The Pen Addict 350/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	350
Title:	Superbacker
Release Date:	March 13th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 350
Audio File:	Audio Episode 350
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 350
Length:	8181 min <br />1.35 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 350. Today's show is brought to you by FreshBooks, Pen Chalet, and Warby Parker. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by a slightly sniffly Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Myke Hurley. We'll try to limit the sniffles, but I already sniffle enough as it is, and we've certainly gotten nasty grams over the years about Brad making noises. While recording...

Myke Hurley: I try and get most of your noises. I try and catch them all.

Brad's Hangover

Brad Dowdy: This will be an extra noisy episode. Mostly, though, because we're cheering for our 350th episode, which I'm pretty happy about.

Myke Hurley: Brad celebrated too hard at the Pen Addict 350th episode party last night, and now he's in a sniffly situation.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, totally hungover. Like, I'm wrecked. It was a party of one last night, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Well, congratulations to us both. They probably said it couldn't be done, but here we are, 350 episodes into this little show about pens. Mm-hmm. We, again, we started this show all the way back in February 2012, so we've been going for seven years and one month, which is an absolutely astounding thing to think about, which is, I think, even more impressive than 350, the span of time that this show has taken. And, you know, we'll probably say a little bit more towards the end of the show, but we couldn't do this without the support of our listeners. So thank you all so much for everything that you do for us, for tuning in every week, and for backing our Kickstarter campaign. We are very close to breaking all of the records. So we mentioned last week that this is the most subscribed to financially Kickstarter campaign that we have ever done on this show. Mm-hmm. We're going to be away from our most subscribed in backers campaign of all time, which is absurd and amazing. But I know the reason. It's because this case is so dang good. And we now have a link in the show notes to a Kickstarter update, which shows prototype images of the Burton A5 case, which is bigger, better, and more wonderful than you'd ever imagined. Brad had forgotten to tell anyone, including me, that the case actually was padded, which is nice. I think that's pretty cool. But you can now take a look at the images so you can see kind of just what fits in one of these cases. And, oh, boy, it's a lot. Like, a Hippo Noto and a Nanami Crossfield, two huge A5-ish books and a bunch of pens. And, yeah, so you can fit an absolute ton of stuff in one of these cases. So it's still time to go and back the campaign. And you should, especially because we have stickers. We spoke about those before, too. So we're going to be doing a sticker sheet at the very kind of top-tier level of the campaign. So if you go for, like, the case and the videos, you also get a sticker sheet. The sticker sheet is also going to be in the show notes. And it is amazing. It is amazing. It's crazy good. So you can go and check that out as well. This is, like, what is it, six stickers? So there's all of our heads and a taco sticker and a waffle sticker and a Golden Gate Bridge sticker as well. Anna is absolutely, like, just knocked it out of the park. So you will get those and the case and the videos if you go in for the big top-tier. So, yeah, thank you so much to everybody who has backed so far. And if you're still on the fence, I hope that these images and all of these details that are on the Kickstarter page now will help push you over the edge.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, we're in real trouble here, right? I mean, you know why. Why? I mean, this is, like, peak level goods for this campaign. Like, this seems like the pinnacle of what we've ever done. Oh, so we're in trouble for next year. I'm already sweating next year, right?

Myke Hurley: No, we got that. We got that on lock. We got next year taken care of already. I'm not worried about that.

Brad Dowdy: Do we?

Myke Hurley: Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because when I got this case out of the envelope that it shipped to me, I was like, oh, man, this is so good. It was like, and then I, like, within five minutes, I was like, oh, man, how are we going to beat this next year? Because we're really putting a lot of money into this case this year. Like, this is, like, probably, we probably didn't set this up right for what this case is really, you know, costing and is really worth and what's going to sell for eventually. But that's not why we do this. We do this just to have enough money to, like, do these travels, right? This is not a profitable venture for us. So we're, like, happy to, like, I'm totally thrilled to do that. But I, like, worry. It's like, man, I've really set myself up for next year, haven't I?

Myke Hurley: Well, you know, you clearly, you're the brain that came up with it. So you can do it again. But we have plans. We have ideas. We do. We do. We have some good stuff in the hopper. Some things that we were hoping to do this year but couldn't do. But they're going to be amazing. So we have those in the hopper for a future year. So you can go back to the campaign. All the links in our show notes, relay.fm slash penaddict slash 350. Or you can search for The Pen Addict on Kickstarter and you will find what you need there. So thank you to everybody that's backed. And we're really excited because we think we've got something amazing for you all this year. And I think you're going to love it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, quick San Francisco show table update. I got my table paid for it this morning.

Myke Hurley: Well, that's good news.

Brad Dowdy: I got an email, like, yesterday. Hey, Brad, did you need a table? That was the extent of the email. It's like, hey, we got all your messages or anything or that. It's like, did you need a table? I'm like, yeah, I need a table. So then they sent me the invoice and I paid for the table. So we're good. We're in business. Thank you. Good news. Poof. Poof.

Myke Hurley: All right. So should we move on?

Topic Shift to Other Items

Brad Dowdy: We should. We should. We have other things to talk about before we get into more Kickstarter-y stuff. But yeah, let's move on from there. Then we'll circle back.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, you know, we're celebrating our 350 today. But we wanted to extend a congratulations to CW Pencil Enterprise, who just celebrated their fourth birthday. Yay. So congratulations to everybody at CW. Obviously, we're such huge fans of what they do here on the show. So congratulations to them on another successful year. May that be many, many, many, many, many, many, many more because I have many more visits I want to make to Carolina team. So congratulations. That's right.

Brad Dowdy: And special shout out to their quarterly pin box number nine, which just dropped. I put some pictures on Instagram. They did a set of pencils like running the gamut of the hardness scale from 10B, which is the darkest and softest, all the way to 6H, I think was the hardest in there, the firmest and lightest. So I love that kind of stuff because I like trying all the different pencil grades. I'm not just like totally stuck down on one pencil grade. So I like having those types of options. And there was a really cool pencil testing notebook that Write Notepads did for them for this. So hopefully they'll start carrying that in the store. I think that was the goal for them to do. And that is really, really well done. It's super neat.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: And then Caroline jumped on Twitter yesterday and she was just talking about, you know, the fourth anniversary and stuff and, you know, talking to a bunch of people following her. And she says, what if I let the power get to my head and do a subscription box of my favorite things? It would be a strange one. It would definitely include an obscure foreign glue, one of the weirder Matamaro Kuhn erasers and some snacks. And I'm just like, do it. Like she has to do this. So I'm putting a link to this tweet in the show notes and you need to go tell Caroline to do it.

Myke Hurley: Yes. I would like that too, actually.

Brad Dowdy: I can't imagine how many times a day people walk into the store and say, what's your favorite pencil? I mean, dozens a day, right? So put together a set, if not just your favorite pencil, but your favorite things. She was actually teasing about putting a pen in there, which I thought would be very trolly and very funny to do. So, yeah, go find this tweet and reply to her and tell her to do it and we're going to make her do it.

Myke Hurley: I would like that. She's one of those people, like obviously Caroline, very clever, very, like she's very creative, but she's just one of those people that I would just like to see the selection of things that she would pick. You know? She's seen stuff, Michael. Yeah, I've seen some things. I could just, I would just, you know, I could imagine that she is exposed to so many interesting, wonderful, weird little things that I think it would be kind of cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep, me too. Speaking of kind of cool, I caused a problem with my review on Monday, Myke. And by say caused a problem, I meant did it on purpose.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I did a review of one of my pencil leads that I've been going through this year, the Pentel Super High Polymer 0.5 millimeter 2B lead, right? You know that one, right? You're familiar with it. Oh, it's my favorite. Yeah, absolutely. I get it. Get that a lot about this lead. I just happened to review it in a very special and interesting pencil. So, it's the Pentel Sharp Carry, which I've talked about a million times of how great a pencil it is and how underrated it is. Well, there's now a demonstrator version of it, which I snuck in to the review and kind of, you know, purposefully didn't mention. And now I'm getting all the emails and all the comments about, what's that pencil? Where did you get that pencil? I need that pencil. So, mission accomplished for that. And I just want to talk about this pencil. I got it from a friend. I'm not going to call them out. And it wouldn't take anyone who's been around the stationary world very long to figure out where I got it, like within seconds. But I'm not going to call them out. But you can get it. I think it's a newer model. You can get it on eBay. People are asking me. I can't vouch for the link that I put in the show notes. But it gives you all the information to be able to search the product name in there. That's why I did it. It's got all the numbers and everything you need to search for it. It looks like they run about $50-ish. It's a limited edition. So, it's a newer model. So, I just wanted to throw that out there because a bunch of people have been asking. So, the normal carry runs about $20, $22. And this one's like $45 to $50. I guess it's limited. I really don't have the specs on it. I just know it's not very available. And it's completely cool. And thank you. You know who you are.

