Editing The Pen Addict 179/transcript (section)

== Paper Products ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. All right. We got more paper stuff to talk about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Us. Let me take a break. Thank our friends over at lynda.com for helping support this episode. They are the online learning platform that has over 3000 on demand video courses that are there to help you strengthen your business technology and creative skills for a free 10 day trial. Visit lynda.com slash pen addict. That's L Y N D A.com slash pen addict. I want to mention just straight up top, just to re kind of remind people about this, that Aaron Traplin did that incredible logo making course with lynda.com a while ago, uh, that you should sign up for the free trial just to go and see it. Right. If you haven't seen that course, you need to go and see that. Yeah. Just to see him in his shop and hear him talking and showing his work and how he kind of roughs out a design like, oh my God, that was so awesome. I would love to see more of those.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Not to hijack you completely, but I had an email a couple of weeks ago said, Hey, you know, I know lynda's a sponsor and I think you did some kind of design a video you linked to and someone was going through their design process. And I said, Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about. So that one that has definitely stuck with people.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Oh, cause it's just fantastic. It is. Lynda.com has videos for all types of people who are thinking in all different types of ways. Whether you're trying to solve a problem that you've got, you know, cause you're working on this project and you just don't know how to do this thing. Whether you're curious to learn something new, some new skills that you've never thought about before. Or if you want to kind of learn something to help advance yourself in your work in some way. Lynda.com is there to help you. You can learn about design like, you know, and you can watch those great videos that Aaron makes. You can learn about color and how to implement that in your work. You can learn about how to get things done using the GTD course. You can, no matter what it is that you're thinking about trying to take your hand to, lynda.com will have videos there to help you. They have software and hardware courses, right? So you can learn how to use Photoshop. You can learn how to use Lightroom, but you can also learn how to take great portrait photography. They have courses on everything that you're going to need to know, all types of things that you can put into practical use in your life. And all of their courses are taught by experts. People have a passion for teaching. You can watch any of their courses in any order you want. And they're all broken down even within each course, right? So you can watch any video you like. You can pick or choose. They're all available to you when you sign up, even on the 10 day free trials. Unlimited access to everything. And you can go in and inside of each individual course, they're all broken up into bite-sized chunks. You can pick and choose from them as well. So maybe you just need to learn something specific, or maybe you want to go back to something you learned a few months ago and you want to follow along with their transcript to make sure that you get to that point in the video that you need. You can create and save playlists of these courses and these videos, and you can customize them and put them in any order you like. And you can share these with friends, colleagues, and team members as well. And you can even watch and learn on the go and download courses to your Android and iOS device. So your Lynda.com membership will be able to give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're passionate about a hobby, or you're just looking to learn something new, go ahead and visit lynda.com slash penaddict and sign up for your free 10-day trial. Thank you so much to Lynda.com for supporting this show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we talked about the Hobonichi earlier, and I'm going to give it another shot here in 2016. And one thing that we have seen this year upon this year's release of the Hobonichi is that they are sending them to many, many other vendors outside of just themselves, right? Which they probably did in Japan before, but not necessarily outside of Japan. We've seen U.S. and Canadian retailers. And like, you know, for example, we put it in the show notes that JetPens got in the Hobonichi, got in the Techo, and then got in like a handful of covers for them. And they sold immediately out, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was just like, here they are, and they're gone. They have eight products, and they're all gone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so they, you know, in talking with them, I knew they were going to do it. And they actually gave me a heads up saying, you know, that this was going to happen. And they actually sent me a Techo and one of the covers. I have the red cover. And I'm going to give that away on the blog here in the next week or two. So definitely pay attention for that. And I didn't get a chance to, before today's episode, to find out if and when they're going to get some more in. I would wager that they are, you know, before the holidays. So I will try to find out and see when