The Pen Addict 218/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	218
Title:	None of My Pens Have Suitable Ink
Release Date:	August 17th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 218
Audio File:	Audio Episode 218
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 218
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 218. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Squarespace. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools we love so dearly. And let me introduce you to somebody that I love even more dearly than pens and paper, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Myke Hurley: Aw, I love you too, Myke Hurley.

Brad Dowdy: Not more than pens though, right? That's fine, that's fine, I get it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, not more than pens and paper, so that's cool.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool. I mean, you know, unrequited love, it happens to all of us.

Pen Comparison

Myke Hurley: Oh man, so you've got an interesting pen that I want to talk about right out the gate. Because I've had this come up more since we've initially talked about it. And it's the Platinum Plazier, so why don't you tell me what happened with the Plazier once we were talking about, like, I think it was an old Ask TBA question, right? For like a beginner fountain pen type of thing.

Brad Dowdy: It came up there, and then also on, I think maybe the last episode, or like the last episode we had the Pen Chalet or the one before that, we had the Plazier as a deal. It was Ron's deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the Platinum Plazier. And I mentioned that I never had one, I never used one, anything like that. And then Ron said to me, what's your address? I'm sending you some of these things. So he sent me a couple of the Plaziers, and I've had them for a week or so. I have the 05 and the 03.

Brad Dowdy: So can you explain that a little bit for the listener, what is the differences here? Sure.

Myke Hurley: Sure. So 05 is Japanese fine, and 03 is Japanese extra fine. Very simple.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Okay. So the 05 feels kind of broadish to me. I don't know if something just changed over my time here, but like, it's a relatively thick line. It feels like a medium or something. That was hilarious. So I don't know. I don't know, but it's nice. I like them both. I have like a silvery color and a blue color. Let me get the actual names of these colors, because I can actually get them from the Penchalet's website. I'll put a link to the pens on Penchalet in the show notes. But yeah, I have like two.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I'm getting corrected.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay.

Myke Hurley: 03 is fine. 05 is medium. 02 is the EF. I'm sorry. I win. Thank you, chat room.

Brad Dowdy: I win. My instincts.

Myke Hurley: Myke was right.

Brad Dowdy: My instincts are now better than your knowledge. I got the frosty blue and the gunmetal. I really like the gunmetal one. It's a kind of a mirrored. And they're not very expensive. I mean, Ron's got them up, as we record, about $17 on Penchalet. And I've got to say, for that price, this is absolutely excellent pen. Like flat out. Like I can't believe that they're that cheap. Yeah, it's an aluminum barrel pen. It's super lightweight. It feels great. For my tastes, I would put this over the Metropolitan as a beginner's pen. I'm still not sure whether I would put it above the Lamy. The Lamy Safari, I've had so much experience with over the years. That kind of tips it a little bit for me, I think. Maybe after using the Plasias a little bit more, I would change my mind. But I like a lot of this pen. I like how light it is. I like the cap. It's pretty cool. The mechanism is pretty nice to put the cap on and off. And I love the little P that they put on the nibs. And the nibs are kind of short and squat, which is kind of quite different looking. I think it's a really flat out great pen. And it has the great... What is the style of this cartridge? What is it called? It's got the big fat end on it, as opposed to the thinner end. You know what I'm talking about?

Myke Hurley: It's just a proprietary platinum cartridge. Oh, this is their own. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I was thinking it was kind of like the Namiki ones. I mean, they're kind of like it in design, but the end part is different. Sure. I found that out just as soon as I opened it. Yeah. Yeah.

Fountain Pen Entry Level

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, the reason why I don't put it ahead of the Metropolitan and even the Safari is because for someone who's never used a fountain pen and wants to try one, there's a little bit more of a normalcy, if you will, in the Metropolitan as far as feel goes. Right? You don't... The Plaisir is so light. You don't have that sturdy feeling that makes you feel like, you know, when someone's just trying a fountain pen, $15 is a lot of freaking money to try this out. So, you want it to feel something substantial. And if you spend like $20 on the Plaisir and you feel this lightweight thing and you don't really know what you're getting or what it's all about, I could see a little bit of a hesitancy. So, that's why I put the... I really put the Metropolitan, the Eco, and the Safari ahead of it. But it's also one of those pens where it could be my favorite one out of all four. Right? That's where the difference lies.

Brad Dowdy: Of the ones that I have, I definitely like the 05 the most. It's smoother. Which makes sense considering my tastes over the years, you know, going for mediums and broads. And I really like it. I did want to just point out a couple of things that you wrote in your original review of this pen in 2013. You said, not only does it feature a lightweight, silky smooth aluminum body, it also has an innovative cap that allows the pen to be stored for a year without drying out. What's happening there?

Myke Hurley: So, they have a... It's just like a seal that's built inside of the cap. And other companies do this too. To where... So, you have your external cap. And then inside, you'll see a lot of times, especially in demonstrator pens, you probably can't see it in the Plaisir. You'll see like this clear little cone that's in there. So, that's made when you push in the pen to the cap. They actually have a spring in the top that's in the very tip of the cap. And it locks in that internal cone like around the base of the nib section. You know how that's like a flat part around there? So, it seals all that together and puts pressure on it so no air gets in there. It's like an airtight seal.

Myke Hurley: And if you look at some of Platinum's, like the 3766, you can see the spring in the cap to where you're pushing it in. And it just really locks down that seal to prevent the air from getting in there and drying out your nib. And it flat out works. I use, I've seen that happen just many, many times from picking up a Platinum pen that I haven't used in ages and it just writes right away. It's great.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's one of the other benefits to like a kind of a starter pen, you know, that it can just last and it doesn't dry out. That's true. I think that's a really good benefit to people that maybe don't use them very often.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's a good point.

Brad Dowdy: You also said, I've been very happy with the Plaisir and it will continue to see frequent use. So that was three years ago. Has that been the case? No, I think I gave it away.

Brad Dowdy: And I guess that's just because at that time you were very green on fountain pens. So I guess at that time it was like, this is perfect. But now you have, you know, you're not a beginner anymore.

