The Pen Addict 510/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	510
Title:	Everything's a Bear
Release Date:	April 20th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 510
Audio File:	Audio Episode 510
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 510
Length:	5757 min <br />0.95 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 510. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm good, my man. How are you? I am good. I'm good. This is gonna be a fun episode. Lots of little randomness to talk about today. I'm good. It's one of our fun little random shows and I'm interested to hear your conversation about some of the products that we're gonna be sharing today. Okay. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited. But first, Myke, we need a follow-up from last week's episode. We had a lot of great nib talk last episode. I was talking about needlepoint nibs and stack nibs and nagana toge grinds and how all those things work. But needless to say, to the shock of no one, I made a couple of minor errors I would like to correct in my discussions. You call yourself a professional. This is terrible. You're the professional podcaster. Yeah. Did I make any errors? I'm the talent and I'm also the producer, right? Are you the producer or are you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I write the show generally, right? Wouldn't you say that's the producer's job? I don't know. I don't technically produce anything digitally.

Myke: Here's the thing. I listen, like, every now and then I hear these podcasts, right? These, like, really famous ones. And they have, like, 16 producers. I don't know what any of these people are doing, honestly.

Brad: Yeah, me neither. I just want my name read again at the end. All right. I'll do that for you. Can we get a music outro? Music outro.

Myke: We always have a music outro. It's just really short.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, we have to have it, like, over the scroll, right? Okay. Yeah, I can do that for you. And it would just be our name for all of the jobs for the show. And we'll do that.

Clarifications

Brad: Google Doc Writer. Brad Dowdy. So, on Nib Talk, let's clarify a couple things. The Estabrook Needle, I thought this was a little bit weird when I was discussing the $90 price point. And Ken Rowe reached out to me, the Estabrook distributor, and they admitted that, yeah, that's a little bit weird how that's listed. But it's basically, the Estabrook Needle is the same price point as all of the other add-on nibs, right? The Journaler and the Scribe, you know, whatever those price points are, either $50 or $60 upgrades. And the Estabrook Needle is the same because it is a $30 credit after you swap out the standard nib, right? So, it's the same price as swapping out everything else. It's really no different from everything else. The other really cool thing that I didn't know was that Ken Rowe makes no money on these nib upgrades, right? They're just doing it for the nib workers. They make a profit on it or they make money on it. They get paid for it. And then the retailers, obviously, can make money on the sales. So, they're foregoing, like, any additional, like, distributor, manufacturer price increase of their own. Like, they're not putting anything in their pockets from these nib upgrades. They're doing it to offer something cool to, you know, Estabrook pen buyers and to, you know, help spread the word about, you know, these great, you know, nib workers we have in our community. And talk about how, hey, you can customize your nib. So, I think it's a really great thing that they're doing. I've obviously known that since the beginning. But, you know, that I was really, really appreciative of how they're, like, dipping their toes into, like, the community aspects of the pens. But, too, I didn't know that they were foregoing any of their own, you know, monetary bottom line for actually getting these out to the world. Because, you know, like, to what I was talking about, like, thinking about how, like, how many different layers of profit would have to be to where no one would actually buy these things, right? So, it makes sense that, you know, they're doing it as an add-on just because they're fans of these people who are doing the nib work. And they're fans of their customer and want to give them something cool to use their pens with. So, I thought that was pretty neat.

Myke: Yeah, that's not bad. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad: So, they clarified that with me after last week's show. Also, second clarification, which I kind of round about kind of didn't know exactly what was going on here with the stack nib that I bought, right, from Damien and all on the nib. So, he reached out. And the nib is from the pens loft, you know, Jim, you know, stacks and welds and, you know, makes all the nib platform. And then Damien does the nib grind. So, it's a true collaboration between Jim and Damien to where, you know, Jim does his part, you know, making the nib and Damien does his part, putting the grind on the nib. And then they sell the nib as, you know, essentially a collaborative product. So, when you're buying the stack nib, you should know that it is a true collaboration between the two for this particular nib. That I'm very much enjoying, Myke. I had no idea. That I would really enjoy a nib that size and that inky.

Brad: And it's just fascinating to me. I keep using it, keep staring at it. So, I'm glad I had that option from Damien to pick up just an already completed nib. And it's really fun. So, yeah, I enjoy it. So, thank you, Damien, for clearing that up for me and locking down these details that we missed on last week's episode.

Myke: I'm pleased to set the record straight.

Brad: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. So, you also in last week's episode, you mentioned the Tactile Turn Fairway. So, this is the new quarterly, what do they call them? Seasonal, I think, is the release is the way Tactile Turn does their releases now. So, the limited nature is not exactly limited. It's only limited in time frame that you have to order. So, you essentially have, like, they launch a pin for the season. You have three months to order. So, you mentioned last week the fairway from Tactile Turn. And I said, let's hold it till this week, just because we have a bunch of other things to cover. Do you want to go first on the fairway? Or you really put it in there because it really relates to me.

Myke: I saw a post on a nice green body with a yellow clip and a yellow knock and a yellow button. Mm-hmm. And the clip has the kind of divots. Dimples. Dimples that you'll find on a golf ball. And fairway, you know, this is very golf ball-y. I'm intrigued by green and yellow. Maybe you can help me understand why they went with green and yellow here. Yes. But, yeah, I just, I saw this and I was like, oh, man, I know a professional golfer. And he likes pens.

Brad: Yeah, it's spectacular, right? Like, I'm not, I'll tell you straight up, I'm not going to order one, right? Because I just ordered the GT. Yeah. And I just, I got, they sent me the Stealth, which was the long one. And then they, then I ordered the GT, which is the race car one in the standard size. So those are the two sizes that I like. So I have the Stealth with a Pilot Juice .38 refill.

