Editing The Pen Addict 147/transcript (section)

== Field Notes ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I got my field notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, good. Let's hear about that. I didn't hear about... I didn't realize that. So tell me. This is the Two Rivers version.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. The Two Rivers. I've only gotten my subscription package so far. Not the extras that I bought. So I have more craft. Like I just have like a box full of them now. Because I renewed my subscription so they sent the craft. I wish there was a way. I might suggest this to them. To ask to not receive those. Yeah. We've talked about this before. When you resubscribe. Because I'm never going to use them. I already have. I have more field notes than I could ever use. And then I have the craft ones as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe they do it. Because then I'll give them away. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's what I do. I have a... I keep a stash that I give away. Like if I know if I'm going to meet somebody. To talk about something. Doesn't have to be pen stuff or whatever. Someone that's not really into this type of stuff. I'll always bring some extras. To give away. And those are perfect for that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're like the Candyman or something. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Definitely. First taste is free.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So yeah. I wish I didn't get as well. I really... These are just stunningly beautiful. Aren't they? They're just really, really, really beautiful.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think it's pretty much a knockout. This one. One of my favorites. One of my favorites in a while. For sure. I haven't put it to use yet. I've still got... I got about half of a day game. And then I'm going to go into one of these. Um...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think what I love most about them is you don't know what they say on them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. You have to like...

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's so hard to work it out. Like what they could possibly say on them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You can figure out like what's on physically letter pressed onto yours. But it's only partial of the whole print. Right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I do have one here which has a beautiful Hamilton Wood type printing museum logo right on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've seen a picture of one of those. Yeah. And I thought that looked really good. I don't have one of those. No. Not that I'm aware of. I hadn't opened them all. But... So the real question that Field Nuts want to know is how many yellow notebooks did you get?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't got any yellow. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. That seems to be the thing, Michael. The yellow are rare, right? See? Hey, you said it, not me. I'm not getting involved. But the Field Nuts always have to make something about it. Which color is more rare? So this is the conspiracy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm hoping that...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The conspiracy is the yellows are hard to find.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm hoping that in my net... You know that like the second package that I have, because I've got like three three-packs, I hope that I have nine yellow ones just so I can like lay them all down on a bed and lay on them and take a picture for the Field Nuts group, you know? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That'd be great. Well, good. I was interested in what your thoughts were going to be on that, because a lot of times we differ. I mean, we will... You know, me more strongly anti than you on some of the releases, but we definitely have different opinions on a lot of the releases. But this was an easy one. This was a really, really good release by them. So good job, Jim and Aaron and Brian.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I can't remember now when it was, but it came with my subscription came with a little card. And I think it said that the next is the most ambitious they've ever done.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They've been saying that for like a year now. Yeah, okay. But it could be true.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But they did say like this is a long time in the making.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, so we'll see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess they're all more and more ambitious than the last, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, just like this one was a long time in the making. Like that video with Aaron and the gentleman from Hamilton was shot in July 2014. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a big project that they've got and they do a good job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, did you see those Loot Crate ones?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I was going to put that in the show notes. I thought that was pretty cool. The confidential thing, you know, that throws it back to like when I was a kid. You know, when you were a kid, you always wanted that private notebook, right? That's what I think of when I see those. Like either like a spy thing or like a super personal thing. You know, you would either you'd get your notebook when you're a kid and you just write confidential and private and all these things on there. So I thought it was cool that they did that for Loot Crate. And then they had like the what do you call it? Like the tape, the yellow police tape kind of looking thing on there. They have good designers. They do a good job. I'm assuming Aaron is involved in that. But their design work is really good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Should we take a second break? Yeah, let's do that. Talk about the new stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Let's do that. This week's episode is also brought to you by MassDrop, an online community for enthusiasts of all kinds. From audio and electronics to quilting and cooking, it's a place for you to connect with people like you to discuss your favorite products and activities and buy them together. MassDrop represents a new type of online experience that combines community, content and commerce. MassDrop offers its users a place where they can meet and connect over the products that they love. A forum where you can vote on and discuss the products you're passionate about. And a platform to connect directly with manufacturers and buy products together to get bulk pricing. They're not a flash deals website. They're not a flash sale website. They're not like a site like Groupon. The thing that is most important to the people over at MassDrop is that they want to build communities around things that people love because that is what they are passionate about. Ultimately, they're here to help you by making the products you care about affordable and accessible and provide you with a platform to connect with other like-minded enthusiasts. I know that GroupBuy is something that's super important to people in the Pen community. Some of the stuff that we want to spend our money on can be a bit expensive and buying in bulk can help make that a bit easier. And this is where a service like MassDrop that can help facilitate these types of things is actually something that's really cool for all of us. I've checked it out myself over time. Brad's going to, in a minute, mention some stuff that he's seen recently. But they have brands like Pelican, Franklin Kristoff. They have like 20-30% of brands like that. We spoke about Lamy last week. Brad, what have you seen when poking around on MassDrop?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they surprised me at the depth they get into some of the brands, like things I wouldn't expect to appear on the site show up. And I saw a note that they had the County Comm Embassy pin pop up on the site. And I was like, really? That surprises me just because it's not a very big brand. I mean, I talk about it. I've talked about it a lot in the past. I think it's an awesome pin. I really, really love mine. And they have it up there right now. And it's 43 bucks. And, I mean, I think they regular retail for like $55 or $59. It's a really good pin. I mean, it fits the Parker-style refills. I use it when I travel. I usually throw it in my backpack and put the Fisher Space pin in it. And I use it all the time for that type of thing. It'd be good to keep in the car. But I was just surprised to see not like just a tier one brand, you know, like Pilot or, you know, Uniball or whatever. Those types of products on there. They're really getting down into the products that the community is interested in. Like they say on their product page, they say drops chosen by the writing community. So between the different polls that they have and people suggesting products they should carry, you know, the County Comm Embassy pin ended up trickling to the top. And they worked it out to where they could get it in. Then they also have great stuff like the Retract from our friends at Karis Customs. I mean, for $35 for the Retract. I mean, that's kind of a no-brainer. And they carry things like that. So it's really interesting to see. And I'm just kind of getting into the whole Mass Drop thing. And it's interesting to see the products that pop up from time to time. And it's really good stuff. It's just not the regular stuff you see every day. And they've done a really good job at finding the right products for the community. And I think that's a good thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is something, as Braz mentioned, it's totally worth checking out. This is the right type of thing for people like us. If you want to find out more, go to dro.ps slash thepenaddict and sign up right now. Thank you so much to Mass Drop for once again supporting this show and RelayFM. Awesome.