Editing The Pen Addict 402/transcript (section)

== Health Advisory and Call for Support ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I want to just give a personal plea to the pen addict listeners.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Don't go to any pen shows. Please. Not anytime soon. Don't do it. Like if they're not moving, don't go to them. Like just please don't do that. You know, I'm not saying not to support these companies. Support these companies online. Right. Like buy from them. Like I want to give a shout out right now to my favorite store in London, Choosing Keeping. They have closed and they need support. Right. Like that is an expensive store in, I'm sure, location. Like go and check them out. And if you're in the UK, especially and buy stuff from them. Right. But this is the same for all of these vendors. Like continue to give them your patronage online as much as possible. But don't go to pen shows. Right. If there are any available right now, because you just shouldn't be taking that risk.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And this is a conversation we can explore more in future episodes. You know, how this pandemic affects, you know, the bottom line of companies. But like right now, our focus is, you know, the people and staying healthy. And, you know, you obviously do what you can to support the vendors that you love. But, you know, you got to support yourself and your family first and then all that stuff comes second.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Like maybe we can look at ways to support potential new ideas of what a pen show could be.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Right. And that's something I don't want to do willy nilly. Like I want to. That has to have a lot of thought behind it. Because I have I have I have strong thoughts about that, too. It's like, you know, about, you know, the the the times that we're living and people not may not know where their next paychecks coming from and then setting up something like, you know, telling people to come spend money. So like it's a weird it's a weird thing to to have to discuss. So like that it requires a lot of thought on my part.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But in regards to this show and kind of all of our other shows, like, look, I'm sorry that we are talking about coronavirus right now. But it's it's a big part of everyone's shared experience right now. If we were at war, like if there was a world war happening right now, it would be seeping into the shows. There's nothing that you can do. And that's kind of what this is like. And so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What I'm trying to say is, like, it's going to come up. And I know that sometimes it may feel like talking about pens is a frivolous thing. But we're doing this and continuing to do this stuff because it provides distraction for people and entertainment. And that is very important at a time like this. So we're going to continue to soldier on as normal. And this stuff is going to come up. But we are going to continue to do everything that we can to provide you with the entertainment that you want. Because especially right now, we need it. We need it. We need it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I need it. You know what, Myke? I don't care about anyone else, Myke. I need it. I need my sanity.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Conor O'Brien needs a stone talking to, though. I feel.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know what? If I could book a flight right now, I would be in the air, Myke. And I'd be knocking on some doors. And we need to have a discussion, right? What is going on here?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So our social media just exploded over the last couple of days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' As we were once again. Any long time. This should have been one of our memes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Afterwards. Yeah. Totally in retrospect. It should have been on the themes and memes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But this happens every now and then. Someone will do an article or it will be in a video or a podcast of like, let's play a game of like, is this podcast real or not? And on Conor O'Brien's show, Conor O'Brien needs a friend. They played this game. It was like with Conor and they have a host that he works with. Played this game. And obviously the pen addict, as it tends to do, come up, came up. Like, is a podcast about pens a real thing? And of course it was. You know that. And then Conor was very mad. We're waiting for, quote, unquote, a very stern letter from Conor O'Brien. So I'm still waiting for that one to come through.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So I crack up every time I hear this because the way he's like, what are their names again? He's like, I'm writing them a letter. And then the host is like, well, what kind of letter? And he's like, a very stern letter. And I just crack up. You know, of course, I send it to all my family. I was like, you got to listen to this. And I'm just crying. I cackle every time I hear this just because he's a comedian. He's a comedian. And he's good at what he does for a reason. Right. Like, it was it was hilarious. It was just like off the cuff. Him saying our names. We need to get like a recording of that and like split it out. And that should be like our like an intro or something or an outro piece to to the show. The way he said Conan O'Brien saying Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did he actually say it, though?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I couldn't tell. OK, that was him. That was him in that part. It took me a while. Right. Because that wasn't Will Arnett. No, but Sona was the one answering the question. But I think that was Conan who said the names.