The Pen Addict 280/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	280
Title:	I Want Jim To Tell Me Bedtime Stories
Release Date:	October 25th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 280
Audio File:	Audio Episode 280
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 280
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 280. 280! That's a darts joke, Brad. This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: So what other dart terminology can you school me on? Because I know that's the game of the country, right? I mean, you go, you grab a pint, and you throw needles.

Myke Hurley: It's like a whole real big thing. It is a competitive sport played by mostly overweight people who are drinking whilst they're playing. Well, I'll fit right in. In arenas that are full of people singing and getting drunk. Professional darts in England and in the UK is a real, just very, very different thing.

Brad Dowdy: I've watched it on TV. I'm not going to lie to you. I've watched it on TV. It's hilarious.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it is unlike any other professional sport. It is very, very, very interesting. Yeah. Yeah, so there you go. 280. That is, what is that? It's triple 20? I don't know what that is. When you get three triple 20s? Something like that. Who knows? Who knows what it means? Not me.

Brad Dowdy: It's got to be the 60, the triple 20, 60, 60, 60. What's that? That's 180. Did you screw up this whole thing?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Do you know what? I think it's 180. Wow. Welcome to Myke's Sports Corner.

Myke's Sports Corner

Myke Hurley: Where he makes a reference and gets it horrifically wrong. Can we just either A, start over or B, just get going?

Brad Dowdy: Let's get going because I don't want to start over because that was too good. So where should we start? Should we start by talking about last week? Yes, we should definitely talk about last week because it already seems like any event that we do seems like it's already months have passed. It was only like a week ago.

Myke Hurley: Well, this one's slightly different, right? Because it wasn't a week ago for us. Like in Brad and Myke time, it was a week and a half ago, as you said, right? So it's been a long time since we recorded the Field Notes episode, which went, I mean, you know, we had, I think, safe to say we had high expectations because we thought it was going to be a great episode. But it exceeded my expectations. It was just a wonderful episode. I realized in the edit, or at least Stephen did, because Stephen edited the show. Thank you, Stephen. Stephen also edited the video, the fastest video turnaround we've ever had. And Stephen said to me, when you don't have tens of hours of B-roll footage, it's pretty easy to put these things together. Yeah, this was a one camera event. Well, there was also a GoPro, right? Which was the emergency camera. But it was easy for him to do it and he put it out. So if you are a Kickstarter backer, you should have gotten an email with a link to go and watch the video, right? Everybody should have gotten that if you were a Kickstarter backer. But yeah, it was just a really, really fantastic event. But Stephen noted to me that you barely spoke in the episode, which I didn't realize at the time. So I apologize for that.

Brad Dowdy: No, no. I noticed it at the end. I was like, I don't think I talk very much. But then when I re-listened to it, I re-listened to it a couple of times because I really enjoy hearing Jim and Brian talk. That's what you do. You don't need to. You need to let the guests talk. And you drove the conversation. I actually got an email saying, boy, Myke did a good job on that show. You didn't talk very much, but that's okay because it came out awesome.

Myke Hurley: I got to say, I slipped into my old interviewing mode. And oh, man, I loved it. I just loved it. I haven't done an interview like that in a while. You know, with like all the questions and like it flows. And you're moving stuff around, cutting things out, like pressing people on questions. I had such a blast with it. Like I haven't done that in feels like years. So it was really great.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you, it was a natural. You were in your natural habitat, right?

Myke Hurley: I think I was really. Like that's what I started doing, right? Like that's kind of my, if you were to call it such, my roots, right? Like in podcasting came from interviewing people. Um, so it was fun to really, really pull that, pull that back again.

Brad Dowdy: Did you notice the amount of feedback we got on this show? Like we haven't talked specifically about since. Like we, we knew it was good. We listened to it. We loved it. We're of course going to love it ourselves. But you know, you, you never know until you get it out in the hands of the listeners. I got so much feedback on this episode saying it's the best episode. Great job. Like I've never, I don't think we've ever done an episode where I've gotten more. Comments like that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. It's because there is a reason that we wanted to do this. There's a reason why, you know, both me and you have called this a highlight of the show's history because it fits so perfectly for us. You know, like to do an episode with the Field Notes guys, which you've done before, but to do it there, you know, like it adds a whole thing to it. You know, it's their 10th anniversary. You know, we both worked really hard on putting the questions together. Like I am, I am not surprised that so many people love this episode. And as Tony said, you know, you didn't talk equals positive feedback, which is kind of funny. Right. Tony, Tony's doing his best in the chat room to, he's moved on to trolling you now, which is, which is an interesting thing.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, I'm just lucky we didn't actually end the show. Right. I mean, we should have not shown up today and really trolled the people. But yeah, I'm, I'm glad to not talk if that's what the feedback is going to be.

Myke Hurley: Oh, dear. But yeah, we got great, great feedback. Like people were really, really nice and we really, really appreciate it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And just listening when you go back and listen or watch the video, just listening to Jim and Brian talk. I want Jim to tell me bedtime stories. Yes. Like the guy can spin a story and his voice and his demeanor. Yeah. I want Jim to, to read me, to tuck me in and read me a bedtime story. So thank you, Jim.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: No, it was awesome. It was a great event. They did announce something on the show where they're adding. Um, it was cause they don't do that very often and it was really neat to, to have them do it. And it was totally on Jim and Jim sprung that on us right before the show that they're going to launch. He didn't tell us before he announced it live, but they're going to add in a, I don't know what you would call this, this, an additional two pack 10 year anniversary pack, but it's going to hark back to the beginning of the company. We haven't seen any pictures, but you know, just, we haven't, we don't know anything other than what they said on the show, but they're pretty excited about it. So we're pretty excited about it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I, I've been trying to rack my brain like, and I can't, I can't work out what it is. You know what I mean? Like, well, what are they doing? What are they up to? Like, I haven't been able to work it out yet. You know, like I have my ideas and I'm wondering if it's going to be different formats, but like the design is going to be really great. I'm very, very excited about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, again, we've said it a bunch and it can't be said enough. Thank you to all of our Kickstarter backers who helped make this possible. Um, your support means a lot to us and it allows us to do fun things like this and share them with you. And we're glad you're along for the ride.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like, thank you for doing it. Like for, for helping us do this. Like it, I cannot put into words, like how much fun it has been this year to do these three events, um, Atlanta, DC, and then Chicago. And I only could have been able to be a part of all this stuff because of the support that our audience and gives us. Um, and you all just knocked out of the park this year. Like I was looking, I was looking through the Kickstarter thing and just to see how much money we raised. Like, I can't even believe it. Like I'd forgotten the exact number, like close to $30,000. Like it was just a, just wonderful. Like just so wonderful. And you, you've helped us produce some stuff that we're really proud of. And we really, really hope that the rewards are worth it for you. Um, when I guess now like focusing on next year, um, we have, me and Brad have ideas. We have big plans, but that won't be next year. Um, we're getting married next year. And because of that, I have minimal time for travel, um, too much going on. I have, I have too much going on. So we have big plans. Um, and I'm hoping that in 2019, we'll be able to put at least one of those into effect. Um, but for 2018, like we know Atlanta, um, and I'm hoping we can do at least one more show somewhere. Um, but we're going to talk about that as the rest of the year goes on, but like definitely, definitely Atlanta will do, we'll do it up right as we always do. Um, at our Atlanta show. And we'll try and, we'll try and do more than just the one show, right? Because I feel like that, that, that is probably the thing to do now. Now that we've done three, we should probably at least try and do two next year. Um, but we're, we have big plans for some stuff that we want to do in the future. Um, but that's going to have to wait a little bit longer because I mean, this show's never ending anyway. So, uh, we're all good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but no, you're totally right. And I've started to have people ask me for Atlanta dates. I will know them. I'm meeting with the Doliffs in November sometime and I'll, I'll get the dates then for the show. So we'll have news on that. Cause I know a lot of y'all like to book your travel early for that. And, uh, we like to mark it off our calendar because that's the one thing that's a stone cold lock on, on our calendars. So Atlanta's happening. Um, what else the Kickstarter will entail? We are not sure. No, we don't know yet. Yeah. Well, we, we have a lot less time to plan it this year than last year.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, I mean, let's be honest. We, we always plan it last minute. Yeah. Yeah.

Field Diary

Myke Hurley: Now in refill, um, this week you, you showed off your, uh, like a little field diary that you, you've been taking you and the kids had actually been doing during the trip, which was really fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I always wanted to do something like that. Like that's that idea that's always in my head, but never acted on. And I never really have the opportunity when I travel to pen shows because it's worked pretty much 24 seven from the time I land to the time I take off again. And there's not too much outside of the pen show stuff. So that works great for like the photo diary stuff. This time I had time with the family since the kids were out of school that week, you know, I took them to Chicago and we had a few days to see the site, see the city. So I wanted to capture that in a notebook. So I of course took a little field notes, drink local. It was the, uh, I think that one's called the pale lager.

Myke Hurley: I don't have it right in front of me, but I believe that was a popular one at the, uh, at the field note shop. So like we'd mentioned, we had like, um, there was a, like a meetup, uh, open house afterwards, but we're all kind of walking around looking at stuff. I didn't realize that like they, they sell some rare additions in the store. Like if they have some, they, they sell them and like, they had both the drink locals in there and there was a bunch of really interesting additions floating around. Nothing mega rare.

Brad Dowdy: Like fire spotter, traveling salesman, drink local, those were the highlights.

Myke Hurley: I reckon that's maybe as far back as they go. I was very surprised to actually see that they had them in there. Um, but yeah, I actually, I actually asked Jim, like, how do you price these? Like, how do you work out the prices? And he was just like, you know, we see what they go for online and we try and give them a fair price. Like, yeah, we don't, we're not looking to make a ton of money, but we don't want to sell it for a price that somebody could then just go and flip it, which I thought was like a really good way of explaining how they do that. But yeah, they do have some rare ones there. But anyway, so you were using a drink local for your, for your diary.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I thought that was a good, a good trip notebook. And I tried to document as much as I can of our trip. And then when I got done, I ended up, I scanned it all in and created one big PDF file of just my notes on the trip. You know, like I'd recap a day, you know, it wasn't all, a lot of it was captured a day, day after, because I don't always have time that day to write down the things I'm actually doing live at the time. And then I threw in a little sketches, threw in a few receipts or tickets from the places we went. So now I have this little book that's just going to sit there and it's just going to be like a memory book of Chicago. So if we ever like break out, you know, start looking at the pictures, we can go get this book and read these stories about these things we did. So I was really, that turned out as about as good as I could have expected. I think for me, at least the way I capture things, right? It's very straightforward. You know, there's not, it's kind of no frills, but that's how I do things. So it worked out well for me.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I would like to do more. I like to do more of that. It's just having that opportunity to like commit to doing it. That's always the challenge.

Myke Hurley: So what were you doing? Like sitting down in the evening in the hotel room and writing it down?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Like almost always, or the next morning, like while everyone's getting ready, getting up. And then a few times I was able to do it like after we did something, if we were waiting around for a ride or something like that. But most of the time I just tried to do it in our down times in the hotel room because I was too busy having fun when we were, you know, out and about eating or visiting or walking.

Myke Hurley: I mean, so like doing it for a few days, could you not see something like this being like a regular practice? You know, this is what people do. It's just journaling, right? Like this is it.

Hobonichi Cousin

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. And I definitely thought about it for next year and trying to use the Hobonichi Cousin, which is a big notebook, trying to get the hardest thing about journaling or task list or to-do list is showing up every day. It's not what goes in it. It's the actual commitment to show up every day and put something down. So this was a good experiment to see how that goes. And it was okay if I didn't get it all done on the same day that the event took place. You know, if I could do it the next day, that was fine. Once you start to get into like two or three days, then you start to get into a really bad habit of playing catch up. You know, I don't, I wouldn't recommend that. But like next day was totally fine. That worked out well. So I, yes, it was definitely, I had ulterior motives. It was definitely something to think about while I was doing it. So we had another thing at that show, Myke. Mm-hmm. Did you, I'm making a new Panatic Retro 51.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And I have to say, it's not what you would expect. No, do you think that's a fair description? Yeah, it's not orange. It is not orange. It has no orange on it. But Michael Jacobs, who you met at the show and who has an STPA coming up later, did a design.

Brad Dowdy: He called it the isometric bomb pop. And I love the design. I said, I think this will make a perfect Retro 51. Let's collaborate and do a Panatic. Do one, you know, like I did for the Panatic last year. So we had the sample in time to bring it to the Field Notes event. And I think it went over very well. What do you think about the pen? Not that you're going to tell me it's terrible, but what are your thoughts?

Myke Hurley: I love it. I think it's beautiful. I'm going to put a link in the show notes to the t-shirt design, which is where I'm expecting you saw this from. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. So you can kind of get an idea for what the graphic's going to look like. But I think it's fantastic. Like, I can't wait to get myself one of these. Like, it's really, really cool looking. You've chosen a good option, right? Because it's like, this is just a cool design that you like, as opposed to, this is a pen pen addict thing, right? Because there's only so many ways you can go with that, right? Like, where do you end up going with it, right? Like, there isn't that far. You can't go that far, right? Like, you just keep doing different pen addict related things. It makes more fun for you to just find things that you like and use those as jumping off points to create a cool design.

Brad Dowdy: Well, like we learned at the field notes event, they focus, they look at each edition and say, is this field notesy enough? And I look at the retro 51 pens and think the same thing. Like, this is a perfect retro 51 style to where if I keep doing something like strictly pen addict related, I kind of get off track there. Like, I wanted the feel of this.

Myke Hurley: And you limit yourself as well.

Brad Dowdy: So, I wanted to do this. We'll see how it goes. And I'm really excited about it. So, I'll have more news on that next month. I think it's about four weeks away from launching. So, we'll see. We'll see. Another thing that launched on the blog this week, I got up the first article from Maibun. Yeah. The Japanese stationery web magazine. And this is, I asked for this review first because I was fascinated when I read it from their site originally. And I know I shared it. It was months and months ago when it first came up. But I said, this is the one I want to go with first because I think it's interesting. And it's called the Tagged Memo Pad. And it's, what caught my eye was the shape and design of it. And then I read about it. And I was like, okay, maybe this is not like the perfect notebook for me. But it's interesting enough, it falls in that Field Notes Expedition right in the rain category to where it's the waterproof paper. But this one is different in that it's actually washer proof. As in, they took the paper that the dry cleaners make their tags out of when you drop off your clothes at the cleaners, right? And then those tags are attached to your clothes. They go through whatever washing process that they go through and finishing process and then come out on the other end. And so this is like, it's not the plastic paper, like the Yupo paper that's in Expedition. But it does have those same features to where if you use a water-based ink, you're going to have a bad time. It's just going to smear and smudge and come off of there. So you're going to use pencils and ballpoints. But I like the style. I like the format, the curved edges so you can hold it. You know, this is meant to be used, you know, outdoors in the field. This is not a desk pad, right? This is a portable pad. And, you know, the paper's perforated. It looks interesting. I want to get my hands on some of these because they make some, when I've looked through their product pages, they make some larger ones with grommet holes through them, which I think is a really neat style. Like, it's totally not functional. Like, I would never use it other than I think it looks cool. So they even have it on, branded on the front covers. It says, from cleaning tags. This is a really interesting type of notebook that hopefully one of these days I can get my hands on. And now that I know people that can get these, maybe I can come up with that.

Myke Hurley: I thought this was such a good start for this content partnership because this is weird and wonderful Japanese stationery, right? Like, it is just... I've never seen anything like this before. And it just made it so perfect. And I love the way that the story started, right? Like, it was this cute little intro. The pictures are great. Like, this is exactly the type of stuff that I personally want to see from this partnership. Because it's... Exactly. ...stuff that we just wouldn't get access to otherwise. Like, that just wouldn't come by because we're not in Japan, you know? So, yeah. I think this is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, this is very cool. Like you said, I'm really happy with this partnership. And I hope, you know, it continues on. I mean, no reason why it wouldn't. But it's just a little added bit of coolness that I want to see on the blog. Because, I mean, this is the stuff I want to read about and stuff I want to use. And stuff I want to learn about. So, you know, I'm glad this is underway. So, it's been a while in the works. And the feedback has been really great. So, keep it coming. And let us know if there's anything else you want to see in particular. I've already got, like, three other articles to choose from. I'm going to start sorting them out. And we'll do, like, one a month or so. I think it's kind of going to be the pace. It's not going to be, you know, every week or anything like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I imagine it's a relatively large production. We're getting the translation done right. Stuff like that. Yep. Just take some time. Just take some time. For sure.

Brad Dowdy: So.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take a break? We should. Today's show is brought to you by PenchLA. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more from your favorite brands. You can find all of the companies that you love to buy stuff from PenchLA because they try to bring them all in. And they're an authorized dealer of all of it. They have fast and reliable customer service. PenchLA are always doing discounts and specials. You can go there every couple of weeks and you'll find great stuff at just great, great prices. They have free shipping on orders of $50 in the United States and they sell internationally as well with very reasonable shipping rates. You should know now that PenchLA has low prices on high quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Every time you want to buy something new, go to PenchLA first and see if they have it. Because you go to PenchLA.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password PenAddict, and at any time you can get a code that you need to save 10% on anything at PenchLA. You just go to PenchLA.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, use the podcast link and type in the password PenAddict and you'll get 10% off anything that you buy. We have a special offer as always. The great folk over at PenchLA have put together a really fun special offer in celebration of Inktober. So that's going on right now. People are creating amazing drawings and beautiful artwork and stuff like that for the month of October as part of the hashtag Inktober. My Instagram is full of that right now. Will PenchLA have a selection of great inks on special offer for PenAddict listeners? What do you think of this, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: It's really cool. When I saw the first ink, I was like, okay, that's interesting. And then I started scrolling down and it didn't stop. There's lots. Yeah, there's lots. There's a great selection. Lots of different ink choices. The standouts to me from my personal experience and use the Platinum Classic. It's an iron gall ink, so please be careful. He has lavender black available as one of the sale items. Not all colors from all brands are available, so it's just a selection. But lavender black is one of the Platinum Classics. The Edelstein ruby red is a great one. And then the piece de resistance. There's four colors of Kobe Sailor ink at a crazy good price. So, like, crazy good. So, yeah, definitely go check these out. Ron, as always, does something neat and unique for the PenAddict and PenAddict listeners. And we really appreciate it. Oh, and I just noticed on Diamine, he has Imperial Purple, which is a great color there, too. So, yeah, lots of good ink colors on sale. Definitely take a look and see if there's something that fits your needs. And support Ron and help support the PenAddict.

Pen Chalet

Myke Hurley: So, PenShalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Thanks so much to PenShalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So, you think Ron's going to get these next pens?

Myke Hurley: I have no idea.

Brad Dowdy: I doubt many people are getting these next pens. But, yeah. So, I got tweeted these the other day from Fanta Plumo, which is a great supporter of the PenAddict as well, the blog. He, Frank has the new Carondash Justice League pens. Did you get a chance to check these out?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I sure did. There's a whole selection of stuff. So, there are some ballpoints which are like $8 or $9 and they just have characters printed on them. So, I think they have all five. They have like five different ones for each of the Justice League characters. But the big thing to talk about is the fountain pens. So, they have three fountain pens. They are all priced individually at €1,300.

Myke Hurley: That's it? That's it individually. Or you can pick up the set for €4,950. They are interesting. There's three different pens. There's a Batman, a Superman, and a Wonder Woman. The design of them is very cool. They very nicely imitate the suits that each of these heroes wear. We have colors and textures as well that kind of match the DC Warner Brothers Justice League aesthetic that they've got. I think they chose the best three characters, obviously, for the job. But this price is poop crazy. It's poop crazy. I don't know why anybody in their right mind would spend five grand on three Caran DASH fountain pens. But, you know, such is life, I guess. They're made from good materials. 18-carant gold, pink gold nibs, and all sorts.

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah, not for me. This makes cross Star Wars pen look like Bix in comparison.

Myke Hurley: I guess the difference for me, though, is these look like good expensive pens, where the cross pens did not to me. They looked bad. Yeah, but not like $2,000 expensive pens. Oh, I know, I know, I know. But, like, they at least look better. I think they're doing a better job with the opportunity to take this brand than Cross did. I mean, I still haven't got those Schaefer pens. I mean, that's the one, right? Like, that's the great one.

Brad Dowdy: But these, I was just taken aback at the design of these. You know, price, you know, forget the price. I mean, I'm not buying these. No one in their right minds buying these. But the designs are awesome. Like, Superman might be one of my least favorite comic book characters in the history of comic books. That is a fine-looking pen. Yep, they look great. I love the Wonder Woman one. I love the Wonder Woman one. The Batman's actually my least favorite because if I'm going to spend that much money, I don't want all black. Exactly. Like, that's a great $250 all black pen, right? It's not a great $1,650 euro all black pen. Like, I want the flash of Wonder Woman or Superman if I'm spending that much on that pen. But I love these designs. I really, really love these. But, man, that price is ridiculous. I'm definitely more in the $10 ballpoint range with these. But, yeah. I enjoyed seeing these. I like the good designs. You know, just like I like when Mont Blanc comes out with their special editions. They're always so good-looking. They're really good-looking. And I'll never own one because I just can't justify that price. Yeah. But, boy, I love looking at them and I love looking at these. So, super, super cool. So, we'll see. Maybe we'll get to see one of these in person one day.

Myke Hurley: That would be good. But I don't know if the person that would show it to us would be very happy about what we said about people that buy this pen. So, we'll see.

Myke Hurley: There was a post on the Pen Addict blog today from fine contributor Jeff Abbott, which is a review of the Caran d'Ache 849 fountain pen. I just wanted to mention this pen because Jeff spoke very highly of it. And there is one in this household which is spoken very highly of. So, I remember, if you remember, I bought one for Adina for when we were in Atlanta. No, DC. DC? DC. DC. And I really liked it. She really likes it. It's a really fantastic fountain pen with an extremely beautiful, unique look. I really, really like it a lot. Very smooth. It does a great job.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, see, and I don't love the section on this pen. And Jeff, you know, a lot of times, here's some behind the scenes blogging talk. So, I get a lot of products from vendors. We got this one from Goldspot. And then I, you know, distribute the goods for review amongst the writers. Sarah, Susan, and Jeff, and myself. And we kind of split them up. And sometimes the pens are given to me to keep. Sometimes they're on loan. So, this one was on loan from Goldspot, meaning, you know, we can take it, use it, review it, then we send it back. Jeff said, when he submitted this review, he said, how much do I owe you? Because he just wants to keep it. So, that's how much he enjoyed this pen. Me, on the other hand, I don't care for this pen. Like, and Jeff mentions it the same feeling that I have in this review. It's similar to the Retro 51 fountain pen. I don't like that pen. The grip sections aren't good enough for me for the style of the pen, as they relate. But I love the style and design of the pens. So, if the section works for you, then it's probably something to look at and something that's a good choice, you know, for you. But Jeff absolutely loved it and has decided to keep it.

Myke Hurley: As you should, because it's great. It's so beautiful. It's so unique. Did you get the pink one for Adino? It was luminous yellow. Luminous yellow. Yeah. Nice. That was the one she chose. I picked up a bunch. I took a picture of the green one, the pink one, and the yellow one. She's like, I want the yellow one. Gotcha. That was what we went with.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. So, I found something, I guess it's been two weeks now, that I haven't had much time to spend with, and I keep meaning to circle back. And I wanted to make sure it was on your radar, too, because I thought you might like it. It's called FoldMag, or just Fold, and it's by our good friends at Moleskine.

Brad Dowdy: I am impressed with what they're doing outside of the paper in their notebooks. Everything else, they seem to be doing pretty good. Well, I take that back. I don't like their carry goods. I think their carry goods are very, very weak. But their brand building and presence, trying to spread the word of the brand, I think it's cool. I like this kind of stuff. So, they have this online digital magazine called Fold. Did you get a chance to look around at this at all?

Myke Hurley: This was one that missed me. You put this in a document. Yeah.

Moleskine Content

Brad Dowdy: Just put it in this morning. So, they go through. It's kind of a travel and lifestyle thing, okay? So, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but they also have some pertinent articles about drawing, you know, some how-to on drawing. They have an article on the daily grind of a distracted freelance writer. So, they're obviously integrating the materials that they sell.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then, they also have, like, the art and design and travel stuff. Like, I'm into all this type of stuff. So, it's cool to see Moleskine do this.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't make me want to go out and buy a Moleskine, but it makes me want to consume their content. I don't know. Like, we've talked in the past about their apps that they've designed. They do a great job. Like, they're doing a really good job with digital right now. And I think that only serves to boost up the analog parts of the brand. Now, that's where all the arguments lie for me, right? And a lot of people. But I'm impressed. I know they went through an ownership change in the past year or two, I think. And I'm interested, Myke. I'm not interested in buying a notebook yet, but I'm interested in following what they're doing. And I think it's going interesting places. They're certainly putting forth the effort. Like, I remember, I think it was, I don't know, a month or two ago, they even had a, like, a six-month job posting thing that they were looking for. Not quite an internship, but kind of like a, almost like an investment. Like a, I'm blanking on the word. But basically, like, they wanted to get some app developers in to help merge some of their analog and digital tools. An incubator. So, they were going to offer up, like, six groups or three groups a six-month period of time and pay for them to come and work and see what they could create. They're doing some interesting stuff. Like a skunkwugs type dealio.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So, I don't know, you know. Interesting. I guess is where I'm at with it.

Brad Dowdy: So, now, if they can, man, if they turn the corner on their paper, it could be a thing. I could see this being a thing. It's already, obviously, the hugest thing in the world on the stationary front, right? How much bigger do they need to begin?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There is no need, right? There is no need. They don't need you. I mean, this is the thing. They might change something. You never know. But, like, they don't need it because they need to break into this market. They have the whole market sewn up, right? Like, they're good, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Stationary is definitely not their focus. And they're a stationary company, right? I think that's a fair statement. So, they... I'm impressed. I don't know what else to say. Another thing I'm impressed with, Myke... So, this is another article that we... Since we haven't talked in a couple weeks, a lot of things kind of happened in the background. And one is this article from Joshua at the Pelican's Perch about Pelicans shifting price strategy for the U.S. market.

Brad Dowdy: In the past, whenever I've reviewed a Pelican pen, I've always had to have that caveat. Yeah. It's expensive, right? Yeah. But, relative to X, Y, and Z pens, it's expensive. It's worth the price. When you get it, you find a perfect writing instrument. But, it's expensive.

Brad Dowdy: On top of that, in the U.S. market, you could go overseas to the... Let's call it the worldwide market outside of the U.S. And get a better price than you could from your local retailer or your regional online retailer.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So, it was always confusing when I talk about Pelican pens about recommending them. I always recommend them. But I always say, hmm.

Myke Hurley: There's a caveat every time. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Out of the... I guess I own maybe like five, four or five gold nib, like really good Pelican pens. Only one of them did I ever pay full price on. And that was my very first one, which I got at a pen show. And I got a little bit off of like what the normal, not full MSRP, but like the street price. You know, the MSRP minus 20%, which everyone would sell at kind of thing. Like that's the only time I ever paid full price for a Pelican because they're so widely available. The secondary market for them is huge, even for like the brand new ones. Like I have an M800. I've bought two M800s, which is not the biggest one. The 1000 is. But I've bought two limited edition or rare ones, not main product line ones, for like $400 each. Which their MSRP is probably like eight, something like that. And these were new or slightly used. And it just never made sense in the US market to buy a Pelican at full price. Well, I think they've come to realize it like Aurora did a couple years ago. Where they have a price in... Their price in Europe was well received, but in the US market it wasn't. And they lowered their US market price and, you know, they started doing very well. And I don't know if Pelicans gained anything from that. Or what the exact reasoning of their plans are. And we'll get into that in just a minute. But it's good to see that I think they're seeing the global marketplace as one entity, if you will.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. As it should be in today's world.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Right. And I know, like, there's all kinds of things to consider as far as, like, pricing consistency around the world. But, and it's very hard to get that exact. Yep. Because there's all kinds of different things you have to deal with.

Myke Hurley: Currency fluctuations and all that kind of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: But at least in the ballpark. Yeah. To where you can say, here's why. You know? Where before, if the pin was $600 on the European market and $800 in the US market and you couldn't go, here's why. You know, you're going to lose that sale in the US market most likely. So, this is good to see, I think. And Dr. Deans at Penn Economics followed up with his own post from an economic standpoint. And he has several very good points. And this is my favorite one. And this is one I say all the time, which is the, they know better than we do aspect. Right? So, he says it in this manner. He says, my preference is always to start my analysis with the assumption that people have all the relevant information and that they make rational, sensible decisions. If a decision doesn't make sense, this assumption forces me to think hard about what the decision maker knows, but I don't. That assumption helps me to see things I otherwise miss and it prevents me from passing off easy answers as though they're true. So, yeah. Like, they know more than we do. Right? Right? We can sit here and come up with all the reasons why. And, yeah, we might hit on those reasons, but we really don't know for sure unless we work for the company. Yeah. But, I appreciate the fact that they see a change and are acting on it. So, that's my main takeaway from this is not necessarily the price, but, hey, get with the times. My customers can shop anywhere in the world that they choose to. Let's just make them buy. We don't care where they necessarily buy it from. Let's just make them buy a Pelican. Right? And I think that's the decision they made. And, of course, it benefits us as a consumer in the end. And hopefully, it benefits them by greater sales. Right? They don't need the additional margin to make those sales, make that money up. You know, more sales will, you know, hopefully boost up everything. So, I like where this is headed.

Myke Hurley: Oh, for sure. Like, it's good to see, like, sensible business like this. Right? Like, this is a good thing to see. You want to see that they're understanding the market that they're working in. They understand the world that they're in today. Right? Like, you can find out the price in other places. You can order from other countries. Right? And, you know, it makes sense to maybe try and level that out a bit, especially when it did so well for Aurora. Right? They got a lot of good press, probably quite a lot of sales from it. I think this makes a lot of sense. Pelicans are great pens. And it's just so great. And I've always wanted more, but I've always found the price to be funny. Because, you know, I tend to buy pens of this price at pen shows, typically. And the price has always turned me off a little bit, considering how close they are to a tier which is much higher. You know, like, once you start getting into the expensive Pelicans, well, there are many, many more handmade, custom, beautiful things made out of Urushi that I can get my hands on here. Right? When we're starting to get into this price range. So, I'm really happy to see them make this shift to try and bring things in line a little bit more. And they did it in the right way as well. Right? They brought the US down rather than bringing the rest of the world up.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. And I love Pelicans Limited Editions. They've been knocking it out of the park, all up and down the lineup. But my shopping and buying process with Pelican goes like this. Wow. That pen is beautiful. I would like to own it. I will wait until I see it at a pen show at a cheaper price.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Ocean Swirl Pens

Brad Dowdy: Because I can always get it cheaper than ordering it online. Now, with something like the Ocean Swirl that's coming out, which really has my interest peaked, I might just order it online because I know now, well, that price is going to be good. Right? I'm not going to, you know, lose, you know, whatever, hundreds of dollars just, you know, from being impatient. You know, where before my buying decision is like, I want that pen. I'll wait and buy it secondhand. Now, I might be more inclined to just jump right at the chance to purchase it. So, we'll see how this plays out. I hope this is all coming to fruition. And I hope we see it affect the market in a very positive manner. And I don't see any reason why it wouldn't. I mean, from a consumer perspective, it's all win. So, yep. All right. We have a couple of Ask TPAs. These first two live from the Field Notes HQ. I said, give me the questions or email them to me. You know, they'd be good-ass TPAs. So, I did. And the first one's from Michael, the designer of the upcoming Panatic Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is one I'm posing to the listeners out there. I think I have an answer, but it's such a unique question. And this is the perfect place to ask it. So, he says, this year, the ice rink where I coach my son's hockey team put rink layouts on the glass above the boards next to each team bench. While every other coach I know just uses whatever dry erase marker they found at work or at the store, I'm different. I listen to the pen addict. So, what dry erase markers do you recommend for use on glass in colder environments that are bold enough for kids to see from a few feet away? In case it matters for your recommendation, I will wipe the glass clean with my sleeve due to time and space constraints. I'm not going to carry an eraser with me while I'm running practice. I love this question, right? This is like the nerd out stationary question. And these are actually really hard to answer because how do you get experience with this, right? Unless you're doing it yourself. But I know the products that they use, I call them bistro markers. And you'll see that in the name of some of the products that I recommend. That's what you see all the fancy handwriting at restaurants and cafes and coffee shops and things like that. All the bright colors. A lot of those are what they call chalk markers. And that's kind of a weird term. But basically, it's a bright colored marker that is erasable. But it's not like a dry erase ink. I would think the dry erase inks, the standard whiteboard pens, would be very faint and hard to read. And would actually have some temperature issues. And like humidity type moisture in the air issues riding on glass in a hockey rink. But these chalk markers, I don't think will. They're made to write on glass and metallic chalkboards. Other things like that. They're bright colors and they're solid lines. Like with a dry erase marker on glass, it's going to have some transparency. I think these solid lines would be better for that. The only issue is wiping it off with your sleeve. You're just going to have to carry a rag. Because I think they will probably wash right out of your sleeve. But that's not really what you want where the dry erase marker stuff just kind of vanishes. These won't. It's going to leave a color. But it does wash off cleanly. You might even need a wet rag, you know, that you can just keep handy. That's kind of the only caveat. But I think there's going to be markers that work good. And I put a couple in the show notes. The Ray May board markers and the Marvy Bistro chalk markers both work on glass. And they look like they're going to be easy to get off. I just wouldn't use your coat sleeve. But if any listeners have any recommendations from actually doing something like this, I'd love to hear them. And I'll pass them on to Michael.

Myke Hurley: What a fun thing to look for, right? Yeah. That's amazing.

Brad Dowdy: This is cool.

Myke Hurley: I don't have any ideas on specific brands. But just kind of relatively generic, I guess, dry erase markers will come off really easily, which is good. And it's not going to stain you up to high heaven. So that's kind of what I would look for. Dry erase, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we'll see. We'll see what the listeners come up with and if this is something that will work well for Michael. Also, I had several members of a brand new Chicago pen club called the Windy City Inkwell. They told me about their new club. They're making a kind of city slash downtown-based Chicago pen club. There's another pen club out there that's mostly out in the suburbs. So I told them to send me the link to their page if you're a Chicago resident and want to reach out to them and join their club. There are a bunch of great guys and girls that I met at the Field Notes event. We will have the link in the show notes to their Facebook page, Windy City Inkwell. And they're trying to meet once a month. And actually, I know one of the members in there is Nathaniel Surf, who helps run the Chicago pen show. So I actually knew one of the members before I knew their club existed. So I told them I'd give them a shout out. So all you Chicago peeps, hit up our show notes. You can find out how to join the Windy City Inkwell.

Brad Dowdy: This next one you might have seen, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: And if you didn't, you will enjoy seeing it. But I got an email from a gentleman named James. And his intro was this. He says, Hey there, Brad and Myke. I recently started a personal writing project where I wanted to write about the things that I'm thankful for. That said, this show is one of the things on the top of that list. I'll link the Medium post here. But below, I'll paste the message directed to you too. So it's a long message. But there's a Medium post. We'll link to the show notes. The Medium post is actually, Myke, thank you, Relay FM. And James goes through this whole gratitude project on this page where he talks about podcasts. He gives you and Casey a wonderful story from Analog. He has a full email about coming into the pen addict for us. And I asked him, could I share this? Because sometimes, you know, you don't know. When it's good, like personal type stuff like this, right? You know, I want to be sure. And he said, absolutely, please do. And the reason I wanted to share it is just from the project base as a whole.

Brad Dowdy: I love it. Like, a thank you project is fantastic. Like, we do this thing at our house where every night at dinner, you know, we can't always sit down to dinner together every night. But on the nights that we do, which is, obviously, it's most nights of the week, we go around the table and each of us says, the one thing that made us happy today. Or one thing that made us happy today. So we just call it our happies. What's your happy today? And this is kind of on that in a bigger, more public sense where he's doing this project where he's going out and saying thank you to someone that or something that meant something to him in his life. And there's a lot of ways you can do this. He's chosen medium. A lot of you might do it in your journal. Like, I think it's really cool. And I wanted to share that. And I wanted to thank James for doing this and reaching out for all the kind words he said.

Myke Hurley: I think James goes by Jax online. Jax, yes. Sorry. Yes. Just to change that. But yeah, we were sent this for analog. I don't think I was included on the Pan Addict one, but Jax sent this direct to me and Casey. And Casey replied to it and it warmed my heart. And I love, obviously, like any human being would, I love to see things like this. And it means a lot to me when people have nice things to say. Sometimes to the point where I don't know what to say.

Jax Letter

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: You know what I mean? Because sometimes just like thank you isn't enough. And so this is a very, very wonderful project to start. And to be a part of that is heartwarming. So thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I appreciate that Jax allowed us to share this because it's personal. Like he wrote a letter to us and published it online. And like not everyone's going to see that. But now we're like shining a light on it. And he allowed that. So I appreciate that. And I like in his response to us, he says, my girlfriend affectionately teases me and calls me a pen nerd. And it's a title that I'll happily accept. Yeah. I think we can all appreciate that.

Myke Hurley: That's a badge of honor right there.

Brad Dowdy: So thank you, Jax. This was super cool. And, you know, he might be doing more later. But it's just something to think about. You know, I life's difficult and having like this little light of positivity and something you can do for yourself to, you know, make you, you know, have like a good headspace. Right. I think about these things a lot in my personal life is like, how can I remain, you know, in a very positive attitude and, you know, lift people up and, you know, keep a smile on my face. And it's not always easy, but doing little things like this, you know, whether it's digitally or analog, I think it's great. So very cool. Very cool. All right. This is an interesting question, Myke. It's very short and sweet from Lerlenny. It says, why do some pens stop writing after a couple of refills? I've cleaned them between fills. Examples, Lamy Safari, Pilot Metropolitan, Nemo Sign, Singularity. So the answer is, I don't know.

Myke Hurley: But you have observed this too as a thing that occurs? Because I have.

Brad Dowdy: The Safari, yes. The Metro, no. The Nemo Sign, I don't use. So what I find after I've cleaned a pen and refilled it and it stops writing is that I haven't cleaned the nib and feed enough. So you have to get in between the nib tines. You know, this is part of that maintenance that's required with a fountain pen. You know, some will say, unfortunately, some will say it's part of doing business. Some will say, this is the thing I love about these pens. Yeah. Sometimes in between the nib and the feed, not just flushing water through the feed and through the nib in those tines gets clogged up. So go online, order a brass sheet. It's like a little shim. You essentially floss the tines. It's I've found more times than not that changes everything about the flow on my pen after I've cleaned it. Sometimes you like if you're cleaning it and drying off with the paper towels, you might get fiber in there that you don't see and it's just going to clog it a little bit. I don't have an absolute for a fact answer for this, but if you're cleaning the pen well and then you floss the tines or take the, if the, both the Safari and the Metropolitan, you can get the nib off the feed very easily. Take them completely apart. It may sound like a hassle, but it's going to be a better writing experience.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If you're able to, I mean, I just did this over the weekend. If you're able to get the, the feed out of the section, like if that's the thing and like you're able to separate the feed and the nib, like that's going to go a long way to helping you get a lot of that gunk out there, even if you don't have specific tools, right? Like if you're able to, and also what that does, I've found it reduces the amount of frustration you have when you change ink, right? That like, I have a pink ink now, but it's still blue, right? Like if you can separate as much of it as possible, you get a better job of flushing a lot of the old color out as well. So, but yeah, I have observed this happening like Brad, I have no answer. I hope Brad was going to be like, oh, it's because of this, but no, it turns out there isn't, there isn't an answer we have for you, Lola and I am sorry. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So one last thing on this, and it's not an answer to this question, but it was something I was thinking about right before we got on the show, I was saying, I need to clean a bunch of my pens. I have one pen that I can't get the old ink color out. So I'm going to give this, I need to break out the big bottle of JB's pen flush again. So remember when we talked about that?

Myke Hurley: I have a slightly purple bottle of pen flush in my ink drawer.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So I put in some blue black ink that's coming out with some purple in it and that's not the color it should be. You know, it looks, it looks kind of cool, but since I know it's not supposed to be that, it's bothering me.

Myke Hurley: Well, because then you don't want to get used to it, right? Because it's got an impermanent shelf life on it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. You're wonderful in your ink color. I'll be breaking out the JB's here maybe this weekend. All right. Last one. I'm going to let you answer this because you've most recently hired, you've most recently hired someone. And this is from our good friend, Doug, who we both saw this weekend in Chicago.

Handwritten Resumes

Myke Hurley: The wonderful Doug. Doug asked, what would your reaction be to a handwritten resume? I would, there's other parts to this question, but we'll start with this part first. If I, if honestly, even me, I would find it unprofessional. If somebody gave me a handwritten resume, I just feel like that that's not the way that you should do something like that. You know, like it would have to be superbly written, like just like calligraphy up and down, right? To make it stand out. Like there has, there would have to be a reason that people would give you a handwritten resume. Um, and I think that that reason would have to be because it's wonderful. I would be more inclined if somebody emailed me a scan of a handwritten resume, but like if I want resumes, I want them digitally because that's the workflow, right? Like if I'm having, if I've got a job posting and somebody mails me a handwritten resume instead of emailing me their pages or word files, like, well, now I have to do something with this, right? There's no links I can click. There's no information I can copy and paste, right? Like this becomes a whole big thing. So I don't know. I don't think I would want that. What would you, I mean, I'm, I'm expecting you to say, oh, of course it would be the best way. Um, but we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: I mostly agree with you because there's, there's the more I think about it, there's almost no way to do this right. One of two things is going to happen with a handwritten resume. It's either going to look too fancy or it's going to look too poor. There's very little sliver in the middle ground, right? If you were talking about, if someone sent me a resume and it was calligraphy based and had a wax seal on the envelope, I would not be impressed. I would be like, what is going on here? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's like you don't know how much work you've just given me.

Brad Dowdy: Right. It's the wrong place and time for that. Secondly, if you broke out a notebook and a BIC, it's going to maybe not look very nice. So I don't know, I don't know where the winning proposition is. If you're going to send a handwritten resume because you're making someone do more work, they're going to, you don't know what position they're in to like appreciate that, right? You're sending it blindly. Like, okay, if I'm hiring a writer at the pen addict and you send me a handwritten letter, well, that's one thing, you know, the person on the receiving end would be open to receiving that me in that case, right? I would like the calligraphy or I'd like the BIC on the notebook page. But if you're sending a general resume to most of the population, I think you're putting it in the hands of someone who could very likely treat that differently in a negative way than having an easier workflow, like you said. So yeah, like Stacey says in the chat room, maybe a thank you note, you know, after the interview handwritten, that's always a winner, right? But the resume itself, I think that's going to be such a minuscule shot at landing, at hitting a home run, right? That it's not going to be worth it to take that chance.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't think so. But then Doug goes on to say, what part of the job search could be best suited to fountain pens? Maybe a thank you note? Yes, that's where it works. You want to send someone a thank you note, a nice attractive thank you note? That's great. That would work.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I wouldn't mind a cover letter that's handwritten, like if you're doing the cover letter thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because I need less information from that one, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Unless someone, there are a lot of jobs that have very specific requirements for the cover letter. Maybe I wouldn't do that, but if it's a general cover letter introductory type thing. But the resume itself, I think it would, low chance of success. I think you're putting yourself in a hole doing that, to be perfectly honest.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I'm glad I didn't have to write a resume after last week's episode where you tried to fire me. I'm not going to let you down. I'm not going to let you out of that one. So, but I'm glad to be back this week. As always, it's felt like a month since we've last recorded. And, you know, I'm always nervous getting right back in. Oh, you're a natural. What seems, no, no, no, I know. But like always at the beginning, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. Okay, now we're good. Once we start. So, all good. Good to be back on the regular schedule, which I think we will be for the rest of this year. It seems. I don't know. I think there are thereabouts. Next month.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We have some. It's going to be normal for everybody else.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find our show notes, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 280. Remember 280, the popular dance phrase. You can send in your tweets to the hashtag AskTPA. Don't forget the stationary.wiki, which is the great wiki project where you can go in and update information for this whole great community that we're a part of. You can find Brad over at thepenaddict.com and knock.co. How's the seed stuff going, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, it's going real good. The A6s, both colors, are ready to roll. We're probably delayed on A5 until we can get the new colors of Brasstown and Sinclair's out for the holidays. So, that's our focus right now. All the A6 stuff is ready for you to buy, though.

Myke Hurley: You bet. When is the, when am I going to get the travel? Is that part of the A5 delay?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's part of the A5 delay. So, we're probably, I doubt it will be before the holidays.

Myke Hurley: Womp, womp, womp.

Brad Dowdy: It is. Trust me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no one feels the womp, womp as much as you do. Yeah. You can also find Brad on Pen Addict. He is, no, Instagram. He's Pen Addict on Instagram. He's not Instagram on Pen Addict. He's Pen Addict on Instagram and he's dowdyism on Twitter. I'm imike. I am YKE. Thanks so much to Pen Chalet for their kind sponsorship and support for this episode. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. I'm going to go ahead.