The Pen Addict 570/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	570
Title:	Witchy Whatever
Release Date:	June 28th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Miranda Rose
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 570
Audio File:	Audio Episode 570
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 570
Length:	7373 min <br />1.217 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Hello and welcome to episode number 570 of The Pen Addict podcast, part of the Relay FM network. I'm your host, Brad Dowdy, and I'm back with another amazing guest this week, the one and only Miranda Sanchez, also known online, some of you might know her as At Havoc Rose in all the various places that she is talking about stationery, talking about video games. How are you doing, Miranda?

Miranda Sanchez: Hi, I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.

Brad Dowdy: I am so excited to talk to you. We have a lot of topics to cover. And the one thing I want to do first to kind of lay some groundwork, can you share with our listeners what your current job is? Because I think this is going to play a role in some of the questions I have later.

Miranda Sanchez: Yes. And I could see why it would, because my life is very involved with all of my hobbies intertwined with my job, which is both great and terrible for many reasons.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I have questions about that too, believe me.

IGN Entertainment and Miranda's Role

Miranda Sanchez: Okay. So for my job, I am the executive editor of guides at IGN Entertainment. We are a media outlet, specifically online. So we primarily cover video games. We also get into movies, TV, of course, big into like comic book movies, superhero stuff. But video games are my main beat. I had like a stint with anime for a while, but now I lead our guides team. And so that means basically, if you need a walkthrough, if you need some cheats, if you need some secrets, if you need tips, I've got you. We have so many of them. And let me tell you guys, covering the latest big Nintendo game, Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun work.

Brad Dowdy: I have so many questions.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, please. Yeah, please go ahead.

Brad Dowdy: It sounds so intense. It's like, this sounds like insanely difficult, like just a crazy intense time specific job, right? To be accurate as well, right? So there's a lot of due diligence on your part before games even launch, right? So I'm assuming you're getting plenty of early access, and you just have to kind of like crush to get these done? Or you're laughing, you're like, no, we just we're just up for like three weeks in a row trying to get it done.

Miranda Sanchez: You know, if we had three weeks of early access for everything, that would be incredible. That's so rare. So yeah, a lot of my job is coordinating at this point as the executive editor. I started at IGN, if you don't mind me getting into the background real quick. Yeah, so I started IGN as a freelancer, actually, graduated college, got hired full time and started as an associate. And so I've kind of worked my way up to leading this team. And I kind of make all the big editorial decisions on like what we cover, how we cover things, getting new writers, you know, training writers, all that kind of stuff. And so much of it is planning, because we never actually know how much time we're going to get with the game ahead of launch, until we get it basically, like sometimes PR will give us a heads up and be like, yeah, you'll get, yeah, we're expecting codes, maybe like two weeks ahead of time. And sometimes it's like, well, here's day of, and here's two codes. And I'm like, you know what, thankfully, like we can we can deal with that. But also, it's so cruel, because like, all right, guys, time to go. So, but but on that note, too, like, I'm very cognizant of like crunch and crunch work in my industry is ridiculous. Like it is a very big problem. And especially with guides work. I don't think a lot of people know too much about guide writing and the work that goes and you kind of touched on to like accuracy is such a big thing. And basically, what this job entails is playing through a game so much that you know, like the back of your hand, like how can you have to become an expert in every part of your assignment. To make sure that you're an authority on it that you can tell people what to do and how to get through without being frustrated. And make sure that you're writing it clearly. And that you're also not talking down to people because people are usually coming to us like frustrated with the boss fight, or they can't find that one beeping collectible somewhere around them. And it's like pinging like their radar is going off, but they can't find it. And we got it for them. But we want to make sure it's done in a way that's, you know, pleasant and not frustrating also. So yeah, it's it's intense. I was gonna say there's hardly been a bigger

Brad Dowdy: release for y'all than Zelda. Actually, you're probably in the midst of a lot of releases right now video games or seem to be just like at the like peaking right now. But like that for the Zelda release, for example, what is what was your role? What was your how many people did you have working on this? And how soon do y'all strive to get like information out there for people who are starting on the game?

Miranda Sanchez: I can't talk too much about like the early access, nor do I want to talk too much about how many people we have. It's like the secret sauce. Like we have like nice, you can kind of if you do your own investigation, you could probably figure it out. But our industry is just really competitive. And the way we run a lot of stuff, I try to keep it a secret as much as I can. People know. But anyway, I appreciate that. No, that's good. Yeah, it's like, no, I'm like, Brad, I'm at the top of my game here. I love it. I love it. Yeah, thank you. But yeah, so with that, it is a lot of planning. And that's really what it came down to is ahead of time before we even got the game in months and months and months before we even knew the release date, I was already planning this guide. So what my primary role was ahead of launch was making sure that I had my internal team kind of ready to go on their assignments. One way we cover guides is because they're so huge, like one or two people cannot cover this one game like it is way too big, you'd probably just have to work on it for like two years straight. So we split up our guides into a bunch of roles. So like we have our walkthrough writer, we have a collectibles writer, we have other roles. And so basically, my job was setting those up and setting up expectations based on research and things that we already know that have happened in previous games. So a lot of note taking a lot of like analyzing of what worked for us last time, and of course, implementing like new things that we want to do new feature ideas and things that we think can be even more helpful this time around. So when we actually got the game, we started working on it, my job was writing these little puzzle walkthroughs called shrines. So there are 152 throughout the world, and you have to find them. Some of them are just like in plain sight, some of them are hidden, and some of them are not even on the map. And you have to do like a side quest to like unlock them in the world. So I teamed up with my boss, we wrote all of those. And then I also wrote our cookbook, which is what I call it, because there's like this big recipe list. There's I think like 227 recipes. And I made all of them, and made our big sheet on it's like this big, beautiful checklist of like, here, cook this to make pizza. Here's how you make fried chicken. And it's just really cute and a fun project. So I did a lot of fun stuff. And then honestly, I'm actually still working. It's been like well over a month, since I've been working on this, but that, of course, and in addition to the rest of my job, which is, you know, managing people, getting people paid and everything else.

Brad Dowdy: It's unbelievably impressive. And I think our listeners are going or are starting to figure out as like, hey, I may not be into video games, but I see where this is going with how this ties into stationery, right? Like you've hit all the words, which is why I wanted to do some of the work stuff up front, because I think it's really going to set into like some of the questions we're going to have later. You're a prolific journaler. You started using fountain pens, you're into streaming, like we have like all this huge, like crossover, stuff that we're both into very, very much, but I wanted to get this groundwork in. So thank you for explaining this. And I'll probably have some more questions later. I'll try not to get you in trouble, though.

Miranda Sanchez: Oh, no, no, don't worry. I'm the boss. I get to say we're the one. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I mean, I still have my boss.

Miranda's Love for Stationery and Journaling

Brad Dowdy: All right. So let's back this up a little bit. And now I'm wondering, like, I know a little bit of your stationery life currently, which we're going to get into later, but I'm always curious. And I think our listeners are always very curious of how people got started into stationery for the first time, knowing that you how much you journal now and how much you enjoy it. I'm wondering, like, did this start early when you were younger? Did you come about like journaling and stationery usage later in life? So what's your stationery background?

