The Pen Addict 135/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 135 |
| Title: | Shake it Like a Paint Pen |
| Release Date: | December 29th, 2014 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 135 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 135 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 135 |
| Length: | 5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 135. This show is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts for a 10-day free trial. Visit lynda.com slash penaddict and Squarespace. Start here, go anywhere. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by the, I don't know, like, St. Penmas or something, Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: You are struggling, man.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm all frazzled. I just recorded a very, very long podcast, and it's drained me of all energy.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and taken all your brain cells away, apparently.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think it has. I think it might, that actually might be the longest single recording I've ever done. My goodness. Amazing.
Brad Dowdy: Well, did you, uh, did you get worn out over, uh, Christmas slash Boxing Day slash party time all, uh, all this past week?
Myke Hurley: I sure did, yeah, but it was a good kind of, you know, good kind of worn out. I had a good time, but you, sir, you have, uh, you've been further afield than I have.
Disney World Trip
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, took the, took the family on a little surprise trip to Disney World, surprised the kids with that for their Christmas present, and, uh, went for a few days down to the House of Mouse, and, uh, had a, just a blast. And, yeah, talk about worn out from that. I mean, that, that will wear you out. You need a vacation from your vacation when you get back from that, especially, uh, this time of year when it's, it's at its peak crowd levels. So, it's, uh, yeah, yeah, Christmas is their busiest time of year. So, who would have known?
Myke Hurley: What date were you there from and until?
Brad Dowdy: I'm gonna say 19th to 22nd. Right. So, the day we left was the busiest of the days we were there. Then, after, the day after that, it really, it goes up another notch of, of busyness all through New Year's.
Myke Hurley: Hmm.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. It's packed, but we had fun. Had a, had a ton of fun, so.
Myke Hurley: Did you stay, uh, you stayed on the, on the Complex?
Brad Dowdy: We did, we did. Uh, last time we went, we stayed off Complex, and it's much, we discovered it's much better to stay on Complex. Lots of, lots of added benefits, uh, outweigh any of the, the few monetary savings, uh, that you have. So, yeah. We should, we should do a Disney podcast.
Myke Hurley: There are already some.
Brad Dowdy: Oh my God, there's a bunch. I listened to, uh, uh, my friend Sarah told me about one called Golden Horseshoe. Um, so, if any Disney people want, uh, want to hear just a few, uh, kind of, uh, tech nerds talking about Disney, uh, about that. I think, um, Louie Mantia is on that.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Um, the designer. So, uh, a few people, they, they chit-chat about Disney. So, I listened to a bunch of episodes of that. Um, it's a, it's a fun, it's a fun podcast. Uh, you know, it's only about 20 or 30 minutes an episode. So, highly recommended. So, did you, did you pull down any, uh, big, uh, stationary Christmas, Christmas loot this year?
Myke Hurley: Do you know what? I didn't. I didn't. I didn't get, I didn't get anything, uh, that I can think of. I'm sorry if I've upset someone now who bought me something. Uh, but I can't, I can't think of anything. I did have a horror today, Brad. Uh-oh. So, I sat down, sat down at my desk. And my pen isn't here, and I don't know where it is. Still. My Karas Customs Inc. Like, it's not on my desk today. And I don't know where it's gone.
Brad Dowdy: And you have not come up with it as of, as of this, uh, recording?
Myke Hurley: No, someone has taken it, and I don't know who has taken it or what they've done with it. But, uh, I'm very upset about it, because I don't know where it is.
Brad Dowdy: So, this happened at your office one time. Yeah. Um, your, your former place of employment of your jobby job. Uh, this happened. But, uh, in your house, that's a whole other story.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's, it's concerning. Uh, because I can't work out where it's gone. Um, but maybe I'll update you on that, I hope, next week with an answer. I hope so, because you love that pen. I use it every day, so I'm looking, I'm looking around for it now.
Brad Dowdy: It's, it's bothering you that much that you're, uh, that you're stopping mid-podcast to, uh, scan the room.
Myke Hurley: I'm just looking under the desk, and I can't see it.
Brad Dowdy: Well, it's not like, it's not, like, bright blue and orange. I mean, it should show up.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, you, you, you, you think it would, it would not be able to hide from me. Yeah, it's not like it's black. Somebody has clearly moved it, and, uh, as soon as I find out who and why, there will be hell to pay, Dalby, let me tell you.
Brad Dowdy: Well, that's not good. Well, I'm like you, I didn't get anything, um, stationary-related for Christmas, but I got my TI2 Tech Liner, the copper acid wash shorty that I'd backed on Kickstarter the day before we left for Disney World. So, that was kind of my, my pen for Christmas. So, you know, I'm like you, it's, it's, it's hard to buy, unless you're very specific on what you want someone to buy, uh, you know, from pen nerds for Christmas. It's, uh, it's a little bit, um, we're hard to shop for, unless we're very, uh, explicit in what we're looking for, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, that's why I almost never get pens or paper for gifts. I usually take care of that stuff myself, just because it's easier that way. So, but I, I love this little pen. It's, uh, I've been, I've been on the, the Tech Liner bandwagon for a while now, and y'all keep hearing me blab about it, but it's because I carry it a lot and use it a lot. So, it's a great pen. Great pen. Our, um, our Twitter followers, Myke, uh, they got the serious hookup for Christmas, for the holidays. My, uh, feed was, was filled up from about the 24th to the 26th of everyone's, uh, awesome stuff. And they actually thanked us several times for, uh, putting the bug in their ear about several products. And I noticed a few, I noticed a few common threads between a lot of the pictures that we got from our followers that they got for Christmas. One of them was field notes, either alone with pens, or there were several archival boxes I got in my Twitter feed. You know, the, uh, the storage box. Do you have that storage box, Myke?
Myke Hurley: I have two of them.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Is this the story where one of them got vanished and you ended up with a second one and the first one showed up kind of thing?
Myke Hurley: No, they just sent two. I don't know why. That's right. And then I contacted them and told them. And they told me I could keep it. Nice.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that would be, uh, expensive to ship.