Myke Hurley: It looks more expensive than even the eBay listing would kind of show. It's right. Like the eBay listing is like $45 or whatever, the one that you put in. But to me, I thought this was going to be some like vintage, like M90 style dealio. Right. I didn't know if it was new or old.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I didn't know. I thought this was maybe like from the 90s or something like that. I had no idea. I generally had no idea about this. But apparently, it's a new. It's the new M90 pencil, Myke, is what it is, I think.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. Hmm. Okay. I do. Obviously, I really like the look of that thing. Hmm. Would you think that this is something that I would particularly want?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, you can certainly try it. Like, it's a pocketable capped pencil, right? This is a pencil with a removable cap. You uncap it to write with and you post the cap on the back. And the click mechanism works through that setup.

Shipping Costs Discussed

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Actually, I think I would really like this. But the shipping on the eBay listing that you've given is astronomical. It's actually more expensive than the pen.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wow.

Myke Hurley: I didn't even look at that. Yeah. So, the shipping for me is $52, which doesn't seem right.

Brad Dowdy: And the pen is $45. Yeah. My goal was to give people the title spec because it's kind of hard to nail down what this product name is. So, that's as close as I could come so people could search for it themselves.

Myke Hurley: Oh, cold pens have it.

Brad Dowdy: The clear one?

Myke Hurley: Well, no. They have the regular one. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: The regular carries a standard edition, which is totally worth it. Like, if you got an all silver standard one, I don't know if that's a current color, but like, it would look perfect next to like your M90. Yeah. They're very similar in size.

Myke Hurley: But it's not the cap.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: All the carries are capped. Oh, really? Okay. That's the thing. Okay. Sorry. And the images didn't show it. I thought that might be another difference. Yeah. It does look really cool, actually. But I agree with you that the colored ones are not as cool as the clear ones. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: That's a nice little find, though, man. It was great. It was great. I was very happy when this showed up in the mailbox.

Myke Hurley: You're always up to no good.

Brad Dowdy: I am. I mean, did you see all the pictures I posted on Instagram?

Instagram Photo Theme

Myke Hurley: I did. I did. And oh, boy, are we going to get into those? Because I think there's a little theme going on at the moment, as there always tends to be. But before we do that, I want to take a moment to thank one of our very favorite companies, and that is Pen Chalet. By Pen Chalet, they're sponsoring this show like they've sponsored so many for so many years of us now. And we absolutely love Pen Chalet for a very good reason, because they have fantastic deals and wonderful customer service, offering pens and rollerballs and fountain pens and ballpoints and mechanical pencils and so many other goods. So they have a bunch of different cases and pen holders and inks and converters, and they carry all of these products from your favorite brands as well, brands like Lamy and Sailor, Kaweco, Pilot, Namiki, and so many more. They do Retro 51. We love Pen Chalet because they're so supportive of the show. You know, they've been a backer of ours and a sponsor of ours for so long, but they're also so great for the community of listeners that we have, because they're always doing wonderful deals. Like, not only do you get free shipping in the US on orders of over $50, you get great shipping rates if you're overseas as well, but they're also doing discounts, and they always have discount codes available for Pen Addict listeners. So to get those, go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. This is where you'll get this week's special offer and the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet at any time. So Brad, what do we have up on deck for this episode from Ron?

Brad Dowdy: We have more Conklins that I haven't used, but I have resolved that issue thanks to Evan in the chat, which I think Evan is one of the people where we just need to get the t-shirt so he wears it at the Pen Show that just says Evan in the chat room, right? Like, he seems like Evan, he seems like one of those guys. He's just in the chat. He walked up to me in Baltimore. He said, hey, I heard you haven't tried a Conklin, and goes, bloonk, and put one in my hand. So it's sitting here waiting for me to try. I just hadn't had the time yet to get it done, but they have this really nice all-black one in here that's only not very much. I was going to say the price, and I'm not allowed to.

Brad Dowdy: That looks cool. That looks right up my alley, so I got to try those. They also have the Monteverdi One Touch Stylus ballpoint pens, which I think everyone should own one of those, and at this price, it's kind of a no-brainer not to. So, you know, this is some cool stuff from Ron. And by the way, Myke, we might have to get Ron on the show one of these days because Little Birdie, and by Little Birdie, I mean Instagram, showed Ron over in Japan with a bunch of other vendors going over for Platinum's 100th anniversary. So that might be an interesting thing to talk about with him. So we may have to put him up to that one day.

Myke Hurley: That would be fun. We should look into that. That would be definitely fun. You can get yourself looks at all these deals. You can get yourself that special code, so you can save 10% on anything at any time just by going to penshalet.com and hitting the podcast link at the top of the website and using the special code PENADDICT. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM. All right. I think there's something we need to talk about here, which is, as typically is a thing on the show, Kickstarter campaigns. There are a lot going on right now. Obviously, we are contributing. You are contributing to that. But there seems to have been like another big bunch of them in the last week or two, and we're going to touch on a few of these. But I just kind of wonder, do you think there's any kind of reason that this stuff comes in waves?

Brad Dowdy: I do.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I think right now, and this is just guessing on my part, and it's not some 4D chess kind of answer, but I think it makes a big difference for Kickstarter creators and backers to start and finish a project in the same year. That's a mental thing, right? If I'm going to back a project, I want to be able to see the ship date, not say 2020. So how do you do that? Well, you start the project early in the year. It gives you the right time frame. You ship, start the project, you know, winter, early spring, work through it through the spring and summer, ship it in the fall or winter. You know, that's just kind of why I think you're seeing just a rash of products. Even though if I launched a product in September and said I could deliver it in January, that's a shorter time frame, but that date says 2020 on it. And I feel a little bit weird about that, right? As a buyer, it's like, oh man, it's going to be 2020 before I get that, even though it's five months from now. And I'm telling you, this project is going to take nine months, but it's all in 2019. I'm in, right? I think it's just mental.

Myke Hurley: Is another thing the holidays? Oh, absolutely. Right, so like it's maybe those two things combined. It's either like, get it for the holidays. Yeah, we've talked about that. And or like, that 2020 mental block is like a really, really good point that I wouldn't have thought about before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like we've talked about the holiday thing before. We wanted to launch the SpokePen last year, but it got, you know, working on it took so long. We were ready in November, but there was no way we're going to launch that campaign in November. There's just no way. So you start seeing them at the beginning of the year. You'd be a fool to do that, right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's just no way you do that. So that's why I think we're kind of seeing a lot of these projects at the beginning of the year. But even if, even not, it does seem like it comes in batches. There'll be like, you know, like a pin or stationary dead zone. Then there'll all of a sudden be like four or five projects all kind of overlapping at the same time. But speaking of which, the SpokePen wrapped up. It was, we were so close. We were like watching it at the last minute, see if we could get to 90K and 1,000 backers. But we hit 88K and 994 backers, which is just outrageous.

Myke Hurley: That's amazing. Congratulations to you too. Thank you. That's an incredible result. And I'm super excited. I put my order in. Thank you. Thank you. I ordered the two weird ones, the orange crush and the Joker.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Brian has been doing a killer job of getting all the details and information out. And the survey already went out because we need to know, you know, quantities of colors. And so he asked me to guess, you know, what I thought the most popular colors were going to be. And I said, orange crush by a long shot. So I asked him last night and I was like, what are the, what are the results look like? And he was like, orange crush by a long shot. So I did that one. You know your audience. Well, the feedback too, people were saying, you know, just that, that was the one that always popped up, even though all the other ones are great. That one was just a little bit different. So it was cool. So thank you everyone who supports all this stuff that we do.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And also, you know, it's not necessarily just a support thing, right? Like, and I think it's important that people, they believe they're going to get a good product and they're paying for a good product and with you guys, they're going to get it. But like, I, you know, I always like to try and, I know that I say for our campaign, like, thank you for the support, but it's not a charity thing that we're doing. You know, which is why, like there is no tier on our campaign, which is just like, hey, give us some money. Like I see that a lot and I don't have a problem with it for other people, but I don't like to do that. Like I really see Kickstarter as an exchange of goods for money. Yeah. Whatever that ends up being physical, digital or whatever, but like, it's not a charity platform. We're not asking for charity. Like we're asking for, you give us money and we will produce something and give it back to you. So, you know, like, yes, thank you so much to your support for our campaign, for the support to Brad's stuff, all the campaigns that he's done. But like, it is in the essence of building a business, building a product, building something that you're going to get in return. Right. I think that's really important. And I like that, by and large, Kickstarter has stuck to their guns from like a rules perspective about how that stuff works. Because I think it's important to have different platforms. Like Indiegogo has more charity stuff to it and it has different kind of mechanisms built into it. And I'm pleased Indiegogo exists, right? Right. Because it does a lot of things to help people out when they're in bad situations. And I think that their like flexible funding stuff is really good. But I'm pleased that they are two distinct platforms. That if you need this, you go here. And if you need this, you go here. And I think it's good that we have that. I think it's good that there's that choice, you know? Right.

Brad Dowdy: Totally.

Myke Hurley: But anyway.

Brad Dowdy: So obviously, I'm a big Kickstarter fan. I'm a super backer now, Myke. I'm like 102 projects back.

Myke Hurley: I'm a super backer too, I think. But I haven't backed as many as you.

Kickstarter Discussion Ends

Brad Dowdy: Maybe I'm not a super backer. So I know not everyone's into the Kickstarter thing and all the products. So we appreciate your download this week and we'll talk to you next week because we've got a lot more to cover.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we really have. We spoke about last time the CW&T sketchbook, the campaign launched. They've been greatly successful. But you got one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Sayway and Taylor sent me one with some cute little packaging that cracked me up when I got it. So that's over on Instagram. But let's go through me opening this because it is super hard to explain. And the first thing I should say is if you've listened to me any length of time, I am a CW&T fanboy. So keep that in mind as I speak about this product. As far as I'm concerned, they're the best. I love them and I love what they make. So I opened this product, got it out the envelope. My first reaction was, wow, it's small. And then I remembered, oh yeah, it's supposed to be A6 size, which it is. And then my second reaction is, wow, it is soft.

Brad Dowdy: So this paper and the way it's built, what was the name of the paper? I pulled it up again. I had all the specs, but I don't know I'm off the top of my head. The Hange paper.

Brad Dowdy: It is so soft, but in a strange kind of way. It's like, it's hard to describe. Like no amount of words I will say on this podcast will do any kind of tactile feeling justice. Like it just feels different. Like it's lightweight. It's lighter than you would think a normal paper A6 size notebook feels. It's lighter than that. The paper feels lighter. So the paper really is like, what from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. So, I mean, all papers made from trees unless it's stone paper. It's obviously not, but it sucks.

Myke Hurley: I hate stone paper. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We can, we can talk about that after the show. I got a story for you. Okay. So it's like any paper you think, okay, it's going to be fibrous. How is it going to act with my pens? Well, this is extra fibrous, right? You like see snakes crawling through the page. It's kind of wild.

Myke Hurley: Don't do that. Don't say that. No, thank you.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of cool. It's kind of cool. There's like, okay, how about worms? There's like these little, there's like these little shooters that go through the page and like each page is different and it's kind of wild. It's actually like you're looking through the tree under the microscope, but it's a standard kind of white page.

Brad Dowdy: The cover, the orange dot on the cover is like, it feels like it's hand painted on there. I mean, they have a video of how everything was done. So what I, here's the big picture of what I think about the notebook just from a aesthetic and style and feel perspective before we get into performance.

Brad Dowdy: This feels like if I was in some small town in Japan and I walked into like a single door, single window stationary shop and there was a husband and wife at the counter and displays of loose paper everywhere and I put together what I wanted. I handed it to them. They turned around, walked in the back door, shut the door behind them.

Brad Dowdy: Sparkles and rainbows come out the door and all these happy singing sounds like you see like the, the, all the light blasting through the door, but you don't know what's going on and they come out and they hand you this product. That's what this feels like to me. Like it's super cool. It's super unique and like I, I'm obviously in love with it. So down to brass tacks, does it work? It's built great. It's like the binding is killer. It feels great in the hand. The paper, I was concerned, like it's not made for fountain pens, right? Like there's, they don't come out saying like, hey, this is your, your fountain pen, friendly paper, friendly paper. We have other products for that.

Brad Dowdy: It works surprisingly well with fountain pens. I was shocked. So it's not a smooth paper. It's a little bit fibrous. So I, you get very little bleed from the edge, but there's, it's there sometimes. When I use my architect nib using that metal going in an abnormal direction, it did catch like the, the worms in the paper. That's a, I call it catching a runner. So it hits that and then the ink runs. It shoots on that little vein, if you will. But in general, my standard pens worked great. Like my cursive italics and extra fines and stubs. The only pen I didn't like from a fountain pen was my extra fine vanishing point because that's so sharp. It really gets into the page a little bit.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think like, and I'm looking at your ink test and like some of your broads, there looks to be a bit of feathering and stuff. Really? I don't think this is a fountain pen notebook. Like this is not what it's for.

Brad Dowdy: But it actually, it's not a no go. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: If you wanted to use fountain pens to maybe write a title before you do your sketch, you're good, but this shouldn't become your notebook, right? Yes. It's not the best experience.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. For a fountain pen, but it works better than I thought it would. I thought it would be like a Sharpie marker on a Moleskine, right? That goes straight through the page.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I thought this was going to be a disaster. Like when I read about the paper the first time, not like it was going to be bad, but like it wasn't going to work for fountain pens. I mean, it's a sketchbook. I mean, like sketchbooks, then it clues in the name, like what it's for. And like when I read about the paper, I was like, well, I don't know about this, but as you say, it seems like it's doing a better job than you would have expected. But like it still kind of remains true as to what you should really be using in this. Right.

Brad Dowdy: So like there's zero bleed through the back of the page, which is kind of fascinating. That's incredible. Yeah. So like it's got that little bit of, no, it's medium. Like you wouldn't say it's thick or thin. You'd say it's average thickness. So everything else works fine as you would expect. Roller balls, gel, ballpoints, pencils, except drawing pens. They are terrible. Oh, that's not good. It's like this. No. So like I was thinking I would use this with like a Copa or Copic or a Secura or a Pigma Micron or something like that. The way the plastic tip interacts with this page, it almost rejects the ink. Like I cannot get a solid line. It's almost like the page is too dry, even though it's not really absorbing the ink. It's very, it's a very weird.

Myke Hurley: Let me see if I can try and understand that.

Brad Dowdy: So is the ink, does it feel like the ink's not flowing properly? Right. Okay. It feels like I'm writing with a dry pen. Right. Even though the pen's perfectly fine.

Myke Hurley: That's so weird.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That one caught me off guard because I thought that would be one of my primary uses for this notebook was that type of marker. It does feel like that's what

Myke Hurley: really I'll look at like a sketchbook like this and I'm like, okay, markers, pencils, and then like these ink drawing pens, you know, like the Copics, right? Like that feels, especially because like it kind of has that influence. Like it feels like those two things would go together, right? Like with where it's come from and how it's been made and just kind of like stylistically, I would assume that they would be a match.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So like, I see it good for everything except like those drawing pens. Otherwise, like it was fine. And I just, I really enjoyed the build. I love the feel and the finish. I love the story. It's pretty. It's a beautiful little looking book. It is. It's not a big book. Like it's as big as the palm of my hand, you know, but it's a lot of pages for what it is. And it's just really cool. The binding is super cool. So I'll be using this a bunch. I just don't know exactly how yet, but I mean, I love it. I think I've backed it for two of them, you know, before they even sent me this and I'm definitely staying in that loop.

Myke Hurley: All right. That's it. Looks like a cool product. I'm pleased you did the testing, right? So like people can know what they're going to be getting if they go into this. So I think it's good. Good of you to, as always, you share, share the knowledge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And if anyone has any questions about this stuff, they know how to get in touch with me. I like do specific testing for specific things all the time. So glad to do it.

Break Transition

Myke Hurley: All right. We have more Kickstarter stuff to talk about, but let's, let's take our second break for the episode here. Um, awesome. Conscious of, uh, I'm worried about my big body over there. You said, I'm doing okay.

Brad Dowdy: I'm actually feeling pretty good. I don't feel like I'm going downhill yet. Excellent. Okay.

Myke Hurley: I just want to make sure I give you just a, just a little break for a moment. While I tell all of our wonderful listeners about Warby Parker, quality eyewear at a fraction of the usual price. Warby Parker was founded by four friends and allows you to easily buy glasses online. And if you're thinking buying glasses on the internet might be difficult, Warby Parker can make it so easy with their free home try on program. You can order five pairs of glasses and try them on for five days with no obligation to buy. Shipping is also free and includes a prepaid return shipping label as well. You can go to warbyparker.com slash penaddict to order your free home try ons today. When you use the home try on, you get the boxes, you can try them on, you can look at them with your own clothes on, you can change outfits, right? You can show your friends and family, you can share them on social media, like you, you actually get more of a time to really understand what these glasses are going to be like on your face rather than just going to an optician's or to a store and trying them on. Warby Parker glasses start at just $95 which includes prescription lenses that all have anti-glare and anti-scratch coatings. Plus, blue light filtering lenses are now also available with Warby Parker as well, which can be great if you don't want to worry about blue light from your screens disturbing your sleep which is a thing, like I see this quite a lot now, so you can get that with Warby Parker as well if you want. Now Brad, I believe that you have gone through the whole home try and experience, right?

Brad Dowdy: I've gone through it multiple times because I've owned multiple pairs of Warby Parkers. Now, from my first, I don't know, maybe two pair, maybe three pair, I can't even remember how many I've had now, my eyes have changed, so as you get older, you know, your eyes continue to do things you don't want them to do and I got moved into progressive lenses this year. Do you know what those are, Myke? Are they the ones

Eyeglasses Discussion

Myke Hurley: where it's like two different prescriptions in one? It's basically

Brad Dowdy: four zones of viewing in a single lens to where, you know, if you, so you don't have to wear like the hard line division bifocals, right? It's so you have this lens that looks like a normal lens except it's segmented out

Myke Hurley: for you to see. You don't want to wear the like the bifocals because that makes you look old to people. Yeah, right, where you can see like, oh, there's like a little circle and it's like, and especially

Brad Dowdy: for someone like me who wears glasses 100% of their waking hours, right? So I thought, well, I'm done with Warby Parker now. I'm into progressives and they just do regular stuff. I was wrong, Myke. They do progressive lenses and I was shocked. So I don't have progressive lens Warby Parker yet, but that's coming up soon. So I've, like I said, I think I've done three pairs of Warby Parker so far. I love them every time and I thought I was going to be done, but we'll get some progressives tried out once I get my new prescription that I got to go. It's that time of the year where I go get them updated and I feel like I've already have a change coming in, but as soon as I do that, then I can order them and I'd be anxious to see how these Warby Parker progressive lenses go.

Myke Hurley: You're going to be doing like your seventh thumb try on.

Myke Hurley: Which is, it's great though, right? Like every time you want to get a set of glasses, you can just order a bunch and they come home and you can try them all on. Like it's, it's, it's pretty great system.

Myke Hurley: Listeners of this show can head to warbyparker.com slash panaddict and order a free home try on kit. Today, once you've done that, you've got to check out their app. They've built an awesome home try on companion, which lets you create a quick video of all of your frames when they've arrived so you can share them with your friends and family to help you choose. But there's more. If you have an iPhone with face ID, you can use their brand new find your fit feature. It uses the iPhone 10's true depth camera to map and measure your facial features. Then it will recommend around 12 Warby Parker frames are likely to best fit your face, which you can then using a AR kit and all that kind of stuff. Look at them on your face and move your head around. It is mind-blowing how good this is. I have tried it and Stephen did it and sent me a video. It looked like he was wearing the glasses. Like, this is unbelievable. You have to go and try this. Like, just go and play around with this because it is so freaking cool. So you can go find out more and upgrade your glasses experience by going to warbyparker.com slash pen addict and order your free home try-ons today. Thank you so much to Warby Parker for their support of this show and Relay FM. app is so cool.

Brad Dowdy: I have to try that when I get my progressive lenses. I haven't tried that yet. All right. So the Hippo Noto's back. It is. So I have a sample of the B6. So Crystal's doing, so the Hippo was Hippo size last year. Like, it was her own size that she came up with. It's a super thick Tomoe River notebook. So this year, she's doing a traditional A5 size and then like a B6 size, which is probably one of the outside of A5. It's probably like the second most popular. Some people swear by that size.

Myke Hurley: So she's doing that. You've helped clear this up for me because I was thinking it was the original size and a new size, but this is two standardized sizes. Neither of them are the Hippo Noto size. Okay. The original one. Okay. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So the paper is Tomoe River, which if you want to use fountain pens, that's kind of what you do. So this is out there and she's got a new ink with it this year. Now, when the first Hippo Noto came out, she had a bunch of problems fulfilling shipping, production. It like went on for years and years. It went on for like over a year, I think, year and a half before everyone got, you know, their product. So I just want to make sure I'm clear on that. There were some issues the first time around and if you got burnt, maybe you're not coming back this time and that's understandable. But I know a lot of people love their Hippo Notos too. So, you know, this is something to look at if you're interested in like a really good quality fountain pen because I think the end product is really good. So, and hopefully all of the shipping fulfillment production issues are behind them this year. So I'm looking forward to it.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I don't know this, but you would hope that if you go through it, you know the pitfalls, right? Like if you go through it once.

Brad Dowdy: That's why I'm okay on the second backing, right? Unless like there's something like super detrimental the first time I'm willing to give a second chance, there's not a third chance. You know, there's, you know, this time if it doesn't come through, it's my fault, right? Like it's on me because, hey, you could have said, hey, well, look at this. You should have known. It's like, well, I'm okay giving this project a second chance where some projects I wouldn't.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm going to back because I got my one and I absolutely love this notebook. I was a huge fan of the Hippo Noto. I ended up accidentally destroying mine. So I'm going to also this ink color looks more exciting than the previous. Oh, yeah.

Hippo Noto Notebook

Brad Dowdy: I didn't like the first ink color. This one's really good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I'm going to go in for an A5. I would like a more standardized size one, especially to go in my Kickstarter exclusive case, which will I feel like they will be a perfect pair for each other. So I'm going to back it right now. So yeah, this is, I understand like there were some issues, but this was a, this was a product that I really liked and I really hope that the Hippo Noto team are able to, to get everything in a better, so squishy and be able to get everything in a, in a better situation for them this time. My thinking would be like, again, like if you've gone through something like that, the stress of that fulfillment, you wouldn't put yourself in that position again, right? Unless you were feeling pretty confident. Yeah. Right? Oh, totally. Totally. But again, heed the word of warning that there was issues before, but also take the note that we both genuinely really love this product. So I reckon it's worth, it's worth giving them a shot.

Myke Hurley: So I backed, they're nearly at their goal and they're going to make it. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to get a second one of these in my life.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're very cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. All right. And we also have the machine era field pen. Can you tell me a little bit about this? I'd never seen this before, but I watched the video and this looks like a pretty, pretty well-made thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I didn't, I think I've just been on Kickstarter so much and this one popped up into my feed. And when I saw the, the two-tone pen in the image, like in the, in the main image, I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Then I started reading more and I was like, oh, they're using this cool refill for my Toya, which I know anyone can buy the refill for any pen and go, but that they're making that choice at the beginning. I don't know. This was just everything like in a pen design that spoke to me. So I backed it. And then in the matter of full disclosure, two days ago, I got an email. This was after I'd backed it from Adam, who runs Machine Era, wanting to sponsor the Pen Addict blog. So I just want that disclosure to be out there that next week, Machine Era is sponsoring the blog. But I had already backed and, you know, for this pen before I'd even ever talked to anyone about this, you know. So anyway, it looks cool. Like I said, anything I can get that's different from straight silver or straight black or straight brass or straight copper, like I'm interested in. And then you put in this interesting twist mechanism and then you go ahead and give me the cool refill. And, you know, it's at a reasonable price. It's like, this is what I do, right? I buy this thing to test it out. Like they don't always come out good. Like I got a product from a company called Kensa. So it just delivered last week and it was horrible. You know, that's what Kickstarter is sometimes. Sometimes you don't get what you, what you think you're getting. But with this Machine Era pen, I'm pretty confident it looks really sharp and I'm going to be excited and anxiously awaiting this one. I don't have a prototype or anything coming. I hadn't even asked him for one, but I'm pretty, pretty, pretty happy with how this is.

Myke Hurley: I just watched the video and I think that the mechanism looks real sweet and, but just the overall design of this pen looks to be a pretty interesting one.

Brad Dowdy: So like, it's not too big. It's like in that good size. It's not overly tactical. It's just, it's like I said, it's kind of just right for me. Like someone asked me, it was like, well, did you get the orange one? And I was like, well, duh. I was like, but what I would have gotten, you know, if it was like red or blue or just like having that alternate color is a big deal for me. Like that means a lot to me.

Myke Hurley: I'm not a big brass person, but they have like a brass body one as well. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like I think, I think it's completely ugly. Like the clip looks awful on the black pen. I'm just saying like I, it just does to me. And like my aesthetic doesn't buy into that, but then I like the silver, the stainless steel one. That one looks pretty cool. And that's why they give you so many options on here, right? Not every style is for everyone, but like, that's why I like the Ajojo pen. Like I have a brass Ajojo, but then they released some stainless steel ones with like just the little blue twist mechanism. I was like, I want that so bad. It's like, I can't spend another $200 on that pen because I already have one, but like, that's what I want in a pen. Just give me that little hit of something. And, you know, and that's why we did wild colors for spoke pen because we can and I want to. So, you know, I think this looks like a real solid product and I'm anxious to get it and I'm glad I backed it.

Myke Hurley: All right. What else do we have here? 22 pen. You posted a little video, I think, somewhere on Instagram.

Brad Dowdy: It was on Instagram. So, I posted a picture, right? And people are fascinated with this pen. And I clearly I am too. It's like there's something about this pen. Like it should not be a thing. But it is and it's cool and I want it and I might never use it and I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I want it and I want it now and it's cool and I got to have it. So, that's kind of how my thought process goes. And Mario, every time I post something, he's like, oh, thanks for posting this and that and talking about it. I'm like, yeah, whatever, man. That's just what I do. But people like even when I sent pictures, people are like, I don't get it. Like, why do you, what is happening here? I was like, let me just, I'll do a video. I'll just shoot a little video of it in my hand. It's a mini pen that holds 2D1 refills. They don't get in the way of each other when you write with a single refill. You can extend one refill out and write in a double line if you want. So, it's like supposed to be made for like a singular pocket notebook to slide in the pocket notebook inside the cover so the pen tips don't poke you or get on your shirt or your pants or your bag or whatever. And, you know, that's kind of it. It's just like this little portable double color pen. And there's just something about it that's kind of got me hooked. I think it's probably the materials, right? You don't normally get this type of material in this type of pen. And the design is pretty unique. So, I just felt like this is the kind of thing that I do. Like, I get into this stuff and I want this. So, now, like, I get it and then people ask me questions. Hopefully, I can explain it without being too weird about it because this is, it's just a weird pen. Like, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know how you're going to use it. You might hate it. I, like, I would be hesitant. Like, if I put this in a notebook, I would never sit on it. Like, I carry a notebook in my back pocket with a pen in it all the time. I would never do that with this pen because I feel like I would snap it. Like, it's real strong and durable. But, I mean, I'm a large man. I'm not sitting my butt on this pen. There's no way that's going to end well. But, it's made for that type of portability. I can't just throw the pen in my pocket. Like, I can't clip it to my shirt, right? Because it's not capped. So, I'm going to get stabbed or inked. So, like, there's so much wrong about this pen from a practicality standpoint. Maybe that's why I love it. I don't know. I love this pen. I don't know what to tell people. But, it almost, it shouldn't be a thing. Like, this shouldn't be happening. But it is. And I'm kind of glad with that.

Myke Hurley: I need to see this pen. I just, there's some, I can see there's something about it. It's not enough for me to buy it, but I really want to see it. And I feel like I could end up falling for it in a similar way that you did. There's something just weird about it in a nice way.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah. And I really think it's, I think a lot of it's the materials. That was the selling point for me. It's like, it's not a metal barrel. If this was a metal pen or just like a machine pen, I probably wouldn't give it a second to look. Maybe I would have. But what drew me in was like, oh, I can get pretty acrylics. I like pretty acrylics.

Brad Dowdy: You know, that was probably 75% of the selling point for me. Because I genuinely don't know how I'm going to use it. So, right now, my notebook this month is another Notco notebook. notebook. That's a top bound notebook. I can't use this pen.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't stick inside the notebook right.

Myke Hurley: Right. Because it can't clip on.

Brad Dowdy: Because it would be out the side. Yeah. And that would be too thick. I can clip it from the bottom, but I feel like I'm going to lose it that way. So, it's been sitting on my desk, and that's not what this pen is for. This is not a desk pen. No. You don't want to write a novel with this pen. You want to be able to have it quickly and jot things down. So, I'm like waiting for my next notebook to use to actually really go for it. But, I mean, I've got Jet Stream 0.5 refills in it right now. It's fantastic. But, it's like, it's weird. I can't explain it. I wish I could. I have no words for it. But, I haven't gone and backed it yet, but I'm 100% backing it. I need to go click the link.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I feel like at this point, you owe it to the guy. Oh, I was going to back it anyway. But, I just, like, I just get sidetracked.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Especially once I get it in

Myke Hurley: hand. Well, yeah. The requirement to then rush to back is less so when you actually have the thing. Right? Yeah. But, we can't all be as fun as you, as cool as you, though. You're such an influence.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I think Myke says he's got one, so I'd be interested. Myke's, like, he's very, very opinionated as well. Myke of Ink Dependence. Yeah, Myke of Ink Dependence. So, keep an eye on Ink Dependence, see what he thinks about his. Like, there's no explaining it. Mm-hmm. I just, but I want it. So, there you have it.

Myke Hurley: I don't know how I have missed the Herbert Pen Company's Frankenstein vanishing point. Speaking of weird and not supposed to work. You have ordered one of these. I feel like I've never seen this before, and this is super strange to me in a very interesting way. So, I'm keen. So, can you explain what this product is, and then tell me why you would want this?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, I met Chet Herbert at last, well, yeah, last year's, the 2018 Baltimore Pen Show. I'd never met him before, and I was looking through. Chet makes his own blanks and turns his own pens, and I'm going through, looking at the table. You know, it's like you're looking at a Jonathan Brooks table or Edison Pen, anyone who makes their own stuff, and they're selling their stuff. And then, someone says, have you seen his vanishing point modified barrel? I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, there's, like, it's a retractable? There's like, no. It's just a barrel, and you put the nib unit in it, and then you write with it. I'm like, okay, I need to go look at this. And then I saw it, and I was like, yep, this, I'm going to need one of these. So, like, right then, I got on the list. It took over a year, Chet. I just want you to know that. He knows that. I gave him a bunch of crap last week or two weeks ago.