Miranda Sanchez: I've always loved journals and stationery, but not necessarily journaling. I definitely kept a diary as a kid. And I have one from when I was really, really little. And it's so embarrassing to read. Like I was not even a teen yet. And so it's, it's really cute. It's like written in pencil, and it's spelled wrong. So I've been journaling and like kind of writing in my own notebooks for a very long time. And I have like, you know, fond memories of, you know, a notebook that I saw at the Scholastic Book Fair in elementary school that I really wanted. My parents got it for me, and I never wrote in it because it was too pristine. It was too pretty. Like that, those sorts of habits still exist now. But I do a lot better at not letting my notebooks just sit there and I use them, even if they're too pretty. Like, I think we all still have that problem sometimes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Miranda Sanchez: And I got into planning a little bit more with like on like physically writing planners more in college. Like I think I did it a little bit in high school. But it wasn't until about 2020 when I started getting really into like personal journaling again. Like I did diary writing on and off, but nothing to the extent that I do right now. And not for really any good reason. I would go to Japan for work and I'd look at like all the stations like, wow, this is cool. I remember walking up to the Hobonichi display and we're like, why is this notebook so expensive? What? No. And so then I'd just go get like, you know, a cheap planner because I was still always into planning and like meticulously writing out my bullet points of my day for work. And then, of course, after I got out of school and then I would just like buy one or two washi tapes and call it a day. And now I just look back at my younger self. He's like, Miranda, you missed out on so much. It's like you just you just left it there. You could have gotten that cool cover. It's it's important now. It's rare now. And so it's kind of funny looking back to see that, you know, journaling as it is now for me, which is big on like washi tape and stickers and stamping and lettering. And of course, using really pretty pens to make sure I have nice writing throughout it is sort of just like a fundamental in my life now. And that really did start in 2020 with the pandemic.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, interesting. So that just kind of just you you had you had this, you know, kind of innate love for this stuff. And then it just really, you know, once the pandemic started, I think a lot of people even went further into just, you know, trying to find something to do with our time and and take care of ourselves. Right. Like a lot of it is very, very personal that, you know, we always talk about these things, you know, helping ourselves, you know, you know, keep sane in an insane world for sure. Sure. So I find it interesting how much crossover there is between like video games and stationery. And our listeners are going to get sick of me just keeping bringing this up and you probably do. But just like, I mean, Japan is like the place for both of those things. It's like it's like Japan is like the video game, you know, place to be for stationery. It's like the same thing. And I would be the same way, like if I was back in, you know, only being, you know, maybe in Japan for video games, just kicking myself or just like freaking out over all this stuff and what I missed out at the time. So that's that's pretty, pretty funny. So in talking about journaling and the current times, how you journal between work and personal and pleasure, how do you look at journaling in your own life? And how do you have things separated as far as do you keep multiple journals right? Is there a work and a personal and a hobby and a media journal? I'm setting you up because I do listen to your podcast and I know all these answers. But I want to I want to explain or help explain to like our listeners, like there's lots of different ways you can journal. So tell me about your journaling setup and why it's so important to you.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, absolutely. So my journaling setup has changed a lot over the years, as I noted, you know, I was just had the epiphany of like, oh, I can journal for myself. And like in 2020, it's like, I don't I don't know why I just started getting into it. And it's really evolved since then from just doing a single diary, which I do keep for myself, because I think it's important for us to have a space that's wholly private, wholly our own. And just like like the most safe space to put down any thought, regardless of how good or well worded or whatever it may be, like just having that to let it out is just very cathartic. So I've always kept that up. And this year, for me, I've really toned it back. Since lockdown is basically a thing of the past in the United States, it's been hard kind of getting as much journaling done as I used to when I was just at home all day, right? So I'm still at home a lot of the days, but I'm I'm busier. So and so what I do is I have a Hobonichi day free. This is my first day free because I started getting really stressed out with the data planners. I just felt like I would look at the blank pages and I felt that I was failing myself and my journals. I was like, journal, I let you down. I decorated this and I did not write a single thing. Like, that's that's terrible. But it's not terrible. It's my journal. I can do whatever I want with it. It's fine. And so this year to kind of like ease that stress, I got that day free, which, again, is just for personal journaling. Like I'll write literally whatever in it. I don't care what it is. It's like, ah, here's something about some trash I saw today in San Francisco because it was really weird. And the city is changing. And, you know, just like really goofy things or how I'm sad about losing friendships or about a movie I just watched or a book I listened to. And so I kind of just have that as like my catch all. What's happening this year for Miranda? And that's more of a public space as well. I know we're going to get into it later. But that's like one of the journals I show most when I'm streaming. Right. And then I have something that's a little bit more structured. I have a thinking of you planner that's by Mr. Eggplants from Taiwan. And that's an imported journal that I got. And that one, I say it's a journal. It's a planner, but it's more stylized to be a journal. And you'd be like, wait, Miranda, didn't you just say that the dates stressed you out? Like, let me tell you guys, this is an A5 notebook and it is weekly spreads. So there's less space to write. And so that makes it way easier to fill out. And the reason I have that is just so I do have a space for the very rote, here's what I did today. Or if I'm in therapy and sometimes I've been doing like these body scans, it's like, where am I holding tension? I've been really stressed. How do I reflect on that? And so I have that space for those sorts of thoughts where I don't necessarily need to keep it forever. I might. I think it'd be kind of cool to have it forever, but it's a place where I can quickly jot down things, but still make it pretty. And also feel like I'm getting fulfilled in the journaling space. If I don't have time to work, say, in my Hobo Nietzsche day for eight, which I haven't for many months, actually. Like I went months without touching it just because it's been so busy. But my thinking of you planner for my personal stuff, I also write things about like embargoed projects and whatever it may be. It's just a great place for me to like let it out, but limited. So I don't have to worry about writing too much. And if I need more space, then I take it to the Hobo Nietzsche. It's kind of perfect little system. So I have those two. I also have a Hobo Nietzsche Weeks that are specifically media planning. So that's where I plan for streaming. That's where I actually have notes in here for this podcast. I have notes for my podcast with Chelsea, Words and Roses, which we'll get into later. So that's just kind of also really blank, but it's fine. Because I accepted it early on. This is an unexpected purchase. A friend was able to get me the Pokemon Hobo Nietzsche Weeks from Japan, and I could not say no. So I had to find a use for it. It's getting used. And then for work, so I know you said like what's the division? There's a very firm division, and that is I have a plotter just for work and only work stuff that lives there. Some work stuff will sometimes get, as I said, in my Thinking of You planner. But that's kind of rare. And I just try to keep most of my like daily checklists. Sometimes meeting notes, I've actually been taking a lot more stuff in Notion these days just because I've been so busy that I don't necessarily have time to like take the time to sit and write out thoughts. It's like, okay, I just got to type this up real quick. Next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing. So that can be helpful too. But for the most part, my plotter is, I have a Bible size that I got part of the plotter. I don't know what to call it, but like the pilot program. I know you talked about it as well. And so I was part of that too. And that's kind of just what I've used basically since I've got it. And it's been the perfect system for me for work.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's fantastic. I think my plotter is mostly work-ish too, right? Like that's where I like I plan my week and I will think about like topics I want to explore and then like the notes from exploring those things. And I'll have like my more personal, like my everything notebook. We'll just, I have like a A5 life notebook that I'm testing out right now. Like that's that. And then I have my five-year journal, which I just started this year. So those are like, that's my setup, those three things. So like plotters kind of work. And then we have the personal everything journal. And then I have like the five-year, which is like the bigger tracking type of project. So I think I tallied five different, not that I was like totally counting. I think I counted five different notebooks of yours. So April still wins. April, if we add ours up together, our friend April would still probably beat us in how many journals and planners she uses.

