The Pen Addict 3/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	3
Title:	No Joy on the Pen Aisle
Release Date:	February 23rd, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 3
Audio File:	Audio Episode 3
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 3
Length:	3232 min <br />0.533 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Hello and welcome to episode 3 of The Pen Addict, a weekly show dedicated to pens and paper and all things analogue of that good nature. I'm joined as always by my good buddy and co-host, Mr. Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict and JetPens. Hi Brad.

Myke Hurley: How's it going today, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, pretty good, my man. How are you?

Myke Hurley: Good, good. I've heard you have a new pen in your arsenal. I want to talk about that before we get deep into anything else. So what do you got?

Lamy Safari

Brad Dowdy: I went out and bought myself today a Lamy Safari.

Myke Hurley: How do you like it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I would say Lamy, but I could be wrong.

Myke Hurley: I think, I've looked up the official pronunciation and I think it's actually Lamy. I tend to call it Lamy, but I think the correct pronunciation is Lamy. I'm sure our listeners will let us know they're quick to correct me when I'm wrong about things. It's probably none of those things, right?

Brad Dowdy: I know, that's exactly right.

Myke Hurley: Right, right. Just like Moleskine. There's probably 10 official different pronunciations.

Brad Dowdy: Is that how you say it, Moleskine?

Myke Hurley: The official pronunciation is Moleskine, I believe.

Brad Dowdy: Oh really? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I don't think you ever hear anyone call it that though. So I think they've actually allowed, if you will, the official pronunciation. It can be Moleskine or Moleskine.

Brad Dowdy: I think there's a little pronunciation thing in the back of them, right? It comes with them. Yeah, maybe so.

Myke Hurley: I'll have to look at one.

Brad Dowdy: They have like a little leaflet that comes in the back. Yeah, that's right. Let me see. Let's see what it says. Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: It's a little different languages.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if it's got an official pronunciation guide or not.

Brad Dowdy: No, it doesn't. I thought it did. But it's just got like the history of...

Lamy Safari

Myke Hurley: Well, let's hear about the Safari. What all did you get? Break it down for me.

Brad Dowdy: I got the medium nib.

Myke Hurley: Medium nib.

Brad Dowdy: Medium nib. I got it in white. Okay. Is there any more breaking down I can do for you about the type of one? Nah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Lamy Safari is pretty straightforward if you tell me you have a white barrel. I think those only come with a chrome clip. But there's different models that come with some different color. Yeah. There's some that have colored clips or same color clips and things like that. And some of them have black nibs. But that's usually just on the black barrel ones. But yeah. I can picture it.

Brad Dowdy: It's got a chrome nib. No, I really like it. It's made me realize I used to have one. I actually have another Safari. It's just all black. Yeah. And I have green. Well, I had green ink in it. Because I was just using it for... Well, I'd had it for years. And it was my main pen for a while. Gotcha. But then I moved along a bit. And then it just... I had some green ink laying around from something. It was some Lamy ink as well. I don't know where it came from. Maybe I just picked it up. And then I was using it as a green pen. Sometimes it's a green pen for work. Gotcha. But when that ink ran out, I kind of didn't bother refilling it. But I've put an order down from JetPens for a Pilot Pereira.

Myke Hurley: That's right.

Brad Dowdy: Which I said I was going to buy. And today I was at the mall and walked past a station as we have here called WH Smiths. Mm-hmm. They're a bookshop and stationer. So I put it in, had a look around, and thought, I want something to tide me over. I want to get back to my beloved fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Gotcha. And they have different fountain pens to purchase different inks, things like that. You can walk in and get a few things if you need to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah, they're a general purpose, like a sort of staples. Okay. Or something. You know, they're not office, like office supplies. They're mainly a bookstore. Okay. But they do so like quite a lot of stationery, especially in the larger stores. Okay. And I bought some Lamy cartridges as well. Gotcha. I figured that would be best. Their cartridges are quite long, which I've always found interesting.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's a couple of different size cartridges. And I don't know if it's called standard length for the Lamy's, but there's that length. And there's an international short cartridge that some pens use that are dope. The Lamy's a pretty long barreled pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You know, I mean, it's not overly long, but, you know, it's got a capacity to hold a large size cartridge where some pens, some fountain pens don't.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if I'd asked you this already, but with pens like fountain pens or whatever, that are detachable caps, do you place those on the top?

