The Pen Addict 191/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	191
Title:	Tahitian Black Lip Oyster
Release Date:	February 5th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Azizah Asgarali
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 191
Audio File:	Audio Episode 191
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 191
Length:	7979 min <br />1.317 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Welcome to episode 191 of The Pen Addict podcast. Playing the role of Myke Hurley today, I'm Brad Dowdy, which you know me. You know, I'm The Pen Addict guy and, you know, I talk a lot on this show, but our fearless leader is out sick all week. So I'm the host and I actually have a special guest in here playing the talent and she is awfully talented. And that's Miss Aziza Asgarali from Gourmet Pens. How are you, Aziza?

Azizah Asgarali: Hello, I am great.

Brad Dowdy: And thank you for joining me today in the east coast of the United States while you're over in Amsterdam, right?

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, no, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Brad Dowdy: Or you're not actually in Amsterdam. You're in Holland, though, somewhere, right?

Azizah Asgarali: I'm in Leiden, which is very close to Amsterdam.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, that's one of the few places out of this country that I've been and it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. So I'm quite jealous that you've taken up residence over there.

Azizah Asgarali: Well, you're always welcome to visit.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I will take you up on that.

Azizah Asgarali: We can go do some pen hunting and ink smearing.

Pen Hunting

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's going to be awesome. And that's one of the things I really want to talk about today. Kind of, you know, you've lived in the U.S. Now you live in Europe. And I want to talk about some of those differences, like in the, you know, in the stationary worlds in these two places. And, you know, are there big differences, no differences, things like that. So we're going to get into that, you and I, today. And first, I want to knock out a little bit of follow-up and get you involved in that, too. How's that sound?

Azizah Asgarali: That sounds excellent.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So last week's show, Myke and I teased that we were going to launch our Kickstarter for the Atlanta Pen Show. And that went up. And it went, like, super successful. We launched it on Friday. I think we were funded by Sunday morning, something like that. And as of today, with 22 days to go, we're at $10,469. So we appreciate all of y'all checking this project out and supporting what we do here at the Pen Addict. And the Atlanta Pen Show, Aziza, we're going to have to get you over here one day. Because last year was our first year doing it, and it, I think, blew away everyone's expectations, even those who were able to attend and those who weren't able to attend watching the video. And it was just kind of cool. So I want to make sure everyone knows that that project's live. If you haven't caught it on, you know, just, you know, in the general Twitter, Slack, wherever, or catch it on my blog, we do have that. We'll have the link in the show notes. If you would consider backing us, it would be awesome. We appreciate the support to get it done. We're going to have some cool notebooks for you guys and gals this year and the live video. And every day we get closer to this, it gets bigger and bigger. So we'll have more news as things get close.

Brad Dowdy: So you bought like 100 notebooks, right, Aziza?

Azizah Asgarali: Yes. Well, you know, I just saw Star Wars, and I realized that the notebooks are BB-8 themed.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, they sure are.

Azizah Asgarali: Which is epic.

Brad Dowdy: Man, maybe. Okay, now that you've said that, maybe I need like a little Easter egg BB-8 in there. Because we talk about him or her. I guess he's a robot. We don't know what sex he actually is.

Azizah Asgarali: But it's so cute. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Now you've got my brain working overtime already. What can I sneak into this notebook? That might be a little BB-8 theme. Because we've got our BB-8 Bic pens. And I know Myke and I love those little things, too. Yeah. So cute. So one of the other things that I kind of got in trouble for last week, Aziza, our listeners were giving me a hard time for letting everyone know that there was such a thing as a Tomoe River reticle gridded notebook from our friends at Nanami Paper. Yes. They're like, Brad, why would you tell everyone that these notebooks exist? Because now they're going to go get them and you're not going to get them again. I was like, yeah. Exactly. I kind of forgot the first rule of Fight Club is what I said, didn't I?

Azizah Asgarali: Don't share it. Don't talk about it. I went over there to look at them, too. And I was like, how can I buy all of these before everybody else gets them?

Kickstarter

Brad Dowdy: Right. And so, like, I was doing something Sunday night. And people were looking out for me, I guess. And my email started pinging and Twitter started pinging, like, late Sunday evening. They're back up. They're back up online. They're back up. Go get them. I'm like, OK, I'll go get them now. So I got mine and Myke's. And have you ever used – do you use at all, like, a large, bound Tomoe River? Paper book? Or do you use sheets? Or do you use Tomoe at all?

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, I couldn't. Do I? Do I ever?

Brad Dowdy: I knew the answer. But I just –

Azizah Asgarali: It's like a love affair with this paper. I don't – I know some people don't like it. And I am not friends with those people.

Azizah Asgarali: But I started out using the loose sheets. And because it's so – it's so delicate, right? So that it's – for me, I felt like I needed something that was a little more secure to tote it around. Because I don't want to use anything else but this stuff. So I actually – I just had a paper cuts notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Which is very similar, which I actually saw on your site.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I have one of those. Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Well, that's what I've been using. Because it at least keeps the cover – the paper is inside a little safer.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: I like that.

Brad Dowdy: The thing that's nuts about this paper, not just from a performance perspective. That's why we love it so much, right? Because it's like with fountain pens and especially like with the big, huge, wide, flexi nibs that you're using all the time.

Azizah Asgarali: It's outstanding.

Brad Dowdy: And teasing us all the time. It's – there's hardly anything better. I don't – I think you would be hard-pressed to find anything that shows off the ink more. But, you know, we were stuck with sheets for years, right? Yeah. Loose sheets, no binding, whatever. So getting them in a format where it's bound. And, you know, you look at these notebooks and they look about the size of like a standard Moleskine or Leuchterm or something like that. Except for the fact it's 480 pages.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You think, oh, I'll go through that in a month. But, you know, so much paper.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It totally confuses me. And I don't know what to do with this book, but we're going to find out awfully soon because I kind of have an ink testing book that I don't really like share. It just kind of lays on my desk and I kind of use it for everything. You know, not notes, not any tasks to do's, but just kind of like my mess notebook. And I'm trying to see, maybe I'll use that. I don't know. I'm going to have to find a use for that.

Azizah Asgarali: Wait, you only got one?

Brad Dowdy: I got, I did. And so when I opened the box this morning, I immediately regretted that decision. So I ordered two, which is one for me and one for Myke, which he's going to pick when he comes to Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: And I didn't think about it at the time when I ordered them. And as soon as I opened the box, they just came in last night and I opened it this morning. And I was like, what are you doing? You only ordered one. And that's, that's like the, the, the conversation that we talked about. You know, one is none, you know, two is one, one is none. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I failed myself.

Azizah Asgarali: You need backup for your backup.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I do. Do you do that as well? Are you like, if I find one thing, you know, I'm going to at least get three. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, definitely. Not with everything. All of the things that are worth having backup, backup. Like, you should just tell Myke that he's got lost.

Azizah Asgarali: I guess he's going to listen to this at some point. So that's not going to work anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Maybe I'll play that. Like he was sick and on, on medication when he actually told me to buy him one. Um, so I will say, yeah, I think you were delusional when that happened. So yeah, I've got two and they're both mine. So I don't know what you're going to do.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, you're just looking out for him.

Brad Dowdy: You're SOL, brother.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. They're so, they're so gorgeous.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: I, um, the ideal notebook.

Brad Dowdy: They, that's what's scary. I think they might, they might be.

Azizah Asgarali: It is scary. It might be the end of the search.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. I mean, I've been, I've been holding out for the, for some type of grid and this is, you know, essentially the reticle grid. They're so small. It's essentially a dot grid. Um, and, uh, gosh, I, I don't know.

Azizah Asgarali: The color of the, of the little points.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: So it's so good. The blue is great. Not just gray or, or like a dark gray. Right. It's just ideal. It is.

Brad Dowdy: It's really, really great. Really great. Something else that great is great. That's going on right now. And we talked about it last week is in co Rimo. Um, do you participate in the letter writing month of February?

Azizah Asgarali: I try.

Brad Dowdy: I, you sound like me. I don't even know if I go, I don't even know if I'd go that far.

Azizah Asgarali: I think if I just waited until the end of the month and waited till I received all of my letters, I could easily do like several years of ink or Rimo and just replying to all of them. Right. Which, which is great. Except I can't do it all in one day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: So. But I, uh, I'm not sure.

