The Pen Addict 736/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	736
Title:	I’ll Keep You All Knight
Release Date:	October 1st, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Robb Knight
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 736
Audio File:	Audio Episode 736
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 736
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode number 736. Today's sponsors are Enigma Stationery and Factor. I am your host, Brad Dowdy, and joining me today is the Rob Knight, once again, joining us on the podcast. How's it going, Rob?

Robb Knight: Hi. Yeah, I'm back. I'm excited to be here. It's always nice to get invited, you know, specifically here, because I don't talk about pens everywhere. So, it's nice to be here.

Brad Dowdy: So, that's the funny thing about this little hobby, is you don't get to say these words out loud very much, right? Like, have you seen, you know, my 0.7mm black gel pen? Like, you don't get to say these words in real life. And that's one of the things I find most enjoyable about our little stationery space, right?

Pen Thievery

Robb Knight: Yeah, I mean, we get, like, you know, we get, like, promotional pens at work, and people go, oh, this is a nice pen. And I pick it up, and I'm like, that's not. Please take that away from my desk. I don't want that.

Brad Dowdy: Do you have pen thievery situations at the office? Like, when you go in, do you have to manage, like, what your desk looks like?

Robb Knight: No, no, not at all. Mostly because I strategically picked in the corner. So, I'm sort of like, if anyone's coming near my desk, like, I see them coming, they're not either side of my desk. And, you know, we're not, I'm a software engineer, like, nobody's writing stuff down, really, except me.

Brad Dowdy: Like, yeah, I was an IT guy, right, for 15 years, you know, worked in your classic cube farm. And I've told this story before. But I still, like, I wrote notes. I, we go to meetings, I'd carry a notebook and a pen, like, not a laptop. And then people figured out that I was the pen guy. And I had to keep a bait cup on the desk of just, like, the bad pens that I didn't care if got stolen. And then just keep my pens, like, either in my backpack or in my desk drawer, just, you know, away from grabby hands. But I imagine these days, yeah, like, if I was in, like, a software office, like, people would, wouldn't even know what those are half the time.

Robb Knight: No, I mean, you know, the only paper we really have in the office is in the printer, which, quite frankly, is just used for people printing return labels for their personal parcels. Like, we're not really printing anything at work either. But, you know, you kind of need a printer as a business. So, you know, it's there.

Brad Dowdy: Do offices even have office supply cabinets anymore? Like, do you, like, if you needed tape, would you be able to go get tape or, like, paper clips? Like, is that even a thing?

Robb Knight: No. I mean, not in our office. I mean, there's, I know that if I needed tape, there's one person who has some in their desk. But, like, that's not, I don't think it belongs to the company. I think it belongs to that person. Like, it's just their tape. If we need it, we'll use that one.

Myke Hurley: That's amazing. It's like, Steve, he's the stapler guy. He's responsible for the twice a year we need the stapler. We'll go ask Steve for that. So, we're appropriately off the rails, as I assumed this episode was going to be. So, let me rewind before we get further off the rails and tell everyone about what we're doing.

St. Jude Fundraising

Brad Dowdy: And actually, honestly, Rob, one of the reasons I wanted to have you on is to talk about everything that we do for St. Jude and raising money. And you participate in running a campaign with lots of cool incentives. So, we're going to talk about that. But let me talk about what we do here at Relay. So, this month is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, all of September. And we've now passed $5 million raised as a community since 2019. And Rob has been a huge part of that. So, one of the things that we do and one of the reasons why we support St. Jude is that an estimated 400,000 children worldwide get cancer each year. And when St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable. Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate in the U.S. from 20% to more than 80%. And we won't stop until no child dies from cancer. Curing childhood cancer is a tremendous undertaking. And St. Jude needs our help. The generosity of our donors everywhere supports cutting-edge research that saves lives and ensures that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food. Every child deserves a chance to live their best life and celebrate every moment. When you support St. Jude, you can help make cures possible for kids with cancer. Together, we can save more lives. And one of the things we're doing here at Relay is our podcast-a-thon, as you're listening to this podcast, is literally tomorrow. So you need to go in the show notes, find the link into our podcast-a-thon on YouTube, and send an alert to be ready to come watch us. So it only takes one minute to help give a child with cancer hope for a lifetime. We're inviting the entire Relay community to help us reach our goal of $700,000 raised this September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. As always, there are multiple ways to support the campaign. So you can head over to stjude.org slash Relay to make a donation today. And you can also set up a fundraiser of your own and see the awesome incentives available to donors this year. Plus, check to see if your employer will match your online donation. And like I just said, mark your calendars. The 2026 Podcast-a-thon is on Friday, October 2nd. It'll be the grand finale of the campaign and will be running from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Eastern on Relay's YouTube channel. So more cures, more hope, more tomorrows. Go to stjude.org slash Relay to donate or start a fundraiser today. So when Myke and I have been talking about this all month, you know, we talk about some of the things I'm doing to help raise money and help raise awareness for St. Jude. But you also participate in the fundraising aspects. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing for your fundraiser this year? Yeah.

Robb Knight: So we, me and Adam, who runs OMG.lol, which is, you also do your status every week through his service. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Do several things on OMG.lol.

Robb Knight: Always recommend it very much. He, so we, a few years, a couple of years ago now, I think three or four years ago, we sort of said, oh, let's do, let's, you know, team up. We'll do some stickers. You know, we'll charge people an amount of a donation and we'll send out some stickers. And then last year I thought, well, I have some spare stamps from some other projects. I was like, what if I do some drawing for people and I'm, you know, I'm not very good at drawing or though I have got a lot better.

Robb Knight: This year they seem to be a popular option. Like people were asking me, are you going to be doing drawings again? Because I really want to get one this year. Yeah. And these drawings are, you know, literally I give people a blank box and I'm like, write whatever you want. And I will at least attempt to draw something that you, you know, whatever it is you've asked for. I mean, the big one this year is Jimothy, which I think we'll get, we'll get to. Yeah. Um, uh, that's probably the best bit of art I've ever done. Um, I'm, I'm genuinely very proud of it. Um, you know, but Jimothy is a fairly simple, um, prompt as it were. I don't, that word is so loaded now, but. You know, people ask for things like an animal on a unicycle with this thing or that thing in a specific location. Like, and I will do whatever I can, you know, I've got one coming up for a train, but there's an owl driving the train and it's in the countryside. So like, there's, you know, there's a whole range of things that people can ask for. And some people ask for something simple and some people go as crazy as they possibly can to really see what, what's gonna, what's gonna get me, you know, give me something difficult to do.