Brad Dowdy: But mine is ready. It's on his Instagram. It looks beautiful. And why do I want it? Well, because I'm a huge vanishing point fan. I like the nibs, and I like that you can, people are creative enough to do cool things around other nibs, especially the vanishing point that's such a tricky little nib to begin with. So, I mean, how was I not buying this pen? I mean, this was 100% going to happen the minute I saw it. So, I'm really anxious to get it. I'll have it in Atlanta for everyone to test out. Chet's actually going to be in Atlanta this year, so that'll be fun. But it's cool, right? I mean, I think it's cool. I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't think it was cool, but.

Myke Hurley: It's cool. It's just weird, because when you look at it, when you just look at it, you're like, well, you've removed all of the vanishing point in this. Totally. The pen. But that is, this is the thing where it's like, well, how much of what's good about the vanishing point is the nib unit? And, like, that's the thing that you have to come to your own decision on. Because if you like the vanishing point just because it's retractable, this pen is not for you. But if you actually like the nib unit, which is a fantastic nib unit, then this becomes a really interesting pen for a completely different reason, because, like, the hooded nib design that they do is, like, a pretty rare thing to get, but it's very beautiful. So, yeah, this is a super different thing. I just not, this is definitely not for everyone, and I would need to try one and see it myself, because, like, just on the face of it, I don't know how much I personally value that nib over other things.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like, this is something, like, I will only ever need one of these. I mean, not that I need more than any pen, but you get what I'm saying. It's like, this is just kind of like a one-off, let me do this cool thing because I love the vanishing point, even though it kind of takes away what the vanishing point is, right?

Myke Hurley: It feels like owning an oddity.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, you know, like, this would be something, this would be a pen that I would want, so when I met another pen person, I could give it to them and be like, that's a vanishing point. Right? And it would be like, ha-ha, that's fun. All right? Like, so here's the thing. You have put in the show notes, we'll have it by Atlanta, so come see it. Yeah, it's a show pen. Right? Like, yeah, it is a show pen for sure because it's like, you give it to them, oh, this is really nice, what is it? Like, it's a vanishing point. And it's like, no, it's not. And so, hilarity ensues. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Hilarity ensues.

Commercial Break

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's take our final break for this episode and thank our friends over at FreshBooks for their support of this show. Everybody loves to save time. Everybody loves to save hassle. Everybody loves to save aggravation, especially if you work for yourself because all of that time and all of that hassle, you have to deal with it and it's time taken away from doing the thing you want to be doing. FreshBooks removes this frustration and all of this time and all of this hassle from your life by simplifying all of the tasks that you sometimes don't want to do. Stuff like invoicing, expense tracking, and ultimately getting paid online. FreshBooks has tools that have drastically reduced all of this for there were over 10 million customers to deal with their paperwork. They reduced time by building their tools simply, by having pre-filled information that's easy to access, by saving all of the data about like, you know, so it saves your email addresses for all of your clients so you just type in their names with a couple of letters and it can pre-fill it for you, by saving your typical line items for you so it can all just be automatically populated. All of that's really easy to do. It saves you time later on and hassle because you don't have to chase invoices after you've sent them because FreshBooks tracks it all, tracks when it's been received, tracks when it's been opened, shows you if somebody's printed it, and every time they've gone back to the invoice. So you can see when somebody's seen it, it puts them into those guessing games and they integrate a bunch of fantastic payment options so people can just pay right there immediately when they get the invoice and it means you're going to get paid faster as well. It's super amazing. We have used FreshBooks for five years at RelayFM and I have never even thought about looking elsewhere because they have all of the function that we need and more. As we have grown as a company, FreshBooks has been there and has not broke a sweat the entire time. So we've sent thousands of invoices for FreshBooks now and continue to use it all the time. So absolutely love it. And I think if you're listening to this show and haven't yet tried it out, do yourself a favor and go to freshbooks.com slash penaddict. You will get an unrestricted 30-day free trial, no credit card required. It's freshbooks.com slash penaddict. And when they ask, how did you hear about FreshBooks? Tell them from the penaddict. Our thanks to FreshBooks for their support of this show and RelayFM.

New Topic Introduction

Brad Dowdy: So I caught this next tidbit, Myke, in Slack this morning just as I was browsing around looking for things. I'm going to let you read the link that's contained within. Yeah, man. Because I don't want to pass out during it. But there was basically an issue with a Monteverde, Inc. And I was, I mean, I'm out of that loop. I don't, I can't keep up with everything all the time. And I just happened to see that this morning that Yafa, the U.S. distributor for Monteverde, replied about the Inc. And I felt like what they did was like perfect in how you handle and own up to a mistake. And I think a lot of people can learn from something like this. And I certainly learn things from something like this because we all screw up. Like, I'm going to screw up somebody's order. I'm going to make a mistake somehow. We're going to mess up a case. It's just going to happen. But how you handle it, you know, kind of dictates, you know, what the future holds for you. So I thought this was worth reading. It's not very long, but I thought this was worth reading in its entirety. So do you mind?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is a great communication from Rachel Goulet. This is in like a Goulet Pens Facebook group. And so this is you from the way that this from the way this post opens tells me how much conversation there has been about this issue in the Goulet Nation Facebook group regarding the Monteverde bad ink issue. So that's how it starts, right? People know what that means. But in brackets, bottles sold primarily in late 2018 that have a rotten egg smell. Oh, dear. I hadn't heard about this at all. I know you hadn't either. But that's terrible, right? Like, you don't want that. Anyway. Yeah, something's wrong. Yeah, something bad's happened. So here's a message from Yair Greenberg, the founder and CEO of Yaffa, who bottles the Monteverde ink. So this is a quote within a quote. I am personally on it for the past few weeks. We are taking steps to avoid these kinds of contamination problems. And some of the steps we've taken are one, we are cleaning our semi-auto ink filling machines of new chemicals. Two, we are buying new filling machines. Three, we are changing the filling hoses more often. Four, we are buying new inks to replace the old ones that show contamination. Five, using gloves and masks when needed. Six, working closely with our ink factory and learning more about how to improve the storage of our inks. And seven, less exposure of open ink bottle to open air. So that's the quote. I think what's happened here, there's been some kind of bacteria. Like, you know, some bad chemical reaction has occurred and it's polluted the machines, right? Like, that's what it feels like. There was a batch and it's kind of spread from there, maybe. So that's the quote from the CEO of Yaffa. So, Goulet continues, If anyone believes they have a bad bottle, even if it was given free of a purchase, we ask you to please email and they will replace it at no cost with any color of Monteverde ink of your choice. This is they give an email for a Yaffa. It's scottfoxx at Yaffa, Y-A-F-A dot com. We're sorry for the trouble and we are encouraged that Yaffa and Monteverde is making it right and taking these steps to ensure no contamination happens in the future. These things happen. If you have any questions, reply. I want to ask you a question. I want to just understand a little bit here about what the situation is. So these are Monteverde inks. Yaffa bottles them. Is that on behalf of Monteverde? Yeah, I'm sure. And then what's the ink factory? Is this Yaffa's ink factory? Or is the ink being made somewhere else? So it goes to Yaffa, Yaffa bottle, it's sent it to Monteverde, Monteverde, ship it?

Brad Dowdy: No, I think it's an ink factory somewhere. The ink is shipped in bulk to Yaffa. Yaffa is the bottler and distributor. Right. It's my guess. Like if I had to paint the picture. Okay. So what's happening? Monteverde. Okay, so the chat says Yaffa owns Monteverde.

