The Pen Addict 39/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	39
Title:	We Are The Normal Ones
Release Date:	January 24th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 39
Audio File:	Audio Episode 39
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 39
Length:	4646 min <br />0.767 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Hello and welcome to episode 39 of The Pen Addict podcast, your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that you love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined as always by my co-host, The Pen Addict, the Ayatollah of Inkdom, that is, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi sir, how are you doing?

Myke Hurley: I'm great, Myke, how are you today?

Brad Dowdy: Very well indeed, very well, Brad.

Myke Hurley: So, do you want to tell them what just happened?

Brad Dowdy: So, me and Brad, we started a Skype conversation about 25 minutes ago now, and we had an excellent conversation, searching through some pen websites and talking through some things and talking over some of the stuff that Brad's been reviewing. We basically, listeners, sorry to say this, had a great episode that you will never hear.

Brad Dowdy: And in future, I will try and record more of these conversations.

Myke Hurley: The sad part is we couldn't stop ourselves. It was like, oh, look at this. What do you think about this? You know, what are your thoughts on this? And it's like, you know, we've just spent 20 minutes having an episode of the podcast that we're not even recording.

Brad Dowdy: Brad taught me a few things, and we shared stories, and we braided each other's hair. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Now look where we are.

Myke Hurley: Myke added things to my wish list.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. But you'll hear about those in the future, though. We don't want to spoil it now, because these are things that will come up.

Myke Hurley: Anyway, sorry about that, listeners. And, well, we will do a better job of paying attention next time and, you know, pushing the record button if it's going to end up being an episode like that.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So, what are we going to talk about today?

Myke Hurley: We're going to talk about – we've got a few things to follow up on from our previous episode.

Myke Hurley: And, you know, one pin that you tweeted out the other – last week that we forgot to cover that kind of shocked me that you use. And I've got some field notes to follow up. And then we're going to talk about, is being a pen addict normal? Is that a normal thing to do? I've had an email, a tweet, and I've had lots of other readers and listeners and followers talk about, you know, am I the weird one or is it everybody else? So, we're just going to kind of touch on that subject at the end a little bit today.

Brad Dowdy: Sounds good. So, yeah, was it last week's episode where we were talking about weird pens?

Myke Hurley: It was two weeks ago, was it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I can't remember how this came about, but somebody said to me about – oh, they mentioned something that made me bring up a link to a pen called the 12-in-1 multi-tool, which I have affectionately known as the gadget pen for many years. And this is something that I own. It's an actual pen that, as I say, that I own. And I want to see if they've got the whole list. Yes. So, these are the things that are included in this pen. So, there's a link in the show notes. Basically, it's a pen. It's all metal. And it is in three sort of compartments with screwable sections. So, you can unscrew these three compartments. And there are some parts of the compartments themselves that are, in essence, tools. And some parts – and in each of the compartments are little things that come out of them. So, let me explain it. I'll tell you what things are, and it might make a bit more sense. So, there's a hole puncher, a stainless steel knife, short cutting blades, a flat screwdriver, a wire sleeve remover or small nail remover, ear pick, long cutting blades, tweezers, Phillips screwdriver, stainless steel fork, saw blades, and a writing pen.

Myke Hurley: That's just hilarious just to read.

Brad Dowdy: And the image on the site, it has all of the things broken out. So, you'll see all of the blades are contained within the cylinders that make up the compartments of the pen. And then each compartment is attached by screwable sections, which are also parts. So, you unscrew it, and there's like the Phillips screwdriver on one side, and then the hole puncher on another side. And then you can tip out, as you'll hear. Listen. Did you hear that? Mm-hmm. That was me tipping out some, like, X-Acto blades.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Which you can then, you screw them in to one of the top ends of the pen. You unscrew it a little bit, and it decompresses, and some gaps appear. Right. So, then when you screw it, it tightens around the blade, so you can then use the blade to cut things with. And I use this to open packages and all sorts, and I've used it to do small, handy repairs in the house. I've owned this pen for about seven or eight years.

Myke Hurley: Wow. That is awesome. This is like the – this is the pen that you bake into the cake and take to the prison and give it to your buddy so he can break himself out. It's got everything you need in there for getting out of jail.

Brad Dowdy: It's basically MacGyver's writing instruments.

Myke Hurley: This thing is awesome. So, yeah, if you've had it that long, you've obviously gotten quite a bit of use out of it.

Brad Dowdy: I have. It's a great little thing. Like, it was kind of – basically, one of my friends owned it, bought it for a joke. Mm-hmm. And then I saw it and thought it looked like actually something I'd find quite useful. So, I purchased my cell phone.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I haven't gone that far in my pen geekdom to carry a tool like that. I carry, you know, a pocket knife and, you know, like a Leatherman multi-tool. But, you know, I haven't gone full multi-tool pen like this. That's pretty cool. Especially if it comes in handy. It does. And it's not very expensive either. I mean, 10 pounds on the site that you link to.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: That's fair.

