The Pen Addict 8/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	8
Title:	Retro Style
Release Date:	April 5th, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 8
Audio File:	Audio Episode 8
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 8
Length:	3131 min <br />0.517 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss all about pens, paper, and all of the lovely tools and stationery that we love so dearly. I am joined, as always, by the host and my co-host of the show, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Hey, Myke. How's it going?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, pretty well, man. Pretty well. How are things of you?

Myke Hurley: Good, good. I'm coming in on two wheels, just rolled in from driving home from vacation, so I'm not totally prepared, but I think we can handle it.

Brad Dowdy: Of course we can, because you know everything there is to know, so there's no problem at all.

Myke Hurley: Not quite.

Brad Dowdy: How was your vacation?

Myke Hurley: It was really good, really good. Went down to the beach, didn't touch a pen or a paper for a week. I know that's blasphemous, but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things. Took a little break. For people that read my blog, my last day at JetPens was last Friday, so I just wanted to mention that real quick. There's really not a whole lot to say. It was an amicable parting of the ways, and JetPens is going to continue to sponsor the Pen Addict blog. Myke and I are going to keep going, just as always, with the Pen Addict podcast, and really nothing from the Pen Addict side of things is going to change, except I am currently looking for work. But hopefully that should all work out sometime soon.

Brad Dowdy: Or you could just become pen blogger extraordinaire.

Myke Hurley: That's true. I could do that.

Brad Dowdy: Full time. Just do that. That'd be better for everybody involved.

Myke Hurley: We'll run that by my wife.

Brad Dowdy: The man cannot live on pens alone. That's right.

Myke Hurley: Well, while I was gone, I did check in a few tweets and saw you tweeting away and sending me a couple of DMs that you got some new loot in the mail. And you were a little bit excited.

Pen Review

Brad Dowdy: Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Right. So I've got a couple of things, but I think I'm going to start off with what blew me away, which is so I think I might have mentioned this on last week's show that I have bought a retro 51 tornado, which is a rollable, which is a departure from my usual favor of fountain pens. And I'm going to include your, you did a written and video review.

Myke Hurley: Yes, that's right.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to include those in the show notes. I got the same model as Brad. I got the orange one because I remember I really liked it when I saw it in your original review.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And it actually it's a kind of favors the 70 decibels color scheme, doesn't it?

Brad Dowdy: I'd noticed that afterwards, like I was looking at the other day. I was like, oh, yeah, it's the right color.

Myke Hurley: It's a great color.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I didn't expect to love this pen just because it's a rollable. Rollable is the right term, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. It's it's and that's for it. Like I always say that to me means the type of ink. It's really a liquid ink pen. It's not a gel ink pen and it's not a ballpoint. It's that liquid ink pen, which is generally classified if you go to a store or shop online as a rollerball. So, yes.

Brad Dowdy: So I broke out my my pen testing pad that I have a very thick stock paper that I have that I try out all my pens on. And put pen to paper and wrote hello or something as I always tend to do. It's always start off with hello and said, oh, my God, instantly have fallen in love with this pen. It is already taken number one spot. It's my favorite pen that I own.

Myke Hurley: Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: A shadow of a doubt. This thing is incredible.

Myke Hurley: Wow. That's impressive. Yeah. So what what what exactly it makes it what makes it stand out?

Brad Dowdy: So one thing it looks kick ass. Right. It just looks incredible. Like it's it's such a gorgeous piece of design. It's weighted so well. There's no cap because I do as much as I love fountain pens. I hate caps. We've been with this before because for me, they're just superfluous waste when I'm writing. I've got to put them somewhere. I hold on to them because I don't like I don't like to cap my fountain pens. And the way that you get the the the rollable to appear. So like the way that you would. What's the right term, Brad?

Myke Hurley: It's basically a twist mechanism. Yeah. The top the top of the pen where you would on a non cap pen where you would think it might be retractable or have a knock. The the top of the barrel is a twist mechanism, which ejects the tip because it kind of looks like it is a knock.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's shaped a little bit like that because, you know, the the knurled part is inset from the barrel and then it's kind of got a flange like, well, maybe you just press it down and click. But it's not. It's actually a twist.

Brad Dowdy: And it's the the the way that that feels is incredible. Like there's a real good friction to it. And when when the pen is in place, there's a nice funk like yes, like you can feel it.

Myke Hurley: Right. There's some resistance when you twist it and then it goes boom and it just kind of bumps into place. Yeah.

