Editing The Pen Addict 323/transcript (section)

== Plastic Pen Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And they would generally not last very long and they would be inconsistent. They were super weird. But man, I saw these. I was like, I need these. Like, I need these more than I need the orange sailor pens. Right. Just because it's got that nostalgia thing going for it. I don't know. I almost didn't put this in the show notes because I really don't have a lot to say about them, except it just brought back memories from me. Do you want me to order it for you? Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. All right. I'll do that. I'd like a set of these.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And, you know, it reminded me of when the Pentel Precise line first came out. They had like this really weird ivory barrel that I remember being one of the first pens I ever bought. I'd like to see those come back. They came back several years ago just for a minute, but you can't hardly find them anymore. But yeah, Pentel made some really interesting stuff like back in the 70s and in the 80s that were kind of office staples back then and they weren't that great. So they went away. But now they're kind of coming back and you have that little bit of a nostalgia thing going. So I don't know. I thought those were cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I will give these to you when I see you next because I'm going to load them for you right now. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Thank you. Brad, I want to give a massive thank you to everybody who signed up to be a RelayFM member. Our Lego adventure has been published and people have been checking it out. I am surprised that like we have had universal feedback that has been positive. People think that what we have done is a wild thing, which is true. And we knew that. But everyone seems to really have enjoyed it. Let's listen to it. I know a bunch of people that have checked it out. So many people have said to me like, this was just nice to have on in the background for a few hours. And there have even been a few wild people who have actually built the set to your instructions. Yeah. And there have been a couple that also got as confused as I did with certain parts. Right. So I wasn't completely wild. You really out there. If you've not heard this, you really want to get on board. So you can go to our show notes. There's a link in the show notes, which you can find in your podcast app or relay.fm slash penaddict slash 323, which is just a link that you can tap to become a RelayFM member. We'll send you an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. And you have access to our bonus special along with the many other bonus specials that we've been doing over the last couple of weeks. And there's still more amazing stuff to come. So thank you so much if you're a RelayFM member. Thank you for everyone who's checked out our special. And if you haven't done it already, stop sleeping on it because there's a lot of incredible stuff in that feed, including all of the stuff that we've done for member specials over the last three years. So there's a lot of really great content there for honestly a small amount of money. You can start your membership at $5 a month.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I re-listened to the entirety of the podcast. And so let me tell you the feelings I had about it. So I kicked it off and we know we get right into it from the beginning. About 10 or 15 minutes into it, I wanted to punch both of us. I was like raging. I was all tensed up. I was like, what are they doing? Oh, this is ridiculous. And they can't get anything right and they can't figure it out. And then, you know, like I got sucked into it. I was like, okay, this is how it's going to go. And then, I don't know, two hours into it, two and a half hours into it, we hit this wall where we have a serious problem. Yeah. And I'm like, oh no, are they going to finish? Like I was bought into like this story. I was like, wait a minute. You were there, you dummy. But it was like this serious point where it's like, it was like this total cliffhanger like of randomness where it's like, is this it? Is this the end? And then just, and then by the end, it was just like an elation type thing. And I was like, oh my God, that was pretty cool. We did it. So yeah, it was, it's a wild ride that you wouldn't even think. So I appreciate all the feedback on that. I think I counted four people building their own sets. I think that's what I've came up with so far, which is four more than I ever thought would happen. And people were yelling at me, then people would say, oh, I get it. I see what you're saying now. And it was fun. It's fun to get that feedback. So it was really cool. All right. So flipping that script, I wanted to give a shout out to our friend Joshua at the Pelican's Perch. He does some of the best work in the pen blogosphere. He's hyper-focused on the Pelican brand. And what he put out this past week with the infographic on the Pelican Classic and Suveron fountain pens was amazing. It's a monster work. That's like, amazing is underselling it. Yeah. What this is. I know a lot about fountain pens. And I learn a lot more every time I read Joshua's blog posts. And I'm always seeking that knowledge that, you know, real experts in their subject areas have. And Joshua is. And just looking at this post, I was fascinated. Like, I knew the numbering system, like the zeros, the numbers that end in zeros are the gold-plated trim and the ones with 05 or, you know, the chrome or palladium-plated. But I didn't know the M stood for the piston filling. Like, the M400 is the example that he uses, you know, primarily in this discussion. And that number in front determined the filling system or the type of refill that it took. Like, I never knew that. Because I always, like, everything that I've ever had from Pelican's an M, right? Because it's piston filler. Like, they came out with a cartridge fountain pen. I didn't even remember the name of it. Like, I've got one, but I don't even