Editing The Pen Addict 285/transcript (section)

== Notebook Covers ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' But only when I put them right up to my face. I would sniff too much. Oh, my. Yeah. No, but I really love the covers, but I broke them open, and I realized I'm never going to use these, but I'm giving them to Idina, and she's over the moon about them because they're the type of things that she wants, but this just isn't what I think I want in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, my initial thoughts were proven pretty accurate. I was concerned about the paper. Every other line is like white, gray, white, gray. It's very faint. You have to turn it at the right angle, but that means each line handles the ink differently. Either the paper itself, but I think more likely the coating or the print of it. But so, if you have, so I did like my little ink test, and I used the same pen on both lines, and on the white background lines, the ink doesn't soak into the page as much than on the gray lines, it does. So, it's like the same pen, the same ink, and it looks completely different every other line, or every, yeah, every other line. So, it's just weird. I don't like it. I have no use for it. I didn't even want to open these up to test it, because I knew it would just be wasteful of opening these up, because now I don't know what to do with them. I'll give them to my kids. They'll use them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's okay with gel pens. The Schmidt P8127 refill, like, it's two different colors every line. Like, the white line, it's one color, and then the next line, it's a different color. It's like super dark and rich on one line, then dry on the next line, and it alternates over and over and over again. So, like, ballpoint's fine. Pencil's fine. Gel wasn't bad. They feel a little bit weird. But, I mean, they look good. I just don't have much use for them. Black staples are nice. Staple Day in the middle looks cool, but, I mean, I wish I wouldn't have opened them up. I'm not going to use them. So, not going to go down in the annals of my top 30, at least, editions. So, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Did you get the anniversary edition?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. I did. I did. I didn't bring that in here to talk about. But, yeah. I thought that was cool. Yeah. I like the story behind the brand. You know, if you've been around the brand, you know, for a long time, and you know their backstory and how, like, the first notebooks came about, this is a really cool story to tell about how the notebooks come about. So, I like them. I probably won't open those. I don't know if I'm going to use them or not. If I get around to it, I probably will. But I have other ones I'll want to use before that. I do like those, though. I thought it was a neat edition.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I don't think I'm going to use them, but I have opened them so I could look at them. So, they're three individual books, and they represent three important parts in the company's early history. So, one of the books is, they're all reproductions. So, the first one is from 2002, which is a reproduction of Aaron Draplin's first use of the name and logo. So, it's just the logo on a book. Then, there was one from 2005, which is Aaron's first handmade field notes. And then, one from 2007, which represents their first tiny test run. And they're all different in their own ways, and they've all got these funny little things about them. And one of them just says DDC field notes on it. It doesn't have the regular logo. I think those are like the handmade ones, and it's just blank paper on the inside. And then, like the one where they first used a logo, it's got a grid, but it's like a really heavy blue grid on the inside. And then, like the first run, it has like the number blank of blank on the front of them. And you open it up, and there's a gray grid, and there's like a white line at the top, and it says field notes on every single page. So, it's really fun to look at them to see what's inside. Because, yeah, they're very, very different to how we know them now, right? Like the red one, for example, which was the handmade one, which is about the DDC field notes. There is nothing on the inside of them, like nothing on the inside covers or anything like that. Like, yeah, they are very, very different to what we know of them to be now. And I really like it a lot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I didn't know that was one of the archive ones. I'm familiar with the original craft paper cover one, but I thought it was cool to see. So, I really like that, but as a fan of the brand, at least for now, Myke. Oh, please, I can't keep going.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know you love it. All right, so let me, we'll get back into my wheelhouse here, Myke. And we had some follow-up on the inspiration versus knockoff episode and ripoff or whatever we called it two weeks ago. Killer feedback on that episode. And when I say that, some of it was very positive, some of it was negative. And that's cool. Like, I want to hear alternate views on things that we talk about. Like, that's the only way we learn. That's the only way we get better. You know, that goes for everything. So, the feedback was great. I even heard from people involved in the episodes on several times and even had a phone call with one. I'll leave all of that, you know, that's behind the scenes. But that's the kind of feedback we got from that episode. And it was all good. So, come around Thanksgiving. And as you do on Thanksgiving Day, you try to ignore as much of your family as possible. So, I was on Twitter a good bit of the morning while the kids were running around the house. We have Thanksgiving at my house. But Twitter was my escape for that day. And our friend Vito at Story Supply dropped his notebook on Thanksgiving. I'm not sure why he chose to do that, but he did. So, this is the notebook, Myke, that we saw in D.C. I think that, you know, he was toying around with making his own notebook. And he finished up the design and released it on Thanksgiving. I said, InstaBuy. And retweeted it. And, like, immediately I got two tweets say, hey, you know how you talked about that inspiration versus knockoff stuff? This looks exactly like a Baron Fig confidant. So, I want to read my response that I actually used twice because I just, I wrote it once and then I quoted it to the second person that asked me. So, the question essentially, and there's no problem with this question at all. He was, like, apologizing for being rude or being sarcastic. I was like, no, this is a good question. He says, that looks exactly like a Baron Fig confidant to me. So, what makes this inspiration over ripoff? My reply to these questions was, I don't think it's either. It's a notebook with a gray cover and a yellow bookmark. Who owns that? I don't know what else to say about it. It could not be the furthest thing from an inspiration, a ripoff. He chose to use gray cover and yellow ribbon for his notebook. I mean, Baron Fig doesn't own any colorway. Moleskine doesn't own the black cover. It's navy blue. The orange cover. The cover's blue, anyway. Okay. So, whatever. It looks like in the pictures. Okay, it's a gray cover with a yellow ribbon. Who cares? Like, it's a really good notebook made by hand in the U.S. Like, these are not the tweets. These are not the discussions we need to have. Like, I'm good with the discussions on Abercrombie & Fitch, you know, being a bad corporate customer and segregating their stationary products. I'm not good with everything looks like everything else all the time, especially for something as basic as a notebook. So, Moleskine, anyway. Yeah. And it's not even that. And Moleskine's fake. Mm-hmm. I mean, theirs all built off marketing, right? I mean, no one knows the dude's first notebook. They're just making up a story for this other story. So, I mean, it's a notebook with a cover and a bookmark. Like, that kind of conversation is weird to me. Like, no one owns the color of a notebook. Notebooks are easy to produce. Anyone can make a color that they want to make that they think looks cool, you know? Vito's doing something different with his, you know, with the different types of stitching. It's a thicker notebook. It's made in the U.S.A., you know? It looks great. It doesn't have anything to do with what a Baron Fig confidant looks like. So, that's my rant on that. My rant is, that's not a rant. It's like, it's a non-issue. So, what I was going to say, I was going to finish up that tweet, is like, my real issue is what Best Self Co. did to Baron Fig. That's an issue. If you want to talk about issues. And that goes more, that goes deeper than what the color of a notebook and a ribbon is. So, there you have it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Let's round out today's show with some RSTPA. Before we do that, let me thank Squarespace for supporting this week's episode. Enter the offer code INC at checkout and you'll get 10% of your first purchase. Make your next move for Squarespace so that you easily create a website for your next idea. With a unique domain name, award-winning templates, and more, they have everything that you need to put your next idea online. Whether you want to make a blog, portfolio, an online store, just about any type of website, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that will let you do it. There's nothing to worry about. You don't have to install anything. You don't have to patch anything or worry about security upgrades. Squarespace, they'll just take care of all of that stuff for you. And if you need any help of anything, they have an award-winning 24-7 customer support team right there ready to help you out. You can sign up for a free trial today to see if Squarespace is right for you. And as a customer of many years, I'm confident to say that I think that they will be right for you. And their plans start at just $12 a month and you can get 10% off your first purchase when you use the offer code INC at checkout. That's I-N-K. And you'll also be showing your support for the Pen Addict podcast as well. I'd like to thank Squarespace for their continued support of this show. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, so I know we're going extremely long, but I'm going to give a Squarespace plug here, if you don't mind. I would love that. So I open up the, and it's how they handle problems, right? Like not everything is all rainbows and unicorns, Michael. So our good friends at Squarespace, who I've been a customer of for years, I go to add in some new products on Nock, or excuse me, on the Pen Addict and make sure I have the discounts right for members and things like that. And on one of the shop fields, like I could edit a tag on some of my products and save it successfully. And on some of them, I couldn't. So the cool thing about Squarespace is the live chat is actually fielded by human beings. So I opened, it was frustrating me. I was like, well, this is not a me problem. I've tried all the browsers. I've done, you know, all the normal troubleshooting that you would do. Open up a live chat, said, hey, here's my problem. Here's a screenshot of it. Here's what's happening. She looked and looked. She said, well, let me try. Okay, yeah, I can verify it. And then she basically went into like their bug reporting system and she found a match. Like, hey, this is an issue. And it's not fixed yet. And here's how you can work around it till we do the real fix. And, you know, that might take a little while because that's an engineering, whatever. But yes, we know it's a problem. Here's how to get around it. And then the fix is coming. Like, I'm happy with that, right? Not everything can be bug fixed and patched and pushed on a daily basis, unless you're Apple and need to fix a root login problem. That should probably be pushed today, I hope. But, you know, everything else you need to, you know, it's, I was able to talk to someone. I was able to get validation. They were able to look it up in their bug reports. They knew it was an issue. They told me how to fix it. And then it's planned for future fix. So that's why I like Squarespace. The end.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Love it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We have time for all this. You want me to cut this short?

'''Myke Hurley:''' You do as much as you want, buddy. I'm here for you for as long as you need.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're here for me. Well, I really want to cover this big one. Because number one, it's from Tony at Everyday Commentary, who writes to me like I don't even know him. He's funny. He's like, just, hey, I'm this random guy asking you this question. He's not like, hey, Brad, it's Tony. Just want to see what's going on. Hey, I've got this real question. He's like, dear Brad and Myke, I am a trial lawyer. I take notes extensively. I've done this long enough that at this point I can get very close to real transcribing. Who is this person? That's what I want to know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, that's how Tony started. He just goes right into it. He's not like, how's the family? You know, whatever. You know, I've only been on this podcast a couple of times. You know, we talk all the time. But whatever. He just gets right into it. Got to like that about Tony. So anyway, I won't go into this entire email because it's very long. But he has the problem that I think a lot of people are trying to solve. And I wanted to bring this up because I don't have a great answer because it involves testing lots of very expensive equipment. So just to give you an example of his requirements as a trial lawyer and as someone who's taking depositions all the time, he says he takes a lot of notes. A 90-minute deposition last weekend generated 27 pages of notes with only one illustration. So he wants a way to handwrite and then scan in. Right? He needs it digital. So he wanted to know about the Remarkable platform, which we've gotten linked to a bunch. It's called the Paper Tablet. And, you know, he's dismissing the Apple Pencil and iPad for good reasons. He just doesn't like the feel.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is that? Do you know what that means? Like when he says he doesn't like the feel?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think the tapping on glass type of feel for writing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know if anything's going to be much better than that. Like, honestly, like any screen, any plastic tip on a screen is going to feel pretty similar.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Well, that's where we're going to get to on the second part of this. So the Remarkable is kind of like the Apple situation, right? It's a screen with an input device, say, Apple Pencil type of thing. I don't have any experience with it. So I wanted to bring this up in case anyone did and they could let me know what they think about it. So the second part of it is, well, how about the LightScribe system? I think it's, is it LiveScribe or LightScribe? But anyway, that's the pen recognition where you actually use a real pen on real paper. And it translates into digital. So we've seen in action the Moleskine work extremely well for that. So I think that's the Moleskine digital products work extremely well for that. I've seen it in action. I've used it. It's legit good. And then I just saw related to this that I don't know what Tony's digital setup is, but Microsoft Office or Windows 10, whatever the platform is starting to work natively with these Moleskine smart writing tools. So that could be a real option for someone who's doing this. And the reason I bring this up without having answers is because I want to know from the listeners what experiences they've had with these types of systems. For someone who needs to take 30 pages of notes a day, handwritten, and then scan them in digitally without having to scan them. What are you doing? Do you have something that works? Do you use the Moleskine smart writing system? Have you tried a remarkable tablet? What kind of things are you doing to help solve Tony's problems? Because Tony's an avowed handwriter. Like, he loves writing by hand. Everything's by hand. But it's a lot. And I've talked to him for years about this. And, yeah, so I would just like to know more information from myself because I think this is a really, really good question. And it comes up a lot. And there's never been a really good go-to answer, but I think Moleskine's the closest.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I really want to try one of these remarkable tablets, but not to the tune of 579 pounds. Like, I really want to try one of these because it's one of these things that people ask me about all the time. I feel like at least once a week, maybe for the last six months, I have had somebody ask me or send me this link in some way. I really want to try it. I don't want to pay 579 pounds to do that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I didn't even realize it was that much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's incredibly expensive. You're looking at iPad money, right? Yeah. I mean, it's not iPad Pro. But, yeah, it's 579 pounds. I mean, yes, I could buy it and return it, but I hate returning things. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I'll try it. I don't know. Maybe I'll try it. But I'm saying this because if somebody out there in the world has the ability to send me one of these, I would love that. It's what I'm getting at. If you know someone or maybe you are there, right, please send me one to review it and we'll talk about it on the show. Outside of that, I don't really know what to do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yep. So this will be a good feedback question for us and for Tony. You know what? I'm going to email them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. You do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Email Moskine while you're at it. Well, you know, I just figure if I want them to send me one, maybe the best way to do that is to just ask them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So.