Editing The Pen Addict 146/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 146
| title           = No Brand Quality Goods
| date            = March 16th, 2015
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = 
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/146 Episode 146]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_146.mp3 Audio Episode 146]
| length          = 64
}}

'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 146. Today's show is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts. Pen Chalet, great deals on high quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. And Harry's, an exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, but I'm joined, as always, by the one and only, the editor-in-chief of ThePenAddict.com, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hey, man. How's it going?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm good. I feel like I just promoted you.



== Pen Chalet ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, well, you know, I might be working towards that because I don't know if you know this, and certainly the people don't know this, but at Pen Addict, I'm adding a new writer, so I might eventually be the editor-in-chief of PenAddict.com. So we've got Jeff. Jeff's continuing on. And then we'll be adding a new writer, Miss Susan Piggott, who a lot of fountain pen users will be familiar with her blog, Scribalicious. So look for her debut this week. And between her and Jeff, you know, my photography suffers greatly from what they do. The stuff Susan's put together so far has been nothing short of amazing, so I'm excited for her to come on board at The Pen Addict. So, yeah, it's looking more like I am the editor-in-chief.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Blimey.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Look at you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, getting big time, man. Got to need to up the ante a little bit. You know what I'm saying?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's go time. But no, I mean, it's honestly, I mean, I'm as busy as ever. I'm not doing anything less on The Pen Addict. I just want to do more, and I can't do it all myself. So that's pretty much it. And when you can find awesome people like Jeff and Susan to help out, man, it's nothing but good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, just a random kind of like a following up from last week because I'm lazy and haven't looked. Did anything happen with The Fountain Pen Network? Was it FP Geeks? It was FP Geeks. That's it. I was getting them mixed up in my brain.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I hadn't even looked since last week. It's not something I'm involved in, so I really don't, you know, it's not high on my interest list to go and check it out. So no clue whatsoever. So if anyone in the chat room is up to speed, but since we spoke last week, I haven't looked one time. So it's just not on my radar at all. You know what is on my radar?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Tell me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dan Bishop yelling at me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yeah. So he is not in the... How did that turn out?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good. It's all good. So, you know, a lot of people caught our show last week, and I got a ton of feedback. I don't know if you got any feedback in particular, Myke, that I didn't see. But most people were a little bit upset with our description of Muji's white labeling, and not so much in the white labeling itself, but in a little bit with our comparison into the Kickstarter projects that have been, you know, copies of pens and comparing them. And I agree with everyone who emailed in, I agree with what y'all are saying, that they're two completely different things. They're not related at all. And I did a bad job of explaining it in the show last week. I think I was correct in my description of how I was talking about the generic cereals. In store brand cereals, you know, the big companies, you know, have white labeling agreements with large grocery chains to basically sell the same cereal as a white label product, just a store brand. Muji is known for doing this. All the email and all the feedback I got from all over the world, I got about Muji doing this, saying that's pretty much their business model. So that's practically the name of their company.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They even do, one of our followers on Twitter said they even white labeled a car from Nissan. That's how involved they are.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they white label pretty much everything that they carry. So, and that's perfectly fine. And everyone, I just wanted to make the point that this, I don't think this relates to like the Kickstarter stuff at all. Well, Muji's not trying to create a new company and Muji's not saying these are their designs that they've come up with. Muji is very clearly white labeling products to sell under the Muji name. So I just wanted to clarify that and thanks for all the feedback. And I wanted to point out a couple, I got so many emails on this, but I picked one out from a gentleman named Tomo who is actually in Japan. Let me read a little bit about his, what he was saying. Well, number one, he sent me about Muji. He said, did you know that there is a new mechanical pencil whose translation is 0.5 millimeter mechanical pencil whose line don't fatten because the lead rotates?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I wonder what that sounds like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Does that sound familiar?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. Call it the Muji Toga for now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Muji Toga.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is what they do, right? He says the name Muji is derived from the first part of, I'm not even going to try this, but the translation is no brand quality goods. So it's well known in Japan.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But that's what Muji stands for, or what it means?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it's a general translation, yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No brand quality goods?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, that kind of makes sense, though, in a way. Maybe we're using it in a way to try and illustrate a point, but I think one of the good things about them is they are kind of plain and unbranded.

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' But that wasn't necessarily, in my mind, translated to they just white label everything.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And I think I got off track in not stating it clearly that I don't think that these Kickstarter pins are the same thing at all. I think what the Kickstarter pins that are phonies, if you will, are not doing the same thing that Muji's doing. And what the Kickstarter pins are doing is not – I don't think Muji's doing anything bad. And I think what the Kickstarter pins that are the copies of stuff, I think, is not a good thing that they're doing. So I just wanted to go on record stating that clarification. Because I got – it's – I don't think 10 emails would be underselling about this. And most – and all of them saying the exact same thing. So I knew I did a bad job last week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess the difference is, like, if you're white labeling, then the company that you're white labeling the design from, I guess, is kind of okay with it. Is that right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. They would have to have that – enter in that agreement knowingly, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I guess that threw me off that Uniball and Zebra do this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this is my thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know why I should be surprised, but I guess I was last week, and that's what kind of caught me off guard.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, so this is what still confuses me is I don't know why those companies are allowing this. Yeah, I don't know. Can it be that beneficial financially to allow for your pen to be used in other places? Like, it feels like that's kind of all you've got. I don't know. I don't get it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Yeah, I don't know. It's just a business practice in big businesses. Businesses are bigger than we're involved in, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I like it that way, though, to be honest.