Miranda Sanchez: It's true, but I'm not done.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no. Let's go. Let's beat her.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, I think, well, with April, she has ones that come in and out every single year. And I think that's a little bit of a difference for mine. So I have actually a personal planner too. I have the narrow size plotter that I got for myself because I just love the plotter.

Brad Dowdy: That's what I use. I use the narrow. Yes.

Miranda Sanchez: It's just, it's too good in the narrow. When I saw it, I was like, okay. Actually, I think it's because I saw yours. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I got to get this. Yeah. Because the Bible is perfect, but narrow is even more perfect for my personal planning. So that is my actual, here's what I'm doing in the month of July. You know, like not necessarily journaling. And it's weird because I think a lot of people who are in the journaling community actually use planners for journaling and not necessarily for planning. Like it's not, here's what I'm doing on this day of this month and I'm planning ahead. It's like, no, no, no, no. This is what I did. But so a lot of those exist, which is kind of weird. But the reason I have my actual planning, my dates in something that's like a plotter is because it's disposable. I don't need to know what I plan to do. I want to remember what I did, but the actual planning sheets of it aren't really that exciting. And if they are, you cut them out and you stick them in your journal. It's really nice.

Brad Dowdy: One hundred percent. That's exactly right.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. But do we want to talk about the other journals that are not timely?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Um, absolutely. Like, yeah, this is great. And I have so many other questions like I'm noting down here. I was like, oh, we're going to follow up on this stuff. So, yes, please keep going.

Specialty Journals and Their Uses

Miranda Sanchez: Do we? Okay. Yeah. So then the other journals I have are like my specialty journals is what I call them. So I also have a traveler's notebook that I use specifically for Genshin Impact. So this is a ongoing RPG and it is fantastic. It's a big open world with lots of quests, lots of characters. They're constantly adding new areas, new characters and things to do. Like every six weeks there's events. It's ridiculous. And since there's always so much and I love the game so much, I just journal about it. So oftentimes when I'm ready to play a new event or a new story quest, I'll sit down with my, what I call my couch kit. I have a whole little kit for my couch with pens, glue, scissors, tape, stickers. It's all organized specifically for Genshin Impact. I have a notebook with stickers in it too. And I also have just like the notebook itself, which I have the Bamkuhan grid Tomoe River paper notebook. And I plop it open to where I'm at. And then I play my game and I pause every now and then. And I just journal because it makes me that happy. So, and it's really weird because it's kind of a strange way to play a game, especially one that you can only pause in certain moments. But it really just helps me remember these events because a lot of what they do are time, are timely events. So once it's live, that's it. And then they move on and never come back to that again in the same way. So it feels even more special to write down notes about these character events and interactions that I really liked or things that I'm like theorizing about the story that's coming up. Sometimes I keep track of like checklists of tasks I need to do in the game for events. It's really free form. It's really relaxing for me to have. And just like a nice playground to complement this game that I love so much and spend so much time playing. So that's that one. And then I have a mini version of that essentially, which is a, I have a passport size traveler's notebook that I got recently that I use for like one-off video games. So I just started an insert for Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, which again, I don't necessarily write about every single thing, but just about like highlights or like, here's some cool food I cooked. I printed out the photo and now I'm going to write about it. Or just nice armor that I got for Link or just thoughts on a side quest that made me cry. And so that's the two other like major complimentary notebooks that I'm using right now. And that's it. I think.

Brad Dowdy: So here's the deal, Miranda. I am so happy to hear all of this right now. Like I want to like in this call, jump on a plane and go hang out at a bar with you and sit there and play with like journals and look at all this stuff for like days in a row. Like I am so, I love hearing about all this stuff. I just find it so fascinating. So fascinating. All right. So I actually have some very specific questions about like some of your journaling, some of your decisions on the journaling. But let me take a quick break. We'll real quick. I am actually on vacation this week, listeners. So I'm going to enlist Myke. I'm going to put him to work because he put me to work while he was on vacation. So we're going to make Myke read the ads this week. So let's hear from Myke and I'll be right back with Miranda in one second.

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Brad Dowdy: Okay, so without... I do get a little bit overwhelmed with all the journals, but I know you have it very, very under control. But I think one thing that would be valuable for listeners is I picked up on a couple of things as you were talking about the style of journal and the reasons why you chose certain journals or certain nots or don't use certain types of journals. Like you mentioned, hey, you don't necessarily like the dated pages. Like you picked up the Hobonichi Day Free and you kind of use it as you need to. So do you have any tips about for people who are kind of getting started in journaling? You know, like I always think about, hey, like don't overthink it. You might get into a journal that you don't like and guess what? It's okay to ditch it and go on and go try to find something else that you like. So what are the things do you talk about for people who want to get into journaling but are kind of maybe intimidated by the choice?

Miranda Sanchez: I think it depends on the kind of journaling you want to do. Are you most concerned with the writing experience? Like obviously I know this is, you know, pen addict and we love fountain pens here. So like are you looking for something that is just a good notebook? That's probably the best place to start. And then see how you can work in journaling into your everyday life. Like how often do you actually want to journal? Every week? What are you journaling about? And I think the question of what are you journaling about and like your intentions for it, like what kind of quality you care about are the biggest questions. Because if you don't care about anything, you're like, I just want to write about my life. Because I think it's a good idea. And I'm like, yeah, it's a great idea. I would honestly just tell people to get whatever pen or pencil or other writing utensil they're comfortable with. And any notebook and just try it. I think especially cheaper notebooks are great to start with because then you can experiment with different sizes. I found that I really like small notebooks. It makes me feel like I'm achieving more because I write really small. So if I have, say, A5 notebooks, I just don't fill it out very fast because my handwriting is tiny. And it feels weird. And it's really intimidating. And then I get frustrated. So it's just not a good experience for me. So A6 size or B6, they're perfect. And so it took me a long time to figure that out and find the right kind of notebooks for that. So I would say those are the first things to ask yourself. What kind of things do you want to journal about? What do you want? It's like you care about what you're using. And if you don't, just try anything and just see how it fits in with you and if you enjoy it. The thing with journaling, too, is it just varies so much. And I'm sure many folks have talked about it. Of course, April has. Like, it can be ephemera filled. Like, your receipts from your latest outing with your friends or your stickers that you got from Twitter Joe's because you asked them. And they said yes. And they're very nice. They'll give you a lot. It's a hot tip. That's free stickers right there, man.

