Editing The Pen Addict 333/transcript (section)

== New Pen Topic ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. I had another line item in here. This one caught me not off guard, but it's more of a reboot of an old pen. The Muji .25 Black Gel Ink Pen. So at Muji, when they have all these gel pens on display, they have groupings of barrel types. And within those groupings of barrel types are the types of pens that they relate to for us pen addicts. So there's one style of pen that has the Uni Gel refill. And there's another style of pen that has a Zebra Clip refill. The only .25 gel ink pens they have there are actually the Pentel Sleechy refills in these barrels. And I forgot how good that .25 Sleechy is. It's the most consistent, finest micro gel ink pen out there. And the reason why it never got a lot of love ever since it's been launched is because those stock barrel, like Pentel sells it in, is not good. It's like really skinny. The ridges on the barrel are not very comfortable, like in the grip section. But everyone loved the refill. I remember when they came out, how much people said that they loved the refill. Is there another barrel they can go into? And there really wasn't many options at the time. The one that was good was called the Pentel Hybrid Technica, which was hard to find. And, you know, it just came in a couple colors. But it was a more normal size barrel refill. So this Muji pen has a great size refill. It's like essentially a hex barrel, kind of a matte satiny finish. It's really comfortable to hold. And it made me just fall in love with that .25 Sleechy refill again. It's just pitch black. It's very consistent, way more consistent than like the Hitec C, way less scratchy than the Signo DX. So it's kind of the best. If you're looking for a really, really micro gel ink pen, that's going to be, that's going to perform up to kind of what you expect, as opposed to something dry and scratchy, like a lot of these are. This Muji .25, it improves everything that the Pentel Sleechy is. And Pentel should be sad that they didn't do this first. It's a sick bun. I don't mean it. I mean, I do mean it. I've gotten in trouble about it before. But I mean, it just is. It's a superior refill. It just comes in a bad format. Not anymore, Michael.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not anymore. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Away. Away has the perfect gift for everybody on your holiday list this season. They make smart premium suitcases so your luggage won't have to cost any more than your plane ticket. And what do you need the most when you're traveling? More battery. When you buy an Away suitcase, you can charge all your devices while you travel. Both sizes of the carry-on feature USB ports with batteries large enough to charge your phone five times from a single charge. You can go to awaytravel.com slash penaddict right now and you can browse Away's line of suitcases. They all feature German premium polycarbonate, which is unrivaled in strength and impact resistance whilst remaining lightweight. They have over ten colors and five sizes. They have the carry-on, the bigger carry-on, the medium, the large, and the kids carry-on. I noticed because I saw on Instagram that they have a couple of really cool new limited edition colors right now. These iridescent ones, which are very exciting. I'm finding myself tempted. And you're going to end up with just like closets full of Away suitcases at this point. I bought these wonderful stickers at CW Pencils, which I've decorated my aluminium Away case with, which is wonderful. And also, you know, we're talking about buying these things as gifts. They are great gifts. It's a very useful but technically savvy gift. It has a bunch of great features like the compression system, the four spinner wheels, 360-degree spinner wheels. They have TSA locks, they have removable washable laundry bags that are full of features, which make them exciting gifts for people. But also, the holiday season brings with it a lot of personal travel to going to meet and see friends and family. So maybe now is the perfect time to take an upgrade on your luggage game. Away believe in the quality of their products. They offer a lifetime guarantee on them because of it. If anything breaks, they will fix or replace it for life. And they have a 100-day trial with a no-questions-asked return policy with free shipping on any order within the lower 48 states of the United States of America. Because this season, everyone wants to get Away, you should find out more at awaytravel.com slash penaddict. And if you use the code penaddict to check out, you'll get $20 off any of their suitcases. That's awaytravel.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for $20 off. Our thanks to Away for their support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let me just say, I put the strength and durability of the large Away suitcase to the test on this trip. So even on the way home, I was over the limit, but they let me slide. It was 51 and a half pounds on the way home. And she said, I'll let it go. I'll just put the heavy tag on there. I'm not going to charge you. I was like, thank you very much. But man, I put that thing through the New York, Toronto, Atlanta round trip ringer, and it held up like a champ.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's very, very good stuff. All right. So it is that time again. Top five pens of 2018. You just published the update to your list. I will ask you, is there a specific time of the year that you are targeting, or is it just kind of like some point around the end of the year that you go for the update?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, it's usually been around September. And then I started getting, when I didn't publish it in September, all the emails started coming. It's like, where's the update? So a couple of years ago, I used to update it twice a year. And then I realized there were a lot fewer changes over the years than I expected. So I moved it to once a year and try to do it around that September timeframe. No particular reason other than that seemed like to be a good time to bring it out. And I was just a little bit further behind this year. But I think probably a lot of it is because there wasn't a lot that changed. So, you know, and I think that's what we'll talk about today.