Editing The Pen Addict 62/transcript (section)

== Edison Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I want to see the full pictures of them. Anna, do you have an Edison pen?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I do not, but those look very intriguing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So we'll have to see what the model, when it gets announced on Thursday, to see what it looks like. So, you know, Brian didn't ask me to talk about it, but I thought this was kind of a big deal just because he doesn't do this kind of thing very often. He's always, you know, introducing cool stuff. And, you know, for a guy that started this company, you know, in his backyard from scratch, I mean, I think he deserves all the credit and praise in the world for really doing a killer job. So I'm interested to see what happens the rest of this week, and I will definitely be tweeting out if I buy one. But it's kind of looking like yes, but we'll have to see what it looks like. But so anyway, Myke, you had a you wanted to talk about field notes again. Of course. You're you're you're continuing down that path of the everyday usage or do you have something else?

'''Myke Hurley:''' A bit of both. So point one, I am using my field notes every day. I'm halfway through a book already.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's changing everything. Like I'm writing. Yeah, I'm writing so much stuff down. It's awesome. And I'm starting to use my Mulskin notebook at work differently. So I'm using it like solely for meetings and quick notes and stuff I'm using and putting in field notes. So I'm really happy with that. But this is just an interesting observation. So today at work, I was using I was using an America the Beautiful field notes book because I was at a meeting at another company and my I didn't have a Mulskin or something. And my dark sky, my current field notes and dark sky is looking a bit tatty now. And I kind of wanted to look a little bit professional. So get out a fresh note like field notes book from my rucksack because I have a couple in there. And when I was back at the office, I was using that just to just to sort of process the notes from that meeting of the morning. And two separate people on my team noticed and complimented the notebook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I find it very interesting because that's never happened before. Even when I use I've used other field notes or any other type of notebook which I have used of which, of course, there have been many. And two people noticed it. So tomorrow I'm actually going to take a pack to work and give out a couple to some of my co-workers.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow. Wow. Because long-time listeners will recall that I received about 100,000 editions, the America the Beautiful. Do you remember this? Yeah, that's right. You got the double order. I got a double-double. So I have four packs in total of them. And I like them, but I don't need that many. If I just use them, it will be many months before I can use any others. So I still have like another three packs here. So I figure I can go in and spread the love a little bit with some people at work. They might like that. They both seem very intrigued. Both women. I don't know if that means anything. But, you know, maybe the pictures. I mean, because I think that they're very beautiful. I mean, and I know, I think a lot of people, not a lot of people, but there seem to be a mixed reaction to them. And I think it's just because they looked extremely different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I think standalone, they are, in my opinion, one of, if not the most beautiful looking edition they've done. Yeah. Anna, how did you feel about the America the Beautiful line?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I really liked them when they came out. But I did hear a lot of the same feedback that you did. That there were some people who felt like they were so different from the very plain craft paper designs that were done originally for the covers. That a lot of people found the full color covers to be, I don't know, too unexpected. But I think that they were very true to sort of what Koodle and the gang from Field Notes was trying to do with the whole concept, which is those pocket notebooks. And historically, in the United States, a lot of those pocket notebooks that people got in the 40s and 50s and 60s were actually printed with artwork or graphics. You know, those sort of farmer notebooks that they keep in their pockets that had, you know, the corn logo on it or whatever. So they kept very true to sort of that Americana feel, which I think they had wanted to do with all of them. I don't know if they'll ever do another design quite like that. So I think that's also something that, to me, makes it very appealing. You know, they've gone back with the night sky to a very traditional, I mean, from the standpoint of what Field Notes looks like, with just the block lettering on the front. Though they did do it in foil and they added the details on the back, which is really cool. But they've kept to a much more sort of the sort of traditional, what they've become known for in the look.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I do, I stand by that detail, that holographic detail is probably my favorite detail of any edition that they've had. Like, I think that that is just such an awesome little thing.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I really like it too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it looks fantastic. And I think, you know, the America is beautiful is basically it was this year's Americana edition. Like last year was the National Crop edition, which I thought was killer. I love that edition. You know, it's the nod to the origination of this whole company, essentially. I mean, that's how they got started, right? I mean, based on, you know, doing something around the design of these traditional notebooks. And my stance on the America is beautiful, while I liked it, it's not one of my favorite editions. But I did say that at the retail point of sale, this one should just do gangbusters, I would think. Like, just because it looked for people that aren't familiar with it and are walking to a store and seeing a field notes display, this thing is, it's going to pop like nothing else. And that's probably the one they're going to come home with. So I think they did a great job with it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Still not sold out, though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nope, still not sold out, which I just find endlessly interesting. But I don't know. I don't know what to make of that, honestly. It's interesting, especially the way the night sky has gone. But, I mean, you know, you can't go wrong with these black notebooks. I mean, people just eat those up. It's almost an unfair fight.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, if they did, if they were always black, if they were always all black, they would always sell out. If it was just like a different black notebook. But I like that they're not. I like that they do these off-the-wall things. That's one of my, that is why they're one of my favorite companies for this stuff. But anyway, what do you want to talk about next?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, no, and kind of on that same field notes topic, and I wasn't thinking about this, you know, before, I don't know, until like an hour or two ago. I'm on vacation this week, and I was scrolling through Instagram, you know, looking just at pictures, killing some time. And I happened to notice Anna was on vacation last week, and she sent a picture out, speaking of field notes, with her field notes and her Retro 51, I guess, on the dashboard of the car. I don't know if you were driving home or what you were doing. And was that an Alabama edition I saw? Do you have 50 states? Yes, it is.

