The Pen Addict 242/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	242
Title:	The Hype Man
Release Date:	February 1st, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 242
Audio File:	Audio Episode 242
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 242
Length:	8181 min <br />1.35 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 242. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Blue Apron, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am very excited to welcome my co-host to the show, Mr. Brad Dowdy. It is that time again, Mr. Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: It is that time, once again, our weekly therapy session for Stationery, The Pen Addict Podcast.

Myke Hurley: I was referring more particularly to it being Kickstarter time.

Kickstarter Campaign

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of a... we have quite the announcement to make that we have... We do, actually. Well, first of all, we have an announcement to make, because we didn't launch our Kickstarter until after the show last week, so let's make the Kickstarter announcement first.

Myke Hurley: There will be a link in the show notes today to the Pen Addict Live 2017 RelayCon Atlanta and DC Pen Show Kickstarter.

Myke Hurley: We have incredibly already met our goal. This is the fastest, I think, we have ever met the goal. 26 hours it took. And we met our funding goal of $12,500, and we're at $15,745. So, thank you so much to everybody that has pledged. This year, we're doing things differently. So, we are doing the show that you've seen before, that we've done... we did last year. We're going to do a live episode of The Pen Addict with an audience in Atlanta. Then at DC Pen Show, we're going to be having a meetup. And for backers of the project, if they choose the video level, I'm going to be putting together a backer-exclusive vlog for the backers. So, you will get to see what it's like for Myke and Brad when they set up a table at a pen show and do that for a weekend. Because that's another thing that me and you do, right? Like, we do it at Atlanta together. I'm going to be doing an interview at DC. I don't just, like, enjoy myself. I also work because I love those guys.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like, I actually count on you working. Like, I don't arrange other people to help us out because I have you. So, I put you to good use. That's for damn sure.

Myke Hurley: Why would you need anybody else, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't. I don't. I just need to... We just need a product description for you at every show so you know what they're called.

Myke Hurley: You need to send them to me in advance and I'm going to bone up before I come.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right.

Myke Hurley: Because by the end of the pen show, I got it. Second day, I was on it. First day was my day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you always yell at me the first day. You're like, Brad, you need to tell me what these cases are called. I'm like, I know. I'll get it for next year and I never do it.

Myke Hurley: And the reward this year, so we're doing the videos as we've done in the past. Obviously, there's two videos this time. But this year, we are doing a case that NOC is putting together. And it is an adaptation of the Atlanta-only pen case, the Penvelope that we had last time. It's called the Sapello now. Sapello. Sapello. I'm so sorry. See, this is the problem.

Brad Dowdy: Jeff calls it the Sapello, so I'm good either way.

Myke Hurley: You're out voting now, two to one. I am. And basically, this is like, it looks like an envelope. It has a little fastener there. What do you call those types of fasteners?

Brad Dowdy: Snap.

Myke Hurley: Snap. See, we call them push. I can't even remember now. Because it's stupid, I'm sure. It probably is. It's the British way of calling it. Right. Anywho.

Myke Hurley: And you can, on the little flap there, you can put some pens in. If they have clips on them, you can clip them in. And then it fits like a bunch of your favorite pocket notebooks, like field notes or your notebooks that you got from Lashi's Kickstarter will fit in there.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. It fits like three or four of the memo-sized notebooks. It's really useful.

Myke Hurley: It's a nice little EDC thing, I think.

Brad Dowdy: It's, Jeff, to this day, calls it his favorite case design we've ever done.

Myke Hurley: I think it might be mine, too, honestly. Yeah. Because it's different and it's fun and- Like we don't sell it. Yeah. So it's not for sale. You can only get it right now through the Kickstarter campaign. Yeah. And you can either get-

Brad Dowdy: We'll eventually sell it probably next year. It'll be part of the normal lineup because people ended up liking it so much. But what you won't get- It's just a cool case. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Is the 2017 colorway, right? We have one gray outside, the orange inside, and a Pen Addict 2017 logo on the label.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, yeah, you're going to get this. This is all Kickstarter-only colors and labels and stuff like that. You know, if we happen to have some extras after the show, you know, we'll probably sell them at future pen shows, something like that. But there's only going to be one run of this case.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and with how it's going right now, there might not be any extras.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Sold over 300 of them so far.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's going to be good. We're not limiting it.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah, we'll be covered. No matter what.

Myke Hurley: So we have done incredibly. I'm so happy. I want to thank everyone. Like, you've covered it. The costs are all covered. We can do the shows. We can do them exactly how we want to do them. We are so grateful for this because we get to put this on for you. And we always do our best. And we'll continue to do our best to make it worth your while. And we have an announcement to make.

Brad Dowdy: Everything's happening so fast, Myke. I know. This happened the day we launched, right? Mm-hmm. Or the next day. You, you, regardless. I think it was the next day.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Regardless. Like, the next day.

Myke Hurley: We had a little plan start to come together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The machination started to work. Can we do something else? And can we institute a stretch goal to do this something else? And why don't you spill the beans? Because you've been driving this pretty well.

Myke Hurley: So, on the Kickstarter page today, we'll be making an update. But, obviously, Penelit listeners get to know all this stuff first because they're the best. We are doing our first ever stretch goal. If we reach $20,000 pledged to the campaign, we're going to be adding another live show with video this year. In October, in Chicago, with Field Notes in their headquarters.

Brad Dowdy: At Field Notes. In their HQ. With Jim and Brian.

Myke Hurley: It'll be me and Brad and Jim and Brian. And we'll be sitting down together to record a show. We'll be talking all about Field Notes. We'll be kind of filling, getting, since the last time we had them on. This is something me and Brad have wanted to do for so long. To have those guys back and to talk about all of the releases. You know, there are so many things I want to know. Like, about, like, the reissues and how they did that and how they made those logistics work. So, we are currently planning that this will be on October the 13th. It will be recorded. But then we're going to be doing a couple of little things. So, there will, when we record the video, we will have a super small audience. We're going to have information on that soon.

Field Notes Event

Myke Hurley: Backers will probably be the first, if not only, people to get options to get tickets. And I would expect, considering how small the audience is going to be, we'll probably do a raffle. But there'll be more on that later.

Brad Dowdy: And that's just for the live recording?

Myke Hurley: Just for the live recording. And then after the live recording, on Friday the 13th, which is a great day, of course, we're going to be doing, well, Field Notes is going to be putting on, like, a party slash meetup slash pop-up shop. That will be open to everyone. So, there will be a chance for, if you're in Chicago or in the area, you can come and hang out. And we're doing it then because I'm going to be in Chicago then for the Release Notes conference. But also because this gives us some time to put it together. We bounced around the idea of doing it at the Chicago Pen Show, but we won't be able to get it together in time. We're two weeks after Atlanta, and it won't be what me and Brad want it to be. And this was something that Brad pushed on, and he was right to. So, by doing it in October, we have a nice runway where we can make something that we're both really excited to put together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it's going to be essentially a Field Notes-specific trip and video and recording.

Brad Dowdy: It's going to be awesome. We definitely wanted to do it separate from the Chicago Pen Show just because of the timing, like you said. We wouldn't be able to do what I wanted to do, which is do it right, if we tried to rush it in that time frame. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Field Notes is totally on board. They've marked it on their calendar. They suggested it. It was their idea.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Jim reached out and said, why don't we do this? I sent him a couple messages, and he was like, yeah, we're going to do this. We're going to have a party. We're going to do this. I'm like, you guys are amazing. So, thank you so much to Jim and everyone at Field Notes for allowing us to do this. I cannot tell you how excited I am that we're going on freaking tour this year. This ain't just your little one show anymore. We're doing a North American tour. I am so excited.

Brad Dowdy: We should probably do a t-shirt.

Myke Hurley: Oh, we've got to do a t-shirt.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, get Frank on that. Great idea.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm going to talk to him about that. We've got to get a t-shirt made.

Brad Dowdy: Critter's asking in the chat room. Timings, we don't know yet. I would imagine it would be late afternoon into the evening, but it's going to be an open event, you know, at least after the recording. Yeah. For meet and greets.

