Editing The Pen Addict 21/transcript (section)

== Gel Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So aside from a pen that can't be named, what gel pens have you been using then?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know what? It's funny you ask that question because I'm going back to one that has been an all-time favorite of mine. It did make my recent top five list. But for some reason at work, at the office, this pen works great for me. And it's the Uniball Sino DX 0.38.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know. It's a, it's the perfect kind of pick up and go pen for me. Like I can have five of them laying around in different colors and just pick one up and go do something.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, if I was sitting down writing, you know, I'd use the pen that can't be named or I've been using the Pilot Hi-Tech C 0.3, which I like so much. Now with that pen, the Hi-Tech C, it's a, I've talked many, many times about how it's kind of a little touchy, finicky pen, right? If you pick it up and sometimes it takes a little scribbling to get started. Well, sometimes I don't, I don't have time for that. So I grab a DX and that people ask for, you know, colored ink recommendations like color gel inks, who makes the brightest or the best colors. It's the Uniball Sino or Signo DX line. And for me, bar none, the Hi-Tech C has some great vibrant colors, but the DX colors are really, really excellent. And I use, I mean, I probably use five or six colors all the time. I mean, literally several times a week, you know, basic black, blue, black, lime green, sky blue. Um, the yellow, I think it's called, I get all the yellows mixed up. I think this one might be golden yellow. I'll have to look. Um, and the purple, um, those are kind of my main go-to colors. You use a lot of them. Yeah. I mean, and I'll keep them all sitting, sitting right on my desk next to my notebook. So when I'm working on, you know, I have a project notebook at work and then that, you know, that's not open all the time, but it's sitting there. And then I'll have like a scratch pad, you know, for just quick jotting down stuff. My project notebook is that big Doan, um, idea journal, which is the greatest notebook of all time. Um, in my opinion, and it's not even close. And then I have a little rhodia scratch pad there that I just jot down things and, you know, and I'll, I'll just keep a stack of those Uni Sino DXs and all those colors laying there like by my project notebook. And when I'm working on something in there and I don't know, it's just the easy grab and go. So, so that's, that's kind of a, uh, a resurgent pen in, uh, in my arsenal of late because when I was working at the house full time for jet pens, I never used that pen. And I don't know why. I don't, I guess I didn't have a need for all the different colors and I wasn't really using the, you know, the black, the basic black or the basic blue for day to day stuff. I was using, I don't know, anything, you know, testing out all kinds of different pens all day long anyway. So I never really had the need, but now it seems that now that I've gone back to work, I, I did this before when I was, you know, I went back to my previous job when I was there the first time I use a DX constantly. And now it just kind of happened. I didn't even think about it. I was just like, that's the best pen for the, the situation I'm in. And that's always key.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good stuff. Yep. So, uh, should we do our first sponsor before we move on? Yes, let's do it. So, um, obviously joining us this week because they are awesome. It's Squarespace and they come back to join us again for another month. So I want to talk today about, I want to give people a refresher. I want to give, this is what I'm doing this week. I'm trying to give a refresher to our listeners or some information to new listeners, a good roundup of all, some of the fantastic features that Squarespace have. Will you indulge me with that, Brad?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Will you do this? I might even chime in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would like you to. Um, Squarespace give you everything you need to create a website or blog, um, all in one package. They integrate absolutely everything. So you only have to be concerned with paying one fee, one account, and everything's taken care of. The stuff you don't want to have to manage, like hosting, you know, statistics, that sort of stuff. You just want that stuff to work. You don't want to have to be setting up a hosting account. You don't want to have to be putting code into your site to make sure you can get analytics working. Well, Squarespace, they just, they have it all built in. You know, all as part of their plan, all as part of their packages. They have powerful tools to help you create your site using their simple-to-master WYSIWYG design editor. Or you can even hack around with a CSS if that's your bag. Um, they have beautiful templates. Really well-designed templates that you can build on using their editors. Um, and they also integrate the Google Fonts library. So you can choose some real great fonts, um, to make your site look absolutely fantastic and really readable. Um, without, again, having to enter any code for it. It's just as part of the package. Their hosting is absolutely rock-solid. Not only is it simple and you don't actually have to configure anything, it never goes down. Their sites are so strong. Um, they are what's known as the tier, they use tier one hosting. Now, it's, you know, if you go on to, if you go look at the Squarespace site tour, they explain stuff like that. You don't need to know about it. You just need to know. It never goes down. They also provide you with excellent analytics so you can easily understand the traffic to your site. Who's linking to you? Who's searching for you? That sort of stuff. They have a great iOS app that lets you see those stats and post on the go. You can have free custom domain names for every annual plan purchase. They set up Google Apps integration as well so you can use, um, email with the new domain that you just purchased. They have a great blog importer, um, that will take care of everything. That's what we've spoken about before. Brad's helped develop in some peculiar way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, anything I've missed?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, the iOS apps. Yes, I only briefly mentioned it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I only briefly mentioned it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's been my, that's been my new favorite thing and I've, I've mentioned it several times before. And I, to be more specific, it's really the, the access to the comments on, um, on the iOS apps. That's been a huge, it's been, it's honestly made a change in my workflow on, on the blog because I've turned off. Um, I used to, you know, at, at TypePad, I just, and like with any blog host, you get a comment and you, you know, you can turn on to send it to you in email, right? And that way you can follow up with it. And, well, the, the Squarespace apps, iOS apps are so good. I've turned off the email, send the, send the comments to my email address. So I've really, I've gotten a reprieve in my inbox from all the comments and I can just, you know, I take the time every day to just log into the iOS app, look at the recent comments. Cause I like to, you know, whether you like comments or not, that's a, that's a, uh, that's an episode for some of the other shows on the network. Um, but I, I do like comments on my blog and I like to make sure I've applied everyone who has a question or is looking for feedback. So that's an important thing for me. So instead of, you know, just fire hosing those comments into my inbox, I flat out turned them off and I make time, you know, a couple of times a day to go into the iOS app and respond to any, any comments that, uh, I have. And it's really, it's actually changed my workflow and it's made my inbox much more manageable. Um, so that's working out really well for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Awesome. So Squarespace, um, they've hooked us up with a couple of great deals. You can go to squarespace.com forward slash 70 decibels to start your two week free trial. And after you've played around with the trial and you decide you want to sign up for an account, use the coupon code 70 decibels seven, that's seven zero DEC IBE LS seven at checkout. And you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring.