Editing The Pen Addict 728/transcript (section)

== Stationery ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' class, right? Yep. Yeah. So, so my wife's not into stationary at all. Like she literally bought nothing the whole time. I don't know how that happens. We tried, we tried to get her into a certain notebook. We'll talk about in a minute. What's it going to take to get you into?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I found a matcha class that she was excited to take. I was like, you know, Thursday, I knew she would be tied up just walking with us and doing things. I was so lucky to have her there to take pictures because I took almost none. That's how busy I was this entire event. And then Friday, I was like, oh, she's going to be losing her mind by this point. So let me look on class to see if there's anything like she would do like watercoloring. She would do like any of the artistic classes. But then I found one where one of the matcha vendors there who was actually selling there was teaching, you know, a matcha class and they got to make like a traditional matcha tea drink. And then they got to make a matcha latte. It was like an hour and a half class. She had the best time. So she really liked that. So shout out Kettle who ran that class. They were also selling matcha there. It was great. It was great. All right. Should we take a break? Let's take a break.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Factor. Summer is in full swing. And you know what that means? Travel. We all know about travel here. Travel affects your eating, right? Whether you're, I mean, for me right now, we're coming back. It's I'm too tired to cook with jet lag. And so it can be very easy to slip into bad habits in times like this. But the good news is Factor makes it super easy to get back on track because Factor makes chef crafted dietitian designed ready to eat meals. So you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and not the things that don't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. Every week you'll find over 100 nutrient dense menu items to choose from and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens, more. Plus add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. 97% of users agree that Factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal. Brad, would you agree with that statement? Are you in that 97%?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was going to say 100%. Yeah, that's accurate. Accurate statement. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I love Factor in that I can just kind of like pick something out nice and go and not have to worry about like reading the labels or like what's crazy in here and I know it's going to be good and I know it's going to be healthy. And it's great for these times of years when I'm even more busy, like even if I'm out of town, like I don't have to have the meals, you know, coming when I'm out of town, but I can pick it back up when I get back and, you know, get back into having these excellent meals. So we gotta, we gotta get that next order in for Factor for me, which might be this week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, if you want to get an order of your own and you want to eat real, go to factormeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October the 31st, 2026. That's the code penaddict50off at F-A-C-T-O-R-M-E-A-L-S.com. Penaddict50off at factormeals.com. Our thanks to Factor. Please see the website for details. Thank you for their support of this show and all of Relay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wonderful. Should we do our shout out of the week, Myke? Shout out of the week. Lamy. This is a weird shout out. It's like, I don't, y'all know I don't need to shout out Lamy. I love them. I'm shouting out, shouting them out. Not out of love this week, Myke. There is a new LX on the market, the Lamy LX Blue. If you're not familiar with the LX, this one came out at the heyday, Myke, you'll remember this, of the, what the, when Apple was doing the champagne, silver, and black pens. Oh my God. Yeah. And then the LX came out, like, oh, I think it was millennial pink. I think it was the millennial pink era, right? Where that was like the super popular color. So they did like the three matching pens to like the Apple phone colors that year. So they haven't done many more. They've done one or two more since then. They always look so good. Right. And this one is just called blue and it's gorgeous. But my problem is, and I didn't really have anywhere to put this in this week's episode. So I put a bit in the shout out is that the LX is just a glorified all-star, but they charge 60%, at least 60% more for almost nothing, right? A couple of trim changes. And that's where I like, I have a real issue with the LX. The argument I could have is that the all-star should be priced like the LX to begin with. I don't want to put that idea in their heads. The argument I could have is that the all-star is too

'''Myke Hurley:''' cheap. Why'd you say it? Why'd you say it? Like I wouldn't, like if the all-star was this price,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would go, ah, that sounds about right. But the LX. What is different between the LX and the all-star? So they have like maybe like metal finials as opposed to like the plastic. And they do just a little, they do the, um, you've seen instead of just the black nib, they'll do the black nib with like that gold kind of like line on it. Right. Yeah. But it's still a steel nib. It's a good looking. It's so it's just slightly visual. It's like a trim package on a car, right? It's, it's the next level trim package, but you pay so much more for that. Right. And that's, that's exactly what it is. It's such an outrageous, it's still, it's like a $60 pen or a $55. I don't even know what it is. It's like around there. And like, that's totally fair for that pen, but the all-star is $37. And then that's, that's something I can't like get over in my head. Like it's something I get really, really hung up on when they release new LXs is like your, your like the trim package. It's still the same engine, right? Like nothing's changing. Still the same engine. It's going to write the same. Uh, you could say that a lot about a lot of pens. A lot of it is trim package, but anyway, that's my Lamy LX rant. Um, yeah, not my favorite Lamy only because of price, but man, it's, it's so nice. It's, it's great looking. This blue one looks great. All right. Speaking of pens, Myke, let's hit some shopping. Let's hit some shopping. Um, so I wanted to do this related to like what we talked about in the preview. Like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' did you do any of that stuff? So what you got? Yeah. So I like the way that you structured this. Um, so I wanted to find a commonplace book, right? That was my number one thing. And I think something I hadn't really shared is like one of the, the main reasons I want this book is for, the new podcast that I'm doing designed in California, because I, I come across all these interesting thoughts and quotes and stuff like that from the work that we're doing with research and reading and stuff like that. And I wanted a place to keep that. Like, that's kind of like the main reason I want this book. And I was spending a lot of time thinking, and we're talking about on the show, like what would work for me. And, um, you mentioned you, you recorded a, how do you say it? Like, Techo Kaigi. Techo Kaigi. Techo Kaigi. With Yoseka, which is basically, let's review all of the notebooks I'm using. Yeah. Right. I think it officially translate to like

