Editing The Pen Addict 486/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 486
| title           = Write-O
| date            = November 3rd, 2021
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = 
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/486 Episode 486]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_486.mp3 Audio Episode 486]
| length          = 64
}}

'''Brad:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 486. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Squarespace, and Camero Industries. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke, how are you? I'm good. I was tripping all over myself there. I don't know if people would have guessed that from the way I did the intro. I've already redone it, so I figured I would just live with it. But for some reason, I don't know who I was introducing. I don't know what's going on. So I'll tell you, two things have happened today that might be setting me up weird. It's an hour early for me at the moment, right?

'''Myke:''' Right, right. Yeah, we're in the time warp stage right now. Yep.



== Time Management ==


'''Brad:''' And I got totally lost with time today, and I had lunch before we recorded, and I have not had my second coffee of the day, which I would usually have had by the time we started. So I think that the mixture of all of this stuff has left me in a real bit of a pickle.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, well, you and me both. So this show could go completely off the rails because my time management was poor because I was up to 1 a.m. cheering my Atlanta Braves on to their World Series championships. So I got about five hours of sleep. So while technically I'm feeling good right now, you know there's a crash coming, and I've tried to prop myself off with as much coffee as possible. But we'll see. So I think we're probably in the same boat today.

'''Brad:''' It's going to be a fun one. Or a weird one. Or a bad one. I mean, I guess it depends. They're never bad. They're just different.

'''Myke:''' All options are on the table today.

'''Brad:''' Talking about on the table, what's on your table right now?

'''Myke:''' Literally, on my table, within arm's reach, actually, let's change that. In my hand right now is the new Lamy Safari, white and red, special edition that I don't know what's special about it. Other than it's cool. Yeah, it did come fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we talked about it launching last week. It was just a fact. It's a given I'm going to buy this pen. I don't have to think about this. I love the Lamy Safari. I love the Lamy Safari more than all the other entry-level pens. I wish I could totally explain that because I agree that it's not a pen for everyone. But for me, it's just really, really great. So it's the white, glossy barrel. It honestly, for Lamy Safari fans, it's not that special, right? It's like a white barrel we've seen a thousand times, a red clip we've seen a bunch of times, a red round finial, which we've seen a bunch of times. The only thing that's slightly a bit different is a red barrel ring, but even that's not different. Like, it's confusing what's special about it, but it's special in that it's mine and I wanted it. And I think it, like, really, really sets. It's a good Lamy pen, but it should be a standard pen, right? Like, it's not, like, completely special. The, I got it with an extra fine steel nib. I inked it up with the black cartridge that it came with, Myke. I didn't go special ink on this. I wanted to get a black ink in the rotation because I'm in the midst of a writing project, which we'll talk about later. And I didn't have a black ink inked up, and I like Lamy's black ink. So, if people are looking for a standard black ink, you could do worse than Lamy black. You know, Pilot Black's probably my number one choice for that, but popping in the Lamy black cartridge, easy to do. The only thing, Myke, so far, and I've mentioned this a while ago, and I've done this with Kaweco, and I need to do this with Lamy because those are brands I love. But sometimes the stock nib is not the best. This extra fine nib is just wide. Like, it just is. Like, and that's not anyone's fault. Like, that's just how these nibs are made. It's a wide, extra fine nib, and I would like it to be finer. So, I need to do the thing where I pay more to get the nib worked on than the pen is worth, but I will actually use that nib in multiple pens as I move them around, right? So, if I want to switch my Lamy Safari to, like, the Lamy, you know, Dark Lilac or the Petrol or whatever Lamy that I want to use at the time, I can just swap the nib, like, real quick and, you know, get a really, really perfect nib for me, which is what I do with a lot of my Kawecos. Secondly, I inked up for the first time in a long time a Pilot Vanishing Point, specifically the Bungu Box Energia edition.

'''Myke:''' Myke, if you hadn't seen that, I need to get a link in the show notes. I've got one. Unless you already have.

'''Brad:''' It's very hard to find because Bungu Box don't have it on their website anymore, but you posted a Tuesday tool set at one point with a bunch of pictures of it, so I put that in there.



== Bungu Box Collaboration ==


'''Myke:''' It's this really unique Bungu Box pilot collaboration where they did kind of an orange, it looks like the surface of the sun, right? I wouldn't call it marbled necessarily, but it looks like if you took, like, a really, really close-up picture of the sun and wrapped it around a pen barrel, that's what this looks like. So it's orange and it's great. I also went cartridge with this one, Myke. It was a big, big cartridge week at the Pen Attic household, getting ready to ink up some new pens because I have a Pilot orange cartridge that I can put in here. So Pilot has, they've had this product for a while, but they're just kind of pushing in it, and I'll have to get the exact name of it, but they actually have a marker-style pen, a refillable marker-style pen that's very overpriced. It's like $16 for, like, a felt-tip marker-tip pen, but then you can use fountain pen ink cartridges in, and they put all the colors out for you to use, all their stock colors, like the orange and the turquoise and the purple and different things like that. So I just bought some cartridges that came out with that, popped it in this pen. It's great. Pilot's orange is really, really good. I don't know if you've ever used that. I know you use the Pilot purple cartridges pretty frequently.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, and red. I didn't even know they had orange, but I've used the purple and the red.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, yeah. So it's funny that they don't necessarily promote them with all their fountain pen products, but hey, we got a little marker here that you can refill. Oh, by the way, look at all these fountain pen cartridges in cool colors. I wish they'd just have that as normal. So I inked up a bunch of pens this week. I'll have a bunch of pens in use, and those were kind of the two favorites of mine to get into use that I've been using separately from my writing project. Like, I took podcast notes today with the Lamy Safari, and that's kind of my go-to pen other than, you know, whatever I'm using for writing today. An interesting thing that has transpired since we last kind of went through the things that we're using is I've transitioned my William Hanna planner into a William Hanna notebook to where, like, next year I'm going to use a Hobonichi cousin for my planner.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, I read about this in refill, and we haven't spoken about this, and I think at some point we need to speak about this.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, maybe we'll just, we'll do a whole planner thing and a whole William Hanna thing before, but the weird thing, and I guess it's a good thing about the William Hanna, is I want to use this because the product is so nice, right? I like the construction of the cover. I like the disc-bound system. So what I did was, what I'd always intended to do with this system is to buy a hole punch that would allow me to use other papers and put them in this disc-bound system. So we actually had a question. I was looking for topic suggestions today, and we had a question from Bob. It says, notebook or loose paper currently in use? And this is all loose-leaf paper that I have punched and put into my William Hanna and used the dividers to separate them so I can have all these papers at the same time and kind of test them out however I want to do it. So I have the Morimon Croquis. I have the Life Bank paper. I have the Kukuyo A5 copy paper, like the ream of 500 sheets. That's a really good paper. I have the writing pad from the Well-Appointed Desk, which has the Isleek writing paper in it. And I have Clairefontaine Triumph. So I've been able to take this William Hanna and make it into just this, you know, conglomerate notebook and have all these different papers and play around with. How are you breaking them up? There's dividers that actually shipped with the William Hanna. Nice. So, like, I have a bunch of different color dividers. What I don't have is tabs. I mean, I can tell the difference between the papers, but I'd still probably like to have some little – I can get some little removable tabs to use with it to say, hey, this is the Life Bank paper. But I kind of – I know which section they're in and I know what they look like. And it's funny. Some of these are different sizes. I was thinking, oh, look at all these A5 pads I have. And out of this list of five, I think, like, two of them, like the Life Bank paper is smaller than A5. The Well Appointed Desk paper was never meant to be A5, but it's, like, longer. So it kind of sticks out the notebook. But, like, that kind of gives it the character that I wanted anyway, right? It's just this randomness.

