Editing The Pen Addict 235/transcript (section)

== Pen Preference ==


'''Myke Dudek:''' Totally. Yeah. And so they're one of my like absolute favorite, favorite, favorite pens. And so, um, not that I need more of them, but I'm always like on the hunt for a good deal on one. So maybe I'm like stockpiling for, you know, when the world ends and I'm never going to be without my roturing, but, um, if you, if like you, if, you know, obviously listen to this, if you want something like that, uh, but don't want to spend, you know, roturing kind of money, the, uh, the recommendation I would make is maybe to give the retro 51 hexomatic a try. Like they get, they pay some serious homage to, uh, the 600s in that pen. And, uh, it's, it's a, it, it feels great, you know, but it runs about the same price as like a roturing pencil, you know, 30 bucks. It's a good sort of alternate for that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And that's a flat out, cool, cool pen. And I believe the one I have you sent to me.

'''Myke Dudek:''' I think you're right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You're right. Thank you. That sits in, uh, this weird little walnut block I have in my desk, which we might talk about here in a minute. But before we do, I want to talk about our good friends at Squarespace, which I'm a Squarespace customer. Knock uses Squarespace. And I know you, Mr. Dudek, you're a Squarespace customer as well, right?

'''Myke Dudek:''' Yep. For both, uh, both my websites. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So they make it easy. I mean, to write a blog, to shop, um, and they're a sponsor of the show. So this episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the simplest way for anyone to create a beautiful landing page, website, or online store. Start building your website today at squarespace.com and an offer code Inc at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. They have easy to use tools and templates. Squarespace helps you capture every detail of what drives you because if it's worth the effort, it's worth sharing with the world. You can build professional looking sites, regardless of skill level. I have no skills. My sites look kind of professional and that's all because of Squarespace makes it. So you'll be easily able to make your website look and feel exactly how you want using their state of the art technology to power your site and ensure security and stability. They're trusted by millions of people and some of the biggest brands in the world. Their site templates are stunning, all of which feature responsive design. So my sites look just as great on your desktop, laptop, or mobile device. And they're just getting started. So they're continuing to grow, always instituting new features. They currently have 24 seven support with live chat and email with teams located in New York, Dublin, Portland, always there to help you. They have a wonderful commerce platform. You can add a store, you can have a full on storefront like Myke and I do, you know, me with knock Myke with dudek modern goods, or you can drop a page into your blog like I do with the pen addict and just have a shop tied into their commerce platform like that. If you sign up for a year, you also get a free domain name allowing you to choose exactly what you want your site to be called. Squarespace plan started just $12 a month. Start a trial with no credit required and start building your website today by going to squarespace.com. When you decide to sign up for Squarespace, make sure to use the offer code Inc to get 10% off your first purchase to show your support for the pen act. Thank you to Squarespace for your support of this show and all of real FM. Big fan of Squarespace. All right. So let's hit. Everyone's going. Are you going to talk about your businesses yet? Because they actually really enjoy that talk, which surprises me. But I like talking about it. But we're not yet because I have a few more asked TPA questions that we got in from the listeners that I want to be sure to hit. So Julia asked, and this is, I put this here because it's kind of in relation to your conversation about collecting Rotarians pilots. Julia asked, do you have a system for keeping ink pens down to a certain number? What is your magic number? I've just this year gone beyond a number of pens. I can have inked at once. So I had to devise my own system. So what's kind of your magic number for inked fountain pens? Do you have one? And is there any rules that you live by?

'''Myke Dudek:''' There's not really any, any rules, I would say. It's just like when I get to a point where I start to like worry, it's like, I don't know, I hit this, I hit this like threshold of where it's like, okay, well, I have, you know, 10 pens inked up. I probably should do something about this. Um, and I, and like, admittedly, I put it off as long as I can. Like, I really, it's just like, it's not that difficult to clean fountain pens, but I just, it's just one of those things. It's like, I gotta do it, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But as soon as you clean it, you miss that ink you cleaned out or that nib you were using. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Dudek:''' So I, I don't know. I'd probably say I keep nowadays, you know, probably something like seven or eight inked at any given time, but I don't have like a system I'd say as far as like, you know, one in, one out, anything like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't have a one in, one out system, but I do kind of have, I try to keep a max and I try to keep it at six because that's totally self-serving what a Brasstown fits. One of our NotCo cases fits six pens and I can fit like other pens in the pocket too. Like if I want to carry, you know, a felt tip pen or ballpoint or gel, I can throw that in there. When I start having pens outside of that case and like laying on my desk and then they get to be like too many, like only have six kind of fountain pen slots in that case. And then all of a sudden I have like three or four more on my desk. So like I'm up to that 10 number. That's, that's my panic level too. I'm like, this is too much. I'm never going to use all these. Let's start cleaning and kind of get this number back down. So I'm with you on the quantity. I can't ever have like 30 or 40 fountain pens. Oh, no way. I know some people do.