Ink Refills

Brad Dowdy: And it's it's all in the ink. It's really the refills in these things are incredible. And that was what you mentioned in your review as well, wasn't it?

Myke Hurley: I was really taken aback by this pen because like you, this is this is way out of my wheelhouse. I thought this might be more in your wheelhouse because you do like point seven millimeter gel ink pens like me. I never use point seven millimeter gel ink pens. So for me to like a seven millimeter rollerball refill was was pretty shocking. And yeah, I it's really, really smooth. And importantly for me in a rollerball or liquid ink pen is the bleed factor. And there really is none. It writes it's very equivalent to a gel pen as far as I'm concerned.

Brad Dowdy: Like the way that the ink looks and feels as it goes onto the paper feels more like my Pilot Pereira than my G2.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I have that. It feels more like that to me when it's coming out because it is liquid and you can feel that it doesn't feel like gel. And it doesn't feel like any rollerball I've used in the past. Like some crappy rollerball or whatever.

Myke Hurley: Right, right. There's no there's no resistance.

Brad Dowdy: No. Right. It's like it's just flowing out nicely like a fountain pen. I think that's what I like about it is it it has that sort of feeling. I don't need to fight with it to get it to right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and that's a lot of the properties of a rollerball for sure.

Brad Dowdy: There is one thing extended use. My wrist does ache more and that's just from using a rollable. Yeah, I've always found that that rollables hurt my wrist and hand faster than a fountain pen does.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's a little bit more grip tension you have to manage the pen across the page.

Brad Dowdy: Because you are pushing it, aren't you, as opposed to letting it flow in a way. Right, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Right. So you have a little more grip tension and the retro 51 specifically. It's got a little bit of weight to it so that adds to fatigue. It's not an overweight pen or unbalanced pen. It's actually perfectly balanced. Like you said, that's one of the things that makes it so fantastic. But it's not a lightweight pen and that's one of the things that lends itself to writing fatigue. But you'd have to go pretty long and hard to really get the effects. But you do notice it moving back and forth from certain pens, especially from a fountain pen into any other type of pen. There's going to be more tension in your grip.

Brad Dowdy: So over the past few days, I've been trying to find excuses to write more because I've wanted to use this pen more. And we haven't even spoken about the packaging yet, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Wow.

Myke Hurley: Myke will link to the video in the show notes. And I showed that to Myke when I first made it. That was, I mean, as awesome as the pen is, retro 51 knocks it out the park on packaging. I mean, I know you don't write with the packaging, but it makes you fall in love with the pen even more, I think.

Brad Dowdy: That's what Apple do, right? That's the way that Apple make things so great is there is a belief that the packaging and opening the product is part of the experience. And I was blown away from the moment I opened the car. So you open the cardboard box and this aluminum tube comes out that looks like a battery.

Tornado Rollerball

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: And then you open it up. There it was. Yeah. And then you've got this little velvet pouch that the pen is presented to you in. It's just this awesome way of doing it. And then, you know, I've got the little book here. And it did make me laugh. I was looking at the book after I'd started writing with it. And it shows all the different types of Tornado. And it shows the refills that they do. Yep. And it has their codes. But then it does say that any parka refill will do. Mm-hmm. And after using this refill, no. No, it won't.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it won't. It absolutely won't. I've used a couple... I'm not a hardcore parka guy, but I have used the parka gel and the parka ballpoint. And it's not even close to the quality that this refill is.

Brad Dowdy: So at some point, I'm going to have to make sure I buy a pack of these refills to make sure that I've got what I need going forward.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that you're well-stocked. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Because it's all about the refill. I mean, and as well, the Retro 51, they do a fountain pen version of the Tornado that I'm going to have to buy. Yeah. And I found it online in some places, but it's not easy to come by, so it is actually quite expensive. But it's definitely made it on the list now.

Myke Hurley: And that's the other thing about the Tornado Rollerball, as fancy of a pen as it looks and as quality of a build and as perfect as it writes and as great of the packaging is, it's still a $20 pen. It's not like it's a $100 pen we're talking about.

Brad Dowdy: I can't believe that this thing is a $20 pen because it looks so expensive.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: And if you pick it up, like, so you can get a pen that looks really good, right? So, for example, the Prera looks great, but you pick it up and you can feel how light it is. Yes. And a weight of a pen usually denotes the price of a pen.

Myke Hurley: A lot of times. I can agree with that to a degree. Yeah, sure.

