The Pen Addict 67/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	67
Title:	I’m A Fashion Maven
Release Date:	August 13th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 67
Audio File:	Audio Episode 67
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 67
Length:	4646 min <br />0.767 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, episode 67. The Pen Addict 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 am joined by a man who I'm sure only owns Czech shirts because they remind him of the grid paper that he loves so dearly, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I have a complex about that. Really? No, but it just seems like every picture is like that, that I do. Myke is referring to this new thing that somehow came up between me and some of my followers on Instagram where, I don't know, number one, it seems like every picture I'm in, I'm wearing some type of checker plaid shirt. And that's, I mean, that's pretty true. You should see my closet. It's pretty scary. And then I just happened to make a picture the other day just showing the Retro 51 Vintage Surf in my pocket. I was going to register the kids for school so I knew I would have to be writing a lot. So that's the pen I chose to take to school to write with. And I just did it in my shirt pocket. And it was a plaid shirt and, you know, that was it. And I didn't think anything of it, posted it to Instagram. And then someone said, I don't have it pulled up right now, I can't remember who it was, is like, we need to have, you need to make this a thing. We need to pocket shots, you know, every day. And then other people started doing it. So now we have this tag on Instagram called pocket shots that, you know, we've already got other people getting in on the game right now. So it's pretty funny. But, yeah, it seems like every, like the one I left last night because the shirt I was wearing when I took it is actually the same shirt I have in my avatar photo. So it looks kind of funky. Just happened to be what I was wearing last night. So, anyway, yes, that's a thing. So you'll see all my pocket shots. They're going to be variations of plaids and checks. And pretty much that's about it. That's what I wear to work. And it's kind of funny. But, anyway, join us on Instagram and hashtag pocket shots.

Myke Hurley: I'll put a link to your Instagram in the show notes. So that tends to be every week. But people can go and they can see your pocket shot photos. I don't really put pens in that pocket. I put them in my trouser pocket, which most people will probably find peculiar.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't do that. It's very, it'd be very rare that I clipped a pen to my pocket. Now, there's a few that I will. But otherwise, I'm pretty hesitant to do that. Especially fountain pens or, you know, something that's not really, like, really on lockdown.

Myke Hurley: I clip them to the pocket.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, absolutely.

Myke Hurley: Or my space pen is clipped to the notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, now I'll see that. Now, I will do that sometimes if I have a mini pen. I'll clip it to the inside of the field notes and that will go in my pocket. But it's usually clipped to my shirt, either the pocket or the placket. So maybe we'll have placket shots coming up soon if I don't have a shirt pocket.

Myke Hurley: Placket?

Brad Dowdy: You don't know what a placket is? A placket is the middle section where the buttons are. That kind of double-layered, thicker part where the buttons go on your shirt.

Myke Hurley: I had no idea.

Brad Dowdy: That is called a placket, yes.

Brad Dowdy: I'm a fashion maven, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I can see the Wikipedia page.

Myke Hurley: Placket. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I am a former Brooks Brothers employee, so that's where the knowledge comes from and I guess the check and the plaid shirts.

Brad Dowdy: We should carry on, shouldn't we?

Myke Hurley: We probably should, buddy. We probably should.

Brad Dowdy: Carry on up the charts.

Myke Hurley: What charts?

Brad Dowdy: Not the iTunes charts at the rate this is going.

Myke Hurley: Hey.

Brad Dowdy: So we got some killer follow-up this week. This will be a mostly follow-up show, I have a feeling. And then we got a little bit of main topic, which is kind of follow-up in and of itself. So let's get into it.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: We talked, I think it was maybe, I don't think it was last week, I think it was two weeks ago where we posted about this new Field Notes group on Facebook, which caused me to recreate my Facebook account just so I could join this group because it seemed like it was going extremely well. And it is because Jim Koodle of Koodle, I guess, what's the main company name for him? Koodle Partners.

Myke Hurley: Koodle Partners.

