something, something, the baby, the baby. You know, that's just how we refer to her most.
• And so like referring to Sophia Hurley, it's like, I'm just not used to it. It's a very, it's a weird, it's weird, but everyone's doing great, I would say. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. And you did a little, a little bit of a catch up with Jason Snell on Upgrade earlier this week. Sure. So I enjoyed that, going over some, some dead live stuff. So y'all should listen to that if you're not familiar with Upgrade, one of the longest running shows on the Relay Network. And you should check it out. Not the longest running though, you know. Yes, not, I did, I said one of, because I mean, please, like who else? Oh, actually, I think NPU is the longest running show. There's an asterisk on there, okay? But there's an asterisk on this too.
• There's an asterisk on both. Yeah, but it still wasn't a day one. That's true. Pan addicts is here day one. It was like a day one Relay Show. It has more episodes. Three left. There were five total, three left. Yeah. All right. So who else do I need to take out? Casey.
• Uh-oh. And then Steven and Federico. I'd prefer it if you didn't, though. Totally.
• I don't know. I had my opportunity with Casey this past week. That's true. We'll talk about that. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. All right. So I did have some listener questions. I was back on Twitch this week. I've had like a crazy three weeks. I haven't been home. Hardly. I haven't had like a normal schedule. Yeah. So it's actually nice to have. This is your first week back is my first normal week of schedule this month. So it's good. So we got a few random questions from everyone when they found out that you were going to be back today and we'd be talking. So the most important question, which you had already informed me because it was important to our friendship and the state of our podcast, is the birth certificate signing. Yeah. And you actually told me a really epic story about this. So why don't you share what happened with this? So I'm at the registry office. I went on my own.

Birth registration process in England

• There are really interesting rules about birth registration in England, at least.
• And kind of like we ended up the hospital that we can choose even with the NHS, right, which is like publicly funded health care. You have a lot of options available to you, I think, in a way that people wouldn't assume. Like you'd think that because this is publicly run that you would just be told what you were doing or whatever, right? But no, we actually like got to choose. So we chose a different hospital to the hospitals that are in the borough that we're in based on like just past experiences. And we also wanted a hospital that, you know, had like a good neonatal ICU just in case and all that kind of stuff, right? So you can make choices. And as long as they have availability, because they're kind of like guessing how many babies they're going to have, right, at any one time, then they'll take you. So we ended up giving birth in a different borough. And then because of that, the birth registration, if we were to do it in our home borough, it's like a much more complicated process where all three of us would have to go and do the registration. But if I just went back to the registry office in the other borough of London, I could just go on my own, like just me. So we're like, oh, we're going to do that. That's like a great idea. Because then it's just the minimum amount of effort on the whole family. Dean is still recovering because we're just a couple of weeks in. And we didn't really want, and that would have been a much further trip than we'd taken the baby on at that point. I will say our baby, true London baby, she's already been on a bus. She's been on the tube. She's been on a train. She's even been on a tram. There's like this weird tram line in a part of London, which I don't know why it exists, but she's been on that too. So she's true London baby, all forms of transport. You know, this kid, she's out there. She's living life. Nice.
• And so I went, but it was too much. I didn't want to take her on the trip, so I went on my own. So do the whole thing, and we're looking through the documentation.
• Terrifying, right, to fill out a birth certificate.
• What I liked was we filled it in online.
• So me and Dean went through it together. That information is sent to the registry office. They then ask you to tell them it all again, and they're just checking against what you've written. They then print it, and the registrar gives it to me, and she's like, go through it all. I'm like, great. She gives me a pen to sign, and it is a Lamy Safari with registrar's ink in it.
• And the registrar herself, she had an AL star. No way. So, however, I will say, very poor ink flow on that Lamy Safari. I'm sorry. Because those nibs have been destroyed, right? There is no way that was a good experience. Because she's giving that to everyone all day. Yes. And they're just, like, wrenching that thing into oblivion. But I got the signature on it. Wow. And it has one of the most extreme, like, intense inks in it. Like, this ink has to be taken care of. I can't imagine having, like, a pass around Lamy Safari with registrar's ink in it as the signing pin for this. That's amazing. When this man slips through the thing, I was just like, oh, look at that. But I was like, I can't do this because she's going to think I'm a weirdo. By the way, on the birth certificate, you get to just, you know, you state your profession. You can be whatever you want, and I'm a book podcaster. Yes, you did. That's why I know. Yes, you did. Why not? Heck, yeah. Absolutely.
• What color was the Lamy Safari? You know, I don't remember. Yeah. It didn't stand out to me. Yeah, it was probably, like, blue or black or something like that. Yeah, something like that. The one, like, a yellow one.
• And that, I'm just, it actually makes me cringe how bad that pen must have wrote from someone who knows how to write with a fountain pen. It was rough. I'm sure nine out of ten people walking through there can't sign with that pen, which must be a nightmare. Yeah, it was surprising to me that it wasn't a choice. Sure. It was just what they gave, and I was like, huh. Yeah. She just, like, passed it over. Here you go. She said, there you go. This is what you're signing with. And I just imagine so many people pick up that pen, and they're like, what do I do with this, you know?
• What a mess. Okay, so that was the important question for this podcast. We have some more questions, though. How are you sleeping? How is the family sleeping? How is Sophia sleeping? You're asking the question that I don't want to answer. Uh-huh.