Myke: Wait, wait, wait, you got this wrong. Standard is long. Short is medium. Okay. Mini is small.

Brad: Thank you, Starbucks. Okay. Yeah.

Brad: So, yeah, so I don't have a mini. So if I did order this one, I, I'm saying I won't order it, but I don't have a mini yet. And I really do like this one. And mini is kind of perfect. It looks like this would be pretty sweet for mini.

Myke: Because it's a gold pen.

Brad: Exactly. Yeah. So it's kind of sweet for the mini. So I don't know. I'm thinking about it. But to answer your question.

Myke: I will just say, I know this is not tactile terms business, but it's a travesty. They do not have a mechanical pencil version of this.

Brad: It would fit with the mechanics on one of these pens. I'm pretty sure. I don't know which. I don't know. Side click is hard. They're fitting with the golf, right?

Golf Pens

Myke: Because golf stuff is done with pencil usually.

Brad: I don't know. Since most of their pens are either bolt or side click, it's harder to get the mechanism to engage. Oh, yeah.

Myke: I'm sure they don't have an easy way to do it. I'm just saying. It's just a shame.

Brad: But they could do it just a straight shot, you know, mechanical pencil without any type of side button or anything. To answer why it is green and yellow, it's also related to the timing of the release. They launched this on Masters Weekend, which is the arguably or maybe inarguably the biggest golf tournament in the world or maybe the most important golf tournament in the world. And they have a very world-renowned logo related to that. The only thing that would have been maybe a neat add-on, but I bet you they tested it and I bet it just didn't look good, is either a little bit of red on the push button or on the clip screws to really lock down the logo. Or they may have gotten sued by them at that point if they added a little bit of red. So the red flag in the Masters logo would be the only thing missing. But that's primarily the Masters colors. Do you get a yellow jacket when you win the Masters? You get a green jacket. Are you just trolling me now?

Myke: No. Oh, I'm thinking of the Tour de France.

Brad: That's the yellow jersey. Oh, so there you go. You've just ruined their summer launch. It will be Tour de France and it'll be red and white polka dot for the sprint leader. I believe the sprint leader's jersey is red and white polka dot. So sorry, tactile turn. We just ruined your summer release.

Myke: I wonder if they are going to stay sport related.

Brad: I don't know. I mean, we've done two in a row, right? So race cars, beginning of F1 season. Golf, beginning of really the start of the golf season, even though it's essentially year-round sport now. And hey, you never know. You never know when that... I would be all over the red and white polka dot just saying. I'm saying you should do this tactile turn.

Brad: So I would be all about that. You got at least one customer. Yes. So the thing I really wanted to talk about this release is that it caught me off guard. Like I would not have expected tactile turn to pull off a golf pin, right? Just big picture wise, it didn't seem necessarily like strictly like a one-to-one customer base type of thing. Like it seems to be like a smaller portion of their customer base might be into this. But I think the execution is really, really nice. And I think, you know, most of their customers will like it.

Myke: I don't think you have to be a golf fan to like the colors and the size of this band.

Brad: I agree. I agree. You could be a Norwich fan, which is sad. But, you know, you could just like green and yellow. Green and yellow go good together.

Myke: Aren't the Green Bay Packers green and yellow?

Brad: They are. They are. So a little bit... Look at that. You do my football and I do yours. That was a little bit scary. I'm not going to lie. That was pretty great, right? Like I didn't even consider the Packers.

Brad: And I'm like, I don't know about Norwich, man. Like not even on my radar. So yeah. That was all the time. That was cool. I think it's great. The clip, the clip obviously does it for me. The golf ball dimples are spectacular on the clip. I like fancy clip treatments. I will not lie. So there you go.

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Brad: On my Squarespace site, Myke, it's penaddict.com. You may have heard of it. I've heard of it. Good, good. I'm glad you check it out on occasion. I recently reviewed the Galen Leather Magnum Opus 12 slot pen case. I'm also separate from that giving said pen case away. So you can go check that out at penaddict.com. But what I really wanted to talk about was this pen case as it relates to how I use things. And I wanted to start this off with a question. Do you own a pen case like this?

Myke: No.

Brad: Because I was thinking that was the answer, right? Nor did I before Galen Leather so kindly sent me this. So full disclaimer, they sent me this product free gratis. So yeah, it's a great, fantastic pen case storage setup that I've never been compelled to own myself. It's kind of the same for you, just in the general sense of things. I've seen these at plenty of different makers make a pen case like this. It's a 12-slot pen case, hard-sided, very nicely built, solid storage. It's going to be very protective of your pens. But I think of the pen case as a more portable option. And while this is technically portable, it's more individually portable as opposed to, hey, let me put it in something and carry it around, right? That's how I think of pen storage. That's how you think of pen storage. I hope I'm not putting words in your mouth, but that feels like we're kind of in that same mode, right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you grab pens and you jump on the train or whatever, go to the office. If you have a case like this, that's not going to work well. So that doesn't mean it's not independently great, right? It's just great at my desk or great if I'm storing a bunch of pens in my closet. It's just fantastic. And I'm just wondering, like, am I missing anything on that? Like, I do think as great as a case like this is, it does have its limitations just because of its size, right? I'm not delusional.

