Editing The Pen Addict 511/transcript (section)

== Ask TPA Discussion ==


'''Myke:''' And Levenger's is Circa. Circa is their brand. And they all have different punches for their individual systems, but they all are interchangeable in usefulness, right? You can punch pages in a staples arc hole punch or disc-bound punch that fits in the Levenger system or that fits in the William Hanna system. So they're all kind of cross-compatible. So I went with the staples one. They're not cheap. And this is the cheapest one. And it was like $45. Like the Atomas can be like $125, right? They're like, you know, made to withstand, you know, tornadoes and hurricanes, things like that. The staples is a little bit smaller, you know, a little bit more, fewer metal bits, you know, and a little bit lighter weight. But these are big hole punches. And it's been great. Like this staples arc punch has been great. So if you're going to commit to building this type of system with a disc-bound system, you're going to have to buy a punch. Because you're not going to be able to buy pre-punched paper except from the brands that you're choosing to buy from. And that kind of defeats the purpose of this whole experimentation notebook that I have now. So I ended up finding nine different loose sheet A5 papers and had the most fun punching all these, sorting them out in my notebook. And now all of these papers, I have one notebook, the William Hanna, that has Life Bank paper, Plotter paper, Kikuyo Business A5 paper. We'll talk about that one. The vintage writing pad that Anna from the Well-Appointed Desk made with this Asleek paper. I have a Life A5 standard paper with a two-millimeter grid. I have the Clairefontaine Triomphe. I have classic Tomoe River. You know, I have A5 sheets of that. Or you can take A4 sheets like the Sans and Tomoe River successor paper that I had that was in A4 sheets. Fold them in half, cut them, make some A5. I have the Mormont Croquis. Oh, I actually have 10 papers. There's another one down here. The Mormont Spiral Node. It's a dot grid. So these are all papers that I enjoy using. They have different features that I like about them or differences between the pages that make them worthwhile to have all of this variety. Like the Life Bank paper is probably my main just general writing paper. It handles fountain pens great. The ink behaves really well. You know, the plotter paper is thinner than the Life Bank and it's great for fountain pens. The Kukuyo Business paper is the one that you can buy in 500-page reams, like from Amazon.com, and make your own notebooks from. Like a lot of people do that. This is kind of the best fountain pen-friendly, you know, printer paper, if you will. It's a little bit more expensive than traditional printer paper, but it's like 500 sheets for 17 bucks, right? It's really not expensive relative. So, and on and on and on. You know, I have Tomoe River to test, then I have the Tomoe River successor to test. And just all kinds of different pages for all types of different situations. Most of it for me is, I don't use this as a journal, right? I'm not like writing notes in here and, you know, keeping these. This is more of a moving the pages in and out, say ink testing, note taking, you know, experimentation notebook that I'll just grab and say, hey, how will this work on this paper? And I pick up my William Hanna notebook. It comes with dividers. So, like I have three dividers in this notebook. And then each other little section of paper, I have at the first page of each new section of paper, because not all of them are divided by the thicker William Hanna dividers. I put a little piece of washi tape and note, right? I write a note on what this paper is so I don't get confused on what's what, where does it start, where does it stop, because some of the paper does look similar. Like, you know, some of it's easy to tell apart, some of it's not so easy to tell apart. So I marked the front of each page with a piece of washi tape to know where it starts and to know where the next paper, to know where it ends and where the next paper starts. And then on the first page, I wrote the name of each brand. And that's how I build like a little loose leaf testing notebook that is really, really useful for someone like me, who tries a lot of things, tests a lot of things, wants to see, you know, I can quickly answer a question. How does, you know, X nib on X ink work on X paper? Well, I have a set of 10 papers here that are right at hand that I know exactly what they are, where they are. And I don't have to go hunt them down. And they're all like self-contained in this notebook. And I'm thrilled with my little setup here. And I'm not, I mean.

'''Brad:''' It's a good system because you can change things in and out too, right? Really easily. Like add a new paper. Exactly. Remove an old paper. Like it really kind of, kind of. Are you, how are you keeping them separate?