Brad Dowdy: Or especially, like, to the average man on the street.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly.

Brad Dowdy: So, for this pen, I forgot how much it costs. I was actually going to look it up. But, yeah, you're right.

Myke Hurley: It's in the low 20s. I'm not looking at it. But I know it's like 20, 21, 22, something like that, if I'm not mistaken.

Brad Dowdy: You know, incredible that it could cost that amount of money. You know, I am in love with this pen, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Good. And that's awesome because this pen alone changed my opinion on rollerballs and makes me want to, you know, branch out and use a pen that I would normally use. And for me, that's a big step for all the micro tip gel pens that I have. It's a big step for me to say I want to use this pen on a more regular basis and put it in, you know, my heavy rotation of pen use. And this Retro 51 is definitely the outlier in my arsenal, but in a good way.

Myke Hurley: It's a really cool pen.

Myke Hurley: It's fun to just hold and twist the top on just because it's so nice looking.

Brad Dowdy: Do you use your Tornado very much?

Myke Hurley: Not maybe once or twice a week. Okay. Whenever I get in the mood for it. I still generally use the super fine gel ink pens like the Hitec C 0.3 millimeter or the Zebra Sarasa 0.3 millimeter. A lot of times what I'll do is if I'm kind of switching tasks or switching projects, I'll pick a new pen to start with that. So a lot of times I'll pick the Retro 51. It's usually going to be something different from my super fine gel ink pens. And that means it's usually going to be the Retro 51 or the Sharpie pen, you know, the felt tip. You know, something wider than what I have been just to give myself a break. So that's generally kind of how it breaks down for me. But as far as, you know, what percentage of my weekly writing do I use this pen, it's still pretty low for me. But it's a lot more than it used to be, put it that way.

Myke Hurley: Because it used to be zero.

Myke Hurley: And now it is capturing some of that slice of the pie.

Brad Dowdy: Which is good. That shows. If anything, that shows.

Myke Hurley: I reach for it all the time. So it's really cool. And I do like to show it off to people who. That's kind of a. For people who don't know pens, it can be kind of a gateway pen. You know, I'm not going to hand someone who doesn't know anything about pens a .3 high tech C. They'll just go, oh, my God, that's what are you doing? You know, that's that's not something that they want to write with. But something like this, like this Retro 51. They'll go, oh, that's different. Wow, that's pretty good. What else you got? You know, yeah, show me. Show me more. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So it wasn't the only thing that I received this week. What else did you get? I feel like this show is becoming what did Myke get this week?

Myke Hurley: Well, it's, you know, honestly, that's kind of part of it, right?

Brad Dowdy: That's what people want to hear. They want it because this is us reviewing stuff. It's helping people make purchases.

Myke Hurley: And people who are familiar with the pen addict know my perspective on a lot of things. It's good to hear a different perspective.

Brad Dowdy: That's good. Yeah, that's true. Although I've not got anything. I doubt I'll have anything for next week. I've not made any orders, so. I might. I might. Oh, that's exciting. Because you making an order is a big deal.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: In my eyes. So I also, a couple of episodes ago, we were talking about multi pens. And I purchased a high tech C Calito.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.

Brad Dowdy: And I bought a refill pack from JetPens. Just like a 10 color refill pack.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: So then I could just choose from that. And I've got the standards. I've got the light blue, black, red, and green in at the moment.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So you've got a four cartridge barrel.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've got a four cartridge barrel. It's fantastic. Oh, good. Yeah, it's really great. Because, I mean, you've got all of the, it's not thick. It's not a very large pen, which is great. Because that's what, you know, we're talking in the show, you usually do get those with multi pens tend to be quite large.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, a wide barrel diameter. This is, for fitting four cartridges in, it stays usable. How about that? I mean, it's not too wide to write with comfortably. Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: And there are some tasks in my day job where I need to use multiple colors. And it's just so much easier to have them all in one barrel. And so all I've got to do is just click the different knocker and get the color I need. But the real good thing about this, as opposed to any other sort of multi-penny, is you're using the Hi-Tech C. And my main problem with the Hi-Tech C is I find it's very uncomfortable to hold, as I've said in the past. The single cartridge. Yeah, the regular. The standard plastic one. Yes. But the Colito is a much more comfortable, thicker, rounded pen with a nice gel grip. And it's just a lot easier to hold. And you're getting the really great Hi-Tech C ink coming out at the end of it. I am very impressed. I'm really pleased that I made this purchase.

