Editing The Pen Addict 284/transcript (section)

== Ink Properties ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They don't make it, they don't make it easy for us to tell people what that ink is.

'''Ana Reinert:''' And then for the notebook, I chose the Musubi notebooks, which are ridiculously expensive. But, um, if you're talking hardcore, that's the way to go. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That is hardcore. Myke, did we talk about these when I came back from San Francisco? Did we talk about that in the show recap? I can't remember if you're familiar with them or not, but they're these fantastic, fantastic, uh, we did handmade. We did talk about these. Yeah. They're about, about $80 each or something like that, but just stunning notebooks. And I think that's an awesome choice for the heart hardcore. And what's funny is the ink you picked for the, the first thing you picked on a for the platinum is the number two in a soft fine. Uh, that's my exact setup for my platinum. So I, uh, I definitely approve of that message. So Myke, what did, what did you pick for the hardcore?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I kind of lay a pen, kind of fountain pen, any, um, whatever it is that speaks to you or the person, uh, aesthetically. I don't know if they do this, but can a layer should do a gift card. Uh, that's my, what I recommend to you and Carol, because I think you really have to choose one. And if you want to buy a gift for someone like it's the choice is difficult, but, uh, because they're so, they're all so wonderful, but can a layer pen, co fountain pen, and a seven seals, seven seas cross field notebook. Um, I think by and large, probably the best notebook I've ever owned. Uh, the, it's, you know, the Tomo, a rubber paper in a format, which isn't constricting to a specific way of using the notebook. Uh, it's beautifully bound. Um, I absolutely adore it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think that's a great call. I love, I mean, I love those pens, love that notebook. I think that's a perfect setup for the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The hardcore control. Yeah. We're currently up to 39 links in the show notes. So I think we're halfway done. That's how this episode is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So it's a, it's once a year special. And I think, you know, all, everyone is my favorite. All these questions are my favorite. I think this question was my super favorite because I was like, Whoa, when I got it. So John Benyon, great guy. I met him out in San Francisco. Wonderful, wonderful guy says, I've got 19 nieces and nephews between three months and 16 years old. I'd love to hear some recommendations for gifts for young writers. He says, okay, you really don't have to recommend something for the three month old, but the point stands. He has a lot of youngsters. He wants to get into writing. So Anna, I'm glad you get to go first on this one.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Okay. Well, this one was very easy for me. One, one, I work with lots of people with lots of kids and two, one of the companies associated with the company I work for is Crayola. So I'm plugging the firm. That's right. Crayola makes lots of wonderful writing and drawing tools. And most of them are non-toxic and designed for all of the favorite kids in your life. So, and lots of my coworkers were like, Oh yes, let me tell you this one and this one and this one and this one. Oh, for kids who are just learning to write, you really want the egg shaped ones. If they're already writing, you want the triangular shaped ones. For your older kids, you want the metallic ones. You want the markers. I'm like, they were literally like, they were talking so fast. I couldn't write them down fast enough. So, um, Crayola has what you need. That said, um, there were also other recommendations. Um, one of the things that people recommended was a Magna Doodle, uh, for kids to draw in the car. Um, I have a question for you both. Sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Were there any, do you know of any Magna Doodle ads that were set to the tune of, uh, Yankee Doodle?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This was a thing when I was a kid. Really? Uh, the Magna Doodle, uh, ad is, is set, is set to the song. I think it's Yankee Doodle, right? Like, that one, right? This was an ad. It ran for most of my childhood. Um, and I'll put a link in the show notes. So whenever I, I mean, I had a Magna Doodle and that was the song. Everyone knew the song. It was the Magna Doodle song. Um, so there you go. That was the thing that happened to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know that we had that, uh, in the U S because I definitely had a Magna Doodle, but I don't remember being brainwashed like that. Oh, a hundred percent. And like that song is just so sticky.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, crazy.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Um, but I did actually go to our, um, Hallmark store yesterday to just, check and see what all was currently available. And they even have like laser cut, um, wood pieces that can be like for older kids that can be, uh, like punched out and then, uh, colored with like markers, um, that they had for the holidays. So you could like make them like nativity scenes and things like that. So some really cool, interesting things that are out from Crayola. Um, and then the last thing that came up was a Pantone colors board book for kids. I want this. It was so cool, but for kids as young as six months old, so not quite three months, but I got really close.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like I I'm a kid. I want this book. Like, yeah, that's a, that's a cool book. One of my coworkers said,

