The Pen Addict 511/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	511
Title:	It Monday, Me Write
Release Date:	April 27th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 511
Audio File:	Audio Episode 511
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 511
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 511. Today's show is brought to you by the Canalea Penco, Squarespace, and Trade. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the first and last word in stationery, Brad Dowdy. We're gonna do this, huh? Yeah, yeah. So before the show, we were hanging out in the Discord. We usually have a little pre-game, which any RelayFM member can listen to live. If you go check out RelayFM membership, we'll be talking about that again in a little while because we've got Lego Bill coming up. Very soon, very soon. But we have a live stream. Actually, you can listen to the live stream for free online, but the Discord is part of the memberships where people talk and hang out. And we were talking about professional bios, like, you know, like kind of like, what do you, how do you write your bio? And I came up with Brad as the first and last word in stationery, which I'm not sure he wants to use because that is really like, if you're saying that about yourself, you know, that's like a lot. You're really, you're really layering on the pressure, but I think I might say that.

Myke: Yeah, that's totally not my move. And the joke was, which actually is a good lead into today's first topic is, I can't even write in the correct date in my planner. There's no way I could be the first and last word about stationery when I don't even know what day it is, Myke. Is this actually the podcast? Is this live or is this a dream? Like, am I in a dream state right now? I don't know what day it is.

Brad: No, this is Wednesday of last week.

Myke: Maybe even two weeks ago, based on this planner situation I found myself in. Allow me to talk about this, Myke. Please. Because in all my years of either trying to plan, not planning, effectively planning, anytime I've tried to do things, this has never happened to me what has transpired.

Planner Misuse

Brad: If I could just before you go into a big story here, like just in case it helps you. I did notice, I think in mid-March, that I had been writing 2021 every single day into my theme system journal for three months.

Myke: Like once you saw it, that's what it was. Yeah. And I just would look. You just brought it to life. Yep. Every single day.

Brad: Hmm. So, you know.

Myke: Yeah. Yeah, it happens. It happens. And to me, what happened, to recap for new listeners, a lot of existing listeners know this, I have been using an A5 Hobonichi Cousin this year, and it has one page per day. And that one page is dated. So, it is a dated planner that I'm using. So, for, you know, Wednesday, it says, you know, whatever today's date is. And that's the day you write on. And generally, those things match up with the reality of the situation. So, on today, Wednesday, April 27th, I would write things related to today, Wednesday, April 27th. So, my problem lies when I took a vacation earlier this month, at the beginning of April. First week of April, I took a vacation. And I brought my planner with me. So, it was a very busy time in my life leading up to my vacation, right? I went to the Atlanta Pen Show. I had my daughter's prom. And I left for vacation in the span of, like, 24 to 48 hours. So, I was very busy. Brought my planner with me on vacation, not to use as, like, I was going to work on vacation. It was, like, a real vacation. Like, I was not doing work. I had planned ahead, gotten everything done that I needed to, aside from podcasts, which is, it actually works out very well for me. So, for the end of that vacation week, nothing, no entries happened in my planner, right? Blank pages. Completely blank pages for the last half of the vacation week. Cool. I'm good with that. It's the first pages I had not finished in my planner for 2022. Like, that's a good, I've been on a good run. Yeah. I've been on a really good run. I had, every day of the week, I have updated my planner, you know, in, whether it's planner information, you know, like tasks, to-dos, notes, business, work, life stuff, or a few little journal notes, or could just be pen and ink testing, right? Because the Hobonichi people, one of the reasons why people use it is because it's got this really nice Tomoe River paper. So, great. Finish vacation. Come back the next Monday. Start writing in my planner. Cool. And I go to town for about two weeks straight, like, after vacation. Like, hey, things are going great in my planner. Picked it up the Monday after vacation ended. Ignored the blank days I had at the end of vacation. I was like, here's the end of these blank days. I'm going to pick, there goes that Monday, right? Whole week of planning, great. Next whole week of planning starts, and all of a sudden, I turn the page, and it's, why am I seeing Sunday, May the 1st, as the next open page in my planner to write on? And I stopped dead in my tracks, and had to reevaluate my entire existence because I've been living on the wrong day for two weeks straight without noticing. I thought it was just one week. I was like, I'm going to be in the wrong week, but I continued that for two weeks straight, and then that's where I broke my brain. That's where I started to have a problem. I would have gotten, it probably wouldn't even have been a show topic. If I was like, oh, you know, I screwed up the week, whatever, did the wrong week on there. It happened with the vacation thing. The problem, where I really have a problem with it, is the two-week issue, and it took me until I ran out the end of the month a whole week ahead of time. At no point did I match up the actual date that I was writing on to the date that was actually happening in the real world, right? What does that say to you?

Brad: You didn't need, for two weeks, you weren't even paying attention to the date. Like, what does that mean?

Myke: Yeah, well, because I never do, because I look at the last page I filled out, which would have been, let's just pick Monday. Okay, is today Tuesday equals yes, then right. Never matching up the number to the actual date, just the day, right? So, it was basically, I was programmed, you know, is today Tuesday? Yes, okay, then we write on Tuesday's page. Except I had been on the wrong date for two weeks. For somehow, after vacation, I grabbed an extra three pages, right, this thin Tomoe River paper, and just flipped them to the next Monday, thinking those were the days that I had missed. Hey, these are the blank days from vacation, right? So, I actually grabbed an entire extra week before I restarted the planner again on what was. I was writing on Monday the 18th for what was, actually should have been writing on Monday the 11th. And then I did that all the way up until this past Monday, which was two weeks, a two-week span before I realized that, oh, we have a problem. So, I shared my challenges on Twitter and on Instagram. I got some good advice, Myke, that I wanted to share with everyone in trying to correct this situation. So, I put an image up on Instagram where I changed the 11th. So, what I'm doing to fix this, Myke, is I'm going to fill in the week that I skipped, and we're going to go back in time. Wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no. What are you talking about? I can't not have... I can't continue down this path that I'm on.

Brad: Well, no, of course not.

Myke: But just skip a week. No. What do you mean no? I have things to write down today and yesterday and Monday.

Brad: Yeah, but start from the actual real date.

Myke: Those were already filled.

Brad: Oh, yeah, of course.

Myke: Yeah, you're with me now.

Brad: Yeah.

Myke: This is a problem.

Brad: Huh.

Myke: So, I had to go back to the real blank week that happened. I had to get in the time machine, Myke. Hang on a second.

Confusion Clarification

Brad: Hang on a second. Hang on a second.

Myke: I've gotten lost now. Yeah, trust me. This was my morning on Monday.

Brad: So, there were two things happening. You skipped a week, but then also went forward in the journal?