Miranda Sanchez: There's just so many ways you can go about it. But you don't have to have any of that. And I've seen so many beautiful journals, too, where people just draw. Like, they just doodle. And then they write. And they doodle. And I'm like, dang. I wish I could draw. So then I wouldn't have to print everything from my video game journals. And I wouldn't have to get up more. Like, I could just stay here and not have to worry about transferring the USB stick. But, you know, I work with what I'm given, you know? So anyway, I would say those are, like, kind of the best things to consider. Because, of course, writing about my everyday life is so different from my Genshin Impact Journal, right? Like, Genshin feels freeing because I don't have to think about what's happening with me or the world or what I'm worried about. I just get to write about my favorite characters and what their adventures are like or some cool realization they had about their lives. It's all fake. And it's great. And then I can use my happy stickers on it. So that's nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's great. I think, yeah, the intentions are super important. Like, what is your idea of what you want to accomplish here? And starting small, starting with the basics. Like, one of the things I used to do, because I've had, I've gone for years and years of bouncing around to find different products that work for me, either from a planning or a journaling perspective. I do just kind of have, like, a mental separation between these. Like, this is a planner. This is a journal. And it doesn't have to be that way. You can have it all in one. But I would take my blank notebook. When I would be frustrated, say, with, like, a Hobonichi Techo, again, dated page. Like, I just ended up, it turns out I'm not, like, a one-page-per-day person, right? That intimidates me. And I don't work well with that. So what I would do is I would get my blank notebook out. And then I would just use that for regular journaling, like writing whatever I want to write about. Writing about my day. Writing about my feelings. Write about something I saw. Write about a book I read. And then as I'm using this, I kind of figure out how I'm using it. And then I will build pages. I will, like, sketch out layouts in my blank notebook. What if I had this layout? Would this work for me? And then I would see if there was a product that kind of matched that layout. That's how I kind of ended up, just from a planner perspective, liking the, what's basically now, like, the Hobonichi Weeks layout, right? Yeah. So the seven days on the left, but then, like, a continuation on the left side of the page. But then, like, a continuation on the right side of the page. But it was more open. So, like, that's, I literally would just draw out, like, if I could make my own planner, what would it look like? Does that product exist? Hey, turns out it kind of does. So, you know, that's one way I did it.

Miranda Sanchez: Just the best layout. Like, it is my favorite layout for any planner.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's what I use in my planner.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. Perfect.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's the way I do it. I like the idea of your couch kit also. So I think it's important. I also have, like, a visual journal that I'm actually, I don't use it that much. But what it is is that is, like, my collaging type journal. Like, inspiration, you know, pictures, notes, things I will cut out from magazines or things like that. And what works well with that is kind of like your couch kit. I have, you know, just, like, a superior labor bag that's got the notebook and the scissors and the washi tape and the, you know, a highlighter and a pencil and a marker. And you just go and grab the one thing so you know you're ready to go to do that, like, creative work. So I like that idea a lot of yours. So that's very cool.

Miranda Sanchez: Thanks. Yeah. It just, it's like, how do I make this even easier to do? Because I want to do it, but I don't always want to have to go to my office and, like, put together a little kit and collect everything and have to get it back. It's like, I actually bought duplicates of some things because I use them so much. And it's like, I just use it enough to justify it. Like, that's totally fine. And if I stop using it, then I just use it again when the other one runs out. It's all good.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. All right. So one of the other things you mentioned as you were going, listing out everything, is the idea of keeping a journal, like, permanently, like, archival. Do you have any of your journals or planners that your intention is that these will live on forever or are most of them, hey, when we're done with this, you know, we might see what's good, save it, cut it out, like you were saying, and put it somewhere else. So what is the breakdown of, hey, I'm going to keep, my intention is to keep these things forever or these are just passing through? Yeah.

Miranda Sanchez: I keep everything excluding my, like, actual, this is my planner for my day-to-day. Except for some of my older ones when I was in college and then when I first started at IGN just because I like to see them. So for context, I've been working at IGN for about eight and a half years, maybe nine years in December. And so that's a long time. And it's really cool to see how I thought about things when I was younger, especially because I didn't have a planner to look back on then. So I kept those. But since I am doing proper, like, journals right now, I can get rid of just the post this today, edit this person's work, do this. Like, that can all just get recycled. So that's actually one of the reasons I love Potter so much is that I can just shred it, recycle it, never think about it again. And it did its job. And it was helpful. And it was a great writing experience. And I got to put stamps on it. So it still looked nice.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So how do you store completed journals? Do you have, like, a shelf? Do you, like, just file them away, like, in a box, in a closet? So do you reference back to them at any time?

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. So for now, it's just a box. And there's not that many because, again, I've only been really, really journaling since 2020. And then I only had a handful before. So I still have some. I have, like, a really fun one from high school when I went to the UK with my AP English class. So I have, like, this really weird random journal about my journeys there. And it's really cute to look at. So things like that all live together. I pull them out every now and then when I want to look at them or if I'm referring to them on stream or in podcasts or something, which we talk about them every now and then. So, yeah, I have them easily accessible. But, again, there's not that many. So they're going to stay there. But who knows what will happen with them? I'd like to keep them forever and then just dump them on whoever takes care of my body and all that good stuff when I die. But, you know, that's their problem, not mine.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. All right. I'm going to ask you a very unfair question here. And I'm going to make you pick a favorite out of all those planners and journals you just listed. Do you have a favorite? And you can put, like, earmuffs on the ones if they're listening. So if you don't pick them, like, do you have a favorite? Like, oh, this is really the one.

Miranda Sanchez: They know. They all know. It's my Genshin Impact Journal. That would have been my guess. The Traveler's Notebook is just such a fun size. And I don't know what it is. It's just so satisfying to look it up when all the pages are filled out in a notebook. And then you start a fresh one. And just the way you can insert different things in the Traveler's Notebook is just really pretty. Like, I don't know. It's just pretty to look at. And writing in it is just such a fantastic experience. I don't know. It just always brings me joy. And it just looks like relaxation to me. And I think that's why it's my favorite. Like, there's nothing stressful about that book. So it's my favorite.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I'm going to put in the show notes some of your Instagram posts where you're showing some of your journals. And I'm wondering, when I look at your journals, I see, like, this super visually appealing style. Can you describe a style? Do you feel like you have a journaling style? Or, like, each individual notebook is just different and they have their own style built in?

Miranda Sanchez: I would say I have a pretty consistent style, at least color-wise. Like, I do a lot of, like, blues and purples and, like, a very certain shade of red and pinks. Very, like, space, witchy flowers. And then the occasional, like, demons. For, like, because, like, I was, like, writing about Diablo 4 and that's a game about demons. I was like, oh, perfect. I have this, like, character tape ready to go. You know, I'm finally breaking it out. So, I would say it is very colorful. But I tend to journal with, like, a color palette in mind. And so, it does look more visually cohesive. And I do that pretty much with every journal I have. Even with my planners, like, I'll still get, like, washi tape and some stickers or stamps. And try to, like, make it cute if I'm not in a massive rush. Just because I feel like if I'm using something that looks nice, I'll feel better. Even if I don't feel great at that time or if I'm really stressed. It's even more important to put down a sticker. Like, I don't know what it is. Peeling off a sticker from a sheet or something and putting it down is so cathartic. And so, I just always try to have, like, a little bit of decoration here or there. And I think a lot of my pages tend to look similar. Though, thematically, I try to match them a little bit more to what I'm journaling about. And then if there's no actual theme, it tends to default to, like, witchy space, whatever. So, I would say that's mine. Witchy space, whatever.

Brad Dowdy: Witchy space, whatever. I think that's perfect. I think that's perfect. So, now, this begs the question that I just literally thought of while you were giving me this answer. Are there pen rules for each of these? Like, are certain pens only allowed for certain journals? Do certain journals have, like, only this pen goes in there or this type of thing? Or is there, do we have that level of rules?

Miranda Sanchez: I use my fountain pens whenever I can. So, those are mostly together, except a lot of my Twisby's have become work pens. So, because they have such great incapacities, I just take those to the office and leave some there. So, they've kind of been abandoned when I'm not there for, like, weeks on end, like I have been right now. And I'm like, I'm so sorry, guys. I'm coming back. I promise. You know. You know. We're fine. So, they're, like, those pens. But otherwise, I usually shift them out. The only exception is for my Genshin journal, which I have a Sailor Pro Gear inked up. And just in that bag with it. Just because I don't want to have to bring my other pens around constantly back and forth. And I don't have to worry about having to go get them. If I just spontaneously started playing, I was like, dang it, I didn't go get my pens. It's like, nah, I already have one here. So, that's, like, the only exception.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. Good. Yeah. I try to be pretty open. And, like, I want to use all my pens, too. Right? Like, I want to use all my journals. So, like, I'm going to use all the pens in all the journals, too. Right? I'm not going to be that strict. Because, like, that's part of the fun, too. So, I think I want to dig into that a little bit more. I want to dig into fountain pens. Because I think, if I'm thinking about it, I think that's kind of how I met you. Just sort of, like, online. I think so. Right? When you were getting into fountain pens. So, we're going to talk about that. I'm going to put Myke back to work real quick. He's been slacking off too much. So, I really want to make sure he gets his money's worth this week. And we're going to make him read another ad for us real quick. And I'll be right back.

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Fountain Pens and Miranda's Journey into the Hobby

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's talk fountain pens. I think, I don't remember exactly when I first started following you on stream, which we're going to get into later, of course. But I do remember, it was probably like a friend of a friend type of thing. It's like, hey, you need to go check out Havoc Rose. And I think maybe I'd followed you on Instagram. And then all of a sudden, I started watching you doing some of your journaling streams, and you were just kind of getting into fountain pens a couple years ago. Do I have that somewhat accurate?

Miranda Sanchez: This is true. It was also 2020 when I got into it then.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. Gotcha. So from my recollection, you just jumped right into the deep end. Oh, yeah. You went from zero to sailor immediately, right?

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. I got, I was doing a ton of research. And I was like, all right, I don't want to start with the preppy because it's not cute. Like, it's fine. The Metropolitan, not my jam. So I got a Quebeco Sport. And I was like, this is great. And then I bought it to Wisby like a week later. It's like, this is great. And then like a month later, I brought my first like sailor. So I got a sailor pro gear. It's like, this is what I'm talking about.

Brad Dowdy: And then the fleet of sailors has expanded exponentially since then, I would say.

Miranda Sanchez: Oh, yes. It's been a lot. I have, Brad, I have a lot of pens. And I love them. I love them so much. But sometimes I'm like, wow, that happened fast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why I enjoy watching you write and do your journaling is because, and you mentioned this before, you write small. So we have that in common. And sailor has some really nice nibs for writing small. So what's your favorite kind of sailor setup? You know, the favorite pen shape, favorite nib, or even if there's a like a particular sailor model that is your favorite. But I know that's hard to pick.

Miranda Sanchez: That is hard to pick. But I do actually have my one, two, three. I have my five favorite sailors in front of me. All right. Let's hear it. Actually, I put all my favorite pens in front of me just for this podcast. Because it's like, I love you. And you're going to be featured with my eyes only and through my words. I love you. Anyway, I'm very weird. Sorry.

Brad Dowdy: You're in the right place. Believe me.

Miranda Sanchez: God, I just love pens. Anyway, so my favorites by far have to be one of my prized possessions, a Shishikura owl sailor. So Pro Gears are my favorite. But Pro Gears slims are fine. They're just fine. I don't want to buy them unless it's for a very specific reason. Vastly prefer the Pro Gears size. So I have the Shishikura owl. It's one of my favorites. Next up, we have the Kubo Sakura from Pachimonjiya, which is a beautiful pink color. It has like very dainty. Then, okay, you'll notice a theme with all these, by the way. The next one is the Witch from Bungu Box, which is the Rialo. And then I also have the Twinkle Milky Way and Twinkle Stardust Pro Gear Minis from Bungu Box. And those are my five favorite sailors.

Brad Dowdy: That's so good.

Miranda Sanchez: They're all imported. What?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's kind of how we... Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if it was probably like CY saying, hey, you might want to talk to Miranda. Like she's getting all these pins that look like your kind of pins. Y'all might should be friends. So that might have been it. Yeah. What nibs do you like when you're writing?

Miranda Sanchez: I actually really like Sailor's Medium Fine, which I think sometimes is like, oh, it's kind of boring because it's like the special default. But it's just a really comfortable size for me.

Miranda Sanchez: I think it's just probably my favorite. And I've tried a lot of different kinds. And I think just with the size that I write at, it's just the perfect spot for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree. I think it's the default for a reason, right? For people who write with handwriting like we do, it's just like I can pick it up and I know no matter what ink or what paper I'm going to put it in, I'm going to get some sort of expectation of what I was hoping for, right?

Miranda Sanchez: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: And I love my Sailor Extra Finds, but sometimes that's just too much for me. It's too aggressive of a nib. And I feel like I have to be particular and careful with the MF. I just pick it up and go.

Miranda Sanchez: Exactly. Extra Fine or Fine. It's just like, okay, how much time do I have to be slow in my writing so it's still legible?

Favorite Inks and Preferences

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. What types of inks are you using in your Sailors? Do you tend to mix it up or do you have a few favorites? What are you thinking about inking?

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, I tend to mix it up. I have a few different favorite inks. Obviously, again, I'm a big Boonga Box fan. So I really love Melancholic Gray is my absolute favorite ink. I love gray ink. I can't tell you why. It's just very appealing to me. And Melancholic Gray is like one of the most pure grays I've seen. It's not too blue. It's not brown. It's not green or purple. It is gray. And so I'm like, that's the stuff right there. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I actually yell about gray a lot because it is exceedingly hard to get an accurate, like just a gray. So yeah.

Miranda Sanchez: It's just gray. And so they really nailed it with that one. So I love that. Another one that I always have in a pen is from the Sailor line. I forgot exactly what the name of it is called, but it's 437.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The Ink Studio line.

Miranda Sanchez: Ink Studio line. Yes. It's been like forever since I've like looked at that word, that phrase. But 437 is by far my favorite. It's like this pinkish red and I always have it in a Pelican that I have. So. Nice. I just keep that paired forever. Not just because like I don't really pair inks very much, but it's just one of my favorite colors for sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Miranda Sanchez: But yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Do you ever think about, do you ever consider our archival qualities in ink if you're keeping things?

