Editing The Pen Addict 557/transcript (section)

== Theme system journal and writing habits ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' It's been interesting for me, actually. Like I have with the theme system journal, I felt like a lot of people were writing about it, but I haven't really seen so many things with the sidekick notepad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So this was cool. So I really like the mixture of writing at writing at large because it can go from just some like real personal detail stuff to product reviews, like a moleskin review. It can go to, Hey, I'm taking this trip and here's all the sketch notes. It could be, I'm riding the bus today. Here's all the artwork I wrote. And I really, really love all the content. I love the perspective and I love no far for, for writing, writing at large.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm skimming this review now. Can I provide a correction? This is something when you said the full specs aren't stated on the page. They are, they're on the website. Like on the product page, there's a size box and it has the inches. You're just lying right now. I'm not lying. Lots of people have said this, right? So I'm not like throwing specific shade, but it's like, you know, Comp Bureau's clothing. So it can be complicated to make it clear, but there is a size box and it has the sizes in inches when I'm, which I'm not super happy about. I wish it was in centimeters, but I'm not going to be, I'm not going to ask them to change that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Way to go. Way to go. So anyway, writing at large, long to eight years, eight years running. So keep it going no far. I appreciate all the work you do. All right, Myke, it is Wednesday as we record this on Friday. On Friday, I will be hopping in a car, driving North a couple of hours to the Atlanta pen show. It is one of my favorite shows to go to every year because it's one local ish to it has some of the most, I don't know, important moments to me in my growth as not just like a consumer of fountain pens and learning about fountain pens and learning about pen shows. But then we got to do things like launch knock there, right? Our first retail show for knock was there. Our first in-person podcast was there at with you and I, and we've done how many times there? Four, maybe? Something like that. Something like, yeah. Four in-person events where you fly from England over to Atlanta and we do a podcast. We're not doing that this year, so don't think I'm getting ready to tease that or test that. We would have told you a long time ago if that was happening. So yeah, this whole, this show holds a special place in my heart. I am looking forward to seeing all my friends in Atlanta. I'm looking forward to see Jimmy, who I actually see at other pen shows. I just saw him in Baltimore. He wanted to know if we were interested in doing a podcast. I said, no, we're good. We don't have the time this year. That was like three weeks ago. I was like, yeah, well, that's not going to work this year. But if we ever do it again, we would love to come back to Atlanta.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We will. It's very fun. We will do it again. I know we'll do it again. It's just about when.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, you know what works for Atlanta is the time of year for both of us. Yes. It's like generally in a great spot where there's not a lot going on in our other parts of our lives, right? Yeah. So it's traditionally been one of the easier travel shows. And like it's we've had a lot of international visitors come to the Atlanta pen show because of the hub that the Atlanta airport is like it's easy to get to. Even though it's a long trip, it's still like convenient. You're not often having to hop all over the world to get here. So the show's at the same hotel it's been in for, I don't know, more than a decade. One of the cool things that I like about this show is if you buy the weekend pass, the show promoter, Jimmy Doluff, puts on a cookout on the Friday night. It's not just for vendors. It's for attendees. You know, if you're a weekend pass holder, you get to go to this cookout. And I mean, what, there's usually like 100 people. Like he feeds a lot of people. He feeds a lot of people. And, you know, you hope the weather's good and you can sit outside and have some nice areas to sit out around the hotel pool and things like that. So it's fun. And then the show itself, like it's not quite as big as somewhere like Baltimore that I just came back from. And it's a little bit more broken up into like a large, medium, and small, like three rooms, large, medium, and small. But they're all like very connected. And so it's fun to walk around. It's fun to see some people that come to this show that don't get around to some of the other shows. It's a fun hang just there at the hotel until they kick us out too early from the bar, which is the long running joke at the Atlanta Pen Show. It has one of the best on-site restaurants in the Waffle House that is literally attached to the hotel, which is great. You just walk out the hotel door and walk into the Waffle House. It's kind of fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They have all the stuff across the street that, well, I mean, I don't know if it's still there. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it used to be even worse for food, but now there's like a pizza place and a brew pub across the street. And there's a sushi place and now a Starbucks. So like it is kind of this area has kind of grown around the hotel. So I'm anxious to get up to it this year and spend some time. I'm going to go up Friday afternoon. So I'll be there after lunch Friday, hang out all Friday night. Just I'm going to kind of do the same thing I did in Baltimore where I just spend my Friday talking to people, hanging out. Then I will go Saturday. I'll wake up Saturday and I will hit the show hard. Like we'll be shopping, looking around at products, doing all of that stuff, you know, getting to to see what all the new products are out. See a lot of makers there, including some makers that just come to this show. Right. That don't necessarily get out to like San Francisco or Baltimore or St. Louis or things like that. So I'll spend a lot of that time Saturday, hang out Saturday night and then get up and head home Sunday morning. So that's a very easy thing for me to do. I have not sweated packing for this. It's like I will literally throw some clothes in a duffel bag and like go on Friday. Like there's nothing to worry about for the show. I'm extremely not anxious about this where Baltimore, like I get anxious about packing. I'm like, all right, I got to pack all my stuff because I'm flying and make sure I have my backpack set correctly and this and that. This I will just throw it in the back of my car and go. Like it does not matter. So I'm very excited for this. It is one of the more comfortable shows I go to. It's the right size, the right feel. Also have just like, like I said, the long term history with it. Like I'm comfortable going there because I've been there, you know, for 10 years probably at this point. Um, so yeah, like I don't have a shopping list per se, um, to, to check out. I always end up looking at some of the maker pens, right? You can't really have a shopping list. Like if I'm gonna go look at Brad from mythic pens who shout out just had, uh, his meet your maker article on the pen addict this week. If we can put that in the show notes, that would be great. So I'll get to hang out with Brad for a minute and see what he's up to and see some of the new things. Right. So I can't really make a shopping list other than, Hey, I know I'm going to go talk to Brad at mythic pens. Right. And then, you know, see what other makers are there, what they're making for the show. Um, you know, hopefully Ryan Kruzak is there. He wasn't in Baltimore. So he is someone I always get to see at the Atlanta pen show. So that'll be fun. And then get to, to hang out with the vendors that I've known forever, like, you know, Van S pens and drum goals and, and all of these people. So very excited next week. We will do a recap of the Atlanta pen show. See how it goes. I expect it to go extremely smooth because the show is not difficult, right? It is not difficult. Um, it's the right size, the right people, the right crowds, and just easy to get around. Um, easy to hang out at the hotel. So, yeah, I expect nothing but a good chill time at the Atlanta pen show. If you were there, don't hesitate to say hi to me. Like, uh, I'll, I'll be hanging out and just chilling. If you need help at the pen show, a lot of people came up to me in Baltimore, which I love and say, Hey, can you help me with this? And then we would go, we would go bounce around and I would help them figure out the things that they're trying to figure out. And I literally love doing that. That's my favorite thing to do at a show is helping other people out who have questions at the show. So don't hesitate. I'm the guy with the pointy hair. Um, you can find me. Uh, you probably know what I look like. So don't hesitate to interrupt me, ask, butt in. Um, and I, I will sign, uh, any autographs in a very neat and, uh,

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess everybody else can sign something. And I want pictures, long lines.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I signed two in Baltimore. So yeah, that's the over under this weekend too. So it's, I, I'm ready. I'm ready to go.