The Pen Addict 539/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	539
Title:	Will the GO Go Away?
Release Date:	November 16th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 539
Audio File:	Audio Episode 539
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 539
Length:	6464 min <br />1.067 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 539. Today's show is brought to you by Storyworth, Pen Chalet, and Trade. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hey Myke, how's it going? Oh wow, hi. Brad Dowdy on the wheels of the street. Radio voices.

Myke Hurley: You do have, I think, a voice not far away from a radio voice. Like, I feel like... Like I trained it up? I don't know, I just think like the way you speak, like I think like just that little bit of tweaking and it would sound at home on one of those radio shows. Like when you do what you just did, but like maybe you don't need to go as hard, you know?

Brad Dowdy: From NPR 790, Macon, Georgia. See? That's it. You did it. That's all you need. Could you imagine doing that for hours on end? Like we joke, like I can do it for five seconds, but like could you imagine thinking about that for hours on end? Yeah, yeah, the voice. And then you would take it home and you'd be at dinner. Tonight, spaghetti with marinara sauce.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I have actually changed my voice over time, so it might not be massively different.

Brad Dowdy: What is this show?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a podcast about podcasting now.

Video games and major console releases

Brad Dowdy: Nice, nice. We do have a podcast a little bit about video games and I wanted to bring this up. I've had this in my notes for like two weeks and I was wondering if you saw the Field Notes God of War release. Did you see this drop with PlayStation? What did you think when you saw this?

Myke Hurley: Yes. So I don't remember exactly what, like how this came across my path. I think just like someone sent it to me. I think me and Federico and John Voorhees, we have like a I'm a sister where we talk about video games a lot. Right. And Sony just dropped a bunch of God of War stuff at once when they announced the game like merch. And I think John noticed it and was like, man, they are going all in. Right. Like he sent this to me. It's like they really do. Like Sony have just got like a ton of stuff going on for this God of War release at the moment. Like limited editions, special editions, all that kind of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. For non-video game fans, this is probably like the biggest console release of the year.

Myke Hurley: It's their biggest game of the year. Their biggest game of the year. For sure. And, you know, it is going up against Elden Ring as game of the year, I think. I think it's going to be between these two for most outlets. I don't think God of War is going to have a good showing against Elden Ring, but I'm sure it will pick it up in some places. Nevertheless, like so my initial thought when I saw what is a what nine pack? It's a nine pack. Three, three packs or you can get a nine pack. So they're doing like three. They've got and they're like focused around different parts of mythology. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if these are like light spoilers for the game, but like, you know, right? Like I haven't played God of War yet because I have not yet unpacked my PlayStation in the move. Although I do actually own the game. I have a I got given a code by PlayStation, but I have not played it. Oh, nice. Nice. But game provided by PlayStation eventually when I ever get to it. What I would say about this is like it's like a lot of stuff. I don't know how or why this happened. I think that's a very good way to put it. Right. That's my biggest takeaway from this. Like I'm not entirely sure why Sony did this. Like all of their other stuff. They're obviously working with companies to produce it, but they're not co-branded. Right. So like they have backpacks and mugs and sunglasses. Right. Like all kinds of stuff. Like the only thing that I can see on here that is co-branded is a Yeti mug. Like everything else is just like it's just God of War. It's like I'm not entirely sure why if Sony wanted to make some notebooks, they didn't just make some notebooks. You know, like why did they feel they need to go to field notes? Yeah, we see the Molsky come out. Yeah, but they don't have to do. I don't think of a brand at all. Right. Like they could just make some crappy notebooks. These are literally field notes.

Brad Dowdy: If you didn't know what this is, you would think this was like the National Parks or the Seven Wonders field notes or something just by a quick glance at the cover. Right. Obviously, if you looked at it more, you'd go, oh, this is the fantasy realm and things like that.

Myke Hurley: They got the buy correctly. God of War Ragnarok buy field notes. They did it correctly. Okay. I need to always mention this when someone does it right.

Brad Dowdy: I can't. Do you know how much time I spend trying to figure out how to do that to this day? Like I just don't. It's easy. Just say it aloud. I need a I need a digital workflow. You just say it. I understand.

Myke Hurley: You say it. Here's the trick, Brad. Right. Here's the trick. Who's making it? Right. That's always lost.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's how I need like an XKCD or something like to pin up on my wall and like here's the order. I just explained it to you, you know? I know. Who's making it goes last?

Myke Hurley: Who's actually producing the product? Because that's it's by them, right?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Try. Right, right, right, right. Yes. If you say it that way. But yeah, I was shocked when I saw this in like a very positive way. It's like what is happening? And then I was thinking like you is like, what is this through line? How did we get from point A to point B here? Right? Like how did who reached out to field notes and and came up with this concept? And I imagine the working on this has been going on all year. Right. This probably like since January, I'd imagine.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's obviously great execution. Perfect stuff. I also wonder how much of these they would sell. Like is this the is this the market? Like would it have been better for like the singular journal where you just make your own, you know, God of War? Yeah, it's weird, right? Like singular moleskin ask journal, right? Like is their market going to go for the nine pack of field notes? I mean, well, field notes fans and video games fans or people that listen to this show would. This is probably why this is a preload of product. Hmm. I see that now. That's a good point. Right. I'm curious. So it's it's fifty dollars for a nine pack, which is fine. Like that's like, you know what they're going for these days. And they're they're really pretty. Right. They're they're obviously like everything feels field notes does. I'm a huge fan of and these look great. I just curious. I'm curious.

Myke Hurley: It's fun, right?

Brad Dowdy: It is. It's very fun. I'm glad to see it. I'm very happy. Like this is big time. Like it doesn't get much bigger than this, you know, drop these in the in the Apple store. That's like the next move. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Field Notes seasonal and special edition releases

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So for for our level of nerdery. So while those dropped, did you know that field notes also did a fall 2022 release? No. Me neither. If they emailed me, I didn't get it. I didn't get it either. Like I got no email and I saw online, you know, just in in the circles I'm in. And I was like, hey, look at these hatch prints right from this print show, this letterpress, this letterpress collaboration. And, you know, they've done, you know, historically field notes has done a lot of things like this. Right. So I thought this was just one of those releases like, hey, God of War release. We're going to make this special thing for this special event, except it's actually the fall release. I thought it was just some random, random release. So like I think it seems like it kind of got lost in the shuffle a little bit, despite being just a complete knockout addition. Right. This is my kind of addition. Give me all the weird letterpress, you know, printed covers.

