Editing The Pen Addict 183/transcript (section)

== Addition Size ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, so let's go in and do our usual now. So the addition size on this one is 25,000 packs we have here. So therefore proving our theory from last time that the Shenandoah was something to do with the way that they were having the books made, which is why they have 40,000 of them. And it must have been because they got those covers made themselves, like the paper was made for them. Right. So that kind of lends to our theories from last time. Because I know that you were saying that potentially it might be that the retail is hotter, which is definitely true, which is why they're up to 25,000. But 40 to 25 shows a huge, huge difference.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a big, big difference. Yeah, for sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And 25 falls back in line with like Two Rivers, which is at 25,000. Ambition at 30,000. Unexposed at 20,000. Workshop Companion was only 17, which is interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it's 17 times six, not times three.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good point. Good point. So it's like twice that size, right? It's like that is also, you know, 30,000. So, yeah, that's kind of, yeah, that kind of fits in, I think. Yep. Back to normal again. I mean, there are these weird ones that pop out every time. Like Shelterwood was, I always forget this now looking back, was 75,000.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 75,000 units or three packs. Oh, that's books.

'''Myke Hurley:''' See, they changed at one point from books to packs, didn't they?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, like in the past year or so, they changed it to packs, to three packs. So, yeah. But that's still right in the range, the 75,000. So that's 25,000 three packs, right? Yep. Or did I do that right? Yep. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Woo, math.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's overrated. Math is hard. But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting mine whenever they'll come in. Who knows when they will? It feels like it's going to be forever.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And this will be fun to play with with the kids. The kids will be all about this. I'll get these in and we'll go outside and mess around with them and see what we can do with them. And tear them up, give them each one of these and let them have at it and go play around outside. It'll be fun.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I sent you this link that I found over at Tools and Toys where Myke Bates wrote a post for Tools and Toys, which I just really liked the idea of this, which is a review of the Field Notes Color Subscription. So reviewing a year. I really like this idea. It was a great idea. I haven't actually read the post myself. I've looked at the photography because that's what I'm more interested in. Like, I don't, I know what these are, you know? Yeah. But I really like looking through because Myke, when he even, like, you know, he took a picture of the graph paper and the mix pack that you get with it. Like, really showed you, like, if you subscribe to this, like, what is the type of stuff you can expect to get? I think this is a really, really smart and cool thing to do. I liked it a lot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I actually did read the entire post because I do like Myke's work. And we featured him, you know, a couple weeks ago or maybe a month or so ago on his blog. He had done a post and I just really somehow stumbled on it and really enjoyed it. And then, boom, he's writing on Tools and Toys. And what he did is he broke it down, what, from, I guess is it from Ambition to Shenandoah, that year worth of subscription. And he breaks it down, like you said, each edition, the inside covers, the paper styles, the bonus items that you get when you're a subscriber that came with each, the different variations when you get to something like a Two Rivers. Like, we've all had the Two Rivers where all of our covers are different, you know? And then, you know, right on through the Workshop Companion, which he praised for the paper, which is definitely awesome fountain pen paper. He even used in his pictures, he uses the Brass Wave Kaweco Lilliput, which you will have heard me mention on our Give God episode. And then up into the Shenandoah edition. And he just did a really good job pointing out not just the singularity of a Field Notes release, but a subscription as a whole with all the add-ons and extras. And then right down to his usage, like when you get down to his usage image, he's got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh, he used 11 out of those additions that he's got. So that's like one a month. That's a pretty good pace. I think I'm about one every two months or so. So, and then he breaks it all down into, you know, what's the value proposition? And when you break it all down like that, it's a great deal. I mean, for people like us that use these things and, you know, want to keep writing and, you know, keep getting their minds blown with their new additions.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's cool to see this post. I really enjoyed it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I liked it a lot. It's a real nice way of looking at the year and especially kind of the last pictures at the bottom showing, like, this is what you get for $97 and it ends up being quite good value for money, I think. You got a lot of stuff, like when you look at what you end up with.