Editing The Pen Addict 732/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 732
| title           = I Went Ahead and Bought a Bunch of Pens
| date            = September 3rd, 2026
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = 
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/732 Episode 732]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/613/clrtpod.com/m/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_732.mp3 Audio Episode 732]
| length          = 70
}}

'''Myke Hurley:''' From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 732. Today's show is brought to you by Factor, an enigma stationery. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you doing today?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm good. How are you?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm really good. I'm really good. I was trying to come up with a reason why I'm really good. I don't really have a specific one, other than, like, man, stationery, huh?

'''Myke Hurley:''' We love it, don't we?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's as good as I got. Yeah. I do have something better. We do have something better.



== Podcast-a-thon ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yes. It's that time, isn't it? It is that time. I'm pretty pumped. Shall I do my part? Let's do that. Let's do my part to start, and then we can get into your part. It is September. We're officially in the month of September, which means we're coming together once again to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This is the eighth time that the Relay community has come together to support the work of St. Jude in these eight instances. I don't know if it's eight years. We've done it eight times. It's like how many times and how many years, but there you go. This is the eighth time. We have now passed as a community since 2019 $4.8 million. We're getting very close to $4.9 million. We will break $5 million raised this year. We've actually just passed $64,000 raised for this campaign this year, which is incredible work. Why do we do this? That's a pretty important thing, right? Because we love to support St. Jude and all that they do. And let me talk about one of the things for where the money is going to go. So you've heard us talk about St. Jude before. You know, the basics of St. Jude is they treat children with cancer and life-threatening diseases. They do about any cost to the family. They, if they, you know, the families have to travel into St. Jude, which is located in Memphis. They make sure they're fed. They make sure they're housed for the whole time that these children are getting treatment. St. Jude share their knowledge and research around the world. They share medicines around the world too. They are a research institution. They are a hospital to treat the children. And then they are a font of knowledge for helping tackle these terrible diseases, cancers in children. To do this takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of people, takes a lot of research. St. Jude is making progress on the construction of three new towers on their campus. Whenever we go, Brad, you've seen this now a couple of times in the times that you've been at St. Jude. There is always construction going on. And that has been the case for like the 10 years that I've been visiting St. Jude's campus. There's always construction happening. And they have a big project right now. There are two 15-story towers that are going to be outpatient clinics and clinical offices. And a new 17-story advanced research tower. The clinical towers are an over $1 billion construction project. It's part of the $12.9 billion St. Jude strategic plan. The clinical center tower is planned to open to patients in February 2027. It's a 44,000 square foot footprint. It's as large as a football field. Then they have the research tower, which will contain 130 lab modules with four floors reserved for future expansion needs. It is an $810 million investment that represents St. Jude's serious commitment to accelerating research capabilities. These towers enable St. Jude to expand its ability to treat more children and accommodate a larger workforce to find their next big discoveries. This is important stuff. These are the resources required to build the places needed to find the cures to save the lives of children. It's ultimately what we're doing here. And we are asking you to join with us to continue the support of St. Jude. You can help lead to more cures for thousands of children. We're inviting the Relay community to help us reach our goal of $700,000 this September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. As always, there are multiple ways to support the campaign. You can make a donation at stjude.org slash Relay today. Your donation will unlock some fun rewards. And why not check whether your employer will match your gift by clicking the blue search employer button on the donation summary page. You can find out more information on employer matching as well as donor advised funds at stjude.org slash Relay. You'll find everything you need to know to start a fundraiser of your own. We're going to talk about that in a moment. Where you can then incentivize your community, your friends, your family. They can donate. You'll get some cool rewards for the, like I said, some incentives, I should say, for the amounts that you raise. This is all on the website, including what you can get for your donations. You can get Relay wallpapers for your computer or your phone. And then there's also a sticker pack bundle as well. There's loads of stuff available. You should go to stjude.org slash Relay. You should go there, actually, just to look at the incredible Western-themed artwork that we've got this year that we've got going on. There's a bunch of fun stuff going on, which is all leading up to the podcast-a-thon that me and Brad will be doing together on October 2nd this year. It's going to be closing out the campaign. So there's tons of stuff going on. But, Brad, why don't you talk about what we're doing here at The Band Addict?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, first, like, shout out to Jelly for this, the theming artwork this year. I mean, I know y'all work hand-in-hand to get this done. It's kind of amazing. There was already, on the broader Relay for St. Jude fundraising page, there was already, like, an incentive to give Brad his cowboy name. Yeah, we're all going to have cowboy names. We're all going to have cowboy names. And you're going to get to vote in that if you're a donor and you can make us have silly names. And I said to Myke, you know, I was first up, first to go. And my poll is live for the names. And I told Myke, you know, between my two names, it was Buckaroo, Brad, or Badlands Brad. I said, oh, yeah, Buckaroo is going to win. I say probably, like, three to one, 66%. Myke, have you scrolled down to the bottom of our funding page?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, yeah, it's odd, isn't it? I feel like someone who's, this doesn't seem right to me, if I'm being honest, but whatever.

'''Jelly:''' Or someone really believed in it. So it seems like I very undershot how good the Buckaroo Brad was going to be by.

'''Myke Hurley:''' A total amount of donations assigned to the voting for Buckaroo Brad is at $15,586 against 4169. Maybe people just know you're not a Badlands kind of guy, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's true. That's true.