Brad Dowdy: It's awesome that it's underway. I'm awesome and happy to be on the receiving end of so many cool letters.

Azizah Asgarali: It's so fun. It's so fun that people love sending snail mail. And we will, we will all basically look for any user.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. And this is like one of the coolest ways. You know what I got this year so far that I've never received before is, and since we've been talking about the whole adult coloring thing, I got one of those, uh, postcards with the adult coloring pattern on the, on the outside where they, the person who sent it to me colored the whole thing. I need to put that up on Instagram cause it came out really cool. I actually, it was so good. I thought it was like a printed postcard, you know, of like flowers and stuff. And then when I flipped it over, I was like, wait a minute, you know, he colored this whole thing in. I was like blown away. That was really cool.

Azizah Asgarali: And that shows you not only did they take the time to think of you to send something, but they've actually taken the time to create this thing for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Which is, it's very thoughtful. It's a very thoughtful movement. I think.

Brad Dowdy: I think so too. And, um, you know, I wish I could commit to a letter a day, but Oh boy, I don't know. I can barely commit to waking up in the morning someday. So that's a lot.

Azizah Asgarali: I agree. I agree. It's like, Oh, can I wear pajamas all day? I cannot commit to wearing regular clothes.

Brad Dowdy: I, you know what? I was close to wearing pajamas for this podcast today. I'm not going to lie to you. I've had a busy morning, but, uh, you know, I got myself together.

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, well, I don't know. I'm not going to judge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right. But, um, in the Slack channel on EncoWriMo, I did get a letter or an email, um, last week after we mentioned that. And we had a great listener whose father, um, you know, is, is going through some tough times, you know, up in age. He's a former veteran, um, seen a lot of things, been through a lot of things. And she thought it'd be a great idea if we could, uh, get some letters into his hand. So if you're in the Slack channel, um, check out the EncoWriMo list there, his, his address and his story, um, about it. So I thought that was really, really a cool thing to do. And I know a bunch of people have jumped on that. So thank y'all for doing that.

Azizah Asgarali: That's awesome. And I mean, even if you can't do the entire month, if you're going to write one letter, that might be the one to do.

Ballpoint Pens

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. Scratch me off your list. I would rather like every letter go to, uh, I think his name's George and, uh, he would, I think it would be pretty awesome to, uh, to load up his mailbox with that. So, and if anyone who's, you know, wants his address and is participating in EncoWriMo, you know how to get in touch with me and, uh, I'll be happy to share it and we'll get a bunch of letters out to him, uh, this month. I think it would be cool. It's also his birthday this month on the 22nd. So there's all kinds of good reasons to, to write him a letter. Yeah. So it was great. Um, one of our friends, friend of the show, Matthew Morse did a post last week on why the Lamy 2000 is my EDC pin. And I thought this was interesting for a lot of reasons. One of the things you do Aziza, which I, like my favorite thing that you do because you do it rarely is posts like your carry stuff, right? You like Instagram and your blog posts and things like that. Yeah. Like you're super well known for like these crazy inks, crazy nibs, awesome handwriting. And then every now and then you'll sneak something in like, you know, I've gone out to somewhere and this is what I brought with me. I'm like, this is cool. This is what I want to see. You know, it's like such a surprise when I see that from you, I like eat it up. And, uh, I was wondering what kind of everyday carry you have. Like if you're going out and about or going somewhere to, you know, in particular, just write, say I'm going to go out and I'm going to go somewhere and write today. What kind of things are you taking with you?

Azizah Asgarali: I, this is really embarrassing. I do take a ballpoint.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's not embarrassing at all. This is honestly, this is kind of why I asked the question because I've seen what you carry and you like have a lot of gel ink pens, ballpoint pens, things like that. Yeah, absolutely.

Azizah Asgarali: I have to take a ballpoint because, you know, sometimes you just need one. I mean, if you have to write it on an uneven surface and sometimes a fountain pen, of course, it's just not ideal for that. So I usually carry my, um, uh, Charis Customs hot pink bowl. Yeah. Because, oh, shit.

Brad Dowdy: I have one of those. You can't beat that thing.

Azizah Asgarali: I love that thing. And if you're bored, playing with the mechanism is fun. So, I mean, it's kind of, you know, it's a, it's a toy and a pen.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Azizah Asgarali: And, um, I also carry my, uh, my render cake. The, the first, I, I'm pretty sure it was their first Kickstarter, which was the, um, aluminum. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I keep, uh, Pilot High Tech C refill in there. Yeah. Yeah. 0.4. Yeah. Because it's kind of, it's not too thin, not too broad.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Azizah Asgarali: Right now, it's like this cherry pink.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Early.

Azizah Asgarali: But, and then, you know, you got to do that.

Gel Inks

Brad Dowdy: Well, those, those, those, those inks, they, their gel inks are just so good in that.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And the colors are nice.

Brad Dowdy: The colors are great.

Azizah Asgarali: They also smell really good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: That's probably weird.

Brad Dowdy: No, we're going to talk about your weirdness later.

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, awesome. I look forward to this. And, uh, and for fountain pens, I usually carry, um, usually between four and six. Mm-hmm. Um, I, uh, I have, this is embarrassing. They're all black when I go out because, because of the nibs, not so much because of the colors. Um, I have two that are heavy but thin. So those are my Namiki Yukaris and they have just, um, medium nibs. So pretty much something you can use anywhere all the time. Not really long drawing times, but pleasant nibs. And, uh, then I carry, um, a Mont Blanc 146 with a oblique double broad. So that's kind of like one of the fun nibs.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: And, uh, and then a fine nib on also a Mont Blanc. Not, not because I'm a Mont Blanc lover or anything, just because the nib works for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: And, um, I now carry my, um, Sailor King of Pen, which has one of those King Eagle nibs. Yeah. And, and that's, that one's just for playing with basically because clearly I, I cannot write characters or anything. So that one is just kind of like, oh, I think I can pretend I can draw. And so I play around with it. And within like half a page, the entire converter is drained. So those are, those are the ones I typically carry around regularly. And then the last slot I leave open. So if I have a pen to review, I carry that one around with me and, um, that one gets the major testing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. What kind of, what kind of paper are you taking to, to leave the house with recently?

Azizah Asgarali: I've been using that, um, paper cuts note with the Tomori river. And, and I also take, uh, a field notes everywhere because I use my ballpoints, my gel pens, right. And sometimes fountain pens, because sometimes they work in the paper. Like, I don't know, sometimes they feather, but some of them seem to be less feathery than others. Yep. I don't know, but, um, I, I take an excess of pens, paper, uh, pencil cases. I bring paper clips with me and like a Midori traveler's notebook, which I do not need to carry all the stuff with me, but I do anyway.

Brad Dowdy: I know that that's all of our problems, right? I don't need to carry all this. I don't need to own all this, but that's kind of what we do. It's kind of our problem, right?

Azizah Asgarali: Exactly. And I stand there with a really heavy bag before I'm leaving. And I like, I think to myself, I know full well, I'm not going to use any of this stuff because I don't have time on this particular mission, but I take it all with me because I'm not.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. And I actually, I want to elaborate on that, on the notebook usage situation, kind of related to Myke's, um, Myke's story last week. I want to touch on that just a little bit, but before we do, I want to talk about our first sponsor and that's our good friends at Squarespace. Start building your website today at Squarespace. You enter the offer code Inc for at checkout to get 10% off setting up your Squarespace blog. They do an awesome job. They give you a place online, um, to write your blog, uh, put up a retail shop, do put all the power in your hands, take away the pain points. There's no, nothing you have to worry about, about hosting, scaling your website, you know, prepping for a huge traffic spikes. Um, you know, like when Aziza comes on your podcast and your traffic goes through the roof, um, you know, we're not going to crash and burn, you know, when you're hosted by Squarespace. If you need any help, they're there to help you all the time. They have, uh, professionally designed, you know, templates. There's no coding required. You can get in at a beginner skill level to use this. Um, if, if I can do it, uh, y'all can do it, but you know, they're just a really, really awesome, uh, hosting partner and they have 24 seven support. You can get it around the world, New York, Dublin, Portland. They're always there. They have commerce platform, which you can, anyone can add a store to their Squarespace site, which I'm about to do for pen addict. Um, they have a cover page, um, template where if you just want a place where people can go find you online and find out how to connect with you, you can put up these, um, little great cover pages and everything's up and available and fast. And if you want to take it even further, they have a dev platform that's out now. Um, that's in beta for everyone to take advantage of adding even more functionality to the platform to take your Squarespace site further than even ever before. If you sign up for a year, you also get a free domain name, allowing you to choose exactly what you want your site to be called. Any people email me all the time, Aziza, and they probably do you too. Um, you know, how do I get started in pen blogging? Well, there's all kinds of things you can and you should do just, you know, right and right and right. But I always tell everyone, get your own domain name. You know, that's a, that's a big thing. And it's so cheap and you always have that name there and, um, it's, it's flexible as you need it to be. So start your trial today with no credit card required and start building your website. When you sign up and you like Squarespace after that trial, make sure you use the offer code and get 10% off your first purchase. And that supports the pen addict. Um, thanks Squarespace for their support of the show and all of relay FM Squarespace. You should. So that's their new tagline. Um, they're getting ready to come out with a big Superbowl ad this weekend, which I haven't seen yet, but I think it's kind of, uh, hitting across the internet. So I'll have to check that out and y'all should check that out too. So Myke, last week we wrapped up the show with a dilemma and we'll cover this more when Myke gets back for sure, because he is running into being overwhelmed. Especially when it comes to paper and actually using the things. Do you have specific one? Do you have this problem where you have so much unused stuff? It's kind of overwhelming. And two, how do you kind of work through that flow of kind of making sure you're actually using the products you're buying? Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. It's, um, it is tough. And I think, I think when we all start exploring the stationary world, we kind of go a little nuts and, uh, in a good way. But you know, this, um, it's this tendency to think that we have to get everything. And of course I suffer from this still, but you know, and multiples of everything. And then, you know, a year later you're sitting there like in a room full of 10,000 notebooks and you're like, what am I going to do with all these? And I, I still have that, but what I've really had to do is, is kind of stop myself and think, okay, am I just, do I want this notebook just because it's pretty or because I actually need it? And if I think I need it, what am I going to use it for? So it's been a very conscious choice to rein in my purchases on notebooks, but also disposable pens, a gel pen, ballpoint. Otherwise it all just, it just builds up.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. And, you know, I feel weird talking about this, you know, a couple, you know, sentences after I said, oh, I didn't buy enough Tomoe River notebooks, but it's, it's, it's the, there's still a way to, you know, have all the cool things you like, but make sure you use them. And we had a couple of blog posts that we'll link into the show notes, um, from, uh, uh, Junie at Althaven and from Mr. Edgerton that, that actually wrote directly to Myke on their blogs. And I came up with one thing that I'm going to tell Myke next week. And it's something that I might try to do myself. If Myke's worried about not using, you know, his paper and pens, he's on Twitter all day. And I know people have done this with text messages, messages where they're, they'll actually handwrite the text message and photograph it and send it. He needs to do one tweet a day in a pen and paper that he hasn't used in a long time. Just one tweet a day. You know, he's on Twitter all the time. Um, write that tweet in the notebook with a cool pen, take a picture of it and let that be your tweet. Do that once a day and you will find yourself wanting to use your pens and paper even more. You know, maybe you start doing it more. Maybe you use it for other things. Maybe now all of a sudden your notes are getting captured in that notebook that you just wrote that tweet down. It's kind of like a, we all go through these ups and downs. Sometimes I look at like my stationary closet and I'm like, what have you done?

Azizah Asgarali: What, what, what is going on?

Brad Dowdy: Ink and paper, especially like I'm okay on pens. Like I have more than enough pens to, you know, keep, you know, an entire city going for a lifetime. I don't get overwhelmed with my pens. I get overwhelmed with paper and ink. Um, so finding a way to use those things in different ways than use them, um, during the day. Um, I think, uh, I think it's something, uh, you know, maybe you can try and we'll explore that more for sure.

Azizah Asgarali: You know what I, what I found the best way for me to go through paper and inks and use all my pens that have special nibs is to practice handwriting and calligraphy. Yeah. Because that burns through ink, especially if you're bad at it. Like when I first started, I was just atrocious. So I just burned through paper and ink like crazy.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. I think that's probably at the top of the list of things I say I'm going to do and never do is, is to just sit down and practice my handwriting. Yeah. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: It's tough. It's tough. But that could be, you could just force yourself to participate in all sorts of crazy challenges. Like this year, every month I'm going to use up a notebook on just handwriting practice or calligraphy practice. Yeah. And if you don't, then you have to, you know, come up with some kind of thing to punish yourself. I have to give away my pen, my favorite pen to someone.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Then you'll definitely do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've seen people do that. You know, they'll commit and they publicly track it. And if and when they fail and hopefully they don't, there is a penalty to that. And that means they give away, you know, whatever, whatever it is they're working on. You know, they're a photographer. Give away their camera. Ooh, that would be rough.

Azizah Asgarali: Give it to you. You'll help them.

Brad Dowdy: Are you saying my photography is bad, Aziza?

Azizah Asgarali: No, definitely not. I'm just kidding. No, but I mean, who wouldn't want that?

Brad Dowdy: No, no. Right. I'll take it. Yeah. Fail, fail, fail.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, exactly.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. All right. I go to paper like that really fast. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a great idea. I that's I mean, seriously, that's like the thing that's always in my head. Like sit down and practice your handwriting and I never do it. And there's nothing that I tell myself more than that and and continue to fail to do it. So maybe maybe I'm the one that needs to put myself to the task. And and commit to that type of usage. That's that's something to think about for me. I'm going to write that down. I like that. I like that. And you can publicly commit to it. And there's a penalty if you fail. I like it.

Azizah Asgarali: It's fun. It's fun to do it that way.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So let's talk about you. That's that's why I have you here. You know, you feel you fell in into the role of of of co-host today accidentally. But we really wanted to have you on to talk about you.

Azizah Asgarali: I could do both.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I want to do both because this is the first time we've had you on and it's been way overdue. And we've talked about it last year. And, you know, just my schedules, whatever podcasting schedules, it just gets pushed and pushed and pushed. And finally, finally got you on here. And I want to talk about Gourmet Pens and Aziza and how this whole blogging thing started. And and, you know, kind of how you got the bug to write and put it online and talk about all these pens and paper and inks and stuff. So how did Gourmet Pens begin?

Azizah Asgarali: I am. Well, I've always been interested in stationery when I was younger. I would go to Walmart and browse stationery aisle because that was what was exciting for me. And we've all been there and we still do that sometimes. And I remember thinking when I started when I was getting older, I was like, you know, I mean, these pens are fun. And I would always see like my friends just writing with like the most generic pen. They're like, oh, yeah, I got this at a hotel or something, you know, pens that they have just nicked from somewhere. And I was like, no, no, I want to use gourmet pens, like classy pens. And so I mean, that's where the name came from, was that gourmet pens, not just like a generic ballpoint that you can just, you know, that people just throw out because it's not interesting or something. It's the it's the interesting pens, the exciting pens, the ones that we seek. Generally, I started out with gel pens and nice looking ballpoints like the unique ones. And and of course, once you start doing that, it just morphs into fountain pens no matter what you do, because they are the most gourmet of all of them.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I tried to hold off on that, but I failed to.

Azizah Asgarali: No, and it's good that you failed, of course. This is the one thing you want to fail at.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely.

Azizah Asgarali: I think. So it's been a long time coming. And then at some point I thought, I'm going to start a blog. And and I don't know. I don't know why I did this, because I think I think I started in 2010, July 2010 or so. And when I started, I mean, there were not that many pen blogs around. Right. And so I don't know what I was really thinking. Except for, OK, this seems like fun. And I didn't really know how to do it. But I mean, you just kind of dive in and adjust as you continue and get feedback and find out what you like to do. And and it's been a very interesting, outstanding, unique journey in a good way, of course.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And that's for sure. I mean. I I remember reading you, I think, right. Right. When you came out and I was like, wow, she is really like. Into this stuff. Like you could tell, like, yeah, there is no doubt that you are in deep, like immediately from right right when you started writing. And, you know, how do you how do you think you've changed like over the years? Because like you said, this has been we're going on six years now almost. And you're one of the most popular bloggers in the community. And how do you do? How do you think it's kind of changed from like when you started doing it to now? How do you think your styles change? How do you think your likes and tastes have changed, you know, over these several years?

Azizah Asgarali: In a way, it's kind of scary to analyze that because I used to think to myself, wow, five dollar gel pen. That's that's crazy. You know, and then, of course, you start exploring fountain pens. And I remember buying my first Lamy All Star and I was like, oh, my God, $40. What am I doing? I was like, I would never spend $100 on a fountain pen. That is crazy. And of course. There are many people who do not wish to do that and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I'm not. So that it's been it's I found it's been a very slippery slope, but in a in a fun way. And for me, writing and reading and although I cannot draw, I like and I can draw. That is for me. This is my my really only hobby, my only passion that I really spend a lot on. So I try to justify it in that way. I find that as time goes on, I have spent a scary amount on stationery and I try not to quantify it ever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're going to talk about some specifics here at the end that I've got. I'm going to drop on you.

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, it's going to be disturbing. I'm sure. Very exciting. Disturbing. I find that I hoard less, which is great. I remember when I first started, I would just kind of buy any pen that I saw that I had not used before or had not seen before because it was just something different. But as my as I learned what I liked and I learned what kind of inks I like to use. And this is going to sound really weird, but like what kind of ballpoint ink smells I like. I kind of I narrowed my focus and I've done the same with fountain pens. Although, unfortunately, my focus, which I suspect is what we are going to discuss at some point, is shiny and expensive. But I I have a hard time justifying it. But I'm like, you know, what can you do?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. I mean, I think we've kind of all gone through a little bit of that transition where you kind of start small. You're trying everything under the sun. Like if it's new, it's coming to the house. Yeah. And then all of a sudden that stops and you kind of narrow the focus a little bit more, except there's like these different price brackets that start happening.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And you're like, what? Like what? Yeah.

Ink Bottles

Brad Dowdy: Instead of buying gel refills. Now I'm buying bottles of ink.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And then I do think that exploration phase is is very important. Right. I think without that.

Azizah Asgarali: You wouldn't realize what you like. You won't be able to find out what you like. And I think it's the same as if you're if your hobby is cooking. I mean, you try everything. You see what kind of food you like. And and so I try to I try to convince myself that this was necessary.

Brad Dowdy: Well, one of the things that all of your followers and all of your readers and everyone who loves checking out Gourmet Pens knows that you're into is like calligraphy, flex nibs, you know, wonderful handwriting, big. I call them I call them like like show off inks, you know, like samples, just these big, cool. You can see all the ink properties and all the the how the nibs work. And how did you figure out that? Like, you know, you hadn't always been into like this flex style of writing in these calligraphy styles and these huge nibs and fancy inks. How did that kind of happen? When did you decide that? Wow, that's kind of my thing.

Azizah Asgarali: I think this starts with the fact that I'm quite vain and I like pretty. I mean, I like shiny things. I like pretty things. And I don't really I don't really know how to explain that in any other way. And that's I think that is the reason I was gravitating towards like prettiness. And I you're right, I didn't start it with flex writing. I just I started with regular fountain pen, regular handwriting. And at some point I received my first flex pen was a Waterman 52V. And it has a wet noodle on it. And I had never used a flex pen before. And the gentleman that I had gotten it from was he restores vintage pens and he sells them. And he said, well, you know, be careful with this, because unless you know how to write with a flex nib, it could be a disaster. And I have very few talents or skills. And I think the only thing that I actually knew how to do like innately was how to write with a flex nib. And it just made sense to me. Like you apply pressure on the downstroke and not on the upstroke and what angle to hold the pen at and what it could do if you put it with combine it with the right ink. So it just clicked. And when that happened, I was like, oh, my God. So for me, that was the turning point, like the ultimate moment that I realized, oh, my goodness, flex pens. And and ever since then, I've been exploring. I dare not call myself a calligrapher because I'm not formally trained and I'm not good. And I mean, I'm not like as good as a real calligrapher. So I I just call it my cursive style of fancy handwriting. But it's been exploring these flex nibs and and discovering what inks look good. And as as we like to call it, you know, what serious nibbage can do. Right. It's it's been so much fun and combined with Tomori River paper. I mean, that's perfect. It's perfect. You cannot go wrong with that.

Brad Dowdy: So if someone wanted to get started writing, you know, start kind of mimicking your style. I mean, I think that's the best way of like trying to figure out, you know, practicing handwriting is find someone's style as you like and mimic it. And I'm not saying they should mimic yours. You know, everyone has a different like I don't have that innate flex writing style like you do where you can feel the ups and downs and the transitions. How would you tell someone, you know, if they're wanting to get started to at least try this? You know, and, you know, flex is very interesting to a lot of people for a lot of reasons. How do you how would you, you know, propose someone kind of get into this style?

Dip Nibs

Azizah Asgarali: I think that the most affordable and safest thing to start with would be dip nibs. And although they have a bit of a learning curve because, I mean, you have to understand what the dip nibs do, different dip nibs can do and you have to clean them and prepare them. But I mean, that's all very easy when you compare it to something like, you know, if you have a flex pen and you have to tweak it and get it ready to write. And also the investment, the financial investment is not as great with a dip nib as if you're looking at something like a vintage flex pen or even a modern flex pen because neither of those are really inexpensive. Right. So if you can't get to a pen show and try out some inexpensive vintage flex pens, which do exist, I would say the best thing is to grab some dip nibs and you can get some ink. Like pick a either have a look at like Instagram or like social media and see, like you said, see someone's handwriting that you like and just kind of see if you can mimic it or find a formal calligraphy style like copper plate. There's just tons of calligraphy books out there and just go for it and see if if it appeals to you.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And once you start getting that nib on the paper, then you can kind of figure out, well, I can't really make these shapes, but these shapes on this other style is kind of right right up my alley.

Azizah Asgarali: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So out of your, I guess we'll call it a collection out of your your range of flex pens, flex nibs, what are your kind of go to nibs? It could be modern, vintage. What you know, if you had a few favorites that you could never fathom not having what what are your go to nibs?

Azizah Asgarali: I would say my top ones would be Waterman. They I have two Waterman music nibs. And so those are three tined, two split nibs, and they are flexible. So they're not extra fine to begin with. But they but because, of course, they have three times they flex quite well. So they give you a nice broad line. And I also have a I mean, the bodies vary. The bodies of the pens come on. So to me, I don't really care about the body. I just care about the nib. So I have an ideal number two nib. And it's fairly small, but it's an extra fine and it flexes with double or triple broad. Wow. And it's just outstanding. It boggles my mind that this was actually created and that it could still do this. And I do know that at some point, these nibs can wear out. And I know that some of them can have weaknesses. It's it's kind of scary to actually use them because I do worry that someday I won't have it anymore. But at the same time, I'm like, well, then there's no point in having it if I'm never going to use it. Right. So I just go for currently I go for Waterman. And. The ones that I currently use are not that cheap. Sure. But you can certainly get inexpensive Waterman. And if you go to a pen show and find a vintage seller, there are definitely ones you can get for like $50. Right. I mean, they're not going to be beautiful, but the nib is going to work. Right. I think that's most important.

Brad Dowdy: And I think, you know, one of the reasons why like the nibs that you like are so popular.

Brad Dowdy: It's no one can make a nib with that range these days. I mean, you're not you can't go online and purchase a modern pen that's going to range from EF to double B. It's not going to happen pretty much. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: It's not. And I know there are.

Azizah Asgarali: There almost makes their extra for the nib. And I mean, they are very soft, but they don't snap back the same way that a vintage nib does. So you have to be careful with those. But you're right. They just don't have the range of flex that these vintage nibs have.

Brad Dowdy: Which I think why that I think it was a really good point to mention the dip nibs, because you can kind of get a really good range with these dip nibs for, you know, really inexpensively to at least test this stuff out to see if you like it. I mean, you can get some some wild variation, you know, on like a two or three dollar nib and a nib holder and some ink, you know, for for 15 bucks. You're all in just on testing, you know, to see if this is something that you like.