== CW Pencil Enterprise ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. But we do like small businesses here, and I want to point one out, Myke, that you may or may not have seen. It's called CW Pencil Enterprise. And if you have not heard of this, people who listen to the Raceable Podcast have probably heard of this. But a woman named Caroline Weaver – I've not talked to Caroline before, but she's on Twitter, and you can find her. She started a website called cwpencils.com. And we'll have all this in the show notes, which you can find at relay.fm forward slash penaddict forward slash 146. And not only does she have a website, Myke, but she lives in New York City, and she's opened her own brick-and-mortar in-person pencil store. And I am so delighted to see something like this in existence. So I wanted to point that out for all of you in New York. Make a point to get over to Caroline's store, CW Pencils. And you can check it out online. She sells pencils individually by the dozen. She's got a really beautiful shop set up. You can see some of the pictures. She just opened the – the website launched last year or at the beginning of this year. But the store – the storefront just opened this past week. So please, please, please go support one of our own who's trying to do something awesome with analog tools. I am – I just think this is the greatest thing ever.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let's see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, yeah, she carries – This is awesome. I'm looking at, like, their Instagram and stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so, I mean, she carries new pencils, old pencils, vintage pencils, foreign pencils. Pretty much everything you can find. And some notebooks, too. Sharpeners, notebooks, regular books on pencils. You have to check this out. So please check – go take a look at the website. If you're in New York, make a special trip and pay Caroline a visit. And maybe I can talk to her and we'll get her on the show one day when she's – So I think that would be an interesting conversation on how this all came about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, this is amazing. This is really, really awesome. It's really awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's one of those things that just puts a huge smile on my face when I see it, right? Yeah. It's really cool that someone has this vision and is acting on it. We all have those dreams and visions. But to put that into action, that's the challenge. And so when you're making that jump, you need support. And I hope maybe we can send a couple people her way. I would love that.



== Pen Addict Listener ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, if you're in or around the New York area, you should be going and saying hi.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So we have a new Pen Act in our midst, but you want to talk about it with one of our good friends first?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I most certainly do. This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com. They are the online learning platform of over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. For a free 10-day trial, visit lynda.com slash pennaddict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash pennaddict, all one word. lynda.com is for problem solvers. It's for the curious. It's for people who want to make things happen. Maybe you want to master Excel, learn negotiation tactics, build a website, or boost your Photoshop skills. Go to lynda.com right now and feed your curious mind. With a lynda.com membership, you can watch and learn videos from the top experts who are really passionate about teaching. You can stream thousands of video courses on demand, allowing you to learn on your own schedule and at your own pace. You can browse each course transcript as well as you're watching the videos, which you can watch on desktop, Android, or iOS. And as you're watching the videos, you can follow along with these transcripts, which in there allow you to kind of just to keep track of what's going on. Or maybe you want to search for an answer later on. You know, you've got a question. It's like, oh, what was that thing that they mentioned? You can search for it. And when you click that point in the transcript, it will skip to that point in the video, which is really cool. You can create and save playlists as well. So you can watch these, you know, you can watch different videos in different orders, you know, however you want. You can break them all up and watch them in pieces. And you can even share these playlists with your friends, colleagues, or team members as well. When I was browsing around lynda.com, I found some amazing courses. There's some things like getting things done, which is a great productivity course that I know many people that use. If you're looking to try and just get better at the things that you do, you should do that. And it can help you be more productive with your projects or maybe with your work. What about courses on typography and the foundations of color, which I thought might be really interesting for people that listen to this show. It may be a bit more of a design mind. And whilst I'm mentioning design, Lynda has set up a 25th anniversary microsite for Photoshop, which is at lynda.com slash 25PS. It's like 25 years of Photoshop. For two decades, Photoshop has been an essential part of lynda.com's training. You can discover new tricks and get insight into how Photoshop has evolved over the past 25 years with these exclusive new videos that they've created together, which is really, really cool. Your lynda.com membership will give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics, all for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're passionate about a hobby, or you just want to learn something new, I want you to go and visit lynda.com slash penaddict right now and sign up for your free 10-day trial. That's lynda.com slash penaddict. Thank you so much to Lynda for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I heard something yesterday that I never thought I would have heard in a million years.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's your partner on the Analog Podcast, Casey Liss, not only has a fountain pen, not only uses that fountain pen, but actually likes the fountain pen. What is going on over there?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I was very surprised by that, actually. Because I think he sent me a picture a few days before. Uh-huh. And was like, I think he had a question, like, how do I do X with this thing? Like, he was struggling with something. There was something that he needed a bit of help with, which I helped him with. And he sent me a picture of the Pilot Metropolitan. Well, it's called the Pilot MR.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure, yeah. On the store shelves and Pilot's packaging, like, you can find these at Walmart, Staples, things like that. It shows up as Pilot MR, correct?

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that's with the International Standard Short fountain pen refill. I think so. Yeah, it is. Okay. Trust me. Do you remember? Yeah. Remember when I bought those, like, a whole carton of cartridge refills? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You bought, like, a tin pack of tin packs. Yep. Or something.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So, yeah, he was, I was very surprised. And he sounds like he's really enjoying it. I'm actually going to try and bug him about this a little bit more. But I'm going to wait to let him, to let it settle in a little bit. This is what I do with people. I don't know if you have a similar kind of, a similar kind of way of doing this stuff. When someone tells me that they've got a new pen or they're enjoying a pen or something like that, I give them some small pieces of information and give them some piece of advice. And then I leave it for a while and come back to them later.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly 100% what I do, too. So, you give them kind of that feeder information, the basics to get them started. And then you let them have at it. And then all of a sudden, when the questions start back, the second round of questions come back, then you set the hook. I mean, then they're in now, right? But you can't push it up front or else they're like, I'm not going to use this, whatever. It's too much drama, too much something, whatever. Any excuse. But when they come back that second time, you know there might be something to it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When you know they got the taste, right? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' First taste is free, man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We're going to get you next time, though. Pale suckers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do this right now, Myke. I'm going to hit that first taste is free with this link. We're doing a... We have a work in progress with Myke Bond of TI to Techliner fame. One of my favorite pins. One of my current favorite pins. Probably one of my all-time favorite pins. He posted a design. Him and Jeff have been working on in the background to do a... Called the Bruckwiki tri-camo pattern that Myke Bond has... Jeff designed this camo pattern. Myke Bond has put it on the TI2 Techliner. And we're working out the design finalization for this to be a NotCo exclusive. Wow. We don't have a... Firm... Firm... Solid... 100% go yet. But we're trying to do this. So this is something we're working on. And since Myke put it out there on his Instagram feed... I wanted to throw that out there for everyone to see. I don't know if they had any questions. But it's something you should hope you will only be able to get at NotCo... Once we eventually release it. And I'm really happy with how this turned out. It looks spectacular.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this explains it. Because I've seen this pattern popping up in a few places.

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. So that explains how this has happened then.



== Keras Customs ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yeah. So it's something we're working on kind of as an exclusive to us. Like we do with Keras Customs. We have that... The red, white, and blue Render K. That we like to sell. Well, red, silver, and blue, if you will. Render K. That we like to sell. That you can just get from us. And this TI2 TechLadder. We want to continue to do things like that. With other people whose work that we love. And hopefully we can kind of come up with a NotCo-only product. That we can sell. And it's worked good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you still sell the Keras Customs?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We do. We're out of stock right now. They're super behind. I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was going to put it in the show notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We went ahead and took it down until we get more stock. We might have some by the pen show. We're working on that behind the scenes. So we're basically in line. Which, you know, hey, they're busy. So I can appreciate that. I know how it goes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is... That pen, the TI2 TechLadder. It's just a pen that I can't get my head around.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, you know my thoughts on it. That's... What did I say the first time I saw it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know. It's the same thing. But I don't have one, right? Right. So I can't use it. But there's just... I don't know. There's just something about the industrial design that doesn't speak to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I can understand that. This is not a pen for everybody. By far. And, I mean, there's a lot of pens that are like that. That fall into that classification. There's very few pens that are for everybody. You know? So, you know, that's why we're almost 150 episodes into a podcast about pens, right? Because there's all kinds of different products out there that speak to our different tastes and styles and interests and use cases and things like that. So that's why, you know, this whole thing is awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, this is something like really random. And I wonder if the dude's going to appreciate this or not. But we'll see. So, our friend Myke Dudek at the Clicky Post, he put up a video post of like a little review of the TI2 Techliner. So that's what made me think of this. And I've watched the first couple of minutes of the video. I haven't finished it yet. But there was just one thing that he did at the start of the video. And I wanted to give him this advice. And I want to give it to anybody else out there as well. When he was setting it up, he, like, apologized that it was probably going to be a bit like, because, you know, he was kind of new to it. And, like, you know, he wasn't sure how it was going to come, like, if, you know, if it was going to be good enough or, you know, that it was, he was still learning. And he kind of apologized a few times in a row for different things in the video, like the quality or the fact that it was going to be in one take or that kind of thing. Don't apologize, dude. Like, you don't need to do that. Like, don't be proud of it. Like, as I'm sure you are. But don't feel like you have to apologize to people. I don't think that's necessary. I see people do this so much. Like, they need to qualify something by apologizing for it first. I don't think that that's something that people need to do. Just be, you know, as I'm sure that, you know, you are and he is proud of his work. And let that come through. Because if you apologize, you're kind of setting people up like it's going to be bad when it wasn't and it isn't. And I'm looking forward to watching the rest of it. You know, the quality of it's good. He's fantastic just in general. The guy's super smart. He has a great sounding voice. And he set up the camera in such a great way. And you can see, like, because I've tried to do stuff like that before. Like, he's probably contorting his body around a tripod stand so you can see his hands. Like, there's no need for apologies. Do you understand what I'm getting at?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, let me talk about a piece of advice I got from someone I really, really respect. Shortly after starting this podcast, I think we were still in the single digits, maybe. And I made an apology on air. And this really smart guy named Myke Hurley gave me this exact piece of advice several years ago. And I have, to this day, never, ever forgotten it. Because I had this really bad habit of doing that exact same thing. So, there's things, you know, you can apologize for, which are, you know, legitimate mistakes. But leading with an apology before getting to the meat of what you're getting ready to talk about is not beneficial to anyone. Like you're saying. You told me this, Myke. You told it to me offline one day after a podcast. I don't remember this, by the way. I believe it was something about field notes, I believe. And it was very, very early on in our podcast thing. I have literally, I think about, this comes up in my brain all the time when I think about doing that or I catch myself writing in that style. And I never forget that piece of advice that you gave me several years ago. So, coming back around to this now, I wanted to thank you for that. Because you gave me the same advice and it has stuck with me to this day. Always. I'm pleased.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm happy that I've stuck to message. Yeah. Because I don't remember this. But you get it, right? It's like... I totally get it. You probably don't need to, like, you don't need to apologize. And, like, by apologizing, you're kind of... You're saying that it's bad. And I'm sure you don't feel that way. Right. And I don't mean to single out the dude. And I hope that he's okay with this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What I think it is, and I think I'm similar along Myke's...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dudek's thought process, I honestly think it's a personality trait, right? It's how you handle yourself in your other parts of your daily life. Not going around apologizing for everything. But it's a part of, like, you feel you want to make everybody happy, right? So, you want to make everyone feel good about what you're about to present. And, you know, it's not from a lack of confidence. But it's just this little safety net thing that you're throwing out there that gives you the freedom to continue on with the thing. And I was able to get past it, you know, pretty shortly thereafter. I still do it from time to time. But I know when I'm doing it, I catch myself. And I was like, there's no need for this. You know, be confident in what you're saying. And it doesn't matter if you're wrong or if it's bad. But there's no need to start out with that. So, yeah. We're turning into analog.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But, no, I think it's a good point. And I didn't know if you remember having the same conversation with me. And it was very meaningful and something I strive to do whenever I'm working on. You know, the podcast or pen reviews, things like that. So, way to go, Myke Hurley, for making a difference in our lives.