'''Jelly:''' So 99.7 of the vote is the Buckaroo Brad. It's interesting, isn't it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like I don't fully understand.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay, here's a bit of inside baseball, right? I'm not involved in the planning of the event anymore. Stephen handles it. Like, the last few years, it's not really been feasible for me. And then with the new podcast launched this year, I didn't have the time. And so I found out about a lot of this kind of around a similar time that everybody else, like just a little bit before. And so it's like, oh, this is a fun idea. But I don't fully understand how it works. Like, I think people can put their money towards a vote. But I wonder if it's like pre-filled or something, because I don't know why.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, why is everyone so for this? It's interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's great. It's great. So we love, like, doing fun stuff for incentives for our fundraiser. And my part over at the Pen Addict, I've been raising money through the Pen Addict for St. Jude for years now, myself. I obviously since the beginning, since we started doing this. And starting last year, I integrated with our fundraising partner, Tiltify, to do some official incentives to, you know, help raise money. So if you go over to – we'll have a link to all this in the show notes. If you go over to my fundraiser page, you'll see the rewards. We kind of ran back a couple of the ones we did last year to where, you know, like a $25 donation. You get a postcard from me with this line art that I like to do on postcards for $100. We had a really popular incentive last year where I painted. And it's part of the Ink Pony Club. I painted a pony with different fountain penings with, like, a water brush. And it just turned out so cool. This year, we have Jelly's Art for – it's really – let's just be clear. It's Kathy's Pony. It's Kathy's Unicorn Pony. But we were allowed to use that for the Ink Cowboy Pony Club this year. So we have a little bit different artwork. Of course, we have all our great relay incentives. The new one this year, Myke, you gave me some grief last year. Rightfully so. I just want to go out and say it about doing the YouTube reviews. I still owe one more review that I haven't finished from last year. It's kind of become a joke now. But I still wanted to do something, like, video related. So I just had this idea. I was like, what if someone could donate and then tell me what their favorite stationery is, and then I would roast it and do, like, a one-minute Instagram reel or YouTube short or something like that. Love it. So this is going to be a blast. Like, I'm very excited about this. So people are already, like, scheming ways.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What's good about this is during the podcast-a-thon last year, and I think we're going to do it again this year, where people could give a donation to get a review, like, a quick review from you. Yeah. And, like, there's, like, a few different categories. But this time, it's, like, the roasts. That is really fun. I like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, this isn't a review. This is a roast.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. People are already scheming of how to get me to talk bad about my favorite products. I was like, you know what? I can do it. Like, let's bring it. So, like, I like to be put on the spot. And as last year, we tried to – all the live reviews went super well. Like, because I didn't know what was coming. It's like, okay, Brad, go. And I was like, oh, no. And it worked. So it was fun. So, yeah, go check out all the incentives. So, yeah, go check out all the incentives starting at $2,000, which we're less than $200 away from the first giveaway incentive. So that's kind of the big push that I'm doing this year with tons of participants, tons of makers in the community participating in this by donating goods, fountain pens. So you're going to see some amazing pieces from all kinds of makers. And we're going to go through, like, the whole month and just give them shout-outs throughout the month on all the cool products that we have to help us raise money for St. Jude. And, yeah, it's off to a great start. And hopefully, you know, by the time you listen to the podcast or shortly thereafter, the first giveaway will be up. And then I think the ball will just start rolling then.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, so I'll put links in the show notes to the St. Jude page for everybody, but that's sttude.org. But also to Brad's page specifically because Brad has set it up like the fundraiser thing, which is great, right? So you can start up your own fundraiser so he can offer these extra things because we wouldn't put these on the main campaign because most people have no idea what's going on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And so you can go to Brad's page and donate that. And it all goes into the same total, which is great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's all connected. Yeah. All connected. So, yeah. One thing I just wanted to, before you wrap, I just wanted to say I've already had a question for something that you mentioned earlier, which I think is an important part of this, is the corporate matching. Someone emailed me. It's like, hey, I want to do this. And I know my company will match. How does that work? I was like, you just go through our platform and it gives you the information. So it's super easy. It just walks you through like what you need for the corporate matching there. So that's actually why we use the platforms that we do to do this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. There's like a button when you donate. Yeah. Big blue button. And it has all this stuff. You can search your employer. And if your employer is listed, it will give you the instructions or just do it. Yeah. And it just goes to where it needs to go. And basically, it's always worth checking. Even if you work at a medium or, you know, especially if you're a big company, you double your donation and you don't have to do anything extra for it. Exactly. So it's always really, really worth checking.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So, you know, hit us up with any questions you have about that. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're going to be hearing about this for the entire month. Yeah. You know, this means so much to us, this campaign, and obviously means a lot to our audience because of how much money we've all raised together. And, you know, we're going to have lots of stories throughout the month. But just thank you so much for anybody that makes a donation. We really, really, really appreciate it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And it's not just a thing that, you know, like me and Myke and Steven and all the other hosts are part of. This is a real community thing for Relay. And I love that everyone is a part of this and they feel to be a part of this. Like, I think that's pretty cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's stretched out much further than just our shows. It's like every, you know, there's so many people that get involved in this now. It's really a truly wonderful thing to see. And we're so appreciative of it. Yep. It's kind of like just, you know, in the cowboy theme, we're wrangling everyone or trying to, corralling people into raising money at this time of year. It means a lot.