'''Myke:''' Yeah, just by, just marking them with the front page with the washi tape. So I have three dividers in here. Okay. Then in between those. It's just the washi tape, not four dividers. So like, say like in between divider one and divider two, there are three brands of paper. So there's three different sections in that one divider grouping, right? Right. So no group has more than like three sections. So in between the next two dividers, I have one, two, again, three. Then like the back section with no dividers, I have two, you know, two sections of paper. So yeah, just like that. So a little bit divider, a little bit washi tape. I don't want to put too many dividers in because then it just unnecessarily bulks it up. Yeah. So a few dividers and then a few subdivided washi tapes to, to mark where the papers change. Most of them is, is just visual. Like I could see it, but I don't want to be confused if like, you know, some of the paper, like, you know, you can't tell just readily like the Kikuyo business and the Clairefontaine Triumph. If I sat them side by side, I could a hundred percent tell the difference, but if they're sitting next to each other in the same stack, could I sort out those pages like immediately? No, I'd have to do a little testing to figure it out. So I want to make sure to mark those. And then I won't put those close to each other in the book either. In case I like jump in the middle, um, kind of like how I do my regular planner and miss the dates. But, um, I just, uh, yeah, it's, I was shocked at how many loose ish A5 sheets I could gather to put in this, um, you know, 10 different, 10 different, uh, papers that were either, either loose sheets to begin with or easily removable either from a glue bound glue binding or perforation. It was great. I had so much fun putting this together and, uh, it's a really cool looking notebook now. And it's just kind of a mess in the most organized way possible and, uh, super useful for like a pen addict like myself to be able to do all these different things with it. So yeah, I love it. So that's how I do it. If anyone has like specific questions for the few people that were asking me about it, um, hit me up. I'll, I'm glad to help you out. But the William Hanna planner, the, the Staples art punch, you know, there, there is a, there is a cost to entry, right? For building something like this. But, uh, I, I really enjoy this. And like, this would be the book that I carry to pen shows just for testing purposes, right? Like it's very useful in that way. And that's why I built it before the Atlanta pen show and it, it worked out well.

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'''Myke:''' One final thing before we jump into the STPA on the loose leaf sheets, and you kind of alluded to this fact about moving the sheets in and out. It's good for sharing your different types of paper with other people too. Yeah. Hey, do you want to try this type of paper? I don't have to tear them out of a notebook or carry around all these extra pads. I already have these hole punch samples basically built in, and I just hand them out. You know, you've never tried bank paper? Here, try this. Amazing. So it's been really good for that. Very cool. Enjoy it.

'''Brad:''' Yep. Great. All right. I have some RSTPA questions for you, Brad. First one comes via Fibber. I have a wacky idea. Why doesn't Parker Pens develop a Parker 51 with a spring-loaded cartridge filling mechanism, which would mimic the original button mechanism?

'''Myke:''' Because pen brands owned by conglomerates are not interested in creating new products.

'''Myke:''' That's the mean answer. The real answer is I wish they would, but the true answer is I wouldn't get my hopes up because Parker is owned by a conglomerate that is not necessarily, or at least from what I've seen, not interested in innovation. Right? They're just interested in continuing the brand and making good pens. Like, they make good pens. Like, Parker and Newell Rubbermaid, they make good products. I'm just never going to ask them to innovate. Right? And that's what we're asking here. Hey, why don't you put in the time, effort, and money into making something cool and representative of the past, and that is never going to get you into a meeting in the boardroom at the conglomerate. It's just not.

'''Brad:''' No. No. And also, as well, like, some of these things, they are more for us. Yeah. Right? Like, and these larger companies maybe don't, it's not necessarily the best move for them.

'''Myke:''' Right.

'''Brad:''' You know?

'''Myke:''' So this is why we're happy to have someone like Brian Gray at Edison Pens who invents or recreates crazy filling systems and vintage filling systems. Yeah. You're just going to have to pay the price for that. Right? Yeah. The price that Parker's not willing to go in at because of the innovation and the scope of the work and the difficulty and the challenges and the small scale that someone like Brian works on. But then we get the cool things. Right? That's how we're going to get the cool things. We're not going to get the cool things from a brand owned by a conglomerate. Yeah. It's just not going to happen.

'''Brad:''' No. No.

'''Brad:''' All right. Ginger asks, well, writes in and says, Ryan Holiday talks about how he keeps a commonplace book. As pen and ink aficionados, how would you keep a commonplace book? Would you use a journal? Would you use blank cards? Brad, do you know what a commonplace book is?

'''Myke:''' I 100% know what a commonplace book is. I keep one. So, yeah.

'''Brad:''' This is where I first heard about this was in refill.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. So, I've shared this link. I didn't go look at the video. I'm assuming it's the same video. But Ryan keeps the most elaborate note card. It's this huge box of note cards. Ben system. Yeah. Like, it's literally you would like put both of your arms around to like carry from room to room and it's done on note cards. So, I use note cards for a lot of things. It's not for commonplace ideas and it's not for sorting. It's not for like Zettelkasten or any of those systems, which I think are just fabulous. It's just not necessary for someone like myself who's not trying to like write a book, right? A lot of Ryan's research comes into, hey, this is the book, Ben, and we're going to have all these cards and we're going to sort them, you know, thusly. So, my commonplace book ideas, I just call it more of a everything I book, everything book. But just on like my most recent page today with my show notes, I have some writing just on one open page here in what I use my commonplace book for. On the left page, like two days ago, I just wrote kind of like a journal entry. On the right-hand page, I wrote some feedback that I got from the PAR system that I work on for Panatic members. So, I wrote some feedback notes in there and both of those were in the traditional portrait format. And then on that same PAR feedback page for the show notes, I turned the notebook into a landscape format. And so, my show notes are actually, you know, 90 degrees turned from that feedback. So, I keep them separately like that. I do a lot of thing in what I call my commonplace book.

