The Pen Addict 507/transcript

00:00:05 Mike Hurley: From relay FM. This is the pen addict episode 507. Today's show is brought to you by square space.

00:00:12 Mike Hurley: My name is Mike Hurley.

00:00:13 Mike Hurley: I'm joined by Brad Dowdy, hi, Brad.

00:00:15 Brad Dowdy: Hey Mike, how are you celebrating Happy International Pencil day?

00:00:20 Mike Hurley: I'm happy that you eventually got that one out. So good work to you by using the best mechanical pencil ever made. The Rotring 600 lava edition.

00:00:31 Brad Dowdy: Ooh, that's pretty nice.

00:00:34 Brad Dowdy: OK, so you've already, I've already ruined the intro.

00:00:37 Brad Dowdy: You're ruining me that Rotring Lava edition does not have grip knurling.

00:00:45 Brad Dowdy: Therefore, it is not the real Rotring 600.

00:00:05 Mike Hurley: From relay FM. This is the pen addict episode 507. Today's show is brought to you by square space.

00:00:12 Mike Hurley: My name is Mike Hurley.

00:00:13 Mike Hurley: I'm joined by Brad Dowdy, hi, Brad.

00:00:15 Brad Dowdy: Hey Mike, how are you celebrating Happy International Pencil day?

00:00:20 Mike Hurley: I'm happy that you eventually got that one out. So good work to you by using the best mechanical pencil ever made. The Rotring 600 lava edition.

00:00:31 Brad Dowdy: Ooh, that's pretty nice.

00:00:34 Brad Dowdy: OK, so you've already, I've already ruined the intro.

00:00:37 Brad Dowdy: You're ruining me that Rotring Lava edition does not have grip knurling.

00:00:45 Brad Dowdy: Therefore, it is not the real Rotring 600.

00:00:48 Brad Dowdy: It's better, Umm? Boy, we're just going to. Just like I said, Happy International Pencil day. I didn't say unhappy fighting international pencil day Mike. That that is canonically not a Rotring 600. OK it's a Newton.

00:01:07 Brad Dowdy: It's not a 600, therefore it is not the greatest mechanical pencil ever made. I mean, it might be your favourite.

00:01:16 Brad Dowdy: Mechanical pencil ever made different conversations.

00:01:19 Mike Hurley: So it's a Rotring.

00:01:20 Mike Hurley: Newton then. So the only difference between the intended the 600 is the.

00:01:22 Brad Dowdy: Lava finish.

00:01:25 Brad Dowdy: Knowing well, the 600 never came with a lava finish either, so that's a feature of the Newton. Well, so.

00:01:33 Mike Hurley: Just guess I'll forget I said anything right, given a fake pencil boy over there, I don't know what I'm talking about.

00:01:38 Brad Dowdy: Well, as long as you're happy on Happy International Pencil day Mike.

00:01:42 Mike Hurley: Not anymore.

00:01:44 Mike Hurley: Let me tell my life is a lie, no?

00:01:46 Speaker Yeah me, you still love.

00:01:47 Brad Dowdy: You still love the pencil.

00:01:49 Brad Dowdy: It gets popular pencil.

00:01:50 Brad Dowdy: It is also not the Rotring 600. I can feel the Newton in my hand as soon as you said it as like that is not it. That is not it.

00:01:58 Mike Hurley: Well, what are you using?

00:02:01 Brad Dowdy: I am using. I pulled out and sharpened a brand new fresh Tombow Mono 100.

00:02:07 Brad Dowdy: Today, because it is the first fancy wooden pencil I bought where I decided that I should try something nicer than whatever random pencil is stuck in a drawer somewhere.

00:02:21 Brad Dowdy: Let me pick something that looks cool, gets good reviews and it was the pencil.

00:02:27 Brad Dowdy: That like immediately changed.

00:02:28 Brad Dowdy: I was like, oh, I get it now, right?

00:02:31 Brad Dowdy: It's the same thing people discover with pins or paper.

00:02:34 Brad Dowdy: Or in my case, wooden pencils.

00:02:36 Brad Dowdy: Oh, this is different than what I normally expect.

00:02:41 Brad Dowdy: Out of a pencil and I see why there is this category of premium wooden pencils and the Tombow Mono 100 was was the 1st for for me.

00:02:51 Brad Dowdy: I think I did a.

00:02:52 Brad Dowdy: I'm sure I've reviewed this way back in the day.

00:02:55 Brad Dowdy: Let me sharpen it for you real quick.

00:02:56 Brad Dowdy: I I've been riding with it a bunch this morning.

00:02:58 Brad Dowdy: You know to celebrate Happy International Pencil day.

00:03:00 Brad Dowdy: So let me.

00:03:02 Brad Dowdy: I go in my Classroom Friendly Sharpener will have a little ASMR segment.

00:03:08 Brad Dowdy: Right?

00:03:10 Brad Dowdy: Is that enjoyable?

00:03:12 Brad Dowdy: Not really, yeah.

00:03:14 Brad Dowdy: It shook the whole desk.

00:03:15 Brad Dowdy: It's probably did something like crap on the podcast, but you know whatever it's sharpened it amazing like look at this sharp and I am so happy on international pencil day.

00:03:25 Mike Hurley: Well, I'm very pleased like.

00:03:27 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm celebrating. I'm celebrating you are. You're drowning your sorrows in your fake Rotring 600.

00:03:33 Mike Hurley: I don't know why you keep this isn't fair.

00:03:36 Mike Hurley: I'm being bullied now.

00:03:38 Brad Dowdy: You know what Mike, I wish I could bully you in person at the Atlanta Pen show.

00:03:42 Brad Dowdy: We're going to talk about that later in this show.

00:03:44 Brad Dowdy: Normally, but what is normal anymore, Mike? Normally we'd be getting ready to to hang out together in a couple weekends, but instead we just get me going to the show for a few hours and talking about my prep. For that, we'll do that after Mike. I give you a 2022 plan.

00:04:03 Brad Dowdy: Update so.

00:04:04 Speaker OK.

00:04:08 Brad Dowdy: This is about the time.

00:04:10 Brad Dowdy: Planners just fall by the wayside.

00:04:13 Brad Dowdy: For me at least, and I think for a lot.

00:04:15 Brad Dowdy: Of people, there's kind of a downswing if you will.

00:04:18 Brad Dowdy: In hey, maybe I'm getting along just fine without writing down all the things that's kind of how my past has been and I am happy to report that as completely.

00:04:31 Brad Dowdy: Not the case with my Hobonichi, a five cousin I have.

00:04:37 Brad Dowdy: Not missed a day all the way up until yesterday, right?

00:04:41 Brad Dowdy: So like I kind of keep.

00:04:42 Brad Dowdy: I'm like almost like a day in.

00:04:43 Brad Dowdy: Arrears in my planner, so I'll plan out the week.

00:04:47 Brad Dowdy: So there's a section in the front.

00:04:50 Brad Dowdy: Where I'll look at I can have a weekly overview across 2 pages.

00:04:55 Brad Dowdy: I should probably put this.

00:04:56 Brad Dowdy: This is actually probably be a pretty good picture for Instagram.

00:04:58 Brad Dowdy: Do that OK.

00:05:00 Brad Dowdy: Justin, how I block off my week and this is general right?

00:05:04 Brad Dowdy: This is hey this can change.

00:05:06 Brad Dowdy: Hey maybe these times shift hey maybe new things get added and existing things get taken away.

00:05:11 Brad Dowdy: Shift it around whatever, but this is kind of how I plan my week.

00:05:15 Brad Dowdy: I will do that post show so it'll be up on my Instagram.

00:05:20 Brad Dowdy: And then I go to my days and I will write in just like, hey, the general tasks has a little time section which we talked about before when I've discussed this at the end of January.

00:05:32 Brad Dowdy: That works really well and then to the right side.

00:05:34 Brad Dowdy: I just write any notes that I want, usually about how the day went, since like I said, I'm usually a day in arrears, sometimes 2 on the weekend.

00:05:42 Brad Dowdy: Because, you know, I don't write a lot of weekend stuff just like you talk about with the theme system journal and I followed the same thing when I was using that Monday through Friday, right?

00:05:50 Brad Dowdy: I would use it Monday through Friday.