Brad Dowdy: And look, we're trying to raise funds for St. Jude, but you're literally putting yourself out there as quote, not an artist, which I feel you like we're all artists. Like I know we can have that. That's a whole entire podcast conversation, right? You know, my like little scribbles and line art, like that's art, right? You're an artist. Um, but yeah, this is not an easy thing for you while also committing to do this because it helps raise money. And oh, by the way, you get something cool. You get to, you know, put Rob, but maybe on his back feet for a second. And, but, but you just like, I don't know, you've really taken to this. I, I, I love to see it. So what are, what are some of your favorites, uh, that you've gotten to today besides, uh, the, the animal, which we will talk with about momentarily?

Robb Knight: Yeah. So obviously there's that one, um, which is, is now a sticker as part of our sticker pack for the donations, which, you know, should still be up if the, if the, you know, it's going to be a couple of days at least when this goes out. Yeah. I mean, I've had, I've had to build a whole spreadsheet in obsidian just to keep track of all of these. Um, so like, uh, like one of the ones I did, uh, somebody just gave me free reign and they said, do whatever you want. Um, and they live in Missouri. So I was like, okay, it does it have, is there like a national or, you know, a state animal or something? It turns out the state animal is a Missouri mule. Mm. Uh, which is also a cocktail. So I've drawn a Missouri mule drinking a Missouri mule. Yes. Like that's, that is why I've sent them. Um, you know, the, sometimes the free for all ones can be hard. Cause I'm like, oh, you know, maybe I don't know anything about the person or, you know, maybe there's nothing. But that one in particular was like quite helpful. It was like, oh, okay. The state animal is something fun to draw. Um, you know, and the cocktail just kind of made that even more fun.

Brad Dowdy: So I am literally typing as you talk. I live in the state of Georgia. I have no clue what the Georgia state animal is. I know what the state bird is because they live in my yard and there was also a sports team. It's called the Brown Thrasher. So there was a hockey team back in the day called the Atlanta Thrashers. I'm very aware of the bird. Okay. Georgia does not have a single official state animal. Phew. I feel like I'm let off the hook here. So I was worried there for a second.

Robb Knight: The Missouri mule was only, uh, you know, decided in, I think like 1995. Okay. So this isn't like a, despite the, despite the history of, you know, using mules for, you know, carrying stuff and moving things, it's a relatively recent development.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I will, I will say most U S states do have birds though. I think every state has a state bird. Right. Do you think Washington state will ever vote Jimothy as the state animal? So if you're not familiar with Jimothy, this is a very, uh, internet forward topic. Um, it's this little raccoon fella and you know, he's got some, uh, some growth challenges. I don't know the official, the official, uh, reason why Jimothy is a little bit shorter, uh, than, than most raccoons, but he has taken the internet by storm.

Myke Hurley: Um, you did such a good job with, with this artwork. Like, did you even oppress yourself? Like I'm like fascinated by this whole thing.

Robb Knight: This was a situation where I did, I must have probably, because the way I work with these is I get, you know, I get the prompt from people, like whatever it is they're looking for and I will, you know, start scribbling some ideas down, do some drafts and I'll do like a, a final draft of the drawing. And I'm like, right. Okay. That's what I want. And then I can, you know, redo it on the cards that I sent out. You know, you, I sent you one last year. So you kind of know the little, like I said, like a six, maybe something that sort of size with Jimothy. It's a strange to sort of capture his essence and the, and the way he is. Cause he's so unusual to look at was quite difficult. And I, I must've done seven or eight drafts of him. And then the first couple were just absolute horror shows. Like nobody would want to see that. And I got to the end and I got to like the final draft that you essentially see now. And I was almost, I was kind of angry. I was like, Oh, this is what people say. This is if you just practice, like if you just do some practice, like you can actually get good at a thing or like you can actually get a good result. And of course that's good. You know, I'm glad I could get a result that I'm very proud of. And Jim who ordered it, it's very happy. I think he said his wife is getting it framed, which is just, just glorious.

Robb Knight: But it's one of those things where it's like, Oh, right. Yeah. This is what people mean when they say you should practice on things and like, you can actually get good results if you do that. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We're going to talk a lot about that today as it relates to stationary. Um, I can't let this conversation in without pointing everyone to, uh, jimothy.rnight.me. I'll have a link in the show notes. Jimothy now has his own, uh, webpage on Rob's site where, um, Jimothy can run, get out there running. I have, I currently have Jimothy on the moon. Um, and we're, we're slowing down, uh, the walking pace a little bit because, you know, gravity and stuff probably. Um, but yeah, I, I'm glad that you leaned into this, this, this, and this is, this is just one of those fun things that randomly happens when you're like doing, Hey, we're doing a lot, some cool stuff for charity here. And it's like, Oh, by the way, this silly little thing that we can talk about, it's just kind of running. And now you can like add stickers into your pack and raise more money. So definitely go check out. I'll have a link into it to Rob's campaign in the show notes. You should have a day or two, a couple of days left. I think it's going to officially close on the fourth or the fifth, probably the fifth. Um, so go check that out. Uh, go check out Rob's campaign, check out my campaign. I'll have a link in the show notes, uh, for my fundraiser. We have all kinds of makers contributing fountain pens, um, to the campaign and to help us raise awareness of everything going on at St. Jude. And it's just, it's going great so far. And, uh, yeah, tomorrow I will not be sitting behind this podcast microphone. I will have, uh, in-ear monitors and plugged into real studio microphones as, uh, we host the podcast-a-thon live from the St. Jude campus in Memphis. All right, Rob, I do have a, a, a further Jimothy question, uh, before we get into a couple of topics here, but first I want to take a second to shout out our sponsor over at Enigma Stationery.

