Editing The Pen Addict 228/transcript (section)

== Lamy 2000 ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think mine is actually kind of a surprise, and it's the Lamy 2000. And that's because I didn't like the nib on it when it came. And that's kind of what Gabe was saying. You know, he didn't like the nib on his and then got it swapped out, and now he loves the pen. Well, I got the nib worked on on my Lamy 2000. At first, I was like, what is all the hype about? I'm not digging it. Yes, it feels good. Yes, it looks good. And it's supposed to be amazing, but I'm not getting amazing performance out of it. I had to get that nib tweaked on the Lamy 2000. And then I came around to the feelings that I have about that pen these days, which is one of the best bangs for the buck on the market. And it's a fantastic pen. But it did take some time for me to actually enjoy that pen instead of fighting with it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That makes perfect sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So the next one, I'm going closer over to you than me. This one came from Poland, and I had to share this on Instagram because the Poland stamp game is strong. So let's see. Sorry for all the extra noise, but I kept all these in the envelope. So I'll remember to keep them handy. So let's see here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's going to be a lot of foley in this episode. Yes, yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is from Emil. I believe that's how we're going to say it. It says, Dear Brad, I only have three sheets of paper, and I should be working anyway. Plus, my handwriting is meh at best, so I'll be quick. Firstly, all postcards showing my city are terrible. The one I attached sucks the least. Sorry. So he included a postcard of his town, which is actually quite beautiful. Secondly, I hope I didn't misremember if you asked for questions for future episodes of Pen Addicts. So to my question, I've been using pens for most of my life, never thinking about it much. It was what I had handy. Never gotten too expensive pens. Two $100 pens I own gather dust. I hate almost everything about them. Do you think less about people who should know better, for example, that are knowledgeable, who use your standard $10 pens? Be honest. Do. Why the F would you use that daily? Never cross your mind. Many hobbies, pen addiction, for one, have a strong focus on buying things. I sometimes feel looked down on by all those people sporting Stallone's signature pen. I jest. Let me rephrase my question. Do you think then too much? Look what I bought in our community. He also says, do not read this verbatim. My English is not good. His English is spectacular. So is his handwriting. If he uses the words meh and jest and things like that in the proper context, your English is pretty amazing. So the gist of his letter, it's kind of twofold, but it's number one, do you look down on people for not using a quality pen when they should know better? That's an easy question. It's absolutely not. And I'm not one of those pen people who will always make a scene of pulling out my pen when someone hands me a pen to write with. That's just not how I operate on a personal level, right? That's different. Like you don't show up or show out someone who just, you know, is trying to do their job or trying to, you know, do something nice for you. You don't make a scene about that type of thing. Oh, here, let me use my Stallone Chaos pen because it is far superior to your pen. I would never do that in a million years, no matter the situation.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what I would say on this is I don't, I wouldn't like look down on someone. Like if we were at a pen show and somebody pulled out like a really like cheap weirdo pen that like I wouldn't. And but I know this person is well into this stuff. I wouldn't look down on them, but I would question it. I would say, why do you use that? Like, why are you choosing to use that? Like when you're a person that I know understands or like cares about this stuff quite deeply and that is a $5 pen from Walmart. Like, why did you pick that? Like that's what I would be inquisitive about it because it wouldn't make complete sense to me. I also do think I completely agree that this community is completely focused around people showing off what they have. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. What else are you going to do? Like I think you should, if you bought something, you spent your hard earned money on it and you're proud of it and you're excited about it, then you should share it with the community.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Agree with that. And do I think there's too much of that? I really don't think so because, you know, we've talked about this and not to get business perspective on y'all. And you know this in the back of your heads. I mean, this is a community that generally has the extra money to spend on these things, right? So people just tend to show those things often. And I think it's pretty cool because I think the majority of the people that are into the Pen Addict and the Pen Addict podcast and the Pen Addict Slack and on Twitter and everything, they're sharing, one, to show cool stuff. But two, it gives a learning experience to other people who don't have those things and that gives them the opportunity to ask questions about that, gives them an opportunity to educate themselves about those projects. It gives them an opportunity to learn if the product is good or bad, whether it would fit their needs or not. So, yeah, there is a lot of that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I don't think it's in an obscene kind of way, if that makes sense.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Should I go next?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, go next.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this starts off. Greetings. First of all, thank you for talking about the latest cursive writing brouhaha. I have a six-year-old, and so the whole learning how to write topic is a daily topic for us. He goes to a Montessori school, and they definitely teach cursive there, in addition to block printing. His teachers have discussed many of the reasons they prefer cursive, although, obviously, since I'm printing, I'm a little ambivalent about it. So this person is writing in print. They're not cursive not joining up. I can't think of the English-American mixing me up. I'm actually working through the cursive logic workbook right now to get my cursive writing back into shape. One thing his school mentioned is that it helps kids to see their parents writing at home, just like with reading. Second, my six-year-old has been working really hard on improving his handwriting this year. I don't think he's quite ready for a fountain pen yet, but he is really intrigued by my pens and, of course, my inks. I feel like a fountain pen might help motivate him to keep working on writing, i.e., once you get handwriting down with a pencil, there's a fountain pen waiting for you. The challenge is that it doesn't seem like there are a lot of kid-sized fountain pens available in the U.S. Do you have suggestions on what pens we should consider for him, or other tips on getting a kid started on fountain pens? Really enjoying the show. Thanks, Kim. Kim is at Kimu, K-I-M-U on Twitter. So I have lots of thoughts on this. When I was growing up, this was what was done in school. So it wasn't fountain pens, but it was pens, ink pens, just like whatever they were. They weren't ballpoints. They weren't rollerballs. They were those like plastic nib pens that you could write with. You know what I'm talking about? Yep. So we would have to write in pencil. Everything had to be written in pencil until you got good enough that you were allowed to use the pens. That was like a thing that was done in my school, and everyone wanted to use the pens. Right. And then once we got to use the pens at home, I was allowed a fountain pen. I was bought a fountain pen. So I think that it is a great motivator, especially if your child sees you doing it. They're going to want to do it even more. So I think it's a great motivator. And I would recommend, I think it's called the Lamy 123 for this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Lamy ABC. ABC. So close. You're on the right track.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The Lamy ABC is a great pen. I own one and love it. It's really lightweight. It's made of wood. The body is made of wood. The tip, sorry, the grip is made of rubber. And they have a pencil version as well, I guess, which you could use for training for the fountain pen. And the fountain pen comes with a little label that you can write your name on and stick it on the cap. It's a really, really great pen. And the end of it is like this kind of cube. And that's to stop it from rolling away. It's a really fantastically designed and made pen. And as we've known from the history of this show and people writing out, this stuff is used by everybody in Germany. So this is made specifically for this point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's essentially the school pen in Germany.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. So I thoroughly recommend the Lamy ABC.