Case Discussion

Myke: I tell you what, I see this as, like, the place where I see these cases are at pen shows. Correct. People walking around with them kind of like a purse, you know, like holding it. Like a clutch bag maybe. Right. And then they can open it up and show off their stuff. I could imagine if, you know, you go down to the coffee shop to journal every day, you know, you might want to have one of these. But it is not a, I don't know, it doesn't feel like how I think of, like, knock products, which are kind of like grab them, throw them in the bag, like ready to go. Like, this is like a big thing. Yeah. It doesn't really feel like it's as rough and ready to go kind of thing. Even though I'm sure it would probably hold up to as much, if not more scrutiny just because of the build. Oh, my gosh.

Brad: But yeah, it's really, really built well. It's very strong, very durable.

Myke: But it's like, if you compare this to, say, a Brasstown, which you could get the same amount of pens in if you do it right, it's possible. I don't know. That thing rolls up and it's all small. You know, this thing is like, just its construction is large, right?

Brad: Yeah, so I think this is a very purpose-built case. And that's what I was trying to get across in the review that, you know, you want to have a reason for making this purchase. And the reason shouldn't be is because, hey, I ride on the train every day or I throw my bag in the car every day. And this is the case that's going to protect all my pens and I can carry them all with me. I don't think that's the primary goal. I think the primary goal is like an individual carry situation, either at home, right? This is a great desk accessory, right? You can have a whole tray of pens at your desk. Or, like you were saying, take it to a pen show, take it to your pen meetup or your stationery meetup or any type of like local meetup type of thing. It's fantastic. So what I'm going to do, the reason why I'm giving it away is just because I don't think I will extract the full value of what this case is. And I think people, I think someone else will, hopefully, and should. That's why I'm giving this away. But I am thinking I liked it so much, I think I might buy one of the six slot ones, which are half size, which would work.

Myke: That would be much better.

Brad: In your bag, because you can store them vertically, right? You could store this vertically in a messenger type bag, right? But in a traditional backpack, it's too wide to be stored vertically.

Myke: Yeah, these six-pen ones are much more my speed, too.

Brad: Yeah. I think. So if you think of it like bulk storage, which is the 12 slot, and portable storage, which is the six slot. So I will effort getting one of those. And overall, I wanted to discuss it because I liked it so much. It's got me thinking. It really made me think because I've never had a case like this, despite seeing these, you know, for the past decade. Like everyone has at least one of these. I was like, what am I missing out? And I think it's just, you know, a use case thing. And like I've never had the use case for that type of storage. And I wouldn't just want to file this away in my closet. It deserves to be looked at and used and loved and active. And I think I would do better with a six slot in a suitcase. So you mentioned.

Brad: Oh, I wanted to ask you a question about this. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually. Do you have any pens that don't fit in it? No, not yet. So I actually. What about king of pens? Do they fit in here? King of pens. Yeah, no problem. And on the product page, I meant to actually, I forgot to include that in the review. I had it in my notes that Galen has a list of everything they built off of to design the slots in the case. And they have the Montblanc 146, which I think is the best measurement pen for the. You're going to cover. Which are pretty big. Easy. But canaleas aren't as wide as the 146. Sure. You know, when you start adding in bulky clips and roll stops, you're going to be pushing the limits. Of diameter. Yeah. You're not going to push the limits of length. So if you test with a 146 and you build around the 146, the Montblanc 146, you're going to cover yourself like 95% of use cases. Okay. Yeah.

Myke: Because again, like just comparing it to what I use and know, like, and I'm sure this was the thinking that you went in with the knock was like, because it was soft. And the way that you built them, most of the pen like slots could get very large because the material would just expand. Right. But when I saw this, I was like, oh, there's only so big a pen can be because this is physically hard.

Brad: There are rigid dividers because the coolest thing about the case, which I completely didn't mention now, but I mentioned in the review is the tray slides out. Right. Yeah. It's completely awesome in that, that regard. But, um, chat's asking about the Namiki Emperor. That one, I don't know. I think that's probably when you're getting into like borderline, uh, width and diameter. Um, it, it will handle the length, uh, the bulk. It may not because I don't know that you can turn the clip sideways, like to fit into like the corner of the, uh, the little slots that they reside in. So the clip would be up. And then the, the, I think the flap would probably hit the clip just due to the thickness and the diameter of the pen. And that would be one I would question whether it would fit a Namiki Emperor because they're really, they're bigger than the 146 by a good stretch. So good question. Good question. But, uh, the slide out tray is, is definitely the, the, the killer feature in that, that, uh, case. I really, really loved it. Um, all right. Starbucks, Myke. Um, I've, I've mentioned them for sizing. You've mentioned, uh, coffee shops in general as a place to go, um, you know, bring your 12 slot pen case to. What if your 12 slot pen case was filled up with a Starbucks Lamy Safari?

Myke: Why didn't we know? Well, why is this the first I've heard about this? You know?

Brad: Same. So I just saw this this morning when I was looking for something else on Instagram. So, uh, uh, an account I follow, uh, at, at Saitu. I apologize. I'll have a link in the, uh, in the show notes to, um, this Instagram. I saw this and I, I instantly hated it, but we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll rewind back to that. We'll rewind back to that in a second. But I was like, I asked the same question as you. Why haven't I seen this before? So I clicked on the hashtag, Myke Starbucks ex Lamy. Yeah. And turns out we've been missing this since at least Christmas time. So they had a whole set of Starbucks. So this is in collaboration with Lamy and line friends. Okay. So we've talked about the line friends set up.

Myke: Why is there three companies involved in this?

Brad: Well, line friends doesn't make, uh, doesn't make the billboard, Myke. It's all Lamy ex Starbucks, but the characters, you know, the line bear, right. Is super famous and popular in Asian countries. And it's that whole chat platform that's super popular. And Lamy's done a thousand things. Why is the bear in it? I don't know. And line doesn't even. It's not branded anywhere. I think everyone just knows the bear. Like in the communities where they sell this, it's essentially like, you know, commonplace, right? It would be like the most common, you know, company or brand you see in your individual companies. Like, oh, everyone knows that's line or, oh, everyone knows that's Coca-Cola or whatever. No, Brad.