Myke Hurley: I think we're going to do the show in an afternoon, and then all the meet and greet and stuff will just spill into the evening. There are so many logistics that we need to put together, hence why doing it in October is great. But obviously, we need to start talking about it now because we need to raise the money for it. So, if you haven't backed, you should back. The video of that show will be added into the video and vlog level. So, there'll be three videos now for the $15 level. And then, of course, you can get just the Pembelope if you want for $30 or $40 for the whole shebang. You, trust me, this is going to be amazing. You do not want to miss out on this. Like, even if you don't want the case, go for the videos. We're going to have two professionally made videos of live shows. And then some bumbo with a camera is going to record a vlog of what DC looks like. So, I mean, you're going to get like two and a half videos, effectively.

Brad Dowdy: But your vlogs are pretty... Well, your vlog is going to be different this time because it's going to be really behind the scenes kind of cool. I think it's going to be awesome. I look forward to that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I keep thinking of like, what is Brad and Myke's hotel room like? You know, stuff like that. We'll be able to show you actually what it's like. And I expect most of it after the first day will just be me and Brad talking about how tired we are because that happens a lot.

Brad Dowdy: It happens as the first night, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm so excited for this. I'm so excited for this. But do you know who's more excited than both of us? Who? My mum. Really? She sends me messages, multiple messages a day, giving me updates of the funding level. No way. She's so excited about it. That's awesome. Yeah. So, everyone that's back, thank you for also making my mum very happy and very proud of her son. That is cool.

Brad Dowdy: That's a nice offshoot for me. That's cool. But yeah, speaking of offshoots, this was like a hugely, you know, happy thing. But you had a belated happy birthday to you. I wanted to sneak that in there. Oh, thank you. Happy birthday to you yesterday. And I hope you had a lovely day and many girly drinks were consumed. No girly drinks, but I had some girly cakes. Nice. I had some cupcakes.

Brad Dowdy: Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

Myke Hurley: So, go and check out the Kickstarter. There'll be a nice bold link in the show notes and there'll be more information about the Chicago event as time goes on. But let's make it happen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And this is a living, breathing project. I mean, there's going to be changes and updates and things like that for the Chicago event. But book the date. I mean, we're done with the date. So, all the other details will come out later than that. But there are more pen shows. There aren't just the ones that we attend.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I will be attending two very cool upcoming pen shows. Number one is Los Angeles, which is in just over two weeks from now. February 17th and 19th. In L.A., I went last year with Van Ness. It was a fun show. It was cool being out in L.A., even though I didn't get to see very much of it. One of these days, I'm going to start booking extra time so I can get around the town for at least a day or two that I go to instead of just the hotel. But that's going to be fun. I'll be with Van Ness Pens again. We're going to do some cool things around then. The meetups there are kind of on the fly. But they have a really great bar area. And we will be camping out there a lot. And there'll be a bunch of cool people coming by there. So, that'll be fun. And then I turn around a month later. And I'm hitting a new show on my calendar, which is a new show on a lot of people's calendars. The Little Rock Pen Show. So, they've changed venues and dates, trying to make this show a little bit bigger. And it was normally just a weekend show. I don't even know if it was necessarily at a hotel or it was at a smaller hotel. But now they're like in a big hotel, ballroom, you know, bunch of vendors. Anna's going to be there with her husband. And Skylab Letterpress is going to have a table. Anna's going to have some new products she's been working on. So, she's actually going to be selling. And I am going to be like the hype man for the show. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm not doing anything except going around and doing like a little PR stuff. She's putting the energy up. Yeah. So, I'm going to do like an article on Van Ness Pens. I'm going early enough to go to their store. Right? I've never been to their physical store. I'm going to go do that. And then I'm going to take all the classes at the show and be able to talk about like all the classes that people go to on the weekends when they go to pen shows for multiple days. And, you know, it's going to be a way, way different experience for me because I won't be working. I'll just be doing and sharing my experience of the show. So, that's going to be fun.

Myke Hurley: And hyping.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Hype man.

Pen Shows

Myke Hurley: You got to wear your most orange stuff, you know, like all orange. That's true. And you get like a huge pen, like a big king of pen and hang it around your neck on a chain. You know?

Brad Dowdy: That I could swing something like that. Pump it up, everyone. That's right. My dad is in town.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's going to be fun. It's a three-day show, March 17th through 19th. And like if you're in the area, you should come.

Myke Hurley: What is this image in my head now of you? Just running around the floor.

Brad Dowdy: You know, there's going to be artwork now, unfortunately. So, thanks for that image. Mental image.

Myke Hurley: Brad Dowdy the Hype Man. I need it. I need it. Come on. Someone can do this. Oh, man. Yeah. That sounds like fun, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's going to be different. I've never done anything like this.

Myke Hurley: I wonder which one of these shows gets added to World Tour next year. Yeah, right. I have to say, though, just real quick, you know, just because why not do it? We have some ideas for 2018 that could make 2016 look amateur. Do you remember what we spoke about? About what we could do in 2018? I don't even know. My mind is messed up this morning. All right. We'll talk about it. But the plan for 2018 is kind of huge. Yeah, you're already laying it out there. I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to say it. Let's take a break and talk about things that are worth hype. Pen Chalet. Because they sell everything you're looking for. Roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils. Maybe you need carrying cases. Pen holders, refills, fountain pens, converters, and anything. Anything you're looking for, Pen Chalet have got it from all of their incredible brands that they work with. The brands that you love. Brands like Pelican, Pilot, Lamy, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco. It doesn't matter what you're looking for. I bet Pen Chalet have got a deal on it for you. Because they always have great prices. They're always doing great discounts. Twice a month they do discounts. They have closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new stuff. Free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on a high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, as always, go to PenChalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, and enter the password PenAddict to get this week's special offer and the code that you need to save 10% on anything that you want at Pen Chalet. This week's special offer is 10% off on the Aurora Ypsilon Satin Pen. What is your opinion on that, Mr. Dowdy?

Aurora Pens

Brad Dowdy: My opinion is I love Aurora pens.

Myke Hurley: This is the brand that you got at a pen show and you've been freaking out about, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, I got an Optima, which is a higher-end model compared to the Ypsilon. The Ypsilon is like one of their entry-level pens, steel nib pen. Wonderful writer. Wonderful build. Look at that orange one. I have not reviewed this one specifically. It actually passed through my hands onto Jeff. I believe he reviewed this one for the blog. Gave it great reviews. I think he uses it regularly. And yeah, the orange one I've, of course, been spying for a while. But Aurora just makes quality pens. And, you know, I didn't realize how nice they were until I got them in my hands myself. And they're just fantastic. I highly recommend pretty much anything that Aurora has done so far. They have not failed to please every time we use those pens.

Myke Hurley: And I assume they're called satin because they have like a, I assume it's like a soft finish, right?

Brad Dowdy: It's the finish, yeah. So, they do that on a few different barrels. It's like that matte satiny finish. And it's really nice looking. It's nice to the touch. And it feels good. Looks good. Writes well. Great pens. You really can't argue with what Aurora is doing these days.

Myke Hurley: P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Thank you so much to Pencholet for their support of this show and Relay FM. The chat room's freaking out with trying to guess what we're going to do next year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think they jogged my memory, huh?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They, they? You remember now? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you remember now. If we can do that, that would be pretty incredible. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: For sure.

Myke Hurley: I got an email a couple of days ago, which, which really made me laugh, which was from right. Nope. The right pads people. You know, we were talking about this stuff last week about wanting membership. And then like a couple of days later, I have no idea if it's related at all, but the memberships reopened.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. What do you think about that?

Brad Dowdy: So I don't think it's related. I think it's the, the end of the previous year cycle. So now the new year cycle is getting ready to start. So memberships. Yeah. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: I don't think it was necessarily related. It just made me laugh because we were like, Oh, we'll keep an eye out for it. And it's like two days later. It's like, it's open.

Brad Dowdy: It totally made me chuckle. Absolutely unrelated. I think it's just the timing of the cycle and which I didn't realize at first because I saw the old page had it listed in May. Right. So I wasn't even considering it for a while. And then all of a sudden now it's available. And can I just say one thing? And I gave them some grief in the review I did of the, in the pines notebook. That was one of the worst emails I've ever received in my life. They butchered the entire thing. There wasn't even a link to go purchase the membership in that email anywhere. It was a complete train wreck.

Myke Hurley: They clearly have some issues when it comes to this stuff. Like the fact that there isn't just information about this on the website at all times, whether you can sign up or not is crazy to me. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So like the header of the email said something about Thanksgiving special and they were featuring a notebook that had been sold out for like two months. It was pretty much a wreck. So they were in a hurry to get this information out clearly and didn't even give me a link to buy it. I had to go just to the website and find it myself. So work on, I told them stick to making notebooks and have someone work on your marketing because that was bad. But yeah, the notebooks are not. The notebooks are some of the best of the best. The membership's now available.

Myke Hurley: You gave it a really great review.

Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I still use, I'm still using this notebook regularly. I've filled up several pages. I'm just writing in this notebook, which is something I never, never do. I'm usually a list maker, a doodler, things like that. I'm like, more like a, like you would think of like a journal type thing, even though it's not a defined, it's not like what happened today. It's like, I have this thought in my head. Let me elaborate on this thought and write it down on the page.

Myke Hurley: You're writing your memoirs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That I'm not, that I'm not. But Caroline Weaver is. Did you see that? I meant to go put this link in the show notes. I did not see this. It's not a memoir. She's writing a pencil book. It's coming out in March, I think. It's going to be great. It's going to be cool. There's some links on their blog or in her Twitter feed we can find. But as the, as the show, as the show, as the time gets closer to the release of the book, we'll get her on to talk about the book. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's been, that's been way overdue. Way overdue. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. On the show. Like we, we spoke about it in person when I was there like a year and a half ago, nearly.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I think this will be a perfect, perfect time to get her on to help get the word about the book out. Cause it's going to be, it's written by her and it should be pretty awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want to, I want to see that. I want to see that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So speak while we're, while we're talking business on what we're going to do. I did talk to writer Carol. He's ready to come back on. He's, he's just finishing up a move. So y'all get your bullet journal questions in. Um, and I'll, I'll save them for when writer's on hopefully sometime in February. And, uh, it should be a heck of an interview because I can't wait to hear from this guy again. So much has changed from the last time we talked to him that I, I can't even fathom what he's, he's going through.

Myke Hurley: So, um, I hear this from people in my life now, bullet, they refer to bullet journal. You know what it reminds me of? In box zero. Mm-hmm. Like the term that Merlin created that is now just like, everybody knows what that is, but they don't know he made it. I would expect that that's pretty similar for writer. So I'm, I'm really excited to talk to him again because that is like, um, it's bigger than him now. Yeah. And I'm interested to see how he feels about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, um, hit us with your questions on that. We'll have a lot of, a lot of interesting topics to discuss with him. So, um, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I was just, uh, he was getting ready to finish up moving. So I told him we'll do it very, very soon. So hopefully we will get that done. All right. You got some, you got some new stuff in your hand. What do you have? What do you have there?

Myke Hurley: My Robert Oster fire and ice came in.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So my feeling on this ink is similar to how I feel about a lot of these types of inks, you know, like the inks that change color in some way. Mm-hmm. You know, that they have, what, what, what do you call it? Shading? Just like different colors, that kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, the sheen is where the- Sheen, yeah, that's a good one. And then the range of the same color is usually the shading. Mm-hmm. And then the additional colors on, on top of that ink are the sheen, generally. This is- That's a very basic. It's very basic.

Myke Hurley: My feeling on, on this is the same as I feel about a lot of these types of inks, is that they are, they are beautiful but impractical. Mm-hmm. Because to really get the benefit of it, you have to put so much ink on the page that you're not really writing with it anymore. In a lot of instances. Not completely, but in a lot of instances. Right? Yeah, see, I don't get, I don't get that from this ink, though.

Brad Dowdy: Like, I'm good using this one and fine. No, no, no. There is a button to this one. There is a button to this one. Okay, okay.

Myke Hurley: This performs better than a lot of the other stuff that I've used, where you don't have to, like, basically pour it on the page to see it. Like, I've, I admittedly have put it in a pen that has a music nib on it. Mm-hmm. But I can draw, like, a fine line with it, and it comes out pretty well on any paper that I've used, which is on Tamari River paper and also on Field Notes paper as well. So I feel like that there is, there is definitely some beauty in this, which comes out just regularly. But, like, if you go to your review, right, and you look at the pictures in the review, this is kind of what I'm, what I'm getting at, in that you can see a little bit of red with, like, a regular nib, but if you pour some ink on the page, you get just incredible colors that you don't get when, when you, when you write normally. And this is just the way it is, right? I mean, like, what are you going to do? Like, it's, if, if this could be from anything, any type of nib, of course it would work that way, but it's just not how it works, because it's like solidization and all that stuff. But I will say that, like, even as just a blue, it's a beautiful blue, beautiful blue. And also, every now and then, it catches a bit of this incredible pinky red color in as well. So, of all of the inks like this that I have used, like, including all of the Jeho Bon stuff and that, this is maybe the one that I'm most impressed with and would use regularly.

Myke Hurley: But it still is like a, if you really want it to be beautiful, like, to be a beautiful to its full kind of, to its full potential, it has to be just a tad impractical.

Brad Dowdy: I see what you're saying. I mean, I disagree a little bit just because it is, I agree with the part you say where it's, it's really just a good blue ink, right? When you write with it, you're like, oh, you know, I love Con Pecky. I love how it looks on the page. And are you getting the full amazement of the Fire and Ice Sheen with every letter you're putting down on the page in a fine-knit pen? No. But when you're done writing that page and you step back and take a look at that page, it's different. It's like, wow. I completely agree with you. Something, like, that's where the enjoyment comes from, from a really unique ink, right? It's not the letters as they go down. It's stepping back and going, look at this. That looks cool.

Myke Hurley: Because what I love about this is it changes as it dries, right? I mean, that's how it works. You can, like, watch the change, which is amazing. But, you know, like, I'm just saying, like, I agree with you completely. This is different. And it's awesome. And honestly, I recommend it because I think this is a beautiful ink. But you know what I mean? It's like to get the stuff that you see on Instagram. Yes, I understand that. Yep, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Like, no inks actually really work like that. That's the impractical. Those are the impractical pictures. And yeah, the more practical ones, you don't get all the crazy stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's like the mod, right?

Myke Hurley: You're going to get me in trouble.

Myke Hurley: I don't need to get you in trouble. You do a more than good enough job of that on your own, my friend. Just keeping it real. Talking about inks. You've pulled one out here, which looks kind of interesting.

Inks

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let's keep it real. This Edelstein Smoky Quartz is their new ink of the year 2017. What I find funny about Pelican, they've already chosen 2018's ink of the year. They don't have a name for it, but it's this real olivey green. They've already teased the color. It's already a better looking color than Smoky Quartz. Smoky Quartz looks like...

Myke Hurley: Why would you do this?

Brad Dowdy: Like poop extract or something. I don't know what's going on here.

Myke Hurley: They teased the 2018 ink back in June of 2016. Why did it? I don't... Why?

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So anyway... Notepads in Pelican need to hire someone. They can share them. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: So, okay. I'm a... I've learned to love brown inks. Like I've turned a corner on brown inks. I very, very much enjoy them. I want... I haven't seen any swabs of this. It looks awfully light through the bottle pictures that we'll link in the show notes. But the description calls it a dark brown. Which if so, that'll be pretty cool. Like I'm good with that. So it's just one I wanted to mention. I will probably get a bottle of this because I'm a huge fan of the Edelstein inks. I missed out on Amber. That one is, you know, somewhat related to this. Which is another question why they brought this one into the fold. But it'll probably do well. What it's really good for, it's going to match like all of their tortoiseshell pens perfectly. Like it's an ink color made for their tortoiseshell pens. Which is, you know, they... Goes throughout their history of pens. So I think it'll do well. I'm anxious to see this in action. But the picture and the name do God give me... Oohs and ahs that I would normally like to see. Like I'm already more anxious for the olive color in 2018. Because that looks pretty amazing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the olive is a lot more interesting looking to me than the brown. Like I think we've spoken about this before. Like I can't imagine wanting to use like a brown ink. Like I feel like at that point use red. Which is more exciting. Or just go back to black again. I don't know. And I've seen like samples that people have shown me. Like I think Thomas Hall showed me it. Like a brown ink that he used. And it looks nice. But it's just I can't imagine for me wanting to use it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. See, I've turned the corner. I enjoy brown inks. I use them way, way more than red. I rarely use red inks. So I do like brown. Okay. The next ink and related pen are a little bit brighter. My God. The Lamy Pacific Blue.

Myke Hurley: I opened this page today and my brain really fell out of my head. This is beautiful, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: So this is interesting on many levels. One, the color is beautiful. I will give you that. The, this is the new AL star color for Lamy. It'll go through all the aluminum barreled lineup. Um, it's a great color. It's really bright. The ink, they always do a matching ink for these or not. I won't say always. Most of the time they do a matching ink for these. And they did the Pacific blue ink. Lamy's turquoise ink is a wonderful turquoise. This looks awfully similar. I'm anxious to see what the difference is. And then one thing I didn't put in the show notes, which I'll have to dig up, um, later on for you. I saw the, one of the first like non, um, marketing pictures of it from wonder pens in Canada. For some reason, like all the European and Canada get all the Lamy stuff before the U S vendors do. And they posted it and it looks like a flat blue instead of a metallic blue, but it's probably just the lighting because all the marketing pictures show it metallicky. In the wonder pens, Twitter feed, there's a picture of like five of the pens together and they look like flat matte, which is actually more intriguing to me.

Myke Hurley: That's when I saw it, I thought it looked like a flat color and not like the usual kind of shiny, glossy, reflective aluminum that they use. And I was way more excited, um, about that, honestly. So that, that's what I'm freaking out about because I saw it. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, that picture, the one that is gone. It's, I think it's, they, they deleted it from Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: No, I got it. You got it. Oh, they, oh, you know what? They sure did. Cause the tweet's still up linking to that picture. Now that's interesting.

Myke Hurley: But Goulet have got it and it still looks like a flat color on Goulet to me, honestly.

Brad Dowdy: Well, but that's still got the metallic sparkly, which is what you expect from, from an AL.

Myke Hurley: But this, like this, this picture on Goulet is, is, is I would consider to be a render. It's not a real photo.

Brad Dowdy: Correct. I would, that's the, um, Lamy provided, um, artwork, I would say for now. So that's, that's interesting that Liz took that picture down. Hey Liz, how's it going? I know she's a listener. She's a good friend.

Myke Hurley: Maybe, maybe Liz was told to take the picture down.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. And the plot thickens. I'm more interested in, in the pin that she posted than, than all these marketing pictures.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want to see some real pictures of this thing.

AL Star Design

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's, it's like someone took sandpaper to the AL star, um, the, the metallic style and made it satiny or matte looking and it looked awesome. Well, should I buy one? Well, of course. Like I don't buy these, like in, in general, I don't buy the AL star cause it's, I prefer the safari. So I usually get the limited edition safaris. Um, I don't really care for the AL star for some reason. I just, I like the plastic, plastic barrel, not the, uh, aluminum barrels for some reason, which is kind of strange, but yeah, I mean all the UK, all the UK stockists have them already or at least taking orders from them.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, I'm going to get one. Okay. And, uh, we'll see. I mean, I don't know where I'm going to buy it from cause the pen shop doesn't, oh, there you go. It's got a fine nib in it. Okay. Whatever. It doesn't seem like they can choose. I mean, the shoes.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. Well, I'll find, I'll find one. I'll buy one and then, uh, we can see. I can, I can tell you what it looks like. Yeah. Plus, I mean, even if it's a metallic color, honestly, that, uh, it is, it's interesting to me. I like the color a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. The, the picture is actually reposted on one of the pens. I wonder if the, just the original ones down, go look at that link real quick.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let me take a look at it.

Brad Dowdy: You see it in the, uh, in the IG, in the chat room. Yep. This is a different pen from Lamy's marketing, in my opinion. What on earth? But it could totally be the lighting. It could absolutely, it's probably just the lighting. Right? But that's a different pen. I like this one better.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Cause if, if you look at like, there are some other photos where you can clearly see it shiny. Right. There's something going on with the lighting of this Wonder Pens photo. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Unless this is, this isn't the Safari, is it?

Myke Hurley: Well, they're calling it AL star.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I know, but anyway, it's interesting. I think it's, I think it's, we're making too big of a deal of it. I think it's purely lighting, but that picture just begs questions. Right. Yeah. It's different from what they do. And I want the one in the picture, not the one in the Lamy marketing. Yeah. Me too.

Myke Hurley: Me too. I'm still gonna, I'm still gonna pick this up though, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Which, to revert back, which is why I choose the Safari. Because I like that color better. That's a color you end up with on a Safari.

Myke Hurley: You reckon they'll bring the Safari out in that color?

Brad Dowdy: I would hope so. That'd be a great color. Maybe I'll wait then. They've done turquoise recently, like three, four years ago they did turquoise. But, I mean, they post two or three green ones three years in a row. So, I wouldn't be surprised to see this come out in Safari. I would much prefer it there.

Myke Hurley: I'll see if I can, I mean, I'm struggling to find one right now. Yeah. It's difficult to buy from the websites, but I'll take a look at it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure this is all much ado about nothing. We're making more of a big deal about it. But I thought it was interesting, because they're very different looking.

Myke Hurley: Really? I mean, what we're looking for is Lamy to bring out the pen that we want. You know, how hard can it be?

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's going to be hard, because the next pen in the list is the pen I want. And you haven't seen this yet, because I just put it in before we started. But why don't you feed me first? Oh, no.

Myke Hurley: I've just seen the title, and I'm terrified.

Brad Dowdy: So, let's get after it.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode is brought to you by Blue Apron, the number one recipe delivery service that has the freshest ingredients. For less than $10 a meal, Blue Apron delivers seasonal recipes, along with fresh, high-quality ingredients, to help you make delicious, home-cooked meals. Blue Apron's mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone, while supporting a more sustainable food system. Setting the highest standards for ingredients, which lets them build a community of home chefs. Why will you be a community of home chefs? Why are you going to be a home chef? Well, let me tell you why. Because every Blue Apron meal comes with easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipe cards, and pre-proportioned ingredients that you can prepare at home in 40 minutes or less. You will be given everything you need to create incredible home-cooked meals, and you'll also be learning skills that you can use when you're cooking anything. You're going to learn new flavors you like. You're going to learn new things you like. There's people in the chat room talking about the things that they've got from Blue Apron, which I'm really happy to see. Blue Apron's seafood is sourced sustainably, understand, is developed in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. Their beef, chicken, and pork come from responsibly raised animals, and their produce is sourced from farms that practice regenerative farming. As well as just giving you the skills that you need to cook stuff, as well as making tasty food, Blue Apron cares about making their food sustainable. They want to make sure that what they're providing you with isn't just depleting sauces for everybody else. They want to make sure that everything's raised right, it's sustainable, and it's been done correctly. This is important to them. You can choose from a variety of new recipes every week, or let Blue Apron's culinary team surprise you. There are no recipes repeated within a year, and you'll be able to cook things like roasted pork with apple, walnut, and farro salad, chipotle vegetable and farro salad with avocado and crispy tortillas strips, or baked ricotta cannelloni with romaine salad and maya lemon dressing. Blue Apron delivers to 99% of the continental U.S. There are no weekly commitments, so you get deliveries when you want them, and their freshness guarantee means that every ingredient arrives ready to cook, or they'll make it right. Check out this week's menu and get three meals free with free shipping by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. You will love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Apron, so don't wait. Visit blueapron.com slash penaddict today. And we thank Blue Apron for their support of this show and RelayFM. Blue Apron, a better way to cook.

Brad Dowdy: All right, you ready?

Myke Hurley: I'm ready. All right, let me click this link then. So this is a, the title is New Bung Box Sailor. What? I saw this, this came out. What is this?

Brad Dowdy: Yesterday, I don't know. So we need, we need the chat room to get involved in here because I haven't totally sussed out what's happening here, but it's a Sailor Pro gear with the gunmetal finishings, with the metal section, with this sparkly orange barrel, and I'm about to just pass out right here in my chair. Like, I don't, I want to go through the screen or I want to fly to Japan because I need this pen in my life. And I can't quite get all the information I need.

Myke Hurley: There's a translation on it. Yeah. Not so much. That kind of says pre-orders are coming. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Not so much.

Myke Hurley: There's like a page on their website which has the pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So. How do you get it? It's, yeah, so it's looking, the chat room's saying it's actually gold, not orange. I don't care. It's gold to me. Amazing. It's still beautiful. It's amazing with the black trim. Like, this is, this is, yeah, it's a fifth anniversary. I don't know if it's fifth anniversary of Bung Box. Pre-order sales beginning soon. I just don't know much about it. I can't totally, totally kill. So it looks like it's a Bung Box fifth anniversary pen. And, yeah, we're, this is, I'm going to do some work. I pretty much going to break. Like, I was trying not to buy any pens before the LA pen show, but I think I'm just going to have to go and figure out a way to purchase this because it's going to be mine. Yeah. I really want one. It's pretty awesome. Looks like they're going to have a special ink for it too. Sailor ink, which, you know, they have millions of sailor inks, but, Myke. I want it. Yeah. So, when the Japan world tour comes, we're going to, we'll do the live show at Bung Box.

Brad Dowdy: And this time we'll just tell people that, you know, we're just going to use all the money for pens and they're not going to get anything.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We can't even go anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Amazing. So, anyway, that's happening. This one is normally wouldn't even be show note or podcast even warranted. But I got this email and I thought it was interesting enough to put in here because Blue Bottle Coffee is super well known for what they are. They're very high end, very particular coffee shop. I know you visit them when you go to WWDC in San Francisco. Or New York. Or New York. I've subscribed to their beans before. They're wonderful, make wonderful coffee. So, I got this link that they are now selling a notebook. It's called the Blue Bottle Waterproof Journal. Like everything Blue Bottle does, it's beautiful. I'm just curious what made them do a waterproof journal other than for baristas as they're measuring their Aeropresses for the World Aeropress Championships. And they might get splash on the notebook. Why else do we need a waterproof journal? I would buy this because it's reporter style. I love the style. I love the look. I love the blue belly band. I don't need waterproof paper. And they don't even make note of that, by the way, a bunch of your pens aren't going to work on this paper. And also, it's $28. But that's Blue Bottle's thing. I don't really have any reason to mention this. I don't have much to say about it other than it was more of a, huh, that's weird. Do you have anything to say? I just wanted to kind of point that out. It's like, I don't know what they're trying to do here. It would be great if this was just a regular paper notebook because it's super cool looking. But, oh well.

Myke Hurley: No, there's too many levels of weird.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, I'm not weird for thinking this is weird?

Myke Hurley: No, like, why are you buying? Why are they making it? Why are they making a notebook? Why is the notebook waterproof? Why can you buy 20 of them at one time? They have like a quantity. You pick a quantity of notebooks and it goes from 1 to 20. And they're $28 each. I don't understand.

Brad Dowdy: They're 6 by 3 and 3 quarters. So, that's barely bigger than a Field Notes, right? It looks great. It looks awesome. It's got a pin slot on the, it's got a pin loop on one side.

Myke Hurley: It has their signature blue bat like color as the little elastic that goes around it. You know, I can't work it out. I can't work out why this thing exists. It doesn't make any sense. I don't think they sell anything else like this. Like, they sell like tote bags, like merchandise, but they don't, yeah, I can't get my head around it, Brad. I don't understand.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, no big deal. I mean, it's cool. But, yeah, I just, you would sell a lot more if it was normal paper. So, that's my hang up. You know, they're not marketing as is, as this is your baristaing technical notebook, right? To keep all your measurements and calculations and timings. And, by the way, if you spill something, it's not going to ruin anything. Nope. None of that. It's, hey, we made this sweet notebook. By the way, it's waterproof. We're not going to tell you that most of your pins aren't going to work in it, though. So, I just find it odd. It's not a big deal. But I got that link and I was like, okay, this is cool. And I wasn't going to talk about it. Then I kept thinking about it and that just annoyed me.

Myke Hurley: It's strange. It's just strange.

Ask TPA Segment

Brad Dowdy: It's strange. It's strange. You want to get stranger? We can do Ask TPA. That's where the strangeness always comes out. Yeah, that's where the strange is. This first one is actually more disappointing than strange. And it's from Michael in Slack. He says, I'm not sure if this would be podcast material, but I'd be interested to hear how you pick colorways for not products. So, there's no science to it. We don't use the blue bottle waterproof journal to lay out our master plans. And Jeff and I know kind of what we like. And we hope you like it too. That's kind of our philosophy. Like, we try to make things that are cool that we like. And we look at it and we say, I think people will like this. Or we hope people will like this. There's no hard, fast science to it. There's no, like, we're not taking the Pantone color of the year, for example, and integrating that through all of our products. We say, this looks cool together. Will it work as a product? Yes. Okay, move forward. No. Okay, go to the next thing. And, you know, we get out fabric samples. We lay them all out. We'll sit there, you know, sometime later this year. Well, like last year when we did the three new retail colors. So, we have Raven and Aqua. We have brown, coffee and amethyst. And we have Peacock and Coal. So, just the theory is we sit down and say, okay, we need to come up with our new case colors for this next batch of cases. So, we get out the books, start looking. And, like, I knew we've always wanted to do a brown exterior case. So, okay, we're definitely going to pick out a brown. What's going to look good with that? Well, purple would look pretty sweet with that. And do we have a good purple? And we landed on one pretty quick. And then we just go, done. We don't look at it again. Coffee and amethyst, done. Off to the side. Okay, that's kind of a wild color. We should probably do a regular-ish color. As regular as Knock will do. Okay, we don't have any black exterior cases. Let's make one. People always like black exteriors. You know, it's subtle. But we've got to have some pop into it. Because we're not going to do gray on the inside of the black. It's just not what we do. So, find a color. Hey, this Aqua looks pretty good. Oh, yeah. That Aqua looks good. Put some blue thread on it. Yeah. Okay. Raven and Aqua. Done. So, now we've got two pretty good colors. Do we want to do one more? Are we covered in this? I was like, no. Let's do something brighter. You know, something with a really exterior that pops. And a more subtle interior. And that's how Peacock and Cole comes up. I mean, those three colorways probably took us 30 minutes to come up with. I mean, there's no magic. We know what we like. We know what works together. We know what the case is going to look like with the added colors of pop. You know, opening it. What's the thread color going to look like? Like, it's pretty quick. And then we'll sleep on it. And if we have, like, any consternation about it. But I promise you, those three colorways we did were in about 30 minutes. And there was no change from the moment we decided on them. That's just how we work. I don't know how to explain it other than that. Which is also why we work so good together, right? I mean, we just.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We sit down. We know kind of generally what we want to accomplish. We break out material books. And then we go. It came out so good.

Myke Hurley: That purple's good looking.

Brad Dowdy: I was the most worried about that case. Yeah. Because that purple's really, really strong. Uh-huh. It came out better than I even thought it would.

Myke Hurley: So these colorways, these three colorways you're talking about, they're only available at retailers, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for now. We'll eventually have them on the shop. And we hope to bring them to pin shows. We're having all kinds of manufacturing delays right now.

Myke Hurley: I know, man. I'm sorry.

Brad Dowdy: So. But that's about to be finished up. Yeah? Probably today. Yeah. Like, we're back on track. Back on production. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Good man. Because that's what you were getting out there for, right? That's what you were meant to be on that plane for.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That's what the plane route was for. So we got it all sorted out on the Skype on my phone after that. Good. I'm all about that purple. Well, I need these cases to sell in Atlanta. We're not making anything for the Atlanta pin show because we're counting on these products.

Myke Hurley: All right. Do you want me to come early and get to selling?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, sure. That'd be good. All right.

Myke Hurley: Sweet. Okay. I'll work on that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. All right. So the next one we have kind of discussed on and off. And it never fails to be an excellent question. And it's one that I don't spend enough time thinking about. But I'm going to give this a shot anyway. So this is from Jacqueline in the Slack. Myers 18 Purdue. I think she's in the chat room today. She was earlier. From your perspective, what are the gaps in the stationary analog market that still need to be filled? Not only products, but also information, resources, etc. Is there anything that people ask you about or for on a regular basis that doesn't exist? You want to take a crack at this? Because you actually had a note.

Myke Hurley: It's something that I've wanted for a long time. At one point in my life, I hoped you would do it. But then you had a better idea. I really want a cool fountain pen subscription service. Like you pay an amount of money that isn't absolutely obscene. And you get a nice cool pen once a quarter or something. You know, like a cool acrylic pen, you know, or something like that. Right, right, right. Or like something that's got like a really unique filling system to kind of help you broaden your landscapes a bit. I mean, it's something that it would be difficult to do because it would be expensive for everyone. But it's something that I still kind of really wish existed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I took it from, well, first off, yours. Yeah, that would be cool. It would be wicked expensive, right? I mean. That's the problem. Just, yeah, that's the catch. But maybe it's even like a twice a year thing. Yeah. You know, but that would still be cool. So, like we could, I don't know, maybe not could do a case thing. It sure wouldn't be quarterly, you know, once a year, twice a year. I don't even know if we'd ever do a subscription thing. But once you get up to a certain price point on the subscriptions, it's certainly a difficult sell. Yeah, it's too hard. And difficult to manage. I mean, these things are more expensive because they take longer time to make. And there's just lots involved. But I like the idea of it. I took it from the question, the part about not only products, but also information, resources. What do people ask you about on a regular basis that doesn't exist? What I get asked the most in my email is recommendations. I need to build a recommendation engine that can take, like, the most detailed questions and narrow it down into a group of pens.

Brad Dowdy: And spit out an answer. Look at these pens. So, I haven't done anything with this. I haven't started on this. I haven't bought a domain name. I haven't said we're going to make a wiki that we're never going to make.

Myke Hurley: I was thinking about that the other day.

Myke Hurley: We already dropped a poll on that one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, someone feel free. I even have a good domain.

Brad Dowdy: So, someone feel free to steal that answer or work with me on it. Because we could go, the amount of input we could have and the amount of, it would take a lot of work. Because you'd have to tag, like, every pen. Like, it would basically be, you know, like Pandora for, what do they call it? The music genome project. Like, to have the pen genome project. Mm-hmm. To where you can have a recommendation engine for ink colors, for pens, for anything. Gel, pencil, all of these things. It's a massive, massive undertaking. But that's something that I would find so useful. You could monetize it pretty well, too. Like, I mean, I think you could make some money doing this. So, someone feel free to steal this idea. I'll be happy to consult and collaborate with you. And I think it could work. But it would be a lot of work. So, anyway, that's what got me thinking about this. It's not necessarily the products that I want that I don't have. But what information can I provide that would make my life easier?

Myke Hurley: I think about the I'll Failed project a lot. Which was to kind of, what was it? So, basically to turn the show into a resource? Yeah. Right, was the idea?

Wiki Project

Brad Dowdy: Basically to wiki out the show notes.

Myke Hurley: Because I still get people asking me a bunch for the old show notes. And I send them that Google Doc. Right. But that still only starts at a certain point. Right. I really want to do it. But we kind of dropped the ball on it. But it's still something that I really want to do. So, it's something in my brain.

Brad Dowdy: Did I tell you the story about the domain that was given to me?

Myke Hurley: You did.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, that's like part of the reason is the domain is so good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I want to do it.

Myke Hurley: I definitely want to do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, both. I mean, honestly. And I think we're going to talk about one of these questions down below. We are so busy. Like, I have ideas. I don't have time. Yeah. Or resources.

Myke Hurley: That is 100% it. This is something that I think about so much. Like, I want to make it happen. Mm-hmm. But I just don't have the bandwidth to get it done. Which is annoying.

Myke Hurley: Hey-ho. Let's be happier. Let's move on.

Recommendation Engine

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Nah. Let's all happy. So, I have two things. So, for this recommendation engine project, I have pendb.com. Pendatabase. Mm-hmm. I have pendatic.wiki for our wiki. I have all kinds of domain names in here. All kinds of stupid stuff. So, more ideas than time. All right. Let's get on the next one. Because Stacy's in there in this chat room, like she was earlier. And this kind of goes along a little bit with what we're talking about. She says, I would love to explore what digital tools people use to augment their analog collections. There are a few nice apps for record collectors, for example. So, I've always thought, okay, what would an app be for pens? You know, that's always an idea that I have. You know, maybe this recommendation engine is an app thing. But more importantly, could I build an app that helps people discover new pens or what they like? You know, just almost like a pen 101 thing. And then have some kind of tracking in there. You know, that's what Dave Ray has tried to do with Index with the notebooks. That's, I'm guessing, what Baron Fig's trying to do with Codex for their notebooks. Yeah. So, there's a few of those things. I know Evernote would probably feature prominently in an answer to this question, right? Like, that's a really good collaborative to your analog tools application, wouldn't you say?

Myke Hurley: I couldn't agree more. I mean, I have problems with Evernote now. So, I don't use them. But they are, in theory, a great service. Like, I know that Stephen, for example, he scans all of his field notes when he's done with them. Puts them in PDFs. Which is the thing that I used to do when I needed the notes that I was putting in those things. I don't know what he does with them. I think he still puts them in Evernote. I know at least he used to. And that's the perfect place for something like that. Because they do the OCR on it, right? So, it becomes useful again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, OCR is worth a lot.

Myke Hurley: A lot, a lot. Yeah. If you can get it right, if you can get that done right, it's a perfect companion to analog stuff. Like, to notebooks. OCR and notebooks go together very well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I know a lot of people use spreadsheets for tracking pen and inks. I keep threatening to do something similar. But it would be nice to just have an app to, like, add pens, add inks.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, like those beard tasting apps or whatever. Yeah. You could have one for pen and ink. I thought you said beard tasting. And beard tasting. It's a subculture that I'm a big part of.

Brad Dowdy: It's just what all the oils are for. That's why we're going to Chicago. I see. It's a beard tasting conference. Beard. Just pure beard tasting everywhere. But yeah, you know, to have just an inventory. Like, I used to, you know, inventory my DVDs and music. Just like Stacey's saying, you know, these apps are normal. Delicious library.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Books. The books have all kinds of tracking apps for, like, Goodreads and stuff like that. We don't have any pen or paper related ones. So all of you listening to the show this week, these are all ideas you can move on and steal them and chart your own path with. I think there's some validity to some of this stuff. And, you know, we can see what happens. Like, I would love to do more things. I'm just kind of maxed right now on brain cells with the very few that I have.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Lots. Come on. All right. Let's take a break. Thank our final sponsor this week's episode. It's our friends over at Harry's. For decades, big razor companies have relentlessly increased their profits at the expense of their customers. So Jeff and Andy started Harry's to fix this problem. They knew there was only one way to ensure quality. They bought their own factory. By selling directly online, Harry's can offer their blades at half the price of the big brands that you're used to. With Harry's, you'll pay just $2 a blade compared to the $4 that you may be used to paying at the drugstore. Harry's razors include everything you need for a close, comfortable shave. They have a weighted ergonomic handle, five precision engineered blades with a lubricating strip and a trimmer blade as well. They also come with a travel blade cover so you can very safely put it into your bag or top kit. They have all the extras you need as well, like amazing shave gel or cream. We were talking earlier about the pen shows when me and Brad stay in hotel rooms and typically they're full of Harry's products. That's the way that we roll.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, someone mentioned that. Are we going to get shots of Brad and Myke's room? We did that last year at the Atlanta Pen Show. The whole counter is just full of like each of us have like two or three Harry's products on top of just the razor and the blades. Yeah, they travel with me constantly. I'll be doing a lot of traveling this year. I keep a complete set of Harry's stuff just in my travel kit just for trips so I don't have to worry about it. One is none. Yeah. You got to have it, man. Got to have it all. I'm covered in Harry's so they keep me less hairy. Hey! You've been working on that one.

Myke Hurley: Harry's is so confident in the quality of their blades. They want you to try their shave set for free. Just go to harrys.com right now and enter the code penaddict to check out to claim your free trial set. And because you're listening to this show, you'll also get a bonus post-shave balm added to your order for free. All you need to do is pay shipping. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S.com, the code penaddict to get your free trial set and free post-shave balm. Thank you to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we're getting a lot of related, somewhat related questions. This is again from Jacqueline. And I really wanted to touch on this one because it's not something we've talked about in a long time. And it's for you, the birthday boy, Myke. Hello. It's about the Apple Pencil. Are there certain scenarios where you prefer the Apple Pencil over traditional analog tools and vice versa? Curious how Apple Pencil fits into workflow similarly, different to analog. Not sure if the penaddict has an Apple Pencil, which we will talk about that in a minute. But this is actually a very relevant topic because we know we're all very techie people. You know, we talk about this is an analog show, but we all have digital lives. And the analog, you know, helps us lead our lives better, I'd like to think. But there's no doubt we all use digital tools to get the jobs done. So how has your Apple Pencil usage been? Probably, how long have you had it now? A little over a year? Is that accurate?

Myke Hurley: A year and a half. It's like 18 months. Yeah. So here's the thing. Using the Apple Pencil is never a nicer experience than using one of my fountain pens on paper. I never pick the Apple Pencil for the experience.

Myke Hurley: What I will do is I will use it when my output is different. So if I'm taking some kind of notes or drawing a sketch or a diagram of something that I need to be in multiple places or inherently saved forever, that's when I'll use the Apple Pencil. So, like, for example, if I have a telephone call with somebody and want to take some notes on it, it's very frequent. Like, nine times out of ten, I will take one of those notes. I will take those notes in an app called Notability, which I have on my iPad. And then with Notability, all the notes that I take are instantly shared to all of my devices. So it's there. I've always got it. The same when we were buying furniture, I used the Apple Notes app and Paper by 53 to draw some sketches of the rooms out with all the measurements and stuff. And I used those apps because it meant that I could draw them on my iPad and have them on my iPhone when we were in Ikea. And if I would have drawn that on paper, it would have been as big as the paper was. But because I did it on my big iPad, but then I had it shrunk down to the size of my phone screen. And it could also be manipulated easier and moved around and I could add things in and I could make it multimedia and add photos and stuff in if I want to. So that's kind of when I change and when I kind of switch it up. Because for me, it's about what am I trying to get out of what is the output intended for? And if the output is intended to be seen in multiple places, then I will typically pick the Apple Pencil for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I have an Apple Pencil. I also have a pen, pineapple, Apple Pen.

Brad Dowdy: And that's a good song. And you can't take that away from me. But I have a funny story. And I think I might have told this on the story. I was in our local Mac store. Like where I'm at, we don't have official Apple stores, but we have authorized retailers. So like this is a chain in my region that's an official, essentially, Apple store. So I'm in there and I'm buying an iPad Pro 9.7 because that 12 is just way too big.

Brad Dowdy: Because I want to use the Apple Pencil for certain things. I want to try some things. And I'm in there buying that. And a friend of mine is in the store and he knows what I do for a living. And he says, isn't that a problem that you're buying that Apple Pencil? Like, isn't that like everything you're against? Just he's giving me this grief while I'm checking out the Apple store. And I'm like, you know, I mean, generally, yeah. But there's things that I can do with this that I want to try that I'm not so good at with pen and paper. And one of those things is sketching. Like, I really enjoy, like, I want to do like a bunch of the prototype work. And have it in paper by 53, which is what I've been using. I'm also open to recommendations. I've sketched more in that app than I've sketched in any notebook.

Myke Hurley: I want to give you a recommendation. An app that came out yesterday by the iCore Factory called Linear. Okay, Linear. It's brilliant. I have no intention of using paper on my iPads anymore. It's exactly what I'm looking for.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, good. So I have, like, pages of backpack sketches.

Brad Dowdy: You know, and they're all there. They can be transferred to my phone. I've been laying out a new notebook project and case project we're working on. All in there. Not in, not with, you know, pencil or pen and paper. For some reason, that works for me from a sketching perspective with the Apple Pencil. I wish I could explain why. I think it's the ease of the use of color on a tablet as opposed to a pen and paper. Not that I can't just draw the lines. And, you know, I've done tons of sketching on paper. For some reason, I get sketching on the iPad with the Apple Pencil. That works for me. So, yeah, it's just one of those things. I don't know why. I really enjoy it. But I don't do any writing with the Apple Pencil. You know, I'm not necessarily writing notes or, you know, doing it like you're talking about notability. But for the drawing stuff, I really, really enjoy it.

Myke Hurley: So that app that I mentioned is called Linea. It's L-I-N-E-A.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it looked good. I just glanced at it yesterday when I saw it launch. So I'll have to test it out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's really, really, really nice. I like it a lot. It's $9.99. So it's premium price. But I think it's worth it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, I like the Icon Factory stuff. They do a good job. So that's probably cheap, you know. All right. This next question was great because I have gone through this exact same thing and had this conversation in my head, which I have a lot. And this is from Evelyn. She was in the chat room moments ago. It says, how long do you give a pen before you decide it isn't for you? Do you have a minimum use time, especially for one that you thought you would love?

Brad Dowdy: I've come up randomly with, based on the past few years of experience, moving pens in and out of my collection that I kind of know after about six months. If I haven't used the pen regularly in six months, and that's not a hard, fast date or time, that I'm probably not going to use it regularly much thereafter. So it's then a candidate for me to sell. And that's kind of how I've been calling out my pens to sell. If it hasn't seen some action or regular action or even minimal action in six months' time, why do I own it? There better be a really good reason why I own that particular pen. And there could be a reason. There could be that it was custom made for me or some other reason. And for whatever reason, I'm not using it. And it might be just random that I haven't used it. But a lot of pens I'll notice. Like, if it's been about six months or so, and I haven't used them, and if I sell them, I don't really miss them. Like, it's worked out. For some reason, like, it seems like about six months. Because I'll always use it right out the gate when I have it, right? So I use it. I obviously bought it for a reason. Do I enjoy it? Yes or no. And then I'll clean it up, set it to the side. And then you'll know the first thing is how quick do you ink it back up again to get it back into use. And then things kind of fall into place from there. And all that seems to happen, like, in the first six months of the pen. Are you inking it up and using it a lot? Or does it see a lot of downtime? And that's kind of the range that I'm at right now.

Myke Hurley: I'd say it's pretty fair. Like, I can't disagree with any of that. I think, like, you know, you have an immediate reaction to the pen. And then, you know, if you like it, then there's, like, a reaction that occurs over a period of time. And sometimes it can just die away. Like, just the honeymoon period's over. Yep. You know? Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, yeah, it kind of, a lot of the questions answer themselves after about six months. You know, you can look back and say, wow, I used that pen once or none over the last six months. That's probably a sign that I could do without. Mm-hmm. So, all right. I love this next question. It's from Caribbean Sky. In honor of IncoWriteMo, is there some hobby-related event that you wish you could participate in? Whether you don't have the time, don't think you're creative enough, don't know where to start, etc. So, IncoWriteMo started today. The month of February is International Correspondence Writing Month. It's where you send a letter a day to someone. And we'll put a link in the show notes to my contact page. My P.O. box is open to receive letters for anyone who needs to fill out their days for their IncoWriMo calendar. I'm happy to receive them. And is there a hobby-related event that I wish I could participate in? It's IncoWriMo. So, the reason is people are so generous in taking the time to send me letters, and I don't send any back. And I have never-ending guilt over that, even though I know that's okay. I can't respond to everybody. Well, I don't respond to anybody in letters. It's been a year probably since I've written a letter. And I even bought postcards. It's like, Brad, you don't have to write a letter. Why don't you write some nice little couple sentences on a postcard? And I haven't even done that. I don't know why. It's the time aspect more than the creative aspect. Like, I would love to do Inktober. I'm probably never going to do Inktober. That's just not my thing. My little sketches are for me. I do wish I could do IncoWriMo because I really want to give back to the people who have taken their time to write me. I save every letter I get. Like, I have a bucket full of, like, a whole bin full of letters just stacked to the top. It's awesome. And our listeners are amazing. And I'm super thankful. And then I never write back. And it's just like, oh, man. So that's the one. And I think it's a time thing. It's a little intimidating. Even, like, a letter a day is not much. But it's a lot at the same time. So it's a time intimidation kind of thing. I don't know. Do you have anything like that, Myke?

