The Pen Addict 194/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	194
Title:	Forged by Pure Evil
Release Date:	February 24th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 194
Audio File:	Audio Episode 194
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 194
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 194. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and all the analogue tools we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined, as always, by the wonderful, the wondrous, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: What's up, Michael J. Hurley? Are you a J?

Myke Hurley: I have a J. I have a D and a J.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Oh, wow. Wait, you have four names? Is that a British thing?

Myke Hurley: No, it's something that my mum wanted to do. So, like, when my older brother, his two middle names are the names, first names of both of my granddads. So then I think she wanted to keep the tradition, and my names are just, like, random. Just like she had three names that she liked for me and just gave me all of them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I just got stuck on a Michael J. Fox vibe, so I went with it.

Myke Hurley: It was close enough, and I don't mind that comparison at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm with you. Close enough. So what we got going on today, man, this looks like a chock full of topics kind of show.

Kickstarter

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is one of my favorite type things here. But we got to start off by talking about the Kickstarter. Okay. Because as we record this, we didn't talk about it last week purposefully. We didn't want to overload people. But as we record this on Wednesday the 24th, there are three days left to go. So you're going to mark that in your calendar. If you have not yet backed the RelayCon Atlanta Panadict Live Kickstarter, you only have a couple of days to go. And I want to underscore a couple of things. You will miss out on the awesome notebooks. We have those fantastic notebooks that Brad has been working really hard on, and they can look amazing. And that's the way that you're going to get those is through this Kickstarter. But I think even more importantly is the video. So we're going to be doing, as we did last year, a video version of episode 200. So that will be me, Brad, and Anna with our live studio audience that will be recorded. The audio will be out as normal for everyone. But if you want to see the video version, which was amazing last year, you will want to get that and check it out. Now, we have learned a lot from last year, so it's going to be even better. And there will also be a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff where the three of us will be showing mainly, this was, I think, the best thing in the video last time, the stuff that we bought at the show.

Brad Dowdy: Right. We don't do that as part of the live episode, generally.

Myke Hurley: No. We mention the things that we bought, but actually going into detail, showing all the stuff that we've purchased, showing some cool things that we find at the show, some backstage kind of stuff of the parties, and all that kind of stuff. The only way that you're going to see this is by backing the Kickstarter. We won't release the video afterwards as we did last time. So if you want to get it, get in and get it. And it looks like that we're actually going to beat last year's funding goal as well, which is absolutely amazing. So thank you so much to everybody that has pledged. Thank you so much to everybody that will. We really appreciate you helping us make RelayCon Atlanta happen again. We love you very dearly.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So on that topic, you snuck something in. You purposefully did something and didn't tell me about it this week.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And it kind of relates to that because you know that I listen to a lot of podcasts, and you know specifically that I listen to Thoroughly Considered, which is with our friends Tom and Dan from Studio Neat. And they talk about, you know, building products and launching Kickstarters and do all these things. And I just had it queued up in my podcast player. And I didn't, you know, read the title. I didn't look at the show notes. It just started going. Then, like, y'all start right into talking about our Kickstarters for the Atlanta Pen Show, the one we did last year and the one we did this year. And I thought, okay, well, this is just like a little interlude type of a topic. But y'all went the whole episode talking about this, and it was really, really interesting to hear how that show played out. I went from, like, yelling at my speaker to, like, okay, this worked out, like, perfectly. So why don't you tell everyone what happened, how this episode happened, what it was kind of about. And, you know, I can interject some things in there, too.

Myke Hurley: So basically on the show, I'm Thoroughly Considered, we usually talk about the products that Dan and Tom make and the thinking that goes into it. But obviously one of the big underpinnings of the way that they work is Kickstarter. It's a big part of their business. So considering the fact that I am part of a currently running Kickstarter, we decided to turn the spotlight on me for an episode, and we spoke about the Pen Addict Kickstarter, why we did it. We spoke about last year's and why we do it and stuff like that. And one of the big themes of the episode was Dan and Tom not understanding why me and Brad don't want to make a ton of money out of this. Because there is possibility for me and Brad, and we know this, to make a lot more money from the Pen Addict Kickstarter than we do.

Brad Dowdy: Why?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, why?

Brad Dowdy: That was the best part of the whole show. Dan, the first time it came up and you relayed that fact that we're not trying to make money on this, Dan about had a conniption.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they really couldn't get it. And I understand that as well. Because, like, it is weird. Because everybody that gives money wants to give money. Like, we're not forcing anybody. But really, this is something that we want to continue doing into the future every year. Something people can expect. And it's really, the intention is to help me get to Atlanta and to help pay for us to do the special episode. Like, that's what it's about. And for me, having more money and making more money and keeping it doesn't feel right. Like, the money that we make from the Kickstarter, as we mentioned before, goes into the community and everything that is based around that show. And we do things for the backers. Like, you know, we did giveaways last year. We're probably going to do the same. And that's just something that's important to us. And it was just funny to have that kind of conversation with them as they were trying to understand why we don't want to make $50,000.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and the further along it got, in the beginning, you know, you were more explaining the hows and whys. And they really weren't getting it. They were, I mean, I guess they were generally getting it. But they kept pushing you to, well, I still don't understand why you don't try to make more money. Why don't you add this? Why don't you do this? Why don't you actually try to, you know, make this as part of your profit? And, excuse me, it took a while to get to the point where you actually told this part, you know, about, well, the reason we do it is, you know, you got deeper into the reasons. And I was like, oh, okay. And they're like, okay, I see that. Then they're like, but still, you know. But it was good. I mean, it's important to me and you to not ask for too much. I don't want to be overbearing to people. I mean, we ask for a lot of things. And you don't want to be constantly hitting people up for money. And you don't want to be forcing things. Because when you do want to do something really cool, that's when you want the support, right? You don't want, you know, just everything to be about money. And we've set that up this way and we couldn't be happier with the results we get from this. And it's just absolutely perfect. And, you know, listen to them. Hear you talk about that was very, very interesting. But it turned out really, really well, I thought. Thank you.

Sustainability

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's the key part of it, right? Is we want to make this a sustainable thing. So we're just being upfront and honest about what we're looking to do. And I think that I'm also, I'm happy that I was able to explain things in a way that you were comfortable with. There was one thing I was worried about is that, like, I was not going to represent your thoughts well enough. But I'm pleased that eventually I did a decent job.

