Editing The Pen Addict 127/transcript (section)

== Pilot Nibs ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pilot, as a company, has been doing a really good job over the past couple of years of not just introducing products in Japan and leaving them there, but moving them over to the United States market within a year or two of their introduction. Recently, they did that with the Falcon, the Pilot Falcon in the resin barrel. They always had the metal barrel Falcon here, but I wanted the resin barrel Falcon. I had to go to Japan to order it. This was like two years ago. Well, now, as of several months ago, the Falcon's available in the US. Another pin that I love is the Pilot Custom 912, and it's coming to the US now, too. It's the bigger bodied, it's the very standard barrel, but it's a big, you know, businessy, classic looking fountain pen barrel. This is the pin that I use with the PO nib that I've talked about, that really fine, firm nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I always think of that as the post office nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's called the post, uh, posting nib. Is that right? Because yeah, the, the theory behind that nib design was for the, uh, Japanese people to use it when they're writing postcards because they write a lot of postcards and they needed something small and fine and firm to be able to write on those postal cards. So, uh, hence the, uh, the PO nib was born. So it's like that hook nib for those who haven't heard me talk about it before. And, you know, we can link to it in the show notes on the, in, uh, my review on the blog. So I love the fact that the 912 is actually coming here because I love that barrel. It's a great size, uh, great weight, beautiful nibs. I'm sad that the PO nibs not coming with it. I understand that. I guess a little bit, it's such a highly specific nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It seems like as well, it's culturally specific. So maybe it just wouldn't make sense for them to do. Cause I look at it and think it's broken.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. You know, that's what it looks like. Right. Um, but they are going to have the music nib, which I've never used. And they're also going to have the stub nib, which I do have. I do have a, I have a 912 with a PO nib and a 912 with a stub nib. The stub nib is great. These gold nibs are great. Um, it's just a great classic all around good pen. So, um, they're going to start showing up in the U S and U S retailers here in December. It looks like I'm looking at nibs.com is where I found the link. We'll have this link also in the show notes, but, um, pilots doing a good job. Like they did it even on the lower end pens, like the pilot Acro ball, just the basic ballpoint. I had to get someone, someone sent that to me from Japan when it first came out years and years ago. And then finally, what about a year and a half ago, they brought it to the States. So pilots, one of the companies that's at least making an attempt to bring the great stuff, the stuff that's really successful in Japan, um, over to the U S. So I, I'm glad to see that and I hope they continue doing that. So that's, um, only good thing for us pen addicts. Definitely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Um, we've got a few more, a few more news items, but, uh, why don't you talk about, uh, one of our good friends and sponsors of the pen addict podcast.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode of the pen addict is brought to you by lynda.com and easy and affordable way to help individuals and organizations learn with lynda.com. You can instantly stream thousands of courses created by experts on software, web development, graphic design, and so much more. Lynda.com does a great job of making sure that they work with the very best experts available to conduct the courses that they provide. So they work with people that are experts in the industry that they're in or just the field that they're in. They sometimes even work directly with software and hardware companies to provide timely training that is relevant to the topic and produce with the highest quality in mind. These videos are produced in fantastic studios with all the best equipment, sound, video equipment, their stuff is made. So it is just nice to look at and easy to understand. The courses are broken down into bite-sized pieces. So you're able to learn at your own pace and they have great apps that allow you to learn on the go. Of course, you can do all this stuff in the web browser and you get things like searchable transcripts and playlist creation there, but you can also learn in their apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android too. They can be great for a second screen or maybe you want to learn something on the bus. You know, you can do all of that with lynda.com. They have one low monthly price of $25. This gives you unlimited access to over 100,000 video tutorials. I was digging around on lynda.com to find some interesting stuff to tell you guys about today. So this is some of the things that I came across. They have great courses on how to help you work better. So maybe you want to learn some management training or time management training. They have these things there so you can maybe learn how to be a better manager of people or just a better manager of your own time. Or what about a course on GTD, getting things done? This is something a lot of people talk about. They actually have a course that is hosted by the creator of Getting Things Done, David Allen. They also have, this is something I found really interesting, a typing skills course. So if you've ever wanted to learn how to touch type, lynda can help. I also found typography today as well. So I found this really interesting looking course that I'm actually going to watch about the fundamentals of typography. So it shows you how like spacing and alignment can affect design, as well as learning things like what kerning really is. They teach you this in this course. So maybe if you're looking on, maybe you're a graphic designer or you're interested in this sort of stuff. And I figured that typography maybe would be something that would interest the pen addict audience. You can watch this stuff and you can learn a bit. Maybe learn something you didn't know before. Now, I mentioned about going in and trying all this stuff and viewing all these videos. Well, I could give you access to all of them for free for seven days. We've worked out a great deal of lynda.com to provide you with unlimited access for seven days. So you can go in and then you're going to see just how great Lynda is. So go to lynda.com slash pen addict to sign up. That's lynda.com slash pen addict. Thank you so much, Lynda, for their support of this show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Awesome. Thank you, Lynda.com. That typography thing actually sounds pretty cool. I'll have to check that out myself.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, really cool.