Editing The Pen Addict 725/transcript (section)

== Barber Conversation ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I did kind of, like, slow down in today's intro because I was transported back to a conversation I had with my barber on Tuesday. I got my fresh stationery fest cut. Yeah, I gotta do that. That's on my list. Yeah. We're looking all good from our stationery fest, unbelievably. And what is it? Because I'm thinking about when I'm leaving. It's two weeks. Yeah, it's two weeks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Two weeks from today. From the day this podcast goes out on a Thursday. The show starts on a Thursday. But we're both, we're gonna both be in town early.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We hope to see you at New York Stationery Fest. We are gonna be there. We're gonna be doing stuff. That will be announced shortly, probably. Yeah. So you'll be able to come see us doing some kind of live panatic-y kind of things, I would say. Yeah. Live conversations. But we're also gonna be hanging out at New York Stationery Fest in Brooklyn from July 30th to August 1st. So I was getting my hair cut, just talking to my barber. I've known this guy for, like, 10 years now. He's a friend more than just someone who cuts my hair. And he said, you still doing that pan one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know, yeah, man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Are you still that guy? It's like, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like 700 episodes now. He's like, wow, there's not much to talk about every week. And, like, you wouldn't even believe it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's the funniest thing is, like, everyone, like, all the years we've been doing this, if people are still, like, discovering it, they always have the, is there really that much to talk about? And I had the same question when we started, right? Yeah. You know, that's one of my famous replies was, is, you know, I think we have about 10 episodes. Like, I could probably figure out about 10 episodes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The great thing, Brad, is that the pans just keep coming, you know? They don't actually stop. They just keep happening. Who knew? Who knew? And it's like... Sometimes, Brad, they have an interesting color and shape.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I had to do it to him, Myke. Like, there's no way I wasn't gonna do this. And we're talking about the Uniball and not. I keep calling it a collaboration, even though I know it's an in-house thing, as you learned me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Have you not lived that one down yet?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I feel okay about that one. I just missed it. Like, I admit my mistakes. Like, we're gonna talk about that here in a minute. And we have another follow-up, which I don't think it was a mistake. But still, we're gonna... Like, yeah, I'll admit my mistakes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know. I just... Can we just run that one back? I admit my mistakes. I will admit my mistakes. We have some follow-up here where someone says I made a mistake. I didn't make a mistake. I'm not sure, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that's an accurate statement. I feel like that's an accurate statement. But I like... I'll admit when I'm wrong, I'm just not wrong very much, Myke.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll admit when I'm wrong, I just haven't had to do it. But the whole and not thing is still... I think it's one of those things where you make a mistake, like, on the initial, and then it's really difficult to get out of that. Yes. Like, routine, right? Yes. Like, that's happened to all of us in different types of things. And this happened to be a product thing that I'm totally misunderstood. And it's hard to get it out of my head that this is not an exterior collaboration. It's an interior. It's an in-house. It's a fashion brand, if you will. It's Uniball's fashion brand, is what I'm going to call it. So the and not pin, it's this carabiner-style lanyard type of pin, which we referred to a bunch last week, you know, when Myke was being right and I was being incorrect, which I'm fine to admit I was incorrect on that one, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And also, before you say what you did to it, also I saw you had another Instagram post where you said that your family were grabbing the pin, like they were interested in it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So seriously, it was that day I had a lot of work to do, right? So after the podcast last week, I just took the pin and I clipped it to the button on my shirt. You know, it's like a button-up shirt. So I just kind of clip. It was a bad place to clip it, but that's all I had to clip it. I wanted it on my shirt and see how it went. So I went into like the shipping department. You know, I had Peninnoc stuff to ship. I had spoke products to ship. And if I needed to make a note, I just reached up and grabbed that damn pin. And I was like, I'm kind of glad it's here right now. And then I went back into the house.