'''Brad:''' Now it's a mishmash. You've got to have stuff sticking out of it, things folded into it. Like, now it's kind of making sense.

'''Myke:''' I mean, I already have that anyway with all my notebooks are generally like that because I usually have a piece of blotting paper, like, any extra sheets with the notes. I have a notebook with a different pad stuck in it right now. So, yeah, I am a little pack rat when it comes to notebooks. I don't mind, you know, just kind of shoving other things in there. So it's kind of a natural transition for the William Hanna. And that way, like, if I want to do something specific with a specific type of paper, that I could just grab that, turn over to the section, grab that sheet that I want, and go to town. The only thing I'm really missing that I want to add is Tomoe River, and I just haven't gotten my sheets yet to that or that size. I think I have some A4 sheets that I might just cut down to fit into there. So I can have some 52 GSM Tomoe River to test against as well. So that's kind of my general setup. Of course, I have plenty of other things going, my journal, my writing. We'll talk about that. But those are kind of the products that I'm really, really getting into right now. I'm just ecstatic about Lamy Safari's mic, and I'm happy to have a vanishing point back in the rotation for probably the first time in a year. So, yeah, it's good. I'm a happy stationary user today.

'''Brad:''' I'm not very good for this question at the moment.

'''Myke:''' Well, I think it's a timing thing, right? Yes. Yeah, it's a timing thing, and people will understand why momentarily.

'''Brad:''' I'm a very big company boy right now.

'''Brad:''' So I'm using my notebook as a prototype product that I can't talk about yet because I have no idea if or when it will ever be a real product. But I desperately want it to be, and I'm working incredibly hard on it, including I'm visiting a printer tomorrow. I'm actually going to a printer to have a conversation, which is the first time I've done that, which I'm excited about. So hopefully at one point in the mid-future, I'll be able to show this product. I'm also using a first-off-the-line Cortex-branded Mark I pen from Studio Neat. Oh, you already have one. I have one. I actually have four, but just two of them.

'''Myke:''' Prototype-ies.

'''Brad:''' They're not prototypes. They are. Oh, the final. It's done. Nice. And these are the first four of them that have been sent out. They're all complete. These are going to be available later on this year, so kind of towards the end of the year. I'll put a link in the show notes to an Instagram story highlight where I show people what it is. But it is going to be a – this is like pen addict listeners are getting the real first information here. Because I just figure, you know, care about it the most probably. We're doing the black Cerakote from the Mark I with a laser-engraved Cortex logo on the side. And the Nock is a very dark gray kind of black PVD coated on the Nock. So they're going to be on sale later on this year in very limited numbers.

'''Myke:''' I love when you go to the story. I love any Nock activation sounds in any stories. Of course. And the Mark I has a really nice one that Tom and Dan designed themselves after testing out, you know, the popular Schmidt mechanism that a lot of people use. And it kind of like failing the test, they decided to make their own. And it's just a nice chonker. And it fits the pen perfectly.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, we did a lot. We've done a lot. This has been a long time in the making.



== Prototype Product ==


'''Brad:''' And we were a little bit constrained about how many we could make. But I hope that – well, people will enjoy it. It will be available later on. I think actually as well, talking to Studio Neat, I think today they have another limited edition available.

'''Myke:''' Oh, wow. They're on it. Yeah. Hashtag manufacturing.

'''Brad:''' Yep. So.

'''Myke:''' Big maker boy, Myke.

'''Brad:''' But it's not the only thing I'm using. I'm also using my 3776 Galaxy Satellite with the cross point stack nib from CY of Tokyo Inklings.

'''Myke:''' What ink is in this one? Which one was this?

'''Brad:''' Oh, it's a green. Hold on. Let me consult my note, Brad.

'''Myke:''' Is it on like an – do you use like an A3 size sheet of paper? When you write with this nib? Is that the – that's the new product you're making? Myke's making an A2 notepad.

'''Brad:''' It's a stacked nib notebook.

'''Brad:''' I'm using Akamon 28.

'''Myke:''' Oh, yeah. Shoot. Yeah. One of the best inks ever.

'''Myke:''' One of – yeah. Maybe in my top five all-time inks. It's great. If not, maybe like top three.



