The Pen Addict 485/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	485
Title:	Every Month Has a Month
Release Date:	October 27th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 485
Audio File:	Audio Episode 485
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 485
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 485, and today's show is brought to you by Hello and Estabrook at Akatron. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad: Myke Hurley, how are you? I'm good, my friend. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited about this episode.

Myke: Oh yeah?

New Year's Resolutions

Brad: I mean, I'm excited about all of our episodes, but I'm particularly excited about our first topic. It's one of the things that gets me up in the morning, but that I forget for 11 months out of the year.

Brad: Fair enough. In past episodes, y'all have heard us discuss, discuss, is that a word? Discuss a project, or I don't even know how you describe what OKB48 is.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: But we have talked about it in the past, and in short, it is a Japanese website that annually has their readers and followers vote on the best ballpoint pens in the world. Right? So it's called the OKB48 General Election. And we've always talked about the results when they come in. Hey, let's go through the results. Let's see what pens were the top vote getters. What pens were the surprises? What pens have we never heard of? There's always something every year that I've never heard of. And their definition of ball pen is important. To them, it means pretty much everything but a fountain pen or like a plastic tip, like a felt tip pen, like a drawing pen, like a Sakura Pigma Micron. Right? If it has a ball in the tip, it is a ball pen. It's one of those weird pen things we've discussed a million times. Gel pens are technically ball points. Right? Like, it's just how they are. So, I don't know how many years they've been doing this. We've covered it at least two or three times. And this is the first year that I actually saw it in time to vote on it. And anyone can do it. It's at okb48.net. We'll put the links in the show notes for you to go check it out. And I wanted to talk about, Myke, because I was surprised at just how this is all set up. They provide the 48 pens to vote on. And that's the okb48. 48 is the number of pens in the list. And then they will collect all the votes at the end. And they will put out a ranking.

Brad: This is interesting in that they kind of prioritize the new pens the way it's kind of like pre-set up. Like, the new pens are at the top. So, what you do, it's basically a Google Doc or Google Form, I should say. And you just go over there. And it lists all 48 pens on a page. And you say, what are your five picks from this list? Okay. So, everyone who votes gets five choices. Then you click through that. Go to the next page. Then it says, tell me your one favorite of those five that you picked. All right. So, let me go through some of these. I'm not going to go through all the pens. But I thought, I always enjoy this because I like to see what I'm missing. This is my favorite category. Right. We talk about fountain pens and, like, other crazy expensive pens and things like that. But this is, like, in general, like, my favorite category of pen. Basically, like, the $3 pen you get from the store or the office supply cabinet or things like that. Now, there's some expensive models in here, too. But I just want to look at these new pens real quick. The Acroball, the Pilot Acroball, they launched a .3 millimeter, which I do not have yet. It's actually available at JetPens. I need to put some in my next order. That's the pen. That's the JetStream competitor. Right. It's the hybrid ballpoint ink that's smoother, darker. And I've always thought the Acroball was pretty equal to the JetStream except in marketing. Right. Pilot does not push this pen despite it being an excellent pen. And I always wish them to do more with that. But the Secura Ball Sign gel pen is one that I do have. And I noticed it last week when I was going through some of my pens here. I have it. I have one. And I picked it up, used it. And I was like, oh, wow. This is actually pretty good. So I have a feeling this one might do pretty good in the reviews, in the rankings. One of the new pens, Myke, is a Zebra pen that I've never seen before. And this is through Google Translate, right? So you get some enjoyable translations when we're translating from Japanese to English. The headline of this pen, they do full product descriptions and everything about each pen that's in the list. This one says, the guy with a shining nib is back. And I'm like, what are you even talking about? But it's literal. There is a light. It's the guy. There's a light on the tip of the pen. Equipped with an LED light on the pen tip. Like, we've all seen pens. We've seen pens like these, usually gimmicky, right? But this is Zebra with a light, a pen with a light on the tip. So that's an interesting one. Then you go down. They have the Tombow Monograph Lite, which is a favorite of mine. It's a .38 ballpoint. They have the Zebra Sarasa R, which is the new pigmented ink from Zebra. They have the Uni 1, which is the same, right? These are the new pens that launched in the list. And then a funny one, which is strange to me, the Bit Crystal.

Myke: Crystal Original 5.8.

Brad: This is the old. This is, I guess, is everything old is new again thing. They relaunched this pen and I think might have already discontinued it. No, no, no. Okay.

Myke: So I think what they did was they launched and discontinued a product and then replaced it with Crystal Original.

Brad: Okay. So it's basically an orange transparent Bit Crystal, which is great. Like, I mean, that's a great pen. I'm just surprised that, hey, this is on the new pens list. So that's the new pen. That's funny.

Pen Launches Overview

Myke: The pen is on the new pen.

Brad: Like it even says in there, launched in 1951. And I'm like, wait a minute, how is this new? Then they break down, again, these are like full descriptions for all of these products. They have the oily section mic, which is your traditional ballpoint inks, right? You know, you have your acro balls. They have some of the pressurized pens in here, like the Tombow Air Press. They have a really strange Zebra Kado, I believe, a K-A-D-O, with, it's like the Monteverde pen with the ruler on the side of it, right? It's got like, you know, the measurements on the side of it, which I find strange. You know, they have the Jetstream Edge, very popular, but then they have like the Parker Jotter. I'm surprised that's not on the new list, Myke. The Parker Jotter should be a new release. Born in 1954, it is still evolving. Is it though? Is it though, OKB? I mean, you can say it if you like. Sounds like something I would say. So, you know, again, like the power tank, I didn't even know Uni still made the power tank, which is their portable pressurized ballpoint pen that a lot of people did like. Last year's surprise pen, to me, the Zebra Blin, which, again, I think was like a, I don't know, it was a different kind of ink formulation. Like I didn't necessarily get it as like a great pen, but I think in last year's list, it finished definitely in the top five and might have been like number two.

Myke: So that was the one that Google Translate calls wet knee.

Brad: I don't know. No. OK. No. I have never seen that pen before. Would you? So there is a Zebra pen that they translate as wet knee.

Myke: Oh, it's like W-E-T space K-N-E-E is how it's translated. But written on the pen is W-E-T-N-I-E.

Brad: OK. W-E-T-N-I-E. What this is, it looks like the mega upgraded version of what we have in the US as the Zebra F-Series. All right. The 401. And it's a, this is a wider, cooler looking metal barrel plastic grip Zebra 401. That's what a lot of people are familiar with. But this one's orange. I want this one.

Myke: There's a couple of pens translated to the Zebra slurry, which is, oh, it sounds so good. These are great.

Brad: I wonder if that's their emulsion ink.

Myke: Like, they actually get written on the pen is Surari, S-U-R-A-R-I. But it says slurry. Yeah. That's the translation. That's great, man. It is the emulsion ink. It is the emulsion ink.

Brad: Yeah. Then we flip over to the gel page. They have, you know, the classics, the Energels, the Zebra Sarasas, the Pilot Hightech C, the Pilot Juice Up, Pilot Friction.

Brad: You know, all of these, all the, all the regular stuff you would expect. Like, there's no surprises in here. Signo RT1, Signo 307, Signo DX. Like, nothing new or honestly interesting in here. Just the good classic stuff. These are the ones that they're never going to win anymore because people do tend to vote for the new ones. But these are always, like, end up in the top 10 just because they're classically good.

Myke: The most boring looking category. Yeah. Like, these pens, there's not a lot of design going on in the gel category.

Brad: And that's what I've seen in these last results. That's why the, like, the Zebra blend last year, I think it just was a little bit different design, right? Yeah. It's like, oh, Zebra, but different. And so, therefore, it beat the Zebra Saracic Clip, even though I would never say that that's a better pen than the Zebra Saracic Clip. And then the last one, which is almost like a throwaway category, to be honest. It's called the Aqueous. It's the Rollerball, right? It's the liquid ink, liquid ink category. And there's nothing interesting in here except, like, the Pilot V-Ball always does generally well.

Myke: Kind of feels like all of the fun is in the oily category.

Gel Pens Discussion

Brad: It's interesting that you say that, right? Like, where does the innovation come from? And the innovation we saw in the past year, or a little bit more than a year, in the gel ink category were these highly pigmented, saturated inks. The Uni-1 and the Zebra Saracic R. But they weren't that compelling to me. Like, they were fine. But, like, it was not. I'll stick with the regular pens. Like, what you're selling me isn't really getting there. But then in the ballpoints, what happens is you're allowed to have a much wider range of options for the refill. So companies are building different things, like be it a pressurized barrel or a rough and tough barrel, like they call the zebra wet knee. Or the ultra micro tips, like in the Jetstream Edge and the Tombow. Yeah. Or the classics, like the Parker Jotter. There's no range like this in the gel pink pen category. And we'll find in the past, I want to say Jetstream, like this classic Jetstream Sport won last year. Like the standard Jetstream. I'd have to look back. I think it was like number one and the blend was number two. Like those are the type of pens that end up winning. And then all of this other stuff kind of just kind of lumps together in the middle. But the interesting thing in the rollerball, it's kind of an outlier. The Lamy Safari Rollerball just appears out of thin air. And it's been in there for a couple of years now. And it always finishes like in the top, you know, 10 or 15 pens.

Myke: And that's always surprised me. The better looking. Oh, yeah. The entire competition. It's great. I think that really helps it.

Brad: Yeah. But the gel pen category, it's almost like the manufacturers think that they like this is their most popular category probably outside of maybe the ballpoints just from a bulk purchasing perspective. Yeah. But they're like, we're covered here. People love these pens. Let's just leave them alone. Right. Where they play around with some of the ballpoint pens, it seems. So since I got to vote, Myke, I got to pick five pens this year. The first time I've ever voted. I want to give you my five choices in no particular order. Then I'll give you my top choice at the end. So I picked the Tombow Mono Graph Light. And I have links to some reviews of mine at the Pen Addict for some of these pens. Some are newer. Some are older. Tombow Mono Graph Light was a new one this year. That was in the new category. And I find it to be just an excellent, ultra-fine ballpoint pen. It's a needle tip. It's a great barrel. It's a classic Tombow design. They have the classic Tombow flag design, which is my preference. Or they have like standard, like almost kind of like metallic barrels, like lime green and blue and pink and things like that. It's just a... I was impressed by that pen. It's a great pen. Mitsubishi Uni Jetstream Edge. So I picked the Edge model over the standard model because I like the needle tip design. I like the ultra-fine. I like the barrel clip. The one downfall with that is the refill is much smaller than a traditional Jetstream. So I have a feeling like when we see the results in January, like the traditional Jetstream is still gonna, like, should be ahead of this. But we'll see. The Pentel Energel Euro has been around for a few years. It's one of those extremely underrated pens that I constantly praise, but that Pentel has never expanded on. They launched it. It's a great capped Energel with a needle tip at .35 millimeters. It's absolutely fantastic. One of the great pens. And they launched it years ago. I'd have to even see what my review was. It's gotta be three, four, five years, if not more. And then that's it. Like, that's one I would like them to lean into more and do some different things with because I think they did such a good job with that design. And it's obviously still very popular in Japan because it keeps making this list and rates pretty highly. And then, like, in other markets, it's nonexistent, right? The fourth one I picked was the Zebra Saracic Clip. I think that's just a classic all-around great gel pen, along with the Uniball Signo DX. So, like, I would have liked to have picked about ten pens, but the Signo DX and Saracic Clip are just those great classics that never do me wrong and I think are just, like, universally loved. So, those were my primary picks. My winner. I don't... So, the one thing I didn't see when I was surprised when, okay, go to the next page, pick your one out of the five. I was trying to see if they weighted that pick differently, right? So, what's the point of me picking the single one? Are they weighing that in the calculus differently? Or is there some tiebreaker thing? That's what I didn't get to see. So, I don't know if that particular page on the forum, does it get flagged differently and gets two points instead of one point like these other ones. So, who knows? So, I picked the Mitsubishi Uni Jetstream Edge. I think this is just... In this type of list, I want to see a pen like that win. And I think last year, I looked it up. I think last year was 11th because it was a new pen last year. I think last year was 11th. I'm not sure. Which is higher than I thought it would be, to be perfectly honest, right? This is a weird pen. It's very expensive. Oh, it's awesome. But it's $15 compared to like $2 for the regular Jetstream. But I think for a list like this, I think that's like a good choice, right? It's not going to ever make like my top... It's probably not going to be like a top five anything for my recommendations. But for a list of what I think is interesting, useful, high quality, you know, kind of pushes the boundaries a little bit. Like that gets my vote, right? It's never going to be the Signo DX, even though that pen will get recommended by me number one almost more than anything, right? But I don't think it should be at the top of this list. I think something like the Jetstream Edge gets some extra bump just for the uniqueness of it, the design. It's a little bit... It's a risky pen for them to make at the price point that it is. And it does have a flaw in it with the refill that they use being very, very small. But overall, I think this is the kind of pen I want to see win a thing like this. So I'll be interested to see... I could see it being higher than last year. I don't know if it will win because, you know, the regular gels, the Jetstream, the Blend, the ones that were at the top five last year, they're probably going to stay in that range just because that's the categories that are the most popular for the people who are, you know, voting in this. But, yeah, I would like to see something like the Jetstream Edge. If the Jetstream Edge finishes top three, I think that would be huge, huge for that pen. I think it's really, really good. So we'll see. I love this stuff. Again, this is my favorite type of thing to break down, more so than, like, fountain pens. Because fountain pens are a little bit more infinite than this. And, you know, you look at, hey, this is a list of 48, and Brad could rattle on about all 48 of these pens forever. But there are some limitations and some kind of fixed designs where, like, a single fountain pen can have all different nib sizes and what ink are you putting in it and have all these variables that make it infinite, whereas this is a little bit more fixed, and I enjoy picking these things apart. Because, again, these are the types of pens that got the Pen Addict blog started, and I still probably use the most and love the most, despite me having all these crazy fountain pens. So, yeah, I love this, and I'll be looking forward to the results in January.

Myke: I feel like I never have any prediction as to which pen is going to win this list, because I will say, like, a lot of this is completely out of my experience anyway, you know, like these pens. But also, it's always just a surprise to me. Because, again, like, I just don't even know some of these pens. Like, neither of us do, right?

Brad: Yeah, that's what happened last year with the Zebra Blend. When we talked about it, I was like, I have no idea what this is, because at the time, it hadn't really made it into the U.S., and I had multiple listeners say, hey, I'm in Japan, let me send you some, and they did, right? Like, so I ended up getting some blends. I'm like, I don't know what this is. How is this the number two pen on this list? How was it voted the number two pen on this list? And it's never even crossed my mind, which, you know, is another reason why I love doing this, right? Because we get to learn so much about, you know, what's popular in other areas of the world and try to understand, like, some of the products and some of the marketing. And I just, I'm endlessly fascinated by this list and especially the results, which we will certainly dig apart once they come out. I'm sure I will be surprised probably by everything but number one. We'll see. If the blend is number one, I will be surprised. But if, like, the Jetstream is number one or, you know, one of the Signos or the Sarasa, that wouldn't be a surprise. But anything else, we'll see.

Myke: This episode is brought to you by Holo, who make incredibly comfortable buckwheat pillows. These are super different to your regular fluffy pillow, but they are really incredible because of the support that they give to your head and neck. When you sleep on a Holo pillow, it's not going to collapse under the weight of your head like a traditional pillow, and it also stays cool and dry compared to feather or foam. Buckwheat breathes better, so it's not going to get all warm and humid. You don't have to do that thing where you flip to the cool side of the pillow. Because of Holo, they always stay cool. And because it's like a filling, like, you know, the buckwheat is like a little filling instead. It's kind of like a kind of beans in a bean bag kind of thing is the easiest way I could describe it, but also not like that. But you can add and remove the filling, the buckwheat holds, to suit your needs so you can make the pillow the right size for you. Now, like, look, we spend so much time sleeping, right? And you want it to be a comfortable experience because then the next day when you wake up, you don't want to be like, oh, man, my neck, right? That is what I get from sleeping on a Holo pillow. I've slept on a Holo pillow for like three years now or something like that. And if I'm ever staying at a hotel, you know, they have regular pillows there. And I don't feel as comfortable when I wake up in the morning as I do when I'm on my Holo pillow because I get the support. But without it being a bad experience, you know, like I tried before some supportive pillows and it's like sleeping on a brick. And that's not what you get with Holo. It's still like movable. It still has comfort to it, but also gives you the support that you want. Holo pillows are made in the USA with quality construction and materials. The certified organic cotton case is cut and sewn for durability and the buckwheat is grown and milled in the US as well. Look, you should be curious to try one of these out and you really should. You can sleep on it for 60 nights and if it isn't right for you, you can send it back to Holo and you'll get a full refund. Just go to holopillow.com slash penaddict and get your own buckwheat pillow today. That's H-U-L-L-O-P-I-L-L-O-W dot com slash penaddict. If you buy one in one, they have a special discount of up to $20 off depending on the size that you opt for. They have fast free shipping of every order. 1% of all profits are donated to the Nature Conservancy. So give it a go. If you love it, keep it. If you don't, just send it back. Once again, holopillow.com slash penaddict. Now thanks to Holo for the support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad: You know how you know products are good, Myke? It's when you miss them, when you don't get to use them. And this is one of those products for me. I honestly can't believe it. I didn't think that this would be a thing for me. And now it's like I'm addicted to it. If I have to sleep without it, all I do is think about sleeping with it. It's a real problem. So I should get back to pens before I really go down the deep end into the HoloPillow. So I saw the Lamy Special Edition Safari in white pop up across all the retailers here in the U.S. I'm sure it's worldwide. I don't even know.

Brad: And yeah, like that's my thoughts on this. It's like I couldn't order it fast enough because I'm a Lamy Safari lover. I love the glossy white with the red clip and it has an extra red ring around the barrel instead of their normal sealing ring, which is black. But I don't know why this pen exists. And these are the kind of things that bug me a little bit. Hey, Lamy Safari Special Edition, go. Okay, tell me why. What's the story here? Is it just like a classic cool thing that, you know, you've done, you know, like the Lamy Joy with a white barrel and a red clip before and people are, you know, hammering you wanting that treatment in the Safari? Cool. Like, tell me that. Like, this is not a unique color or design in the history of the Safari, right? Except that they added the red ring, you know, the roach ring, if you will, in where the barrel unscrews. So why does this exist? So I started poking around. I was like, all right, I'm gonna go to Lamy, you know, the mothership page. And okay, can they tell me why this pen exists? No, it doesn't exist there. So I went through all of the retailers in the U.S. I was like, hey, maybe they got some copy from Lamy on why this pen exists. And it was random. Like, several of the companies, several retailers are shipping this with a bottle of Lamy Vibrant Pink ink. Okay? But not everyone.

Myke: That's a fun pairing.

Brad: Yeah. Oh, it's great. And then some sites listed as a portion of the proceeds are going to breast cancer awareness funds because October is breast cancer awareness month. But not all sites have this copy, right? And some aren't giving the ink away with the purchase at all. And it's like this inconsistent thing. And this is like, why do I care about this? Like, I honestly, I don't. But these are the questions I ask when I see special edition. Like, tell me, what are we doing here? I would just like to know. Like, it doesn't affect what I think about the pen. Like, this was an insta-buy for me, right? But like, one company has free ink with purchase. One doesn't. One says a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer charities. Others don't. And like, I'm trying to, is this a Lamy USA program that's doing this? Is, is just this inconsistency in marketing that it, as someone who, like me, who wants to be able to tell you why I can't. I can't. So, I'm just going to take this as a cool pen and I'm going to buy it and I'm going to enjoy the pen for what it is. And I'm going to stop caring where it came from or why it exists. But it just bugs me.

Myke: Like, I'm trying to find like a press release or something. Yeah. I can't find anything. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Like, and like literally every site that I went to, all the major retailers all have different copy and different statements on, you know, what comes with the pen or things like that. Like, you just go from site to site to site and they all say something different about what this pen is. Other than really why it's special. But I don't care. I got a new Lamy Safari. I will use it instantly when I get it back. Probably with not the Vibrant Pink ink. Like, I'll save that for like Valentine's Day or something. In this combo, I'll use the pink ink in a different pen than this pen. Even though I do think I'm with you. It is a good pairing. But I will use a darker ink with this pen and use the pink ink in a different pen, like a green pen or a purple pen or something like that. That's kind of more of my pink inky pens. So, anyway. I just wanted to bring that out because don't ask me why it exists, but if you like it, you should buy it. I did.

Myke: I think I would be more excited if the red was pink, too.

Brad: Oh, man. I don't know why. Right? Like, if we're going to do this, again. Well, but here's the thing. You're going to make me start up again, Myke. You're going to make me do it all over again. If we're going to do this, right? If we're going to do Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Myke: I don't know. It almost feels like... I don't believe this is happening, but it almost feels like a bunch of retailers have just gone rogue.

Brad: Well, they had to get the pen from somewhere, and those pens usually come with copy, right? Usually come with sales marketing copy. And apparently not this time. Is the U.S. Lamy distributor the same as the Kaweco distributor? Because they're a mess. I don't know if they are or not, but it wouldn't surprise me because it's just weird. It's just weird. So, who knows? All right. Speaking of other things I bought, Myke. We've talked about this pen years ago. The Rind pen. We talked about it because it's this big bulky pen with the oddest, wildest clip on here. That is a design decision, right? It is a love-hate decision with this clip. And I love that type of idea, right? Where you're making a decision in your design process to say, this is what we're going to do, and here's why we're going to do it. It's okay if you don't like it. You know, like, that's cool. But here's what we're doing and why we're doing it. And that's what the Rind pen originally launched behind. So, now they've come around with a second Kickstarter, which I just backed, for a more compact version of the big original pen. So, the original Rind was a large pen with a large clip, and it fit the Pilot G2 refill. So, they've actually shortened the pen, narrowed it up, and made it to fit the Parker-style refills, right? It's kind of like the path of a lot of Kickstarters go, hey, make the big pen.

Myke: What refill does it have before?

Brad: Pilot G2.

Myke: Pilot G2, okay.

Kickstarter Update

Brad: So, the full-length gel refill, right? It requires a longer barrel, and they made it a bigger diameter. And it was, like, I think a lot of people liked it, but it was really, like, limiting in audience just because of the size of the pen. It was a big honking pen. Like, and it fit the clip, right? So, now they've modified it, kept the clip design the same, but kind of shrunk everything down into a more compact package. And I think it's just a killer design. Like, I totally ordered this with the clip. So, it's funny. They have two very distinct.

Myke: The compact pen, the clip is even more prominent, right? Because the clip didn't change, it seems like, using the same clip, right?

Brad: Yeah, it looks like it. It looks like it. And this clip is so fun to play with. It is heavy duty. Like, it's got a snap back to it, right? Like, it's not just an immovable clip, like a static clip, I should say, right? It's almost, like, spring-loaded. Like, it snaps back, which I love. It can attach to anything. But what's funny with this campaign, and they sent me the prototypes of these probably, like, a year ago. And I think they probably just got held up, you know, with COVID and things like that to launch the project. But there's two separate pens on this. They made a clipless pen for people who liked the design and didn't want the clip. And then they changed, like, the grip section a little bit. And both of these pens are, like, a twist mechanism that they go into the design about. But anyway, I just wanted to bring this up because I like this pen. I ordered this pen. And I like products that take a stand on, like, a certain feature, even if it's something as simple as a clip, right? Like, it's a good conversation to have. And then also, like, a really, really great pen on top of it. It's very, very cool. I like this one a lot.

Myke: I really recommend people go and watch the video for the Kickstarter because it's very cute and very well done. Nice. I think it's like a stop motion. And it's, like, the kind of stop motion where you can tell it's stop motion, which I enjoy. It's like an artistic decision. Or it could be an artistic decision. I don't know. But there's also, like, just some really good shots that they've done, like, very artistic shots that they're also still using stop motion for. And it's very funny, too. So it's a very, very cute little video. It's a cool comparison. I would say I'm more into the design of the slim one with the twisty.

Brad: Yeah. I would like to see. When we get to the end, like, it lists the number of backers. I would wager the slim gets more. But I don't know. I don't know if it will or not. I'm curious. Because, like, the original Rhyne backers, you only had the option of the big pin with the big clip, right? So if you're coming back, are you going to stick with that? Or are you going to change into, like, a different pin from what you are used to with your original Rhyne pin? So I'll be interested to see what the numbers are when it gets to the end of the campaign. So how it shakes out as far as what was the most popular. So there you go. Oh, also, the slim one comes in more colors and actually has a titanium barrel option, which that was actually tempting to me. But I think I'm going to go with all black, black on black clip, because I think my last one's black and silver. So there you go. If it was titanium, I'd probably buy it, but that would be, like, $200.

Brad: So, anyway. All right. Cool pin. I dig it.

Myke: All right. Let's take our second break talking about cool pins and tell you, again, about the wonderful collaboration between Estabrook and Accutron. They have joined forces to produce a new pin collection that commemorates both brands. It is the Accutron by Estabrook. These brands have such a rich history, and they have both successfully represented what's been beloved about the past, with great possibilities of the future as well. And so the Estee Accutron is a collaboration that is literally history in the making. The Estee is made from a proprietary diamond cast formula in Accutron green blended with gold and diamond dust. Gold-plated trims accentuate this limited edition collection, which delivers in luxury as much as it delivers in an exemplary writing experience. I mean, I can attest to this from my own Estee, which is a real just joy to use. I love the shape, the size, and the nib is fantastic as well. It really is awesome. And there is some special stuff here, too. 100 pieces of this collection are offered in the Estee Oversize with 18-karat gold nibs coveted for their exceptional performance. They're making their debut to Estabrook with this model with the Accutron tuning fork logo engraved on the nib. The Estee Accutron is also available in limited production traditional fountain pen size with a gold-plated nib, an engraved logo, and a full range of nib sizes. Every pen is equipped with a cushion cap closure to provide a secondary seal to ensure an easy start every time, which is also a really good feature. Plus, nibs are specially manufactured for Estabrook by German maker Yowo and can be inked with any international cartridge or a converter as well. The Estee Accutron is also offered as a limited production rollable, too, if you're more interested in that than a fountain pen. So, go now to accutronwatch.com slash collections and choose partnership items on the website there. You can check out the Estee Accutron. And use the code PENADDICT20 for 20% off. That's accutronwatch.com slash collections. Choose partnership items from the navigation or just click the link in the show notes. And don't forget to use the code PENADDICT20 for 20% off. Our thanks to Estabrook and Accutron for their support for this show and RelayFM.

Brad: You know, Myke, we were talking pre-show that we haven't bought any pens in a while, right? And, like, we're just saying, you know, am I in the market? Am I not in the market? What's interesting to me right now? And I think about this pen in that context because I started seeing some in-the-wild pictures of these. And I got to tell you, as great as these, you know, stock photos are of the really great photos of what the Estabrook Accutron collab looks like, some of the action shots of people having these pens made me, like, do a double take and say, like, wow. That is, it's even better than I thought. And these pictures are great, right? Sometimes just the context helps too, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I have enjoyed checking these out. So one to look at. All right, Myke, a little something different today. You ready?

Myke: Sure am.

Brad: I mean, you weren't because I just typed it all, like, right before we started.

Myke: You didn't allow me to be ready.

Brad: I didn't allow you to be ready. But I want to talk about NaNoWriMo, which we have discussed in the past. We talk about it on the Pennac blog. But I want to talk about why this year. So if you're not familiar with NaNoWriMo, starting November 1st, it's National Novel Writing Month. I love watching what happens during NaNoWriMo in our community and with people I follow.

NaNoWriMo Introduction

Brad: Because just the idea of this is fascinating, right? Like, we always have, we have, every month has a month, right? Right? Every month has their monthly thing. Do this, you know, the Inktober's or the Ink-O-RyMo, the writing of letters. And, like, in every other, you know, hobby, there's always going to be something to just kind of promote and be a part of and participate in. But this one blows my mind the most. Because the goal for NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words. Generally started as a new novel, right? So there's a lot of educational value to what NaNoWriMo does, right? You go to NaNoWriMo.org, you can see that they have this in a lot of school systems. And, you know, teaching kids how to, you know, plan and write and think and commit to this project. So 50,000 words over the month of November, generally for a new novel, is the idea, you know, the base idea. So that means, Myke, you have to write, you particularly, have to write about 1,666 words per day. Why me? Because you're going to do this.

Myke: Oh. No, I'm just kidding. You're not going to do this. Yeah, there's no way. Myke ain't got no time for this. I love it. I like that you edited yourself there. You were going to say, there's no way you would do this or could do this. No way. No way. I love the idea of it, you know? Yeah. Maybe one day I'll get that one novel out of me, like I love so many people. Which is kind of, I think, the reason that NaNoWriMo exists. Yeah. Kind of, you know, everybody has that book in them, right? Or thinks that they do. And this gives them a way to, I don't know, get it out there. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. And there's, for lack of a better term, there's some crowd pressure in there, right? So people participate in this and share their progress, many of them daily. Say, hey, I did 820 words today, right? And my 820 words today, and I've done, you know, 13,423 so far this month, right? And people are sharing these goals and they're tracking them every day. And it helps other people kind of, like, see where they are with it. And it helps push them a little bit. And I think it's cool because this is, like, this is aggressive, right? This is a no joke kind of commitment to get this. And it's a big deal when you hit it. But I also, I think it's a little bit, you know, more than just, like, writing your next novel. It's cool for our community because we get to use a lot of our stuff, right? So Sarah, who writes for the Penn Act, she's written a couple of books that I love. And she uses NaNoWriMo. And she's written a couple of posts on the blog to kind of kick off some of her ideas or complete stories or finish novels. And she talks about how she does NaNoWriMo. She talks about the tools she uses for NaNoWriMo. And there's a couple of articles I linked in the show notes. Y'all can check that out. And what's different about our community is most of the outsiders are using digital means to write their novels, right? Their computers, right? They're using their word processors and their computers.

Myke: The easiest way to do it, right?

Brad: Absolutely. And plus, it counts the words for you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. So Sarah actually writes about how she counts her handwritten stuff. So that's in one of the posts there. So y'all go check that out. Maybe I've heard of people doing it by typewriter, right? That seems like torture. But it's a fun commitment, right? If you're into that, it's fun. But in our community, paper and pens, right? You know, or pencils.

Brad: So if you're not a writer, can you participate in this? And I'm here to say yes. I couldn't write a fiction story. I couldn't write a one-page fiction story if my life depended on it. There's just no way. Like, that's not in my head. There's nothing I can bring out of my brain that would work from, like, a fiction perspective. It's never been my thing. But if I want to use the things that I use on a daily basis and maybe not use enough of being my pens and pencils and notebooks, all my tools, what can I do? So we were talking about this on Twitch. Like, if you wanted to participate, but you're not necessarily, you don't consider yourself a writer, but you want to try to hit this 50,000 word mark, what can you do to get there? And a lot of people are saying, just pick out a favorite book of yours and copy it, right? That's apparently a thing on YouTube right now that some people are doing that. I'm following a...

Myke: What does that mean?

Brad: So you... Do you have a favorite book? I don't know if you do, but a lot of people...

Myke: I actually don't think I do.

Brad: A lot of people's favorite book is Lord of the Rings. So I'm following someone on Twitch right now who just started transcribing Lord of the Rings.

Myke: Oh, so it's like literal copy copy.

Brad: Literal copying it. But you have to commit to, like, those word counts and using your pens and paper and trying to copy the book. You know, they're not trying to do Lord of the Rings during NaNoWriMo, right? It's like a thousand-page book, right? So I don't know that anyone, even if they wanted to, could copy that in a month, right? But pick your favorite book and just copy it. Rewrite the text. It practices your handwriting. You know, focus on, like, working on things on handwriting. Pick out new pens and new inks you haven't used in a while. Find a notebook that you haven't cracked open yet and fill it up, right? A lot of people who do this, they'll also sketch some of the story elements in the book as they go, right? Just use it as this kind of, like, freedom of testing out products and practicing your handwriting. And, you know, it's almost kind of like a zen moment in your head while you're just looking at the text, rereading the text, and copying it down into a notebook. Like, I think it's really, really cool. I'm actually, and I've actually been watching people do this. So it's crazy. Another topic that came up was you could just pick albums from your favorite artist and transcribe all the songs. You know, could you do a, even if it's not 50,000 words, could you do a song a day from your favorite artist and just rewrite the lyrics and share it out with everyone? You know, I'm not trying to subvert what NaNoWriMo is, but what I'm trying to do is saying there's ways to participate in these things and use your, use your pens and paper, which we're all looking for reasons to use our pens and paper. And participate in, like, a communal event. I think it's cool. One of my Twitch followers is taking all of the Inktober prompts. So Inktober, you have one prompt per day, and you make a drawing for that prompt. Say it could be bats, right?

Brad: You know, it could be, you know, a literal bat like the animal, or it could be a baseball bat or whatever, you know, that people would draw. Well, they're taking those prompts. They went through Inktober with the prompts, and now we're going to take the same set of prompts and tell a story from the prompt, right? So every day, they're going to take the Inktober prompt from October 1st, go to November 1st, and instead of doing the drawing, they're going to tell a story about the prompt, right? These are simpler ways to kind of, like, trigger your brain, get you involved in writing, practice your handwriting, use your tools, which is very important to me. Obviously, I keep repeating myself. And, like, I think these ideas are cool. Like, again, I'm not, like, trying to, like, subvert NaNoWriMo. I'm just trying to get us into the idea of, like, practicing, participating, and using the things, right? And this is a way to do it. So, you know, and then there's, like, this accountability out there as well. Like, if you're doing this, you know, you watch other people doing it, and you follow the hashtags, and you see, get some ideas, you know, as you're following along to maybe you can do things differently. Like, oh, look how this person's, you know, taking their writing, or they inserted this little sketch into their writing as they're trying to tell the story. Like, I think it's cool. So, the question is, Myke, am I going to do this? Am I going to participate? And I'm here today to commit.

Myke: Oh, boy.

Brad: Yeah. Oh, boy is right. I'm scared out of my mind. Wow. I'm not going to sit here and prattle off all this stuff on how to do it and not do it myself. So, I'm going to commit to the NaNoWriMo time frame. I'm going to commit to copying a book.

Myke: Are you going to do the copy version? You're not going to write the great American novel?

Brad: I would, by day two, I would be done. I don't have fiction stories in my brain. I just don't roll that way. And some people do, like Sarah, like, can't stop, right? It's just endless story after story after story after story. Like, I'm not wired that way. So, I'm going to work on my handwriting. I'm going to use a bunch of pens. I'm going to pick out a new notebook. And I'm going to transcribe her book, right? Like, I could transcribe albums. I write album lyrics all the time, like, in my reviews, which is why I'm not going to do that. Plus, I think, like, having, like, an album, like, it gives you kind of an out. Like, you can, like, finish a song and be done and it might only be, like, you know, 200 words or something. I want to push myself to write that level of, you know, 1,500 to 2,000 words a day. Even though it's not original words, right? They're not my original thoughts or ideas. But I'm using the book that I might use as a tool to make other things I do better. Work on my handwriting. Right. Figure out a pen and ink combination that works good.

Myke: Yeah. I was going to ask you, are you planning on using, like, multiple pens? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Brad: Like, people were saying, like, use one pen per chapter. I will probably use, I'll probably just switch whenever I want. Right. Maybe per session or maybe. Yeah, per session. Like, so it'll be at least 30 different pens and pencils, but it might even be more if I'm, you know, maybe I run out of ink when I'm not paying attention and switch to another one. But, yeah, at a minimum, it's going to be a daily change no matter how far I get. Because if I pick a book with 10 chapters, like, I'm not going to write, you know, however many handwritten pages, one chapter would be 30 or 40 pages in, like, a singular pen and nib. That's my goal is to use more stuff. So I can't believe I'm publicly committing to this because I've been hemming and hawing on stream for weeks. And every time I say I'm not going to do it, later in the day, I'm thinking, why am I not going to do it? I want to do it. I should do it. I'm just terrible at committing to these type of things. Right. That's not, that's why I never do, like, a 365 project or some things like that. Or if I do do a project, I'll just say, okay, I'm going to do this project, but it's an undetermined start date and an undetermined end date. And just, you know, I'll just do it and it'll happen. Well, this is mostly a thing that's not something I would ever do, which is a good reason to do it. But it's because I see the benefits, right? Like, I see the benefits into writing and my handwriting. And even though I'm not having original ideas, which is kind of what NaNoWriMo is about, hey, write a book, right?

Brad: I'm still gaining the benefits that work for me. And so I'm looking forward to this. I'm actually, I'm genuinely scared. I haven't picked out the book that I'm going to copy nor the notebook I'm going to use. Like, I'm sweating those things. Like, I don't want to make a wrong decision to start with on day one. Myke, what do I do? So I'm just going to have to commit by this weekend to figure out what I'm going to do and stick with it. And then it's going to be go time. I'll probably stream some of it. I might have some extra streams. Like, if like at 8 o'clock at night, if I have like at 8 o'clock at night, it's like, all right, I'm going to write for an hour, throw on the stream and just write.

Myke: And let me, yeah, I was going to say, though, if you're going to do that, you've got to do the writing. Because if you're streaming, you're going to be streaming and then you're not going to be focusing on the writing. Yeah. So like, if there are some tasks like for keyboards where like, you know, like you've got to do some like maintenance type stuff or whatever. If I do it on my own, just me, I get it done pretty quickly. If I do them when I'm streaming, it takes me forever. I don't get it done because I'm like focusing on streaming.

Brad: But if I stream the writing thing, I will have like an overlay say, hey, I'm writing. I'm not reading chat, but feel free to hang out and chat amongst yourselves or write or whatever.

Myke: What are they like? Study with me. Yeah. Like have the timers. Yeah. That kind of stream. Just write with me kind of thing. Yep. That's the plan. So your goal really is just practice the writing, like the amount of writing. Like that's kind of it, right? Like that's.

Brad: My goal is to hit the number.

Myke: But like the purpose of it.

Brad: But the purpose of what I will gain from it is twofold. One, a successful commitment, right? I will be proud of that, that I did it. So that's goal number one. And number two will be practicing my handwriting and using the tools, right? I will use like, I use like several pens and inks and paper per day, but it might just be for like notes. Like I wanted to do some like real commitment type of writing because I journal a little bit, but we're talking like, you know, a few hundred words here and there. Like I want to just get down and to writing and that's the only way I'm going to do it because I, I, I would not have like the original thoughts to sustain myself for more than a day or two. So using this as kind of a tool to push me through, to do other things I want to do, which is actually use my pens more. I, I, I'm looking forward to, to giving this a shot.

Myke: And you have not picked a book?

Brad: I have not. I have three that I'm considering.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: None of which I own on Kindle, which I think I need to have a, I think, I don't think I could do like a, I have physical copies, but I don't know that I could do like physical copy and writing. I, but I'm thinking, I'm trying to figure that out what I'm going to do. So, yeah, I have a few books in mind. Um, you know, trying to, trying to narrow it down and, uh, you know, like even if the book is like, I don't know how you tell how long a book is by words. Like, even if it's, you know, going to take me longer, I would like to at least finish the book. So I'm not going to pick something like Infinite Jest or Lord of the Rings. That's like thousands of pages. Like, um, so yeah, I'm going to pick something more manageable.

Myke: Man, I cannot wait to hear how this is going.

Myke: I was thinking about it. There could be a flame out. Just talking, just talking. I'm like, let me, I'm just thinking, right? Like, could I, not that I would, right? There's no part of me for a second that thinks I would. Like, could, could I commit the time? And I started thinking, right? Because you've written, you know, you've written it and you said it. Like 1,600, basically 1,700 words a day. Right. We'd have to write. So that would take you, how long? Like an hour or so? A couple of hours maybe?

Brad: I have no concept.

Writing Challenges

Myke: Let's say it was, it was 90 minutes a day.

Brad: Mm-hmm.

Myke: I don't have that. Right. I couldn't find that. And so.

Myke: Like, what if you miss a day? Then you've got to, like, now you've got two times. Like, it's not, it doesn't go away, does it? You can't just. No, no. Especially with what you're doing. Yeah. Because there is an amount that you have to hit, which is. Yeah. You know, like if you're writing the books, and I imagine a lot of people, like, they're writing the books and maybe they miss a day or two or whatever and they get to the end and then maybe they kind of just, like, rush the end and like, oh, it's like 3,000 words under, but I got a book and it's done. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You don't have that.

Brad: No, no. So, like, I have to have, I have a different mindset of accomplishment, right? It's an accomplishment thing. Right? So, my mindset has to be, like, what am I trying to accomplish? Because in the end, I'm not going to have a first draft of a novel. Right?

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: So, that's the challenge for me. And that's what I've been thinking about. And I, the reason why I'm finally committing to this is I can't stop thinking about it. Okay. Right? I can't stop thinking about it. Even though, like, I'm not built for this. Like, this is not my thing. Right? This is, like, I'm not your daily commitment guy. Like, that's generally not my thing because my days are not structured. So, I can fit this in, like, equally every day. So, I'm going to figure out how to do it.

Myke: Well, I look forward to us checking back in on it as November rolls around.

Brad: Yeah. November 2nd is going to be a big day.

Brad: Are we done already, Brad? The horrible mistake we've made.

Myke: Thanks for listening to this episode of The Pen Addict. And thank you to Holo and Esteeba Akatron for their support of this episode. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. You can find Brad streaming over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. He streams 10 a.m. Eastern, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Wednesdays after we record. And then, I guess, throughout the month of November, maybe a little bit more than that. You can find Brad and penaddict on Instagram, dowdyism on Twitter, brad on micro.blog. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E, and you can find some products that I work on over at cortexmerch.com. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Go Braves. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I