Miranda Sanchez: I have. And then I realized I just rather have the pretty colors. Like, and if it's something that I feel is utmost importance, I'll grab a gel pen. But that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You and me both. And I was kind of setting you up there because the answer was clearly no, but I'm with you. Like, I'm like, I just like, it's okay. I'll be okay.

Miranda Sanchez: If all of our journals and our fancy notebooks are getting wet, there's something severely wrong and there's something more wrong than worrying about whether or not the ink stayed, I think. So.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. I would rather like use this pretty thing now and like, I'll, I'll be okay. I I'm sure of it. I'll be okay. Exactly. 20 years from now. Well, I'll take my enjoyment now, please.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. It's like, you know what? The pens still work. So that's what matters most to me. I think some of the archival stuff, I know. Um, I've heard you guys talk about it a lot too. It can be kind of a pain to clean or there's just other things that can happen. I just don't want to deal with that.

Brad Dowdy: There's just more variants, right? There's some good ones that you don't even have to care about. Like you just treat them like any other ink, but you know, it's, it's just one more thing to think about. And you know, it's.

Miranda Sanchez: And does it come in gray? Does it come in melancholic gray, gray?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know about melancholic gray. There are, there are a couple of, um, like, uh, Deatrimendous, I think has a gray. Um, there's, there's a couple of pigmented grays for sure, but it's, it's still like, you know, it's like, I'll, I'll use, I'll use a permanent ink if I like the color and I'm enjoying it, not necessarily because it's permanent. Right. So that's the way I see it. Do you use any other, uh, types of pens that aren't fountain pens like in your journals? Do you use, um, or pencils or colored pencils, or like you said, you just pick up a gel pen sometimes, or is it, are you like? Say like 90% plus like fountain pen usage.

Miranda Sanchez: I would say 90% plus fountain pens, just because I have so many that I really love. Like I have two Montblancs that are like, or I actually have a few Montblancs at this point that are like my prize possessions. And I got that Pikachu pen, um, the pilot one.

Brad Dowdy: That one's on my list to talk about specifically.

Miranda Sanchez: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I have never seen a video game culture collaboration done as well as that particular pen. I don't know what it is. Yes. But it is perfect.

Miranda Sanchez: I remember seeing the original Lamy Pikachu pen, uh, that I think was a exclusive in China. And I was like, dang, I'm not paying $300 for a Lamy Safari. Like there's, there's no way. And then this rolled in and I was like, but I am paying $600 for the Sterling silver pen. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And my comment at the time when those came out was like, that was underpriced. Like, I know that's the price of that lineup, but they're like, that is, if you're into that thing, that is an insta buy.

Miranda Sanchez: Yes. I was shocked and so worried when I first saw it because they listed it as sold out. And I was like, excuse me, I didn't even know about this. How could you sell out already? And it was just, I think them listing the listing without having any sort of like other like coming soon option. And so as soon as it went for sale, I bought it immediately and I have never regretted it. It was, it's, it's going with me to the grave is what I say.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll find a link, uh, to that pen and make sure I put it in the show notes for those of you who may not have seen this, but Myke and I definitely talk about this, uh, when it came out and I like, and I'm not a Pokemon fan, but I just like, I couldn't believe my eyes, like how good this, this pen was like, that was totally, totally my jam. So, um, yeah, that's, that's, uh, uh, just a fantastic pen. Do you use any, uh, I, you and, uh, Chelsea, we're gonna, we're gonna get into the podcasting here in just a second. Your, your podcast partner on your, your most recent episode, we're talking about video game stationery. Do you use actually, um, much like absolutely like a video game related product, like a Pokemon pen? Like there's not that much, but there's some pretty cool stuff you can find. Do you use much of that?

Miranda Sanchez: Um, like aside from my pilot Pikachu fountain pen, I have like a, a zebra Sarasa from the Pokemon center that I got. Um, I also ended up importing the special edition. It was like one of the Pokemon legends, Arceus, Hobonichis that they had at loft. I was at loft. I forget exactly where it was from, but it was like one book. It's like, what is happening here? So I have things like that, but they're more for like the collector appeal rather than actually using them for a specific purpose. Other than just using them like that Pikachu Sarasa. I think I just threw in a purse earlier so I could take it with me at the store in case I had notes. Um, but there's nothing really like that, that I have. I would say like video game stationery that's officially licensed. That's cool. Is really, really rare. Um, some of the coolest stuff I've gotten have been at shows. So I like trade shows. So like the former now basically deceased E3, which is like, was the biggest thing of the year for games media and just games generally. Um, I remember I got like a sticker sheet from this one exclusive Sony game that I really loved. I was like, this is my prized possession and I've used it, but you know, it was, it was really cool and rare to see those sorts of things. So it's, it's kind of a shame that there isn't more of that, but there's a lot of like fan washi tape or stickers, but it's not like I'm going to find a halo infinite master teeth washi tape. That's really cute. Like that just doesn't exist, which is a bummer. And I would buy that. So just throwing that out there.

Brad Dowdy: Product free product idea.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, so let's bring this into the podcasting, uh, podcasting. You were, you were officially a podcaster. Uh, I'm sure you've been on, on plenty of podcasts in your, in your IGN, uh, tenure, but you have a stationery podcast now. Can you tell me a little bit about words and roses, uh, how it started, why it started and what's it mostly about?

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. So that started, I guess, just after the San Francisco pen show last year and we had our pilot was that, but it was offline. So very few people have listened to it, but we got it started because I just wanted to do a stationery podcast where we just kind of pal around and talk about things we like. And I said that on stream once. And then another friend was like, Miranda, you have to talk to Chelsea. I was like, I talked to her literally all the time. What's up? And then she was like, I actually have wanted to do that too, but didn't know who to do it with. And I was like, wow, you're like one of my best friends. How did I not know this? And so we just started this podcast called words and roses, which is a combination of our two usernames. She's those with words and I'm havoc gross. So words and roses came to be. And basically what we do is we used to do it every other week. Right now we're on like a weird schedule just due to my own craziness with work. Um, but we just publish a, about an hour long podcast about stationery. And we really try to focus less on things like, um, stationery and cafe does where they're more about like new releases and news and like a little bit more of the shopping side of stuff. And ours is more on like the use case side of stuff. Um, one reason we try to angle it that way is because one, we're great friends with stationery cafe folks and we don't want to like overstep in the same way. We want them to be complimentary. And also because this, this started going live when stationery and cafe was on hiatus and April was like, do a podcast. I need something to listen to. You guys do it now. And I'm like, okay. Um, and so one thing that I always just try to remind myself and that I try to push on my streams as well as like, we have to use what we have to like to one thing I said, like forever ago, that's always stuck with people, which I like it's like to use your stationery is to love your stationery. If you put that sticker and you keep in a sticker book or tuck it away is like, I'm going to use this someday. That's not, that can be great, but it's even better if you use it because then it becomes something, it becomes part of your memories. It becomes part of your process. And that's even better than just preserving it in its original state. I think, um, and I think we have like that challenge rate of consumerism in this, you know, hobby, which makes sense. We're always acquiring new things. We're sharing new things. There's always something cool on the horizon, but it's always good to like turn back around and look at all the things that we already have to. And so with our podcast, we try to tend to stick more to those sorts of topics. It's like, what are we using our notebooks for? Don't forget to use those memo pads, man. Like you don't need another one probably, but if it's a really special to you, then who are we to tell you? You'll go get it, man. Or like ways to just kind of journal and have fun with what you have and maybe talk about new things every now and then, but ultimately just to talk about like, how do you get into the process and what are other complimentary ways around journaling that we can bring it into our lives and play and have fun. That didn't make the most sense, but I was like, yeah, you know, the vibe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. But so like to expand on that, I'll share and I'll definitely include this in the show notes. One of the cool things that y'all do is you have a Words and Roses Instagram account and you give prompts each week or each episode, I should say, saying, you know, asking like the community, you know, like the most recent episode was, you know, what's your favorite journaling item recently? And then like you and Chelsea will like answer these for yourselves. And, you know, it's a good, I like a prompt system, right? Like I, a lot of us have trouble coming up with our ideas or trying to force things like, okay, well, I'm gonna sit down and journal between 730 and eight o'clock. Well, you're just putting these like unfair, like restrictions on yourself, right? You're like setting yourself up for failure, but then you can go look at like the Words and Roses Instagram and like have all these prompts. You can go through, if you're just learning about Words and Roses now, you can go through all these prompts and answer them yourself. And I think that's a really cool thing that y'all do. And what made you come up with that idea?