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And everybody, if you're listening to this right now, just go to our show notes, which are at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 146 and click the link to watch Mr. Dudek's lovely video review of the TI2 Techliner. And, you know, I only wanted to bring this up just because I think there are so many people that listen to this show that want to or do these kinds of things. That is just one of my top pieces of advice, clearly, because it worked for Brad as well. Just be as confident as you can be, but don't feel like you need to qualify for an apology when the stuff's free in the first place. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Should we take a quick break?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, let's do that. I want to take a moment to thank our great friends, the awesome supporters of this show, the R-Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have incredible, fast, and reliable customer service. They're always running special discounts. They also have closeout specials every two weeks as well. Pen Chalet are always adding new styles of pens to their site. Every single month, you're seeing new pens, new brands, new stuff coming on all the time. They have all of your favorite brands, like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Monteverde, Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco. They're an authorized dealer of all of these, and as well as the pens that they sell from each of these brands, they also have a bunch of accessories, too, like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They sell internationally. They have great, reasonable, very cool shipping rates, and I've found their service to be as speedy as anybody else that I've used when shipping internationally. But they have, for orders in the continental United States, they have free shipping on orders of over $50. Pen Chalet have low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go to penchalet.com, and you can use the code PENADDICT to save 10% off your order at checkout. But what you should be doing is clicking the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password PENADDICT for even more savings, and you can then also use that 10% off those as well. As well as some of the cool stuff that you'll find there this week, and that has been there over previous weeks, once you go into the secret PENADDICT area, you'll find a special offer for this week, exclusive for PENADDICT podcast listeners, of the Kaweco Student Fountain Pen. It retails at $60, but after the special discount and after the coupon, you can get it for $40.50. Now, this is a, you've probably seen this, this is the full-size Kaweco. So, if you've really been interested, especially in Kaweco and the lines that they have, but you've never tried them out because you don't like, you don't like small pens, then this is, this could be the pen for you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, this is, this is really interesting. This is not a pen that I've used before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's the most inexpensive full-size Kaweco that you can get, number one. So, it's a great-looking full-size pen. Number two, if you're like me and are a big Kaweco fan and have lots of sports or Lilliputs and you have a particular nib that you like, these students use the exact same nib unit. So, I talk about Kaweco all the time in that I switch one, maybe two nib units between any of the pens that I'm using from time to time. This pen will take those sport and Lilliput nib units. So, you just unscrew it and pop in your favorite nib. Three, I have not been keeping up with the student, but there's two models in here that are absolutely new to me. And they're pretty intriguing. Number one is the Yellow Barrel, which looks fantastic. I don't own a Yellow Barrel pen, but I keep eyeballing a few different ones. It's a really, it's, on the picture, it looks like a, maybe a little bit like a mustard yellow, but not quite. It's not bright yellow. It's kind of in between a bright yellow and a mustard yellow. It looks great with the silver accents. And then the Dark Blue Barrel, if you click on and look at it, it's actually a demonstrator because you can see the converter in it. I've never seen these two models of the student before. So, I might have to pick up one of these for myself because I'm clicking through these kind of fascinated at the new styles that they've done.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like the white one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they all look really good. As a matter of fact, in the past, I know I've seen the black one and then the lighter blue one I've seen, but this actually looks like a different color. So, this must be a refresh of the Kaweka student line. So, this is pretty nice. I haven't seen these before, so I will probably pick up one of these myself. You never know that. I can't really beat the price.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That Ronnie has connections.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He's got some kind of Kaweko hookup that I don't know about. So, you know, he dropped those art sports on us like out of the blue when no one's able to get them. And, you know, now he's coming in with the student, which normally has only had one or two barrel colors with all these neat barrel colors in it. So, yeah, check out Pen Chalet because this is pretty awesome. Make sure you use the code PENADDICT to get all your fun discounts, and I will be doing the same after the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Awesome. What's next for us?



== Top Five Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I want to talk about the top five pens because it's time for an update. And the last time I updated, I think, was in October. And we talked about it on the show. And it ended up becoming kind of a big thing because I did a poor job building out the list, explaining the list, and then intermingling some of the list items in not a very clear and concise manner. So we had a bunch of conversation after that show for like the next two weeks on the top five pens. And I've come to the conclusion, and I wanted to get your opinion on this and the listener's opinion on this, that I'm going to change a little bit of the top five, how I do the top five, and what it stands for. So what I'm thinking is I want to have a top five. Every category of top five will be my recommendations for other people. Then under that top five, I'm going to have like a paragraph of Brad's personal take on any other pens that I personally find useful that may not land in this top five. So I'm trying to differentiate between things that I recommend to others and things that I use myself. Do you think that makes sense? Am I explaining that correctly? Because that's what got muddled up before. People were like, well, are these your favorites? Or are these what you're recommending? Or what exactly are you doing?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I want to have a full recommendation list. I want that to be what the top five is. Here's my recommendations for these categories. Then I want to have some notes if I have some things to say about some things not on the list or some, or if my personal favorite is number three on the list, right? But it's my number one in that category. Does that make sense?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. So, okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What you answered my first question, which was going to be like, what do you define as the purpose of the top five pens list? So is it for you to show your favorites? Or is it as to be a resource for people that are either new to, like whoever they know the site well and want to try out some new stuff? Or what I expect probably happens quite a lot is you get an awful lot of Google traffic to that page of people coming and trying to basically answer that question. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let me stop you right there and add some background. It started out as my favorites. Now it's morphed into people are using that as a shopping list, right? Which should not be a list of my favorites, right? Those are two different things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Can we have a very, very quick business discussion? Yes. So at the moment, the links to those pages are going to the review links that you have, right? Mm-hmm. Maybe you should set up a separate link that is review, and the first link should be an affiliate link to somewhere.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I thought about adding, like, buy it here. I mean, not necessarily those words, but here's where you can read about the pen. Here's where you can shop for the pen. So I will probably integrate that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I think you should do that. Because I'm going to assume that that is one of the biggest traffic drivers on your website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, no doubt. It's definitely turned into a thing. Right, there you go. Which I didn't anticipate.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You need to consider that then. Yeah. Please, please do that. I'm going to bug you about that now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'll do that. I'll do that. I've been thinking about that for a while, that I needed to do that and just haven't, because you know how I am. That's just not on the forefront of my thought processes. But I think it's valid at this point because of how people are using that page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm going to make it more of a clear, I'm going to take out the part where I talk about my favorites, right? These are my favorites. These are what I'm currently using. It's going to be more of a recommendations page. And then we'll have Brad's comments, particular to Brad, underneath that in paragraph form, not in list form.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think you should call them editor's choice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My commentary part.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I just think that sounds fun. Okay. It's quite fancy sounding. Well, I am the editor in chief now. Exactly. So editor's choice. I guess my other question for you is, do they differ that much that you need to split them out? Like, do you need to have, like, your recommendations for each category?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So here's what caused the problem. Fountain pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I was going to say, right? So I'm going to assume.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That totally caused the problem. That's what broke the original theory of this page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because I cannot take what's my favorite fountain pens and make that a top five list of any kind of recommendation whatsoever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, because your top five and my top five even are extremely different in fountain pens. Yeah. So what I was thinking in is, do you need to do it to the granularity that you're considering? Like, could you not just have, like, top five everything be one thing? And then for fountain pens have a couple of categories.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. The fountain pens is going to be broken down more than it currently is, probably into price points or some other delineated manner. There will be multiple fountain pen categories, recommendations. And then if I do a personal list, it will be in the fountain pens, right? But I don't want to get things confused with a list that's not a recommendation thing. So I might just leave that to the editorial comments.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We'll see. So that's my thought process. And I put down in the notes, WTF Pilot High Tech C, because it's what I've been thinking a lot about. That's a pen I've been thinking a lot about in this top five update. Because it kind of fell out of favor with me in the past few months.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was when this show started out, for the people that have gone back and listened, what you consistently called your favorite pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Yeah. And what happened in, say, like, in the past year, I've had more problems with consistency. It's always been a consistency issue with that performance of that pen. And you know that going into it. Except now it became greater. Where the problems increased with the pen. So every time you pick up the pen, it was almost like there was an issue. And I was getting more reports of people saying, WTF Pilot High Tech C. Why doesn't my pen work? Why does it skip? Why doesn't it, you know, I've only set it down for an hour. Why doesn't it write? And this just became an ongoing thing. And it's super frustrating. But I found that the frustrations for myself, personally, were limited to the .4mm version. I've been using the .3mm version religiously for, like, the past month. Maybe two months. I love that pen so much. But I don't know what to do with it as far as a recommendation. It's like a, that's one of those pens that I, I never recommend it over the Uniball Sino, the UM-151, what we refer to as the DX. Right. I never, ever recommend the High Tech C over that pen because the Uniball is so much more consistent and works super, super well. So I just wanted to throw that in there. These are the thoughts I'm having as I'm trying to rebuild this list. And I should have it done in a week or two because it's going to take me a little bit of time because I need to kind of rework the whole layout and how I'm going to do that. So I just want to throw that High Tech C thing out there because it's really one of those super hit or miss pens. So that's almost like an editorial piece on the High Tech C because it probably should be in the top five gel pens, but it may not be when I get, when it gets down to it. So we'll see.



== Notebook Problems ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' We'll see. All right. Enough about the top five pens. I just want to throw that out there because we had a lot, a lot of discussion about this the last time it came out. And I had a lot of problems with it personally, to be quite honest. So I think I'm going to get it on the right track.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Now with the notebook problems that you and I have, there's a new website that can help you get on track. Myke, have you seen this? Indexed. Yeah, I saw this. I-N-D-X-D. Yeah, I saw this. Indexed.ink. Yeah, so this is by Dave Ray, who is a avid pen addict reader, listener, and all-around good guy who will be at the Atlanta Pen Show. So he's made this great website where you can, we all use these notebooks that are kind of, like in my case, I call like my pocket notebooks the inbox. Right? So there's, I don't necessarily have specific cases for notebooks. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Or specific categories. Like Myke might have a podcast notes notebook. Well, what Indexed does, it allows you to create an entry on the Indexed website for the notebook itself. You can say, you know, like I entered in my Field Notes Day Game Edition. And then I can take certain pages that I want to refer back to in that edition, note them on the Indexed website by the page number and what the content of that is on that page. And it's searchable. So when I'm looking for a list or something that I created, I can go back to Indexed and remember where I put that. I think that's really great. It's very simple. It's straightforward. It's something that I've always wondered about. You know, I don't digitize as frequently as I should on my notebooks. So I don't have any searching capabilities for some of my recent notebooks or things like that. And Indexed also, if you scanned your notebooks like into Evernote or any other manner, you can also link those pages into your Indexed page for your particular notebook. But I find myself, okay, I made this note or this sketch, and I have to go pull out five notebooks that I've already finished that I don't remember where that sketch was. And this solves that problem for me. This is right up my alley because three quarters of my pocket notebooks are probably filled with stuff that I don't need to remember permanently. But that other 25% is stuff I might want to refer back to. And this saves me from pulling out a bin of notebooks, flipping page by page until I find what I was looking for. And this allows me to go in, search for the term that I thought I had, and boom, I know which notebook it was in and what page it was on. So how great is that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Man, that is, I mean, it's a system that requires a bit of work, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, there's some upfront cost. I mean, not price, but there's some upfront work to put up for time to put into it, yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I think if you can really lock into that, because the more you do something like that, the less time it takes. Right. But I think that the idea, the kernel of the idea is very strong. Yes. Very strong. And it's one of those things that, you know, I think this is something that could really benefit people. So if you are interested in it, I would suggest trying it out, because these things can get so much, so, so, so, so much better with feedback.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, for example, my day game edition, I'm halfway through it, and I've indexed three pages, if you will. Does that make sense?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because you don't need to do them all, because it's not important.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't, exactly. So I've numbered all the pages. I'm halfway through a notebook, but I have three of them logged and indexed, because those are things I might want to refer to later. It's, for what I need, this is just freaking perfect. It's so simple. It's, Dave nailed it. He did a really good job, and hopefully I can talk to him more. We'll talk to him more in Atlanta at the pen show about this. Oh, fantastic. See how it's going for him, because he's going to make the trip, and we'll see him there. So you guys should really check this out. It's a big deal. And he's just, he just came up with this. He emailed me. He's like, hey, I came up with this idea. And take a look at this website. Tell me what you think. I'm like, huh, that's pretty useful. So I like that, and it's simple, too. It's dead simple, and really good job, Dave. So y'all go check out index.inc.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Go check it out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. I want to talk about the new Field Notes, Myke. How about you?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Let's take a final break. I want your help with this one. All right. This episode is brought to you by Harry's. For so many of us, shaving is a pain. It can be uncomfortable, cause nicks, cuts, scrapes, razor burn, and maybe more than anything else, it can be painful in your pocket, too, as razor blades today are super expensive. This is where Harry's comes in. Harry's was started by a couple of guys who wanted a better product to use without having to pay an arm and a leg to get it. Harry's makes their own blades. They're high-quality, high-performing German blades crafted by shaving experts. They love the blades so much that they purchased the factory in Germany that they found them in. Harry's, their razors offer a high-quality shave at about half the price of the other big brand blades. They ship for free to your front doorstep, and their starter set is an amazing deal. For just $15, you get a razor, moisturizing shave cream while foaming shave gel, and three razor blades. And in a minute, I'm going to tell you about how you can get your hands on that for just $10. On average, an everyday shaver saves about $150 a year on blades using Harry's. With Harry's, your satisfaction is guaranteed, because that is so important to them. I love the way that their products look, I love the way they feel, and the way that they feel on the skin, just the way they smell. I just like everything about them. But so does Brad, because he also uses them. So Brad, could you please tell the pan addicts out there what you love about your Harry's products?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm about to have, like, the shakes, because I am going to, I have not replaced, I have not placed an order for my soothing aftershave balm that they sell, which I've fallen in love with. And I've never used any type of aftershave lotion before. This is, this stuff is awesome. I'm addicted to it. And I just realized yesterday, my bottle's running low, and I have extra blades ready that I've already reordered, and I have extra shave, uh, uh, shave lotion that I've reordered. But I'm almost out of the, of the aftershave lotion. And I'm like, it's like freaking me out, because I miss it. If I don't use it, I'm going to miss it. So I need to get my order in. But for the price, I would pay twice as much, at least, for as good a quality as the stuff that Harry's makes. I'm totally in on everything Harry's does. I've been using it, I don't know, at least six months, if not a year now, their products, long before they were sponsor of the show. So it's the best shave experience I have. Um, some of you that know me know that I'm a sensitive guy. I'm very sensitive, uh, on my neck as well. So it's a big deal for, for, to have a shave experience that is not setting my neck on fire. And Harry's does that. The blades are great. Uh, the shave lotion is great. The aftershave makes me smell awesome and makes my wife swoon. So yeah, it's really good. Harry's is legit. I love this stuff. I'm a hardcore Harry's fan, big time customer. I don't see me using anything else. And, uh, I love you, Harry's. Will you marry me? Thanks, buddy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Experience a clean, close, comfortable shave with Harry's. Go to harrys.com right now. And they will give you $5 off if you type in the coupon code PENADDICT at checkout. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com and enter coupon code PENADDICT to checkout for $5 off your first purchase. And you can start shaving better today. Thanks to Harry's for their support of this show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you can get the, the intro kit for $10 after our $5 off coupon? Yeah. That, yeah, that's like getting stuff for free. It's kind of a no-brainer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, that's so cheap.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's so cheap. And when you reorder, it's not like they nail you on the reorder stuff, too. It's totally, it's completely fairly priced when you reorder. That's what's so great about it. It's not someone that's going to nail you up front and then charge you double for your reorders. It's the same great pricing as you continue to order. So.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Free shipping.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Free shipping. All right. Sorry. I fawned over that. Did I do too much there, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No. No. It's perfect.



== Field Notes ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. I got to go cool down now. Field notes. That'll get you all hot and bothered.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what do you think about these new field notes? Since you put me on the spot for that ad, I'm going to make you go first on these new edition field notes called Two Rivers, the new colors subscription launch for the field notes brand. Myke Hurley, what are your thoughts?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think anybody that kind of watches the tea leaves of field notes, right, you kind of know when they're gearing up, right? They start to kind of like, they dust off a few things. They send out a couple of like coded tweets and stuff like that. Like you can, you can see when, when the field notes marketing machine is starting to, to get into full force when the new colors edition is coming out. I, this one felt different though, I think. Like leading up to the release of this one, like I was getting more and more excited. Like you could feel something was in the air. And this, this is maybe like the, one of the most special releases for what they're doing. I mean, it has this fantastic story as they always have, but this time there's a charitable element behind it. So the guys and girls over at field night, at field notes, field notes, we'll go with that company name, have teamed up with the Hamilton wood type and printing museum. And like, since like early 2014, they've been making this, making this edition where effectively they've been, they've been printing, they've been using like the, it's not screen printing, is it? What, what, what is it called? Letterpress. Letterpress.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wood type letterpress. There you go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's it. They've been basically letterpressing these huge sheets of paper with like loads of really cool type. They say like field notes all over them, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, like he's got all these like great words all over the place. And then they've cut these basically to become the covers of this special edition, which is also a charitable component as well. Like you can donate to charity and I think everybody did. And it took down the field notes website, which I also don't recall that ever happening before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not that I've seen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I think because they added like in the, the charity thing, it kind of, I think it, it, it hurt their system a bit too. Maybe. Yeah. But this is different buttons to press. Limited to 25,000. They have a smaller edition size. I think it was just because of the amount and time that it took to make these.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's probably what I'm going to go with as to why that's, that's the case.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's not, it's not hugely lower than some of the runs they've done before because it's 25,000 three packs. So it's 75,000 books. Most they've done, I think is 90. I don't think they've had a hundred thousand run before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Although I'm actually only comparing it to the previous. It's 25 is, is, is, is relatively standard. I mean, cause they've been a bit all over the place recently because they're doing certain things that require bigger runs. I think when I spoke to Kudal on inquisitive, he mentioned like that the ambition, they had to do more because they needed, they needed it for the, what do they call that? The gold leafing. The guilt. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just justify the gilding costs. So yeah, absolutely.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I think, I think as you get into a certain size, you get sent, become ambitious enough. They kind of starts to dictate the size. Now this, this pack, this edition, this edition here, I think this is the first time I've, I've ever ordered as many as I've ordered. So I've got my subscription. They're not here. I don't have mine yet, by the way. So I re, I renewed my subscription because they were talking about the fact that like, you should renew your subscription. They mentioned it because I was going to wait and see before I re-ordered them. I don't know what I thought I was waiting and seeing. Right. And then I ordered them. I ordered three packs the maximum because they've, they've capped them this time. Right. House, household size orders because, because they are limited and they think they're going to be quite popular. So yeah, I've, I think that they look stunning and I've had some friends send me some pictures and stuff and man, they are, they really, really, really look like something else. So I'm going to assume you have yours, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I have mine. I got, I also re-upped my subscription for this. I did it about two weeks before the launch. I said, I just need to go ahead and get it in before. So it'll ship. So I did normally. I have a lot to say about these additions, but I don't want to bury the lead and I'm going to go on record as saying these are spectacular. These are some of the best I've seen in a while, probably since about back to the night sky. I know I get on about drink local a lot. That's one of my favorite additions all time. This has, this is a different drink. Local was kind of a normal set night sky. They did something different where they, you know, added those holographs images on the back cover. This is in that vein. They've done something really special with the design. But the thing about this design is it does have that charitable aspect to it. And if you read the story, um, about Hamilton wood type and you watch the videos about Hamilton wood type and you see everything that went on with getting this addition out, it blows your mind. Like you look at the, uh, interview with Draplin and the gentleman who runs, uh, the museum at Hamilton wood type. Let me find his name real quick. Uh, Jim Moran. They recorded the video in July, 2014. So that tells you how long ago they've been planning on this and what field notes did. And you'll notice with this set on the belly bands of these sets on the back of it, it says, uh, with thanks to French paper company. So they've always used field notes. It's always been a customer of French paper, French paper, joined field notes in the charitable part of this by donating the paper for the covers for these books.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's one of the videos. So there's a lot going into this edition and $2 of every three pack goes to the Hamilton wood type museum. You can add in, if you order from the field notes website, if you're not a subscriber and you're just ordering them individually, you can add donations that go directly to the field notes. I mean, to the Hamilton wood type museum. So yeah, I got my two subscription additions, Myke. And then I ordered three more, the max, but I felt, I felt kind of guilty. You know, I got my two, then I ordered three. Does that mean I got five in my household? I don't, I don't want to get thrown in the field notes pokey for, uh, over ordering. But I, I mean, I had a reason. Number one, I wanted to give some of these to my sister who runs a letterpress machine at her bookbinding shop. So she will be, she will enjoy these. And two, I wanted to add in a donation to the Hamilton wood type, which, you know, doesn't come as, you know, part of your subscription, you know, the $2 per three pack, but you can add in a little extra donation if you want, if you order the packs individually. So I wanted to do that. So hopefully, uh, Jim and Brian and, uh, Aaron don't come after me. Um, because I do actually have five packs at my household, but not for long because I'm gonna send some of these off because they're so great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They've done the same to me. Um, like what, they hope they don't do the same to me. Although I'm not as good as you. I, I do plan on keeping them all for myself. Uh, but I, I did put a charitable donation in. So, you know, I feel better about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Same here, same here. And one thing different came in the, um, the non-subscription order in the regular order with the charitable donation. I got a little, there's a little thank you card, like a little two by three, um, card that says thank you from Hamilton wood type. It's, you know, printed, um, similarly to the field notes covers. So, so I, so I actually physically have five packs at my house and I've only opened one so far and I chose the one, one to open very specifically for this episode because there's probably, I, I correct. I mean, y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like there's five, maybe basic general cover designs. And within those five designs, they have all have their unique color set to them. And then they're all run through the press at different times. So you'll have, um, different ink saturation on the paper covers and things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think there might be six because.