Editing The Pen Addict 244/transcript (section)

== Field Notes ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But anyway... Listening to you right now is hilarious.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're in the same boat?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's hilarious. So yeah, keep going. This is good stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So let me tell you what is always in this bag. So like bear in mind, this is my travel bag. Like when I'm going on a trip, this is what is in this bag. And all of the stuff that I'm talking about here stays in there. I'm very much of the mindset of just buying the majority of things and just leaving them in the bag. So I have a regular Mophie, like one of the little Mophies that you can just plug in. And you can like take it out with you or whatever. So when I'm at a conference, say I'm out. I know I'm going to be out all day. I can use my phone a bunch. I'll just grab that thing out of the bag, put it in my pocket, and I'm good to go. Right. I also have one of those huge Anker batteries. Like one of the big ones that will charge my iPad like seven times or something. I got an Onward Friday deal from Amazon. Amazon. I've used it a bunch and I've never charged it. And it's still like, it's still, it's just like no problem. It's like no big deal. I got this, bro.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I also, and then when I'm using those bags, I'll have my iPad or my MacBook in the Topo. And then I'll also carry field notes. I have a Colt Pens, mechanical pencil in there and a Sharpie. I have one of the Pen Addict Sharpies. Retro 51 always because it's just the best. Sometimes I'll carry headphones. The AirPods are doing a really good job for me for most of the stuff that I need. But if I'm going to have headphones currently, it's the Beats Solo 3. I don't love them, but they're really good battery life and it's Bluetooth, which is just like the thing that I have to do now because I don't really have a choice. I have a big old bunch of cables. Cables for everything, adapters for everything. I have like US iPhone plugs and stuff in the back. Like, so it's just ready because I travel to the US so much. I have this Anker 6 port USB doohickey, which is just a thing that you plug into the wall and you can power 6 USB devices. Like, it's just got 6 USB ports.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think we used that in Atlanta. Last year we shared that. Yeah, that was super useful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Steven got one. We shared a room. We could all use the things and then I bought one immediately. Yeah. Because now, like, I need a minimum, just me, of three USB ports because I will have my phone, my watch, and an iPad. Like, they have to be charged like every day. So if you're sharing a room with someone, it's basically impossible to have that amount of plugs. So these Anker things are amazing. I'll put a link in the show notes for that in case you're looking for it. And I also found this little thing called the Cocoon Gridit, which is just like one of these little pouches with a bunch of elastic. So, like, I can just put all the cables and stuff in there for a bit of cable management.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's one product I bought years ago and never bought into completely. Like, I thought, great idea. And then I just don't like how it's all exposed.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it goes in the front pocket. And so I'm kind of good. You know, like, just put it all in there and just shove it in there. And it just keeps that from being just like a snake pit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. No, I definitely understand why it's a good thing. And I've recommended it before. I've just never been able to get into using it because I just don't like the things touching it. Yeah. It would have to be segregated. And then that kind of defeats the whole purpose. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I get it. I get you. Oh, there is one other bag, which is kind of a bag. Like, this is a sponsor. But I have one of those Away suitcases, the carry-on things. Yeah. And I really, really love it. Like, for just small, actual trip trips. But I don't keep anything in there. I treat it like a suitcase. But I feel it maybe fits more in, like, the bag thing. Like, I have, like, a big suitcase as well. Sure. But, like, for little trips, the Away one is really nice. I like it. And, yeah, they are a sponsor. Yes, they did send me one for free. But I was very happy when they emailed me because I was about to buy one. So that all worked out well. Then my other bag is a Tombin Ristretto. And I bought this bag because the Topo is full of so much stuff all the time that it's too heavy to just take into town. Right. So I wanted something small and light for, like, if I'm going into town, I've got a meeting, and I want to take an iPad. So whenever I'm using that bag, I'll pretty much always have an iPad in there. I may have my camera in there as well, like, if I'm going out to shoot some vlogging stuff. Or I might have, like, the gimbal thing that I use. Like, I could just throw them in there. It all fits in there, Stretto pretty well. This is another bag, like the Topo, which fits an amount of stuff which doesn't make any sense. I always have in there a Field Notes, a Sharpie, a Retro 51, an iPad charger, like the big honking iPad charger, the powerful one, and a small Mophie as well. That's what I keep in that bag. So batteries everywhere, man. This is one thing, like, I'm finding with just, like, bag stuff. You just got to have – it's just going to be full of batteries all the time. Batteries, batteries, batteries.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, for sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah, that's my bag situation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's a – you know, it's – three seems to be the magic bag number. I think so. Because I put down two here, but it was purposeful because there is a third. So what I use on the most – what I use the most frequent, I guess, is the Lanier, the Nock Lanier. That's, like, the perfect day bag, just enough stuff bag, right? It just – it's very purposeful. It does very specific things. I don't travel with it. Yep. But day in and day out, that's where my things live.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's kind of the perfect bag for somebody who has a car. Right. Right? Because you can just – you don't need to keep it on your body. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's exactly how I use it. And it fits my 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is my lone computer, in the main pocket. And that's the only thing I keep in there generally. But this is basically a dump as of today. In the front pouch, I have actually removed the A5 pouch because I'm testing out our Traveler's Notebook prototype. That's what I carry with me every day. Mm-hmm. And in that contains three inserts, which are just the basic Traveler's Notebook insert, graph paper, the Traveler's Calendar insert. I think it's number 19. And then a Notco notebook that we've just cut down to size. We have an A5 notebook that we just cut to see how it would fit in this. So it's all kinds of prototyping going on in my daily carry, which is kind of how it has to be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And in this –

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sometimes it just catches fire.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So if I said the phrase, he hate me, would you know what I meant?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So I just watched the – have you ever heard of the XFL? I know you're into a little bit of the wrestling. I know all about the XFL. So Vince McMahon – and I just watched the ESPN 30 for 30. They make great documentaries.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I want to watch that. I've heard the good things about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's wonderful. It's wonderful because the product was so awful, the XFL as a product. One of the things they allowed this extreme football league to do was the players, instead of putting their last name on their jersey, they could put anything they want. And the most famous player to come out of the XFL, and he actually went on to the NFL, was a guy named Rod Smart. And on the back of the jersey, he wrote, he hate me. And no one got it until they interviewed him. And they interviewed him after the first game. And they said, why do you have he hate me on the back of your jersey? He says, well, when I run by that guy, he hate me. And when I run by that guy, he hate me. And when that guy misses his tackle, he hate me. And those fans up in the stand, they hate me. And it was just – it was hilarious. So I feel like when I talk about these prototypes and share them on the thing, I'm like, he hate me because I keep sharing this stuff that you can't get yet. So I just thought that was hilarious. So I carry that all the time now. And in that, it's got two pen slots. I carry the Y Studio Brassing Fountain Pen. And today, when I did the bag dump, the Baron Fig Alphabet Pen was in the second slot because I've been using that for the past few days because I enjoy it. And then also in the front pocket, I carry my AirPods. So when I'm taking phone calls and doing different things like that, I like to use them. I don't necessarily use them for music, but I use them for phone calls. That's it in my Lanier. That's everything I need to get me through a day. I don't bring extra cables because, you know, I'm charged enough for the day of work I need to do. There's just no extraneous stuff. And everything that I put in there can be just like you said. When it's time to move into a different bag, it all goes. Right? Everything that's in there right now, the bag gets completely empty when I'm moving into a different bag for travel. So I'm leaving tomorrow for LA. Everything's going to go into my Bow Gear backpack. Which is the model. It's called the Bull Pup. The specific one I have was custom made for a friend of the guys at Bow Gear. And he had an extra one. He had two made and sold one to help fund the purchase. So it's got all kinds of extra bells and whistles that they don't normally offer. But this backpack ended up being such the right size that I got rid of a bunch of other backpacks that I no longer needed because this fit everything that I need. So everything that was in my Lanier is going to go into the Bull Pup. And then I'm going to add in a Brasstown full of pens. I'm going to add in my iPad. I'm going to add in my Bose noise-canceling headphones, which I use when I travel, especially on longer flights if I like to try to sleep. It's like I'll probably sleep a little bit out to LA. And then I have a couple of different pouches that we've made at Nock just to hold the loose stuff. Charging cables, extra batteries. I do have one of the big honking battery packs like you have, Myke.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's kind of it. So any extra pens I use are going to go in the Brasstown. I probably won't carry an extra notepad. I might pick something up in LA. I usually don't travel with paper. But if I, you know, I'll have it already in my traveler's notebook prototype. But I won't carry like extra pads and extra notebooks. If I need something, I'll buy it there and carry it home with me like in my suitcase. So I don't necessarily travel light, but I don't try to pack too much. You know, I'll have things like granola bars, things like that in there. So that's kind of like my travel bag dump. Now, what's not listed is my Topo Mountain briefcase. So if I was doing more local travel or shorter travel, I would take that. Those are the three bags I use, the Lanier, the Bowgear Bullpup, and the Done Paper version of the Mountain briefcase.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I love the briefcase style of it, obviously, because I like it in the Lanier. But for longer travel, I want good double backpack straps. And that's what the Bowgear has. And that's what the Mountain briefcase pretends to have. But as you mentioned, it's not the best implementation. It's a briefcase, and I use it with a shoulder strap, a messenger strap that I've added on, because the one that ships with it is not very good. That Michael last year from the Chicago Pen Show got me onto this wonderful strap that you can add on. It's the same Tom Ben strap that they use for some of their bags. It's got that neoprene kind of soft feel. So they're very, very good. And those are the three bags I use when I travel for more days than a single day. I go with the good double strap backpack, and that's the Bowgear Bullpup. Those are really the only three bags I use these days. And everything, I don't keep separate kits for each one, because what goes in one gets removed and goes into the other. And then if it's going into a smaller bag, the cables and extra battery backups and things, those just stay home in a drawer. So that's kind of my low doubt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Minol. You heard of Minol?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No.

'''Myke Hurley:''' M-I-N-A-L.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've done a couple of successful Kickstarters, and this is one of the companies that Chase really, really raves about. Okay. And they make a couple of bags, a carry-on bag and a daily bag. And I keep opening the page and closing it. Like, this is, I think this is, well, I want to get one of their bags. I'm just not sure which one yet. Like, it looks like it's built really well, and it has a lot of, like, consideration for the way that people pack and what they pack. And they do all these, like, packing cubes and little inserts and stuff that you can buy. Right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but I think the one of them, are these not the hard-lined ones? Do they have the firm exterior lining?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not sure. I don't think so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'll have to look. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah, this is what I keep opening. I'm going to leave that tab open again. Because I'm traveling a lot this year. Maybe it's the time to change the bag.