IncoWriMo

Myke Hurley: I'm very similar to you in the IncoWriMo thing. It's why I don't even have an address right now to receive them. Partly because I need to set up a PO box because I want to do that anyway. But even if I did, like, I don't even think I'd be inclined to give it out this year because the guilt's too strong, man. And I get it. I totally get it that, like, people are typically just doing it because they want to write letters as opposed to, like, writing letters to get responses. But I just feel like a monster. Right. You know, like, to get these things and not reply. So that is one for me. I think that, you know, rather than, like, events, there are always hobbies that I – like, things that I want to do but don't have enough time for. Like, coloring, for example. Yeah. However, this has changed for me as of yesterday because, like, Idina bought me a coloring book for my birthday that I really wanted. Nice. And I've been playing – I was doing some coloring today and it was – and last night and it was great.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you have to tell us what it is. Is it the Brutalist coloring book or is it one of June Thomas' 1960s coloring books? The Pusheen color book. I don't know that one. Pusheen, the little cat. Yeah, yeah, okay. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, that's cool.

Myke Hurley: So I'll put a picture in. Tiffany Arment had it, right? Yeah. And I saw it and I wanted it and I said to Idina that I wanted it and she went and got me – found me the book and then all of the colors that Tiff had because they're, like, these pastel colors. There's, like, five of them. And I really wanted it and she surprised me with it yesterday and it was an awesome surprise because I freaking love Pusheen. It's, like, the best character ever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I still like coloring. I still do the coloring. My favorite's been the Doodler's Anonymous coloring book. So I do participate in the adult-ish coloring. But letter writers just impressed me. I think that's a huge deal and the commitment and the thoughtfulness that goes into that. Letter writers are just impressive, impressive people. It says a lot about a person, I believe. Yeah, I agree. I'm a – says that me and you are jerks. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Terrible, just horrible people.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let me knock out this last one. It's not as long as listed in the document. I just put it in here more for reference. So basically, this is from John May or who emailed me this and did a little project on my reviews from last year. So from the pen addict, he went and looked at the prices of new and current fountain pens that were reviewed on the blog last year. And was making a point in this, but let me just tell you the breakdown. So he had the $0 to $50 range. There were eight reviews. $50 to $100 range, there were eight reviews. $100 to $150, there were five reviews. $150 to $500, there were 13 reviews. And $500 plus, there were 12 reviews. So just with that information, what do you think about that? Do you take anything away from that?

Myke Hurley: That you're trending into the expensive.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I'm surprised. Like I'm surprised when I see someone lay it out like that. Like I know we've reviewed a lot of higher end pens. I blame Susan for that. She is the queen of the awesome pen. She has some great stuff to review. But his point is, you know, how are you relating what you're reviewing to your readership, essentially? It's like he wasn't doing this to like prove any point. He was just saying, huh, this is interesting, I think. And he says, are the reviewers on the pen addict blog looking to test pens beyond their range? Like more expensive pens than they have already. New people to the fountain pen world start at a much lower price even as they gain experience. Their price increase is gradual. Should reviewers be looking at pen manufacturers in total with their ranges and prices for fountain pens? So, one of the reasons why I love doing what I do is because I can review the $3 Hello Kitty Uniball Sino DX and love every second of doing that. Like I'm conscious about that because that's what I love. I genuinely love those products. On the other end of the spectrum, I've found things that are like, wow, this is like a real pen that fits me well and it's super expensive. Like I can enjoy both of those things at the same time. And I like to think that we mix that up pretty well throughout the blog. I'd say I know we do. But from a strictly fountain pen perspective, I think we have lost a little bit of our way on the lower end stuff. I don't think too much. The thing is the lower end has less rate of change than some of the higher end stuff. Some of the higher end stuff is more limited. It goes away faster. So, there's kind of... And also, that's the newest area for me to be exploring in. So, I'm discovering. That's a bigger area of discovery for me and for some of the readers and for some of the writers of the blog. So, yeah, it's a balance. It's something I haven't thought about directly, like in the black and white numbers that John puts out. But it's something I want to focus on because, honestly, I do think the 0 to 100 price point is probably the most important price point. The other stuff is kind of for fun, I think. At least the way the pen addict is set up and the way in my mind that the pen addict is a resource. I really think it's that lower end price point. But that's also where I get a lot of enjoyment from too. So, I don't know if I made any sense in that. But I thought this was at least interesting to look at.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the statistics don't lie. Right. And it is the level at which it's over $500 is, I think, the one that's the most surprising to me.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it was weird. Like, so, 0 to 100 is actually 16 reviews. Right. Like, $150 up was 25 reviews. So, it's something to think about, you know. But how many Pilot Praeros or Metropolitans can I review? You know, sometimes things are just done. Yeah. Like, that's done. We're not doing anymore. What are they going to, I mean, the next color of those two pens isn't going to change the review. It's still going to be an awesome pen. Yep. So, you're probably not going to see a review. Well, you probably will see a review of it. Who am I kidding? But you get my point, right? Mm-hmm. There's no, the rate of change there is pretty small. Um, but I'm still discovering the higher end because you can't go full bore into the higher end like you can for $5 and $10 and $15 pens. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, it's a 10 to 1 ratio on buying the cheaper pens than to the expensive pens. Um, but I'm also investigating and looking at things more in that higher end because I've kind of done some of the lower end stuff to death. Um, speaking of which, that it's, we're creeping up on 10 years of the blog. What? In November of this year. Yeah. The pandemic was founded in 2007. Someone told me that the other day. It's like, you know, this is going to be 10 years when you get to November. I'm like, holy cow. So, yeah. So when you look at it from that perspective, you know, a lot of the lower end stuff's been done because that's the easiest to get a hold of because it doesn't cost as much. Right. So now I'm in a discovery phase on the higher end. And, um, so yeah, it's, it's very cool though. It's, it was cool to see this email. He put a lot of time into sorting this all out. I really appreciate that, John, for doing this. It was very cool. And, uh, it makes me think, and, uh, I enjoy seeing that, that type of, uh, content and commentary. It's wonderful. I love this type of input.

Myke Hurley: All right. Is that, are we at the end of today?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Field notes in Chicago in October, huh?

Myke Hurley: And Atlanta. And DC. Link in the show notes for the Kickstarter. We really appreciate anybody that backs it. And we really hope that you will, because we're going to do our level best to make the best possible thing for you. So please go and check it out. We've got some great rewards and we're going to make it awesome. We're going to be talking about it for the next couple of weeks. Let's see if you can make our hearts happy and get us to our $20,000 stretch goal by next week. That would be.

Brad Dowdy: I think easily. Oh, by next week. Ooh. By next week.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's a stretch.

Brad Dowdy: But by the end of the thing.

Myke Hurley: You know, I just, I want to set a task here. Come on. We can do this, right?

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Look at you. Okay. Cool. You have been tasked, listeners.

Myke Hurley: Thanks so much for listening. You can find our show notes today at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 242. If you want to find Brad online, he is at dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram, and he's at thepenaddict.com and knock.co. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter and Instagram. Again, we love you all so much. Thank you so much for your support as always. And also thanks for the support of this episode that goes to Blue Apron, Pen Chalet, and Harry's. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.