they'll get some more in. But I like, you know, a lot of people are hesitant, and understandably so, to, you know, necessarily buy from Japanese sites, and not for any particular reason other than the ordering difficulty can be a little bit of a challenge sometimes. And then depending on where you are in the world, the shipping might be high. So, you know, some people who are insane like myself don't mind. And, you know, I just go through and go through the 1101 store and go things, go order things through them without issue. But some people definitely like this. To be able to get it from a retailer that they've used for years, like JetPens. So I think it's kind of cool to see the brand reach out to other retailers like this. You have any thoughts on that? Where, you know, they've just kind of, they've moved on in allowing other regions to kind of carry these much more easily than they have in the past?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's needed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think that's the right word.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is something that they have to do. Right. That they have to eventually start branching out if they want to continue to grow their business. I'm sure they want to. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. So like WonderPens in Canada, I got them. They got them. So like, you know, the Canadian users or people who are wanting that, the Hobonichi in Canada, that's an easy place for them to get it from. And now, you know, somewhere like JetPens able to stock them and ship them out as well in the US. And so I think we'll just continue to see more and more of this. And I think it's good. You know, like the Midori, the traveler's notebook we mentioned before, you know, that was also kind of an in-house thing. And now it's just, it just totally helps spread everywhere else once they get into other retailers and things like this. And I think just for Hobonichi itself, I think it's a good move.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I completely agree. I'm pleased they're doing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And obviously for JetPens, it's a good move because they have such a built-in, I mean, this is their people, right? The people who are ordering from JetPens are all about some Hobonichi. So it's no, yeah, it's no wonder it sells out immediately. But I do have, I already had ordered mine, the one that I'm going to use for next year's, but I have an extra Techo and the red cover. So stay tuned. I don't know if I'm going to get that up. Next week or the week after, but it'll be very, very soon that I will be giving one away.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's one of the things that had held me off. Like, you know, one reason is I wouldn't really use them, but one thing that had held me off was not being able to get this from a site that I knew and trusted.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure. Oh, I imagine a lot of people felt the exact same way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And especially before last year was the first year they had an, even an English site where you can check out on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was just about to say that, which is even, you know, that's, that's even worse. I mean, obviously they can do whatever they want to do, but like, you know, if you're, if you're trying to buy this stuff, like you're going to be a little bit apprehensive. If you're buying from a website, you don't know if the website's not in your native language, that is like another thing, right? That's a whole other book.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. There was a, uh, one of the, I'm totally blanking on her name right now, but, um, the, the woman we know here in the U S that does the Hobonichi translations, she wrote an entire website on how to purchase one via the Japanese website. You know, she'd be essentially translated. Yep. Yep. And, uh, I think she's still, I think she still does that work for Hobonichi. I forget. Um, if I can remember, I'll, I'll, I'll put that in the show notes cause she was, she's always cool to talk to her on Twitter. I keep in touch with her on Twitter. Um, some cause she's still doing the Hobonichi work. So yeah, very cool. Um, I've been on, well, not me Kickstarter pin projects have been on a roll recently. Right. And I think I'm finally caught up with the last one where I had the preview models of between, um, you know, uh, the gist and the pin type B and the EDK, even though it wasn't Kickstarter, it was a, it was a new pin launch. And now I did the mini click, um, which is, uh, by the guy that's behind, um, tough writer pins who makes a kind of a tactical, you know, tactical looking and feeling pin. This is a more, uh, simplistic design, um, then some of the like totally outrageous, the tough, some of the tough writers aren't really out there, but you know, the totally tactical pins that, you know, don't really, it's not really our market, you know, air quote, our market. Um, but there is a huge market for that in the people who are really looking for that ultra heavy duty type pin, you know, for any type of reasons for travel or for some of them, you know, lots of, you know, police officers, army people, you know, just need something super, super durable. Um, so, uh, Jack, who is, who is the owner of tough writer, um, they did a, the ultimate