Editing The Pen Addict 44/transcript (section)

== Twisby Ink ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Next, next time, next time someone asks you what you podcast about, tell them you podcast about Twisby's with the Rose Shizuku ink on it and see what they say.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Or just, I just, I just discuss a Rose Shizuku filled Twisby's. obviously, obviously, obviously, no less. That's right. So let's talk about Squarespace and then we can talk about how, how the ink has fared for me. So, want to slightly go off, off course today and, and talk about sort of our experience recently with, with Squarespace. But Squarespace.com, they give you absolutely everything you need to make, um, an amazing website. They give you all of the tools. As it comes to building your own site online, whether that be blog, portfolio, a business site with Squarespace commerce that allows you to sell things instantly. Um, you can sell digital goods, physical goods, they have inventory management, order processing, email stuff. They have fantastic hosting for all of their sites, um, apps, statistics. You've heard us talk about it before. We love it for, for 24 seven customers, all of this stuff. But obviously me and Brad have been tinkering with our field. So with our field notes pages and getting those set up on Squarespace. And we've been doing that this week. And I just kind of wanted to talk a little bit about, um, how we did that. So like for myself, all I did was it was, it was very simple. I just set up a new page. Um, I took photos of all my field notes and uploaded them to Dropbox. And then what I did was, was I went into the, to the page builder, the layout engine that we've spoken about before. And I just added each one as an individual image. Cause I could have done it as a gallery, but I wanted each one as its own individual image in a grid. Um, and where people could, I could link as make links as well out to all of the pages. Um, so all I had to do was, this was my favorite part about it. So I clicked to add a new image and it brought up the little pain. And I was able to drag the images from my desktop into my web browser. And it uploaded them. Um, and I just thought that was so awesome. So it was like, I could just drag it and drop it on the little box and it would just upload it. And I just, I just liked that. Then I was able to drop them into the page. And then you're, you give, you're given like, um, ways that you can just resize images. Like say in any desktop application, you get the little points on the ends on the corners and you can just click and drag them, but you're able to do that. So I was able to drag it to the size that I wanted, then make the sort of the rectangle size that I wanted. And then I could just drag and drop them around the page to get them in the order that I wanted. I need to put them in a better order. I kind of just put them in the order that I took the photos. But I eventually want to put them in sort of date order like you have.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So what, so what I did is I actually made a mistake first. Um, I created the page, um, with the page builder and I created, I chose gallery. So I, I think I had 26, 27 images. So, and I took my, took my pictures. I uploaded them all to iPhoto to where I can tweak them a little bit. Um, cause I send them to Flickr also and iPhoto lets me sync it over there, but I'm able to just drag the picture out of iPhoto straight into the image page or the gallery page on the Squarespace browser. And it finds it there too. You know, I don't have to do anything weird. You know, I just drag it right out of iPhoto. It finds the image and uploads it. So I created this gallery and I thought, Oh, this is exactly what I want. You know, and I, I tagged each, each comment on each picture of what, you know, color series and year and, and everything was. Um, and then I finished it up and I looked at the page and, you know, it was just like a one single box with a gallery, like a slideshow that you, that you go through. I was like, that's not really what I want. I want them displayed all on the page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I didn't, I was like, Oh man, I've wasted all this time doing it. Well, one, it didn't take me that much time. And two, with the tools that Squarespace offers, I knew it'd be easy to, to just create a new page. So I, I literally just deleted that page and created a new page with images. I mean, and it took me what another, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes, just switch them over there, which is really not a lot of time to create a full page, you know, with all the details and everything like that. So my mistake, it really didn't cost me that much time because it's so easy on the front end to just, to just build it anyway. So what my, my question to you is mine is like a, I guess you'd say it's a linear layout. It's just one after the other large pictures. You have to scroll like all the way down the page. Yours are smaller. Like you said it on a grid. So I didn't look at that option to do. So I think I might want to lay mine out kind of like yours did. So they, they kind of look cool how they're all gridded out on the page. I'll have to ask you how you did that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So like you just go back into the page