== Ink Review ==


'''Brad:''' I keep coming back to it. Like time and time again, I come back to it. I mean, it helps because I have so much of it because their bottles are massive.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. 60 ml. Not outrageous. Not as big as they used to be in the olden days. But that was before our times even. So getting the really huge ones. But you cannot – I mean, for me, you can't do better than that. Although I am using a Graffon Faber-Castell Viper Green right now, which has a – Viper Green. It's a bright green as well. It's got a little less character, a little less yellow than the Huff-Quartier growing. But it's probably like my number two. But number one is irreplaceable for me, and that's Akamon number 28. So very cool. Love it. Good job.

'''Brad:''' All right. So should we take a break?

'''Myke:''' We should. We have a – you know, this is one of those all-over-the-place episodes. We've got a lot of little topics to talk about that I want to dig into a little bit more. But I'm glad to hear you got some stuff in the works. I'm interested. So that's why I like to catch up. We don't talk a lot offline. I mean, we do talk a lot between episodes. But, man, Myke dropping it on me today. I love it.

'''Brad:''' I'm busy, man. I can hear it in your voice. I've got a lot of irons in the fire. I was saying to Brad before, like, it's a constant, like, making this stuff as a constant. Like, every time I think – it's like a whack-a-mole, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, I was like, oh, if there's one thing I know how to make, it's this thing. It's like, oh, you sent a file and it's all wrong and it needs to be changed. It's like, why? Why is this happening? I don't understand why this is happening.

'''Myke:''' Hey, before you read the ad, let me just say something that wasn't in the notes since we're giving the business updates. Knock shipping. I'm, like, halfway through. I know that doesn't mean anything to anyone without numbers, but there was, like, well over 800 and something orders that came in. So, like, I've got it down to, like, 400 and something. So, I appreciate y'all's patience. I know it's taken me a while, but it's a big project to get through. So, another two, three weeks, we'll get that down to zero and then we'll have a re-inventory and a re-push of products. And that'll probably be, you know, getting down to the studs, as they say, Myke.

'''Brad:''' This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell the very best products from all of your favorite brands. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen, maybe you want a new ballpoint. Maybe you want a carrying case, a pen holder, some refills. Maybe you're looking to shop from Pelican. Maybe you want something from Sailor and Kaweco. It doesn't matter what you're looking for. They have all the products that you want from all of the brands that you're looking for. They're always running fantastic discounts. Every couple of weeks, you can go and find more great products and discounts, as well as new styles of products being added to Pen Chalet all the time. They have really fast, really reliable, great customer service, and they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high-quality products that they sell to you at the lowest prices they can. They do international shipping with great shipping rates, and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S. So, as a Pen Addict listener, you can get 10% off anything at any time at Pen Chalet. If you go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. This is where you get that code, as well as access to some special offers just for Pen Addict listeners, which this week, what have we got, Brad?

'''Myke:''' Right out the gate, I haven't seen this Conklin All-American demonstrator, but I like demonstrators with the gunmetal hardware. So, this has the dark clip, the dark nib, and it looks really, really cool, and the price is really, really inexpensive. It's a steel nib pen, but for like, you know, in the $60 range. It's kind of crazy. And then right below it, I haven't noticed these Leonardo Memento Zeros that Pen Chalet does some exclusives from time to time, and I have one from the past, like a turquoise and black one. But these are two ebonite barrel models, like a yellow ebonite and a rosewood ebonite, that the price on these is, if you've been considering a Memento Zero, and you want kind of a cool, different one, and like this is your style and taste, you're not going to find anything better than this, to be perfectly honest, at that price point and at that cool factor. So, I just think it's really, really great. And yeah, just going down the list, like the Platinum Presidents in there, there's just all kinds of cool stuff in there. But if you're in the Leonardo market, I'd really consider jumping on that one, because that's not beatable.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, there's some good interesting stuff here, as always. At always, those great prices. So, go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, use the password, penaddict, and you will get the discounts that you want and access to these wonderful products. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Myke:''' And I'd also like to thank Pen Addict as well, just because, I mean, this is a good show.

'''Brad:''' Is that what you thought I was going to say? Yeah. No, I think I just stumbled on the show in Pen Chalet. Yeah, I mean, that's just how this show is going to be today. I have no thanks for Pen Addict. I have zero thanks for Pen Addict today.

'''Myke:''' Okay, okay. Appreciate that. Appreciate that. Make sure you sell all your stuff today. But, you know, your call.

'''Brad:''' You know I'm part of this. Right? That's the name of this show as well as your website.

'''Myke:''' I just like making Myke angsty. That's one of my favorite things to do. Especially when he's... Myke's teetering on the edge today, so let's see if we can push you.

'''Brad:''' I am.

'''Myke:''' Let's see how far we can push you. So I'm going to put you on the spot, Myke, because I already know the answer to this. Fountain Pen Day is this Friday, Myke. What are you buying?

'''Brad:''' Oh, I don't know, man.



== Nano Como Project ==


'''Myke:''' You're buying nothing. We know you.

'''Brad:''' I mean, I know stuff that I... There are like a couple of things that I do want, but I'm not buying any... I don't have any plans to buy anything at the moment. I hear you. I hear you. What I really want is one of those Jonathan Brooks, Leonardo Pens. That's... Fancy. Many times I have gone to buy one and for whatever reason didn't or haven't. That's fair. And I continue to regret it every time I see pictures of them.

'''Myke:''' There's always more. You never have to buy anything.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, but it's not always the same colors.

'''Myke:''' I know. Well, I mean, maybe there'll be a better color.