Myke Hurley: I think that was why. It was like, the cost of them having to pay my shipping, which they kind of probably would have had to have done in that scenario, uh, would have outweighed, would have outweighed it. And they may as well have just gone with the Goodwill, you know?
Retro 51 Pens
Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, a lot of archival boxes out there for Christmas. A lot of Retro 51s out there for Christmas, from the, uh, the ugly sweater pen to, uh, some of the newer models, some of the metal models. Um, lots of Retro 51s in my feed. And at least two, if not more, of the new TWSBI 580, uh, aluminum orange models, which I was getting taunted about, uh, quite frequently, uh, to make me jealous of that pen. So, I might have to, uh, that's, that one's gonna have to go on the shopping list, um, here pretty soon.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think, I feel like we're influencing people to buy that pen, but we don't own it yet.
Brad Dowdy: I know. That's happened with several items, actually. Um, we'll talk about it, and people are like, hey, look what I got. I'm like, dang it! I don't even have it yet.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I really want it, too. I do really, really want it.
Brad Dowdy: Well, I've actually used, I don't own one of the aluminum ones, um, but I've used one, and they're really, really nice. Um, better than the regular 580. So, I would like to get my hands on one and, uh, give it a real go.
Myke Hurley: Robert and why don't you?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know, I know. So, I'll work on that. So, we did, um, we did our big field notes episode last week. The top 25 list got lots of good feedback on that. And, all of a sudden, I broke the, um, the eBay secondary market again. I, I'm just kidding. I doubt it was because of me. But, um, a grass-stained green 3-pack went up after that episode. And it had a buy-it-now price of $400 for the 3-pack, and it sold.
Brad Dowdy: And that's pretty nuts. So, a bunch of the, uh, the field nuts group, uh, sent me that link. And, uh, a bunch of people sent me that link. And, uh, I've seen it happen. I mean, I've seen the Butcher Blue go for $400 for a 3-pack. I've seen, uh, I think those are the only two I've seen go for $400. Grass-stained green and Butcher Blue. I've seen the Butcher Orange go for about $300.
Brad Dowdy: It's kind of nuts that, um...
Myke Hurley: It's a lot of money, man.
Brad Dowdy: A $10 pack of notebooks would sell for $400 that someone would pay that much. But, uh, yeah. To, to each their own, I guess. Um, it's, it's my favorite. It's obviously my favorite, um, field notes edition. But, ooh, $400. That's crazy. We, we did get a lot of love, uh, from our listeners for the Starbucks roastery edition, didn't we, Myke?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, before, before that, like, I wanted to mention, like, another, uh, lost field notes or whatever you might call it. Um, Paul joins, uh, on Twitter. Sure. He, uh, sent me a link to, like, a web store that was doing, is still selling Firespotter. Huh. Which I was very surprised about, um, but they're super expensive. So I'm on there now. Uh, it's, they're selling them for, like, like, $110 a pop. Mm-hmm. So you can get...
Brad Dowdy: For the, for the three pack?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, single, single pack with tattoo for $110. Single for $38. But it's kind of, it kind of says out of stock, but then it still has those prices. So, actually, it looks like it might not be in stock anymore, but...
Notgeist Pens
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, is this, uh, Notgeist?
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Okay, that's, uh, Gary Varner. He's in the Field Nuts group. He's just started that business, like, in the past month or two.
Myke Hurley: Oh, okay. Okay.
Brad Dowdy: And he's, uh, selling... He buys and sells old editions and then offers them up as singles a lot of times for people who just want to pick up one. Um, so they're not always in stock yet. They're just as he can get his hands on them.
Myke Hurley: But that's like... Yeah, that's way over what I would, uh... Yeah. What I would pay.
Brad Dowdy: So, Fire Spotter's not one you have? I thought that was about when you picked up, or I guess maybe it was after...
Myke Hurley: No, Fire Spotter's one that I've never had. Uh, but I have, um, the Red Blooded.
Brad Dowdy: Sure.
Myke Hurley: But never, never got, never picked up a Fire Spotter. And I've always wanted one.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, they're really good. Oh, sorry.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, um... So this roastery edition that we talked about probably two weeks ago now, um, we've each got some in our hands from some awesome listeners. And, uh, what do you think about those?
Field Notes Editions
Myke Hurley: Oh, what a great edition. It's like everything that I kind of wanted it to be, I think.
Brad Dowdy: It's beautiful, isn't it?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I love the, uh, the stuff inside the covers. Mm-hmm. You know, like the descriptions of coffee and all that sort of stuff. That's really nice.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, um, Field Notes does a really good job. They, um, they know their market well, and they, um, they jump all over it and, um, do awesome things like this, this roastery edition. It's really, really beautiful. And, uh, thank you to our, uh, our lovely friends who, uh, picked up some of those and, uh, and sent us some. So you guys, you guys pretty much rule. So...
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, what, I mean, I really, like, the wood feels good on these, right? Um, and I, I like the kind of, is it like a brass foil, isn't it? Uh, copper. That's what I meant to say. Yeah, copper. Yeah, I think... Copper kettle. Really nice inside. I like all the... The interesting pairings information of different coffee with different activities. And, yeah, really... Yeah, really nice. I like the orange on the inside, and then the orange, like, dot grid.
Brad Dowdy: They're making it really hard for me to pick out the next edition I'm going to use. Because I haven't... I started using the day game edition, and I haven't finished that one yet. But I want to use one of the new factory floor editions that came out, you know, right before Christmas. I haven't used one of those yet. Now I've got this roastery edition that I want to use that. So, it's, uh... I need to get writing so I can just plow through some of these editions and enjoy them for their intended use.
Myke Hurley: I might just hang on to these roaster editions for a while.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're pretty.
Brad Dowdy: Pretty, pretty. You could frame those. They look good.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, they would, actually. Like, one on the front, one on the back, you know? Mm-hmm.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Well, I'm going to talk about some more field notes, just with some listeners' top five lists from my top 25 list that we did last week. Just a little bit of follow-up and some comments I had on that. But why don't you talk about one of our good friends and sponsors this week?