00:05:52 Brad Dowdy: Take the weekends off.

00:05:53 Brad Dowdy: Well this I still go in and recap some of my weekend stuff on the weekend so I'm using those pages too.

00:06:00 Brad Dowdy: I am very happy.

00:06:01 Brad Dowdy: I'm very content.

00:06:03 Brad Dowdy: I am very much not using a lot of fountain pens recently in it, just out of habit.

00:06:09 Brad Dowdy: I, you know, we've talked about it a million times.

00:06:12 Brad Dowdy: As much as I love fountain pens, you know my heart lies with the the really good gel pens or ballpoint pens, or in the case of, you know, mechanical pencils or standard pencils for Happy International.

00:06:24 Brad Dowdy: Pencil day you know I'm.

00:06:27 Brad Dowdy: Content using that because I also don't have 50 fountain pens inked up like some people and can use a different one every day.

00:06:35 Brad Dowdy: So I'll use the same fountain pen for a couple days.

00:06:37 Brad Dowdy: Switch to a roller ball, switch to a ballpoint switch to a pencil.

00:06:41 Brad Dowdy: So like once the last time I've even used the fountain pen, let's see gel pen rollerball.

00:06:48 Brad Dowdy: Ballpoint rollerball and then.

00:06:52 Brad Dowdy: Uh, Nope. Roller ball and then fountain pen. So like almost a week ago, it's been since I used the fountain pen in my journal, so I've that has been an interesting discovery because this is of course, the 52 GSM Tomoe River paper that is maybe the best fountain pen paper ever made, and I'm using not fountain pens in it, which.

00:07:12 Brad Dowdy: Is a feature for me right?

00:07:14 Brad Dowdy: You want to be able to use all this stuff.

00:07:15 Brad Dowdy: At least I do as someone who partakes in all forms of stationary, I want to use all this stuff in here and it's tomorrow River paper.

00:07:23 Brad Dowdy: Is shockingly good so.

00:07:25 Brad Dowdy: To update the Hobonichi that.

00:07:29 Brad Dowdy: It's going well, uhm.

00:07:31 Brad Dowdy: I am still.

00:07:34 Brad Dowdy: Writing something everyday.

00:07:37 Brad Dowdy: I have missed one or two of the weekly layouts just because a lot of times.

00:07:43 Brad Dowdy: Monday is generally pretty busy for me, and so I'll just start working and I'll recap it on the day.

00:07:52 Brad Dowdy: Journal, but I may not go back Tuesday and lay out my week, which is a mistake in in working, so we'll see.

00:08:00 Brad Dowdy: But I I it's really helpful to lay out the week, gives me a good idea.

00:08:04 Brad Dowdy: I definitely have.

00:08:05 Brad Dowdy: More efficient work weeks when I lay it out upfront instead of confusing myself the whole time.

00:08:12 Brad Dowdy: So I'd say pretty much everything about this planner is working for me.

00:08:16 Brad Dowdy: The Hobonichi is great.

00:08:18 Brad Dowdy: I'm still in the original cover that I bought with it, which I was concerned about.

00:08:23 Brad Dowdy: 'cause it's a light yellow.

00:08:24 Brad Dowdy: It's like a lemon yellow, but since it doesn't move around much like I'm not going in and out of the house all the time, it stayed pretty clean.

00:08:31 Brad Dowdy: You know I had some like.

00:08:32 Brad Dowdy: Marks on it from just whatever regular wear and tear.

00:08:37 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I.

00:08:40 Brad Dowdy: I'm I'm 100% like I'm I'm feeling really really good about how my 2022 planning is going.

00:08:47 Brad Dowdy: Do you have any any commentary on you?

00:08:49 Brad Dowdy: Don't let's necessarily like do the same type of planning like like the setup that I do, you do more of a almost more of a reflection type of journaling with the with the theme system.

00:09:00 Brad Dowdy: Any any changes to that?

00:09:03 Brad Dowdy: How you're doing that?

00:09:04 Brad Dowdy: Still working on that?

00:09:05 Brad Dowdy: You know standard Monday through.

00:09:06 Brad Dowdy: Friday stuff.

00:09:07 Mike Hurley: Well, one thing I do want to say is is really funny to me that this might be the like.

00:09:11 Mike Hurley: Some of the last time away that you ever use and you don't use the fountain pens that much on it.

00:09:15 Brad Dowdy: Right, right?

00:09:16 Mike Hurley: That's just really funny to me.

00:09:16 Brad Dowdy: Like I have a I have a huge hang up of changing the pin I use in it every day.

00:09:17 Mike Hurley: He wasted me.

00:09:23 Brad Dowdy: And if I've only got like, I might have 10 or 12 fountain pens inked up.

00:09:28 Brad Dowdy: Even then, that rotation is pretty light.

00:09:32 Brad Dowdy: You know?

00:09:32 Brad Dowdy: It's like I still OK.

00:09:33 Brad Dowdy: I just use this even though it is maybe.

00:09:35 Brad Dowdy: Last week I like I want to mix it up even further.

00:09:38 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, good point.

00:09:39 Brad Dowdy: Good point.

00:09:40 Brad Dowdy: So maybe I'll I.

00:09:41 Brad Dowdy: I'll never go exclusively fountain pens in it, but I should.

00:09:45 Brad Dowdy: I should do some fountain pen additional work in it.

00:09:47 Brad Dowdy: You know some sketches or drawing, which I don't normally do in there.

00:09:50 Brad Dowdy: Usually there are other books for that.

00:09:53 Mike Hurley: Yeah, I mean for me you know that not a lot has changed in the fundamentals of how I do this because you know, my my system is pretty set at this point and I'm still doing what I've always done, like two different pens a day, that kind of stuff.

00:10:09 Mike Hurley: One of the things just like from a practical level that I've been.

00:10:15 Mike Hurley: Wandering about so like part of the theme system journal was like the Daily Themes pages where you kind of you have that list of stuff, right?

00:10:22 Mike Hurley: Here's things you want to take off every day.

00:10:24 Mike Hurley: I'm noticing that there's a couple of them that I'm.

00:10:27 Mike Hurley: I changed it up and I'm not really hitting them very often.

00:10:30 Mike Hurley: And I'm wondering if that maybe means I should tweak something a bit, but I'm not sure if it just means I'm not doing it, but I think there might be a bit too.

00:10:38 Mike Hurley: Bit too broad, I might need to be more specific with it, but this is like similar to you.

00:10:45 Mike Hurley: Kind of at this point throughout the year you've been doing it for three months basically, and so it's the kind of time when I might, you know, every quarter or ever.

00:10:52 Mike Hurley: Think about it, but I'm I'm getting close to finishing finishing a journal.

00:10:57 Mike Hurley: Uhm, 'cause it usually takes me about five months to finish one theme system, journal, 'cause I don't do it on the weekends.

00:11:04 Mike Hurley: Uh, so I think when it comes to me for me to switch over again to a new one, I might do some tweaking on.

00:11:11 Mike Hurley: That part.

00:11:12 Brad Dowdy: Gotcha, and that's that's always something you gotta be willing to do just in in general, people that use planners if it's not working for you, you gotta.

00:11:21 Brad Dowdy: You gotta figure out what is and don't be afraid to change change path midway.

00:11:27 Mike Hurley: Because you're just not yourself, right?

00:11:27 Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah, yeah, like this is supposed to be an additive tool, right?

00:11:28 Mike Hurley: Like yeah you don't, yeah.

00:11:32 Brad Dowdy: It's like it's it's not just something that lays on the desk and you use, you know.

00:11:37 Brad Dowdy: Passively like it's gotta be active part of your life and and helps you, you know, accomplish whatever you need to accomplish, even if it's not like work related or anything like that.

00:11:47 Brad Dowdy: It just could be, you know, like mental health related, right?

00:11:50 Brad Dowdy: Like this is a tool to to use and figuring out how to use that best is all is always a challenge and just don't be afraid to change things up so.

00:11:59 Brad Dowdy: You know, I I even I, I put in a link in the in the show notes.

00:12:03 Brad Dowdy: There are actually April start options for planners.

00:12:05 Mike Hurley: Right?

00:12:07 Brad Dowdy: It's usually so the big release is obviously for the beginning of the year.