Myke: Well, yeah, because I didn't know I was going forward. I thought I was in the right place.

Brad: I'm really confused, Brad. So, I should just say, this is really bad for me, this topic today. So, I've been sick. I mentioned on last week's episode, maybe, or afterwards. I think it was after. It was after. Yeah. I have a lot of COVID symptoms, but don't have COVID. So, I probably just have actual, like, flu-y symptoms. One of the things I've really been struggling with this week is comprehension. Yeah. Like, I'm getting very easily confused. So, let me do it. And so, now, I'm lost. I'm lost. You've lost me now. Why do you need to go back? I don't get it.

Myke: I'm going to keep this as simple as, I think, as simple as possible in a complex situation. I accidentally skipped a week in my planner. Uh-huh. Okay? And then, I started writing for two weeks before I realized I had skipped that week.

Brad: Okay. So, wait, wait, wait. Because this is what skipped means. Because, so, you saying you were meant to say, like, on April 1st, you just started writing on the April 7th page. Correct. You see, I'll tell you why I got lost there. Not knowing that I had done that. Because when you first said skipped, I thought you meant what you actually did was just you didn't write in it for a week. No.

Myke: Because that's also skipping it, right? So, I did that as well.

Brad: Yeah. That's, that's, this is why I got confused. Right. Is that you both didn't do it. And then, when you came back to it, went forward by seven days. Exactly. That's crazy what you have done. How did you manage that, Brad? I just grabbed the pages wrong. Now, I have a better understanding of why you're so upset.

Myke: So, yes. So, we're going to explore how that happened. Okay. And someone put it in my Instagram page.

Myke: When I have done, this has happened to me. Who wrote this? So, I wrote down a bunch of these scribbles and stuff. So, I wrote down a bunch of Instagram comments. This has happened to me. What you have to do is, on those days where you're choosing not to write on your vacation, you have to mark something on those pages. Just write vacation on them. Mm-hmm. So, my pages where I purposefully on vacation chose not to use my planner, I left blank. Okay. Mm-hmm. So, roll through the end of the vacation week. It's the Sunday. I have a bunch of blank pages. So, now I'm ready for Monday to restart my plannering. Okay? Mm-hmm. So, I go to, quote, Monday, except I had grabbed an extra three sheets and skipped that whole week after vacation because there wasn't a page marked prior to the Monday where I was restarting my planner. There wasn't a vacation mark. There wasn't a vacation mark in the book. Mm-hmm. So, I didn't see that. So, I knew that I had blank pages. So, it didn't even, you know, phase me that the Sunday before the Monday I picked back up in my planner wasn't written on.

Brad: Mm-hmm.

Myke: Mm-hmm. So, I just went to town. Back to work. Monday. Back to work. Started writing. I didn't compare the dates. I just, hey, Monday is today after my vacation blank sheets. So, I had an assumption that the sheets before were going to be blank. So, I just went to town. The problem is, again, I wrote for two weeks straight, never looking at that date.

Brad: Hmm.

Myke: So, yeah. So, I had blank pages on purpose at the end of vacation. Then, I gapped it accidentally.

Break Time

Brad: See, I'm not sure that writing the, why would writing the vacation thing help you in this scenario? Because.

Myke: Because I would have seen something written on the page. The expectation would not have been a blank page before I restarted.

Brad: Right. The problem is, you just opened it and you were on a blank page and it was Monday and you were just like, oh, this must be it then.

Myke: Yep. And then the Sunday before, I expected it to be blank. You really cavemaned that, didn't you? Oh, it was horrible. This is a terrible example.

Brad: This is the page.

Myke: Yeah. Oh, Monday, me right.

Myke: Yeah. Oh, I totally screwed this up. So, yeah. Marking anything on the page would have kept me in line.

Brad: Mm-hmm.

Myke: Right? Even if I got home, Monday said I need to go back and vacation up all these pages, I would have started correctly. So, I got a lot of, on one hand, I got some sympathy in the Instagram comments. On the other hand, expectedly so, I got some outrage. Like, what are you doing? How did this happen? You're an idiot. Which is fair. I got some thoughts and prayers in this difficult time. So, thank you, Inkwell Monster, for that. I got a lot of people saying that I just need to burn it now. I've ruined the entire planner. You should burn the thing. It's like finding a spider in your house. Well, it's time to burn the house, right? Like, there was a spider here. Like, this is what I have done.

Myke: I have got a lot of commentary that this is why you use undated planners. Because when it was Monday, I would have had to write in the date myself. And I wouldn't have had this problem. Yeah. So, this all boils down to what am I doing now to fix it, Myke? I have to fix, I'm writing this week on the two weeks ago missed week. Because I can't write ahead anymore. Okay. Because I'm already filled out through the end of April. Right. For my mistake. So, I have to, I have scratched out two weeks ago's dates to make them this week's dates. We'll finish this week out. And then we'll start back on Sunday, May the 1st. Or Monday, May the 2nd. And this long national nightmare will be over. It was, I was so thrown off on Monday when I discovered this. Yeah. That I was just stunned for like an hour straight. So, that's why I was just like spewing my thoughts on Twitter and Instagram. Like, how did this happen? What have I done? It actually, I was figuring this out in real time. Like, if you follow my Twitter thread, I was like, I have made a huge mistake. Like, and then like five minutes later, I finally figured out. I was like, oh no. I have really made a huge mistake. Because it's carried on for longer than I anticipated. So, this has been a real learning experience. It's been good. I mean, it's not good. Because I hate having out of order plantering. And now I'm just thoroughly confused myself. So, I'm just going to get through this week. But it's been good that I care enough that I've stuck with this planner so far. This is the first time in a long time that this has actually worked. Because previously, all I would have done, my previous layout was two page per week, right? I'd have seven days on the left and then a blank page on the right for notes. It would just be, I wouldn't have been able to make this mistake. So, yeah, I've learned something about myself and how I use planners and how little I look at the dates. Like Kate in the chat says, the moral here is that you should look at the dates more. And that's true. It's like, I had to make sure when I discovered this, what is today? Like I'm pulling up calendars. Like is today really April 25th? Like Monday when I figured it out? Who could know? Who knows? I had myself that confused and turned around. It was a nightmare. And I'm still living it. But I've got everything corrected. So, I've got the two weeks that I've written on the wrong dates. I have those date corrected. And then I have three weeks ago, essentially, or two weeks ago, the April 11th week. I have now modified into the 25th, April 25th week. And it's just a mess. Get me through this week. We'll be back to normal in my plan on Monday until I discover the next mess that I make for myself. This is all completely self-inflicted. If I would have just marked off those days, I think I would have caught it a lot earlier. And I'm terrible at this. So, yeah. There you go. It's been a good week in plannerdom. We weren't going to... I think we just did a planner update like a week or two ago. I wasn't planning to do another one this soon. But when you wreck your planner this bad, it's worth speaking the truth and learning from the experience.

Brad: Should we take a break? Make you feel a bit better?

Myke: I'm exhausted just from revisiting that. Yeah. So, I have to look at my planner every day now and go, you've really mucked this up, buddy. So, get me through this week, Myke. And today is the day to do it.

Brad: Stop looking at your planner and start looking up to the skies, my friend. Okay. This episode is brought to you by the Canalea Pen Co. Canalea makes stunning and beautiful pens inspired by images of Hawaii. Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and connect us with nature. And while the story behind these pens is always wonderful, in my opinion, it is the execution that sets them apart from the rest. Every single Canalea pen is handmade and a process that means that no two pens will ever look alike. So, you get something which is truly unique for you. Today, we are excited to introduce you to the Leva Lani collection from Canalea. This design represents the sky at night in Kauai with its deep, dark blue, vibrant stars and the visible shimmer of the Milky Way. Once you know this, it's impossible to see anything else in this wonderful design. It is a beautiful recreation of this dark sky at night where, standing on the northernmost point of Kauai, you feel as if the Milky Way is almost in reach. Canalea picked the sky over Kauai because of the stunning views that you get, which you can see from the accompanying imagery on their website. And they've managed to capture this perfectly once again. The Leva Lani collection consists of the fountain pen model in five styles. So, they have the different profiles. They have a ballpoint and also the return of the Mailele band, a wonderful option made of Argentium silver, adorning Canalea's classic fountain pen profile. A Mailele is used in Hawaii to celebrate important life events, which I think lends itself quite nicely to a pen. Like, I think that while you're adding, of course, the cost of the pen, making it more special, I actually think the Mailele makes the pens more of like a moment, you know, like a celebration, a gift, that kind of thing. Canalea also now offer the medallions, which are like the, how would you say, it goes on the top of the cap, right? It's not a finial, but it's like the little coin, I guess, that's on the top of their caps. They now offer those and the clips in Argentium silver too, so you can go to town, right? This is a new thing that they have. Canalea fountain pens feature Yoha number six nibs. You can buy them in steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to 1.1 millimeter stub. And one of my favorite things is that every single pen is hand-tuned by hue. Every nib is perfect before it leaves the shop. So it's going to write fantastically. And it's presented in their beautiful, lovely black walnut keepsake box, which is always a real pleasure. Their packaging is just best in class. With every purchase from the Le Valani collection, Canalea is giving back to conservation funds and community programs in Kauai and the North Shore community as well to give back to these wonderful places. So go and see these beautiful products for yourself right now at canaleapenko.com. That is canaleapenko.com to choose your aloha today. Our thanks to Canalea Penko for their support of this show. Now we both have these, right? Yes. I have the regular one.

Myke: So what is the regular one for you? There's the traditional shape. No Mailele band, right?

Brad: No Mailele band this time.

Myke: No clip? No clip. Then I think we have the same one. Yep.

Brad: So this is, I call it the standard, but it's not the standard. Right. It's not the classic profile.

Myke: It's my preferred option.

Brad: Because it's the one that I always think of for them. It's like, oh yeah, that's a canalea pen. It is... Classic Flush. Classic Flush. That's the one that I always think of. Because they have the classic. The classic is where the cap is a little bit larger than the body, and that's what they use for the Mailele ones. But Classic Flush is... Straight-sided, essentially. Yeah.

Myke: Smooth connection. No differentiation between where the cap hits the barrel. So like you said, we both have this pen in hand. Do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? How do you want me to discuss this?

Brad: I mean, I can talk about my experience with it. Okay. So like, I took it out of the packaging. Because we don't... When Hugh and Carol send these to us as part of these sponsorships, they don't... We don't know anything about the pen at all. And it's just a case of like taking it out of the packaging and seeing it for ourselves. And I took it out of the packaging and I was like, oh, they're going for like a kind of underwater vibe or something like that, right? And then I turned it over and saw the huge blue shimmery streak running down the whole body of the pen. And I'm like, oh boy, what's this? And then I looked at the imagery and like, it's amazing. Like, you know, if you look at the imagery, if you look at any imagery of like I was doing some Googling of this, of like the Milky Way over like Kuwait, you see it like in every image. It's always this like this very large streak of color or of stars going over just one area in the sky. And they have replicated this so well. And again, you know, we've been talking about this, like maybe the last four or five pens from Canalea. The thing that always hits me hardest is the depth that they're able to achieve in the acrylic. And that is like this one. It is genuinely to me looks like something like there is this like blue shimmer trapped inside of the pen somewhere. It's really very cool. Very special. And I also actually, I kind of like that they're doing this thing. They're moving up now. You know, like the last one they moved down. They went on the water, right? And now they're moving up to the sky. I like this kind of like exploration they're doing in theme.

Myke: I have a lot to say about this material and my thoughts on when I unboxed it. First and foremost, I think they got the name wrong. The Levolani. I think it should just be called the Canalea Bilmi because that's what I told them.

Brad: This is for you, huh?

Canalea Pen Review

Myke: When I open this up. This will be my most used Canalea pen by far. I have three. This makes three Canalea pens that I have. I have the Red Cherry. I have the Hanama Bay, which are both striking and beautiful in their own ways. But at a point for my use, right? For my intention when I'm looking at a pen on a desk, the louder and more vibrant the pen is, the shorter the shelf life is for, say, that usage, right? I always want to come back to it. Less adaptable. Yeah. I always want to come back to it. I buy them for a reason because I love the really standout bits of color, right? Like it's very well known that give me all the shimmer, all the swirls, all the pinks, all the purples. This is so different in not just like that style. I think that's also why I like the Red Cherry. It's a little bit more subtle while being bright. This is different to me because they've done a galaxy night sky type of pen without using glitter. Yes.

Brad: That's actually a really important thing to mention. It's stood out the way the stars. Yeah. But they look like, to me, like flecks of acrylic.

Myke: Yeah. It's almost like you've seen pens and a lot of some of our listeners have seen pens with like an external eggshell treatment on there. And this is more like an internal, like an amoebic, like all these different weird shapes and sizes of like, it's more of a true representation of a night sky as opposed to just throw as much glitter into the pen as you can, which, hey, I'm not knocking that.

Brad: They're physically different in size, but also, again, in depth, right, of how close they are to. And so, yeah, it does add a, I hadn't noticed that myself until you say it. Now I see what I'm seeing, if that makes sense. I think you've done a really great way of saying it's not shimmery as such, like it's not sparkly. It's kind of more deep.

Myke: Right. And that's what I'm saying. Like, I love my shimmer glitter pens, right? But I don't need all of them to be that way, right? So this is a different representation of a style of pen that I like where you get this character of, hey, the night sky and the galaxy. And they're having this huge, perfectly lined up, brighter, subtle Milky Way stripe through there. It's about one-sixth of the width of the pen. So it's a wide stripe, maybe even a quarter. It might take up a whole quarter side of the pen, but it's only on that side, right? Yeah. So you turn it and it's like, oh, this is a great night sky. Look at all these stars. And then you get this huge line from like top to bottom of the pen of just the brightness. Yeah.

Brad: And maybe I should have asked this to you and Carol. On my pen, it lines up. Mm-hmm. Does it line up on yours?

Myke: It does. And it's single threaded. So, or like a single, I don't know the official terminology. So, but it's like basically it's not a two access point threading, right? So you don't have to work to line it up. You just put on the cap and it lines up automatically. And every time.

Brad: I'm assuming that's probably the case of this pen. I was going to ask you. In general.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: So I would say if they have managed that. I think because it's a talking point.

Myke: I think because it's a talking point in the marketing. I think they kind of have to, right? You have to execute that.

Brad: If they have managed that, which I'm expecting they have, that is no mean feat. Right, right, right. I'll say bravo to them like for managing that.

Myke: Yeah. So like my Hanamabe has like, it has like run throughs of acrylic and they generally line up, but it's not like guaranteed, right? This seems more purposeful in that aspect. So anyway, yes, they sponsor us. Yes, they're our friends. Yes, I bought this pen because I really, really genuinely love it. And again, this will be easily my most use of the three can of layers. Probably because it's new. You know, there's a lot of recency bias in it, but it's really, really different. Right. It's going to, it's a good compliment and a good kind of diversion from, you know, the way some of the other pens acrylics are created. And it's good to kind of have that variance in your product lineup while still being able to tell the same cohesive big picture story to have all these little individual stories and the differences in between them in the material. So yeah, like I'm kind of, it's one of those pens you just, you pick up and keep staring at and kind of fascinated by it. So yeah.

Brad: I think you have, you have mentioned something again. This is why you're the first and last word in stationary. And something I wouldn't, I wouldn't have considered is while still being striking and beautiful, it is less in your face maybe than some of their other designs. Right. And so this might be, this may be more attractive to someone who is otherwise like, oh, I don't know, like if this one is for me. So whilst also having, I think one of their more special elements, which is that, that, that shimmer line that runs through like that blue, blue shimmery acrylic that's running through the middle. I think that is so, so special where they've managed to do that.

Myke: So yeah, I was my, my biggest, my biggest takeaway was the, the execution without the glitter. And yeah, I, I just, that's me. That's a personal thing, right? I have enough, like I'm good on the glitter. I'm good on the swirls. I'll still buy some more if I see some, right? But like not every, you know, night sky pin has to have glitter in it. Right. And I thought they did, did this really well. So yeah. Great, great job. As always. Great job again. Yeah. Great job again.

Brad: I will tell you, Red, weirdly, not weirdly, but the one that is calling to me is the My Lele version with the clip. Mm-hmm. Cause I'll tell you, man, I love the band. Like I have one of those, right? You have one. Yeah. I don't have one. I adore it. I think it is so special and feels so nice. Like that's what I, I, I'm honestly like given the choice, it is more expensive of course, right? But given the choice, I would, that would be my choice with, with, with a Canalea's Pens now is to get that band. But you know, yeah, you are pushing the price up there. And I think, I think that's what makes the story of that part work in that, like, it is a, a thing meant for a special occasion.

Brad: I think works, works pretty nicely. Cause that is a special occasion kind of, kind of price range. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke: And I've, I've gone through, I've worked with them. Like when we get these testers, Hey, send me one with the clip. Hey, send me one with the MyLeLe band. I'm very happy with just the traditional flush without the extra hardware. I kept trying. I, like, I wanted to try those to see if they work well for me and they don't. Like this is my classic flush. No added hardware is my preferred Canalea setup that I found. The regular, but that doesn't discount. A regular classic flush.

Brad: That was never for me. Like just with the regular classic, sorry. Yeah. With just a larger cap was never for me, but putting the band on it gives it a reason.

Myke: And yeah. And I could, like, I would have picked that out between you and I, who's the MyLeLe guy? Well, I think Myke would probably be into that. Not that I, I don't absolutely love it, but if I'm going to use the pen, it's a little more difficult for me because these are already like the maximum size pen for me. So it's anything additional doesn't work for me, which, you know, I was, I'm fortunate to be able to try out a bunch of things and see what I like. And this is what I like. And I'm, I'm obviously pretty happy with this one.

Brad: Do you want to tell me something about Pilot or Shizuku ink cartridges?

Myke: They're coming. Again, I was hoping, we talked about this when they launched their new colors not too long ago.

Myke: They, I was hoping that we would see some Oro Shizuku ink cartridges just, you know, hopefully they would follow in the line of sailor. Ink cartridges are always an interesting conversation, right? Because they're the least cost effective type of, you know, ink delivery platform. And most waste, most expensive, but darn it if they aren't super, super useful to, you know, someone who uses as many different fountain pens like me. And I've always used Pilot blue black cartridges as one of my main cartridges. And then, you know, platinum has always had, you know, blue black cartridges that I could just take and pop in to, to fill in, you know, fill up any pen that I want. I really like the portability of cartridges. And now we're going to get a Ro Shizuku ink cartridges. And it doesn't look like the entire lineup, but it looks like a dozen or so to start with, which I think is a good starting point. Um, you know, they have, um, some of the main inks. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people have a lot of favorite Ro Shizuku inks and I'm sure maybe their favorites miss, but you know, it has Kanpeki. It has, you know, Shinkai. It has Tsukiyo. What it doesn't have is one of the oranges, Myke. It doesn't have a Yuyaki or Fuyugaki, which I think is a little bit weird.

Brad: This is a very blue heavy.

Myke: It is. It's very standard.

Brad: I would count to six blues.

Myke: Yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah. And then a green. So yeah. So it is not the most colorful range representative, representative range of the Ro Shizuku lineup, but I think it's a start. So hopefully we'll see more. I mean, I'm, I'll go straight into, um, some Tsukiyo cartridges. Which I'll use for my Milky Way Namiki. Like that's the only ink I put in there. I use a Con 70 converter. And if I like the weight of not having the Con 70, which I think I will on that Namiki, I will only ever use the Tsukiyo cartridges in there. And I'll just be thrilled with that. Like this kind of stuff thrills me. I'm willing to pay the premium, um, monetarily and ecologically. I, that sounds terrible to say, you know, it is not an eco-friendly process here. And, you know, I, I, I'm hopefully I'll be able to, to get these and, you know, I will enjoy them just like the Sailor ones. Like I gotta, I gotta go pick up some of the Sailor ones, right? For all the Sailor pins I use. Um, I've never made the effort to go and grab some of the Sailor ones. So I need to do that as well. Um, Sailor does have a wider color range than, than Pilot is, uh, launching with.