Myke Hurley: Well, good. Good, good. Because, yeah, that's a – most people that try it like it. It's because the quality of the ink cartridge is better than almost anything you're going to get in any other multi-pen you can find. And on top of that, you can customize it with some extra colors that, you know, you wouldn't normally find. And it's just a really good writer. I use it – we've spoken about how I use it. I use it to – I use it for notes constantly where I, you know, mark and highlight different colors and, you know, check off things in one color and do various things. And that pen comes in handy for that a lot. And I really enjoy it.

Kaweco Clip

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, yeah, it's very, very good. Also, I know, a good friend – oh, I got the clip for the Kaweco.

Myke Hurley: Oh, okay, cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's great.

Myke Hurley: Dang, I forgot to order one again. Yeah, it's great.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I feel like I could very – it fits on, feels nicely, but when it's on, it's quite – you can slide it around because it just slides on. So I've still yet to take it out because I'm scared I'm going to lose it.

Myke Hurley: Can you tighten it up? I don't know. I haven't seen one. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Because you need to push it onto the pen.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So you kind of push it over the – it's not circular. It has, like, the hexagon shape.

Myke Hurley: Ah, gotcha. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: And then it just slides over the, like, the lid.

Myke Hurley: Yep, I gotcha.

Brad Dowdy: So, I mean, it's got a good pressure on it. I mean, but I'd have to be careful with it. I'd have to constantly make sure that when I'm putting it into a jacket pocket or whatever that I'm holding the clip.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because I'm worried that I'll lose it. However, the Kaweco has kind of – I've decided to kind of keep that as an at-home pen anyway. Okay. Yeah. For the time being. Just because I've got so much of a – because I do less writing at home than I do in my day job. And the Kaweco is very nice. It's a great fountain pen, but it's not my favorite pen. So I wouldn't – I want to have my favorite pen with me all the time.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: You know? Yeah. So, I mean, so this week I've been carrying around the Retro, the Kaweco, and the Lamy Safari. Okay. I've been carrying those three around. So the Pereira has also been relegated to stay at home for the time being.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. But yeah, so I also – a good friend of the show, Michael Ram, he sent me some Doan paper.

Myke Hurley: Okay, great.

Brad Dowdy: That's how you say it. Doan, right? Doan, yeah. Because I always got to say Doan.

Myke Hurley: Ah, yeah. Doan.

Brad Dowdy: I know that's wrong. And it's worse because it's a guy's name, which I really don't want to get it wrong because it's not a product name. It's Chad Doan. That's his name. Yes. So I have two of the small books. What are they called?

Myke Hurley: The utility notebook, the little staple bound.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the little pocket notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's the utility journal.

Brad Dowdy: Utility journal. And then the spiral bound one?

Myke Hurley: The idea journal.

Brad Dowdy: Right, okay. Yeah. And I've not opened the idea journal yet. It's still not as plastic because really the thing about the Doan is the paper, right? It doesn't matter about the size. That's the difference. Now, I've not yet started to use one. The simple fact is I have so many notebooks. I mean, I have a notebook for every show and all that sort of stuff. So I don't want to superfluously start a book without a purpose.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: And then I don't want to waste. I don't want to waste books. But obviously, I've taken it out. I've had a little scribble, but I've not started using it as a daily driver yet. But I really like the look of this paper. Yeah. It looks, even though it is, as we said in the past, me and you don't like lines, but it doesn't look restrictive because there's lines going in every direction.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: But it looks like it would be very good to write in because the lines are really big. That's what I quite like about it. Because my main problem with lines is I have quite big writing. So typical lined paper, or especially Moleskine lined paper, is too thin. But this is more like handwriting paper. Yeah. That's what the... I mean, I've just had a total flashback to when I was a kid, right? Uh-huh. This was how our handwriting books looked like when we were in school. They were grid lines.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I remember having, you know, widely spaced lines that you wrote in between.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And we had grids as well.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. I think it looks very comfortable and non-restrictive to write in, but also offering a structure which could be useful.

Myke Hurley: It's funny. I use it almost exactly the opposite of you. In between the lines, I usually write two to three lines in between each line. Are you kidding me?

Brad Dowdy: You write in the grid line, don't you?

Myke Hurley: I like writing the grid line, yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: How do you read it?

Myke Hurley: I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Crazy, man.

