Editing The Pen Addict 438/transcript (section)

== Yamamoto Paper Collection ==


'''Anna Reinert:''' So, and then the next on my list is the Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection.

'''Anna Reinert:''' We did an extensive review earlier this year on it and tested all of the different papers to see how they performed. But I think it's one of those things that a lot of people, if they had the $45 to spend on it, would want to try it out themselves and see if they liked one of the papers better than one of the others. Because I've seen now that Yamamoto is slowly releasing these papers in like pads or loose sheets of just one or two of the different types of paper. So I feel like it's a good, it's a good way to try something out and then be like, that's my favorite. I love that paper. And I hope Yamamoto has a set of that particular stock. So then the last couple items I put on here kind of go together, which is this new Kuretake Karapo empty felt tip pens. So you can fill these pens up with fountain pen ink or they have like an ink set that's available to like mix your own colors. But an opportunity to play with ink in your own little felt tip pen. So they come and they're completely clear. There's no ink in them. And then you take this sort of like little fiber pad inside and you dip it into either a bottle of ink or into a container with some ink in it. Very cool. Until it absorbs it all. And then you put it in the pen and you can use it. So I put that on the list. And then one of the Colorverse mini collections where you get like, I think it's like four of their little five milliliter bottles. And their bottles are just so cute. They're very giftable. As opposed to just samples.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's kind of the perfect match for the Kuretake's because those bottles are so tiny and super cool. But that felt is going to absorb the ink, you know, a lot easier than getting your little pipettes and trying to swap over the ink into your fountain pen. So that's kind of a perfect match.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Myke, what you got?

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So I think that really a very good level up for people is the Studio Neat Mark 1. Straight up one of my favorite pens of the last few years. I use one probably every day. I think if you're coming from any type of rollable or ballpoint pen, this is just an excellent addition. It's $65, but at $65, it's just excellent value. I really think that the Mark 1 is just a superb product. I think that Studio Neat did a great job of it. I will pair it with the Pano Book. Get a two pack for $40. This is my favorite. It's like my favorite notebook of all time. I use it constantly. I absolutely love this notebook. It's so useful if you work on a desk with a computer. Like that's where it really shines because the form factor means that it will sit between you and your keyboard very nicely. And I love having a notebook available to me constantly in a fixed position, right? So I don't have to think about it if I need to take a note of some kind. So I'm a big fan of those two products. Get ready for the bell. Theme system journal. Ding! I would say the theme system journal is a great product because I made it. Version 2 is coming very soon. We still have some available. If you go to cortexmarch.com, you can get some under version 1. But version 2 is just around the corner. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think that version 2 is better than version 1 in basically every single way. But the inside layout as such is basically the same. So if you want to jump on the cheaper version, you can get it now because the new one will be a bit more expensive. But it's because it's a higher quality product than what we've made. So it is a great way to keep track of how you're doing throughout the year against the selection of goals and or thoughts and or themes that you have set for yourself. So, yeah, I will talk about the new theme system journal on this show in a few weeks' time once we've actually got the new one. So I want to talk with Brad. Brad has one. And I want to talk about it a bit more in detail. Yeah, we'll do a whole thing. I think a nice step up for people if they're coming into fountain pens is the Lamy Safari. Safari is the best. We all know that. This is something the three of us couldn't all agree on is that Lamy Safari is the best Lamy. And there's no question about that. I think Lamy Safari is a genuinely great pen because it comes in a bunch of colors. And it's one of those pens. There's a reason that it's sold in so many office supply stores because not only is it a great pen, it looks like a step up. You know, you see someone use the Lamy Safari and you're like, oh, this person clearly knows their pens. Like if you don't know anything about pens, that's kind of how you look at someone, I think. It's got that kind of look to it. And look, I love them. I use the Lamy Safari all the time. I mean, granted, the Lamy Safari that I use is a rushi coated. But nevertheless, it still performs in the same way that a Safari would.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it's a shockingly good fit for the rest of this set. Right. It's like the right answer to go. Like if you're buying all of this together, even though you like you have the Mark 1, you have the Safari. It kind of fits with everything else. I think. I think so. Cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And then my last one for your Lamy Safari is grab a bottle of Robert Oster ink. Robert Oster ink is my favorite ink collection. Personally, I love the colors. The performance of them is great. And there are so many of them. The only thing I don't like is the bottles. Because they're plastic, I'm always terrified I'm going to knock them over when I'm filling up them. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. They're a little bit tall. And I have that in my next selection, too. So my level upset. I'm a very, I have a very fountain pen theme going on here with all of my stuff. I guess that's what I'm thinking about right now. It's like, what are the things that I want? And I put in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's because you can't use fountain pens right now. That's what I see. You just lost enough of the things you want.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's probably very true. So the Leonardo Memento Zero. I picked specifically the green blue rhodium. Despite the terrible name, it's a beautiful pen. But you can pick any of the Leonardo Memento Zeros. And if you're someone who's, you know, getting into fountain pens and you're trying to figure out what that level up, you know, pen is going to be for you. I think the Leonardo Memento Zero is kind of right in that category. You know, it's $160. It's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But relative to the other pens on the market, I think it's just a really, really good value. It's a great writing experience. Beautiful. Well made. And then I match that up with Robert Oster Deep Sea Inc. It's kind of in that matching theme, that bluish green to go with the green blue pen. And put that all with an endless recorder notebook. I think the Tomoe River is always a really good step up for fountain pen users when they're starting to get into things. And see the unique features that Tomoe River paper offers. You know, maybe you find out it's not for you. But most people with fountain pens and fountain pen inks tend to have their eyes open a little bit how that paper operates with this, you know, with a fountain pen. And I think that kind of setup with, you know, a new pen, a cool ink and a great paper, I think is a really good level up option.

