Editing The Pen Addict 276/transcript (section)

== Reader Feedback Lists ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' One new list I added, which was from Reader Feedback. And I would love to hear anyone else's feedback. What other lists do you want? People are very much asking me for specific ink color lists, like blue, black, and orange, which I've done before. So I might do those again. But I got a really great email that essentially said, all these lists are great, but what pens do you use the most? What pens do you find the most useful? And I thought that was a good way to look at it, like on a daily basis, weekly basis. What pens do you use the most? And how would that differ from one of your recommendations list? So I thought about it for a while and just kind of tracked what I use regularly. And it boiled down to this. So the Fisher Space Pen, number one, and essentially the refill I use, even though the standard Fisher Space Pen bullet is a really great pen on its own. I use that refill in the shown design pen. The Uniball Signo DX, which I love for gel ink pens, I use that more. I would find that pen more useful for that micro gel category than like the Pilot Hi-Tech C. The Securo Pigma Micron, because I always have to have a drawing pencil, and I find that one to be very durable and able to just kind of, you know, take a beating and go anywhere, do pretty much anything until I wear the tip out. The Uniball Jetstream at four, the .7mm specifically, because when you're not using, the Fisher Space Pen doesn't always come in handy for just writing. Like if you're writing notes or journaling or something like that, the Jetstream does. It's a better ballpoint than the Space Pen. So, and it's often found in a retractable barrel, which people like for just pickup and usefulness. And then number five is the Sharpie permanent marker, which is one of those pens. You don't know how much you need it until you don't have one. So, I always try to keep a Sharpie marker handy or within reach. And just, nothing beats like a fresh Sharpie marker. You know, you wear them out pretty quickly because you tend to use them for extreme writing situations. But when you open those Sharpie markers fresh, man, there's nothing, nothing can beat those. So, I find that list of five pens, notice there's no fountain pen in there. Like that's the group of pens that I could just like pick up and go and be happy and not miss out on anything. You can mix and match some colors in there with the Signo and the Micron if you wanted some colors in there. Even the Sharpie permanent marker. But yeah, I thought that was a really, really interesting list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would maybe rename that list to like practical rather than useful. But because when I hear you talk about it, like that feels more right to me than useful. Yeah. But that is a good addition, right? Like these are just a bunch of pens. You should probably own one of each because you would get a use out of all of them, which is different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Okay. I do like that practical name. I might change that. So, yeah. So, that was fun reader feedback that I was able to implement in a good way, I think. So, any other lists that, you know, people would like to see, definitely reach out and get in touch. And before we wrap this up, I wanted to talk about things I don't know what to do with. Such as, in the pen realm, I use a ton of pens that I would like to recommend that aren't in these categories. Such as brands like Franklin Kristoff, Edison, custom pens from Newton, and Jonathan Brooks. Like where, like I had a Franklin Kristoff pen in the $100 to $200 range, but I don't know if that's right to have in there. Right to do should individual pen makers be in their own category because they don't have the huge brand exposure. Like all the brands I talked about are things you can get from a lot of different places. Things like Franklin Kristoff and Edison have a much smaller scope, but they're well worth being recommended, right? I recommend them all the time. I just don't know what to do with them. That's a dilemma I'm in. So, I'm not sure how I want to handle that. And then that goes along with what you said about Bung Box Inc. You know, there's a whole list of Inc. sub-brands. Bung Box and Kobe are at the top of the list, but I count those as Sailor. So, you know, there's lots of smaller brands of inks that aren't widely available that are fantastic. So, those are the questions that I have for myself. How to handle those. Should I have different, you know, makers type lists for that? Should I have sub-brand type lists for inks? You know, there's all kinds of things I could do. I just don't want to dilute the page too much with too many offshoots. So, I'm open to suggestions for how to handle those.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My feeling on that is that it's probably a difficult thing to rank these pens against each other. Because, again, it's like, what are you choosing? Really, what are you actually choosing? And I think what you're choosing is a specific design that speaks to you and doesn't really necessarily matter in some instances who's made it. Right? So, like, you might choose a Brooks pen because it's got the swirls that you want. But you might choose a Canalea because it's got the colors that you like. And you might choose a Franklin Kristoff because it's a limited edition. But, you know, when a lot of these pens are using the same nibs in some instances, it's like, how do you rank them? Because you would be ranking a personal list. You're not necessarily ranking a specific list unless you set about a bunch of parameters. Like, do it scientifically. But I think that's the wrong way to judge these pens because they should be bought emotionally. So, I think it's too difficult to try and rank this, like, this, like, acrylic nature of these pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I think that's why I took them off originally when I first redid the list to just be kind of more of a pure recommendations list than more of a Brad list. So, that's where a lot of those moved off. You know, maybe I should implement, you know, a Brad-specific list where a lot of these things would fall.