Myke Hurley: Me personally or as a general rule? Me personally, I do. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. No, I never have. I don't like the added weight.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There's a lot of people that do not like to write with the cap posted. And it's probably a 50-50 split. And some people will only buy, you know, in the non-fountain pen world, some people only buy retractable pens just because they don't want to deal with the cap, period. But a lot of people who use fountain pens, I would say, write with the cap not posted like you prefer to write with.

Vanishing Point Pens

Brad Dowdy: That was why over IM the other day I asked you if there was a retractable fountain pen. And it was the vanishing point that you pushed me towards, right? But it's quite expensive.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, very much so. That's one of those bucket list pens for me. I don't have one, but that's one I always get jealous of whenever I see it. It's really cool looking.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've put that on my list. I actually have a list now of pens I can't get. I also picked up one of the, what's it called? We mentioned it last week, the Japanese writing pen.

Myke Hurley: The erasable or a fountain pen?

Brad Dowdy: No, it was like an ink pen, like a drawing pen.

Myke Hurley: Oh, the Sakura?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the Sakura, that's it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the Sakura Pigma Micron. Yeah, it's actually a pretty good all-purpose pen for me. I mean, I take that, I shove that in my pocket with my notebook when I leave the house a lot of times. It's not going to last you forever being a plastic tip pen, but that's the type of pen I like to write with a lot when I'm not using a small tip gel ink pen.

Brad Dowdy: I figured it's only $2.50 on jet pens. Yeah, exactly. Before I go for it, just chuck that in the bag.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's a cool pen. It writes great. I love it. One of my favorites.

Brad Dowdy: So now I'm just looking forward to the delivery.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that'll be a whole other episode. Maybe that can be our fountain pen dedicated episode when you get the Prairie in.

Brad Dowdy: That's going to be a happy day.

Brad Dowdy: So what do we want to talk about today?

Blog Post

Myke Hurley: Well, I want to talk about a blog post I did just yesterday, actually. And I had actually other plans for this episode. Then I kind of got a bug in me yesterday about a review I wrote about the Papermate Inkjoy, which is a new ballpoint pen made by Papermate. And this isn't a discussion about that pen specifically, but more about the state of pens and big box retailing as a whole. I get off on a riff every now and then ever since I started the pen addict, I say probably two or three times a year where I'll go to a large retailer, either a big box retailer like Walmart or Target or a office supply specific retailer like Staples, Office Max and those type of stores. And with this Papermate, I went into Walmart and every time you go on the pen aisle in any large store, large retail establishment like that, at least in the U.S., there is almost never anything new on the shelves. And that drives me crazy. I don't know what your experience is over there. I don't know if you're not as hardcore as me as looking at those things when you go into those type of large retail environments. But, you know, it's just a really drab landscape of the same pens every time you walk in the door.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think the thing for me would be that I tend, like when I went there today, I tend not to find anything exciting.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And that's one thing, that everything looks pretty boring.

Myke Hurley: Right. And, I mean, I've thought about it for years on what the reasons are. And the really, I mean, the only thing that my unscientific theory is that, you know, just these pen retailers are obviously in it to make a profit. And these are the pens that, you know, the that stock the office cabinets, you know, in various businesses. And they're the right price point. People are used to them. They can buy them in bulk in a lot of a lot of occasions. And there's just really no need to for these large companies to introduce these more niche pens that we talk about on this podcast and that I talk about on the pen addict. And it annoys me because I know there's better writing instruments out there than what companies are putting on the shelves. Even in their own, you know, portfolio of pens, you know, say a Uniball or a Pilot, there's other options that they're just not putting forth for the consumers out there. And that always tends to get me riled up.

Brad Dowdy: I was looking when I was in the station yesterday for the Paper Mate Ink Joy and couldn't see it. Because that was what you wrote the post about, right?