Myke Hurley: It's time to kickstart your new year and challenge yourself to learn something new with a free 10-day trial to lynda.com. Lynda.com is used by millions of people around the world and has over 3,000 courses on topics like web development, photography, visual design, and business, as well as software training and programs like Excel and Photoshop. All of lynda.com's courses are taught by experts and they have new courses being added to the site every week. Whether you want to invest in a new hobby, find a new job, maybe you want help in asking your boss for a raise, or improve upon your current skill set in 2015, lynda.com has something for everyone and they definitely have something for you. Once you sign up to lynda.com, you've got unlimited access to every course. We're talking over hundreds of thousands of awesome video tutorials. You'll be able to access and view them on tablets and mobile devices with their apps for iOS and Android, and you'll get access to all of the new courses that are being added every week. Some fantastic stuff that I've seen around lynda in the past, like we spoke about that Draplin course from a couple of weeks ago. It's just a fantastic, just really great video, and it's just this really interesting way of learning something new. I mean, you kind of get to see inside the mind of a genius like Aaron Draplin, right? And you get to see all the crazy cool stuff that he does with the logo design and all that. That's a lynda.com course. Maybe you want to learn a bit about web design. They've got a great set of courses from Jeffrey Zeldman. They have some cool stuff on typography as well, including how to effectively use different fonts and typefaces in design. They have the great documentary Helvetica as well. So if you want to learn a bit about that, that's a great documentary, and that's available on lynda.com too. So that's all there. It's all there, ready for you. And you can go and try some of it out right now, so go do something good for yourself in the upcoming year. Sign up for a free 10-day trial to lynda.com by visiting lynda.com slash penaddict. Go ahead. We challenge you to learn something new this coming year. Thank you so much, lynda.com, for supporting this show and RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: Not that there's ever not a good time to go visit lynda.com, but now is the time to, like you said, kickstart those new projects and new skills right at the beginning of the year when we're all fresh and ready to go and ready to learn something new. And I'm about to teach you something new, Myke.
Myke Hurley: Do it.
Brad Dowdy: So I've got two top five lists from follow-up from the Field Notes ranking episode, and they show two things. One, that how everyone has just a wild variance in how much they enjoy certain editions. And two, how wrong you are about the Traveling Salesman edition. Because both of these top five contain the Traveling Salesman edition that you really dislike. And, you know, that's, you know, that's your right. You know, that's why these Field Notes are so much fun and why we talk about them so much, because there's so much to talk about. I mean, it's not just a single plain notebook, you know, that we all have the same one. You know, we all have different styles, different favorites, different ways to use them. So this list from Francis, number five, Shelterwood. You know, like I said, that doesn't surprise me if that's number one on a lot of people.
Brad Dowdy: Number four, National Crops. Number three, County Fair. Number two, Night Sky. So that's another one that's in both of these top five, so you can appreciate that. Number one, Myke, Traveling Salesman. Love the paper, love the ledger, and where's the best in the pocket? Man. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: And then we have a list from Nathan. Number five, Traveling Salesman. See? I mean, that's a popular edition. Number four, Night Sky. Number three, Day Game, especially the white red. I think that book makes that set. The other two, the green and the brown ones are good. That white one is exceptional. And if it wasn't for that, that white one, that three-pack would rank a lot lower. But a lot of people, including myself, rave about that white-red edition.
Myke Hurley: Oh, I love it.
Brad Dowdy: As just being one of the single best editions that they've ever made. Single best covers.
Myke Hurley: I think the other colors are pretty much throwaway. Like, they're not really that interesting.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they don't really get you going like the white and red. And then number two, Drink Local, which I'm all behind that. And number one, Ambition. So, you know, that's another really solid list. I mean, what do you have to say about these people who love the Traveling Salesman? Do they have problems? Who's right, you or them?
Myke Hurley: Oh, no, I'm definitely right.
Brad Dowdy: See, we're all right in Field Notes. That's what makes it fun. So, we're all right. And now we got a new user of the Field Notes that just tweeted me. And I want you to look at this picture from Morgan on Twitter. I'm not going to attempt to pronounce his Twitter handle. Look at the destruction. He says, first Field Notes down. Hopefully, the next one holds up better. We'll have this in the show notes. I've never seen this one. I've never seen a Field Notes this destroyed that didn't have duct tape on it. I've seen tons with duct tape on them, right? Because the covers, I mean, this is what they're for. They're going to break down. They're going to wear. They're going to come off the staples. They're going to rip. And I've seen all kinds with duct tape, you know, binding. Morgan didn't go that route. He just sucked it up and just kept plugging away and kept using it. This is the single most destroyed Field Notes I've ever seen.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's impressive. Yeah. Morgan's got some skills.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. You don't get that out of normal use, but you get that out of hardcore usage. And I like it. Well, I mean, his Twitter icon is Dave Mustaine. So hardcore appears to be up Morgan's alley. So I thought that was a great picture. So the Twitter was all abuzz the past two days, maybe. Maybe three days. I really don't know what day it is when you have that holiday and days off and weekends. I'm really like at a complete loss for really what day it is. But in the past several days, I've had two things pop up in my Twitter feed and my Instagram feed that are like of the Oh Baby variety. The first one is the Lammy AL Star, the 2015 special edition. So for the Safari and the AL Star and even the studio, they make a special color every year, usually. And last year was that bluish green AL Star that I never really got into. I didn't even bother ordering one. This year, it's the AL Star Copper Orange. It looks like this is going to be the year of the orange pen, Myke. So not only is the AL Star Copper Orange, it looks like the TWSBI 580 Aluminum Orange, to be honest.