Brad Dowdy: This episode of the Penn Act is brought to you by our friends at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offers unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. Over at Enigma Stationery, if you click on their website, they have a great hierarchy of how their site is set up. You know, you can just look at all items, but what you want to click on, my favorites, are the Enigma exclusives, which I'm checking out these new, um, nib holders that they have in conjunction with Rich over at Ridge River City Penco. Uh, the custom nib holders, the materials, Spice Spice Baby, kind of perfect for the fall. Satis Refraction Rose, which kind of, it's kind of a light orangish pink, which looks spectacular. And then maybe the best of all, I mean, I'm not biased or anything because, because I love orange, but Satis Refraction Orange. These colors are amazing. These nib holders are great. If you're someone who likes to play with ink and test out all their inks and, um, do a bunch of ink samples, those are wonderful to check out. You should also check out their character page. I didn't know I was such a character nerd until I was seeing all this stuff, but you can look at Kirby, you can look at Miffy, you can look at Mofusan, you can look at Monchichi, all of that. Uh, all of those goods by character are pretty amazing. The Miffy stuff, you know what? I'm getting ready to go to Japan here in about a month and I've been watching a lot of Japan videos and you see a lot of blind box stuff and gachapon stuff. The Miffy Room blind box is a very, very popular one. Those are pretty cool. They actually have those at Enigma Stationery. So you don't have to go to Japan to get these. Enigma Stationery brings all this stuff in. So go check out everything that they have. You know, they have other brands, Anderillium Ink, Benu, Kakamori, Kiwi Inks, all kinds of stuff over at Enigma Stationery. They do a wonderful job curating. And of course they have all of your favorite business frog accessories, which, you know, is something I'm always shopping for. So go check them out. And if you want $10 off your orders of $50 or more, go to enigmastationery.com slash pen addict and use the code TPA26 at checkout now. That's enigmastationery.com slash pen addict to get $10 off orders of $50 or more with the code TPA26. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for the support of this show and all of Relay. All right. So, Jimothy, keeping it on podcast topics, what media did you use for the artwork? You said it was just like a six-size card. But what are your drawing tools, either for Jimothy or for other things you've drawn? Yeah. Yeah.

Robb Knight: So with the sketching, I have a sketchbook. I have a Sakura, one of their sort of A5, but it's a little bit skinnier sketchbooks. So I have one of those. And then I also have just my day-to-day journal that I will, if I'm at work or something, I'll just do a sketch if I'm thinking of something. In terms of pencils, I cannot, for the life of me, decide what I like. So I'm switching between, you know, I've got the Airstep. Yeah. Airstepi. Yeah. Airstepi's the character. Airstep's the pencil. I've got a Rote Ring 600. I've got a Pentel 1000, I think. I have a whole bunch of different pencils. Right. That's the one, yeah, the Graph Gear. And I can't decide what I like. Like, you know, do I like the light plastic of the Airstep? Or do I want something that's more metal and, you know, kind of heavier? So I just kind of go with, you know, whatever I've got, really. I just grab a pencil and go for it. Sometimes I'll do it in the fountain pen, if that's what I've got with me. Just, it really depends. It's so hard to, I think, because drawing is a newer skill for me. You know, it's a new thing I'm doing. I don't necessarily have preferences there. Whereas, even with, you know, getting into pens, you know, whenever it was a year or two ago now, I've been writing my entire life. Even if it wasn't a lot, like, I know what writing is. I know what that skill involves. So I can kind of make decisions based on what I like. Whereas with drawing, like, I really don't feel like I have a good feel for what that is yet.

Product Feel

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's interesting. That's, and this is something I talk about all the time. Just the feel of a product. And I'm talking about it not from an artistic space, but just from like, hey, I'm a product reviewer, you know, at its core. And I talk about all, like, the minor differences in how things feel. And, like, those three mechanical pencils that you listed, like, very different feels and how they operate and how you feel about that connection to the pencil. And the paper, it sounds like all woo and stuff. But, like, I can tell those things, like, instantly in what I like and what I don't like. One thing I'm curious about is today I'm taking these show notes with a wooden pencil. Have you ever used a wooden pencil to do any of the art or is it always mechanical pencils? Because when you said pencil, I was like, oh, is he going to say, like, Blackwing or something?

Robb Knight: I have some Blackwings as well, which I've also tried. I bought a Death Row Records one just because they were selling singles. So I was like, well, I'm going to have one of those. Why not?

Robb Knight: But I have a handful of those, like, one of each of the different, you know, the firmness and stuff like that, which, again, those are in the rotation to try out. I've got some, I don't know, maybe it was something you recommended, potentially. I have, like, a box of 10 of them. Like, I have all these pencils around and I'm still just trying to get a sense of what I like. And I'm also at a point where I'm going to try and, like, go back to some of the fundamentals of drawing and art because I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, yes, I can produce this one thing that I'm really proud of or a handful of things, but I can't just go do some art because I need, like, lots of reference images and I need to really, I need to be sort of copying or at least, like, looking at something similar to get to where I need to get to. Absolutely. I'd rather have some better, you know, fundamentals and stuff like that. So maybe that will push me in the right direction with pencils and things like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, you're further along than me. I can't get this. I can't get it out of my head. Like, I can see the things that I want to put on the page, but I can't get there. But you've taken the extra step, but, you know, you actually just do it and then you practice, right? And then, you know, things get better over time. Like, it's not rocket science, but we all have these different ways about going about it. And, like, I have, like, a huge mental block over it. And I think that's probably a common theme for a lot of people who want to, like, draw or create things. One of the things that you did recently along these lines, but further down the line, is we follow each other on Mastodon. We talk a lot on Mastodon. And I'm sitting there looking at my feed one day and Rob goes in one of his Mastodon posts. Well, technically, you know, never mind. That's a long story. It's like, did this start on OMG LOL? Let's not do that. Let's not do that. Because when I was going to get the link for this, I was like, where did he put this?

Brad Dowdy: This is just for the record. This is typically Rob. Like, this is, like, what you do. But the note was, don't mean to brag, but I've actually finished an entire notebook. That's a huge deal. Like, and you should brag. Can we, like, talk about the impetus from that note that you sent out into the world? And, like, what did you finish? And, like, yeah, just, like, literally tell me about finishing a notebook.

Robb Knight: Yeah. So, I mean, this was, technically, it was two. Because I finished another, well, I finished a sketchbook after that as well, which is much smaller. But, yeah, so the notebook I finished was just, you know, one of my day-to-day journals. And I think a lot of that was, you know, I'm doing a lot more sketching and writing ideas down. And I feel like I finally got to the point of not being so precious with the pages. It's like, it's a notebook. I can just write stuff down. It doesn't matter if it looks nice or whatever. So if I need to spend a whole page doing, you know, sketches of animals or whatever, like, that's fine.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Robb Knight: But, yeah, I kind of finished it and really finished it. You know, this is the probably fourth, third or fourth journal that I'm on now since I started this. But this is the first one that I genuinely finished every single page. Like, the other ones I'd maybe left a few pages because it lined up with a month, that kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Robb Knight: And then, as I said, I also finished one of the larger field notes with the New York line sketches that they did a few years ago, like the bigger size ones. Yeah. I can't remember what they're called.

Brad Dowdy: It was like Colorscapes or something like that. I can't remember. I'll look it up. I'll find it.