Myke: Real time follow up. No, Brad. That is the bearista. What? That is the Starbucks bearista.

Brad: No.

Myke: Yes. It's not line.

Brad: Because I was looking at one of these other posts that has line in the logo. The most, the current one has a line. Maybe that's just their line. That's that person's line. That's that person's line. That's where it confused me.

Myke: I'm looking at it. I'm like, Brad, that's not the line bear. The line bear is brown.

Brad: You are so right. Real time follow up. You're so right.

Myke: That is the bearista right there. So line are not involved.

Brad: Seems like a lawsuit.

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Bearista Pen

Brad: Okay. Now we know about bearistas. And I feel sad that that word is now in my lexicon. Now everyone is going to be a bearista.

Myke: Bearista, man. I like the bearistas. We've narrowed it down. But still, I like this. I like the color. I like the little Starbucks cup clip. I kind of want one of these.

Brad: I hate the clip. I'm sure you do. And I hate the Starbucks name on the. I have the Lamy line. You know, I have the little bear on the clip. I like the little line bear. I have the Pikachu one and it's the best one. I would rather have the bearista than the coffee cup. Luckily, you get both if you order, right? If you, okay, if you get one of these, are you doing bearista or are you doing coffee cup on the clip? Because I don't think both will fit. Both would be good.

Myke: Because I have no attachment to the bearista. We didn't even know he existed until 10 minutes ago.

Brad: So, okay, let's expand on this a little bit further. So, if you were at Starbucks working, would you use the Starbucks pen with the Starbucks coffee cup while working in a Starbucks using a Starbucks notebook?

Myke: If I worked in a Starbucks, I would use the Starbucks Lamy, but then I would use the bearista, you see? Now we're talking about a different person.

Myke: Right? Because I don't work in Starbucks. But if I did, I would do it that way.

Brad: The best part about this whole thing is they have the full safari lineup. So, they have the ballpoints.

Myke: Yeah, with the weird springy knock. Yeah.

Brad: It's great. I love the springy plungery type of, you know, little knock that they have. I really love the colors. And I don't know. They don't show the entire picture of them. So, I don't know if they say Starbucks on the backside. They probably do if the safaris do. But they have the little mermaid logo for the clip instead of the coffee cup, which I would prefer. If I'm going to go branded, let's go full branded.

Myke: Yeah, I would prefer the full-on Starbucks logo. Because the problem with the cup is the printing doesn't look that good on the cup.

Brad: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, it just doesn't deliver. Bearista, huh? Bearista. Now, I really wish it were the lion bear. But now that makes sense why that first little logo confused me. And everything's a bear. Okay. I am with it. But, yeah, these have been out since the holidays. It looks like holiday 2021. And we have never seen these. At least I haven't seen these until now. So, I'm sure a lot of our listeners have seen these. But cool on one hand, aggressive on the other hand. Yeah.

Myke: I have to say, Panatic listeners let us down.

Brad: This is what we rely on them for. No. They're like, yeah, they've probably seen this. They've probably seen this. No. It just popped up in my feed. Popped up in my feed. You know what else Panatic listeners have not let us know? Which I found on my own because I am a follower of Caroline Weaver. Our good friend Caroline Weaver, formerly of CW Pencil Enterprises, has launched a newsletter. I wanted to make sure to give it a shout out. I gave it a shout out in Missville this weekend on the Panatic blog. But I want to make sure that everyone who's a fan of Caroline's work, she has launched a newsletter called Caroline Finds It for weekly product recommendations. It's basically like a Q&A type of newsletter where people are looking for things. And guess what? Myke, Caroline finds it. And she does an awesome job. Y'all know I love Caroline.

Myke: This is a smart idea for Caroline. Just Caroline's one of these people, right? This is her. Like, understands good products and like curates. Yes. And that's what, so basically you can write into Caroline if you subscribe, if you like sign up for the sub stack and say like, hey, I'm looking for this. Free newsletter, by the way. Yeah. But you still got to sign up. You still got to sign up. Box or in the app or whatever. You say like, hey, Caroline, I'm looking for this thing. And then Caroline will find it for you. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. I mean, there's very few people where I say in them I trust. I don't even use, I don't even do that for you. But in Caroline I trust. And it's always been that way. So y'all should go.

Myke: Start talking about some stupid line pad that doesn't exist.

Brad: People think it's a bit, but no, Brad's just actually dumb.

Myke: So go subscribe to Caroline's newsletter.

Brad: And hey, when you subscribe, share it. Let's see if we can grow this subscriber. I haven't talked to Caroline. She didn't ask me to do this. I just think she's awesome. And I've been enjoying the newsletter since issue number one. It's only on issue number five. So you can go check out the back catalog and get all of the newsletters going forward. So the link will be in our show notes.

Pen Chalet Products

Myke: Talking about things that are awesome. Let me talk about Pen Chalet. Because they sell all of the products that you're looking for from the brands that you love. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen, a new bottle of ink. Maybe you want a new carrying case. Maybe you're really interested in getting something from Lamy or Sailor or Kaweco. Or many, many more brands. Many, many more products. Pen Chalet have got it. They sell limited edition products. They sell all the accessories that you're looking for. They run special discounts every couple of weeks. And they're always adding new styles of pen. And if you're something new on the market, Pen Chalet is going to have it. And you know what else? They're going to have a bunch of stuff you didn't even know existed. So you should always stay locked to Pen Chalet. They do fast and reliable customer service. That's in their DNA. They sell internationally. They have great shipping rates. But if you're ordering in the US, they do free shipping on orders of over $50. Pen Chalet has low prices and high quality pens. And they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. As a Pen Addict listener, you can get 10% off anything at any time at Pen Chalet. Just go to penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. You'll get that code that you can use to save 10% at Pen Chalet. And also you'll get to feast your eyes on some exclusive offers for Pen Addict listeners.