'''Ana Reinert:''' um, yeah, she said she got it for her son when he was about six months old. And she said, he's like three and he still likes looking at it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's very cool. All right, Myke, what you got? 19 nieces and nephews.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't got an individual product for each of them, but I, I split this into two parts. I went back to my childhood and then looking at what's available now that we've seen for younger writers. So I also went with Crayola, um, Crayola crayons. I mean, I was raised on Crayola crayons, right? Like that was just a thing. Everybody has them. Um, I also went with the, uh, B roll, B roll fine liner, B E R O L. Yeah. Of a certain age, especially in the UK, uh, you know, this pen, because this was the pen that you learned to write with. This was the pen. It was in all of the schools. It was everywhere. And you know what? They're great. Like they are great. They're like those plastic tip pens, right? Yeah. And they are, and have always been just like a joy, uh, to write with. So like the barrel fine liner and the barrel handwriting pen, especially, especially the handwriting pen, which was the red one. The final liner was the blue one, but both of those are awesome. Um, and I mean, I would recommend people still buy them today because there's so much fun to use. I would also then, I guess if we're looking at like, uh, stuff for today, like what's going on today, um, I would probably also recommend the Lamy ABC and the pilot cocoon, maybe for the, for the older ones in that group.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Very cool. So I chose one company that we've already mentioned. And I thought the story supply notebooks would make a great gift for any of the kids, you know, buy them in a three pack. You can split them up, give them one notebook each, and then, you know, have different writing tools for each group. I went with colored pencils over crayons. Sorry, Anna.

'''Ana Reinert:''' No, that's okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, although, although I don't have a particular brand of colored pencil, that's kind of your forte. What's, what's kind of the best kind of like easy to get brand of colored pencil? Um,

'''Ana Reinert:''' Crayola does make colored pencils.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Well, there you go there. That's what we'll go with. Cause I, I use this, uh, Statler set that was giving to me and, uh, I can't find it anymore to recommend it. But then I also like, like your fineliners, Myke, I like the Stabilo 88 markers. They're like a fineliner type marker. They're very inexpensive and come in like a huge range of colors. The zebra Saracic clip comes in scented pens for the younger kids or character pens. I know they're starting to do some peanut stuff. Um, just a good writing pen, like the Uniball Signo DX or secure Pigma Microns for the older kids or a Jetstream multi pen, you know, something to go along with that as the age gets older, maybe that's what they, uh, they want. And then you can get some very inexpensive, just your basic pen pouch that could fit like the notebook and two or three of these pens or pencils in there. Um, I don't have a specific recommendation, but you could find those at any store or Etsy or anywhere like that. Just find some very, you know, two, $3, uh, pen pouches to put it all in as a kit. So I think that would be cool. So that was an awesome question. So this next one, I'm going to go with, uh, Jane at the tiny badge. This one, I had an absolute challenge with, and I thought about it and thought about it and I'm still not happy with my answer yet. So, and I get to go first. So I get to jump off the ledge. So Jane wants to know how about secret Santa gifts for coworkers? I thought this would be easy and I had a difficult time. And the thing I put in there is a very cool product. Like I want this product for me, but I don't know if it fits the coworker description of, you know, what type of industry Jane's in. Like I put the VR co vintage collection dozen pencils. Like if I was in a, you know, at the, uh, CW pencils coworkers, you know, secret Santa party, you know, I'd be pretty stoked to get the VR co vintage collection, but how do I approach that in a broader perspective? Did you have any good ideas, Anna?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Um, I think I kind of, I'm going to lead off what kind of Myke's idea was too, but, um, things like the animal shaped, uh, paper clips, you know, like these are sort of like the $5 and under sort of gifts. Um, but like the, um, jet pens has those, the donut shaped tape dispenser, um, washi tape, novelty erasers that these are like the little gifts that you would like leave on somebody's office chair, like that, you know, right. Kind of dopey little gifts. Like, cause I think, I always think of secret Santa gifts as things that are not, um, super expensive. Um, and like that, you would find, right. That you might leave them. And that could kind of be something that might be in their interests. Like if you know that somebody really likes dogs, you could get the dog novelty erasers and leave those on their chair or, you know, like that kind of, I'm assuming this is like an office environment or educational environment or something like that, where you might leave them in their mailbox, you know, or something like that. So something small, something that's super expensive. Um, you'd leave it with, you know, like a bag of candy or something like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So there you go.

'''Ana Reinert:''' That was the best I came up with.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know it was hard.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was hard. Did you have any suggestions, Myke? No, just like what I was saying, I would basically just say, just read the interesting and wonderful Japanese stationary that Japans offers. Like, yeah, it's just a bunch of weird and wonderful stuff on there. Just spend some time poking around and you'll find some weird, brilliant gifts, like stuff that I don't even think you really even need to know somebody very well to buy them. Like if you want to buy them like a tape dispenser that shaped like a pumpkin, right? Like they have that. And I just think it's just a funny thing to buy somebody. So go for it.