Robb Knight: Yeah, but I am.

Brad Dowdy: But it's a larger format. It's not quite five by seven-ish, but it's in that kind of format.

Robb Knight: Yeah, so I think it was maybe a day after I posted that. I also finished one of those, like filling it with draft sketches and things like that. It's just kind of nice. It's like, oh, no, I actually – I feel like there's a part of it to almost romanticize it. It's like, oh, this is a thing that I have produced, even if it's just my scribblings and my notes, and probably doesn't mean anything to anybody except me. But it's just kind of nice that it's this thing that is finished and done.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Do you keep them on, like, shelf? Do you just have, like, a stack? Like, do they go into a place? Do they go hidden into the closet in a shoebox? Like, where is that notebook now?

Robb Knight: If we were on video, you would see how messy my office is. But they're around. Like, they're in a pile right now. But I do want to keep them somewhere that I can look at them. Because, you know, exactly like what you do, I stick stickers in or labels and, you know, just tickets and things like that. So it's kind of nice to flick through them every now and again and have a look at what I was writing six months ago or three months ago. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: What notebook was it, if you know? Not that it matters. Like, finishing, I don't care if you finish, like, a four-page notebook, right? Like, size doesn't matter in notebooks and finishing stationary. None of this matters. But I'm actually curious what notebook it was.

Leuchtturm Notebook

Robb Knight: So that one was a bullet journal, like, the official bullet journal, I guess version two one. Like, the Leuchtturm one? Mm-hmm. Oh, damn.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's the one. That's a chunky notebook. How did you find that paper?

Robb Knight: I don't mind it. Like, it's fine.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Robb Knight: It mostly does exactly what I want, you know, because I'm using it as a bullet journal. Like, it's kind of designed for that. But I'm now on the Scribbles That Matter notebooks, and their paper is a lot thicker. Than the bullet journal? Than the bullet journal. Mm, interesting. Now, I wouldn't necessarily say it's objectively better paper, but for what I need, it is better. I feel like I like it more because basically nothing bleeds through except Sharpie, but Sharpie bleeds through everything. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, it's very, very rare can I get things to bleed through it, which is good, because if I'm doing, like, you know, cover pages and I'm coloring those in or using felt tips, that kind of thing, I don't want any bleed through. Like, it's more important to me that I can use all the pages than it is to have the nicest paper to write on, which, you know, is definitely not this. So, you know, there is nicer paper. I have nicer notebooks here, like the Life notebooks. You know, these are clearly way better to write with and draw on and stuff like that. But the paper in this is perfect for what I need.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. So, yeah, the bullet journal, I ask specifically for those who don't know. So, Leuchtturm has their standard paper lineup, and I find it to be really, really good. And then the bullet journal has its own specific paper just for that bullet journal. It's a little bit thicker than the stock Leuchtturm paper. So, I always find that interesting. It's an interesting concept, and they've done well with it. I think people generally tend to like it.

Robb Knight: Yeah, I mean, it's certainly not a bad paper by any stretch. And one of the other reasons I look to other options is I don't do a lot of the indexing and monthly stuff that the bullet journal kind of, you know, it prompts you to do because it's in the book. You know, it's in the notebook, and it's just wasted paper for me. So, I'd rather just not use those, even if they are nice.

Brad Dowdy: So, you will just use, say, like bullet journal rules in just a standard notebook as well, right?

Robb Knight: Absolutely, yeah. Like I say, there are some concepts about it that I like, and I do use, but there are things that just don't help me. So, I just don't do them.

Brad Dowdy: The best thing I've ever said about the bullet journal is that it's great to try to see what you really need to personalize it to yourself, right? It's an awesome system to learn what you like and what you don't like, and don't stick to it if it doesn't work for you, then you figure out what does. So, yeah, I totally agree with that. So, finishing a notebook had me thinking about general stationery. And the question I had that I posed to our document is, what is the most satisfying stationery thing to finish? And I'm not sure my answer yet as I have these topics, and I'd love to hear from listeners. Y'all can always get us at panaticfeedback.com or email me, hello at panatic.com. What is the most satisfying stationery thing to finish? So, my list was either a notebook or planner, I put those in the same category, a bottle of ink, fountain pen ink, a pen refill, you know, like a Jetstream refill or a gel ink refill, a wooden pencil, which is a commitment, right? You have to get it all the way sharpened down to the end and use it, or a highlighter slash marker. Like, do you have any opinion on that? Because I have always held notebook to a different standard. And when I say notebook, I generally mean like your classic A5, you know, Loitch-Turham style notebook. Like, but it could be any, it could be field notes. Like, that's just as valuable, you know, a small 48-page notebook. I've always held like, my goal personally was always like, man, if I can get some A5 notebooks filled and on my shelf, I'm awesome, right? Because that is really, really hard. That is really a thing for me because my work is spread through so many notebooks at one time. So, getting all the way through one, that was like, that was like my golden goose there, right? Like, that was really the thing that stuck with me that I felt the best about. And I think a lot of people will say other things, like bottle of ink is always a classic one. Is there something in these answers, something else? Like, what would be that most satisfying thing?

Robb Knight: I will say this, of all the things you've listed, the only thing I have finished is a notebook. Oh, yeah, we can play this game. Yeah, I'll play this game with you. I'm really excited to finish a bottle of ink. I feel like that will, that just seems like a really satisfying thing to do. Now, of course, the problem is I have a drawer full of ink. Yes. And I pick and choose. There's a couple that I will definitely get through. The green Montblanc, was it Starwalker? Oh, yeah. Polar green, yeah. I'm definitely getting through that because I love that ink. So good. Um, the, the octopus neon pink that I bought for my, uh, my Estabrook funky town. Oh, man. That I would definitely get through because I just, I fill that pen up constantly. Okay. Um, just because I love that ink and I love writing with that pen. But I do think it's going to take me a while to get through a bottle of ink. Now, when I do, I will be very excited and I will be posting a note, much like I did with the notebook and saying, I finished it and maybe even I'll have a photo with it. But, uh, that's the one I think that excites me the most. Not excites me. Like, oh, I don't want to waste it. I don't want to waste the ink. I want to actually have used it. Exactly. It feels like quite a satisfying thing. Now, when I see some of my bottles of ink that are like 80 mil, I'm like, I'm never going to get through all of that. Yeah. Like, what am I going to do? Like, I'm going to send samples to friends because there's no way I'm going to use all that otherwise. Right. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think bottle of ink would be the most popular. Like if we did a poll, I think that would be like the most satisfying thing because the biggest detriment, I guess to all the stationary, but the biggest bottle of ink seems to be the one that is most challenged by new bottles of ink. Right. There is. So you're always like, I tend to have more new ink to where I'm not finishing like my classic bottles of ink. I've really, I think the only bottle of ink I've ever finished is a Robert Oster fire on fire, which is my favorite orange ink. It's the ink I sell at the pen on it shop, not a plug, but like, that's just when I use a heck of a lot. And I'm like, people listening. It's really nice. I do really like it. And I'm like, I might finish a second bottle of that before I finished, like, say like a bottle of a Roshizuku Shinkai, which is like three quarters empty. But like, I got a other blue blacks I test and try and like, I know it's good. So I'm just going to keep mixing it up because new things keep coming across my desk. So the one I thought was interesting, and I wasn't even going to put this on this list, but I did it because of you. Have you ever finished a Zebra Mildliner or have you only ruined Zebra Mildliners?