00:12:11 Brad Dowdy: There's always an April start and then there are a lot of times there's some student starts, like around the summer time, so you can jump in, but you know you don't need a dated.

00:12:19 Brad Dowdy: And just get a notebook and use to look up the bullet journal method and kind of set some parameters like that and it it.

00:12:26 Brad Dowdy: I find it to be immensely helpful.

00:12:30 Brad Dowdy: In planning and scheduling tasks and also a little bit of thought release right, which can all go in the same book.

00:12:39 Brad Dowdy: That's why I like how this Hobonichi set up to where I didn't really have this setup that allowed for both things before.

00:12:44 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I'm very very happy.

00:12:49 Mike Hurley: And there's yeah, there's there's April ones now, right?

00:12:51 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, so so most of the Japanese makers will have an April start. So Urban Ichi Cuyo does the jibun techo's for April. I hadn't I didn't double check Midori, but I would assume they do, but.

00:12:52 Mike Hurley: People could just jump into that.

00:13:06 Brad Dowdy: I could be wrong.

00:13:06 Mike Hurley: Do they run for 12 months on?

00:13:10 Brad Dowdy: They will run April to April I believe.

00:13:12 Mike Hurley: Right, and do they typically just do like January start date in April start date?

00:13:12 Brad Dowdy: I'm almost certainly run April, April.

00:13:17 Mike Hurley: Then I have like a June.

00:13:18 Mike Hurley: Start date one no.

00:13:19 Brad Dowdy: That's what I'm saying they do, though some companies will do a student start date, which will be like around June, but that's they get less and less quantity.

00:13:25 Mike Hurley: Oh oh, OK.

00:13:29 Brad Dowdy: Obviously the the first of the year.

00:13:32 Brad Dowdy: Start as the big bulk of.

00:13:34 Brad Dowdy: And then April and Summer start are very, very.

00:13:39 Brad Dowdy: You know we'll have a few options.

00:13:41 Brad Dowdy: You know one or two options as opposed to 20 options, just just for different types of calendars, mostly like in the like in the like in the Japanese working community.

00:13:50 Brad Dowdy: I don't know.

00:13:51 Brad Dowdy: I can't we we've learned but I was told what April start was before.

00:13:54 Brad Dowdy: I don't know if it's like.

00:13:55 Brad Dowdy: A traditional business calendar right like April 1st is normally a lot of first quarters for a lot.

00:14:00 Brad Dowdy: People for a lot of businesses I know my company was which was a Japanese owned company like April 1st.

00:14:05 Brad Dowdy: Was the new fiscal year right?

00:14:08 Brad Dowdy: So I don't know if that's a reason and then we'll get into the college and stool school years.

00:14:13 Brad Dowdy: So which will be leaving around June, July?

00:14:17 Brad Dowdy: So yes, so the April start is is popular.

00:14:20 Brad Dowdy: I think just for business reasons, that's a new calendar for for that.

00:14:26 Mike Hurley: Alright, should take our first break and talk about what you're going to.

00:14:28 Mike Hurley: Be getting up to.

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00:16:04 Brad Dowdy: I'm going to the Atlanta Pen show and you're.

00:16:05 Mike Hurley: Not wait.

00:16:06 Mike Hurley: What year is this?

00:16:09 Brad Dowdy: It's 2022 Mike.

00:16:14 Brad Dowdy: Three years since I've been to the Atlanta Pen show, the last one was in 2019. Can you believe that?

00:16:19 Brad Dowdy: Because 2020 Baltimore Pen show was at the end of February beginning of March and right after our return. From that in that timeframe in. In 2020, as we all know, like the world pretty much shut down, so it was.

00:16:33 Brad Dowdy: Actually, since 2019 or did they have that little pen show?

00:16:36 Brad Dowdy: Last year, maybe they had a, maybe they had like a small version last year I could be yeah yeah yeah they I might be wrong in that they might have had.

00:16:44 Brad Dowdy: A limited version of that last year so it could be wrong.

00:16:47 Brad Dowdy: Anyway, if I wasn't there, did it really happen?

00:16:51 Brad Dowdy: So I don't know.

00:16:52 Brad Dowdy: Oh wow, listen to.

00:16:53 Mike Hurley: This guy cried out.

00:16:55 Mike Hurley: There's no other pen shows or even a pen show.

00:16:57 Mike Hurley: Don't think so.

00:16:59 Brad Dowdy: I'm a little feisty this morning.

00:17:00 Mike Hurley: Huh, I can sell?

00:17:01 Brad Dowdy: I see listening.

00:17:02 Brad Dowdy: I mean, you know I couldn't speak the intro.

00:17:05 Brad Dowdy: I'm getting fired.

00:17:05 Brad Dowdy: I'm just fired.

00:17:06 Brad Dowdy: I'm excited, Mike, I I'm I'm genuinely excited.

00:17:08 Mike Hurley: I think it's I can sell.

00:17:12 Brad Dowdy: And like I mean just a couple weeks ago, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to go, period, but I've.

00:17:17 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, worked it out to where I can go from like Friday afternoon to late Saturday morning so.

00:17:24 Brad Dowdy: I'm the important part for me.

00:17:27 Brad Dowdy: Is to be there Friday night right?

00:17:29 Brad Dowdy: One of the evenings you know doesn't matter Friday night or Saturday night just to like hang out with friends, catch up with friends, you know, go to dinner, sit at the bar, do all that kind of stuff like the show is almost secondary, right?

00:17:39 Brad Dowdy: We always talk about that like you go to the pen show.

00:17:41 Brad Dowdy: It's it's great, you know, enjoy the pen show, but you're there.

00:17:43 Brad Dowdy: For the people, and this is, this is no different and.

00:17:47 Brad Dowdy: Even more.

00:17:49 Brad Dowdy: People focus to me so much so that I hardly have like a shopping list of stationary.

00:17:57 Brad Dowdy: I mean I will end up with a lot of stuff, a lot of it.

00:17:59 Brad Dowdy: You know you've been with me to Penn shows where I'll pick up something like for me personally, and then I'll have like a bag full of stuff for like review stuff for the blog.

00:18:09 Brad Dowdy: Right, so it's just going to be, you know, anything I buy is just going to be.

00:18:15 Brad Dowdy: Kind of as I see it, ad hoc like I don't have anything I'm I'm looking for outside of, like the Esterbrook needlepoint nib.

00:18:23 Brad Dowdy: I don't even know if that's available yet.

00:18:25 Brad Dowdy: You know they're starting to market it, and I think it's starting to become available, so that's one of their newer nib collaborations, right?

00:18:32 Brad Dowdy: They did this one with Kirk Spear of Pen Realm.

00:18:35 Brad Dowdy: And just like they did the journal or nib, you know with the Gina before.

00:18:40 Brad Dowdy: So this is just along that same line of working with a nib Meister to to sell nibs for their pins, which I think it's a great idea, so I want to try to pick up a nib.

00:18:49 Brad Dowdy: I don't need another Esterbrook pen, right?

00:18:51 Brad Dowdy: I just need the nibs so I don't know if I'll be able to get that or.

00:18:53 Brad Dowdy: I also want the new ink dependence ink, Mike, which I failed to mention at last week, show our good friend Mike from Ink dependence collaborated with Pannonia to make Cheerio water bus.

00:19:07 Brad Dowdy: Mike, I don't know if I'm saying that right, but it it sounds good to me and it's a really neat colored ink in it at.

00:19:12 Mike Hurley: I don't know how how you would expect to.

00:19:14 Mike Hurley: Say it any.

00:19:15 Brad Dowdy: Differently, yeah, yeah.

00:19:16 Brad Dowdy: I mean, there's you know, like you could go read the story and like do your homework and try to learn about these things before you speak about them on the podcast, but that's I'm not interested in that like we're just, you know, we just wing.

00:19:27 Brad Dowdy: It here at the pen addict and we'll correct things next week.

00:19:30 Brad Dowdy: If needed, and that's pretty much.

00:19:32 Brad Dowdy: So, but Mike made this ink with panonija.

00:19:37 Brad Dowdy: He's gonna have a few bottles of it at the pen show.

00:19:39 Brad Dowdy: If you don't get it at the pen show, we'll have a link in the show notes where you can get it from Mike Shop.