Brad: So you mentioned some new stuff that you can find here. The Indian brand Ranga, or I don't know if it's Ranga. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Again, Brad's dumb. They have been a longtime Ebonite pen maker. And you've been able to get them here and there over the years. But now they are starting to broaden their market and are showing up in various retailers. And this model, the Ranga 9B, might be the one that gets me into their product lineup. Not only is it a really cool shape, right? It's a torpedo shape, you know, made from Ebonite, which I like the basic traditional shaped fountain pens. It's in cool Ebonite materials, you know, in colors you don't normally see. And the price, Myke?

Brad: Yeah. Very good. Yeah, very good. It's definitely in the price we do not mention on the show range. Because I don't get it. And I'm just going to go with it. And I'm probably going to check these out after the show, see which color I like. I mean, you kind of have me at blue-pink stripes. Like, that's my aesthetic. But then right after that, you drop in orange cream. And you just never know what I'm going to end up with. On top of that, they have a wide range. They have Diplomats in there. The Elox Rollerball, which is the cool black and orange one. The Kaweco Perkyo and student fountain pens. And importantly, Myke, the Kaweco AL Sports Stonewash. The black stonewash is a classic, classic Kaweco that a lot of people enjoy. It's got that pre-lived-in look, Myke. So it looks like it's been in your pocket for quite a while. And I think they executed that one really, really well. And it's at a great price. Now, at our good friends at Pen Chalet.

Myke: They also have down the page the Caron Dash 849 Claim Your Style pens.

Brad: You know what? This is how good Pen Chalet does. I didn't even make it that far before I've found all the things I want. The Claim Your Style 849 is fantastic. I bought one from the first series. I didn't buy one from the second series. So maybe this is my opportunity to throw that in there as well, Myke. Thanks a lot.

Myke: So, yeah, it's also funny because I wanted to mention the 849. You sent me something while I was in Memphis. And you included some of the Pen Addict 849s in there. And I gave it to Stephen, and he has fallen in love with that pen. He bought a white one as well, yeah.

Brad: Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, he loves the 849. I'm glad he likes it. It's a very traditional ballpoint, right? It's very cool design, but it's thin, right? And it just has your standard knock, your standard clip, and a really good refill in it. And I know Stephen is a ballpoint pen user. I know he's a Jetstream fan. Oh, wait, Myke, you made me go down this thing further. The Diplomat Elox comes in blue rings, too. I've never seen that before.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: Oh, there's a Visconti on here. I've been wanting two. That's a good deal. This is terrible. See? Thanks, Pen Chalet. Okay. We need to – let's wrap this ad up, Myke. All right. Because I'm going to be busy the rest of the afternoon.

Myke: Penchalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password, Pen Addict, and you can get your discount code for 10% off at any time. And also, you can get your hands on some really great deals. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad: You know what else you can get at Pen Chalet, Myke? What? The Batman pen.

Myke: Okay. I've been so excited to talk about this. I genuinely have because this is like another one of those like – I went on a real wild ride with this when I took a look at this thing today. So, this is the new Montegrappa Big Limited Edition, you know? Yeah. They're super special edition. Yeah. Like 4,000 euros, this pen, right? This pen, Brad, has Batman abs.

Brad: I didn't even notice it. They're Batman abs. Until I dug through the picture and I was like, these are not going to be Batman abs. They are Batman abs. It's just going to be the armor built in on the suit. And then, sure enough, they're Batman abs. They are Batman abs. Yep. The backside. Like, there's two sides.

Myke: I went on like a whole thing with this where I was like looking at the clip and like the clip looks like these kind of gauntlet things that he's wearing. I'm like, oh, man, did they include extra like rollable refills in the clip? No. No, they didn't. It just looks like it.

Brad: It has little grappler hooks.

Myke: Do you see what I mean? I thought that they were little like rollerball nibs. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, totally.

Brad: Refills. Like a little D1 arrow. Yeah.

Myke: Oh, the nib. The Batman head on the nib is amazing. The cowl on the nib. This one, genuinely, Brad, I would own this. I love this. Completely, completely agree. Yeah. This thing is awesome.

Brad: Montegrappa does this better than any company. Yeah. Like we talk about this a lot. And a lot of it is just completely ostentatious, outrageous. You know, $60,000 Game of Thrones pens and things like that, right? Yep. Like this one, it's by no means affordable. No. But it's executed to perfection. Yeah. And this is what they do. They will sell out of this pen immediately. There's 330 pens. I'm into it. It has to be gone.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: I love it. It's stunning. Like even the little, they have a little pen holder for it. It's like almost like it's a Batman logo, but it's like a Batarang. Yeah. Like I'm just going to pick that thing up and chug it, you know.

Brad: I can't praise this pen enough, Myke. No, I love it. I don't know what else. I don't have a single bad thing to say about this pen. Even though we joke about these type of pens all the time. It's spectacular. They really, really nailed it. And Montegrappa does this better than anybody.

Myke: It's so, have you seen the movie, by the way? I have not. Do you got HBO Max?

Brad: I do. It's on HBO Max now, so you should watch it. I saw that yesterday. I told my wife, I said, oh, look. Yeah. My daughter went to see it this weekend and they got turned away, but that's a whole another story is this really weird thing.