• She sleeps great. Okay. It's okay to say that quietly, yes. I feel guilty. No, no, no. To other parents, you know? No, we're just jealous. Like, we're just, like, I had one of each, right? Right. That's why. So, anything can change, but she has slept great. Good. For, like, after the first week or so. Like, we actually have to wake her up for a feed at night. Yep. That's amazing. She goes down at a consistent time every night, wakes up for that feed, and then is asleep until we wake her up in the morning. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, that's, you're very, very fortunate. I said, we have had our own fair share of struggles, right? Oh, please. And so, this one being the thing that is working for us, we're very, very happy. It's been very, very helpful so far, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. How are your diaper pit crew times? Like, are you in there? Zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop. I'm getting super good at it. Let me tell you. Yeah. Because with Idina's recovery, so, like, Idina had a cesarean, and so her recovery was more complicated. Sure. And so, for the first two weeks, I did every diaper change.
• Yeah. And so, like, I just became a pro.
• Like, and I could do it. Yeah. I mean, I had to, I did a diaper change in the public, in a public bathroom in a hospital when she was, like, five days old. On a changing table that was at a, I'm going to say, like, 97 degree angle. You know? So, like, I'm having to hold it up. It's, like, a whole thing, you know? So. Yeah. That, like, it's a real nerve-wracking experience, the first couple diapers, and then it's just, like, are this is on. We're going to do this. Like, I can do this standing on my head, you know, hanging out the window of the train. Like, it's just, it's on now. Yeah. I've gone, I've gone fast at it. Like, we've both gone pretty good at it now. So, like, the diaper change is going well. So, you talked about journaling a little bit. How's that going? Are you doing a little bit of journaling about, you know, what's been going on in your life? I wanted to be doing more. Sure. And, like, I even took my journals home with me.
• Journals.
• You have to wait for that second one for a while.
• And I really had the intention of wanting to keep it up, but I just didn't. So, like, today is the first day where I've actually completed my theme system journal. So, I have another journal, and I've been doing some backfilling of it, like, just based on events that were occurring. So, like, kind of, like, doing some retrospective stuff, which I'm going to do a little bit more of. But, you know, best laid plans, I would have journaled every day about how I was feeling, but...
• It's exhaustion. It's, like, too much... Like, this does not rank as, you know, highly on the list of things that you need to get done. We have photos. On the chopping block. You know, and we have lots of them. I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of photos of, you know, every single day so far. But, you know, the way that I've described it is, like, parenting a newborn, that's all I know. I don't know about what other parenting is like.
• But parenting a newborn will take every ounce of energy you have to give.
• Like, if you're good or if you're bad, it will take all of it. Like, because there's always more that you can do. There's always more to do than what you're doing. And, like, I feel like these days... I'm already aware, like... I've been a dad for eight weeks. And I'm aware of the fact of how, like, social media puts so much pressure on parents. About, like, the things that you should be doing with your child for their development. And it's just, like, I know that all of these things nobody did when I was a kid. And so, like, that idea of, like, there's always more you can be doing. Because our heads are full of ideas of these, like, ideal things that we should be doing of our children to make sure that they're developing correctly. So, like, if you've got a day where you're feeling good and the baby's feeling good, you'll fill it with stuff. And so, like, it just keeps happening, you know? Yep. And, you know, honestly, it'll be more available to you later as, you know, more, you know, for lack of a better term, you know, Sophia's doing more stuff. You know, walking and talking and, you know, throwing stuff across the room. And, you know, none of that's happening right now. We're just, you know, eating, sleeping, and pooping right now. So, we're in that phase. But, yeah. So, that's a new movie, Eat, Sleep, Poop.
• So, yeah. Last question. Favorite British guest podcast replacement? I feel like I know who sent this question in. Yeah, I'm curious. It was very funny for me to see Rob pop up on the show.
• I've known Rob for, like, 10 years, I think. Yeah. And, I don't know. It's just very funny. Very funny for me to just see him appear on the show. Yeah. I liked it. It was purposeful. It was a great episode. It was purposeful, right? Like, I wanted to, like, I brought in some friends. I brought in some people who have been on the show before. I brought in some people who were new to the show. And then, I brought in, like, a true outsider in Rob. Not in outsider in friendship, but outsider into the stationary world. Gotta keep him outside, bro. Gotta build a war. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Rob Knight, the outsider.
• So, it was nice to have just, like, a new, fresh perspective. Yeah. On some of the silliness we get up to. I agree. Because Rob is pro-silliness, which I appreciate very much. And, yeah, it was always a, it was a great talk. So, we're not gonna claim him as the favorite British guest replacement. But, you know, fair enough, fair enough. I mean, it's possible to do if you only have one, right? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. All right, Myke. Well, I'm so glad you're back. It was honestly interesting writing the show notes this week. I was very confused on how to do this again after just doing, like, full interview shows for eight weeks in a row. Well, I was also very confused when, I think it was yesterday afternoon. I was like, oh, I want to put my note about the Lamy Safari into the show notes. Yeah. And I opened the Google Doc and it hadn't changed in eight weeks. I was like, what's happening? So, I was like, I'm just not gonna touch this and I'll add it in later. Yep. And you'd already done it for me. Yeah. You know my, you generally know my schedule. Usually on, like, my Tuesday afternoons, I'll initial, my initial stuff will go down and then I'll work on it, like, all the way up until the show starts. So, yeah. Once I put that in there, you, once I updated it to episode 662, you were in there. So, that's great.