Ink Joy Advertising

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. So what got me going about the Ink Joy was one that they put a lot of advertising budget behind it. You know, Paper Mate is, you know, on the – I guess there's some tiers of pen companies in quality or at least in perception. And pricing. And Paper Mate probably checks in on the lower end. I'd say there's Pilot, Uniball, Pentel are kind of the three main consumer tiers or probably that top tier. Then Paper Mate, BIC kind of fall into that second tier. But Paper Mate's put a lot of advertising behind the Ink Joy.

Myke Hurley: You know, they got a lot of advertisements. They got a lot of shelf space. And it's being touted as this new innovative ink. Well, the ink that it describes is a hybrid ink technology that I've been using for years. And readers of the pen I have been using for years. The Uniball Jetstream has the same technology. And it's been around – I can't even tell you how many years. At least five, seven, eight years maybe. And it's a far superior pen. But, you know, Paper Mate's positioning this as this new technology when it's really not. But, again, you know, I made a point in my article that, you know what, they're not selling this pen to me. You know, I'm not their target customer. But the opportunity, I think, to expand on, you know, the pen designs, the pen tip sizes, you know, the quality of inks. I think the opportunity is there. And I've never been able to figure out why the companies don't, you know, put more money behind it other than that. That it's probably closer to a niche market for them than the mass market retailing that they're used to doing.

Brad Dowdy: But, I mean, I was thinking about this when I was reading your post. If – like, what does the average consumer – I mean, the average consumer doesn't know a lot about types of pens. So, why are the big stores even concerned about what they stock in regards to if something's a niche? Like, it's not going to – because something is a niche pen, it's not going to sell any more or less, in my opinion. Because they don't know what they're looking for anyway. So, they just get whatever looks good to them.

Myke Hurley: Does that make sense? Right, right. So, that's why I'm – yeah, it does. You're saying put it out there. Yeah. Right? Because what difference is it going to make? They're going to – I mean, there's, you know, say four different sizes of a particular pen out there. What difference is one going to make versus the other? You know, people who are coming back maybe for the second time, you know, will have a favorite. They'll say, oh, I hated this pen or I like this pen and they'll buy it again. Or they hated it and they'll try a different one. Yeah, I don't know why they put it – don't put it out there. I mean, the pen that started my whole Pen Addict blog was one single pen. And we talked about this in episode one that I just dumb lucked into at an Office Max. And it's the Uniball Sino RT 0.38 millimeter pen that I had never seen anything like that on a store shelf before. And that was in 2007, 0.38 millimeter. I was like, wow, that is pretty cool. I think I bought three or four four-packs of them because I didn't know when I was ever going to see it again, right? And you know what? I could probably count on one hand the times I've seen that pen packaged on the shelf in the past five years.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting.

Myke Hurley: They still sell it. It's available. It's one of their products and one of their product lines. But if you walk into Staples – I'm not even – you discount Walmart and Target. But even a more specific store like Staples, it's just not there. And I know they make them. And, you know, I just wish they made them a little bit more available. There's just a pilot starting to do it a little bit. They've probably been the leader as far as that goes. Even though that Uniball 0.38 cam, I first saw it in 2007. Pilot started putting the 0.38 G2s out maybe two years ago. They started showing up on the shelves. You still don't see very many of them. And actually, probably in the past six months or a year, I've actually seen the Pilot G-Tech C on the shelf at my local Staples, which was shocking the first time I saw it. I was pretty ecstatic. That made me a happy pen addict that day.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, today, I could only find a medium. Right. They didn't have – I mean, they didn't have fine – I don't know if there is a size bigger than a medium. Like, is there? I've never really come across it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Some of them will make a bold. How big would that be?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that – 1.0 millimeters.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. 1.0 millimeters generally on a gel will be medium. I mean, excuse me, bold. Uniball makes a bold 1.0 Sino. You know, I just – I don't know. I would like to see the mixture get a little bit better because it's the same pen every time you walk into the store. You know, we actually – I decided on this topic yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon. We got an email from the 70 Decibel site that, you know, a guy named Philip wrote in. And his comment was, I'm surprised at the extremely poor availability of many of the nice products you describe having been searching out pens via the web for many years. Do the Japanese companies feel there's not a big market in the Western world? Well, it's not a lot of that because a lot of the Japanese companies have subsidiaries over here. I mean, in Japan, it's known as Uni Mitsubishi. Well, it's the same. You know, it's a subsidiary. You know, in the U.S. is Uniball USA. Same with Pilot. Same with Zebra. So it's not like they don't have this technology available. I guess they just feel that the Western market is not as open to trying new things. And maybe that's a longstanding consumer theories by these large companies. You know, I won't profess to know that, but that certainly seems to be the case.

Myke Hurley: So, I mean, it's frustrating to me knowing that there's such good writing instruments out there, better than anything you will find on the shelf. But they're not getting put out there. And, you know, that's good for me, I guess. But, you know, people come to me, you know, looking for these types of things. And hopefully, you know, I've been able to try a lot of these things. And, you know, obviously I work for a great company that sells a lot of these things. And it's not about that. It's, you know, I want more people to have access to it, you know, walking down the aisle at Staples and Walmart than, you know, that aren't as, say, internet literate as some of us are. And our listeners are to know that they can go search out that they have other options. So, anyway, that's kind of my rant. I get on that from time to time. There's not a lot of innovation out there.

Myke Hurley: You know, a few years ago, a product came out called the Sharpie Liquid Pencil. Have you ever heard of that?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Now, I can't remember who I was having a discussion with at the time this product came out. It may have been Patrick Rohn, I think. And we were extremely excited about the Sharpie Liquid Pencil. And I remember, I think this was the first time I came across the pen addict. Because we were talking about it. And we may have spoken about it enough. I can't remember. But your review of the Sharpie Liquid Pencil was kind of what made me very sad.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't include any tissues with that. With that review. I mean, my point was that I was excited about it, too. Because, hey, this is going to be a new, innovative product that's going to be in the mass market. The large availability. Huge stores. And it's just going to be a new product on the shelf. And I was happy to see that innovation. Well, I got a sample product from Sharpie. And it may be the single worst pen slash pencil I have ever written with. I mean, I almost didn't want to do the review. It was so horrible. I mean, but I said, you know, related to it in tech terms, that it was basically an analog version. I was like, there's no way this pencil is ready to be on the shelves. Because it flat out does not work. It doesn't write. It doesn't erase.

Myke Hurley: It's horrible. But they put a decent amount of marketing behind it. And they got it out there. And, you know, I just didn't want to, you know, I didn't get too far into the performance review because it was so bad. But the whole point of my review was that I was happy they did it. You know, I mean, every time you walk into the store, it's the same Pilot G2 and the same Uniball 207 and the same Uniball Jetstream. And, you know, it's the same pens every time. I gave Sharpie loads of credit for doing something different. And prior to that, they were the last ones to do something different. That was mass market in the Sharpie pen, which is now that became a runaway success. And, you know, their willingness to, you know, take on that market and come up with something different. You know, granted, they had the big name to fall back on, the big Sharpie name. But they killed it with that product and they just keep growing and expanding it. That's the last successful mass market product launch I can remember. I mean, the InkJoy, I mean, it's going to fizzle out just like everything else. It'll just be, like I referred to it in the review, it's just a pen, right?

Brad Dowdy: I don't really rate the Sharpie pen too much. I bought a pack and it was good. The actual pen was good, but it didn't last very long at all.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I can understand that. You know, you'll run into that a lot with the plastic tip pens. I personally, it's one of my favorite pens, you know, that I reach for it, you know, quite occasionally. And Sharpie has made a point of they've released the pen, put a good push behind it. And then right after, I mean, within three to six months, they said, okay, new colors. And then right after that, you know, three to six months down the line, here's a retractable version. And then right after that, three to six months down the line, here's a capped version with a grip. And, you know, here's more new colors. And here's a stainless steel barrel. And they just keep pounding on that. And it's a good product and they've built on it. You know, I mean, the same G2 has been on the shelf for how long? I mean, it's the exact same pen every day when you walk into the store. It's a popular pen. It is. No, it's awesome. But, I mean, update the grip. Update the barrel design. You don't have to change the performance. Keep the same refill. You know, just do something to inject some life into the pen section, I guess is what I'm saying. The pen section at the store is boring. Inject some life into it. Like, you know, Uniball, Uniball has, they injected life this year by redesigning the packaging. I mean, it's the same pen in a new package. I didn't know what to think about that. It's good looking packaging. But, you know, the Sino 207 is a hugely popular pen. It's not going anywhere. So, I guess they don't have any incentive to change it. I guess I would like to see some additions. I don't know if I'm being too particular. I don't know. I mean, I did a post in 2009 called, my top five pens off the store shelf. Okay. People always would email me, you know, they may not be comfortable shopping on the internet or they want to try something before they buy it. And I can understand that. So, there was always a push for, hey, you know, tell me what pens I can go buy. I can walk into the store today that are really good pens, you know, that I don't have to hassle with online or whatever. And my top five were the Pilot G2, the Pilot Precise V5, the Uniball Sino 207, the Sharpie Pen, and the Uniball Jetstream. I was asked this week if I could update that list.

Myke Hurley: You think I can?

Brad Dowdy: Probably not.

Myke Hurley: I mean, the order might be different.

Top Five Pens

Myke Hurley: I mean, there's not a single, this was, when did I write this? August 12, 2009. That was my top five pens off the store shelf. If I wrote this post tomorrow, I think it's the same exact five pens.

Myke Hurley: And to me, that's kind of sad. But, you know, I'm not the one that has to make the big money decisions in these large companies. So, I mean, they obviously have their reasons for doing it. That's what sells for them. That's what keeps the lights on. So, you know, I don't know if I'm asking too much for some innovation, but that's kind of where I see it. I mean, this top five pens from, you know, two years ago really kind of drove the point home. I've got nothing to add. I'll just cut and paste this post for the next version.

Brad Dowdy: Of these, though, just so I can kind of put it into context, how many of these are your sort of daily uses for you? Quite a few.

Myke Hurley: The Uniball 207, Uniball Sino 207, and the Sharpie pen, I'd say far and away out of those five. And then I use the Jetstream some. I've kind of, I don't use the G2s that much, and I don't use the Pilot Precise V5, which is that needle tip liquid ink pen. That's really awesome. I just, I've migrated to different things. You know, instead of the Pilot G2, I use the Uniball Sino DX, which you can't get in the store. And instead of the Pilot Precise V5 needle, I use the Pilot Hitec C needle tip. You know, it's not the same ink consistency. One's a gel, one's a liquid ink, but that kind of suits that needle tip need that I have. So, the three I still use are the 207, the Sharpie pen, and the Jetstream. I use those every week easily. Easily. So, anyway, have you heard me rant enough about that? I mean, I'm not too, I mean, it's not something I get angry about. It's just something that frustrates me because there's an opportunity there. They have the technology. The technology's elsewhere in the world. You know, branch out just a little bit. That's all. You know, you have, Uniball might have, what, 20 or 30 pegs on the wall at Walmart.

Myke Hurley: Try something else with two of them.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: You know, that's all. I mean, you just get bored. I don't like going to Staples and not spending money, Myke, but I walk out of there empty-handed more times than not recently.

Brad Dowdy: Which is a shame.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, anyway, that's my rant.

Brad Dowdy: Is that what you want to cover for today?

Pen Thoughts

Myke Hurley: No. I want to talk about one more thing. Okay, great. Go for it. That's a little more positive, a little more, you know, not such a downer. I want to talk just real quick about one email I got and about the pen addict listeners and the pen addict readers and why we're pen addicts. And, you know, this is maybe why we can't find what we want on the shelf. I want to read this email to you. You didn't get a copy of this.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: This guy is my hero. This is my exact thought process when I'm thinking about a pen. And probably a lot of the readers of the pen addict, this is their thought process. His name is Anthony and we've had a conversation back and forth on his email. So, just bear with me. This is a long email. But this is true pen addiction right here. This is what our readers and listeners are looking for. All right. He says, hi, please recommend me a pen that I should use. I've been reading your blog since September last year. After my obsession with moleskins led me to figure out what tool would work best with it. I understand that asking this may be a bit forward, but all of your reviews combined with purchases and returns September weekly, I might add, have caused me both embarrassment at Staples and a lot of wasted time. Some background. I'm a full-time mature student in college and I take down notes constantly. I take many business courses with accounting, quantitative methods, and economics courses with heavy math usage. That being said, I have no problems using pens for those classes and pencils for the required exams. Writing style. I write somewhat with a high grip, as you would call it. Yes, I listen to your podcast.

Myke Hurley: And I tend to write at an angle too. Ballpoints give me the hardest time. Standard words anyway. I've used the Pilot G2, loving the ink, outside of it copying on the opposing page when I close my moleskin really fast. But find the barrel too empty or light. I should mention, I tend to hate clear barrels. And the ink smearing over on the other page when I close it fast, which happens often with my moleskin agenda, is a nightmare. It's what's holding me back. What sells me for the G2 ink is the smoothness. Lately, because the barrel is at least nicer, I use the Dr. Grip with the G2 ink. I figure maybe gel inks may not be best suited to me. I think I'll run through the same problems with rollerballs also. To be honest, I use a mechanical pencil more often than not. But that leaves me with a feeling of juvenile usage as if my writing isn't worth risking performance. My criteria would be very smooth writing, dark ink, black required, something that dries up fast enough to not copy on the opposing page, a barrel that is not clear and has a solid feel unlike the Uniball Sino, something that gives a professional feel that I can bring to meetings but also to classes. A retractable is required for transportation. Please help.

Brad Dowdy: So when you read all of those things, do you have something in mind?

Myke Hurley: Well, first, I got a huge grin on my face because I was like, man, this guy, this is awesome. This is exactly what I like to read. And secondly, and I've emailed back and forth with Anthony, he's going to have a tough time to nail everything on his list. And in talking with him, one of his main requirements is a barrel that's not clear. I didn't realize it until I looked at it. Do you know how many clear and translucent barrels there are out there? It is a huge, huge majority. So we've gone through some things and we've exchanged some emails back and forth. But I just want to let you know and the readers know this is the kind of email. This isn't the only email like this I get. This is almost normal. But usually every one of them starts with, I'm sorry for being so weird, but – and then it goes on for 500 words. And I'm like, you're not weird. You're the most normal person I know. Welcome to my world. So anyway, I just thought I'd share that tidbit with you because it's cracked me up. And it's been fun emailing Anthony back and forth, trying to find him a good pen. So we're still working on it, a work in progress. I'll let you know the outcome if we ever pick something out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'd like to know.

Pen Choices

Myke Hurley: You know, at some point, there's not a perfect pen out there for everybody. You might have to make some sacrifices to get what you want. And we'll always be looking for that perfect pen. I mean, there's – I always say I'm not pen monogamous. I'll never be able to just stick with one pen. There's no chance.

Myke Hurley: But that's it. That's what – I wanted to get that email out there because it's really cool. And that's a lot of the readership of the pen addict and the listeners to this podcast can totally relate to that. And that's why I wanted to share that with everyone because I thought it was pretty cool.

Brad Dowdy: We do get a lot of great feedback for this show. I think, in all honesty, I get more feedback about this show than I do any other.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, people are – I mean, people are either, one, opinionated on what they like or, two, don't know what they like and need some help or don't like what they're using right now and want some help finding something that could be better. There's almost always better out there. It's just a matter of finding it.

Brad Dowdy: So how can people get in touch with us?

Myke Hurley: Oh, for me, you can catch me at penaddict.com. That's the blog that I've been talking about today where I do pen reviews and other things. You can find me on Twitter at dowdyism. That's D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And you can email me with your long, elaborate questions at thepenaddict at gmail.com.

Brad Dowdy: Or you can also go to 70decibels.com forward slash contact. And you can fill out the contact form there to get in touch with the show as well.

Myke Hurley: I always forget that part. So I forget the path. So that's – Don't worry. I've always got your back. Well, I think that's all for today, Myke. Yes. Thank you very much. Hey, thanks. Thanks for listening to me spew. That's what I felt like I did today. So we'll make it lighter next time. And I've got some ideas for next episode that I think hopefully everyone will like.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. I'm sure everyone will like this one too. Why wouldn't they?

Myke Hurley: Hope so.

Brad Dowdy: So Twitter's a good place, at Dowdyism for you. Yeah. At imike, I-M-Y-K-E for me. Until next week. Bye-bye. Bye.

Brad Dowdy: 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.