builder again and you just need to, all I did was you just go to the bottom right hand corner and you see a little sort of an arrow and you can just click and drag the images. It's to the correct size. And then they have like the little dashes on the edges where you can sort of like make them larger or smaller, like to crop it to the size that you want. Okay. The way that I think about like when I'm, when I, whenever I'm doing something in Squarespace, I think about things in a very simple way because I, I don't know. I don't really know enough about web design to overthink things. So I'm kind of just like, right, how do I think this is going to work? And like nine times out of 10, that is how it works. So it was like, I wanted to resize it. So instead of going back in and trying to like change the, the size in the image settings page, I was like, let me just go down to the bottom right hand corner. Oh yeah, I can just drag it. Right. Okay. That was just the natural way that I would have thought to have done it, knowing what I know about computers and not web design. So yeah, go and, go and try out this sort of stuff yourself. I mean, I just wanted, we wanted to sort of explain just how easy it was for us to get these pages up and running. And we didn't, no code is needed. You know, it was very simple. It's just a case of dragging and dropping. And the images are now hosted on Squarespace too. So, you know, they're always there and you can click them and get nice larger images. And they look great on the iPad and the iPhone. So it's, it's really cool. It's, it's, it just works fantastically.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Can I just add a couple other little things about Squarespace? A couple little changes I made this, this week that were real simple. I just wanted to comment. I didn't want to drag it out too long.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, please.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But there was, I'm weird about changing the, the link colors and the hover link colors on my website. I'm no, I'm no web designer. So I just kind of get bugs and, and up my butt. And want to, you know, want to see what a different color would look like and a different hover color would look like. So all I do is go pick out like, whichever color I like, like the hex code or whatever, and go to the design tool, pulls up the sidebar on Squarespace. I can see all the changes live. I mean, for me to change all the link colors and hover link colors in my website, probably took me about a minute, maybe two minutes, you know, hit save. And then everything's live. And then everything's live right there. I don't really have to go to all these pages and change all these design elements. So that's one thing I do. When you see the colors changing on there, that's just me kind of getting a, getting a whim to change things up. And with Squarespace, it takes about two seconds to get all that, get that change implemented. The other thing is RSS feeds. I get emails all the time about people wanting to know where the RSS feed is for my, for my blog. And what they're asking is, is they don't see a button on my, on my website. And with Squarespace, it's, it's not required. I mean, the feeds always live. You just go to your favorite reader, type in penaddict.com and it's going to pull down the feeds. I don't need a button on my Squarespace site. But since I get asked that question so many times, I did just add a link into the sidebar. Now you'll see RSS feed for those that feel they have to have a link to actually go get my feed. But in reality, you don't need it. It's actually so, so it's, it might be oversimplified, it's, it's not there because it's not required. So that's just one of those things that I wanted to mention for people looking for the feeds. Cause I do get that email once or twice a month.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There you go. Well, you can find out more about Squarespace by going to squarespace.com forward slash 70 decibels. You can also find out more as well as starting a free trial there too. Squarespace, Squarespace plans start at $10 a month for their standard plan. And they also have an unlimited and business plan too, which you can find out more information about on the site. If you sign up for a year, you'll automatically get 20% off the total price. And if you sign up for two years, you'll get 25% off. You want to use the code 70 decibels free below the pricing information at checkout. You see the link, enter an offer code because this will save you an additional 10% off your first order. So go check out Squarespace, everything you need to make an amazing website. That was like a back to work length.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like a 10 minute sponsor. Yeah, I know we don't intend to do it like that, but you know, when it also gives people, you know, a little bit behind the scenes of what we're doing with the blog and things like that. So, I mean, you know, and I wanted to mention a couple of the changes that I made just so people can see new features on the blog. And I actually have another new feature I want to do, but I don't, I don't want to, we'll save that for another time because it's not, I hadn't even started on it yet, but it should be pretty easy for me to implement when I do decide to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exciting. It sounds like the Dowdy children are very upset about the length of our ad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This, this has been going on for what, like 10 minutes now. Have you been able to hear this?