The Pen Addict 119/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	119
Title:	Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
Release Date:	September 8th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	J. Robert Lennon
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 119
Audio File:	Audio Episode 119
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 119
Length:	6969 min <br />1.15 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

lynda.com

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 119 of The Pen Addict on RelayFM. This episode is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts for a free trial. Visit lynda.com slash penaddict. It's also sponsored by Studio Neat, makers of the Glyph, the Cosmonaut, and the Neat Ice Kit, and our friends at Igloo, an intranet you'll actually like. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined, as I always am, by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, man. How are you, sir? I am very well. How are you? Good, good. I really like how you did the advertisers at the beginning. That was really original of you. That was a good job.

Myke Hurley: I have absolutely nothing to say about that.

Brad Dowdy: I thought that was excellent, Myke. Good job. Thank you. Good job by you. Thanks, Brad. You may have heard another little chuckle in the background. That is our friend, writer, author, musician, scholar, Mr. J. Robert Lennon, otherwise known as John. What's up, John? I don't think anyone's ever called me a scholar before. Well, you're a teacher, right? You do so much. Why don't you tell everyone what you do exactly? The list is too long. I couldn't fit it on the page.

J. Robert Lennon: What I do for a job is I teach writing at a college, which I like very much, but I like to think of myself mostly as a novelist, a fiction writer. And in order to make the fiction, I have to write, so I'm into pens and notebooks.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and I think that's how you and I first kind of came together on Twitter. I don't even remember the first conversation we had, but it was probably a year, year and a half ago, something like that. And I don't know. We just kind of crossed each other's paths, and I pretty much fell in Twitter love with you and follow every word you say hilariously. I don't know. You're one of my favorite follows and one of my favorite people to follow online, so I'm really, really excited that you joined us today. So thank you very much.

J. Robert Lennon: Thank you, too. Likewise, with both you guys, I enjoy your Twitter manifestations very much. And I think what happened was last year, a couple of new pens came into my life. I've been sort of dormant with my preoccupation with pens and notebooks, and I started Googling about them and realized this whole pen and office supplies community had kind of sprung up when I wasn't paying attention. And then I found you guys, and I already knew Myke's podcast, so I started listening, and I thought, oh, man, I'm never going to even get through this hour of a couple of guys talking about pens. Pretty soon, I was, like, downloading dozens of back issues.

Myke Hurley: That's how it gets everyone, so try not to feel too bad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's the truth. I mean, people don't – I mean, even we don't understand, like, how it happened at first. We're like – especially me. I was pretty down on it. I was like, there's no way this is going to work. And then, I don't know, people listen, so we'll take it.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah, well, I'm delighted to be on my favorite podcast. This is great.

Brad Dowdy: We're excited to have you, and we're going to talk about all the things that you're into definitely as we go through this episode. We do have a couple of bits of follow-up, and Myke, Myke, Myke, Myke. See, this is why I can never do topic moratoriums, because as much as I don't want to talk about the scribble, we have to. Because, once again, the funding platform that they chose this time, Tilt, has seen fit to shut the project down. So, I don't know if we need, like, a cheer soundtrack, soundboard in the background.

Myke Hurley: I don't have a cheer to hand. Yeah.

Scribble

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't really make me happy. I mean, there's no cheering that should be done for this. I mean, it's just, Scribble continues to dig their own grave. I mean, that's the best thing I can say about this. It's, the onus is completely on Scribble, and they continually fail. And this time, Tilt has shut them down, refunding everyone's money. It's still amazing, though, how many people just chime in and say, you know, oh, I can't believe it failed again. This is, like, my dream pen, and I was like, I wish, can I talk some sense into you just for a minute? And so, yeah, we wanted to bring that up. But, John, how many scribbles did you have pre-ordered?

J. Robert Lennon: Man, I had sold one of our many sports cars to Ford. No, I was disappointed because, you know, I think, like a lot of people, I want it to be real. You know, it seems like a technologically fascinating idea. It would be great if they could make it happen, even if it was in a, you know, as embryonic a stage as it seemed to have been. If they had just sort of been above board and honest about the status of the project, people would have gotten behind them and been really into helping them. But it just seemed so BSE all along.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's exactly right. And, you know, it's not, I'm not happy to keep talking about this and happy to keep talking about how bad of a job they've done. And I would rather them be hugely successful and have a great product. And we can talk about that. But when they just continually shoot themselves in the foot, it's just, it's disappointing. And it's kind of a, it's a definite black eye on them as a company. So they're taking their project private, whatever that means. So hopefully we won't hear from them again for quite a while, but I'm sure some, some magic will happen and it will live once again, rise from the ashes. So yeah.

Myke Hurley: So they're saying that they're going to try and do like private funding. I mean, I'm really interested to find out if they get any of that. Cause I mean, if I'm going to be putting my own cash into this to fund a company, I'm going to kind of want to see a working prototype. And it's like this interesting thing again, right? They're like, we don't know why this happened, but tilt was like, we just, we said to them, show us a video or we'll come and see it. But like, just give us the product to look at. And they're like, nobody asked us anything.

J. Robert Lennon: But we gave you this photograph of us poking an orange with a tube. That means what do you want?

Myke Hurley: I mean, you remember if anybody listening from last week will remember that we said in the blog comments on Dropkicker, who had another great write up about this, there was someone from tilt who said, we're looking into this. And then less than a week later, they're like, nah, not happening.

Brad Dowdy: Not happening at all. So anyway, so we'll, we'll stick a fork in that at least for now. And who knows though, they'll have some pretend backing here before too long, I'm sure. And we'll have to ramble on about it again. So making almost as many consecutive podcast episode mentions as the scribble is this amazing italifying. Nib grind that Myke is lusting over. So Dan Foster was who sent it out to us. Originally when we were talking about perfect pairings. And then I brought it up back last week because I'd made a mistake in talking about it. Well, now Dan has gone and done a wonderful blog post on this italifying nib. And Myke, have you seen the closeup of the nib grind? It is pretty fascinating.

Myke Hurley: No, let me go and look at this.

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to have all this in the show notes. We'll have a link to Dan Foster's blog where he did a review of his italifying pilot vanishing point. I was pretty, I mean, I think it's an amazing look and style. I didn't think it was for me. But when I look at what his nib actually looks like, it's rather impressive.

J. Robert Lennon: I'm looking at it now. It's quite, it's quite lovely. It looks like they, would they have started with a broad and then just sort of ground it down to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And when I read Richard Bender's kind of evolution of this nib, he talks about how there's a specific order. He has to grind the tipping on the nib to get it to come out this way. And yeah, I imagine it would start out with something like a broad.

Brad Dowdy: It's.

Myke Hurley: In theory, it makes sense. It's a broad, right? Because then you've got the most space to work with. Right. Right. Like this is awesome looking.

Brad Dowdy: Like I didn't think it would look this good. Like this, not this good, but like this legitimate. I thought it would be kind of janky and not necessarily useful. Like you can turn a lot of fountain pens over and write, but you know, they're not that great. This looks like a legitimate two nib system. It's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it's like, yeah, it's kind of stretches out, but like the read is kind of thinner on one. Like it's sort of angled to the other side, isn't it? Mm-hmm. It's very, very peculiar. I'd like to see more photos of it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Dan, thanks for doing this post. Yeah. And we really appreciate it getting some more info. And it was definitely a good learning experience, which is one of the most awesome things about doing this blog and writing a podcast like this. You learn about things that you didn't think were possible at all. And you see something like this and you're like kind of jaw dropping.

Brad Dowdy: So whereas that wasn't on my radar before, I got to admit, that's not going to happen for me anytime soon. But I'm not opposed to getting that one year if Richard Bender still actually does it. Who knows?

Kickstarter

Brad Dowdy: On the Kickstarter front, I got several tweets to me about a new project that launched called the Takumi pin.

Myke Hurley: I saw this too. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's, they tout it as the first length adjustable pin in the world. And I'm not crazy about that terminology because they don't go on to explain it very well. I had to read it several times to understand what they mean. But basically, the tip area of the pin is actually adjustable. Like it can screw in and out from like a 5mm length to a 15mm length, I believe is what the measurements were.

Brad Dowdy: It's an interesting idea that gives it the ability to fit a wide range of refills because they can go longer and shorter. Or also with, you know, you're going to have to have some spacers and some backing up in the barrel, which is fine. But it gives you a decent range of refills to write with. They actually emailed me right after the project launched.

Brad Dowdy: And I said, yeah, the pin looks good. And I've gone ahead and backed it. I backed just one of the standard ones. I thought the color ones were a little bit expensive. Because I'm not totally crazy about the pin. I don't really love the clip. But they emailed me and said, hey, you know, would you, are you interested in checking out this pin? And I said, yeah, do you have any review samples? And that was like a week later and I've never heard back from them. So, I don't know. I mean, the pin looks fine. It's not a knock my socks off type of pin. But I wanted to go ahead and back it just to kind of see how this adjustableness works.

Myke Hurley: I don't get it, man. I don't understand it. I've been honest, I don't even know why you backed it. Like, what's so... Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I just want to see how this... So, if you go down... God, about halfway down the page, there's an image that shows three tips. There's a... And it says, first adjustable pin worldwide. And it says, 5 to 15 millimeter head adjustment capability. And you can see how it expands from longer to shorter in that range. So, we'll see. I'm not like super hype about this pin. It seems like just a pin. And I don't know. Maybe I'll end up backing off of it at the end. But, you know, 45 bucks. I'll give it a shot and just see. I had a few people asking about it. I'm trying to get a review sample, but they haven't really... They haven't gotten back to me on it. So, that would be nice to see.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you should have... You should have waited to back it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, you backed it.

Myke Hurley: Why give you the review sample? They got you hard-earned cash. They got your space credits, buddy.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. They don't know that I backed it, so... But, yes, my space credits are in their virtual wallets now.

Myke Hurley: Do they not know? I mean, you must know. Do you not find out... Surely you find out the names of the people that are backed?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you do. You do. So, they probably... But I don't know if they put two and two together. I mean, they have... I have a plethora of backers so far. I mean, it's already met its goal. Like at 22 grand, something like that. 22 grand. I already closed it.

Myke Hurley: For a goal of 7,000 is not a lot.

Brad Dowdy: No, it's a pretty simple pen other than the screw tip thing. Thingy. So, who knows? It's okay. It's nothing stunning. So, we'll see. I may even drop out because it doesn't thrill me. But we'll see. I might keep it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, we got a couple more follow-up items before we get to John. But I think we want to get to our first sponsor of the day, which I'm pretty excited about, Myke.

Lynda.com

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a good idea to me, Mr. Dowdy. Our first sponsor today is Lynda.com, who are an easy and affordable way to help individuals and organizations learn. You can instantly stream thousands of courses created by experts on software, web development, graphic design, and so much more. Lynda.com works directly with experts in their respective fields. They make sure that they're working with individuals and software companies themselves. So, they're making sure they've got awesome content that is created by people that have a true passion for things like photography, web development, app design, that sort of stuff. And they also work directly with software companies as well to make sure that they're getting timely training up about specific products, like Creative Cloud, for example, on the same day as new versions or releases hit the market. So, you're always up to speed with new stuff. All of their courses are produced at the highest quality. They're not like homemade videos that somebody's using from their iPhone to record their MacBook screen. These people are in professional studios. They have professional equipment all around them, and it just shows just how professional they really are. They have fantastic tools that include searchable transcripts, playlist creation, and you can even have certificates of course completion, which you can publish to your LinkedIn profile if that's what you want. They have mobile apps so you can learn on the go. So, maybe you want to be on the train and learning how to develop an application, or maybe you're on the train and you want to learn how to use Photoshop or something like that, where you can watch these videos on your iPhone, your iPad, or your Android device. So, you can do what I've done, where when I've been watching some of the tutorials about Logic Pro to help me with podcast editing. I'll watch the video on my iPad and be actually working in Logic along and sort of going along with the course instructor. I think that's a really cool way of doing it. Whether you're a beginner or advanced, Lynda.com has courses for all experience levels. They have one low monthly price of $25 that gives you unlimited access to over 100,000 tutorials on topics including development, software design, 3D and animation. Maybe you want to learn audio. Maybe you want to learn some business skills. They have stuff on writing as well. Basically everything. With over 100,000 video tutorials, you're bound to find something that you are interested in. But don't just take my word for it. Go try it out for yourself. We've worked with Lynda on a deal for listeners of The Pen Addict to get special access to all of their courses for free for seven days. Visit Lynda.com slash Pen Addict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash Pen Addict to find out more. And you will find all of the links to that in the show notes for today. Richard at Relay.FM slash Pen Addict slash 119.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. I'm going to have to use that code. And I think my wife would actually enjoy it because they have a lot of the photography, a lot of the Adobe Suite stuff. And she's getting into that. So I think this is a perfect thing to check out and see if that's something she's interested in because I think that would be a really good fit.

J. Robert Lennon: But I've actually used a few of their photography tutorials. The college I work at has a subscription so I can look at all that stuff. And it's incredibly good. Well made and useful. Thank you, sir. That's awesome.

Ink Bottles

Myke Hurley: It says Lynda.com slash Pen Addict. I feel like I didn't say that clearly enough.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I got a really cool email that just cracked me up this week. It's from Alice. And this is her email. She says, So she has a little aside there. She says, It happens, all right. Don't judge. I think this term can also apply to the acquisition of fountain pen ink. Do you feel like you have more ink than you will ever use in your lifetime? Have you reached sable? I have absolutely. My ink drawer or shelf is definitely sable. Stash acquisition beyond life expectancy. That's an amazing term for this. How about you, John? Are you an ink hoarder?

J. Robert Lennon: Well, the point of this is not so that you use your last drop of ink the day you die. It's so that every day you can choose something different if you like. That's right. With that in mind, there's really no limit to the number of bottles of ink you can have. I just recently discovered I was off for the summer from school. And then I just went back and started teaching again last week. And suddenly realized when I returned to my office that I could have some pens and ink at work, too. And so now there's twice as much space as there was just a few weeks ago. So I'm nowhere near sable now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think. And I know, Myke, you're way more under control than I am.

Myke Hurley: I don't know. I have like three bottles. And I already think I've got more than I'm ever going to need.

Brad Dowdy: Three bottles.

Myke Hurley: I feel like I've not even taken a dent out of any of them.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I bet you I have 30 if I have one. So it's definitely out of hand. But like John says, you know, sometimes I want something different. Or what if they stop selling my favorite ink, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Oh, imagine. Imagine the problems. Why would anyone that makes something that you like stop selling it? That doesn't seem right.

Brad Dowdy: I do it all the time. Sailor, just stop making that sky high. Sailor doesn't think about what I care. Sailor doesn't think about what I think about their inks. They don't care.

J. Robert Lennon: You know, I actually have a practical excuse for having a lot of ink, which is it's kind of nice when I'm flipping through my notebook to see that, you know, if I wrote things on a particular day, it will all be in one color. And then the different days are in different colors. So as I fan back through it, I know how many days I'm going through.

Brad Dowdy: That's a great idea. And I saw that kind of in one of your posts. We're definitely going to talk about how you go through, you know, some of your writing on a day-to-day basis because I found it really, really interesting. But we'll have to see if anyone else in the chat room or any other listeners have reached Sable because I definitely have. I mean, I've got a legitimate problem. And, you know, I'm going to have to will out some of this.

Myke Hurley: Step one, my friend. Step one is admitting the problem.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. I know. So a couple other quick things.

Brad Dowdy: XOXO Fest is this week.

Myke Hurley: Okay, moving on.

Brad Dowdy: Are you going to be there, Myke? We should meet up. No? You're not going to be there? Okay.

J. Robert Lennon: Are there going to be special field notes that you're going to share with all of your co-hosts and guests?

Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: According to my inbox, yes. Yeah. Because people keep pinging me. Hey, will you pick me up? I bet they do. You need to. Will you pick me up some XOXO field notes? Will you pick me up some XOXO field notes? And, you know, I'm happy for all these people to reach out to me. But I've told them that there's no way. I don't even know what's going to be available. And if I can promise anything to anybody, I don't know what I'm going to be able to get. Who knows what's even going to be there. So I apologize to everyone who's emailed me asking me to pick them up some field notes. I just told them that I don't know. But if I come home with extras, I will let everyone know. And maybe we'll figure out a way to dish some of them out.

Myke Hurley: We can maybe give some away.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So that'd be good. I hope to get a bunch, but you just never know. But a couple of listeners have reached out to me that wanted to meet up in Portland. The XOXO schedule is so filled up. I'm not going to do, like, any dedicated, like, pen addict meetup or anything. But if you're going to be in Portland or if you live in Portland and aren't even going to XOXO, definitely email me, tweet me something, and let's meet up while I'm there. There's going to be a bunch of other people I'm already meeting with. But it's going to be super fun, and I'm excited. I'm so sad. I'm so sad that I'm not going to be there. I know. And I get to meet our friends finally in person, Mr. Sean Blanc. Mr. Matt Alexander, Mr. Ben Brooks, maybe Mr. John Gruber, some of these other people that I'm looking forward to meet. Hopefully, Aaron Draplin is manning the DDC table for his field notes, because I would like to get him to sign my Butcher Orange field notes, but we'll see.

Myke Hurley: Mmm. What a great idea. Yeah. Do you reckon he'll, like, punch you in the face when he sees you've used it? Nah.

Brad Dowdy: I think, number one, if he did punch me in the face, I think my time at XOXO will be done, because I will be hospitalized.

Myke Hurley: He's a big guy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I wouldn't be surprised if he's very surprised at it, very shocked, and then congratulates you. You know? And then told you how much money it's worth, in case you don't already know.

Brad Dowdy: I think he would be all for it. Yeah. He's got to be all for it. So, anyway, I just wanted to get one last mention of that in, and I guess we'll talk about it when I get back in a couple weeks. Nah. Nah, I won't do that. We'll taunt you about it.

Myke Hurley: Nah, you can talk about it, but it won't be with me. Ha!

Brad Dowdy: I'll send you pictures. Thanks, buddy. While I'm there. Uh-huh. No problem. No problem. So, our pin blog of the week this week is a brand new blog by the Enabler himself. I can't believe he finally did it. He's told me he's going to make a blog for about a year now. I didn't know this had happened. My good friend Thomas Hall is now a blogger. Wow. Penucopia.com is his blog. He's going to be making posts as time permits, but he has started off with a bang. He has...

J. Robert Lennon: This is a killer post, by the way. This is my favorite pen post of the week from your ink links.

Brad Dowdy: It's totally amazing. He... Thomas is so... His passion is contagious. I know. And when he was getting this designed, my inbox was full every day. I'd get like five emails from him. You know, with him and Brian Gray from Edison Pens trading designs back and forth. He'd show me the... Brian was photographing the pen in progress and sending it to Thomas, and Thomas was sending it to me saying, check this out. Look how it's turning out. Look at it. Look, you know, I got... I've seen this pen. He has not sent it to me to try yet. Maybe one of these years. But yeah, even in the post, he says, I started the discussion with Brian in March of 2013. So this was... This pen's been a long time coming, and him and Brian worked hard on it. And Brian's actually making these now. It ended up being a good enough design to where he will make someone... Make it for someone if they're interested in getting this double-ended pen. But he goes through... Thomas does a great job explaining everything that him and Brian went through to get this pen to work. All the design iterations. And you can see all the pens from Brian that he sent as they went through the process. And the end result, I thought, turned out pretty amazing. One of the last pictures in there, he's got it inked up with two different inks. And it's just kind of jaw-dropping how this pen looks. So congratulations to Thomas for getting his blog started. And you have all been warned to watch your wallets. Because he has...

Myke Hurley: He's made me spend so much money. He's cost me a lot of money. He just sends me these emails. He's like, oh, have you seen this? And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. I found this rare material. Would you like to buy a rod of it? Yeah, sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Speaking of which, I still got to get on that. So, yeah. But Myke and I have teased that a long time ago. And we've got to get on that.

Myke Hurley: I got so close. But I haven't been able to pull the money together into getting it made. Yep. Maybe next month.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's like the worst tease. But yeah, I'm going to work on mine too. But once I get it in progress, I'll spill the beans on it. But yeah, we'll have to wait a little bit longer. So, yeah. Congratulations, Thomas. And if all of his posts are like this, we're all going to be amazed and broke at the same time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It kind of happens. So, yeah. I don't know that I would own a Nakaya if it wasn't for him. So, he's cost me a pretty penny.

Myke Hurley: Well, I wouldn't own a Pelican if it wasn't for him because he bought me one.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. You know? That's true. It's pretty awesome. Great guy.

Myke Hurley: Great guy. Go check out his blog.

Brad Dowdy: Please do.

Myke Hurley: So, our second sponsor for this week's episode is actually a couple of guys that Brad might be hanging out with whilst... Well, we'll be actually hanging out with at XOXO.

Brad Dowdy: I hope so.

Myke Hurley: You will be. I can tell you that. They're the awesome guys over at Studio Neat. And today, I want to tell you about one of their products that I think pen addicts are going to love. It's one we've spoken about before and it's called the Cosmonaut. Now, the Cosmonaut is a wide-grip stylus that focuses on feel. And oh boy, does it exceed on that promise. Now, I want to get real here for a moment, guys. No matter how much we all try, we know that using a stylus on a tablet is nothing like the feeling of writing on a pen and paper that we love so much. So, the question that I want to ask is, why do all styluses, or styli, however we want to say it, why do they all try and mimic the design of a pen? Well, when Studio Neat set out to design their own stylus, the Cosmonaut, they discovered that the performance of using a stylus on a tablet was actually more like using a marker on a whiteboard. So, that's what they decided to model the Cosmonaut on. The result of their product research and development has ended in a wide-grip stylus with a firm tip and rubberized body. The first thing you notice when you pick up the Cosmonaut is that it feels great. It's made from quality materials, it's well-balanced and a pleasure to hold. The outside is made of a grippy rubber, which is also waterproof and feels awesome to hold. And the middle is made of solid aluminium, or aluminum, from my American friends. This gives the pen a real good weight, let's say a pen, the stylus, it gives a real good weight, and it makes it feel like a quality product, because it is a quality product. Next up is the tip. Studio Neat spent over six months fiddling with the design and material of the tip. If it isn't, it is not too squishy, so it doesn't feel like you're out of control, but it's firm enough that it gives you more control and gives you accuracy over your lines. It's a good balance that they've made there. A nice side benefit to the Cosmonaut's thick design is that it's also great for kids and those with mobility issues. The Cosmonaut supports being gripped in many different ways by many differently sized hands, and is comfortable while doing so thanks to the rubberized exterior. I love my Cosmonaut. I bought one as soon as it went on sale, and I've taken great joy in using it. It's a really unique thing that I love that I have. But look, this isn't all about function. The Cosmonaut is minimal and refined. It kind of looks like a Soviet-era rocket, hence the name. It's all matte black with an aluminium accent on the end that matches your iPad. Simply put, the Cosmonaut is badass. Now, we've got an awesome deal for listeners of The Pen Addict. Head over to studioneat.com and enter the promo code THEPENADDICT, all one word. This is going to get you 10% off anything that you buy at Studio Neat. So not only The Cosmonaut, they also have a bunch of awesome products like The Glyph, The Neat Ice Kits, and so much more. We're talking about all of these over the next couple of weeks on RelayFM. So go find out more about them right now and buy them all. I want to thank Studio Neat for their support of The Pen Addict and RelayFM and for being super cool guys.

Brad Dowdy: I love my Cosmonaut. My whole family loves the Cosmonaut. I mean, there's actually fights over it. There's like APBs if someone loses it or misplaces it to where, you know, everyone's on their hands and knees searching for it under the couch or flipping cushions off the chairs or something like that. And I remember when I moved, I moved about two years ago, moved houses, and I lost my first Cosmonaut during the move somehow. It never reappeared and then ended up having to order a new one. And it was like while it wasn't around, it was like the worst feeling ever. Everyone loves the Cosmonaut. So it's an awesome product. I honestly, I didn't think it would work well for me. I thought it was going to be too wide. But it's got a really, I guess it's got a really fine range when you're actually using it. It can hit like really, really fine points on your iPad or phone. I don't use it on the phone, but on the iPad, it's fantastic. And I always have it with me.

J. Robert Lennon: It's the Montblanc 149 of styli.

Brad Dowdy: It's seriously, seriously good. I've never used another stylus that was even remotely close to that. So it's a great product.

Myke Hurley: I can't. It's true to the ability that the iPad has for the detection of tip. It doesn't pretend to be something that it's not.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly.

Guest Introduction

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. It's great. It's great. So I think we should talk a little bit more to our guests, Mr. John Robert Lennon. What do you think, Michael?

Myke Hurley: Hello, Mr. Lennon.

J. Robert Lennon: Hey, guys. Thanks again for inviting me on.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, we're really, really happy to have you. And thanks for putting up with our follow-up and news nonsense, which we have fun with. So there's always good stuff to talk about.

J. Robert Lennon: It's fine. And I have to say, I'm kind of grappling with a sudden disappointment. I'm feeling that there's not going to be a new episode for me to listen to just as a spectator this week. Because I already know what is on it because I'm listening to it right now.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. So let me ask you. You have a podcast of your own. It's called the Lunchbox Podcast with Ed. What's Ed's last name? I'm blanking. Skoog. Ed Skoog. Skoog. Ed Skoog. I really enjoy that podcast. Oh, thanks. Y'all always talk. I mean, both of y'all are writers. And so y'all talk a lot about that. But y'all talk a lot about life stuff. You have great anecdotes, great stories. And it's just a really fun listen. And I have enjoyed it. I probably only picked it up probably 10 or 15 episodes. But it's one I don't miss now. I really enjoy y'all's conversation. So I was going to ask you, do you go back and listen to your episodes?

J. Robert Lennon: I have not. I've occasionally just, I'll listen to one to make sure that the technical problems of producing it have been solved. And sometimes they're not, I'm afraid. But that actually started because Ed and I, we've known each other for a couple of decades. And back when we were first getting to know each other, we would have a weekly lunch date and we would just talk. You know, I had a wide ranging conversation over lunch about books and what we were eating and other stuff. And we used to joke around that we should have a radio show called Lunchbox where we just talk and eat lunch. And then, you know, a few years ago we were talking and I was like, you know what? That's a thing you can do now. You can just have a radio show. Apparently. Yeah. But no, I don't listen to it. I just, I cringe hearing the sound of my own voice. Oh, I think you sound great. Oh, thank you. No, I don't think I sound terrible. It's just like, I'm sure you know what it's like. It's like you listen to yourself. When you're talking, you're just talking. You're talking off the top of your head. It feels natural. And then you hear yourself stuttering and saying, um, and uh, and I think I've gotten better at that as I have continued to do podcasts and do public speaking. But, um, uh, it can be kind of vexing to listen to, you know, I'm just saying to, you're saying to yourself, come on, come on, finish that sentence.

Brad Dowdy: I know it is tough. And probably for the first 20 episodes of the pen and I podcast, I didn't go back and listen to myself, but now I'd listened to it once, but not with like a super critical ear because I know I'm not that great at just like, you know, I know I stumble over my words. I know I ramble a lot. So, you know, I, I try to, I cut myself some slack and, uh, just try to listen to it for the content and see if, you know, there's something I can do better as far as that goes, because I know technically I'm never going to be great, but let's, let's get into the writing in the pen stuff and all that great stuff about why we're having you on. And I want to kick it off with, and it's, it'll be kind of the, uh, the impetus for the rest of this episode, but you did an article for our friend, Patrick Rohn at the cramped called always open to the possibility of writing. Can you, can you take a minute, tell us how that came up and, you know, kind of what the, the nuts and bolts of that article is for our listeners, because I thought it was really, really good and had some good points.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. Well, I, I've always been a fan of, uh, of Patrick's more, uh, better known site, minimal Mac because I, I've always liked computers and digital technology of various kinds. And I, I'm kind of a, um, process nerd, you know, kind of a workflow nerd. And, uh, I liked the fact that that website was always about sort of using tools in an efficient way. And when I saw on Twitter that Patrick was starting a, um, you know, a pen and notebook and analog writing blog, uh, I got really excited and wrote to him and asked if I could write something because there's really not any venue out there that's terribly interested in, you know, people are interested in, um, people who read fiction, for instance, are always interested to hear someone talk about writing fiction, but those people don't necessarily want to hear like what brand of notebook you're using or like what word processor you're typing it into when you're done. Um, so writing on that gave me the opportunity to sort of geek out about my writing process, which has changed this year. I, you know, I've always liked pens and pencils and, uh, but for a long time, about a decade before this year, I mostly did my fiction writing on, um, I would take notes with a pen and pencil often, but, uh, pen, uh, pen and notebook. Uh, but I, I would do my writing on a laptop simply because it was efficient and I'm impatient. Um, but this year I was kind of, I kind of had a bit of writer's block and, um, you know, when I go to, and I'm sure this is the case with you guys too, you use computers when you go to work, when you're doing your not creative work or you're not passion work, you know, not say I'm not passionate about teaching, but it's like, I wanted to separate the stuff I do at the office from the stuff that I do, um, at home and what I'm trying to write. So, uh, I picked up notebooks and pens again, and thanks to you guys, I picked up far more of them than I expected I would. Um, and, and, and I've taken to like, you know, right. No, it's good. It's been, it's been a great pleasure because I have a couple of other friends here locally where I live who are also, uh, into pens and notebooks and we compare, you know, tools and I've been writing in coffee shops with my wife and with some friends of mine. And it's kind of like, uh, when you're sitting there working, you know, across a table from somebody, if they're scribbling away, you know, and unlike on a laptop where you can conceal what you're doing, you know, you might, you might just be posting on Facebook or you might be writing a novel. Um, you really can't fake it. Uh, well, you could fake it, I guess, but it's harder to fake it when you're writing in a notebook. So there's a little bit of peer pressure to get a little bit done. And the environment of getting things done is, um, is positive. So anyway, I, I went in this piece all the way back to the beginning of my writing days when I would, as a child, would write in a manual typewriter in my parents' basement. And then, uh, eventually graduated to a primitive word processor and, uh, kind of talked these days about how I combine, um, analog and digital stuff to do what I do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that, uh, it was, uh, a really great post. And I wanted, I was definitely going to mention how you've made that transition. Well, not transition. You made it a concerted effort to use pen and paper to write, I guess in this past year, like so you, I'm sure you haven't cut out the computer completely, but really all your novel work. And, you know, you're, you're quite prolific. I mean, I'm looking back through all your stuff. I mean, I don't know how someone like you can have writer's block when you're coming out with, I don't know, it seems like, I don't know, a book a year plus some other stuff, you know, plus, uh, you know, writing for, you know, uh, other places. It, it, writers who put out that much content always amaze me like how your, your brain works, but do, do you think this focus on writing with pen and paper really kind of got you out of that rut you were talking about? Yeah.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. And I don't mean to, you know, I think people who really have writer's block who, you know, have, have spent 10 years struggling to write even a page are probably screaming in their heads at me right now. Cause I don't have writer's block in the sense that, um, you know, I can't get anything done, but I did feel that my work had become kind of lackluster and that I was kind of just going through the motions. And I think the change in writing tech kind of, uh, made me take a step back and remember what the basics of it are and what, what it's all about, if that makes any sense. So I still, you know, um, I've been doing first drafts of things in my notebook, but I have been typing them usually at the end of the same day into, uh, uh, you know, a word processor file, um, in part because I want to, you know, I want to be able to back it up cause I'm a little obsessed about losing data or losing my notebook and everything in it. Um, but in part also because it's like an extra draft, you know, the, uh, the process of taking the stuff from the notebook and sticking it in the computer is a form of rewriting. So by the time it gets onto the screen, it's a little bit more polished and a little bit more organized. And it's kind of nice to have that.

Writing Tools

Brad Dowdy: So let's talk about the actual writing tools you're using. What's, what's the current setup right now? And then I want to talk about some of the other, some of the other products you've, you've talked about on your, on your blog, litterambivalence.tumblr.com. So we'll have that link in the show notes too, for, for everyone to check out. Um, I'll, you do a bunch of, you know, regular, you know, writing and commentary on there. And then you also do some, um, pen and paper reviews. So what's, what's the current setup that's, uh, is working for you best right now?

J. Robert Lennon: Well, I usually, um, just for taking notes, I usually have a field notes in my satchel or in my pocket and I often carry around a, um, an AL Sport, a Kaweco AL Sport. Um, and I, I, I, this is something I hope we'll talk about later, but I keep, I have the, I think you have one too, the AL Sport Raw and I keep it in my pocket and I make sure it's in the same pocket as the keys and change so that it gets scratched up. Cause I, cause I think it's made to be scratched up. Yes. Um, so yeah, if I get any ideas, I'll usually write them down in a small notebook, but when I sort of sit down to do a session of working on fiction, I use the Nanami Seven Seas Writer, which I, which I wrote about, um, on, uh, on the blog. Uh, and, uh, and it's a, it's, you know, that paper, that Tomoe River paper is super smooth, but it's also super thin. So, uh, it's taking a long time to fill up a notebook, but you know, it's actually, it's so thin that it's actually getting visibly thicker as I put more in it, you know, and the pages are getting kind of crumbly and they, you can kind of see through them. You really feel like there's a big old chunk of writing in there. There's like, you know, eight months of writing in there right now. And it's kind of feels good to pick it up and know all that is, is behind me, you know? Um, and so I'll either work on something in my office at work or at a coffee shop or here in my, um, office or studio at home. Um, and, uh, then at the end of the day, I'll, uh, I'll type it into a, you know, a Mac book, I guess like just about everybody else.

Brad Dowdy: So you, you mentioned this earlier in looking at your, your seven C's notebook review, you can tell through your pages that each writing session, I guess, is a different color ink. So you do that on purpose, right? There's a, there's a, uh, a method to the madness, if you will.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. I mean, it's mostly, I just like, uh, I like a little bit of variety in my life. So usually every few weeks I'll, you know, have a, um, I'll have a, you know, a pen, a roll up pen case. Oh, by the way, I've been trying to buy a high tower from you guys and they're always out of stock. So I finally bought a Sassafras and it came today and it's really nice. So, Oh, cool. Here's a, I just want to plump for the not co-sass.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, thanks. I, I appreciate that. And we're working on those stock levels. We've even hired a new person and we're just, we're, we're happy to be that busy, but we know some people are frustrated with our stock levels. So we're working on that promise.

J. Robert Lennon: No, well, it's, I think it's awesome that you're selling out. That's, that's a good thing.

Myke Hurley: Oh, our store is just so in demand.

Brad Dowdy: I wish it was, I wish it was that dramatic, but it's not.

J. Robert Lennon: Guys, you, you have no idea what a burden it is to be so pretty. If you guys need to stop buying from us.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I feel bad because I want, I want people to be able to get the cases they want when they want. But I also understand from the business perspective, like where we're at right now in, in our, uh, hopefully long and illustrious future, we still have a ways to go. So we're working on that.

Myke Hurley: That Jeff needs to just make stuff quicker.

Brad Dowdy: Dude, he is so good. I can't even, I feel really bad for Jeff because he, he just, he kills it. And, um, I love that guy. He is so awesome. So yeah. Anyway, well, thank you. Thank you, John, for, uh, for saying that. I appreciate that. So, so what, what do you, what are you filling up your, your pen cases with? Like what?

J. Robert Lennon: Well, that's what I was, I was, I was, I was sure that you were going to get to that question. So I'm prepared to answer it. But, uh, for the most part, every few weeks I'll, I'll refill six, seven, eight pens, and I'll just use a different one every day. So the ones I'm really digging lately are, I'm really into medium italic nibs at the moment. So, uh, the, the Masuyama nib that, um, Franklin Kristoff sells with some of their pens. I have a couple of their pens that have that nib on them. It's so good. And, um, oh yeah, it's wonderful. And those, their pens feel really great. I thought they would be too large for me. Um, I don't have the, what's the big one that you got from Myke? Big one we have is the 19. I don't have that one yet. I have the three and the 42, not the pocket one, but the longer one. They need to get better with their naming.

J. Robert Lennon: The seven, the 2.6, the 12.94. Yep. It's, it's hard.

J. Robert Lennon: I, it's sort of in the, it's sort of in that Mont Blanc tradition, you know, of just attaching numbers to things and, and, uh, and hoping the prestige will, will carry it through. But I think, you know, all things considered, it is, I think everything I've seen of theirs is wonderful. So, um, I've got a, uh, a vanishing point with a Richard Binder media metallic nib on it, uh, which I like. So that's usually in the case. Um, Myke, because of your enthusiasm, uh, last year for the 540 ROC, I got the reissue of it when it came out and I'm really enjoying that. The Twisby, what's it called now? The RB 580 RB? Yes.

Myke Hurley: They, they never.

Brad Dowdy: It's either, it's either RB 580 or 580 RB. I can't remember.

Myke Hurley: They never came out with the, uh, USA edition, did they?

Brad Dowdy: No, not yet. It, it's on the way. There were some, some delays of some kind. I think it's a nib thing. I think, uh, nib stocks were running low, something like that. I can't remember now, but it's coming.

J. Robert Lennon: Uh, yeah, I like that one very much. And, uh, there's a, I got a Twisby micarta as well and, um, love that pen. Just, uh, the Twisby nibs, I've, no people have complained about them from time to time, but all the ones I've ever used have been super smooth. And so I love the nib. I think it's a medium on this pen. And it just, I think the micarta feels amazing. I got a clipless one, um, but it feels very organic. It's, it's totally unlike all the other pens I have. So, um. Yeah. So, so let's talk about this.

Brad Dowdy: You, you emailed me. Oh, sure. Oh no, go ahead. Go ahead. Finish up.

J. Robert Lennon: No, I usually, I usually keep a couple of roller balls. And there are two, um, just in case I, I need to do something like if I'm taking notes where I'm not writing consistently, I don't want it to dry out. I'll, I have a, um, you know, uh, uh, retro 51 tornado. One of the, one of the wooden ones.

Myke Hurley: Oh, John, we're like, we are like, like pen soulmates, me and you.

Myke Hurley: It's just like, it's just like everything. Oh, and also there's something we're going to, we're not going to talk about this just yet, but there's another thing that you have.

J. Robert Lennon: Oh yeah. Oh, definitely. Yeah. And I must say when we get to that, that was consciously doing something that you did, but I'll, we'll get to that. I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: But everything you're saying, like you basically, I'm like, yeah, no, they're great. But he's retro 51. And it's just like, right, that's it. Now I'm using mine again, Brad. Cause I flew, I flew on the weekend. So I swapped out cause I never fly with fountain pens. I know people tell me it's fine. I don't want to do it. Won't do it. No one can convince me. So I had my retro 51 in the Rotofod and I've been using it today. God, it just never gets old.

Brad Dowdy: I hear there's a, I hear there's another episode recording after this. And we're going to talk about some of that, uh, that scared of flying with fountain pens things. So, uh, stay tuned. We'll definitely hold that thought, but yeah, we're going to talk about all these things. We're going to, we're going to dig in. And I, this just came up this afternoon when I was, uh, emailing John back and forth and John, I hope it's okay. If I, uh, snip a little bit from the email you sent me, because I thought it's very, very pertinent to what we're talking about with the Twisby Micarta and the Kaweco AL Sport Raw particularly. So let me read this little, little snippet. Um, this is, this is from John for those who are not following my rambling. This says I bristle a little bit at the excessive care. People sometimes take with their writing gear. I like the notion that things are most beautiful must and stained and scratched up. I'm super crazy about the way bottled ink stains the Micarta section forever. Not many products make that kind of commitment to permanent, permanent evidence of use. You know, it might be interesting to broadly discuss which writing tools are designed to look their best after heavy use. I thought this is a great point. And this is a transition that I made probably in just in the past year, maybe a little bit more, but probably in the past year. I am super OCD anal about like cleanliness and neatness. Like everything in order. Like that's what took me so long to even buy my first fountain pen because I was like, oh, fountain pen ink. It's going to get everywhere. It's going to get on my hands. It's going to make a mess on my paper. It's going to smudge. It's going to be terrible. So once I got over that, you know, I get into this process of inking a fountain pen. I'm like, oh, let me get all my paper towels and my, you know, make sure everything's sanitized and clean over here so I can ink up a pen and, you know, not make a mess and get it everywhere and get it all over my hands. And now I'm like, every time I get ink on my hands from cleaning a fountain pen, I just smile a little bit and go, man, this is fun. This is, this is the way it should be. And I think those two pens that you mentioned are, you're exactly right about how the TWSBI micarta and the AL sport raw really get better with use.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah, I think they do. I mean, they're, they're a pleasure to write with right off the bat, but, but they, you know, literally the first time you dip the micarta, if you're, if you're refilling it, if you don't like, you know, refill the, the converter out, you know, without the nib unit, assuming you're dipping the nib unit into the, into the ink and you draw the ink in, it just immediately soaks into the section. So there's a, there's a stain there and it never, it never goes away. You can't get it out. And I really like that. It's a thing that, um, the, you know, the more you use it, the more it looks like you use it and there's no getting away from that.

Brad Dowdy: The same thing goes for the AL sport raw. Actually, when I, when I got that pen brand new and just started using it, it would just have a few scratches on it. I'm like, I don't get it. I don't really care for this pen. It's not looking really how I want it to look. And then I realized that you actually have to use it more and bang it up more and carry it around in your pocket more. And then it really starts looking good. Like this is a pen that doesn't look good when it's new, honestly. I mean, it looks great and sharp and, you know, all, you know, the mirror shine of the, of the raw finish looks good, but that's not what it's made for. It's made to be absolutely scratched to the hilt.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. And you know, I, I, of course appreciate a pen or any other item, in my case, a guitar or a car or something that has a beautiful finish to it, but, um, something that, that is working perfectly, but looks as though it has gotten a lot of use is a pleasurable site. It's like, it reminds you all the work that you did with it.

Brad Dowdy: I totally, totally agree with that. And that's a, that's a mental transition that I've only recently made. And I'm congratulations. Congratulations, man. I'm actually happier for it. Seriously. I mean, you don't, I've stopped worrying about, you know, getting a scratch on a pen, something like that.

J. Robert Lennon: You know, I had a student, um, a student having a conference in my office, uh, last week and, uh, she saw that I had, uh, some fountain pens and inks on the desk and she got interested and said, Oh wow, those are really cool. So you actually use those? And I was like, yeah. And she said, well, how do you, how do you keep from getting ink on your hands? And I said, you don't.

Brad Dowdy: And she's like, Oh yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. All right. So I want to get into, um, one of Myke's most favorite products in the world, but we got one last sponsor to get to, and I definitely want to get this in. So why don't you, uh, take it away, Mr. Hurley?

Myke Hurley: I can do. I want to take a quick moment to thank our friends over at Igloo for once again, sponsoring the pen addict. Igloo is an intranet you'll actually like. It's built with easy to use integrated apps like shared calendars, Twitter, like microblogs, file sharing, task management, and so much more. With Igloo, you can work better together with your coworkers. You're easily able to co-author documents, sharing status updates about who's got the next birthday in the office, if that's what you want to talk about, or what the cake is in the conference room or whose sandwich that is in the fridge, and manage your projects all in one place. When someone makes a change to an item in Igloo, notifications are sent in the way that you choose to you directly, and a complete version history is maintained, making sure that everyone is in sync. This keeps you connected and in touch with the things going on in the office, but also gives you protection in case Bob in Accounts accidentally deletes that GIF from your presentation. Just this past week, Gartner released their famed report, Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace, which just sounds incredible, and Igloo appears on this report for their sixth consecutive year alongside Microsoft, IBM, Google, and SAP. In a report that values the size of the vendor, in Gartner terms what's known as viability, Igloo is praised for their responsiveness and customer experience. This is an excerpt from that profile. Feedback from Igloo's reference customers was consistently positive. They praised the product, quick deployment, configuration, and customization, flexibility with self-service options for non-technical users, control over branding and information organization, and ease of use. They also praised the responsiveness of Igloo as an organization. Seriously guys, what more do you need? If your company has legacy internet built on SharePoint or old portal technology, you should be giving Igloo a try. Or maybe you just want to be connected in your small business. Well, you can do that too. Igloo is free to use of up to 10 people, and you can sign up right now at igloosoftware.com slash penaddict. Thank you so much to Igloo for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Igloo's tagline should be, SharePoint is horrible. They would do very well with that tagline. I don't know one person that uses SharePoint that actually enjoys it and says, oh, this is a great product.

Myke Hurley: Microsoft hates them.

Rokerfaden Toschenbegleiter

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, John, I've read a lot of your reviews, but I don't know that any of them broke the pen internet like your recent Rokerfaden Toschenbegleiter review. It was everywhere because it, I mean, let's face it, I mean, it was an awesome review. So, tell me what prompted the purchase of this, how you use it, why you use it, and kind of break it all down for us, and then we'll pick up Myke off the floor after he faints.

J. Robert Lennon: Well, naturally, I heard about it, I think, like most people in this community from your podcast, because Myke got his hands in one and talked about it on the pen addict. And it's, you know, I have had experiences in the past with like personal organizers, and I had a day runner when I was a graduate student. Oh, yeah. And I always, you know, I've always tried to keep an analog calendar and address book and everything, and I was never very good at it. And when the digital era came, and now that I can sync calendars and address books on, you know, on my digital stuff, I just figured I didn't need that kind of thing anymore. Um, but it's just seems so appealing, and the clip system seems so great. And I was like, oh, all this stuff that I stick in my satchel every day when I leave, it could all go in there, right? It doesn't, it doesn't force you to use a, um, a proprietary format for everything. Um, you know, it doesn't have a proprietary size, you can get it in several different sizes. Uh, it was handmade, it was really beautiful, it had an ingenious system of keeping stuff inside it. And I love the idea of the, um, you know, the clear plastic, uh, sleeves, where you could put, you know, um, little keepsakes, business cards, you can even just, you can even just fold some pieces of paper up and clip them in there. And, uh, so finally when I had a little extra money, I ordered one, and it took like three weeks to get here. And, um, I was gonna get, I was gonna look through all the colors, uh, and pick something unusual, but it just, you know, black and orange just already matched everything I already had. And I, and I'm pretty sure, Myke, you have a black and orange one, right?

Myke Hurley: Uh, green and orange. Green and orange, right? I, I have what they call the dance floor material, which is like a, it's like a linoleum.

J. Robert Lennon: How, is it as flexible as leather? Like, do you like it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, I, I love it. I actually prefer it to leather because it's different. It's just this weird kind of rubbery texture and it's bright green and I have orange felt inside.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. Um, but you, something you said about it, I think, uh, turns out to be true, which is you, you just, once you have it in your possession, you just find ways to use it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And that's the thing about it. Cause it's so like extensible, like they, you, you basically get pretty much, well, one, you choose how you want it made. And we'll talk about it in a moment. Cause I want to know why you picked the configuration that you did, but then you can kind of put what you want in it. So you've got these clips, which you can put notebooks into, but you can, as you say, you can also clip other pieces of paper into it. I got the little plastic, clear plastic wallets that it comes with. So I can sort of slide things in there. And then I clip, uh, field notes, arts and sciences, which I can see that you do too. But Rotofarden makes some great notebooks that you can get, but you could basically clip any notebook in there as long as it fits.

J. Robert Lennon: I bought that, um, that crazy notebook they make. That's got, uh, music staves on one side and something else on the other. It's just some, some bizarre combination. I can't remember what's on the other side, dot grid maybe. Sure. Why not? But, but they're really, they're beautifully made in this. The sewn binding is exposed. So, um, it's, uh, it just feels like a, it feels like a quality handmade artifact, like everything that it came with. So I, I think it's just a beautiful item.

Pen Case Configuration

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, so tell us, I'm looking at the, the side view photos. Tell us what's actually loaded out in this thing and in the configuration you came up with.

J. Robert Lennon: Well, I got, um, I wanted to carry around the iPad mini in there because when, uh, I use that for reading pretty much every day. If I'm not reading an actual physical book, I'm probably reading something on there, especially, um, because of my job, I have to read a lot. Like it's not a burden. I enjoy it, but, um, a lot of novels written by my students. So it's like early drafts of novels that we're going to have a meeting and talk about. And the easiest way, you know, right. And instead of hauling around a giant pile of eight and a half by 11 inch paper, I just have them send me a Word document and then I reformat it so that it will look good on the iPad. And I just read it as an ebook. Um, so I need to have that with me all the time. So I got the pocket in the back. I was thinking I might go for, they have two ways to do it. There's like a, one is a felt pocket that you tuck it into. And the other is, um, four pieces of elastic. Yeah. That clip on the corners. And I think the reason I didn't go for that is that it just didn't look, first of all, it was a little, it looked like it'd be a little fiddly to get the iPad out and put it back in. And also it looked, didn't look strong to me. I know that's irrational and it's probably perfectly strong. Um, but even though I sort of wish the pocket were a little bigger so that I could leave the smart cover on the iPad, uh, it's very secure. Uh, and I never am afraid it's going to fall out of the, out of the Tosh McLeod.

Myke Hurley: So I would have, um, gone with the choice that you got, but mine was, was bought for me. It was a gift. Oh. Um, so I have the little clips, the elastic clips, and I love it that way because I can use the iPad while it's in there. Oh, good. So you can kind of have the notepad on one side and take notes with the other part. It's, it's really easy to get out. You can just like, you just flick it and it's basically, you can just come out. You just push the, like two of the sides together and it'll pull out. Putting it back in takes a little bit longer because you have to clip each corner. You know, you have to pull the elastic over each corner to hold it in, but I can shake it when it's open and the thing don't come out of there.

J. Robert Lennon: Well, I take some comfort in knowing, and I know this about myself in general, that no matter which of the two options I'd chosen, I would have, I was going to wish I'd gotten the other one.

Myke Hurley: The benefit that you have is you can pull the iPad out without ever opening the thing pretty much.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So you've got, you've got that. So I've got, so I also have some of those clear plastic wallets in there, like three of them folded in. And the one nice thing I like about those is you just get as many as you want and you can put them all under one clip. The clip will just hold them all in there at the same time. Mm-hmm. And I got these Muji cells, these, they're like these notebook covers and they're made out of the same material like the tag on a pair of Levi's is made out of. It's sort of like, it's leather-like, but I think it's actually made of sort of a thick, strong paper maybe, or a sort of ragstock, thick ragstock paper. And I cut those down to size to make these little folders that could clip in. And in one of them, I've got a Tomoe River, like correspondence pad in there that I got from Nanami paper. And another one I have is like the, is like the cover for the clear plastic thing. So I have like these little folders with stuff in them and that I could put other stuff in them as well. And then in the front, I've got some business cards and I finally found a place to put my, my nerd merit badge, my inbox zero nerd merit badge that I bought a couple of years ago. That's perfect. And I got some pens clipped in the front pocket as well. And now in a, now in a vintage pocket protector, which is my new stupid collecting thing. I have a, I have a feeling.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You sent me the link to this pocket protector. We'll have to, we'll have to put that in the show notes for sure. Cause it's really, really sweet. But yeah, this is, I'm in a, I'm in a notebook transition right now where I can't settle on one thing. Like I've got the Midori travelers that I haven't been using and I've got the Tash and McGlider that I haven't been using, you know, properly, but looking at something like this, I'm like, this is exactly what I need to.

Myke Hurley: You have one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We've talked about this.

Myke Hurley: Have we spoken about this on air?

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty sure because, um, uh, one of our listeners sent it to me. He had an extra one. Oh. Um, Mr. Uh, Mr. Torsten.

J. Robert Lennon: Do you mean a Tash and McGlider or a traveler?

Tash and McGlider

Brad Dowdy: Uh, Tash and McGlider. I bought a traveler. A listener sent me a Tash and McGlider. Oh, so what are you, what are you doing with yours? What's in it? I'm looking at it. Oh, I know. I, I, we haven't, we haven't talked about this. No, we haven't. Hmm. Okay. So here's what I'm going to do. I have not packed for XOXO yet, but I'm only going to take, you know, like one kind of notebook apparatus. And I was planning on taking the traveler's notebook, but I will make a deal and I will take the Tash and McGlider. Yes. Um, yeah. And I will kit it out and we will do a podcast about, uh, me, uh, and the Tash and McGlider road trip.

Myke Hurley: Perfect.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. That sounds, that sounds great. Yeah. Cause what, cause what I find when you're going away, say for the weekend or for a week or, uh, you, you can have everything in there that gives you, it's like, it's like carrying a little office around with you. You know, if you want to write a letter, you can do that. If you want to, if you want to do some editing, you can do that. If you want to take notes, if you want to do some creative writing, like whatever you're working on, you can have a little section that's devoted to it and it's all right there for you.

Myke Hurley: Mine really comes into its own when I travel. Cause I can kind of put, I put my passport in it and then I put like all of my papers that I need like to check in at the hotel. Um, and I have my iPad with me and I have notebooks and I just, man, I love this thing so much. It's just a shame that it's so, that it's, it's, it's not really accessible for Americans to get their hands on one. Cause it's, cause it's in euros. It's expensive.

Brad Dowdy: It's definitely expensive. And you know, it's, but it's such a killer product. And you know, I just, I had just have to commit to one thing. And I think for travel, it's ideal because I'm neat. I don't need just a notebook. Like I, I don't want to carry just like a field notes notebook in my back pocket on this trip, you know, cause I need to put papers away. I need to carry business cards. I need to carry some extra pens and some just more, it's going to help fit a lot of random things. I need to just stash away, but I just want to have one place to put them. And I think that's, that's probably the key with, uh, with this and, and especially looking at your guys set up. So I can't believe we haven't talked about this, at least in my head we did. So, um, we will, we will correct that coming soon.

Brad Dowdy: So it is, it is awesome. And that's, um, that's definitely, uh, I don't know, maybe my, my favorite post you've done so far, John. So, so no pressure on, um, on stepping, stepping your game up.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Brad, I'll try to try to top it. I know. I know. I know. You're, you're so good. Um, well, man, I, I really appreciate you coming on today and I think, I think we've about covered it and actually I could, I could continue to talk to you just for hours. You're, I don't know.

J. Robert Lennon: Let's do it some other time. I would love to come back on. We would love to have you.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. 100% love to have you back on. I just, I just feel like, like, you know, you and I had Myke and everyone else, we just need to go out for a drink and chat and we'd end up like shutting the bar down. Just, we would lose track. We would lose track of time. We just have so much to talk about. So I really appreciate you coming on and I want you to take this time now to pimp yourself, pimp your books, pimp your website. I, I, I'm reading, I'm, I didn't, I haven't finished yet, but I'm reading a pieces for the left hand, which was a collection of anecdotes that you, that you did. Um, that's got me.

J. Robert Lennon: Thank you for buying that, by the way. It's, I really appreciate it. Oh, absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: I have thoroughly enjoyed that and everyone, uh, should pick up that book for sure. Just cause, uh, I, I, I can vouch for that one. It's gotten, uh, great reviews. I've loved the stories. I've actually tweeted you a couple of times, um, while I'm reading, I'm like going, wait a minute. You just blew my mind on this one. So.

J. Robert Lennon: Oh, and you know, I sent, Hey Myke, did you get the package I sent you? Yes, I did.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure I emailed you about that. Didn't I? Or Derek? I think so, no. Oh, I'm sure I did. Well, then if not. Oh, you're a terrible person. No, I'm sure I sent you a message.

J. Robert Lennon: Oh, I'm, I'm, I might've missed it, but, but, uh, yeah, I, I, I feel like, uh, that's a, if someone wants to read what I do, that's the book people seem to really like. That's, uh, um, it's my shortest one and it's in print and you can get it from Grey Wolf Press or, you know, whatever bookstore you like, you can order it from. But, um, it's a book of about 100 really short stories. And, um, I've got, uh, so you want me to pin myself? Um, so yeah, the, the, the blog is called litter, litter ambivalence. Uh, and you can, all the stuff that I do, you can find via links at jayrobertlennon.com, which is my website. And, uh, I've, the next book I have coming out is called P is called, um, see you in paradise. It's a, uh, collection of more conventional length short stories. And I'm going to go on a U S book tour to, uh, uh, like Seattle, Portland, Spokane, New York, uh, Boston, a couple of other places. So I'll, I'll, that will all be in November. So if anyone wants to listen to me, read or get together for a beer or a meal, that would be a great time to do it. I would love to meet people and I'll put that on the, on the website, put Atlanta on

Brad Dowdy: the radar and, uh, I will get a crowd out there for you, man.

J. Robert Lennon: I would love to, is there like a good independent bookstore that you like to shop at in Atlanta where there are readings? I will find one for you.

Brad Dowdy: The first thing I can think of is actually a record store. It's called criminal records.

J. Robert Lennon: Oh, perfect.

Brad Dowdy: But they do in-store readings and poetry as well as music all the time. And they're a huge, huge, um, you know, local, um, independent shop. That's really big in the community.

J. Robert Lennon: So, well, send me a link to them. I would love to come. I, uh, the book tours rarely take me to the South. I think, I don't know. I actually don't know why, but, um, but there are great bookstores all throughout the South. And I would love to come down there one of these days.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. We will work on that. So, well, it has been a pleasure, sir. I mean, this is, uh, this has been a wonderful show and we appreciate you coming on and we will absolutely 100% guarantee we will do this again soon.

Myke Hurley: Definitely.

J. Robert Lennon: Yeah. Wonderful. Thanks, you guys. This was a really great conversation. I, uh, look forward to talking to you again.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: Okay. If you want to find the show notes for this week's episode, go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 119. We'll be back next week with another episode of the penaddict. Thank you so much for, uh, for our sponsors for sponsoring us, I guess. Uh, Linda, Studio Neat. And Igloo. My name is Myke Curley. I'm at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he writes over at penaddict.com. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Goodbye, Brad.