Myke Hurley: I was just telling them about the winter one coming up, but I don't see any email about the full release at all.

Brad Dowdy: So Kate in the chat says it's all the way back on 19th September. We would have gotten an email and it's just, this does not register with me whatsoever. And clearly it didn't register with anyone else because not once did I get asked, hey, what do I think about this fall release? That's right. Obviously. I just ignored that one. They're always right.

Myke Hurley: I will say though, Brad, this, this one is like not interesting to me at all.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. Absolutely. But this is core. This is core release field notes. Right. Which is interesting to me. Right. That doesn't mean it. I think it's like a 10 out of a 10, but this is what I want. Like when I subscribe for field notes, field notes, I'm like, heck yeah. Give me this. But like, like I'm good with whatever you send me. Like I don't need, you know, a billion of these or anything like that. I'm not going to go out and buy them. But this is, this is my like canonical field notes style release. Yeah. Also agree.

Myke Hurley: With your point though. They've had a few like this. Like if this was the first one I'd seen where it was kind of like this, where it's like, oh, here's a, um, a poster and we've caught it up. And you know what? I feel like I've had stuff like this before from them.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they have, they did the two rivers one, which was museum based and it's, it's similar to that.

Myke Hurley: So the best one is the, uh, the DDC factory floor one, right? The, right. Right. The random print. What was that? It's like that. Let's see. That art company does the cool prints. I'm thinking that Mon, not Monzo. That's a bank. You know what I'm talking about? Kind of. That was the company that they collaborated with to do this. And they had like a, a show, like an art show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I remember this. This was like 10 years ago, practically.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's annoying.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. But I think the reason why this one kind of, you know, missed my radar is because have they ever done a seasonal release that was tied into an event?

Brad Dowdy: Like expedition they did, you know, when, you know, the person was going across Antarctica, but that's not really an event. That's like, they did it to, you know, to raise awareness kind of, kind of thing. Like this was, this is an event edition, which they do a billion event additions every year. And this just happened to be an event addition that was the seasonal edition. So I don't know. It kind of got lost in the shuffle for me. I didn't, I didn't understand what it was. Despite being very cool. I saw these online plenty of times. I was like, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Hey, it's for the hat show. Nope. It was the fall 2022 release one in the same. So interesting. So like, I just had to put that in the show notes today because I was going when we had these God of War ones in here, I was like, what was the fall release? Mondo. Mondo. Yes. Mondo. Mondo. Yeah. So I was curious, like, did we, have we had the fall release? And I went and looked and I was like, oh, it's those hatch ones I've been seeing. I had no clue, no concept of what was happening.

Myke Hurley: So that they did it in collaboration with something else that was going on. Right. So, okay. So they didn't have those made then.

Brad Dowdy: The hatch?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like, well, but they've counted it as the fall 2022 release. This is your subscriber release.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: That's why it's confusing. That's why I was, I was confused. I just went.

Myke Hurley: So there was a thing. Hatch were doing a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. And Phil was like, oh. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And then, okay.

Brad Dowdy: And they do that so often. I just thought, oh, cool. Hatch print show release. Great. Yeah. Not, oh, seasonal release. Subscriber release.

Myke Hurley: Well, it's like in the way that the God of War, right? It wasn't a seasonal release. Right. It was a collab thing. Or like the stuff they did with, they did it with a band once, right? I don't remember which band it was.

Brad Dowdy: With Wilco? Yeah. With Wilco. Like they did the six pack with Wilco. That was just a side release, right? Yeah. Oh, that was a great release. I forgot about that one. That was a great one. That was a great one. All right. Next, very popular, traditional pin addict topic. Twisby, Myke. Twisby dropped a new swipe color. So if you're not familiar with the swipe, if you listen to the show, you're very familiar with the swipe because they made a new entry level type of pin to go along with. With the spring in it. Yeah. With the spring in it. And, you know, in case you drop the first, it's for all the people that drop their pins. I am on the record as like, okay, yeah, whatever. But it's a great pin. It's a great entry level pin. What do you think about this color?

Myke Hurley: It's a good color. I mean, it's a nice blue. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Not much to say, right?

Myke Hurley: No, it's quite vivid, but fun. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's great. It's fantastic. And the only thing that I can think of when I saw it is literally the first comment in this from my good friend, even supposing, that's such a good color. Please make the go in some of these fun colors too. So this, my immediate reaction to this was, oh, the go is gone. It was my instant reaction because the go came out before the swipe, right? So if you're not familiar with the TWSBI go, it is, it is the, the pump spring. So the, it's got the filling mechanism where you just, it's like a physical piston type of filling. It's a very weird, unique looking pin. It's very TWSBI and it's great. It's fantastic. I think a lot of people love the go. You're a go fan, right? Like I like it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's fantastic. And then later on, here comes the swipe in the same price point, little bit simpler idea to sell to a new person, I would say, right? Little less complicated, little less fussy. And now the swipe gets the first new color and the swipes already had other colors, right? They had a regional release in China. I think it was avocado and salmon, maybe. Salmon and pear green. Pear green. Okay. Um, and go to this day has had nothing, right? So that's what I think about when I see this is like, huh, I guess, I guess the go is gone. So that's, uh, that's my take on this. I mean, it, this is great. I think the TWSBI swipe is an awesome pin. Um, I would recommend it ahead of the go easily, which we're going to talk about some of my pin recommendations later in this show. But, uh, yeah, that's, um, there's like literally nothing to say about this pin other than I instinctively think about, well, what's happening to the other pins in TWSBI's lineup.

TWSBI Swipe pen features and design

Myke Hurley: Do they ship the swipe with a converter? Yeah. And the swipe can also have a cartridge, right? Correct. Yeah, it's replacing the gun.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. So it's got the spring in there to hold in the TWSBI cartridge.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to get started on this. I'm trying not to get started on this, but, but this doesn't need, this is not a thing.

Myke Hurley: The spring?

Brad Dowdy: They're just making stuff up. Yeah, but it's fun though. It's fine. It's, I, it's fine.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It's, it, it increases my enjoyment of the pin, Myke, very much. I will say that. Yeah, there you go. And, uh, yeah. So, yeah. So, I, I enjoy this, uh, TWSBI swipe, especially when I throw it across the room, Myke, the, the cartridge doesn't pop out. Like, it's a huge advantage of this pin over any other pin that I have. See?

