Editing The Pen Addict 680/transcript (section)

== Expanding User Base Interest ==

* who may use these types of pens who aren't found pen users but are interested in having something nicer than the random pen that they find. Right? So, there is a level. Like, if you're listening to a podcast about pens, you probably like the Pilot G2 at least. Right? You're not just picking up, like, a random promotional pen and finding the pen addict podcast. You actually care about your writing and what you're writing with and what you're writing
* on. So, for gel, I categorize this as the most often used pen type by people who like good pens. And that's probably people, a lot of people that don't listen to this show, right? But the Pilot G2 crowd, they have found this pen that they've realized, oh, this is different. And maybe some of them just stop right there. Like, they're good. And then some of them end up with 680 episodes of a podcast about pens. There's, you know, there's even in between.
* There's in between realms. You don't have to go. You don't have to be me. But so, I said, which pen should you buy? So, one recommendation of a gel pen for someone that they should try if they're interested in just having a good quality writing experience is the Pentel Energel RTX. So, this is the classic Pentel Energel you'll find on the store shelves. The silver and colorful barrels. They do a lot of different colors. Generally, just 0.7 millimeter tip size.
* Smooth gel. Great colors. Fantastic barrel. Great grip section. Everything about these is great. So, that's my choice for gel ink pen.
* Ballpoint pen. And I titled this, the most often used pen type by normies, but there are good pen nerd options too. So, this is the pen you accidentally acquire from somewhere, right? That's how most people are introduced to ballpoints. And generally, they're not good. But although, these days, like most, a lot of standard ballpoints, like a hotel room ballpoint or a bank ballpoint, oh, they're pretty good. Like, there's base level technology has improved for standard ballpoints.
* But if you are a pen nerd and you want to step up your ballpoint game, this is the easiest decision of all the decisions in this. It's the Uniball Jetstream and there's nothing else. I did capitulate and say light touch if you can, but I don't think that's a difference. It's just that that's not widespread yet. The light touch ink formulation. If you have a choice, get a light touch ink formulation. But don't get the 1.0 millimeter standard Jetstream.
* 0.7 is where it's at. The 1.0s don't tend to be as consistent. But Jetstream 0.7, go for it. Rollerball. Rollerball. I said, these are easy to fall in love with and then out of love with once you discover gel ink pens. So rollerball is kind of like the third choice because it's the most similar to another pen ink category, which is gel pens, right? They're very different from ballpoint, but they're kind of similar to gel. Gel does what rollerballs do, but a little bit better in my opinion.
* But there's a great need for rollerball pens in some situations because that water-based ink tends to be really dark and it really gets into the page. And some people need that with their writing. And I think the best rollerball going, and I went with like standard type of products that most people can find. The Pilot Precise V5, I think, is still the king of the rollerball, even though it's a needle tip.
* It's been around for decades. It does come in two sizes, V5, which is the 0.5 and V7. Either one is fine. And it comes in a bunch of colors. Which is not all that common for rollerball, just because they don't sell as many, right? So there's not as many options as a gel ink.
* So those are the three main classifications of standard pens. If you're not a fountain pen user, these are. If you had a Pentel Energel, a Uniball Jetstream, and a Pilot Precise, like you'd be thrilled. Then you can go on to some of the ancillary products, like a fineliner. I think that's a good category. Some people just use fineliners to write with in day-to-day life. And I still think the Secura Pigma Micron is the choice there. It has the most tip sizes and most colors available while remaining like of the highest quality.
* Like I think they have really good tip retention. These are tough pens to use for someone with a heavy hand or, you know, that's really forceful with their writing. Because they will break down more than the previous mentioned pens. But for the type of pen they are, I think the Micron is the best. This is a category where there's a lot of good choices. I'm not going to name them. I'm going to stick to the rules.
* But this is where more of a category where there's one, one A, one B, one C, where a lot of other categories are clear drop-offs between the next products. Like mechanical pencils, Myke. Shout out Donald Duck. It's the Uniball Curitoga. The base level Curitoga is still only like $5 or $6. The entry level Curitoga. I don't know why anyone would start with a different mechanical pencil than this unless you're an artist and they're looking for something different.
