Editing The Pen Addict 377/transcript (section)

== Sponsor Segment ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move with Squarespace because they let you easily create a website for your next idea of a unique domain name, award-winning templates, and so much more. Maybe you want to create an online store. Maybe you want to create a portfolio or blog. I was just talking about the theme system website. I built all of that on Squarespace. It was so easy to do because they're an all-in-one platform. They had all of the functionality that I wanted. And they're going to have all of the functionality that you want, too. And they have a bunch of great applications. Their analytics app is awesome. So you can see how many people are coming to your site and learn about stuff there. They also have their standard Squarespace app where you can add content and even rearrange content blocks and redesign your website all from the app now as well. There's nothing to install or patch or worry about with Squarespace. No upgrades needed. They take care of all of that stuff so you don't have to. But they also have 24-7 customer support on hand in case you need it. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. But you can start a trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. And then use the offer code penaddict when you sign up to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and to show your support for this show. Once again, thank you so much to Squarespace. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. And the code penaddict for 10% off. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Let's do it. It's a lot. Let's go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hashtag ask TPA time. First one comes from Sgrst who asks, I guess you've covered this many times before. But since I have a whole new batch of cards this month, credit cards, what is the best pen to sign the back of a credit card?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I actually did that this week. I keep a specific pen for that or a specific style of pen. But before I tell you what it is, I should tell you that someone tried to steal our credit cards this week, which is why I had to sign on the back of a new one. So it's been a fun week with the credit bureaus and credit companies at the penaddict household. But everything's taken care of. No damage done. Other than about, I guess this is like the third round of new cards in about a week. To answer your question, I signed it with the Sharpie Ultra Fine permanent marker. Like that's pretty much the only answer. I did this one in brown because that's what I had handy. I'll usually do it in black. I also keep an orange one available in the Ultra Fine model. That is the singular answer for this. No other answer will be accepted from the community. Thank you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow. Okay. Just to put a full stop on this, can you give us the full brand of the pen again? I just want to like make sure everybody completely is aware that this is the last time it's ever spoken about, I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no. We can talk about it all the time. It's the Sharpie permanent marker Ultra Fine. So you have to have the fine tip to write in that little tiny window that they give you on the back of your cards. This isn't the Ultra Fine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This isn't their pen, is it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nope. It's a permanent marker.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's basically, it's the same ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And a lot of colors. 41 colors.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They've expanded this lineup. They're really good at drawing. I mean, people use, you gotta, the paper you use matters, obviously, but Sharpies are great art markers for specific cases. They're such good colors.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Quinn writes in and says, hi, Brad and Myke. I'm not a Twitter user, so I'm doing this old school. I sent an email. I've been on a quest on and off for years, and I'm at my wit's end. Uh, I need the pen addict community's help. I'm an academic, and I do a lot of writing by hand. When I'm editing my work, I often print it out and take a red or orange or purple pen to it. I normally use a high-tech C slim refill loaded into my shown design pen, or a plain old high-tech C in the plastic barrel. I hate that plastic barrel. Both work great, but I have always wished I could use a fountain pen, and so every few months I make some new attempt to do so. The problem is my department's paper. Every ink I've tried, Sailor Nano inks, KWZ Iron Gault inks, they feather terribly no matter what the nibs. Sailor Medium, Pilot Fine, even the latest edition of Pilot Extra Fine. No matter what, I get a feathery blob that is just way too thick for line edits. We print a lot in my department, so it's a good thing we use eco-friendly recycled paper, but boy is it bad for liquid ink. So pen addicts, where can I turn? The only ink I have found that does work is the Sailor Kiwa Guru, but I need a colored ink that will really pop off the page, so Sailor's also is out. Is there a hope, or is it time to accept, so long as I am using my workplace paper, I need to stick with my admittedly wonderful micro gel ink pens?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so we get this question quite frequently. Usually my stock answers involve some of the inks that they've tried already, like the Sailor Nano, KWZ Iron Gault. Usually basic Pilot Blue or Pilot Black or Lamy Blue or Black work pretty well, but Quinn needs something that pops off the page. You know, KWZ Iron Gault is where I would have sent you. Yeah, Platinum Classics has similar colors and iron gall properties that might be worth trying out. You know, outside of that, it's really, you're going to have to decide whether you want to just stick with black or blue and do something like Noodler's X Feather or Bernanke Black or something like that. Yeah, I feel like that's not going to work though, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because with the marking up, as Quinn was saying, that you kind of need something colorful to make it work. But yeah, it's a shame.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So about the only other choice that you haven't tried that you didn't list, but I don't have high confidence in based on the other things you have tried and don't work, are the Platinum Classics. You can at least get some nice reds and greens and yellows out of those shades and purples. And use like the fine, and I would stick with the Pilot EF nib, like the finest nib you can get away with, you know, just to, you want to limit the amount of ink that's hitting the page. And it just may be an out of luck type of situation. Just feel that way. Yeah, or, you know, you can buy, you know, your own ream of good paper and stick it into the most important printer that you know is going to work. And that way, you know, you can just be a little sneaky, you know, invest in some stealth paper purchases and use that for your specific work. Although that's a hassle, you know, but you can get, you know, the HP 32 pound. And if you know what you could do, Brad, Kukuyo makes it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is, look, I know this is terrible for the environment, but like find a photocopier and photocopy what comes out of what you're given from the printer onto good paper. Would that work? Wow. I don't even know if that would work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think you just, at that point, you're just getting into the printer, copier paper trays and putting your stealth move in there. So, yeah, it's a tough situation. It's the universal pen addicts problem, right? It is workplace. Workplace supplies are the pen addicts demise.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's good, man. You should put that on like a sticker or something. That's like a... I just came up with that off the top of my head. I think you should keep that one. You got to write that one down. It's good. All right. That's very good. Get on that chat room. There you go. It comes from Brian. I wanted to thank you for your blog as it has, I'm assuming they're talking to me here. It's a strong influence on my own pen addiction. The problem is, despite my amassing several pens that are each in their own way interesting, I find myself reaching for what I consider workhorse pens. They just appeal to me more. Others go neglected, even though they are perfectly fine writers made out of beautiful materials. There are certainly folk out there who would enjoy these pens, which are hardly used. Can you suggest a strategy or forum to go about thinning the herd?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so the strategy is the tough part or could be the easy part. You know, you've... Brian has started on this path thinking, well, I don't use these pens as much as my most favorite pens. So there should be a way for me to parcel these off and, you know, maybe sell them to someone else or trade them for something else I like. You know, the Pen Addict Slack room is good for that. You can email me for an invite. There's a good sell trade channel on there. There's Fountain Pen Swap on Reddit, I believe is the Reddit name, which is very popular. It's also, you know, they do a good job of moderating it and have, you know, decent, you know, protection as much as you can online. Like, you can't guarantee any transactions online, no matter how, you know, protected they seem to be. But that seems to get good recommendations on there. And I would just bounce around, you know, Reddit and then maybe FP Geeks. And they have a sell trade message board or classifieds board. I forget the name. There's also the Virtual Pen Show on Instagram, which will take and sell your pens for you, I believe is how it works. So you'll have to look into the details. But we'll put some links into the show notes to a couple of these resources. But, like, step one is the hardest part that I have trouble with, you know, my perpetual I'm going to sell my pens statement that, you know, I get yelled at about all the time. And rightfully so. It's just I never can break down and sit down and, like, commit to just going full Marie Kondo on my collection and selling off the ones that don't get as much use, you know. So that's get past step one and then you can work on step two.