Editing The Pen Addict 328/transcript (section)

== Inktober Discussion Shift ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's so ridiculous. It's a Saturday Night Live commercial. Yeah. Like an in-show commercial. It's brilliant. Like this is, like I couldn't even comment in our show notes. I just put like a bad word in there. It's like, you got to be kidding me with this. But it's amazing. So let's get on to real stuff, Myke, before we get to our Ask TPA. I wanted to point out a few things that I've listened to and I need to listen to all on the podcast feeds. So the nib section has had our good friend David from Fig Boot on pens on the big YouTube channel that David puts on. He's a good guy. I see him at all the pen shows in the area. So I have not listened to that one yet, but it's queued up. So the nib section team does a fantastic job with their podcast and interviews. And then I was on the Fountain Pen Companion special episode number one. So they have a regular episode. And then Anna from Fountain Pen Companion interviewed me at the DC Pen Show. And we had a great conversation just about that show and community and just general fun stuff that we wanted to talk about. So I listened back to that one yesterday and that was really, really fun to do. And then just today, actually right as we recorded this podcast on Wednesday, the Make Do Pod dropped their Inktober episode. And we'd be remiss, even though we're not participants in Inktober, Myke, it's one of my favorite times of the year to kind of troll stationery and Twitter, Instagram.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So good to be on Instagram right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So it's wonderful. You know, if you're not familiar with Inktober, we'll put a link into the show notes. But basically, you have a daily drawing prompt. You do with it as you will. Yeah. And it's just a good way to, you know, explore your artistic side and go through some little process and have fun and go see what everyone else does. So I'll be checking that out today. So, man, constantly good content coming out. It's not just me and you, huh? No, no. Thank goodness, man. People would get tired of us. I'd get tired of us.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, we need all these people so people keep listening to us.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' If there isn't more stuff, they're just going to get bored of us. You spread it out a little bit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's right. They'll take a break from us. Go subscribe to all these other awesome podcasts. You know, binge them, listen to them all. Don't take like a break. Break. Like, make sure you still come back at the time. No, no, no. You got to come back. You got to come back. Because, you know, we always want to try to keep it fresh, you know, and new. So you got to come back and see what we're doing. So, but yeah, go subscribe to all these podcasts. They're great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My God, we're approaching seven years. Crazy. Yeah, I think, Brad, I think this is like the longest relationship I've ever had with another human being.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's me and you. Interesting. That's interesting. Yeah. I'm going to go back and watch the Inky video now. Yeah, you do that. You do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Today's show is also brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move with Squarespace. They will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. With the ability to grab a unique domain name, take advantage of award-winning templates and more. If you've just heard us talking about people in the community that are doing awesome things, awesome blogs, awesome podcasts, awesome projects, Squarespace could be the place for you to start yours so you could become a part of this wonderful community as well. Because Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that will let you build just about any type of website you want to make. Whether you want to make a blog or a portfolio, maybe you want to make a website to show off your Inktober work, you can do that with Squarespace. And hey, if you have something to sell, they have an online store functionality too. With Squarespace, there is nothing to install, patch, or upgrade. They take care of all of this stuff for you and back everything up with award-winning 24-7 customer support. They'll let you easily grab a unique domain name if it's something that you need. And all of their templates are wonderfully customizable so you can make sure that your website will look and feel the way that you want it to. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month, but you can start a trial today with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict. Then when you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict. This is going to get you 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. Once again, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase. We thank Squarespace for their continued support of this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So after last week's episode, there was some conversation in the Slack channel about, you know, what other things we could do on the show, what other segments we could have, you know, what other new topics we could discuss. And one of the topics came up, it really grabbed me for a new segment is for listeners to send in their pen horror stories. You know, what, you know, has gone wrong during the time that you've been a pen addict or a big fountain pen fan or, you know, just a user of all things analog. You know, did you lose something? Did you break something? Did you have a terrible spill? And I would thought it would be fun to collect those from time to time, read them on the air, you know, just have a little fun with it. And then, you know, if we felt so inclined that the story knocked our socks off, Myke, we could begin the pen addict horror story hall of fame. So what do you think about this idea?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think this is a genius idea. I love it very much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This was Andrew in the chat room. And as soon as he said it, I was like, yes, we're going to do this. This is very good. Yeah. And like, I think I even want to give away something for like the ones we'll be strict on the entrance into the hall of fame. Like we'll have, we'll have to judge, judge these stories, Myke. So we'll have lots of stories. They won't all make it into the hall of fame, but like the best of the best, you know, and I can give away things like a pen addict t-shirt or some notebooks or things like that to anyone who makes it into the hall of fame. I think we'll do that, you know, for sure, because, you know, it's not like we're going to be inducting four in every episode, you know, maybe one a month we'll have like a hall of fame story entrance. So if you have a pen horror story to share, email it to me. Hello at pen addict.com. Put pen addict horror story or something in the title. So I know what it is. And I don't ignore it completely because I get a lot of email. So this got me thinking, Myke, do you have a pen horror story to share?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I think the thing that always jumps to my mind is like my Mont Blanc that I got for my 18th birthday that I was very proud of. And, you know, this was kind of, listeners will remember this was during the pen addict time. And this was something that my mom bought me because she knew that I loved pens and it was a great gift, you know, and it was fancy. It was a great pen too. Really nice. And I dropped it on the nib and it was never the same again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And this was kind of the worst. This was in the early days and like before you, you know, really didn't know anything about it and it just got set to the side and forgotten. I don't, I was trying to think of this. I think my biggest horror story is every time I have to move one of Lisa Van Ness's ink tower shelves. That's a horror story. Anytime we lift one of those up because ink shelves have gone flying, they've landed on my foot and they've cut me. They've banged people in the head. I broke a bottle of deatrimandous fuchsia on my shoes. These things are just dangerous. So it's like a, it's a horror story. Anytime I have to get near those things and I had to take them out of the van at this show and put them back and lift them up onto the table and then take them off the table and get them back into the van. And, you know, that's just a horror story. Every time I get near those things, they make me cringe. So thanks for that, Lisa. I appreciate it. I have nightmares now about picking up those ink shelves.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So we'll take your horror stories. You know, I want to, I want to see where this goes, see if this works. So hello at penaddict.com, send them to me, penaddict horror story in the title, and we will read them out on the air along with our Ask TPA mic, which we got a good batch. Yes. This week. So let's hammer some of these out. You ready?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, let's go for it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Our friend Joe Casabona says, I never fill my bullet journal when I use the Leuchtturm 1917 and always start a new one in January. I love the notebook, but it's so much wasted space. Looking for alternatives. The new Field Notes Endpapers Edition might work, but open to suggestions. Hashtag Ask TPA.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mine can, by the way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think how I expected I would feel.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's about what I thought you would think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're really nice. I just don't know what I would really use them for. But again, it's like, am I pleased I have this? Yes, because this is a very specific notebook that at some point I'm going to be like, I need something. And then this is the perfect one for that. You know what I mean? But I just don't know what to use it for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So to answer Joe's question, I'm kind of in the same boat and going into next year, and I've alluded to this a bunch. I'm going to skip any type of large format planner, and I'm going to skip any type of planner, period. And I'm just going to use pocket notebooks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's at least my goal. It could be a pipe dream. I need to implement this now. So I'm ready. You know, I need to carry a pocket notebook with me in my pocket with a pen at all times, even when I'm at the house. You know, it just needs to be there for when I have to write the thing down. And that's what I get lost a lot. And that's where planners fail me because I don't, or more, maybe I fail planners. You know, I don't use them like super in a super hardcore fashion. It's more passively. Um, so I'm going to go full pocket notebook route for next year. You know, I'll have, of course, like probably an A5 notebook on my desk or something like that. And if, um, you know, for using reviews and just maybe some larger format writing. But I think for my day to day planning, note taking, task list to do's, I'm going to stick with pocket notebooks. Plus I have more pocket notebooks than any other notebook and I need to use some of them. And I want to use some of them. You know, I don't open all these things because, you know, I have other things in use right now. I think if I can commit to the pocket notebook on a daily basis, I will burn through them. I'm just sticking with one notebook. So I'm going to try. Um, I still got to kind of work this all out mentally, you know, figure out how I'm going to commit to it. But, uh, I think that's what I want to do for next year. If you're not looking for that, um, look at the majority traveler setup. You don't even have to buy the leather cover, but their notebooks are tall and skinny. I like the format and they're not too big. So you don't get overwhelmed. And they do have date books where you can fill in the dates and days of the week yourself. So we'll see. All right. Papa courage wants to know is the new Esther book release done by the same company that reissued the Esther book two to three years ago. No, it is done by Kenro industries who bought out the company and actually bought out and hired the old owner of the new Esther brook, but it's a completely different pen redesigned by the folks at Kenro. And it's really nice. Like I haven't gotten to use one yet, but they were all over the Dallas pen show. They sold really well. The really good thing that they did is they made a section that allows you to use the old Esther brook nibs and the new pens, which is flat out genius. So they did a good job there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Where is that being sold? I haven't even seen it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Through any of Kenro's retailers, which would be all your big players. So it just started. That's why we're getting the questions because they just got released. Like, you know, seeing it in gold spot emails and pinch LA emails and Goulet emails. So all the big players have them as of kind of like right now. So that's why the questions are popping up. So the old owner is still affiliated with Kenro. And, you know, I had some problems with him in the past. So until he's no longer there, I won't be reviewing one, but I can say they're very nice. And they did a good job with them and good job by the guys at Kenro doing something cool with the nibs.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is that what it's called?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't even know. It's the only option right now. Okay. So if you see it, that's what it is.