Miranda Sanchez: We wanted to leave them with like our listeners with something to take away from the show, like other guests than entertainment. I hope it's entertaining. I don't know, man. We're just, we're just hanging out.

Brad Dowdy: Like y'all have fun.

Miranda Sanchez: Honestly, we set up the show to be zero expectations. We're not getting paid for this. We're doing this on our own time. So, but, but even with that, we still wanted to have like, I call it like a listener service. It's like, thank you for listening. So here's something you can take with you into your life. Like maybe that's fun. Because I often have times where I just don't know what to journal about. And then I just don't journal. And that is kind of a bummer. So I think like having something that's either loose or short, like you can make, maybe like even write just like two paragraphs about, not even two paragraphs, a sentence about, like that's better than nothing. Right. So that's what we try to do and they tend to be kind of random, but I think that's fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I will, I will call both of y'all out on this most recent episode. You did give me a panic attack by a way of your own stressing about the current calendar dates that we're in and how soon next year's planners are coming out. I was like, you know what? I did not think about that till you just said that. And thank you so much. Cause now that's all I've been thinking about. I like literally wrote a note about separately about that. I was like, oh man, it's almost planner season.

Miranda Sanchez: I was about to say, August is right around the corner somehow.

Brad Dowdy: It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. So another thing you were very much into, and unfortunately our schedules don't align. So I'm not always in your Twitch streams, but talk to me a little bit about your experience with streaming. You've streamed video games, of course, and then you streamed journaling and stationery, which came first. Did video game streaming come first for you?

Miranda Sanchez: Yes. It was video games first since that's kind of mostly what I'm known for. Right. A little bit of context at IGN. I'm also on our weekly Xbox show. So we have a podcast and we have a lot of folks who kindly listen to that as well. It's called Podcast Unlocked. And so there we, it's like plug in what we're doing. And I was like, oh, I'm going to start playing old games that I didn't get to, that I missed. Can you guys make fun of me on the show? So I'm going to go play them. Stuff like that. And so I've been going through a lot of like classic quote unquote games, but they're not, they're not really that old. It's like early 2000s. But yeah, that's where I started with it. It was just video games that I had on my backlog that I wanted to finish. And I was like, why, why don't I just stream it and just have people to hang out with while I do it? So I've been streaming for about three years now. And early on, I was like, guys, I got to show you something. It's not video games. Is that okay? And then I proceeded to spend the next hour just telling all these people who are really into video games about stationery. They're like, wow.

Brad Dowdy: I've seen this happen before. Like when you, I remember seeing some of this. Yes. I forgot about that, but yes.

Miranda Sanchez: And they're like, oh, are you going to show us more? Like, how's the pen going? I was like, you guys care. I'm so excited that you care. And so then eventually I was like, what if, what if I just stream stationery? Is that weird? I was like, I'm just going to do people do it on YouTube. Why can't I do it on Twitch? And so I figured out how to do a good top down setting and, and show like my face, but also my hands and doing all that. And then eventually stationery Sunday just became a thing. And I've been doing it for like three years now. And it's just been such a crucial part of my life. Like without streaming stationery, I wouldn't know you. I wouldn't know so many of my now very close friends. And like, it really changed my life. And I'm forever grateful to everyone who ever stopped and said, Hey, did you guys know you can stream stationery? And then other people started streaming stationery. And then like me and April, like, and our friend, Oh, hi, joy, joy. She, um, they, they put together like a workshop and we filmed a workshop on how to stream stationery on Twitch. And I wrote up a guide, like it became such a big deal. And I never expected any of that. And it's been just such a weird and fantastic surprise.

Brad Dowdy: And to, to give you like all the praise in the world, you've, you've been a big proponent and a big supporter of streaming stationery. Um, and it does it on, on Twitch and it definitely does not go unnoticed. You were like the person behind, Hey Twitch, we should have hashtags. And I'm like, yeah, Miranda says we should have them and we should get them. So like, I would like, I would say, Hey, you know, like my friend Miranda made this and I want y'all to go like vote in this because yeah, I want the hashtags too. But you have been such a huge proponent of the stationery community on Twitch and I love seeing it. And I, I, I'm wondering right now, and I don't have an answer to this question and I'm not gonna put you on the spot. But what I'm thinking about is I think there's just a lot of opportunity out there. And I don't mean that in like a businessy kind of way. I'm in that in like a fun kind of way. Like I want more people to stream stationery and I don't really have a question around that, but I just feel like we're just on the cusp of like having like even more stationery streamers. I don't know. Do you get that feeling out there? I just, I get so much joy from it. It's one of my favorite things I do, uh, every week. And I, I just want more people to be a part of it.

Miranda Sanchez: I will say it always bums me out that because of time zones, I also miss your streams live. Like sometimes if I have to be at the office really early, I'll see your stream. I'm like, yeah, the one upside of me being up early.

Brad Dowdy: And then he's logging off to you.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, I'm like, dang it, it's still not early enough. Um, but I, I totally agree. Like there's never enough people streaming stationery. There was, I think at a peak of the pandemic, like we had a stream. We have, we have a stream calendar. We had it like filled out like almost every spot in like us time zone was like filled. Like somebody was streaming and it was incredible. And it's of course like really tapered off as other people have like stopped streaming or taking streaming hiatuses. And it's totally understandable as our lives are kind of shifting back into, um, some older habits, which involve us, you know, going outside more meeting with people and maybe going to the office. So streaming is harder to fit into that. Or if you have families, you have family obligations, but I would really love to see more people streaming. And I do see some people from outside of like our community streaming. And anytime I see them, I'm just like, I'm there. I'm like, Hey, have you, Hey, do you want a community? I have, I feel bad because I have not done this in a while. Um, but I think you're kind of getting to, uh, the Twitch team, right?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Miranda Sanchez: Which I, can I talk about that?

