Editing The Pen Addict 286/transcript (section)

== Pen Addict Anniversary ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, the pen addict turned ten. Like, I don't know. Maybe we should do a whole segment on that one day. We probably could have done that this week and timed it a little bit better. But you know how I am. I don't necessarily, like, bring that up, like, super a lot. Like, I'll bring it up some. And, of course, I'm selling stuff, you know. So, there's that. But, uh, the pen addict actually turned ten. November 29th, where the first of 2007, where the first posts were made. I did a little retrospective in last week's refill for the pen addict members. Um, which happened to be refill number 100 on the 10th anniversary. Just complete luck that it kind of matched up that way, which is really neat. And, uh, you know, looking back ten years of blogging about pens, I still am kind of the same as the very first posts that I wrote. Like, I went back and I was like, oh, like, yeah, these are the things I still use. These are the things I still believe in. And, you know, there's still lots of things to talk about. So, you know, I look forward to the next ten years.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, I just looked it up. In February, this show is six years old. Nice. So, this show, if my calculations are correct, has ran for over half of the life of the pen addict.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which is kind of crazy in itself. That doesn't make sense to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, we've passed the halfway point. Like, so, we are at a point now where the pen addict will always be more than half of the existence of... Like, the podcast will be half of the existence of the website itself. Which really seems wild to me that we've been doing it for that long.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It really does. It seems like we're on, like, a two or three year run. Always. Yeah. Like, perpetually, right? Like, no matter how many years we've been doing it, it seems like it's been about two or three. But it's not. It's been, like, six.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, six. Six in February. But you've made an anniversary t-shirt which people can buy, which looks fantastic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I didn't make it. My good friend Ben Kwok. Well, yes. The artist. He designed it. He designed it. He hand drew out the sketch, then digitized it, and made it all fancy, and did a really great job. So, it's a really large 10th anniversary logo on the back. You know, he wanted to incorporate things like 10th anniversary, you know, location, you know, the tagline that's always been there. So, he integrated all these things, and he integrated the logo, like, in the, you know, in the collar of the shirt, and, you know, doing just a little small badge on the front, because I didn't want that big of a logo on the front of a shirt. It wouldn't look right. So, yeah, it's kind of cool. It's kind of a comp. It was more complex of a shirt than I thought it would be, which is good. Like, it's really cool. So, I'm just doing this as a one-shot deal. So, I'm doing a pre-sale for three weeks, which I guess there's about two and a half weeks left on this shirt. And then we'll order all the shirts, and then I'll ship them out, and then it's done. That's the only time you're going to be able to get this shirt, because the t-shirt business long game is not a good one, as I've learned from, you know, the normal Pen Addict t-shirts that I offer, which I love. But sitting on a bajillion t-shirts to sell over a span of years is just kind of boring. So, I would rather do this one-shot type of stuff. So, that's what I did with the Retro 51, and that's what I'm doing with the t-shirt. Unfortunately, I hate that these came out at the same time. You know, I'm very – I try to be thoughtful of making the ask, you know, to members and listeners and things. And it just so happened that I had to ask for these two things in very close proximity to each other. If you're looking for a cool pen or a cool t-shirt to help support me and the Pen Addict, well, they kind of both came out at the same time. So, yeah. But they're there. They're on the site. We'll have the links in the show notes. On the pens, there's only about 200 left out of the 600. And if they keep getting run over by the post office, Myke, they might go quicker than that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's fine because it is the holiday season, right? So, you can ask people for lots of things and they'll be good with it. So, I think that's fine. But, yeah. Unless the post office gets involved and then they just, like, lose it or destroy it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think I'm on, like – I think I'm, like, up to four now. Maybe five.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Five destroyed isometrics? Yeah. You put a great picture on Instagram of, like – it's almost like a body horror type scenario.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's just – I feel super bad. Like, people who – yeah. I just feel bad because people, like, email me, like, immediately, like, oh, my God. What do we do? I'm, like, what do you mean what do we do? I'm going to send you a new pen. They're, like, worried that they're not going to get the pen. But, you know, pretty soon, you know, I definitely hold some back, you know, until everything gets shipped. And I'm very, very confident that everyone has arrived safe and sound. But the rate of destruction by the postal service this holiday season has taught me a lesson. There is much less care in the system this time of year, as you alluded to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Because they're just pumping things out, right? Like, this is the time.