Brad Dowdy: It took a minute. I was a little steamed in the beginning, not at you or at them. But I was just like, this is not, tell them why. Tell them why. I was like, hurry up. Tell them. Tell them why we're doing it. And then you're like, oh, he nailed that. Thank you. But yeah, but that was like more than halfway through the episode, I think. It took a while. Good job. Good job then on the podcast stickiness there. I definitely held in there for a while.

Myke Hurley: We'll put a link to the episode in the show notes. It's thoroughly considered number nine. If you want to go ahead and listen to that, you can.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and it's called Asking for Money, appropriately titled. So what we're going to do right now is ask you for money. No, I'm just kidding. I am going to ask you for a click, though, if that's okay. There's a website that Jeff and I love and a lot of people love called Carryology. And I posted this on the Knock Twitter and tweeted it on my account. They do a Carry Awards every year. And they're probably the best known carry backpack accessory travel website on the planet, in my opinion. And they're doing awards. And they're taking nominations right now. So I'm definitely doing the self-pimp thing under the best accessory category. The Knock Sinclair, I think, would be perfect. And so we put everyone out there. Put the link out there for everyone to see. And hopefully, you know, they'll throw some love Knock Co's way and see if we get past this first round and into, like, the real voting. And you never know how these things play out. But I didn't have a problem sending it out to the crowd and sending some clicks that way.

Myke Hurley: I may have just voted again.

Myke Hurley: I don't encourage multiple votes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But I did it. We're friendly with the Carryology people. We talk to them from time to time. They've reviewed a Brasstown back when we first launched the shop. They have some people that write for them that are fans of the company. But I'd say their general reader doesn't know who Knock is. But it's really good. It's really good. So the best accessory category.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, best accessory is the category that you need to vote in. And it's all – there's no choices. There's no drop-down. You have to write it all in. So Knock Co, Sinclair, tell them why you love it in the best accessory category on the page.

Brad Dowdy: What they're doing right now is getting the information, collecting all the names and brands, and whatever the top ones are, those will go into the final voting for the products of the year.

Myke Hurley: Man, that feels like it would be a nightmare to solve. Because it's all just text entry, right? You have to look at every single entry and categorize them. Woof. Good luck, Carryology people. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we've talked a bunch about the LA Pen Show in the past weeks. And, you know, we just wanted to wrap it up with really a couple more articles related to that. One was Matt Armstrong's – he did a four-part series on the LA Pen Show, so all his thoughts are out there. And his wrap-up on the day four recap I thought was really good. He talked about some of the difficulties he had with, you know, some of the vintage vendors and some of the attitudes at the show. So, I mean, I think generally, you know, it was generally positive. But, you know, there's always, you know, some things we run into. He has a wonderful picture of him with a magnetic knife and fork with me making a derp face in the background. That's a lovely picture. Not my best effort there at the show. No. You know all about that. But, yeah, you know, he talks about these things and, you know, the challenges that we have in bridging the gap between, you know, kind of the old guard and the new guard.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you wrote a great section about this in the Refill newsletter, which is Brad's membership newsletter, which I continue to pimp because I love so dearly. And it is really interesting and echoing some of the writing over at Penavit. But it is interesting to see this. And I can see that there must be a real, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more in a moment. I can see that there must be a real disconnect and fears, maybe the wrong word, but unsureness from the old guard. The people who set up the vintage pen tables and stuff like that, and they see people like me and you, younger people, coming in and we huddle around certain tables because they're in the community. And it must have a real weird feeling and probably something that has only really come about in the last year or two in kind of the pen show circuit.

Brad Dowdy: So a few thoughts on this. I don't know if I've made it clear when I talk about old guard versus new guard that when I say that, I'm not referring to age. I'm referring to attitude.

Myke Hurley: There's literally nothing regarding to age because the pen addict community ranges from people in their teens to people in their 70s, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, absolutely. Without question. So it doesn't have anything to do with age. It's more of an attitude thing.

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, just people with, you know, different attitudes on how they were brought up in the community and have been doing this for decades in a lot of cases. They've experienced, you know, the last 15 or 18 years much differently than we've experienced the last two years, right? It's been a completely different vibe. But I do think, you know, the more I get away from it and the more I'm able to reflect on it, the more I think it's a two-way street as well. So I made a point to say that I need to do a better job in going to these vendors specifically and having a conversation with them, even if I'm not purchasing anything from them. Tell them, hey, you know, who I am, what I do. They roll their eyes. That's fine. You know, hit them up about, you know, why can't I have a conversation with them, you know, like I would with you at the bar. Why can't I have a conversation with Bob at his table and say, wow, how long have you been doing this? You know, where did these pens come from? You know, what's your favorite brand? You know, tell me about this pen. You know, why can, you know, I can make an effort to kind of ease that a little bit. And, you know, it's just kind of breaking down a little bit of a mental barrier that some vendors have when they see someone who they they're making an assumption that they're not into vintage pens because of their age, which is completely, you know, erroneous. So, you know, I think, you know, I can do a better job and we're actually going to do some things in Chicago. We're working on for the Chicago pen show to kind of help that because a lot of vendors in L.A. were coming up to Lisa and saying, you know, this happened to us in Atlanta. What's going on? You know, what is why are all these young people here at our pen show?

Myke Hurley: You know, why are they hanging around your table? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But then they understand that, you know, well, we're into this hobby, too. And, you know, we're certainly happy to be there and want to be there. So I don't know. It's, you know, you hate to see issues. There's always going to be issues. But there are plenty of times where, you know, us as a community can help bridge that gap to, you know, be super friendly to these people, you know, check them, check them, check out their their pens and paper and everything and just strike up a conversation with them. Even if you're not no interest in purchasing, you know, that it just kind of chips away a little bit here and there. And I think that's something I can do a better job with. On that note.

Brad Dowdy: On that note, our good friend, Father Kyle, who's in the chat room today, did an exemplary job of getting some thoughts out in a post he launched this morning called Letter to the Pen Addict Community.

Myke Hurley: It doesn't surprise me that Father Kyle wrote something like this because he's one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. And he will be in Atlanta this year. I've confirmed just right before the show. I was like, you're going to be there, right? That was my favorite selfie from from last year's Atlanta Pen Show, by the way, mine with Father Kyle. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: So he's coming at it from the point of how would you say this where he doesn't he's not taking me to task, but he's pointing out that, you know, certain people in the communities word carries a lot of weight. Yep. And that you a lot of people who listen to the show, read all the blogs in the community, really, you know, hang on the words that some people say about certain products and reviews and things like that. And, you know, I don't necessarily think of it that way, but I understand it is that way. Like, that's a fact. Like, he is true that if I say something positive or negative, it moves the needle that way. That's just part of the deal now. It's grown. That is a fact. It's grown big enough to where that's the case. And the one thing I wanted to talk about, I guess, the most in this is Father Kyle's post is kind of around how the old guard was in a different time and they had to figure this stuff out on their own. And they had to make the mistakes that a lot of us in this information age don't have to make because we have so much content and community online where we can get this information. It's like the old guards been through those battles. They've lived it. They understand, you know, what pens are their favorites, what pens are the best. They've, you know, probably wasted all kinds of money and time going down the wrong path, finding all these things out, you know, the hard way, if you will. And nowadays, I can come up to a table, a vintage table and say, you know, I want a vacuumatic major with a double jewel and a blue with a stub nib and this type of thing. You know, I can reel out 10 things of the specific vacuumatic that I want where he's had to figure out all this stuff on his own, you know, for the day.

Myke Hurley: Looking them up, looking at them, like, and working it out by using them and making mistakes. Like, it's a totally different way of doing these things where the information age has completely changed that because we have your website. We have, like, the forums to go and look at all of this stuff before ever even needing to go to a table at a pen show.

Brad Dowdy: But I do think that one of my core beliefs with the pen addict is I do want to make those mistakes for people. You know, I mean, I'm okay with that if I can help someone make a better decision. So that's never going to change from my perspective.

Myke Hurley: Well, because fundamentally, I believe, as I'm sure you do, too, that that is a service to people. Like, the reason that this stuff exists, the reason we do this show, the reason you do the site is so people don't have to make those mistakes with their money.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. Which is, you know, some of the things that I did when I was starting the blog, you know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I bought a Visionaire, right? So you didn't have to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I enjoy doing that. I'm luckily fortunate to be in a position to do that. And, you know, I'll continue doing that, you know, giving my honest opinions about products. But in the end, kind of how Father Kyle points to, it's still just one man's opinion.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there is a middle ground to be found here. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I mean, in this, you know, the way I write reviews, I write it from my point of view. It's a personal review. I do try to point out bigger picture things that more people may have issues with or more people may love. But in the end, is this pen right for me? And what are my thoughts on it? And only because I have a huge base now of reviews that I've done, you know, and people that have been reading the blog for a long time can kind of piece together, like, the things that I like and things that I enjoy. And you know how you kind of know the answers ahead of time a little bit because you've put together the puzzle of me and what I like. But it's still a really good point to understand that it is one person's opinion and that you are going to make mistakes. And leaning on some of the vintage dealers to help answer those questions, you know, I think is really, really good. It's a good idea. And it's something that I want to do more frequently in future shows.

Myke Hurley: Most definitely. I mean, because fundamentally what you need to remember as well is that Brad has taste and his taste informs his decisions. And like you look at even me and you disagree fundamentally on some things. Like, for example, I think the jet stream is an abomination and you think it's amazing, right? So you think about stuff like that and you start to see that maybe you can just take these things as guides rather than like rules about the stuff that you should buy. And I agree that, you know, this is obviously a thing that we're thinking about now is the community starting to grow and change. And this is something that we can all be conscious of when we're in these environments.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I thought that was a really good post by Father Kyle. And it really had some great points in it. So we'll have that link to the show notes and all of y'all should definitely go out and read it if you haven't done so already.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And if your podcast app of choice does not show the show notes to you, you can head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 194 where you will find the link to that and everything else that we discussed today. So let's move on to talking about skulls.

Skulls Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. How's that, Father Kyle? We're going to... Perfect pivot. From our favorite Catholic priest to skulls. So I got a tweet yesterday or two days ago. Have you seen this? And it was a link to a Nakaya page. And I clicked over and I haven't seen it. And the title of the pen is Sumiko, a skull. And it's this ebonite charcoal looking pen body with a gold skull on top of the cap. It's not really like a stopper, but it's like a jeweled cap to the pen. And I was kind of fascinated by it. And then you... The cap's facing backwards on the pen. And I was like, well, why is that? Well, you look at it, the spine of the skull is actually the clip of the pen, which is just nuts. So I'm looking at this. Yeah. And I go, this is a Le Reyes pen if I've ever seen one. And...

Myke Hurley: What do you know?

Brad Dowdy: What do you know? That day... And I tweeted her about this. Maybe he saw it first from there and linked to this. You know, maybe it went kind of backwards. But literally within an hour or two, here comes a post from Leigh with an even awesomer looking skull pen. This skull pen, I could get behind.

Brad Dowdy: Hers is a... It's the same black pen, but it has a standard clip. And I don't know if this is silver or pewter looking skull. It probably says in here. This is a cool pen. I'm interested. You know that I love Nakaya. You know that I don't really love like jeweled adornments, things like this. I'm really kind of fascinated by this pen. What do you think of this pen?

Myke Hurley: This pen looks like it was forged by pure evil.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, it looks like the body of it was found in like a volcano or like in the ground or like, you know, it was pulled out of stone. Right? Like it's some kind of thing. And then they decided to stick a skull on top of it. Now, Leigh does not have the spine on the clip.

Brad Dowdy: No. This one, the skull is turned around facing forward, if you will. So the clip comes out from under the top of the jawline.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So there must be some kind of difference in that. You know, maybe they have different versions of it. Some are more expensive. Some are cheaper. Because the ones that are in this post on the Nakaya page, that looks like gold. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Leigh is not that color either. It's more of like a pewter, as you said. So there's some differences to here.

Myke Hurley: It's always difficult for me and you to work this stuff out because a lot of the pages are translated. And it can be a bit difficult to navigate. But when I first looked at this, I didn't like it. But the more I look at it, I think it's totally badass.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It really is. I don't know. I'm fascinated by it. I have like this huge grin on my face looking at this thing.

Myke Hurley: The more and more I look at it, the more and more I want it. Which is pretty much how I feel about all Nakayas. And I just want one so bad. But I haven't done it yet. 2016. I will buy one. Okay. Cool. But this thing is freaking awesome.

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So I wanted to throw that out there because I just love that stinking pen. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I've forgotten the name of the one that I want, but I know what it is. It's the orange one with the black crack in it.

Omos Brand

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. All right. So I've been a little bit late to the party to the Omos brand. And now it looks like everyone's going to be kind of late to the party because they're going out of business. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: What's happened here?

Brad Dowdy: I saw this floating about. So I haven't totally followed this. It's like I missed a lot when I was out in L.A. You know, missed Dr. Dean's stirring the pot over at FPN and Mont Blanc images. And now his commentary on Omos. That was all going down while I was out in L.A. as well. But Omos looks like they're literally going out of business. Like the people are gone. They're not making pins anymore. And this is a pin that I was I'm really looking forward to like having more of because I love them so much. And, you know, I don't have much to say about the business of it. I don't know much about it, but it's sad to see like a super well-respected company like this. One that I've just discovered in the past year, one that I can tell quality wise is superior to many, many other products on the market that they're just going to be up and gone. 90 years they were in business for. And, you know, they make higher end pins. You know, it's they make really, really nice products. They generally make them in smaller, smallish quantities. And every Omos I've ever picked up has just written beautifully. And like, you know, they're definitely a pin that makes you say, wow, when you feel them and use them. So it's kind of sad to see this happen as I was just like discovering the brand. But, you know, that's why we have our our favorite vintage dealers and people who can dig up different things from from different brands that have have gone by the wayside. But I do hate seeing a brand like Omos go.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's a shame. It's a shame.

Brad Dowdy: So I want you to try an Omos or two when you're in Atlanta, just so you have the feel of it and see why I feel like it's kind of a different pin just in the way the way it works for me. The quality, the style, the fit, finish and the performance are all like 10 out of 10s to me. I mean, they're pretty great.

Myke Hurley: This is no way to judge the brand or judge why this has happened. But all I know is in the circles that we operate and they're not brought up very much. Right. And I don't know if that's, you know, if that means anything. But that's the only data point that I have is that. Right. I never really talk about them. I never really hear anybody talk about them. And, you know, I don't know if that maybe they just weren't that popular anymore. I'm not sure what's happened here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's interesting to see. And, you know, I don't know if something will happen with a buyout or bankruptcy. I don't know if all that's all that, you know, bird has has flown the coop or if it's just like done done. Or is there an option for someone to come in here and resurrect it? I don't know.

Myke Hurley: Maybe the Estabrook people will pick it up.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, Lord. Yeah. Oh, don't even go there. I haven't heard about them for a while. I won't ask. I was just talking about them last night, but no, no news really since like DC last year was kind of the last hurrah. I'm assuming they still exist, but I'm really not sure why.

Brad Dowdy: I picked up a new pen from Japan this week.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. What is this thing?

Brad Dowdy: It's called the Pilot Timeline. And I've reviewed the Pilot Ageless before, which JetPens carries and JetPens carry some timelines. It's a it's a really unique, small profile pen. The Ageless, I think, is the gel ink model. The timelines are the ballpoint models. And they have this two stage advancement mechanism to to get the get the tip out. And it's a really good pen. You know, they kind of have proprietary refill. So like the gel pen, you're kind of stuck with the point seven. It looks like the ballpoint is a little bit different. And you might have some options to play around with that. I'm going to look at it. But I actually enjoy point seven millimeter ballpoints because they really write about a point five millimeter line. So that's nice. And I've always loved the shape and design of these products. And then someone on Instagram tweeted a newer pilot timeline just from Japan. It's like a black matte black clip with like a with a dark wood section. I was like, I got to have this pen. And someone sent me a link to where I could purchase it from Japan. And I sure as heck did. It was like 50, 50 bucks or so. I think I was like, well, I'm just going to get it because I'll this is just one I want to have in the collection. Just because it's cool looking. And it is cool looking. It works great. I wrote about four pages with it in a like in a small field notes yesterday while I was waiting in the in the kids carpool line. I love I really like having this pen. So, you know, there's not too much to say about it other than I had to get it from Japan. And it's awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's I just wanted to point it out because it's a bit of a looker.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what I mean. Obviously, that's what what was the selling factor for me. And luckily, I had reviewed one of these before. So I knew how the mechanism worked and I enjoyed it. And I like the size and feel of the pen. So this is a this is a really good carry pen just because it's not too big. It's completely retractable and it looks killer.

Myke Hurley: All right. So what else is on the list today?

Brad Dowdy: The VAC mini review I did just went up.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So I haven't even read this like you put it up literally as we were about to start recording. So I guess to recap, it's the vacuum filling TWSBI in the mini form, right?

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So it came out a few months ago. Yeah. And, you know, a bunch of people reviewed it right out the gate.

Brad Dowdy: Opinions were mixed on it. And rightfully so. TWSBI definitely brings out a lot of opinions. I'm a TWSBI fan. I love this pen. Though the one issue I have is the clip on the cap is kind of wobbly. I don't like that. Outside of that, everything else about this pen is really, really good for me. The size is not too small. It's actually larger than the standard mini. It's more comfortable to write with. The grip section's larger, longer, I should say. So it's more comfortable. It fits in the hand great. The filling system's killer. With one shot of the vac, I get about two-thirds of a barrel full. And you can turn it over, pull the plunger back out, and redo it again to get a full if you like. But, I mean, two-thirds of ink in that barrel is going to out-capacity pretty much any other pin on the market. Like I look at the Eco.

Myke Hurley: The Eco's barrel is pretty small. This thing is all barrel, man.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's all capacity in there. So the only kind of kicker with it is the price point. It's in a weird little price point with TWSBI's brand, you know, because you can get the full-size 580 AL for the same price. Which, if you're buying your first TWSBI, that's where I would go, the 580 AL. I call this pin, this is the second TWSBI you buy, right? This isn't the first one you're going to go to because there's quirks with the vacuum filling system. It's difficult to clean. You have to remember to twist open the blind cap if you're writing for a long period of time to let the ink flow good. But there's huge positives too, just like ink capacity and being able to seal it off if you're traveling with it. You know, the mechanism will seal off the hole and stop ink from flowing to the nib, you know, while you're traveling. So I'm a big fan of this pin. I love it. I don't have, I don't really have many negatives to say. I wish the clip was tighter. That's about it. You know, I think it's just a cool pin. It looks awesome too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it does. It's a good look, especially when you get a nice colorful ink in there, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like what do you have in there? What is that blur?

Brad Dowdy: So this is Omos Turquoise. So speaking of the now retired Omos, this is a really nice turquoise ink. So I know a bunch of people have been buying up Omos inks because they like them so much. They're very standard, kind of middle of the road, good performing, great cleaning type of ink. So it's really good.

Myke Hurley: And there is a lesser spotted dowdy hand in this.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that's infrequent, you know, fuzzy hands in the picture there. Yeah, that doesn't get in there too much. I would need a manicure and probably something else. So yeah, but I wanted to show the length of it that it's not even remotely too short to write with for me. And I have average size hands, you know, my hands aren't too big, aren't too small, just kind of normal. So the length of the pen works well.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it looks like it fits. It just fits in nicely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and the mini, the regular mini, which I don't write with posted either and never had an issue with, it's almost a half inch shorter. So it's definitely shorter. And so this is great.

Myke Hurley: How would you compare this to the Eco?

Brad Dowdy: To the Eco?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they're completely polar opposite type of pens.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: They're not even in the same category of pen.

Myke Hurley: This isn't a choice at all.

Brad Dowdy: No. I wouldn't. For a first time user, for the first time, for a first time user, I would recommend about three other Twisbees before this one.

Myke Hurley: All right. Fair enough.

Brad Dowdy: That's good to know. But if you're familiar with the brand and familiar with its style of pen, I would totally recommend the pen.

New Pens

Myke Hurley: Talking about new pens, I have a new pen. Oh, yeah? That arrived this morning. But let's take a break before I spill the beans. Okay, cool. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Harry's. Oh, Harry's. Do we love Harry's, Brad? Yes, we do indeed. I'm going to ask you all about Harry's in a moment. But one of the things that we love about Harry's is how they make shaving less expensive. It can be really annoying just not only to buy blades, but the fact that you have to buy overpriced blades. And having to use those blades, those expensive blades on your face without replacing them, right, because they're so expensive, that can lead to a lesser quality shave as well. One of the best things that you can do when you're shaving is replace that blade frequently. But with all of the current brands that are out in the drugstores, that can be really expensive. And this is what Harry's sold. They make their own blades, their own German engineered, so you know they're good, five blade cartridges. They'll give you a close, comfortable shave without cuts and razor burn. Harry's guarantee their quality, and they'll give a full refund if you're not happy. They offer a high quality shave at about half the price of a big brown blade, so you'll be able to change that blade more frequently and get that fresh shave. On average, an everyday shaver saves $150 a year using Harry's, and over one million people have made the switch to Harry's blades. For just $15, you can get their fantastic starter set, which will get you a razor, moisturizing shave cream, and three razor blades. Mr. Brad Dowdy, please wax lyrical about Harry's.

Brad Dowdy: I don't have anything much to wax lyrical on, but I did have another funny anecdote, which always seems to pop up related to Harry's. For some day, it was one day last week where I was, yeah, I'm a morning person. I like to get up, get going. You usually have to take the kids to school, you know, shower, shave in the morning, but for some reason, I was late. One day, doing that, so I just started working, had a bunch of other errands to run, and didn't take a shower until the afternoon, and I walked past my wife, like, you know, like 30 minutes or an hour later, she's like, you smell good. It's like, like this was an abnormal thing. I'm like, no, it's because I took a shower late, and I just put on the, the Harry's aftershave gel, so I, yes, I do smell good, because I love that stuff. So, yeah, I, it was just kind of funny. It caught her off guard. I guess she wasn't used to smelling afternoon brad. She's more of a morning brad person.

Myke Hurley: Morning brad person. Well, there you go, right? If you want your significant other to tell you that you smell good, you want to pick up some of Harry's products. It's time to stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to harrys.com right now. They'll give you $5 off if you use the code penaddict with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. Coupon code penaddict to check out for a special $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for their continued support of this show and all of Relay FM. So, I wasn't expecting this today.

Brad Dowdy: I wasn't expecting this to show up in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: No, but my Namisu Nova arrived.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm anxious to get mine. I obviously haven't received it yet.

Myke Hurley: So, this is a Kickstarter that we all backed, right? The Nova Minimal Fountain Pen. We are both owners of the Nexus, I believe was their previous pen. Correct. And, you know, we had some feelings about that. You know, some of the stuff that I didn't like the ridges in the grip. I didn't like the cap because it took too long to twist off. But overall, I was impressed at a first outing from Namisu for their Nexus pen. So, my Nova arrived today. So, I'll give you some thoughts on it. I'm completely blanking on the model that I bought. So, I'm going to have to go to Kickstarter to find that out. I think I went with the titanium barrel with a steel nib, I believe, is what I went for. But I'm checking now. No, I went with aluminium. So, there you go. I went with all aluminium because I have the titanium in the Nexus. So, that was it. I didn't really feel like I needed to go with titanium again. So, I have all aluminium here in just like a nice silver color. It feels very nice to hold. It's got a good feel to it. It's got a good weight to it. The grip section is large enough that the thread of the cap doesn't dig into your hand. And it's smooth. So, I like that. The removal of the cap is nice and easy. Just one quick twist. And it's off. So, I'm not kind of fumbling for that. It's maybe, let's see, it's probably one and a half turns.

Brad Dowdy: Is the cap larger lengthwise than the previous model? Because not only was it a mini turn cap, it was a very short cap.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is a large cap. This is a significant cap. It's big. And then we have, on my model, I have a medium box nib, which is fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I love their nibs. Yeah, absolutely.

Myke Hurley: Very smooth. Very good ink flow. Very happy with this, with the nib. They do have a couple of complaints. No converter or cartridge in the... Not in the packaging at all. That's a little strange. Oh.

Brad Dowdy: You would think... I could see no cartridge, but no converter is a little bit odd. Either one or the other.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there is a very strong chance that they had them for sale. And you know, you get those backing surveys or something. I don't remember their process. But for as much as a converter costs, I think that they should maybe just throw one in.

Brad Dowdy: Agree. Yeah, totally. Like I said, one or the other. Just pick one, put it in there just so we don't have this conversation.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because I got the pen and was like, I don't know if I have a converter spare that fits this. I have a bunch of converters, right? But I have some Japanese ones. And what I ended up doing was I luckily took the converter out of my nexus.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly.

Myke Hurley: And put it in. But I don't think that that is a good first run experience. You need to remember that there will be people backing this project who it's their first fountain pen. Right. If you have a really successful one, which they did, their project was significant. I'm just going to the amount now. They made £104,000. So they definitely have people in here out of their 1600 backers. This is their first pen. I really think just throwing a converter in the package would really help people feel better about the experience. Or even just throwing in a cartridge or two. I really think that that is something that they should consider for the future. They're not expensive. Put it in. Don't make it a choice.

Brad Dowdy: That's pennies. No matter which way you go, just do it.

Myke Hurley: You know, you've made £104,000. You're doing all right. But I've got to say, the materials, the build quality is excellent. It is completely round with no clip. That is the design. I knew that going in. But it does mean it rolls away. Which is a thing that frustrates me. But it does, you know. And they included a little felt pouch to put it in. And they have lovely leather pouches that you could buy for extra as well, if you like. But I've got to say, they've improved the pen in every way. This is not going to be a pen that like immediately goes into my rotation.

Myke Hurley: Because it doesn't have that special something for me personally. But it is solid. It is a good pen. This is a great gift pen for someone. Because it looks more expensive than it is. I'll give it a thumbs up. But I think that, you know, I had some comments last time about the build quality that they have done. Now I need to feel that in the future I need to consider the first run experience a little bit better.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. If you're coming at it from Kickstarter, you should. If you're coming at it from your own retail shop, you can get away with that kind of stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I'm looking at their page and they say in their add-on section, a converter is available which allows you to use bottled inks as opposed to cartridges. So it's in their add-ons. It shouldn't have been an add-on. Really, guys. It should not. It's pennies to put one of those things in the package.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, I'm anxious to get it because that's like my favorite shape fountain pen. Yeah. I like the Edison Pearl. I like the Nakaya cigar shape.

Myke Hurley: It's very reminiscent of the Pearl. Very, very reminiscent.

Brad Dowdy: Which is reminiscent of the Nakaya Piccolo. And that's just my favorite shape. So I'm anxious to see if this lives up to it and I can use it like I use those other pens that I enjoy so much. So much.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I tell you one of the really great benefits of getting an aluminium one of these and I can't speak for any of the other models is the way that it warms to the touch.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's always cool. Now you're making me go see which one I ordered because I don't remember.

Myke Hurley: I think you went titanium.

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty sure I did. I know I went steel nib because I already have the titanium nib from last time.

Myke Hurley: So now... But yeah. I mean, anybody that has backed this, I mean, it's a good pen. The cat posts if you're interested. Really? Yeah. Huh.

Brad Dowdy: That surprises me. I will never do that. I hate metal on metal posting. Does it have a... Does it have a... Like a... What's the word I'm looking for? Like, does it have a seal like on the inside? No, sir. Of the cap? Like a plastic? It's metal on metal? It does this. Yeah. Oh, shoot me.

Myke Hurley: I would never do it, but I know some people like it. Right. But yeah, I've got to say, I'm happy with this pen. I think it's nice. I do. I think it's really nice. I think they've done a lot of good stuff here to make this a better overall product.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's taken me like an hour to get into Kickstarter. Let's see. All right. View Pledge. I ordered titanium. Yeah. That makes sense.

Myke Hurley: So I'm interested to see how the titanium one of this turns out. I mean, with the last one, I'm happy I own a titanium pen, but I don't feel any benefit over aluminium personally.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. And I would say I would generally choose aluminum over titanium, all things being equal, because it's generally not worth the price increase that it requires. But since I had the aluminum, I went with the titanium kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's what I feel. It's like, get one. It's like I went titanium mid last time too. I was like, just go all out and I'll get a titanium pen. Because it's just like, oh, I have a titanium pen. But I don't think that it adds a lot for the price. And this isn't a thing against Nemisu. I just think in general. Sure. Personally, I don't see the appeal of titanium. I know I'm going to get a lot of feedback. I reckon from Thomas about why these things, what the benefits of titanium, but I don't feel them. But yeah, I've got to say overall, the product is great. The choice of a Bach nib is a very smart choice to make. Like it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Good. I'm anxious to get mine, especially now that I've looked and seen that it's titanium. Now I'm ready for it.

Notebook Usage

Myke Hurley: Good stuff. Yeah. All right. So next up, we are going to address my notebook usage stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've been waiting for this. We keep putting it off, but we usually because we've had full shows or interviews or whatever, but it's also given you some time to think on it. Right. So I'm anxious to hear, you know, how you've gotten into or if you have gotten into actually using your notebooks more because you were having a dilemma not too long ago.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I wanted to run through some of the suggestions, some of my favorite suggestions that I receive from people and kind of talk about why I think it could or wouldn't fit in my life. So Brandon wrote in to say, once a week, pen and paper out for a 15 minute coffee. This is a great suggestion. I just wish I had the ability to do this more. There are no, there's no good coffee shops where I live. Yeah. So with these sorts of things, like I'm doing this when I'm going out for the day. So then I'm going to have my laptop with me or my most likely now my iPad Pro. And that makes it a little bit more difficult for me to disconnect because I'm going to be sitting in front of the device.

Brad Dowdy: You could always not bring it.

Myke Hurley: But then I'm not doing work.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Or you could have it at home with your tea. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So that's when I could do it, right? Is taking it downstairs and having it with my coffee in the morning. Where instead what I'm usually doing is reading Twitter whilst I'm having my coffee.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's the same here. My coffee time in the, my morning coffee time is usually my catch up on digital stuff time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But let me, let me tell you, one of the biggest problems for me is when I am doing this kind of thing and I have the notebook is I don't know what to do with it. Like what do I put in the notebook? Right. So that there are some things in here that address some of those problems, but that's, that's part of it. It's like, yeah, that's a great idea, but I would just be sitting and looking at the notebook. You have no idea what to put in there. So Kathy suggested a time diary. Now this is really interesting. Tracking what I do all day so I can figure out what only I can do and what I can outsource. Now Kathy is also referencing some discussions I've had on other shows about thinking in the future, the not too long future of what could I hand away to an assistant? Because that's something that I'm thinking of maybe within the next year or so. Is it possible for me to try and hand away some of my work to somebody else and or just working out the things that I should and shouldn't be doing? And the idea of something like a time diary is very interesting. So I would like to ask Kathy if she is able to provide me with an example of what this type of thing looks like. I'd be quite interested in that as a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I don't do this either. I love the idea of it. Our friend, Sean Blanc, just put out a post recently where he kind of front loads the time diary, if you will. He gets up in the morning, has his coffee, breaks out his notebook and basically minute to minutes out the day. Right. So the time diary is one shot in the beginning of the day, if you will, as opposed to breaking it out as you go through your day, if that makes sense. So that's something to consider also. I mean, it might even be, I didn't totally look at the specifics of Sean's picture where he showed it, but I bet it's down to like five minute increments.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, he does that. I don't know if I could live like that. That's just not the way that I work. Like my day goes into wild places I never expected. All right, next. All right. So next up is a suggestion from Thomas Hall. Of course, the lovely Mr. Hall. So he said, try to do some reflecting journaling or brainstorming first thing in the morning or the end of the evening. Just you, coffee, pen and paper. Anything that is good, you can photograph and put into Trello, Slack or email. Anything that isn't can be scrapped. Best of both worlds. This is probably the type of thing that I should be thinking about, especially at the brainstorming aspect. But my my issue is like scheduling these things, forcing myself to do them. I need it. It's the routine aspect of it, which I think I struggle with the most. And I don't know why that is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think we'll talk. You put down a note towards the end of this that I think I'll elaborate on what's working for me, but it's close to this. So I'll save that to the end.

Myke Hurley: But what I like is the idea of being able to take pictures of these things. Yes. Work with them that way.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And let me throw a shout out for our friend Dave Ray and indexed. I haven't been using it, but that's been the simplest one that I've found to to capture and save like stuff you put in a notebook.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So that. Yeah. I remember that. That's a good thing. We'll have to get that for the show notes too. Yep. Can you find that for me? Sure. I'll put that in there. Sarah suggested, don't be afraid to write your lists and appointments out first and then transfer them over to digital later. Yeah. I know people that do this type of thing and I can see how that works. But one of my things is I'm, I would just be writing out what's in OmniFocus and then writing it back in again. You know, like that, that's the way that it would work for me. And I don't feel that one making sense to me personally.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, I, I actually, if I do that, I do it the other way around. I have my appointments or tasks digitally, then I will break them down for the day in a notebook.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's how I do it. I don't, I don't do a back and forth, but most everything, I, I, I need to have stuff in a digital calendar. I like alerts and reminders and things like that. But then I'll look at today, for example, and then that will go on paper. I do that a lot.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I understand that. I don't think this one works for me so much. Sure. Because I would feel like I'm just duplicating the work. It feels, it would, for me personally, it feels strange to open my task management app that's meant to help me do things and then waste time writing it out. That's how I look at it for me personally. So it feels kind of counterproductive.

Myke Hurley: Dave suggested maybe try some structured writing, a doctor format, maybe borrow from Sean Blanc. Again, he comes up. I didn't see that. Write down three things you're grateful for every day. Maybe good things, bad things, quotes, thoughts for yourself a year from now. Some regularity and repetition can get you putting pen to paper and the first few words will beget more words. So I started to write some of that, this type of stuff in my field notes book, like things that were interesting, things that happened. And then realized that I want this stuff in day one.

Brad Dowdy: That was coming out of my mouth. This sounds like how you use day one. I know you're an avid day one user. And one of the best tips you've ever given, which I haven't implemented because I'm a dummy, is how you just put down people that write nice things to you. If they send you a nice tweet that you really, really appreciate, you'll copy that over into day one. I think that's a great idea.

Myke Hurley: What goes in day one for me is people making me feel good. Right. And interesting things that have happened in my day or like, so for example, there's been this whole big thing over the last few days about the Apple Pencil. And we've been talking about it on a couple of shows and it's a whole, it's a whole thing. I'll put a couple of links in the show notes. But basically what's happened is, and I believe it's through the work of me and Gray and a couple of others, Apple have kind of changed direction on something. So this has gone in day one because that's an achievement for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. This has come full circle all the way back to hashtag Myke was right. I don't want to say that, but yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it's like, it's just been one of those things that like, this has been really interesting for me. This has never happened to me before. So now I, you know, I've wanted to record that and that's the type of stuff for me that goes in day one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Shout out to Glenn HK in the chat room, Arctic Monkey lyrics. Yeah. That totally needs to go down.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sorry. That's hilarious.

Myke Hurley: Maybe I could do that. Kate wrote a great blog post at Pandora's box, which is a great URL about everything that she uses her notebooks for. Now, even Kate says in the post that maybe this isn't so helpful for me because a lot of the stuff that she talks about is meeting notes going in notebooks, right? Which is exactly what my main use was before. But she mentioned a couple of other things like for art and quotes and one that she mentioned and she called me out, right? She, she practices Chinese characters. She's trying to learn how to do this stuff. And she suggested that when I start learning Romanian to write some of the words out that I'm using.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, that's a really good idea. Yeah.

Duolingo

Myke Hurley: So as an update for that, for anybody that's keeping track, I am waiting for Duolingo and they are currently on track to deliver their English to Romanian course this year.

Brad Dowdy: Great.

Myke Hurley: So that will be a good thing for me to, uh, to pick up on and to work on. I like that. It's a really good idea. Write the stuff out, write them in a notebook. So thank you, Kate. That is a fantastic suggestion. And when I pick up that task to try and learn a new language, I will be employing my analog tools for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's, that's a perfect use case.

Hobonichi

Myke Hurley: Yep. Most definitely. All right. So let me tell you about one that I thought of on my own, uh, that I'm excited about. So if you remember a few weeks ago, we had Lee from ArtSnacks on the show. No, I don't remember that. No, no, no recollection. Who is that chump, huh? I love Lee. Love you, Lee. Yeah. So they're, they're doing their, uh, lettering box, which is sold out now. Um, and I'm really hoping that this is something that I can get into and then I can use some of my tools to do some lettering stuff. It's just a little hobby. That'd be fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. That's an awesome, awesome thing.