Robb Knight: I've ruined a couple.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Robb Knight: So that's not finishing, right? Mm-mm. Yeah. No, I'd be very surprised if I, I suppose the problem is I'm sat in front of however many it is, 46 of the standard ones. I've got a pack of the six with the Scents. I've got the Brush ones.

Bildliners

Robb Knight: I've got a couple of others. Like, I don't see a scenario where I'm ever going to get through one of these Bildliners. Like, I just, unless I particularly picked one that, you know, like I say my favorite one, which is probably Vermilion, but I'm still not convinced I'm going to get through that anytime soon. Like, it could last me another 20 years the amount I use it because I'm switching between so many of them all the time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, so that's the thing about like the marker style pen is a lot of times you just can't get through them. One, because you don't use them enough. And two, they're going to fail before they're actually complete, right? Like I'm a Secura Pigma Micron fan. I've maybe like written like one of them dry ever. And otherwise they're just going to, the tip's going to fail at some point. I mean, that's the nature of the beast with that type of pen. And you just have, you just have to toss it even though there's ink left. So yeah, I think that's, that might be the most important thing. Most difficult one to finish because of the, the rate of failure in those pens. So yeah.

Robb Knight: I mean, I think if I, if I was going to finish, you know, a pen is probably going to be one of the microns because that's what I use for, you know, doing the lines after I've done the pencil on a lot of my drawings and, and, you know, and I use it just for writing things down and doing other stuff. Although again, I have a whole set of the colored ones and I, you know, I have a fair handful of the different sizes. So, you know, again, like you said, it's probably more likely that the tip fails than it is anything else.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What's your favorite point size on the microns?

Robb Knight: I like the O5. So that would, that's like the one below the, the biggest one they do. That, that one works perfect for me for doing my, you know, my lines and stuff and my drawings.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. If I had to guess what you would say, I would think O5 is like ideal because it's a little bit too big for my writing. So I use O3 for writing, but O5 is just, is the, is I think the best kind of like drawing. It's like right in the middle of, you can control it and you can also fill some space with it.

Robb Knight: Right. It's a, yeah. I don't remember where I saw it. I was definitely watching somebody's YouTube video and they, they were saying that the advice they were given about drawing was use like a, you know, a 0.7 size pen. And I was like, okay, well, what sizes have I got? Cause I was probably doing what most people were doing, picking like the thinnest one I could. So I could do these very accurate lines. And in reality, I think that takes a lot of skill to be able to, to do that. So actually the advice of using a thicker pen has really worked quite well. Now, again, I don't like the 08. I feel like that's, that's too thick. So yeah, I stick with the O5.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And talk about ruining a pen. You get into like the O1 microns, like you better have a really good idea of what you want to do with that pen because you will destroy it. And just look, you look at that thing wrong. I mean, I don't know how many of those I've destroyed just capping them, right? They're like super fragile. So, all right, cool. Well, I did want to, I thought this was a cool topic. So congratulations on finishing an entire notebook. Thank you. I'm in the, maybe people heard on the podcast a couple of weeks, weeks ago, I'm in notebook dilemma season right now. So we got the field notes going. So that's going well. So we'll see. We'll see.

Robb Knight: You put me in a dilemma as well. I think to, if you'll forgive me a tangent, you know, I bought your new notebook that you did, the Midori. No, sorry. Yeah. The MD product. You know, and it turned up and I ordered it because it looked great. And I was like, well, what am I going to use this for? Like I didn't have a specific thing for it. Now I use it for testing pens. So each page has just song lyrics and I just do a different page. And, you know, I did one today for, you know, a blog post I put up and I use that just to, and eventually that will get filled up with song lyrics. And then that will be another complete book that can go on the shelf. Exactly. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: And just, again, this wasn't like, you know, promo episode for me, but shout out me for that notebook. It's killer. Like I'm not, I'm just, yeah, I, it came out so good. And that's, that's actually my primary desk notebook. Right. So I have my plotter as my planner, but like everything else goes into that Midori MD. So, but what I haven't done and where the field notes filled in is when I leave my desk and that's where I've been having a little bit more of a challenge that I'm trying to solve. So yeah, the, the, the MDs MD is really good. Like that's where like some of my stickers will go and that's where some ink tests will go. And like you're saying, like, you know, some lyrics will go, things like that. So yeah, it's, that's a, that's a fun one. I'm thoroughly enjoying that. I'm so glad I got to do that. That was very, very cool. So, all right, let's talk about another sponsor of this week's episode. And that's our good friends over at Factor.

Brad Dowdy: This episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Factor. Summer's in full swing and you know what that means? Travel. So I'm on the road a lot during the summer. Specifically, I'm on the road this week in Memphis working at St. Jude, getting our podcast a-thon up and going. And when I get back, I'm going to have Factor here at the house waiting and ready for me to not have to worry about any grocery shopping, what I'm going to eat for lunch or dinner for the first few days when I get back. I have Factor here ready to go, pop it in the microwave for two minutes. I can get back to work, have a great lunch, not have to worry about things. And Factor makes it easy and it makes it really, really good too. Like I actually look forward to having my Factor meals because they're that good. So they help me get back on track really, really easily. They make chef-crafted, dietician-designed, ready-to-eat meals so you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. Every week you'll find over 100 nutrient-dense menu items to choose from and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens, and more. Plus add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. 97% of users agree that Factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal. I'm really looking forward to trying out the new, literally everything new I'm always willing to try because everything Factor does is always so good. Like the salmon burgers, the shredded pork, the collard greens. I mean, talk about something that's right up my alley and maybe tailor-made for me. Those are all perfect so I'm going to try those out soon. Hopefully they're here. Arrived when I get back from this trip that I'm on right now. And it's just going to be so easy to grab a Factor, have a wonderful meal, have it really easy to cook, and it's just going to be enjoyable. So it's wonderful. So let's eat real. Head over to factormeals.com, PenAddict50 off, and use the code PenAddict50, that's the number 50, off, to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last. That's code PenAddict50 off at factormeals.com. PenAddict50 off at factormeals.com. See the website for more details. Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of Relay. All right, Rob. So we have had... Oh, no. There's no we in this. You have been filling up my InkLink coffers with wonderful content about stationery. And recently, you participated in Analog Defaults, which... Like, this is your fault to begin with, right? So it's like, I don't want to take credit for this, because I got the idea from you, but then now you're answering my questions about Analog Defaults and how that all works. Can you just give a quick background on the App Defaults concept that I stole to do my Analog Defaults?

Robb Knight: Yeah, absolutely. Because this is kind of full-set. You know, you're crediting me, but it was not even my idea. Right. So friends of mine have a podcast. It's called Hemispheric Views. And they had an episode. It was episode 97 called Jewel of the Defaults. And this was about, like, what apps are you using that are, like, the default apps? So, like, for email, do you use the mail app that comes to your phone? For, you know, web browsing, do you use Safari or do you download something else? That kind of thing. Like, that was the general premise of it was, like, just how, quote, unquote, default are you? Mm-hmm. This turned into people writing blog posts, including me. And I started collecting them. And as of right now, there's 530 blog posts on the page.

Myke Hurley: That's insane. I love, every now and then, like, if I am, like, just, if I'm mindlessly scrolling and get mad,

Brad Dowdy: I'll just say, you know what? Let's go just click on a random app default and see what people are talking about. I do that all the time.

Robb Knight: And it's fun, I think, because, you know, it's like a nice thing because you can discover new apps. So you see, oh, actually, you know, this person seems to be getting on fine with, say, I don't know, the default Apple Podcasts app. Maybe I should try that or, you know, whatever it is.

Robb Knight: Which then that fed back into you coming up with the analog defaults sort of, you know, play on that same thing where it's like, okay, what are you using for a ballpoint or a fountain pen, that kind of thing. And then that is where we're at now. You're now asking me about a thing that I got from a podcast two years ago.

Brad Dowdy: And number one, I'm, you know, I'm very digitally inclined. I like my digital tools and my app. So, like, I just find the app defaults useful to begin with. And then I start, I didn't think about it really in any other way until a few months ago, earlier this year. And I was like, could that translate to stationary? Because number one, do I have stationary defaults? And number two, I always like that voyeuristic aspect of the internet. To where we get to see what other people are into and maybe why they're into those things. And so, yeah, it's been a little bit of a discovery for me coming up with my analog defaults and overthinking stationary like I do in trying to, I have to be careful at trying not to solve things with stationary and just let things be. That's like a personal challenge, right? There's not an answer, right? There's just now. Does it work for now? And is it the best option for now? And it's okay if that thing changes later, right? I don't want to find the end game. And maybe we'll talk about that later. Like, that's not what this is for. So, I called it more of a snapshot. And I think that's what I feel the best about. Even though the snapshot might not change for two years. Like, it's changed a little bit already this year. But like, I'm pretty good with a lot of this stuff. So, we can talk about mine a little bit. But I really want to talk about yours because you just posted it like in the past week, I think. Or the past month, really. You did it in September. Yeah. And why don't you take me through what you were thinking when you put this together? And we'll have a link in the show notes to Rob's Analog Defaults page, even though you spelled analog incorrectly. I don't know if it'll link properly, but we'll try.

Robb Knight: Well, somebody pointed out that the URL is spelled without the UE. Oh, let me check. But the title is with the UE. I didn't even realize I was doing it, if I'm honest. I was just like, here we go, whatever. That's hilarious. Yeah. And then, of course, I have, you know, my tag on my blog is analog with the UE. So, you know, who knows what's happening.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, what are you liking here? So, you kind of did like the one of each category, which I kind of tried to stick with. It doesn't mean you can't have two fountain pens if you're a heavy fountain pen user or five fountain pens if that's all you use. You know, they all have different jobs. So, you kind of went down the one of each route. So, what were you thinking here? Let's start with the fountain pen. I would say, looking at your list, I'm not super surprised, except for the fountain pen.

Pilot Prera

Robb Knight: Oh, yeah? Why does the fountain pen surprise you? It's a Pilot Prera. This is the F nib one. I also have an orange one with a broad nib. But you go for it. I'm curious what you're surprised by.

Brad Dowdy: So, I shouldn't be surprised. I love the Prera. And it's not that it's not the Prera. That's not the good one. Not the one. I was thinking it might be like one of the Lammies. I know you use several different Lammies. I thought it actually might be the Estabrook. Just because of style and nib. One of the things I always think about in this is I'm not trying to pick a flavor of the month type of product. That I'm trying to pick a real stalwart. And maybe Pilot Prera is that. But I don't know. If I was thinking, I think I might have gotten close on your other products. I don't know that I would have gotten close on the fountain pen. But for honestly no real reason. And you know I love the Prera. And you know I especially love the F nib on that thing. It's a legitimate workhorse pen for being a small compact pen, right?

Robb Knight: Oh, yeah. I mean you are absolutely right about the nib on this. This is just incredible. I mean I've gone two different ways. Because I have the orange one with the broad nib that I really like. And then I have this pink one that I now have with the F nib. And to go back to the actual default sort of concept. You're right. It's hard to. Because I have these sort of categories. I do like just one of everything. Like if I was to walk out the house. I want one of every thing that I've listed here. But yeah. The Prera between the orange one and this pink one. Like has been what I've gone to for probably a month or two now. Yeah. I just really enjoy the pen. Like it's. I got a really good price on both of them. Like I basically paid for two what I would pay for one brand new. So I'm very excited about that as well. You know. Did I need a pink one as well? Not really. Yeah. I sure you did. It's a really nice pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The other thing that like we never talk about just because they are good. And like I never talk about is like the clip is good. The cap snap is good. It posts extremely well. It has like. Yeah. It has like the anti dry out little sleeve on the inside. Right. Like all the little details. And then maybe like the best nib on the market. So. Yeah.

Robb Knight: And it's interesting as well because it's almost at the size of like a pocket pen. It is. It's not quite there. But you know it's smaller than a you know a standard say like a you know Twisby or something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. I always have to bring a Prera out for reference a lot of times because people don't realize that that is actually a small pen. It's not that much bigger than like a Kaweco Classic Sport. But it's designed to be a full size pen. This is one of the only like I consider a standard pen. It's always posted. Like I just it's it's perfectly. It's so perfectly designed. Yeah. I don't know. So I might be changing my analog defaults but not not really. Not really. Next one. I'm going by picture order not list order. Retro 51 specifically banana which we talked about a lot. Tell me about just a retro 51 outside of being a banana version. It's funny to say I crack myself up.

Robb Knight: Yeah. I mean these are just nice pens to use. Like they've got like that perfect amount of weight to them but it's not too you know there's a few sort of metal pens I've used where I think oh this is too heavy for what this is. But I feel like the the retro the retro 51 is kind of perfect for for what I like from this kind of pen. And I originally I started I just had one of their sort of plain or plain you know it was just a pink one. Yeah. There was no regular design. Yeah. And then I ended up buying your one and then I happened across one of the dino smash ones and so I bought that and then I got the banana one. Yeah. And then I sold the pink one that I had like it it's all but you know all turning around but you know these are really nice pens and I was eyeballing the periodic table one today. Oh yeah. I think I really don't need another one like three of these along with all the other pens I have is probably more than enough but these just feel like really nice pens to just like you just know they're gonna work and they're solid. I'm not worried about breaking them or anything like that.

Retro 51

Brad Dowdy: So unlike the Prera which I can detail down to the nth degree why it's a great pen the retro 51 I can't it just is right. It's more of a dang this just works and it feels right and I don't have like all the details like it's definitely like in the weight in the field in the design but not on like the Prera level of detail being specific. So I find that super interesting about any product is when I enjoy it so much and I can't tell you specifically why. That's one of my favorite things and I think the retro does fall in that category. Obviously when you get to like the banana one there's some style elements that go into that because oh I can pick this up and it's fun but you've already decided before you even chose the banana that it's just a good quality pen right. So I think it's super interesting because it's it's honestly hard to describe I guess because it's honestly it's very simple. It's a very simple product in the grand scheme of things if you like strip it down to the parts it's a very simple product. The Rotring 600 is not it looks simple but I actually think this is a pretty complex pencil. So why does the the Rotring 600 get the call for the pencil. We talked about these earlier in the show and you were using the graph gear a lot of people love the graph gear. I'm not a graph gear fan air step. I'm sure you've used plenty of mechanical pencils. What is what you keep going. You put the Rotring in the analog defaults. Why?

Robb Knight: Yeah. I mean first I kind of just like how it looks like the black and red is like a really nice there's a nice visual visual design of it. Like it just looks nice again because it's very heavy metal. Like I don't worry about chucking it in my bag like obviously it's going in the in the pen case. But it's just one I don't really have to worry about too much. And it it just works like I know it's going to work. It's going to do exactly what I want. If I if I'm drawing something and I throw it down on my desk I'm not overly concerned with you know it breaking or anything like that. Not like necessarily would be but again a bit like the Retro 51 like it's just a hefty item that you kind of know is going to work really well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah this is I'm surprised after all these years I do find the Rotring 600 to be an outlier in feel and design that a lot of companies have tried to go down their own path in an engineering pencil like this and no one has executed this. And I don't know what it is even though Rotring's changed hands many times over the decades and it's people will say it's not the same pencil as it has but there's still producing a heck of a good product that is kind of unique in like what it is on the shelf right compared to other pens and a lot of other pens pencils excuse me have like their features that are great. Something about this one man I don't know what it is it just it feels super good. It's a it's definitely kind of like the Goldilocks pen for me everything is just right like the size the shape the diameter the knurling the the clearance on the the front end. I don't know everything about it is it's just kind of perfect. I was I had to go look I was like do I have my Rotring in there so I have a silver one just like yours and I've been I use the Pentel Sharp a lot which is a low-end engineering pencil because I do have some sense of fondness of growing up with it and it's probably one of like the most used products ever and now I have an orange one which I've only had for a few years and that's been kind of my grab and go mechanical pencil that I want to use. I think only because I know the Rotring 600 is the answer and I'm trying to avoid it because like it's so good like I love the Sharp like I am a super fan of the Sharp. I literally wrote like a love letter to the Sharp on the blog but the Rotring 600 is probably a better pencil in every way.

Robb Knight: But then I think that's what's great about this this whole hobby is it doesn't it doesn't even matter what you think is objectively the best thing. Exactly. If you have something that you you know I'm sure there's you know there's pens pens, fountain pens, pencils, whatever that people are using that I can't stand either because of the size or the feel or what you know there's as many pens as I've bought I've probably sold nearly as many that I've you know previously bought because I didn't like them or they didn't work for me. And that's fine like that's why there's so much choice because everybody can find something

Brad Dowdy: that they like. Yep it's my favorite thing about the hobby is there's so many options and what I like is different from what you like but we can get along in like perfect terms. Because we're searching for the same thing right. We're searching for just something that works for us and we can appreciate you know why someone else likes a pen for them or a pencil for them and it may not be for us like that's my that's my favorite thing about this hobby. All right. We've already shared our mutual love for the Micron.

Fineliners

Brad Dowdy: The Secure Pigma Micron for those who don't know if I didn't say this earlier. Have you tried competitor fineliners like the Statler or the UniPin? UniPin? Any of that type of stuff?

Robb Knight: Yes. I have a full set of the UniBall pins and I also have the MD products ones like the new ones they just did. We can talk about that. I'm not impressed with those. They're whatever. Yeah. I'm not that impressed.

Brad Dowdy: I did. So one of the things I do for Pen Addict members I do grades on products and I that's not a good product. I don't. There's several things wrong with that product. So I yeah I can't recommend that one. The MD one.

Robb Knight: I feel like I'm kicking. I was in I was in London Graphic Center and I saw them the three sizes that they do and I bought all three like what am I doing? Um I don't like them. Yeah. The the the Uni pins they're fine like they're they're pretty good and I think if like if they were the only ones that I had I would probably be very happy that I'm sure that you know if if you took away all the other ones that I have you know the Microns or whatever I could get by just fine. But something about the Micron just feels nicer to me when I'm writing with it when I'm drawing with it. Um yeah I keep the Uni pins around anyway as as spares because you know they're like I say they're fine. They're totally fine. Yeah. They are fine. The Micron is is better. I'm not sure I can pinpoint why but it is. Yeah I agree completely.

Brad Dowdy: I think the only one that's would be in the category for me of not quite interchangeable but pretty freaking close is the Statler pigment liner. Like that's about it uh just from like the black line fine liners and then everything else starts at a tier below um those two. So yeah it's such an interesting pen it's been around forever and uh it just keeps on going like it's just an exceptional it's so along with mechanical pencils like I mentioned the Sharp the Micron also in my analog defaults um is essentially a type of pen that I grew up on right. Fine liners and mechanical pencils were my thing growing up because none of the other stuff you could write fine enough with. You couldn't get a ballpoint um or a gel pen or you know even a rollerball to write a fine enough line that I could compare to a mechanical pencil or a fine liner. So yeah I just have a love for those pens. And then in the in the writing category um lastly is this a jelly roll? Let me scroll down. What or is this like a Pentel uh like a Pentel metallic?

Robb Knight: Which one? That is a Pentel metallic. That's one of the dual metallics which is actually your fault that I found those because I believe you you gave one away on the stream which I won and I think it came with I think you sent me a notebook or or something I think it was an ink test in notebook um and it was this gold and orange or goldy orange one and then I ended up buying like 10 more of them because it's really fun um like they're really vibrant there's a loads of glitter and color to those so yeah I ended up buying a whole bunch of those.

Brad Dowdy: Yes so I I thought looking at that I was like that looks like those metallics that I that I've had before and I forgot I did the giveaway what happened with those is someone gave those to me said hey try these you might like them and I was like there's no shot I'm gonna like this it's gonna be you know skippy and messy and and I was like oh my god it's like laying down glitter paint it was sick it was so good it's it's like a 1.0 it's like a 1.0 tip it's super wide and it works like it was it was kind of a revelation of what like a metallic gel ink pen could be because generally that's you're setting yourself up for a not great experience with a lot of those types of products this one this one fooled me and um it looks like it fooled you too because I

Robb Knight: cost you some more money. Yeah I mean I think if you if I were to find my notebook from when that was I think it was around this time last year I might I used it for weeks and weeks that orange and gold one that I won from you because it's just such a great color coming from that yep yep um and the one in the photo is a is a pink one but you know they're all they're all really good yeah I have a

Brad Dowdy: green one really impressed with them yeah I kept the green one out of the orange and orange and uh the ones that I was sent so I have a green one it's it's crazy it's such a good pen um lastly uh let's talk about the pen case because you actually posted one of my favorite designs of of pen case um or exterior designs I should say we'll talk about internal design but what do you have here for uh a

Robb Knight: carrying carrying option yes this is the it's the the rickshaw fillmore um with the I don't know what it is an octopus I can't remember if it's just called octopus or it's not it's not it is the

Brad Dowdy: ink to puss so yes of course it is yes of course it is so this came from I believe this came from ink journal who is what it is I think there still exist um Tom Otto of Goldspot Pens made a side business where he made like ink sampling journals and this was the logo and then that logo transferred onto some rickshaw products and they're spectacular it's one of my favorite just like logo designs for this type of uh this type of product so yeah ink to puss is what this one is it's great it's

Robb Knight: glorious I agonized over which color to get which design like what and I landed on the pink because I think if anybody knows me even reasonably well pink's gonna be where I go but all of the colors on this looked fantastic um you know and I even paid extra so I could have the pink uh the pink strings on the zips on the pools because I think it came with green maybe to match with the the ink to puss but I and they were great you know they they even refunded me rickshaw were great they were like oh no it's fine don't worry about it we'll just sort it out for you um you know and I have a couple of matching sleeves as well to go with this because you know if you're I'm ordering

Brad Dowdy: I might as well really go for it yeah yeah so no it's really good I love that design uh the case is great too so like it's just all good last last thing and then uh man we've been we could we could talk for another hour I could I could keep you all night um I'm not going to don't you're off the hook don't worry you're oh wow um I noticed and this goes back to the topic we led with about finishing a notebook you listed a notebook but I think it's telling that the notebook isn't in the picture because you change all the time do you think you can have an analog default notebook

Robb Knight: no I don't think so because I think the problem is is you know a notebook fine I could have lots of I'm sure all of us have lots of quote-unquote spare notebooks or unfinished ones or whatever but they they're also not cheap you know like a decent dot grid journal is you know anywhere from 20 to 30 pound and beyond that so if I buy one I'm gonna kind of commit to it for you know three to six months however long it takes me to fill it up so that I don't but if I want to try something new I can't I can't I can't also have a default journal so you know right now as I've listed I'm using the scribbles that matter uh notebook but you know there's a whole bunch of different ones I've got a list of that I'm like oh maybe I'll try that next time or I'll try this one so if I have to pick one fine I'll probably pick what I've got right now but no I I don't think I'm at the point where I'm willing to just stick to one journal and that's it yeah and I think I just realized that I'm in the

Brad Dowdy: same boat just now during this show I list my plotter narrow which is my planner that is not my journal or notebook right that is a planner right as a job and I put in my md notebook but that changes so much like that's something that's gonna I'm gonna have to think about so like I have the md notebook listed um the pen addict one which I just adore but like is that the thing like I'm just gonna I've started a feel like I said I started a field notes a couple weeks ago right how hmm god can and what god what is the hardest thing to have in an analog default and see now I'm in my head that's that's actually probably a good place to stop yeah because I'll get wrecked if I start thinking about that too much but now I have a note to actually think about the the notebook situation rob anything else we need to cover I'm gonna have all the links to your site to your fundraiser you have a couple days left to get in on that and uh check out all rob's amazing uh artwork uh that he does to raise money for saint jude and all the amazing work you do online at your at your website anything else

Robb Knight: I need to need to cover before we go and no I don't think so I think my website is is that will get you to everywhere you need to get to but you know at this point donate to saint jude I think is really just go there mine brad's the main campaign it doesn't matter like doesn't matter don't if you whatever you can give is even if it's a dollar that helps it all goes towards the same goal so let's do that

Brad Dowdy: totally and that's been one of the best things about this campaign is we're like we're all in this together and we see like the support that the community uh rallies around uh each each september and um and help support uh saint jude and everything that we do so with that rob I thank you uh like rob you can find me and all the things I'm up to over at penaddict.com uh my website and yeah so thank you uh this episode number 736 thanks to our sponsors enigma stationery and factor thanks again to rob for joining me and reminder tomorrow we are live from the campus at saint jude for 12 hours it's a 12 hour live stream there's a lot of coffee I already have a coffee order in for tomorrow rob so that's important that's important to keep things going so until next time say goodbye rob goodbye rob