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And my wife needed me to like sign a check. She's like, where's your pin? And I'm like, bam. That's like, right. And she's like, because she saw me carrying it. And she came over and had me like endorse a check. And then later, my daughter came around. She's like, can I borrow that pin? Because they saw me just carrying it around. I was like, okay, I guess Uniball has a winner on their hand. I mean, neither one of them asked how much it was. So that's a problem, right? It's a $35 hot dog pin. So let's be clear on that part of it. But it was useful, right? And that's a big compliment to any product that you find it to be useful. So I'm going to bring this to Stationery Fest with me. I don't know if we'll have like lanyards. I'm going to guess I'm going to have like lanyards. But if not, I'll just clip it to something and I'll have it with me. And just see how I'll give it the big travel run, right? Like, you know, it's not something I'm going to be wearing through the airport. But at Stationery Fest, you know, it'll be nice to have handy. And because I'll have a notebook there to like take notes and I'll have plenty of other pens. Yeah. And but this one, it's just easy to reach up and grab the pen and jot your little note with a beautiful Jetstream 0.5 millimeter refill. And then just, yeah, just go to town. I might actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I might actually switch the refill around from black to blue. Because I love blue ballpoints. Blue ballpoints are my favorite. So see. But yeah. So then what I had to do to them, Myke, was like I had to put the mustard stripe on it, right? Like it was, there was no way that wasn't going to happen. And I have Uniball's Posca. I'm sure they're very thrilled that I used a Posca marker, which is one of their big, they are huge. Oh, you kept it in-house. I didn't know you kept it in-house. Yeah, I kept it in-house. Because that marker is perfect for this. It's almost like a paint type acrylic marker. Right. Right. So I put the hot dog, put the mustard stripe on it. And it kind of, it's even better. Like, I feel, I look at it, I'm like, nailed it. And like, yeah, we're good to go. So yeah, I keep carrying this pin around. I don't get it. It's horribly priced, but it's useful. And that's pretty high price, honestly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, we've got some follow-up from Julie about Commonplace Book.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, this is really great feedback.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Julie says, the way you described Commonplace Notebooks in the recent episode of the podcast

'''Brad Dowdy:''' as an everything notebook. Let me stop you. You is me. Yeah, I know. Okay, I know you know, but I'm letting listeners know. She's talking to Brad directly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The saying is not at all my understanding of it. I have for years had an everything notebook going, and it is not a commonplace book. I have looked at starting a commonplace book, but it's not for me. The way I understand it, the commonplace book has ideas and quotes that come from outside of yourself or from other people. So it could be recipes you find or study notes for a special interest or quotes from others that you find inspiring or thought-provoking. It can be a really good study aid while you are studying a subject. But my everything notebook is mostly filled with my thoughts, including on pens and paper. Gratitude and reflections. In between these things, I may include a poem or a quote from a book, which I would consider a commonplace notebook kind of thing. But my everything notebook has so much more of me in it than a commonplace notebook has or should have.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, this was really good detail to add when you're thinking about commonplace notebook. And I didn't think of it this way as the commonplace notebook should contain, if you're following like the strict instructions or the details definition of a commonplace book, it should come from outside of yourself.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Bullet journal instead of Bujo, you know? Right, right. If we're really being systematized.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But to Julie's point, I feel like she's agreeing with me while disagreeing with me. I don't call mine a commonplace notebook for these reasons, right? I call it an everything notebook. I'm not saying this is my commonplace notebook, really. That's not how I'm trying to define it. I don't keep a commonplace notebook, right? Okay. I keep more of a notebook that anything can go in. And maybe it has some commonplace bits in it, like Julie's saying may include poems or quote from a book, which would consider a commonplace thing. So, but I think the point here I thought was good is that the commonplace book should come from outside of you. Yep. Where everything else is going to be like maybe more personal into that diary journal type of situation, which is definitely not what a commonplace book is for. So, I thought that was a good context to have on this. So, yeah. Great email from Julie.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What Julie is saying is more what I want. So, my kind of-

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you want the definition of a commonplace book? Is that what you're wanting?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, here's what I'll say. I mean, I don't think you can be as strict as the- So, like an everything notebook with the way that Julie described it is like it's your stuff and also some influences from outside. Where what I'm looking to do is influences outside plus my own thoughts. Right? Like I don't- I think it would be incredibly difficult to be like, I'm just going to write this quote down. I'm not going to give any context for why this is important to me or interesting to me, you know? But no, I want something which is more- I want to pay attention to and take note of things that I come across that are interesting to me. And I don't want to do it on one specific thing either. It's just like everything.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I will want to add in some of my own context as well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that would fall under like the commonplace definition, right? I think it would have to- You've brought it in- Yeah. Yeah. You've brought it in externally and here's what I think about this. Yeah. I think that's fair as opposed to, dear diary, my day sucked, right? Yeah. So, you know, that type of thing. So, yeah. I think you fall into like the pretty classic style of commonplace definition. So, but yeah. It's literally just use your stuff and however you want to use it and you don't have to be bound by, you know, strict definitions. So, but yeah. Everyone should write all the things down. Possibly with a new Lamy Safari, Michael Hurley. What are we doing?

