Editing The Pen Addict 674/transcript (section)

== Discussion of Current Pen Usage ==

* We're going to talk about what we're using first, which you snuck this in on me, but I am prepared, because I have one particular thing. I guess I'm going first here. I have one particular thing I want to talk about here in just a second. It's the second thing on my list that is going to be a problem, so that's a teaser, but y'all won't have to wait long.
* Number one, still, this is a year-long, what are we using today? My Hachimanjia Life A5 Notebook. The iris color, I think that's what it's called. Ayame, I believe that's iris. It's purple, pink. I'm only about halfway through, maybe, which I was hoping to have this filled by the end of the year, and maybe I still can. It's been a little slow going in the summertime. I haven't used it as much, but it's basically just my junk journal, notes, stickers, drawings, ink testing.
* I've done a lot of podcast prep in here. I'll do some review stuff in here. I just did a review this week that we'll talk later, where I did the handwritten part in there. It's just kind of the notebook that lives on my desk. It's probably my main notebook. The thing that has surprised me the most, Myke, and this is probably going to be a new problem for me. A friend of the show, Jacob, aka Fudefin, also from Tokyo Inklings Podcast, sent me a care package, which we talked about when I had the Zento signature. He included in that a pack of the Graffalo refills for Bible-sized notebooks. The Bible-sized notebook is kind of a traditional Japanese planner size. The plotter has a Bible size. A lot of the other brands in that ring binder market use a Bible size. And so he just sent me the pack of paper. So this will technically fit my plotter. My plotter is called the Narrow. So this page is a little bit wider. And it's still a narrow page.
* But, you know, I just took it. Oh, cool. Other paper to test. Something to try for my plotter.
* I got to apologize to Graffalo. I did not recognize your game, Graffalo. Yeah, that's pretty much what I said when I used this paper. So I swear I've used Graffalo in the past, maybe even reviewed some. I did not remember the quality that this paper has for fountain pen inks. That's all I've used on it so far. I haven't done a full reckoning of the page with other inks and things like that. But the way it handles fountain pen ink is as good, if not better, than any paper I've tested in quite some time. And, again, we all have our particular tastes and feels, you know, of paper, like I'm a bank paper person. Like a lot of people don't like bank paper. This is more, this feels more, I don't know, general use. But the way it is showing shading and sheen and just regular writing, like without any effort, without throwing a lot of ink on the page, no feathering, no bleeding, barely any ghosting at all. So it's definitely better than like the plotter paper. And I like the plotter paper, but it does have some hangups with some fountain pens and nibs. This is a rock star level paper. And I'm going to have to continue to test it and see if this paper that is in these refill packs is in some of their notebooks. Because Graffalo makes notebooks as well. That's what I've known them for. Like they make smaller notebook products. I did know they made this product with these refills for different planners and ring binders. So I'm going to have to look and see, is this the same paper you can get into the, in the other Graffalo notebooks. So seriously impressed with this paper. And I use it all the time. So this is their own paper? Like, right? Like this is Graffalo make their own formulation? Or they have, they're using something other people aren't using? It's a good question. I need to look into that a little bit more to see, you know, what the, the parent company type of situation is. Like you can say Midori and, you know, be design fill. And then they have different brands underneath and who uses what paper under that. I don't know exactly the Graffalo setup for that.
* So yeah, this will be a learning experience to me, but I'll probably dig into this a little bit. Like the site, like the main website, um, it's called, uh, I'll put it in the link. It's Kobe, H-A-K-O-B-E-H-A.com. And then that page takes you to the shop page of the link that I put in here. So it's, it's just a little bit, I don't, I haven't quite sussed out the, uh, organizational hierarchy, but, um, whatever this paper is, I'm in, count me in. Okay.
* I've been using, I re-inked up my Pilot Custom 743 Verdigris. What a great color. This is, it's such a good pen. This was a, this was like a North America limited edition. I don't know if it was last year or two years ago. I don't know how long it's been out, but it's still kind of available, right? Like this wasn't a super limited option. It was widely available. It's still available. And I got this one with the FA nib, which is kind of a bouncy springy nib. And it puts down a lot of ink, but it gives you like a really, really great line. It fits my writing style well. And I inked this up, uh, once I got back from my trip, because I had the Mont Blanc Enzo Ferrari ink and that kind of purplish red ink fits this pen really well. So like, this was a very complimentary, um, ink. When I was thinking about what pen I wanted to ink the Ferrari ink up with, this was the first one that came into mind and then I couldn't really beat it, right? Like I said, oh, this will be perfect for the 743 with this nib and the barrel color. And then I started thinking about what other pens this would go in and I couldn't find anything better. So that's kind of, um, been my jam right now, uh, is that pen nib and ink. It's a great combination.