'''Brad:''' Maybe there will be a better color. What a great outlook. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' That's been my outlook on stationery for the past two, three years now is you don't have to have everything now. And even if you think this is the perfect option, there might be a more perfecter option later. So that's my philosophy these days. That said, if you are in the market, Fountain Pen Day is coming this Friday. It's the first Friday of November. And this is the 10-year anniversary of our good friend Carrie's idea all these years ago to have a day where us stationery lovers celebrate fountain pens. And what it started, it started off really small. And Carrie would, you know, ask his friends and some retailers, like, hey, do you want to like participate in this? And I'll send you out some swag to put in with your orders. And I just kind of want to have this celebration of writing on these days. And now it's become, like, probably an overwhelming thing to manage with, like, every retail. This is basically, like, a shopping holiday for a lot of retailers. Like, you know, a Black Friday, Christmas time shopping where a lot of retailers will do some of their biggest sales and events around Fountain Pen Day, which is kind of cool. It's like, hey, I know that guy that kind of got all this ball rolling and now it's just, like, unstoppable going downhill. So, we'll have a link in the show notes. If you're not familiar with Fountain Pen Day, you can go to fountainpenday.com and check out, you know, what it's about. You know, it's not necessarily about consumerism, like, right? We all, you know, like our sales and deals and there'll be a lot of things to look at and check out from retailers. But it's really about using your products, using your pens, ink up your favorites, you know, write in your notebook, and just kind of, you know, be part of your own little stationary party at home and enjoy Fountain Pen Day on Friday. I think it's really great. So, I might participate. I don't know that I've bought anything actually on Fountain Pen Day ever. I don't know. Like, I generally, like, I'm content with, like, the things that I have and then I have a short list of products I'm eyeballing. I might actually get into buying something for myself depending on what things look like. I'm actually not going into, like, the sales with, like, any plan, but I'm gonna look around. Like, I haven't been to any pen shows this year, but I've managed to buy several pens that I wanted just online. And, you know, I got a short list I might be poking around. You know, maybe, maybe it's time to break down and get the Scribo Piuma because I can get them from our good friends at Pen Chalet with the extra, extra fine nib, which is the only one that I would consider these days. I need, I need the, the EEF or the XXF, however you would like to, to discuss it after I just complained about the Lamy extra fine being far, far too wide for me. I, I'm, they are, they have a stock extra, extra fine option. I've been, I've been tempted for months and maybe, maybe I find a good enough deal on Fountain Pen Day to actually pull that trigger. But really, I'm just gonna, I don't really need anything. I am gonna poke around and, because I'm kind of in, I've got an itchy trigger finger, Myke, you know, and it, it might require some, some stationary healing to, to fix that up. Stationary healing. When I get that feeling. I need stationary healing. There you go. We've done it again. We've done it again. We've incorporated another earworm into the show.

'''Myke:''' Don't sing that one, please. One thing that I really, one of the things, we can transition this right into the next topic. Okay. I was gonna mention that I might need some new notebooks because I got into my writing project, my, my currently unnamed, as yet unnamed writing project for November. I really kind of needed to give it a name because I'm tired of saying my writing project because it's not, I know, right? I don't need, like I, I tested one out yesterday on Instagram. It didn't, didn't really stick. Didn't stick the landing. What was it? Scribo-Rymo. Oh, okay. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. So someone, someone in the Twitch chat came up with it. I was like, I'm down with that, but it's not, it's, it's, it's not sticky. It's not sticking. Um, and it doesn't, you know, none of these things roll off the tongue. So, you know, and it doesn't need, it doesn't need a name, but since I keep talking about it, I'd like to refer to it as a thing, right?

'''Brad:''' What about, because you're copying, right? Yes. So it could be co, right? Right. We've got co in there. Mm-hmm. Um,

'''Myke:''' copy. I mean, it could, it could really be Nano Como, National Novel Copying Month.

'''Brad:''' There you go. You got it. Nano Como.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. So my, my Nano Como project, um, is going, it's going. Like, I think that's it. It's good. It has begun. So I'm, I'm learning a lot so far in the way I use products, the way the commitment is to, to this project. So if you just happen to be picking up the podcast this week, I am taking the month of November to handwrite a book that I've already read. So I'm copying the text from a book that I've already read. The book is called The Bone Weaver's Orchard from our good friend, Inkwell Monster, Sarah Reed, that writes for the Pen Anict. A book I've already read. So it's essentially a reread, except this time, I'm literally writing every word in the book into a notebook using my pens.

'''Brad:''' What made you pick this book?

'''Myke:''' Um, that one that I'd already read it, two that I liked it and, and would consider rereading it again. And three, it's not a thousand pages long.

'''Myke:''' So it fits into like kind of the word count that I want to try to hit by the end of the month, which is around 50,000 words. And this book's like 56,000 words. So it's just kind of a good match and a good, good feel and something that I would enjoy rereading as I copy it, right? Because I, I could, there's no way I could copy a new book. I think I would just, I would fail. I would, that would be too frustrating because I would read the book as I'm going and then reread it to copy it at the same time. It would just be like a catastrophe because what this project really is, is a time management project, which a lot of projects are, but this one's to the extreme, which is why I just kind of jumped in with both feet in that if I'm going to hit a 50,000 word goal by the end of the month, I need to write, you know, around 1600, 1700 words a day and in my first couple days, I was trying to figure out, okay, like I didn't like pre-test any of this. There was no like spring training or practice mode, right? I just started, I picked up my notebook on November 1st and started so I don't, didn't know how many words I could write, you know, per page or how much time those words would take. So I spent the first day kind of figuring that out and it looks like I'm getting about 300 handwritten words a page and so, you know, five pages will get me 1500 words, which is kind of in the ballpark and it takes me about 24 minutes to write a page. So it's about two hours to get 1500 handwritten words copied onto a page. Two hours a day is an enormous chunk of my day, right? So, and I knew this going in, I knew that was kind of my mental math just thinking about it before I was going into it that it was probably going to take like a good two to three hours a day. How will I accomplish that? I'm still figuring that part out but just to circle back the transition, the notebook I picked was a story supply thick plot notebook that I bought from our good friends Vito and Gabe back in Atlanta like 2019 probably the last time we were there and it had been sitting on my shelf but I was going through my shelf that I actually had very few like traditional A5 size notebooks that would have been good for this project like that were new, unused so that's what I was saying I might shop for a new notebook or two so if y'all have some A5 notebook suggestions that aren't you know Misubi or Midori which are like my two favorites which I so I purposefully didn't use those because I have those and I've used them recently I'm all ears I'd love to hear what y'all are using if you're if you've discovered anything Do you plan to fill up the book before you

'''Brad:''' switch?