Myke Hurley: That's just how I... That's why I use the pens that I do, you know. That's the way I like to write and the way I like to read it and the way I like it to look. So...

Brad Dowdy: Imagine. So what have you ordered? Are you going to give us a sneak peek before next week?

Kaweco EF Nib

Myke Hurley: I'll give you a hint. Okay. You know, we were talking about all of our Kawecos last week and I said I didn't have an EF nib. Let's just say I have a Kaweco with an EF nib coming, but I'm not going to tell you which model.

Brad Dowdy: So it's the Kaweco Blade version that I've dubbed because it's so fine. It's just going to slice straight from things.

Myke Hurley: You know, it's not going to be finer than the Prera or the Safari.

Brad Dowdy: Nothing is finer than the Prera. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yep. It'll line up with the... I'm interested to get it in because I have a Safari EF that I think is pretty wide. So I'll definitely... That'll be a good one right for comparison video just to see if it's similar to the Safari EF. But it's a pen I've actually wanted for a long time and just never gotten a hold of. So I have one of those coming in. That's probably the highlight of what I have ordered. It's actually in, but since I was out of town, it's at the post office because I was not here. So I'll go pick it up tomorrow. So I'll have time to play with it before next week. And I'm sure we'll talk about it because I'll be able to compare it to some of the other Kawekos that I have.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, that's definitely the highlight.

Brad Dowdy: I just want to thank on the show. I mean, last week I spoke about a couple of things last week. One was I wanted to have some videos basically on how to clean fountain pens. Fan of the show, JR, sent in some videos for me. So thank you to JR for doing that. So there's some stuff for me to brush up on.

Myke Hurley: Can you link them in the show notes?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, okay.

Myke Hurley: Because I'd like to see them too because I'm not a pro at that and I get asked that question all the time. I have my way, but whether it's the right way, who knows?

Brad Dowdy: I've yet to try it out yet, so don't blame me. Oh, sure, sure. If it all goes wrong. Or JR, don't blame him either. Or her. I assume him. I'm going to assume him.

Brad Dowdy: So I'll just put that in the show notes. So that will be in there. Also as well, another fan of the show. Oh no, I've lost. Where's the email? Brad, what's going on? I've lost the email. Hang on. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. Don't worry. I sent in asking me about, where is it? UK suppliers.

Myke Hurley: Oh yes.

Brad Dowdy: I got the name. Edith Robertson.

Myke Hurley: Edith Robertson, yep.

UK Pen Suppliers

Brad Dowdy: Sent in a note about some UK pen suppliers. And kind of just said, oh now that Brad has moved on from JetPens, can you speak about these? And it wasn't, we weren't, I wasn't consciously ignoring them. Oh sure. It was just, I didn't know that these companies existed.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we can speak about anything, anytime. So yeah, it didn't have anything to do with.

Brad Dowdy: No, it really didn't. And I just wanted to mention that part because I wanted people to know that just because Brad was employed by JetPens and even now still has like some, you know, an affiliation with them. Sure. With sponsorship and stuff. I've only ever mentioned it because it felt like the only place I could find this stuff in a consistent form. I didn't want to post to places I couldn't trust. You know, I didn't want to say to someone, go spend this money. Right. And then a pen never shows up. Right. So Edith suggested two different outlets. I can't think of the right word. Yeah. Outlets. Yeah. One called Tiger Pens and one called Colt Pens. They look to have a great selection.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm somewhat familiar with Colt Pens. I have a friend on Twitter that actually one of the first readers of the Pen Addict blog and one of the first guys to say, hey, you're doing a great job. It actually works for Colt Pens. His name is Michael Randall, I think. He's on Twitter at PigPalmM. I'll send you the link. And I think Michael might be actually the first person I followed on Twitter.

Myke Hurley: You know, if you can go back in your Twitter and I think it's chronological on how you started following people. He might be the very first person on there. But yeah, he's a real good guy. I've talked to him a bunch over the years and they have a really good store wide selection. I'm trying to think if I've ordered from them once. I can't remember if I have or haven't. You know, I like to test out, you know, some other shops every now and then. And I can't remember if I've ordered from Colt Pens or not. But they have a really wide selection. They're UK based.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah. So that'll be good for me finding some stuff. The only thing is and this is what this is one of the reasons I brought up and wanted to talk about it was on price. So looking at their store, everything is cheaper than you would find it in the shops, for example.