Myke Hurley: Okay, thank you for that. So it's, all right, that makes sense then. So it's Monteverde is a brand of Yaffa. Yaffa have their own factory that bottle the ink and slap the labels on them. But they are contracting out to a company to actually make the ink, which is fine. This is not a criticism. I'm just trying to work out the flow here. You know, like there are many, many companies that do things that is right. Like you don't do one thing. So you just get another company to do that part and then they'll take care of it for you. I think that's awesome. That like the way they're dealing with this. I really like, even that they're replacing free ink. Like that is the way to do this because the reason is you ruined someone's day. Yeah. Because you potentially made their office smell bad for a while. So like this is the way to handle this. We share these types of stories every now and then because we have a lot of makers that listen to this show. Take a lesson from it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I was impressed. That's why I wanted to put it in here. Like I was impressed. Like, you know, it stinks for, well, literally, I didn't mean it that way. Yeah. That was pretty good. I didn't. Normally, I would own up to it if I did that on purpose. But like it sucks for those people that had it. And like the naysayers would say, well, you should be doing all this stuff already. You know, maybe they do, but that doesn't solve what's happened in the past, right? Yeah. Being negative, well, you should have been doing this the whole time doesn't fix anything. So they've been proactive saying, here's how we're going to fix it.

Myke Hurley: Sometimes you don't know something needs to be done until something goes wrong. Like if you have cleaned things on a specific schedule for 10 years and you've never had a problem, why would you start doing it more? Yeah. Right? Like that's wasting money as a company, right? Like you're like, oh, R-Ink's perfectly fine, but we're going to start cleaning the machines more than we did. Like it doesn't make sense, right? Like, so this is how you learn. You make mistakes, you learn, and you move on. And the best people, the best companies are people that can do that, right? That like when you make a mistake, you learn from the mistake and you move on from it. Like that's the right way to live. And it's cool to see that Monteverdi are doing that. Yeah. It came right from the top.

Brad Dowdy: You know, the CEO put out a message. This is what happened. These are the steps we're taking to fix it. And if you were affected, here's what we're going to do for you. That's it. Like it was perfect. It was like 101, but no one does this. This is an outlier, you know, I believe.

Myke Hurley: Well, you know who does this typically? Small companies do this. Yes. Really small companies.

Brad Dowdy: Like these are the words I live by, right? But you don't normally see this from a larger company like that, right? Like I could not, like that would ruin my business if I handled that poorly. Like I am done, right? Like, so I learn a lot from these things.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So cool story. All right. Should we do a couple of RCPA before we leave today? Yeah. We just have a couple of short ones and then we'll wrap it up. All right. So the first one comes to us via Curd Junkiest. I have two Kaveco fountain pens and each has been a disappointment. The nib of the first, which is a classic, suffered a baby's bottom, which I corrected. Brad, can you just tell people what that means in case they don't know? It's a super weird phrase.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, it's like a little extended area of the nib. Like the nib is a little bit too big in that area. So it causes inconsistency in the line. So just by, you know, taking it down a little bit on sand, you know, like micro grit sandpaper, you can wear that spot down and make it more even and smooth. So the line flows consistently.

Myke Hurley: A little too much material left behind, basically, when the nib was made.

Brad Dowdy: Let's finish this number one before we get to number two. Okay. Hopefully number one is being corrected. By switching from Bach to Jovo. But I haven't tried the new Jovo nibs to know. So it was a repeated known issue with Kaveco's nibs. And now the nib change, I'm anxious to try one of the new ones, see how it goes.

Myke Hurley: The cap of the second, a sport in steel, exuberantly liberates itself when posted, which is a unnecessarily fancy way to say it comes off. How can I convince the cap of number two to stay in place when posted?

Brad Dowdy: So that's a downside of a metal barrel and a metal cap. Is it a friction problem? Yeah. Yeah. So Kaveco uses a plastic liner to allow you to kind of shove the cap in there. But that plastic liner on the metal barrels never going to be good enough if, you know, sometimes. Right. You have to really get it on there. And still, as you write, it's going to work itself off.

Myke Hurley: But did I put that on there so it doesn't damage the pen because metal on metal will damage? Is that the reason?

Brad Dowdy: It's on there so it doesn't damage it. Also, so it stays. Like, so you can post the pen. Right. When you make, we talked about that with the spoke pen, it's like when you make a metal pen, you have a decision to make about posting. So Kaveco tried to solve it by adding the plastic liner in the cap. And it works-ish. Right. Like, there's nothing you can do to convince it to stay more than shoving it on harder. And then that's just going to eventually remold the plastic. And then you'll have to shove it on harder the next time. And then it's just, in the end, it's a cycle you're never going to win.

Myke Hurley: That's a problem with Kavecos, then, because for most people, they need to be used posted. So maybe this is a warning to say, like, maybe don't buy the metal one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I don't have too many problems with it, but I know what they're talking about. Like, I've bumped it enough to where it's come loose, then I'll just reseed it, then I'll keep going. I mean, it's just kind of you deal with it. It's not a huge enough negative to make me stop buying it.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. It's like, I wouldn't post it. I don't even post a Kaveco. Like, I'm really not a posting person. You'll be super surprised at how small a pen I can use. Same here. You know, like, I can use and do use, like, my M90 unposted. Sure. And that's comfortable for me. But if you are posting, then, like, this is a consideration. Like, the M90 has a little catch, doesn't it? Which is how, I guess, it helps that stay on. Yeah. So, it's worth trying that out or maybe looking at different materials if that's the thing that you want to do. Because it seems like it's a tricky thing to get right, as you say. Yep. KM Squared asks, Brad, are you bringing any fire on fire to the Atlanta pen show? Maybe.

Shift to Personal Topic

Brad Dowdy: I hope so, because I want them all. Well, I might be sold out by then. Keep going for me, man. Come on. I won't. I got your mic. All right. Good, good, good. And maybe KM Squared. Except I don't know exactly who that is.

Brad Dowdy: I probably do, but it's not hitting me. So, I'm almost out of batch number two. I haven't placed the order for batch number three. Oh, boy. Regardless if I placed it today, it would not be here in time. So, if I have enough, yes, I will bring them and they will reside under the table because this is a knock table. But I would be glad to sell you a bottle of Pen Addict ink if I have enough.

Myke Hurley: So, basically what you're saying, though, is if you want it, buy it now.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's always going to be there. But, I mean, if you want a special Atlanta pickup, I can't promise you that. Yep. Just because of the timing. Quantity and timing.

Myke Hurley: As Evan Max in the chat says, burning through the fire on fire. Fire on fire is on fire. Love it. Love it. How have I not thought of that already? The fire on fire is on fire. Perfect. It's gone well. I've been happy with it. All right. We have our last question today from Andrew. If you had to pick a fountain pen ink to get a tattoo with, what would it be and what would you have drawn? Now, I know my answer. It came to me immediately. Really? Because it was a tattoo that I already want. I'm not going to get it in color because I'm not going to have color tattoos. I have three, maybe four. That's my hang up. Yes. But, like, this is if I was going to do it, then I would do it this. So, comic book movie series that I love called Scott Pilgrim. There is a part in the comic. It's also in the movie. Ramona Flowers, who is one of the lead characters, there's, like, a drawing of her, which is, like, the hair. You can find it anywhere by Googling, but I'll just find some link to put in the show notes so you can see what I'm looking at. It's, like, an outline. And I want to get that tattooed on me one day. There's actually, looking at Pinterest, there's a bunch of people that got that tattoo, which is kind of fun. But I will get that tattooed on me one day. It was the first tattoo idea that I ever had, but I've had, like, things that have more of an even stronger emotional connection first. I have my second tattoo actually arranged for later on this year. But I'm going to get this one day, the Ramona Flowers tattoo. But I would, if I was going to get it in a color, in an ink color, I would get Califolio Andronopole. Because in the comic, the color version in the movie, Ramona has many, many, many wonderful colors for her hair. And, like, a pinky purple is actually one of the colors that is prominently featured. So Califolio Andronopole would actually be the perfect color to get the Ramona Flowers tattoo in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I have no tattoos, but I've always been fascinated by tattoos. And I should probably, the problem, I'm in the situation where it's either none or ten, right? There's no in-between. So, and if I get color, it would be all the colors, right? Like, if I'm going to get color tattoo, it's going to be lots of colors. So picking a singular color is hard. Like, the tattoo that I've wanted the most recently is just getting, like, a demonstrator barrel on my forearm. But I would do that in black. You know, like a Pelican M800 where it, like, lays out all the parts and, like, calls, part name call-outs. It's, like, almost like a patent drawing. Like, that's been my recent kick.