• This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just getting started or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings of a professional website, grow your brand, and get paid all in one place. With Squarespace, you can get discovered fast with integrated SEO tools because nobody wants to build a beautiful website for it to be seen by nobody. That's why every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions and auto-generated sitemap and more so people find your site through search engine results. You can also offer your services and get paid with Squarespace. From consultations to events and experiences, you can showcase your offerings with a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Think built-in, appointment scheduling, email marketing tools, and more. You can keep everything cohesive with on-brand invoices and get paid easily with online payments. This is an example of the breadth of types of websites you can build to Squarespace. They really have the options for everything. And over time, just add more and more and more to the platform. So, as your business grows, as your website grows, Squarespace grows alongside with you. That's been the case for me. I mean, and Brad. We've been using Squarespace for like 15 years, both of us. And, you know, if I look at Brad especially, at some point it's like, hey, I want to have a store. Well, Squarespace can do all of that, you know. Really is amazing. But don't just take my word for it. Go try it out for yourself. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and sign up for a free trial. Then when you're ready to launch your site to the world, use the offer code penaddict to check out and you will save 10% of your first purchase of a website on a main. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict with the code penaddict to get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of Relay. So one more behind the scenes thing that I just remembered as you're reading this ad. Yeah. I did a lot better with the ad reads when I had to do them live than when I had to record them after. Why? Absolutely. That is the case. I'm the same. So if I, there are some shows where I record them later or I have some shows where I, where they're, they're recorded. They're just like recorded without an audience, right? Without the live audience. I do way better when I have the live stream going. Yeah. It's, and it's like a sliding scale. The one, I have one show where I record the ads and I'm just recording them on my own. That is the one that I struggle with the most. Yeah. It's weird, right? I hated that. Yeah. I was like, wow, it's a lot easier for me to just do this in line and live and everything. So yeah, it was good. All right. One other issue. I keep, I keep one more thinging with myself like 500 times this episode.
• One thing I did not do for the entire run while you're out, Myke, was shout out of the week. Whoa, whoa. You're stealing my bit. You're stealing my bit. I missed it. We have a shout out of the week this week, Myke. Uh-huh. Go on. You sung it. You have to wait for next week now. No, we have to wait for next week now. You sung it. That's how it goes.
• After the first episode or maybe the second episode, someone pointed that out. I was like, you know what? It didn't even cross my mind because like I'm just in like a different mode. Like I'm interview mode and I'm not in our regular doc. So I'm just like writing and it's like, I'm just going to own it. We're not going to do it. But we're back this week with Kaleidocraft Prince, Myke. So this is my friend. Jacqueline started up a new business, 3D printing a lot of stationary accessories. And I did an unboxing yesterday. And the stuff that they are thinking about making is so fun. And it's all stationary related. Most of it's stationary related. You know, there's ink file holders. There's pens that look like dragon scales. There's a crab pen holder. There's fidget toys that look like pencils. Like it was just amazing stuff. And I wanted to give them a shout out. One, because I love Jacqueline and I wanted to tell her that. And two, because they're going to be doing their first pen show at the Chicago pen show coming up here in two weeks. So if you're at the Chicago pen show, go check out Kaleidocraft Prince. I'm also giving a bunch of their stuff away on Twitch this week. If you happen to listen to this podcast and want to catch me on stream, I've already given away one gift pack from them. And I just have so much stuff. We're going to keep giving everybody more. And you're not going to stop hearing about this stuff, Myke. One of my favorite things is I got a wheelie bin, Myke. I literally have a trash can on my desk that's about the size of my hand. I've already called it the steak Sauber wheelie bin on here. But it's this cool like tie-dye looking thing. I'm always looking for, I don't have a trash can by my desk. And being someone that's into stationery and paper goods, I always have like small sheets of paper I need to throw away. This is like the highlight for me. So now I have this little trash can on my desk and it rules. So thank you, Jacqueline. Thank you, Kaleidocraft Prince for the shout out of the week.

Visit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

• I was on a trip recently to go see the campus at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So I just wanted to talk about this real quick. If you don't mind, I know you don't mind. I want to hear about it. Because this is your first time at St. Jude, right? This is my first time at St. Jude. And obviously, you know, this is a big deal for us at the Relay Network.
• Our September fundraising efforts for St. Jude is the highlight of a lot of our years. And this year, I'm going to get to be on the podcast-a-thon live in person in Memphis, which we've mentioned, I think, before you went. So excited about that. Yeah. So one of the things I got to do was go to this Play Live event that they have, mostly for Twitch streamers. But every year, they invite members of the Relay crew out to come see the behind the scenes of St. Jude, get to hear from doctors, nurses, patients, you know, marketing CEOs. Like, literally everyone comes together. And, you know, it's basically like, hey, like, we couldn't do this without you. Like, we appreciate all the work you do. Here's, like, where your money's going. Like, here's why it's important, you know, to help fundraise. And it's really cool. It was a really, it was an epic event. Like, it went by so fast. Like, we had two full days of doing things. And it was super well organized, super fun. We had brilliant weather. Apparently, this is a time of year where the weather's usually sketchy. They actually gave us all ponchos in our gift bag, apparently, because it's, they've had some weather. I once went to Memphis in March, and it snowed.