Myke Hurley: What would you do? You know, any other pin, it's going to, it's going to pop. Not the swipe.

Brad Dowdy: Not the swipe. So, uh, yeah. Um, so I, yeah, I think just like the TWSBI classic, I don't know if people even, you're probably going, what is the TWSBI classic? Like it just kind of exists now. Like it kind of failed as a product, you know, not a complete failure. Uh, well, the classic more of a failure than the go just from a technical perspective, but the go is a, the go is what I want to see, right? I'm glad the go exists, but this tells me like, are they going to keep doing anything with the go? It's been a couple of years now. Right. And, you know, this'll get me back into the, um, you know, what, what companies, you know, wanting to see them innovate, you know, but, you know, complaining about the weirdness, you know, things like that is like, but I would rather see the innovation, um, you know, just like the platinum curados, like what's going to happen with that? Like, I think about this stuff all the time. Like the platinum curados is one of those pens kind of like the go. It's like, it's very weird and very strange. And I don't know if it's going to do well, but I want to see this right. Keep doing it. TWSBI, platinum, whoever, keep experimenting, keep playing with stuff. So yeah, I think it's fun. I think it's fun. But now I wonder, will the go go away? So I'll stop saying that now.

Myke Hurley: Will the go go away? Mm-hmm. This episode is brought to you by StoryWorth. If you're spending time with loved ones for the holidays, chances are you're going to hear a lot of stories. There are some you're going to love to hear. Maybe some that you've heard one too many times. But have you ever wondered what it would be like to document those timeless stories? It can be challenging to think about writing out an entire book of someone's life memories or where you'd even begin. StoryWorth makes it fun and easy. This is how anyone can write a book about their life. Every week, StoryWorth will email your loved one a single life-related question that you can pick from their collection. Like, what was the bravest thing you've ever done in your life? Or what's the farthest you've ever traveled? All they have to do is reply to that email of a story. Then, after a year, StoryWorth compiles all of these stories, memories, and even photos that can be attached in a keepsake book for you to pass along. Millions of stories have been told of StoryWorth because they make the process so simple. So get started with your loved ones for the holidays. And before you know it, you'll be able to reflect on those timeless stories for generations to come. I've run through some of these questions before with loved ones, and I'm always really impressed with the prompts. They have this really fantastic way of helping to tease out the answers to these questions. And you end up hearing them in a different way or a way that you wouldn't have thought to ask before yourself. I think it's a fantastic gift for someone in your life as a way to continue to build your family history. Help your family share their story this holiday season with StoryWorth. Go to storyworth.com slash penaddict and you'll save $10 off your first purchase. That's S-T-O-R-Y-W-O-R-T-H dot com slash penaddict to save $10 on your first purchase. Once again, that is storyworth.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to StoryWorth for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's such a cool idea. And they've sponsored us for a long time around the holiday season, right? It's a great gift idea. And it's for a lot of those family members that are into... They may not be the complete stationary nerd like you are, but they're into writing and capturing their life and their family and the things that are important to them. And to be able to just do this year round and then have a product at the end, I think it's super smart and super cool. So yeah, love that idea. All right, Myke. Prepare for some bad audio here. Do you know why? Why? Because I have a portable desk in my lap called the Right Well. So I am trying to describe what I have here with this in my lap. So my head might be turning a little bit. So let me give you a little bit of background here. So the Right Well from our friend Dan over at Good Made Better. You know Dan at Good Made Better. He makes the desk accessories like the pinwell. Yeah, and the various pinwells, the portable pinwells, like the different materials, all those things. So he's been in our world for a while making things. So and Dan is a fidgeter, right? He likes to say, hey, what can I make that would make my writing better, my stationary better, things that I like. So now he's made this lap desk, which is kind of something he wanted to make for himself. And he sent me an early version of this. And I'm just like, yes. So I have one of these literally in my lap as I'm talking about this, because I can't just like stare at it across the room while I'm discussing it.

Brad Dowdy: I love lap desks. So I've been a longtime lap desk user. And that's a weird, it's kind of a weird product, right? Like it's not something that you normally think about, right? Like I'm saying, say like you in particular, like when you're writing, you have your notebook, you're at a desk, or maybe, you know, you take your notebook to a cafe or whatever, whatever, right? You're just, you don't think about it that way. Or even if you're sitting on in a chair or on a couch or something, you know, you just grab your notebook and prop up your knee and write a little bit. The way I write, since I've been writing this blog, and a lot of it is handwritten, I don't always want to sit at my desk because I might sit at my desk all day. I wanted to relocate, you know, go in the living room, turn on some music, but also write in my journal or write a review. And historically, I've used a lap desk for those situations. So in the past, I've used one of Levenger's, which a lot of people have probably seen those. They have like a cushion on the bottom. Yes. And just like a flat piece of wood on the top. And eventually I use it so much, like the cushion would no longer Velcro. And it was just kind of weird and uncomfortable. It's like, it ends up being like a balance board and it doesn't really work very well. It becomes more of a frustration than anything. So I switched from that into just a sketch board. Do you know what those are, Myke? It's just like, if you see like someone drawing at a park and they just clip a piece of paper on like a piece of board, that's like, you know, two foot, you know, two foot by two foot or something like that. And it's literally just a board with a handle and a clip. You know, it's like if you go and get your caricature done, you know, down at the park, that's what they're going to have up on their easel. So it's just a board I would put in my lap. Like I literally use these things all the time. So Dan, I saw his pictures, I think at the Colorado pen show, people were sending me, oh, look, Dan's using this lap desk. And as it turns out, this was a product he was making and it's called the Right Well. So if you are familiar with Good Made Better stuff, they are over engineered in the best way possible. Like they're beautifully made, sturdy, stout. A lot of thought goes into every little detail. And this is a large lap board with a lot of little bells and whistles for us writers who like to sit and move around into different places and use these kind of tools as part of our daily writing experience. And that's what this is. So, you know, the board, it's got like a pen rest. It's got like a built in pen well. It's got a, you know, it's got a little border there. So like your notebook doesn't slide off the bottom and it has these accessories that you can move in and out to hold up a book. Like I've been copying a book very ineffectively for a while. Right. So I can put the book up in this little board, this little add on feature that's removable feature. I shouldn't say add on. It's a removal. You can take it on or off and you can have something displayed like held up at the end of your writing desk. So we'll have a link in the show notes to go check this out. And like Dan didn't ask me to do this or sponsor the show or anything like that. I just love him.