'''Myke Dudek:''' No way. Yeah, no way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, um, the smaller, the better. I've tried to do three and that just doesn't work with the way, the things I enjoy writing. I also sometimes include the review pens I'm carrying like for months at a time, you know, I kind of give those a pass, right? They don't necessarily count in the six, but they just end up pushing other things out of my cases and then it gets to be a problem. So they kind of do so.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Well, you have to clean them still, you know, that's the thing. And so it's like, that's, I, it's for me, it's like, do I have to go clean this later? Like that's the kind of thing, you know? And so with, with the, yeah, definitely the pens that come through the, uh, uh, you know, reviews and stuff. Yeah. It kind of fits a little different. They may not be like my daily carry stuff that I do, but, um, yeah, yeah. I'm right there with you. Totally. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this next question is actually specifically for me, but I want your feedback on this. And there's someone out there that wants to know why do I hate red ink? Um, the reason why I hate red ink is because it reminds me of a guy named Joey Feldman who always used it in his artwork. Oh, wait, who was that? Oh, that question was from Joey. I read that wrong. Oh, sorry, Joey. I take all of that back. I take back everything I said about you. Now, I, I don't hate red ink. I rarely have a use for it because I like orange ink and there's not a lot of differentiation that I get, even though there's so many dark reds and things that I know Joey likes and things like that. Is there any ink that you have, Myke, that, you know, you know, it's like a thing like red and greens are mine that I know are things for people, but I rarely if ever use them. Do you have those colors?

'''Myke Dudek:''' I have, uh, yeah, I have a couple of greens and I, and I had a couple of reds and then a couple of like, like kind of weird oranges, you know, like, uh, I don't know. I'm thinking, I'm thinking of like Noodler's Apache Sunset, you know, which is just kind of like an interesting, but yeah, as far as like your normal everyday type of use, like, yeah, I, uh, nothing, not like, I don't, I'm definitely more of like a blue, like a bright blue or like a blue black kind of guy, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And, uh, I, I understand like the, the red thing. I mean, you can get some really killer bright reds. You can get some really dark, you know, interesting brownish reds that, you know, evoke like different feelings and different character on the paper. Um, it's just never been like a go-to thing. It's one of those where I always ink it up. I say, wow, this is really nice. And then I've dumped it before I've used a whole converter or piston of it. And it just, you know, one of those things.

'''Myke Dudek:''' I think you and I just have like some scarring from grade school, uh, lots of red ink all over our papers, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mine's just, mine's just nightmares about Joey Feldman.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So this is a, this is a very interesting question from a very intervention, interesting, uh, individual, Mr. Tony WTF. That's how I like to refer to him. So he knows who he is. Um, what is the Dudek sanction method for positioning an idea doc opening in the back or opening in the front? So for those who don't know, Myke makes a product for us at knock. And we're going to talk about this later, um, called the idea doc, because we're huge index card fans. So we have a note card. We wanted something cool to put it on. And it's kind of a desk tool. Um, so Myke and myself and Jeff collaborated on what's called the idea doc. So the, okay, I'm going to sell myself out right here. The backside of the doc has a slot to keep your extra index cards while the front has a little slit on the top where you can post an index card up. I'll put a link in the show notes for anyone who hasn't seen it. Um, so what is your official positioning of the idea doc, Myke?

'''Myke Dudek:''' Uh, it would, from a practical standpoint, I could see why people could go different ways with it, but, uh, from the design and Dudek sanctioned position would be, uh, the slot or the card holder in the back. And the reason being is, uh, the front of it, which again, we're, we're kind of giving away our opinions here. The front of it has the, has the knock, uh, logo etched into the corner. And so if it's turned around, then you don't get to see that. So there's, there's kind of an intentionality of that. Um, but, uh, yeah, so that would be, it was designed originally to have the cards in the back.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, but actually after, once people started getting them, they're like, I use it this way. I was like, no, that's pretty smart because you can get to the pin easier, you know? And I'm not going to lie on my desk. Mine lives sideways. So I just blew all that out of the water. It's because I get into the cards more than anything and the pin slot. And I don't usually have one, a card posted in the notch on the top, but I'm always reaching for the cards. So I just have it sideways. So I don't have to turn around to get them because I don't think I could not function with it backwards. Like I would not be able to sit at my desk with the idea doc cards facing me. Like that would not work. I would have to turn it around or apparently sideways works for me too, but well, if it

'''Myke Dudek:''' was, if it was just a card dispenser, you know, I could see, I could see that, you know, as far as it being just like a place to grab the cards. But then, uh, since it's meant to be like a card stand, um, you know, with the stand showing towards you seems to make the most sense, you know, as far as design.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yes. So Tony, you're doing it wrong.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Sorry, Tony.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Actually, I don't, I don't know, uh, which way he goes. So he'll, whichever way, Tony.

'''Myke Dudek:''' Sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. All right. So this is a question I found interesting because I actually don't know where you're at even in this realm. So this was from Rez in the Slack room. He says, when it comes to one's first Urushi pen, what would you recommend? Nakaya, Danitrio, Carolina Pen Company, something else. Do you even own an Urushi pen?

'''Myke Dudek:''' I actually don't. Okay. That's what I was thinking. This is all you, man. So I'm, I'm in the same boat as far as, uh, as far as Rez.