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Huh. OK. I want to listen to it again. I've listened to it a couple of times already, but I'm not like I know Conan O'Brien, but like I'm not as super familiar with him. Mostly for me, it's like I've seen him in clips, you know, like all the late night clips because we don't get like shows here. So I've only ever seen him on YouTube stuff. But like I super respect him. I think he's very funny. I actually really love the idea of his podcast. It's a comedy interview show. Like there are so many, but the conceit is he's looking for friends. It's just like a fun way of doing the show. So yeah, you can I've put in the in the show notes a link to both the episode and a clip that a listener Jeremiah made. So if you just want to hear the clip of that section, you can go and do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The funniest part of the whole thing for me was not like the people on Twitter, like who were just like tweeting at us and doing all this stuff, which was awesome. It was the people who actually had like this podcast in their queue and texted me the moment they heard it, not knowing that we already knew about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. This is one of those like stage things that like even multiple days later now, I'm still getting people tell me. It's so good. And I get it because like, trust me, I get it. People are very excited, right? To hear it. Like, this is not a complaint. Like, I love to see it because it's funny. Like, you love to see it. And but it's just like it's just this super funny thing where people are like, oh, my got right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But my tweets usually start with holy bleep. Yeah. You know, super.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's super cool. I love stuff like that. I really do. It's great. Stuff like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This one. This one was thoroughly enjoyable. And I'm going to write him a letter. I'm definitely going to write him a letter first. And we have we have friends that that are going to see about getting him and forcing him to write us a letter, too. So we'll work on that. Yeah. Yeah. We'll work on that. Huh. Got some got some inroads already. We're got some things working.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Panadic community spans far and wide.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's right. That's right. We're going to work on that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We have something exciting. We have a sponsor break right now, but it's a very exciting message. This episode is brought to you by Kenro Industries, and we are helping them announce that they are now the new and official United States distributor of Y Studio. Kenro is currently best known for its partnerships with brands such as Montegrappa and Aurora, as well as their own brands like the Estabrook Pen Company. But we're super excited to share that they have now partnered with Y Studio to offer their wonderful writing products to customers in the US. Y Studio is dedicated to sharing the beauty of words, writing and manufacturing products to match this. They're a world-renowned brand with their products being featured and found in many countries and cities such as Paris, Milan, London, Copenhagen, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and many more. All those places that you see on, like, bags, right, of fashion brands. Y Studio strives to bring more imagination into people's lives, which is why they design products for daily use, believing that the value of simplicity in design is of the utmost importance. Y Studio pens are made from solid, lead-free brass focusing on minimalistic design. Every pen comes included of a sheet of fine sandpaper that allows the owner to create and customize their own exact finish to the pen. Because over time, the black coating on Y Studio's brass pens will fade to show the brass underneath. The idea, this idea is inspired by older Leica cameras, because that's what would happen, like the patina over time would reveal the material underneath. But with the sandpaper, you can give it a head start. So you can maybe, you know, ding it up a little bit, give it a cool look, and then see how it changes over time. Every pen has a substantial weight to it. They're very well balanced. They feel comfortable to use. This comes from Y Studio's mantra of the weight of words. They believe in helping us get away from technology and finding emotions through writing to people that are important to us. Y Studio's pens refills are international standards, so you can easily get cartridges and converters. The pens have a lifetime warranty exquisitely crafted in Taiwan with beautiful packaging to match. Now, Brad, I know you are a massive fan of the Y Studio brand.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How long have I been banging the drum for this brand?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A long time. That's how I first found out about them, was when you bought the Y Studio pen. And I have coveted one since.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it was one of those products where I first saw my friend Patrick in Hong Kong, who helps run one of the city super chains over there. And he's a stationary buyer. He brought this brand in and started taking pictures of it. And it was this Y Studio. It was the Brassing Fountain Pen. And I was like, I have to have this pen. Like, the way he made the product look was just like, this is the pen for me. This is the type of product I want to use. And I couldn't really get one at the time. It finally took me, I found a shop in Amsterdam where I could get my first one from. So to have a U.S. distributor like Kenro Industries look at a brand like this and decide to bring them into the U.S., it just, it makes me so happy. Because this is, you know, this is not your traditional historic brands that they may have normally carried, right? You know, they're very well known for Aurora and Montegrappa, which are brands I love. But those are companies with 100 years of history behind them. This is a new type of pen company and a modern type of pen company. And they make a product that is really high quality, really a joy to