Myke Hurley: I also had it in my notes because I got the email from Kickstarter. So I was happy when I came to the document and saw you put it in.

Brad Dowdy: I love what Good Made Better makes, like everything that they make. This is that level of nerdery that speaks to me like on like a direct level because this is something I use already. Like I've used a lap desk for literally years, like a decade or more. The whole time I've been writing this, writing the pen attic blog, I've used a lap desk in some form. And now I have the sweetest lap desk I've ever seen. So it's very cool. So this is a handmade product. Dan's making all these. They're extremely expensive, you know, for what for, you know, a big, bulky, very engineered, lots of pieces and parts to make something simple, right? Sometimes when you make something simple, it's complicated. And I can tell there's a lot of thought going into this. So it's $179. If you back it on Kickstarter, it is US only. Myke, do you know why? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Shipping?

Brad Dowdy: It's a nightmare. It's too big. When he shipped me this, literally before I opened it, I said, I hope he understands how bad these are going to be to ship. And he's accounting for this in the project.

Myke Hurley: What do you mean though? Like, I mean, I just sort of assume it's the bulkiness of it. It's the size.

Brad Dowdy: It's the size of it. Yeah. It'd be very, very expensive to ship overseas. I would imagine $80 to ship these like to the UK, right? It's because it's a large, large and heavy, right? Large and heavy equals expensive shipping. So I understand. I know a lot of people when I was unboxing this and we were talking about it on Twitch, they were a little bit sad they couldn't get it overseas. You know, who knows? Maybe one day it'll be available. You know, maybe there'll be a retailer that could buy like 10 of these or something and do something with that. So just hang in there. You know, if you really want one, hopefully there'll be a way in the future. But yeah, it's got to be a nightmare to ship. So yeah.

Myke Hurley: Is it comfortable to put on your lap? Because you mentioned the Levenger one, which had like a cushion. This is just wood.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I would rather have the rigid style like this. So the only thing that's a little bit interesting for me on the lap and as I've been using this and giving feedback to Dan. Um, so it has like a riser in the back to have a proper angle. And I kind of, when I'm using it in my lap, I will tend to, God, this is so specific. I tend to cross my legs and then hang the riser over my knee. Right. So I'm not sitting flat legged and then the riser across my legs, if that makes sense. I don't, I don't write straight on, if you will. So it's kind of at an angle and then the, the riser on the back is like good. If like this is on a desk or something like that, it gives you a good writing angle. For me, I kind of undershoot the riser to where I just keep it flat, um, on my, on my leg. So I don't notice it, but I do see like, like, I guess if you're flat, I don't, I just don't, I tend not to write flat legged, which is funny. You know, part of the reason why I like lap desks to begin with is because I can kind of lean back in my chair and I will actually cross my legs and have the board up a little bit. So it works for me in that because I will just, I will just put the little riser in the back over it. So other than that, it's comfortable. It's big and bulky. Right. But lap desks are an acquired taste to begin with. Right. This is not something that everyone is going to enjoy doing, but I've done it for so long. Like I'm used to it. Like I just fell right into it, even though this is like bigger and heavier than what I'm using now, but it's a better layout than my sketchboard that I'm using because it's almost too big. This is a little bit smaller, even though it's heavier. Um, it, it works better for that. So, and I'm able to keep, um, I, I really like the little pin well that's built into it. I use that in the little pin tray. So I use that, you know, when I have to set it down and things like that, those little, those little things like on my, my sketchboard has like this big rubber band and I'll just have to like, you know, if I want to move around, like I'll slide my pin under the band and sometimes it's flying around. This is a, this is a good setup for me. This product, this product was built for me. This is like, I am, I am really enjoying it because it is something I already used right. And in a way that I already wrote. So like, I'm used to it, but I do also understand that people may not get this right as a product and that's okay. Like they're expensive and you know, he's probably not going to sell like, you're not going to sell a thousand units of these, right? This is a very, very highly specific type of situation. And it just kind of checks all those boxes for me. So I definitely wanted to, uh, to bring it up. So I did, um, he did send me one and then I've backed one as well. So, um, you know, maybe, maybe I'll have to figure out what to do with my, uh, with my original loaner cause I don't need two of them. So we'll, we'll figure something out to do with it. Uh, I was backer number one, Myke, I couldn't get in there fast enough. So that's what I think about this project.

Myke Hurley: Well, maybe in fact, you did get in there fast enough if you were back in number one, but I know what you're saying.

Brad Dowdy: True, true, true, true. Good point. Good point.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I thought it was a beautiful thing. Like it is not a product I would use. Like this would be very uncomfortable for me. Um, right. But I, I think it's very beautiful and I know it's going to be made really, really well because that's what they do. Right. Like, right. So good made better is stuff that is made good and better. Right. Like they're really, I mean, as I say, I used a pen well and have used a pen well every day for years now. And I think it's quite an ingenious little design. Like the little book weight is so smart. Um, book weight is cool. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's heavy. Like the book weight, I think I weighed it the other day. It was like 14 ounces is close to a pound. That little book weight. It's hilarious. So yeah, I have a little book weight on mine and, um, but I haven't really been using the book weight. I've been using the, uh, the holder in the back where you kind of stand it up in the back, which is really good. The, the reader's kit is what it's called. Um, so it's this cool little piece of plexiglass. So you can hold the book open, but still see through the, to the page. Like if you're copying or just want it for notes or things like that, or you can remove the plexiglass and put up, you know, like a digital device or, or slide it in there too. Like you could put up an iPad or something like their tablet of any kind in there.

Myke Hurley: I think it's very smart. Like things like the plexiglass thing, it shows like a thought in the design. Like I bet he didn't start with plexiglass.

Brad Dowdy: Right. You probably started with nothing. Yes. Like would be my guess. You'd like, Hey, just let's put this up here and kind of balance it back there. It's like, Oh, what if I, you know, did this? And it's like, that doesn't work.

