The Pen Addict 4/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	4
Title:	Paper Chase
Release Date:	March 1st, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 4
Audio File:	Audio Episode 4
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 4
Length:	3636 min <br />0.6 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, episode number four. The Pen Addict is a weekly podcast where we discuss everything pens and paper and lovely analogue tools like that. The Pen Addict is hosted by Mr. Brad Dowdy, who is the blogger extraordinaire over at penaddict.com and marketing guru at JetPens. And by me, I'm Michael Hurley of the 70 Decibels Network. Hello, Brad, how are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm great, Myke. How's it going today? I'm good, I'm good. You're a little bit sick, unfortunately, though, today. I am so sorry if I'm sounding a little different in episode number four than the first three. It's not you, it's me.

Myke Hurley: We also apologise if you sort of lose any lungs or other internal organs via your mouth during this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely, it's highly likely to happen.

Myke Hurley: And I guess having kids in the house, that's probably just going to circulate around for the next six months, isn't that right?

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's where I got it from, and maybe one day you'll know, but not to get off track. Yeah, not anytime soon. Yeah, but we're two months into this year, and I think we've been to the doctor about five or six times.

Myke Hurley: Wow.

Brad Dowdy: That's the way this year has been.

Pilot Prera

Myke Hurley: Anyway. So I have another addition to my arsenal this week.

Brad Dowdy: That's what I hear. I know you were excited about it, so I'll let you spill the beans on what you got.

Myke Hurley: So I picked up a pen we've spoken about a bunch of times on the show. It's a fountain pen called the Pilot Prera. I picked it up in an ivory colour. Ivory barrel. Ivory barrel, yes, to put it correctly. Yeah, and I'm absolutely loving it. It arrived a couple of days ago in a very nice little box, a very Japanese box.

Myke Hurley: The presentation case is quite nice. It's clear, and it's got a little elastic band. I instantly got Brad on IM because I was terrified by the cartridge that it came with.

Brad Dowdy: Right, the Pilot Namiki cartridges. Number one, they're pretty long, and they kind of have a funky little flange on one side, and they go down to a taper on the other side, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're very weird. Very weird. But we'd spoken, and I'm going to pick up a converter to convert it to ink.

Myke Hurley: Obviously, you'll be able to find links to all of that stuff in the show notes, as always.

Brad Dowdy: So what nib size did you get? That's what everyone really wants to know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I went for the medium. Okay. And I knew that I would want to go for the medium with this pen because it's a Japanese nib, as you've taught me, and Japanese nibs are thinner than your average European nib or Western nib. Right. No, because I usually use, like I bought a medium in the Lamy, so I knew that anything other than medium was going to be far too thin for my taste. Right. I really like the nib size. Good. I really do, because it's initially, and sometimes still, it's a little scratchier than I'd like, or than I'm used to, but that does kind of get worked out. That's exactly right. But the actual thickness of the line is fantastic, especially for writing the show notes for the shows, because I write those in pen and paper. I always have done. It means I can, because last week I wrote them in with the Lamy, and they were a little bit too thick, because I'm writing these in a field notes, and I like to try and keep within the blocks.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: And the Prera does that beautifully.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you can definitely tell the difference between the two M nibs, right? I mean, it's pretty clear.

Myke Hurley: I did the pen addict usual of writing down the names of the pens to check the nib size.

Myke Hurley: And, yeah, I've really, really been enjoying it. It's the only pen that I've used for the last two days. My favorite thing is the click. So you'll hear this.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Very sturdy. But it's got a nice cushion to it. It reminds me of, you know, in fancy kitchens, you see, you get those drawers, like the push-close drawers, like when you push them and they slow down and go in on their own. That's kind of what this reminds me of, because with the Lamy, you just push it and it clicks, or with any other pen I've ever used, it just clicks down. But there's a slight resistance as you get to just putting the cap right on again. Yep. And I really like that. It's a very nice feel.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's cool. It's really well made, and that's a cool feature.

Myke Hurley: It's very stylish.

Myke Hurley: The clip, like, I like the clip, too, because it's got, like, a natural curve in it, which probably, I would assume, helps keep its sturdiness over time. Right, right. Yeah. So it doesn't weaken so much, because that was, so I've had a Lamy before, I've had a Lamy Safari before, and the clip wore out and became weak very quickly. Okay.