Myke Hurley: If you look, this is a... A matching ink.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what I was about to say. This is something that they've never done. This link's on Fanta Plumo. It's a Dutch pen site, and that's where all the links I got, everyone was sending me this weekend. So not only do they have this AL Star pen, they have a Copper Orange Special Edition with matching ink color, and they show these little orange Lamy cartridges. That's super interesting. They've never done that before. And they don't have an orange ink in their standard ink lineup. They don't have a wide range of inks anyway. I think maybe six colors if you're lucky. So that's kind of neat. It'd be interesting to see if they're going to come out with this orange ink as a standard thing, or you're only going to be able to get these orange ink cartridges during the time that the AL Star is available. So, you know, when they do the limited editions, they make X amount, and when they sell them out, they're gone. I mean, it's a huge, huge amount. You don't have to rush out and get them. They'll be available probably all through the next year, and you can still get last year's edition, I'm sure, at some places. So, you know, it's not like a super limited edition. But when they sell out, they are gone. So what do you think about that color?
Myke Hurley: It's a nice color. I like my orange is a bit brighter.
Brad Dowdy: Same.
Myke Hurley: But it looks good, though.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it does look really good. It looks good with the black section. And, you know, as good as it looks, it doesn't look good as this next pen mic. And I can't repeat on air what I wrote in the document for this. I have a little header listed above this. I love this link, above this link. If you're into the internet meme thing, just picture... Oh, I just went blank.
Brad Dowdy: Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill. Picture Jonah Hill in Superbad. And he has a very famous phrase in that. And you can picture where I wrote in the document on this. Have you clicked this link, Myke?
Myke Hurley: I saw it when you tweeted about it.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So this is a Nibs.com special. It's a Sailor Pro Gear Rialo Red and Black Limited Edition. It looks orange, though. It's this orangish red that's a very classic fountain pen color. There's a Parker Duo Fold, which is a pen that I've always enjoyed looking at. Made in the early 1930s, 1940s, when Parker was really getting off the ground. And it's almost this exact same reddish-orange color. This pen is straight up beautiful. I've stared at this for way longer than I should have. I can't pull the trigger on it, though. It's just... It's too much too soon. It's a $500 pen. It's beautiful. It's awesome. I would love to own one. But it's just too much. Too much money right now. I'm trying to... I need to work on... We'll talk about it maybe next week. We'll talk about a few of our stationary resolutions for next year. And one of mine is to refine the fountain pen collection. I just don't need to be adding right now when I'm trying to manage it. You know, maybe I'll regret it in a year. There's only 88 of these models made.
Brad Dowdy: You know, but there'll be other pens another day, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah, there will be. I mean, it's very nice. It's not, for me, $495 of nice.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Nakaya Pens
Myke Hurley: I agree. The Nakayas are better looking than this, and that's Nakaya money.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, that's something.
Myke Hurley: Plus, it has gold trim, you know? And we all know about how you feel about gold trim.
Brad Dowdy: If the cap... It has this weird, like, silver rhodium band in the middle of the pen, but the rest of it's gold. Which is... It's actually a little bit off-putting. That one band.
Myke Hurley: Oh, okay. I thought that that was a demonstrator.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-mm. Oh, you think that's the ink window? Maybe that's the ink window. Okay. So, maybe so. It's hard to tell, but I think you're right, actually. I always get that. Yeah, in the one picture, I can tell. I think that is the ink window. Yeah. It looks a little bit odd there. I'd rather it just be solid orange, I think. But, yeah. If it was... If it didn't have the gold trim, I might have bought it. I might have jumped on it. In this form, I'm actually tempted, but it's just not perfect enough to spend that kind of money on it, like you say. Yeah, you don't want it. But a beautiful pen, nonetheless. And the numbering on the blind cap at the bottom of the pen is really cool. It's a very classic looking numbering on there. I like how they did that. So, that's pretty neat. Pretty neat. I became a more active Redditor over the weekend, Myke. Instead of wasting my time looking at cat pictures or cringe pictures or GIFs and wasting time on Reddit, I decided if I'm going to spend time on Reddit, I should use that time better and in the greater good. So, I created a new Reddit account. If you're a Redditor, you can follow me. My username is pen underscore addict.
Brad Dowdy: And I was just using that account to, like, browse all the pen boards. You know, there's fountain pens and notebooks and stationery and pens. And, you know, there's about 20 boards that I follow. And I'm trying to be more active and just answering questions and leaving comments and things like that. And I found a really amazing post last night of a soccer commentator named Nick Barnes there in the UK. Works for BBC Radio. He does his prep notes in the most amazing format that I've ever seen. So, have you had a chance to go through the pictures of these notes?
Myke Hurley: These are stunning.
Brad Dowdy: So, we'll have this in the show notes. This is at relay.fm slash pen addict slash, what are we, 135?
Myke Hurley: Yep, that's it.
Brad Dowdy: If you don't check out anything else from this entire episode, if we drive you crazy about all this other talk, do yourself a favor and go click this link. It's amazing. He uses, you know, he's an announcer. So, he's announcing the game live. And, you know, he's doing his show prep and has all his notes about the players and the teams and the stats and everything. He has what looks like a big 8.5 by 11 hardbound notebook where he fills out the teams. He colors in the different kits they're wearing that day. He colors in, you know, the funniest thing is he colors the pitch in like the mowing pattern with the highlighter where it looks like the lawnmower on the pitch has, you know, made those stripes. He colors it that way. So, he uses the Statler Tripus fineliners to do all his writing. I exchanged a couple tweets with him yesterday. He uses the Stabilo highlighters to highlight everything. And he uses a fountain pen, looks like a pelican, to write in some of the bigger lines. And, you know, he colors in all the nationality flags of all the players. I looked at this for a good 30 minutes, like, expanding all these pictures and just kind of taking in all the details. It's really, really fascinating.
Myke Hurley: It's insane. Like, it's way more than is necessary, you know? You know, like, really, like, just incredible. Really, really incredible.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, a couple people were giving him grief, like, you know, if you're an announcer, you shouldn't have to write down all this stuff, you know, to remember all this. And he's like, that is so not the point. I do this because I enjoy doing it. And it's like art and a relief to me to do this. It's like an expression. So it's nothing but pure enjoyment for him to do this. So it's really fascinating.
