Editing The Pen Addict 659/transcript (section)

== Stationery life and work changes ==

* You just love avoiding me, but that's okay. I'll get over it one day. And you love pointing out that I'm avoiding you. So, it's the feelings mutual here. So, we're going to talk about some changes in your stationery life and work as we go through this episode. Like I've mentioned in these past few episodes without Myke, there's a couple of little newsy bits I want to get in on the record, on the Pen Addict record, if you will, before we get deep into the topic. But first, I got to know. And all the listeners have to know, honestly, Annabelle, how's the F1 season going for you so far?
* Oh, phenomenal. Yeah. I'm thrilled. I'm a big McLaren fangirl, I guess. And mostly Oscar, but I'll accept Orlando win here and there as well. And they are doing phenomenal. And Williams, sorry, Alex is also like up there with my favorite drivers. And Williams seems to be doing really, really well. So, I'm thrilled. I don't care about anyone else. Yeah, we line up pretty, you know, equally in our fandom. Like I definitely pull for McLaren more than most. I don't like really dislike anyone. I like to joke about a few drivers and, you know, a few teams. But, you know, generally, it's a pretty good grid, pretty good crew. But I do like to see McLaren up at the top early. And, you know, maybe we'll see some excitement the remainder of the year. It's always such a long season. Like what happened at the beginning of last season was completely different from how it ended. And we're all like just, you know, kind of thinking it was going to go one way. And, you know, who knows what happens this year, right? Yeah. Nobody thought that McLaren was actually going to achieve anything. And then they won the constructors. So, who knows what's going to happen now that also, okay, this is not an F1 podcast, but it could be. Who knows what happens with Liam gone back to, what are they called now? Abbey? Racing Bulls, yeah.
* Yes. Yeah. Whatever. And Yuki going to Red Bull after years and years and years of people kind of wanting him there and him just not getting it for some reason. So that shift, it's, I'm on the edge of my seat. Yeah. It's funny how, you know, I know a lot of people are ready for us to get into the pen stuff and we will, we won't take too much of your time. But it's crazy to me as a relatively new F1 fan, say five years at the most, to see. Pretty much since the last time we talked on this podcast. Yeah. That's probably right. I was probably like within my first year or so. Yeah. Oh, I didn't pull up the old episode. That reminds me. I need to make a note. I should have gone and listened to that. I think you literally started watching after, after we talked. Okay. And I went on and on about how exciting F1 is. Well, I am beyond hooked in whatever amount of timeframe that is. So I will go, I'll make it to go, to go listen to that. Yeah. It's probably like my number one favorite sport to watch. And I've always been like a, a baseball fan. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's taken over. So just because what I was going to say is this new, the news cycle in F1 is so intense and it's fascinating. Like every day you wake up, it seems like some, something weird's going on. So. Yeah. Yeah. So to bring this back into stationery into, into what, what we're actually here for, are you doing your F1 season journal this year? Yes, but I haven't yet. Okay. And we'll talk about why, but, but it's definitely going to happen. I promise. Fair enough. And that's actually something. And when we get to it, like you can like retroactively like build this thing. Right. And it's, it's, and I won't say it's easy to do because I've seen it and it's really intense and awesome, but you can, you have all the information, you have all the data. Yeah. And yeah, I have a virtual version of it. I have a spreadsheet. I have a few spreadsheets that where I do track everything and then I'll just make it analog and pretty and you know, all of that. But I, I definitely already do it. I already keep up with everything that needs to be followed to make it happen for sure. Gotcha. So you'll actually just move it really from digital to analog. Okay, cool. I can't wait. I can't wait to talk about that. I have to talk about one product that it could be used for someone's F1 journal. And I, I literally have no expectation of you carrying one iota about the new field, the new field notes release. That's kind of the, that's kind of the, that's kind of the feedback I expected to just giggle at me real quick, but I wanted to mention this one because that's, it's been a whole thing for Myke and I, especially in the early years of the podcast about how like hyped up, we'd get up for the new field notes release. And now, you know, we might talk about one or two a year. I wanted to bring this one up. It's called the Chicago look edition. And it kind of checked all my boxes as far as a notebook design and storytelling apparatus to where they've, they've worked with the Beverly sign company to take some of like their art and design, you know, aesthetic and transfer it into a field notes. And they made a notebook, which I, whenever they don't do their standard three and a half by five inch notebook size, I always think it's funny because people get mad about it. And this one's an inch. I know. Trust me. As soon as I said, uh, the, the size of this new one is six inches by eight inches. We were going to have the talk, right? No, no, no, no. Because I'm on your side. Like, what are we doing here? But this, this one, six, six inches by eight inches for this one. And so I wrote down some, uh, America measurements, uh, just to, uh, relate to everyone who might be, uh, listening to the show. So do you, if I told you, uh, about this, the classic mead composition notebook, are you familiar with this product?