'''Myke:''' This notebook before I switch to a new notebook? Uh huh I think so that's that went into this the whole math beforehand I think the book will fit into this notebook singularly and like it'll contain this this notebook will contain the entire I'll be able to copy the entire book into this notebook is that what you're asking me?

'''Brad:''' No like because you're saying you're looking for other book suggestions

'''Myke:''' oh yeah yeah I'm looking for other notebook suggestions

'''Brad:''' yeah so that's what so it seems like that you are willing is this for the

'''Myke:''' oh no just for the future just like I need some things on my shelf to use for later projects yeah yeah

'''Brad:''' okay sorry I misunderstood that

'''Myke:''' yeah my bad my bad no so I was just saying like I actually have for all the things all the stationary stuff that I have I don't have traditional hardbound ish A5 notebooks on my shelf to choose from if I wanted to do this type of thing so I was that's what I was just saying like on on fountain pen day I might shop around for some new A5 notebooks because that's not something I have so yeah just checking that out

'''Brad:''' if we go back to Nano Como for a minute so by looking at your Instagram it seems that you are you're you're copying from a digital source right yes interesting

'''Myke:''' so I have a hard copy of this book although I couldn't find it but I never intended to use the hard copy of this book because when I write in my notebook I generally write with two hands if that makes sense so two hands on

'''Brad:''' the pen yes two hands on the

'''Myke:''' pen that's that's why I need new notebooks because I can only get like three words on the page and I'm using crayons but I always have you know my right hand is writing my left hand is always placed like on the book like pushing it down holding something I do this a lot too yeah I think probably most people do yeah so I can't also like manipulate a physical book at the same time I would I would lose my mind in those transitions and keeping up with where I'm at so this is good to where I'm just able to have like my iPad propped up with the Kindle version of the book and then I just like look up and down and up and down as I go through and can track where I'm going much better and I don't have to to manage a a physical copy of the book while I'm copying the book so yeah definitely digital I decided that pretty early on that that would be a mistake to try to just do the physical copy the writing process is good I had a real real trouble the first day because I was questioning like every decision I made right like in starting it like okay like starting it's the hardest part right the first page probably took me like an hour just because I was like is this the right pen did I choose the right notebook you know did I am I is the format I'm writing in what I want to proceed with as I go through the book right am I am I doing the right layout you know so I had all this just circular logic going on to where I wasn't getting anywhere and then by the time I hit like about the third page of writing it had become like this meditative thing right to where I was just in and going and I was like all of a sudden like that page was done I was like oh okay that wasn't bad I mean okay 30 minutes vanished but it wasn't that bad it was like I'm accomplishing things so what I'm figuring out real quickly is if I don't get even though this is we're only on day three I have to have a morning session to get in as much as possible so I'm basically getting up you know waking up you know checking on the family getting the kids off to school getting some coffee and opening the notebook and book and starting to copy because if I don't get a good chunk done in the morning I don't know when the next chunk is going to be right if I could get all of it done in the morning that would be great but I'm gonna have some opportunities at night here coming up soon to to spend an hour so at night writing as well and I need to figure out a way to like bank time right because it's a very I've already seen how much time it takes me each day to just be at level par right to just like hit the most basic of goals takes a huge amount of time so if you fall behind like the the cumulative effect of falling behind is just gonna be a dagger in the whole project because I really do want to try to finish it on time so we'll have to see if I like can do some extra time like I don't have a lot of extra time right now because of the not shipping is taking all my extra time so trying to figure that out the other thing I'm trying to figure out is my posture and grip that turns out to be a real issue when you're just sitting at a desk writing for like an hour plus session right I've noticed like I have terrible posture I end up hunching over the notebook I end up with my legs like underneath my seat in the chair you know just kind of all you know convoluted instead of like having you know my feet on the ground and my back straight and my my grip pressure loose and things like that so I'm constantly like having to stop myself and train myself to to have the right correct posture and the correct the correct hand pressure that's that's going to be a good learning experience through this to see if I can change like some of my bad like physical habits like that but as far as the actual the writing part I'm loving that like I said it really is meditative you know I'll have like if you look at one of my spreads on Instagram like on those two pages you might see like 600 words or something and like I won't make a single like copying mistake you know it's it's easy to kind of get ahead of yourself or you know make write a typo but I'll go for pages and pages without typos then yesterday afternoon I was trying to to squeeze in some writing and I had

'''Brad:''' to worry a typo is

'''Myke:''' it yeah no not technically not technically but you know I'll scratch a

'''Brad:''' righto righto right

'''Myke:''' and I'll scratch it out and I'll scratch it out and it'll be annoying but like I was trying to get in some time yesterday before I went and picked up the kids and like I was worrying about you know what time did I need to leave to go pick up my daughter from school and I made like three mistakes in the span of like a hundred words right so when you're in the flow it's kind of nice to to you just go and I'm enjoying I'm really this sounds silly but I'm like really bonding with the pins that I'm using like I'm getting to know them I was like okay like this angle is better for this pin or this grip position is better for this pin because I'm trying to at least switch pins every day if not more but like I'm not committed to one like if I get one out and I start writing with it and I don't like the ink combination that I've picked I'll switch you know I'm not rigid about that but so far so good I think but I realized real quick how precarious the schedule is so I would like to bank some words ahead of time like in this first week but like I I'm not there yet like I was short probably like a hundred two hundred words last night just because like I stayed up late watching the Braves game and I wasn't going to write while I was doing that but you know that's that stuff's gone now so I'll have some some time to hopefully over the next week get slightly ahead so I don't have to like worry about when it comes around to the end of the month you know like around Thanksgiving and you know other obligations and you know kids out of school and things like that so so far so good very positive thoughts about this so far but still trying to figure it out especially as far as like the the physicality of of doing this which I didn't even consider right like it was no consideration it's like hey make sure your posture is good and your writing form is good because it's going to show up if it's not you know 30 minutes into your day that you're going to start feeling terrible like physically so yeah it's a it's a good learning experience so far but I'm digging it all right