00:19:43 Brad Dowdy: And when he does a reorder or re up of the ink, he will continue to have it.

00:19:48 Brad Dowdy: So if you if you can't get it right now, don't worry, he's going to.

00:19:50 Brad Dowdy: He's going to get some more in stock, but it's.

00:19:53 Brad Dowdy: It's neat, it's a neat ink that I want to try in that.

00:19:57 Brad Dowdy: It has some late arriving properties.

00:20:01 Brad Dowdy: I'm still trying to understand.

00:20:03 Brad Dowdy: I I did actually read about this a little bit, so it's like a teal ink, but the blue colour or the blue pigment in the ink tends to show up as a Sheen type feature as the ink dries.

00:20:17 Brad Dowdy: Like you can see, there's some really neat looking properties in the pictures of this thing, so I'm anxious to try that myself.

00:20:25 Brad Dowdy: So, so like that's my entire personal shopping list, an Esterbrook needlepoint nib, and a bottle of ink.

00:20:33 Brad Dowdy: So I will end up with a lot more than that.

00:20:37 Brad Dowdy: I promise you like I've already talked to people.

00:20:38 Mike Hurley: I was going to say you are expecting there will be.

00:20:41 Mike Hurley: More though oh.

00:20:42 Brad Dowdy: Gosh yeah, and but it might just be stuff I pick up for reviews and giveaways.

00:20:46 Brad Dowdy: Like it's a really good opportunity for me to see what's out there.

00:20:50 Brad Dowdy: See what's new.

00:20:51 Brad Dowdy: See what's current.

00:20:52 Brad Dowdy: Even though I keep up with it constantly right online.

00:20:56 Brad Dowdy: I'm just getting some of these things in my hands and deciding, hey, do I want to get one of these?

00:21:01 Brad Dowdy: You know, Leonardo, you know what did they call like the the spaghetti spaghetti?

00:21:07 Brad Dowdy: We've pin whatever the new model is called like, I don't need one for myself.

00:21:11 Brad Dowdy: Do I want to get one of those for like a members giveaway later so I will end up with a an absolutely massive?

00:21:17 Brad Dowdy: Ton of stuff, but it may not be all for me, so that's how I think about it.

00:21:21 Brad Dowdy: As far from a a shopping perspective so.

00:21:26 Mike Hurley: I have no idea what spaghetti wave is.

00:21:28 Mike Hurley: What is what are you talking about?

00:21:30 Brad Dowdy: I don't know.

00:21:30 Brad Dowdy: It's little Leonardo.

00:21:31 Brad Dowdy: Look at the Leonardo mosaic.

00:21:34 Brad Dowdy: And if we talked about it, how Leonardo?

00:21:36 Mike Hurley: Oh, this is the.

00:21:37 Mike Hurley: One that looks like the other one.

00:21:38 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Mayora and Leonardo make this it.

00:21:40 Brad Dowdy: What do they call that they called?

00:21:41 Mike Hurley: Mosaic mosaic oh.

00:21:42 Brad Dowdy: There's a name, yeah, is it just the mosaic?

00:21:44 Brad Dowdy: Oh but I thought they called like the the actual pattern of it like the the manufacturing of it had like a name.

00:21:50 Brad Dowdy: I could be wrong though.

00:21:52 Brad Dowdy: Like again, why do research?

00:21:53 Mike Hurley: I know I'm looking at that page.

00:21:55 Mike Hurley: It doesn't.

00:21:56 Mike Hurley: I don't see anything that suggests they've given it a special name.

00:21:57 Brad Dowdy: OK.

00:21:59 Mike Hurley: Gotcha, maybe it's called spaghetti.

00:21:59 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm out sick with tegat.

00:22:01 Mike Hurley: We've maybe.

00:22:02 Mike Hurley: That's why I missed it.

00:22:02 Mike Hurley: Yeah, it works for me.

00:22:04 Mike Hurley: Spaghetti resin there it is.

00:22:06 Mike Hurley: Ah see look, you real spaghetti resin, Italian production.

00:22:11 Brad Dowdy: Vindication baby, that's what we do.

00:22:13 Mike Hurley: Let's not.

00:22:13 Mike Hurley: Around wave, is it?

00:22:15 Brad Dowdy: See y'all think I don't know anything I just do.

00:22:17 Brad Dowdy: I just don't know how to.

00:22:18 Mike Hurley: Recall it properly.

00:22:19 Mike Hurley: Yeah, you know stuff you just not sure how or why you know it.

00:22:24 Mike Hurley: It's really if you know things but can't index them.

00:22:26 Mike Hurley: I'm not sure how helpful it is.

00:22:28 Brad Dowdy: We should probably have a podcast about that on where you talk about pens and paper and how to like take notes and things like that.

00:22:34 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, we'll work on that so.

00:22:37 Brad Dowdy: I'm packing light for this show right?

00:22:39 Brad Dowdy: Like it's an hour and a half to two hour drive for me to get to the show.

00:22:43 Brad Dowdy: So, and I'm spending one night I need to take like hardly anything at all, and that's going to be the mode for me, right?

00:22:52 Brad Dowdy: I'm not going to bring normally if I go to Penn Show weekend, I'll bring a lot.

00:22:57 Brad Dowdy: Of personal pins just for hang out, show and tell.

00:23:01 Brad Dowdy: You know, testing you know different inks, different nib types, different types of pens, and I'm just going to be so in.

00:23:07 Brad Dowdy: And out really, relative to what I normally do in a pinch.

00:23:11 Brad Dowdy: Oh, I'm going to bring just like a few pins.

00:23:13 Brad Dowdy: I'm going to bring one of the Brasstown pin cases that's not going to be all the way full in case I need to store something.

00:23:18 Brad Dowdy: I'm going to bring a couple of pins that I need to work on, right?

00:23:21 Brad Dowdy: Some nib work allow me Safari.

00:23:24 Brad Dowdy: I'm finally going to get allow me Safari nib to a needlepoint grind so I can use it in all my safaris.

00:23:30 Brad Dowdy: Let me get my pilot custom 74 round into probably a cursive italic unless I get talked into someone else, something else by one of my friends there who's doing.

00:23:39 Brad Dowdy: Nib word

00:23:39 Mike Hurley: If you booked.

00:23:40 Mike Hurley: Any new book?

00:23:40 Brad Dowdy: I have not.

00:23:41 Brad Dowdy: OK so I am content with leaving these pins if I have to write so I'm not overly concerned.

00:23:50 Brad Dowdy: Like I just booked my hotel yesterday, that's how this whole thing is.

00:23:53 Brad Dowdy: Going so you know I'm I'm late to that party I'll I'll queue up when I get there Friday and maybe I can get something done by Saturday but I'm not overly concerned I will just leave them with you know whoever I want to leave them with and just have them pay for him them to be shipped back.

00:24:09 Brad Dowdy: Yeah that's it's not.

00:24:11 Brad Dowdy: What are the things I want to get done so this is a tip for anyone getting network?

00:24:17 Brad Dowdy: If you can't get it done, you can at least talk to.

00:24:20 Brad Dowdy: One of the nib meisters there.

00:24:21 Brad Dowdy: Tell them what you want and if it's a reasonably

00:24:25 Brad Dowdy: Basic isn't the right term 'cause you're getting.

00:24:28 Brad Dowdy: You're getting it modified, but I know that if I send this home with someone to get a needlepoint grind, I'm not going to have to sit there and test it when they're done to know that I'm going to be happy with it, right?

00:24:40 Brad Dowdy: There's a level of trust in the skill of the person doing the work that.

00:24:46 Brad Dowdy: I know what I expect from a needlepoint, and I expect that if I just leave it with them, I don't have to sit there and test it perfectly when we're done, even though when you go to a pen show that's a feature right to work with the nib grinder like I'm not saying don't do that, I'm saying I'm at the point where that opportunity.

00:25:05 Brad Dowdy: I would rather just have.

00:25:06 Brad Dowdy: The work done and so.

00:25:08 Brad Dowdy: Settled and test it.

00:25:10 Brad Dowdy: When it gets back I don't have to necessarily do it at the time, so I'm OK.

00:25:14 Brad Dowdy: Not if I don't get it done, it's I'm.

00:25:17 Brad Dowdy: It's not the end of the world for me so.