Myke Hurley: I will say this. I have a O2 Preppy on my desk that I use constantly.

Brad Dowdy: What's the difference between the Plaisir and the Preppy?

Myke Hurley: The barrel. It's the same nib.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: So that's also why I, that's also why the Plaisir comes in in a weird spot. Because the Preppy is about $4.

Myke Hurley: It just looks like it has a $4 barrel. It doesn't have the fancy barrel.

Brad Dowdy: So it's like the middle, it's like a step up from the Preppy, right?

Myke Hurley: Oh, definitely. Okay. Just in barrel zone. You're going to get the same nib experience from them. Huh. But that's how good their nibs are. That I use the Preppy all the time. It sits on my desk.

Brad Dowdy: And they're cool little looking things. But they are cheap looking things.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I love them. They are. They have the standard tacky printed barrels. But that's fine. You know, what do you want for a $4 pen?

Brad Dowdy: At least the nibs are color coded. I like that.

Myke Hurley: They are. They are. So my blue-black has like a blue-black anodizing on the nib. It's killer.

Brad Dowdy: That seems like a feature that's a little bit more advanced than $4.

Myke Hurley: That's why they sell so many of them.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. There you go. So yeah, I give the plays here a big thumbs up from me as a beginner pen. I will recommend this to more people, I think.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. No, it's definitely something to look at. And if you want to surprise your office with a bunch of fountain pens, I know the Pilot Varsity is a choice for a lot of people. I would go with the Platinum Preppy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Definitely.

Myke Hurley: And just leave those around the office and let people pick them up and go, oh, what is this? Because once they start writing, they're really not going to stop. I mean, I've had this thing sitting nib up on my desk. I can't tell you how long and every time I pick it up, it writes.

Brad Dowdy: So last week we spoke about the DC Pen Show. There was one more company and product that you got some time with that we didn't cover last week. Do you want to explain that a little bit?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I wanted to give them kind of a special shout out. But I met Vito with Story Supply, which we've talked about them before when they launched their Kickstarter for their notebooks. And he sent me a bunch of notebooks. Super nice guy. And he told me he was coming to the DC Pen Show and that we had to meet up. And I was super anxious to meet him. And he's just a fantastic individual. They launched a new product at the show, which I wanted to be sure to pick up. But they launched a dot grid pocket notebook. And their previous pocket notebooks, they're really good. They have like this ivory paper. They were like somewhat fountain pen friendly. Like they weren't like amazing, like rodeo fountain pen friendly, but like really good fountain pen friendly. And, you know, everything else works well, you know, with if it's fountain pen friendly, pretty much everything is going to work well with it. Sometimes, you know, when you get into Rodia and it's too slick, you know, graphite doesn't work well on that. But that's not how these are. So they came out with the dot grid. And you were funny, you were talking about like the linen covers with the what's the E.E.K. Is that where we're going with matches the Raven's wing? So these have that linen cover, too. It's the Nina Royal Sundance linen cover. And the paper is 70 pound Cougar natural smooth paper. I'm using the fountain pens that I bought at the DC Pen Show, the Optima, which has a fine nib. And the I'm sorry, the Optima has an EF nib and the Omos 360 has a fine nib. And I'm getting no bleeding or feathering on these dot grid papers. It's called the Edition 407. I love their their tagline is strong enough to hold big ideas, small enough to fit in your pocket.

Myke Hurley: So they launched those along with the notebook covers, which are really good. They're just your standard leather fold over cover cover that you see a lot, but they fit the pocket memo size. So I have I bought two notebook covers and two sets of notebooks. And I'm going to give some of those away. You know, I like to buy some extra things to give to give away. So I bought one to keep for myself and one to give away. So I just thought meeting, hanging out with Vito was very, very cool experience last week. And I wanted to give him a special shout out. And, you know, thanks for buying me a beer video. I appreciate it.

Brad Dowdy: So I wanted to just reference something that I thought was quite quite funny to me. And it's a little bit of follow up as well. People have been asking me a lot recently, like, what pens are you going to use to sign X paperwork with? You know, because buying a house means lots of paperwork to be signed. I mentioned last week about my insurance thing. I just need to sign insurance paperwork and I need to, you know, we're looking at getting married at some point in the not too distant future. And thinking, you know, me thinking about that. And we spoke about that, right? Like I wanted to see if I could try and as the time comes look into what ink I would need to get and if I could use my own pen to sign with. But I wanted to just go over some of the stuff that I've been doing with the paperwork that I'm doing in the interim. So one thing that I'm doing a lot of is using my iPad and my Apple Pencil because nothing needs to be printed. Nothing needs to be scanned. So I'm like using apps like PDF pen or whatever, and I'm just filling out and signing it all that way. Like that has been kind of the main way that I've been doing this stuff at the moment because it means I can get things done quicker. But I don't have a printer and scanner at home. So I need to be able to use these tools. And it's actually been for me really good because then I can save the PDFs and all that stuff and send them back. And it's been really good. But there is some stuff that has to be on paper. So I was signing some accountant's paperwork the other day. And I realized that every pen that I picked up, which is like one of my lovely fountain pens, had ink in them that was unsuitable for the job. Because it was either bright orange, bright blue, highlighter ink, green with gold flakes, blood red or bright green. And I realized, oh, none of my pens have suitable ink for signing stuff like my fountain pens. So I ended up going with my trusty Retro 51s, right? Because they've always got blue or black ink in them. And I mean, and they're great for that sort of stuff. But, you know, I was thinking about like, what special pen? Oh, I'll use my Edison or something to sign all this stuff. I was like, oh, no, the Edison has red ink in it. So that's no good for the job. And I just thought it was really funny that I have all these pens, all these fancy pens. People keep asking me like, oh, what are you going to sign with? What are you going to sign with? But I can't use any of them because all the inks that I own are more exciting than just a regular blue black or something.