Myke Hurley: But that's not, and also on my, I have a Mont Blanc, which is currently out of action, and the clip on that came quite loose. But this feels like it's really integrated as part of the pen, and it's nicely made.

Kuretaki Brush Pen

Brad Dowdy: You're making me jealous. We talk about how we make our readers jealous sometimes. I'm using a brush pen today, a Kuretaki brush pen that I use to take notes with. I'm going to have to go get my prayer. As soon as we're done, so I can start writing with it again.

Myke Hurley: It is an absolutely fantastic pen. I am in love with it. It's nice and small. It's very light, but it's got a good enough feel to it in the hand. Even with the cap on, what is that called? Posted. It's not too heavy, but I still have to keep it in my right hand. I think it's become like a comfort thing for me now, because I tend to keep it in my right, I tend to keep the cap in my right hand when I write.

Brad Dowdy: I'm left-handed. No matter how long you write? I mean, if you're going to have a long session, you think you'll hang on to it there just out of habit, or you set it down eventually?

Myke Hurley: I think I set it down eventually, but I will typically just hold on to it. I don't even realize that I do it, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: That's funny.

Myke Hurley: So, I also took a trip into London a couple of days ago, and I wanted to go to the Muji store, because I had a couple of hours to kill. I had a meeting close to there and figured I'd just kill a couple of hours and go to the store. I've only bought three pens, some quite cheap ones. I bought one of the Pigma, they sell a Pigma brush.

Muji Pens

Brad Dowdy: Do they really? Okay.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but this is like one of the full-on brush pens. I thought, you know, I'll just buy it, because it was there and it was quite cheap. Right.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is like a... Bristle tip. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Which, you know, that was just something I thought it looked really cool, so something to have. And I also picked up a couple of their, I assume they're gel. They've got quite cheap clear plastic, but I went with a .38. Okay. Just because I wanted to get a Japanese very thin line. Mm-hmm. Yeah. They are gel pens. And it is incredible how thin this line is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's really... And the tips on those are very sharp.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they are. Very...

Brad Dowdy: You can feel some... There's some feedback when you're writing on the page, right? I mean, it's kind of...

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's not scratchy. I mean, it's smooth enough to write with, and that's something that doesn't bother me, but does bother some people. But they're a little bit scratchy, and the gel ink is a little bit more watery than, say, like a G2 gel ink. Yeah. Which is good. I mean, it doesn't... It dries faster.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Right? But... And it still keeps a really clean line. They're pretty awesome pens to write with. They write a lot, like you have the Zebra Sarasa clip. They remind me a lot of that pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I agree, actually.

Myke Hurley: It's... I don't really even know how to... The thing is with the Muji pens is there's no brand names. It's all written in Japanese, so...

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's pretty much their own brand. They're branded as Muji gel pens.

Myke Hurley: Right, okay.

Brad Dowdy: So there's no... It's not a separate... Like the Sakura... That's why I was actually shocked. I didn't know they sold other non-Muji brand items. So I was kind of surprised to hear you say you picked up a Sakura there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So... But, I mean, that's a Japanese pen and a popular one at that, so I guess that doesn't surprise me. But Muji's, you know, whole thing is the minimalist in their own name stuff. And it's really good quality. Like you said, they're cheap. They're inexpensive. And they write really, really well. Most people who have never used one and pick one up are usually pretty happy with it more times than not.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they had some... It's quite a large store, so I think it might have been why they sold some other stuff. Like they had a Muji Lego set there. It was very peculiar. Oh, wow. It was like paper, but you used the small Lego bricks. Like, you know, the circular ones. Like the jewels, they're called, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: And you could make, like, animals and stuff out of them, and you keep it all together by using these Lego bricks. It was very peculiar. That is strange. I'll see if I can find a link for that somewhere. Yeah, I'd like to see that.

Brad Dowdy: I'd like to see that. I've never been to a Muji store. Every Muji pen I have, and I've probably got about 10 of them, readers have sent me, which I'm eternally grateful for.

Myke Hurley: Give me a shopping list, and I'll go and get some up for you.

Brad Dowdy: I'll do it. I'll do it.

