Editing The Pen Addict 197/transcript (section)

== Rock Your Handwriting ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Very much so. You said something just a second ago and I meant to put this in the show notes. Tell us about the rock your handwriting thing you're doing. I've been following you on Instagram.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Um, it was a challenge. Um, uh, Boho Berry. Who does a lot of the bullet journaling, uh, projects. Um, she, and I think three or four other bullet journalists, um, people, uh, set up a challenge to basically get people excited to practice their handwriting. Um, it started last month and they did just like a, a 30 day challenge with just little prompts for each day, um, just to practice your handwriting. Um, and, um, so this was the second month. And so I decided to just jump in and start the second month. Um, and so I've been doing it every day. Um, which for me was, I was trying to figure a way to do it. Um, that wasn't going to be super overwhelming. So, um, I grabbed a field notes, um, which is, you know, three by five, very small. I thought I can commit myself to doing a handwriting practice that was only, you know, three and a half by five, a little tiny bit. Um, and something I could do literally like at lunch, you know, or something like that. And, um, it's just been really fun and, um, really inspiring and has gotten me back into kind of doing a little bit more drawing, a little bit more playing with tools and, um, just sort of working regularly. So it's been, I've really enjoyed it. And that's, um, just, I think it's that, um, the creative challenge thing. Like once you get yourself into a habit of doing something, whether it's writing, drawing, sketching, um, journaling, whatever, if you can sort of get past that first two weeks, I really think that's sort of the big hurdle. If you can just get through the first two weeks of doing something regularly, um, then it starts to be that thing of like, oh, it's, uh, it's three o'clock and I haven't done that thing yet that I said I was going to do today. You know, um, you get excited about doing it and that's been really great, I think. And I've gotten really excited about doing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, it's been really nice to see, uh, on your Instagram. Thanks. Not even so much to read whilst there is interesting stuff in there. I just like looking, you know, cause it's very pretty. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've always liked your handwriting anyway. Um, the, the way you style your letters, just your natural handwriting. Um, like when you're trying to, when you're doing just like some very basic lettering, something, you know, you're just throwing out there real quick. I've always enjoyed seeing that. So keep it up.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Thank you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe Myke, you need to join in the hashtag when you, uh, when you get your lettering box.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If it ever arrives, should be arriving today. Actually. Very exciting.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Oh, is, is that the, is that what you're waiting for from art snacks? Yes. Lettering box. I'm so jealous. I missed the opportunity. I was, I waffled about subscribing to the lettering box thinking I have so many things that I'm not sure if I need anything else. So I was like, I'll wait. No, I'll subscribe. No, I'll wait. No, I'll subscribe. And then I'm like, well, sold out. You're screwed.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. There's, there's always good, good lettering stuff to go around in. You know, like we talk about too, we get all these, these toys, but really all you just need is a hotel ballpoint and a back of an envelope. Right. Yeah.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Absolutely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just need somewhere to start. Right. Like I don't have anywhere to start. A kick in the butt. Yeah.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, and I, um, the Boho berries there, um, has like even her very first, the first challenge that they did for rock your handwriting, which was really like, just write the lowercase alphabet, write the uppercase alphabet. Um, you know, just to get, you know, see what it looks like. And then some of the exercise, you know, just the little steps that they have. Um, so that by the time you get to the 30th a day to see if you've had, if your handwriting has changed at all, or if the shape of your letters or, you know, just getting yourself to practice and slow down just a little bit, if that helps get your shapes more even or more consistent.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's awesome. I, I need to get in on this too. Just, just to, it's always about using things for me. And sometimes I need that little extra, you know, impetus to, to break out all the tools and just sit down and take 30 minutes of quiet time and focus on something like that. That's, that's what I'm missing out of my life these days. Um, a lot of times I get wrapped up in other things and don't sit down and have just 30 minutes of focus, you know, quiet brain time to just work on things like that, which would be quite enjoyable.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Another thing I got in the, I got in the mail this week and, uh, Anna, you mentioned it to me, the black wing volume Steinbeck. Did you get yours in?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Arrived. Um, mine arrived yesterday, but I stopped, forgot to stop at the post office to pick it up. So I'm really mad. They're there and I don't have them in my hands and I'm not going to work today. And my post office box is right next to my office. So I'll have to wait until Wednesday.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Nah. Yeah. Well, they're, they're pretty awesome. I will say. Um, and Myke, did you see these online?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, I did. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what do you, what do you think? I know you're not like the super pencil, super wooden, wooden pencil guy, but what do you think about seeing something like this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I know that everybody's really freaking out about these. Um, I feel so terrible. It just, it's, it's just a black pencil. I don't. Yeah. Don't feel terrible. I don't get it. I don't get it. I know that, that maybe I'm miss, I feel like I'm missing something, you know? Um, but I think some of these lettering additions have been really cool. Like I love the guitar one and the one that they did last time with like the movie thing, but this is, this one's just all black.