Myke Hurley: Let me put a piece of wood here to hold it. Oh, wait, now I can't see it. What can I, you know, like I, that's how I am. When I see something like that, I feel like I can like look into the matrix, you know, like see what were the steps that probably led to this with it being a great solution. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Especially from someone who is like physically making this in their own shop. Right. Yeah. You can imagine, imagine the, the version history of this product is large. So yeah, very cool. I'm excited. I'm using mine very frequently already. And I look forward to, to getting a new one whenever it comes out. My biggest decision was what side, what side do I buy the pin well on? Like you can choose left side or right side. And I was like, Hmm, I haven't thought about that. I went with right, but I think sometimes.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Well, because when you're writing, you're okay. So if you're right handed, everything I'm working on comes in from the right hand side, including the pin, which makes it easy to put it down. But that means the left side's always free. It's like a more open spot over there. So why not put the pin over there? And it's more out of the way, even though you technically have to reach for it a little bit.

Myke Hurley: Reaching over it the whole time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but it's never in the way. So I don't know. I went with the right, but these are the kinds of things I think about Myke.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by our friends at Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls and fountain pens, ball points and mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have products from all of your favorite brands. They have fast and reliable customer service. They add new styles of pens to the site every month. And every couple of weeks, you're going to find new specials over at Pen Chalet, new deals that they're doing just for you. As well as all of the companies and products that they sell, you know, like, you know, they have Lamy and Pilot and Namiki and they have fountain pens and ball points from all of them. They also do a bunch of limited edition pens from some of your favorite brands and accessories. So if you're looking for carrying cases, inks, you want fountain pen converters, all little bits and bobs. They've got them over at Pen Chalet. It's the one-stop shop. They do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US. They also sell internationally with great rates. They offer a Pen Chalet low prices on high quality products and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to PenChalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offer. And to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time over at Pen Chalet. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password Pen Addict. Brad, what are they going to find?

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't get past the homepage, Myke, because I mean, we're going to get to the deals. There's some hot stuff in there. But on the homepage, it's a new pen from Visconti that I haven't seen before. It's the Visconti Kaleido Unicorn Galaxy. Can you imagine what this even looks like? So this is wild. Like, this is cool. Like, this is not a pen for me, but I would want to see this pen in person. I want to see people buying this pen. I want to see the owners of this pen enjoying this pen. This is awesome. And there's even an orange one. Like, I'm completely discounting the orange one because the Unicorn Galaxy is awesome.

Myke Hurley: I'm not going to send this to Kathy. It's too many. I don't want to put a 636-dollar pen on a doorstep.

Brad Dowdy: This is so good.

Myke Hurley: Because I know she'll love it, and I don't want to burden her with that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is... I have not laid eyes on this pen before, and I'm in.

Myke Hurley: Don't understand... Oh, the orange has got a different name. The orange is called Fire Opal. Because, like, I didn't get it. Right? What would you call it? So it's Visconti Kaleido, and then you've got Unicorn Galaxy or Fire Opal.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. Yeah. Like, Fire Opal, you know, looks like my kind of pen. I'm in on the Unicorn Galaxy. Like, come on. Come on. All right. Then you've got to go over and drop in the pen out of code on the YouTube radio podcast link and see all the awesome deals for listeners. The Pineder Alchemist. So I just met up with a pen friend in person, and this was the pen that they were using. They were using the green one, Krakatoa Green. And this is such a good-looking pen. And it's got a great snap cap. And these Pineders are great. And I really, really enjoy what they're doing at Pineder. The Cross X Rollerball pen, Myke, this is an older pen. Oh, my God. I remember this. Yeah. This one always comes up because it is a, gosh, how would you describe it? It's a barrel retract pen, right? So it compacts on itself, like telescopic. Yeah. Right. So this is the pen you buy just like randomly for someone, like for a gift. Like, you know, just like the, hey, here's a cool, almost like a gadget pen. It's like a telescoping center. And this was actually a good one, one that works very, very well. We've talked about this one years and years ago. The other thing which I personally haven't seen as a Y Studio fan, this is the Y Studio My Resolute Wooden Notepad Stand and Ballpoint Pen. I'm not totally familiar with this and I want to look into this because it's on sale at a good price. So I'm interested in what they're doing here with this Y Studio set because I think Y Studio is one of my personal favorite brands. So yeah, lots of stuff on this page. Definitely go check it out. Really interesting stuff.

Myke Hurley: So pencholet.com podcast link at the top of the website. Thanks to Pencholet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Top five pen updates and rankings

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I have been continuing down the top five updates. I've actually been, I've been a good boy, Myke. I've been reasonably steady getting these updates in because I've been enjoying reading the pieces

Myke Hurley: you've been writing and refill. I like that you're doing it the way that you're doing it. This like slow rollout.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't know why that hit me one day. I was like, if I'm going to get this done, I can't do it all at once. So what if I broke it down into chunks, talked about the changes I made in a little bit more detail to Panatic members and released it a little bit early and then just took each category and worked my way through. Like as we get further down the list, I'll probably do like multiple, multiple links or multiple lists at a time. Um, I don't know. We only have what, six weeks left in the year and I definitely have more than six lists to, to update. And I know there's going to be weeks where I can't do, um, I need to talk about other things. So, um, yeah, we're, we're pretty much on track. So we'll get it updated here pretty soon. Um, but we have, this was kind of the last core, um, I think top five lists that the people are most interested in. Um, we still have some, some other pretty popular lists after this, but this was the, the top five fountain pens between 100 and $200. Um, I think that's a really core part of this top five page because you kind of get led into it right in the order that I've done these, you know, we start with micro gel ink pens and pens in the store, right before you're, before people are into fountain pens or people who aren't into fountain pens, that's the things that they're thinking about. Then, oh, maybe they start thinking about fountain pens and I have the top five fountain pens for beginners. Then I have the top five next fountain pens. Once you kind of get past that beginner phase and start looking at other things. And then you really make the jump. And I think that first big jump in fountain pens is this 100 to $200 price range. So I wanted to have, I've always had this list, uh, here and this list has changed a lot over the years. And actually we've done, I don't know, it's probably been a couple of years, but we'd actually did a, I updated this list specifically once because so many pens that were on it had been priced out of this, right? Like over the past couple of years, the, the market has, you know, seen price increases across the board, you know, rare materials such as gold, you know, gold, silver, platinum, any of the parts, you know, like nibs specifically that are made, uh, for a lot of these very, very popular pens. It's the cost of those, those manufacturing pieces have gone up and therefore priced a lot of these pens out of this range. So I updated this one a couple of years ago or maybe even last year. I don't even remember, um, to kind of better think about this price point. And it's still a tough price point because it's pretty much the top five fountain pens between $175 and 200.

Myke Hurley: Remind me here. Didn't, didn't we talk about like you were going to give this a new name? No. Wasn't it like next step or something?

Brad Dowdy: That's the previous list. So we talked about that before. So this is the next, this is after that.

Myke Hurley: So the one we just did was the step up. I'm sorry. I've forgotten the name. So that was like the step up, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Your second fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And this is when you're this 100, this price point, um, why did you keep the price point

Myke Hurley: for this one? Why not give that like also its own name?

Brad Dowdy: Because a lot of times this is where the question it's a lot of times it's a question based, right? So I have X amount of dollars to spend like a hundred dollars seems to be a price breaker, right? So anything under a hundred dollars is usually not tied into price, right? When I get a question. So again, these are recommendations, not personal favorites. So when I get questions and a lot of this is based on that, Hey, I want to, I need a beginner fountain pen. I'm new. Like help me find that. So, okay. I have this list. All right. I, I like that beginner pen. What's next? What should I look at next? And it's like, okay, I figured that it's like, no. Okay. Now I've budgeted like, I think like a hundred dollars, like for a pen or like, you know, $150 for a pen. What do I want to do? So that's how the questions come in. So this seems to be the best way to answer the most people's, uh, the most questions I receive. Does that make sense?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And also I'm not saying you are doing this, but no, this, this particular, no, no, no. What I'm about to say, this particular question I expect is very good for Google.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah. Right. Literally, literally never crossed my mind. I'm not saying it is, but like you said that it is a good reason to keep it. Yeah. Sure.

Myke Hurley: Cause the pen addict, like the website ranks very high in SEO anyway.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, somebody's the top five pins name definitely does.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. But all of them, like if I Google any pen, you always come up first.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it's very clean and very, you know, basic and simple and like search termy, but like, I've never thought of it that way. Other than like, I do know that if you just write in top five pens, um, like that's a pretty, that's pretty, you know, popular, but the rest of it, I haven't, I haven't thought about the individual list in that way.

Myke Hurley: Top pens, $100 and it comes up.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. So yeah, like after you get past the beginner and the next, next set, then I think people start thinking of it more in two price brackets, right? So this is that next price bracket. And the challenge, as you'll see during the results of this and what I already said is this is really like $175 to $200, right? There's pens that are good that are, you know, $125 or $140, but I have a hard time recommending them. So for example, we'll get to the list in a second, but what didn't make the list were two very popular pens. That's the Pelican M205. So their entry-level piston filler. Those are around $120, $130. And then the Pilot Vanishing Point, which is around $160, maybe a little bit more, $180, somewhere in that range. So those are two extremely, extremely popular pens. But when I look at them from a recommendation perspective, and as we go through this list, you'll see why maybe those didn't make the cut.

Brad Dowdy: The 205 is the hardest one to leave off the list. The Vanishing Point's actually pretty easy to leave off the list. So let's go down the list and then we'll break it all down. I had to, I made a mistake on the last list and oversight, leaving the Pilot Custom 74 out.

Brad Dowdy: And I wanted to correct that on this list. It's the best pen in this range. That's wild to me. Pretty easily.

Myke Hurley: That a pen you left off is no number one. Like that, I don't understand how that has happened.

Brad Dowdy: It had been on the list in the past, right? And for a while there, Pilot stopped updating the 74, right? It just existed in the same clear purple and orange colors that it existed in 10 years ago, or maybe even longer, right? So there was no freshness in that lineup. So I kind of just, eh, okay, it's there. Like I didn't think about it. It doesn't really, you know, come up that much. So I kind of just, it was kind of out of sight, out of mind, if you will. Right. Well, then they started, all of a sudden there's like four new colors of the 74. I was like, oh, they're going to push this one. Why are they pushing this one? What's special about this? And it was always a pen that was in the same conversation with the Sailor Pro Gear Slim and the Platinum 3776 and the Pilot Custom 74, right? Those three kind of ran together. And then Sailor priced itself out. This is kind of, if you think about it, these are those brands kind of entry level gold nib pens. Platinum, excuse me, Pilot does have some other options. The 91 is another option too, but I'll talk about that in a minute. But those three were kind of those first gold nib pens for Pilot, Sailor, and Platinum. And I think the Pilot is my favorite one. It's priced the best. It's more like $160, $165. They have upgraded a lot of the barrel colors. It's a very, you know, simple, lightweight, cool looking pen. It's not for everyone. All the barrels are translucent, right?

Brad Dowdy: Fun colors. Like I have a teal color that I use a lot. It's really, really nice. And it's just great. It's just great quality. It's priced so well. It has somehow not been subject to great price increases that a lot of the competition has. And for that quality and for that price, I think it's a really easy recommendation to make it at number one. And with number two being Platinum 3776, even though I prefer the 3776 because I like the way the nibs feel, I think the 74 is still the best recommendation, the best universal recommendation. The 3776, at this price, they are a little bit more limited in color. However, they do have the benefit of offering more nib choices. I think that's the big thing with 3776 is you can get a few different nib sizes that you can't get in the 74.

Myke Hurley: 3776 would be my number one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And that was the previous number one. And it would be my number one too.

Myke Hurley: I don't have a lot of experience of the 74, but just the 74 doesn't excite me in any way. It doesn't do anything for me. Where the 3776, you can get some really cool ones. Yeah. And some of them staying even within that one to 200. Yeah. Some of the really nice ones do push over. But the nib is still the same. And for me, the gold nib in the 3776 is, I think, the best nib you can buy. That you can just buy without needing to modify or whatever. I think that the 3776 gold nib is a masterpiece.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I agree. In my personal list, I would have the 3776 first. The reason why I put the 74 ahead of it is because I just think it's a better nib for more people. I think the 3776 nib is unique in a way that some people dislike. Out the box, they're wondering, what is this feedback that I'm getting? Even though it's glorious, I think it's fantastic. So yeah. I mean, I'm not going to argue if someone wants to flip-flop those. It's 1 and 1A type of situation. But I would recommend the 74. I'm always going to recommend those together pretty much anyway. This list is definitely 1 and 2. Because number 3 is the Lamy 2000. And this pen has been number 1 on this list. This pen has been off the list. Depends on if I'm mad at it or not at the time. But the way this price point has been working, and Lamy, this 2000 is almost off this list. They're like $199 now. It is still one of the best pens at this price point for the construction or the filling mechanism or the nib. The 14 karat gold nib. Now the nib, talking about a different nib between the 74 and the 3776, this is a wider, wetter nib. Again, some people, you know, have to, you know, don't like the out-of-the-box nib experience with the 2000. I understand that. They can be a little, I call it, I don't know what the right term is. I call them the sticky, right? Like they, they're not as glassy, smooth as like the 74 or just the airy, tactile feedback of the 3776. They, they are definitely like on the page, right? But in the context of this list, I don't know how I could not recommend it this highly. It's, I think the 2000 is awesome, right? I think it's really, really great. And I recommend it to a lot of people. And a lot of people just use this pen and it could be their one and only pen for like a lifetime, right? If you're looking for the lifetime purchase, you're going with the 2000, maybe even ahead of the two above it, right? So it's just a, it's the most uniquely constructed out of this list. And maybe next year it's off this list if the price continues to increase.

