Editing The Pen Addict 114/transcript (section)

== Toschenbegleiter ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Toschenbegleiter is actually the product. That's what I should call it. But, yeah. I mean, it's just – it's this thing with stationery that people like to discover something and then that fits their needs and then modify it to their perfect item. Right. And Midori gives you this blank slate plus all the tools to, you know, further it, you know, further that journey. And then they've just marketed so well that there's this whole community around it to where, you know, you can just build on top of what you're – the base that you started with that. So, you know, I don't know if I totally answered your question why. And obviously I haven't totally flushed it out myself because I've had it for a week and haven't put one word in it. But that's because I've been using another notebook for this past week and we're going to get to that later. So, yeah. But I got a couple other things I want to get to before we get to that tease. Okay. So, I re-reviewed a pen that I've reviewed in the past and had a bad time with. And I didn't get so much grief with it, but people didn't understand why I didn't like it so much. And it's the Parker Jotter. It's an all-time classic ballpoint pen. It's been around for 60 years because I just – obviously I just reviewed the Parker Jotter 60th anniversary ballpoint pen. And I almost didn't order it from JetPens because I had such a bad experience with the first one I used. But it turns out that it looks like the first one I had had a bum refill. So, I was happy I gave this pen a second chance because I pretty much killed it the first time. And, of course, you can – you know, the whole Parker-style refill, Myke, you know how we use that term for a lot of other pens that are currently on the market. I used the Parker-style refill. This is kind of where that refill originated. So, yes, I could take my other Parker Jotter and put in, you know, a Fisher Space pen refill, a Moleskine gel refill, you know, a bunch of Schmitts. There's all kinds of refills I could swap it in. But when I reviewed it the first time, I want to review it in its natural form, which means the current refill that it comes with. And it was really bad. So, I never used that pen again. This one, the original one was a 1.0 millimeter black ballpoint.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it just, like, dug into the page. I really think in retrospect now after using this one, which – this new one, which came with a 1.0 millimeter blue refill, super smooth, super clean. I really think my original refill was a bum refill. So, I wanted to tell everyone that I've come around on the Jotter, and I think it was the refill. And, you know, I'm definitely a second-chance type of person. Unless something is, you know, legitimately bad and there's no hope, like you can see there's all kinds of manufacturing flaws and, you know, the company just actually does a poor job, you know, then I'm not as willing to give a second chance. But, you know, I gave the Parker Jotter a second chance. And I think readers will be happy to know that I'm a huge fan now, and I think it was all the refill. And, like I said, I could switch out the refill into the previous barrel and, you know, it carried them on my merry way. But I just really like the colors that they released for this 60th anniversary. I got the – what is mine called? Gray green. It's just this really classic. It's like if you open up a magazine from the 70s and look at some advertisements or something, these are the kind of colors you would see in there. So they're pretty neat.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's such a classic design here. Like you see so many people – or I've seen so many people in my lifetime use those, use that Parker. Like Parker is a huge, huge brand here. I don't know if it translates as much in the U.S. as to how big of a brand Parker is. Like I don't think they are as big. But here they're like the middle range. Like if you want a pen that's not big and you don't want to spend money on Mont Blanc, you'll get a Parker. And they're in all the stores. Like they are the brand, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, totally, totally. I actually think they – someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they have manufacturing in the U.K. somewhere. I think one of their factories is or at least was over there. So I know it's a huge brand in the U.K. So, yeah, it's just a great pen. It's a classic. And for less than $10, you can get a pen that's just got great style and great looks and works pretty well. It's obviously not a Jetstream quality refill, right? But, you know, you get this little extra cool factor using a pen like this. So I'm really happy with it and I'm going to keep it handy so I can use it from time to time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at Wikipedia. I think that the U.K. factory is now closed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. That's possible. I know. I mean, they're way past their heyday, so they've probably consolidated quite a bit.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, in 2009, the U.K. factory was shut down and moved to France.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's actually pretty recent.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Interesting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Still a big brand here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So one other thing I did on my blog, which came out today, I've got a giveaway for this winter session, dome paper flap jotter transport small. This is a letter. Just try and say that again. Winter session plus dome paper flap jotter transport small. Good man. Wow. That's a hard one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a cool product. Did you see this thing?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't actually seen it. I'm going to go and take a look now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's actually smaller than.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, look at that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like your field notes leather holder.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because these memo pads are a little bit tinier dimension. This is a really cool pocket notebook that Chad collaborated with winter session to make in, you know, Chad's very famous leather with blue, dark chocolate leather with blue stitching style, which is one of my favorite looks on the planet. I don't have this one, but man, it is sexy. So I just wanted people, if you haven't checked the blog out, check that out because this is a really good giveaway.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Anyway, when will Chad Dunn stop making such cool stuff?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He's cost me a lot of money.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is wrong with this guy? Why does he make everything so good?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He's got the next Topo bag coming out, like the one that I use every day. Yeah. And that's going to be a problem for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Replacing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, if it's super, super similar, then I won't worry about it. But if it's got some cool factor that I don't have in this one, it's going to cost me more money. So you've not seen it yet? I have not seen it yet. I got an early look at the last one, and I knew immediately that it was going to be a winner. So I couldn't wait for it. But I have not seen the new one yet. So if Chad's listening, maybe he can hook me up with a few pictures like he did last time.