Myke Hurley: So I would like, that's something I really, I really hope that this is something I'm able to try and give a go to. Um, and I'm going to, I'm going to really give it a good try when, when it comes in.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. No, I think so too. And, um, you know, that's one of those, um, accountability things that you can do as well. Like we've talked about before with the, uh, the writing out the tweets where you actually, okay, today I'm going to practice this type of lettering style with this pen and you shoot it up on Instagram and that makes, keeps you, you know, there's that accountability thing. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That goes along with it. I really want to give that a go in that exact way. So when this stuff comes in, you know, taking pictures of it, Instagram and it, and that kind of stuff and, and, and kind of showing a progression that I hope I'll be able to, to do. Cause you know, I'm, I'm a creative person and I'm not an incredibly artistic person, but I have the desire and sensibility to want to do things like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm very similar.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's great. That's perfect.

Myke Hurley: So there you go. Now I had a question for you. Yes. Go. Um, now one of the things that would obviously make sense for this is like daily journaling, daily diary, that kind of stuff you were using and had a Hobonichi. How is that going?

Brad Dowdy: Pretty well. Oh, you were looking for some failure there.

Myke Hurley: No, I wasn't. I was hoping you said it was going well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So here's how I'm using my Hobonichi and here's what I find works for me. And this is a little bit on that. Well, I'll circle back to what Thomas said, um, because that's kind of what I'm saying. I'm finding out. So I don't worry if I miss a day in my Hobonichi. Um, that's step one. That's okay. Because the way I'm using it. Many days is as a reflection tool. So I find at the end of my work day, not at the end of the evening or not first thing in the morning, but when I'm done working for the day and, you know, I've gone through, you know, most of my priorities, most of my tasks, you know, I don't really have much to do at night. Um, you know, that's family time. But when I'm done with my work, what I'm considering my work day, I'll break out the Hobonichi and pick a day. If I miss a day, two or three days ago, I'll write what happened that day. I'm, my memory is good enough to be able to remember that. Like I'm just finishing writing out. I just finished yesterday writing like three or four pages worth of my LA pen show travels. Right. So I'm using it. I'm finding that's the good time of the day at the end of my work day to say, I've done, I've completed all these tasks. I wanted to get done today. I'm going to set aside 15 minutes and I'm going to write in my Hobonichi. Um, it could be on the current day. It could be a week ago. Um, a lot of times I'll skip the weekends in my Hobonichi. I may just pick up my pens and do a bunch of ink swabs in them, things like that. So, you know, I'm not a hundred percent using every day in the Hobonichi, but I'm using it a lot still. And a lot of it is for that previous day's reflection or a few days ago reflection or something, you know, something cool that happened with the family or something fun I found online. Or, you know, I went to a concert, um, last week, you know, my concert ticket is sitting there and it's, you know, taped into that day on the Hobonichi. So I, I'm finding that, uh, very useful, um, outside of the Hobonichi. I really don't have any, like, I I'm just as lost as everybody else, you know, running notebooks here with different content in them. I'm trying to, you know, square some of that, square some of those things away. Like I have, I'm using a field notes, uh, one of the dead prints right now. I just hit the, uh, I just hit staple day yesterday in the, in the carpool line I was talking about. So I've been using that pen a lot. Like I've been writing a bunch of baseball, it's about to be baseball season. So I write a bunch about baseball stuff. Um, so that's what I was writing yesterday. So that's how I'm using the field notes, but I don't really have any fixed writing other than what I do in my Hobonichi right now.

Myke Hurley: So it's like, I think to myself, do I want to get one? Um, but then it's like, it's part of the problem.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it does, it does have that, a little bit of that accountability thing, right? Because it's dated. Um, but I haven't been worried about the dates. You know, if I have things I need to write today, I do. And if I don't, I don't. And then I have those pages blank for if I want to just play around, like with a sketch or drawing or an ink swab or whatever, something like that. And that's been working out well for me. I've been happy with it so far.

Myke Hurley: So what is going in then? Are you able to give me an example? Like what goes in on every day?

Brad Dowdy: Uh, sometimes nothing. Okay. But like this week I've had tons of things I needed to get done. So today, like Monday and Tuesday have been very task list listy. Um, last week was more scattershot with the LA pen show. And even just coming back on Monday, then my week was kind of aloof, if you will. Well, scheduling wise, but I took several days of the calendar and recap the LA pen show. Just the things that I experienced, you know, just stuff for me, you know, it's not stuff I'm publishing or, or writing elsewhere or anything like that. You know, it was more of diary entries. So I have everything from task list to diary entries to sketches to ink samples in there, things like that. It's totally random. It's like not every day is the same. And I've been good for that. It's, it's been really good for that. So it's, it's been, um, in the diary aspect of it has been, it has been the best use so far.

Myke Hurley: So you're making me want to buy one.

Myke Hurley: Do you think it would be useful to me?

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't sound like it quite honestly. All right. I don't see if, I don't see a fit for you to be quite honest.

Myke Hurley: I appreciate that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just, yeah, it doesn't seem like it.

Myke Hurley: Well, then I won't close this tab.

Myke Hurley: Well, you know, there's some really good suggestions in here. It's a lot more for me to think about and a lot more for me to do. And I need to work out how I'm going to implement a lot of this stuff in my life. Um, and keep the suggestions coming.

Brad Dowdy: We love to hear this stuff. It's, I've definitely learned things that you think might be obvious, but you know, it's just something you don't think about or you've forgotten over time. So let us know.

Myke Hurley: And please keep holding me to accountability for all of this as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Because I don't want to, I don't want to embarrass myself in front of you all.

Brad Dowdy: We would, we would prefer that you did.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure you would. If you'd like to find Brad's work online, head on over to penaddict.com. And he's over at knock.co for all of these lovely, lovely handmade goods. If you would like to find him on Twitter, he's at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M and penaddict on Instagram. If you'd like to find me online, I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E and all of the social networks that you would care to mention and discover. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show. Please don't forget, if you're interested to back our Kickstarter, you have just a couple of days to go. We would really, really appreciate your support. And we are mainly saying this because we don't want you to feel like that you're missing out on the amazing video that we'll be putting together for the people that want to back it and get the video. Thank you so much, as always, for listening to this week's episode of the Panaddict Podcast. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.