Editing The Pen Addict 540/transcript (section)

== Digital writing systems from Lamy and Moleskine ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Kim asks, have you seen this digital writing thing from Lamy? It looks similar to digital writing systems that companies like Moleskine offers, doesn't it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We have seen it. We've talked about it on the show. I am completely enamored by these every time they come out. I don't know what your thoughts are, Myke. Do you immediately dismiss these type of tools based on history? Or, like me, I am like, yes, I hope this one works, even though I know it won't.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, so this is like a Lamy Safari digital pen, which can, you know, as you write, can make a digital version of the notes. But the thing that always happens to me, I always get this slight excitement. And then I continue going through it and read that it has to be paired with a specific notebook. That's where it always falls down for me. It's like you need the pen and the notebook combo. And that's where it's like, yeah, that's kind of where it ends for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and you're pretty much stuck with those refills, right? It's a singular unit. It's basically, my conclusion with these is always, I love this. I want this so badly to work. It would just be lighting $200 on fire every time. Yeah. But because it would last, I would be so over it within a week that I just, you know, the lack of variety, like, you know, the fixed, all the fixed systems that you have to be a part of. Despite the fact that it looks cool, the idea is amazing, right? I want this to be amazing. And, like, it would be collecting dust within the span of a week, right? So, it's like, I want this to work. Like, I really, really do. And, like, technically, I'm sure it does. But I am not a stationary monogamist, as we have talked about. It's like, this can't be just the thing that I use all the time. I would be bored to death, you know, just in the way I write things, even though, like, I fully support, like, the capturing type of system that this is. So, yeah. Like, I love it. I could never, I would never be happy using it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And R. Windell asks, I'm in the market for a new planner, and I really like the Hobonichi Cousin layout with months, weeks, and days. But is there something similar without all the inspirational quotes, time tracking, moon phases, and the general ephemera?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This question is like the, hey, can I get a notebook cover with the pens? Except this one's a little bit closer to solvable, right? There's a little bit more options, a little bit more freedom in there. So, I was digging around. What R. Windell wants to look for is a daily planner, right? So, that's where you're going to start your search when you're, you know, Googling or looking on sites. Because when you say you want to lay out with months, weeks, and days, those are daily planners, right? So, they'll name the products as the primary core feature. So, if they say it's a daily planner, that means you're probably going to have one page per day. Right? If you have a weekly planner, you're not going to have those one page per days. You're going to have like one week per two pages or something like that, right? So, you want to Google or search on these sites for a daily planner. So, there's a couple. The first one that I thought of was the Steyology. So, the Steyology 365 Days is super popular. It's super open while keeping a little bit of organization date tracking. Like you basically like have the dates across the top of the page. There's not a lot of additional calendaring in there, right? You may not get your monthly and your weekly spreads in there. But if you're just looking for the daily calendar and you just basically has the dates across the top of the page, it is extremely popular just for that, right? For a planner. Some people just use them not even as a planner. It's just like a really good notebook. But it does have those options. That's the simplest one. Kind of somewhere in the middle, maybe more of what you're thinking about is the Midori MD Diary.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, it has a one day. Midori makes a one day one page planner, which is like the description I was talking about. This is a really popular one as well. I have some particular issues with this one as far as layout goes. But some people love it. So, the way it's designed, there is a lot of white space around the edges of the page. And that's done purposefully for you. So, like there's a little bit of organization areas on the day page, like some lines. And then there's like blank. Like it's kind of like a half and half type of layout. I personally, I think I would have a little bit of a challenge using it that way. But it might work for you, right? It's at least that one page per day type of setup. But for all things that Midori does, I thought this was a little bit of a weird design. They've been doing it for a couple years though. And I know people do like this one a lot. Another one to mention is this one kind of goes into more detail. This is probably closer to the Hobonichi. This might be the closest to the answer, in fact. But it actually goes, what you lose in like the quotes and those types of things, you actually gain in like obsessiveness over like time blocking. The Kokuyo Jibo and Techo Days Diary, right? So you can, you know, you see like a lot of time breakdowns, a lot of different things breakdowns. But it's probably closest to Hobonichi in the layout, you know, month, week, day. But it takes day to like the nth degree. Like it takes day to like hour to minute to things like that. So like there's a balance there. So those are like three kind of, you know, lightweight, medium weight, heavyweight planning type of situations. And then you could always look at Leuchtturm. I think they have some, just some one page per day planners, but I didn't totally look at those. But I think they generally do a good job as well. So I'd throw in Leuchtturm there as well. But look for daily, daily planners and go from there. And that's going to be what you want. That's not, that's not the most popular category. So you don't have a ton of options out there. So hopefully those few at least give you some ideas.

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'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, next question comes from Eric. So, I'm loving my new Y Studio with its medium nib. But after some conversations with a friend who's big on stubs, I just got a Sailor Pro give a music nib. This has me wondering, how do I get a Sailor Zoom nib on my Y Studio?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Probably with like, you know, welding tools and some other things. Yeah, much difficulty. You don't, basically, right? So, this is a great question because it gives us the opportunity to discuss nibs. And like, we won't be able to do it justice in the time we have. We wouldn't be able to do it justice in several episodes back to back to back. But just not all nibs are interchangeable, right? So, different companies make different nibs. Companies like Sailor make their own nibs, right? So, they have their own proprietary shape, their own feeds and housings and collars that work together with the nib to make the ink flow the best possible for Sailor's pens. Y Studio uses Schmidt nibs. So, they have their own Schmidt nibs, Schmidt feeds, Schmidt collars, Schmidt housings. And you can't just swap one nib from one maker into another maker's, you know, feed and nib hardware. Sometimes you can. Every now and then, there are, hey, this is a close match. And people will be able to slot in those things. Most of the time, it involves some, you know, some warranty voiding, frankensteining of things to make them work. And then, that's even questionable if they will work. So, what I will tell you is with the Y Studio medium nib, you can get it modified. You can get, like, the nib ground to write differently. You can't really get the full-on tip sizing and wetness of the large tipping Sailor Music nib. But you could get a sub nib grind on your Y Studio and it would change the writing performance. And that would be cheaper than buying a Sailor Music nib to fit into the Y Studio. So, I would look at getting it modified. You know, that's really the main thing you can do. There are some nibs that fit into the Y Studios. I would have to check. Honestly, I would have to check and see if the Yovo's fit those Schmidt housings. So, the Yovo's fit the number five Schmidt housings. So, depending on what Y Studio you have, if you have one with a number five nib, I don't know if you can get a Yovo number five stub nib to swap in there. Schmidt actually might make one. I'm thinking about this out loud. So, basically, you would have to get a Schmidt or Yovo nib if it's a number five sized nib in your Y Studio. I think they do make some pens with a number six size nib, like the desk pen and things like that. So, these nibs aren't hot swappable, unfortunately, for you, Eric. But there are options to make your writing experience more similar to the Sailor Music nib. And I would look at getting a stub grind on that nib first. That would be the easiest and best thing and probably the most enjoyable end result, to be quite honest. I think you would like that very much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Brian asks... This is a fun one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Historical question right here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, my God. I'm listening to Myke's Arushi Platinum drama knowing COVID is around the corner for their timeline and it's killing me. Don't spoil the end of the story for me. Also, it took about a year to get through 365 episodes. I'm on 375 now. So, a question for you guys. I think there's three questions here, really.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. We can knock them all out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And eventually, Brian will get to this episode, I suppose. If not already there by the time he hears this, who knows?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, probably not. This isn't that old of a question. Maybe only like a month ago.