Myke Hurley: He's, like, cutting and pasting, like, logos and stuff.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, logos. Yep. Yep.
Myke Hurley: There's some kits as well. Like, this is just so beautiful. Like, it's so, you know, he's drawing the little flags. Like, it must be like a catharsis, you know? Yeah, totally. It's got to be. It's just got to be.
Brad Dowdy: Yep.
Myke Hurley: Really, really incredible.
Brad Dowdy: This would be something I'd love to flip through one day. Like, if I had a whole book of this, I would totally buy a book of his finished product. Like, if they reprinted it, just to look at it, it's fascinating. If you can't tell, I'm really taken by this. I said in our show notes, I put, in my dreams, my notes look like this. And that's the truth.
Myke Hurley: Oh, for sure, man. Like, really, these are something. There's something else. Like, really, really something else.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, I want to fire things up a little bit from, we've been talking about a bunch of links, follow-up notes, news, all that stuff. I want to talk about some products now, some specific products that have been a little bit polarizing, I guess is the right word in our little community. But why don't you talk about another one of our really, really good friends today.
Myke Hurley: So, this week's episode of The Pen Addict is also brought to you by Squarespace. The all-in-one platform that make it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit squarespace.com and enter the offer code INK. I-N-K. It's going to get you that 10% off. Squarespace. Start here. Go anywhere. When it comes to giving yourself a place online, there's nowhere but in a Squarespace. And this is something that Pen Addict listeners know. Brad, when I talk to the guys and girls over at Squarespace, they always tell me how many Pen Addict listeners sign up. And it fills me with joy to know that you guys are supporting us and also sort of kidding yourself out with some great place, some great tools, right? You've got all the best stuff. You've got everything you need. I mean, and I think people know, like, they can trust you, right? You are a user of Squarespace. You put your money where your mouth is, right? And you have your Pen Addict blog and you have the NotCo blog both living over at Squarespace. And we have the same. Yeah, you have the commerce stuff. We have our commerce. All of our commerce for Relay is running through Squarespace 2. And that came at your recommendation as well. You told us, yeah, no, we tried it. We love it. And it's what we're going to go with. And when me and Stephen were thinking about that, the same with our Relay blog is all there as well. It was like, why would we reinvent the wheel? Or why would we try and build all this stuff when Squarespace do it better than we ever could? And it costs nothing. It's like $8 a month if you sign up for one of our annual plans. And you also get a free domain name as well if you do that. But it's like, why would we go and try and build all of these things when Squarespace have built it all for us? They have their beautiful templates, right? All these responsive, designed, fantastic templates that look good on all sorts of platforms, all devices. They have 15 new ones that have come with Squarespace 7. Have you checked out any of those, Brad? I'm sure you've got that itching to redesign the fanatic together.
Brad Dowdy: I do. I do. And I started to look at them one night. And then I was like, okay, you just got to stop until you can sit down and have time to really commit and play around with some of the new templates. So I started to. Then I was like, chill out for a minute and wait till you have a little bit more time to decipher all the new templates. So yeah.
Myke Hurley: I've got this new cover page stuff, which you should look at if you haven't already. I think it'd be really good for Nock.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've actually, that's one thing that's very interesting to me for multiple uses.
Myke Hurley: So basically what cover page is, it gives you the ability to have like a single page website. Now this can be a whole standalone site that you set up. So basically you have all of the power of Squarespace just on one page. These are great for like personal websites or full page like announcements and stuff, maybe like for an engagement or something like that. But they can also add as a really nice full page intro for a website that you already have. So I've been playing around with it quite a lot actually. And I've been really impressed by it. Like it's just so simple and it's like so bare bones. And it just gives you the ability to put a couple of really important links, some beautiful imagery, some great types, some great headlines. They've got all these great fonts and stuff, which just look fantastic. If you haven't played around with these already, if you have a Squarespace account or if you're interested in trying out Squarespace, cover pages are a real great place to start. Make it your new year's resolution to try it out and enable one and see how much the visitors of your website will love them. I was talking about images a moment ago. Squarespace recently partnered with Getty Images to provide you with a great deal on awesome photography at just $10 an image. Loads of great images to choose from. And you can get them for just $10, which is an absolute steal if you've ever looked at what it costs to get stock photography. Squarespace, they have 24-7 support with live chat and email. They have teams located in New York, Dublin and Ireland who are there to help you with any questions that you might have. They are just, if you want a website, Squarespace is the only place that you should be going to. I've used them for years and I could never be happier with them than I am right now because they're just doing incredible stuff. Go start out a free trial right now. No credit card required to do this and start building your website today by going to squarespace.com. And when you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INK at checkout. That's I-N-K at checkout to get you 10% off your first purchase and show your support for The Pen Addict. We thank Squarespace so much for their continued support for this show and Relay FM. Squarespace, start here, go anywhere.
Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Squarespace. And thank you to our listeners for supporting us by using that. It really does. Squarespace is one of those that we get pinged at during the week. Hey, what was that code again for Squarespace? I'm going to build something. So it's really nice to get that support from all the listeners. So it's really great.
Myke Hurley: With all of our sponsors, they will keep coming back if you guys sign up. So if you're on the fence, even if you just want to sign up for the trials, sign up for the trials and try them out. Because if you're interested, maybe they'll push you over the edge. Maybe they won't. But if you sign up for the trials, then at least they know that they hear the stuff and it's relevant to them. So it shows people that are sponsors that you like their products. Don't just sign up for the trials and don't use them. Only do it if you think you're interested. But yeah, if you are, just go try them out. You've got nothing to lose. Same with Linder, Squarespace. Great, great guys.
Kaweco Liliput
Brad Dowdy: All right, let's get some people fired up, Myke, and talk about the Kaweco Liliput Fire Blue fountain pen.
Myke Hurley: Really enjoyed this review. I was excited about this one because I was wondering what you were going to say. And I liked that you put a little video in. Great video from JetPers.