Brad: Wow. It's time, isn't it? Yeah. It's cool. Probably doesn't need to be said, but I'll say it anyway. Um, obviously these are, Pilot's cartridge system is proprietary. Correct. So these cartridges will only work in Pilot pens.

Myke: Yep. Same with Sailor, same with Platinum. So there's a lot of. Just something worth noting, right? No, no. Because obviously that's not the case with the ink bottles. That was the next thing I was going to say.

Brad: Right? Like you can just get a converter, you put it in any pen you want. These are, you know, and Pilot have a, you know, they don't use any of the standard things. They have their own thing.

Myke: Right. Right. Just like I use specific things for specific pens, especially with cartridges, um, especially as far as cartridges go. So, you know, I'm, I'm anxious to, to try these myself. Um, Sailor, I'm a little bit more open to just like, I don't have to have the cartridge because Sailor makes so many wild, um, ink colors. And I, I don't mind using all of Sailor's wild ink colors with all of Sailor's pens. I mean, I, I, it's, it's rare that I don't ink up a Sailor pen with a Sailor ink because the supply is endless just from Sailor themselves and then all the store exclusives and specials that they have. So, uh, it's not as, I, that's why I probably haven't bought the cartridges yet, even though I want to test them out. But the Pilot ones, I will definitely, because like they'll work great for the vanishing points, right? And they'll work great for other pens that I use Pilot cartridges only in.

Brad: So, are they, will these fit in my M90?

Myke: They should because you use the purple cartridge, um, for that. And I think it's, it's the same shape cartridge. Right? You use the purple, the Pilot.

Brad: Yeah, it's the shape, but I don't know if it's the size.

Myke: Yeah, it should, it should be identical.

Brad: Oh, now we're off to the races. Right. Oh, I'm going to buy these then. Because yeah, because I use cartridges in the, in the, in the M90. I always have.

Myke: Yeah. And I always use the blue, black in my Murex.

Brad: I use the red at the moment. Because I couldn't get the purple, so I bought like a few boxes of the red. Gotcha. And so, yeah, when these, when these make their way, uh, outside of Japan, I'll buy some. I don't know which color. Maybe these, the purple one, Murasaki Shikibu? Or Yamabudo, maybe? Yep. I'll go with that.

Myke: All good stuff. Good stuff. So, yeah, I look forward to them. Hope they'll be coming available. I don't, I mean, maybe they don't even make it to the US, who knows? But, um, I'll source out a box or two. I don't need a bunch of these. Yeah. I hope so. I don't need a box of these. Hopefully find them at a pen show at a minimum. So, yeah. Pretty good.

Twisby Ultimatum Update

Brad: Uh, the pen addict listeners have been asking, they've been demanding, pleading, do you have an update on the Twisby ultimatum? Which, when I first saw this, I was like, I have a pen called the ultimatum? This is where, this is where I am.

Myke: If they're smart, if they're smart, they need to just lean into this whole situation and make the Twisby ultimatum. Like, that's, I mean, I wouldn't put it past them to just come out with the Twisby ultimatum. Like, that would be good. So, we haven't heard much, or at least I haven't heard much since the ultimatum came out that, you know, Twisby was, um, taking a stance that Narwhal had copied their piston and in the future, uh, retailers would need to basically pick. You either carry Twisby products and not Narwhal, or if you continue to carry Narwhal, we will no longer sell you Twisby. Uh-huh. And it's been kind of, what, it's been a month or maybe a little bit more. And, you know, at first, obviously when that came out, it was, you know, pretty uproar and we had some things to say about it and I still stand by all those things. But it's gotten kind of quiet and I was kind of wondering, is this just going to go away? Is this going to vanish? Is this going to be a nothing burger? So, I had some questions this week from listeners wanting an update. So, I asked around to friends in the industry and just checked in a few different sources. And this is absolutely not going away. That was clear by talking to multiple different people. What's going to happen, I don't know. But my maybe guess that, hey, maybe those will just all just vanish and nothing will go further. That is, couldn't be further from the truth. It is apparently. Nothing has changed as far as any stances go. So, we're just going to have to see how it plays out like on the retail front, right? Like, are retailers going to have to make this decision? Are they going to put up a fight somehow? I don't know anything more than that.

Brad: As a reminder, TWSBI is saying any vendor that wants to sell TWSBI pens cannot sell narwhal pens. If you do, you won't be able to stock our products anymore, right?

Myke: Correct. Correct. So, apparently, that is still... I don't know. Was there a... There might have been a date, like a date by, like May 1st. May 1st.

Brad: I think the time is now, which is why we were getting asked.

Myke: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, so I was thinking it was coming up right around now. So, yeah, we're going to see some decisions being made. I don't know who's doing what or when, but it is absolutely still a situation that we've heard of, like, right from the jump. It is not going away. So, we will probably start to actually hear more about it once these decisions are having to be made and if any companies are going to discuss, you know, why they make decision X or decision Y. And I don't know if we'll hear more from the companies themselves or not. They've been pretty quiet on this front as well.

Brad: Do you remember when it was that we spoke about this?

Myke: It was almost exactly a month ago, right? It was before the Atlanta Pen Show. End of March sometimes. So, we'll have to figure out the right date. But around the end of March, middle of March, something like that. So, I guess it's been probably five or six weeks.

Brad: Right.

Myke: So, yeah. That's, I don't have a great update other than the update is it's definitely 100% not going away. There is going to be ramifications somewhere for someone. I just don't know who, when, or where.

Brad: Yeah.

Myke: But it's not going away. That I got. The answer to that was very consistent. So, there you go.

Brad: Huh. Do you expect that brands?

Myke: I think there's going to be choice on both sides. Well, yeah. Some people, I think, yeah.

Myke: I'll say this. TWSBI's been around a lot longer and they make up a lot more business to retailers' bottom line than Narwhal. This is anecdotal. This is kind of what I'm trying to dance around. Yeah. I'm not saying that as I know this for a fact, but I think it's pretty obvious that TWSBI is more affecting to retailers' bottom lines than Narwhal.

Brad: This is like, so Sky in the Discord saying it feels like TWSBI is shooting themselves in the foot. I don't think that's the case at all. I think they know exactly what they're doing. And again, I don't think this is going to make a difference, Brad, because I think probably what's most likely to happen is if a retailer is going to decide if they're doing it on sales, they're probably going to go with TWSBI, I would assume. And therefore, TWSBI got what they wanted.

