Editing The Pen Addict 461/transcript (section)

== Cleaning and Maintaining Pens ==


'''Brad:''' All the pens, ink all the pens.

'''Myke:''' But that's what I do. But people tell me not to do that.

'''Brad:''' Well, no, there's a difference.

'''Myke:''' Next week, by the time we've recorded next week, my plan is to have done the, I don't know, biannual cleaning and refilling of everything.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Ink all the pens, just clean them on occasion. That's the issue. Yeah. It's not the inking of. Okay.

'''Myke:''' This episode is brought to you by Uni Pizza Ovens, the world's number one pizza oven company. They make surprisingly small ovens that are powered by your choice of either wood, charcoal, or gas, letting you make restaurant quality pizza in your own backyard. Uni Pizza Ovens are incredibly easy to use and they're super portable. They're going to fit in any outside space. Uni Pizza Ovens can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, 500 degrees Celsius, which lets you cook restaurant quality pizza in as little as 60 seconds. That high temperature is what you need to really make the best effort here to really get that incredible result is what's going to set the pizzas that you can make in an Uni Pizza oven apart from what you can make in a home oven. One of their most popular models is the Coda 16. This is a gas powered oven that can cook up to 16 inch pizzas with their innovative L-shaped burner. So it gives you even heat distribution across the whole surface of the pizza. Uni Pizza Ovens start from just $299 with free shipping to the US, UK, and EU with two of their most favorite coolest models being the multi-fueled Uni Carro. So you can choose between wood, charcoal, or gas for your pizza and the Coda 16. Uni also make an amazing app that can help you perfect your dough recipe and give you loads of pizza making tips. Brad, can you tell our listeners one of your Uni experiences?

'''Brad:''' You know what else you don't have to clean, Myke? You're a good Uni customer. You don't ever have to clean this oven because it is on fire and just burns all that stuff off of there.

'''Myke:''' Oh, yeah, yeah. You can just basically just dust, right? At the end of it. You just clean it up.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, it's just dust. And then whatever's left just adds flavor to the next pizza. That's part of having this brick oven style personal pizza oven. It's amazing that way. And the other cool thing is when I take the little laser temperature gauge, the little laser pointer, and that thing says 700 and something degrees, you just go, whoa. And you're like, there's no way. My pizza is going to be that dust. And you throw that pizza in there and like 30 seconds later, it's like perfect, man. It's like the best. It's the one, like one of the most unique products I have ever tried. And I just absolutely love it.

'''Myke:''' Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an Uni pizza oven, which could be up to $50 off an Uni code of 16. Just go to uni.com, that's O-O-N-I.com, and use the code OONIPENADDICT21. That's all one word, O-O-N-I, PENADDICT21, at checkout. When you're there, you'll also find a great range of accessories from peels to cutters to oven tables. Everyone's making pizza at home right now, especially as we get closer to those warmer summer months. And this is the perfect tool for the job, which also explains why Uni pizza ovens are in such high demand. Uni pizza ovens are the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. So go to uni.com and use the code OONIPENADDICT21 for 10% off. Our thanks to Uni Pizza Ovens for their support of this show.

'''Myke:''' So we had a RSTPA question. We're going to do some more in a minute. But this was one that I felt warranted maybe breaking out into just a discussion topic rather than a simple answer to the question. The question came from Jack, and Jack said, some pen shows seem to be planning to happen this year. What is the first pen show you will be attending?

'''Brad:''' I don't know. I'm not anxious to necessarily get back out there. And we've kind of covered this a little bit. I'm moderately tempted if a show is in driving distance, like maybe later this year, like fall, winter time. Yeah. I have no desire to travel through an airport or fly in an airplane, even though, you know, like all the science points to, you know, all the proper mitigation techniques and the way that the, you know, the airflow works on the planes, everything looks good. But it's just being around that many people when I don't have to is the real reason why. Like, I don't have to be there. So just wait. Like, why? Why rush? I, I, I'm not in a rush. Put it that way. Would I love to go to three pen shows between now and the end of the year? Absolutely. Like, I miss being out there. I miss seeing all my friends. I miss talking to the vendors. I miss hanging out at the hotel. But I don't have to be there for my job, right? So, you know, can I do my job better if I was there? Maybe. But like, I don't have to be there. So I'm not going to force anything. So that's why right now I have no shows on the calendar for the remaining of the year. Or theoretically that could change. I kind of doubt it will. But I, I'm open to that changing. But I don't know that it will. And it's certainly not going to be before this summer. Like, I'm talking like September, October, or later if something works out. Like, I'm not anxious to go to San Fran or DC or to any of the shows earlier in the summer than that. I'm just not ready for that yet. Just because I don't have to. Like, I'm, I'm okay.