00:25:18 Mike Hurley: But but it is nice, though she say like if.

00:25:21 Brad Dowdy: You it's a feature like it's a bonus.

00:25:22 Mike Hurley: Especially if you don't completely know what you want, you know that's that's the problem.

00:25:26 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I'm in a different stage than someone going to sit down in front of Mark Bacas for the first time and say, hey, I think I want a cursive italic grind on this, but I'm.

00:25:35 Mike Hurley: Not sure and I guess for you it does help that the people that you would leave it with.

00:25:35 Speaker Right?

00:25:39 Mike Hurley: You already know the work person ship like their quality and stuff, so right.

00:25:43 Brad Dowdy: Right?

00:25:44 Mike Hurley: You know it's kind of like, yeah, I know what they can do.

00:25:46 Mike Hurley: For me so.

00:25:47 Mike Hurley: Yep, I'll just let you do.

00:25:48 Brad Dowdy: It so I personally would be content with a hand off where if like this is your one pen show of the year and you are really, you know have this pen that you really want to get modified.

00:26:02 Brad Dowdy: You want to make the effort to book and schedule these times ahead of ahead of schedule, so I haven't even looked at the vendor list.

00:26:09 Brad Dowdy: And see which ones have open open scheduling for Atlanta.

00:26:14 Brad Dowdy: So if you are interested in that and you happen to listen to this show, you probably need to be looking at that stuff like yesterday and just go ahead and book your time so.

00:26:23 Brad Dowdy: I'm going to try something different this time.

00:26:26 Brad Dowdy: For paper, I'm going to bring my William Hanna.

00:26:29 Brad Dowdy: And I'm going.

00:26:31 Brad Dowdy: I've already have it punched with several different paper types, right, which I think would be neat to play with.

00:26:35 Brad Dowdy: So two reasons why it's such a good notebook.

00:26:38 Brad Dowdy: One, you can punch your own paper and two at an event like this.

00:26:44 Brad Dowdy: You can remove that paper and give it to somebody, right?

00:26:47 Brad Dowdy: So if you're carrying around like a Tomoe River paper, notebook or a bank paper notebook, but that's bound in a journal like that's not really easy to just give to someone and this William Hanna is neat in that aspect.

00:27:01 Brad Dowdy: You know, even though it's it's punched for your personal notebook.

00:27:04 Brad Dowdy: It's so nice to someone can take a page of you know the.

00:27:09 Brad Dowdy: The Weird East Leake.

00:27:13 Brad Dowdy: Paper that an ad made with the vintage writing pad right?

00:27:16 Brad Dowdy: I have some of that punched in my thing and it's a really strange weird paper, but it's fun to play with and I can like give that to somebody so you know I'm going to do that.

00:27:25 Brad Dowdy: So like I'm.

00:27:25 Brad Dowdy: Bringing like a.

00:27:27 Brad Dowdy: Few pins, one notebook, you know.

00:27:30 Brad Dowdy: I'm not going to lug around a backpack and.

00:27:33 Brad Dowdy: You know full of stuff I'm not going to have to worry about running up and down to the room a bunch of times.

00:27:38 Brad Dowdy: I'm just going to really.

00:27:40 Brad Dowdy: Be pretty chill, as excited and amped up as I am right now, I'm just going to take it.

00:27:44 Brad Dowdy: Take it slow, take it easy and just you know I'm just going to enjoy being there more than anything, right?

00:27:49 Brad Dowdy: So it's been over two years.

00:27:52 Brad Dowdy: I'm looking forward to it.

00:27:53 Brad Dowdy: It should be fun.

00:27:55 Brad Dowdy: It was like I said, if I was just going to make a day trip it would be less interesting to me right now than the opportunity to at least spend one night.

00:28:04 Brad Dowdy: So I'm going to do that and just be able to catch up with as many people as possible during the show after the show.

00:28:12 Brad Dowdy: You know Anna is going to be there working for Vanness Pens.

00:28:15 Brad Dowdy: Kelly from mountain of Ink is going to be there working for Vanness Pens.

00:28:18 Brad Dowdy: Jesse is going to be there working for drama goals.

00:28:20 Brad Dowdy: So like all my friends are going to be there and it's gonna be cat from the Bent Times Podcast is going to be there.

00:28:27 Brad Dowdy: So like I'm going to get to see all these people that I have, you know, only talk with you know, maybe on a daily basis some of them but.

00:28:32 Brad Dowdy: It's different, right?

00:28:33 Brad Dowdy: It's different to just.

00:28:34 Brad Dowdy: Sit and hang out and dumb, you know commiserate of all the fun, fun things.

00:28:39 Mike Hurley: I might have to be one of those.

00:28:41 Mike Hurley: Stay off Instagram for a day kind of thing.

00:28:44 Mike Hurley: So like the the jellies might get me.

00:28:47 Brad Dowdy: I will definitely send you a Waffle House picture because even though I will be there for probably 24 hours maximum total there might. That mean that's enough for at least two Waffle House?

00:28:50 Mike Hurley: No, it's gonna be.

00:28:51 Mike Hurley: It's gonna upset.

00:29:00 Mike Hurley: Thanks tonight.

00:29:00 Brad Dowdy: Adventures right from meals.

00:29:01 Mike Hurley: Yeah you got dinner or breakfast, though.

00:29:03 Mike Hurley: You know what I mean?

00:29:03 Brad Dowdy: Yeah 100%.

00:29:04 Mike Hurley: It's like there.

00:29:05 Mike Hurley: Waffle House basically.

00:29:06 Brad Dowdy: Yeah yeah 100% so for those who don't know the.

00:29:11 Brad Dowdy: Atlanta Hotel has a Waffle House physically attached to the building of the hotel like it's not even a walk you like.

00:29:17 Brad Dowdy: Go out one door and into another door.

00:29:19 Brad Dowdy: It's in the parking lot attached to the.

00:29:21 Brad Dowdy: Building, so do you have any trepidation?

00:29:25 Mike Hurley: Like any nervousness.

00:29:27 Brad Dowdy: Oh, not too bad.

00:29:29 Brad Dowdy: You know I'm bringing a mask.

00:29:31 Brad Dowdy: Am I wearing the mask?

00:29:32 Brad Dowdy: I I I have these internal debates, right?

00:29:35 Brad Dowdy: Like, I don't think there's any regulations or guidelines right now in Atlanta or the show.

00:29:41 Brad Dowdy: You know, I'm obviously fully vaccinated and boosted, and all that stuff.

00:29:45 Brad Dowdy: But that doesn't prevent anything.

00:29:47 Brad Dowdy: From happening, so I've I've, I've gone back and forth.

00:29:50 Brad Dowdy: Even just this morning.

00:29:51 Brad Dowdy: It's like my full mask all the time.

00:29:54 Brad Dowdy: What about at the bar at night?

00:29:56 Brad Dowdy: If I'm eating and drinking like I'm I'm really having.

00:29:59 Brad Dowdy: These thoughts, right?

00:29:59 Mike Hurley: So percent, so here's my feeling on this personal feelings.

00:30:03 Mike Hurley: You know, everyone has their own.

00:30:05 Mike Hurley: It's fine, uh, I would.

00:30:10 Mike Hurley: It's all about percentages right at the end of the day.

00:30:13 Mike Hurley: I would wear a mask all of the day.

00:30:16 Mike Hurley: When going around the show floor and stuff, take it off for pictures.

00:30:21 Mike Hurley: And then not worry if I'm eating and drinking in the bar at night like.

00:30:24 Mike Hurley: That's just what I would do.

00:30:24 Speaker Right?

00:30:25 Brad Dowdy: That's I'm probably on the same page honestly.

00:30:28 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I'm I'm comfortable wearing a mask.

00:30:30 Brad Dowdy: I am glad to wear a mask.

00:30:32 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, you know, I you know don't take that stuff for granted so but I I I would be lying if I say I wasn't thinking about that constantly on.

00:30:41 Brad Dowdy: Am I doing the right thing right?

00:30:43 Brad Dowdy: That's the conversation I'm having.

00:30:44 Brad Dowdy: What is the right thing for me to do because I'm?

00:30:48 Brad Dowdy: Generally, a rule follower like I.

00:30:50 Brad Dowdy: I'm just like I'm OK, yeah, like.

00:30:51 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, whatever you want me to do, yeah, I'm in so but like if there's no rules.

00:30:56 Brad Dowdy: What are my rules right?

00:30:58 Brad Dowdy: So I want to be true to myself and do the right thing and and feel comfortable with.

00:31:03 Brad Dowdy: So my being there so like it's definitely advantage that I don't have to fly.

00:31:07 Brad Dowdy: That's my biggest bugaboo right now.

00:31:09 Brad Dowdy: Like, I'm just like I don't want to fly, so this is good that I get to drive.

00:31:14 Brad Dowdy: And yeah, I'll probably be messed up at the show, and you know, I encourage you all to do the same if that's well what you think you should do so well, we're certainly not out.

00:31:25 Brad Dowdy: Of the woods.

00:31:26 Brad Dowdy: In this COVID thing, no, no matter what it feels like.

00:31:28 Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I will.

00:31:30 Brad Dowdy: I'll be having the mask.

00:31:33 Mike Hurley: So I actually have an ask question about the Atlanta show from listener Craig.

00:31:36 Brad Dowdy: All right, hit me.

00:31:38 Mike Hurley: I'm planning on heading to the Atlanta Pen Show on Saturday for my first ever pen shell, and I'm looking to purchase my first pan over $100. Probably one in brads recent pilot custom 74 post, but I'm open to other options.

00:31:51 Mike Hurley: Any suggestions on how to approach the show to walk out with the right pen?

00:31:57 Brad Dowdy: Take it easy.

00:31:59 Brad Dowdy: Take it slow, you know walk through the show.

00:32:03 Brad Dowdy: If you're just going on Saturday, I'm assuming you have a limited amount of time, right?

00:32:06 Brad Dowdy: Or if you're local and you want to spend like two or three hours that two or three hours is going to feel like it just flies by, so.

00:32:12 Brad Dowdy: So pace yourself a lot of the major retailers will have plenty of pins for you to try and test.

00:32:19 Brad Dowdy: You know, like I mentioned, Vanness and Dromgoole's, I know they'll be there if Dan, I'd like I said, I apologize, I didn't look at the vendor list like if Dan from the nib Smith is there he always has tons of pins out for you.

00:32:29 Brad Dowdy: To test, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to pick up.

00:32:32 Brad Dowdy: Feel and try some things there.

00:32:35 Brad Dowdy: So just don't get in a rush right?

00:32:38 Brad Dowdy: It's it's fine to pace yourself and it's fine, especially when you're looking at modern pins.

00:32:44 Brad Dowdy: They're not going to up and vanish, and you're not going to have your opportunity to buy it from someone or someone else, right? Like a custom 74 is a good example, right? You don't have to rush in.

00:32:53 Brad Dowdy: Pick out a custom 74 without doing your due diligence everywhere, because if it sells, you know one retailer sells the three or five that they have. Someone else is going to have them right, so be patient.

00:33:08 Brad Dowdy: Take a spin around the show if I'm there and have some things for you to test.

00:33:13 Brad Dowdy: Find me, you know, that's usually one of the things I do.

00:33:15 Brad Dowdy: I won't do as much of this show is carrying around a bunch of pins for people to test ahead of time.

00:33:19 Brad Dowdy: Just you know, time wise.

00:33:22 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, but I'm glad to help anyone that's there.

00:33:25 Brad Dowdy: If you're there at the show, definitely come say hi to me.

00:33:27 Brad Dowdy: I'm glad to help.

00:33:28 Brad Dowdy: I'm glad to answer any questions, even if I don't have a pen for you to test.

00:33:31 Brad Dowdy: I might know one of my friends that has a pen for you to test and I can go borrow that.

00:33:35 Brad Dowdy: I do that all the time.

00:33:36 Brad Dowdy: Mike sees me run across the room all the time.

00:33:39 Brad Dowdy: Someone will say, hey Brad, here's a question.

00:33:41 Brad Dowdy: And I'll say hold that thought I'll be back in five minutes, and then I'll go and I'll get the thing and have them test it and they can make a better decision now that they have more information so.

00:33:52 Brad Dowdy: That's the best thing is, take it slow.

00:33:54 Brad Dowdy: Get some information you know, build things, test things out, you know, manage your budget.

00:34:00 Brad Dowdy: And you know, just.

00:34:03 Brad Dowdy: Take your time and you're going to be in good shape and you will end up with a pen.

00:34:08 Brad Dowdy: Hopefully you were very happy with for a long time.

00:34:11 Mike Hurley: Very nice Yep, Yep.

00:34:15 Mike Hurley: Have you got anything else on the Atlanta?

00:34:17 Mike Hurley: Penshaw you want?

00:34:17 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, I don't think so.

00:34:19 Brad Dowdy: Again, just I'm going to be excited to be there.

00:34:21 Brad Dowdy: I hope to see all of y'all.

00:34:24 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, you know we might be.

00:34:26 Brad Dowdy: We might be on the fist bump this bump train instead of the hug train.

00:34:29 Brad Dowdy: You know I'm a I'm a hugger so we might have we might have to knock out some fist bumps and but I'll be there.

00:34:30 Mike Hurley: Oh yeah, good point man.

00:34:35 Brad Dowdy: I'll be hanging out, I'm gonna try to be at the hotel pretty much the entire time from when I get there like Friday afternoon sometime.

00:34:43 Brad Dowdy: Like after you know,

12:00 o'clock and then all through the night.

00:34:48 Brad Dowdy: And then I'll believe probably before noon on Saturday.

00:34:51 Brad Dowdy: OK, because I have a crazy crazy busy weekend, which is why I couldn't stay all weekend or get a table.

00:34:56 Brad Dowdy: I will not have a table at the show.

00:34:57 Brad Dowdy: No, no, no knock table or anything like that, so I'll just be one around and I'll I'll be the guy with the pointy hair and don't hesitate to come up and say hi.

00:35:11 Mike Hurley: And I'm pretty jealous.

00:35:14 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, you know this is.

00:35:16 Brad Dowdy: This is almost like a test run.

00:35:19 Brad Dowdy: I am very interested to see for myself even though I have a lot of friends that have been going to a lot of Penn shows that have started to come back again, right?

00:35:25 Brad Dowdy: And it it all looks pretty good like I'm not going to lie.

00:35:28 Brad Dowdy: It's like, OK, it looks pretty good.

00:35:29 Brad Dowdy: You know, you know when the protocols were heavy, everyone following the protocols when the protocols.

00:35:33 Brad Dowdy: Were looser people are still, you know, trying to like manage you know.

00:35:39 Brad Dowdy: Health and things like that.

00:35:41 Brad Dowdy: And just like overall, I've been pretty comfortable seeing all like all the like, Kimberly doing the reviews, like when she's going to work at.

00:35:46 Brad Dowdy: The pin shows for Franklin Christoph, she'll be there this weekend as well.

00:35:51 Brad Dowdy: I've got to mention.

00:35:52 Brad Dowdy: Earlier and I'm I'm my comfort level is is much, much greater than say, like last fall, right?

00:35:59 Brad Dowdy: So like I feel pretty good, but again, it's the bonus of being localish to.

00:36:05 Brad Dowdy: This definitely helps that comfort level.

00:36:07 Speaker Right?

00:36:08 Brad Dowdy: OK, yeah, that's about it, because now we go into.

00:36:13 Brad Dowdy: Old man yells at cloud segment, great.

00:36:17 Brad Dowdy: You ready for.

00:36:17 Mike Hurley: This sure AM.

00:36:19 Brad Dowdy: It's I I'm I'm not really yelling at clouds this.

00:36:22 Brad Dowdy: Be how Brad Brain Works segment and this time it's related to the the uniball one gel ink pen.

00:36:32 Brad Dowdy: So I have talked about this pen since it came out in what last year?

00:36:37 Brad Dowdy: So this is a new uni-ball.

00:36:41 Brad Dowdy: Gel ink pen with a different ink formulation and the idea behind the ink formulation is colour saturation right deeper, richer, brighter.

00:36:52 Brad Dowdy: Gel ink colours then allegedly what they already have in the uni-ballsigno, the RT 1 the DX in a uni-ballgel.

00:37:02 Brad Dowdy: This is supposed to be.

