Editing The Pen Addict 153/transcript (section)

== Pen Addict Show ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm good. I am very good. I'm happy to be back doing this show, as always. It's always a nice way to kick off the week, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so you rolled right into it, right from Upgrade, in the span of a few minutes, right into The Pen Addict. So I appreciate you doing that, and it was nice to hear a little bit of the After Upgrade show, to hear Mr. Snell talk about pens for a second, because he was getting, the chat room was getting filled with pen fans, and he didn't know what to do. I think he panicked a little bit.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it was, he started talking about pens that he knew about, and I could feel the sweat dropping down his face, and he got out of here as quick as he could, because the pen addicts were converging upon Upgrade.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's right, that's right. It was kind of funny, but it was a good chat anyway. So, got a bunch of follow-up today, and some really awesome stuff, including one of the most awesome things of all, which is the Pen Addict Podcast Episode 150 Kickstarter. We got an update on that. I published that out last night. Most people are up to speed with where we're at, as far as getting the video done, and getting the cases made. I just wanted to put that in writing, in case people don't listen to the podcast, or read the blog, or anything where I've been updating it. But recently, I guess this was yesterday, Myke, Mr. Hackett, and the video crew gave out, gave a link to you and I for the first edit of the video. So, that's coming along swimmingly, and you got to see it, and I didn't, because they wanted to make some changes. So, they pulled that down and are re-uploading it, so I'll get to see the second version. But how's it looking?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, I've seen everything except the after-show portion. So, that's where we demonstrate what we got, the stuff that we bought. So, that's why that needed to be added still, which is what is now being put in, and we'll see the final one of that later on today. It's amazing. It's so good. That's good. They were like, just watch it, let us know if you have any tweaks. I had nothing. Oh, that's great. It's like, the show is really great, and there's like a great intro where it shows off some footage, and then basically, it's just, you know, we've got the whole episode of us, and then, like, interspersed with the video of me, Hugh, and Anna, there's like clips of the show, like, and they show some stuff of the party and all that stuff. It's so much fun, and I watched it, the whole thing, and I loved it. It was weird seeing me on video talking, which is really peculiar.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I, you know, I, it really made me miss the pen show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that's cool. That's good. That means that they've done a good job, and the video kind of gets across what we wanted to try to present to everyone, which is kind of make them feel like they're there. And, yeah, that's great. I'm anxious to see it myself, just because you've been raving about it, and it's going to be cool. I'm really, really pumped about this. So, I don't know when we'll have the final edit, but maybe this week? I don't know. Maybe late this week, something like that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, we'll see it within the next few days, I think, and then it's up to us, I guess, then just work out when we're going to kind of put it out for the world. But rest assured that everything is in production, which is great, because we're well within the time frame that we wanted for that, and it's looking fantastic, and I think you're going to love it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and people are asking if they should listen to the episode 150 podcast or just wait for the video, and I think you should totally listen to the podcast if you haven't, because the video is going to have so much more extra content. It'll be like reliving it all over again, which Myke just did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, I recorded the show, and I still found it interesting to watch.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Actually, that's been episode 150 is one of the highlights of our run for me. I actually listened to that one twice, just because I enjoyed listening to that episode, just as a listener. It was a good episode. I thought we did a good job, if I can pat myself on the back for a minute and give you an honor props, too. I thought that was a really excellent episode. So the cases are coming along as well. I don't have an exact date, but May is not going to be a problem, though. They will get out this month, and I'm going to send everyone the survey from Kickstarter so we can get everyone's shipping address. But yeah, the news will be coming hot and heavy over the next couple weeks for the video and the cases, and we will get that wrapped up, and everyone will get all their Kickstarter-y goodness. So I'm looking forward to it. So last week's episode, I was a little bit concerned about, you know, we're going to do mechanical pencils was my focus on the show, and I knew it was going to be completely fine. It was something I wanted to talk about and something a bunch of people wanted to hear about. We had a ton of feedback on that episode. I don't know if you saw any of it directly or through Twitter, but I got all kinds of emails, all kinds of links, people showing me which mechanical pencils they use. A lot of people were dialed in with kind of the same ones that I was talking about. You know, kind of out of all the feedback I got, we could probably come up with a pretty good top five list just out of the pencils that I was talking about on that episode. And I did get a little bit of grief on the Statler 925 that I figured I would, but that's okay. I can live with that. But I had a couple that I missed that people wanted me to bring up, and that includes the Zebra M701, which is a really good quality pencil for a really good price. It's the stainless steel with the knurled grip, like the F701. I think it's the ballpoint model. It's a really popular EDC carry pen, and this pencil goes along with that, and it's only like six bucks. And it's really durable and really, really strong. We also had several people mention about the TWSBI pencil, which I have never used.