Brad Dowdy: That's extremely cheap for what you get out of it.

Myke Hurley: That's crazy.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, there you go.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. Just don't take it through the airport probably though, huh?

Brad Dowdy: No, that would be a terrible idea.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Or to prison.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that would be a good idea. Yeah.

Field Notes Trade

Brad Dowdy: So, what else have we got? In the notes, I'm very intrigued by this. The notes say, my first field notes trade.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, we've had our field notes episode, you know, got us back in December. Brad. What?

Brad Dowdy: I've just looked at the image.

Myke Hurley: See, you do a good job of not cheating ahead of the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: So, you're surprised. And that's the way it should be. So, I should not do that as well. I just feel like I need to be prepared to talk about it. So, I always look. Well, let me go look at what Myke put in here. But no, it's better to be surprised. But yeah, we did our field notes episode. We talked about the collectability aspect of field notes, not the usability. And all the different, you know, one-off print runs and odd runs and things like that. And I sent you a couple that I had gotten. You know, I sent you those yellow capsule fifth anniversary. And I sent you one of the old grass-stained green ones. You did. You know, I – and I'd been asked – we talked about that episode. I'd been asked, you know, did I want to sell some of mine or things like that. And I've never felt – I've never wanted to sell any of them for money or anything like that. But I did have some extras that I would trade. And someone just hit me up out of the blue. So a girl on Flickr said, hey, I saw those – that yellow capsule one I sent you. I had three three-packs of those. So I had an extra one to trade. I'm keeping one for myself. She said, do you happen to have an extra one? And I said, I do. She said, well, I've got the purple XOXO Fest ones. And I said, yeah, I would love that. Then we started to talk. Well, do you have anything else that I don't have? And we kind of went back and forth. So I traded her a three-pack of those capsule yellow fifth anniversary. And I had a three-pack of – they're called the Sound Opinions one, which I don't have a link for directly. But it was basically a promotional notebook made for Chicago Public Radio Station. Like one of their – what do you call it? When they were trying to make money, one of their – what's the word I'm looking for? Pledge drive? I'm totally blanking on it. Huh?

Brad Dowdy: Pledge drive?

Myke Hurley: Yes, thank you. Like a pledge drive item.

Brad Dowdy: I found an image of them on the Field Notes site. So I'll put that in the show notes for people.

Record Player Logo

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it's nice. It's the brown craft paper cover. And then they have their logo, big record player logo printed on the back. And it came with a couple of pencils. So I traded her a three-pack of each of those. And I got these – the purple XOXO Fest. I got a Draplin Design Company factory floor memo book, which I didn't think I'd ever get one of these. These are pretty cool. Aaron makes those at DDC just for his own use and internal use. And they obviously hand them out to people. Like this version is number 14 of 1,000 in a print run.

Brad Dowdy: You probably have to go. Yes. I can go maybe and talk to them.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: You get these from Aaron's hand is, I think, the way it works. Wow. So he gives them out to people. And the people that visit him or if you see him out doing – he speaks a lot and travels. I wonder if he may carry some with him then. I don't know. But it's basically, yes, you would have to visit Draplin Design to get one of these. And then I also got one of the Renegade Pencils ones, which you can find the real link to the Renegade Pencils story on Field Notes too, Myke. I didn't think to link that. That's cool. But it's basically a – they did a trip to Mongolia. And it's got a Mongolian font on the front of it. It's just really neat looking. I've always wanted that one. So it was a good trade. I was happy to do it. It was fun. It was a fun process talking to someone that was – she was really into it like me. It's like, oh, that's so cool and this one's cool. It was just a very positive conversation and a good trade. And we were both happy to get what we got. And that's how it's supposed to be, right?

Brad Dowdy: And how did you come into contact?

Myke Hurley: She emailed me. She flicker-mailed me. She said, hey, I saw your picture. I had a picture with the capsule and like the summer bright color ones. She said, I saw your picture. Do you have any to trade? And it was a flicker mail.

Brad Dowdy: Did you like tag the image?

Myke Hurley: I actually – I think I did an exceptionally poor job on that image where all I did was I think I put – You just – you titled it – Something in the header like my new field notes. And I think I put in the description like capsule fifth anniversary. So she would have to do some pretty good searching to come up with that, I think.

Brad Dowdy: It's in a group called Field Notes in Action. So that's probably how.

Myke Hurley: That could be it. Yeah. That makes more sense. See, Field Notes users probably. Yep. Control this. So I will add this one now to Field Notes in Action.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. Field Notes in Action is a – it's a very attractive page. What are these ones? Oh, here we go. Down the rat hole. We're going to lose Myke forever.

Brad Dowdy: FN28. What?

Myke Hurley: Let me get over there. Hang on.

Brad Dowdy: It looks like – you know, because you can get – you probably do know if you can get Field Notes to make you books. If you – I believe you have to order a specific amount. And they will print them with whatever you want printed on them. And it looks like these – oh, no. There's a few of them in this.

Myke Hurley: Which one are you looking at?

Brad Dowdy: It's difficult to explain. Let me – I would say to send it to you, but I'm on a different computer. Yeah. It's – they're sort of halfway down the page. Like if you go from where you are, they're like dark gray and they've got a skull on them.

Brad Dowdy: ITS Tactical Field Notes. Hmm. I don't know where these have come from. Interesting. Have you seen them yet?

Myke Hurley: Oh, just got them. Yes. I bet you're exactly right. I bet that's how they found my yellow ones.

Community

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Very interesting. See, this is what – this is what makes collecting these things so great. There is a whole community around these.

Myke Hurley: Right. And what I think I might do – I actually don't have that many extras to trade.

Myke Hurley: But I might make a post saying – since I get asked so many times, do I have this? Do I have that? I might as well just make a post saying what I do have and say, hey, I'm willing to trade these if anyone has something that –

Brad Dowdy: Instead of having it as a post, you should have it as a static page on the site, like in the sidebar.

Myke Hurley: I know. I keep me – I should build a page like that one we linked. Yeah, you should do that. That noise page where it says, got it, got it, got it, need it, got it, got it, need it kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Not meaning to be that guy, but you can do that very easily with Squarespace. You could just take images and just drop each one in.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I thought about that the other night, actually. When I was thinking about doing – offering what I had to trade, I thought about that very thing. So, yeah, I think that's a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: I meant to say I liked how the Squarespace sticker snuck into your image as well that you took.

Myke Hurley: Well, I was sitting at my desk. I was like, you know, I want to talk about this trade, but I haven't taken a picture of it. So, I just closed – I'm sitting here. I just closed my laptop. It was the worst, best picture I could take. You know, with my iPhone and no planning whatsoever. And I hate photography. I'm really bad at it. I complain. And I'm a whiner on photography. And I know it's my own fault. And if I would learn more, you know, everyone hears me complain on Twitter about my photography. I hate it.

Brad Dowdy: It's interesting, actually, that there's a couple of images on this page which are people using the Pele Journal and Field Notes together, which is something that we spoke about before, wasn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yep, yep. And you know what? I've had a Black Pele Journal forever that I've never reviewed. And now I'm finally going to review it, but it's not going to be me. I sent it off.

Brad Dowdy: Oh.

Myke Hurley: I sent it off. Well, we'll tease that for you. And I'll put more pressure on the guy who was already feeling the pressure for taking this journal from me. I said, I'll send this to you. It's yours to keep. You can have it. But this is what I want. I want to review.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, and then, yeah, you've got to pressure the guy.

Myke Hurley: It's Joe Lebo.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. I know Joe.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So he's like, oh, I've never done a review before. He's all stressing out about it. I feel bad for him. So, Joe, I know you will listen to this episode. So now the pressure is really on, buddy. Yeah. To get on it.

Brad Dowdy: Now it's coming from me now, Joe.

Myke Hurley: That's right.

Brad Dowdy: Sort it out.

Brad Dowdy: I'll have to send the boys around.

Myke Hurley: I almost unfollowed him this weekend anyway because, you know, I know you're not a big sports guy, but it was a big American football game this weekend. And my team lost, and he was on the other side of that. So I said I was going to unfollow him.

Brad Dowdy: And I can totally understand that. I'm going to a Super Bowl party.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at you.

Brad Dowdy: That's all I have to say on that matter.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. Yeah. Well, my team lost. The Atlanta Falcons lost, so I probably will not be.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sorry to hear that, Brett.

Myke Hurley: So this conversation we've just had is exactly what Myke and I did for 20 minutes before we started the episode today. And I think it's fun because we can just kind of pick up on things and talk about them that we didn't plan on talking about. And, heck, I enjoy it. So it's fun for me.

Brad Dowdy: So I had something very awesome happen to me this week. Yes. So our longtime and very loyal listener to the show, who is known on Twitter to us and our listeners now, I'm sure, as Kununi Reneshin. I'm still sure I'm getting that incorrect.