Paper

Myke Hurley: So, my pilot prayer is not the main topic of the show, even though we've spoken about it for 10 minutes. So, what are we going to talk about today?

Brad Dowdy: Well, aside from your complete deep dive into pen addiction, I think you're well on your way. I think today, I think we're going to cover some paper topics. People have been writing in wanting to know what type of papers I use, what type of papers you use, what's good, what's not so good, and things like that. So, what do you think? I think we'll cover a little bit of paper today.

Myke Hurley: Sounds great. All right. So, how are we going to kick this one off?

Brad Dowdy: Let's kick this off with a little bit of terminology, and this kind of goes along with the glossary stuff. And I don't want to spend too much time on this because while the weight and the feel of the paper does matter and it is something to consider, I want to talk more about the brands and the things we use and why we use them. But I do want to get a couple of the small things out of the way. On lots of paper, you'll see either standard copy paper or your nice notebooks that you buy, like a Moleskine or a Rhodey or things like that. You'll see some weight measurements or density measurements. Most of the non-U.S. brands will use grams or grams per square meter. So, you'll see like an ADG paper or an ADGSM paper. And what that is, that's an actual density measurement. The GSM is grams per square meter. So, it's a measurement of density. I don't want to say how thick the paper is because there's an actual another measurement called caliper, which I won't even get to at all. But you can, the basic way to think about this is if you take, if you see a paper is ADG, that's your kind of your baseline standard paper, copy paper, notebook paper, just kind of your everyday paper that you'll see anywhere. It's going to be around that weight. And then the number, as it increases, it's going to be heavier or thicker of a page, a more dense paper. Now, that translates the U.S. as we like to do. We take every system and we muck it up into our own, right? So, instead of grams over here, we'll use pounds. So, you're saying the same 80-gram paper that you'll see is approximately a 20-pound paper here. And that's called, they use a measurement called basis weight. And that, I'm not even going to go into that because it's very convoluted on how they determine that. And I'm bored reading about it and learning about it. Just know that in general terms, the lower your number, either grams or pounds, the less dense the paper is going to be. And so, like 20 or 24-pound is your standard U.S. copy paper. And then you can move all the way up to, I mean, there's some very thick papers. But like a cover stock, say like on your field notes, there's a cover stock that could be like a 100-pound or 120-pound cover stock.

Myke Hurley: That's not even paper at that point.

Brad Dowdy: It's a really small card. No. So, it's just the way they measure. It's just the way to give you a guideline so you know how thick it is. Generally, the higher the number, the more dense it is. But you will find, if you look at all these charts you can find online, you can find that a certain type of 90-pound might be a little less dense than an 80-pound paper. But it's picked for our everyday use. You just need to know what you like and what feels good for you. But I wanted to cover that because I get asked that from time to time. And you know what? Every time I get asked that, I usually have to look it up. But it's not a very intuitive system.

Myke Hurley: I think probably the main thing somebody needs to take away is the thicker you want your paper to be or the better quality you want it to feel, the higher the number you want.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Yeah. Right. And that's not a hard, fast rule, but that's a good general rule. Yeah. Right. So, aside from that, I like to talk about how smooth or rough the paper has. And that's generally referred to as the tooth of the page. Is it smooth to the touch? Can you feel it? Any kind of – you'll see some linen paper. Like, I know it was popular. I don't think anymore. But when you used to make your resume 10 years ago, you'd get this nice linen paper to print out your – on the dot matrix printer to use. The real good stuff. Yeah. But what that does is – it's really specialty type paper because there's going to be a lot of feedback when you write. And what it's designed for if you're an artist or doing sketching or drawing or any type of work like that, when you're using your heavier materials like a charcoal or things like that, it's going to attach to the paper much better than a smooth type paper. Cool. So, if you hear me talk about how smooth or rough the paper is, that's generally what you're going to see. A lot of sketch paper, thick sketch paper. Some of it will be smooth and some of it will be – have more tooth. The day-to-day paper that you and I and most of our listeners use is really going to be generally smooth. All right. Cool. So, those kind of cover those basics. Now, we get into what I like to talk about, and that's what types of paper we use and I use and why we choose certain things and why you might prefer certain things that don't work for me. And let's start with just the page format itself. You know, there's – the general terms that all of us use when we're getting out a notebook or a journal to write in will say, do you have a blank page? Do you use a blank page with nothing on the pages? Is it lined with just horizontal lines across the page? Is it a grid or a graph pattern? There's different measurements of the squares on the page. Is it – nowadays, there's dot paper. And then there's even special consideration paper, like one of my personal favorites, Dome Paper, is a grid and line system. There's a Kokuyo brand that uses lines and dots. And for all you Dungeon and Dragon nerds out there, there's hexagonal paper. So, there's lots of special uses of paper. I know you're – generally speaking, I know I've heard you talk about you have a moleskin that you use and you have a field notes that you use. So, what – field notes are all – or not all of them, but the majority of them are gridded. So, what's in your moleskin?

Myke Hurley: Plain.

Note Taking Style

Brad Dowdy: Just plain, no lines. Yeah. Is that a conscious choice or –

Myke Hurley: Yeah. The way that I – I'm a very peculiar note taker. I guess most people are in their own way, I guess. But I have my own way that I like to take notes and it's lots of arrows and random indentations. And so, lines I feel really constrict that because then I feel like I have to – if you're not writing in the lines, why have lined paper? Right. But – so, for moleskins I always will choose plain because it allows me to be very free form in how I'm writing something. Field notes come as grid, so I don't really have much of a choice, but I don't find grid paper as restrictive for some reason.

Brad Dowdy: You and I are almost exactly alike in that thought process. I will almost never choose to use lined paper for that reason. I feel it is the most restrictive format. My favorite format is the grid or, you know, more specific, the grid plus lines. And for the reason you state, for some reason, the grid format as a whole seems very unrestricted to me. Despite the fact that it's got the most lines on the page of anything.

Myke Hurley: You fear it should be the most.

Brad Dowdy: It is actually – it allows me – it gives me some structure, right? But I can do anything with it that I want. I can write sideways. I mean, I can turn the paper horizontally and not lose anything. You know, it's really freeing. And lined paper I have a real struggle with.

Myke Hurley: Because I think with grid you can kind of choose the structure. I mean, are you going to look at doing this in blocks? Are you going to look at doing it vertically, horizontally, as you said? With lined paper you have one choice. And that's to stay within the lines. I mean, that is your choice. Right.

Brad Dowdy: And I think I take – it sounds like I take notes similar to you, right? I might have a main heading. And then I might have, you know, an arrow going here, an arrow going there. And it's just more kind of a loose format. But it's all tied together in my own special way. And grid gets that done for me as well as blank. I mean, I think blank would suit me well. I'm probably 90% grid, I'd say.

Myke Hurley: Why do you like grid and lines? I mean, is it just – I mean, we're going to – I guess we're going to talk about done paper in a bit. But is it just that paper style or is it actually something about grid and lines that you enjoy?

Brad Dowdy: That's been really hard to put my finger on. And it's unique in the design to where, you know, for someone that hates lines as much as me, it does have a thick line every third grid. And we'll link to this for those that haven't heard of done paper. We'll link to it so you can see it for yourself. For my style of writing and note-taking, it works really well from an organizational perspective. I can have some more headers type words on the line sections. But I feel, you know, unencumbered by the lines. Otherwise, right, I'll write all over the page and all kinds of weird little shapes and formats. I don't know. So I've never had a paper that I've been that comfortable using. And when I don't use it, I find myself getting annoyed. So I'm kind of like all in on the dome.

Brad Dowdy: It's honestly – it's hard to put my finger on. You know, sometimes something just grabs you. And this has been – ever since I was little, I've always used graph paper. So I guess maybe, you know, over 30-plus years of using graph paper, this was enough to – enough of a difference. But still to allow me to function similarly, that I enjoy it. And then on top of that, the quality is off the chart. So that really seals the deal.

Myke Hurley: One of these days, I want to try and find one of these notebook makers that will make custom paper for me for the show notes. Because every show, I have like a set way. Like I divide the paper into sections. Like for this show, I'll take a double page. On the left-hand side, I have one heading called the pens and one heading called the paper and a line down the middle of the page. And then the other side just has a heading called show notes. It would be so great to have that pre-printed onto a page. That would be very good. One day I'll find someone. Probably through this podcast, someone will find me.