00:37:05 Brad Dowdy: For lack of a better term, a stronger ink colour representation.

00:37:12 Brad Dowdy: I found when I reviewed them that while maybe the colour is fractionally more saturated or more vibrant, or whatever terminology they want to use, that the actual performance.

00:37:28 Brad Dowdy: Was lacking compared to any signo gel ink pen, as in, I thought the signal gels were smoother and cleaner and just nicer to write with than the uniball one gel.

00:37:44 Brad Dowdy: The problem or?

00:37:47 Brad Dowdy: The opposite, the good part of the [[uni-ball] ]one it is it is the best looking uni-ball gel ink pen, bar none.

00:37:57 Brad Dowdy: It's better looking than any signal, any RT.

00:38:01 Brad Dowdy: It's just nice, right?

00:38:03 Brad Dowdy: It's got this white barrel that has the paper clip type.

00:38:06 Brad Dowdy: Lip, it's just put together really, really well.

00:38:09 Brad Dowdy: You know the barrels are all white with the hint of colour that the gel ink is so the colour like if you have a pink gel, the little pink part on the clip.

00:38:16 Brad Dowdy: It just stands out.

00:38:18 Brad Dowdy: Right, it's killer looking.

00:38:22 Brad Dowdy: So what UNI has now done?

00:38:24 Brad Dowdy: Is hey, this is going pretty well for us, right? So we've seen the OK B 48 rankings. I just mentioned them when they talked about this. How the uni-ball 1?

00:38:34 Brad Dowdy: Last year was number or two years ago was number 2.

00:38:36 Brad Dowdy: This year was number 3.

00:38:37 Brad Dowdy: I was like yes it's falling down the rankings.

00:38:40 Brad Dowdy: It's still the number 3 pin on the freaking list, which means it's extremely popular and my.

00:38:47 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, my take on that is that it's just.

00:38:51 Brad Dowdy: It's the style of the barrel is great and the gel ink is good enough that it just pushes it ahead of all of uni uni balls.

00:39:02 Brad Dowdy: Other pens, despite the most important thing with the writing performance.

00:39:08 Brad Dowdy: Being in my opinion subpar in relation to.

00:39:12 Brad Dowdy: Do you know the rest of unit balls line up?

00:39:15 Brad Dowdy: But apparently it's good enough to just have them push through and really lean on this product line as seen by their new releases.

00:39:24 Brad Dowdy: Mike, so this is what got gets me.

00:39:26 Brad Dowdy: This is what tells me that everything is going well in uni ball one land and I'm just going to have to like suck it up and live with this.

00:39:33 Brad Dowdy: Being their primary gel ink pen, they just released a whole series.

00:39:37 Brad Dowdy: I'm wondering if this is like a Korea only or Japan only.

00:39:41 Brad Dowdy: Again, why do research of this, or if this is going to be a worldwide release, they have the unit ball one city pop colour, so they have three sets of three pin.

00:39:50 Brad Dowdy: And with three gel ink colours that represent you know Saturday morning, what are these words on Friday night, Saturday morning?

00:39:56 Mike Hurley: Friday night Sunday evening.

00:40:00 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, what colour is Sunday evening to you, Mike?

00:40:04 Mike Hurley: I mean the orange that they've got is pretty nice, so like little sunset action, you know.

00:40:09 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, I'm not.

00:40:10 Brad Dowdy: I'm not sure.

00:40:11 Brad Dowdy: Saturday morning is you know, sunny day blue, palm, green and yellow.

00:40:15 Brad Dowdy: After Friday nights.

00:40:17 Brad Dowdy: Neon green, Midnight purple and pink Saturday morning might be a different colour, but you know, maybe that's Saturday afternoon we we head to the beach because Saturday morning is not all sunshine and palm trees.

00:40:29 Brad Dowdy: A lot of times for me, but regardless, like they're leaning into this big time, right?

00:40:35 Brad Dowdy: And like I'm here for it like that's my conundrum like that is that is what has me so confused about this product is.

00:40:43 Brad Dowdy: I think this is going to be.

00:40:45 Brad Dowdy: Like the go to product because they have nailed the design.

00:40:50 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and the performance is good enough that.

00:40:55 Brad Dowdy: They're just able to just completely go to town on this. There's a completely new set separate from those 33 pin sets. There is a four pin set that's just called pop colour, you know, green, yellow, pink, right?

00:41:08 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, you know and they have other retro colour and basic colours, so they're they're like marketing.

00:41:13 Brad Dowdy: This like big time and I think I'm just going to have to like get over this.

00:41:20 Brad Dowdy: It's it, writes a little bit worse than the other pins because uni-ballis going to be leaning into this one.

00:41:27 Mike Hurley: They look good.

00:41:27 Brad Dowdy: Heavily they were closed.

00:41:28 Mike Hurley: I think this is all it is for me.

00:41:30 Mike Hurley: I think like they know that it looks good.

00:41:32 Mike Hurley: I think people buy it because it looks nice and ultimately.

00:41:35 Speaker I totally agree.

00:41:38 Mike Hurley: People don't care about the ink properties in the way that you would.

00:41:41 Brad Dowdy: Write well, because it's not terrible like it's good, right?

00:41:45 Mike Hurley: Maybe you're looking for like why?

00:41:48 Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right, right, right.

00:41:49 Mike Hurley: And most customers do not.

00:41:51 Mike Hurley: Look at a product line and they're like, but why you know they're like.

00:41:55 Brad Dowdy: 100% agree.

00:41:56 Mike Hurley: Look at the one that is like which.

00:41:57 Mike Hurley: Is either a the colour I like called the design I like and the design of these is really nice as fresh as modern and especially now they put colours in it like the white with the like.

00:42:07 Mike Hurley: The little colour on the clip, like really pops so right?

00:42:10 Mike Hurley: Yeah you nibbles.

00:42:11 Mike Hurley: They found it.

00:42:12 Mike Hurley: Yeah, after races.

00:42:12 Brad Dowdy: Yep Yep so so hence my my uni-ball 1 conundrum like.

00:42:13 Mike Hurley: It as well.

00:42:18 Brad Dowdy: It's really good.

00:42:20 Brad Dowdy: It's it's one of those products I just had to say.

00:42:22 Brad Dowdy: It's really good and I think there's things that are better, but those things that are better are going to lose the popularity contest that uni-ball is presented.

00:42:32 Brad Dowdy: Rightfully so, like uni-ball , like they got this right and I guess I'm wrong.

00:42:39 Brad Dowdy: But this is, this is how you know the stationary world works. You know I would. I would be, you know, in their losing my job, going well, can we just have the uni-ball 1 barrel with like the RT1 refill? And let's just do that? That would be cool.

00:42:53 Brad Dowdy: And they're like, no, you're fired and I'm like, OK.

00:42:55 Brad Dowdy: We have to have.

00:42:56 Brad Dowdy: We must have pigmented saturated gel links this year.

00:42:58 Mike Hurley: No, it's too late.

00:42:59 Mike Hurley: You've been fired.

00:42:59 Mike Hurley: You're not lost.

00:43:00 Brad Dowdy: I was like but but it's worse, but that ink's worse than this, no, no.

00:43:02 Mike Hurley: Security sports caught him out of the building.

00:43:06 Mike Hurley: Make this pass.

00:43:09 Mike Hurley: Hand in your badge.

00:43:10 Mike Hurley: Dowdy, you're done.

00:43:10 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but you said secure ink, but you said security so there you go.

00:43:15 Mike Hurley: So on your second stationary page, it says equal 1 is a gel pen released by UNI in February 20.

00:43:15 Brad Dowdy: That's how my brain works.

00:43:22 Mike Hurley: 20 these pens come with a newly developed ink that is darker or more vivid due to larger pigment particles that are less likely to be absorbed into the paper surface.

00:43:32 Mike Hurley: The speciality ink dries fast and writes smoothly, comparable to other uni-ball gel pens such as the fan favourite uni-ball signal.

00:43:42 Mike Hurley: Do you agree?

00:43:43 Brad Dowdy: With me, I mean I could do a whole another segment on just.

00:43:46 Brad Dowdy: That statement OK.

00:43:47 Brad Dowdy: I agree with it, but at no point is it better than the uni-ball's.

00:43:51 Mike Hurley: No, they're not saying that though.