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm, I don't know. I'm, I'm in another room, the door shut and, um, my wife's working. So on the days where she works and I podcast, you know, I get the kids all set up with, you know, my daughter's got, you know, pens and paper. She likes to draw. So she's out there drawing and my son's got all his trucks and motorcycles and he's out there. Um, and then I pop them down in front of a SpongeBob. So that, that's, I'm usually good for about 30 minutes. And now, uh, WrestleMania or something's going on. They're just playing. I mean, they're just, who knows what they're doing in there, but yeah, I apologize. Um, but yeah, this has been going on since about the time we decided to, uh, redo the square space read. They've been going berserk. And I'm just like, Oh my God. They're not hurting each other. Then, then if no, no, they're just playing. I was like, Oh man, I know Myke and everyone can hear this now. So my apologies. That's just, you know what? That's just the way it is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. If otherwise there'd be no show. That's right. So, um, I, we've been, I had loads of suggestions as I said, as I said on last week's episode for some inks. Um, and I chose to go in at the D pen, as I've been told by a bunch of people after listening to last week's show. Um, and I went for the Hiroshizuku, um, the Konpeki. I just love saying it. Um, initially I was, uh, very concerned because it seemed like my situation had gotten worse.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The smudging or what do you mean situation?

'''Myke Hurley:''' The ink was drying slower.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. That's what I thought you meant.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, and I didn't know why. Um, and I was, I was a little bit concerned by that. However, over the last couple of days, that situation has improved severely and I'm very, very happy. Okay, good. I don't know what the change has been. It might've just been the fresh ink in there. Maybe, you know, um, it might've been because I've just washed the pen out and maybe I hadn't left it to dry for long enough. There could be a myriad of reasons, but, um, it still lays out a thick line. Like I like, um, the, the Twisby and maybe thicker than, than usual for me even, but I, that's one of the things I love about it so much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Remind me real quick. You're on the, you have the M nib on this one. No, it's old. Oh, it's okay. Broad. Yeah. It's a Twisby 540 with a broad nib. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Gotcha.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, so it's the line, as you can imagine, is very thick. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But what, what, that's one of the reasons why I think it's so amazing. Um, but the, so now it's drying very quickly. Um, it's, it's not instant drying, but it's drying fast enough that I only end up with a couple of smudges a day, as opposed to having to be careful with every, every word, you know, for the next 20 or 30 seconds as I was having issues with, with the noodlers. Um, so I, I'm very happy. It's kind of just like with any fountain pen for me now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I, I think that's, um, um, a completely reasonable dry time. I mean, it's not going to be, it's never going to be immediate. I mean, that's just inherent in the ink properties, right? I mean, there's no shot, you know, it's not like it's a ballpoint where even then you still get smudges, but that's going to be about as quick drying as, as it can be. Um,

'''Myke Hurley:''' but I have the added bonus of the ink being beautiful. Yeah. Like the color,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' the color is stunning on the page. So I, shockingly or, or not, I have some followup that is completely related to this too. Last night I, I had my, uh, my Twisby rock, the one that you want. Um, I had it, um, cleaned and set to the side for the past couple of weeks. Um, cause I hadn't decided what ink I wanted to put in it. So last night before I knew we were talking about this, I loaded it up with the rest of the con pecky sample that I had. Um, the difference in mine and yours is my Twisby is the EF nib. And I have to say, I don't like it as much. Or because that color is so beautiful. It needs that broad nib or like my stub nib that I, I used that I did on the original review. Um, something like that. It, it needs that type of, I don't know. You need, you need to see that ache. I don't think it does as well in the extra fine nib, but I just loaded it last night. I haven't written with it that much. So I'm going to test it out and see, I mean, it's still a beautiful ink, but it's just more like a straight turquoise ink. And I don't get all the shading that I got when I was using the wide nib. So we'll see to be determined. Cool. But I think it suits the, the broader nibs better, at least that ink, because it's so pretty.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I like it very much. I'm very happy with it.