Brad Dowdy: The more I get into paper, the more I enjoy seeing the specialty type papers that do things like that. You know, there's certain – there's – certain companies will call them a meeting layout. Or there's different layouts. Like pre-set layouts where you can buy, you know, a ledger pad. You know, that's something I always enjoy testing out. So you do the show notes, do you do them in the field notes? For this show, I do. Okay. And the others, do you use the Moleskine?

Myke Hurley: I have a couple of shows that I use field notes and a bunch that I use Moleskines for.

Brad Dowdy: So take the Moleskine. What first – what made you buy the Moleskine?

Myke Hurley: I was attracted to the look of it. I mean, I've been using Moleskines for probably about five or six years. Mm-hmm. I like the size of the pads. Like, I like the – I don't know. I think they're called the Cahir. Is it Cahir journals? Like, the hardback ones that are quite – not the really large size, although I have had some of those before, and they're fantastic. Right. But I tend to go for the sort of medium-sized one.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I tend to go hardcover, although softcover is fantastic as well if you can find that. Yeah. Yeah. And they're harder to find in those sizes, the softcover.

Myke Hurley: And I just like the thickness of the paper. It's quite nice. And the band – I mean, it was one of the first notebooks that I'd seen that had that elastic band that went around the outside.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a good feature. I do like that a lot about the Moleskines. I actually started the Vigo Beckham archives on the Pen Addict. The very first reviews I did were actually in a Moleskine reporter notebook. That's what I used and what I enjoyed. I think what I ran into is the more pens I got, the more I found that not every pen behaved well in a Moleskine. So I started searching out different things.

Myke Hurley: Is that in regards to bleeding or just not feeling very good on the paper?

Brad Dowdy: No, I think it's mostly not feeling very good on the paper, and that's because I like the very fine-tipped gel pens.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: And those just don't work great in a Moleskine. The paper is not good for the extra fine gel pens that I prefer. What I find works great in Moleskines are liquid ink pens like your Rollerball Pilots, like Pilot V5s and the Pilot V5 retractables. Those work perfectly in a Moleskine and work very well. The pens I use, the paper just doesn't work for it as well. I need a smoother paper than in the Moleskine for the fine gel ink pens to work well.

Notebook Alternatives

Brad Dowdy: So what I found, I found the dome paper, which is much smoother. But what a lot of people want to know is they like the look of the Moleskine and the feel and the design of the Moleskine. What can they get that's comparable to that in look, feel, and design, but with a better quality paper? And that's where your brands like Rhodia and Quo Vadis.

Brad Dowdy: There's one that I really enjoy that I have a few of, and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation, but I'm going to give it a try. It's called Loik Term 1917.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, my word. I think that's how you say it. Loik Term. Something like that. I'm sure. Everything, all my pronunciations, I do get emails and comments on. So they say, hey, you got that one right? Or, oh, no, you didn't do something. You were so far away. Like, not to digress too much, but one of my bad habits, and I know this good and well, it's not Uniball Sino. It's Uniball Signo. I just can't bring myself to say Uniball Signo, so I say Sino.

Brad Dowdy: But anyway, I'm getting off track here. A lot of people look for that Moleskine replacement. Either from, some people are price averse. I mean, they can be pretty expensive.

Myke Hurley: I mean, but the Moleskines are expensive. That's what I'm saying. Oh, I see what you mean. A replacement. I see what you mean. I think you meant the replacements are expensive. But no, Moleskines are expensive.

Brad Dowdy: Right, so the two things that people look for when they're trying to replace their Moleskine is something that costs less or something that works better. A lot of the options that work better are in the same price point. Don't get me wrong. Not all of these are lower price points. There's a brand that I don't see much anymore, but was real popular for a few years called Piccadilly. They made a little black notebook. He took the covers. If you took the branding off, it looks exactly like a Moleskine. Right. They sold for about half the price. They sold at a retail chain in the U.S. here called Borders.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we have Borders. Yeah, they're kind of hard to come. They're a bookstore, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. They actually went into bankruptcy here. So there are no more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no, that's the same.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the Piccadilly brand was real popular for a while because it was about, I'd say it was about half the price. And quality-wise, I couldn't tell any difference. I did some side-by-side comparisons, and they were very good. So on top of that, I'd say the most comparable to Moleskine in style, quality, and price are going to be the Rhodia, the Oik Term, and the Piccadilly, if you can find them.