* Um, it's great. And these papers that I'm using the Hachimanjia Life and the Graffalo, I'm using the Graffalo for show notes today. If I have any, uh, you know, it's my little side paper. Um, and then I just have a couple other things that I'm queued up to be testing. The Kuru Toga wood, which we've talked about a couple of times. We talked about it when I unboxed Jacob's stuff. I actually want to do a proper review of that one because it's been a, one, it's been a while since I've reviewed a Kuru Toga. Two, this is an interesting barrel. And three, I don't think I've reviewed a Kuru Toga that has the give in the tip. Um, there's the terminology for it, but like they basically have, it's, the tip is always kind of moved in the Kuru Toga based on the mechanism. And it's not something that I noticed, but other people have noticed. And this is supposedly, and they've made some other models, um, with this feature. So that's just something I want to play around with. And then I'm also playing around with the, uh, Jetstream light touch blue black refill. So it's just stuff I'm playing around with, with the, so that is, that is basically the active pile on my desk, um, you know, of, of what I'm using. So, uh, what, what do you have going on on your desk? Uh, so no, there's two things I wanted to mention today that are specific. Uh, one, I'm using the Leuchtturm Drigophil number two pencil, which we'll get to later on the show. So I was, uh, uh, influenced to use one because I have, I bought like three of them, uh, three or four of them in different colors. Um, and I originally bought them, um, because they were matching up with the, some, close enough to the pocket notebooks we were making. Actually, I bought four. I bought three for that reason and a one to actually use. Um, so like three of them were kind of like prop pencils really. Um, but I've had those like kicking around. And so I brought one of those over to the desk, the, um, the, the recording desk rather than my kind of main working desk. I brought over the yellow one because it matches with the sidekick notepad, a sidekick pocket that I'm using. I'm using the yellow lined one. Um, I'm using the lined one on my desk because, uh, it's where I actually go through it most. And it's like the, the kind of the notebook area that is least important to me is like on this recording desk. It's where like I'm going through every time I'm recording, I'm going through a page, tearing it out and getting rid of because the lined is my least favorite personally. Right. Um, I'm a dot grid guy, uh, but we sold out dot grid and I don't have any. So, so I have like one and I want to keep that for me, uh, for like, I don't know what I want to use it for, but I don't want to use it up yet. Um, so I want to keep that cause I don't know when we're going to restock on those. Like I, I hope soon, but it is complicated to restock it. We kind of have to ship it with other stuff. And so this is like a logistical challenge that we did not, I did not foresee when we started this product of like, to ship it on a boat, we'd either have to order an ungodly amount of them or we have to pack it up with other stuff because, um, sea freight is by physical size, not by weight. And air freight is by weight, not by size. And air freight is more expensive. And so I don't want to put them on a plane realistically cause it's going to cost too much money. Um, so put them on a boat, but I put them on a boat. I've got to fill a pallet and then I've got to fill like a crate. And so like it would take a lot of these notebooks to fill the crate cause it's so much smaller. So yeah, but this will work out. We just, we know what the plan is now. It's just about when are we going to do it? And it's just going to be later in the year most likely, but I've, I've been, I always have a sidekick notepad on my desk for big notes, you know, calls and big stuff on it right out. But what I've actually liked about keeping the pocket notebook on my desk is to have it at hand for writing down small things while I'm recording. So like if there's a point that I want to make that's in response to something someone said, but they're not finished, I'm like noting them down on my pocket notebook and then I'm like holding onto it and I'm like reading my notes out as we go. And I like that, um, as a way to try and stop me from interrupting people. I do have a habit of interrupting people. Um, I think all podcasters have this habit though, to be honest. It's a learned skill. Yeah. It's like, you know, it's one of these things that you do it during normal conversation, but there's like a way to do it in, in recorded conversation, which is helpful. But, you know, you got to keep the conversation going. And sometimes that does unfortunately mean you've got to, uh, uh, talk over people. And also the, the thing with podcasters, especially those that are at it, as you know, you can fix the interruption. And so like, I think it kind of encourages you and me and Jason are so bad with this, interrupting each other because we both are podcast editors as well as like