* What composition? Mead composition. Yeah. The mead composition notebook. So you're not familiar with this product. No. So you might have. I feel like a fraud now. Yeah. I'll have to send you a link or you can look it up, but I'll send you a picture of it, but it's this classic American notebook that it's really kind of a school notebook. Right. So, uh, literally like composition writing in your English class, you'd have these notebooks and it's like a 70 page, like one signature, like chunky binding notebook that was inexpensive and just made for writing. And that was a classic popular dimension. And this is where we just completely go off the rails here. That notebook is seven and a half inches by nine and three quarter inches. It's absolutely meaningless what these dimensions are. And it drives me up the wall. But I was thinking that this new, uh, Chicago look notebook was going to be close to the classic mead composition notebook. Um, but the classic, uh, mead. Yeah. Uh, so it's like a, it's like a, a four and a half. I'm guessing. So if we can make that up right here, right now, but we are very pro international, uh, paper standards, especially on this podcast with you. Uh, and especially with my stance on this. Yeah. No, my, my stance is very strong. I've, I've, I've loosened, I've loosened my stance over the years. It was a losing, it was a losing battle given all the notebook products that I review and come across and things like that. I want to test and enjoy them, but you know, it's a whole thing. So do you have a favorite international notebook size that you prefer? I, yeah, I think generally I will, for everyday stuff, I will go with ISO A5. Yeah. For sure. Um, I feel like I, I feel like I should dabble in the Bs more. Yeah. I feel like I could use that width. Yeah. People yell B6 all the time when I, when I talk about different notebooks and things. So yeah. Yeah. But I think growing up, everything was either A4 or A5. And so who am I to complain about it? And recently on the internet, I can't tell you who and how, somebody explained how that's, how A4 came to be anyway. Mm-hmm. And then it's, well, because the whole point, right, is the ratio that you can fold it in your next size. But the original one would be, the ratio would be exactly root two. Mm. And so the bigger and bigger you went, uh, it would be really easy to do the math and there would be like a perfect square meter and then perfect two square meters and four and eight. You know, it's, it's awesome. Yeah. Shocking how, shocking how math and science work. Wow. Crazy. We should build some. We should build some paper. That makes sense. All right. Well, you, you've set me perfectly up to transition into, but let, let, let's talk with Annabelle for a while. And we've probably covered some of these questions before publicly, but you know, it's been, as you, uh, so rudely mentioned how long it's been since I last met you on the show. So we've got some new listeners. I don't mean to call you out, but that's pretty boring. There's not, there wasn't lots to talk about. I think that, I think that might literally be a line on your job description. Like of all the things you do, like one of the lot of ends would be to call Brad out. I feel, I feel confident in, in that.
* I think I call everybody out. Yeah, true, true. Yeah. Maybe I should have a podcast. You should. Just calling people out. That's right. Annabelle will call you out. Um, so I want to call you, call you out and, and rewind back to probably something we've discussed already, but I want to, I want to, you know, I like to lay the groundwork for the kind of the long story we're going to tell during this podcast about where you're at now in your stationery journey. So I need to know how it started. Like, what were your first stationery memories growing up?
* My first stationery memories growing up. Um, I remember, no, that's not it. I'm teasing, I'm teasing, uh, Annabelle because I'm using a Lamy ABC right now, which we'll get into later. And I was not, that was not my first fountain pen. Shockingly. Yeah. So I always loved the Austrian version of staples. I guess it would be called Libro, which is Latin for I read.