Myke Hurley: You've told me that, and I think it's an amazing idea. I think you should do it at some point.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But if I got, like, if I picked a single color, I would probably do Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai in some type of ocean type of situation. You know, I've always had, like, a boat idea as well that I've never gotten off the ground, but I've drawn it several times and things like that. So I have all kinds of ideas. I've just never totally done it.

Myke Hurley: So thank you so much to that question. That's a good question. I like that question a lot. You can always send in your questions with the hashtag AskTPA. And that brings us to the end of our 350th episode extravaganza. We have a live show coming up very soon in Atlanta, which is where we'll be doing our big kind of, like, meta celebration of the show, as we always do, because it's a wonderful time to do that. But this is obviously a big milestone for us. So thank you so much for everybody that's tuned in, especially if you've been around since the beginning. I wonder, Brad, how many people we have listening now that started when episode one came out. I really want to hear from you, by the way, if you've done this. I would say more than you think. It's going to be more than one. Yeah. So that's more than I think. I really want to hear from you. Tweet at me, at imike, I-M-Y-K-E, or at dowdyism. If you have Tony.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, not that you've listened to all the episodes that you started when we started.

Myke Hurley: When we started in 2012. So Tony in the chat room is telling me he did, and I know he did.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like, I know that. So that's one. That's the one, right?

Brad Dowdy: So people that listen to enough would probably have a very high likelihood of continuing on with us.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. So I want to know. I'm just interested to know. Yep. Just because that will be, like, just a fun thing to understand. And I know there's so many of you that have gone back and listened, which is equally as amazing to me. That you've put the time to. That's how we find those links in our show notes. Yep. And it's why we've had to, over the many places that this show has existed, this will be the last place this show ever exists. Right? I feel pretty confident in that fact at this point. But, you know, but that is also another thing. And we've been through so many iterations and changes and experiments with this show and the fact that people stick around. And, you know, I think one of the things that is so impressive to me that the audience for this show is the biggest it's ever been as well is also kind of a wonderful thought to me. Like, typically podcasts have a life cycle to them. And that life cycle is it starts big and it dips and then it might get a bump again, but eventually would dip and the show ends. Like, that's the typical life cycle. It's like a slow burnout. Yeah, because the reason the show ends is either the people aren't as excited about it anymore or it's not financially viable anymore. And those two things go with an audience drop and it can go one of two ways. Right? Like, either people stop listening because the show isn't as good anymore or, like, the creators get, like, less enthused. To make it because the audience is good. Like, it's just a normal thing of all creative projects, I think. This isn't just podcasts. Like, any creative project. TV shows go this way. Right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But we are at a point seven years later where our audience is bigger than it's ever been. And I find that to be such a wonderful thing. I've been podcasting for nearly 10 years. Right? So, I've seen a lot of shows come and go of my own. But The Pen Addict is the only one that remains. Like, at this point, my working relationship with Brad is the... Outside of my family, my relationship with Brad is the longest sustained thing I've ever done with anybody. Which is, you know, that is quite an incredible thing. And, obviously, my relationship with Brad is one of the more important relationships in my life. Because I love Brad very dearly. But we also get to produce this show, which is something unlike anything else that I do. The Pen Addict is weird in many wonderful ways. And is something which I hold dear to me. Because it's much more like what I used to do nine years ago than the type of stuff that I do today as well. So, like, it's like this wonderful thing that I get to keep. Which is, like, this is like a hobby show to me. But now is at the point where it is a financial success for me and Brad. Yeah, no doubt. The support of you listening extends in multiple ways. Which is, you support our sponsors. Which is why, again, the show is more successful with sponsors now than it's ever been as well. Which is amazing. And also, you buy our products. And you are members. And you give us money directly. So, like, it is this wonderful thing that we have. And I speak in many places about, like, the word community. And, like, in most instances, I don't really buy into that phrase for, like, a listenership of a show. That does not count with the Pen Addict. Like, this is a real community that I'm a part of. Because it has a different feel to it. Like, this feel of support that comes from the listeners of this show is very different to my other shows. Where I feel like there is more of a we're all in this together feeling. That there is more of a everyone's in on this together. Where some of my other shows, people are just coming to it to be entertained while they're interested in the topic. And that's it. And that is wonderful. Like, I was trying to...

Brad Dowdy: Which is good on its own. Yeah, for sure.

Myke Hurley: That is what that stuff is. But a podcast about pens inherently needs a level of support to it, which is abnormal. Because this show shouldn't work. Right. But it does. And it only does because we are so blessed with the support that you as listeners give to us. Because me and Brad are busy people. We have busy lives. And we are increasingly doing more and more stuff that requires our time. So, if you weren't tuning in, this wouldn't exist anymore. And, you know, I was talking to Adina last night about a friend of mine who I love very much but don't get to talk to very much. Because we don't have a show together. And most of my friends, I get to talk to them because we have shows together. And it would be so sad if that was me and you where I don't get to talk to you that much. But I actually get two hours of your time every week pretty much. And that is a wonderful thing as well. So, I've said a lot of stuff. And I'm taking the brunt of it because Brad can't talk this week. But also, Brad just typically can't do these things about bursting out into tears anyway. So, I've probably bested that I take the reins.

Brad Dowdy: I will say, I want to say one thing. I couldn't say I don't have anything to add. I couldn't say it better than you. Other than I've never been more enthused about what we do than I am right now. 350 episodes into it. Yeah. I've never been more excited to do this every week. And we talked about it before. It's like this is like one of the highlights of my week doing this. And, you know, like I'm just extraordinarily excited for this to never end. Like I know it's not going to just because like I want to do it. And like the cycle that you talked about, there's no cycle here. It's like a line straight up. It's like we can record next week's episode tomorrow and I'll be ready to go. You know, let's do it.

Show History Discussion

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There is like an interesting evidence for the two of us, which is that we've always gone in phases of like preparedness for the show. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Well, like there were times. You're going to throw me under the bus now.

Myke Hurley: No, no, no, no, no. This is not where I'm going with that. But there have been times where over the history of this show where I couldn't put the effort in to prepare as much as I would have wanted to because this was back when I was like working a day job. So I would leave it down to Brad because he knows all that. He has all the knowledge anyway to put the show together. And the most that I could do was turn up to the show and go through it with him. Like I couldn't do anything. But these days, like we are both doing much more collaboration on the preparation for this show. And it's because I have always wanted to put the time in but couldn't. But now that I am able to and have been able to for the last four years at least, it is, again, like it only makes me more excited to do this show.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we have a level of trust that's like uncanny, like crazy. It's like we talk about like show notes and I'll tell Myke's heard me say this a million times. Like I have the show in my head. I just haven't put it down. That means like we have the show. It's done. It's just not physically in our documents yet. And Myke's like Myke and the Lord just go, okay, and go to sleep at night knowing that we have a show tomorrow.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. But then, you know, I'll go in, I'll put in my stuff and then you'll put in your stuff. We check over and we're good to go. But it's different to how it used to be where it was like the first time I would see the document sometimes was when we sat down together. Yeah. So that was, you know, and I'm just pleased that we are in this position so much later on, you know, like seven years on where we're blessed to be able to keep doing it. Yeah. The plan worked. The plan worked. So thank you so much for listening today and always and into the future. Back our Kickstarter campaign. Put us over the edge. Come on. Well, you can do this. We are at 703 now. We need 18 more people. That's all we need. Praise it. 721 people is what we need. I just spoke for like 15 minutes about how amazing you are. So come on. Do me this solid. We love you so much. We'll be back next week. You can find show notes at relay.fm slash panaddict slash 350. Brad is at Dowdyism on Twitter. Panaddict on Instagram. You can go to twitch.tv slash panaddict for Twitch stream stuff. Panaddict.com. Knock.co. Just everywhere. Brad's everywhere. Just Google Brad Dowdy. I'm much easier. I'm Myke. I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and Twitter. This show is at relay.fm slash shows. We'll be back next time for episode 351 as we start the ramp up to Atlanta. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.