'''Brad:''' Is this also the book where you cut things out and stick them in?

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I have drawings in this book. I have cutouts in this book. I have things just, it's all kinds of bits of randomness, right? I have all kinds of lists in this book. So, yeah. It's just, that's my idea of a commonplace book.

'''Myke:''' Ryan's idea is a little bit more of a tool, at least as he goes through in this video. But I encourage everyone to watch it because I was fascinated by this whole thing. But, yeah. It's really neat. So, I think just traditionally most people use just a basic journal as a commonplace book because you want it to be, at least I want it to be, and my idea of it is it to be a singular self-contained book. Right? So, when I'm done with it, I put it up on the shelf and then it exists and then we'll pick out another book. If I had a bunch of loose cards, then we're getting into more of a system. And that's not how I think of using or creating a commonplace type of book. Right? I don't want any. Commonplace to me is the antithesis of system. Right? It should be the complete opposite. That's how, that's a personal definition, whether that's the actual definition. Who can say? But that's kind of the beauty of what a commonplace book is.

'''Brad:''' And from Franz, I'm mostly satisfied with my nine fountain pens and ink collection that I've got. And I'm buying new ink or replacement ink bottles occasionally when they run out. Am I regressing now that I'm checking out some fountain pen ink roller balls and Japanese mechanical pencils? Brad, am I in danger?

'''Myke:''' You are in danger, Franz. Run! Run! You're in danger! If you're emailing a podcast about pens, about wondering about new pens and pencils, you're in danger. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' It's one and the same. But it's, so this is actually a really, I enjoyed this question a lot. But it's great to be super satisfied with what you're using. Right? Like, that's a challenge that is lost on me a little bit just because of the access that I have and the job that I do requires me to use a lot of different things all the time. It's really nice to just be able to be content. I am very content with, you know, Franz and Franz's situation, my nine fountain pens and ink collection. Super, super content. I'll buy, you know, new ink when I run the ink out. That is awesome. And you should try to remain that way. Am I regressing now that I'm checking out some fountain pen inks, roller balls, and Japanese mechanical pencils? No. You're broadening your horizons. Because I just think with, just in general terms, roller balls and mechanical pencils, it's a much smaller scope of what you will enjoy. You will, how do I say this? With fountain pens, if I like fountain pens, I have a lot of different options that are going to check all my boxes. With roller balls, that scope of options is much more finite. So I'll find one or two pens that, hey, this is really good. But by the time I get to three, it starts to get repetitive, right? And I don't need the other things, right? Where with nine fountain pens, you could do nine different things. With nine roller balls, how much different are you going to do other than looking at the cool colors on the outside of the pen or the cool clip or the cool materials? Same thing with mechanical pencils, right? You can have one or two that you really, really enjoy. But by the time you get to three and four, are you really replacing what you have in one or two? So to reverse the joke, I don't think you're in danger because the scope of quality options in those two realms is very repetitive, right? So if you find one or two things, you're kind of done. Like if you already have this situation where you're content with your nine fountain pens and ink, you're not going to find nine roller balls and nine mechanical pencils to go along with that. You'll find one or two of each and you'll be done. So I don't think you're in danger. I think you're in a really, really good spot to be perfectly honest.

'''Brad:''' I mean, I'm definitely one to encourage exploration within hobbies. So I encourage this. Yeah, absolutely. If you would like to send in a question of your own, there's a few ways you can do that. You can use hashtag AskTPA or question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord, or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. We have some emailed questions that are longer that I promise we will get to at some point in the future.

'''Myke:''' I'm going to get yelled at by the time I answer these. I know. It's like I needed that answer a month ago, Brad. I'm like, you know.

'''Brad:''' I'm struggling here, bud.

'''Myke:''' My energy has fallen off the cliff. Long show today, chat. Long show today. Good show.

'''Brad:''' If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com. He is at Dowdyism and at penaddict on Twitter and on Instagram. And he streams three times a week at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. You can find me on Twitch, too, at mike.live. I stream every Friday. I've got a stream coming up this week, which I'm excited about. And then next week, Brad, I'm going to be trying to dismantle an Apple Magic keyboard to extract a Touch ID sensor.

'''Myke:''' Ooh, that should be really interesting.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, that's going to be a whole thing. If you want to find show notes and links and everything for this episode, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 511. Thanks to Canaleya Penco, Trade Coffee, and Squarespace for the support of this episode. But most importantly, thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Bye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]