• Yeah, Memphis is in a weird spot, like weather-wise. Yeah. They get all the seasons. Everything. And they get, they're, like, on the edge, and so when it hits there, it's heavy, whatever it is, whether it's rain or snow or sleet or ice. I have no doubt Stephen mentioned this, but they had something called once-in-a-generation rain, like, two weeks ago. Yeah. Or generational rain, it was called. Generational rain. So when I landed, we had perfect weather because that storm had passed. Right. But the Mississippi River, so for those not in the U.S., Memphis is on the banks of, like, the biggest river in the U.S., and it was past its flood stage, like, when we landed. And you could see just how far the river, how far the water had gone over where it should be. So it was crazy. It didn't affect us. It didn't look like it was affecting the city, but it was teetering, if you will. Mm-hmm. But the St. Jude experience, it's something I'll never forget. I hope I get to do it again. Obviously, I'll get to do it again in September. But, like, I'm still reliving so many moments from that trip to this day, just thinking about everything that goes on there, how important they are in the scope of not just U.S. health, but global health, and how important it is to them to, you know, keep these survivor strip rates up for these kids and support the families that come in there when they're getting care. And it's just an unbelievable organization. I'm really, really happy to be a part of it. And thank you and Stephen for, you know, inviting me this year and getting to go on this trip. And, yeah, like, September is going to be awesome. I'm really, really excited and looking forward to this. You were an obvious addition. I'm really excited to the crew for the year because you do so much for the fundraiser every single year. You raise so much money through the pen addict. And we're all super thankful of it. And you got to see the Wall of Gratitude, the relay name of the Wall of Gratitude before me. Yes. Stephen made a point that, oh, Myke is going to be jealous about this. This is not going to go well for us. Casey-less of all people, you know, before me. What's happening here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a Wall of Gratitude when there's, like, certain fundraising levels for, like, for their biggest fundraisers. And I don't know if Stephen told you this, but, like, if you look at the close-up of that picture, Myke, I don't have it in front of me. So are we on the hope? Like, there's dream hope. Yeah. We're in the dream. Those are ranked in fundraising amount order. Oh, they are? Yeah. So we're at the top of that group, which puts us ahead of, like, Apple and IBM and, like, all these other great companies. So it was pretty hilarious. We're no joke. Yeah. We're no joke. Like, we're serious business out there. And so that was pretty cool to see. And then in another part of the building, like, we got to sign the wall. We got to do some of the parts of the tour that were not available for everyone who was there. We got, you know, a little VIP tour action going. So we got to see some really cool stuff. And, yeah, mind blown, like, on what they're trying to do. It makes me want to work even harder for them. So I'm going to do some different stuff in September. We're not going to spend time talking about it today. But we're going to change what I do for fundraising in September, just in general terms, mostly because I'm going to be gone for a week in Memphis.
• So we're going to do things a little bit different, but we can discuss that as things get closer. But, yeah, things are starting to ramp up for planning here in the next couple weeks. And it'll be here before you know it. Call late.

Stationery trends and pen shows

• All right. Let's get into stationery the rest of this show. I know we've been bouncing around a little bit, but we needed to catch up. And we've had a lot of things going on, to say the least. So I wanted to bring up this topic. Not that I have anything new to say.
• But it's a topic that I can't really get my head out of. And it's something I'm tracking really closely. And it's the concept, at least this is in my head, that our stationery show is the new pen show. Okay. And this kind of started last year with the Oseka Stationery Fest and how it kind of broke my brain a little bit in what type of stationery show I personally enjoy. Now I want to make a couple things clear here. Right? Like, pen shows are, like, totally fine. And not everyone's going to be into, like, what I consider, like, a stationery show. Right? Traditional pen shows aren't going anywhere. They're totally fine. You know, I didn't have a great time at the Atlanta pen show. Not because of the people that were there. But it was just like, oh, this is just, there's nothing to do here except shop. Right? And I think certain parts of our community want a little bit more if they're going to commit to, like, a multi-day event. Right? You know, if you're going to the Atlanta pen show on Saturday afternoon and taking care of things, and, like, there's a real added benefit to having that show in that area for local people to come and get their stationery fix and their fountain pen fix and all that stuff. It's fantastic in that aspect. But for an event, in the broader sense of the term, it was super, super lacking. So, we're seeing kind of this, I hesitate to call it a split. It's not a split right now because what I'm calling the stationery festivals are so new. And, actually, they're kind of broken right now in their newness in that they're getting overwhelmed. Right? They have a problem where they have too many people. And I worry if a traditional fountain pen show that doesn't change, like in Atlanta, is having a smaller crowd because it's not bringing anything interesting to the market. So... People sure aren't traveling. Yeah. Like they used to for Atlanta. Right? Like, that's not happening anymore. Yes. It's not happening. And there's other things going on in the global market and the economy. And, like, there's, this is not a very black and white discussion. Like, there's nuance everywhere in this discussion. And, you know, take everything I say as simply my opinion, not like a state of the union. It's just a feel that I'm getting from the community as someone who is, you know, pretty dialed in and has a lot of, gets a lot of feedback from a lot of different people. And that things are changing quickly. When, it's been built up for years. Like, 10 years ago, having, like, this stationary type show that was, like, full of classes and interesting vendors. That was always kind of like the dream, right? The stationary con or the pen con. You would joke about calling it. And now those things are actually starting to happen. And they're showing to be successful.