Azizah Asgarali: Exactly. It's the most affordable way to test flex.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: And it's fun.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of fun, if you're going to if you're going to have fun and you're going to, you know, sit there on a Saturday, you're going to ink up your favorite nib, your favorite pen. And and just kind of show off like what's your style and things like that. What ink are you throwing in there? What what ink show off the flex the best?

Azizah Asgarali: I think the the overall answer to that is the lighter the ink, not too light, but I think like a medium light ink, it shows it off best because when it saturates, the pooling kind of darkens the ink. So you get the best variation in shading. So I tend to lean towards ink like the Diamine Autumn Oak, Omas Cepia, the the Ackerman's Huff Quartier Foon, which that is my absolute favorite green. I think that is just it's just stellar.

Brad Dowdy: I will agree with you on that. That's I have that actually inked up in a needlepoint in my show notes right here. All the Aziza Q&A's I have for later are in that exact ink.

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, it's so good. And if you haven't tried it, you have to get some because it's it's outstanding and it's legible if you don't use it as a in a flex pen. I also use I like turquoise inks because they they do the same thing. But I tend to lean towards like Omas turquoise, which is a light turquoise and not a heavy green turquoise because it shades better. And my my other favorite like weird yellow green is the roller and cleaner. I cannot pronounce that. The old gold green. Yes, that's great. And for orange, of course, Apache Sunset. Yeah, because that's that's just like the go to for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's that's spectacular. I love all those inks. And the one actually that surprised me the most out of that is actually the Omas turquoise. I'm I was when I got into pens and inks, I was I kind of avoided the turquoise because I thought they were too light. But I just found the ink properties and shading of turquoises to be fantastic. And the Omas is one I haven't reviewed yet, but I have sitting here and was just really pleasantly surprised with not just the shading, but how it behaved. And it's just great all around ink.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, it's beautiful. That one.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Calligraphy Flex

Azizah Asgarali: I really like it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think that's a good start on on getting getting going with calligraphy and flex. And it's going to come down to practice. I mean, even if you don't have the nibs and you don't have the inks and you can still get in there and write a page of A's, you know, find a style you like. Like pick out an A from that style and just go to town, you know, and it takes a while. That's how I learned like my drafting style handwriting was just literally sitting at a table with a legal pad and doing the letters over and over until that muscle memory hit. And it takes it takes a long time.

Azizah Asgarali: You know, it's tedious when you first start because you're like, OK, I I'm this is terrible. But at some point, you'll just you'll just hit that point where you're you start remembering it. And it's so it's so satisfying. It's so good. It's so worth it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Azizah Asgarali: I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we got a lot more to talk about, but I want to talk about our next sponsor, which is our good friends at Harry's. Shaving is expensive. It's annoying. I hate it. We all hate it. There's no redeeming values with shaving except when you can use awesome products like from Harry's, you know, go into the drugstore and buying all those expensive blades is it's just annoying and frustrating. And when you can get a great product like Harry's who makes their own blades, they're German engineered five blade cartridges. They own the factory that these blades come from. It's a close, clean shave. There's no cuts, no razor burn. They guarantee their quality. They'll refund you if you're not happy. They've got over one million people so far that have switched over to Harry's and you guys and gals should be one of them. I love the products. If you've listened to me ramble on about Harry's, you know, I'm a huge, huge Harry's fan. And on average, an everyday shaver saves one hundred fifty dollars a year on blades alone. Just using Harry's. They ship them to your door. It's free shipping. You can get started for just fifteen dollars with a razor, moisturizing shave cream and three blades. It's really, really good. Their products are really well made. From when I started using Harry's, I'm still using the same razor handle. This orange one that I that I got the very first time I've used it. It's no worse from wear. It works perfectly.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I change the blades out, you know, really not that frequently. The blades are super durable. Hold up well. Give me a clean shave. I love I love the scent of their shave gel and their shave lotion. And I am just really, really, truly happy customer of Harry's. So it's time to stop overpaying for razors and blades. Go to Harry's dot com. Harry's will give you five off five dollars off. If you type in the coupon code pin addict on your first purchase. That's H.A.R.R.Y.S. dot com. Enter the code name pin addict at checkout for five dollars off. And our thanks to Harry's for supporting this show and Relay FM. All right, Aziza, I want to get into something that we don't talk about a lot on the show and actually have never talked about. But I think it's an important topic to bring up. And I think you're the right person to discuss this. And that's harassment online for some of us in the pin community. You know, I I praise this community left and right. And I know you do, too, and I know everyone does, because it's a legitimately awesome community. But you and more than anyone, in my opinion, has run into some real challenges with online harassment in the form of. YouTube comments, Reddit threads, you know, just making really nonsensical, unimportant, you know, issues that they may have to the forefront and just kind of railing on this. If you can take a minute and talk about like what you've experienced and, you know, the things that have gone on that have really kind of pushed you to the edge. You've talked about quitting doing this before, right?

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's very odd. I mean, I know when you put yourself out there that you do open yourself up to a public forum. And of course, people have every right to an opinion. But I mean, this is the most I mean, I grew up with, you know, the teaching of if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Right. And of course, there is there's a difference between constructive criticism and just, you know, not constructive criticism. Right. And I don't know how I started coming across this stuff. But I mean, at some point I was never really on YouTube. I used to just do my blog. And since Stephen and I started doing the serious nibbage series, just those joint videos. And apparently that just triggered something horrible in everyone who was involved in all this harassment because it it caused much consternation. I mean, I would get these emails and then we would get these horrible YouTube comments and and and Reddit threads. Oh, my gosh. Reddit. I, I do not. I at some point I decided, OK, I need to stop. I used to look at the forums just because I thought it was interesting. There were interesting articles. I used to share some of my stuff there. I had done this kind of like a review of five or six music nibs. And I was so excited to share it on Reddit. And I was so proud of it. And so I shared it there and I was really excited and people were really nice at first. And then several months later, I end up there. I stumble across this this thread about it was kind of about Stephen and I. And then I kind of separated into what people hate about us individually. And then people start taking pictures from my Instagram that I have like selfies of myself and posting it in there. And it was just it's so odd. I it's such a I felt so violated. And I was like, what? I mean, I know people don't have to like me and that's fine. But I also find it so baffling that people would hate someone so much they feel the need to go through all of this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the need to directly attack someone for their sex or their race and these ridiculous comments and pointing out why you don't believe, you know, they should be writing pen reviews or you feel the need to make fun of them. And I think that's a lot of people who are going to be writing pen reviews or some random thing is the most asinine thing. Not only you see, I see this a lot in the tech community and we talk about that on a lot of other relay shows. But to see that creep up in like the most benign areas like. Pens and ink.

Azizah Asgarali: Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: It's extraordinarily frustrating. I don't understand why this has to happen. And I feel like terrible for like you and Stephen for having to put up with this. And, you know, I don't have an answer to solve it other than to know that the community as a whole is really good and has each other's backs and supportive of each other. But I'm embarrassed that, you know, you have had to go through this and it's frustrating. And that's for me to say that is nothing. You're the one that's actually had to live through it. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And I mean, I'm I'm really not the kind of person that like talks about my feelings online, except for when this happens. And there have been times like I have gotten emails where. Usually males have described me like, oh, you're repulsive. You know, you should not be with Stephen and like all sorts of really insulting things. And I I'm assuming and I probably shouldn't assume, but I get the feeling it's because I'm a female and maybe because I am not what they are expecting in the community. I'm young. I'm a female. I am a minority. So maybe they're like, what is happening here? Like, who is this? And it's it almost broke my heart, though, because I'm like, yeah, but I've been here since for years. I mean, I've been doing this for years. I have every right to be in this community as anyone else does, because, I mean, I contribute to it. I help people. I spend hours and hours a week answering questions and giving guidance. Like people asking like questions about, you know, where can they get flex pens or how to write. So I try to give back so much. And of course, I. I was just I was shocked and I was like, I cannot believe that this is actually happening over pens. I mean, this is not like world peace discussions or something. This is pens. It's supposed to be fun.

Brad Dowdy: Right. All right. And I mean, it was hurtful to see you go through that. And, you know, I wish I could do more and I'll have to think about how, you know, I can do more to to point these things out in these, you know, things that happen to you and others. And, you know, myself from time to time, you know, but gosh, I would never compare myself to, you know, the things that you you've gone through. And I think you handled it pretty well in the fact that, you know, number one, you let your feelings be known. You know, you didn't run from it. And number two, that you're still here and you're better than ever. And you have the support, full support of everyone in the community. And you're just, you know, a beloved figure in the community. And that's going to be bigger than any of these, you know, fools who who think they're, you know, accomplishing something by trying to hurt you. So I just want you to know that.

Azizah Asgarali: Well, I very much appreciate that. And I think I think that does help. I think having vented how I was feeling, I mean, there were really days that I was like, I can't take this anymore. I have to quit because I can't take being harassed and insulted because I was like, I really did not think I deserved it. And I don't really think anybody deserves any harassment regardless. But I, I tried to step back and I tried to figure out ways to deal with it. But I mean, there's only so much I can do and there's only so much I can avoid it. So I do find that having vented and having people like all the great people, like the kind people, they have all rallied and they've been like, no, these people are nuts. Just ignore this. I know it's hard and I know it's easy to say haters are going to hate and all that kind of stuff. But the support from the good people has been, it's been really wonderful. And I think that's probably the only thing that kept me going. Okay. So it is, I tried to learn from it as well. I tried to think, okay, you know, of course there are going to people who don't like what I do or don't appreciate that I'm here or involved in this. And I tried to pick through the really weird things that they have said to pull out constructive criticism. And I have tried to modify my work to, to fix it. So I hope that maybe somewhere they're like happier or something, but.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Well, just know that we're all there for you. We're all, uh, we're all super supportive and, you know, hopefully this is going to die down and not become a thing.

Azizah Asgarali: So, yeah, I hope so because it's tense. We're supposed to be fun.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And I'm glad you wanted to talk about this too. You know, it was something, you know, we, you, you don't know. It's not something you hear often in this community, but it's so prevalent in, in all areas of our life, even this community. And everyone should be aware of these things going on. If they, if any listeners, uh, readers of our blogs have any comments on this and want to talk about it more, definitely, um, reach out to us and, um, and let us know.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And thank you for, you know, providing us a forum for being able to do this because it's hard.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm going to make the worst segue ever. Are you ready?

Azizah Asgarali: Absolutely.

Ink Tasting

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to go from like things that are like the worst thing ever to maybe the most awesome thing ever. And that's ink tasting. How did this happen?

Azizah Asgarali: Oh, well, yeah, I nearly choked there. Uh, well, it was kind of an accident. Um, because, you know, sometimes pens do weird things and splatter ink on your face and your ears and you get it all over your hands. And somehow ink just ended up in my mouth. And I was like, what is that? And, and it occurred to me, oh my goodness, there is an entire different profile of inks that we are all ignoring. Now, another one of my awesome skills is that I have an excellent sense of smell and taste. So I was like, I am not going to waste this. So I figured I would just sample the inks and see if different color. I mean, the dyes must taste different. The, uh, the other additives that are put in there must change the flavors. And I was really surprised. Most inks are really salty or rusty. And my favorite ink is Visconti turquoise because it's sweet.

Brad Dowdy: That's amazing. I, I haven't gone there yet. And every time, every time I see you talking about it, I was like, I need to probably do this. I just haven't brought myself to do it yet.

Azizah Asgarali: I have been warned against doing it. I'm sure. Uh, apparently it's really bad for, well, it's not bad. Ink is not safe to ingest. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So let's have our Surgeon General's warning here. Um, do not try this at home, please. I don't want your, uh, medical bills from you chugging a bottle of ink. Please don't do that.

Azizah Asgarali: It's, it's not, it's not all that wise. And, um, I, I, uh, I have gone on hiatus after. I love Sailor Inks. Like, absolutely love them to pieces. But I tasted, I think it was, um, it was, uh, one of the Bung Box inks, the Sapphire. And I, I nearly choked to death because it was so bitter and acrid. It like shut my throat up.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's bad.

Azizah Asgarali: It's the sheen in it. The sheen, the ones with sheen have serious acrid flavor. So I, since then I was like, okay, well, in the interest of not dying, I'm going to go on an ink tasting hiatus.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: And, uh, I miss it because it is interesting, but, um, I do not miss having a burnt throat for, you know, several hours after.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Yeah. So, well, good. That's probably good that that, that's retired. But I guess, I guess related, you know, your, your sense of smell is really strong as well. Does your opinion change on an ink when you're using it because it smells better than another one? Does that, is that a better ink for you to use?

Azizah Asgarali: I love, I love. Like, Taylor is, it has that kind of like a wet paint smell.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's very strong.

Azizah Asgarali: I, I know a lot of people hate it, but I, I'm crazy about it. And Nubler smells like Nubler's. And I love that too. And most inks just smell like nothing. I'm like, oh, boring.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You could totally do a blind like smell test and you would get like a hundred percent, right?

Azizah Asgarali: Definitely. I do that with ballpoint inks too. It's really weird. It's, I don't know. I wouldn't call it a talent because, well, no, it is a talent, but I wouldn't really call it a useful talent. It's, it's weird. I like, I like smelling things and paper and books.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's, it's, it's all that, that tactile thing that we like about, so it's why we like stationary because it has all this tactile stuff that you're not getting when you're sitting in front of a computer, you know, we don't exercise, exercise these things anymore. Like we used to.

Azizah Asgarali: It stimulates other senses.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Azizah Asgarali: It's so, it's so, um, it's so satisfying in so many ways. And it's, I really like it. I like sniffing my ink as I write. I sometimes lean over and sniff the page and I'm like, okay, I'm in public. I shouldn't do this. So, you know, don't do this in public.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. That's right. And, and don't, don't taste it at all. We'll, we'll leave that, uh, don't take that for the past.

Azizah Asgarali: Yes. It is definitely a historic thing. And, um, that there it shall remain because nobody wants to die from ingestion.

Brad Dowdy: Please don't. I don't want to read those obituaries from, uh, anyone who listened to the show, please.

Brad Dowdy: So one of the other things I want to cover, which it just hit me, you know, um, well after I'd started preparing for this show is you've, you've lived in a lot of different places and, you know, a lot of time in the U S and now a good bit of time in Europe. Have you noticed like any stationary peculiarities that, you know, one region has as opposed to the other one? And I know that's just like a super broad general question, but I got to thinking, what kind of things do you notice in Europe versus the U S or vice versa from a stationary perspective?

Azizah Asgarali: Well, um, one thing on a very broad note is that there are a lot of stationary stores here and, um, like brick and mortar stores. Right. It's a really nice specialized kind where they have, you know, like a new old stock pen that you've been looking for for 15 years and couldn't find. And they just have it sitting there and they're like, Oh yeah. You know, they haven't changed the price on it cause they bought it 15 years ago. So it's dirt cheap and it has this unbelievable nib and you're like, okay, I'll take that. Well, I mean, you find the gems because these stores still exist here and, or they're easier to find. Right. That there's just so many of them. I, I, I, I miss that about like, I miss having that or a wish we could have that in North America because, but I guess it's just too big. I mean, the cities are too far apart.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Do you find it to be like a, not that, um, it's not socially acceptable here, but do you see it kind of mingled in through society more just stationary in general?

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, it's, I, I, I can't put my finger on it. Like, I can't explain exactly why. Maybe it's because it's in more in school still. I, uh, and also the older generation still engage in snail mail more frequently.

Brad Dowdy: Um, I think your, I think your point, yeah. I think your point about just the, the proximity of the cities and, and things like that. I think it, I think that's a good point that I didn't really consider like, you know, probably, you know, historically a lot of these cities had, you know, writing centers that, you know, these people grew up with and they probably, you know, now, you know, it's, it's not as prevalent as it used to be, but there's still, you know, the small towns are probably going to have their, their pen and ink and stationary shops. Right.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And those are the ones that have, have the hidden gems. Yeah. I, I've picked up like sailor apricot in these places. I bought like three bottles. I was like, I'll take your entire stock. All right.

Brad Dowdy: You're going to be banned. You're now banned from this show.

Azizah Asgarali: Because it's, I, they just have these stores and there's so many, there's also so many people. So I think, I guess the, the demand for these kinds of stores used to be higher in, in closer proximity. And so in general, there are just more stores. And of course that means there's, and then there's also that, I mean, Lamy is German and there's Mont Blanc and Pelican and they're all fairly close. And then the Italian brands, they're all, they're, I guess the.

Brad Dowdy: And these are all historic brands that have been there for a hundred years. So there's, there's things that pop up, you know, that have been sitting there for 50 years that.

Azizah Asgarali: Definitely. Oh God. It's, it's nice. And I think as the, the paper world grows and the stationary world evolves, this place is a little slower to catch up. And like the new stuff, like Tomore River is, it's, it's really hard to get here unless you're importing it. And of course, super expensive. Sure. Sure. But, but the old stuff you can get like laid paper is really easy to get and, and, and classic types of pens and ink. But it's fun if you're looking for older stuff. But if you were trying to keep up with the new stuff, then you have to go to the new stores.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha.

Azizah Asgarali: And the new stores are doing a good job of, of bringing this in. Fortunately, like they're, they're, they're staying on top of things, but there's a good blend of the old stores and the new stores now.

Brad Dowdy: That's great.

Azizah Asgarali: It's very nice.

Brad Dowdy: That's very, that's very cool. I, I, I'm actually, I'm, I'm like super jealous. I mean, that's like, it sounds like just an awesome, you know, environment to just to be in, you know, every now and then you might discover something that, you know, you don't, you don't have that anymore. Or like in the U S there is no discovery of those old things because it just flat out, not an opportunity to exist.

Azizah Asgarali: So, or they've been discovered already by everybody else. Yeah. Exactly. There's a lot, there's a lot left to be explored. So I have not yet seen all of the pen stores though. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I want to talk about a purchase you recently made that has blown my mind, but I want to talk about one of our favorite online stores first. And that's our, our good friends at Pen Chalet. So you guys, you guys know Pen Chalet. They sell wonderful pens, fountain pens, roller balls, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, paper goods, wonderful brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, everything. Authorized dealers. They have wonderful, wonderful, fast shipping, great customer service. They run discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. And they're always adding new stuff and getting new deals in for the pen community. They have free shipping in the U.S. for orders over $50. They have international shipping with great, reasonable rates. And they do something cool for the pen addict. If you go over to penchalet.com and type pen addict in the radio podcast button, click that button, which is usually my task while Myke's reading this ad. So I'm going to do that now. Let's see. We're going to type in pen addict and see what is new this week. So you can only get your regular discount of 10% off. You get an additional 10% off with pen addict using the coupon pen addict. And when you check out. So the first thing that pops up is the Platinum 3776 Demonstrator. The Psy, a medium and broad nibs for $121.50. That's stupid. That's just a really good price for an amazing pen. I love Platinum nibs. What do you think about Platinum nibs? I'm a huge Platinum nib player.

Azizah Asgarali: Those are outstanding pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Pen Purchase

Azizah Asgarali: I think if you're looking for a pen in that, like at that price, that is the pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's just a fantastic deal from Ron at Pen Chalet. And I don't expect this to last. I mean, it's essentially 50% off. And then 10 more percent off of that for pen addict listeners if you use the coupon code pen addict. So that's a jump all over a deal. I would, except I already own this pen because it's that good. And I appreciate Pen Chalet. So head over, use the code pen addict, get 10% off on any order, click the podcast link at the top of the page and go to town. So this is a wonderful deal. So check that out. And thanks so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the pen addict. Man, that's a good deal.

Azizah Asgarali: That's superb. I just got one of the Bouganios from him.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: So gorgeous. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I want to talk about another good deal you just got. And that's on the Mont Blanc Moon Pearl Legrand fountain pen. That was a great deal, wasn't it?

Azizah Asgarali: Well, it was a great deal in that I paid a lot of money and I'm obsessed with it because it's shiny.

Brad Dowdy: So let me set this up a little bit. So we'll link this into the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: I have never seen this Mont Blanc before. I do not own a Mont Blanc and I'm going to change that soon. But it's not going to be this one because this one's really expensive. But I've never seen this much platinum trim on a Mont Blanc that's come out so well. I don't, you know, I don't love the gold furniture on pens. Some of it, I find some of it acceptable and I'll use it. This pen and the pen shape especially of this pen is fascinating to me in that I think I would love it. And which is scary to read your review about this pen. So tell me how this pen came on your radar and how you end up purchasing in this and now own this really legitimately amazing pen. I mean, there's some high-end pens that, you know, I dislike and, you know, are just too gaudy, ugly. This is a stunner and I would kill to have this pen in my collection. So tell us about it.

Azizah Asgarali: It's very dangerous. This is the problem with having all these stationary stores. Because, you know, it's like, okay, I'll just hop on the train and like an hour later, I'm walking into La Coulon de Conte. And I was, okay, the actual reason I went there was to get a platinum 3776. And I was, so the problem was that he's like, okay, well, here you go. And I sat down and they're super friendly and I was trying it out. And then I was looking at his display case and I was like, what is that pen? And it was the Mont Blanc. And it was sitting on this little, I think it's rosewood, the little display stand. That it comes with. And it's just like glittering under the light. And I was like, okay, I just want to touch it. Just to see, you know, I have no interest in this pen. Yeah, that was your first mistake. I will not purchase it. Yeah, yeah. Well, my first mistake was actually going there. I just wanted to touch it. And he, you know, he brings it out and I dipped it and I tested it out.

Azizah Asgarali: And it was insanely expensive. And I know it was crazy. And I did not buy it for like status. It's not because it's a Mont Blanc or something. I was just looking at it. And the Mother of Pearl, like it's like black Tahitian oyster. And it has to be cut into strips. And it's just such a, it was so well made and so beautifully done. And like the way the cap closes so smoothly. And I was like, oh, shit. And then he's like, wait, let me show you the packaging. He brings out the box. And I hate packaging.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm with you. Thank you. Thank you for saying that.

Azizah Asgarali: I just throw it out. I'm like, no, not worth it. Thank you for saying that. And I feel bad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I feel like I'm on an island on that. I don't care about your packaging, people.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. And I get mad when it's nice. And I'm like, well, I don't want to keep it because it's not useful. So what they provided was they have like this oyster themed stationery set, like correspondence cards, a bottle of their oyster ink, and the little stand that it sits on. So I was like, okay, this is actually useful packaging. So I can live with this. And I spent about two hours sitting there just like basically petting the pen. And, you know, he's kind of watching me because he's like, is it safe to leave her with this pen while I tend to other customers? Yeah. But I had no intention of buying it. And I did leave with it. And then I came home and panicked and sold about 10 or 15 pens to actually pay for it. And the thing is, it was insane. And I know it was completely expensive. And I know it's a premium. I know I paid a crazy premium. But I used that one pen more than all the 10 pens I sold combined. So for me, it was worth it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the snow cap on the cap, that Mother of Pearl, I've never seen one like that. Mont Blanc does lots of fancy pens, and I certainly haven't checked them out over the years. That looks as good as anything they've ever done, in my opinion. It's stunning. It really is.

Azizah Asgarali: This whole pen, the way they put it together, for me, it really floats my boat. It was really well done. And again, I really was attracted to it because it's pretty. And that's stupid. No.

Pen Ownership

Brad Dowdy: But it's not stupid because it's for you, right? I mean... It's for me, yeah. It doesn't matter, right? Yeah. Like, I love... Like, I personally would not buy this pen. And I... It just doesn't seem like me. But what I see in this pen that fascinates me are things like the shape of this pen. And the size, the platinum trim, the exquisite work done on this pen, you know that this is just an amazing pen. Yeah. And I've looked over this review of yours countless times because it's really a drool-worthy pen, whether, you know, you're ever going to own one or not. But just looking at the craftsmanship for something like this is what fascinates me the most. And, you know, if we ever meet in person, and hopefully we will one day, you better still have this pen and I better get to try it.

Azizah Asgarali: I suspect this pen will be with me, like, going to the grave with me.

Azizah Asgarali: I think. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's one of those kind of pens.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. It's really lovely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, to wrap this up, I asked a bunch of listeners what questions they had for you. So, you want to take on a few of these and I'll get you out of here?

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. Absolutely. I love answering questions. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's exciting. And these are some pretty good ones, too. And you may have seen one. So, you've probably done a little bit of research on these. But I thought this first one, I'm going to just go ahead and leave with the best one because I thought it was fantastic. Do you ever fight with Steven over pens and inks? This is from our friend David Brennan. Is there any knockdown drag outs? Where's my pen? What have you done with it? Where's this ink? It's my favorite ink and it's gone now. What did you do, Aziza?

Azizah Asgarali: Well, it's not me that gets blamed. He sometimes delves into my stash. And I'm sitting here this one day and he inks up his, he's got a giant opera master and that has a big ink capacity. And I was like, oh, what ink is that? And he's like, Sailor Apricot. And I was like, what?

Azizah Asgarali: I was like, I did. Oh, my God. And then, you know, I'm like, okay, okay. Be reasonable. You have several bottles. You can share. And he's like, oh, was I not allowed to use it? And I was like, no, no, no. You can use it. It's okay. Pens we can share. It's okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's like the perfect answer. That's amazing.

Azizah Asgarali: But ink?

Brad Dowdy: I can totally see that happening. Oh, that's perfect.

Azizah Asgarali: And it's just the apricot. I'm like, you can use any other ink. Right. But don't be touching the apricot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because that was like one third of the bottle to fill that pen.

Azizah Asgarali: Exactly. That's the problem. And he's like, I don't really like it. I was like, are you nuts?

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Yeah. So, yeah. He's fired. We're going to have to lock that cabinet up.

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Review Process

Brad Dowdy: All right. From Chiroho on Twitter. How long does it take for you to do a review? What's your reviewing like? How do you set things up? Do you kind of bulk plan? Do you just sit down and do one at a time? How long does it take you? Tell us about that.

Azizah Asgarali: I usually take it depending on what I have coming in. And so it varies. But I think I was kind of disturbed when I sat down and kind of went through this to realize how much time it takes me to do a review. And I was like, this is where all my time goes.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Azizah Asgarali: I mean, there's pictures. There's editing the pictures. There's testing the item. Written samples. I also do a lot of research on the pen and the company so I can see if I can integrate it into the review. And then writing the actual, I draft my reviews like on paper because that's what we should be doing. Sure. And then sometimes I rewrite portions. So in the end for the average pen, like one that's not like my ultimate pen or something, I spend at least eight to ten hours on a review.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Azizah Asgarali: Which is crazy.

Brad Dowdy: No, I can totally see how that happens. And I've definitely had ones that take that because you're not sitting down for eight and ten hours in a chunk. You're sitting down one or two hours here and there. And you don't realize by the end, by the time you hit publish, how much has actually gone into this. And you're like, what just happened?

Azizah Asgarali: It's a lot of time. And I mean, testing the pen, I test them thoroughly. I spend weeks if I'm allowed to keep it for weeks. Yeah. At least weeks. But if it's my own pen, I spend months with it.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Azizah Asgarali: Before I actually put up a review. So I mean, eight to ten hours is like the bare minimum, I would say. And it's scary. And for ink reviews, I do the same. I spend, I put the ink in all sorts of pens and I test it in all sorts of papers. And that, so that does not really, I mean, my ink reviews do not show all the work that goes into it before the actual review goes up.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Azizah Asgarali: So it's scary.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, they're very thorough and they're very wonderful. So I know everyone appreciates all the time that goes into that because it's a lot.

Azizah Asgarali: I hope they're useful. I mean, it's, you know, otherwise it's just kind of a waste, but at least if people enjoy them, it's worth it.

Brad Dowdy: So on that, on that note, how many pens and inks are, are inked at one time? Like how many pens do you have inked up in kind of in use at once, do you think?

Azizah Asgarali: I, I would say I probably have about 30 inks at a given time, which is not too bad. I mean, usually it's like 20 of my own and 10 that are in the review process.

Azizah Asgarali: But I think that's pretty reasonable.

Azizah Asgarali: Right. Right. Maybe.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. It's easy. It's okay. We'll allow it.

Brad Dowdy: That's a lot. But I don't know anyone that uses their pens more than you. I mean, I'm always seeing you writing and testing. So yeah, I can, I can easily see how that happens. What do you, what do you think the total, the total pen count of just, just you is in like decent fountain pens. We're not talking about like every little thing, but like, if you said I have X number of fountain pens, what do you think that number is?

Azizah Asgarali: I think you'd be scared at how reasonable it is. I think I have about 40 pens.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah.

Azizah Asgarali: Which is like, like ignoring like my like pilot petite one parallel, but like real fountain pens, probably definitely no more than 40.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's good. And you also just had a, a cleansing behind that, uh, uh, moon pearl here recently too. And we were able to get rid of some.

Azizah Asgarali: That was kind of not really a choice, but it's good. I mean, I think for me doing that every now and then it's good because, uh, I don't want to have too many pens. I want to have fewer pens that I'm just like madly in love with.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Azizah Asgarali: And I'm okay with that.

Brad Dowdy: And how about storage wise? Where do you have any particular storage? So this is a combination of questions, uh, here from Phil and Tanya all in the, in the Slack room.

Azizah Asgarali: Storage is pretty, pretty straightforward. I mean, with so few pens, I just use one of those, uh, Delta, I think the Marchiaro pouches and it's got like the padded thing in between. Yep. And, um, and for my currently inked, I put them into the Scanti 12 pen pouches because I don't have to slip them into elastics every single time I use them and take them out. Yeah. So it's just more convenient just to pop it out of the case. Yep. But, uh, I don't have that many anymore, which is, it's confusing and nice. And I'm not a collector. I, I'm really, uh, I'm a hardcore user. That sounds crazy. If you listen to that out of context, I'm a user and, uh, that works for me. That, that definitely does.

Brad Dowdy: That's, I mean, we totally believe in that. And I think most people in the community, at least, you know, that are following us, reading our blogs are, are the same way. So that, that, that's perfect.

Azizah Asgarali: They can relate.

Brad Dowdy: What, uh, what about pen shows? This is, uh, who said, this is from Cindy. She said, what about, uh, pen shows? Do you, you and Steven attend any pen shows in Europe? Are there plans to make it over to the U S to some of the bigger ones like DC, things like that? What's your, what's your pen show status?

Azizah Asgarali: We, we do attend the Tilburg pen show here. It's very close. And, uh, there are quite a few pen shows here, but, uh, most of them are just one day, like five hours. Gotcha. And so we, we haven't invested in like flying over somewhere to go to one of those. We, we really would like to attend the DC show. And last year we wanted to go, but I had this, I was not able to attend. So we figured, well, if I can't go, there's no point in going. Gotcha. Although he could have, but, um, we would, we are aiming for this year. Oh, cool. So we are working towards it. And like, as we sell things, it goes into like a DC pen show fund and let's hope we actually make it there.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Nice.

Azizah Asgarali: It would be really awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that would be awesome. Yeah. I think everyone would love that. And I think you would love hitting that show. Last year was my first one and we had a super, super great time. So we would love that.

Azizah Asgarali: And, uh, I would love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, speaking of super great time, this podcast was super great and it was awesome to have you. It was way too long in the making and we will definitely have to do it again soon. What do you think?

Azizah Asgarali: Yeah, it was great. Thank you so much for having me on. And, you know, we talked about all sorts of things and it was a pleasure.

Brad Dowdy: It really, it genuinely was. This was, uh, uh, I'm going to go ahead and say it on the episode. This was a wonderful episode. One of my favorites. So I appreciate that. That's fantastic. So, uh, tell, uh, tell all our listeners, if they don't already know where they can find you online.

Azizah Asgarali: I am gourmet pens.com and on all social media, I am gourmet pen. So it's easy peasy to remember. And, uh, that's, that's pretty much it.

Brad Dowdy: Perfect. And, uh, you can find me, you guys know at penaddict.com. I'm on Twitter at dowdyism because the guy at penaddict won't sell me my name. And, uh, you can find me on, you can find me on Instagram at penaddict as well. So thank you, Aziza. Um, thank you listeners. And, uh, we will talk to y'all again soon. Say goodbye, Aziza.

Azizah Asgarali: Bye-bye. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Bye.