Myke Hurley: I would say that the Lamy 2000 is the best gift on this list.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's, it answers a lot of questions for people who don't listen to this podcast, if you will, but are into this kind of stuff, right? And it just-

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's very professional looking, incredibly unique, right?

Brad Dowdy: It will knock your socks off. Yeah. It knocks my socks off to this day. Every time I grab one, it's like, ah, this is so good. Like it is that good of a product, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I really, I really love the Lamy 2000. That is just a great pen. Yep. It is. It really is. I'm going to pause you there. We'll take our final break and we'll come back and finish the rest of this list. Gotcha. This episode is brought to you by Trade Coffee. The holidays are approaching, so it's time to start thinking about what you want to get as gifts for your loved ones. If you're looking for something to get even the hardest person to shop for, look no further than a personalized coffee subscription from Trade Coffee. Trade Coffee is a subscription service that makes it so simple for you to discover new coffees and make your best cup of coffee at home every day. Or you could do that for somebody else with a gift. Trade partners with the nation's top rated independent roasters to send you coffee you're going to love, fresh to your home and on your preferred schedule. Whether you already know what you like or you're new to specialty coffee and need some help, Trade makes it easy and convenient to discover new coffees. They've done that for me. They've done that for Brad. I really love the stuff that I get from Trade Coffee because they open me up to more choice than I would otherwise have. Because it's like, how do you find the independent roasters before you could even choose to buy the coffee from them? Well, Trade does that work for you. And you don't need to choose because Trade knows what you like. So they're going to send you what you're going to like. Trade Coffee is the perfect gift for loved ones. They make it easy with their digital gifting options for last minute shoppers. Hey, this is a great thing for last minute gifts. You know, if you're one of those kinds of people or maybe there's someone you forgot. Perfect. Trade is perfect. They also have coffee and equipment bundles to put something under the tree as well. That's actually a nice one too, right? You buy someone a subscription and give them like a V60 or something. That's smart. Treat yourself for the coffee lover in your life of Trade Coffee. Right now, Trade is offering listeners of this show a total of $30 off a subscription and access to limited time holiday specials by going to drinktrade.com slash penaddict. That's D-R-I-N-K-T-R-A-D-E dot com slash penaddict for $30 off. Drinktrade.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to Trade for their support of this episode and Relay FM.

Coffee and trade partnerships

Brad Dowdy: One of my favorite gifts, period, is coffee and being able to have like this coffee connoisseur in trade, like be able to pick out cool coffees for me. It's like getting a gift, a special gift for me every month. I love it. Love it. All right. Number four on this list, Myke, is the pen that actually caused me to rework this list a couple of years ago or a year ago, the Leonardo Memento Zero. So when you get into this price point, there has long been an expectation of, well, if I'm paying that much money, the nib better be gold, right? And you will see the difference if you compare and contrast the 74 and the 3776 with something like the Leonardo Memento Zero. So the Memento Zero has a steel nib and beautiful acrylic character filled barrels, right? They're stunning to look at where the, I'll say this out loud. I love the way the 74 and 3776 looks. All the money's in the nib, right? They're acrylic sticks with nibs on them, right? They're like, you know, they're not, you know, the elite barrel of the Memento Zero. Well, the Memento Zero puts a lot of money into that and you get a steel nib. They are awesome. I'm the biggest steel nib supporter on the planet. I am fine paying hundreds of dollars for a pen with a steel nib in it, especially when they're a Memento Zero, which you don't have to pay a lot for. You can get these for like 150 bucks if you shop around. And I can't speak highly enough of what this brand has done since they launched, I don't know, five years ago. It's been a little bit, but not that long. They're just crushing it. And this is their entry level pen and they've kept it that way. You know, again, they have crept up some in price. They're still under $200. But like I said, there's a, if you go shopping right now, there's a ton of them out there for like $150. So it's one of my most used pens, the way it's designed and the way it feels in my hand. It's just a great fountain pen. Like it is, it feels good. It's perfectly weighted, perfectly balanced, perfectly sized. The nibs are wonderful. The materials are fun to look at. Everything is just really flawless. And like, I recommend them so often and enjoy using them really just a ton. And do you have any of the regular Memento Zeros or do you just have, there's definitely some more expensive models out there, right? That both of us have.

Myke Hurley: I do not own a Leonardo.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I was thinking you had one of the big ones. So we will correct that for you next year.

Myke Hurley: I want to change and.

Brad Dowdy: I will find the one for you.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm kind of now thinking, well, this is a pen I know I want. How about I wait until I go to a pen show?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And get one. That's what, that's what it's been in my mind for a while. Like I've, I kept hesitating on the primary manipulation models.

Brad Dowdy: I kept hesitating on those. That's what I was going to say. You will end up with one of the bigger gold nib models. I'm pretty certain. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to get the gold ones rather than the steel ones.

Brad Dowdy: And like they make a piston filler gold nib pen. That's like, you know, around $450, $500 and it's really, really good. So like, that's what you're going to end up with. I can see it now, but just for like.

Myke Hurley: That makes more sense for my tastes. Like I really love gold nib pens. Like I don't really buy steel nib pens anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So I will, you know, if you want to argue for this pen first on the list, you're not going to get much of an argument for me too. It's just different than the other three. Right. And this is again, recommendations. You know, what I'm recommending to people is how I build this, which makes number five, the weirdest entry. And it was on the entry. It was on the list before.

Brad Dowdy: The diplomat arrow. So we are very price point challenged in, in this, in this range, which I mentioned before, I think about the only other pen I would even consider right here would be the Pelican M205. But they, once the M205 starts to get up to around $180 for some of the special editions, like you can just get black, a black 205 for like 125 and it's fine. And the arrow is more like $180 pen, but it is so cool looking. It is different and unique from all these other pens up ahead of it in that it's a metal barrel, right? Steel nib, metal barrel, interesting shape, interesting design, a lot of cool colors. It's very personal, right? You can pick something out that fits your style. So I think having a little bit of something different on this list works because on top of that, the experience using this pen is elite. Like I love using my arrow. I like all these other pens. Well, besides the 2000, it's kind of a standalone thing outside of the custom, extremely limited editions. I own multiple of like the arrow. I just have one, but I love the one that I have so much. Like I recommend it as it's an answer to a lot of questions that the pens above it don't answer, right? Okay. It's a little more unique in shape and construction and things like that while also being completely rock solid. Like it is just an awesome, awesome writer. So again, like the Pelican M205 could maybe make that spot just for something on the lower end of the scale. But by then I'm probably ramping up into something else. The Esterbrook Estee is kind of similar to the Leonardo Memento Zero. Really beautiful acrylic steel Yovo nibs. They're creeping up in price. They're not off the list yet, but they're like 195. So like I tend to go with Memento Zero, Arrow. Estee's been on the list in the past. They're great. I wish the Montegrappa Elmo was still under $200. That and the Leonardo were part of the first time I updated this list just for being really, really elite steel nib under $200 pens when, you know, the sailors and a lot of other pens were seeing price increases. And then there's one outlier, Myke, that I put in the notes section of this. And it's kind of like the 74 back in the day where I wonder, does Pilot still know that the Pilot Custom 92 exists? Because they haven't updated it in a long time. And this is essentially the Custom 74, but with a piston filler.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: At a less price, at a lower price. And it's kind of breaking my brain. And the only reason like it's not number one on this list is because I don't know that it's going to exist forever. Right? I'm wondering if Pilot comes out with new versions of this 92, just new colors, like a product lineup refresh and keeps the price the same. This will be number one on the list because it's the 74 with a piston filling mechanism. And I don't understand, I've never understood the 92, the price point of the 92 because they have some color additions that are like $150, $160. And then they have like an all translucent addition that's like $220.

Brad Dowdy: And this has been the same for as long as I can remember. So if Pilot does something with the Custom 92 in the next year or two, watch out. But I'm interested to see if they will continue to just let it, you know, die away, which is what it looks like right now. Or if they'll refresh it like they did the 74 in the coming years. Because if they do, it'll be certainly interesting. It's a fantastic pen. But I'm hesitant to put it on the list, even though it technically exists. I do, you know, watch this stuff. And when I don't see a change in a product lineup for years and years and years, I'm a little tentative on, you know, recommending that pen as highly. But, you know, I would certainly recommend it as high as any other pen on this list right now. So we'll see. So that's one to look at for sure.

Myke Hurley: All right. So on next week's episode, we're going to be doing all RSTPA. But you have a specific call that you would like to put out to Panatic listeners for a future episode, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the week after that, I will be joined by the wonderful. So the November 30th episode, Anna Reinhart from the Well Appointed Desk will be rejoining me for the gift guide episode. So we're a little bit late, generally, you know, for a lot of people's shopping calendars. But you'll be well in time to get some really cool stationary gifts. So what I want from you between now and then is to get us a list of any specific gifting questions you might have. You can send them to hello at penatic.com. I would love to answer any specific questions. You know, we'll do our general categories and fun topics and different things like that. Cool gifts we would love to give, you know, our stationary friends are cool stationary gifts we ourselves would love to receive. But if you have a specific stationary question, a gift buying question for a stationary friend, family member, someone you want to enable, now's the time. So just put a gift guide in the subject line or something like that so I see it quickly and send it to hello at penatic.com. And Anna and I will take your questions when we record this episode. And it should be out in two weeks.

Myke Hurley: He does one public radio appearance. And now he's like, going to take your questions. You know, you changed, man. You changed.

Brad Dowdy: The radio voice. That was, you know, I still think about that experience because, you know, me and Allison are now like simpatico, right? You going back on? Not yet. I was on the list for holiday time, so it hasn't quite come up yet. But I think I'm in their calendar, but we don't have a date. So we'll see. You know, maybe they were just blowing smoke and nothing will happen. But we'll see. But yeah, that should be fun.

Myke Hurley: So make sure you get those questions in. The gift guide questions, email them to hello at penatic.com. Over on penatic.com is where you'll find Brad's work. It's where you'll find that top five pens list as it continues to grow and evolve. You can also find Brad on Instagram. He is dowdyism. No, pen addict on Instagram. Dowdyism on Twitter. You go to spokedesign.com. The Model 4 is available now, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, a reworked, not reshaped, but like a little bit of design tweaks, new grip sections, some really cool colors, some really cool grips. They have been flying off the shelves, Myke. And we've been busy in the shipping department here, which is great to see. And we'll have hopefully some different pens and pen models hopefully in the next week or two as well. So stay tuned.

Myke Hurley: You can find Brad streaming multiple times a week over on twitch.tv slash penaddict. I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. And it's getting about time to think about your yearly theme. Go to yearlythemes.com. You can learn a little bit more about what that is and also buy a theme system journal for yourself. So you'll be rip, roaring and ready to go at the beginning of January of 2023. Very excited, Brad. It's about that time again.

Brad Dowdy: It's, gosh, it's too fast. Can we, we need to slow down this time of year. I need double days going through throughout the rest of the year, please.

2023 journal and yearly theme planning

Myke Hurley: I'm going to be breaking out my 2023 journal next week. Nice. Once I decided on my theme, I decided on my theme, I want to start fresh. Exactly. I'm going to be starting fresh.

Brad Dowdy: The best part about themes, Myke, is you can start them anytime.

Myke Hurley: Anytime, baby. Well, really, it's just because we're recording the theme system, the yearly theme episode early. I know, I know. So once I've done that, I'm like committed to it now. So like, it's time to move on. Love it. All right. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of The Pen Addict. Thank you to Storyworth, Pen Chalet and Trey Coffey for supporting this episode. But most of all, thank you for listening and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Bye.