Brad Dowdy: Oh my God, they just started doing this. This isn't their only one. There's two or three out there.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I actually emailed them. I was like, what is going on? And they're like, we got a new video producer and we're doing all this, this and this. I'm like, well, whoever it is did an amazing job with the video. So I embedded that into the post, but that's JetPens video. And boy, did they do a good job on that. So let me hear your thoughts. What do you think about the Fire Blue, the Kaweco Liliput Fire Blue?
Myke Hurley: What a story. Like, that almost made me want to buy it. Just the story of like the fact that every single one of them passes over the founder and CEO's desk. And he takes a blowtorch to them by hand. Like, crazy. And also, I mean, they are expensive. But by golly, are they beautiful, Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's one of the most stunning pens I've ever had the pleasure of owning. And let me give everyone a little bit behind the scenes here. I'm lucky enough to have a JetPens sponsor the blog. So I am privileged to be able to get some products early to check out.
Brad Dowdy: And I don't get to necessarily, if I don't know what the product is already, I don't get to see a picture of it. I just get to see some names and I'll choose some things and, you know, we'll test them out. So it's like, Kaweco Liliput Fire Blue. That sounds really interesting. Send me one of those. No idea what it looked like. No idea what it is.
Myke Hurley: And you assume it's going to be blue and red.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I assume it's going to be blue. Like, I have the Cult Pens blue aluminum Liliput. You know, it's just a great blue color, which is actually pictured later in this post. So I don't know what this Fire Blue is going to entail. So I get the package. I open it up. And it's literally one of those oh my god moments that I didn't know what to expect. And I was so stunned when I did open the box. I just stared at it for like a minute. I was like, what am I looking at here? Because, you know, there's no instructions that come with this pen either. It doesn't tell me anything about how it's finished, what it's finished, what the materials are. I had to hunt down that it was a steel barrel, you know, to, you know, do the write-up. And it's fascinating. So the other kicker is, at the time where I get it, I don't know the price. I don't know how much this is going to retail for when it goes live on JetPens. I had no idea. And I actually posted it on Instagram, I think. And Myke Dudek started pinging me. He's like, man, that's stunning. He says, how much do you think it's going to be? I said, I have no idea. It's steel. It's not aluminum. It's not brass. Like, they have the brass ones that I love so much, the brass wave.
Brad Dowdy: You know, and it's got this special finish. You know, at the time, I didn't even know how to finish it. We were going back and forth on pricing. How much do you think this is going to be? And as it turns out, it's $170, which was higher than anything we'd guessed.
Brad Dowdy: And so that was actually kind of a downer. I was like, that kind of like took the air out of my sails a little bit. Because that's really expensive for kind of what you get. You know, it's a steel nib pen. Someone made the point, well, you could buy a Vanishing Point or a Lamy 2000 instead of this pen and have a nice gold nib pen, a classic pen, full size pen that's going to last you forever. And, you know, I can't really argue with that. That's a totally fair, legitimate argument. And if that's what you're looking for, then that's what you should do. I mean, if you're saving up for one of those great, you know, entry-level gold nib pens, you should totally get that. But that's not what this pen's about. This pen's like, like you said, this pen has a story behind it. It's made especially for jet pens. Michael Gubberle, the founder and CEO of Kaweco, he's the one that's torching all these pens. It's individually tempered with a 600-degree flame, Michael. He does all these, puts them all together. So they're not necessarily a limited edition, but there's always limited availability. And talking to jet pens, when they got them in, they got about 40 of them in. And I was ready to go with my review. And they sold out in like two or three hours. I could not believe what I just saw. So I said, well, I think I'll just hold this review to get some more back in stock. There's not really any point of me putting this up there and just taking a bunch of people off that they can't buy the pen.
Brad Dowdy: So they came back online. I think they got another 30 or so. And I put up the review. And they're gone already again. I mean, this time they sold out in a couple of days. So obviously, the price is okay, right? Because they can't keep these in stock. It's that interesting of a pen. You know, the Lilliput's not for everybody. I obviously love it. I've got several of them, as you can see in the pictures. I use it all the time. Before the Fire Blue, I was using the Brass Wave constantly. It always stayed inked up. But, you know, there's definitely some division in mostly around the pricing on this pen. But I haven't heard anyone say yet, oh, my God, it's ugly or anything like that. It's just fascinating to look at. I wish I could walk around the world and show everyone this pen in person just to see how cool it is. You know, not to tell you to buy it, but just like, look at this. It's really neat. And they did something really unique here. And no one else is doing this. And it came out really, really well. And so I love it. But this is the one time where I feel like since I didn't have to pay for it, I'm a little bit holding back on my praise for it. Because it's stupid expensive. It just is. There's no two ways about it. I would never tell. I would never recommend this pen probably to anyone. But apparently I don't have to because they can't keep them in stock at $170 a pop. So, yeah. This is. I had. I had. I had a legitimate dilemma reviewing this pen. Just because.
Brad Dowdy: You know, of my sponsorship. And I tried to get that out on the page. You know, when I when I did this kind of my feelings about it. It's like I love every single thing about this. But I didn't. I didn't scratch the check for $170, you know.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Brad Dowdy: So I have to.
Brad Dowdy: Note that in the tone of my review. And. I don't know. It was just. It was a little bit of a challenge. I was kind of nervous about posting it. It went fine. But. Yeah. It's just on looks. And usability. And feel. And quality alone. It's a knockout. It's a straight knockout of the park. You just have to decide if. Number one. You're a Lilliput person. Because not everyone is. It's a very, very tiny pen. And then number two. If something.
Brad Dowdy: This unique. Is worth that amount of money. And that's what it boils down to. It's not a standard pen. It's a very unique pen. That fits a very niche market. And you know what. In this case. The market speaking for itself. And they're apparently perfectly priced. Right.
Myke Hurley: Well. I think it's not that expensive. Like $175. For a fountain pen. Is not that expensive. Really. And it's a good looking pen. I mean. It's way more expensive. Than this pen. But. I mean. I mean. When I see that. I'm not like. That's not worth $175. Like to look at it. Because. I think it's genuinely. One of the most beautiful pens. I've ever seen. And I've spent more money. Than that on beauty.