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a new Lamy Safari?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, no, no.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's two. There's two? Or eight. If you count the ballpoint, rollerball, and pencil. I don't know, man. How about eight new Lamy Safari? I haven't found the exact reason we're going with Meteorite and Meteora. Like I don't have like the branding, you know, literature on why this is the names. The names are cool. Like I get it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is this one of these things again where one store has it before Lamy's posted about it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not much. This was like a secret drop and everyone kind of launched it at the same time. Well, not exactly. It was like this was a little bit different in that 50% of the stores launched it already. And then when I was bouncing around trying to find links, I was like, not everyone has this live yet, but like random places do have it live. So what this is, is actually a very unique Safari. And of course I'm thrilled it exists, but I also at the same time as like, man, they're spending, they got a lot going, they got a lot of sailor activity going on here, underlying things. But this pin in the Safari style, so these are glossy Safaris. So there's one that's black, all black. And then there's one that's like a deep, dark purple. So that's the Meteora is the very dark purple. And then these names are just going to drive me crazy. Meteorite is the all black one. Yeah. And Meteora is the purpley one. The idea or what they've done different with these is take in like half the barrel and put a pattern on them. Like a, um, I, when I first saw it, I thought it was like a guilloche type of pattern, right? Just that really subtle, like, um, basket weave type of pattern. Yeah. Some people have called it knurling because it kind of goes down into the grip section. It really wouldn't feel like knurling. It'll have a texture, right? But I wouldn't call it like a traditional knurl type of situation. But hallelujah, like do something different. And even though it's like your same old, you know, okay, it's a black Lamy Safari and blacked out trim and, you know, a purple Safari that I said, well, you know, why don't they just put out dark lilac number three ink? Because it's the same purple that they've been doing for a while, but they did something extra. And I at least appreciate that, right? Um, it still doesn't excuse them from the volume and the pace that they're on this year with their releases. Like the disco and rollerball were so good, but it's like, they didn't even have time to breathe. And then right before that was the neon yellow and neon pink is like these products don't have time to breathe before they're launching these new ones. So it's like, they're resetting the expectation of the customer by just dumping product. And this is, this didn't start this year. Like just to be clear, this started, um, like, uh, one to two years ago where they just were just popping things out. It's like, this should have been like the main special edition this year because they did something different other than color. They did texture, right? They did pattern. So individually, I love these pens. Like, of course I absolutely love these, but it's like, I don't even have my, um, so I bought the disco and the rollerball all stars. I haven't even inked that inked up that one yet. Right. And now there's this one. So it's kind of crazy to me, just the volume. It's like, we'll see. I don't, you know, who knows? Like I, I'm done giving them a pass for like the Mitsubishi transition. I think that's about time's up on that maybe at this year, but this is a lot, like this is a serious volume issue. And I don't, I don't know. Like I, I, it's like, I love to see it because this is my favorite pen and okay. Texture. Like that's a cool addition. Like they've never done that before. I'm like, yeah, this is fantastic, but man, it's a lot. It's just, it's maybe we're boarding on too much. And, um, the other issue is that they're just banger after banger. Like I want them all, but like, I can't use all these pens, right? Like I said, I haven't even inked up the, uh, the disco that I kept the green and pink all star. I haven't even inked it up. It's literally sitting on my desk ready to get used. And I was like, well, here comes two, two more. So, and again, like I mentioned, it's also, this is the full lineup. This is a full lineup product, ballpoint, pencil, and rollerball. So it's a lot. I also love it. What do you, just as a product and what they did to the pen with the texture, what do you think about the product?