Brad Dowdy: She sent me an ink care package. Nice. So as well as a couple of very cool little additions, which is I love when people do these sorts of things. You have done it for me before, Brad. So I've got like a couple of little pencils here, like that's all very cool. And, you know, little bits that she sent me. But I now have 14 ink cartridges to try. 13 of them are J. Herbin inks. And I am trying ink number one today. I've just put it into my retro tornado fountain. And it's called the J. Herbin ink Diablo Menthe. Is it a month? Is that how you say it? M-E-N-T-H-E?

Myke Hurley: I would go with menthe. Okay. But it's funny you say that. I had, when I did the J. Herbin Grease Nouage review, one of my readers sent me a YouTube link of someone from the company pronouncing every color in the line. So I've got to find this link because you will think it's hilarious because it's this exact conversation we're having. How do you pronounce that? And I mean, it's a girl that is super, super French. I mean, it's like, it's, she, yeah, pronunciation that I would have never even come close to. And I have, and I have a background in French growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You learn, start learning French from the, from kindergarten.

J. Herbin Ink

Brad Dowdy: I think I found the video. The J. Herbin ink French pronunciation reference.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Myke Hurley: Why don't you play that for some of our listeners? Why don't you play like 10, 15 seconds of that just because it's, it's, she is on it.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Let me queue it up. See if you can swing that. I can do that. I can do that. It's these sorts of things. This is, this is the magic, but yeah, it's, I'm going to probably just link. I don't really know. I'm going to link to a review on the fountain pen network of the ink because they've done a nice, there's a nice sort of scan.

Myke Hurley: Yes. I'm going to circle back and talk about it, but yeah, play this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just need to queue it up now because I went away again to talk. Patricion to done. Okay. So should play any second.

Brad Dowdy: J. Herbin ink.

Brad Dowdy: Gris nuage. Gris nuage.

Brad Dowdy: Perle noir. Perle noir.

Brad Dowdy: Perle noir. Look at that. It's magical. Wow. Well, there's a couple there and that goes on for three minutes basically.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's like Rosetta Stone for inks.

Brad Dowdy: I feel like I need to find, I'm sure I'll be able to find it if I used a little scrubber that YouTube provide. Oh, here it is.

Brad Dowdy: Ver olive.

Brad Dowdy: Ver olive. Oh, I went to the one just before. Right. Okay. Here we go.

Brad Dowdy: Diabolo ment. Diabolo ment.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So I'm trying out the Diabolo ment. Now.

Brad Dowdy: And I'm.

Myke Hurley: This is the greatest episode ever.

Brad Dowdy: We have lost our collective minds. Yep. It's quite, it's quite late here. It's later than usual for me, I think.

Myke Hurley: Oh God, it is. It is. It is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But that's fine though. That is absolutely fine for me. Um, yes. So I don't know. Yeah. I've, I've put it in the, in the, in the retro, but this is, I mentioned in our show before the show today, I said to you that I wanted to talk about, um, fountain pen cleaning. So I had, I had been using the tornado fountain with a dark blue ink in it and I wanted to clean it because otherwise I'm not going to see the, the ink that I'm using. Right. Mm-hmm. Cause it's going to get all mixed up. So, I mean, please scream in horror if I've done the wrong thing. So I just took the cartridge out and I ran water through the pen to clean it under a tap for a while to get it out. Um, and then I let it dry for a while and then I dabbed it off on some tissue. Then I put the cartridge in and let the cartridge down for a while and now the ink's starting to flow through. Okay.

Myke Hurley: That should be more than acceptable.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Cause I felt like I, when I was doing it, I felt like I was doing something wrong.

Myke Hurley: I know. And, and I go through that a lot too. And you know what we were talking about, you know, what we're going to talk about next week. Let's do a show on that because I've got like five emails just on, we need to talk about like fountain pen maintenance 101. Cause I'm still at that level myself and I feel like I'm doing things wrong. And, um, I actually have a couple of new tools coming in that I've ordered, uh, to assist with the cleaning. So let's, uh, let's talk about that next week in full just because I've got a lot of questions on it. But the short, the short version is I do pretty much exactly what you do. Um, except after I flush it, I'll usually let them sit, the nib section sit in a cup of water, you know, maybe for a few hours just to kind of get anything else out. I don't know that that helps or not. It's usually flushed out pretty good just by, just by flushing it. So what you, what you did is perfectly acceptable.

Brad Dowdy: Good. Cause I was concerned that I was either doing it wrong or causing some damage to the pen. Um, I don't know how, but that was just what I was concerned that I was doing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because I'll go over, I'll go over it from, you know, step one right through the end, um, on next week's episode.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent. Just cause as we're starting, I mean, we both want to start using more ink and I feel like there needs to be a more efficient way of doing this.

Myke Hurley: That's, that's always been one of my biggest hangups.