Stationery Brew Twitch Team and Community

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. So there's a Twitch team, team called stationery brewery. So why don't you, why don't you talk about that?

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. So stationery brew was started by myself. Um, and then I have April and joy as sort of like the other two heads of the Hydra basically. Cause it's like, I don't, I don't like when one person is in charge of everything. So like the three prong system, let somebody veto the other, if there's a disagreement, not that there ever is. Um, but as a Twitch partner, I was able to start a Twitch team. And so I think I'm, um, did you get, are you a partner yet, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Uh-huh. Yeah.

Miranda Sanchez: Okay. Perfect.

Brad Dowdy: I had my two year partnerversary, uh, stream on Wednesday.

Miranda Sanchez: Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Wait, that was yesterday. Extra congratulations.

Brad Dowdy: It actually happened last week. I'm just not, I'm just not good at scheduling things. Yeah. And preparing.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. I was about to say, cause I think when I started it, I don't think you had been streaming then.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've been streaming for a while, but there was like some ons and off again. So basically, uh, internet, do I have internet? And then, Hey, I got real internet. Let's go.

Miranda Sanchez: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Cause I was thinking, cause I started it cause I was the only person in like our group that was a partner at the time. And definitely partners can start Twitch teams. And so I was like, well, like I'd be down so we can kind of just have a nice place to showcase all the stationery streamers. Cause at the time we didn't have stationery tags. And of course we, um, you very kindly promoted that, like our little rally to get the tags approved. And then of course they changed the system to where you can tag anything. I'm like, dang. Yeah. I'll still take that victory. That's right. But we wanted a way to like really make it visible that there are a lot of people who stream stationery on Twitch and thus the, uh, stationery brew was formed, which was not meant to be like a spinoff of stationery cafe. We, we thought about using that name and I was like, well, I don't think it's fair to April if we use her brand as this. So what if it's like brew, which is, you know, like a little, nice little nod to the cafe. Like cafes have brews. We, we like all kinds of brews here. We like teas. We like coffees. We like beers. There's all sorts of things. And so we kind of just tried to envelop that. And then just to invite as many streamers as we could verify if we're good, cool people into our group and give them resources to talk about tech problems or community problems. We also have it as a resources, like a PSA for like, Hey, if there's someone that's kind of lurking around, it's a little creepy, like be aware, or this person was a problem. So please block them on your channels. Things like that. Of course, nobody wants to talk about the not fun stuff. And that's very rare in our channels, I would say, thankfully. But it does happen. And so it was meant to be a part of a resource, a community and a point for safety as well, because I think a lot of folks who do get into streaming maybe don't have that kind of internet practice where unfortunately I am very practiced at having to, you know, look someone in the eyes virtually and be like, Hey, get out of here, you rascal. So, you know, um, and so I wanted to like, kind of inform folks of that, of like how to be safe and like, what not to share, make sure you cut off the, the postage marks on, you know, your happy mail, like don't show your address, man. Um, things like that of just like nice reminders as people get into it. But ultimately that's what the brew is. And sometimes folks like, it's not just me leading and saying, we're doing this. It's like anyone in there can start something. Like we had, um, the Techo Kaigi, um, choo choo train, which was like 24 hours of different streamers. I didn't even get to be a part of it because I was busy, um, of people rating each other from stream to stream. And like these like 30 to hour long intervals of like, here's my Techo Kaigi, like my journal planning setup. And then you pass to the next streamer and pass to the next room. It was such a cool event. And that was just set up by people, part of the stationery brew. And, and I love that for us. Like we just, it's not one person in charge, even though I'm technically the person who has to like admit people and invite them. Um, it's, it's all of our group and we all own it collectively. I think so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this was, that was not on my, uh, what I'm going to be doing with my life. Uh, bingo card. Yeah, right. Streaming stationery on Twitch, but my goodness, it's, it's been such a an important part of my life. Uh, like I said, getting to meet you. I've made so many cool friends from, from this, a lot of people that I've met in person, like, you know, a bunch of us met in San Francisco last year for the first time. And even, you know, people who I haven't met in person, just getting to have this wonderful space, um, and support system of just awesome people doing this. So I will be sure, um, to add in a link to the Twitch, uh, team, uh, for stationery brew. So if a lot of people aren't familiar with Twitch or are just wondering like, how could, you know, someone writing with their fountain pen on a notebook be interesting at all? I implore you to give it a try and I'll give you, uh, some links in the show notes to, you know, go click on the stationery brew team and you can see when someone's online or when their schedule is, uh, to come and drop in and see.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah. And I can also send you the link to the doc of getting set up for Twitch. That'd be amazing. Yeah. If anyone out there wants to stream stationery, like, please use that. It's, it's a few years old at this point, but should mostly still be applicable to streaming on Twitch. Now, if you want to share your stationery or your handwriting, I know some people who just do handwriting streams and they are just so lovely. So please join us. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Well, Hey, I have to thank you for joining me on this episode. This has been just a blast. And again, like I could sit like you and I, or a group of people and just go through planners and journals. And like, I just, my brain is full. My heart is full just from listening to everything that you do and all of the support you give to the community. And, uh, you're a wonderful friend and I appreciate so much the time, uh, that you spent with us today. Thank you so much, Miranda.

Miranda Sanchez: And thank you so much for having me as a long time listener and fan. It's a great honor to be here. So thank you so much for having me. And I hope you guys enjoyed this little wandering road into video games and journaling.

Brad Dowdy: Oh boy. And like I said, we almost need to do like a whole B sides after where I like really nerd out on like the video game questions that I, that I held back on again. And like, I, I would, I am a very professional, um, uh, at wanting to run a two hour podcast and cutting it down to an hour. So maybe one of these days I'll start having two hour podcasts. I'll listen. I don't know. I don't know. I say I got to save that energy for the two hour streams. That's, I think that's enough.

Miranda Sanchez: That's true.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Miranda. Um, can you tell people real quick, um, where they can find you? I'll have all these links in the show notes, but if you want to give anything a shout out, um, I would love to hear from you.

Miranda Sanchez: Yeah, absolutely. You can find me at Havoc Grows on Twitter. I don't really post that much, but I'm there. Um, at Havoc Grows Writes is my journaling account. I also don't post very much, but I do periodically at Havoc Grows on Twitch, where I stream every Sunday at 1130 AM PT. Um, for now, I think I'm going to change that to an evening stream. So sorry, East Coast and international folks. Um, but those are the main places. Then of course you can check out, um, the IGN guides. Please do. If you play video games, really appreciate it. We work very hard and we have nice checklist tools.

Brad Dowdy: I've been using the Diablo guides, uh, recently. So I need to know where those, I need to know where those helltide mystery chests are.

Miranda Sanchez: Oh my gosh. Yeah. We just published a big thing on that. And then, oh, if you go on Math Genete, which is also part of us, um, they have a helltide timer now.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Miranda Sanchez: Nice.

Brad Dowdy: See, this is the whole extra hour podcast. Y'all, y'all aren't getting this week chat. So, uh, we'll save that for another day. Miranda, thank you so much for joining and I will talk to you soon.

Miranda Sanchez: Thank you. Bye.

Brad Dowdy: Bye. Bye. Bye.