== Pelican Hubs ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Myke. You ready to move forward? Because we got to, like, turn this bus around 180 degrees right from the jump.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Okay. Myke, have you heard of Pelican Hubs?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes. I mean, I know them. We talk about them all the time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, boy. If you're in the stationary world and you have not heard of Pelican Hubs before the past week, I imagine that you've heard of them now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Even, Brad, I was aware of this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I won't say it's broken contain. It's still, like, a very stationary-focused issue. But it just, it definitely propagated, I would say, through the stationary sphere pretty heavily. And for good reason. As it has become known now, this is officially being called the 2026 Pelican Flubs. Because they really did not do a good job this year. So, a little bit of background on what a hub is, what a Pelican Hub is, if you're just joining the podcast for the first time or not familiar. The short version is, I guess, for the last, I don't know, maybe eight to ten years, I didn't look at the total amount. I think it might be since 2016. So, probably coming up on ten years, nine years. Pelican, the stationary brand, the company, has supported a day throughout the calendar, a one day where they support communities all around the world in a get-together. Right? Like, they will have someone running the event. Like, this is all volunteer-based, no charge. Volunteer-based community event to celebrate. You know, Pelican is a corporation. They're putting it on. So, obviously, it's focused. They're meetups, right? They're, like, stationary meetups, essentially. Stationary meetup.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But under the Pelican banner.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But it's really a community event for any stationary, right? But Pelican is running this. And it's a great thing. It's, like, everyone really enjoys the hubs because there's a lot of times maybe you'll get a hub in a town that doesn't have a pen show or doesn't have a stationary shop but has a big enough community to get ten people at a house. And then Pelican would support that by sending each hub and the attendees, like, a small gift package. In the past, it has been, like, entire full bottles of ink. You know, as the numbers have grown, I think that became a little bit more of a challenge, you know, just by the volume. And that's what ended up coming into play this time. So, that's kind of the baseline of it. You know, it's a Pelican-supported community meetup. All free. All volunteer run. Pelican doesn't charge for this. There's no charge. The only time, like, a host might charge is if, like, the hub master might have to rent out a space, like, say, in a restaurant. And they might want $5 or $10 for attendees. Like, that's not Pelican-driven. That could just be maybe you're in a larger community that needs a big space. And I think people would be open to that. So, anyway, what happened this year is they hit the magic number of sign-ups, except that magic number, being 10,000 people, was not publicly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is it? Is it? It might be more than that, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, in that, like, there had been some leadership change as well?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. Well, we're good. Yeah. We'll definitely talk about that. Because, honestly, I think that's where the issue arose. Okay. So, what happened was sign-ups happen. Let's say it was, like, it was later this year. It was, like, maybe in May for the September event. That's why this came up now, because the event usually happens, like, on a Friday in late September. So, unbeknownst to anyone signing up, Pelican had a 10,000-person limit. And the way they described the limit is for the gift bags, essentially. Okay? Pelican's donating all of this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it's like a bottle of ink, right? Yeah. It's a pretty significant thing that they give for free to people, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yes. The issue, in retrospect, as we go through this, is no one was aware of this number before. Or, it was not, when you signed up, it didn't say first 10,000 people kind of thing, right? Or limited to 10,000 people. So, keep that in the back of your mind as we go through this. That wasn't in there. So, what happened, like, I think it was last Friday? Last Thursday or Friday, emails started showing up to everyone who signed up. Well, not everyone who signed up. To people who signed up. And when you sign up, you can choose to be an attendee. Or you can choose to be a hub master. So, there's essentially two different categories, okay? You can say, hey, I'm going to go, you know, Brad, I'm going to go be an attendee to the Atlanta Pelican Hub, okay? And then someone has said, hey, I'm going to be the hub master for the Atlanta Hub. And those are two different categories. So, what happened is this magic number was hit. And Pelican, how they did this is still unknown. And they're, we'll get to it later, but they're saying it was, like, a data error. They started sending out emails disinviting people to the events. Like, saying essentially, not that, oh, yeah, you didn't get in, which that's already a problem. But they were saying you're actively, actively been removed from the event. And this included hub masters, too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, reminder, this is a free event. Like, there is no such thing as denying people the opportunity to go. So, they didn't do a good job of saying everyone's still invited, but we only have X number of gift bags for your location. Yeah. Which is where they, that was, like, the first miss.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that was what they were actually trying to say, right? It's like, you're not invited, but we all know a big reason that you're coming is for the gift and you're not going to get it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And the email that they sent was, like, very aggressive. Like, I'd have to pull it up. I have so many texts and things. But it was, in short, it was, like, you are disinvited. It didn't say disinvited, but I forget the exact terminology. But it was, like, you are no longer attending this event. And that included hub masters, too. On top of that, they start, they removed a bunch of cities from the opportunity to host an event because of just, like, data. In the end, it was data areas. So, like, Myke, I don't know if you know this, but, like, in the U.S., and I'm sure in other parts of the world, sometimes a city named Columbia can be in Maryland while also being in South Carolina.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not sure if you're aware of that. Because Pelican didn't seem to be. So, people in Maryland might have gotten their Columbia hub canceled, but also then invited to the one in South Carolina. Let's just, this is all to say it was a huge mess. And everyone was upset.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This, to me, seems pretty clear that their excuse of it was a data processing issue is obvious based upon things like this. Right? Like, the fact that people were getting the, you can't come, that is, like, an automated trigger. The fact that there were some places, like, there was clearly a data issue. Like, clearly a data issue. I found the wording, by the way. It says, because of the limit, the 10,000 participant limit, we're deeply sorry to inform you that we cannot honor your registration for this edition.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So, it's basically, like, denied. Yeah. Denied. So, to your point, and this is, this goes, this is a universal thing, not a Pelican hubs thing. It's not the problem that you caused. It's how you handle it. Right? So, they clearly screwed up. There was clearly an issue. There was clearly a mistake. And they just didn't say anything. Like, they sent out all, all of these emails and didn't say boo to anyone on what's happening, why this is happening. Oh, ignore this. This was a huge error. They just let it fester for, like, four days. So, it was, like, everyone was, like, obviously upset. Right? Because.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Look, you know me, right? Mm-hmm. Myke Hurley, Defender of the Corporation, which I think is what I take on this show so often. Yes. Four days is not that long if you're trying to work out what has happened.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, you, I just, I just disagree. Because the first email is, hey, something happened. Please ignore that. We're going to try to fix whatever this issue is. Well, but that's assuming that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How long did it take me to realize that there was a problem? Like, there are a lot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think pretty quickly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.



== Free Event ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because they were denying people to a free event, right? In the broad scope of things, you're telling me I can't go to this free event. Like, that doesn't compete.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is the ramification of you're not getting the gift?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. Like, so that's down the line. No one cares.

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

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right? They don't care that they don't get a gift. They care that Pelican is going through these steps to, like, make it worse and deny, like, deny people from coming to an event or removing hubmasters from cities that, you know, like, all kinds of, like, all the machinations behind the scene got so hosed up. Yeah. That it's so confusing to everyone. And, like, yeah, like, I know it's harder the bigger the corporation is. But, like, the first step is to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, something happened. Give us a couple days. We're going to sort this out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they could at least put that on their Instagram story. They could do that, right? Just be like, we heard you. We're trying to work this one out. Like, I think, honestly, for the response that they gave, that only took four days, I actually think is pretty good. Because they explained it all, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The response was okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was fine. I think it was fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From a large corporation, that's as good as you're going to get it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They explained it. Like, they explained the situation. They said how sorry they were. Like, I don't know what, you know, I don't really think that there's much more they could have done. And, like, I think they affirmed how they feel about this and, like, talked about, like, I think that they're, if you want, I can read their statement in a minute. But, like, I think that this. It's so long. Yeah, I know. It's super long. But, like, basically saying, like, we had an issue. We should have communicated things beforehand better than we did. We had a data processing problem as well and technical issues that led to these emails going out. We are responsible. We're really sorry. We're going to make it better next time. We believe that Pelican Hubs should always be free and accessible. We won't close our doors to people. We want to encourage it. But the physical gift cap, gift things are going to be cut now. Like, caps, sorry. Yeah. For now. Totally. I think everyone would be on board. I think it's fine, right? Like, I don't, you know, realistically, I just don't think you can expect more from a corporation than the answer that they gave. But I agree with you. If they knew there was a problem, they should have at least said, like, something's going on. We're trying to work this out. Like, just hold on.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, like, you see that from other companies when, like, a rogue email gets triggered. Yeah. This wasn't a, I'm not saying this was a rogue email. I think there was a little bit of a rogue email in here, Brad. There was rogue data processing in here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I think that the data processing triggered the emails, right? Like, it's clearly the automated system that went wrong. So, yeah, they could have at least been like, oh, we're working on this. But, like, I just think four days for a response is, like, not that bad, really, honestly. Like, for one, where they explain the situation. Because it isn't always obvious what's happened, right? And you have to try and start untangling that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And the problem, again, with this is now you're, the hubs are a little bit time crunched, right? We're a few weeks away. Yeah. And they rely on a system of volunteers to coordinate everything, right? Yeah. So, now they've just thrown everything into disarray. Like, they've thrown, like, literally, like, every hub is in the shredder now. There will be something that doesn't happen now. Yeah. Yeah. They're trying to put every piece back together because of this mistake that Pelican made. So, anyway, like, I just wanted to, like, so many people wanted me to talk about this. And I think it's worth talking about. You know, Pelican's definitely responsible for this. And this goes back to the original thing you said, Myke. And I think why we're going to see some big changes next year for the hubs and lower attendance after this. I think this burned a lot of people. Like, even, you know, even if they're trying their best to correct it, we'll see if that happens or not. I think that people should give them a break, Brad. To a degree, but, again.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, but they give stuff away for free, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I think people agree with you. And I agree with you, too. But you're also asking for volunteer labor to coordinate, you know, hundreds of events, right? And you've now made those volunteers' jobs that much harder.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, absolutely. This year, they have made a mistake and it's made people's lives more difficult. But, like, mistakes happen. Like, I think this idea that now it's like, well, I could never trust them again. It's like, just calm down. Right. Calm down, everyone. You know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We're in agreement. Yeah. I am not disagreeing. It sucks. It does. They screwed up big. They screwed up. And it sucks.



