Editing The Pen Addict 266/transcript (section)

== Community Links ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' 100%. There isn't much. There isn't much. Yep. Yep. So this next post, Myke, I got a couple of community links I wanted to add in here. Because there were two posts this week that I thoroughly enjoyed, or this past week. Number one is from your countrymate Priya made a trip over to Chicago and visited the Field Notes mothership. And this was one of the most enjoyable articles of any type that I've read, like, in the past year. I loved it. She did. Yep. I loved it. It's fantastic. If you want to learn how to do a trip report, this is how you do it. But it helped that she had a very compelling story to tell, right? Because this was not a normal field trip, right? She got hooked up, like, big time. And this is what Field Notes does. They were closed. When she's making her trip from London to Chicago, they were not going to be in the office. Uh-huh. And she was devastated. And they reached out to her personally and said, we'll give you a private visit. Come on. And she just takes it from there. And it's pretty amazing, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, it's an absolutely fantastic article. Like, I really, really loved it. She was taken around by Michelle at Field Notes. And there's loads of really cool details in this article. Like, I implore you to go and read it. Like, there's a bunch of, like, if you are a Field Notes aficionado, there are, like, some kind of insider secrets that are exposed in this. Like, from how some of this stuff is produced and some of the timelines, which is really interesting. One of them was, so I'll give you a taste of the type of thing that you can expect, that the stars on the Night Sky Edition were originally supposed to be glow in the dark. And then they found the holographic material and liked that more. But, like, I didn't know that. And that's really interesting. And, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff about, like, how many, how some projects have taken longer to make than others and how that's affected things and what Field Notes did. Like, it is just a really, really, really great article. I loved it. There's tons of great photos. She tells such a good story about it all. She did. And, like, I am almost dying to get there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that made me, that made me, like, okay, I'm ready to go. Let's go now. Yeah. And let's do this thing. Because she had me pumped up about just visiting. Completely. Yeah, it was great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not that we're going to get that, you know, A-plus treatment or anything. No, no, no.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Don't do that. They'll let you in and lock me out and bury me in a pile of sweet tooth.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sweet tooth headstone. The other post I wanted to share was our friend Matt Armstrong's at Pen Habit. He did his top 10 posts for the year. Top 10 pens post for the year. And the reason why I linked to this is because Matt and I have, in general, have very different tastes when it comes to pens and styles of pens. And that's good. Like, I enjoy learning from Matt about things that I may have just written off, you know, the judging a book by its cover type of thing. And then I'll read one of Matt's reviews. And I'm like, you know what? I should consider this a little bit more. And then Matt surprises me sometimes with pens that I wouldn't consider, you know, being a very Matt-style pen. And he really enjoys them. So we have a very good balance, I think, between us. And I love talking pens with Matt. He's so smart and knows so many things about so many pens that are different from the things that I know. So I look at this list, number one. I enjoy it because I was with him a couple times when he bought some of these pens. Like, number seven is this Waterman's Ideal, number seven flex pen. He was so excited when he bought this at San Francisco last year. Like, the look on his face was, he was giddy when he bought this pen. And then he drops in, which I would have never thought this would have been on a Matt list ever, the Pelican M800. Like, I just never considered that as a Matt pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's an interesting outlier compared to the rest of the pens on this list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's a wonderful list. You know, his classic pens LB5 are at the top and probably will be at the top forever. Which, you know, I think he has four of those maybe. So I know he loves those pens. The Aurora Optima and the Aurora 88 are number two, which I very much agree with. The Pilot Custom 823 is a pen that surprised him. I enjoyed reading that review because he was alluding to the fact that he kept hearing other people rave about it and didn't believe it. And then he got it and he's like, okay, I get it now. So that was fun. And it's just a really good list. He has the Divina Elegance that we just talked about. That's the one that I was going to buy, that blue one. Yeah, and it's a beauty. And I think he already has another one, if I'm not mistaken. I think he bought the Burlwood one that I was talking about. I could be wrong about that. I think he might have got that in Chicago. And then, of course, he has a Canalea at number 10, which is he bought one of the first ones at DC in 2016. So it's a great list. And I always enjoy Matt's take on things because they often differ from mine. But I learned so much from reading about things that aren't in my wheelhouse. That's why I love reading Matt's site because we do have a lot of differences in the things that we are drawn to initially. And then you tend to be able to discover other things that way, too. So wonderful. Great list, Matt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, I can't argue with any of these, right? Like, there are some pens on here that are maybe not to my tastes and or I've never used them, right? Sure, sure. But, like, this is a solid list, like a very interesting list. It started, there's some stuff on there that I've never seen before. Yeah, really cool. Really cool. Right, right. What else is really cool, Myke? Blue Apron's really cool, Brad. Yeah, they are. Because they are the number one recipe delivery service with the freshest ingredients, Blue Apron's mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone while supporting a more sustainable food system along the way. They set the highest standards for ingredients whilst building a community of home chefs. For less than $10 a meal, Blue Apron will deliver to you seasonal recipes that have fresh, high-quality ingredients to help you make delicious home-cooked meals in 40 minutes or less per meal. Every single meal comes with a step-by-step, easy-to-follow recipe card. So that's why you can get them done in 40 minutes because they lay everything out for you so you know exactly what you've got to do. And all of the ingredients come pre-portioned. So they're ready to go. So you have everything you need. You have the spices you need in a little tub. You have eggs in a little box. You have just the stuff that you're going to need to cook the recipes and the meals that are being sent to you. And then also, not only is it incredibly convenient to have the exact amount of every ingredient shipped to you, Blue Apron also reduces food waste this way. They're not sending you extras that you're going to even not eat or throw away or whatever. They're only sending what you need. It reduces the waste of food. Their freshness guarantee also promises that every ingredient will arrive ready to cook or they will make it right. You can choose from a variety of new recipes every week or let Blue Apron's culinary team surprise you. Right now, you can try stuff like seared chicken and creamy pasta salad with summer squash and sweet peppers or maybe even creamy shrimp rolls or quick pickles and sweet potato wedges. There's no weekly commitment to Blue Apron, so you just get the deliveries when you want them and you can give them your dietary preferences as well in case there's something that you need to consider and then they'll give you meals that are applicable for those. Check out this week's menu and you can get three meals for free with your first purchase, including free shipping, by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. I can assure you that by cooking Blue Apron food, you're not only going to get great meals, you're also going to learn some valuable skills that you can apply to any type of cooking that you do in the kitchen. And you know what? Like, I cook most days and I love it. I love cooking. And this is the type of thing that can help you out with that. If, you know, even if you've never, if the only thing you've ever made is beans on toast, trust me, you can do this. The instructions are so well done. It's all step by step. You can follow these recipes. Just trust me. And when you can get three meals for free for first purchase for free shipping, why would you not give it a go? You're going to love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals at Blue Apron. So get started by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. We thank Blue Apron for their support of this show. Blue Apron, a better way to cook.