Myke: Well, now they can just watch it at home. Yeah.

Brad: I know. I know.

Myke: I adore the movie. And so this pen, for me, was like, yeah, this looks like the Batman suit. I'm into this, man. Yeah.

Brad: I've seen all the pictures and everything.

Myke: They make a rollable version, which is $3,000. I don't know why people buy that version, honestly.

Brad: But I mean, I'm surprised Mont Blanc, excuse me, Montegrappa would even have these for sale because I imagine just every executive would buy up every single version of these just as gifts.

Myke: How many?

Brad: Right. Yeah.

Myke: Like, well, like all the HBO executives. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. They clearly have a deal with Warner, right? Mm-hmm. Because they did Game of Thrones, too, and they've done Harry Potter. So obviously, Montegrappa, I've just realized that now. Mm-hmm. They must have a deal with Warner Brothers. Yeah. To do this stuff because these are serious brands that they're like IP that they're making products for.

Brad: Yeah. Montegrappa's licensing is no joke. Yeah. They go into it because they know they can deliver the goods and they're going to be able to sell whatever they make. Yeah.

Myke: And I kind of like it where it's like, I mean, look, I'm never, I don't think that there's anything I would ever spend this money on, like for a brand, branded pen, like a four or five thousand euro branded pen. Like, I don't think there's anything I care about to that degree. Right. But I almost kind of feel like if you're going to get these licenses, do this stuff rather than like the Schaefer Star Wars stuff or whatever. You know what I mean? Exactly. Or the, who was doing the cross Star Wars stuff? Yeah. You know? Like, I just want this stuff to exist in the world just so I can look at it and appreciate it. Like, I'm not going to be the person to buy it.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. I've said this, this phrase before, but this is the couture lineup of Montegrappa. They, it's the most expensive, most unique, showy, like everyone's going to be talking about this, but not owning it and going, oh, look at this, either, either good or bad. Right. You know, people might hate it. People might love it. Just like some, a lot of these other ones.

Myke: But I would like to also though, see them do, do Batman pens like they did the Game of Thrones pens. Right. Like the $300, $400 price point. And they were, they were good. Like they looked good. They were good. They were pretty popular. The Jon Snow ones all got stolen. Do you remember that? That's right. That's right.

Brad: The delivery got stolen.

Brad: I think they ended up remaking them was what it was. It was just a delay. Like they weren't like lost forever. They made the correct amount. But yeah, that, the shipment of, of the Jon Snow ones did get stolen. I totally forgot about that.

Myke: But those Game of Thrones ones, they're like, you know, and they look like regular-ish pens and fine. But then they also did the like, I mean, I'm looking at, they did a 46,000 pound one. Right. Right. You know, it's like a dragon, obviously.

Brad: And I think they did a White Walker one, maybe.

Myke: I can't remember. And they did a bunch. And so like, this is kind of what I want. Like when it comes to like pen license and stuff, personally, I want a brand, get you a brand that can do both. Right. Like. Right. Make the accessible stuff and also the jewelry version, you know. Yep. Hats off to Montegrappa. They want us back with the abs, you know.

Brad: Yeah. Spectacular. Well, they weren't the original abs. Like Faber-Castell, Graffon Faber-Castell. Is that Faber-Castell? Yeah. The pen of the year is the abs pen. Okay. But again, like we talked about the abs pen. Like it is ridiculous. But like the execution and the build of it is top tier. Right. It should be. It's just ridiculous. It's ridiculous in a different way. All right. This feels like a hard left turn, Myke. I'm going to ask you about the terrible things you write in your planner and what do you do about it? Okay. So I had a question come up in on our Twitch stream this week. And I basically like my planner is going great. You know, we've talked about it. I just did a recap of it. What last week or two weeks ago? I'm just really, really doing everything I want in my planner, except I now have a collection of loose sheets in the back of my planner that has information on, say, like a loose sheet that I take notes in. And then I want to transfer it somewhere, either in my planner or in my other journal. And I now have like this whole like quarter inch stack of loose sheets in the back of my paper, in my back of my planner. So I've been trying to figure out what to do that. And basically, I just need to go through and have this planner audit. And I was asking people, you know, did they have the same thing? Did they have your planner or your journal and then a collection of loose things that theoretically should have been in there in the first place? You know, just use it all in there. Then the question turned to, I think, the important part that I want to get to here. This question came in via Mafia Geek. Do you ever look back at your planners and say, I wish I hadn't written that in there? Have you ever done that?

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: I'd say probably. Yeah.

Brad: Not frequently. Right. So in my case, I have a planner and a journal. So I tend to use those terms interchangeably despite having two different things. In my journal, I will definitely, what I call, and I've said it before, yell at your journal, right? Sometimes you just got to get it out. And I don't think I've ever regretted anything. Have you ever torn anything out, written anything out, scratched through, sharpied through it, redacted anything? Have you ever done that? Because I haven't.

Myke: I've scribbled through things.

Brad: Out of regret?

Journal vs Planner

Myke: Maybe. Okay. I mean, it's worth remembering that I'm talking about journal, not planner, right? Correct. I have a planner. I have a journal.

Brad: That's why I wanted to make this distinction. And that's why I thought it was a good question for you. Yeah. Because I do write. It's more emotional. Right. You will take a day and say, hey, this was good. This was bad. And sometimes the bad could technically be really bad. And have you ever gone back and gone, that was a little much. And let me redact this or something.

Myke: I tell you what is actually a better, I think, a better way of saying it. It's never the time for me. Or like rarely at the time. It's if I look back and it's not, the issue for me isn't, why did you, you shouldn't have written that. It's more like you're an idiot for thinking that or feeling that way. Or you know what I mean? Like you were wrong there or you were being stupid, that kind of thing.