• And there's, like, three or four, like, big conferences this year. No, not conferences. But events this year that are more stationary focused than, say, traditionally fountain pen focused. And they're selling out tickets. They have a lot of hype behind them. And all of this is to say, this is just something I'm following intently. Like, I am very interested to see how this goes. And as I mentioned before, each station, there's been two popular stationary shows so far. The Yoseka Stationery Fest, which was in Brooklyn last year that I attended. And then Chicago had one in March. And they both had huge flaws and problems with the running of the show. But had a huge upside in, you know, potential and vibes. So, like, I don't want to sugarcoat that they didn't have problems or anything like that. But the fact that they're having to solve for an overcrowding situation or on the converse side, somewhere like Atlanta is going to have to try to solve for, like, a deterioration of attendance. Like, which side would you rather be on? Yeah. Right? Like, I – right? So, which do you want to fight to fix? Well, it's like a lot of people want to come to these stationary fests. Let's fight to fix, you know, the attendance and the space and the crowd sizes and the ticketing and all that stuff. So, again, I – this is just my opinion, something I'm watching very intently. Because I feel a change in the force, if you will, in the overall community, right? The overarching community, and this is a complete sidebar, is, like, you know, I wonder what the stationary community is spending their money on just as a concept.
• Right? And, like, there's – you know, I don't know how many thousand dollar pens people are buying these days. Right? Like, the market is starting to change, and I find it very, very interesting. Yeah. So, it's cool to see. Yeah. I don't know about the, like, the spend. Like, I genuinely don't know about the spend. Who knows? Yeah, I don't either. And I wonder, like, some of the pen shows with a declining audience, like, I wonder if it's that important to them, like, realistically. Exactly. Like, I don't know the answer to that question. Like, I think of a show like Atlanta.
• I feel like at a certain point, the large crowd was detrimental to the show. Sure. Like, to the existing show that was there and was, like, hard to manage.
• And, you know, they could have adapted, and all of these, they could have adapted to embrace that, but it requires a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but my expectation is that some of these, some of the best pen shows around, they're essentially run by volunteers.
• Totally. Totally. So, you've got to want to do that work for the love of the game, right? Right. Because you're not making money on this. And so, I think the existing infrastructure of pen shows, which the modern hobby has kind of moved into, I think there is, it's not really sustainable for them to hold on, like, to manage that. Yeah. And I think what should happen, and I think what is clearly happening, is new shows with new incentives are being created, and that is probably the right way forward. So, I think of something like a San Francisco, I think of something like the more stationary-focused conferences. Like, I'll say, the thing, the show I am most interested in going to is the Chicago Planet Conference. Right. Like, hearing Anna talk about that, like, that's where, that is, I really want to go to that. Like, that sounds great, and I think would be professionally very helpful and interesting for me, but just like, it sounded like the classes that they were putting on were fantastic, and unlike anything anywhere else, right? Yep. And so, like, I would like to do that, do those experiences. Like, there was an experience that Anna ran, right?
• It sounded really great. I don't remember what it was now, but it's building a journal or something. Oh, sure. Yeah, there's all kinds of different classes. We did a sigils art class at the California Penn Show, just all kinds of different types of things you could do. And so, like, I think that, you know, the way forward is people who want to put on a good show for the sake of putting on a good show, and that's kind of the way that it will work, is my expectation. Yeah. I think, like, my short version is I'm looking for an event, and I'm not looking for, like, a show, right? Like, what we call a traditional Penn Show. I want to go and do things more than shop. I want to shop. I want to spend my money. Like, I'm down for that. But for me to spend two and three days at a place, I need more than that. And the shows that do that successfully, like the New California Show, I think has done a really good job at this. You're essentially trying to turn the Penn Show into more of a conference. Yep. Right. Than just a shopping event. Because by doing that, by programming the show, you're keeping people there. And that is a benefit to everyone. Yeah. It's a symbiotic relationship. Yeah. Like, otherwise, you're just having a, you know, a trunk show at a hotel room. So, yeah. So, anyway, that was – I haven't really talked about this with you that much other than just in passing. And like I said, I don't have, like, all the answers, and I'm going to pretend to have all the answers. And I know how difficult this is. Like, I've straight up told people I do not want to run one of these events no matter – if I could create my absolute perfect event, I still wouldn't want to run it because it sounds like a nightmare. So, like, shout out to everyone who does do this. Like, I'm, you know, I'm not trying to just, you know, like, you know, shots fired type of situation. Like, I understand how hard it is and the challenges that we see in this. So, it's not easy, but it's more of an observation of, like, a change in the community that I'm seeing just in general terms. So, anyway. I was really surprised when I read Refill and, like, kind of how down you were on the Atlanta show. It was like, oh, wow. Yeah. Like, that's a change. It kind of hurt. Yeah. It kind of hurt. Yeah. Like, I think that came across – like, it was just a bit like, oh, man, like, that's not – that's not what I want to see. Like, that's the show, you know, like, for me, in my mind. I mean, obviously, it's not anymore, but, like, it felt like that. And I don't know. It's just sad. But I'm not surprised at the same time because, as I already said, like, I just don't know if the incentives align for the promoters of the show to put the amount of effort in. Now, of course, there are simple things, right, as you referenced a few times. They just put the correct date on the website. Yeah. Yeah. So people can find the show and come to it. But, like, I don't expect the Atlanta show. I don't expect any of the smaller shows to truly program a conference.
• Correct. But the bigger shows, especially those that are set up by members of the new community, I absolutely expect that. Because otherwise, why do it?