'''Anna Reinert:''' I'm just sitting here trying to come up with a better name for that pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But since the moment it launched, it makes my eyes pop out of my head because it's just called green blue and then the trim name green blue rhodium, green blue gold.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, it's, the full thing is Leonardo Memento Zero Green, I couldn't do it. Leonardo Memento Zero Green Blue Rhodium. It's not a good name. No, it's not. At least it's, you know, they could have called this one Loch Ness Monster and then everyone would have been happy. Oh, totally.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, because it does, it's like, when I looked at it, it's like Jade Sea or, you know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Anything but green blue. Green blue rhodium. Luckily, it's a stunning looking pen. So we'll forgive the naming. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And everyone will be happy.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Call us.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. This episode is brought to you in part by Good Made Better. We all love using great pens, but sometimes great pens aren't very user friendly. This was the situation that Dan at Good Made Better found himself in. He wanted to use his favorite pens for work, but he was generally taking quick notes and found himself spending more time capping and uncapping his pen than actually using it. He figured if he could fix his pen cap in one spot, he'd have simple one-handed use of his pen. So he could pick it up when he needed it, put it back when he didn't, making it so much handier. And if it was handier, he'd use it even more. This is where the pen well became. The writing tool that makes capped pens as handy as click pens. The pen well sticks to your desk with a micro suction pad. The pad is repositionable and reusable, so it can be cleaned if it gets dirty and you can restick it down. It has a soft foam insert that grips and holds onto your pen cap, so you can cap and uncap it securely with one hand. You just simply rest the pen back in the cap between taking notes. This makes threaded caps even more convenient because it will hold onto it. Plus, your pen is so secure that it will no longer be rolling away. You're not going to have to chase it down. It's not going to fall off the desk. And it's always in the same spot, so it's easy to grab without ever needing to look for it. They offer a couple of different models, the Classic and the Traveller, in different materials and finishes. And this is available right now. And then also, as we spoke about last time, the Kickstarter campaign for the Penwell Craftsman is going on right now. I absolutely love my Penwell products. I've been using the Craftsman for a couple of weeks, and I really love it. But just the regular Classic as well has been a fixture of my desk for a long time. And look, we didn't pay our necessities. She already told you as well earlier in the episode how great it is. They also offer a skeptics guarantee. If you don't love it, within 30 days, they'll buy it back and pay shipping both ways. But chances are, you're going to love it. Because Penwell is a unique and genuinely useful tool to help make the pens that you love even more enjoyable to use. If you want to make a good writing experience better, head to goodmadebetter.com and use the code PENADDICT for a 15% discount on your Penwell purchase. That's goodmadebetter.com and the code PENADDICT for a 15% discount on your Penwell purchase. Our thanks to Good Made Better for their support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, the next category is something we've never done before. And this one's called the Mega Set. This was an idea from Twitch chat. Basically said, if you had unlimited budget, what kind of stupidity could you get into? Would you do something crazy? Would you just do, you know, just like really up your game on your desk and make it just like the perfect thing? Would you buy the Chaos Pen in Myke's case? You know, what would you do? The Abs Pen. I thought about putting that, but I wouldn't want to wish that on anybody. So the Mega Set is your budget unlimited category. And Myke, I'm going to go first because I screwed up the order here. But if I change this one around, it's going to screw up everything else. So you should be going first here. I will admit to the error of my ways. I went first in the ad, I guess.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's how that works out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There you go. We're tired of hearing you. So take a break for a minute. So I really, when I put this category down since we didn't know. I mean, since we've never done this before, I really didn't know how to answer. Should I put the Chaos Pen on down there? But I tried to just go with like, what's a really expensive kind of outrageously priced pen, but I think is really cool and unique. And the Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard, ever since they launched that a month or two ago, has been stuck in my head. Again, this is my shopping list. So all listeners take note that the Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard has my interest peaked. And I can't stop looking at it. I want to try this one out. This is an expensive pen at $636 for Visconti Homo Sapiens. That's about right. But I still have a hard time with that budget not testing out beforehand. So that's something I'm going to be looking into. But if you know someone who's really into this stuff, this would be a huge surprise. And you have to pair that with a Misubi notebook. One of the specific ones, the Peruvian one, where the Peruvian natural cotton colors, it's this black and white, or it's really kind of a black and cream color cover. I'm obviously a huge fan of Misubi. We all are here on this podcast and love what Daryl does for the company and the brand. And I think that's kind of the great matchy-matchy situation with the pen, with the Blizzard. And then the ink was kind of hard. This has been my move for this whole gift guide, pen, ink, paper. And the ink on this one, I was thinking, what's the most... Is there a thing that's the most expensive, fancy ink out there? And there's really not, right? There's not this elite, crazy, expensive ink. I mean, maybe the Louis Vuitton ones they used to make. I don't even know if they make them anymore. But those were outrageously priced. It's like, what kind of stupid ink trouble can I get into? Then it hit me. J'ai Herban. J'ai Herban. 500 milliliter bottle of blue myos... Myosotis? Mitosis. Mitosis. No, myosotis. Myosotis. I don't know. Who knows? But anyway, I was like, that's big enough and dumb enough to put in with the unlimited budget. You basically get unlimited ink with this. And I would actually use that with the Blizzard. I think that would be a cool... I think blue ink with the Blizzard would be pretty cool. Because I was thinking what ink even goes with that Blizzard pen. And I couldn't do black with that. Black would be too simple. So I think a good blue might work well with that. So that's my setup. And if anyone needs my shipping address, just let me know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Anna. What you got? Okay.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Well, in keeping with it, I didn't play by the rules at all. I didn't pick out a pen, a notebook, and an ink.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's good.