know what the name of it is. I figured it was probably just some M random number. I thought, you know, maybe M was fountain pen. But it's more specific than that. The information that he goes through in the individual breakdowns, just from the classic, like the classic versus the Suveron style, you can tell how the cap tops are done. You can tell how the band rings are done to differentiate them. You can see the fit and finish of each pen, how they're differentiated between each other. I can't tell you how useful this infographic is. And I don't know. I'm just astonished. And I just wanted to give him a shout out. I got to say hey to him at the DC pen show. I usually see him in DC every year and Baltimore. So it was cool seeing him. And he's always into something new from Pelican. So be sure you're following the Pelican's Perch. And we'll have a link in the show notes so you can make sure you are. And even if you're not interested in fountain pens or Pelican's as a brand, you should read this just from a knowledge perspective. It's fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, really incredible work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So bravo. Yep. Yep. Are you ready for this next topic, Myke? I don't know. Because I'm not sure I am. I definitely know you're not. No. Probably.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because this was on last week's episode, you just made an offhand reference to the Hobonichi Techo Festival beginning. And I was like, I have no idea what's going on.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I wanted to hold off talking about it last week to dig into it a little bit more. And I think I broke it down into at least the basics to help our listeners understand. But first of all, my first comment I put in here, don't you think this comes earlier every year? It feels like planner season for the following year gets earlier and earlier. It used to be seemed like October. Then it was September. And now I know these aren't launching until September, but there's such a buildup in August to get the 2019 stuff. It's like, didn't we just do this? It feels crazy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like all of the holidays, right? Like Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. They all seem to just become earlier and earlier every year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And the way Hobonichi's grown, the brand, it definitely seems like it's just getting earlier. Because this year they've done it even differently. And they're doing, like you said, the festival, but it's based around like special release dates for special goods. So let's look at this from the top down. And if anyone's interested in the Hobonichi as a planner for next year, know that it's not as overwhelming as it looks. The majority, if you go look at their product page, the majority of items on their page is accessories. So if you're interested in this and want to get one of their journals, you have about three basic choices, right? You have the A6 Techo. Then you have the A5 sized Cousin. And the other things that go a lot. There's subsets of these things. And then you have the Weekly, which is the very thin, basic one. They've done a good job. And we'll put some of the links in here. They have a Hobonichi Techo book buying guide. So they call what is commonly referred to as the Techo, which seems to be the most popular notebook, is the A6 size. They call it the planner. So this is the A6 size, one page per day. Then you go to the original, which you never hear about, because it's basically the Techo, but in Japanese. So some people will buy the original to have the Japanese.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is that you? Sometimes you buy it accidentally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did you buy that one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I have the Japanese version.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I bought the Cousin because I like the A5 size, and it only comes in Japanese, which I have no issue with. It's such a good planner.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, actually, no, it's in English, sorry. But I bought the wrong size. That's what happened. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. But I love mine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And then the Weeks is like the skinny, almost pocket-sized, like a shirt pocket-type, tall, skinny, vertical format. So it's really the A6 planner, the A5 Cousin, and then the thin Weeks, which is kind of like not even in consideration for what most people are going for here. What really gets Hobonichi's stuff confusing is the covers for their cases. There's like a thousand different colors of covers. And that's what the festival is doing, Myke. That's where these release dates, day one, day two, and day three, which are September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, they're basically cover releases. So as I was going through this, it looks like day one releases are most of your basic type of covers. You know, your solid colors, plastic or simple canvas covers, not a lot of designs other than basic simple designs. Day two gets into some of the character-specific or theme-specific covers with lots more patterns and colors and features and, you know, different types of things. And then day three gets into like specialty cases like leather or snap cases or weird materials and things like that. So don't let those, this release date thing really get you thrown for a loop. Figure out which case you want. I mean, figure out which notebook you want. And then if you want a case, figure out what day you should buy it. You kind of need to buy it in a reasonable time frame. Every year they've gotten better about having more products to not sell out so quickly. Like two years ago, they sold out some covers on the first day. I don't think that was really the case last year. So if there's a specific cover you want, you should buy it pretty early on in the process because it will sell out. They are limited. Right. Yeah.