• Well, Myke, one of the reasons why these shows need to step their game up because we have a lot of great online opportunities to buy pens like our good friends at Pen Chalet. So what's going on over at Pen Chalet? Oh, they have the best stuff, Brad. They sell all the products that you're looking for from the brands that you love. They have fast and reliable customer service with new pens being added to the site every month and discounts, discounts, discounts. You're going to find fantastic prices over at Pen Chalet. Close out specials, special discounts and discounts for listeners of this show that I'll get to in a minute. As well as all of the products that I mentioned, you know, like rollerballs and fountain pens and points and mechanical pencils. Pen Chalet also has some limited edition products and all the accessories that you're going to need as well. They are the one-stop shop. You can go there and get whatever you want. And Pen Chalet is always adding new stuff from new brands. That brand list gets longer and longer and longer every time. They're selling exclusive things. They're selling things that you can get at better prices than anywhere else. That's what they're all about. Pen Chalet do international shipping with great shipping rates and free shipping on orders of over $75 in the U.S. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So take yourself over to penchalet.com slash penaddict. You will get 10% on anything at Pen Chalet and also see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show.
• Right off the top, they have a stipula etruria. That's a hard word to say.
• It's like a classic black and looks like rhodium or gunmetal type of trim on there. It's a really classic-looking pen, and I was like, oh, man, this pen looks great. I don't own any stipulas. Then I looked at, like, the price, the discount on this. I was like, whoa. So we might have to investigate that a little bit more. This is a large percentage off of this pen, and it looks pretty cool. One I mentioned previously that is still on the list, the Pelican Twist. I'm not joking about this pen. Brad, you're going to have to shout about this twist, you know?
• I see what you did there. Thank you. I'm back, baby. Yeah, you are back. There is also, you know, yellow and lime green if you wanted to add in a different type of twist for some of these colors. It's just a good pen. It's a fun pen. It has an aggressively molded grip. Like, this is essentially a kid's trainer pen, but they write so well. And for the price, it's just great to have one of these. It's fun to have them laying around. Down here further, they have the Ranga Samurai fountain pens or the Ranga.
• I've used some of their ebonite pens, and they have some ebonite. They also have a resin one in this, and they're very, very swirly. I like the wild swirls. This one's blue and pink, and it's kind of wild, and I'm here for it. And they're a really good price, and they're very, very nice writers, very great pens. They have the Lamy Econ ballpoint pen if you're looking for a ballpoint. And then they have Aurora 100th anniversary ink in orange. Orange. Orange. If you listened to our STPA episode with all the hobbies, we had to pick the most orange orange inks to match the color of the rainbow. And Aurora orange was my pick for just a straight-up orange. So tons of stuff over at Pen Chalet. The list this week is exceedingly long, so go check it out because there is a lot more than I mentioned. So take yourself over right now to penchalet.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and the penaddict. All right. One little quick topic, and then we'll try to hit some STPA that came in while you were gone or that I overlooked. I made a traveler's notebook, Myke. You know, the classic traveler's company notebook, not just a traveling notebook. And I made it for literal reasons, like literally the traveling, a travel notebook, because I was wanting something to capture things when I'm on the go. And the two notebooks that I use at home, number one is my plotter, which is pretty much only work. Like it's got a planner, it's got a calendar, it's got work notes. It's not really made for like on-the-fly note capturing. And then aside from that, I have a desk notebook like that I'm scribbling podcast notes in right now. It's a Life A5 notebook, which I have a comment on that here in a second. I meant to put this in the show notes. I'll add that in just a minute. It's my desk notebook where like I test inks, I write nonsense, like I do reviews in it. And that just stays here. Like neither one of those notebooks, my plotter or this Life A5 notebook or something, for example, I would want to take to St. Jude, right? These would not be beneficial to me writing stuff in. Like I could, I just wouldn't like it as like a stationary nerd who has jobs for their notebooks like we all do. I wanted something a little bit different. So I made a traveler's notebook that's going to be my traveling notebook and my creative notebook. So that's part two is the creativity part of the notebook. I bought a watercolor paper insert in there because someone in this live stream chat has gotten me into painting with water brushes and just having playing with ink and water brush and seeing like how inks, ink characteristics look, painting ink ponies, which we have talked about and just having more of a creative fun outlet for that. And I wanted a place for that too. So it's kind of this all in one situation. I'll admit like I haven't like totally dove into it. I took a bunch of my St. Jude notes in there and I took some in a field notes that was good for carrying it around during the day. And then I would like transfer like important stuff over at night into the traveler's notebook. So this is a new setup.
• And when I'll be exploring more, I'm just kind of scratching the surface with that. But I wanted to throw that out there because that's a new thing for me. I've owned one in the past and it was a little bit my planner and work notebook, kind of what my plotter is now. My plotter is locked in on that job. I really love it for that. And I'm interested to see how this traveler's notebook takes hold. So that's kind of my new dalliance and we'll see how it goes. We'll report back later. All right.

Listener questions and ink recommendations

• Just some else TPA? Yeah, let's hit a few and we'll wrap it up for today. Craig writes in and says, as my ink collection has continued to grow, I'm curious if there are any inks you would consider essential and that every pen addict should try or own at some point. I'm not looking for brands or lines, not like Hiroshizuku, but specific inks like Hiroshizuku Shinkai. Yeah. Yeah. So actually listen to the, um, the STPA episode with Kimberly. I forget which episode number that is. Um, it should be six 60. I think the one I, I misnumbered. If I could pick one ink for someone who's ink curious, right? Someone who's gotten past, Hey, blue, black inks. Those are fine. You know, maybe I'll try this red or green or whatever. If I'm telling someone to go out randomly and buy one bottle of ink, I'm telling them to buy Ackerman number 28. Oh, great choice. Oh my God. Like it's such a great color. Now, like you could say, go buy Diamine Meadow. It's the same thing. Fine. But you're getting the Ackerman bottle experience. Yep. You're getting one of the best colors in the world experience. You're getting a different enough shade. If you're already a green fan, like it, it, it is such a good ink. Like that's the one I would go to like on this list on the very specific, you should buy this ink list. I think Ackerman number 28 is number one on that list. The second one off the top of my head. I probably, I don't even know if you can get this anymore. Sailor Manio Akibi is a personal favorite of mine. It's a magenta and it has kind of a little bit of a sheen to it and it's got great character. But I think like I'm having a hard time picking like even a second through fifth one that you should try because then you really get like you could go anywhere with this answer. But I think Ackerman number 28 stands out at the top on a list like this. So that would be my vote. Rubber us to fire and ice. Yeah, that's a classic. That's a, that's probably like, yeah, that probably needs to be, hey, I'm going to start a collection with five for lack of a better term. Let's call them important inks in the, in the sphere. It's a Hall of Fame. Yeah. Yeah. Like a Hall of Fame. What is the Hall of Fame inks? I think Ackerman number 28. I think Fire and Ice, right? That's like one of the original Robert Osters. And then we could argue, you know, a few more. Like Shinkai is one of my favorites.
• But yeah. And it's probably a Hall of Famer. But, you know, there's just a, that's, it's a lot to think about. There's a lot of inks out there. I think Fire and Ice was like an ink that launched a thousand shimmers, you know, like it just, I think it really changed things. It wasn't the first, but I feel like it was just such a good ink, a reliable ink, and also so readily available. I think it, it shook things up a little bit for a while. Yeah. Speaking of shimmer inks, that Fire and Ice was not a shimmer, but it had a little bit of sheen on it. Sheen. That's what I'm looking for. Speaking, like if we're going to put one in there, it's probably Emerald of Chavor, Jaherbal Emerald of Chavor. That's probably one of the greatest things of all time too. Yeah. Right. That's like, so there's three right there. That wasn't the first one, was it? They did one before that. They did, I think the blue one came before that. So they did a flat blue, then they added shimmer into the blue. I forget the name of it. Yeah. Then they had a silver shimmer into the blue. And then I think from there, it might've gone to Emerald of Chavor. I'd have to look at the list, but it was not the first, but it was like the first one that made a difference and made people go, oh, wow, this is a thing. Yeah. I would say like Emerald of Chavor is to shimmer inks that fire and ice was to sheening inks. Like. Yeah. They, they really, they became so popular. I think it pushed a lot of other companies to follow. Yep. Yep. So yeah, that's good stuff. Bill writes in and said, I, I enjoyed the episode of Drew, Drew Brown, where I discovered that Farnies carries Mont Blanc. My question is on gold nib high-end pens. I have a Pelican M800, Pilot Custom 743 and a Sailor Pro gear. I am interested in a Mont Blanc 146. Am I grasping at a name brand? Will I be satisfied with the performance of a 146 over my Pilot Custom 743 or my Pelican? Mont Blanc is a grail pen for me, but I'm not sure why. I don't want to be disappointed and want your opinion of the Meisterstuck line of Mont Blanc. You are not grasping and you will not be disappointed. The 146 is different than all those pens, in my opinion.
• I've never owned a 743, but I've tried them. That's, that's actually probably like the most drastically different. Like any, any of the Japanese pens are going to be very different from the Mont Blanc. The Pelican M800 is closer. It's not as large. And for a larger pen, like a 146, you know, I, the nibs on the Mont Blanc are unbelievable, right? If you, if you like the Pelican M800 and you like a wetter nib, you know, I don't think you're grasping or wish casting anything. Like I think it's the Mont Blanc's, the 146s and the 149s are some of the best pens ever made. And to this day, like, you know, the classic vintage ones all the way to the modern ones. You are not going to make a mistake if you like that writing style of nib, which is wide and wet, even on the finer versions. So the, the quality and feel, I mean, the only thing you're grasping at is the price premium of, of a luxury brand, right? So you're getting dinged a little bit for that, but it's worth it. Like for sure. Like, you know, the, the Mont Blanc's, you know, for that type of name and luxury, they hold, they hold their own as far as like quality and experience goes. They're really good pens.
• Sometimes there is a reason that something becomes so mainstream.
• And the reason that Mont Blanc's have is like, it helps. They're just really good. Yeah. And, and I think that people think that this is just a Mont Blanc thing, right? That like, if you, that like all Mont Blanc pens feel really good when obviously lots of pen brands feel really good, but it kind of just becomes like a thing that people are aware of and it becomes just like perpetuated.
• But yes, they make great products. Yeah. And you, you, as Brad said, you won't be disappointed with how it feels, but I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about how much it costs you. Yeah. When you're, after you're done with buying it. Yeah. And I say all this as someone who does not own a traditional Mont Blanc. I own one like mini Bohem Mont Blanc. Yeah. The, the big Mont Blancs are not for me. I say that as someone who will not own one because they don't work for me, but has used a lot of them of my friends and owned a 149 at one point. They, they just don't fit my writing style. That doesn't mean they're not just absolutely spectacular pens, which I think they are. Did that Wes Anderson pen ever come out? I don't know. I don't think it did. I was thinking that at the, maybe at the Atlanta pen show or the California pen show. I was like, I need to ask somebody because when we did that whole bit on the release, it, it was like a year out. I think it'd been at the time. It was like a 2025 launch. I thought, or like a 2024 launch. It was a far away launch. And then I don't ever recall seeing anything again, but I just thought about that. I'm on the Mont Blanc website and I can't find, I just cannot find it.