Myke Hurley: Like if you walked into a brick and mortar store.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And the selection that they've got and the prices that they have are very competitive and that's fantastic. But the exchange rate, it can't. Colt Pens cannot beat the exchange rate that I get from Jet Pens. Because obviously everything's in dollars. Right. I'm getting things much cheaper and there's no VAT, my value-add-tax either. So however, the delivery is free and will be a lot faster and more reliable.

Myke Hurley: Yep. For sure.

Brad Dowdy: Which is another thing. So if I want something and want something quick, this is where I'm going to go. Although I haven't had a massive look around the store. As I said, they do have some stuff that I've not been able to find. Like a few weeks ago when we were talking about notepads, you pointed me in the way of Lecterm 1917. Mm-hmm. And they have those books in stock. And I said to you before we started, they're seven pounds for the regular notebook, like the classic. That's half the price of a Moleskine.

Myke Hurley: That's crazy. Because that's a really good quality notebook. That's a good deal.

Brad Dowdy: And that's, you know, there's a hardcover as well. Mm-hmm. It's incredible. So, oh, no, sorry, the hardcover's $8.95. But that's still, I mean, you're looking for a Moleskine of that sort of size. You're looking at anywhere between 10 to 18 pounds. Wow. So, you know, I'm running low on my work Moleskine at the moment. Mm-hmm. So I'll definitely be looking to get one of these. But, yeah, as I said, they have a really good selection. So it's good to see another store. And if any other listeners have anywhere that they buy their goods from, please send them along. Because I'm always looking. Because not everywhere has the same stock of the same stuff. And it's always good to find interesting new items, right? That's what we love the most.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. Definitely that's what gets us in trouble in the wallet.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yes.

Brad Dowdy: Are they stocked Kaweco?

Brad Dowdy: At Colt Pens. Cool. Which is nice. Oh, the pouches. They're very nice. They're very attractive. Anyway, I'm going completely off track. And I've just found myself just searching through the store. So I'm just going to get rid of that now.

Myke Hurley: Well, thank you, Edith, for bringing that up to our attention. For sure.

Brad Dowdy: Definitely. I'm very happy to find out that there's other places. And as always, really, really pleased when people get in touch. And you can do that. If you want to get in touch, you can do that by going to 70decibels.com forward slash contact. And we have a contact form that you can fill out there and send stuff through. Or if you want to email, because that contact form goes to me. But if you wanted to email Brad directly, you can do that by emailing him at thepenaddict at gmail.com.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Is it thepenaddict or penaddict?

Myke Hurley: Nope. The email address is thepenaddict at gmail.com. The website address is penaddict.com.

Brad Dowdy: Even though I convinced you to buy thepenaddict.com a little bit. A while ago because it was available. And I thought you were a madman for not owning it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I forced you to buy it before I did. Held it at ransom.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Well, I can just start doing some funny audio stuff on this show. We'll see how that goes for you.

Myke Hurley: Get back at you. Well, I guess I've already blown up my ringtones on your show. Luckily, we've gotten through this show ringtone free. So we might want to wrap it up while the getting's good.

New Pens

Brad Dowdy: So this show has been more. I just bought a lot more stuff than usual. And fell in love with a pen. So you kind of just had to listen to that.

Myke Hurley: Well, it's good to talk about the new stuff and get those perspectives. And, you know, it's, you know, buying a pen, you know, without ever getting to use it or touch it or see how it writes. And it's difficult. So hopefully, you know, we're able to give some of that information just, you know, and everyone's got different writing styles and writing needs. So hopefully you can use some of that information to make an informed decision.

Brad Dowdy: Indeed.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: So, Brad, where can people find you online if they would like to do so?

Myke Hurley: We went through the website and email address. You can get me at those places. And you can also find me on Twitter at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. You know, when I'm not on vacation, I'm on the Twitters a lot. So you can get in touch with me there if you're looking for just a quick answer, and I'll be happy to chat with you.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent. And I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter. So until next week, thanks very much, as always, for listening. If you want to leave us a review on iTunes, please feel free to do that. It makes me and Brad feel very happy and makes our egos get that ever so slightly larger, which is always nice for us.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yes, I love that. Thank you for all your ratings and reviews on iTunes. That's awesome. Thank you so much for doing that. And please continue to do so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, please continue to do so, of course.

Brad Dowdy: Okay then, Brad, thanks very much, mate.

Myke Hurley: All right, have a good one. Talk to you later. You too.

Brad Dowdy: See ya.