'''Ana Reinert:''' My husband is from Alabama, so he has a full set of the Alabama edition. Oh, there's no wonder I like. I actually have the state fair editions from every state I've ever lived in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Nice. That's a nice thing. I wish they would make UK ones. They never will, but I wish that they would.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, good to know your husband's from Alabama. It's no wonder I like him so much. So that's a good, he's a good Southern boy like me.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yes, he is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll take that. But anyway, my thought was, you know, seeing this, and you're on vacation, you're on a trip with your husband, and you're driving about, checking out the, you have a great Instagram stream. You could go to all these places and take these great pictures and stuff. And I don't know, that huge fountain pen nib picture. We'll put a link to Anna's Instagram, and I don't know if she wants us to share or not, but I'm sure she doesn't care. But what made me think when I saw the picture is like, okay, you're on vacation, and you're taking this notebook, and are you journaling like what you did on vacation? Are you doing something specific with it? Or you just have it available, you know, if something strikes you? Because I kind of have a take on this too, but I kind of want to hear what you think.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, we were using the notebook for two purposes. One, we were playing the license plate game, but we didn't have it, so we made it up in the notebook. And two, my husband and I like to make lists. And it can be anything from like your top five Desert Island reads, or your top five Desert Island albums, or just stuff like that. So, like, while we're driving, you're in the car for, you know, we were in the car for almost 10 hours each way on our trip. So, a lot of times it's just you think of things you need to do, and so we write it down. Because really, when you're trapped in the car, there's not many things that you can accomplish, especially not when you're in the middle of Iowa, where there's no cell phone network at all. You can't even, like, email or post pictures on Instagram or anything. So, we were just, you know, writing stuff down that we wanted to do when we got home and that kind of thing. And for the record, our license plate game, we got 26 out of 50 states.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wow, that's pretty solid for a 10-hour trip. I think that's pretty good.

'''Ana Reinert:''' We were crossing the Mississippi River, and traffic was really, really backed up. And I drive a very small car, and I tore down the side lane. And every car we passed, we're like, another state, another state, another state. So, we kind of, we got like 20 of them right there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that's so great. So, what was the hardest one you think you found? Did you have any Alaska or Hawaii or something weird you didn't think you'd see?

'''Ana Reinert:''' We saw one that was Maryland, and we were having, we didn't find a lot, because we were traveling from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, all the way to the Kansas border, which is where Kansas City is. So, we knew we'd get those four states, and probably some other Midwestern, you know, Minnesota shouldn't be that hard to get, Oklahoma, Arkansas. You know, those people are all kind of traveling in that area, but we knew we wouldn't get many on the East Coast. So, Maryland was a big catch.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's funny. Well, that's cool. I need to do, I think I need to do that more, you know, with my kids and my family in the car. I think that's a great idea, just making lists, having fun, passing the time, making some games. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. I don't know if my kids are quite old enough to do the license plate game, but I think that's coming soon. So, maybe we'll each get our own notebook, and we'll take off after it.

'''Ana Reinert:''' We also play cows in cemeteries.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What is that?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Cows in cemeteries, depending on which side of the car you're sitting in, if cows show up on your side of the car, you call cows, and you get a point.

'''Ana Reinert:''' And whoever's on the other side of the car, say, on the passenger side, gets everything on that side. But if you see a cemetery on their side, you call cemetery, they lose all their cow points, and vice versa.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I can't believe you've never heard of it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have not heard of it, but we're going to go with Field Notes. Field Notes is the recommended notebook brand for the game Cows in Cemeteries.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Okay, sounds good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That sounds like a marketing campaign, if I've ever heard of one. They could make a cow in cemetery version.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Ooh, one that has little Holstein prints.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, maybe that's their next idea, is a game print paper. Keep the cover the same, but inside have some kind of game scoring, tracking.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Tic Taco, Tic Tacos.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Scrabble points. Yeah, all kinds of different things. Scrabble points, Yahtzee, all the normal things. Sorry. All right. We've gone totally off the rail here. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. But it's a fun conversation. I love it. I love it. But I was thinking, you know, my usage of pens on vacations is almost the opposite thing. Like, people go on, like, a technology break when they go on vacation. I seem to not purposely do it, but I end up going a whole vacation without using pens or paper at all. Like, I'll have my phone, you know, if I need anything or check in on anything. I've written more notes on my phone this week than pen and paper. I don't know if it's just because I'm not at my house or even though I'm carrying stuff with me, carrying fountain pens, carrying paper, I just don't seem to have it ready like I always do when I'm not on vacation. So it's kind of like this backwards, I don't know, you know, break from the analog, which seems – it seemed kind of odd to me. That's why I wanted to bring that up when I saw you using your pens and papers. So voraciously on your vacation, I'm like, I haven't touched a pen or paper this week, I don't think, even though I brought, like, my fountain pens, my fountain pen case and a rodeo webby and things like that in case I wanted it. I just haven't touched it. But, you know, as soon as I get back home, I'll have, like, everything out of the closet, like, rummaging through everything. Like, oh, I missed my babies while I was gone. It's just the oddest thing. So I don't know.

'''Ana Reinert:''' It's interesting because one of the things I did notice is I like to stop, like, whenever we stop at a convenience store or a gas station, I always like to look for postcards to send to people. And postcards are not always uncoated paper. A lot of times they're that glossy, shiny paper. So it was something that I don't normally carry, like, a ballpoint pen, which is sort of what you really need if you're going to write on glossy paper. So that was one of my big challenges. So a couple of the gel pens worked that I had in my bag worked okay. But, you know, fountain pens on glossy paper is a bad deal.