clicky pin. I think that was last year. And that, that project went really, really big on Kickstarter. I think they did a really good job on that one. And a lot of people thought it was a little bit big, a little bit overbuilt. And so he simplified a little bit into the mini click, um, which is a really nice looking pin. And, you know, the pins that we buy, like from Karis customs and tactical tactical turn that have the, the knock mechanism. That's a stock mechanism from Schmidt, which is a really good mechanism. I like, but Jack redesigned that mechanism from scratch for on his own. Um, and added that to this pin. So he's, he's built his own click mechanism. It looks a lot, it looks very similar, but it's, it's rebuilt completely by him. And I did a review of the pin today on the blog and it's really nice. It's great looking anodization. Um, it's really pretty, it's really well built. The only thing I didn't like were the O-rings and the grip section. Um, I think that's just like a, kind of like a failure point, right? You know, you have loose bits in probably the most, um, um, grabbed area. Of the pin, if you will, you know, you're moving that in and out of a pocket. It's going to hit those rings. You're gripping it and writing it. It's going to hit those rings.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I just tend not to like O-rings anyway. Like they, they never feel like the right solution to any problem.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. And it's like, it's like, it's the pins trying to be very useful for very extreme situations. You know, if you're, if you have your hand in a glove and you need that extra grip on the pin, you know, having those O-rings there, it's certainly going to help.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. My feeling is though, just make a rubber section.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. I would just rather, I would honestly, I would just go for a plain section, you know, a smooth section and then just deal with the gripping issue.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Well, there's so many things you can do. You can knell it. Right. That's one thing you can do. I mean, or like if you really want the rubber grip, then put a rubber grip on it. Like that, that's my thing. Just, just go all in on the grip. Right. I don't really like the O-rings. I think that they're kind of like a bad solution to an interesting problem.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. I just think that, yeah, they're really unnecessary, to be honest. You're not going to get, you're going to have as much frustration as you are going to have benefit from them, I believe. And that's not the best trade-off in my opinion on design.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But to be fair, they have been prevalent on all of his designs. So his customers must not complain. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that was, that was coming out of my mouth, but he's done this before, right? This is how his designs work. And he obviously has great feedback from his customers on this. And I know some other people who have bought the, the ultimate clicky pin that have very much enjoyed using, using that pin. And, you know, if you like that pin and like that style of pin, this one's a no brainer because it's, it's a rock solid pin. You know, like I love the knock. I love the clip. The anodization is really cool. It's not only anodized, it's kind of got this glossy finish. Um, so the colors are really, really sharp and vibrant. So it's a great looking pin. Um, I'm just not a O-ring in the grip guy. Um, and you, you know, I lost one when I was playing around with the pin.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So tell me, um, why, or tell me the difference here between, um, this, the, the, the knock that has been made here. Mm-hmm. But what's the guy's name? Jack. Jack. So the, the knock that Jack has made as opposed to the knock that comes that everybody else is using.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, he just wanted to, to control it all himself, right? If, if there's any issues, he's the guy that can fix it instead of relying on someone else.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sure. But how, well, how does it feel? Like what's, what's the difference?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, how does it feel? It feels a little bit more, there's kind of more depth to it. If that makes sense. Like it's not, it's not like a superficially type click. It's like a deeper, sturdier click, if that makes sense. Um, and you can feel, you can feel that, um, when you're, uh, activating it, um, when you're pressing it, um, it, it feels a little bit different. Um, despite it, it looks very, very similar.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, Dan in the chat room, obviously Mr. Bishop is saying it's made of stainless steel instead of nickel plate of brass. That's like a material difference. Gotcha. Gotcha. Like, cause the, the one that is on like all the pens that we've used, right? You mentioned it's on some Karas custom stuff. It's, it's fine, right? Yeah. No, I like it. Like it, it does the job fine. Uh, yeah. I mean, I would maybe sometimes wish it was just a little clickier, but that's kind of being super picky.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. This one's not clickier. Um, it's, it's the same type. It's not a ladder click.