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So I have them and I have all the additions, uh, since the beginning and this is the worst looking one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, good. I'm glad you agree with me because this, I tell you, I tell you why I feel this way. Um, okay. So Tony is saying in the chat room, there's a new lead formation. I get, okay. This is what I'm saying. I get that there might be some stuff going on, right? I'm sure they're doing some crazy things, you know, like it's, but I'm, I'm judging them purely on the way they look because that's all I have to go on. And these don't look as cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a huge, but coming in with this one. So they don't look nearly as good. Um, I don't like the all black barrel with the stamped, the painted over stamping of the Palomino black wing, like the traditional, the, the 602 they redid with the, um, with the gray and the gold gold stamping. Um, that's still the best looking black wing to me, not counting the, um, the, the volumes additions, the, the guitar one, the wooden one, um, both look better than anything else that they've ever done. I don't like the glossy shiny. I don't like the glossy paint job next to the shiny black ferrule. It doesn't match well to me, but that said, I didn't buy them for how they look. I mean, I think in general they look great, but yeah, it's just a solid black pencil, but I bought them for the, the graphite core.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You see, I have no idea about any of this, right? Cause I'm just not a woodcase guy. So what's going on here then? Why? One thing, what's so different in two, like, how do you innovate pencil lead? It feels so out of it to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What they did, what the way that they have the black wing product line set up right now, there's three lead grades. Um, there's a very soft, a medium, soft, and then a somewhat firm. This one is designed to be firmer than their firmest one, which is the 206. So they don't have this core on offer in any of their other lineup. Um, and most of their leads are really soft in, in comparison, which is why I like the 602 the most. It's the firmest of the bunch. This one's firmer. It's just as dark. So when you have a firmer lead, the, um, the point retention is much, much better. Um, you can keep a sharper point for a longer time and sharpen fewer. Um, whereas like an artist would like, you know, a softer lead that can do shading and different things and not always have like a firm tip. This is a great writing pencil. Um, which is what it was, it was designed around. So that's what has me excited about these. I could do with or without the black, um, all black and not, and I love my all black pens. Um, and I'm not saying this looks bad, but it's, it's, I definitely like the style of the other three better, but the writing, the actual writing with it is really, really exceptional. And, uh, I I'm enjoying this, this pencil very much so far.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we'll see, I will see, uh, how it, how it continues to grow. And if they, if they get this, um, core into other lineups, that was what, uh, the guys on erasable were talking about how the volume so far, the first three additions were basically a rotation of the three existing cores. What are they going to do? Are they just going to keep rotating these through? Um, so every, every third one will be the 602 core. Um, and they went and introduced something, uh, completely different, which, um, I think got everyone pretty excited.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I can imagine it, it being exciting. Like if this is your thing, like, I don't really get it cause I'm just not that this is just not my, my thing. Uh, but you know, a new thing like this is cool. And so that's why I guess people are super excited about this edition where like I look at it on the face of it and I'm like, this looks like a step back because the other ones have been so cool looking, but yeah, I get it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So which, which lead grade do you prefer out of the black wings on it? Do you have a, do you have a strong preference or not really?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Um, I've preferred the pearl up until this point, but I'm pretty excited about, um, trying out the Steinbeck just because I do actually like, um, a firmer, like harder lead, um, especially for, um, sketching just because I tend to, um, paint or draw over my sketches. So I want the lines to be really light so that it's just a rough, um, drawing that then I can go over. So, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And, and actually these lines are darker than I would anticipate. I order, um, a lot of H grade leads up to about maybe four, um, has been about as hard as I've gone and which are obviously very, very light and very firm. This is not a light lead at all. So, um, but it's the point retention is definitely better than like the 602. You can actually get, um, as you're rotating the pencil, you can actually see a point starting to create like right in the center. So it doesn't like wear down completely to where it's just like at a complete angle. Um, it's like going around the center of the pencil, which tells you it's, it's pretty firm.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Good. I'm, I'm really excited to see it to, um, to actually use them. Um, and I actually kind of like the sort of all black edition. Um, a couple of my friends immediately saw it and said, it's the man in black. So, um, it's, it's actually the edition that, um, got me to subscribe. Oh, cool. I had not subscribed up until this point. That's the first. So this was the one that I said, and I think to your point up until this point, they've just used their, their core leads, um, with just basically different paint jobs. And for me, that wasn't enough to get me to subscribe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Um, I've pretty much bought every edition, but wasn't inclined necessarily to subscribe. But this one was the one that I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm willing to subscribe. This is legitimately a different, um, lead formulation. And you guys are doing some interesting things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'm in. Yeah. And this was the first one I actually bought extras of, and it wasn't because of the design. It was because of the lead and, you know, is it going to end up in other things?

'''Ana Reinert:''' You needed to have 24.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's right. And I wanted to give some away too. So I bought a bunch of extras. I actually bought two extra boxes, but, uh, I want to give one entire box away and then I'll have some extras in there. So, so look for that at some point somewhere, but I just want to mention the irony is not

'''Brad Dowdy:''' lost on me that, uh, I'm excited for simple color field notes books because of the paper and the perforation inside. Like the irony of that is not lost on me, right? I don't get the pencils because they're one color, but they have something different on the inside. It's just where my, my feelings lie. But like, so the irony of that is not, it's not lost on me. Pencil people.