* Um, and that was, it's just a stationery store where every kid, when the, the beginning of the year, the teachers would send a list of all the exact notebooks that we needed. So what size, what margin, um, yada, yada, yada. I loved, I always loved going there. I think maybe for the potential of it all, like who knows what we're going to learn? Who knows what could be drawn or what could be captured? So I always loved it. And I love different sharpeners and erasers and, and pens. And I got my first fountain pen when I was seven, I think, um, because we had to use a fountain pen when we started writing cursive.
* And my first fountain pen was in fact a Pelican Pelicano Junior P, this is 65, maybe? That sounds about right. Yeah. I think it was a very ugly thing. It was, it was blue with a big white cap, um, and like a rubbery grip that I, I remember holding it way too tight. So the, the, the texture of the rubber would like leave an impression in my finger.
* And I'd always stuck with fountain pens ever since then. Uh, most kids would then switch over to BIC or any other kind of, you know, bull point. But I never, cause I'm left-handed and I'm, I don't know, I got quite fatigued with it cause you had to apply so much pressure and you would press through the paper. And I never liked that. So I just always stuck with, with my Pelican pen. And then maybe I graduated to a slightly nicer Pelican Junior later. Uh, and always use Pelican for one Royal Blue. Oh yeah. Cause I didn't, I didn't know that there was anything else out there. Yeah. That, that, yeah. And I think I realized that the main felt tip pens that were used were the Stabilo ones. Okay. Yeah. Classic. Mm-hmm. I'm, I'm thinking now and I'm, I'm certainly going to be incorrect in some assumptions, but being left-handed and learning how to use a fountain pen at a young age, um, like that had to be like pretty beneficial. I'm, I'm guessing in just like your handwriting style and you're like, you're talking about the fatigue and how other pens work for you and why you stuck with a fountain pen. I've never really kind of put it together that, well, maybe it's because that's how you were, you were taught. And like, you know, lefties generally have a tougher time writing a lot of times than, than righties for a litany of issues. Like the world's against them in like paper and pens, like, and, huh, that's, you know, maybe that's something that just kind of like, came through at a young age and kind of stuck.
* I, I think so, but I think it was harder for my teacher than for me because she kept, she was very insistent that we use a good grip and that we hold the pen properly. And I just, I just kind of like made things work however they needed to. So I still, I still side write. I don't underwrite, which is, I think what you're supposed to do. Um, and I will do it when I test pens for other people because I have to mimic right-handed people. But I, for myself, I'm, I, I'm a bit of a side writer, sometimes overwriter, but I think in Australia, people were just like equipped for dealing with that because everybody had to write with fountain pens. So notebooks automatically came with a sheet of blotting paper. You open up the notebook and the first page is, is blotting paper. Looking back, I'm really grateful for the teacher that I did have, who so insisted that we hold our pens properly. Hmm. I think, I think it was just kind of set up for success in that regard. Yeah. I'm, I'm making a, making a note to when, when we were definitely gonna talk about nib grinding later and, and how people hold their pens and that, that kind of challenge. Well, we're going to hold that thought for now, but that is a whole discussion I can't wait to get into.
* I've seen a lot. I've seen a lot. I've seen a lot of things. So you, you kept that fountain pen usage going and when did you start exploring outside of say like the, the Pelican 401 Royal Blue Realm, which, you know, that's, that's what you're picking up at the stationery store, right? The, the next upgraded Pelican and another bottle of Pelican Royal Blue ink. When did it go, when did it go beyond that? So for my 18th birthday, which is a big one, right? That's the, that's when you're an adult and all of that. Um, I asked for a nice pen for my birthday. Um, and explicitly, I like, I did a lot of research as to what that could be. And I looked at nicer pens that are available now, modern pens. And I also looked at vintage pens and it, what they used to be. And so we went to this, um, vintage pen shop in Vienna. It's on the Lerchenfelder Straße, I want to say. If it's still there, if it still exists, I don't know. And I think I've told this story before and I've told this story like lots of times to lots of people, but they, we ended up getting a vintage mumbler from the fifties. Lovely pen. But they said, because I am left-handed, I shouldn't have, I shouldn't get it with the gold nib because I wanted to break it. And so they took out the gold nib and they put in a glass nib, just like the front bit of a glass nib. And they put that in instead.
* And I was like, cool, you're the professionals. I'll trust you. I'll just get this glass nib mumbler and that's fine.
