The Pen Addict 391/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	391
Title:	This Sounds Great – I Have No Interest
Release Date:	January 2nd, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 391
Audio File:	Audio Episode 391
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 391
Length:	6262 min <br />1.033 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 391. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Squarespace. Happy New Year, everybody. It is that time. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy.

Myke Hurley: Happy New Year, Myke. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good. 2020 Dowdy over here.

New Year Reflections

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I guess. Does it register with you? As we move through from December 31st to January 1st, I've lost that perspective, I guess. As I get older, it's like, okay, it's Wednesday, you know, or whatever day.

Brad Dowdy: I used to be like this, but so much of my life now has revolved around a change of a year. I kind of can't escape it. That's kind of true. I have been prepared for the year changing for about three months, so I feel very much like we're in a new year now. What specifically do you mean, Myke? Let me tell you about a thing called yearly themes, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: So, long-time listeners will know that I have been developing a product over the last six months. It's been in and out of sale. It's called the Theme System Journal. It ties into the idea of having a theme for your year instead of a resolution. If you want to get more information on what that kind of means, you should go and listen to episode 95 of the Clotex podcast or go to thethemesystem.com and you will get the information in the background so I don't have to rehash it here. The Theme System Notebook Journal is back in stock right now. This is a monumental thing because it hasn't been in stock for some time because of the way that production works. And the last time we did have it in stock, it was only in stock for like 48 hours. We ordered more. As we are recording this episode, we have sold 50% of said inventory. So, I don't know how long it's going to be in stock for, but so far, yes, it will definitely be longer than the last time. But I don't know how long it's going to be.

Brad Dowdy: So, you can go to clotexmerch.com and you can find the Theme System Journal there and you can purchase one for yourself. We're going to talk about this a little bit more throughout the episode today, but that is a bit of front matter.

Myke Hurley: Yes, I wanted to get that front matter out because I purchased one because I have found something that works for me and that is your theme system. So, we're going to talk. I can't believe it.

Brad Dowdy: This is honestly like one of the biggest honors that I could have thought of is to be that you would want to use this product and it would work for you. I never actually thought it was going to happen. You know, like the episode where you talked to me about it. Oh, we specifically talked about that. I was just terrified, right?

Myke Hurley: After I started using it. Yeah, but before that, when you were talking about creating it, I was like, dude, this sounds great and I have no interest.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and that was perfectly fine for me. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's working for me, so I had to go order a new one as well because, you know, of how you use these things. And we'll talk about that more because that's what we're going to talk about today. Mostly my journaling, planning, and themes for 2020 is going to be the topic of today's episode, which we'd been promising to do for like a month or two. Yep. But before we get there, Myke, I got an interesting link in my Twitter DMs this morning. Somebody slid in with a link. Yeah, Yagen from Macchiato Man slid into my DMs.

Myke Hurley: He slid into the DMs because he's in Australia, so he's, what, like 14 hours ahead, and he happened to notice something drop on Platinum's Facebook page, and he sent me a link. Have you seen this? So this is called the Platinum Curie Doss.

Brad Dowdy: This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.

Myke Hurley: What is this? So we're going to have a link in the show notes to it. It's basically like the PDF marketing for this new Platinum pen. It is Platinum's, the short version without the visual is it's Platinum's version of the Vanishing Point.

Product Launch Discussion

Brad Dowdy: I love the note at the top of this page. Please seriously control not to carry any images and information to any public, especially on the internet before Platinum officially released on our website. That person did not follow that, did they?

Myke Hurley: I read every word of this document, and I did not even read that, see that red part up there. I swear to goodness. Yes. I read, like, I was devouring this whole little thing. I did not see that until you just said that. That's hilarious. We're still going to talk about it. I don't care. Well, because we didn't get sent it, so, like, we can talk about it however we want. It was on Facebook, so, you know, then it's legal now. So, this is a, yeah, the best way to describe it is it is an attempt at a retractable fountain pen, right? But what they've done, as best as I can see and as best as I'm reading this, it's more pocket-sized and budget-friendly. And budget. This is very clearly a budget pen. Yeah, so it's a translucent plastic barrel. So, take all of Platinum's barrel colors that they just announced for the Prefantay that's on the market, except the orange one. The orange one's not there, but, like, the green, the blue, the black, the clear, the red. It's those exact colors that they have on the market now in that plastic. And then it's all transparent. A small nib. A nib is smaller. Small nib. Small nib. Huge knock. Yeah. But that's okay. I'm not. We'll see. That's one of those things. You'll have to see it when it's in the retractable state. It looks like. When it's in the retracted state. Which would make sense.

Brad Dowdy: Try to clip it. When you have detracted, I don't know, like, disengaged the knock, so the nib is hidden, the knock is about the size of a grip section. Which, when you think about it, makes sense, right?

Myke Hurley: But what's funny is most pocket-sized pins, you try to make them longer when they're engaged. And this one's actually shorter when it's engaged, right? So, like, a Kaweco Sport is short when it's capped. Yeah. But it's full-size when you write with it. This is the opposite of that.

Brad Dowdy: Here's something I like about this. I think you were about to say this. The clip is removable. There's a clip on it, but you can take it off. Very smart design. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because that means that I can use this pen, right? Right. Right. So, this is very interesting. Let me read you. I want to read the naming convention here. I actually have two questions about this marketing sheet. So, I'm going to read the beginning, and then I'll read the naming. So, in the rapidly changing world around us today, speed is becoming more important in business. Why are we still marketing stationary items as business items? I love that so much.

Brad Dowdy: I just love this so much. In the fast-moving business world, where we're not using computers, I guess.

Myke Hurley: Like, you see that as I see it, right? Like, it doesn't make a lot of sense? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I mean, that jumped off the page to me. I was like, that's where we're going with this? Because this is a very interesting, unique pen for everybody. Okay. Kuridas is a coined term created by combining the Japanese word referring to extending the pen tip, kuridasu, and curiosity. Love it. So, that's cool. Love that. I do like that part.

