Editing The Pen Addict 308/transcript (section)

== Fountain Pen Carry ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good projects. Yeah. So, and that also carries my Pelican M805 Ocean Swirl. So, we'll talk about fountain pen carry more in just a second. But that one, I've been using the heck out of that pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's got an extra fine nib, which is as big as I'll go on a Pelican and without, you know, kind of modifying it down. And it's just been a wonderful writer, wonderful, beautiful pen to look at. So, it's great. On top of that, I am packing a few pens for this trip. I'm not going to overpack. Like, if I was going to a pen show and might bring, you know, a couple dozen pens, which sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It just depends on the show. Like, Atlanta, I brought more pens than normal. You know, like, when I go to LA, I bring less. So, here I'm just going to bring one Brasstown. I have four pens I'm definitely bringing, which is the Sailor King of Pen, the Pilot Custom 823. Those two pens are always inked and always go with me when I travel. I just enjoy those and people like seeing them if they have questions about them. Those are two pens that you don't often get to lay your hands on and try out. So, I always make sure to bring those. Then I'm bringing the Sailor Royal Tangerine. Naturally. Which is kind of my new.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm using mine today for the show notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I use it pretty much every day now. I carry it with me in my pocket when I go to knock. I carry it with me out of the house. I just, I love that pen. And then the pocket-sized Pelican M101N that I just got recently. Actually, from Trong Ghouls, which is why I'm bringing that pen. And then I'll carry a pocket notebook. I'm bringing the Knocko pocket notebook, our dot dash black notebook. And a shown design pen. I have the cap with the clip on it. So, I like that pen. And that's my air travel pen. Like, if I want to take notes during the flight, I will carry that pen and notebook on my person. Because it uses the Fisher Space Pen refill. So, I know it's not going to blow up on me during the flight. So, to circle back to how do I fly with fountain pens, I'll put every fountain pen I own in this brass town. Every fountain pen I'm bringing. So, like, I will take out the ocean swirl from the seed case. Pop it in the brass town. And then I will take that brass town. Have all the nibs up. And stick that in the back pocket of the seat in front of me. So, anytime I bring fountain pens on a plane, I travel with them nib up. I'm not going to go through and make sure all the ink's at full capacity. Because that has not been an issue for me. But as long as I've traveled with them nib up and they just sit there the whole flight like that, I have had zero issues with any fountain pen I've ever traveled with. It's very, very easy to do. So, that's the way I do that. And then, like, my shown design pen, I don't have to worry about that leaking. I can grab, you know, the notebook I'll probably have in my pocket if I want to write something. But that's pretty much it from a stationary perspective. The only other thing I'll carry on this trip, I have a Shure MV88 microphone. Which just plugs into the port on my iPhone. It gives me a good microphone for interviews. So, if I interview Giuseppe from Montegrappa or if I interview the Drum Ghouls, I can just turn that on and it picks up audio wonderfully. So, it's really, really cool. So, that's it. That's how I pack. It sounds insane to, like, talk about packing all this stuff. But when I go on a trip, I kind of want all these things. And it's really not that much when you pack it down. My backpack will be half capacity, probably. I just, you know, I could probably bring something smaller if I wasn't bringing my laptop. I wouldn't need a full backpack.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm assuming that this isn't, like, the constant travel kit, right? Like, it adapts depending on what you're bringing and where you're going and what you're doing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly kind of the point here, right? This is not my... Every trip's different, it seems like. Most of the pen shows are kind of like this setup here. Sometimes I'll have a few more pens and then a few more, like, accessories that I'll worry about. And then if I'm going on a non-business trip, I won't take any of the fountain pens, most likely. I'll take or maybe take one and just, you know, carry it somewhere different. But, yeah. I've gotten real good at packing. It takes me, like, no time now, especially on a short trip like this. I sweat about the pens and paper I'm carrying more than, like, the clothes and that type of stuff. It takes me, like, ten minutes to pack my clothes. It'll take me, like, an hour to figure out, man, I need one more pen to put in here. Which one should I take? You know, that's always the dilemma. It's just silly stuff that we like to get ourselves bogged down into, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, I just rearranged my whole bag. Like, I haven't changed what I'm putting in it, but, like, I have a whole new system of how everything goes in. Like, I have actually taken some things out, which will now go in my checked luggage, which used to be in my backpack. But I've worked out now, like, how I can get everything even more nicely in my Peak design, which I absolutely love that bag, by the way. Like, just love it, love it, love it so much. The Peak design every day, I think it's called.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Every day. That's a great looking bag. Love it, man. That's a great looking bag. Like, it reminds me of the boundary system that I bought, and I haven't taken that boundary out of the house once. I guess I'm just going to have to sell it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm going to give you the whole, like, this is why you should buy the Peak when I see you later on this year. Okay. All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, because I'm not, like, I'm only, like, slightly in the market for a backpack because I love this bogey so much. But it's going to come to its end at some point in the future, and I want to have my next backpack. Even though I have five backpacks probably in my closet right now, the bogey is the only one that gets any love. Every now and then, I have an A-Lite backpack that's really large. Like, if I'm going to take, like, an overnight bag, and just for, like, an overnight trip, I'll just pack that because I can put my clothes and laptop and everything in there. So, I'll play around with it a little bit more.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, this Peak design bag, though, it's spreading like a virus amongst everyone. I know, I know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've always thought it was really good from the moment they launched it, but I never thought it was for me, necessarily.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right, okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. All right, should we take a break?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, let's take a break because I'm interested about what you're about to talk about.