00:43:53 Brad Dowdy: I know, but they're alluding to the.

00:43:56 Brad Dowdy: Fact that.

00:43:56 Mike Hurley: But this doesn't look as nice as the signal doesn't look as nice.

00:44:01 Brad Dowdy: I got 100% yeah.

00:44:04 Brad Dowdy: So this is going to be the name says right there.

00:44:07 Brad Dowdy: It's going to be the one.

00:44:09 Brad Dowdy: So I'm just going to have to deal with it. Yeah, this is. This is one of Brad's little pet peeves going forward that the uni-ball one is going to win everything while being.

00:44:21 Brad Dowdy: A sub optimal writing pen.

00:44:26 Brad Dowdy: In Brad's world.

00:44:29 Brad Dowdy: And like I, I, I guess my whole point in this is that I'm OK with it because I would rather the uni-ball one be very successful and very broad reaching than not right.

00:44:40 Brad Dowdy: I'm not, I'm not that way.

00:44:41 Brad Dowdy: I'm not that much yelling at clouds.

00:44:42 Mike Hurley: At least it's not a bad path.

00:44:44 Brad Dowdy: Right?

00:44:45 Mike Hurley: You know what I mean?

00:44:45 Mike Hurley: Like it's also something you consider as this is below par or people are going to get a bad experience, right?

00:44:51 Mike Hurley: It's just what you're just trying to work out.

00:44:53 Mike Hurley: What market fit it has.

00:44:54 Brad Dowdy: Yep, like I said the performance.

00:44:56 Brad Dowdy: It's close enough for everyone who it's going to matter.

00:44:59 Brad Dowdy: To you Yep.

00:45:01 Brad Dowdy: That's all that matters, and I I'm actually glad to see it because I think it's just a great great design and you know, for a gel ink pen to you know, kind of gain popular following.

00:45:11 Mike Hurley: You could've fooled me.

00:45:13 Brad Dowdy: Like it's, uh, it's hard to.

00:45:16 Brad Dowdy: Be successfully to successfully launch these new types of product lines that are so close to everything else you already make and they really did it with the exterior design.

00:45:27 Brad Dowdy: That way they're able to get away with the interior performance aspects of the pen that I, I think, are lacking so good on uni-ball and I I hope it succeeds.

00:45:37 Brad Dowdy: I'm not hoping it fails.

00:45:39 Brad Dowdy: So I just need to find out if my other refills that I like can fit into that barrel.

00:45:43 Brad Dowdy: Then we have a winner.

00:45:46 Mike Hurley: All right, if you would like to find the show notes for this week's episode, you can go to related FM slash pen addict Slash 507 and please make sure that you enjoy international pencil day.

00:45:55 Mike Hurley: If you're listening, that is, Are you ready for all of the terrible April fools that are going to happen in the next couple of days?

00:46:02 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I'm pretty over that from years ago.

00:46:05 Mike Hurley: Who was it last time?

00:46:07 Brad Dowdy: Uh, my Appelboom did a ink.

00:46:09 Mike Hurley: Yeah, yeah.

00:46:11 Brad Dowdy: Uhm, yeah it was an ink and like the bottle was like you know Swarovski crystal looking type of thing.

00:46:17 Mike Hurley: No, but didn't they do like a whole big thing and it got me?

00:46:21 Brad Dowdy: Yeah it yeah it was the ink bottle.

00:46:23 Brad Dowdy: It it it was.

00:46:25 Mike Hurley: The ink right OK?

00:46:26 Brad Dowdy: Because they they slow, rolled it right?

00:46:29 Brad Dowdy: It wasn't a singular launch, they previewed, right?

00:46:31 Mike Hurley: Yeah, annoyed me, yeah.

00:46:32 Brad Dowdy: They sloped, they slow, played it.

00:46:33 Brad Dowdy: They slow, played it.

00:46:35 Mike Hurley: Yeah, 'cause I was angry about like.

00:46:38 Mike Hurley: Don't do it a week before.

00:46:40 Mike Hurley: Like as we were recording today, the internet's been ablaze with this Dyson thing. It's like a paradise and head home thing. Have a air purifier in them.

00:46:45 Brad Dowdy: Oh the over the yeah yeah.

00:46:49 Mike Hurley: OK, and everyone reporting on them and I'm.

00:46:53 Mike Hurley: This is an April fools.

00:46:55 Mike Hurley: But it seems like everyone is treating it like it's real, and so like I feel like I need to wait a week before I believe that this news story is true.

00:47:03 Brad Dowdy: Right, just from timing perspective alone.

00:47:05 Mike Hurley: Because I think that they're like this.

00:47:07 Mike Hurley: Looks like an April fools to me.

00:47:08 Mike Hurley: Everything about it looks like an April fools to me, but everyone reporting on it and like Dyson seem to be going hard on it and I don't.

00:47:15 Mike Hurley: Yeah yeah I don't get it.

00:47:18 Brad Dowdy: So we'll see TBD.

00:47:20 Brad Dowdy: So you are what are you going to decide?

00:47:21 Brad Dowdy: Are you siding real?

00:47:22 Brad Dowdy: You gotta pick one right now, real or fake.

00:47:25 Brad Dowdy: Fake, I'll go fake.

00:47:27 Mike Hurley: As well, because they're not selling them.

00:47:31 Mike Hurley: So I think that's fake.

00:47:32 Brad Dowdy: Well then they've done a good job.

00:47:34 Brad Dowdy: Their marketing department can go work for uni-ball and tell me how great the one is now.

00:47:39 Mike Hurley: No, I don't believe this is real.

00:47:41 Mike Hurley: And I think I don't know if if I am correct.

00:47:45 Mike Hurley: I do not know why they're going so hard on it, like it's too much, but we'll find out.

00:47:48 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, right, right?

00:47:50 Brad Dowdy: Right like they're, they're like escalating up the mountain pretty quickly to reach a Cliff here.

00:47:55 Mike Hurley: Yeah, this reminds me.

00:47:55 Brad Dowdy: That's not going to go well.

00:47:57 Mike Hurley: I think it was last year Volkswagen.

00:47:59 Mike Hurley: Do you remember that?

00:48:01 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just marginally.

00:48:04 Brad Dowdy: What did they do I remember?

00:48:04 Mike Hurley: They were saying Volkswagen was saying they were changing their name to volts wagon because electric cars and people were like really excited about it and then they had to be like, yeah we were just joking.

00:48:09 Brad Dowdy: Oh gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah yeah.

00:48:17 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and this was like in the aftermath of them getting caught for four.

00:48:21 Mike Hurley: The emissions scandal.

00:48:22 Brad Dowdy: Yeah, manipulation of data.

00:48:24 Mike Hurley: Yeah, so they ended they they they didn't do very well out of that whole thing.

00:48:28 Mike Hurley: Money in but yeah, I don't believe that this thing is.

00:48:30 Mike Hurley: Real then.

00:48:31 Brad Dowdy: Are you telling me this whole time uni-ball one has been one big April Fools joke on me?

00:48:35 Mike Hurley: Yeah, I mean, who would make pens themed after certain times in a day?

00:48:38 Mike Hurley: Come on bro.

00:48:39 Mike Hurley: Come on and also one April one you know.

00:48:43 Brad Dowdy: They go, whoa.

00:48:44 Mike Hurley: They call you like.

00:48:46 Mike Hurley: Anyway, you want to find Brad Online, you go to panic. Com at dowdy is I'm on Twitter at pen addict on Instagram, twitch.tv/pen addict for streams. Three times a week.

00:48:47 Brad Dowdy: We run this up there.

00:48:56 Mike Hurley: If you want to find me online, I'm at I Mike I myk thank you to square space for the support of this show.

00:49:03 Mike Hurley: And thank you for listening until then.

00:49:05 Mike Hurley: Next time until then next time Brad say goodbye goodbye.

00:49:12 Brad Dowdy: I'm glad this is ended as well as it started.

00:49:14 Brad Dowdy: That was a good bookend of terrible speaking. 00:00:48 Brad Dowdy: It's better, Umm? Boy, we're just going to. Just like I said, Happy International Pencil day. I didn't say unhappy fighting international pencil day Mike. That that is canonically not a Rotring 600. OK it's a Newton.