Brad Dowdy: Koodle Partners. Yeah, that's right. Koodle Partners. So he's the founder of Field Notes along with Aaron Draplin. But Jim Koodle and Brian Bedell, who works for Field Notes, who is, you know, I've talked about time and time again, he's answered some emails for me, who works at Field Notes, I guess, I think pretty much since the beginning. Jim and Brian took the time out of their day one day last week to do an Ask Me Anything or an AMA session on this Field Notes Facebook page. And seriously, if you're into Field Notes at all and, you know, even if you're not a big Facebook person, you should find a way to go in and read this because as I'm staring at it right now, it's 388 comments. And that's just not the members of the group doing this. Jim and Brian were extremely effective in answering questions and giving some feedback to the users. They were very involved. They did this for hours. It must have been, I don't know, just kind of look at the timestamps. They were in and out of the group for three or four hours answering questions. I was very impressed. I read through the whole thing. They gave some great answers. So you guys should definitely check it out. It's, they're doing a great job supporting the community and Field Notes has always done a great job at that. They're very approachable. And, you know, they like to talk about their product as much as we like to talk about their product. So I was happy to see that. And that's a fun thing. So we'll have that link in the show notes for you to go look at this Field Notes AMA. But you got a chance to read through that, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I wasn't there when it was happening. Yeah, I missed it too. I kind of found out about it. And it was all done by the time I found out about it. But I've actually read through it. Well, I haven't read it like word for word. I was like scanning through and picking out some bits. And it was really interesting. They were very open as much as, you know, they will be because you're never going to find out like the next version, you know, of Field Notes or whatever. But yeah, it was cool to read. I enjoyed it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they gave a bunch of good insights. And they do a good job of not spoiling the next edition because that's a huge part of the game these days. I think as big as they're getting, I think they're starting to sweat that a little bit now.

Myke Hurley: I would kind of hate it if they did spoil it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I like the surprise of getting that email.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's the big deal. I mean, that's totally a big deal.

Myke Hurley: I know it's coming soon again, though, because they're tweeting about like checking proofs and stuff. So, yep.

Brad Dowdy: It's coming. Yep. So, check out that AMA. It's very cool. They did a good job. A lot of good insight there. And you have something cool coming up related to that, right? Do you want to talk about that?

Command Space Podcast

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, on 5x5, I host an interview show called Command Space. And Command Space is a weekly show where I tend to talk to people in the internet and web community, etc. Now, this upcoming week, the show is usually released on Wednesdays. But I'm actually going to be having two episodes this week because it was an opportunity I didn't want to turn down. I've actually got the chance to speak to Jim. And so, Jim Kudal is going to be a guest of mine on Command Space later on this week. So, I will have my usual episode on Wednesday. But episode 57, which will probably go up either on Friday of this week, which is the 16th, or at some point over the weekend, will be a special episode with Jim Kudal. And we'll be talking about the deck, which is his advertising agency. But, of course, we're going to be talking a lot about Field Notes. If you have any burning questions, I mean, assume that I'm probably going to grab the, you know, where the Field Notes come from, all of that sort of stuff. If you have any burning questions, maybe you had something that you wish you could have got to ask in the Q&A, tweet them to me, and I maybe will pick some of the best ones to reach on the show, if it's anything, you know, that I haven't already thought about. So, feel free to do that. But, yeah, so I'm sure that the listeners of this show will probably be really interested in that. So, look out for that. It will be at 5x5.tv slash CMDSPACE. So, it's like, so it spells like CMDSPACE. So, it's Command Space. And it will be episode 57, I think I said. So, yeah, you can find it there. But, obviously, you can find a link to the Command Space page as well in our show notes for this show, which are a lot easier to type, which is 5x5.tv slash PenAddict. And you'll find a link there in case you have not listened before.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. I look forward to that. Jim's an interesting guy. He's involved in so many things. He's not just, you know, people might just know him for field notes or they just might know him for the deck and not put two and two together. And then he's got other things going on, too. So, he's an impressive individual. It's fun to hear from guys like that who are involved in so many things. So, I look forward to that. And I'm going to come up with some questions, too. So, I'll send you some. Maybe I'll get picked.

Myke Hurley: If you're lucky.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You auto-delete my emails, I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I just have a filter.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, last week, I talked about my decision to cut back how many fountain pens I carry and have inked up at one time. And I guess two weekends ago is when I set this up. And the very first night I set it up, I had issues and made a switch, switched the pen, switch and ink. And we talked about a little bit that went behind the decision. And I got a lot of feedback on that saying where are certain pens that I've very openly discussed as my favorite pens. So, like in this loadout, I did not include the Lamy 2000, which I love. I did not include the Pilot Vanishing Point, which I love. Yep. And I did not include the Pilot Custom Heritage with the PO nib, which I talk about all the time, which I love.

Myke Hurley: So, this is why I originally was like, I want to know why you've picked what you've picked and what you've picked.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And it was funny because you weren't the only one that said that. I mean, I was getting emails like, hey, where's the, you know, Lamy 2000 or hey, where's the VP? And it was a conscious effort. I didn't think I would actually get feedback like that at the time. I wasn't thinking. But then once I started getting multiple people saying, well, why didn't you pick this? This is the pen you love and you talk about all the time. And it was actually a conscious effort to use the pens that I know aren't. I know those pens are my favorite pens. There's no questions that I have about the 2000 or the VP or the Pilot Custom Heritage 912. Those pens have been solved, if you will. Those are probably my top three favorite pens, favorite fountain pens, which reminds me I need to update my fountain pen list. That's a whole nother discussion.