'''Brad:''' let's take our second break and thank Squarespace for their support of this episode Squarespace is the only one platform to build your online presence and run your business from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics they've got you covered Squarespace combines cutting-edge design and world-class engineering to make it easier than ever for you to establish your home online and make your ideas a reality they have everything that you need to create a beautiful and modern website you start with a professionally designed template and use drag and drop tools to make it feel like your own you can customize the look and feel settings products you have on sale and more of just a few clicks and all of Squarespace websites are optimized for mobile so your content will automatically adjust to look great on any device you get free unlimited hosting top-of-the-line security and dependable resources to help you succeed there's nothing to patch or upgrade they have award-winning 24 7 customer support you can quickly and easily grab a unique domain name take advantage of SEO and email marketing tools everything you're going to need it's right there you can use Squarespace to turn your big idea into a new website showcase your work portfolio publish your next blog post promote your business announce an upcoming event and so much more what I love about Squarespace one of my favorite things is their their iOS app like I had to make a change on one of my Squarespace websites yesterday and I just used the iPad app I could go in make the edit that I wanted really easy nice and simple so go to squarespace.com slash pen addict for a free trial right now with no credit card required then when you're ready to launch use the offer code pen addict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain the squarespace.com slash pen addict and when you sign up use the offer code pen addict to get that 10% of your first purchase and show you support for the show our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and all of relay

'''Myke:''' emergency pod time Myke I love our good friends at Tokyo Inklings keeping us up to date with all the stationary news in Japan which is really like the most important segment for me personally like I love you know like all the products and everything in the stationary world in Japan it's just like the place to be so our good friends CY and Jacob dropped an emergency pod last week about Tomoe River news so there has been some movement in the Tomoe River world in that the the parent company Tomoe Gawa has sold what's essentially as far as listening to to Jacob and CY discuss this essentially the trademark and naming rights to Tomoe River paper like this is a transaction of just like trademark and inventory right and no like machinery you know manufacturing space any of that stuff to a company I believe the company is called Sansen who is in the paper business and is owned by an even larger paper company like a really large paper company according to Jacob just you know size and scope wise compared to what Tomoe Gawa is so if you're really into this stuff the Tomoe River paper stuff you should go listen to Tokyo Inklings and and like get all the ins and outs of the goings-on CY and Jacob do a great job so I just I wanted to point that out like this is all of their their information I'm just passing along I'm not going to go too much into detail but I did have some thoughts about what they talked about in that I guess the best way to say it is this CY hit it the point towards the end of the podcast and I think he has it right in that why keep the name Tomoe River because whatever this new company produces and Jacob and CY are both positive not positive in like this is a fact but have a positive outlook on the new that the new purchaser has been working with Tomoe Gawa for some time to get essentially the formula right to get the process right to make Tomoe River paper so to CY's point which I agree with no matter what they do it's not going to be Tomoe River paper in my opinion so here's the opportunity to lean into the change saying yeah we bought the name because we love the brand and we'd like to publish you know we'd like to manufacture more but the results will be this new brand that we're going to come out with that we hope to match the original Tomoe River paper

'''Brad:''' right but it's not a new brand it's this this brand is the same but the product will be different

'''Myke:''' yes so can you keep calling it Tomoe River paper and it's also like a two-part conversation because our side of the conversation as stationary consumers knows Tomoe River as you know a great writing paper for fountain pens but it's also used in many you know what what percentage of that business is the stationary world and what percentage is you know other products that are made from Tomoe River paper such as you know magazines or other print print or output you know that their consideration isn't hey necessarily hey are we making the best stationary paper ever like that's that's part of the equation right so I just I want to meter like my thoughts just going I hope they create something cool with the knowledge that they're gaining by working with Tomoe Gawa and I think it's positive that they want to continue to manufacture something cool which is what it sounds like but I like they call like CY and Jacob we're calling it the new new Tomoe River paper like at some point it's got to be some new brand right because we're not going to get into like you know the Tomoe River paper 93 right that doesn't do anybody any good because it's still never going to be the original and I liked how

'''Brad:''' Jacob called it to Moe they just put a W in and now it's a new one it's the sequel

'''Myke:''' squeak like you've you've had a you've had a good show up until this point and now got better yeah I think like the lack of now I've elevated to new heights yeah the lack of coffee

'''Brad:''' is apparent I'm living galaxy brain right now that's where I

'''Myke:''' am but anyway I am with CY and Jacob that this is only a positive for us who want something similar to this to to continue to be but I also almost I'm at the point where like I want to like cut the cord on on what Tomoe River paper was right like I don't think it's ever going to be what we used to have if it is I'll gladly eat my words but I believe me I hope they make the exact same product as the 52 GSM Tomoe River but my bet is that it will know you can't do that you can't replicate like Tomoe Tomoe Gawa couldn't replicate it in their own building right they like Jacob he called the original machine 7 Tomoe River that's what we all know and love when they moved it to machine 9 Tomoe River it just became you know just a mess of of quality control right so do we expect another company to come in without machine access to the original Tomoe River to make the exact Tomoe River there's no way there's no chance so what I hope is that the technical conversations between the the buying company and Tomoe Gawa lead us down a path of making a great new paper for all of us so I hope that's the path that we're leading on you know it wasn't a large transaction price as as CW CW CW pencils was mentioning as CY was mentioning you know it's about 3 million US dollars because it was just trademark and inventory but the new company does sound like they want to continue on the the production or at least the research and attempted production of producing what Tomoe Gawa has made for years and years and years so you know I do think it's a it's a positive step but I think you know eventually we'll we'll be thinking fondly of of what Tomoe River paper used to be back in back in my day and maybe we'll have a new brand that's better hey maybe maybe they make something better like that would be cool but like I just think like the Tomoe River paper as we know it is

'''Brad:''' gone yeah I think you're being a little like Tomoe purist like in this idea like why why would you want to use the brand name if you're not going to make the same product like they don't care about

'''Myke:''' like I know they don't care I agree

'''Brad:''' with that they want to just they're gonna make a new paper I'm sure I have faith they'll try and make it as good as they can but why would they not use the brand because it has brand recognition in name recognition so I

