The Pen Addict 584/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 584 |
| Title: | That Tube Needs a Home |
| Release Date: | October 4th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 584 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 584 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 584 |
| Length: | 5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 584. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Retro51. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by your constant, Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: I like that, the constant.
Myke Hurley: You're the constant.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I feel like that could be, that's almost like a royal type of, you know, title, I feel. Like, you know, maybe right under Lord. We could call you his constantness. His constantness.
Myke Hurley: Hi Myke, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. Are you though? Yeah, I'm tired, I'm a little run down today, you know. That's the end of September because it is still September in my life. And it's for the next two days. But yeah, thank you for holding down the fort. Thank you for Myke from Independence for stepping in for me last week. Appreciated everything except the introduction.
Myke Hurley: It's my show, goddammit. No one takes my show away from me, you know. But nevertheless, appreciate him stepping in.
Brad Dowdy: I thought that was brilliant. That was fully his idea. He said that out loud. You know what, Brad?
Myke Hurley: That doesn't surprise me, you know.
Brad Dowdy: It was brilliant. When he said it, I'm like, OMG, yes, we're doing that. And then, of course, I couldn't deliver completely. I couldn't totally sell it and just go with it because I was laughing too hard. So I needed a break to collect myself. Even though I knew what he was going to do, I needed a break. And so I just blew it quickly. But it was worth it. Worth it. So yes, thank you, Independence Myke, for stepping in. Last week, we had a good conversation. If y'all haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. Mostly talking about what Myke's been up to since it's been years since he's been on the show. And, you know, talk about some of his favorite products. He's obviously very into ink. So I got to pick his brain about some inks. And then we talked about pen shows a little bit. And like for two people, him and myself, that go to a lot of pen shows, we kind of, you know, kind of broke them down and said, Hey, what do showrunners and events, you know, need to do better? And that would make the events better for all of us. So y'all go check that out. Episode 583. If you have not, we'll have a link in the show notes. But if you're listening to this, it's probably right there in your queue. Just download it, listen to it, let us know how it went. So a lot of good feedback on that one.
Pen Addict Raffle for St. Jude
Myke Hurley: Talking about good things. Do you want to give the final total raised for the pen addict? What do we call it?
Brad Dowdy: I mean, I call it the pen addict raffle for St. Jude. I call it the pen addict raffle for St. Jude.
Myke Hurley: I have heard word. Raffle is not a great word, but I don't know another word to use. So we're just going to keep calling it that.
Brad Dowdy: So we're going to have this discussion right here. I think if I say like giveaway or fundraiser, I think I have different requirements. Like there's like this legal gray area where like I can get my butt in a sling for certain things, even though I don't think I ever would. But that's why I never call this. We could just come up with a new name, you know? We could. We could. Some event-based name. But I never ever. Yeah. I never ever call this a giveaway because that is something. There is some. I remember when I first started doing this, I was very concerned about like doing it right. And I'm not saying that I do currently do it right, but I do feel that like having like the word giveaway not part of this is key. So, yeah, I don't love that word anyway. But what we do for all of you listeners and podcast readers, we try to raise money for St. Jude's through the pen addict. And what we have is a bunch of retailers, a bunch of listeners, a bunch of readers, a bunch of friends donating products to this one large prize pool. And what we do, that's also another word I should say. So, I'm officially getting sued now. FTC, just leave us alone. All right? You know what I'm saying? We're just trying to raise money for the kids here. Why can't we have nice things, Myke? I just want to raise money for the kids. You know what I mean? I just want to raise money for the kids. So, and everyone who donates and sends me their receipts through the month of September through the pen addict, they know what they're signing up for, right? They know exactly what's going on. This isn't some big, like we're not giving away a car here and making sure all the legalese is correct. We're trying to raise a bunch of money for the kids. And we have a lot of great participants in this. How much money did you raise, Brad? How much money did you raise? This year, I tallied up $49,180.
Myke Hurley: Huge.
Brad Dowdy: Big money. Big money. Thank you. Definitely the largest amount we've raised. I didn't go back and audit the last five years. I know this is the biggest. I think one year we did it, we cracked 40. Then we're usually more like around 30, which is awesome on its own. Like if we raise anything, it's great, right? But this year was spectacular. In particular, everyone who supported by donating prizes and then donating money to help the kids at St. Jude's. Like it was a big deal. It was a big deal for us. It was great to see the support we had for this. And just to catch up, if people haven't seen the blog post, I have emailed everyone who won a raffle prize for the giveaway. So if you didn't get an email yet, there is not one forthcoming, unfortunately. I'm sorry. But I did contact all the winners. I think they probably all contacted me back by this point. So we're in good shape for that. And it was a blast. It's always a big deal to do this every month. And let's just say and segue into your part, what you do and what Stephen does and what RelayFM does as a whole. Can you give me the current status? Yes. And then let's talk about your trip and the big podcast-a-thon.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, so it was not a surprise to me that we've raised more money here through the pen addict because it seems like we've raised more money everywhere this year. Our previous total, every year we have raised more money than the previous year. Now, sometimes just by a hair. So last year we raised $706,000. The year before I think was $703,000 or something like that. Like it was really close.
Brad Dowdy: I was like, did they typo the numbers? Because it sounds like the same number.
Myke Hurley: So close. And so, you know, going into it this year, we were not feeling particularly confident that we would actually even surpass last year's total. Because, you know, you never really know. And also the economy is weird right now. But we have, I would say, obliterated last year's total. We've raised $756,000 for the kids of St. Jude just this year alone. We are at $2.96 million total over the last five years. If somebody has $37,000 just lying around, if you want to drop that to stjude.org slash relay by Friday evening, it would be preferable.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, two days left, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah. But yeah, that's amazing. It's incredible. Thank you so much to everybody that's donated. No matter how you donated or how much you donated, all of this money, all of this money goes to the kids of St. Jude. It's all going towards ending childhood cancer. We are still fundraising for the next couple of days. So if you haven't yet or if you're feeling particularly generous and you want to give again, please go to stjude.org slash relay and you could do so. Brad mentioned my travels. So we were doing the podcast-a-thon for St. Jude, which we did a couple of weeks ago now. It was a 12-hour event live from the campus over at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It was me and Stephen and we were joined by RelayFM host Kathy Campbell and Jason Snell this time. And we put on, I would say, a really, really, really fun event. Like if you've not seen it, it's on YouTube now. It's in two parts, like two six-hour videos. You can go ahead and watch those and see all the happenings. I would say the entire time there was always something fun going on. And I'm really proud of the work that everybody did into making this a reality. We had action replays this year. Like it was like a whole next level of production. And I'm super proud of it. And I think we did a super good job. And I think that that has been borne out in the money that we've raised this year as a community. So very, very thankful.
Brad Dowdy: Super proud of you and Stephen and everyone behind the scenes, everyone at St. Jude who, you know, helps put this production on. It's a big deal.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, they do such a great job for us. And they're so helpful. And they help us realize all these really honestly stupid things that we want to do a lot of the time. So like we're very, very thankful of it. But it's all going towards one singular cause, which is raising money to defeat childhood cancer. And who can argue with that, you know?
Brad Dowdy: Exactly, exactly. And do you remember way back around $296,000 raised or so? Yeah. Remember thinking that that was like, that was a number we're probably going to hit, but it might be a while. Well, I owed you a little bit of something around then, didn't I?
Desk Setup and Organization
Myke Hurley: You owed me a video. Because I made a video where I did my desk, I did a desk tour. And you had a lot of smack to talk on this show about my desk. And so I laid down the gauntlet on you and said, all right, Mr. Fancy Pants, make a desk tour. And you have. And I have some things I would like to say and some questions I would like to ask about your desk. There'll be a link in the show notes for anyone that hasn't seen this video, which is very fun. I would, I have one, I think, important question to begin to help me frame the rest of this. Is this desk your main desk? Yes. So is this where you are right now? Yes. Huh. Because I always thought you had a different desk.
Brad Dowdy: So I have a desk in our bedroom. Yeah. But I rarely use it. Like, I will use the desk in the bedroom if I want to, like, focus on writing and just writing. And I'll just throw my laptop in there. Okay. I have a monitor in there.
Myke Hurley: Because I know you've sent me pictures of that one before. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: So that's, like, where my, like, better keyboard and my good mouse lives. Because that's where if I just want to get away from everything and hide and, like, if I need to, like, write a bunch of articles or just, like, type out a bunch of words. Like, that's where I'll sit and turn up the music and go. But I never, I won't say never, I rarely, like, use any, like, stationery there. That is, like, I'm going to go focus on this project I need to bang out. And that's what I'll do. So otherwise, that's, it's probably, like, a 90%, 10% split. So I'm 90% sitting what you saw in the desk on the video and where I'm sitting at right now.
Myke Hurley: Okay. That has helped contextualize things. I don't know why I always thought that in my mind, like, where I imagine you, I imagine you at that desk when we're recording, not at the streaming desk. So I was very surprised to see the microphone there. I'm like, well, what's that doing there?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very confusing for me. So, no, this is also a room that's carpeted and that other room is not carpeted. So that's, like, an instant no-go just from an audio perspective. So, yeah, I've always been in here. I've never, I've never recorded a show from that other room once. All right. My first comment. Now that you say, now that you say that, before you get in this, I'm totally going to distract us. I used to record in our guest bedroom on a, on the, on the Yeti microphone. And I would have the laptop stationed on the nightstand and me sitting in a chair that was squirreled between the bed and the wall. I'm just picturing that now. I don't know if I've ever, that is so long ago.
Myke Hurley: We've just done some, we've been doing this for so long. We've just done some really stupid stuff over that time. Yeah. You know? Wow.
Brad Dowdy: And that was when I used to record over a hotspot too, which was a nightmare in itself. Oh, yeah. Somehow we made it.
Myke Hurley: Lots of problems in the history of this show.
Brad Dowdy: All right. So, I don't know why that memory just came back to me, but wow. Okay. Let's go.
Myke Hurley: All right. Piles on piles on piles. That is my main takeaway from not just your desk, but your overall office area. There is just, everything is on top of each other and there's lots of them. Like lots of piles.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a vertical storage issue that I find myself in. Yeah. Right. So, my desk, so the stream desk and where I'm literally sitting at right now is five feet long. So, you know, the width rise, width rise. And so, between like computers and keyboards and monitors and risers and speakers, it's actually not that big by the time I get all my stuff on there. So, I try to keep the center desk space for right now my laptop, but normally for other writing, you know, pens, stationery, notebooks, all that kind of stuff. And then I'm basically encircled by stuff. A lot of it vertically because I'm always trying new things, testing new things. How does this pen work on this paper? Oh, what about this paper? Where's that ink? You know, where is this pen? How does this pen compare to that pen? And it's just like those questions don't end, right? That is an endless, unanswerable question. So, a lot of times if I'm sitting here and then I'll just set something aside, like I'll literally just like picture my writing right in front of me. And then if I'm done with it, it just gets pushed to the side. Well, then that side just starts building up like and it gets vertical. So, I will go ahead and cut to the chase now. I purposefully did not clean my desk for that because honestly it's in there.
Myke Hurley: That was the agreement. Yeah. That wasn't like I said to you, you cannot go in now and like put your thumb on the scales for this. Correct.
Brad Dowdy: And I will admit that it's like that a lot of the time.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: But after the video, I did correct a lot of the issues. Like some of the self-inflicted stuff that I have going on. But you were faced to look at yourself, you know? Yeah. I realized one of my core problems, which maybe we'll get to later. It's probably just a good time to talk about it. Now, one of the core issues with the verticalness is paper, right? Like notebooks that I don't use. But like I'm going to test it once and then set it aside. Or like I have like a pile of like scrap paper. That is just literally things I just pick up and write on. I got rid of every notebook and loose type of paper that is not in like my regular daily usage. So, which boils down to three notebooks. It's my regular like everything notebook. That's like a journal. That's the way I'm writing like notes for today's show in. My Hobonichi five year. And then my plotter. So, those are the core. Those things I literally use every day. Every shred of paper is now off my desk. All the random stuff. So, that was the big. That was the big cleanup point.
Challenges with Paper and Notebooks
Myke Hurley: One of the most complicated things about paper and notebooks especially is just how easily they stack. Like they stack so easily so they're easy to stack. In regards to stacks, something that I thought was hilarious. So, you turned around at one point to show your like giveaway closet. Yeah. And on top of it is your Toyococraft pen storage thing. You have piles of stuff in front of that. So, you can't open it. You would have to move things to open the drawers. I found that very funny.
Brad Dowdy: That's my biggest current issue. Yes. And I have actually made that worse. Wait.
Myke Hurley: You just took all the things off your desk and put them in front of that? Is that what you did?
Brad Dowdy: No. Not exactly. But I've had a couple of other things that have found their way there. That is. So, the front of that Toyococraft box. So, if you're not familiar with this. I have a box that has five drawers that have 20 slots each in it. So, it holds 100 pens in it. And it's like 100 of like my nicest favorite is fountain pens. And we're going to cover that actually here in a few weeks. We've talked about this already. We're going to have that discussion about the Pen Attic 100. Yeah. Which that box is for. But the area in front of that box. Since I would normally, like a normal human being, would keep that area clear. To get in and out of the box. And someone like me who actually needs to use a lot of the things in there. Is in and out of it pretty frequently. That has become like this free space. It's like this temporary loading zone. Where things live until they make it to a more permanent residence. And it absolutely gets in the way. Like I will shift stuff from in front of that box to my desk. To get into the tray. To get the pen out that I want. And shut the tray. Turn it back around to my desk. And put the crap back right back in front of it. Because like I just haven't decided on the home. For whatever is in front of it right now. So I'm going to turn around and look real quick. So you might not hear me for a second.
Myke Hurley: It's like.
Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah. It's like I have breached the top of the Toyoka craft.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because you could have maybe opened one of the drawers. Hang on.
Myke Hurley: Like the top drawer. Oh no. Brad. What's going on? I'm going to turn around.
Brad Dowdy: I'm going to send you a picture in Slack. And then I'll put it on Instagram. I'll commit to the listeners. So they know what we're talking about here. So I'm going to turn around. You're not going to hear me for a second. All right. Let me get this camera. Oh fine. So I'm going to turn around here real quick.
Myke Hurley: Oh Brad. This is great for me. This is just great. I'm having a great time. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: We have breached. We have breached the top here. Like this is. This is like not even making things up. This is my life right now. So I have a lot of things going on. It's such a precarious thing too.
Myke Hurley: Why are these glass octopuses like hanging over the side of this snowboard Brad?
Brad Dowdy: Because they rule and I don't know where to put them yet. I got them at the Orlando pin show. Yeah but that one.
Myke Hurley: That blue one's going to fall off.
Brad Dowdy: It's lived there for like two days now. So it's okay. Well we'll see.
Myke Hurley: There's some cool stuff up here though. You know. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It's dope. Like I keep all my. So like in the back of that. And I apologize that y'all aren't. Y'all will have a link to this in the show notes to pull this up. On the top of that box is all my 001 numbers of Retro 51s of the ones that I created. Right. Like that's some cool stuff. And then our print from you know our pin addict live show. You know things like that. And our recent Lego orchid build that we didn't remember. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that the but the in front of the box should be clear at all times and it is definitely not.
Myke Hurley: I feel like getting into the pen addict 100 project is going to have to force that. Like you can't keep your pens in there and then stack stuff in front of it.
Brad Dowdy: So if you think about this like really hard you'll realize that I started that last week. So I had to have that top tray out at least a minimum. I actually probably had to have like I think I had like three trays out. So that has just happened in the past few days. This current situation.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's bad. That's a bad time.
Brad Dowdy: Everything just kind of rotates around here. So right now I'm trying I've done a good job at keeping it off the desk that I'm sitting at. But outside of that. Yeah. So I don't know if you can throw that image up in the discord real quick. Yeah. I can. We'll have it on Instagram before y'all listen to this.
Myke Hurley: You know what? Like I have some. We're going to take a break now before we get back to this because like we've gone on such a diversion at this point. Like we barely got into like minute one of the 15 minute video. Yeah. Yeah. So let's take a break. We'll thank our friends at Penn Chalet and then we'll come back and talk about what you're up to. This episode of the Penn Addict is brought to you by our friends at Penn Chalet. They sell your favorite. They sell products from your favorite brands and they're going to sell what will be your favorite products. They have everything you're looking for. Whether you need a new rollerball or a new fountain pen. Maybe you need some pen storage to stop the stacks of things from overflowing and spilling out all over the floor. Carrying cases, accessories, pen holders and refills, fountain pen converters and so much more. Penn Chalet have all of the stuff that you're going to want that will create those piles and then they have all of the things to help you manage them as well. They do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US and they have great shipping rates for international orders. Penn Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. And those prices, those low prices, they extend it even further because every two weeks at Penn Chalet you'll find a bunch of special discounts. And they're always adding new styles of products, new styles of pens every single month with very fast and reliable customer service backing it all up. But you know this, you're a Penn Addict listener. So go to PennChalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Use our password Penn Addict and you will get 10%, you'll get a code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penn Chalet. But also, the most important thing as always, is the list of special offers only available to Penn Addict listeners. What you got, Brad?
Brad Dowdy: This is one of the more off the charts selections I've seen in a while from Ron and Penn Chalet. Right off the jump, we have the Tibaldi. So Tibaldi is a brand that kind of revived itself three years ago or so. I have enjoyed the ones that I have used and reviewed. They've done a really good job in that. So that's a good deal right off of that. Right behind it is a Platinum Procyon that is on sale, which is one of Platinum's great. Kind of like mid-range. It's not entry level. It's not like super expensive either. That's just a high quality great pen. And there's actually a second one further down. So if you like that style of pen, check that out. One of the Visconti Rembrandt Enco Logic pens is available. And these just came out this year. And they're this kind of neat material. It's kind of like a tactile matte finish material that I really, really like the feel of. I haven't bought one of these yet, but I've checked them out at pen shows. And it's one of those pens that I keep gravitating to when I see it in person. It's kind of got a neat feel. The price of this is actually pretty ridiculous for one of these Viscontis. Then if you scroll down, I got a thank you note for me mentioning this a couple, I don't know, months ago. There was a random Pelican nib that was for sale in this. And someone thanked me that they were looking for this. There's another one in there for the 800 size Pelican pens. So go check that out. Like the price is spectacular on this if you're someone who is looking for that. And then right under that is something I've never seen on here before. And that's a Retro 51 Rocketeer. I mean, I've obviously seen the pen, but it's at an amazing price. It's like at a really good discounted price, which if you're into Retro 51s, you like this kind of cartoon style of pen. It looks spectacular. It's at a price you're not going to see.
Brad Dowdy: I could keep going this time. I think one of the times that I bought something off this list, they had the Platinum Mixable fountain pen inks. They're all on sale on here. And I think I bought them here last time because that's a really good price. So, God, I'm going to keep going, Myke. This is ridiculous. The Montegrappa Elmo 02 is a beautiful striated acrylic. The Elmo's really one of my favorite shapes of the Montegrappa pen. And then they have an Aurora 888 Red Mamba for a really good price. Platinum 3776s. This is a knockout list. So, not all lists are created equal. This sales list is off the charts. So, go check them out.
Myke Hurley: Penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the code PENADDICT where you will be able to get your eyes on these offers. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and all of RelayFM. So, we were just talking about Retro 51. We're actually going to talk about Retro 51 in a bit too. Yep. You mentioned you had all of the nice ones stacked up there behind you, all the ones you've worked on. But then we go down to the floor where there's just like a bunch of tubes. Retro 51 is just hanging out. Oh, yeah. They're just hanging out.
Brad Dowdy: So, that's the to be sold category. That's the I need to list them for sale category. That was part of an audit I did. And then I haven't. Then those are the ones I pulled to rehome, like maybe like an eBay type of situation. And I've never done anything with them. So, yeah. That is going to. I need to figure something out with that real quick. And I would just.
Myke Hurley: Two sale piles are like the worst kind of piles.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because it takes a lot of work. Like it's a lot of work to sell stuff. To like take pictures and write product listings. And like I don't mind doing it. It's just like I'm not going to do that like every week or something silly like that. But I went through them. Those have probably been there for like a year. Like I'm not even joking.
Brad Dowdy: And the reason why I haven't just like listed them on like the pen addict to sell is because some of them I wouldn't know how to price. Right. And I always price things like reasonably well. But with Retro 51 and the collectability nature of it, like it's probably better to just like put them on eBay and they sell for what they sell for. That's what I did when I sold my Black Wings. I was like, well, I could just set a fixed price on here. But I have no clue. I have no clue. And I'm not going to set. But you like put in like all this research time and come with this completely accurate number. I'll just list them on eBay. They sell for $20. Great. If they sell for $200. Great. It doesn't matter to me. Like I'll list them all at like 99 cents and I just got to get around to doing it because that's like a surprisingly like overwhelming project for me to do. Even though if I sat here and did it, I could do it all in one day. It's just I'm not excited about doing that. It needs to be done though. Those need to go.
Myke Hurley: Such a complicated thing to do though.
Brad Dowdy: Needs to be done. Like it's just it's on the permanent list. Always at the bottom. There's always things I can find that are more enjoyable than getting products ready to sell.
Toby the Dog
Myke Hurley: So that one moment, Toby's there, right? And you call Toby and he looks at you. Toby reminds me of a human.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. How so?
Myke Hurley: I don't know. Just the way he looks. He has a charismatic look. Yeah. Yeah. Like he has a, his face is a very interesting look. He has like very distinct eyes. And the way he gets up and looks at you is almost like if, if there was a human in the room with you, he just gets up and looks at you and he's just not approving. And then he just gets up and walks off. I don't know. Something about Toby reminds me of a human.
Brad Dowdy: He's funny. He's, he's, he's a good pup. He, he's, he's almost consistently. If I'm in this room, he is here with me. Like, yeah. And if he hears something around the house, he'll go figure out what it is. And then he'll come back. Like I could be the only one in the house. He's in this room with me. Like, cause I, cause I'm in here most of the, most of my days working. So yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Your keyboard.
Myke Hurley: We've got to, we've got to help you out with that keyboard.
Brad Dowdy: This is, this is the space where I want the, the nice keyboard. So I have, what's the one I have in my other room? Keychron. Like that's in my other room. Like one of those. But this is just the, the keyboard. I think I said it in the video. I don't know what this is. It's just the one that came with the computer.
Myke Hurley: Well, as you said at one point, it says gigabyte on it, which I thought was very funny.
Brad Dowdy: It's obviously the brand. But I don't know what that means. It's like, is that the brand or is that the model?
Myke Hurley: No, it's the brand gigabyte. It's like a personal company.
Brad Dowdy: Like it's like, I don't ever type on this computer.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Like I don't do any of my writing. So literally as I sit right now, my MacBook Air is in front of that keyboard. And if I was typing, if I was writing, that's what I'm doing. Right. So it's just pushed under the stand right now. And that's where it goes most of the time. Like the most action that keyboard gets, if I'm, if I'm playing a game, that's like a, you know, a WASD game or something like that. Right.
Myke Hurley: There was something funny to me where, um, like when I came to realize that this is all one desk for you, that you already have a microphone on that desk and you move that microphone away to use the other microphone. I just thought that was funny.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I could be like a real professional, you know, like the, the editors that put together your video for you. Like I could be that, that little professional and have this wired in correctly.
Myke Hurley: I'm not really sure where this came from that. Like I have like a team of people to help me make a video. I made that video. That was just me. All right.
Brad Dowdy: I just knew I did like such a technically poor job. I was like, I'm just going to own it. I thought it was great.
Myke Hurley: And most of my, I think it was really that different to mine. I just thought it was good.
Brad Dowdy: So, uh, so here's what, let me just tell you, like, so I have my podcast microphone and amp, which is what I bought years and years ago that you told me to get for this, that you, yeah, I could relay got me. And this is the same one from years and years and years ago. And it's really good. And we like it and we know what we're getting at it. And I could wire that all into my computer, but I don't because if I go on the road, like if I travel on vacation, I will take this setup with me. Yeah. Right. So I have an actual separate mic for streaming, uh, that's on a boom arm attached to the desk. So my podcast, my wave. Yeah. Yeah. They all got a wave. It's really good. Like it's super good. And like, it's, it has whatever the, the type of microphone allows me to like talk anywhere, not like having to talk straight into the mic. Right. It picks up like a wider range of, of my, uh, sound, which that wouldn't work really for stream using my podcast mic for that. So my podcast mic is just on like a desk stand in the amp and those come, uh, up to the table when I'm recording, like I am right now. And then when I'm done, I'll set them back down behind me. So that's really the only time I use this, this setup.
Myke Hurley: Uh, you were really down to the dregs on that fire on fire.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Pretty happy about that.
Myke Hurley: You had a bottle of fire on fire and it was like the tiniest amount. And it's also pretty funny. You knocked it over at one point in the video and you just like straight up, just like smack. It was gone down. You know, that's very funny. Luckily those things are made of plastic and you had the cap on. Um, all right, Brad. Now the biggest thing you took issue with right in my video and you shamed me, you publicly shamed me that I had my canalea pen in the pen cup. Right.
Brad Dowdy: And so, well, okay. The canalea pen with the metal band, the my lay lay band.
Myke Hurley: You didn't know that though. When, when you, you started.
Brad Dowdy: No, I saw it as visually there. That was the problem.
Myke Hurley: I think if we run back the tape, then I, I, I indicated that to you. Well, I don't understand. There are so many pens just like randomly on your desk, like smashing into each other as you're talking. Like you're just like pushing things around and you've got like this huge chunky metal pen smashing into an acrylic pen, you know, like there are pieces flying left, right and center. I think if you slow down the video, you can see that, you know, chunks of acrylic just like flying all over the place. What's going on with you over there? Why are all these pens just like all over the place?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We hit that. We hit this video threshold at a bad time.
Brad Dowdy: I got caught out on that one for sure. Um, so I try, this goes back to like the, the whole inked pen. How many fountain pens do you have inked up at a time? And I'm currently like at a like close, like pushing 20, which is a ton for me. So I have different areas that pens live in. Like, you know, I'm staring at two pen cases right now on my desk. Like all those loose pens are gone from, from my desk. They're properly stored. So that was kind of a category of needs to be cleaned or needs to be like, that's the category is like, I need to do something with these. So those pens in that section were something needs to happen here. They need to go into storage. They need to be cleaned or they need to be inked up and put into a pen case. So that was a transitional area. And yes, I will admit that even while I was shooting, like, obviously they're not getting like banged around while they're on my desk, you know, I'm working or stuff. But while I was shooting the video, I was like, oh yeah, that's a little bit awkward. Cause I think like one of them might even been disassembled and I don't know. It was just, yeah, that was, that wasn't a good spot for me. That wasn't a good look for me, admittedly.
Brad Dowdy: But right now they're, they're gone. I have, I have two platinum Curie DOS on my desk resting on the smand. And then I have one, one pen that I'm using in my notebook. Those are the only exposed pens on my desk right now compared to what it looked like.
Myke Hurley: But as we say, right, like, and as we said before, like this does happen and I'm sure it happens a lot. So it's only fair to show, right? That's how you live your life. We're just humans.
Brad Dowdy: I wasn't going to hide from it. I wasn't going to hide from it.
Myke Hurley: The five-year journal that you have looked really cool. I like it. I just like the look of it.
Brad Dowdy: It's a good size. I couldn't have done it. And the A5 five-year journal would have been too intimidating for me. But I am even impressed with myself how consistent I've been. Like, I think I haven't written, let's see, I'm up to October 1st. So like, I'm like two days behind, three days behind, which that's about as far as I'll get. So like, I will update that today. Yeah. You know, note down what I've done. I've been very consistent with it. I'm enjoying using it. And it's nice to see the bookmark, you know, being three quarters of the way through the book. And then, you know, come around the turn of the year, we'll get to write the second entry on the annual pages, which I'm actually very much looking forward to. It takes some time. Like, it's a commitment, obviously. It's a five-year notebook. But the beauty of it doesn't really come into play until you reach that second year when you can, you're now writing on January 1st, 2024 on the same page you wrote on January 1st, 2023. And you can kind of contextualize it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, because like when you were skimming through it at first, I was like, oh, he's missing so many days. It's like, no, that's the other years. Yeah. Right? And so like, it's weird. It is a weird thing when you look at it. And it's odd that like, you have to put in a year before you start to get the benefit from it. But it is that kind of commitment product.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So once you cross that threshold, it's going to be like, oh, yeah, that's pretty cool. I see why like, I committed to this first year. But it's a weird concept. And I admit it took me forever. Like, I didn't know if I was going to be into this, but I took a shot. And it's stuck. And I'm pretty happy about that.
Myke Hurley: Also, at one point you make, I don't even know if you make a reference to it or not, but there's just like a bunch of empty pen tubes on the desk. Like hidden under, you like pick up a notebook and there's just like a bunch of tubes, plastic tubes underneath everything, which is very funny to me.
Brad Dowdy: So that's, those tubes, we use those for spoke pens. And that's probably me. I had a bunch of, we've had a bunch of prototypes across my desk here the past couple of months getting ready for the end of the year. So I will, I will remove the pen from the tube, but like, I need to do something with the tube. So it just lives there until I do something with it. And the pens off being used and testing and doing whatever I'm doing with it. And the tube was like, well, that tube needs a home. And it might be a few days before, like I go take it out into with the rest of the tubes at the spoke shipping department. So yeah, sometimes those things live there.
Scuff Controllers and Gaming Setup
Myke Hurley: And you had a scuff controller for your PlayStation. So scuff is like a controller brand and they make like third party controllers. Do you like it? And like, why do you, why did you go with this? Yeah. I'm just intrigued.
Brad Dowdy: Yes. So I don't think, I don't guess under my desk I showed, but my PlayStation's under my desk. It's hooked into these monitors here. Yeah. That's on my desk. I use, when I play Destiny a lot, that is one of the few games that I've played where I found the benefit of having the assignable paddles underneath the controller. That's one of the things. Only for that game. Like you don't need it. Like I, there's definitely not a lot of need for this type of controller unless you're playing a game that's kind of requiring like two, two inputs at the same time that are equally important and losing the time to, or gaining the time back that you would be from hitting the different buttons, jumping the buttons. You can leave your, your finger on one button.
Myke Hurley: You've got to get your 360 no scopes, right? So you've got to have your flat.
Brad Dowdy: So that's a big, big 360 no scope type of situation.
Myke Hurley: What I actually like about scuff as a brand is that they do make products that look like and are shaped like the official controllers, but they add design or functionality to them. I just think that's like a nice way of doing it. Like a lot of these brands are like, Oh, we're going to make our own thing or whatever.
Brad Dowdy: And I just find that a bit like, so that's actually my second one. I bought one years ago on my PlayStation four. I had that one and I gave that to my son. So he's using that one. And when I got a PlayStation five, I got an upgraded one and I like them, but like, it's, it's like probably unnecessary for the amount of gaming I play now. Right. Cause they're expensive, you know, they're like 200 and some dollar controllers. Um, but like when I played destiny a lot, like I, and if I tried to use a normal controller, I would be immediately annoyed. Like, so it, it does come in handy for when you're a professional gamer, like I am.
Myke Hurley: You can also make your own custom designs with them too, which is super cool. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And like all the parts are replaceable, right? So like if something happens to it, like I, like I've ordered for my, this controller has lasted a while and I haven't had to change out anything. But on the other ones, like I've replaced paddles, replaced, you know, thumbsticks, all that kind of stuff. And you can do some cool stuff with it. So I, I like they're, they're modular kind of, right? So you can replace parts and it's, it's, and they're really well made. So it's, it's been worth it for me, even though I don't use it. I don't need the added stuff that it has right now, as much as I enjoyed using that in the past.
Myke Hurley: Such a gamer, you know? Yep. Real pro gamer. You do say at the end that you love your desk and I love that you love your desk. Yeah. You deserve to love your desk.
Brad Dowdy: I like it. Like I spend a lot of time, this is where I spend most of my time during the week. So it does get too much for me. And like, we were definitely, that was a perfect time to do the video because we were at the peak there. Right. So, you know, if I took another video today, it would be interesting, but it has a lot less stuff. Like I can see, I can see the desk mostly today, you know, compared to when I did that, but that was, that was purposeful because it gets in that situation far too often where I talk about vertical storage a lot. Like that's my biggest problem. Like vertical, just like hoarding, like things, stacks upon stacks upon stacks, and then not doing anything with them instead of doing things, you know, more proactively to put things in the right spot. So yeah, it's still a little bit of a mess. The other thing I didn't really go into just when I was turning around is like all of my review products are in a bin here. Like all my giveaway products are in a tote bag here. Like I keep, I have, I store a lot of stuff like behind me or to the side of me. Like I didn't go through, like, I'm just like, I did an jet pins unboxing. I was on Twitch yesterday. So like I unboxed all that stuff. And right now it's just sitting on top of the, the review box, right? It's like, okay, now I need to like audit these things and decide this goes here, this goes there, you know, this goes for review, this goes for giveaway, like all of that stuff, like just sits in limbo kind of off the desk behind me until I figure out something to do with. That's a whole nother point of contention for me.
Myke Hurley: Thank you for sharing your desk. Thank you for rising to the challenge.
Brad Dowdy: It was, it was fun. It was fun. I like doing that stuff. So yeah, I don't mind. I just, I just wish I had a better, I was just mad. I couldn't like record it how I wanted to record it, but I made it work in the end. So it was super weird. I thought it came out great. We got it done. We got it done.
Myke Hurley: I mean, that was kind of like, for me, it's like, I was trying to find all these fancy ways to do mine. And I was like, I'm just going to use my iPhone. Like that's what I'm going to do. And I think it came out better that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's take our second break and then we'll get into some new products. How about that? All right. Sounds good. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Retro 51. There's so much to love about Retro 51. My favorite thing is that there is a pen design for everyone. There are so many unique designs from the classic La Cua color. Maybe, you know, you just want a blue one. Maybe you just want an orange one. You, maybe you want a metal one from the vintage Metal Smith series, or you could grab one of the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many special editions from your favorite retailers and content creators. Like for example, maybe looking something perfect for Halloween. What about the glow in the dark, Dr. Gray? Or maybe you're an animal lover and you also want to do some good deeds and you're going to pick up one of the animal rescue series pens. There are also amazing licensed designs, including the new USPS sailboats design. Favorites from the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Pan Am. We were talking about those ones recently. Love them. What I love about Retro 51 is that it's not just the design, right? Like I love that there is a design for everybody, which makes them such a fantastic gift. They pack the best refill in the business, in my opinion. It's where we found out about the Schmidt refill. It's absolutely fantastic. Such great performance. It's one of those pens, you give it to people, they start writing it and they're like, wait, what? I had no idea pens could feel this good. But they also look great. They're made very, very, very well. Like the quality is next to none, right? Like they're absolutely fantastic. I've been a fan of Retro 51 forever. We've made them. You know, we were just talking about it a minute ago. You've made a bunch of your own too over time because they really are awesome. And we're huge fans of them over here. Retro 51, they make the gift, the perfect gift for every occasion and to suit every personality. Head to your favorite retro dealer or you can now shop directly on retro51.com. If you do and you order $50 or more on retro51.com, you can enter the code P-A-B-O-O. So like, it's Panadict Boo, right? Nice. P-A-B-O-O. For a special treat of your shipment, orders of over $75 will receive free shipping. Offers end on October 31st. So that is order $50 or more at retro51.com and enter P-A-B-O-O for a special treat of your shipment. But if you order $75 or more, you will also get free shipping until October 31st. But don't be scared. A new limited edition tornado popper will be available at your favorite retailer just in time for Halloween.
Brad Dowdy: Ooh.
Myke Hurley: So keep your eyes out. As Retro 51 like to say, life is too short to carry an ugly pen. Thank you so much to Retro 51 for their support of this show and RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: And another special shout out to Retro 51. They donated a bunch of great Winnie the Pooh editions for us to help raise money for St. Jude's. A bunch of serial number one editions that they had been holding, which was pretty sick. That's awesome. When I got the email, I kind of couldn't believe it. So I was like, okay.
Myke Hurley: If you're sure.
Brad Dowdy: We appreciate it. Yeah. So that was pretty sweet. So I really, really just wanted to give them a special shout out for that. So last thing on this, I got to get the Pan Am Clipper. So I'm already, you know, I've already raved about what you said it during the ad that I've raved about the Pan Am designs. I bought the Hawaii poster. I haven't bought the Clipper, the plane design yet. I'm going to need to get that. Like, I just have a feeling that this is going to be one of my things. And I am probably just going to need to grab that pretty soon because that's the, any of their plane designs and space designs tend to just like fly off the shelves, literally. So yeah. Very cool. Good pump. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Shout out of the week. Analog Office.
Analog Tools Blog by Analog Office
Brad Dowdy: So Anna over at Analog Office has a great blog where they discuss analog tools, obviously, but they go into more than like, say I do with like a stationery review or product review. They go into systems or use cases or how to take notes, how to store notes, you know, all kinds of different fun things to think about as an analog user, which most of us are. How do we handle these things? Maybe, maybe Anna could give me some tips on organizing my desk, but this is a really great blog. Something I very much enjoy reading all of their stuff. So like, like I've recently linked one of their posts, like about keeping a checklist notebook, right? That's like one of the things I do in my plotter is keep a list of tasks that I can check off. And it's just kind of these great visual cues, you know, list making, things like that. So lots of posts like that over at Analog Office. Go check them out. And you can follow them at analogoffice.net. And I think you will enjoy what you read over there. So thank you, Anna, for making a great blog.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Last couple things we'll get to today, Myke. I have an announcement to make.
Brad Dowdy: I think it's public-ish now. I know I've gotten asked a couple times about it. But we've been coordinating over the past few months with Kerry Yeager, who many of you know from Kenro Industries, but maybe first you knew him as the brains behind Fountain Pen Day, which is the first Friday in November each year. There's Fountain Pen Day. So this year it's November 3rd. And it's where the community kind of gets together, shares a love of fountain pens. And it's become a real like, I don't mean this in a negative way, a real promotional thing for like stores and things to get behind. They offer big deals and discounts. And it's some shops like biggest day of the year, like bigger than like Black Friday and other like release days and things like that. It's a really big day in our community. And this year I'm actually making a trip to Atlas Stationers to spend the day. The first Friday in November, Fountain Pen Day. November 3rd, I'll be at Atlas Stationers in Chicago all day. Hanging out, you know, just hanging out, seeing everyone in store for Fountain Pen Day. It's going to be really, really fun. You know, I don't, we'll have more details as, you know, we get closer. We're what, only a month away, I guess, from that. So we'll have, I'll share some more details and give some reminders. If you're in the area, maybe you want to travel, travel to come hang out at Atlas Stationers on Friday, Fountain Pen Day. But I'm sure it's going to be a great event. It'll be my first time at Atlas, despite being in Chicago many, many times, even twice already this year. This will be my first time at Atlas Stationers. I'm looking forward to spending the day with them, with Carrie, and celebrating Fountain Pen Day in store. So I look forward to that. It's going to be a new experience for me. And one I very, very much look forward to.
Myke Hurley: Very cool.
Brad Dowdy: A couple of review items I wanted to discuss, because people have a lot of questions about these couple of things. One I have reviewed, and it's the NFP Design Block 6. So one of the items you'll see in the picture I have on Instagram is this orange box that I use for pen storage. It's a six-pen storage case that I got from NFP Design at the DC Pen Show. And it's really difficult to review just like a pen storage box. Like there's only so many things I can say. So what I wanted to try to do in the review and kind of follow it up talking about it on the show is trying to relay quality of a storage product that is not in your hand all day, like a pen might be or a notebook might be, right? This is kind of a static item that stores things. So it might just sit there for weeks at a time. How do you review a product like that? And like the ideas that I have about products like pen storage or a storage case. It's not even like a Sinclair case that's like you might be carrying with you in a bag or a backpack and taking things around.
Brad Dowdy: Just a box that sits there. And I think you can relate to this, Myke, is that sometimes when you have a product like that, that's really just kind of an accessory that sits and isn't actively used all the time, you can still appreciate it for the design and the construction and the detail and the thoughtfulness that went into every little piece of these things. And that's what I get out of a product like this NFP design block. It's beautiful.
Myke Hurley: I love the design of this thing.
Brad Dowdy: It is so well made. It's hard to relay that in words. It's like one of those things you kind of like a pen that you might see online and you don't know how it fits for you. You might go to a pen show and, you know, get to check out these pens and say, oh, this is for me. This is not for me. It fits me well. But like for a box, like a storage box, like you kind of have to feel that in person too. Like I get that. So it's kind of hard to describe. But I was so impressed with just like when you have that, that nice of fit and finish in a product. Like I can't help but like rave about it. So I, of course, raved about it in my review. You can go check that out. That's what I did this week. Super nice people. I got to meet part of the family that started this company. And, you know, had some great conversation with them through a translator because they're from Turkey. So I was actually brought over with a translator to talk to them. And they were just so passionate about what they made and had some really cool conversations with them. So I just wanted to give it a shout out that I really like this product. And even though it's like super hard to explain why in a review, right? Like there's only so many things I can say about it, but I felt compelled enough that it was such good quality that I wanted to share it. So, and I think a lot of other people who got these at the DC Pen Show and have been reviewing them are equally as impressed with the product. So that review is in the books. The next one, Myke, is going to be reviewed probably at least a month from now because it's going to take some time for me to figure out what to say about the Platinum Chokuro ink, which I finally got. So this is the blackest black ink, right, that we talked about before that it came out earlier this year. This is Platinum's idea of making the blackest ink that you can use in a fountain pen, even though Platinum themselves admitted that it's very intense on your fountain pen. You know, it could be not damaging, but when a product sells you a cleaning solution with the product, they're making a certain statement. It's kind of telling you something, right? They're making a statement there. They're making a statement. They're drawing a line in the sand. It's like, hey, we made this ink. It's really cool. You can use it with fountain pens. By the way, here's some distilled water. Here's some distilled water and a pamphlet on how to clean this. So they've gone.
Myke Hurley: Hey, for no real reason. Like, it's not important why, but you're going to need this too.
Brad Dowdy: So what I want to do with this, and there's been plenty of reviews on this ink already, and I finally just got mine. They started selling the bottles individually without the cleaning kit part of it. I know what I'm getting into with this, but that is kind of the core of what I want to review, is I want to tell people what my experience is like, and whether they just need to write this off completely, or how they can use this ink specifically, or is it completely fine to just use and go for it? So I inked it up yesterday. I took, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud. I took your advice, Myke. I use the TWSBI Go as an ink tester. So I have inked up the TWSBI Go with a Platinum Chukuro. Yeah, yeah. It was a very smart idea by you. Because with this ink, I want to see if it damages the pen. Like, straight up. I want to see, like, I'm expecting to break things when I do this ink review, and maybe I won't, and that'll be a great part of the review, right? That'll be, like, spectacular. It's like, if we get through, like, say, like a month. I don't know exactly the time frame I'm going to keep this inked up, but at least a month, and, you know, see what happens. Because a lot of people have a lot of questions about this ink, and are they going to be able to use it? Is it going to beat, like, some of the other great black waterproof inks, one of which is Platinum's already? You know, the Platinum Carbon Black is one of the great inks of all time. And is this going to be the same as that, better than that? I don't know. So I'm going to get a look at it. It's very weird so far. I've already kind of played around with it some on stream. I put a big splotch on paper, partly because I spilled a little bit of it. It's shocking. But I spilled it on paper, then spread it around with my Kakamori dip nib, and just made, like, this big ink splotch. And I'll put this up on Instagram later, too. When it dries, it almost looks like you could peel it off like it's a sticker. Like, it has this weird, almost, like, texture. But it's not raised or anything. It's just, like, this weird matte texture that it feels like if I started picking at the edge of the black ink, like, I could peel up the whole thing. But obviously, you can't. It's really weird. It's really interesting. So far, so good. One day into this test. But you will hear more about this from me down the line.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I wouldn't put this in any pen. I just would not do this. I don't understand what the upside is, to be honest. This sounds like, like, too much risk for me.
Brad Dowdy: I'm sure I will be, like, overly dramatic when I review this and decide to type it up. Like, the intro will be, like, do not use this ink, right? And then we'll go into, like, the whole thing of, okay, maybe you could use it here and there. Things like that. So I'm going to ink it in one more pen. I'm going to ink it in a converter pen to see if it stains the converter. So, like, that's my main thing. I'm worried about staining and clogging, right? This is an aggressive ink. But I don't know. Maybe it works. So, yeah. After 24 hours, I picked it straight up and started writing. I purposely used an extra fine nib because I think that would be, like, the toughest, like, nib for this to use. This ink with, right? Because it's, like, you have a little bit of a smaller point to write from. Not as much ink flow. So is it going to clog? Is it going to work? So I have a lot of work to do before I decide to review this pen. This isn't like, hey, you got a new platinum, a new pilot of Roshizuku ink. Like, I could ink that up in a pen and write a review about it tomorrow, right? But this one is going to take some time to get some thoughts, check out the performance, things like that. So it's interesting. That's for sure. I just don't know that it's going to be necessary. I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: We have so many options. Like, this is, like, just small.
Myke Hurley: I'm not really sure why this product exists. Like, this to me, it feels like a product made for Instagram or something. Like, I can't put my finger on it. It's like, why would you do this? Like, I don't. Yeah. Other than, like. Speaking. It just, what is it like, like, thing like, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Exactly. I don't know. And the reason I feel this way is because of, like, them including the cleaning solution and stuff. Like, they're not. They are unwilling, at least, to say to you, this is okay. And so, like, that is what makes me feel a bit nervous about it.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Which makes it a great product to review. Yeah. Like, we're all talking about this product, right? Like, this is a marketing product, right? Yeah. Like, the box, like, it's just a little small box. It's sick. Like, it looks so good. Yeah. Like, it's so Instagrammable, right? Like, but after I go through this, am I ever going to use it again? I mean, instantly, like, my first reaction is no. Like, I will never use this thing. But I don't know. Maybe my mind could be changed. Because we have options. Because, like, for hardcore pen users, like the people who listen to this show, you already know that you love Platinum Carbon Black or Sailor Kiriguro or Nano Black. You know, those types of things for your permanent waterproof black inks. It's like, why do I need something this aggressive in one of my pens? And why am I limiting myself to using a certain pen with this? So, yeah. We'll see. It's a great review product. I will say that, though. So, I've already gotten a lot out of it for that.
Myke Hurley: I look forward to the four of you. So, yep. I'm putting that thing for his paces. We'll see. All right. If you want to catch the show notes for this week's episode, there's a lot in there that you want to see. You want to go to Brad's Instagram, see all the images that he's been talking about. You want to go watch the desk tour and also see the links to the Fountain Pen Day event, the NFP design block, all that cool stuff. You want to head over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 584. But they should also be in your podcast app of choice. Thank you so much to Penn Chalet and to Retro 51 for their support of this episode and help making it happen. But most of all, thank you for listening. If you want to find Brad in the meantime, before next week, go to penaddict.com. Go to spokedesign.com. Go to twitch.tv slash penaddict. Go to penaddict on Instagram and Mastodon and Threads and all that fun stuff. I'm iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. You can also find my work at cortexbrand.com and my podcast is here on RelayFM. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.