'''Anna Reinert:''' I selected items that, again, thinking about like a lot of people are working at home. And if I were to, say, buy something for one of my pen friends, who I know have every single possible pen that they want, and I wouldn't risk, even if I won the lottery, buying them a pen that they already had, I decided to go with, again, like accessories and things like that, which would probably be something that they would not have or maybe didn't find on their own. So the first thing I found was called the schoolhouse lap desk. So it looks like those old-time wooden school desks, but it has like a padded pillow bottom. So you can still open it up and put things inside of it and then close the lid so you can sit it on your lap and use it on the couch or in bed or wherever it is that you may actually be doing your Zoom meetings.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And you feel so fancy.

'''Anna Reinert:''' You feel so fancy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Anna Reinert:''' And a little like you were back in school.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The old Zoom meeting. I'm a lap desk fan. Like I'm a perennial lap desk user. This is really cool.

'''Anna Reinert:''' I thought that one was extremely cool, and I found it purely by accident because it came from a place called Victorian Trading Company, which I would never have looked for on my own volition, but a friend of mine was applying for a job with them. And so we pulled up the website, and I was like, there's some really cool stuff in here, stuff I've never seen before. So there was a lot of joking, like, why was she applying for the job? I should have been applying for it. But I said, no, you get the job, and then you can hire me. And so in keeping with Brad and the ridiculously expensive ink, I chose one of the miniature sets from Jacques Rebon.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Jebon.

'''Anna Reinert:''' No, this is the Jacques line. Oh, this is the full name. This is so fancy. Yeah, this is so fancy it's the full name. But they have, like, a little, basically, like, their sampler set of, like, four or five different colors. And, you know, I think it's when budget isn't an issue, spending $84 on ink samples seems totally reasonable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. That's a deal.

'''Anna Reinert:''' It's a steal. But there's also a Three Oysters DIY ink starter kit where you get, like, 12 different colors and, like, empty vials. And so if you want to be all, like, science-y and make your own ink, because my friends are all on the top of the Fountain Pen Companion ink list, so picking out an ink for them is almost impossible. But if they can make their own, I think that's totally legit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ooh, so what do they do if they come up with a good one on their own and name it out of a mixture? Do they get to put it on FPC? We'll have to ask Jessie about that.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, Jessie. That's exactly who I was thinking of when I added this. I'm like, what would I buy for Jessie? Because I sure wouldn't buy her a pen. I'd probably buy the wrong one. But, yeah, getting this kit was, like, if I had the money, I would totally do it. So the next thing that I put on the list was the Caran D'Ache Paul Smith Super Color Special Edition Pencil Set.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Because buying, like, eight colored pencils for $35 just seemed ridiculous to me. But it comes in a cool little tin, and the colors are very pretty and super Paul Smith-esque. So, and then last, I did actually put something that is, like, carry it with you thing, which is a Superior Labor Engineer shoulder bag in Navy Stripe. Their bags are so cool. So it's, like, the wish list of when we can finally go places again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Like, this, to Brad's point, this is if I was putting together my unlimited budget Christmas list,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' this would be on it.

'''Anna Reinert:''' So.