Myke: Right. Which sucks for all of us. I'm not going to lie. Like, it's a bully tactic. I hate that they're using the retailers like this. I've said as much when we talked about it before. I hate this path, but I understand they have to do something. Like, if they feel wronged, they're going to do something. Just putting it in the... Making retailers decide, I think, is the wrong move.

Brad: This is where we're in a complete agreement. I have no problem with them feeling like they need to defend something if they feel that they have been wronged. Sure. Right? Yeah. As I said, I don't think I can come to a decision. We can't come to a decision as to who is right and who is wrong here. Right. It's way over our pay grades, I think. Right.

Brad: And I have no problem if they feel like they need to do it to go through the channels to deal with it. But putting the decision in the hands of pen vendors, basically blackmailing them because they're aware of... Twisby is aware of their market position. That is a strong arm tactic that I don't enjoy.

Brad: But I don't think in the long term this is a bad thing for Twisby. Maybe some people in this corner of the community are going to stop buying Twisby pens or will stop buying Twisby pens for a while until they forget why they stopped buying Twisby pens and then buy Twisby pens again, which I think... That is no criticism, but that kind of stuff happens all the time, right? Sure. They only have so much limited room for stuff we can remember. But we are, I'm sure, a small portion of their market.

Myke: Yeah. I just think when the consumers get penalized and the retailers get penalized all from their... None of it's their own doing. You just start to look negatively at the companies involved and who has driven these discussions. And like, we didn't do anything. The retailers didn't do anything. And now they're put in a position to have to answer all these questions.

Myke: I just don't think it's a good business practice, obviously. But at the same turn, you and I both agree that if they feel wrong, they are going to do something.

Myke: And so it's just the long tail of that decision. It negatively affects the community as a whole. Right? Like, sure.

Brad: I don't think...

Brad: I'm just going to assume that Twisby don't necessarily feel threatened.

Myke: Right. Like, I used the term bully before, and I fully believe that's what this is.

Brad: Yeah. It's very strange to me. This is very strange. Very strange. I wish that the world would be a little bit more open about it.

Myke: Long story short, this isn't the last time we're going to be discussing this.

Brad: Yep.

Myke: Unfortunately.

Brad: All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Trade. I love coffee. Brad loves coffee. We all love coffee here, right? Coffee. I honestly think coffee is like a real good overlap thing for pens because you can be real fussy about it and get all the good equipment and stuff like that. But you actually need good materials, right? You can get as much. Honestly, Brad, it's just like pens. You can have the greatest pen in the world, right? But you haven't got good ink for it. That's not going to be any good. It's the same with coffee. You can have all of the equipment. But if you don't have the best beans on hand, you're not going to get a great cup of coffee at the end of the day. And that is what Trade is all about for connecting you with these roasters. Brad, you've had great coffee from Trade, right? You were telling me you found a new roaster that you love.

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Myke: All right, Myke, leading into some Ask TPA that we'll get to towards the end of this show, I had a broader Ask TPA question. It's actually come up a couple of times in the past few weeks. Because I've created something a little bit different. And it also kind of relates to my planner choice for this year. So previous to my Hobonichi planner that I'm using this year, I used a William Hanna planner. Right? We've discussed this many times on the show. But essentially, I changed the format to be more useful to me. So I have this great William Hanna cover, this disbound system, this A5 size notebook. What am I going to do with it? Since I'm not using it on the daily for planning. And I thought about it for a while. And I kind of had this idea for a while. But it took me a while to actually execute on it. But the Atlanta Pen Show was the impetus for me to get this done. And what I've done is made this into a loose leaf paper sampler notebook. And it lives on my desk. And I love it. And so I've had a couple people ask me, you know, completely unaware that I've done this. Hey, what do I do with loose leaf sheets? Can I create like a loose leaf notebook? Should I get like a disc bound system? Should I buy the hole punch? Should I buy all of these things to build kind of the loose leaf notebook that I want with the paper that I want? And, you know, the short answer to that is yes. The long answer we'll discuss now. Because I have this great piece of kit, right? This William Hanna notebook. You know I love it. I love the leather cover. I got to build out, you know, the interior and the stitching and things like that. So I've got this whole great A5 system. And then I noticed that I had a pretty good quantity of top bound A5 pads. You know, non-bound, you know, non-hard bound notebooks. You know, just glue bound at the top to where like the pages just rip off or even perforated. But most of the ones I had are glue bound. And with papers that I love using, I'll refer to Life Bank paper repeatedly through this conversation. But that's kind of the one that got me started. It's one of my most used just general writing papers. It's kind of my favorite. It comes in an A5 top bound glue pad. Well, that binding is very easy to remove the pages from. You know, it's a very clean tear, if you will. So, and I end up having just, I'd use those sheets and end up having stacks of loose sheets. I was like, well, what if I got a hole punch to put in my disc-bound William Hanna system? So that's the thing about disc-bound planners, right? If you're going to add in papers that these planner systems don't sell. So it doesn't have to be William Hanna. You know, Levenger has their system. Staples has their system. I'm sure there's a couple more. But they all kind of use a universally sized disc to hook these papers into, right? It's not, you know, it's not a, it's kind of an open-sided, you know, paper punch. You're not putting holes in the paper. You're putting these notches in that the pages fit around these discs. So they're easy to add into a notebook and remove from a notebook, right? That's the big selling point of these disc-bound systems, right? They're modifiable very, very, very easily. So what I did was decide to gather up all of my, anything that can be made into a loose A5 sheet and put it in this notebook. So the first thing I had to do was buy a punch for that, Myke. So I talked about this punch decision, this hole punch decision, or disc-bound punch decision. A lot on stream, did a bunch of research. You know, Levenger makes one.

Myke: Atoma is kind of the big, the big brand. They make very, very high quality, expensive, you know, almost industrial strength type hole punches. So that's another one to check out. That's one I actually had on loan from a friend. I had an Atoma. And then the staplers, excuse me, staples, arc punch. Arc is their brand.

Ask TPA Discussion

Myke: And Levenger's is Circa. Circa is their brand. And they all have different punches for their individual systems, but they all are interchangeable in usefulness, right? You can punch pages in a staples arc hole punch or disc-bound punch that fits in the Levenger system or that fits in the William Hanna system. So they're all kind of cross-compatible. So I went with the staples one. They're not cheap. And this is the cheapest one. And it was like $45. Like the Atomas can be like $125, right? They're like, you know, made to withstand, you know, tornadoes and hurricanes, things like that. The staples is a little bit smaller, you know, a little bit more, fewer metal bits, you know, and a little bit lighter weight. But these are big hole punches. And it's been great. Like this staples arc punch has been great. So if you're going to commit to building this type of system with a disc-bound system, you're going to have to buy a punch. Because you're not going to be able to buy pre-punched paper except from the brands that you're choosing to buy from. And that kind of defeats the purpose of this whole experimentation notebook that I have now. So I ended up finding nine different loose sheet A5 papers and had the most fun punching all these, sorting them out in my notebook. And now all of these papers, I have one notebook, the William Hanna, that has Life Bank paper, Plotter paper, Kikuyo Business A5 paper. We'll talk about that one. The vintage writing pad that Anna from the Well-Appointed Desk made with this Asleek paper. I have a Life A5 standard paper with a two-millimeter grid. I have the Clairefontaine Triomphe. I have classic Tomoe River. You know, I have A5 sheets of that. Or you can take A4 sheets like the Sans and Tomoe River successor paper that I had that was in A4 sheets. Fold them in half, cut them, make some A5. I have the Mormont Croquis. Oh, I actually have 10 papers. There's another one down here. The Mormont Spiral Node. It's a dot grid. So these are all papers that I enjoy using. They have different features that I like about them or differences between the pages that make them worthwhile to have all of this variety. Like the Life Bank paper is probably my main just general writing paper. It handles fountain pens great. The ink behaves really well. You know, the plotter paper is thinner than the Life Bank and it's great for fountain pens. The Kukuyo Business paper is the one that you can buy in 500-page reams, like from Amazon.com, and make your own notebooks from. Like a lot of people do that. This is kind of the best fountain pen-friendly, you know, printer paper, if you will. It's a little bit more expensive than traditional printer paper, but it's like 500 sheets for 17 bucks, right? It's really not expensive relative. So, and on and on and on. You know, I have Tomoe River to test, then I have the Tomoe River successor to test. And just all kinds of different pages for all types of different situations. Most of it for me is, I don't use this as a journal, right? I'm not like writing notes in here and, you know, keeping these. This is more of a moving the pages in and out, say ink testing, note taking, you know, experimentation notebook that I'll just grab and say, hey, how will this work on this paper? And I pick up my William Hanna notebook. It comes with dividers. So, like I have three dividers in this notebook. And then each other little section of paper, I have at the first page of each new section of paper, because not all of them are divided by the thicker William Hanna dividers. I put a little piece of washi tape and note, right? I write a note on what this paper is so I don't get confused on what's what, where does it start, where does it stop, because some of the paper does look similar. Like, you know, some of it's easy to tell apart, some of it's not so easy to tell apart. So I marked the front of each page with a piece of washi tape to know where it starts and to know where the next paper, to know where it ends and where the next paper starts. And then on the first page, I wrote the name of each brand. And that's how I build like a little loose leaf testing notebook that is really, really useful for someone like me, who tries a lot of things, tests a lot of things, wants to see, you know, I can quickly answer a question. How does, you know, X nib on X ink work on X paper? Well, I have a set of 10 papers here that are right at hand that I know exactly what they are, where they are. And I don't have to go hunt them down. And they're all like self-contained in this notebook. And I'm thrilled with my little setup here. And I'm not, I mean.

Brad: It's a good system because you can change things in and out too, right? Really easily. Like add a new paper. Exactly. Remove an old paper. Like it really kind of, kind of. Are you, how are you keeping them separate?

Myke: Yeah, just by, just marking them with the front page with the washi tape. So I have three dividers in here. Okay. Then in between those. It's just the washi tape, not four dividers. So like, say like in between divider one and divider two, there are three brands of paper. So there's three different sections in that one divider grouping, right? Right. So no group has more than like three sections. So in between the next two dividers, I have one, two, again, three. Then like the back section with no dividers, I have two, you know, two sections of paper. So yeah, just like that. So a little bit divider, a little bit washi tape. I don't want to put too many dividers in because then it just unnecessarily bulks it up. Yeah. So a few dividers and then a few subdivided washi tapes to, to mark where the papers change. Most of them is, is just visual. Like I could see it, but I don't want to be confused if like, you know, some of the paper, like, you know, you can't tell just readily like the Kikuyo business and the Clairefontaine Triumph. If I sat them side by side, I could a hundred percent tell the difference, but if they're sitting next to each other in the same stack, could I sort out those pages like immediately? No, I'd have to do a little testing to figure it out. So I want to make sure to mark those. And then I won't put those close to each other in the book either. In case I like jump in the middle, um, kind of like how I do my regular planner and miss the dates. But, um, I just, uh, yeah, it's, I was shocked at how many loose ish A5 sheets I could gather to put in this, um, you know, 10 different, 10 different, uh, papers that were either, either loose sheets to begin with or easily removable either from a glue bound glue binding or perforation. It was great. I had so much fun putting this together and, uh, it's a really cool looking notebook now. And it's just kind of a mess in the most organized way possible and, uh, super useful for like a pen addict like myself to be able to do all these different things with it. So yeah, I love it. So that's how I do it. If anyone has like specific questions for the few people that were asking me about it, um, hit me up. I'll, I'm glad to help you out. But the William Hanna planner, the, the Staples art punch, you know, there, there is a, there is a cost to entry, right? For building something like this. But, uh, I, I really enjoy this. And like, this would be the book that I carry to pen shows just for testing purposes, right? Like it's very useful in that way. And that's why I built it before the Atlanta pen show and it, it worked out well.

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Myke: One final thing before we jump into the STPA on the loose leaf sheets, and you kind of alluded to this fact about moving the sheets in and out. It's good for sharing your different types of paper with other people too. Yeah. Hey, do you want to try this type of paper? I don't have to tear them out of a notebook or carry around all these extra pads. I already have these hole punch samples basically built in, and I just hand them out. You know, you've never tried bank paper? Here, try this. Amazing. So it's been really good for that. Very cool. Enjoy it.

Brad: Yep. Great. All right. I have some RSTPA questions for you, Brad. First one comes via Fibber. I have a wacky idea. Why doesn't Parker Pens develop a Parker 51 with a spring-loaded cartridge filling mechanism, which would mimic the original button mechanism?

Myke: Because pen brands owned by conglomerates are not interested in creating new products.

Myke: That's the mean answer. The real answer is I wish they would, but the true answer is I wouldn't get my hopes up because Parker is owned by a conglomerate that is not necessarily, or at least from what I've seen, not interested in innovation. Right? They're just interested in continuing the brand and making good pens. Like, they make good pens. Like, Parker and Newell Rubbermaid, they make good products. I'm just never going to ask them to innovate. Right? And that's what we're asking here. Hey, why don't you put in the time, effort, and money into making something cool and representative of the past, and that is never going to get you into a meeting in the boardroom at the conglomerate. It's just not.

Brad: No. No. And also, as well, like, some of these things, they are more for us. Yeah. Right? Like, and these larger companies maybe don't, it's not necessarily the best move for them.

Myke: Right.

Brad: You know?

Myke: So this is why we're happy to have someone like Brian Gray at Edison Pens who invents or recreates crazy filling systems and vintage filling systems. Yeah. You're just going to have to pay the price for that. Right? Yeah. The price that Parker's not willing to go in at because of the innovation and the scope of the work and the difficulty and the challenges and the small scale that someone like Brian works on. But then we get the cool things. Right? That's how we're going to get the cool things. We're not going to get the cool things from a brand owned by a conglomerate. Yeah. It's just not going to happen.

Brad: No. No.

Brad: All right. Ginger asks, well, writes in and says, Ryan Holiday talks about how he keeps a commonplace book. As pen and ink aficionados, how would you keep a commonplace book? Would you use a journal? Would you use blank cards? Brad, do you know what a commonplace book is?

Myke: I 100% know what a commonplace book is. I keep one. So, yeah.

Brad: This is where I first heard about this was in refill.

Myke: Yeah. So, I've shared this link. I didn't go look at the video. I'm assuming it's the same video. But Ryan keeps the most elaborate note card. It's this huge box of note cards. Ben system. Yeah. Like, it's literally you would like put both of your arms around to like carry from room to room and it's done on note cards. So, I use note cards for a lot of things. It's not for commonplace ideas and it's not for sorting. It's not for like Zettelkasten or any of those systems, which I think are just fabulous. It's just not necessary for someone like myself who's not trying to like write a book, right? A lot of Ryan's research comes into, hey, this is the book, Ben, and we're going to have all these cards and we're going to sort them, you know, thusly. So, my commonplace book ideas, I just call it more of a everything I book, everything book. But just on like my most recent page today with my show notes, I have some writing just on one open page here in what I use my commonplace book for. On the left page, like two days ago, I just wrote kind of like a journal entry. On the right-hand page, I wrote some feedback that I got from the PAR system that I work on for Panatic members. So, I wrote some feedback notes in there and both of those were in the traditional portrait format. And then on that same PAR feedback page for the show notes, I turned the notebook into a landscape format. And so, my show notes are actually, you know, 90 degrees turned from that feedback. So, I keep them separately like that. I do a lot of thing in what I call my commonplace book.

Brad: Is this also the book where you cut things out and stick them in?

Myke: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I have drawings in this book. I have cutouts in this book. I have things just, it's all kinds of bits of randomness, right? I have all kinds of lists in this book. So, yeah. It's just, that's my idea of a commonplace book.

Myke: Ryan's idea is a little bit more of a tool, at least as he goes through in this video. But I encourage everyone to watch it because I was fascinated by this whole thing. But, yeah. It's really neat. So, I think just traditionally most people use just a basic journal as a commonplace book because you want it to be, at least I want it to be, and my idea of it is it to be a singular self-contained book. Right? So, when I'm done with it, I put it up on the shelf and then it exists and then we'll pick out another book. If I had a bunch of loose cards, then we're getting into more of a system. And that's not how I think of using or creating a commonplace type of book. Right? I don't want any. Commonplace to me is the antithesis of system. Right? It should be the complete opposite. That's how, that's a personal definition, whether that's the actual definition. Who can say? But that's kind of the beauty of what a commonplace book is.

Brad: And from Franz, I'm mostly satisfied with my nine fountain pens and ink collection that I've got. And I'm buying new ink or replacement ink bottles occasionally when they run out. Am I regressing now that I'm checking out some fountain pen ink roller balls and Japanese mechanical pencils? Brad, am I in danger?

Myke: You are in danger, Franz. Run! Run! You're in danger! If you're emailing a podcast about pens, about wondering about new pens and pencils, you're in danger. Yeah.

Myke: It's one and the same. But it's, so this is actually a really, I enjoyed this question a lot. But it's great to be super satisfied with what you're using. Right? Like, that's a challenge that is lost on me a little bit just because of the access that I have and the job that I do requires me to use a lot of different things all the time. It's really nice to just be able to be content. I am very content with, you know, Franz and Franz's situation, my nine fountain pens and ink collection. Super, super content. I'll buy, you know, new ink when I run the ink out. That is awesome. And you should try to remain that way. Am I regressing now that I'm checking out some fountain pen inks, roller balls, and Japanese mechanical pencils? No. You're broadening your horizons. Because I just think with, just in general terms, roller balls and mechanical pencils, it's a much smaller scope of what you will enjoy. You will, how do I say this? With fountain pens, if I like fountain pens, I have a lot of different options that are going to check all my boxes. With roller balls, that scope of options is much more finite. So I'll find one or two pens that, hey, this is really good. But by the time I get to three, it starts to get repetitive, right? And I don't need the other things, right? Where with nine fountain pens, you could do nine different things. With nine roller balls, how much different are you going to do other than looking at the cool colors on the outside of the pen or the cool clip or the cool materials? Same thing with mechanical pencils, right? You can have one or two that you really, really enjoy. But by the time you get to three and four, are you really replacing what you have in one or two? So to reverse the joke, I don't think you're in danger because the scope of quality options in those two realms is very repetitive, right? So if you find one or two things, you're kind of done. Like if you already have this situation where you're content with your nine fountain pens and ink, you're not going to find nine roller balls and nine mechanical pencils to go along with that. You'll find one or two of each and you'll be done. So I don't think you're in danger. I think you're in a really, really good spot to be perfectly honest.

Brad: I mean, I'm definitely one to encourage exploration within hobbies. So I encourage this. Yeah, absolutely. If you would like to send in a question of your own, there's a few ways you can do that. You can use hashtag AskTPA or question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord, or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. We have some emailed questions that are longer that I promise we will get to at some point in the future.

Myke: I'm going to get yelled at by the time I answer these. I know. It's like I needed that answer a month ago, Brad. I'm like, you know.

Brad: I'm struggling here, bud.

Myke: My energy has fallen off the cliff. Long show today, chat. Long show today. Good show.

Brad: If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com. He is at Dowdyism and at penaddict on Twitter and on Instagram. And he streams three times a week at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. You can find me on Twitch, too, at mike.live. I stream every Friday. I've got a stream coming up this week, which I'm excited about. And then next week, Brad, I'm going to be trying to dismantle an Apple Magic keyboard to extract a Touch ID sensor.

Myke: Ooh, that should be really interesting.

Brad: Yeah, that's going to be a whole thing. If you want to find show notes and links and everything for this episode, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 511. Thanks to Canaleya Penco, Trade Coffee, and Squarespace for the support of this episode. But most importantly, thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Bye, Brad.