'''Myke:''' don't disagree with you it's a it's a small percentage problem right like that's what I always talk about stationary like we're literally like the smallest fraction of percentage of what business they care about right so their bigger business is you know however they're going to sell this new Tomoe River in in bulk to to the customers not not to our consideration so yeah I agree with you I do understand that all right let's do



== Atlanta Pen Shopping ==


'''Brad:''' some ask TPA questions today Kurt asks I'm moving to Atlanta soon where should I go

'''Myke:''' pen shopping New York City Atlanta is one of the worst stationary cities in the country bar none it just is change of mind cut a ball I mean I would totally live in Atlanta Atlanta is a cool place to live but like outside of Archer stationary which is at the Ponce City Market which was one of my favorite shops in the city you're you're not going to find anything you like you really really want that's that's there's no drum ghouls there's no Vaness pens there's no Anderson pens there's no fountain pen hospital there's no Farney's there's no storefront retail presence for stationary Archer paper and Ponce City Market is just a cool store they kind of you know have some more modern stuff you're not going to go in and find like a wall of fountain pen inks type of stuff but you'll find some cool things there but I would I would either go shopping in a different city or at a dot-com somewhere because this city of Atlanta does not have the shops that fit our needs that's a shame I've

'''Brad:''' been to this all of you I think so

'''Myke:''' yep it's great anytime we'd have people travel in from out of town that were there an extra day for the Atlanta pen show we'd drive down there it's a

'''Brad:''' great place all right let's take a final break and we'll do some more ask TPA questions I think camera industries for the support of this episode who are introducing the Y studio classic fountain pen Y studio mixes straightforward design with intentional detailing and the classic fountain pen is no different the classic is Y studio celebration of their 10-year anniversary and offers a few design updates as well the classic is Y studio's first fountain pen with their logo personalized on the nib and it comes in five color ways brass black red blue and green the colored pens are finished in a matte lacquer and the pen has a brass body cut into a hexagonal shape with metallic accents and a balanced weight offering a solid writing experience Brad I know that you've spoken very highly of Y studio in the past I almost I

'''Myke:''' didn't know that this was going to be the the the sponsor product for today but I almost put this product in the show notes because I finally have one coming my way and I'm such a huge fan huge wit I turned into Myke in that one I'm a huge fan of the Y studio brassing fountain pen as it is like you know that is a top tier pen in my list so what this new classic design is it's a little bit bigger it has a number six nib it has several different barrel colors which you mentioned I want to I'm not even sure which color I have come in I want to say red but I'm not positive and I cannot wait to get it in and check it out because I just love this brand so so much they're just one of my favorite brands because it's a really unique product like again it's it's a not it's not a mass market product it's not for this is not a product for everyone but for people who who do like this style and this feel in in the story behind the products it's hard to get better than than what Y studio does in my book I'm I'm a super fan of the brand so I'm anxious to get this pen in and see what they're telling me with this new design like it holds up to the the classic widest Y studio you look at and you go oh yeah that's a Y studio pen but it's a little bit different it's a little bit bigger a little bit more colorful a little bit more of a statement than the some of the more understated stuff that they've done in the past while still just keeping it like a full full Y studio idea so yeah I like I'm looking forward to

'''Brad:''' this the brass comes through on all of the

'''Myke:''' edges yep that's pretty much that's their their brassing style even though I don't know that they're considering these like the brassing pens we'll see if it ships with sandpaper my guess it doesn't is it doesn't but we'll see soon enough

'''Brad:''' yeah it looks super sweet you can go check it out for yourself now at pen chalet.com and you can see the new Y studio classic fountain pen or you can click the link in the show notes and you can find it out for yourself that's pen chalet.com or click the link in the show notes to check out the news Y studio classic fountain pen thanks to camera industries for the continued support of this show and relay FM so next up question from spats who asks do you ever use pen flush and if you do when do you feel that it should be used I own it I

'''Myke:''' use it but not that much because I generally keep my pens in good condition it's not something I would use every time I personally clean my pens because I'm gonna clean my pens like every three or four weeks or so I'm I'm never really getting to the point of no return where you get the benefit of the pen flush so what the pen flush does help with is cleaning out some more extreme cases where you can actually just like sit your pen or sit the the nib and the feed in there and let the pen flush do its work soak it and you know for multiple hours and just kind of let it do its job and I think it's great and you can like buy the pre-made flush or you can go I think the Anna has a link at the well appointed desk how to make your own at home it's just basically you know I won't I don't have the the parts right but it's like it's something as simple as like nine parts water one part ammonia or something like that there's a real simple concoction that I know people who have emailed me I've pointed them to that they've used it and they found that it did a really great job on their pen so it's the best used when you have like a serious cleaning issue you need to tackle so while I do own it I've never get my pens into that situation while Myke on the other hand is an investor in pen flush companies I have some I

'''Brad:''' don't use it very often shocker why is that a shocker to you you don't know because you never clean your pens you never clean your

'''Myke:''' pens so why would you use it if that's not

'''Brad:''' that's not completely yeah I do clean my

'''Myke:''' pens I mean yes I mean that is a fact I that is a fact the frequency now that we'll leave

'''Brad:''' that detail unspoken that can be debated but I do clean them Ben asks debating on which size of Pelican M series I want to get what is the best way to try these about going to a pen show would you find a store that has them I'm debating between the M600 and the M800 as I think the 200 and 400 series would be too small for me

'''Myke:''' this is a good question and and kind kind of tough to answer so I mean obviously finding a store that has them is great right like I hope you don't I hope you don't live in Atlanta because you won't find a store there that has them but like if you go to if you're able to get to a store that is a Pelican dealer they will literally have one of everything for you to try right you're probably on the right track that the 200 and 400 series will be too small I think in general it's too small for most people I happen to like it because again I like small pens but the perfect Pelican sizes are the 600 and 800 and there is some difference between those a pretty sizable difference to be quite honest I don't even consider the 1000 that's just like a complete special pen like you really need to try that before you you you buy that that's just an outrageously huge pen the 800 is a really big pen like if you like big pens you cannot lie you should that's just how this shows going today like I as someone who prefers pens on the smaller size I didn't find the 800 to be overwhelming the funny thing about

'''Brad:''' Pelican pens I love that they have this like very simple sizing system the bigger the number the bigger the pen appreciate that but you look at pictures of an M1000 it may as well be an M200 it's impossible to tell just a product photos right about

'''Myke:''' how big the pen is if it's by itself yes their designs are so tight across the board they're it looks exactly

'''Brad:''' the same yeah depending on the set which is funny which is so it's kind of like it's the the king of pen type thing right which I also thought was hilarious it was like oh yeah it's like you just took the pen and you you just scale you just went in Photoshop and just made it

'''Myke:''' bigger you know it's exactly right exactly right if I'm going in blind to this and not able to test anything and I really want to get a Pelican I'm going to go with a 600 I think it's just the perfect all-around size it's honestly not too big some people that like the 800 will say the 600 small but the 600 it's kind of like the most I mean it's obvious saying this but it's just like the most traditional mid-size pen in in their lineup and I think it probably fits the most people but the 800 it's it's a joyous writer like I've had I've owned more 800s than I have 600 just because they they do tend to do a little bit more you know different materials more additions with the 800 than the 600 but this if I was buying one today I would probably go for the 600 because I did tend to not ink up the 800 because it was a little large but it just depends on what Ben's looking for I don't think there's a wrong answer between those two but there is a there is a pretty good size difference across the board on those you know nib size weight just diameter length feel um I there's Pelican has really defined steps up the ladder to where they're really very different from each other as as you go um but I think the 600 and the 800 are the two best sizes

'''Brad:''' Jill wants to know or Gil wants to know I'm gonna say Gil with one L most likely yep uh this is actually kind of funny considering the question

'''Myke:''' is it diamine or diamine I mean you're asking us like like we know have you ever listened to this show Jill and maybe it's Jill yeah um I it's diamine really I I mean like if you don't know if you just say it confidently

'''Brad:''' like people believe you oh see I would say it's diamine

'''Myke:''' I mean you're British they're a British company why don't you call them today why don't you call them put us on pause call them and see how they answer the

'''Brad:''' phone all right hold on one minute all right yes diamine I checked

'''Myke:''' oh my yeah I I started out in in in my career uh talking about pens as diamine and now I call them diamine and I don't know what's correct

'''Brad:''' and Joe asks if you could pick one black wing volume to use forever say you would have an endless supply of this one which would it be for Joe it would be the hardest job in the world one not that when I originally read this I was like oh Joe Joe would struggle with this is that what it yeah no it meant that there is an edition called the hardest job in the world

'''Myke:''' all right so if I'm just looking at the volumes edition boy I did not prep for this so the two boy the two the first two that come to mind are the and I don't know the numbers although the the suffragette is 19 I think I would that's on the list the exquisite corpse is on the list which is kind of the lavender one with the blue eraser and then probably the Ravi Shankar one and that's probably it right pick one oh I gotta pick one yeah that's the question and there's still Jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio if you could pick one

'''Brad:''' there's some of the OG ones because the thing is that you're doing right now what you this this is too many for me to to keep track of and add to the show notes all right I'm gonna pick I'm gonna pick

'''Myke:''' one I'm gonna pick one I'm gonna say exquisite corpse you'll have to figure out corpse you'll have to figure out the number I think it's a cool story I think it's a cool idea I think it's a cool it's a very simple design but it's kind of like messed up in the good way possible best way possible and I think it has the 602 core if not the extra firm core but regardless of the core I've used that one pretty frequently so if you're gonna put me down ask me next week if someone else sends in an ass TPA next week I'm probably picking a different one black wing exquisite I don't even know if that was the official name I don't know if that was the official name of it but I'll find it for you

'''Brad:''' the exquisite corpse pencil volume number 54 why is it called that it's an art movement

'''Myke:''' ah so yeah so it's like it's like a I guess it's more pink than lavender with the blue erasers yeah so you know I like the I like the art movement ones so you do you're very artsy yeah yeah yeah um let me see which core this has but it's it's definitely one of the I mean I like all the cores but I I do prefer just the writing with the the 602 or the extra firm it doesn't list it real easily so never mind someone will let us know but yeah awesome so like how exquisite corpse works works I'll just read it real quick first we separated the pencil into five components graphite lacquer imprint ferrule eraser then we blindly selected the design for each component and assembled the results the finished pencil features a rose barrel teal imprint silver ferrule blue eraser and our extra firm graphite so there it is so um you know it's a way um you know it's a it's a creative type of uh story they're trying to tell here so I like it so yeah that's the one so I mentioned earlier at the top

'''Brad:''' of the show that uh there was going to be a uh limited edition mark one today and it's out now it's

'''Myke:''' green and brass hey I know someone else who does green and brass that's cool looks pretty nice go well very christmasy I think it's a green I mean it's hard to beat green and brass yeah there's 300

'''Brad:''' of them and there's 269 available right now it just dropped so put it in the show notes but it probably won't be available by the time you're hearing this I don't know you're pretty fast but

'''Myke:''' people would have to know people would have to know to forward to the end yeah well and also it's

'''Brad:''' gonna take a little bit longer today because I'm gonna I'm gonna have my coffee break after the show you need it buddy I'm in dire need yeah thank you time zones did you say diamine I mean oh this has been a good one today man wow so good the comedy really we're a comedy podcast now

'''Myke:''' oh that's what everyone comes to us for so hilarious those guys who talk about pens and make we are the

'''Brad:''' funniest all right if you would like to find show notes for this week's episode you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 486 and you can find all of our links and information there I would like to thank our wonderful sponsors for this week's episodes camera industry squarespace and pen chalet if you want to find brad online you can go to penaddict.com and spoke design.com brad streams on twitch three times a week tuesdays wednesdays and thursdays at twitch.tv slash penaddict you can find brad on instagram he is at penaddict on instagram dowdy is on twitter and brad on micro.blog I am imike I-M-Y-K-E and we'll be back next time until then say goodbye brad goodbye brad you

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