'''Myke:''' I, like you, right, would love to be able to do these things. To go and do them. I can't imagine being this year any kind of large gathering thing. Conference, Pen Show. I can't imagine doing that this year. Next year seems very likely. You know, like, I'm not vaccinated yet. I'm hoping that before the end of this month I will have booked my first jab. And so we'll be fully vaccinated. I don't know, in like a, you know, a couple of months from now. Because we, we do it like 12 weeks apart here. So, you know, by kind of the end of the summer I should be good. I just don't think that the world will be in a place kind of in 2021 to pull off one of these things with complete success. And, you know, and, and without fear of, of people getting sick. Like, and also just from a comfort level for people of getting back to normal. Like, I could imagine by the end of the year, say in most places in the US and a lot of places here in the UK or in, you know, other countries in the world. That you would be able to do something like this. And it wouldn't be too tricky. But, you know, you're inviting travel from all over the place to these types of events. And I just think that it's maybe just a bit of a push. Like, more of a push than is needed. I think that if we just give it the best part of six months from now. Maybe a little bit longer. Kind of into 2022. I just think that it makes more sense to wait.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. And to backtrack on my comments. I'm saying this as someone who is fully vaccinated. I'm at both shots and I'm past like the waiting period. Like, I'm done.

'''Myke:''' There's societal norms that need to come back, right? Yeah. It hasn't been an incredibly long time. But it's been a long enough time that we all kind of just need to re-acclimatize a little bit.

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, I think the rest of the questions surrounding this are actually more interesting. Like, do we think there'll be a change long term with pin shows, like, going into the future? You know, do you think people say, let's just scrap this year, right? Let's say next year. Do you think people are going to be hesitant? Do you think the pin show calendar is going to remain full and the attendees and vendors are all going to want to attend? What are your thoughts on that?

'''Myke:''' Because the long term is dependent on the medium term. So, in theory, in the long term, there's no reason why we can't return to pre-2020 events and stuff like that, right? Yeah. There's always been sicknesses and illnesses and even pandemics, right? Like, it's depending in different parts of the world, I've had more kind of experience of this than others. But this just becomes a part of our lives if we get booster shots for coronavirus like we do for the flu, right? Like, it will just become a thing that we do, right? And it's just when you get your flu jab, you may also get a coronavirus booster. And that's just the way that we deal with this now into the future, which seems very doable. Yeah. So, in theory, from my perspective, I'm not a scientist or a doctor, in the long term, I don't see why we couldn't return. But the long term, I think, is dependent on the medium term. Because if either A, there is something else that happens, some other kind of delay that pushes it further, right? Like, we could still be having a rocky period for a while. We don't know yet. You know, the last 18 months, things have changed so rapidly at points, you know, in ways that you never would have expected. So, anything like that could still happen. But there's also kind of, like, if in the medium term, people don't want to do these things because societal norm changes, or vendors decide not to go because they think there won't be much of a market, it could reduce the amount of pen shows that are feasible. And if that reduces, then the long term changes because the medium term was affected. So, that's what I think it is, right? Because, like, as a vendor, are you going to take a gamble on cost for the first one that you go to? Like, could you go back too soon and there won't be that much of a market? Or could you go back too soon and everything gets shut down? Or maybe there's, like, a boom opportunity for those that are first because consumer spending is up. So, it's hard to make that decision, right? But that's what I think the decisions that people make kind of late 2021, early 2022 in regards to this specific thing, I think will dictate what happens going on after that.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, and I think the vendors are the ones with the real questions, right? Even though, like, I've been a vendor at shows, I consider myself more of an attendee, right? Like, I don't have to necessarily do it as a vendor. So, like, attendees can make a much simpler calculation than vendors do. And I think that's where some of the challenges are going to lie. I think, you know, next year, I think we're going to hope. I mean, I'm knocking on wood. Hopefully, we have a pretty normal year. And when shows are back and, you know, if, you know, the pandemic issues have gone by the majority of the wayside, like, I think shows will be fine and vendors will be fine and it'll be an enjoyable experience. I think maybe overall, like, the short term, maybe not medium term, but, like, I could see, you know, the weekend visitors being a little bit less as opposed to, like, the day trippers, right? Where we've always said, if you can go, make it a weekend, you know, come in Thursday night or Friday morning and leave Sunday afternoon. You know, that might be a few less, but maybe that wasn't a huge number anyway. I don't know. That's just my thoughts. I think it'll get back to mostly normal next year is at least my hope and desire. So, you know, just the vendors, I think, have the biggest challenge just from a cost perspective.

'''Myke:''' Because there's a cost, right? There's costs in multiple ways. You've got to get there, but then you're also bringing all this stock and stuff. And, you know, it becomes, it's quite an expensive affair. You've got to hope that you'll make your money back. It's not really the cost of the table so much, I feel like. No, no, no. It's the other costs surrounding it. That's minuscule.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yep.

'''Myke:''' Yep. Yeah, and I don't know.

'''Brad:''' So, it's a good question. We'll keep addressing this probably through the year. We'll probably have this come up a few more times, especially once shows start to happen again. We'll get some reports from people who were there and what was it like. Yeah, I'm really. The changes that you saw.