Brad Dowdy: You did miss the part, like, the reason that this is good for the fast-paced business world is you no longer need to worry about having the trouble of opening a cap when you have the other hand full and miss a chance to take note on an important occasion. I love this so much because it's so detached from reality, right? Like, this isn't a thing. Like, this isn't a thing anywhere. Like, where someone's like, if I don't take this note down right now, it's gone forever, and the only way I can do it is now I have my retractable fountain pen pen. Because I couldn't possibly imagine uncapping my pen right now. I don't have enough time. Yeah. I mean, are you writing in the air? Yeah, because if your hands are full, what are you writing on? It's like, oh, I've got my coffee mug in my hand. I couldn't possibly put this down.

Myke Hurley: Oh, dear. So, this is wonderful. And I'm anxious to see the pen. I can't wait.

Brad Dowdy: I will buy one of these immediately because this seems like a super weird and interesting pen. Like, if the nib is anywhere close to Platinum's nibs, because, like, it's a different nib, so, like, it might not be very good, right? Like, but as long as it is close, in this kind of weird body, like the retractable body, I think I would really like this pen. And also, I'm super interested for the price point. Because this could end up being, like, top budget pen pick of 2020.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so what is your guess for price point for this pen? $35. Okay. I think it's 60.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wow. All right. Price is right rules on that one. Yeah. When it eventually comes out. Somebody note that down. Myke said $35. Brad said 60.

Myke Hurley: I honestly want to guess 80. I think this is 80,000 yen. But I'm going to go lower at 60 is my final answer.

Pen Mechanism Analysis

Brad Dowdy: Let me tell you why I think this.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: In plastic pens, in acrylic pens, like, I feel, like, clear means cheap. Mm-hmm. And if they didn't want it to be, like, a budget pen, it would be designed slightly differently. That would be my feeling on it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and it's not clear whether the nib is steel or gold. So that would make a difference. We're assuming steel. Yeah, if the nib is gold, then ignore what I'm saying. But, yeah, I'm assuming steel.

Brad Dowdy: Even at $60, I'm assuming steel.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. It'd be over $100 if it was gold. I just think there's cost in the mechanism, right? I agree with you. There's engineering cost in there.

Brad Dowdy: But this seems like a really good pen to put in a stationery store because it will, like, attract people.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: But you can't sell.

Myke Hurley: I just don't think it sells at that price. Yeah, and these are small pens, right? Your, like, mental math of what's happening in this picture makes it seem like a smaller size pen, right? And I, my feeling is... Like, a little bigger than a Kaweco Sport lengthwise.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think that this mechanism is very complicated at all, Brad. Okay. Because there is a very clear design trade-off with the way that the Nock works. Like, this was not what they wanted when they came up with this idea. Interesting. For it to look that way when you've retracted the nib, right? Correct. Nobody wanted that. Right. But that's how it is. So, my feeling on that is, like, it wasn't... They maybe cut some corners to bring a price point down. I mean, they may have even cut corners to bring the price down to $60. But, like, these are all the reasons why I think that they might be going for, like, a more budget market. We'll see. I'm excited about it, though. This is a cool little find. I'm really keen to see, like, I hope we have the eagle-eyed pen addict audience on this one to find it when it starts appearing at different retailers and we'll get some prices.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm sure the retailers, once they launch this, they'll know the prices and we'll be on it. So, this is one we'll track for sure because it kind of falls into, like, everything that we talk about and are interested in pens. And now we're just going to have to edit out this entire segment because we're not allowed to talk about it, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's true. Yeah. It's not on the website. So, like, that was really bad of us to have mentioned it. I'm actually on Platinum's website right now trying to find it.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I googled it. I googled it. I googled it. And just pages and pages and not even a single term ever popped up.

Brad Dowdy: I'm now looking through their HTML5, which is hilarious. From the homepage? Yeah, their catalog. Mm-hmm. Which is, this is one of the worst things I've ever seen. Oh, they're, I don't even try. They're just so bulky. Why would you do that? Like, it's, it's, I have to click to turn each page. Yeah. No, it's not on their website. I can't imagine it's going to be on their website for a bit then. Well, it doesn't exist. We didn't talk about it anyway. That's true. That's true. This is all a fever dream. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell everything that you're going to need to satiate your stationary hobby in 2020. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, inks, fountain pen converters, pen holders, carrying cases, everything. Just go there. Whenever you're thinking of making a purchase for, or just want to browse around, go to penshalet.com because at any time you can get 10% off at penshalet.com when you click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict. This is where you will get the 10% discount at any time. And also for this week's special offer, Ron wanted me to alert the penaddict audience that they are currently running a year-end inventory reduction sale, which typically means very, very good prices. So I would recommend that everybody goes over to penshalet.com right now. They sell high quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They ship internationally with great shipping rates and free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. So as I said, go to penshalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, use the password penaddict for this week's special offers, which is access to the year-end inventory reduction sale, and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at penshalet.com. Brad, is there anything catching your eye?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Speaking of the company, which we just spoke of, Platinum, the 3776, some of the base models are on sale, which is a crazy good price. Very good price. Oh boy.

Brad Dowdy: If you don't own a 3776, if you do not own one, go there now because these reductions are bananas. Yeah. And there's only a couple models, it appears.

Myke Hurley: But just to own one, right? Like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to specifically point out the penshalet glue gun sealing wax. I'm not even joking. I've had, we talked about this, I don't know if it was our gift guide episode or somewhere before that about sealing wax and how they're making sticks now that go in glue guns to make it a little bit easier for you to manage your letters and your sealing stamps. And I've gotten emails about this because I forgot where we mentioned it the first time and here they are. So here's the glue gun sealing wax that a couple of you have asked me via email. Where can I get that? Because it sounds awesome. So here you go.

Sealing Wax Innovations

Brad Dowdy: That is cool, actually. And this will work with any type of glue gun?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because it's like a standard dimension stick size. Yeah, yeah. So you just pop it in there. I think I need to get some of these. It makes a lot more sense than like the wick based. Yeah. You know, style. But, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because that's like a whole to do where you've got to like light the thing and you've got to hold the look. Like you look like you're doing something very illegal.

Myke Hurley: Now, if you're doing like one letter, you know, maybe you want to break out the wick base. But if you're going to sit down and write, you know, three, four letters and you want to fancy them up, like I imagine these are pretty cool. I haven't tried myself to vouch for them, but I'm intrigued.

Brad Dowdy: Who would have thought in 2019 there was an innovation to sealing waxes? Right? Right? Like this is we're finally we're finally innovating our wax seals in 2019. And then we're bringing it into 2020 with that straight new energy. Thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: All right, Myke. So we're going to talk about planners and journaling and, you know, what we're using, the tools we're using to get through the day and the weeks and months and years for 2020. And as I prep for the show, it turns out I've been prepping for this episode for months because I'm really using the same things that we've kind of talked about and kind of alluded to in the past. Ever since planner season kicked off right at the beginning of September, I've been mostly locked into what I want to do for 2020.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But before we get into the exact things that we use, I wanted to talk about why, like why we use analog tools to manage our day to day stuff. And I think that's kind of like my thing is like, how do I manage the stuff? Because I don't do, I don't have like the singular job. Like I feel like I've have a lot of jobs that require various levels of planning and commitment and time. And I need a way to put that puzzle together, right? Like every day is kind of a little puzzle of its own. Not every day is the same. My schedule is different. Your schedule is different. Like one week you could, you could have like an eight podcast week and next week you could have a four podcast week and that changes huge chunks of hours in your week, right? Not every day is the same. So trying to figure out that puzzle, these analog tools help, right? You know, I need to know what I need to do for the pen addict and knock and spoke and like under each of those headers, you know, okay, do we need to do something for the pen addict podcast? Do we need to work on a Kickstarter campaign? This is on and on and on and on and on. So, um, and then I also have life outside of that, right? So this isn't just necessarily work-based systems. It's work and then family, you know, what, you know, do I need to pick up the kids today? Do they have activities? Is my wife working today because her schedule is not regular? Things like that. So, um, it's to like kind of pare down the frustration in a day is why I use these types of tools to help me. Um, and the key is that we'll talk about as we go through this is I'm not a complex system guy, right? I can't do like full board GTD or bullet journal. Um, even though I understand that that's not necessarily a complex system, but it has more rules for a no rule system. It has a decent amount of rules that don't work for me. Right. So I need open systems, if you will, for the most part. Does that make sense?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, um, you know, that's why like I have these certain things that I use. Um, do you, I think you feel kind of the same way, right? Like our lives or our day to days are a little bit weird because not every day is the same and not every, not every task is the same. And, you know, it's kind of hard to manage that, right?

Brad Dowdy: It is because, well, I mean, one of my, one of the things that's difficult in my life with this is every day is not the same and I have no control over trying to make it the same. Right. Like, and that's because, I mean, I know that that I'm sure we have many listeners that are sitting and nodding and be like, yeah, of course. But it's most people tend to have like a job that they do and that's like, that's their job. But we have both created lives for ourselves where we're involved at various levels in multiple companies. And right. And like, I have a very split life, right? Like sometimes I'm doing this, right? Like I'm producing content. Then sometimes I am selling advertising. Sometimes I am running the logistics of a large business and then sometimes I'm trying to grow a small company into a larger company that produces and manufactures physical goods. Like they have like four or five very, very different things. So it can get a bit out of hand sometimes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There's some weird context switching that happens sometimes from like minute to minute, hour to hour that requires like this type of organization. So like I've never been a one notebook to rule them all type of person. I thought for the longest time that was the best way to do things. It's like, why do I need all of these different things to manage my life? You know, what if I just had one notebook where all the things went? And that just does not work for me whatsoever. I'm impressed for those who it does work for. But I need different answers out of the products that I use. So basically, I guess let's break it down with kind of like my day to day planner. So I have three things that I use. I have a planner. I have a journal. And then the last thing we're going to talk about specifically is we'll save that to last, but it goes in my Hobonichi Weeks. That's a very specific thing that I'm using this year. So my planner is, okay, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. What am I doing on each of those days? Right? Like what do I owe for those days? Like, you know, I have to make produce articles, right? Like a publishing schedule. Like those things are generally fixed. They go in there. Are there any big picture tasks that, you know, fit into, you know, like a planner? So I'm using the William Hanna A5 notebook. And that's a product layout that I fell in love with ever since I used the Midori Traveler style notebook, where you have a two page per week. And on the left side of the page is your seven days in various blocks. And the right side of the page is open, you know, blank. No headers or anything like that. So on the left side, I'll say Monday, you know, publish this review, you know, prepare tomorrow's giveaway. You know, plan out the Tuesday tool set email. It feels like a content planner for you. It pretty much is because I kind of have to have that, right? Yeah. These are like the black and white tasks go in here. These are the absolutely have to happen tasks, right?

Myke Hurley: You know, Tuesday is like publish the giveaway post. Do the podcast prep, right? These are the always things that have to happen. These blocks are not that big on the left hand side of the page. Um, purposely for that reason, like I'm not using that to like journal in or to write down all the details of a specific thing that I want to do. That's what the right side of the page is for, right? So if I need to expand on one of the topics I have on the left side of the page, which are just really checkbox items, like these are checklists of tasks that I'm going to do. Um, if I need to expand on them, well, I have this whole right side of the page where I can say, okay, well, I want to do this Tuesday tool set posts on brush pens. So what brush pens would be good for that? And then I'll make a list just like brainstorm. Okay, here's a bunch of brush pens. Then I'll narrow down my, my favorites and write and write a newsletter post about that. So that's kind of how I use this planner. Um, I can see one week at a time. The front section of the planner does have a two page monthly calendar, right? Where you can see in a whole month, like you would see a traditional calendar, just calendar layout with little squares for the calendar. I haven't used that as much as I thought I would. I was really thinking I could schedule things out in that, but I tend to find that digital works better for me. And we're going to get into some digital tools that we use as well. Um, later, but I tend to find, I, I want that to be better for me in a notebook sense. But I haven't figured that out yet. And it's not from lack of trying. It's from nothing clicking yet. I think I can probably make it click, but I'm, I'm not quite there yet. So this layout is my favorite. It's been my favorite for years. This is why I can't do the Hobonichi Techo. What is the layout though? So it's the, it's the left side page with the seven days. Like, what is it about the layout or technically what is like?

Planner Layout Preferences

Brad Dowdy: No, it's, it's the seven days thing when you say like, that's the layout. Like that's the one. That's what I mean by layout. Yes. But you have to remind me with William Hanna. That's, is that something you had made?

Myke Hurley: Originally? Yes. But now it's a stock item.

Brad Dowdy: And what is that item called at William Hanna? Um, it's an insert. Right. Cause they, they have this like ring insert thing, right? Yeah. So this is a, um. Right. 2020 week to page diary. I see it now. A6 dates only. Cool. Yes. So you asked for them to make this for you and then they ended up like just doing it.

Myke Hurley: Sort of. Um, who I'm working with there knew, like, likes this too, but they never offered it for sale. So he said, let me send you these and then we're just going to make them for sale. But I don't think I directly made them sell that type of thing. Sure, sure, sure, sure. So I think it was in the works. Um, it just wasn't available until recently, like late last year.

Brad Dowdy: Cause that's the whole thing about the William Hanna system is one of those ring systems and you can just add to it.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yep. So you can get different, different layouts. Like if you like this system, you can get different layouts. I just happened to, it's hard with this type of layout that I like. No one was doing this in an A5 size. They were all doing an A5 slim.

Brad Dowdy: A5s and A6s, right? Yes. Yes.

Myke Hurley: These things. So Midori makes this in an A5 slim. Kukuyo, I think makes something similar in an A5 slim. But just all of a sudden I've gotten a few links that Leuchterm now has a weekly planner and notebook that was not out when we started discussing all the planners like in September. Like I don't think this existed until like the past month or so. That has a similar left hand page, right hand page layout per week. The right side page is lined, which I don't like. And the left side page has your five weekdays and then your weekends are split. You know, they're half boxes, which I don't like either because I mean, that's just a personal thing.

Brad Dowdy: You don't work on the weekend, which is for many people not true.

Myke Hurley: Right. So like I work on the weekend, so I have tasks on my Saturdays and Sundays.

Brad Dowdy: I appreciate the way that William Hanna does it, that they're still separated, but they're smaller. Right.

Myke Hurley: And I can get on board with that at least. Every day is equal, which is how Midori does it, which is why I loved it so much. Yeah. And now I can get it in the wider format, which I like. But this Leuchtturm is a good solution for someone looking like this William Hanna setup is very expensive. Like I don't know that I'd recommend it to everyone. I love it, but, you know, I didn't have to pay for it either. Right. As they sent it to me for free, which I greatly appreciate. And as it turns out, it's kind of perfect for me. Right. I haven't not used it since they sent it to me. Like it's my daily. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I can't imagine making this form factor work for me because I would really struggle with the size of the ring binding. Yeah. I wouldn't be able to use the right page. Like I just wouldn't be able to do that.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yeah. So I get it.

Brad Dowdy: Just because of the way that I hold a pen and that kind of stuff. Like it's too aggressive.

Myke Hurley: It does get in the way. Yeah. So like on my left page, I write close to the rings for like family stuff. Right. That's like a narrower column that I run down. And the rings do get in the way of that. Yeah. But it works for me because I don't have much to write for that. So that's my planner. That's a single notebook. There's also a note section in the back. Right. So you can just have blank pages like I have just all like if I really want to expand or lay out something like I have a whole pricing sheet that like I was redoing pricing stuff. Like I'll just open this up and have a blank sheet where I can just, you know, basically have a scratch pad of just like notes and random stuff back there.

Brad Dowdy: The William Hannah blog is intense. I haven't looked at it. Every day. Like these beautifully. Like basically they write. It's like how you used to do, you know, like I'm going to take a picture of something that I've written and then write it out in text. Yeah. But like every day they have something that's stunningly beautiful. And that's wild. Yep.

Myke Hurley: They are aggressive over there. It's very good. It's very good. All right. That was door number one. Behind door number two, Myke, we have the theme system journal. So if the William Hannah notebook is my planner, this one is classified as my journal. It happens to be in the name of the product.

Myke Hurley: And there's no day to day tasks that go in my theme system book. Maybe people use it for that. Maybe they don't. But what I found it useful for is what I think you created it for is reflection. Right. So it's to capture. Okay. What's your overarching idea or theme for the year? And I'm not going to, you know, we're not going to rebroadcast Cortex during this show. So y'all go listen to the Cortex pod to find out more about, you know, the themes and, you know, all that stuff here. Myke's theme for this year and things like that. But I'll let y'all know my theme because I've talked about it before because that's how I use this book. So these essentially the William Hannah and the theme system journal, essentially they go hand in hand. Like I just stack them together, carry them as one because one is during the day and one is at the end of the day. But I do like to kind of refer back to them. So I have stuck with the block headers that I originally went with. So on your daily page, can you, well, you'll do a better job. I don't want to butcher the description of the main page layout, but how would you call it?

Brad Dowdy: So the main page kind of where you would put the majority of your time into, as it were, like where you're writing out, basically journaling, diarying, they are called the journal pages, just the journal pages.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha. So on my journal pages, there's four blocks. And the general idea, you can use them for however you want, is I use the top block for what good happened today. Second block for what not so good happened today. Maybe it's bad. Maybe sometimes it's nothing every now and then. I have that too. Sometimes I don't fill it out. Mostly you can fill it out. That's a 90% is of mine are filled. But the middle section is basically for an expansion of the top two blocks and anything else you want to talk about. Like what I call it moments. So like my top blocks is stoked. You know, what made me happy today. My second block is joked. You know, what was ridiculous today. My third block is moments, which is just a daily recap kind of, you know, little expansion, little more room for detail. At the bottom of the moments block, I always write down what pen and ink I'm using. Yep. So that's captured every day. And then the bottom block is what you're looking forward to. So I call mine, let's go. So it's just like the hype block. What are you excited for?

Brad Dowdy: And it's worth just mentioning like when Brad is saying like that's what he's based like adapted what I do. These boxes are blank. So you can put whatever you want in there, which is the point.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So I'm kind of like you. I'll do it weekdays only pretty much Monday through Friday days.

Myke Hurley: And then over the holidays, I slacked on it. And that's okay because I can pick it up at any time. So I've just written page. The last page number I've written in here is 54. So I've made it that many pages in. That's amazing. So I don't know how many more pages I have left to go. Four or six weeks maybe. So I went ahead and ordered a new one because by the time, you know, I'll be getting closer. And, you know, I want to have that ahead of time. So, yeah, that's working for me. Like I enjoy the five to ten minutes it takes me to capture what happened. I enjoy that I get to use my pens. And let me go back and combine this with the William Hanna. It's both of these products are all pen and pencil friendly. I use fountain pens. I use woodcase pencils. I use gel pens, roller balls, markers, sparkle ink. That's key for me that I can use. I use so many different types of pens, right? I'm not stuck on just fountain pens that I need products that are enjoyable to write with everything. That's why I like the Leuch terms so much when I tried, like, the big journal. Because it doesn't matter what pen or pencil I use. I'm going to not be frustrated with how they're working on the page, right? So that's how the theme system is. That's how the William Hanna is. Because one of the hesitancies I had with the theme system journal was the habit tracker section. It's like, I've never done this in my life. Do I really need to track what I've eaten or how much water I've drank? And then the more we talked about it, I realized, well, that's not it at all for me. That's not how I can use it. Yeah, that's not how I have to use this section.

Myke Hurley: So, and I've shared pictures online. We can find the old Instagram. Yeah, when I've started this up so you can see. So this I have just changed with my yearly theme, which I guess I should say that here. So my yearly theme is ideas. So this is a bigger conversation that I'll kind of allude to as we go through this. But part of the next product I use is helping me with that. So with my year of ideas, I've actually changed some of my habit tracking. So my habit tracking said, love, laugh, create, refresh, read, share, and promote. So most of that's the same. These are the things I want to have done every day. Like I can take the time to do each of these things every day. So I've taken read off because it never really worked out how I wanted to. So I've scratched out read and I've changed read to self-improvement.

Brad Dowdy: Cool.

Idea Journaling Practices

Myke Hurley: And I think because that falls into that category. Like some days I don't have time to read, but maybe I meditated or maybe I worked on an online class that I've subscribed to. Those are all are the same category for me. So I think so that category is called self-improvement. And then I added one called ideas. So we might come back to the theme system journal as I talk about ideas. But that morphs right into the third thing I carry. And again, I'm like, I need one of those little library book loops, you know, that you carried when you were at school, Myke, and before backpacks. And you just tie a strap around all your little books and carry them around. That's what I need now for the Hobonichi weeks.

Brad Dowdy: Brad, what do you mean before backpacks?

Myke Hurley: Well, you've seen school kids like when they weren't carrying backpacks, they carried their book and basically a strap.

Brad Dowdy: I thought you meant like before the invention of the backpack. How old are you?

Myke Hurley: I'm not that old. I'm not that old. I know. You saw my pictures where you. Oh, I love those pictures.

Brad Dowdy: It's like Brad as a kid. That was so good.

Myke Hurley: It's like I didn't age for like a decade straight.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then you did a bunch of, then you aged for like two decades and it stopped again. That is like the story of your life. You take these few chunks of time where you stop aging. Like I've known you for nearly 10 years now and you don't look any different to when we first met.

Myke Hurley: That was hilarious. I couldn't believe that. I was sitting there. I didn't even see that picture at my parents' house first. We'll put a, I guess, I guess we'll link it in the show notes. We will, 100%. But I'm sitting there eating dinner and my sister looks over my shoulder and sees these two pictures because hers was up there too. She's like, oh my God, what is that?

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, she had the full picture set as well. So, anyway. Yeah. So, no, I'm not that old. But, you know, it's just a little strappy carrier books in. And I see, you know, I picture little British boys in their shorts and loafers and ties. And this just little book. I didn't go to that kind of school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, this is the movie. This is the movie based. Yes. Movie based carrying set. Yeah, this is the Hogwarts kit. Strap thing.

Brad Dowdy: Tony found one of these on Etsy, which I'm going to put in the show notes in case you have no idea what we're talking about. Yeah, let's see. Right? That's it. That just looks like a belt for the books, basically.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Right? Yeah. And there's a Harry Potter book in the picture. So, there you go.

Myke Hurley: Perfect. So, I knew I wanted this Hobonichi Weeks because it's the same layout as the William Hanna. Full seven days on the left-hand side, blank on the right-hand side. But it's too skinny, too narrow for me to use efficiently. I need a little bit more space for my weekly stuff. But I wanted to use this. And I was like, well, what could I use this for this year? And one of the things that I have a love-hate relationship when you work for yourself and you're responsible for creating things like every day is coming up with new ideas.

Myke Hurley: And I'm either really good at coming up with ideas or I'm a complete zero at coming up with ideas. Like if I need an idea, I cannot come up with one. If I don't need an idea, I can list ten. Right? And I don't think that's unique. I think a lot of people have that. Like when the pressure's on, I blank. And I've never taken the time to when I'm having an epiphany of ideas and just an overflow to capture them.

Myke Hurley: So, on my Hobonichi Weeks, every day I write down a new idea. So, it's a lot of times, and most of my stuff is around making stuff. Right? So, I have a lot of jobs that require me to make things. So, I have pen case designs. I have logo designs. I have, you know, new product ideas for Pen Addict or for Spoke. You know, different types of notebook and note card layouts. You know, I have a new brand that I just like had an idea laying in bed one night. So, like, you know, maybe it never becomes a thing. But now I've captured it, and now I've tracked it, and now I can go back and look at it. And it's not just to capture ideas, this book, or my theme. It's to actually pick the ones that are good and execute on them. Right? My ideas are nothing if they just stay on this page. So, just having the idea to track my ideas on a daily basis is an idea.

Myke Hurley: You know, making new products for the Pen Addict shop was one of the things I'd been wanting to do. And I'd wanted to make these Kikuyu notebooks.

Myke Hurley: But they are difficult to get made and to source because you have to do it all in Japanese and have to have Japanese accounts and things like that. I was like, but if I believe in this idea, I need to make it happen. So, that's part of the execution phase of these ideas. So, I'm logging my ideas better. I have a lot of ideas. And, you know, they could be 90% crap. But I want to narrow down the 10% that's not crap. Right? Because, like I mentioned before, my job solely relies on me creating things.

Myke Hurley: And whether that's with Jeff at Knock or with Brian at Spoke or with me at Pen Addict and you and you with the Pen Addict podcast. Every day, I have to have new ideas. And that's tough. Like, that's one of my biggest challenges. You know, I have a huge response. I feel a huge responsibility to Pen Addict members. Am I doing enough for them? What new things can I do? So, like, I capture these ideas. And even if I'm not going to use them at the moment, maybe the more I think about them, the more they morph into a thing that I can do and execute. And that's what I want to be better at this year is not only capturing the ideas, but executing on what I think are the good ones. And you know what? If I execute them and they suck, that's okay. I at least did it. Like, I'm okay with having a miss. Right? Like, that does not phase me. What phased me is starting it in the first place. Right? That's my hang-up. So, that's what I want to work on this year. That's what I'm using my Hobonichi Weeks for. And it's a really good layout. And, like, I'm up to yesterday. Every day since... So, these Hobonichi Weeks start, like, November 25th this year. So, every day since November 25th, that's an idea. So, I can just flip through this book. And, like, I'll go through the book. Like, if I'm having trouble coming up with one idea today, I'll flip through the book. And maybe something will trigger me to write down a new idea. And then, all of a sudden, I have five. So, my only rule in this is I don't have to do it every day. Like, I can catch up three or four days, like, over the weekend. But I can never go ahead.

Myke Hurley: So, I can never bank ideas in the future. And that may be a bad idea on its own. But my reasoning is that I want to be fresh when I think about this. Right? So, maybe if I've remembered the ideas I want to bank the next day, then maybe it's a better idea. Maybe it's a more valid idea. So, that's the only thing I don't do is I don't bank ideas ahead. Like, I will not write tomorrow's idea today.

Brad Dowdy: So, can I ask you a question? Sure. Why not put this in the theme system?

Myke Hurley: I want to keep it separate. Okay. I mean, that's perfectly fine.

Brad Dowdy: This does, to me, feel like something that very easily fits in one of the boxes, right? Like, even in the small little box at the bottom. Like, that's something you can put in. But if you already have a system which is working for you, don't adjust it. But, like, it would fit because you'd at least be there anyway, right? Like, filling it out. But I guess if you also want, and this is not a bad thing, you want an excuse to use the other notebook, that's totally cool too.

Myke Hurley: That's 100% part of it. But the main part of it is having that separation of usage, right? That's why no planner items go in the theme system journal, and no ideas are going in the theme system journal for a similar type of reason, even though it's a perfect spot for it. Now, it's one more thing that's overbearing to work in the theme system notebook for me. Yep. Right? So, now I have to think about one more thing aside from the other things that I'm committed to.

Brad Dowdy: Right, because you don't want to, like, you don't want to put yourself off filling out the theme system because you're struggling with the idea thing today.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, like, I feel like my theme system's set. That doesn't mean it can't change. It should change.

Brad Dowdy: But I, yeah. Like, it's something that should adapt with you as your themes change, because in theory, a theme changes every year.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, like, I just changed my habit tracker. So, that's one of the things. One thing about theme system, and we'll move on, some last year's theme was the theme of experimentation. That theme doesn't have to end, even though, like, I don't think I totally succeeded at that, at what I wanted to accomplish with that. But it can live on as a choice and an idea.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is one of the things about the themes. And an underlying theme. That, like, I meant to kind of touch on this in our last episode of Cortex, but we only, we didn't, I didn't say it in an explicit way. One of the great things about living a yearly theme is, like, once it's done, the things that you have learned and put into practice, they stay with you. Like, even if you move on to a new theme, the old theme, like, I guess I did kind of cover it, actually. There are, like, things that you put into place, which means that those ideas will stay. But also, themes can last more than a year, they can last less than a year. It's one of the reasons we put four theme pages in the beginning of each book, in case your theme changes, in case you, like, want to do something else. Like, you're not just stuck to one.

Myke Hurley: Right. So, I feel like my theme of experimentation is still, like, an overarching theme, right? When I'm making a buying decision, I'm sitting here, I'm looking at fountain pen inks, do I choose the blue-black ink that I know I have 50 of already and I know I'm going to like? Or do I choose this weird reddish-brown color, you know, to, you know, that I don't know if I'm going to like or not? Like, that's what I wanted to try to accomplish with the experiment. Not that I have to do that, like, every time. Not that I can't just buy the things that I want. But to branch out more. So, you know, that's just one thing I wanted to point out.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, that's my analog side of my planning, journaling, and now my idea notebook. My Hobonichi Weeks is my idea notebook. So, if you hear me talk about that, that's specifically what that is. So, I'm very happy with the setup. I've been using this setup for months now with the Hobonichi Weeks just coming in at the end of November. When the date started. And I'm very, very happy with this layout so far.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let me take our second break and we can touch on more of this stuff because there's still more that we want to get to, right? Yep. Just a few things, yep. All right. Today's episode is also brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move with Squarespace. It's the time, right? If you've got a new idea, you've got a new thing that's bouncing around in your brain and you want to act on it for the new year, go and get a website. Squarespace will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. You can register a domain name. You can take advantage of and customize award-winning templates. You can set up an online store, a portfolio, a blog, a site for an event, a site for a club. No matter what type of website you want to make, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that can help you do it. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They've got all of that covered and back it up with 24-7 customer support. We've spoken a bunch about thethemesystem.com today. It's a place where I put a lot of my thinking and laid out some more information for people that want to use the theme system. It's all on thethemesystem.com, which of course is a Squarespace website. I wanted to make sure I had this information up and available to people. And I was able to do it super quickly because I didn't want to have to fuss around with getting the website created. I just wanted to get the content out there. Squarespace let me do it. It looks awesome and it's super easy to do. You can go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required and start building your website today. Then when you're ready to launch it to the world, you sign up for a plan. They start at just $12 a month, but you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict and using the code penaddict at checkout. Once again, that's squarespace.com slash penaddict, the code penaddict for 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Myke Hurley: Another tidbit on the theme system. I told you this when I first started that that page was very helpful. That's what the page that I read before I decided how I'm going to use my different journal pages, how I'm going to set them up. So yeah, very helpful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. One of my goals over the next month or so is to get more examples on the website for people to see, including yours. So there's more kind of variation and so people can help understand their ideas a little bit more. But I think I'm pretty happy with that and I've gotten good feedback from people about like this is a good place to really get the information. So I was pleased I was able to put that together.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So last little bit for my stuff, my writing, planning, theme system ideas, all that's analog. I do use digital tools to help with a lot of this. Fantastical is why I don't use it's a calendar app that kind of works better for me than the two page per month calendar layout. I'm still trying to figure out how to sort that, but it just works because it syncs. And that's why I used, that's why I used Todoist for, you know, recurring tasks like pay bills and, you know, take medicine and, you know, whatever, you know, kids practice or whatever. Like Todoist is my to-do app and I don't ever need like a hardcore to-do app like something like OmniFocus, like where you track projects digitally and, and have different tasks and things like that. That's like too much for how I use things. And the last one is drafts, which is where a lot of my ideas go. If I don't happen to have my notebook with me. Right. Lots of quick snippets. I use, I use drafts probably more than those first two things combined just to write down just randomness, whatever. Like anything can go in there. You know, if I'm sitting on my phone, see a tweet, it triggers an idea, throw it in drafts, and then I can go flip through my drafts and, and then transform into whatever notebook I need. So, yeah, that's kind of my layout. Do you, so like, I know you, I'm going to talk about your stuff real quick, but I just to set this up big picture wise. So, you obviously use the theme system journal, but do you have paper planners or other paper tools for planning? Because you have a very different, yeah, you have a very different requirements than I do, right?

Brad Dowdy: So, tell me, tell me what's up. I mean, so obviously I use the theme system journal. Like, I am genuinely really happy that I still want to use this product every single day after using it every day for six months. Like, that makes me feel like I did what I set out to do. Like, I created a thing that lets me use my tools, which I want to use on my pens every day. It's like, the main reason that I do journal is because I, and do it on paper, is because I want an excuse, like a reason to use my pens, right? Totally. Because I could, in theory, like write this stuff into a spreadsheet, but it just doesn't work the same way. Like, my brain works better for reflection, which is what I use my theme system journal for. It's for reflecting on my day. It feels more efficient, not more efficient, more effective for me if I'm doing it with pen and paper. It's just the way that my brain works. So, I really like it for that. But outside of that, everything is digital. Like, because for me, all of that stuff is like, I want access to it anywhere. I don't want to lose it and lose everything, right? Like, if I lost, if I was keeping all the stuff in a planner and I lost that planner, then what do I do, right? So, this is a combination of like Fantastical, Todoist, and Apple Notes, mainly for this kind of stuff for me.

Myke Hurley: And you have a decent amount of stuff that's shared, too. Like, other people need to have some of the information that you have. Like, I don't necessarily have a lot of that. Like, Jeff and I use Slack. Brian and I use messages and email. But we don't necessarily have, you know, work tools that are like cross-pollinated with stuff like that. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That is definitely part of it. Like, I can't, it's like irresponsible for me to not have that stuff shared sometimes. Right, right, right, right. So, like, I can't really do it even if I wanted to.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, just a theme system is pretty much your analog journal. Yeah. Have you kept other journals before? I know we've talked about this. Yeah, I remember I had a Hobonichi. You started.

Brad Dowdy: Like, the idea for the theme system came out, was born of my frustrations of using a Hobonichi Techo. Right. Like, I wanted it to be different. Because I basically created the theme system in using a Hobonichi. Like, I used to just break up the page into all these boxes and stuff. Yeah, I remember seeing the pictures. Yeah. So, like, that's where the idea came from. Because I started doing a journal every day. And I was like, there are a bunch of things I want to do differently. Why, no. Why don't I just make my own one? And so, that's kind of where the idea came from, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, I think in the big picture, anything that any of us are going to choose to use, it just has to... There's got to be no friction into using these things. I have a huge friction problem, like, in using certain things, right? Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Which is why, like, I created a system where there's no fixed, defined system. There are just sections. And then you create your own system within it for the thing that works best for you. That's where it came from.

Myke Hurley: Right. So, my, like, if I'm going to make it easy and not intimidating for myself, it's kind of funny that I need three different notebooks to do that with. You do you, man. But, like, I don't, like, I sit, I'm sitting here looking right at these things. And I don't see anything I would change. I don't say, well, what if I could combine all this into, like, the William Hanna notebook and make these pages and do this and that. It's like, I don't want to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Which, like, technically, the William Hanna is perfect for it because it's, like, a modular system.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But I'm with you in the separation. I'm very big into separation of things.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Like, I think it's awesome. Like, if I could have one notebook and just do all these things in it. But that's intimidating. Like, I just, I would be more concerned about am I doing it right than actually just, like, accomplishing something. You know? I'd be more frustrated with, like, okay, how do I put all this in here than am I actually gaining, like, efficiency or whatever I'm trying to do by having these things. So, I like my setup. I'm very, I've never been as content with a setup as I am right now. Um, which is very, very much not like me at all. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, I'm going to be very keen to see how this progresses throughout the year. Because you have had a less than stellar track record when it comes to planners and journals. Yeah. Like, I think over the time that you've been trying to do this over the many years, this kind of, like, there's just a slight evolution of what you were doing last year. It's, like, mostly the same with, I think, the weeks, right? As you say, it's, like, that's the addition. Everything else is, like, mostly the same but slightly amended. So, I'm keen to see if you keep it up. I mean, it would, history would suggest you won't. Right. Like, long-term history. But short-term history would suggest that you will because this is maybe the only time you've had something carry over.

Myke Hurley: That's correct. Like, so, we're not, I'm not starting anything fresh right now. All of these products have been used in some cases for months, like, 6th, August, September type of timeframe. Um, and, like, I am not wanting for anything. Right? I have what I want. And it's working. And I'm using the things as I intend them. Um, you know, that's, I think that's important. You don't have to use things as someone else intends them to be used. You can use them how they work for yourself. Um, so, yeah. The, the, the hardest, the hardest thing I had to figure out with this little setup is how to carry it. Like, I was, I was joking about the strap before. But I sat at my desk. I was like, I have to, I was not happy with how I was carrying all these things. Um, so, like, I finally figured out, like, I used the Not, NotCo Burton, um, the wax canvas, like, open pouch. I was using that for, like, some of my visual journaling kit. Like, you know, different pens and markers and washi tape and scissors and notebooks and scraps and things like that. And, and, I was really wanting to use the NotCo seed case for this. Well, the William Hanna cover doesn't fit in that. Plus, you're kind of losing the visual beauty of what this cover is. It's a leather cover. It's colors I got to pick out. It's cool looking. Um, so, I said, well, let me try to put the theme system journal and the Hobonichi Weeks inside the seed case, right? Because I can use, like, the front cover and the back cover to fit those things. I was like, well, the, it works technically. But the balance was off. Like, I didn't like the aesthetic of what it looked like when it opened. So, I finally figured out that I needed to move out my visual journaling stuff into this new pouch that I got for Christmas from Superior Labor, which allows me to carry, like, more weirdly shaped items like washi tape that have more bulk to them. So, use the theme system and the Hobonichi Weeks go in the Burton with a bunch of different pens. And, you know, I can keep loose note cards and things like that in there if I need to write some random note or whatever. And then just carry the William Hanna as the notebook itself.

Brad Dowdy: Which pouch did you get from Superior Labor? Was it the engineer pouch? Yes.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So, it's like a, I got to take a picture of it. But the way that pouch works, think of it like a Burton but with a base, right? So, it has, like, almost like a triangle shape, right? It has a base and it goes up to the point where the zipper is. So, that base, that width allows me to throw, like, tape in there and scissors, things that don't, like, traditionally fit super well. And, like, some of the cases that knock designs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. So, and that lives on my desk, right? I don't travel with that. So, I can just have it, like, it's my bulk bag, right? If you, we can throw it back to years ago. Wow. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Bulk bag.

Myke Hurley: And the other stuff just fits perfectly in this. So, yeah. And then I have an idea for my seed case, which is, like, one of my favorite designs and the favorite colors. Right now, I have a different idea for that, that I have listed in the idea notebook.

Brad Dowdy: That you're going to use it for? Yes. Oh.

Myke Hurley: Okay. It's not a, it's not a planner, it's not a date-based type of system. It's just a kind of a fun type of system thing. Goes along with some of the, like, I'm doing, like, some hand lettering stuff. I'm taking an online hand lettering class. Oh. So, I can use, like, I can use, I have, I'm getting that set up for when I start doing more practice work on that. So, yeah. Oh, cool. That's just one of those things.

Brad Dowdy: I've talked a lot today, Myke. Well, we had to get it out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a big, this is a big thing, because I think it's going to continue to inform a lot of the conversations that we're going to be having over this year, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and I was excited to talk about it, because we've been kind of, sort of, talking about it for months. So, I wanted to just get it locked in. This is what I use, and this is how it's going to be going forward. Maybe there's a change later in the year. We can talk about it then, but I'm super happy right now with my setup. And now, I'll just get to rotate all kinds of new pens and pencils and fun stuff within this system. Maybe the Platinum Curie DOS later, sometime next year.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm looking, well, what, next year? The Curie DOS? Oh, man.

Brad Dowdy: We're in 2020, baby.

Myke Hurley: Wow. It's going to be a year. I'm feeling it. I'm super positive. I'm super hyped. I'm in a good place. Good. I'm busier than ever. Want to do more than ever. Want to get it right more than ever. So, here's to a big year, boss.

Brad Dowdy: New year means new organization. A great place for organizational products is at knockco.com. You can get seed cases for your lovely journals. You can get cases for your beautiful pens. You can get all of those there. Bags, right? Burntons there. We've got the linears all there. Hines of stuff. Paper goods. Man, head over to knockco.com. Treat yourself. Treat yourself. The best note cards. The best note cards available today. You can find Brad online at penaddict.com. He's on twitch.tv. He's on penaddict. He should be starting that up again next week.

Myke Hurley: Next week. Yeah, we'll be back on it next week. It's tough with kids being off and vacation and people going this way and that way to stick to that schedule. So once life gets back to normal next week, we'll be back on our normal Twitch schedule every Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern.

Brad Dowdy: You can go to instagram.com slash penaddict or dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I'm I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram, on Twitter. Go to cortexmerch.com where you can currently find the theme system journal. I will say that as we've been recording, still selling. So get one. If you want one, get one because it's going to be a while again as usual until we can get these things back in stock. That is a big goal for me in 2020 is to somehow iron out that process. But it's a huge learning experience for me. But that'll be fun. We'll see. We'll see how we go there. You can find the show notes for today's episode at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 391. Thanks to Squarespace and Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show into 2020. Much appreciated from those wonderful companies. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.