'''Brad Dowdy:''' notebook meeting. Yeah. Where you like get all your notebooks and you decide what's working,

'''Myke Hurley:''' what's not. It's like, yeah. And, but this really feels like a show and tell kind of thing. Yes. And you spent a lot of time talking about your plotters and the things that you do and the papers that you add is really fascinating. And hearing you talk about that, I was like, ah, I think what I want is a plotter. And the reason this settled for me is I wanted something small that I could put into my bag and have it with me all the time. I didn't want it to be a heavy notebook for that reason. So the idea of having a notebook where I can actually choose how much paper I want to be in it was enticing. I liked the idea that I could essentially use any paper in it eventually. Right. Because there's always a problem with me for plotter is like, I actually technically can't buy the refills. Yeah. I would have to have maybe, you know, you buy them and send them to me or something like that. Right. So the idea that I could really just get any paper and hole punch it, which is what you do for yours, that was enticing. But then also the thought of like, what I would like to do is if, if I really get into this in the way that I want to, the way that we produce this show is in seasons. And I like the idea of like filing away each season when I'm done with it. So like, yeah, actually taking the pages out of the plotter and kind of filing them. And because also we are going to be returning to topics over time. And I like the idea that I could go back to the pages that I had on a certain topic, bring those back into the plotter and then add to it. So that kind of like, it feels like a nice system. Also the plot is just beautiful. Everything is fantastic. Yeah. So I have a plotter. Yay. The personal size, which is what is it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like a little, it's like around, it's like a little less than a five, like five by closer to like a five by seven profile, but I think the page is even slightly smaller. Yeah. And I got it in blue

'''Myke Hurley:''' and just the, uh, like, I thought you got, I thought you got green. I got green. Uh, I got green. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're right. Mine's blue. Mine's blue. You were handling that a lot. So yes. Uh, you have the new,

'''Myke Hurley:''' you got one of the new colors. It's so good. Uh, and I got a couple of the dot grid inserts and like, um, pen, I got a pen loop and also they have like a strap thing. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, I got, I, I wouldn't say it's, it is, I did not get a, by design, like a complicated one. Like I know you can really get a lot of stuff going on, like wallets and all those kinds of things. I don't think I want any of that for right now. Uh, but yeah, that is where I have landed is on a plotter. And I look forward to feeding back on this over time and like how it's going to work for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The more you talked about your intended use for this, the more clear it was that this was the right solution for that. Um, and then it doesn't hurt that it's just a freaking gorgeous object. Like I just love holding it. Right. And I think the size I think is my favorite thing aside from like the beauty and the functionality of it. The size is like the Goldilocks size for not too big, not too small, just right. It's very portable. Um, it's very easy to use. Um, you have plenty of space to write and then you can just, you know, move pages around as you need. And yeah, it's just, it, it works for me. And I think in this case, it's going to work for you. So I'll be interested to see what your feedback is the more you use it. Yep. Because again, like I always say,

'''Myke Hurley:''' it's not for everybody. Absolutely not. Um, I got a, I wanted stickers and oh boy, did I get a lot of stickers. So I put links to Instagram profiles for, um, the, the creators that I bought products from. So one is who's Ming, which I think we're going to talk about Ming a little bit more in a bit. We actually did on the last one, but we could talk about that in a bit. Yeah. Um, he had some incredible stuff. Uh, his illustration style. So fantastic. Uh, some found someone called Panty Cat, which is a phrase I don't really want to say out loud, but I've done it now. Oh, just wait till what I got. Oh, I know. I've seen it. Uh, they, they had some fun, uh, a lot of their stickers were not what I wanted. Uh, uh, like cats in underwear obviously is the name would suggest, but they also had a bunch of like really fun Pokemon. Uh, there, there was a lot of unofficial Pokemon stuff throughout, uh, stationary fast. Uh, and I got some sticks, some Pokemon stickers and also a really fun, uh, uh, like sausage dog. Um, what you would call wiener dog, I think, uh, uh, fridge magnet, which, which was a lot of fun. So I got that. Um, also there's a, a creator, um, I see a say a Guguma also a bunch of Pokemon Ditto stickers, which I was, uh, in love with. So I got those. Um, I bought a bunch of stuff from once more with love. Um, a lot of New York focused things and also some stationary stickers and my first two rolls of washi tape that I bought in my life. Uh, ever I've, I have washi. I've never bought it. Okay. Nice. This is the first time I bought some and it was, uh, some that had a pigeon on them because Sophia loves birds, Gaga's as she calls them. Uh, and so I thought that was very fitting. And then also a stationary, like a pen washi, which I don't think you got looking at your video. So those stickers that you got of like the Muji pens. Yeah. She also has a washi tape. That's those. Oh, sick. And it's got like sailor pen is in there. A Twisby is in there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Really good. So it turns out all of those are underneath those top two that were, I thought it was just like a batch of the Muji sticker and the Sakura, uh, pick them a micron sticker, but it's, it's all those pens, but all those pens in a, in a washer. I wish I would have

'''Myke Hurley:''' seen the stickers actually. So, uh, yeah, uh, I also got, and then I also got, um, some, some stickers from, uh, I think the person who had the most visually impressive booth at stationary fast is name is Lilium's. Um, and, uh, I'll talk about something else that I got from there in a minute, but yeah, yeah, that was a really standout, standout booth design, like a big yellow newsstand was, uh, yeah, that's great. So it's really, really cool. Uh, I wanted some New York related paraphernalia and it was the stickers that did it like I just saw many New York focus stickers. Um, and I also had a note of Toyoka craft that I was tempted by them, but everything

'''Brad Dowdy:''' sold out, which I think was lucky for me. Toru had an amazing show. We got to talk to him a bunch. Um, and every time we'd go back the, the amount of items on the table was shrinking just over and over again. It was great. It was good to see. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that, that was all the main stuff

'''Myke Hurley:''' and I got some extras. So one was this cardigan that Lilium's made and I, that was a gift for Adina. It was a, it's a cardigan called pen friend. It's just excellent. Um, so good. That was a very popular product. I actually saw people then wearing them on subsequent days. It's so good. I was also gifted a pen by friend of the show, CY. And I want you to help me pronounce the name of the company. Uh, Kiyosado. Kiyosado. Okay. So, uh, they've been developing a like piston pen and I don't think the model that I have, I couldn't find it on their website, but it's on their Instagram. So I linked to that where it's, um, it's, uh, what is the name of that material? Like the amber like material? Uh, Ultem. Ultem. It's an Ultem body and with a really interesting piston mechanism that, that I got a good lesson on how to use. Uh, and I'm excited to play around with cause it's a fascinating design. So this seems to be their kind of like main pen. They offer it in a bunch of different, um, uh, materials and stuff like that. So that was very cool. I was very thankful for that. And as obviously the nib, perfect. Yeah. Definitely. See why I was like, I want you to try this, but I think I nailed it. And I tried it. You nailed it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He was even like, he was like sussing you out the day before. Cause he pulled me aside. He's

'''Myke Hurley:''' like, all right for Myke. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. He got me. He got me perfect. So I can't wait to, to ink this pen up and give it a good time. So that's what I got. Nice. That's like,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' you did great. Yeah. I think so. Like, yeah, it's such a unique shopping experience from like our, the traditional pen shows we go to where you can, why not a little bit of both? Right. And get something new that we don't normally see. So I love it. And that, that is, that was my

'''Myke Hurley:''' absolute favorite thing is like the variety of stuff just made the show more fun because I just kept coming across things and was like, what are you all about? Like, what is this now? Like it was, it was really fun for that regard in like a way that I, I've had some of that kind of experience at a, a more traditional pen show, but this was just like, I've never even thought about like, like actual like, like merchandise, like socks and stuff like that that I was seeing, you know, like these things were like, oh, I would never see stuff like this, but it's because there are so many creators with such a strong point of view at an event like this, that they were bringing things to it. Say we're confident in, which didn't necessarily fit what you'd think, but, oh, well, you can make a really great cardigan for people that love stationery. Like you can just, you can do that. Right. And, and so you've, you've just got to be confident in what you're doing. So I thought it was really interesting. Yeah. Great stuff. All right. Let's take our last break and then we'll get to what you bought. Okay. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. So we always talk about some stuff we love at Enigma Stationery. I did want to mention Chris in the discord while we were talking earlier about like doing things at Stationery Fest or whatever said Chris, Chris says Brad and Myke are the real life business frogs, which I thought was very funny. I enjoyed that a lot, but what's going on over at Enigma Stationery,