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's an interesting thing to try. I wonder, you know, if people find anything useful to it other than just look like, I wonder if it does actually have some kind of benefit, like grip, you know? It doesn't appear like it. No, I'm not really sure that it, how much of a difference that would make anyway. Yeah. Um, I appreciate them. I appreciate them doing something, you know, like it's like an interesting thing to do. Uh, in general, I don't have a problem with the amount of special editions that they're doing right now because it's kind of like a supply to demand thing. If they can keep doing them as long as people keep buying them, because if people keep buying them, they want them. It's like as simple as that, right? And I think that some brands have done this and they flew too close to the sun and then you see them kind of pull back. You know, I think like a Twisby, they don't do as many as they used to. Like, I feel like we were talking about new Twisbys all the time. Yeah. And that was just last year. Yeah. And so my expectation would be maybe Twisby went a little too ham on that one, but Lamy seemed to be able to do it. And I think it's because they have such a broad and deep distribution method. I agree. That like they can, they can sell online and what they don't sell online, they'll put in shops. Yep. Right. And so I just don't think it's an issue for them to flood the zone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I agree because the meteorite, the all black, you put that in a shop, that's going to be your number one seller. Yeah, it's going to fly off the shelves. In the building, that will be your number one product. Yep. And because they are also the same price. These are not premiumly priced, right? They're the same price as like your red Safari or whatever, you know, or within a couple bucks. Like it's, it's not, they're not charging like $38 for this one, you know, where the normal, where it's sitting next to a red Safari. That's, you know, 24. They're charging the same, same price. So it's, it's going to absolutely crush in their brick and mortar type of boutiques. Um, yeah. And, you know, I, who knows? Like, yeah, it's interesting. Like they're such an interesting company. I think that's why I'm so fascinated with them. And this was even before the Mitsubishi acquisition. And now I just find them even more interesting in like how they, what their decision making process is like. Cause this is, it's, it's a lot, man. It's a lot.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Myke, we got our shout-out of the week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Shout-out of the week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maurice Moves. I think I've shouted out Maurice Moves before. This is a YouTube channel I watch. He mostly does travel and EDC type of stuff. And he's recently done a couple of new videos. He's like a huge traveler system person, right? Right, right, right. Traveler's Notebooks and Lamy Safari. So it's like you're speaking my language here. That's his two favorite things in the world is Traveler's Notebooks and Lamy Safari. But recently he did a post where he built an all-yellow kit. And he always includes notebooks and pens and stationary items. So I'm always interested in what stationary he picks. He has pretty good taste as far as this stuff goes. And he did a lot of different types of building EDC kits recently, probably since I've last shouted him out, where he would be in Jakarta and build a kit. And then he'd be in Tokyo and build an EDC kit with a notebook, a pouch, and a pen, and other things. So really cool channel if you haven't followed him yet. He does really good videos. And they're always super well-produced. And they're very tight. They look beautiful. Like 10-minute videos. Yeah. It's like 10-minute videos. And he gets in and goes and just runs the whole time. It's great. He does a really good job. So big fan of his videos. So you know what else I'm a big fan of, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Tell me all about it.