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and it's a good, it was nice to see that review because it's basically the after picture, right? You know, he's gone through the year. He's been able to use the additions and, you know, those are, you know, my favorite types of reviews. You know, the after effects of going through this and then, you know, what instead of the initial like we just did on the snow blind, like we're waiting to receive these additions and, you know, talking about them, that's all great and good. But, you know, a year later, you know, how does it hold up and things like that? So it was a good, he painted a great picture, I think, with that post and I really, really enjoyed it. And he did something else for them too. In conjunction with that post, he made a visit to the Field Notes brand HQ, which we also have a link to that in the show notes. This is mostly a photography-based post. You know, he's just got a little bit about, you know, meeting a couple different people in there. And, you know, he's, you know, the article's pretty short, but he's got probably, I don't know, two dozen pictures of Field Notes HQ. So if you haven't seen some of the guided tours that some people have done that have visited the shop before, checking out what Myke did, visiting the shop and talking with Brian, getting to the tour, it was pretty cool to see. I love behind-the-scenes stuff, you know, as a business person, you want to see, you know, what does their packing room look like? You know, how is their shipping set up? You know, that's the kind of stuff I care about. I don't need to see the Field Notes editions. I want to see, hmm, how can we set up our shipping table differently? That's the kind of things I get out of posts like this. So I was certainly all about it. Did you catch this post?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm all about the photo of the display, which looks like it has one of everything.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it does. But what you don't see, maybe there's a Butcher Blue hidden in there. I know they finally got one. I know Brian talked about it. They finally got one to put on display because they didn't have one for the longest time. I'm not sure I see it in there unless it's kind of behind. I think it's kind of behind in the angle of the picture. I think it's in there because grass stains in there, too, and it's kind of behind the thing. So, yeah, they have a, like, it looks probably like right when you walk in a display cabinet with all the colors editions that they released. And so 29 have been released. So 30 will be in the spring. I guess I'll probably need to update my rankings list probably by the time number 30 comes out. We'll see where we're at with a lot of these new additions. Where do they rank amongst my top all time field notes rankings? So that's very cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So we got some weird stuff to talk about on this episode, don't you think? This is like a crazy episode, but it's good. This is a really neat episode. We're going to talk about some good and some bad stuff coming up next. But we got some really good stuff first, and that's our first sponsor, which is lynda.com.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They are the online learning platform that have over 3,000 underwired video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. You can get yourself a free 10-day trial by visiting lynda.com slash penaddict. lynda.com is for people that have problems that they want to solve. They have things that they're curious to learn or for people who just want to make things happen. Maybe you're looking to master Excel. You really want to learn the fundamentals of getting things done and what it takes to really be super productive at work. Maybe you want to start your own business. Maybe you want to learn how to do viral marketing. Maybe you want to learn what it's all about with color and typography and design. No matter what it is, you can go to lynda.com and feed your curious mind. You'll be taught by absolute experts who have a real passion to get their knowledge out in the world and to teach you interesting and cool things. All of their thousands of videos can be streamed on demand. You can learn at your own schedule and at your own pace. You can even watch and download courses to your Android and iOS device so you can learn on the go. All of lynda.com's courses are structured so you can watch them start to finish or consume them in bite-sized pieces. You can even create and save playlists of the courses that you want to watch to customize your own learning path or share with friends, colleagues, and team members as you go. Your lynda.com membership will give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're passionate about a hobby, or you just want to learn something new, go ahead and visit lynda.com slash penaddict and sign up for your free 10-day trial today. Thank you so much to lynda.com for their support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we talk a lot about Kickstarter pens and projects. And, you know, most of them are good. You know, we talk about mostly good. Then we have some, you know, kinks in the armor like the Visionaire and the Scribble Pen. And one of the not-so-good ones that's actually gone really, really sideways of late is the Apollo Pen.