Brad: So the argument would then be your journal did its job.

Myke: Yes. If I was, yes. If you're looking at it from a reflecting point of view.

Brad: Right. It could go away. You could rip the page out. But at the time where you did the thing, you needed it. Yeah, sure. Right. So you could argue that your journal did its job. And like that's the thing we always express is like anything can go in there. It doesn't mean, hey, maybe I had a regret later. And maybe, you know, maybe we need to send this page through the shredder. Yeah. But you know what? You got it out and you got past that. Right.

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: So I think that's just like an important concept is to have a book to not hold back on. Right. Even if it's a secondary book. Right. It's like, oh, I have this great journal or I have this great planner. And like I'm doing tasks and I'm making notes and I'm saying how my day was. You know, not every day is, you know, hunky-dory and just amazing. Right. And sometimes there's bad days and you need to get that out on the page. That also doesn't mean that you can't go back and say, you know what? That was maybe a bridge too far. Let's get rid of this page. So I thought it was like a good kind of just basic conversation to have about journaling in general. So I thought that was a really good question.

Brad: This question is probably more for me than you because your journal, your theme system journal, is basically a rule-based journal. Like you get to decide what the rules are, but you essentially follow a set of rules every day. Right. Is that fair?

Myke: Yeah, I do.

Brad: I mean, I set my structure. You make the rules though. Like it's not telling you what the rules are, but there are rules. Yeah. Where like my journal doesn't have any rules. And sometimes that's harder. Right. Like the reason why the theme system is so good and so popular is because it allows you to create your own set of guidelines. And then those set of guidelines are theoretically what you will follow the most to get the most out of your journal. Whereas I have a blank journal that says, here you go. And sometimes I struggle with that. Right. And that's why I've gone through.

Myke: I can't do the blank page. That's why when I do the. It's why I have boxes. You know, I can't deal with just a, here's just a blank sheet. Do whatever you want with it. I can't, I can't do that. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. And that's why I go back and forth on the theme system because it's like sometimes, Brad, I just need structure. I need to do the thing. And I thoroughly enjoy it every time I do it. And then I was, then I will have a theme system and then I'll have a third notebook going because, well, I just want to write some other random stuff. And then I back out of the theme system. So I'm always like in and out and in and out. And I always love it when I use it. But then sometimes I feel like I don't need it. And then I go right back to saying, hey, I can write everything. And that's not what I need right now. I need to write the specifics. So, you know, it's a journaling conversation is always fun. It's just such this huge nebulous thing that's very individualistic. And I love all the journaling and planning questions. And we always get a lot of good feedback. So if y'all have any planner rules or if you have any regrets, talk about like regrets or anything. Y'all let me know. Feel free to email me. Hello at PenHack.com. You know, and just talk about how you use your stuff because that's what we like to do here the most. So do you, this is a secondary question and I'm going to adjust this a little bit from Temporally Arai. Do you audit your theme system journals when you're done? And I'm sure I've asked you this in the past, but I can't recall the answer.

Myke: I don't even really know what to do with them. I flick through them sometimes and mostly I just put them in a drawer. But honestly, I just feel like I should just shred them and move on. But I just, I haven't worked that out yet. I'm not really, I am not one to like sit and go through it. Like I genuinely think most days I wouldn't even understand what I'm talking about.

Myke: You know, like I'm talking about something that feels important to me right now. But like I'm not going to sit and give a bunch of contacts to my journal for me. Like it's because I don't do that. I feel like if I ever flick through them, but a lot of the time I'm like, what is this even talking about? I don't even know.

Brad: Right. There's no necessary, there's no need to go back and reflect because it's more. Small picture isn't the right word, but it's more specific.

Myke: It's a mental health thing for now. And like a thing to help me, as we say, stay on course and stay productive right now. Not for like me to, I'm not doing this for me to reflect on. And that's like a different way of journaling, right? Like I think that that leans heavily, more heavily into the type that you do where it's more prosy.

Brad: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. And like a lot of times I will go back and if I'm reflecting through a journal, like starting at the front and going through it, I'll almost skip anything that's the more long form writing because that was more in the moment stuff. What I will pick up on is like notes and shorter form ideas. Like sometimes I'll use, I have never done an entire notebook like this, but sometimes I'll use just draw like a little, like a little special, draw like, you know, you could use a light bulb or whatever and then have like an index page of all the pages that the light bulbs were on. Like as, Hey, these are ideas that might be good to refer back to, but the four pages straight, I wrote about the weekend that I had that I don't need to reflect on that. Like I'm good. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. So like in your case, like I, I mean, throw them in the fireplace is a very valid thing. Right. Like, and, and there's some, you know, there's some comfort in that too. It's like, I, this, this did its job and now it's time has come.

Myke: That's how I kind of, kind of feel about like it closes and well, that's another period of time. Yep. Complete.

Brad: So, you know, good, good. Okay. I just wanted to get those. I like these, these little planner questions again, because they're just like picking out, you know, pens and inks. It's like so specific. And like, that's the kind of things I like to nerd out on is like the very specific stuff like this. So thank you all for those questions. I wrote down, I have a list of about eight or 10 more questions that I'm keeping in a file. So we'll pick up, we'll pick and choose some of these as we go through the coming weeks. And, you know, it's just a future, future podcast notes and topics. So there you go.

Myke: I like that. If you do have these kind of very specific planner related questions, you can send them in the same way you do any Ask TPA question. Tweet with the hashtag Ask TPA. You can use question mark Ask TPA in the RelayFM members discord, or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com.