Brad Dowdy: Because if I want to be trying all of these cartridges that have been sent to me, um, I want, I want a pen to do that with. And I mean, we've both, we've both spoken before about, oh, this is going to be my ink pen, you know, but I want to be able to use it. I don't want it just to be a testing pen. Like I do a couple of lines and then start all over again.

Myke Hurley: Right. And when you have, if you're going to commit to a single pen, like if I'm going to do ink reviews all with the same pen, it's going to be at least 24 hours after cleaning before I get to try another ink. And that's difficult.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, I've like the, the Diablo month is still not, it's still not the correct color. It's still a little bit too dark.

Myke Hurley: And this is a light, I said, I want to go back to it. This is a lighter green, right? I didn't pull it up, but it's a.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a real light green, but it's still coming out as a. It's like a, almost, I don't know how to describe it.

Myke Hurley: Like a sorbet-ish kind of green.

Brad Dowdy: It's like an aqua, aqua marine color. Like a turquoise color. But for me, it's still coming out darker than, than it should because I had a dark blue ink cartridge in this pen beforehand.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But you would almost think it would come out lighter with all the water that you put in there. It would be mixing with a drop or two left if it wasn't all the way dry. That's what I would, that's the experience that I've had. Not that it's darker, but it'll eventually catch up. I mean, it's eventually going to flush itself out with the new ink, but it, it does sometimes take some time.

Brad Dowdy: That just doesn't feel like a, a system, does it?

Myke Hurley: Put it this way. There's no quick, clean way to swap inks in the same pen and be writing and like, you know, to do it in like in 15 minutes and have a fresh set of ink and ready to roll. It's just, that's just one of those things. So you just have to, you, you, it's like, um, it's like the, um, the coffee geeks where they embrace the process of, you know, making one cup of coffee that takes them an hour. You know, it's, it's just one of those things.

Brad Dowdy: It's just so frustrating.

Myke Hurley: But that's, that's a huge hangup of mine. And this, this is like a whole episode worth of conversation just on cleaning and ink reviews. So we will do that next week. I promise.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent. I'm pleased. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm glad you want to talk about it because I certainly do.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah. Cause this, this is what I'm going through right now with all the ink samples I have and getting them reviewed. So it's, it's been kind of an ordeal for me and I haven't been happy with my process. So we'll, we'll elaborate greatly on it because I have a lot, I have a lot to say on it and I don't want to totally digress today.

Squarespace

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, um, let's talk about Squarespace very quickly and then for some reason we'll get onto the main topic.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Which, which, uh, you know, I think we've, we've kind of got a new format here, Myke. I'm thinking, you know, and I think it's working out well. So, uh, yeah, let's go for it. You go, go with Squarespace.

Brad Dowdy: Okie dokie. So I'd like to talk about Squarespace very, very quickly for you. So Squarespace, they are back supporting us again and they give you absolutely everything you need to make an amazing website. They provide you with all of the tools that you need to building your home online. They provide you with a completely managed environment for creating and maintaining a beautiful website, blog, or portfolio that you can put sites together in minutes with Squarespace. It doesn't matter how experienced you are when it comes to, to building these sorts of things. You don't need to have any design background. You don't have to understand how web hosting works. Um, you don't have to mess around in the code to get statistics packages, buying, spending money and trying out a bunch of different apps to see if any will actually work properly with your service. All of this stuff is built right in Squarespace. They have fantastic templates that feature responsive web design. They have fantastic customer support, award-winning 24 seven. They have, um, layout engine, which is their drag and drop page builder, which is what I was mentioning would make it very easy for Brad to create that field notes page. So he now has to do that because I've told him.

Myke Hurley: So I do, I do put on the project list.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent. They have great integration with social services. Um, they have fantastic apps that also feature their statistics as well, which are all built right in. You basically have everything you need in one place, one plan, one payment. You don't need to go and look and scour the internet for other stuff. If you have any problems, they, as I said, they have great customer support, which is 24 seven. They have live online workshops to help walk you through step-by-step building your amazing site. They also have great knowledge base articles too. I want you to go and try out Squarespace one to see how awesome they are. And two, to help support the show. If you sign up for a trial at squarespace.com forward slash 70 decibels, they'll know that you heard about them from us. And that helps us continue to make this show for you and to feed my and Brad's pen habits. Squarespace starts at $10 a month for their standard plan and $20 a month for their unlimited plan. After the free trial period is up. If you sign up for one year upfront, you'll automatically get 20% off. If you sign up for two years, you'll get 25% off their standard monthly prices. But that's not all. If you use the code 70 decibels one at checkout, you'll get an additional 10% off on top of any other discount for your first order. So go check out Squarespace, everything you need to make an amazing website. There we go.

Myke Hurley: Thank you, Squarespace. Thank you indeed. And yeah, like you said, I, I, I pimped them. I do have the, I do have the sticker on my Mac just cause I thought it looked good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm using the, they sent us some, some gifts and I'm using my Squarespace. My skin at the moment. Cool. Cool.

Myke Hurley: All right. So there's something that, that I've been asked for years and I've actually talked about it from time to time. I've talked about on the blog. It's been years since I've addressed it directly, but I, I get this email probably more than anything. And the short version it is, oh my gosh, I love pins as much as you do. Am I weird? Is, is basically the gist. Is this a normal thing? So I want to read an email from our friend, uh, Mary Collis, who does the, uh, from the pin cup blog, who does some of the best reviews out there. So I'm going to, I'm going to read her email and you know, I've talked to Mary a few times and I kind of know where she's coming from, but let me, let me just read this. She says, as my pen and paper addiction grows, I find that my brain is constantly processing pen and paper decisions and moods. I.e. What do I put in my pen case today? What do I use at work today? What goes in my pocket? What pen should I clean out and re-ink? What ink do I want to use? Color cartridge converter, et cetera. What notebook or paper works best for the pen I'm choosing? What is my pen mood today? Is this a gel or fountain pen day? What pens do I take on vacation or to a conference or even to a meeting? What pen, paper, pencil do I want to buy next? My core question being, do other folks spend so much of their bandwidth on these type of questions? Many are fleeting, but they're still there lurking in the background or have I truly gone off the deep end? I'm thinking that this might be something to add to the podcast topics list and which I did obviously. Or maybe I'm just looking for reassurance that this is normalish pen addict behavior. And she says, thanks for all the work on the blog and the podcast and the links. And thank you, Mary, for sending this in. And I mean, she pretty much nails it here. This, I could have written this. I mean, this is like verbatim, like my thought process on a lot of things. I don't know how this email relates to you, Myke. If you go through the same, are you putting this much into your decision making process on your writing instruments?

Brad Dowdy: Basically, Mary, yes, it is normal. It's normal.

Myke Hurley: This is what we do. It's like completely normal.

Pen Case

Brad Dowdy: There is absolutely no logical reason for me to open my pencil case or my pen case in the morning and be like, I'll use this pen today. This is the one I want to use. Because I was in a meeting. I was in a meeting yesterday. I was in a very, I was in a reasonably large meeting around a very big conference table. And what did I have with me? I had my Lamy All Star, which has been thoroughly broken in now. And it's a definite mainstay for me. Love it. Love it. Love it. AL Star. What did we decide on?

Myke Hurley: I decided AL Star.

Brad Dowdy: AL Star. And I looked around. I thought, what are people using? So I thought, I'll look around the table. And there was, see, the thing is, when it comes to notepads, everybody's using good-ish notepads. People are using Moleskines and stuff like that, you know? So it's paper's not a thing. Because Moleskines, they're not the best, but they're pretty good. I mean, you know, we both use them. They're good. But they're also trendy. So people use them. But every single person was wearing, was using a Bic. Every single person was using the Bic ballpoint. And so I'm like, this is how I know that we aren't normal to the average person, but we are definitely normal as a group. And every person that cares about pens goes through these things. But I would say that it's everyone else that's weird. Because I don't understand how, if you take notes all day, that you could put up with something like a two-cent rollerball or a ballpoint. It doesn't make sense to me.

Myke Hurley: You know, this wasn't in the show notes. And you talking about being in the meeting and taking, you know, a mental picture of what everyone else was using. I got an email from one of our Twitter friends, Artis Charbonneau, who we talked to on Twitter a bunch. And this was like a few weeks ago, I guess.

Myke Hurley: And this is the exact thing you just described. I'm going to read this email. And it's titled, Interesting Observation. So today, I attended a supplier diversity meeting with a group of female executives. During a part of the meeting that did not pertain to my company, I took a quick tally of the following, purse, pen, and paper. There were eight women plus me. High-end purses, there were six, including three Louis Vuitton, which are a thousand plus dollars. Paper, there was two Moleskens, two Spiral something or others, two bound agendas or planners, two iPads. The pens, there was one cross-century, two hotel pens from the hotel the meeting was at, two advertisement pens with grips, one Pilot G2, one Pentel Wow, one Pen State. Stylus combo I didn't recognize that quit writing and then a hotel pen was used. I was really surprised at how many crappy pens there were. I mean, these ladies drive BMWs and Cadillacs. My vanishing point in Rodeo, Webby, made a big statement, even if only to me.

Myke Hurley: I mean, that's the truth. That's exactly what you're talking about. You know what?

Brad Dowdy: Even when it comes to using...

Myke Hurley: I don't want to go as far as saying it's an enlightenment, but it's just one of those things that you either are interested in finding what the best tools are for yourself to use and putting in the time to figure that out, or you care zero percent about it. See, I just... There's not a lot in between.

Brad Dowdy: Just go to the local stationery store and buy something that costs a dollar. Just do that. You know? Right. Buy a G2.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. You know? Buy a Pilot G2. They're extremely cheap, and I mean, they're just good pens.

Brad Dowdy: Now, how much is a pack of G2s? One G2 on JetPens is $1.40.

Myke Hurley: Right. I just don't get it, man. So, that's why a lot of times when I have extra pens, I take them to the office, and I'll just put them in a big stack and just let people grab whatever they want. Now, 90% of the people that take them are just blind to the fact of what it really is. Then a few people will go, did you put those over there? What is this one? I like how this one works. You know, tell me more about this one. Can I get more of this one? Yeah. It's like I'm a dealer. But I don't know. It's hard to explain to people who aren't into it how much of a difference, you know, a good pen or a good paper will make. I mean, you know, some people just don't care. I mean, which is fine. I mean, that's the way the world works. But, you know, for the people that do care, Mary, the thought processes that you go through are exceedingly normal. I swear. When I go to bed in the mornings, it's like I don't count sheep. I count fountain pens and ink colors that I need to clean and ink.

Brad Dowdy: That sounds like such a strange sentence when I go to bed in the morning.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Brad works nights for anybody that doesn't know that. I haven't heard of him before. He's not crazy.

Myke Hurley: No, no. I go to bed at like between – I go to bed like around 9 a.m. in the morning. So it usually doesn't take me long to fall asleep. I'm usually pretty beat. But, you know, when I'm sitting there just kind of dozing off, I'm thinking about pens. I mean, that's pretty weird. But in my life, that's kind of like the normal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that at all.

Myke Hurley: And even our – this is going to be the Kanuni Renishin episode too that, you know, I put in a tweet from her. She just – I mean, this is just last week. Right around the same time I got this email says, so I'm wondering if having six pen cups and just as many pencil cases is normal. I said very. I mean, in our world, it's extremely, extremely normal. And, you know, pen addicts do just – they obsess over these things. And, you know, working in an office like I do and you do, you know, leaving one of your favorite pens unattended on your desk is like a cardinal sin, you know. But being in our shoes, the way we think about it and the way I think about it is, you know, I leave a bait cup over on my desk with, you know, about 15 pens in it that people are free to grab that I don't care that I lose because I know I want my one pen that I am using that I usually keep with me at all times. Even when I get up from the desk, it comes with me that they're probably not going to touch that. They're going to – if someone's bad enough with pens and paper and it's someone that doesn't care, they're just going to walk up and grab the first thing that they see. So I want to have a cup there that they are welcome to and leave my good stuff alone.

Brad Dowdy: See, I have this thing that I know must drive the people around me insane if they ask these questions. So I will have – basically, there's two instances where I will say what I'm about to say to somebody. This is if A, somebody says, I've lost my pen or B, somebody asks to borrow a pen. And in both instances, I will say this before I help them.

Brad Dowdy: You know, if you just spent a little bit of money, just a little bit of money on a pen, you'll be less likely to lose it. Like if you just spend five, ten pounds, you won't lose it. I can't remember the last pen I lost.

Myke Hurley: I can't either. Yeah, that's true.

Brad Dowdy: I don't lose them because I check for them because they're important to me. Because I've spent – you know, I have spent some money on them, but I've spent ridiculous money on pens. So a $10 pen is as much to me as a $1 pen is to somebody else because I've spent hundreds of dollars on pens.

Brad Dowdy: But I look after them because I care about them because they're part of my collection. But I say to people, if you just spend a little bit of money, you won't lose it because it becomes more tangible. You lose $0.10 pens because you don't care about them.

Brad Dowdy: And people go, okay, Myke, but please can you just borrow me a pen? I'm late for a meeting. And I go, no, you sit down. Let me tell you about this pen.

Myke Hurley: My answer usually is – I usually don't go there, and I think I might have to use that. My answer is I can loan you a pen, but you're not going to like it. It's usually what my answer is. Because I'm going to punch you in the face. Because it's usually like a high-tech C or something like super fine. I was like, look, you can borrow this pen. I'm going to tell you right now you're not going to like it. And they'll just kind of look at me weird and they're just like, give me the pen. I'm like, okay. And then they'll come back later and say, that was horrible. I told you. I was like, well, I know. I mean, I know you're just not going to get it. So that's cool.

Brad Dowdy: Carry on. I just have a bunch of pens in my backpack.

Brad Dowdy: I have one in there for me, which is I have a Retro 51 Tornado in there just in case I am ever – like I work from home today and just pick that out of my bag. Like, you know, because my usual – all my best stuff really is at work now. And I leave it in a locked drawer.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly right.

Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But I have a bunch of like G2s and Ventels and stuff like that in the pockets of my rucksack to give to people.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yeah. So I have – for us having this conversation, if other people were listening on it, they would be, well, that is so weird. Y'all are just odd people. Yeah. But, you know, like Mary's talking about, it's really normal. It's like I have tiers of pens, if you will, right? So I have at my desk, I have the cup on my desk, which is, you know, the lowest end. Pens I could care less if they vanish. You know, they're good writers and, you know, you can pick them up. And pens I'm not going to miss and they're easily replaceable. Then I have, you know, some pens I keep in a desk drawer that I don't want anyone's hands getting onto. But I don't necessarily use them all the time. They're just kind of there for backup if I need them, you know. Be like, you know, like a .28 Sino DX or something like that. Something that, I don't know, random or, you know, a Sekiro Pigma Micron that if I let anyone use would come back in shreds. That kind of thing. And then what we talked about, I guess it was last week, the pens that I carry that I really use, you know, I keep in my backpack and I pull out one at a time. And that's actually what I use myself all day at work. So I kind of got three different levels of pens at my office. But the best ones I carry with me.

Brad Dowdy: I totally understand, like, why people are hesitant and think that they're weird. Like, I'm a geek and a nerd in many ways. But the one that I'm less likely to get, I'm most likely to shy away from talking about is my pen nerdery. Like, if somebody says to me, like, that's a nice pen or whatever, or you've got a lot of pens there. And it's like, I'll just say, yeah, I just like nice pens. Just leave it at that, you know. But just because it's, I mean, even these days, like, people understand comic books, but I just can't, the average human cannot comprehend spending, basically having the amount of time that we take and think about these things. Like, trying to get people to understand what podcasting is, is difficult enough. Telling them that I do a show about pens, people's, I can basically see people's minds, like, melt a little bit. Because they just cannot understand what I'm talking about.

Myke Hurley: That, you're exactly right. And it's one of those things I don't talk about unless someone approaches me first, I think, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I never say, I do podcasting. You would love my pen show. That doesn't come up. If people say, what do you podcast about? I usually say, technology stuff, just things that geeks enjoy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And, you know, the only time I almost never get asked about my pens, and I never force that on anybody. But, you know, if someone inquires about me using something interesting, then I'll kind of elaborate. And it's like, you know, do you, you know, kind of drag them in a little bit to the conversation? You know, what do you use? Or why do you use this type of pen? But, yeah. I mean, otherwise...

Brad Dowdy: You've got to hold back a little bit, haven't you? You've got to just rein it in a little. You can't be like, well, this fountain pen I like, but let me tell you about the posting nib.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly right. Because I get asked, you know, like if I had, say I had something to do this afternoon, I was like, oh, no, you know, I've got to record a podcast, you know, tonight at five, so I can't really go do that. And, oh, like, one, they give you the weird look, like, what are you, what's a podcast? And then two, then you say it's about pens, and then you're just like, then you really have the eye roll. So, yeah, you do keep it kind of close to the vest, but the people who know, the things that we do, the, you know, the details that we get into, and all of those things are exceedingly normal for people like us, if you will.

Brad Dowdy: Indeed. I think we've reached the end of this episode. We have. Another stellar episode, Brad, if I don't mind saying so myself.

Myke Hurley: Well, good, good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's, yeah, like I said, we might have a new format here.

Brad Dowdy: I like it a lot. I think we're, I honestly feel like we've hit a good stride the last few weeks, so I'm happy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's a little more free-flowing. It's a lot of fun. I tell you, it's a lot of fun to record. I always, when we wrap and hang up, I'm always on, feel kind of lifted. I'm on a little bit of a high after we record. Like, you know, that was fun. I've got, you know, good vibes, good feeling, good energy. You know, I'm always jacked for a little while until I have to go to work at 11 o'clock at night.

Brad Dowdy: So, Brad, you write online at penaddict.com. People can reach you in a myriad of ways. There's a contact form there where they can get in touch with you. They can also email you at thepenaddict at gmail.com. People can also contact us by our contact form at 70decibels.com forward slash contact. As always, let us know what you want to hear us talk about. But we'd love to hear you share your, maybe, I don't know, like a pen addicts anonymous kind of thing where, you know, like how we're talking today about how we kind of, we know we're the normal ones here when compared to the crazy people who don't use nice pens. And maybe the ways that you try and keep these things hidden from the rest of the world. I would love to hear some of your stories about that. People can also contact us via social networks. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E, on app.net and Twitter. Brad is dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y, on app.net and dowdyism, which searches as an ISM at the end, on Twitter. So thank you very much for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. I'm Myke and he is Brad. Until next time, bye-bye. Bye. Bye.