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So six.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Cause my friend John, he sent me two sets of three pictures and they are all different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So that sounds about right. So looking at, so I have 15 physical notebooks and looking at all of those, I have one from the yellow colorway out of all 15 of those books.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, so this is like unexposed again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So yeah, this is, uh, I put this tweet in the show notes from Kelly Fancher on Twitter. She said when they released, she said, I felt a great disturbance in the field notes brand as if millions of collectors suddenly cried out in terror.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I thought that was perfect. Again, this reminds me again, back to the conversation that me and Kudal had where he was talking about the collectors. Right. And how they upset the collectors with these things.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So there's basically no two notebooks are alike in this run. By the way, the, um, the letter that's even worse than unexposed.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You cannot, no matter whatever you do, you cannot complete the set in theory.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' In theory. So what I, I, the pack I chose to open and that I'm going to eventually use had looked like two of the exact same color and pattern on it. And I took a picture of it. We'll put it in the show notes. Um, it's on Instagram and I forgot to grab that before the show, but I want, I wanted a bunch of the blue covers with the red and white type, well, red and white ink and things like that. Just cause I thought they looked super cool. So this one had two of that color, both of them, uh, with the pig and the cow on the front. Um, I was, I wonder if this, the whole type part says from our farm to your table or something like that. I don't know exactly what it says, but you can tell these while they may look the same in general. They are very different in how they printed on the letterpress. Um, one got a very saturated ink, like it was newer on the press while the ink was fresh. And then another one looks like it came from way down the press line, you know, hundreds of impressions later because the ink is much fainter and there's a lot more white showing through. So that goes to show the differences in just a single cover while they may generally look the same. They are wildly different looking.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's something so beautiful about that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And the output and I'm, I'm fascinated by it. They, they look really, really good. So yeah, this is a two thumbs up addition, uh, for me. One thing I did notice and you'll notice when you, uh, when you get a mic, there's no, uh, practical applications in the back of these. Oh, so yeah, I didn't know that. And I don't recall anyone saying that and that they wanted to add in some about the, um, some about the two rivers edition in the back of this about how they, some of the money is going to the Hamilton wood type and printing museum. Hey, that's a practical application. That's a total, that's the best, best kind of practical application. So, and, uh, this Hamilton wood, uh, wood type museum is really, really neat. I watched, uh, several other videos and they have all these workshops. You can like go in there and print your own posters and stuff like that. So it's, it's really cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, um, Hey, maybe that's where pen addict live 2016. 2016.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That would be, how cool would that be? That would be super cool. So anyway, um, very ecstatic about this edition, best edition in a while, in my opinion, and Jim, Brian and Aaron, you guys, uh, you guys nailed it, um, across the board in this one, in my opinion. So, um, one, one quick note, if you want to hear Aaron Draplin talk about this a little bit more, he gets into it a little bit on the last episode of dot grid podcast, um, with Andy Wilfley and, um, Will Fangy. Um, you can hear him talk a little bit about how this came to be. And, um, I've listened to that. Yeah. I've got that queued up. Yeah, it's good. It's good. And, um, this is just a fascinating edition. I, I, I ate this whole thing up. I've watched the videos. There's lots of extra videos and, um, I was, I was all about it. So super, super happy with this one. And, uh, yeah, I think it's going to sell out reasonably quickly, so it should do good.



== Beards ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, man. I think that's a wrap, but I wanted to, to get us out on one really funny thing that popped in to my feed about five minutes before the show started. So I'm throwing this in the chat room and Myke has just clicked on the link and someone tagged me in Instagram and the Goulet pins, uh, Instagram feed, uh, dirges in the dark is his Instagram handle. And it said his comment on this photo here is proof that proximity to fountain pins can actually turn you into Brad Dowdy. So Goulet has a new hire, new hire named Bryce. I think he might be my doppelganger. Myke, what do you, what say you? All I'll say is he has a sweet beard. He does have a sweet beard. So yeah, click this link. It cracked me up and I think he's right. This guy is like built like me, looks like me, beard like me, glasses like me, shirt like me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Whilst we're talking, whilst we're talking about sweet beards, your business partner. Yeah. Whoa. I saw a picture of him the other day. I'll find this. He's a maniac. And I'll put it in the show notes. It might've been on his Instagram, but Brock Wookiee's beard is, is really becoming something special.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So my kids have taken to calling him Brock Wookiee.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, that's a fantastic nickname.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My kids came up with that. And I, when they said that I just died and had to text him immediately. And he just thought that was hilarious. So that is fantastic. He is the Brock Wookiee. So there's a story behind this and we're going to have to see if it makes it to the Atlanta pin show. This is the baby beard, right? His wife's pregnant. So he started when they found out. Oh yeah. He's going to shave it when the baby's born. Well, the baby's coming next week, mate. So I don't know if it's going to make the pin show. Yeah. So I don't know if the beard's going to make the pin show or not. So we'll have to see. That will make me sad. But the beard, the beard needs an Instagram account of its own. So we'll see if he, he might just decide to keep it. So yes. Too funny.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cause it's looking really good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's epic. It is what an epic beard should look like. And it goes so well with his bald head. It's not even funny. It's amazing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at pictures of him now. Like it's just.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're fascinated.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like the mustache is just my mustache doesn't grow that thick.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I can't, he, I may have hair on the top of my head. I cannot grow a beard like he grew. That's a talent. It's not everyone can do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's so beautiful. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. All right. So let's let you go fawn in peace over Jeff's beard. I'm going to do that. Take us home.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you want to find the show notes for this week, which includes pictures of Jeff's beard, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash one four six, or you can find the links to all that sort of stuff in your podcast app of choice. Most great apps support show notes. You can find them all there. If you want to find our sponsors, you should help support them. They help support us. That's Linda.com, Pen Chalet and Harry's. Thanks again for their support. This week. If you'd like to find myself and Brad Dowdy on the internet, I am at I'm Ike on Twitter. I am Y K E. And Brad Dowdy is at Dowdyism, D O W D Y I S M. And Brad writes the fantastic pen addict.com. We're just a handful of weeks away from the live show, um, Atlanta, uh, in Atlanta for the, the, uh, pen show. It's shaping up to be a real, real special treat. Uh, we'll have some updates over the next couple of weeks as to, to the things that we're looking to do there. Um, and we'll hope, we'll hope that you'll be able to, uh, to join in the festivities in whatever way you wish. Um, but until next time, thank you so much for listening. Say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Goodbye, Brad. Brad.

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