* But it's a great quality. It's great technology that works. And it's a great price. Like it's a very durable plastic barrel pen. Like it has some density to it and some sturdiness. And it's just great. There's not a lot of reasons to upgrade to the higher end Curitogas unless you get into the depths like me and you have a few different, you know, barrel types, you know, wood grips and things like that. But the base Curitoga is, I think, the king right now.
* Wooden pencil. I think you got to go with the Mitsubishi 9850. And this one's a tough one because most of the previous products are pretty widely available. And the Mitsubishi 9850 is widely available in like online retailers. You don't get a lot of loose pencils at stores unless you're going to specific stationery stores. And if you do that, they should probably have the 9850. It's pretty common. But it's not like you're going into like the grocery store.
* Like you're only going to see like Ticonderogas and things like that. I would try to find the Mitsubishi 9850s if you want a good quality wooden pencil. That's kind of kind of the go to. Paper. I wanted to pick something out that's useful for all of these products and wouldn't necessarily break the bank. It's not the cheapest out there, but I think they provide a really good value for what they are. And that's the Morimond Spiral Note.
* This is their Morimond's entry level notebook. And while it's more than like your standard, you know, mead grocery store notebook, the paper quality is good for anything and everything that you would use. Um, you know, it handles gel, ink, well, rollerball, ballpoint, pencils, everything. Um, it's a fantastic product. It's something I use for fountain pens and it's, it's just wonderful and it's, it's wonderfully priced. So it's good. And the last little topic I put in here, a little line item.
* I did storage because if you had one of each of these products, you want kind of like a little kit to put them in. And this was kind of hard because I wanted a pouch and there weren't a lot of simple pouches, but then I remembered this one that we've reviewed on the blog before. It's called the donut pen case, which is a funny name. I was so disappointed when I clicked this one. I was so disappointed.
* There's never, they've yet, I've, I've followed them for years and we've done some bag and backpack reviews. They do basically storage bag and backpacks. I've never had no, they've never had a donut pattern, but these are like legit good nylon cases that as someone who's made products in the past. And when I got these in hand and tested these out, I was like, wow, this is kind of legit for like just general storage, which, you know, most normal pens, you can just pile into a case and be done with it.
* And this one provides enough space and enough durability and enough style to like fit all this in and grab your notebook and you're, you're good to go. So that's my recommendations from each category. Again, I'm starting to think about how to arrange my top five lists and kind of rework them a little bit. So this was basically, you know, a little bit of a work experiment for me. So if you have feedback on this, let me know you're one in each of these categories or one in one category, but don't send me two.
* And you can go to panaddictfeedback.com. I have so many URLs. I know. Or hello at panaddict.com. They're specifically formatted the same, but sometimes I nearly say go to upgrade feedback. And you can go there, but for feedback for that show, don't go there for feedback for this show. For this show, go to panaddictfeedback.com. That would be fun because it would super annoy you. Uh, I mean, it's all, it's all goes to me, right? Like it's not that annoying.
* Um, it's all on the same website. Uh, I will observe the dowdy rule. If people suggest more than one, I will just delete it. Oof.
* Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. That'd be great. You can give us a cat, a suggestion from either gel ballpoint, rollable, fine liners, pencils, even mechanical or wooden paper or storage. You can give a, what you think is a better option than Brad's and we may include it in a future episode, but if you give more than one for each category, sorry, you're out of luck. You're out of luck. Deleted. You can also send in other questions and feedback there if you want to.
* We're always happy to get it. Uh, you, if you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spoke design.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me here on relay, which is where this podcast lives at relay.fm. Uh, you can find me at theenthusiast.net and at cortexbrown.com's where my products are. Um, thank you to Pen Chalet and Squarespace for the support of this week's episode. Uh, if you've noticed that I maybe sounded a little bit distracted for the last two minutes,
* it's because St. Jude.org slash relay. We're not talking about it right now, but that is happening right now. Um, so we'll talk about that next week and, uh, every episode throughout September, uh, as we get ready to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. And it's going to be a big one this year because Brad's going to come to podcast.com! Which I'm so excited about. I'm so excited. Uh, we're having a great time. It's going to be a great September and we'll be kicking it off next week.
* So until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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