* Wow. Yeah. I'm not recalling this story because I'm like really taken aback right now. And like how we would, how we would handle that this day and age would probably not go over so well. It's, it's really funny, especially because I chose this as my profession, right? Right. Like the, the number of like hundreds of thousands of friends that I've like fixed at this point in my life. Um, but, but they wouldn't sell me the gold nib. I didn't make it like, I didn't know any better. And I just fully twisted them and I was like, okay, cool. I have a glass nib now. That's kind of cool. And it looks, it's kind of cool. It's a kind of, it's an interesting combination to have a mumbler body, but then a glass nib that sticks out. That's, it's a very unique look. Do you still have this pen? I have it. I never write with it because it, it's not very good. Uh, it's just kind of blotchy and just, it'll leak, but, but it's fun. But, and that's, it did get me into this rabbit hole of like what kind of pens are out there and how do they work? This was my first piston filler, right? Sure. And so from then on, whenever I saw like antiquity store, I would hop in and see if they had any, any pens laying around. And they would usually like have a cup of just, they didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was, but it was five euros for a pen. And I was like, okay, cool. I'll, I'll take those three and then take them home and I take them apart. And I tried to figure out how they worked and why they worked. And if they didn't work, why didn't they work? And there were some had sacks in it and some had pistons with cork bits that you needed to replace. And I'd hop into the fountain pen network and be like, Hey, what is this? What do I do about it? Um, and then I tried vintage nibs that way that, you know, somebody had just like tossed it away or like given up or I don't know. I don't know how people think how things end up at antiquity stores, but it ended up there and I was determined to give it life.
* That's pretty awesome. Like digging kind of right into like the, the vintage and the repair and all the, um, you know, the, the work you need to put into some of these pens, but that seemed just like right up your, your alley from the jump. I guess, I guess it's, I guess it kind of makes sense seeing kind of where your career took you from then. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just the curiosity of like, how do things work? And also wanting to make things last. I always, I mean, I also just like, like old stuff. And I like to imagine who wrote with this, what could they have possibly written? Where has it been? What could it continue to do? Yeah. Like, cause especially with old nibs, with, with really old nibs, you see, you see how the person held the pen. You really do. If they've written with it a lot and it's kind of worn in a way. And that can be true for these really, really old pens that what if they're 70 years old and somebody wrote with it for 30? You'll see that. Yeah. Cause that was the only pen. And like with most pen people, they have a hundred pens. Those nibs don't tend to get worn that much. Yeah. So Annabelle just called us all out. Like literally all of us listen to you. Yeah. You're welcome. In the, in the modern, modern world, we don't see that. And that's what, like one of those myths that always like, you know, is it a myth whether, you know, you can wear out your nib? But I mean, yeah, technically yes. Because back in the day, like you mentioned, you had one pen and you used it forever and your writing angle is what it is. It's going to change. Right. But like. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not necessarily a modern problem though, that we're going to run into. Yeah. Yeah. Just not after a week or two weeks of lending your pen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to be all right. You're going to be all right. All right.
* All right. So we need to move into kind of the, kind of the next phase from there. But first let me take a real quick break and talk about one of our sponsors this week. And that's our good friends over at Squarespace. So this episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain name, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. So I've been using Squarespace for well over a decade. I like any of their updates on the blogging platform that I use or the shop platform that I use all within Squarespace. They all just happen automatically. They all work flawlessly. Everything is easy to use. It's functional. It gives me exactly what I need and tools to do more if I want it to do more with anything that I have right now. So, you know, if you're looking to put a blog out there of, you know, your writing or your photography or you need a blog for your business, Squarespace is a perfect choice. With Squarespace, you can get discovered fast with integrated SEO tools. Nobody wants to build a beautiful website only for zero people to see it. That's why every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions and auto generated site map and more. So more people find your site through search engine results. And you can make smarter business decisions with analytics. Keep track of the stats that matter with intuitive built-in analytics tools. It makes super easy to review your website traffic, learn where to focus engagement, and track revenue from bookings, invoices, or product sales. So head over to squarespace.com slash penaddict for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. Offer code penaddict. To get 10% off your first purchase and show support to the penaddict. Our thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of Relay.