Myke Hurley: Would you have a personal preference out of those three?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I say the Rhodia just because of the availability.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm looking at trying to get my hands on one of those. I like the orange covers.

Brad Dowdy: Number one, they're on my list. They're cool-looking. They're very well-designed, and the paper is very high-quality. It's a very, very different paper than you'll find in the Moleskine if you ever get to use one. Okay. It's a very smooth paper. Now, that's not to say it's not without problems. If you're using heavy inks like a .7 gel ink pen, it does not dry quickly at all. Oh, that's interesting. So that's why it works good for me because I use the fine-tip gel pens that don't have that issue. But for you as a left-hander, you actually might run into issues with that and maybe even with the fountain pens. There's drying time considerations to be considered.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, this is why I do have an issue with breaking pens in is I adjust in two ways of writing, between writing so I'm stroking my hand from left to the right of the page to actually wrapping my whole arm around the book, my right upside down. Yeah. And I seem to naturally change to that movement quite a lot because obviously I've been too used to – because where I've preferred fountain pens for years, I'm too used to smudging. So it seems that my hand just knows where it needs to be. Right, right. Yeah, so the Rodeo is something that I wanted. Do they do spiral bound? They do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, see, that's an interesting thing. They're not as readily available. They make one called – I think it's called The Meeting Book.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Which if you can find that, it's got a good story behind it. Basically the founder of Claire Fontaine, which is the parent company. I think that's how it's set up. I might have my facts wrong here. He basically designed it. Like you're saying, hey, I wish I had this layout for these podcasts that I do. He said, hey, I wish I had this layout for these meetings that I run. And lo and behold, they now sell that product. Hmm. So – but there's a couple – they're not as prevalent. But Claire Fontaine does sell a lot of spiral bound. And the paper is the same, if not better.

Myke Hurley: You see, spiral bound appeals to me. But the practicality is not very good being a left-handed person.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. That's true. It's like the Doan notebooks that I use. I use one called the Doan Idea Journal and – excuse me, the Doan Idea Notebook. I'm going to get killed. I can't remember. It's the Idea Journal. It's pretty much eight and a half by 11. It's a large spiral bound.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Idea Journal.

Brad Dowdy: Large spiral bound and just beautiful, super thick chipboard cover. Like I could use the – rip off the cover and use it as a throwing star and probably do some damage. I mean it's serious business. I like that you went to throwing star as the first portal call. Yeah. The cover is thick and pointy and I could probably put an eye out if I decided to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so just kind of circling back around. A lot of people are looking for the Moleskine replacements and those are a few ideas. On the other side of the coin, I use a lot of smaller pocket-sized notebooks. So you've got your Moleskine that's hard bound. Some of them are pocket-sized, but a lot of them are more traditional journal size, say five by seven or larger, that are desk notebooks.

Brad Dowdy: Throw it in your backpack. Something you can't necessarily put in your pocket, your pants pocket or your shirt pocket and go. And I use a lot of field notes for that. I use the Dome Paper Utility Journal for that. So I don't know. That might even be a whole other episode. I know we're getting long here already. And I feel like there's so much paper to talk about and what are people's favorites and why they use it.

Pocket Notebooks

Myke Hurley: Maybe we should break out. Like I mean we've spoken mainly about probably journals today. Right. So maybe we should break out into the stuff we carry with us.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's a good idea because we can discuss what pins work for that everyday carry type of notebook, pocket notebooks, pocket pins, things like that. Something that's kind of more on the go. On the go.

Myke Hurley: I think it would be good to hear what you carry around just daily anyway. I think that's a good topic.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's a great idea. Idea.

Myke Hurley: Maybe do that next week. Yep. I'm putting that in already.

Brad Dowdy: Good.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent stuff. Who knew we could talk so much about paper?

Myke Hurley: I know. The Paper Addict.

Brad Dowdy: I actually, when I, short story here, when I started The Pin Addict, I started a partner site called The Notebook Addict. Okay. You know, because I wanted to keep, thought, hey, that would be a great idea. Just keep my notebook reviews separate. And then I was like, well, that's dumb. That's just separating everything for no good reason. Just put them all on The Pin Addict. It's all relative. And so, if any old time, uh, pen addict, uh, readers hear that, uh, they'll, they'll be familiar with that. But that's a little known fact.

Myke Hurley: So, have you got anything that you want to add to this week's episode?

Listener Questions

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just a couple things, um, which we won't go on too much longer. But I just wanted to touch on a couple of questions I got. Um, well, one specific question that actually came in on Twitter today that, um, I, I don't even have the name in front of me. But, um, he asked me specifically and was hoping I could cover it in episode five, but I think we'll just drop it in episode four. And, uh, uh, my response to him on Twitter was, well, those terms can be interchangeable or they can describe a type of ink depending on the person you're talking to. Um, the majority of pens that we've, that we talk about are a roller little ball in the tip of the pen that rolls around when you write it. Hence the name ballpoint or rollerball. I, those two terms to me are interchangeable in that context. But if you're the most people I talk about, they want a good ballpoint ink or they want to know a good rollerball pen. Um, and that to me tells me they're looking for an ink property, not a physical type of tip on the pen. So I just wanted to throw that out there that the majority of the time when you hear ballpoint, I want a ballpoint. I take it as, and I think the majority of people take it as ink type and same with a rollerball, which is going to be your liquid ink types. Like I talk about the pilot V five. Um, what, when you hear those terms, what do you, what are your immediate thoughts?

Myke Hurley: I mean, when you said it that way, um, about a, uh, you said ballpoint ink rollable pen, right? Mm-hmm. That made sense to me. Right. Um, or if, if somebody said a ballpoint pen, I would initially think of a Bic. Exactly. Like that's where my brain would jump to. And if they said rollerball, I would think of maybe like a Parker. Right. You know, cause that's kind of when you're a kid and the Parker pen is the most amazing thing in the world. And you feel like a millionaire. Yep. Exactly. So, um, it was, um, it was Aaron Jones, um, at AJ gaming on Twitter. Who sent that question to you.

Brad Dowdy: And thank you, Aaron, for, for that question. It was, um, it's, you know, it's, it's not a hard and fast definition. It depends on the context on, on those two words and what people are talking about. I hope that helps. If not, um, we can, you can, uh, tweet me at dowdyism. That's D O W D Y I S M for my contact information, or you can send an email to me at the pen addict at gmail.com. And there's always the, the 70 decibels contact form. What's that address, Myke?

Myke Hurley: If you go to 70 decibels.com forward slash contact, and you can send us a message there by selecting the pen addict from the dropdown. Um, if you want to shout at me for buying a pilot prayer and making you all want to buy one, um, you can do that on Twitter. I'm at I Myke, I M Y K E. Um, I think we, just before we do finish, we've had some, we've had some really great feedback from the show, um, in emails and on Twitter. And also as well, I mean, we maybe don't mention this enough. Um, everybody that leaves us an iTunes review, we, we do read them and we're really, really grateful. Um, it helps us continue to stay in the what's hot section in iTunes, which does help new listeners find the show. So we really do appreciate that people do that for us.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You guys have been fantastic. Um, I'm actually blown away and it actually, it's what. It keeps me going. You know, I was, you know, not, not hesitant starting this podcast, but I was like, Oh, how's it going to play? Is this going to work? And the feedback and the ratings and iTunes really, really help, uh, push me along to make this as, as great a podcast as Myke and I can make it. So I really appreciate all the comments and the reviews and the ratings. Um, you, you guys rock. I really appreciate it and, uh, keep them coming.

Myke Hurley: This has very quickly become one of the most popular shows on the network. And, uh, I think it's because people do love this topic and we have, I'm lucky to be blessed with a very great and knowledgeable host. So we're great. Thank you. So until next time, take care. Bye bye. Have a good one, Myke. Thank you. See ya. Bye bye.

Myke Hurley: The pen addict podcast is a 70 decibels production in conjunction with Brad Dowdy. Brad is an employee of jetpens.com who do not have any affiliation with this podcast. Bye bye.