Brad Dowdy: Sure. That's the way that I look at it. Yeah. I mean. I've seen you before.
Myke Hurley: I've seen pictures of you. I know right. That wasn't what I meant. But you get me. You know. I've spent more money. Than that. On a pen. That I thought looked good.
Myke Hurley: Purely for it looking good. Yeah. Yeah. And. And I would do that again. Like I was tempted by this. But. I'm just not. That big. A Kaweco guy. Like. If you like. Kawecos. Like if you are a fan. Of that brand. You should buy it. For the story alone. Right. Like. If you are a fan. Of that. Like for example. I don't know. If there was. I'm trying to think. Of like a pen brand. That I really love. Like. If there was like a. A retro 51. Right. That was. Uh. Hand. Milled. By the founder. And CEO. Of the company. And it was $150. Of course I'd buy it. Right. Because. There's this. I'm a massive fan. Of that brand. And there's a beauty. In it somewhere. You know.
Brad Dowdy: I think that's a really good point. And I kind of missed out on that. And I think you have opened my eyes there. This is. Created for the fans. Of the brand. And. They're the ones who understand. Where this is coming from. And. What's behind it. And the price. And things like that. This is not an every man's pen. Right.
Myke Hurley: No.
Brad Dowdy: Um. And that. That's a. That's a really good way to put it. I think Michael. Good job by you.
Myke Hurley: And not. Not meant in a bad way. But like. This is also an ego project. For. I mean like. What I'm about to say. Like. This is also an ego project. For the CEO as well.
Brad Dowdy: Oh my god. Yeah. Totally. You know.
Myke Hurley: Like. So. There's enough. But again. I think that's another reason. He knows why he's doing it. And they're selling them for $175. Because they have to. Because. If you think about how much his time's worth. Right. It has to make. Sense to the company. That he's spending a couple of hours a week. Of a blowtorch in his hand. You know. Like. And I get it. I totally get it. I really. I do. I do get it.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yep. I think that's a good point.
Myke Hurley: I'm really interested in this next one. Yeah. I've been wanting to talk to you about this.
Brad Dowdy: So. So. I'm not sure that this was. You know. As much drama. With this. Other than. The love fest. That the. G. Rabon. G. Stormy. Rabon. Stormy. Gray fountain pen ink. Caused. On our internet. Since it launched. About two months ago. Um.
Myke Hurley: Another great JetPens video. Yeah.
Ink Properties
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They are. They have stepped that game up. In a big way. Um. So. I called this. The. The ink that took the internet. By storm. Because. When people first got this ink. And saw this ink. And. And what it is. It's. If you're not familiar with it. It's a deep. Dark. Gray. Ink. Think of it like a dark storm cloud. Um. With. Gold. Flex in it. So it's got. It's. Literally has. It's.
Brad Dowdy: Particles. In the ink. It's not. A sheen. Like you see on some other inks. Like if you have a blue ink. That has a sheen to it. Just from a chemical. Perspective. You know. Where it leaves like a little red trim. On your ink line. This literally has particles in the ink. And people went. Berserk. Over this ink. I never saw. Anyone who had this ink. On their first run of it. Um. It sold out. Really really fast. Across all sites. Everywhere. They couldn't make enough of it. I never saw anyone who got it. That didn't just. Absolutely. Head over heels. Love it. It's a really really stunning. Ink to look at. But to me. That's all it is. This is not an ink. I would ever use. Um. And this goes back to like. What we were talking about. Field notes. We all have different use cases. For things. And for me. I. Have a problem. Putting an ink. In a pen. That has particles in it. Um. When. J. Herban. Themselves. State on the outside of the box. Caution. Highly saturated ink. Clean nib and section with damp cloth. Damp cloth. To avoid potential staining. Do not leave ink. In fountain pen reservoir. Well that's kind of. The job of my fountain pen's reservoir. Is to leave some ink in it. From time to time. Um. You know. For weeks at a time. Or months at a time. In some cases. And it just kind of freaked me out. To be perfectly honest with you. Um. I understand the beauty. Of this. Completely. It is straight up beautiful. If. You know. You're. You're going to use it for that. Um. I can see this a lot in. Calligraphy projects. Or in. You know. Uh. Lettering and card projects. I don't see this as an everyday writing ink. Um. Just because of the maintenance. Um. That it requires. Other than. You know. On top of. You know. Just a standard blue ink. Or whatever. Plus. I. I just don't need those. Flex. In my ink. That's not something that does for me. But that's a personal thing. You know. Other people. Love it. And. You know. When I. When I did this review. I had several people say. I've left. I've had this. In my pen. You know. Since it first came out. And just cleaned it a few weeks ago. So it was in my pen. For. Six or eight weeks. And it cleaned out perfectly fine. And I. I totally believe that. Um. I'm just not going to bother with that. I. I couldn't. I couldn't sleep at night. Knowing that that's in my ink. I. The very first. Uh. Line I wrote in the written review. Was. I cannot wait to clean this ink from my pen. Because it even. The. The gold flecks.
Brad Dowdy: Part. The particles in the ink. Are. They. Settle. Like a sediment. So it's like. You have ink at the top. And like. The whole bottom of the barrel. If you're not shaking the bottle. Is gold. Because all the flecks have settled. And so it does the same thing in your pen. If you're not using your pen. That gold settles. Into the. Uh. Into the bottom of the. The reservoir. Into. You know. If you're using a piston filler. It's. It settles at the bottom. Or if you're using a cartridge. It settles at the bottom. And even if you just lay. The pen down on the desk. I use this in a TWSBI 580 mini. So it's a clear demonstrator. If I set it down on the desk. And I picked it up. I'd have a line of gold. At the bottom. Where it all settled. That drove me crazy. Um. So it's like. I had to shake it. Like a paint pen. Every time I wanted to use it. Just to get a.
Brad Dowdy: Equal. Layer. Of the gold flecks. In the ink. And I still didn't accomplish that. You can see it's really strong. Like in my title. Of the written. In a. Written review. And then as I. Went through some of the. The text of it. Um. It kind of. Um. You know. That the. The quantity of. Of gold in the inks. Um. Really lowered. So.
Brad Dowdy: I understand. Why people love this ink. It's just not an ink for me. Um. What are your thoughts on this Myke?
Myke Hurley: It's. Stunning. To look at. Like. And. And. I. Want it. But I also don't want it. Like. I. I've passed this. I've seen it pop by. A couple of times. Um. On. On some UK sites. And I've seen it. Whilst looking around. For some other stuff. And it's been there. And it's not too expensive. But. I. I don't. Want. An ink. That I have to worry about. Like. I. I would use an ink. Like this every day. Like. I use garish ink. As it. Enough as it is. You know. It's like a bright orange ink. Like. This is fun. And I. I really like. The look of it. But. I'm not up. For an ink. And we've had this. Conversation before. With. The noodlers. Something or other. Mm-hmm. What was it?
Brad Dowdy: Um.
Myke Hurley: Bay state blue?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Bay state blue. The. The staining ink.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I. Cannot for the life of me. Understand. Why. Anyone would want to put an ink. Of any kind. Into their fountain pens. That they spend. Hundreds of dollars on. If it has. The. The potential. That it may damage it. Like. It just seems crazy to me. Like. It really seems crazy to me. It's like. Yeah. It just looks good. Don't put it in a fountain pen. Get a dip. Get a dip pen. Right. Or something. Anything. But don't put it in a fountain pen. Yeah. Because it just seems silly. Like. I don't get it. I really. I don't get why it's made. And I don't get why people buy it. But. Not that I judge anybody that it does. Like. Because I want it. I really. Really want it. If I could. Get over that. Myself. Like. I would be using this ink every day.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. You know. And I. That's what I think it is. And you know. I look at my. My online friends. Like. Aziza. And Lee Reyes. And people like that. Who have some real artistic talent. They've taken this ink. And turned it into like. A very artistic result. With. You know. Just beautiful calligraphy. And design. That's where it looks the best in. You know. That's where you're like. Oh my god. This ink is amazing. You know. Watching them. You know. Work their magic. On. You know. Take it. Taking their pictures. And writing ink samples. But. You know. But. Just for. Loading out. In one of my pens. And taking it to work. And writing. I'm never going to use it. Never. Ever. Ever. It's. It's. It's not a daily ink pen. It's a specialty. Specialty ink. Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Like we talked about this before. One of the reasons. Why I use. Like one or two inks. Maximum. Is because. I actually hate cleaning out my pens. It just annoys me. It's not something that I enjoy to do. It's just messy. And I don't really. I don't get a great pleasure out of it.
Myke Hurley: So. It's actually. I know this is. This is not good. Phantom pen maintenance. But. I very rarely clean them. Mm-hmm. You know. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: That's not good. I know. But we've talked about that before. That's something new to me. You've. You've said that. Several times. But that's also why you don't. You have a couple. Ink colors you stick to. And. And I don't.
Myke Hurley: I don't have a lot of inked pens at a time. I don't. I keep. Right. I don't keep them.
Myke Hurley: I keep them in low rotation. I guess. Yeah. Is what I'm looking for.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I'm trying to refine that as we go. I'm up to about six or seven inked pens right now. And that's too much for me. I like three. Is a good number. But then. You know. I have pens that I have to review. And those get inked up. You know. For a month or two at a time. You know. Before I. Before I review them. So I end up with like six or seven. That's a little much. But none of them will contain stormy gray ink. I can tell you that.
Brad Dowdy: So I think that's a wrap buddy. You know. We've had. Lots of fun stuff to talk about today. And you know. We hope to. Hope to hear from the listeners. If. I would. I would like to hear. What they think about the fire blue. And the stormy gray. If they have opinions. I've heard a lot of opinions on those. Already. And. It's always good. When we hear from. People.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a great. A couple of great ways to do that. If you go to the show notes page. Relay. You'll find a bunch of links there. You'll find our Twitter links. I'm I Myke. I am Y K E. Brad is at Dowdyism. D O W T Y I S M. And you'll also find a link to send us an email too. So you can send us in any comments. Questions. Thoughts or feelings that you may have. They're kind of the best ways to do that. Twitter and email are really great. I want to thank our sponsors again. For helping support us this week. That's our friends at lynda.com. And Squarespace. If you want to catch up with more of Brad's great stuff. And you. I mean you can find the links in the show notes. But if you want to read these great reviews. Of the. Caveco. Lilliput. Or the. J. O. Bon. J. O. Bon. Stormy Gray.
Brad Dowdy: We need to resurrect that video. Just for old time's sakes. For all the new listeners.
Myke Hurley: J. J. O. Bon. I can find it. I can try and find it now. We'll add it.
Brad Dowdy: We'll add it to the show notes.
Myke Hurley: You can go to penaddict. Penaddict.com. And you can. You can find. All of. Brad's. Great writing there. I'm. I'm. Quite literally googling. J. O. Bon. Inc. Right now. We're going to do this. Just to play us out. With the. The great. Where. Who made it? They made it.
Myke Hurley: Maybe it's J. Herban. Pronunciation. Or something.
Myke Hurley: I will do this. It's worth it.
Brad Dowdy: It's like a. It's like a two minute video. Of just.
Brad Dowdy: The deep. French. Pronunciation. Of all the.
J. Herbin Inks
Brad Dowdy: J. Herban. Ink colors. So that's why. That's where this came from. Herban.
J. Herbin: Angle.
J. Herbin: Gris. Nuage. Gris. Nuage.
J. Herbin: Perle. Noire.
Myke Hurley: Let's go back to the start.
J. Herbin: Perle. Noire. Ben. Angle.
J. Herbin: J. Herban. Angle.
Myke Hurley: J. J. J. E. Man. So thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Pen Addict. And we'll be back next time. Say goodbye Rod.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Myke. Oh.
Brad Dowdy: You got me all spun up on that one. You confused me.
Brad Dowdy: Thank you.