== Ink Bottles ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' But it's not like they weren't being malicious. Like, they made a mistake. Right. And they're trying to, like, limit. 10,000 bottles of ink, right? They give away?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's unbelievable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think they're, I honestly think they need to change that. I think they give away too much. I think they're, they're, they kind of, like, dug their own grave with this, if you will, by not changing with the times. As the numbers grew, they needed to manage this better. And that goes back to your original point of the, the new, the new company in the last couple of years, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I think that, like, some people take it as, like, oh, new company means, oh, they try to ruin it. It could just mean what's actually happened is new company, new data processes, it went wrong. Yeah. Like, that's what's happened here. Like, they're committing to this thing. They're saying they're going to keep doing it. Why don't we just, like, let bygones be like bygones? Like, I don't think there was any ill will meant here. It was just a mistake.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I agree. I mean, I totally agree. But, like, I'm also looking at it, if I was running a hub, like, I, you know, take pride in my work. Yep. And I have, I don't know who's attending. I don't know where I should book for this event. And, you know, people are going to be pissed. Absolutely. Hopefully, they can work it out. Hopefully, they can work it out and understand, like, you know, both sides. Like, you know, this was, this was a mistake. And, you know, we'll see. I do think, you know, like, some people are, like, pretty upset. And I get that maybe it's overblown.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, it's like, I feel, I feel bad. I do feel bad for the hub masters. Like, that they've been put into this situation. But, like, I just don't think that a mistake, what I believe is a mistake that has been made should now be, like, well, they're over now. This company is bad now. Like, they've thrown all their goodwill away. Like, I just don't think it should be seen that way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know what it seems like? It's like, there was no malice at all intended in this. And it seems like almost there was, like, someone brand new doing this. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, they have new ownership, right? Right. And I feel like they just, they import all this information into a new data management system and it all went wrong. Like, that's, it seems so obvious to me what has happened.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But what they did, what they did was not realize this six months ago when they opened up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, but maybe you don't know until you start sending the emails out, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, I don't know, this is kind of a rogue email.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, but, like, until, like, clearly something triggered it, right? And maybe you just don't know until you get to that point, you know? Like, I don't know. But, like, I just, I just don't think that there was any attempt from Pelican here to be, like, we're taking something away from you. Like, I just don't think that was what they were, what they were trying to do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Agree. Totally agree. I think it was a, it was a mistake and, like I said before, it's all in how you handle the mistake. Yeah. I can, I can forgive mistakes, you know, as long as they're handled, like, transparently and correctly and not continued to be made in future years.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I think they've, I mean, look, they, I agree with you, right? They, they could have gotten, they could have got their hand on the ball a little bit quicker for this one. But I think that the response that they gave and, like, they posted on their Instagram this morning.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it does what they, I think it does what you need.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I know people weren't liking the response either, but I didn't really see much issue. Again, I don't have any skin in the game. So, you know, I'm not having to deal with, like, a thousand emails from hub attendees being a hub master. So, yeah. So, we'll see, you know, we'll see what happens, uh, rest of the year. Hopefully they can get it sorted out, see what happens next year, if they kind of fix the registration. Uh, and then we'll see what happens with, um, their, their database next year and trying to coordinate all this stuff. So, woo. It was, uh, it was big, big, big Pelican week in the stationary world, Myke. So, uh, we'll see how it goes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The comments on this post to me are just like, oh yeah, I didn't even read those. I can't even, like, I understand that people are upset, but like, I just think, I think we live in a world today where like, there is so much malice, but there actually is malice that I think it gets to the point where, where people just think that every mistake is malice. Yeah. And I understand where people are coming from with that, right? Where it just feels like everyone, every company around you is doing something to screw you over that you just think they're always trying to do that. You know what I mean? Sure. And, and I, I, I think that, that Pelican's being painted with that brush and look, maybe I'm wrong here, right? I fully expect that there is a scenario where they're like, ha ha ha ha, we got them, you know? There is very, it's very possible that someone's twirling a mustache behind a leather door somewhere and like laughing about this. But to me, it just feels like they just, they screwed up and like, yeah, you know, and, and, and I, I, again, really, I do emphasize as a person who's put on events before, like I would hate to be in the scenario that some of the hub masters are in right now, but like mistakes happen, you know?

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. What a fun way to start the show today.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I know. It's not all black and white, Myke. Sometimes it's golden barrel. Beautiful.



== Factor ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Awesome. Beautiful. Wow. Love it. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Your routine can take a real hit over the summer with school vacations, travel. Brad, I feel like anything can, anything is possible to knock my routine out of whack right now. Yeah. Literally waking up. Let me give you something that actually did just completely upend my week. Uh, so we have like, um, glass doors, you know, like there's like, I don't even know how to call them, like glass doors to the garden, right? Okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sophia smashed one of them like two days ago. Ooh. That's scary. She threw a wooden ball. Well, we believe she threw, she's going to throwing phase. Yeah. And there are wooden balls. There was clearly an impact point. No one saw her actually do it, but it was very obvious that she did it. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's safety glass. It just did the like, but the whole thing is just like shattered. Everyone's fine. But now we have this constantly moving glass, you know, it's like all the time. Oh, yes. And it's going to take two weeks for the glass to be replaced. So like now we just have this like constant threat in the house.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, you know, that will upend your, your week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you have caution tape? Do you have caution tape around?

'''Myke Hurley:''' We currently have like, like a. A blockade. A clear sheet covering the window, but we're going to replace it with card. Like an unfolded cardboard box. It's a double pane window. So the, you know, we're not going to be like, even if it did come down, we're not going to be exposed to the elements. But that, anyway, things like that, right, is what we're talking about. Come up in your routine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I've got my own from today, but, you know, we don't have to go into that. We can maybe follow up afterwards.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Well, the good news is Factor makes it super easy to get back on track. They make chef crafted, dietitian designed, ready to eat meals. So you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in just two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. Every week you find over 100 nutrient dense menu items to choose from and new options all the time like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens, and more. Plus, add-ons you'll crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. 97% of users agree that Factor meals help them live a healthier life so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every meal. Cool. Brad, is there any meals that you've enjoyed recently from Factor?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, actually, no. And I'm just realizing this. So I think my last order was like July or something. And I'm like, oh, I just realized that my son is away at school now and is no longer going to be stealing my food. Okay. So like I might even go for premium, Myke. They have some like, you know, you can upgrade like some of the proteins or some of this. You know, I usually get things like I'm actually going through the menu right now because I need to place an order. But like on the premium menu, like lemon butter steelhead trout with spinach, zucchini, and tomatoes. Like, come on, get out of town. But that's just, I usually just go for the regular ones like the mushroom chicken thighs. That was my son's favorite one to steal, I think. Okay. I would get like the Creole shrimp and smoky cheddar grits. I'm actually going to build a cart. We need to get this in because I'm actually excited that I get to eat all the Factor meals this time without any thievery corporation going on here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well then, Brad, let me tell you where you got to go. All right. Because you got to eat real. Go to factormeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off and you'll get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for a year while supplies last until October 31st, 2026. That's the code penaddict50off at f-a-c-t-o-r-m-e-a-l-s dot com. Penaddict50off at factormeals.com. See website for more details. Thanks to Factor for the support of this show and relay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Last thing on factor. The one thing as I'm literally scrolling through this drooling, there's no bad choices. A lot of times with these things, like you're a little bit more limited and you're trying to squeeze in, well, I'll just get two of this because I don't really like anything else. Yeah. That's not the problem. That's not the problem here. The problem is limiting yourself. So it's really good. So anyway, thank you, Factor.



== Ode Talks Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. Ode Talks Pens, Myke. Okay. So I've just started, I don't know, maybe in the past year following Ode and she has a great taste in pens, I must say. Very similar to mine. That's a little, I don't know, that's something I should say. I was like, oh, I follow them because they have great taste and it looks like everything that I like. But that's what gets you. That's what gets you when you see them on Instagram. They have, Ode has a YouTube channel as well, which I didn't realize I wasn't following because I just mostly follow her on Instagram. She has some Pelican stuff, Myke. This is interesting. It's not just a US issue. Like the Pelican hubs are worldwide. And she is actually in Norway and, you know, has going through like the same challenges. Everyone else is trying to figure this out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Have you heard of Tromso, Norway, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have not, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, not to doxode, but that's, you know, that's literally in her post.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Tromso is home to the northern most professional football club in the world. Did you know that? You didn't know Tromso. I'm feeling like you didn't know that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can assume I don't know that based on the fact that I'd never heard of the place before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And the reason I know that, Myke, is because I'm now a Brighton Hove Albion fan. Since the Wolves got demoted, I need to have a new Premier League team. And they just played, finished a home and away for the FA Cup qualifiers with Tromso. So there you go. That's all the Tromso details I have. So now, like one other person listening to the show will go, oh, yeah, I know what Brad's talking about. But anyway, y'all go follow O. She does great work, has a killer Instagram feed, and does great pin reviews on the YouTubes. Very nice. And will keep us up to date with all of the Pelican Hub goings on in Norway.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Let's hit a few more news and notes that I found interesting this week. Number one, did you see the Retro 51 Collectors Club, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I did see this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So what it is, and it's, you know, a lot of companies do this, quarterly Collectors Club subscription box. And I think it's interesting in someone like Retro 51 as opposed to, say, a Field Notes or a Black Wing who have, like, a lower entry point for, like, their subscriptions, right? Field Notes being, you know, around $100 a year, $114 a year. Black Wing being a little bit more than that. This is literally an $89 per quarter Retro 51 Club. But the more I read this, the more I think this is kind of a deal. And I'm not trying to, like, get anyone on the FOMO bandwagon here. I am not subscribing to this. I don't need four Retro 51s a year that I'm not picking out. But if you're a Retro 51 super fan, the short version of the sales pitch to this is they make a 300-pin run every quarter, and you get one of those.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And for $89, that's not much more. And you get a lot of other accessories and other things with that. That's not much more than what their normal, like, limited editions go for. Or if you're, like, the person who buys all the Retro 51s, this will be one that no one has except the 300 people in this club.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or at least the first edition. I mean, I'm sure if they get, you know, more people, they'll do it, you know, 400 units. But I don't know. It seems pretty well set up to me. Like, not all of these things, like, inspire me and think, oh, this is actually kind of a good value. It's more like, oh, someone's going to try to get rid of things that didn't sell. Like, you know, if you get, like, a mystery box. Honestly, that was what I thought it was at first.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I thought it was, like, a mystery box.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A hundred percent. Before I started reading this, that's what I thought it was. Like, a mystery box.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because that would make sense for Retro, right? Sure. Because they do so many. Yeah. You know, this would be a way to get rid of some additional inventory. And I think that would have been fine. Sell them at a discount, put it in a blind box, throw in some extra stationary stuff, and people will be happy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm down with that. Like, that's fine. Like, you know, but you also, like, I don't know that I would subscribe to that. I'd pick up, you know, a mystery box here, a mystery box there. I don't want just one just randomly showing up. But, you know, this is, every box is an exclusive Retro 51.

'''Myke Hurley:''' With extra bits in it. I think a bit more field notesy. There'll be stickers, an assortment of theme-inspired goods, and some surprises, they said. Yeah. So, again, I think this is amazing, honestly. Yeah. This is, like, the perfect way for them to do something like this, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, and I think that's the right number, right? It's a big ask. Like, that's $89 a quarter, right? Yes. So, you know, like, $360 a year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But if you're already in that ecosystem where you're buying most of the limited editions, like, this is a no-brainer. You know? Like I said, like, I'm not interested whatsoever. But there's going to be one that comes through, and I'm going to go, oh, yeah, that's pretty sick. I like that. So, yeah. Anyway, like, this isn't something I'd normally talk about, but I actually feel like you don't always, like, think about, like, value these days when you see these types of things. That makes them not worth talking about. But this one just felt like, good job, Retro 51. Yeah. They're like, they know their customers, and that's pretty good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm really keen to see what the first designs are.



== Uniball Zinto Flow ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of first designs, I got the new Uniball Zinto Flow multi-pen, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, Brad, before we get into this, I saw this in the notes today. I went ahead and bought a bunch of pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I went to find someone that was selling this, and I thought it looked really interesting. And so, I did some Googling, and I found a company I've not heard of before called Hunter Paper Co. Okay. They just came up on Google when I was searching, and I ordered from there because they had a couple of things that I wanted. Brad, I bought a yellow hot dog pen. Yes. Nice. Uniball and not. They had that. And I also bought the Uniball 1 three color as well. Okay. I'm actually going to talk about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I've been enjoying multi-pens recently.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Did you buy this Zinto? Yes. The Zinto Flow?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sorry. I buried the lead. That was the point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, I bought this and added those other bits on too. Yeah, you kind of said that, but I was just making it clear. It wasn't as clear as I should have been. It's just like talking about other stuff. Can I ask how much you paid for it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' You sure can. Oh, I bet I paid too much, didn't I?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, no, no. Actually, that's where I'm going to go. Oh, £21.95, which I think is pretty fine. Yes, that's fair. So, I paid like 23 USD. And I find this to be so interesting. Because that's... We went through this whole Zinto signature issue six months ago, right? Where the single barrel magnet cap pin launched in Japan first. No one could get their hands on it. So, then it's like an eBay darling, right? Like double... People are paying like 50, 60, 70, 80 bucks. It finally got stabilized down to like... It's normal price is about $36, $37. I think the Zinto Flow multi-pen is a better pen than the Zinto signature. It's a better... Controversial statement, maybe. But it just... When you go in knowing that the price you're getting... The price you're paying for this premium product is like valid. And like that's what it should be. And it's like standard MSRP. And the product is actually really good. It's got a great metal grip. I actually want to hear what you think about this when you get it. Yeah. It looks nice. It's really well made. It's really comfortable. It's not too far off from the Uniball 1P in barrel shape. You know, I was... I did some grip diameter measurements yesterday. It's like really close. And you know, I've been liking the shape of the 1P as just like a general writing bit. So, having this one is really nice. It's got... It's a three cartridge, multi-pen, black, blue, and red. The other thing with the Zento is I've only ever used the black ink. And people were telling me... And I'm just saying like the black ink is fine. Like it's not as dark as some of the gel inks that I prefer. But they said that the blue and the red colors in the Zento are really good. And they are. Like they're really, really nice. Okay. Nice colors. So, it's a very... Yes, they are. Especially the blue. The blue will actually surprise you how kind of vibrant it is. And then the red is just really solid. So, yeah. Overall, good multi-pen. Fairly and correctly priced, I think. And not like price gouged by anyone. Because I guess they had enough of these in the beginning. Which was a little bit weird that the signature is still... Like it comes up at its regular price off and on. But it's still not stabilized. Like this one you can get if you're interested in this type of pen. And I feel that it's more than worth the price so far. So, one interesting thing. And this is just a funny thing that only I care about. When I was disassembling it yesterday. You know, you take apart the pen. Look at the refills. Right? It's a three-pen refill. So, what they've done on this. And this will... You'll have to look at this when you get yours. They actually used a part where the refills attach. You know how multi-pins attach. You just pull out the refill. Then like seat them back into these little holes in there. They actually used a four-cartridge multi-pin ring to hold the refill. So, there's actually a fourth empty hole in here. And I didn't realize that until I pulled out the refill. And then I had to decide where to put it back in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, that's weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, it's actually aligned with the clip. Because a lot of multi-pins, a four-slot multi-pin could be a three plus one. And the plus one is the pencil. And a lot of times the pencil is on the clip. So, there's nothing here. There's no parts to engage in that. But we played around with it. And I took another refill out of like a Uniball light touch Jetstream. And you can hold that as... It can be like refill storage inside your pen. You clearly they're reusing pots, right? Yeah, yeah. As they should. From a three plus one. Yeah. Yes. That's no knock on them. It's just a fun quirk. What you should do. It's a fun quirk. Yeah. And I thought it was silly. And then we were like, is that refill storage? And it turns out it actually worked pretty well as refill storage. So, anyway. That was just a fun little aside. So, I'm still new to it, right? I've only had a couple days. I use the Signature a lot. But I just think the pricing of the Signature just makes this one look so much better. Um, you know, the Signature's a fun pen. I'll always use that pen. But I'm kind of in on this one. Um, so back to your addition of the one multi-pen. I think I might switch out my refills on this. Just like I do with the Zento Signature. I use a Uniball one refill. So, I should be able to put in my one multi-pen refills into this pen and have a refill that I enjoy better. We'll see. Maybe only the black, though. Because I've traditionally not had good luck with color ink one refills, like blue and red. So, the Zento might actually be better for that. But I might switch out the black. We'll see. Or I could just leave it at this and just have a Zento pen. Because I really don't use the Zento refill that much. Um, so maybe this will be the one. Um, but I want a full accounting from you when you get your pens in.



== Multi-Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'll talk about it next week. Because this is a couple more products to try. I'll be interested to try out the, like, the one and the Zento. Like, the above multi-pens and kind of see how they are.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I agree. Yeah, I actually want to know that. I haven't really, um, used my one multi-pen very much yet. Um, and it's about half the price of the Zento one. Because it doesn't have, like, the aluminum barrel. It's just an all-plastic barrel. But they're nice. They're nice. I still stick with the 1P mostly. So, um, speaking of multi-pens. I don't know if you had the chance to look at this before I'm bringing this up now. The, uh, Montblanc Meisterstuk.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I got sent this link. I was like, oh my god, look at the colors that they made for this. This is amazing. Yes. Oh my god. What did they do?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I had the exact same approach of, like, oh man, let's go. Wait a minute. Why is this so expensive?

'''Myke Hurley:''' This isn't just one pen, Brad. This is three pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Who, who needs...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay, so. It's Montblanc. Montblanc Meisterstuk is like the classic, right? Like, that is, it's like the slimmer one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's the design you know. It's the cartridge filler. It is not a piston filler. So, yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It is, you know, profile-wise, you're very aware of it. It's not something like the, the, the Rouge Noir baby or whatever. Like, it's the regular pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a, this is a decades old shape. That's just classic. It is Montblanc. You see this. It's the one that most people have, I think. Yes, I agree. Because the price point is generally right for, like, the standards.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, this is, they should have these pens here. A beautiful kind of golden yellow, brick red, and maybe like a mint green.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Matcha. They're calling it matcha. So, Vermillion, let's get it right. It's Montblanc after all. Vermillion, corn gold, which is a horrible name, and matcha. So, yeah, corn gold.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But it is 3,240 pounds because they're selling them in a three set.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a three pen set.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You have to buy all three. They give you a little wrap to put them in. Who needs all three of these? Yeah. And, like, I was actually looking at this. I couldn't even find any to wear it. Well, can I get three different nib sizes? Can I do something cool with this? I couldn't find a place to, like, do the nib, to change the nibs. It's just on pre-order. The interesting thing, I was so enamored with these colors.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because you don't see this from Montblanc. Montblanc will do, like, the extreme artistry stuff, right? But on their standards, it's usually either black or burgundy, right? And then every now and then, I went and looked, like, this exact Meisters Duke has a white barrel one. And it's, like, $960.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's, like, I'm not in the market for that. But, like, I like what Montblanc did here with the colors, right? It's just you don't see this as much in this classic product lineup. But you have to buy three of them. I don't understand. I don't understand. But I thought this was super interesting. What I was going to say is, I was like, well, let me go see if I can find out more about this set. I'm really not seeing it anywhere. Like, this is up for a pre-order on a site I'm honestly not familiar with. That doesn't mean anything nefarious is going on. It looks actually very legit. But, like, it's not on Montblanc's homepage yet. So, anyway. Anyway, like, totally random. Like, something no one here is ever going to own or attempt. But it just struck me as, like, the highest highs of, like, something cool to see. I like this. And then, OMG, what are they doing? So, it's interesting. So, anyway. I just wanted to bring that up because this is just my reaction to this. I was so excited. So excited. So, anyway. Where else can I get some exciting items, Myke?



== Enigma Stationery ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, for our friends at Enigma Stationery. They offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imports. Now, Brad, you were telling me earlier that you'd already perused Enigma Stationery a little bit today. What's jumping out at you in their product offering right now?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I wanted to peruse to see if they had something up that was top secret that I didn't even know about until their appearance at the San Francisco Penn Show this past weekend. It's not on the website. It might not ever be on the website. But this is a point of why you need to follow Enigma Stationery is because they do cool and fun limited editions. And what it is, Myke, you mentioned the hot dog and not, which they do have. I don't know if that's on the site, but it's on their Instagram. They made a San Francisco Penn Show and not one with the Golden Gate Bridge on it. And someone went by the table. Kimberly from the Penn Attic went by the table. She's like, look at this one. Do you want that one? I was like, yes, I'll have that one. So this is why we love Enigma Stationery is because they have fun with the stationery, right? They made their own version of the hot dog pen. They made some exclusive San Francisco Penn Show merch. And you should follow their website to see. They'll put this stuff up for sale on the website. Maybe it's not a stock item, but maybe it's like a one-off limited edition. Like their special edition fountain pen number nine, Mystic Magenta. I've actually reviewed this one or I've had this one and gave it away. They gave it to me for a giveaway. But I got to use it and hold it. Like the materials here are ridiculous. Like it's just one of my favorite colors. They do such fun, bright colors at Enigma. They have exquisite taste. Like if I was doing a stationary shop, these are the kind of things I would make. That's how much I enjoy what they do. And they also got some new products in. And they have some great – I know a lot of listeners are also tabletop gamers and video gamers. And they always have like really cool accessories. Like I love pens. I also love pens, Myke. I don't know if you can tell the difference. But they have some cool D&D-esque dice enamel pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Enamel pins.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. What doesn't kill me gives me XP, Myke, which is great. I mean I'm not a cat person. But this Pentagram Cats enamel pin goes pretty hard. I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of down with that. And these are like crazy good prices. So anyway, they always have fun accessories. You should follow them on Instagram. Follow them. Follow their website. Follow their new products page. Because they just have the funnest stuff popping up all the time. And I don't know. I just love what they do and what they're building over there at Enigma Stationery.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I just, Brad, horrifically, I would say, realized I was not following Enigma Stationery on Instagram. And I have now rectified that as all of our listeners should as well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You should. You should. And they're probably recovering from the San Francisco Penn Show. But yeah, I haven't talked to Dan to see how the show's gone yet. But hopefully they had a great time. And hopefully everyone went and saw them there at the San Francisco show, which I think went off pretty well this past weekend.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. They look like they had some really fun stuff. Some great prints and great products and stuff like that. But yeah, you should always go over and take a look at what they've got. The new stuff. They're always adding new fun things over at Enigma Stationery. It's what I really love about them is you can always go there and find stuff that you'd never seen before. Like Daigo, Oshoni, Yarimono, Sticky Notes that are round.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. I actually almost bought those the other day. I was like, I actually told myself, no, you don't need those, Brad. But I almost bought them because they're cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, they look fantastic. And they're a really excellent curator. Exactly. If you want $10 off on orders of $50 or more, go to enigmastationary.com slash penaddict and use the code TPA26 at checkout. That's enigmastationary.com slash penaddict to get $10 off on orders of $50 or more with the code TPA26. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and all of Relay.



== STPA ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. You want to knock out a few STPA? We're going to have to maybe like pre-St. Jude trip do a whole show of STPA because we're months behind.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We've got a lot that aren't even in this document, Brad. Yeah, I know. We're pretty backed up.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let's save them and like do a big, big show. Okay. There's not a lot to talk about.



== Polyflow Fountain Pen ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Sam says, I almost never go and buy a product immediately. I'm reading a review, but I did this with a Polyflow fountain pen. It arrived today and wow, for a $22 pen, this thing is fantastic. Looks great. Feels good in the hand. Excellent nib. Bad name. Great pen. Thanks for writing about it. Which leads to my question. Which pen has the worst name and which pen has the best name?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I love this question. So one, this is the Faber-Castell Polyflow that I reviewed a few weeks ago. It's that purple and orange Faber-Castell. I just want to say like that pen is legit. It's still like on my desk inked up and I find myself reaching for it like constantly. That is a pen for reaching for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like it's just got a pick me up kind of.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It has a pick me up and when you pick it up, it actually performs like 10 out of 10. Like it's legit good. It's not for everyone because it's like super wild, but like you know me, that's the kind of stuff that I like. So the question, which I wanted to be sure to get into Ask TPA, which pen has the worst name and which pen has the best name? Do you have answers for this? Did you attempt this? I didn't want to put my answers in the document, but best, I came across an answer very quickly. Worst took me a minute, but not too long. So do you want me?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have a couple that jumped into my mind when I read this today and one of them I kind of spoiled because it is in my head, which is the Mont Blanc Rouge Noir Baby, which is just a fantastic name for a pen. Right? Like what is going on? Why is it called Baby? You know, it's brilliant. Like just a brilliant name for a pen. And then I'm just going to pull in from recent, the Uniball 1P Zento. So it's like, worst or best? Bad. Okay, worst.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I didn't think about that for worst. I went much further back into history, but actually if I had any sense, yeah, that would have been my same. But what's funny is your best pen, I didn't pick the same one, but the idea, like the concept of like a very descriptive name, I picked the Montegrappa Chaos pen as the best.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Excellent. Yeah, because it's like, why? Why is it called?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know, it's like, why have you called your pen Chaos? It's like, take a look at the thing. Yeah.



== Oto Dude ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like, it's perfect. It's perfectly named, just like the Rouge Noir Baby. Like it's perfectly named. So the worst name, it does bring back a little bit of scar tissue. And I actually had to think about it because I was just, I was thinking, I could only think of bad pens, but that doesn't necessarily mean worst name. It just means like I have a bad, you know, bad taste in my mouth for like the pen. And turns out the worst, one of the worst pens I ever reviewed actually might have the worst name. And it's the Oto Dude fountain pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh my God. Yes. Oto Dude.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I found, I found the review, Myke, and I didn't want to put this in the notes until now. So we'll put that in the review. 2013. Oto Dude. Dude. Dude. It is so bad that they just, they just vanished it from the earth. It is just not a good product.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it doesn't make any sense. There was, why is it called the Dude?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't even remember if there was any way. Man, Oto had a real bad run for a while. Yeah. Didn't they?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What's the, the problem is it was such an outlier from their quality standard pens. Yep. But yeah, like another one, I'm looking at the, at the review I did. They had one called the Oto Rook, which I, that's like a common, like if people are going down like a certain path, you're going to land on Rook as a name, but like you don't need to do that. And it was, the, the, the best worst part about it was this was actually a legitimate product, like a legitimately bad product. Like it was, it just did not right. It was scratchy. It was horrible. So yeah, everything about it was bad, including the name.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.



== Oto Fountain Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh wait, here's my, I just saw my handwritten review. I think I will swear off any additional Oto fountain pen purchases from now until the end of my days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I, you know what? That was prophetic. Like I don't think Oto's ever made another fountain pen since this catastrophe. They're more of a standard pen company. So yeah, there you go. That's what I think about the dude and its name. He was so mad about it. That was 2013 me. Wow. Wow. Imagine. You jaded.



== Traveler's Notebook ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Tomos asks, I'm carrying a traveler's notebook and one pen attached to that for quick notes in my back pocket. At the moment, I'm using a basic edition of the Retro 51 because I like the way it writes, but it occasionally leaks in my back pocket and the ink doesn't last, probably related. I want suggestions for a capped rollerball or a gel pen that's also a nice object rather than plastic fantastic supermarket pens. This is right up my alley because I think about this all the time. I'm assuming that the nib is being engaged accidentally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, so my philosophy is any open-ended barrel, which is your twist mechanisms or your retractable mechanisms, you can't beat gravity. You can't beat shaking. These things are moving all the time. It does not have to engage to give you some bit of worry. Most of the time, you're going to be okay, right? But for the same reason Tomos is talking about, I don't carry these pens in a pocket or in a bag just because there's probably a 5% chance that it leaks, which is honestly pretty high if you're worried about it leaking, right? Carry them in a pen case, do anything else to protect them, that's fine. But I don't carry them essentially exposed or like clipped into something without any like barrier. So yeah, this is like a big deal for me when I'm thinking about this. So then the challenge that Tomos is finding is that there's not a lot of capped pens that solve the writing experience that you want for this, right? For like the portability stuff, for, you know, just ease of use and carry, for throwing around in a backpack and getting it banged around. We generally prefer like the performance of like a retractable pen. So I always kind of defer back. I have one primary pen that doesn't solve Tomos' problem. I use the Secura Pig Micron for this. That's why, number one, I love the pen, but it's not a rollerball or gel. It's a fineliner. It's a little bit more fragile. It's not going to hold up to, it's not going to hold up to mass usage like a standard pen would. Secondly, I'm going into the Uniball Signo DX, which is a capped gel ink pen. That's like my favorite gel ink pen. And to do a bit of self-promotion, and we probably don't even have them in stock right now, but the Spoke Model 2 is our fancy capped pen for the DX refill. And that's what I use the most. So it's a short list for solving what should be a really easy solvable problem. We also make one for a different one called the Rode XL, which holds an inner gel that's also capped. But most of these pens are going to be, have an open end. They just do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm just looking around my desk, even at things like I'm not thinking about, and it's like, oh, Zento retractable, Friction retractable. So one retractable. Jetstream multi-pin, right? Mark 1 open-ended. A Johto pin open-ended. Spoke click Model C open-ended. Ooh, I might have found it, Myke. Uniball's into signature.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uniball's into signature. I would actually throw the Mark 2 in there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, the Mark 2's capped. Yes, so that's the short one. Yes, Shorty uses the rollerball, uses the short Schmidt P8127 rollerball, which not a lot of people are familiar with that refill, but it's the same refill in a shorter version.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I actually, this is the thing I recommend for Tomas, because it's, Tomas likes the way the Retro 51 writes. It's just writes the same, is little, and it's got a cap and an optional clip. You can choose if you want to clip or not, so whether that works for you or not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The clip's pretty streamlined. Like, I'm generally, like, pro-clip on that model.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I also, this one is really rolly, so I actually like the clip on this, where I would never put the clip on the Mark 1. The Mark 2 is a little bit more rolly for me. And also, it is a, I use it as a pocket pen, and so, like, I like having the clip on it, because you can just clip it to things.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, so that's a good shout. So, like, we have the Spoke Rohde is our pocket one, but that's generally, you're going to have to switch out the refill, because we sell it with a ballpoint. The only gel refill that I like is the Oto Flash Dry, which is a needlepoint gel. But I like the short Schmidt P8127 roller that they use, and not a lot of people use that refill. It's great.



== Pilot Murex ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Phil asks, isn't the Parker 50 Falcon very similar to the Pilot Murex, especially the flighter version? I'd never heard of the Pilot you mentioned in the recent episodes, and I wanted to find out which came first, the Falcon or the Pilot Murex.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, one thing I wanted to get out of the way here is apologies to Phil. I think this is, like, a three-month-old question.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's why I removed the references to the time on this one. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, shout out, Phil. I don't know if you're still a listener. He's like, man, I'm out of here. They didn't even answer my question.

'''Myke Hurley:''' These guys never answer anything.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, the Pilot Murex, one of my favorite pens, I think that's the episode, like, when I was talking about, like, some of my favorite pens and how I use them. And, like, I think this was in the top ten pens conversation. So, sorry to pull the dates back. But the Murex is an integrated steel nib, okay? And, like, where, like, the grip section just goes straight into the nib. You can, if you're not familiar with that, just, you know, Google it and you can see a picture of it. So, the Parker 50 Falcon also is a model that had that same integrated steel nib and similar visual of, you know, this just very kind of interesting, like, sleek nib design. So, which came first, the Pilot Murex or the Parker 50 Falcon? And I didn't know. Like, I didn't know because I knew they were both older. But I just, my quick research showed that the Murex came out in 1971 and the Flighter came out in 1978. So, Murex was ahead by many years. But this is definitely the time frame where other companies were doing this type of shape. So, I don't think Parker was the only one doing the Flighter style. I think there was probably other companies doing this integrated. As best as I can tell, the Murex went first. I'm obviously willing to, like, see anything else if anyone has something. But there might have been an integrated nib someone else before. So, yeah, that was a good question. And the Flighter is a very cool-looking pen. I've seen many of them at pen shows. I don't own one. But, yeah, it's pretty neat.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you would like to send in a question for us to answer at some point in the next few months, hopefully, as long as there's no more news, you can go to penaddictfeedback.com and send in a question. You can also send in any feedback or follow-up you have about the show there, too. And I do read it every week and bring in all the stuff that we need to cover. But thank you so much to everybody who takes the time to write in to us. If you want to find Brad online, there's a real good place to do that, penaddict.com. You can also find him on twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad's over at Instagram, Spoke Design, all the fun places. You can find me here on Relay. I want to recommend my brand-new podcast called Designed in California. It is essentially a tech history podcast. We're focusing on Apple, but a lot of the companies that intersect with it launched this week. I would really appreciate it if you check it out. But do not forget to go to stjude.org slash relay to find out more about our fundraising for the month of September. And there's a link in the show notes to Brad's specific fundraiser, too, so you can get some of his fun rewards. And remember, any donations always go into the overall pool of money that we are raising for St. Jude during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I want to thank our sponsors of this episode. That is Factor and Enigma Stationary. But most of all, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Bye, Brad.

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