• What happened? I've never seen one. So I'm, I'm curious.
• If somebody knows. Speaking of pricing problems, that was, that might've been the issue. That was, whoo. Yeah. That's true. That thing looked nice, but that's, I mean, that's why it was going to be expensive. Finally, Joseph writes in and says, I hate stickers. I don't understand them. I never use them. Why do I want random stickers of pen purchases? I'm happy to change my ways, but help me understand what's the appeal.
• I mean this in the nicest way, Joseph. You're in the minority. Yeah. And that's okay. Like it's, it's, it's not a black or white thing. Like not everyone's going to use the stickers or, you know, candy that comes with orders or just these little things. But I'd say the majority of people like that little bit of extra, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be a sticker, but just the little, a bookmark or whatever, like a little thing, but not like, it's okay to not like to, to hate the stickers that come with your orders. I'm totally down with this concept. Like I disagree wholeheartedly. Like I want all the stickers. I want doubles. Can I have Joseph stickers? Joseph, if you make an order, just say, here's Brad's address. But no, I, I'm seriously, I don't want to, I'm not like hating on you at all. I think this is a totally valid, valid argument, but I think just in a general thing, when we buy products and it could be non-stationary products, like I just bought a pair of sneakers. There was a sticker in the box, right? I pulled that sticker aside and stuck it with all my other stickers so I could just have it for later. I like that kind of thing, right? I'm in that collector, visual, design-y type of aesthetic and it's not everything. Some people, that sticker will never leave the box and don't hit the trash can. That's okay too. So no need to change your ways.
• You know, there's no extra to peel, but people like to do a little, a little bit of extra. Sometimes it's stickers. You've got to put, just find something to put them on. Here's my good tip for you. Like, you know, I like to put them on laptops or something, but a water bottle, put stickers on a water bottle. Just a good place to put your stickers. What you need, Joseph, is you need a hate sheet. Okay. So just make a sheet and all the stickers go on that and just call it the hate sheet. And that's where all your stickers go. You could like, I don't know, put it under your desk or something. Yeah. And then you're going to start enjoying stickers. See, this is a trick. I'm trying to trick Joseph right now. I'm tricking him into using the stickers and then going, look at this sheet full of stickers and how cool it is. And both Rob and Kate in Discord found the landing page for the Wes Anderson pen, which still just says available in 2025 with an email button. Like, say, you press a button and put your email address in to a contact form.
• All right. I mean, it's still 2025, Brad. So are we betting on this? Yes or no in 2025? 2025. I think it will happen because all they need to do is ship 10 of them and they'll make him happy. You know what I mean? I'm going to say no then. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a pen where, like, it's kind of like what a lot of watch shops do, where there'll be a really small amount of them. And the stores will just call their high value customers and be like, do you want to give us 10 grand for one of these pens? And then, all right, then. And they do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we're on the record.
• Because I wouldn't be surprised, Brad, if part of the reason he did this is so they'd make this pen. And so then they have to do it. They have to fulfill it, right? It never made sense, the timing of the movie and the campaign. Yeah. Like, it was literally on the wall across the street from my hotel when I was in Brooklyn for Stationery Fest. Like, a huge mural of this. To be fair. And that was summer 2024. What they were actually selling wasn't the pen.
• Sure. They were selling a selection of leather goods.
• Yes. That's what they were selling at the time. You could buy all of that. And the pen, I think, was the thing that, like, he was just like, can I do this? Right. Right. Yeah. All right, then. And so they went to Mont Blanc and he put this thing together. Yeah. They were essentially selling the brand. Yes. It was basically a brand campaign as opposed to a product campaign. It was a brand campaign. But there were products attached to it, which are the leather goods. They did, like, a bunch of green leather goods. Yeah. And I think it was also to celebrate an anniversary for them, wasn't it? I don't remember. But anyway. If y'all haven't seen, if y'all never watched the movie that they created for this, like, two minutes long. It's on the landing page. It's in the show notes. Is it on the landing page? Yeah. All right. Cool. Cool.
• You have a while to decide if you want to buy it. You have a while to decide if you want to save money for it. I still want it. Because it is stupid expensive. It was, like, over two grand. I still want it, though. For, like, the baby size. Because it's beautiful. Have you seen it, Brad? It's beautiful. Oh, yeah. Two greens. It's unbelievable. Yellow. The red top. Yeah. Yes, please.
• Well, if that doesn't say that Myke is back, I don't know what does. I'm happy to be back. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. I'd like to thank our sponsors, Squarespace and Pen Chalet, for the support of this show. If you want to find Brad online until next week, go over to twitch.tv slash penaddict, and you can see Brad's stream a few times a week. You can read over at penaddict.com. You can buy his products over at spokedesign.com. I meant to ask you about something you probably don't want to talk about, so maybe we'll come to it another time. Tariffs, baby. Let's do it. I'm intrigued.
• So am I. Okay. Maybe we can save that. I think that will be an interesting conversation to have in the future to talk about that a little bit, but I guess for now, I don't know. You told me. You could go to spokedesign.com and you could buy some pens.
• You could also find Brad online where he's at penaddict on most social networks. You can find me. I'm Myke. And you can find my products over at cortexbrown.com.
• Hey, Brad. They said, why are your products so expensive? And I say, you know, I make them in London. And then they say, why'd you do that? And then I say, suckers. Because I can still offer them to you.
• So we're at cortexbrown.com. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.