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't even think my brain remembered that that existed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Same here. Same here. I picked one up at a show one time, maybe like not this Atlanta pen show, but last Atlanta pen show. I think the Andersons might have had it. But anyway, you know, it was fine. It just wasn't super impressive because it's like 25 bucks, and I'd spend a little bit more to get the Rotring 600, and it's far superior. And I'd buy the Kurutoga before it. Several, several other models I would choose before the TWSBI, including, you know, the graph gear. And pretty much anything I rated highly, I would pick over the TWSBI. Just, it felt a little plasticky to me. It didn't seem totally like a great pencil for the price. And I don't know if I've seen any reviews of it. I'm sure they're probably out there, but I'm not sure. And in a sad note, unrelated to the pencils themselves, but the Internet's most popular mechanical pencil blogger, Dave's Mechanicals Pencils, he posted yesterday that he's hanging up his hat for good. He pretty much hadn't been posted in the last two years, but he finally put the word out there that he was done. And so I thought, you know, that was interesting to bring up in case I know a bunch of people follow him, follow his blog, and read all his things. So that was sad to hear Dave, but he was at the forefront of the mechanical pencil reviews for years and years and years and years. All right, so we got an email on the mechanical pencils too. So I want to get in here and get this, because I think it's important and something we didn't cover. So it's from Chris. He says, I listened to your mechanical pencil episode this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I had the chance to listen live and get in the chat room so I could ask the burning question. What is up with those tiny capped erasers on mechanical pencils? I like my Kuro Toga, but removing that little eraser is too small to be of much use, and capping it just makes it inconvenient. My only solution has been to stick to a Pentel high polymer eraser cap on the end. Workable, but inelegant at best. The preferred method is to use a block eraser like a Statler Mars. I don't get it. Flipping the pencil to erase is so much faster than putting it down to pick up a block eraser. Maybe I'm sensitive to it because I make a lot of mistakes and need to erase a lot. In the eraser department, nothing beats a Pentel twist erase, the original model. Now, if Pentel could stick that twist erase mechanism on a really nice pencil pen body. I guess he meant pencil body. Mechanical pencil perfection. Chris. He says, P.S. Myke is totally wrong on the Jetstream. But that's another topic for another day.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, it's not. I'm totally right. I think about this all the time. And I'm right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's fair. I have several people that, I mean, yeah, there's no reason to love the Jetstream if you don't love it. I mean, it doesn't work for everybody. So, all right. So, to Chris's point, I agree with him with the tiny erasers or mechanical pencils. I think they're essentially useless. I mean, they're there kind of because it's like you have to, as a mechanical pencil maker, they feel like they have to do it. But it's a really ineffective means of erasing. And block erasers are really the only way to go. I understand that it's slower, that you have to put the pencil down, pick up the block eraser, and pick the pencil back up. But that's pretty much the only answer. And that's how I do it as well. Anytime I'm carrying a mechanical pencil, there's always a block eraser in my bag or nearby. It's just a crummy solution to the problem. I mean, those erasers are so small. They generally erase pretty well, but you run through them so quickly and the refills are expensive. I'd rather just have a block eraser and go to town when I need it. And honestly, when I'm writing, if I'm just writing with a pencil, I don't even use the eraser. I'll just scratch out, like if I'm writing with pen. Now, if I'm, you know, Chris may be in a job where he needs to, you know, have more definition and clarity. So he needs to erase more. So that wouldn't be a solution for him. But I don't even use the eraser if I'm just writing something. I'll just scratch it out. So not a big deal there. And the Pentel twist erase is a great eraser. They actually do have that on a mechanical pencil body. I'd have to look up the name, but it's a cheaper plastic pencil body because that twist erase eraser takes up 50% of the barrel. They don't have a metal barrel that fits that twist erase. And it's probably a cost effectiveness thing. But there is a pencil. I've reviewed it on my blog, too. I'll have to figure it out. But the huge twist eraser comes out the end of the mechanical pencil. So we'll have to find that link. We'll put it in the show notes for sure. So that's our mechanical pencil follow-up. It got a ton of feedback. Tons of Instagram pictures. Hey, here's my pencil carry that I carry. And it was kind of cool to see. I enjoyed doing that episode in retrospect. So I was pretty happy with how that turned out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think I felt weird after the last show. It was like, I haven't spoken about pens for like a whole week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but it was good. It was something we needed to do and something we needed to cover. But I felt like, yeah, I left you out a little bit there.