Brad Dowdy: I know how much I love those pens. So I felt that I need, if I'm limiting myself to five, I want to try, say I have maybe 20 really good pens that I want to kind of sort out, get the details on, use more, enjoy more than just having them sitting there in a pen case uninked. I want to get them more into the rotation so I can have a greater experience and appreciation for these pens. So that's why I wanted to pick things like the Pilot 51. God, there, I did it again. The Parker 51. That is just complete brain loss.

Myke Hurley: I have such trouble with Pilot and Parker.

Brad Dowdy: It is. I don't know why. It's just the 51 though. It's just the 51.

Myke Hurley: For me, it's just with everything.

Brad Dowdy: At least I caught myself that time. Half the time, I don't catch myself and I get reamed over it over Twitter afterwards like, yeah, you did it again. You're so stupid, Brad. Huh? You're so stupid. I know. You did it again.

Parker 51

Brad Dowdy: The Parker 51, which is actually pretty new to my collection. I just bought that off my friend Thomas, I don't know, like a month ago. So, you know, I want to get that pen. I want to use that pen. So if I'm limiting myself to five, I've only got so many slots in my pen case. And, you know, the Pilot Namiki Falcon, that pen is amazing. And with that Flex nib, it's, I never thought I would like, I thought I would like that pen, but actually I love that pen. So I want to get that in the rotation. And then the TWSBI Mini, which is well known to me and something I've used a million times, but I bought an EF nib for it, which previously I had a 1.5 millimeter stub nib. So I swapped out the nib. So I wanted to use that.

Brad Dowdy: The Edison Beaumont Stealth is a pen that, you know, I've had mixed feelings on when I first tested it out. Then I kind of came around on it and fell in love with it. So I wanted to get more use out of that. And then the Pilot, gosh, the Pelican M405, which I actually have had loaded out for a long time. I still need to review that pen. So that's why I kept it inked and loaded out because I enjoy using it and I need to write a review on it. So that was kind of my decision. The pens that I love, I know I love them and I have no questions about. The ones I chose to keep inked up and loaded out are pens that I still had questions about or wanted to try something different with. So that was what went behind this decision. Because this isn't a permanent selection, right? I mean, this is going to be a rotating thing. But, you know, it was good for a change to go into this past weekend when I usually clean or ink, re-ink my fountain pens. I didn't have to do any of that. I cleaned no pens this weekend. I have the same five pens, which means my decision was pretty solid, I think. So I'm pretty happy with the way it's going. And, you know, I'll be changing them out, you know, and fitting in new pens. I'm going to have new pens coming in that I want to review and things like that. So they'll cycle in. And then I'll have some of my favorites coming back in there that I missed, like the Lamy 2000, which I'm already missing. I want to get that back in there eventually. But, you know, that was the point behind it is to force myself to use some of the pens that I'm not using as frequently. And kind of set to the side the pens that I know are great. And, you know, like I said, I feel like they're solved at least and that I love them. There's no question about them. So that's kind of what went behind it. But I did get a lot of questions on that. So it was interesting feedback and good feedback. So but this will be a kind of a recurring thing. I'll definitely have some updates to this. I'm thinking about switching out one of the inks. But really, I'm pretty happy with the five pens I have loaded out now. But I do have a couple of pens on order that will force some changes into this rotation. So I look forward to that, too. So does that make that make sense?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, man. I'm excited to see how it changes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I guess it makes sense. Right. The things that you really, really love don't necessarily need to be tried and tested and used all the time.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And that's it's actually kind of it's a little bit of a hard balance for me because I do need to review pens. I'm not just carrying everything that I love all the time and just going on with my life. There's things I need to figure out about some pens because I need to answer some questions either, you know, on the podcast or in a public venue like the, you know, like on the blog, doing a review or something like that.

Myke Hurley: So that is kind of unlike me in a way like I recently anyway, have been finding something and that's what I'll use. Like I haven't really been chopping and changing a lot. I use the space pens so much more than I thought that I would have done though. Oh, wow. That's good. Just because it's easy and it's always there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because I am filling up these field notes books like I never expected I would have done.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool. We'll hold that thought because we're going to talk about that later.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, definitely. But yeah, I mean, that's, you know, part of trying to figure out all that. I do because what I would do before it was say I'd have all my favorites loaded out with ink, right? So I'd say, man, I'd have all those pens that I say I love and they'd be in one pen case. Then I'd have a whole another pen case of pens I need to test out or. You know, review, answer questions about things like that. So that's how I'd end up getting 10 or 12 pens inked all of a sudden, right? So I was just trying to throttle that back a little bit and kind of have a little bit better life cycle of inking the pens. So it's, I was worried at first. It's surprisingly working well right now. So we'll see how it goes to be determined. So we got another pen that it's, it's going to cause consternation when I'm, if I'm just inking up five pens when it comes down, when it comes down to it. Yes.

Myke Hurley: It's a bit of a bombshell really, I think.

Brad Dowdy: It caught me off guard. How about you?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Just a tad.

Brad Dowdy: Just a tad. So why don't, why don't, why don't you drive this? Cause you actually own this pen and I am waiting for mine. So what, what do you, what do you have in your hands?

Colt Pens Fountain Pen

Myke Hurley: So full disclosure, previous sponsor of the show, Colt Pens have a, a new fountain pen, a mini fountain pen that they have been developing in conjunction with Kaweco. They've actually made it for them. It's called the Colt Pens mini, mini fountain.

Myke Hurley: And it's a very, it's a small, it's a mini slim fountain pen. It's, I don't know, I assume aluminium.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Anodized, anodized aluminium with a matte brushed finish. Now, also worth pointing out as well, the guys over at Colt Pens sent me this. I, I, you know, I feel like I should say that. Definitely. You know, I feel like that's important.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. And they are sending me one as well. I have not received it yet. So they sent Myke and I these pens to review at no charge.

Myke Hurley: I don't want to get into it too much today. I wanted to mention that it was there and give some very initial impressions, but really I would like me and Brad to talk about it back and forth a little bit when he receives his, which might even be by next week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I would wager it probably is. So hopefully next weekend we can dedicate like just like a review slot, dude, and we can go back and forth about it.

Myke Hurley: So the pen is very well put together. It's very well built, as you would expect from Kaweka.

Myke Hurley: It's nicely balanced. It's very small. It is so small that it has to have the cap on really to fit in my hand.

Myke Hurley: But it is weighted in such a way that that is not necessarily a problem for me. You know, sometimes there are some pens that work like that. This is one of them.

Myke Hurley: It is very nice to look at. The anodized aluminium, the brush finish is quite nice. I like that a lot too. Again, I also haven't had as much time to use this as I would have wanted to.

Myke Hurley: So that's another reason why I want to be able to give it a little bit longer before giving a full review. There was one thing that I wanted to mention about this pen. So all in all, it is really nice. And if people have been holding off to see what our thoughts were before they bought one, I would say if you trust my opinion on these things, then you're going to like this. Because it's kind of everything you would expect and want from a product of this type. It's very well put together. It's extremely well valued for money.

Myke Hurley: It looks great. Works great. I mean, because you don't need to be concerned about the Kaweka nibs, for example. You know, because you know that they're good because you've used them before. Or we have. And we know that they are. So I know that Brad would say that that's fine. Because they are the same nibs. They are Kaweka nibs. Yep. So I had asked for a medium nib.

Myke Hurley: And our friend Greg, he said, look, cold pants. He's like, why don't I send you a couple? Why don't I send you a few? I was like, okay, go for it. So he sent me a medium, a fine, and a broad nib.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So I tried the medium out, and that was okay. I mean, you know, it was perfectly fine. It was what I've used in Kawekos in the past.

Myke Hurley: But a little on the fine side of the medium for me. And one of the reasons that I never really liked the Kaweko, as in a daily user. Like, I've always liked the pen, but I've never really fell in love with it. Because the medium was not really medium enough for me. So I thought, because of that, I'll try the bold.

Myke Hurley: So I tried the bold nib and didn't like it. Really? Yeah. It gave the right line, but it felt like there was some issues with the flow for me. I just wasn't a big fan of it. I mean, it worked fine. It just wasn't blowing my mind. Okay. Like, it wasn't laying down as much ink as I usually expect from a bold. And I found this from Japanese pens, really, in general. That bold nibs don't give me what I want from a bold. And medium don't give me what I want from a medium.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Personally. Except these are German nibs.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you were waiting, weren't you? How long were you going to allow me to continue around that road? Okay, well.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, no, no, no. You just said it. You were... Do you want to finish? Because I do have a comment on that.

Myke Hurley: No, no, please.

Brad Dowdy: Go. What... I know, I'm collecting my thoughts here. Oh, okay. What you're saying about Kaweco's nibs, I agree with 100%. And I found two companies, and someone, a listener, can maybe tell me if there is similarities in the manufacture of these nibs, because Kaweco does not make their own nibs.

Brad Dowdy: Kaweco nibs and TWSBI nibs, which TWSBI sources their nibs from Germany. Bach nibs, I guess, or Jowo. I don't know which one they're using today. They've gone back and forth. I wonder if Kaweco and TWSBI use the same manufacturer, because I find, in comparison to other German pens, to other German nibs, that the Kaweco nibs and the TWSBI nibs are finer than their other German counterparts, say Lamy, Pelican, something like that. So if you take a Kaweco extra fine and a TWSBI extra fine, they're going to be much finer than a Lamy extra fine or a Pelican extra fine, despite the fact that they're all German, air quote, nibs.

Brad Dowdy: And I think that's what you're running into. So that's just, that's not, you know, scientific data. That's just from using all these nibs. That's why I rave about the Kaweco EF nibs and the TWSBI EF nibs, because they're a tighter and a finer line than a Lamy EF nib. Then, you know, then like if you were categorizing them in the big bucket of German nibs versus Japanese nibs, there's some variance, right? Not every nib is created the same. And I find that Kaweco and TWSBI nibs, right, identical to each other, which I think is why I love them. But that's why I think you're running into, you know, like the medium, which would be if you went into the store, Myke Hurley goes in to buy a fountain pen. He buys a German medium nib, that would be his expectation of what you would like, where this Kaweco one is probably a little bit finer for you than what your expectation would be.

Myke Hurley: So that would make sense why I expected that they were Japanese style, because they're finer. So, but saying what you did about the comparison to the TWSBI, it's very interesting to me, because the nib that I've fallen in love with is the fine, which is the same as the TWSBI. So, I really, really like the fine nib. It's not scratchy, it's very smooth, gives a good distribution of ink, and it's a nice legible line, and it works really, really well for me, and I've been enjoying the fine a lot with this.

Brad Dowdy: Cool.

Myke Hurley: The Colt Pens Mini Fountain Pen with a Fine Nib, that is my recommendation.

Brad Dowdy: So that's yours. So, okay, cool. So hopefully I will get mine this week, and we can kind of, we'll go through head to toe when I get it, and we'll have some conversation around it, and expand on it a little bit more. So I look for, hopefully, I would wager I will get it in time to be ready for next week's episode. I hope so. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: All right.

Listener Topic

Brad Dowdy: So we've got a little bit of a follow-up slash main topic, so you want to get into that after we do hear from our good friends at Squarespace? Sounds like a plan to me, sir. All right.

Myke Hurley: Just give me two seconds here, he says, as he's just bringing up the document to do such a thing. So this episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to create your own website. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use the offer code TALLYHO8. Squarespace are constantly updating their platform, adding new features, adding new templates, new designs, and just making the platform even more irresistible. They have beautiful designs for you to work with. Tons of style options that allow you to adjust and create your own space online. Squarespace gives you all of the tools that you need to create your own website, whether that's like a portfolio, a business site, a blog, whatever you want to make, Squarespace do it all. They take care of the hosting, SEO, and make sure your site looks automatically great on any device as they feature responsive web design out of the box, so your site's going to look fantastic on any device. They allow you to connect your social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and many more, so you can post automatically and share content with the sites. You can set up a commerce platform, so they've recently added e-commerce to Squarespace, so if you want to set up a shop and sell things, you can do so in just a few minutes, and this can be integrated into any Squarespace site. Go over to squarespace.com, you can sign up for a free trial there, and check out their videos. They've got some great videos that show how different people are using Squarespace to create their own sites online, and it will help give you some great inspiration for how they could be and should be the home for your next web project. While you're there, sign up for a free trial, no credit card required. If you decide to purchase, Squarespace plans start at $8 a month, and include a free domain name if you sign up for one year. And make sure you get 10% off and support the show by using the offer code TALLYHO8. That's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O and the number 8. So go check out Squarespace, everything that you need to create an exceptional website.

Brad Dowdy: So that's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O-8. Eight. Okay, I had to write that down. I might need that. I might need that in the near future. Just saying. Just saying. Oh, was that not on mute? We weren't on our private channel?

Myke Hurley: No, that was fully on the shows. Sneaky Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you might have to edit that out.

Brad Dowdy: There's no editing on this show.

Myke Hurley: No editing on this show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, TALLYHO8. All right, that's written down. Just saying. Written down.

Myke Hurley: Noted. Very intriguing.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we have a topic that a listener sent in that I thought was excellent. Excellent idea. And I'm totally going to get the listener wrong. Who sent this in because I didn't write it down. Oh. I'm pretty sure. I'm 99% sure. It's Tony Gionta. Who on app.net is Ynot. The letter Y-N-O-T. He is a new pen addict listener. He is a new fountain pen addict who has gone from, you know, zero to 60 in 3.1 seconds in his fountain pen addiction. And he asked. And I thought it was a great thing because he was going back through a bunch of the old episodes. He ran across episode 36, which had our stationary resolutions for the new year. So we did that right after the new year in 2013. This year, earlier in January. The episode is actually called Would You Like to Try a Sample? So.

Myke Hurley: That's a good episode name. That's a good episode name. I like that. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That was a good one. That was a good one.

Brad Dowdy: So Myke and I, in that episode, I went back and listened to it. Tony said that we talked about our stationary resolutions for 2013. So he wanted to hear a follow-up on how that's going for our resolutions. And I'm like, oh, this is not what I need listeners for. I don't need them to call me out and say, hey, you did this. What's now? But I'm joking totally because I thought that was an awesome idea. So I went back and listened to it, and I jotted down the things that we talked about. So I think we did pretty good, Myke. I was like, oh, man, what did I say in that? And I went back and listened. I had two main resolutions I wanted to make. One, I was having a problem with my notes, handwritten digital notes being spread out over gobs of paper, notebooks, digital note-keeping apps like NBALT, SimpleNote, everywhere. So I was going to consolidate my notebooks into, at the time I said, a Rodeo Web notebook and just kind of have the one notebook where everything goes into. It didn't matter what. That sort of worked for me. I have definitely consolidated notebooks, but it's actually – I'm not down to just one notebook. I do use a field notes notebook to keep just kind of random ideas. I am still using the Rodeo Web notebook for bigger ideas, planning, just bigger lists, bigger notes, bigger writing, things to do. And I'm digitally capturing some notes in Vesper, the Vesper app, because I can – what I like about that app is that I can keep these lists, and then I can take a picture, like if I draw a sketch or draw a note, and I can take a picture of what's in my Web notebook and attach it to the note in Vesper. So I have consolidated greatly from what I have used before. I'm not a single notebook, one notebook to rule them all guy, but I have consolidated greatly. So I think I would chalk that up as a success just because I'm more sane now that I've gone to kind of this setup instead of trying everything and having notes spread out over all of creation. And I can find the notes that I need quicker. I only have to go to either my field notes stash, which usually, if anything important, comes out of a field notes book. It'll go into the Rodeo Web notebook or into Vesper just to keep the notes. What I do when I get to the – if I haven't already consolidated out of my field notes, what I do when I fill up a book, I'll go back through it page by page one more time to see if I've missed anything that I want to transfer out and then go file away that field notes notebook. So I'd say my notebook consolidation resolution worked.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Brad Dowdy: Worked for me. I have a better setup now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it might not be down to zero, but it's better.

Brad Dowdy: It's definitely better. I can keep up with what I'm trying to do and what I need to do and what I need – the information I need to find much better. My second one was get into fountain pen inks. I don't think that one's been a problem.

Brad Dowdy: I've blown that resolution out of the water. Tell me you have. Fountain pen ink problem. What?

Myke Hurley: That's what you're telling me you have.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Goodness gracious. A lot. So, yeah. To say I've gotten into fountain pen inks is an understatement. So I have an ink problem, which is part of the reason that goes hand in hand with the consolidating fountain pens. Consolidating the inks goes hand in hand with that. It's limiting – it's forcing me to focus on a specific ink, not fill up an ink, dump it back in, and load up another ink three times a week, which honestly I was doing sometimes. It was getting a little bit out of hand. So I've gotten into fountain pen inks, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I still get grief, and I welcome it, and I should get it about my old stance. A couple years ago it was like, why would anyone use a fountain pen? So someone – I forget who said it. Someone said I needed to make a t-shirt like that and just kind of own my past transgressions. So, yeah. Getting into fountain pen inks, that is not a problem. That is a resolution I have handled swimmingly. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You are swimming in ink.

Brad Dowdy: There is no doubt. No doubt at all. So those were my two resolutions, and I put down yours. Did you have a chance to listen to the episode? You're probably not. You're a busy man. I put down – I did your – I got your resolutions written down, and I thought they were pretty good too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was pretty sure that Brad was trolling me. He was like, can you go back and listen to this episode? We're going to talk about resolutions. And I was like, oh. And he was like, well, I've written them down anyway. I was like, well, just send them to me then.

Brad Dowdy: I knew that was coming. I shouldn't have led you down that path. I was like, ah.

Myke Hurley: See, I would have had to have listened.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. You got me there. Yes. I'm just a nice guy, though. I try to help you out. I know how busy you are.

Myke Hurley: You are. You're very kind to me. Very kind to me. So, yeah. So, I have more resolutions than you. So, more fountain pens. Check. Twisbees. I mean, I've got the cold pens in my hand now. Mainly the Twisbees, though, I think. I've bought some ones to try out, I think. So, I remember I had the AG Spalding. I've got that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the wood.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the wood one. The failed platinum. Platinum. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'll put a couple of those in the notes for people.

Brad Dowdy: I'd already forgotten about those. So, yeah. You did come through on that pretty well.

Myke Hurley: So, I've got a few. I've probably got more lying around somewhere. Somewhere. But, yeah. Definitely the Twisbees. The Twisbees, for sure.

TWSBI Pens

Myke Hurley: They're ones that I've tried out a bunch. And two of my favorites. You know, the RSC and the Mini. Yep. 540 RSC and the Mini. Inks. Now, I maybe haven't got into inks as much as you. My resolution was more fountain pen inks. I have one more. So, that's more. I guess. Which is the Pilot Hiroshi Zuku. And that's because I just. I personally still don't really feel the need to change the. To change my inks too frequently, in all honesty.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's the type of restraint. I just don't understand.

Myke Hurley: I found one that works for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And I'm happy with that, in all honesty.

Brad Dowdy: That's great. Sometimes I wish I could do that. And I don't know. But I always feel like I'm missing out on something. So, maybe that's. Maybe that's how it's come to be. You know, with the blog. You know, I'm always learning about. And other things that. That. Pique my interest. And remember. I can't help myself.

Myke Hurley: As I am. As I'm using.

Myke Hurley: My.

Myke Hurley: Sorry. Just like one pen, really. Changing the inks would be quite. Quite a pain. I think. Yes. I'll be cleaning a lot. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: If you're. You know. Sticking with one pen. That. You know. That's just kind of doing. All your tasks. Yeah. Just switching that around. Constantly. Would. Would be painful. So. I have a question for you. Do you use. Is your. The Kanpeki. The Roshizuku Kanpeki. That's your. Pretty much go to ink. Like. You know. At work. At home. Carrying with you. Whatever fountain pen you have. That's the ink you're going with.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Awesome choice. And I still haven't gotten a bottle of that. I've got to do that. Because I. I love that ink. So.

Brad Dowdy: Very good.

Myke Hurley: Um.

Field Notes Notebooks

Myke Hurley: My last two. Go hand in hand. As if some sort of magic has occurred. They were. Use more notebooks. And subscribe to Field Notes Colors. So. I subscribed to Field Notes Color Edition. And started using more notebooks. Basically.

Brad Dowdy: That's the way that happened. That one's a resounding yes. I'm going with. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Most definitely.

Myke Hurley: I've. I. Since subscribing to the Field Notes. I've become even more involved in them. Than before. I'm really happy that I did. And because I've now got them. Appearing all the time. I've actually started using them more. As you know. From listening to previous episodes. And I'm flying through. And I love having this notebook. In my pocket all the time. I take a lot more notes. Than I did before. Um. I'm mixing them all up. And you know. It's. It's working out really well for me. I'm. I'm really. Really happy that I did it.

Brad Dowdy: Good. That's awesome. I like to hear that. And. You know. I like. Even. I may not be. As prolific. As some people going through their Field Notes notebooks. Using them. I love to see. The notebooks being used. Um. I think they. I mean. They look even better. After they've been used. Than when they look new. You know. I love them. People take. Take the shot. Take the pictures of.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I love them getting all beaten up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean. That's. That's part of the deal. Right. I mean. That's. That's what they're for. I mean. I know we talk about the collecting aspect. And how expensive. You know. Some of these old issues of getting people are collecting them. And. And. Believe me. I'm right there. You know. From a completionist standpoint. You know. Wanted to get. You know. Something from each edition. But. The. Actual use. Of them. And. Completion. And. The wear. And the. The fullness of the notebook. That's what I enjoy the most. That's. I enjoy seeing those. More than anything. More than seeing. You know. The rare colors editions coming up for sale on eBay. Which. They all of a sudden are. Now that this field group. Field notes group is active. The eBay market has gone berserk again. But. That's. We'll save that for another episode. Um. But yeah. That's. That's awesome. I think that's. It sounds like we did pretty good. On our resolutions.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We do actually. I mean. I. Maybe didn't succeed on one of them. But. In full. Maybe as much as I thought that I would. But. Um. I'm not. I'm not unhappy with that actually.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Really. I mean. You. You figured out what works for you. Right. I mean. That's. That's part of the deal. You know. You. You looked at it. And you decided. You made a decision. And. It's working. I mean. No one can argue with that. Right.

Myke Hurley: I don't think so. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And. I was. I couldn't remember what I had said in this episode. And when I remembered the whole notebook diatribe that I went into. You know. I was. I think I have improved in that aspect. I'm pretty happy with that. And. I think it's only going to get better. I'm getting more and more organized. You know. Forcibly. So. I'm just. You know. Busy. Busy. Busy. And. You know. That's why I had to reach out and get some help with the blog. And. And things like that. There's lots going on. So. Getting that notebook consolidation helped. And. Even just. You know. My. My day to day life. And. And things like that. So.

Brad Dowdy: Very happy with how our resolutions. Ended up. So. Thank you. Tony. I hope it was you who sent that. Myke's going to get mad at me if it's not. But I'm pretty certain it is. So. If you are actually. The actual owner of this topic. Who sent it to me. You can. You can. How can they get in touch with this mic. And. And yell at me saying. Hey. That was my idea.

Myke Hurley: You can get in touch with us. Over Twitter. And app. Dot. Net. I am. I Myke. I am. Y. K. E. Brad is. At Dowdy. D. O. W. D. Y. On. App. Net. And Dowdy. Ism. D. O. W. D. Y. I. S. M. On. Twitter. Also. You can get Brad. At. The pen addict. At. Gmail. Dot. Com. And he also writes. At. Pen addict. Dot. Com. And you found your. Apprentice.

Brad Dowdy: I did. I did. So that. Boy. That was. That was not. An easy. Task. By. Any stretch. Of the imagination. It was so. So hard. I got. I got lots of emails. Thank you. Everyone. Who sent in.

Brad Dowdy: Your emails. To. To my help. Wanted post. The. The quality. Of emails. That I. I got. Was astounding. I. I don't. I. I want to say. I got probably close to 75. People. 75 emails.

Myke Hurley: Wow.

Brad Dowdy: I don't. I don't think. There was a single. Email. That I could dismiss. Immediately. That's how quality. Everyone was. So that makes my decision. Really hard. Because you know. I could only pick one person. And. I had to figure out a way to. You know. Will it. Will it down to that one person. I got it down. It took me. Several days. To get it down to maybe like. Eight or ten. I felt pretty good with. And then. You know. I had some. Conversations. With those people. And narrowed it down to one. And. It was a near impossible. Task. Because there were so many good. So many good responses. But yes. I have it narrowed down. So hopefully. We will. Get everything. Finalized. And we'll see. See a new name. Posting on the. On the pen act. Here in the coming weeks. Alongside myself. Nothing's going to change for me. I should be able to keep my same schedule. The same. Kind of the same. Path that I'm going down right now. Where I do about two reviews. A week. The podcast. And the ink links. So I'm hoping to add in. I'm not. I don't think I'm going to replace. The one. The second review that I do. With this new person's review. I think it'll be in addition to. Which I think will be great.

Apprentice Selection

Myke Hurley: Very good question. You can confirm. Or deny. Do we know this person. That has been accepted. To be your apprentice.

Brad Dowdy: We do not.

Myke Hurley: Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: That was a huge challenge. For me. That was. That weighed on me. A lot. Because. I had lots of. Online friends. Applying. And people that I talk with. All during the day. People. That have done things for the blog. In the past. And having to tell them no. Or not. Or not necessarily no. But that I'm. Choosing someone else. That's hard. That was hard for me. I had real struggles.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't realize how hard. It was going to be. You know. I've got all this. You know. Community. And it wasn't. It wasn't a conscious decision. But I was like. Well do I pick someone that. Everyone knows already. Or to pick someone that no one knows. And have just kind of a whole new lifeblood. And. I didn't make my decision based on that. Based on who I did it. Based on who I thought was going to be the best person. Regardless of whether I had a. A standing relationship with them. You know. Online or not. So. That didn't play into the final decision. But. It was harder. To tell the people that I knew. And who have done nice things for me in the past. That I was choosing someone else. That was. That really really. Weighed on me a lot. And that was a difficult thing. So. I don't look forward to doing that again.

Myke Hurley: Hopefully. This. You won't have to. And this person will be perfect.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Hope so. Hope so. I'm looking. I'm excited about it. I'm looking forward to it. So. It'll be all good.

Myke Hurley: Good stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: I think we're done.

Brad Dowdy: I think we got it man. I think it's a wrap.

Myke Hurley: Thanks so much listening to this week's episode of the Pan Addict Podcast. Until next time. I'm Myke and he's Brad. And thanks so much. Alright.

Brad Dowdy: Bye bye.

Myke Hurley: Bye bye. Bye bye.