hosts. And so like, we just know that it will get fixed in the edit, which means we're constantly talking over each other. Um, but I've got this notebook on my desk to try and stop me from, from doing that. And I've actually really liked it. It's just like, you know, I'll write down a couple of words and it will remind me of a point that I want to make. And then I'll make that point later on. So if you've been hearing me on my shows recently, especially on connected sayings, that's something like, I want to go back to something you said a few minutes ago. It's because I'm, I'm, I'm writing my little notes down on my notebook. Um, so yeah, that's what I got on my desk today. That's, uh, different and for different reasons rather than the usual stuff, which I kind of always have kicking around. Yes. I want to go back to something you said a minute ago. No, please, please do. And I, I did, I did write it down. Um, is, is SKNP the official abbreviation of the sidekick pocket notebook? No, that is the sidekick notepad. Sidekick pocket is SKPK. I have a four letter of all of them, by the way, that's, um, we have TTS, TTSJ for the theme system journal. We have SKFF for sidekick free form, SKPL for sidekick planner, SKPK for sidekick pocket, uh, SKNP for sidekick notepad. Nice. So yeah, SKNP is. The names are too long to write down all the time, you know? Yeah. Well, like in the show doc today, there's SKNP. I'm like, sweet. Yep. Yep. That's just for me. That's just for me. And this, there is not, do not try and pick apart that system because it isn't a system. It's what do I feel like it should be, you know? Yeah. It's a feel, you know, that's how we run businesses.
* SKPK doesn't make sense. Right. But to me, like for pocket, in theory, it should be SKPO if it's following psychic planner. Sure. Or psychic, for me, it's like, what is the next letter? If it's, uh, the way that I do it, it's weird. It's what is, in my mind, the most dominant second letter in each word. Sure. Yeah. And obviously it has to be different to the other products. If they overlap, then, you know, got to change it. Oh yeah. So like, we'll talk about this when we talk about our upcoming sponsor, um, Squarespace. When I, I manually create SKUs, right? I don't like in Squarespace, you can auto generate a SKU when I create a product and I'll just put a bunch of random numbers out there. So like, I have to put in, I want a SKU that tells me what the product is without having to look at the product. So yeah. So I have like, when I did the, the, the ink throwers, I had the contour, the mini contour and the slim. So, you know, I'll just do little abbreviations on the end of them for whatever makes sense to me, not what fits in a logical SKU creation system. I guess similarly, uh, in my notes for years, whenever I want to kind of record Squarespace, I write SQSP. That's what they've been for years for me. Squarespace, you know, let's talk about SQSP. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace, the all in one website platform that is designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting or scaling a business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings to a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. You had Brad mentioned a moment ago about setting up his website and he has a store right on, on, on the pen addict. You can go there anytime. That's all powered by Squarespace's commerce platform. It's an incredibly powerful system. It's got everything you need and it's got all of the functionality that you want for building an online store for physical or digital goods. But that's not the only way, uh, that you can get paid to Squarespace. You can also offer your services and get paid. They have integrations and tools to do all of this from consultations to events and experiences. You can showcase your offerings of a customizable website that is designed to attract clients and grow your business. Think built-in appointment scheduling, email marketing tools, and more. Plus you can keep everything cohesive of on-brand invoices and get paid easily of online payments. You can also manage content releases of Squarespace. Like for example, you can upload video content, organize a video library and showcase your content on beautiful video pages, which you can then sell access to by adding a paywall to that content, which is perfect for online courses, exclusive tutorials and premium workshops. Don't just take my word for how great Squarespace is. Go and try it for yourself by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict. You can sign up for a free trial there and you can build your entire website as part of the trial. You can see just how easy it is to get what you want with Squarespace. And then when you're ready to launch your product to the world, then let people see your website. Use the offer code penaddict and you'll save 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict to get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of the penaddict and all of Relay. All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week.