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean... So, I don't know. It depends on what I want to do with the page. Which, that's why I took that stuff down to begin with because it was confusing people. Yeah, I don't think it should be there. Well, do you recommend that? I was like, I don't. So, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I don't think it should be there because I think that it's too tricky to try and recommend in that way. Because, I mean, I feel like you could do one or the other, right? You can either do, like, your personal favorites as in, like, the favorites that are the most personal to you. Or you can try and be a here are the pens that I recommend for everybody. Like, they are two extremely different things. And, like, I feel like we cover the favorites lists on the show because that makes more sense. But for the site, I think having what you have, which is like, here is a buying guide, is a way better approach to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. And that's kind of how I took it. So, you know, so we'll see. Always open to change and making it better. But that was my thought process behind having some of those, some of those, some brands on there and some not. So, we'll see. It's always evolving. So, whew. That was a lot. I need a drink. So, you need to talk about Harry's. Our good friends at Harry's real quick. All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode is brought to you by Harry's. You know Harry's. Come on. They're all about giving you a great shave at a fair price. That's what they believe in. And it's why over three million people have switched to Harry's. Because they want a great shave and want a great price for it. So, that's what they set out to do. Harry's founders, Jeff and Andy, decided that they wanted to buy a factory, which is the only way to make sure that you're going to get Fantastic Blades. They were fed up over the price of razors. They didn't want people to be paying over the odds anymore for what they're going to be scratching across their face. They aren't happy with that. So, they went ahead and bought a factory in Germany that has over 100 years of experience to create their five-blade razor that they deliver to you directly. And you just buy from them over the internet. It's very simple. And all of Harry's products are backed by a 100% guarantee. They're so confident you're going to love their blades. They want to give you their free trial set. So, you can just go ahead and get a trial set from Harry's for free. All you need to do is pay the shipping cost. The free trial set includes a weighted ergonomic handle, five precision engineered blades with a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, their rich lathering shave gel, and a travel blade cover. Now, if you weren't a pen addict listener and you just went over to harrys.com and you thought, Oh, I like the look of this trial set, that will cost $13 in value for you. You don't want to do that. You want to get it for free by going to harrys.com slash pen addict right now and you can get started with their free trial straight away. And then you can have a lovely face taking care of Harry's products like Brad has.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so my top five harrys products are number one, the blades, because that's what it's all about. That's what keeps, you know, my face and neck smooth and presentable and lovely. Number two is my orange handle. So that's my number two Harry's product. And this is the original orange handle, not the new, what do they call it, the rubberized handle. Yep. So the grip, I like the OG orange Harry's handle. Number three is the shave cream. So I prefer the lotion over the foaming, uh, shave gel. So the foaming shave gel is just much more messy. The cream is smooth and subtle on my neck. Uh, number four is the post shave balm. That stuff makes you feel and smell wonderful. And number five is my Harry's, um, razor stand. So I keep that propped up on the counter and keeps my orange, uh, razor handle with my fresh blade in it, uh, right there at the ready for when it's shave time. So that is my top five Harry's list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I wasn't expecting that. Thank you very much. Go to harrys.com slash pan addict right now, and you can get started with that free trial set. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I wasn't expecting that either. I just did that on the fly. So you're a professional. Yeah. You're welcome. Harry's not that they ever will listen to that. Of course they will. All right. Love us. I know. I'm just playing. They do love us. Harry's is an awesome sponsor. Thank you all so much. And, uh, you know, well maybe one day I'll have enough razor handles. We'll just do a top five razor handles showdown. I'm up for that. Yeah. All right. So the STPA this week was from Brad's inbox. So I think since we've run long already on this show, I'm going to hit a couple of the shorter ones and then we'll save some more from next week. How does that sound?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sounds fine. Yeah. Cause we've got some, we've got some big, big, big questions.