Ink Properties

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So when it comes down to it, you're going to have to get some legit ink because to follow up your follow up in our STPA, which we're going to do after our break. But I want to go ahead and get this one in. First, John, who originally brought this question up, who is a priest, he's a minister in the Church of England who brought this up, you know, when we first originally talked about it. And so he's saying he followed up after our last conversation saying that you will probably have to use Registrar's Inc. The standard is by Ecclesiastical Supplies. Diamine makes one, too, which some people seem to use with no legal repercussions yet. So I don't know how how strict they are on on that. But then the interesting part, which I this is the first I've heard of that, is you're going to need five people to sign the wedding register. You, your partner, the registrar and two witnesses. So what I've advised people to do is buy separate pens for each witness for them to keep. One couple bought Lamy logos and had them engraved. So I didn't realize there was five pens involved in this entire thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, I mean, that doesn't have to be five.

Myke Hurley: And that's just the wedding register thing. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So. But it looks like you're really, really going to have to get that ink, though, if you're going to go. Yeah. If you're going to go fountain pen. I mean, unless they just provide it for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, they will provide a pen. But, you know, but I want to make my own. So when when it gets to that time, I'll be looking into the ink. I'll be talking to the registrar and stuff, making sure I get the ink that they want. And then I'll be bringing pens. But yeah, I'm having them for gifts for the witnesses is a is a is a good idea. And I'll probably do that. So I'll buy maybe something super fancy for me and Hedina to sign with. And then some stuff that's mildly fancy for it for our witnesses.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right. That's funny about the inks. I don't run into that too much because I usually have something with blue black, but it's getting less and less blue black and more brighter colors like orange and turquoise.

Brad Dowdy: I don't have any bottles of blue or black ink like dark blue. I mean, you need black ink for all this stuff. I don't think I have a black ink. So, I mean, I'm using stuff that's got cartridges or whatever. I have pens that have black cartridges in them. So I'm having to use all of those because that's all I have. It's really funny to me. It's all I own.

Myke Hurley: And I definitely don't have black ink loaded up in anything. That's for sure. I would have to use the retro.

Brad Dowdy: So I've been using the retro. So I'm going to have to think about that as I go down this route a little bit.

Myke Hurley: Too funny.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Should we take a break? Yeah. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. I was mentioning them a moment ago. If you have fountain pens, you want to buy roller balls, mechanical pencils, accessories, Pen Chalet have got them. And they have great prices. So we were talking about all those starter pens. It's like you want to get yourself one of the places or a preppy. You can go to Pen Chalet and get them. And you can get great discounts, which we'll talk about in a moment. But you can also get great free shipping. Any order over $50, you buy a lot of platinum preppies to get shipping, free shipping there. But you never know. I mean, you could fill it up for all other kinds of stuff as well, which I thoroughly recommend. You get free shipping on orders over $50 in the United States. They also sell internationally. They have great shipping rates. But most importantly of all, Pen Chalet have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality pens that they sell at low prices. They have generally just low prices. That's how they run. That's how they work. But they also do a bunch of discounts as well. Twice a month, they have great discounts, specials. They have closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new stuff as well. Talking about new stuff. We have some new stuff in our offer today. Some hot off the press pens. You go to penchalet.com. You want to click the podcast link at the top of the website. You enter the password penaddict there. And you will find the code that you need to save 10% on anything you buy at Pen Chalet. But as you go down that page, you will find some special offers for penaddict listeners. This week, we have the Kaweco Skyline fountain pen in purple, pink, and white available to you. And we also have the brand new Kaweco Student fountain pen in the clear demonstrator model. These discounts are so special, I actually can't tell you the price on the podcast. You have to go to penchalet.com right now, hit that podcast link, and use the password penaddict to get those details. I do want to say, the Kaweco Skyline in that pink, that is fire, man. Whoa.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. Regardless of what we say the price is, the pens are still cool. I love the Skyline models. They branched out a little bit to the colors that they use for the classics. So, these are like the more interesting colors, if you will. So, yeah, the purple. I've seen the pink one. They're crazy good looking. That's my kind of pen. I love them for a pocket pen. And the student, the new student, I haven't used. It's been on my radar with the demonstrator model. So, that's one I need to check out.

Brad Dowdy: That's a very different for Kaweco looking pen. And I think it looks really fancy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. No, it's really cool. That's something they've, they're, I think they're trying to expand that lineup a little bit. It's interesting to see what they do after this demonstrator model as well. Like, if that's something they're going to continue to expand on. Because, you know, we all love their pocket size pens. That's what they're mostly known for. But they have some legitimately good full size pens. And this is one of them.

Brad Dowdy: So, go check it out for yourself. Go to penshella.com right now and find out more. Thank you so much to Penshella for their support of this show.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, over the last couple of weeks, we've had a good built up of some Ask TPA. So, you know, if your question's been sitting in my inbox or in the spreadsheet, I think we're going to get to most of them today. And this first one is really interesting. And I never thought about this until Gareth just brought it up. And where is the fountain in a fountain pen, Michael?

Brad Dowdy: I have no idea. I saw this one and had to put it in there. I was hoping you were going to hit me with some strong knowledge.

Myke Hurley: Man, I got nothing other than it's just got to be somehow related to the ink delivery system. You know, with the capillary action and the way the ink flows through the feed and out the nib. It has to be somehow related. Maybe it flowed so well. It was like a fountain as compared to any other writing instrument at the time. I don't know. Yeah. So, that's a really good question. I didn't look it up.

Brad Dowdy: There's nothing like a fountain, really. You know, it's not the ink isn't pouring out. Maybe when they were first made, they couldn't get the systems right. So, the ink just poured out of them like a fountain. How about that? That's my thinking for how the name came around.

Myke Hurley: That's good. Well, right now, it's in the fountain of dollar bills that's raining out of my wallet. There you go. It's the only fountain in fountain pens I have right now.

Brad Dowdy: You shouldn't buy your pens in dollar bills. Like, that's a lot of dollar bills, man. You should. That's a lot of dollar bills. You should either use credit cards or like get larger bills than one dollars. You must really upset everyone at the pen shows if you're doing that. One, two.

Myke Hurley: That would be rough. Yep. All right. This next one from Robbie is, can you recommend a new diary for 2017 for me? Not a Hobonichi. Currently use a file of facts but want something different. So, the answer is no. I cannot recommend a new diary for you. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just not a diary guy. But I will say that Rhodia and Quo Vadis make some of the best ones in various formats. Wonderful paper. What I might do next year, Myke, is buy one of the field notes, the blank ones where you can just put in your own day and week. Right? We talk about how I don't do fixed pages and planners. The field notes model that is blank and you put in your own week, whatever, week 11, February 10th, whatever. Things like that as you go. That might work better for me. So, I'm going to actually look at that. I've seen a couple posts, shared a couple links around using that type of format that might actually work better for me as opposed to a fixed format. But I would look at Rhodia and Quo Vadis for your diary needs. That's not a Hobonichi.

Brad Dowdy: So, you're talking about the 56-week planner field notes one. Is that what you're talking about?

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yes. Which you can pick up now and start it, right? You don't have to wait for a 2017.

Brad Dowdy: I always forget that this product exists.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. So, I linked to a post a couple weeks ago in the member's newsletter about how this one gentleman was using his and I thought, that's kind of cool. Like, this is something I can get behind to where I'm more in charge of the dates that get down. I don't know. That's just a thing with me. So, that's a pretty good thing.

Brad Dowdy: You just can't be boxed in, man.

Myke Hurley: I can't. I got a room for you, Michael.

Brad Dowdy: They can't control you. They can't hold you down. You can't be confined to some kind of Roman calendar schedule. You're the Brad Dowdy schedule.

Myke Hurley: That's right. That's right. My schedule or no schedule at all. Yep. Which is pretty much no schedule at all. But, yeah. All right. Our good friend, Hot Cup 11. I love that name. Is there anything you two would do differently with the podcast if you could go back to the beginning? So, I didn't have much time to think about this, but I thought it was a super interesting question. And you said the obvious answer. So, what do you say?

Brad Dowdy: I would have had you on the audio equipment that you currently are on. Also, I would retroactively like to change my accent.

Brad Dowdy: Because it, to me, sounds miles better now than what it sounded like before. I'll talk to you like this. Hello, Brad. Welcome to the pen addict. It's me. It's me, Myke Early on the show. That's what I sound like to myself now. I can't stand it. I hate listening back.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If I could go back, actually, I would like that accent. So, that would be instead of my southern, you know, barely southern drawl. Yeah. I would, if I could go back, I would learn Myke's original accent. No way. No way.

Brad Dowdy: People tune in to hear your southern drawl. That's what they want to hear. That's what they're tuning in for.

Myke Hurley: But as far as, you know, technical stuff or content stuff, I don't know that I would do anything differently. I approach this podcast as wanting to have fun, right? So, we don't keep it necessarily highly structured in like this, on a very rigid format. And I think that's one of the best things about it. It's just kind of a conversation between two friends who are into this stuff.

Brad Dowdy: And anything that has come out of this show format wise has been natural.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right. So, if there's anything I would do differently, I don't think there is because I really like how the show's progressed over time. And I can't think of anything I would change, to be perfectly honest.

Brad Dowdy: The fact that we're still growing shows that there's probably not much that needed to ever be changed because we're still going by this point where I've had other shows that have not continued to do that. So, this is, what I'm basically saying is The Pen Addict is the one true perfect podcast, which I think we all knew anyway.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We are perfect.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Field Notes Replacement

Myke Hurley: All right. Speaking of perfect, Andrew wants to know what will be the best replacement for the Field Notes byline once it's gone. Dun, dun, dun. So, people are already stressing over the byline. Like our friend Anthony I mentioned on the last episode, buying 14 packs of them. So, the Write Notepads Reporter, I don't have the exact name of it, but we can look that up. It's a wonderful looking book. Very similar in style. Not as fountain pen friendly of a paper, but as far as if you want that format of book, it's virtually identical. Outside of that, I love either traditional steno pads or A5 top bound pads like the Knock, the Knock dot dash pad that we have, the Field Notes steno pad that they make, and the Done paper steno pad that Chad makes. So, I like those top bound A5 type of books. But they're not as skinny as the byline.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The Write one is just called the Reporter's Notepad. Okay. And that's the closest, I guess, format-wise, if you're looking for format.

Myke Hurley: Virtually identical format. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: But if what you're looking for is paper quality, then you might be better off with one of your pads.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Because, you know, even the Field Notes steno, it's a different paper to what's in the byline.

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: True. All right. So, Ben wants help deciding on his next fountain pen. Would you guys go with a Sailor Progear Slim or a Pilot Custom Heritage? He wrote 96. I'm thinking he means 92. So, Progear Slim, even though the Pilot's not much bigger and probably not any heavier,

Myke Hurley: I think it's maybe a tick too small in relation. So, my choice is the Pilot Custom Heritage 92. Hmm.

Myke Hurley: I have better luck with Pilot nibs right out the box. I like the style of it better. You know, it's just kind of an all-around really, really good pen that I use very frequently. It also has a piston filling system, which the Sailor's cartridge converter, it's kind of not close to me. Interesting. To be quite honest.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I don't have any experience with the Custom Heritage. What I like about the Sailors is that there's a lot of different color options and they're exciting looking. Yes. Where I think the Pilot Custom Heritage line is not exciting looking. I think it's kind of boring.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's demonstrator only in about four different colors, maybe. Maybe five. No more than five.

Myke Hurley: It's just a better pen, in my opinion. Okay. But I'm a huge Sailor fan. I just go straight to the regular Progear. I would skip the Slim. And I own a couple Slims. I just don't use them. They're actually probably going to go on the for sale block pretty soon just because I don't love that size.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know why Ben is deciding to go slim with it. Like, why? Because the Progear is still a very small pen.

Myke Hurley: It's probably a price point range. Those are in the 140 range, right? When you're getting up to over two for the standard Progear.

Brad Dowdy: That's a really good point. She's sitting there. I didn't think it was a price thing. I just thought it was a size thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, those are in the same bracket. Yeah. So, in that bracket, I would choose the 92. If for some reason you could swing a regular, if this question was regular Progear or 92, I go regular Progear.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Cool.

Notebooks

Myke Hurley: All right. So, Wordworm wants to know, any notebook suggestions for long writing projects like novels? Current EDC is TWSBI Eco and the Kalido for editing. This is a hard one for me.

Myke Hurley: Because the ones I want to recommend, like the Nanami paper products, right? The Crossfire, like you have, have the most paper and have the wonderful Tomoe River. I don't think they're necessarily good for like a writing project, like a novel. The paper's too thin. And if you're going back and editing, you're going to have an issue. I think, and this is kind of an insane choice, but this is what I'm going to go with. I'd go for a Leuchtturm Master. Are you familiar with the Master?

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: Look it up while I ramble on. It is a bigger than A4 hardbound notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Whoa.

Myke Hurley: So, it is a huge thing. But what that allows you to do for a writing project, it gives you space. So, you can, and it'll handle your TWSBI Eco. Fine. It'll give you space to roam.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, he's a big boy. I'm seeing some pictures. I'm like just looking on Google, people's hands next to these things.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But it's going to give you the room for, you know, call outs. It's going to give you room for editing.

Brad Dowdy: That's a really good, that's a really, really good call, actually.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's going to give you room to play. You know, if you're writing, if you have a novel writing project, there's going to be so much going back and forth. You're going to want the greater durability. Then something like one of the Seven Seas, the Seven Seas writer or the Crossfield or anything like that, even though those are pretty cool. I would go for the big boy like the master. And they're not, I mean, and when I say that, they're not outrageously priced. They're fairly priced. They're just a very large size notebook.

Brad Dowdy: So you're paying for the extra size. I mean, I would have said the Nanami Crossfield just because it's the most pleasant notebook that I own. It is the one that gives me the nicest kind of just feeling just to generally write in because of the Tamori River paper. But it probably is too thin for a long project like that. I can imagine this paper getting quite battered over time because it's so thin. And I guess maybe a little bit more fragile because of that. If fragile is the right word to use, maybe delicate. And I feel like maybe a novel project, delicate is maybe, I don't know. It just feels like that's not right. Correct. But I would have recommended. That was my consideration. Yeah. I would have recommended it because it is just, if I was going to be writing in something every day for two years, this might be what I would pick for that. Which is why I assume that the Hobonichis are so popular. Right. Because it's long-term writing, you know. But I don't know if it would be the right thing for this, but it could be. It could be. It's to say that the Hobonichis are an example of this paper being used over long periods of time. So I don't know. But I think that this Lojiterm one makes a lot of sense to me for the reasons that you said. Because you could write in the middle of the pages and then give yourself a ton of space around the outside.

Myke Hurley: Right. Yeah. That's a cool book. Really good call, actually. Yeah. I actually have one that I've been scared to crack open because it needs a legitimate use. It's not a, let me jot this down use. So it's still sitting in the plastic wrapping.

Brad Dowdy: If what you're jotting down is a thousand words each time, you're good to go. But if you're just writing the shopping list, I don't think this is going to be a very useful book for you.

Myke Hurley: It's a flat-out amazing product, though. I think it's wonderful. Huge.

Brad Dowdy: I've never seen it before. I don't think I've ever heard of it.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. All right. So this next Ben, I don't know if he's related to the first Ben, but he wants to know his first good fountain pen for daily use. Lamy 2000, Pilot Vanishing Point, or Tactile Turn Gist with the titanium grip section. So what do you think on this one? I think I know the answer, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to agree.

Brad Dowdy: I think Ben's maybe going too far for a first good fountain pen for daily use. I think that all of these would be a great choice, but I think that it's maybe too much. I mean, I don't know what Ben's parameters are here. Like, I don't know if he's been using Twisby's a bunch or whatever, you know. But if you're coming from Plasia, Preppy, maybe some Kawekos, I might recommend that this would be the second round of pens that you go for and would maybe suggest something like a Twisby instead. But if you're coming from that kind of world or you're really, you know, dead set on this, I mean, like my first serious fountain pen was a vanishing point, probably for similar reasons that Ben is doing it. I really wanted something nice. I am going to say, for this one, I don't think we're going to agree, I'd say Lamy 2000. It's the Lamy 2000 and it's not close. Okay, cool. I don't know why, just because I've had better experiences overall with the 2000 than you have, right? Sure. But I think that for the money in this price range, there's no better.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I agree. That's, if you want an all day, every day, good fountain pen for daily use, it's the Lamy 2000. It feels great. It writes wonderfully. It's got a piston filling mechanism. So you will have to have a bottle of ink.

Brad Dowdy: And it feels the feeling. Oh, and the way that the piston mechanism, when you screw it on and you can barely see the seal, like that build quality in that thing. Yeah. It's kind of unmatched.

Myke Hurley: So as much as I love the vanishing point and I like the tactile turn gist, it's the Lamy 2000 in a runaway.

Brad Dowdy: I think the vanishing point is a mistake for a first nice fountain pen. It's too edge case for me. Okay.

Myke Hurley: That's fine. But that did give me the opportunity to bring up something that I saw at the DC pin show for the first time. Our good friend Liz at No Pin Intended. She has a small project that she does where she removes the clips from the pilot vanishing point. So I wanted to be sure you were aware that this is a possible and this is possible and this is a thing. And I know she sold a couple of hers at the show and I was very tempted if I didn't have enough vanishing points already. And I don't mind the clip as it is. Her work was really cool. So I put a link in the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: I need to talk to Liz.

Myke Hurley: I told her I told her I would drop this on you and that you might be in touch because that's pretty legit, huh?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Liz, drop me a line. We need to talk. My problem with the vanishing point is the clip. Everything else, it's incredible, right? Which is why I love the vintage one that Jeff sent me because I can use that one because the clip is low profile. But I don't need the clip. I never use the clips. I never clip it to anything. So I could end up with something really beautiful. Maybe I could get one of those crazy ones.

Brad Dowdy: What ones? What are they called? I can't remember the name. You know, they've got Rodden. Oh. It's cool. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Celebrate.

Myke Hurley: Yes. I saw several of those at the DC Pinship. Those always look so great in person.

Brad Dowdy: I bet you did. I'm not surprised about that at all.

Myke Hurley: I mean, if you look at them online and you enjoy them, don't ever pick one up in person because you will purchase it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've always wanted one of those, but I've held off because I wouldn't be able to use it. But I get a clip removed and that's a whole different ballgame, my friend.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. All right. Should we take a break and then get back to some more? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: We've got a bunch more to go through, so this will be good.

Brad Dowdy: This week's episode is also brought to you by Squarespace, the simplest way for anyone to create a beautiful landing page, website, or online store. Start building your website today at squarespace.com and use the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% of your first purchase. With easy-to-use tools and templates, Squarespace helps you capture every detail of what drives you because if it's worth the effort, it's worth sharing with the world. And let me just point out a couple of key examples for how good Squarespace can be. Let's say that you want to run a really popular blog about pens. Squarespace is the perfect place to do that. Go to penaddict.com, Squarespace website. Let's say that you have a very successful Kickstarter campaign and you need a website for your new company and you need an online store to sell your goods. Go to knock.co, knock.co, knock.co, and you will find a Squarespace website sitting there. Squarespace give you and Brad all of the tools that you need to build a website that is professionally designed, that stays up, has great hosting, looks fantastic, has responsive design built right in, security and stability under the hood, taken care of. Regardless of your skill level, it doesn't matter what level of skill you've had of websites. It could be your first website, it could be your hundredth. You could know how to write one line of HTML code. You could know how to build an entire infrastructure. It doesn't matter. Squarespace will be able to take care of you no matter what level you're at. If you don't have any coding experience, that's absolutely fine. They're drag-and-drop tools. It's built for this. It's perfect. You can put something together that looks and feels exactly how you want just with dragging and dropping. But if you do know how to do this stuff, they have a dev platform so you can dig into the code and tweak and tinker and still get the benefits of their fantastic hosting, their great templates, their 24-7 support, their commerce platform, their rock-solid fast hosting. You still get all of that. No matter what level you want to dig into and tinker around, it doesn't matter. Squarespace plans start at just $8 a month. You'll get a free domain name if you sign up for a year. And you can try them out with a free trial. No credit card needed. Just go to squarespace.com and you can start building your website straight away before you even commit to a plan. Then when you decide to sign up, use the code INK, I-N-K, at checkout. You'll get 10% off your first purchase and you'll be showing your support for this show. Thank you to Squarespace for the continued support of The Pen Addict and RelayFM.

Myke Hurley: And thanks for making my life easier.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no doubt, right?

Myke Hurley: Because they do. All right, so we should have handled this question in relation to the first topic of the show today. around the plays here. But Michael says, I got a Pilot Metropolitan on your recommendation. Now looking at a TWSBI Eco, Lamy Safari, and Kaweco Sport. Does one stand out above the rest in a medium nib?

Myke Hurley: Eco. Eco. There, there's only one answer.

Eco Pens

Brad Dowdy: If you're looking at those three, if that is your choice, Eco, Safari, and Kaweco, the Eco is a cut above all three of those. It's like in a category all of its own, but with somehow the same price point.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that, that's the correct answer. It's the Eco. I think the M nib is better than both the Safari and the Kaweco's M nib. Just because I like, I enjoy the firmness of the TWSBI Eco without giving you like a crazy wet wide line in a medium is like still very usable. So I definitely think it's the TWSBI Eco in this case.

Brad Dowdy: Which is just a flat out fantastic pen. It's just incredible. It really is. Love it. Absolutely love it.

Myke Hurley: But if you don't have a fantastic flat out incredible pen like this, Myke, not you, Myke, Myke is looking to sell some pens I don't really use. How or where do you suggest selling them? We get this question all the time. And I really don't like answering this because there's not a perfect answer. Um, I think the, there's two choices. One is the Slack, the Pen Addict Slack, which if you're interested in getting in the Slack, there's a, there's a sell trade channel, um, which is very, very good.

Brad Dowdy: How do people get into the Slack?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Email me or send me a tweet or, or the contact form on penaddict.com. I just need your email address to send the invite to. So get in touch with me to do that. Otherwise the fountain pen geeks classified board is pretty solid. Um, they do a good job over there. And I think that's outside of that. I mean, you're on your own with like eBay or, or fountain pen network. Um, I just never use those things. So there's not a killer killer answer for this, but I think what seems to work the most is the FP geeks and the, the Pen Addict Slack, um, sell trade channel. So are we going with Nils? Is this Nils or Niles in, in your realm of the wood? N-I-L-S.

Myke Hurley: Nils. Nils. That's what I thought too. So I'm going with Nils. Have either of you tried the Sailor Pro Gear Rialo? Wanted to get one, but read the barrel quality is worse than on the cartridge model.

Brad Dowdy: I have no idea what this is.

Myke Hurley: So the Rialo, the Rialo, did we not answer this one? I think we answered this one. I think you're double dipping some of these questions. Am I? I don't know. You might have.

Brad Dowdy: Well, this is one of those things where I feel like I've never heard of something.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I'm wondering if like these right here, we've already done. That's okay. New listeners, new information, but I will tell you, I have not tried the Rialo. It's the shape of the 1911, but it's a piston filler. And I remember after this question, I asked some people about the Rialo and they've never, the people who use the Rialo have never had issues with them.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I don't remember this one. So there you go. I now notice information for next time.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yes. But these are new because these came from the last show. I got a bunch of email STPAs, which I thought were all wonderful. They're a little bit longer than our Twitter style STPAs. Yep. But let's, let's, we got like three or four of these. We'll get through real quick. So hello, Myke and Brad. My name is Dominic. And I just recently got into the pen world and all its wonders. I'm a computer science student. So I spend a big portion of my day glued to a piece of graph paper. And I noticed that many of the pens I use aren't that great. We've all been there, Dominic. We've all been there. It says the kicker here is I am a left-handed and I have a small handwriting. So anything with very liquid ink makes my notes look like a Rorschach test, but writing with a pig pigma micron is unsustainable. And I can't use erasables like the pilot friction since we have to use permanent pens for many things. What would you guys recommend? Thanks. And keep up the best, keep up the great show and best regards from Germany. In his very specific situation, he's a student. He's left-handed. He uses graph paper. It has to be permanent. I think the only answer is the Jetstream 0.38 or 0.5 millimeter. They're going to be able to handle the fine writing. They have Uni Super Ink technology, which is in all the Jetstreams now. They write really, really fine. And they're smear proof. I don't know what else ticks all these boxes, to be honest. I mean, maybe there's something I'm not thinking of. But the permanents, you know, he doesn't say it's mandatory, but we use permanent ink for many things. It sounds like it's all but mandatory. Sorry.

Left-Handed Writing

Myke Hurley: Left being left-handed, you need something that's not going to smear, which means it needs to dry fast, which some liquid inks dry fast as opposed to gels. But you're not going to get them in as fine of a point. And you're definitely not going to get them to have the permanents. So like the Morning Glory 0.38, the Mach 3 0.38, that's a great liquid ink pen that ticks off a lot of these boxes. And it would probably dry quick enough to where your hand wouldn't smear it. It's not going to be permanent. The jet pen ink will bind to the paper. So I think that's the way to go. You could do 0.5. You don't necessarily need to go to 0.38. Most people who have tried the 0.38 think it's too sharp. Even most people who try the 0.5 think it's too sharp. You could even do the 0.7 jet stream, which is the one I recommend the most. It's fine enough to do any of the work that you need to do in a small area. So I don't really see another option, to be honest. But fortunately, I think that's a good choice. That's a good pen that you can use just all the time. And it checks all the boxes. So do you have anything on that? I mean, being a lefty, I don't know what I can think of that you're used regularly that has the permanents that he needs.

Brad Dowdy: No, I have no good option for this. From what you've said, it basically sounds like the best option would be to go with the jet stream. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And I mean, you know, there's things you can do with fountain pens with extra fine nibs and permanent black inks. I don't know if you're going to get the dry time or the performance you want on the type of paper you're using. It just depends on what type of paper you're using. You could probably get away with some Japanese extra fine nibs and some permanent black ink. But that wouldn't be my top choice. All right. So Dr. Hans, Dr. Hans is a longtime listener and wants to know about pen storage. He says, hey, Brad, I really enjoy the podcast and have been listening since the pre-fountain pen days. That's a long time ago. He says, I have a question. I've started to accumulate a lot of gel ink pens and I'm wondering about the best way to store them so they don't dry out. I've been double bagging the ones that are out of the rotation in Ziploc freezer bags. I've noticed that new pens typically have the tips covered in a little ball of a plastic substance, presumably to keep them fresh while on the shelf. I thought it would be neat to recreate that tip covering for pens and long-term storage and have tried a lot of different glues and other substances, but nothing will stick to the tip of the refill. Do you know what can be used for a homemade tip dip? This is one of the most amazing questions we ever got. From when he started, I was like, how are we storing all our gel pens? Then I'm like, oh my gosh, he wants to recreate the plastic tip covering. And I was like, I have to read this. How amazing is that question for one, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: I love the fact that somebody wants to do this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly, right? I never even considered this, but if he's not using the pens and wants to save them, that's a legitimate question for this show. So, that's what makes it so awesome. This is a completely legitimate, realistic question.

Brad Dowdy: Do you know anything about those tip covers?

Myke Hurley: No, they just feel very rubbery. So, I don't know what the consistency of them is. You know, they feel more on the rubbery side as opposed to a plastic side. But I don't know how you would recreate that for storage.

Myke Hurley: So, the chat room has a couple of things. There's one thing called tool dip. I don't know what that is. And then we have an E600 glue. So, these are things we'll have to look, E6000 glue. We'll have to look these up and see if they will, you know, work for the job. Because I would honestly try this. Not that I would, you know, go through all my gel ink pens and storage and seal the tips. But I just want to know if it works or not because I think it's hilarious. And, like, this is, like, the perfect question for the Panatic Podcast. You won't get this anywhere else, folks. So, yeah, if you're listening to this and you, number one, if you've tried this, you're amazing. Number two, if you actually have a real solution for this, I want to hear about it. So, get in touch. All right, so Justin has a long one here. I'm going to read through this. It says, I find that I enjoy extra fine nibs all the way up to a 1.1 stub and italic for all types of writing if the nib feels right when I'm using it.

Myke Hurley: So far, I've found that no one brand or size is consistently right for me, but often buy used or vintage due to my budget. So, my perspective on brands, quality control, and my own use is limited and likely tainted by previous owner use or care of the pens. One of my favorite pens to write with is a vintage black plastic ideal brand piston fill pen with a steel italic nib that I purchased via online auction. It has the smoothest consistent flow, a lively bouncy nib, and sharp beautiful line variation. Point being that this pen was neither expensive nor from a big company known for consistently great pen nibs. Which pens or pens in your collection consistently just makes you grin from ear to ear when you use it? And do you own any pens that completely surprised you the way my boring little steel italic pen did when you first wrote with it? So, that was a long way to get around to saying we all get surprised from time to time with some of the things we purchase or the things we test out that were not what we expect them to be, either in a good or bad way. But this isn't, you know, he's wanting to know in a good way. What, have you experienced anything like that, Myke, where you just have a pen that you always go to that makes you grin from ear to ear when you use it? Or do you have one that completely shocked you in, like, a really, really positive way?

Brad Dowdy: The positive shock I'm struggling with a little bit more, I think, because I have varying levels of, like, delight with new pens and stuff. But I can't think of, like, something else. Like, I can't believe this. Maybe, like, the first time I used a Retro 51, maybe, because I've just never seen anything like that before. And it kind of opened my eyes up to there being a whole world of pens that could provide me with this kind of feeling. But I think the one that makes me grin from ear to ear is, right now, is the M90. Every time I use that thing, I just absolutely love it, which is why I've already blown through, I think, four cartridges since I got this thing. Which is, that's a lot more than usual for me. Like, the pilot cartridges, I've blown through four of them. So, that's a lot of use for me, you know. Yeah, I absolutely love that thing, and it makes me smile every time I use it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so I think the one pen that I rarely use these days that always makes me smile, is really anything TWSBI, especially the 580AL. That's interesting. That pen always makes me smile, and I never use it. But always, when I use it, I always have, like, the best experience with it.