use. Because I had to, I didn't have my Brassing Fountain Pen inked up beforehand. So I had to make sure to get it, get it inked up and used. And I just love this pen so much. It feels great. It writes really well. I'll give a pro tip now. They, the nibs, like I swapped in like a Franklin Kristoff nib into my Y Studio pen. Like the nibs that they use are great. And they're perfect out of the box. But you can switch out like the number five size nibs in this. It's just, I love the brand. I love the design aesthetic of the brand. I have several products. So I'm using the fountain pen now. I have the desk pen. I have one of the ballpoints. I have the mechanical pencil. The packaging is awesome. I use one of their boxes for the fountain pens that they send them in to hold my pencil shavings. Like the box is so nice. I use it for other things. So as you can tell, I'm just fawning over this brand. I'm excited that Kenrose bringing them into the state. And I can't wait to see this brand get out into all of their retailers and into users' hands. Because I'm a huge fan. And I think everyone will really enjoy them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you can find out more and pick up your own Y Studio pen from our friends at Pen Chalet. Go to penchalet.com slash Y Studio. And you can find out more there. And psst. Hey, Pen Epic listeners. You know you can get that discount, right? You remember how to do that? I'm not telling you it today. But you remember how to do that, right? That's penchalet.com slash Y Studio. Our thanks to Kenro Industries for supporting this show. For making these amazing products available to more people. One last time. That's penchalet.com slash Y Studio. To find out more. And of course, I'll have a link in the show notes to that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So now I have to decide if I'm going to break down one of these days and get the dragon foil ballpoint. Which I've, like, when Y Studio comes out with new designs, I'm the one that throws them in the show notes. Because I'm fascinated by the brand. And I'll be paying attention for sure. See what new stuff they come up. They have a, they already have a new, I did get to test out a new fountain pen of theirs. Which will be like a resin based fountain pen. So I think look for that coming soon. I don't have one in hand yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's on Pen Chalet's website. They have the resin and the brassing and the classic for the fountain pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I got to test the resin one at the Baltimore Pen Show. Because that's when the announcement, when they were first allowed to show the products. Oh, the red is nice. Yeah, that's, so I got to test the red one. It was a really, really neat pen. I'll definitely be picking one of those up soon. So it's a very cool pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So a couple of weeks ago, my Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight returned. What? I didn't want to talk about it because we have more important things on the show, right? Like we were talking about like all the 101 and all that kind of stuff. So I didn't want to like weight the episode down by talking about it. So long story. This was, I bought this pen from our friends at Choosing Keepeng. Came home, inked it up, put the nib down. And one of the tie and snapped straight off. I didn't do, I made one line, it snapped off. No idea how this happened. Complete freak accident. I have never seen this happen before. And I never had anybody say to me, oh, this happened to me, right? Like I don't know what happened. There was something must have gone wrong in manufacture or shipping. It got damaged. I don't know. So we contacted Choosing Keeping. They recommended that we speak to the UK distributor because they kind of hold the warranty. So we spoke to them. We sent it to them. I don't even remember when this was. This was months ago, right? This was a long time ago. Late fall. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Late fall. Yeah. Early winter. Like November-ish.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The distributor sent it to Platinum. And it was there for a very long time. Then the distributor was sending it back. And they said they're taking care of it and it was going to cost £60. We could never get the answer as to what nib was being put in the pen. Because £60 doesn't make any sense, really, for both price and also the 3776 Galaxy Starlight, which is the pen that I have, had a specifically designed nib, like from a design perspective. Like the nib itself. Not a stock nib. Yeah. It wasn't a stock nib. It wasn't. And it's not anything special about the experience of it, particularly. It's just got a design on it, right? Like it's just got... The stamping. The stamping. Thank you for helping me with that. Yeah. Like the stamp on it is different and beautiful, but different. And I wanted to get the correct nib, right? For the pen that I'd spent a significant amount of money on. So this pen for £60 has been shipped all around the world, right? It finally arrived. When it arrived, super weird, it came in a big package because we sent it in the box that we bought it in. So I opened the package and there was the box. The pen wasn't in the box, though. It was in a tube outside of the box, which is super weird as a thing to do. Like I don't really know why they did it. Like I understand that it went in the tube probably as it was being repaired, but somebody had to package it and not put it back in the box. Like the pen in the tube would have fit in the box. But hey, whatever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's kind of amazing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I am happy to report that the correct nib has been placed on the pen and it is stupendous. And I love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This was a stressful experience.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not going to lie. It's been very stressful. And, you know, I'm not super happy about the fact that I had to pay more money.