Brad: And if you email me, like the questions like you really want to be sure like I get to put Ask TPA in the title. That does help.

Myke: Let's actually finish out today's episode of a couple of more generic, more regular Ask TPA questions. First comes from Frames who asked Brad, what stationary items did you take with you on your last vacation?

Brad: Good question. I tried to limit myself. So we talked about the Atlanta Pen Show wrap up is I returned home from the Atlanta Pen Show, had a really busy evening, then left the next morning to go on vacation. So I had really no time to think about what I wanted to do. So I brought the basics. So I brought my planner, which is my Hobonichi Cousin A5. And I bought my journal, which is still my Misubi Indigo Denim Journal. Brought those two paper goods. And then I brought a brass town full of mostly new pens that I picked up at the Atlanta Pen Show. And then a couple of pens that I just wanted to bring that I had inked up, you know, like my elbow. So essentially six pens, two notebooks. I worked in my planner for two days and then skipped like five. So that was the first gap in my planner that I've had. And I'm totally cool with that. It's vacation. I don't need to be messing around with that. And then journaling. I didn't do any journaling. I just did some basically what I was talking about before, like idea writing. Like I really like the vacation is good. Like getting away from home allows you to just I I always often think about project stuff. So I always want to have something to write in when I'm on vacation. Usually just something like the journal, which, you know, an open page journal, not a planner to just kind of. Note sketch, you know, a lot of times, you know, like the way we do vacation, we have a lot of downtime at night. Right. Because we have kids and, you know, I'm I'm not going out partying at night on vacation. You know, I'm like at eight o'clock, you know, I'm like sitting there and don't really have much to do. So that's when you get out your notebook and sketch or brainstorm some ideas and listen to some music and have an adult beverage and write a few things. So I didn't use much of what I took and I even took a limited amount. So, yeah, that was it. Sometimes I will plan for that differently. But that is a really good basic carry set up for me on vacation when I'm not planning to write a lot of stuff.

Myke: And I have a question from Jill as well. Gil, sorry, I should say. I'm assuming Gil with one L, right?

Brad: GIL. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke: Love the needlepoint discussion on episode 509. Are XF, I assume you mean extra fine? Mm-hmm. Or needle ground nibs more likely to have ink flow issues? Are there brands of ink that you intentionally avoid or prefer with your superfine nibs?

Brad: So that's a really good question. Good follow-up. Good follow-up. I, it's about expectations with the flow, okay? When you get a needlepoint nib, you're signing up for a dry-flowing nib. Because if you have a wet-flowing nib, you no longer have a needlepoint line effectively on the page, right? So that matters as far as, like, your needlepoints go. When you're thinking about the idea of a needlepoint and ink flow, you have to realize what you're signing up for on the front end, right? And that's not to have a flow issue, but to have a more dry line experience. Because if you have a wet line, then you're kind of, you know, missing the point of owning a needlepoint.

Brad: Secondly, related to that, steel nibs versus gold nibs probably makes one of the bigger differences in needlepoints for grounds. Like, as compared to, say, like, a cursive italic steel versus gold. Because that little fine grind you have on a gold nib is going to be more flexible than a steel nib. So, technically, you will get a little bit better flow because the tines are going to spread and your lines are going to be effectively wider. That's why I prefer steel needlepoint nibs. Because I don't really want that flexibility. I do have some gold nib needlepoints that I do love. But if you're asking me, like, a preference, I do prefer the nail type steel nibs. The inks, I will intentionally avoid any extreme sheening inks. Certainly not shimmer. Like, that's not even a consideration. Anything that has, like, an intense sheen or an intense saturation. I tend to go more basic the better. For inks, I use a lot of... Brand blue blacks. Like, a Pilot blue black. Lamy blue black. Things like that. That I know are going to just be consistent. And, you know, not something I have to really consider what I'm using. You know, just your thinner traditional inks. You know, anything from Diamine. Like, Pilot Roshizuku's. I like a lot of bright blues. I will pick that because when your line is that thin, that brightness of the blue, like a Konpecki, really, really stands out on the page. And it makes it a little bit more easy to read. So, yeah. I tend to stick with the basics and not do anything. I won't use an ink with a lot of character, if you will. Because you're not going to get the effects that the ink is being sold for. Like, a really good one is Venta Armada. Which is one of my favorite inks. But I almost need to use that in a stub nib. Because it's kind of bland until you get a lot of ink on the page. And then the character comes out. Well, inherently with a needlepoint, you're not going to get a lot of that inky character on the page. You're just going to see, like, this dull, like, gray line. That's not going to be legible. So, therefore, I would never choose an ink with that much character for a needlepoint. So, I stick with the basics. Thanks.

Myke: All right. If you would like to send in a question for us to answer the show, I'll say it again. Tweet, hashtag AskDPA, question mark AskDPA in the Discord. Email them to hello at penaddict.com. If you want to find Brad online, in the meantime, go to penaddict.com. He's penaddict on Instagram. Dowdyism on Twitter. And he streams live two times a week. Twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm imyke. I-m-y-k-e. And I stream on Fridays at mike.live. Thank you so much to our sponsors of this week's episode, Squarespace and Pen Chalet. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. The Pen Addict is hosted by Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley. Written by Brad Dowdy with assistance from Myke Hurley. Fact-checking by Brad Dowdy with special assistance in this episode by Myke Hurley. Produced by Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley. Edited by Myke Hurley. Audio mixing by Myke Hurley. Branding by Brad Dowdy. Publishing production by Myke Hurley with assistance from RelayFM.

Myke: Yeah, I'm so excited. You think I was going to do it, son?