Myke Hurley: You know, I know that's kind of out of left field, but that's when I was thinking about this question. It was like, you know, I don't have any definitive answers. I don't have, like, the complete surprise, kind of like you, but I think you will find that more in the vintage stuff that Justin's buying anyway.

Myke Hurley: But out of the modern stuff, like, I don't keep a TWSBI inked up on my desk, usually. And then when I go, when I get the urge to use one and ink it up, I always, always love it. It's just one of those things with me. I've always been a big TWSBI bandwagoner. Love the 580AL. Love that style. Love the shape and the feel of that pen. It's just an all-around good pen. All right, so we're going to wrap it up on this one. So this is from Lisa. She wants to know, what stationary-related items are for you and Myke in this category?

Myke Hurley: You experience replacing them with new and different items, but you find you have to return to them for daily use because they are unique or the best for you in fulfilling a particular role or doing a certain job. So she's saying she uses products. She loves them. She switches out to something else, but invariably goes back to that first product that she loves so much and loves it even more. So her products for that that she keeps going back to are the Hobonichi Weeks.

Myke Hurley: That's their smaller planner, I believe. The Notco Lookout. The Zebra Sarasa Clip. And the Tom Benz Synapse 19. I don't know if that's a backpack or a messenger. I didn't look it up. It says, Other things that I love have equivalents. I have some great fountain pens, but the most useful ones are replaced by others that write similarly. I have favorite inks, but none that I can't be without and use other ones instead. Rhodia notepads are great, but so are Apica notebooks, both similarly useful for work, etc. So I thought this was a super question, and I haven't thought about it in this manner. But I do find myself gravitating back to something that I've either filed away or cleaned out or, you know, a notebook I've put on the shelf. Is there anything that you can come up with that you have gone back to several times over? And at some point, it's just a permanent thing, right? At some point, you figure out, okay, this is the one. Is there anything you have like that?

Brad Dowdy: So I have two. But they're completely obvious. But I guess it should be because if you've been listening to this show, you will have helped me move away from these things, try new things, and then they're coming back. Field notes. I've tried so many other different types of notebook, and I love them. You know, I love other types of notebooks that I've tried. But I always end up back at field notes, like for the reasons that I loved them in the first place. Their pocketability, their excitement, and the way they make me feel when I use them. They make me happy to use, right? So I always end up back at field notes. I've tried other notebooks for things, just general note-taking stuff, and I've always loved them. But I always come back. And the other is Hiroshizuku Fuyugaki. I try other inks, and I love other inks. But Fuyugaki has been my number one ink for a long time. And when I get a new pen, I have to have in my mind a good reason to not put Fuyugaki in it.

Brad Dowdy: So I think they're the ones for me. And this is a great question. And it doesn't surprise me that my immediate answers for these two things are the obvious ones. Because that's how it is, right? But Retro 51 is one that probably people thought that I was going to bring up. But I never leave Retro 51. I never go away from them. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so mine is one of the newer purchases. And you're right. It is going to be a little bit more obvious than you would think. But the Pilot Custom 823, I learned pretty quickly that that pen is indispensable to me, just the way it feels and the way it writes. Whenever I've inked it up and used it all and cleaned it out and set it down to use something else, I come back to it so fast, like usually within days, just because I miss having it inked up. So that's one I know for a fact is just always going to be there no matter what. It just, I can't put it down. And when I do, I miss it. And the other thing, it's really two other things, and they're both kind of carrying things. One is the self-pimp Notco Brasstown, because the six pens plus the extra room to carry a few other things is always the right amount for me, it seems like. I've tried to cut down to three, but I always end up with like five or six. So, you know, I put the Brasstown away sometimes and try to go to a smaller case like Lookout or Sinclair. I always go back to the Brasstown. And I brought the same one I've had since the Kickstarter prototype days to DC. You know, it's the one I carry all the time. It's orange exterior and mango interior, which we only did like early in the beginning. And it still looks perfect, you know, like three years on. So I always go back to that case. And then the Doan Mountain Briefcase. Like I always go back to that bag. I'll flip into like a more traditional backpack sometimes, but I always end up going to the Doan Mountain Briefcase because it fits like how I carry things in that bag very well. So those are the things that I always come back to. Even if they're put away for a minute or longer, they always end up back in the rotation easily. And that's how you know they're good.

Brad Dowdy: You bet.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, that was a bunch of questions, man. We had a... Sorry, some of them was a little delayed. You know, we end up getting busy, you know, with our shows and, you know, having the DC pregame and the postgame. And so we finally got into an episode where we can load it up with some Ask TPA. But always keep those Ask TPA questions coming. We save them all and we try to get to as many as we can. So, Myke, won't you tell them how they can get us that and how they can get us otherwise?

Brad Dowdy: So you can tweet with the hashtag Ask TPA. That's how you can get those questions into our little document. If they're quick, if they're longer, you can send an email to Brad. Brad, what's the right email address for that? Hello at PINAC.com. So that's a good way to get the longer questions. If you have any follow-up as well, you can always get in touch with us over Twitter. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-N. Where did dowdyism come from, by the way?

Myke Hurley: I have no idea. It was just, it's like my longest running tag, like on the internet. When you go back and your name's not available, that one is the one that's always available. So it just kind of stuck. I mean, it's got to be...

Brad Dowdy: It's the same for imike for me, right? That's why it's here. I'm 11 years and counting on that.

Myke Hurley: I was going to say, this is well over 15 years, I'm sure, of that name being in existence, if not longer. And it's just one of those things that's always available. So it's dumb, but it's me now, and it's kind of stuck.

Brad Dowdy: And if you want to find us on Instagram, Brad is penaddict. I am imike, and our show notes for this week are relay.fm slash penaddict slash 218. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much to Penn Chalet, and of course, Squarespace for sponsoring this week's show. We will be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye.