The Pen Addict 116/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	116
Title:	Scribbled Out
Release Date:	August 18th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 116
Audio File:	Audio Episode 116
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 116
Length:	8686 min <br />1.433 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Podcast Network

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 116 of The Pen Addict podcast on RelayFM. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as I always am, by Mr. Brad Dowdy. What's up, buddy? Hey, man. How you doing? Good. Long time no talk. I know. It's been way too long for my liking.

Brad Dowdy: Except for like every five minutes on Twitter or something like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's not the same. It's just not the same.

Brad Dowdy: Definitely not the same. It's good to be back.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so here we are now on RelayFM, which is the network that we've all been working on for a bit now. And I'm super excited. And this was, you know, all of my shows, I wanted to give them a new lease of life, but this one, it was just too perfect to change. And so the Pen Addict, we've carried over the Pen Addict and all of its back catalogue is now on Relay.FM, which is our new home. And you'll be able to find all of the show notes there from previous episodes and things like that. This is now the third podcast network that the Pen Addict has been a part of.

Brad Dowdy: Who knew that we would even have a podcast and now it's just bouncing all over creation?

Myke Hurley: It's just, you know, it's a bit of a floozy, this show.

Myke Hurley: I'm easy. So I think I have to thank everyone and kind of apologize about the feed situation. So we'd kind of said that you didn't need to do anything and that was our original intention. But as we started to go down the pipe and we started to understand, there were some ramifications and some technical issues that we would have faced by doing the feed switchover. And it may have caused us some more significant problems later on in the future. So we took the decision and it was a hard decision to cut the feed off and get everyone to resubscribe again. And it is a shame because I actually know that we're going to lose some people. Some people will just probably never find the show again and think that it's finished. And I know that maybe these people will never hear that, but I apologize to them. But I thank everybody who has resubscribed and I hope that it hasn't been too difficult a situation or process for you. And by all means, I would really, really appreciate it. If you listen to the show and you enjoy the show, to tweet about it, post on Facebook about it. So people that potentially are friends of yours that may know about it or something like that can see that the show has its new home on Relay FM. I would really, really appreciate that. And I know Brad would too.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm definitely sorry about that. But I think, you know, I think it's the right call for us. And I think we'll get everyone back on track pretty quickly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I know that the power of the pan addict dot com.

Myke Hurley: Well, you know, we'll do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. For sure. So, yeah. I mean, I'm excited. How about that podcast artwork, huh?

Artwork

Myke Hurley: Oh, I know. Right.

Brad Dowdy: That's I that's been the hardest. I knew we were going to a new network and I knew the name and all that stuff. And that was easy to hold close to the vest until we were ready to launch. But the podcast artwork I saw, you know, a month or more ago and I was like, can I use it now? Do I have to wait? I mean, it's so awesome. And not just mine. I mean, heck, I love my podcast artwork so much and it's probably the worst of the bunch. But it's good. Our friend our friend Forgotten Towel on Twitter is a is a is a pro.

Myke Hurley: He's he literally is the best. And I've just realized you'd like you've just reminded me that we've not really mentioned it on any of the other shows that I've recorded so far.

Brad Dowdy: Well, all your other hosts are jerks.

Myke Hurley: That's very true. But it's just it's just completely gone out of my head. But yeah, when everything goes live, because we're recording this slightly before Monday the 18th, which is which was is the launch day. There's a little post that goes up and we obviously take the moment to thank Frank for his incredible work. Um, he has been an absolute dream to work with. And he's responsible for all of the branding as part of Relay FM. Um, so the beast. He's actually pretty incredible. Um, and a super nice guy. So it's it's fantastic to be able to work with talented people like like Mr. Tao and yourself, of course, Brad. And I'm really, really happy that you agreed to allow us to mess around with your show again and bring it to a new network.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no problem. I mean, I'm I'm really excited about it. I'm excited about the future for sure. And, um, you know, we'll just we'll keep on doing what we do and have fun doing it. So that's, uh, that's what makes decisions like this easy.

Myke Hurley: And I should mention that we're going to talk about these guys shortly. But this show is brought to you by three fantastic sponsors this week, which is Pen Chalet, Igloo and Squarespace. I meant to do that right at the start. I'm still getting used to things.

Brad Dowdy: I know. You mean we got to got to handle business, too. And we have music. And we have music and it's awesome. And I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks about that. It's going to be pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: We wanted to inject a bit of soul and funk into this show. Yeah. Because we never we'd never have music. And then I was working on the new music for the other shows. And and I was like, well, maybe it's time that the pen addict had some music, too. So we did that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we've been wanting it for a while. So we just it was just a matter of sitting down and doing it. So, yeah, finally.

Myke Hurley: So this is a new age for the pen addict podcast. Probably not a lot's going to change except for the things we just mentioned. Aside from that, you can probably expect the same sort of thing. And today's show is going to feature, I think, one of everybody's favorite things, which is Brad complains about Kickstarter projects.

Myke Hurley: That's something later. So I'm very excited about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's like the highlight. I, you know, I put a little quick shout out on Twitter just to make sure, you know, I didn't take notes during our hiatus. You know, it's been three or four weeks since we recorded. And I wasn't like constantly planning every week. OK, when we come back, I need to talk about this and this and this and this. So I knew there were a couple of things I wanted to point out. So I threw it out there on Twitter to say, you know, am I missing anything? And, you know, I'd already written down all this Kickstarter stuff. And everyone was like Kickstarter this, Kickstarter that Kickstarter this. I'm like, yep, we got that covered. Don't worry. We will have that covered without issue.

Myke Hurley: If there's one thing that you can be sure of is that Brad's going to talk about Kickstarter projects.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. I did want to give a shout out during our hiatus. We made a few guest appearances on various podcasts. So I just wanted to give a shout out in case anyone missed it and was interested in more Brad and Myke. Most people probably this is enough, at least for a lot of people. But in case you're interested in hearing our other shows, I was on our friends at the Erasable podcast. You know, Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Myke. Isn't that their names?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's new edition. Sorry. It's Andy, Tim and Johnny do a great job at the pencil podcast, Erasable. So we'll have these links in the show notes. I was on episode 11 of Erasable while I was on vacation. I brought the mic just so I could record with those guys and we had a good time. Then I was also on the Jeff Rubin, Jeff Rubin show where he just kind of came at me from a complete novice. I don't understand the deal about pens thing. So that was actually a pretty good conversation. I enjoyed that. I recorded that one while I was sick. So I've had a very interesting hiatus from Pen Addict. And then my friend Tony from Everyday Commentary had me on Gear Geeks Live and we had a great conversation about getting your grail pens. And we talked about Nakaya's and all the stuff about getting in the big boys that you've been working so hard for for years finally in your arsenal.

Myke Hurley: That's a great little sound clip to pull out.

Brad Dowdy: And Mr. Myke was on one of my new favorite podcasts, Defocused, which I had already subscribed to anyway. Was it Joe Steele? What's the other guy? Dan Stern. Dan Stern. They have a fun show. It's one of my favorites. Yeah. If you don't listen to Myke, you should go listen to it anyway.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That guest episode, that guest spot is actually one of my sole favorite things I've ever recorded. Yeah. Because I got to talk about something very near and dear to my heart, which is a movie and comic book series called Scott Pilgrim. And I mean, I just love those guys anyway. And I think they're a lot of fun and they're really good at what they do. And I had a great time on the show. I was also on the Technically Correct podcast, which is a show that I've been on before. So it's a really interesting UK-based tech podcast. That's always fun. I get to talk to some other Brits. And I had my first appearance on IRL Talk, which was fantastic. I really love Faith and Jason. And it was a lot of fun to be on their show too because it was kind of more bionic-like in its type, you know, the way that the show's put together, which is like it's just a load of fun, random stuff that people, that the hosts find and enjoy. And it kind of just veers off in really interesting directions. It was funny because I was actually kind of on one or two other things as well, kind of here and there. Some like recorded to come out later and stuff like that, I think. I might have forgotten something, which makes me feel terrible.

Myke Hurley: It was like as soon as I announced I was leaving 5x5, I just got like multiple emails. It's in the same way. Every day since I've announced Relay, we've had like one show pitch a day at least.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. Hey, are you looking for... Yeah. You need to work on the Brony podcast though.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure. I mean...

Brad Dowdy: Joe Lebo wants to host that one.

Myke Hurley: It's close to some of the ideas I've been getting anyway. I'm sure. It's just something that we're not doing right now because we're trying to stay focused and expanding the network before I've launched it, you know, at that point.

Brad Dowdy: I know all about the focus thing. Yeah. We're going to talk about that.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. It's been a fun time.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It's been real fun. And I did the same thing as you kind of. I said, you know, I'm not going to be recording. So, if, you know, anyone wants to chat, you know, I'm going to be lost without recording every week. So, I have a microphone and will travel. So, yeah. I was glad to get those guys to reach out to me and have some fun while we were away.

Myke Hurley: So, there was like this part of me that was like, oh, I have three weeks off, which I've not had in five years. Right. And I was like, oh, I wonder how I'm going to feel at the end of it. Am I going to want to just stop? Like, will I enjoy the time off just playing video games every day like a regular human? Like, but it got to sort of the start of this week, like when we announced everything and all I wanted to do was record the shows. Yeah, exactly. Just all I wanted to do. So, I'm so happy that we're doing this again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Pen Chalet Sponsor

Myke Hurley: Something that I'm also really happy about is our first sponsor for this week's episode. I'm really, really happy that the Pen Chalet is back on the new iteration of the Pen Addict podcast. The Pen Chalet are a fantastic company that sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they feature all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Sailor, Caveco, and Namiki. And they are, of course, authorized dealers of all of them. Pen Chalet are known for their very fast and reliable customer service. And I found this from my own orders. And I know that Brad's sound the same and loads of you guys that have ordered from them have found exactly the same sort of thing. They are really great with their help if you have any questions. And they just ship things out super fast. But I think everybody's favorite thing about the Pen Chalet is their special discounts that they do. And they run special discounts twice a month and they have closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new styles of pens all the time. Every single month there's new different pens and all this fantastic stuff going up on PenChalet.com. As well as all the brands that I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the accessories that you're going to need. Like carrying cases, refills, pen holders, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They do free shipping on orders over $50 in the continental United States. And they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. And don't forget that the exchange rate is in your favor. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now guys, you know what to do now. Go to PenChalet.com and use the code PenAddict at checkout to get 10% off your order. But what you should be doing is clicking the podcast link at the top of the website and entering the password PenAddict. It's going to give you a bunch of awesome special deals that they do. It's also going to get you a 10% off if you use the code as well at checkout. But we have another fantastic one-time special offer this week. People will remember that we did the part. Brad, help me with the name, please.

Brad Dowdy: We've done two for us so far. We did the – well, no, one we just kind of – We did our own the Pelican M205. We monopolized our own. And then that went so well for them, they decided to do some special editions. And we did the pilot, the Namiki Falcon. That's it. The Flexnip Pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And so continuing that theme, tell them what special hotness we get this time.

Myke Hurley: So this is only available to listeners of the Pen Addict. So you guys are in the special club. You can get your hands on a black Lamy 2000 fountain pen at a huge discount. So you want to go to penshalet.com, click the podcast button at the top of the page, and use the code penaddict, all one word. That way you're going to go through to the special page, and you're going to see the Lamy 2000 available for a huge 30% off. And what's even more incredible than that is you can still then use the code penaddict at checkout to get another 10% off. This brings your total savings – you've been counting along, of course – to 40%. So the final cost is at $125.37 with free shipping in the US.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's pretty nuts for a Lamy 2000, which is an awesome pen. It feels unlike any other pen in the hand. It's got this special Macrelon fiberglass barrel that is just crazy. And not to mention, it's one of the best-looking pens on the planet. It's highly recommended by me. I know Jeff Abbott, who writes for me at the Pen Addict, he just reviewed his last week. And, you know, both of us have had some experience. The Lamy 2000, not only is it famous for its looks and its feel, but it's also a little bit famous because the nibs can be a little bit wonky just from a – I don't know, not a not-writing perspective. But they're a little – I don't know. Both Jeff and I came up with the term sticky. They – the nib might need a little adjustment. It might come out perfect. But the price you're getting this pen for, you can definitely get a nibmeister to look at, which, you know, is worth it on its own. You know, Jeff and I have both done that with our Lamy 2000s in there. We're better off for it. But we certainly didn't get the Lamy 2000 up front at as good a price as this.

Myke Hurley: So this is an order that I'm going to be placing myself very shortly because I've had my eye on one of these for a long time. It's been on my list. I love Lamy pens. I just love them. I think they're fantastic. And I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. Now, as we look back at some of the previous sales that we've done with the awesome pen chalet, we know these are going to go fast. So you want to act quickly to get your order in. However, pen chalet have confirmed to us that if they sell out, which I'm sure that they will, they will order in as many as they can to fulfill all the orders. So even if they sell out, you should be able to – they should be able to replenish their stock in about a week. So there might just be a slight delay. So penchalet.com. Use the code penaddict. When you click the podcast button at the top, you're going to be able to get your hands on, as well as all their other fantastic discounts and deals that they do for us, and that 10%, you're going to be able to get your hands on a Lamy 2000 in black for an incredible 40% off with free shipping. Thank you so much to pen chalet for their support of the penaddict podcast and the newly formed RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, thank you so much, pen chalet. We really, really appreciate it.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we were talking about focus, and I made my little comment. Yeah, I have something to – a focus topic, and that's related to NotCo. And it's a blog post we did last week on some changes that we're making. But I don't guess they really affect anyone, but it was just more that we wanted to make a post just for clarity's sake because we – as we've started this business, Jeff and I are both new entrepreneurs, new businessmen, and trying to decide on what we want to do for Nock. And we always thought we wanted to carry other products aside from our cases and aside from our paper products that we're making and creating to complement those. And we have done that with our friends Dan at Karis Customs and Myke at Dudek Modern Goods. And we've had those collaborations. And then on top of that, we started stocking TWSBI pens and Organic Studio inks. And what we found is it's causing a little bit of a distraction from what our main focus needs to be, which is actually the manufacturing of our case products and our paper products and collaborating with other makers to make unique products. So right now we're going to stop carrying TWSBI and Organic Studios. And obviously nothing wrong with those two brands. They're really, really great, and I use them and love those products. But it's just kind of not a fit for us right now. It's not what we're trying to do. We want to collaborate on cool pens with Karis Customs and make something unique for us. We don't want to be another retailer just carrying everyone's stock items and just a whole lineup of that.

Brad Dowdy: Plus it's taken away from our ability to make and design and create cool new case and paper products, which is what we really, really want to focus on. So that's just something we wanted to throw out there and just kind of be transparent with everyone on what we're doing. So I don't know. I just thought it was worth a little bit of a short little post, just kind of a clarification thing. So we'll still be obviously making cases and paper. We're still working with other companies making collaborative pens and other products like the IdeaDoc, which is just back in stock from Dudek Modern Goods. And those kind of things are going to continue. But stock items we're going to hold off on for now, if not forever. So I hope that makes sense.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So basically, if I'm following this correctly, if you guys haven't got some sort of say in the creation of the product, you won't be stocking it anymore. Yeah. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. That's good. You guys are more than just a reseller. Like, you know, you are more than that. Like, there has to be something special about a product. Or like, I don't know, if you were like, if you had some sort of product that only came from Nock. Right. You know, someone else makes it, but Nock is the people you get it from. Like, that, again, feels like something different. But just to be another place that sells Twisbees or another place that sells organic ink, like, it doesn't feel special enough for what you guys do, I think. Exactly. So I think that that's a good, a really, really good thing to do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I think you've said it better than me. Plus, I mean, honestly, we're busy as all get out. We need to make cases. It's good. We're trying to hire some people right now to come help us, help us sow. I mean, we definitely have enough work for making cases on its own. So, yeah, we're going to work on ramping that up. So, yeah, I think it's going to be good.

Myke Hurley: Good man.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir. So we're continuing on after our hiatus. We've got a pen blog of the week, and it's not exactly a pen blog, but it's from one of our pen blogger friends. Mr. Ian Headley created a new pen search engine at peniquad.net. So have you had a chance to check this out, Myke? I know. So what Ian did, and Ian writes pen, paper, pencils is his blog. And he just created a webpage with a Google custom search back in that just searches pen sites who want to be included in this list. And he's got 50-something sites in there now, which is awesome. So you go to peniquad.net. You type in, I don't know, whatever pen you're looking for, Pelican M205. And it gives you just results from pen blogs. So you can avoid all the Google, like if you type in Pelican M205, you're going to get Amazon and JetPens and vendors selling the pen. So this is just for reviews and information. So I thought he did a good job here. And it's looking good. So everyone check that out. The implementation has been pretty good so far. And I'm definitely seeing some traffic from it. So that's good.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to be using it all the time for this show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's great. It's just, it's real easy. It's real tight, real simple. Yeah, and it's great. He's done a good job implementing this. So good job, Ian. And everyone check it out for sure. Now, one other, not necessarily pen blog of the week, but pen blog feature.

Brad Dowdy: We have this very interesting crossword puzzle from Chris Gottlieb, who is a big reader and fan. He's been, I've talked to him on email, Twitter forever, and he made a cryptic crossword for pen addicts. And he did this to coincide with the relaunch of the show. So this will be in the show notes. You can go check out this crossword puzzle he made. And he's going to give a prize for the right answers for when you, for you submitted in for the most, most right answers. If you get all of these answers right, you're like a hero because this is really hard.

Myke Hurley: I take a look at it and I have like no idea about any of them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Chris and I talked about it and even I'm going through it like I have no idea. And he's just laughing. He's like, yeah, I know. It's pretty tough. But he worked hard. Do you know how hard it's got to be to make a crossword puzzle?

Myke Hurley: Oh, I have no idea.

Brad Dowdy: I can't imagine. So this is something I need to spend time on and like sit down and figure it out. But he made a good, what do you call it? Description of it. Where did he say it?

Brad Dowdy: Man, I'm blanking. But basically he was saying these are all like pen terms, pen vendors, pen nibmeisters. It's just all comes from the whole world of pen, pendom, if you will.

Myke Hurley: All the answers relate to pen parts, brands, personalities, stores on nibmeisters. So have a go. I like that his description right at the top is at the intersection of two very boring hobbies.

Crossword Puzzles

Brad Dowdy: That is so perfect. I get a lot of email, or at least I have over the years of, hey, I'm an avid crossword puzzle user or.

Myke Hurley: Doer.

Brad Dowdy: Doer, filler outer. And what pen can I use for that? And that's a hard question to answer. Any pen? Pilot friction. Pilot friction is your answer. Because you can erase.

Brad Dowdy: For people who don't want to use pencil.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, might as well just use a pencil.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Anyway, I just want to, Chris put a lot of time and work into that. So I wanted to give him a shout out for that. And check it out. Give it a go. And I'd be interested to see. Hopefully Chris will get back to us on the, when he publishes the answers. And if there's a winner. So I'm going to have to submit my entry as well.

Brad Dowdy: So one of the things when I talked on Twitter about the hiatus and what pen wanted, people wanted to hear was. They said, what all new stuff did you get? While, you know, in the few weeks. You know, we rely on you. You know, our wallets have taken a break. While y'all are in a podcast hiatus. So now tell us what you, what you went out and bought. So we can look at these, look at this cool stuff too. And it's funny, Myke. I'm not sure I actually bought anything in the few weeks we've been off. I've gotten a lot of stuff. You know, I've gotten a lot of stuff from my jet pin sponsorship. But more importantly, I got a lot of stuff from friends. Friends of the show. Friends of the website.

Brad Dowdy: The coolest thing. I don't know. I got a lot. It's hard to say it's the coolest thing. I got some really awesome mail. One, the most interesting thing I got. I got my first ever floaty pin.

Brad Dowdy: It is the most awesome thing to have show up in your mailbox. He didn't tell. This is from Michael Franznick. He's a long-time listener. Long-time reader. He told me. He said, send me your address. I went on a trip to Italy. He didn't go see Federico though. But he went to Venice. And he came back. And he sent me a package. And in this package was. He packaged it up like in a fountain pen box. Like a clamshell box. And you open it up. And there's this orange gondolier floating pen. And I just died. And I can't put this thing down. It's one of the coolest things I own now. And I wanted to thank Michael for that. I put a picture in the show notes. Y'all can all go see it on Instagram. You know, the little gondolier moves back and forth. Through the. In the. In the. In the pen barrel. And you know, it's just this real cheap chintzy ballpoint. But it is so special. And it's just so cool. That you're going to. You're going to be seeing a lot of this pen. Just because it's my. It's my first floaty pen. And I'm going to review it on the pen addict too.

Myke Hurley: Obviously these. These sorts of pens. Are well known. For like the. Nudie.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. So, you know, normally that have like a. Picture like a. Old. Like burlesque type of. Female. Or male. In. In many cases. And. They basically have like an. Ink style. Bikini. And depending on which way you turn the pen. The. The bikini. Disappears. So yeah. They're well known for that. But the. There's a. There was an old blog out there. And I didn't put it in the show notes. I didn't look it up. That just had just. Hundreds of floaty pens. On it. And it was cool to check out. So. Expect a review of the floaty pen. Before too long. Because it is just. Wicked awesome. Thank you Michael.

Myke Hurley: Could it be. Floatypens.org.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Is that it?

Myke Hurley: Is it still alive? It sure is. I think we've spoken about this. We have. Way way way early. There was an episode where we did. I'm. I'm not going to find this. It's somewhere in the show notes. Somewhere. We did an episode of like. Weird pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's what it was. That you're exactly right. Yeah. Because we had like. We had a bunch of stuff from like. It's like. Think geek. They had a bunch of. You know. The lightsaber pens. And the. Yeah. Laser pens. And things like that. And floaty pens was definitely on there. So I knew we had mentioned it. But I couldn't remember the site name. But it's cool. This is the first one I've ever had. So I'm excited. Can you tell? I can.

Myke Hurley: You may be.

Brad Dowdy: A little overexcited. I know. Well. I was also overexcited about this next one. My friend Lisa from Van Ness Pens. Who I met at the Atlanta Pens Show. She seriously hooked me up. With an awesome fountain pen. It's. They have a bunch of. What we refer to as new old stock pens. In house at Van Ness Pens. And basically. You know. It's pens that are no longer made. Or discontinued. Like this pen I have is a. It's a Bexley. I'm blanking on the name. Sleeve filler. Okay. Bexley. Bexley. Sleeve filler. It's from 2001. It's the camo model. And not only is it a cool looking pen. What they did was. They laser etched. Our Notco logo. Into the end of the pen. So sweet. It's really sweet. I was shocked. I mean. She told me she was sending me a pen. And she wanted me to check it out. And you know. Maybe review it. So not only did she send me a pen. She sent me a beautiful pen. It's got this camo. Marbling on it. That looks really really beautiful. She engraved the pen. Or laser etched. I should call it. I think. She laser etched the box that the pen came in. And. She had Sean Newton grind. The 18 karat gold nib. Into a cursive italic. Into a cursive italic. Because she knows. I love Sean. And that's my favorite nib style. Wow. So how nice. Is that. To put that much thought. Into sending this out to me. I. I mean. She did. They deserve a huge shout out for that. And. You know. These pens are definitely. You know. Still available at Van S. And definitely go check them out. And I will have a review of this soon. It's a weird. It's a real interesting. Filling system. It's a simple. Squeeze filler. Like. You have a Pilot Metropolitan mic?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So the filler that. The converter it comes with. Is just that little. Plast. Little rubber. Thing with the metal bars on it. That you just kind of squeeze. Yeah. That's what's inside this. But you have to unscrew the back end of the pen. To get it. And it's built into. The side of the pen. There's like a. Window in this. Underneath. Like the end cap. And you slide it up. Squeeze it. To fill it. And then slide. Screw the end cap back down. So it's all. Kind of all in one.

Myke Hurley: Looking at these images. It does look like you could kill someone with this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It looks like serious business.

Myke Hurley: It looks huge. It looks like a weapon. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But like. When it's unposted. It's just a little bit bigger than like a. Kaweco AL Sport. Oh. That was not what I expected. It's not a huge pen. Unless you post it. Which I wouldn't recommend posting. If you post it. It's gigantic. But unposted in the. In the writing position. It's like a. It's like Pelican M205 style. Maybe a little bit wider. So. Yeah. So. Thank you Van S pens. For sending me that. That will be a review coming soon. I got another package from an awesome reader. Glenn HK. Which HK stands for Hong Kong. And he's over in that area. And I think he lives in Hong Kong. And travels to Japan sometimes. And he went to. One of my favorite. Eye candy stores. That I see on Instagram. It's called Bung Box.

Brad Dowdy: There's another. There's another audio. You can rip out of there. I love Bung Box Myke.

Bung Box

Myke Hurley: So you posted this. And you posted a hashtag. Of Bung Box. And I was like. I've got to find out what's happening here. And I still don't really know. Like. Because other people have posted. Like. People that we know. Have posted. Tweets. With the hashtag. Bung Box. And I'm on their website now. And it's not helping me. Let me press the translate button.

Brad Dowdy: They're a Japanese stationery store.

Myke Hurley: Enough to know the fountain pen. Notice the depth. Of the combination of the ink. From beginner to advanced. Coordinated in ink fountain pen. That suits your limited edition. And antique also handling.

Brad Dowdy: That should be our podcast intro. That should be our podcast music.

Myke Hurley: I love. I love. Translated Japanese. It's like my favorite thing.

Brad Dowdy: It's brilliant. It's brilliant. But. Glenn was. Was shopping at Bung Box. And this is one of their. Just. You know. Freebies. That they give out. But it's a. Uniball Jetstream. In a white and orange. Colorway. It's got a black refill. With the. Bung Box. Bungbox.com. Info. On the. On the pen. I just thought that was really cool.

Myke Hurley: I like that their free pen. It's a Jetstream.

Brad Dowdy: Isn't that cool? That's. That's what happens when you live in Japan. They. Like I said. They get all the cool stuff. Yep. They get all the cool stuff. And you know. The Jetstream over there. Is probably like a 50 cent pen. Just because. It's more of a local. Thing. As opposed to. You know. Two. Three dollars. By the time it gets over here. Yep. So. Who knows. Who knows. And then the last thing. And I'm sure I'm forgetting. A bunch of stuff. But. The fine folks at. The fine folks at Exaclair. Who are big. Pen blogosphere supporters. Sending out lots of products. This is an interesting one. Myke. For you. I don't know if you'll totally be down with it. But. It's like. Things that other companies have done. Like. Moleskine with Evernote. And.

Brad Dowdy: God. There was one other Japanese vendor. I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yuko. I don't know. One of the. One of the Japanese notebook manufacturers. Makes. A journal that's made to be scanned. And what this. Quo Vadis. Mi journal is. Is. They call it the. Multi. Mi. Mi stands for multimedia enhanced journal. So. I'm sure some other pen bloggers got this too. And. It's basically made to be scanned. It's got an app. Each page has a. Has a QR code. And. So. Each page can be tagged. Appropriately. And pulled back up. And searchable. And things like that. So. I just wanted to throw that out there. That's a new product. I'm going to have. A review on soon. I just got it a few days ago. And haven't had time to play with it yet. But. You know. Definitely.

Myke Hurley: A terrible website.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome.

Myke Hurley: Like. I haven't.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't even had time to spend on the website yet.

Myke Hurley: You go there. And you have. No idea. How to. It just doesn't explain in any way. What the product is. Or how to buy them. You have to press the menu button. To get. Hmm. To the store.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When you get. It. My menu button doesn't work. Oh. There it is. Yeah. So. We'll see. This will be one of those things. That. You'll probably see. Some bloggers talk about here soon. And I'm going to talk about it here soon too. But. I haven't had time to spend with it. This. The first time I looked at the site. Was when I put it in the show notes. So.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm kind of not sold on this. I'm not either. In general. I'm interested to see if this one does it any different. I really don't like that it takes up such a big chunk of the page. For that QR code.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well it's a big notebook. Oh really? Yeah. No. It's a very large notebook. Well there's two sizes. I have the large one. There is a smaller one. Wow. Which.

Myke Hurley: Six and a quarter by nine and a quarter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's the one I have.

Myke Hurley: That's big.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that one. It doesn't take up a lot of space. It's probably like a one inch by one inch QR code.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So. Yeah. I'm going to read up more about it. But that's another thing that I got in that I haven't heard many people talk about. So. Do you get anything new on our hiatus? You were probably too busy building the building relay.fm.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I did a few things. And I'm going to tell you about them. But before I do that. I want to tell you about our second sponsor for this week's episode. Brad. Is that okay?

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: I want to take a moment to thank Igloo. Igloo is the internet you actually like. And they are sponsoring this week's episode of The Pen Addict. Anyone that's worked in a corporate environment is going to know how painful intranets can be. In my time. My own personal time working in the corporate world. I've experienced quite a few different products. And by and large they all suck. But Igloo is awesome. It's built with actual human beings in mind. Igloo has easy to use cloud apps like shared calendars. Twitter like microblogs. And file sharing. It works on your laptop. Tablet. Or phone. So if your team is working remotely. Or in the cubicles all around you. You're going to have the right tools to communicate and collaborate as you grow. Now the idea of a web service. Like the intranet. You know an intranet which is all online. Working on a laptop, tablet or phone. Sounds like a simple thing. But actually if you've ever used a corporate intranet. You're going to know this is huge. Because what this does is it gives you the flexibility to get your work done. How you want. Where you want. And on whatever device you want. Igloo is building a product for today. And the future. It's not like it was built in 1997. Like some of the competitors. Everything that you're going to need with Igloo is built right in. So there's no need to manage multiple cloud apps or services. And everything on Igloo is social. So as you grow. Coordinating people on your projects is simple. Everything is widget based. And drag and drop. So it's simple to brand and configure your Igloo. And Igloo makes use of responsive web design. So it looks fantastic on all of the devices that you use. I had a great tour of Igloo myself a few weeks ago. So all new Igloo customers get the opportunity to have a full product demo. In which someone from the team at Igloo will give you a full run through. And answer any questions that you may have. And they wanted to go through this with me. So I could see how the product works and stuff like that. Because we're going to be talking about them a bit over the next couple of weeks. Because Igloo is one of our fantastic launch partners at RelayFM. I was really, really impressed. Not just by Igloo itself and the platform. But the care and attention the team took to walk me through it. They were super nice. Super awesome. They answered all of my questions. I loved all the drag and drop stuff. Like you can very easily customize your own pages in Igloo. So like everybody in your company that uses it. Can have all of the things that they want on their own homepage. That they can customize and drag and drop stuff around. It's really cool. One last thing I want to tell you about. Igloo's social intranet tour is stopping in London, San Francisco and New York over the next two months. If you want to find out more, go to igloosoftware.com slash London for more details.

Myke Hurley: Now Igloo is free to use for up to 10 people. You can sign up right now at igloosoftware.com slash penaddict and get started today. So thank you so much to Igloo for helping us launch RelayFM and for supporting the penaddict. Show your support to them and us by going to igloosoftware.com slash penaddict.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Igloo. And actually when I found out they were going to be a launch partner, which is huge, huge for us at Relay. I went and checked out their site, see if it would be something that would work for Nock. And it totally would. I just don't know if we get all the benefits out of it yet with just me and Jeff. But as we keep growing, this is definitely something I liked everything I saw about it. It's definitely something I'm going to keep on the radar.

Myke Hurley: You might as well give it a try. It's free.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Free up to 10 people. That's, you know, we're at three right now. So with a couple other minor part timers, but we're adding people. So, yeah, could be perfect.

Myke Hurley: So I have I've done some stuff, I guess.

Myke Hurley: One note that I've got in a document here is Myke's stupid pen order. So every now and then I do something which is idiotic. And this is that thing. So my girlfriend is a big fan of a pilot metropolitan, but she dropped it and she bent the nib. And I was like, I can fix this. Myke to the rescue. So what we were going to do was I was just going to order her a new pilot metropolitan and was just going to unscrew the end part screwing one in. I wasn't sure if you could replace the nib because I thought you wouldn't be able to because they're a relatively cheap pen. So I figured I would just unscrew the end part screw it back in again. Now, she loves the pen. She likes to use the pen like practically every day along with her TWSBI or my TWSBI that I had to give her after I broke her TWSBI. So I thought, well, I don't want to have her waiting for weeks while we wait for someone from the US to ship it over. I'll buy it from a UK supplier. So I picked one up from Colt Pens. I also bought her some cartridges. She needed some cartridges. So I bought those from Colt Pens too. So this is a kind of a two pronged problem. Now, this unbeknownst to me, the pilot metropolitan that I searched for and kind of went through on Colt Pens is not actually the pilot metropolitan, even though it looks exactly the same. It's the pilot MR, which is a different pen. So it's the same pen, but it has a different feed. So is that what you, not a feed. Yeah, it's a different feed, isn't it? Where you put the cartridge into. It takes European standard cartridges. And I bought a box of Namiki cartridges for her for this. So I was like, oh, God. And I was like, well, I've ruined it now. I now have a pen that I'm not a massive fan of. They have really good, but it's just not for me. But then I thought to YouTube I will go and I found the way that you can pull the, you can replace the nibs. You can pull the feed out. And I was able to replace the nibs. So I fixed it. So I did a kind of silly thing, but I fixed it. But what the next part that I did is potentially more silly, really. So I thought I would buy some ink cartridges, as I mentioned. So I went to Colt Pens and went onto the page. And I was like, okay, yep, I want the Namiki cartridges. It says pack size. And I said single, a pack of 12. I was like, obviously, I want a pack of 12. You know, I don't just want one ink cartridge. So they came. And the pen came and there was a box. And the box, I opened the box and I had 12 packs of six. So she now has more ink cartridges than she's ever going to need.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I knew the first part was stupid, but that takes the cake. That's awesome.

Myke Hurley: It says pack size, select pack size. And then it says single, a pack of 12. So I just assumed. I mean, it is my mistake. I was ordering it in a rush. And now I'm looking at it. I can see because like, why would you say single and then quantity? Like, it doesn't make sense. Like, there's nothing wrong with their site. But like, I, and then also it says here, contain six on the left-hand side in a big picture. So obviously a pack is not 12, but yeah. So now she has a ton of Namiki cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Hey, at least they're good cartridges. But they're very good. They're very good.

Myke Hurley: Proprietary to the pilot. But that was why I was happy that I was able to fix. Max. I mean, I especially didn't want to have to give her the European one considering I had like, well, how many? I'm not very good at maths. So I'm going to have to just consider and I had 72 ink cartridges to give her.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you know, I mean, if you have any questions about like the nib and replacing, you know, a guy that knows some things about that kind of stuff, right?

Myke Hurley: Do I? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Just pro tip.

Edison Perlet

Myke Hurley: Hmm. Well, YouTube was good. Okay, good. I mean, I would have asked you probably if you, I mean, I thought I'm just going to Google this and then it was a YouTube video showing me how to take it out. So I did that. Yeah. I just didn't expect it because it's such a cheap pen. I didn't expect it to be. But this, this is one of the things I think that people love about the Metropolitan. It is a very surprising pen. Yes. So that was the silly thing that I did.

Myke Hurley: I'm back using my Edison Perlet every day now. For a while I was using the Retro 51. Such a good pen. And this was the one that I bought at the, the pen show. Oh yeah, that's right. Bought it from the writing desk and they're still selling the model that I have, which is the Deep Indigo Flake. Cannot recommend this pen highly enough. Like still get that like, like head shaking smell that comes out of it. Right. Yeah. Which is kind of, still kind of awesome. But like just the, using this pen every day with the Namiki, not the Namiki, the Fuyugaki Iroshizuku ink. Man. It's just such a good combo.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I feel bad. Someone sent me a sample of that ink because I've yet to buy any for me and I haven't gotten to test it out yet. I need to correct that. I know. I know.

Myke Hurley: It's the best ink ever. Like, I don't know how anybody could want anything else. I'm just used to writing in the orange ink. Like it just makes me so happy.

Brad Dowdy: That's great. It goes great with that pen too.

Myke Hurley: And I bought something that I've had my eye on for a while and it's just become available in the UK and it wasn't that expensive. And I thought that it might, that people, that the basic people of the show might be interested in, which is the Pencil by 53. So we spoke about styluses a long time ago and this is a relatively new one. So it integrates with the app Paper by 53. And also the week that I bought it, they announced their SDK. So Pencil have made an SDK now. So it allows you to use some of the cool functions that I'll talk about in a moment with a bunch of different applications. And there's a few apps. They have their Paper app. There's an app called Procreate, which is an incredible like Photoshop type drawing application. And also NoteShelf, which is like a note taking application, which is pretty cool. They all use, they all have the SDK built in to use the cool features of the 53 Pencil. So some of the cool things that it does. So it's a Bluetooth connected stylus. And it does a few interesting things like it can, but it's kind of feels like it's built for the future as well. So like at the moment, it does like the standard stuff, right? So they have a really interesting way of pairing it where you like hold it onto a certain spot and it activates the Bluetooth between the two devices. And you can draw and stuff like that. And then when you have that enabled, you can draw with the pen. You can smudge with your finger. And if you flip it over to the eraser end, you can erase. That's pretty cool. It is really cool. And they've already announced that with iOS 8, they're taking advantage of a new API. So the tip is in like a triangle. So like it's rubber, like a triangle, like many of these styluses are. And basically what you're going to be able to do is you'll be, it will be able, iOS 8 is going to be able to sense the pen width. So you can draw a single line or you can lay it down on its side and draw a big thick line like a smile. Like how you would have a real pencil. Like if you want a shade. Oh, very cool. Yeah. So it's like one of those things and with the SDK as well, this is a really, really interesting product. And they do it in two different versions, like just a standard black one and I think a walnut one. And I'm, I'm really happy with it. It's actually my Tashenberg lighter now holds my Edison and my pencil. Oh yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's a perfect use because your iPad mini is in the back of it.

Myke Hurley: The only thing about that, the only problem with it is the ends, like the tips of either side are removable so they can be replaced. Now as the Tashenberg lighter has those like rubber rings, like those elasticated rings, sometimes if you pull it out too quickly, it pops the tops off. Oh. Which is not great. So you have to kind of take it out carefully. Gotcha. Um, it has a really ingenious way of charging. So the, the nib just unclips from the rest of the pen and it's a USB connection and you just plugged it into any USB port. Huh.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool.

Myke Hurley: So it's a fantastically designed product.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The website shows all that. It's really cool how they, um, break it all down in the, in the design of it. It looks really, really interesting. You should get one. I'll think of it. If I use paper more, um, the app paper, I've always downloaded it.

Myke Hurley: Keep your eye on it because I think it's going to start popping up in a lot of places.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I like it. I could, I could totally see the usefulness of it. And I mean, I saw it come out and I thought, wow, this is beautiful. Then I thought, wow, this is expensive. Do I really need it? And, um, yeah, but I will keep an eye on it, especially as more apps integrate with it. I think that's important with the API. Yep.

Myke Hurley: It does just work as a really good stylist too, but having, having the functionality, like the erasing functionality and stuff like that is really, really, really cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome.

Kickstarter

Brad Dowdy: So now we've got the main topic. Do we actually have a main topic? An hour in? Sure. An hour in. Let's, let's, let's talk Kickstarter.

Myke Hurley: Well, we haven't been around for a while, right? I'm sure people want a big episode today.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. So we'll, we'll keep it, keep going because we're not even, uh, not even close to done yet. I don't think. So the first one, let's talk about good Kickstarter, Myke. Let's, let's, let's start off with positivity. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: This one, this is an interesting one. This is the Nexus minimal fountain pen. And some, I had a couple of people send me this and I looked at it and I was like, nope, don't want it. Like, so I'm not a big fan of that sort of grip style, like a metal grip, which is like etched in some way. Like it's got like that sort of, what do you call that bread?

Brad Dowdy: Um, it's machined out. Yeah. There's, there's a word I'm thinking of and I'm blanking.

Myke Hurley: It's like ridges and lines.

Brad Dowdy: It's basically a ridged, um, machined grip.

Myke Hurley: And I was like, I'm not interested in it, but then enough people started sending me it that I watched the video. Really great video. Uh, especially when I heard their accents.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean, there is a big funky L in front of the, uh, in front of the dollar amount anyway.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, I didn't, I didn't pay attention to any of that. Uh, so they're from the UK, which that does mean something to me. Um, so I, I watched the video, read through it all and, uh, I'll tell you what I think of it in a minute, but you tell me what you think.

Brad Dowdy: So I almost had the exact same, um, path as you. I just getting hammered with tweets. What do you think about this? What do you think about this? Is it legit? Um, what do you think about the design? And I kind of like you, I kind of, I didn't blow it off at first, but I was like, you know, it's got the gun shy thing. You know, the vision air really burnt a lot of people, right? I mean, huge, huge amount of people. So I didn't, I glanced at it. I was like, okay, good looking, not for me. And then more people kept sending it. More people kept sending it. It's like, okay, let me spend some time, you know, watch the video, read all the details, look up these guys, see what their background is, see what they've done before, you know, see if they're, you know, have a clue. Um, and the more I read about it, the more I said, yeah, why not? I think, you know, the design is awesome. I don't love the grip. That's my only hesitancy. But I think it's fairly priced to give it a shot. So I did, I backed it. And, um, I feel like, you know, I have no, there's no red flags to me on this project, um, that I could come up with. You know, I read through all the comments, read as much as I could about it before backing it. And I really liked the, excuse me. I really liked the design. I think it's going to be like a good pocket pen. Um, and they've done some interesting things with the titanium nib. And that really piqued my interest. One of the things, one of the things that sold me on this as a project is that they just went straight to Bach and said, we're using Bach nibs. And that's a big deal. Um, because that's a legitimate nib manufacturer. It's not some random thing. That's one of the things that's one of the, uh, I guess you could call that a green flag. Um, they did, they did that right. That's the right answer from, from a question that wasn't asked. You just do it and that lends legitimacy to the project immediately when you make that kind of decision.

Myke Hurley: Me and you had a very similar thought process in that. And because I'm watching and I'm like, I feel like your design guys, you maybe don't know pens, but what you did was you obviously did some research. I mean, I'm making an assumption. These guys may be pen addicts, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I've not, I have not talked to these guys. Don't know anything.

Myke Hurley: I'm just making the assumption from the many projects like this that we've seen. Either, you know, your stuff, which is fantastic, or you don't know your stuff and you did some research and you went and actually got a good, the heart and soul of your pen, because you're making a fountain pen is the nib and you, you took the time and not only did you get a great company to get your nibs from, they also picked this really interesting. I've never seen titanium before.

Brad Dowdy: So, so yeah, I don't think I've maybe once I've ever used the titanium nib pen. You rarely see them. There's a company called, I don't know if you pronounce it Conid or Conid, C-O-N-I-D. And they're known for their titanium nibs, but I don't know where they get them from or if they make them. They're real expensive pen. And, but they're really nice. And I, you know what? I don't know that I've actually ever used one, but I've always wanted one. So I actually backed this project. I said, let me just back it at the basic level. You know, just the aluminum pen, steel nib. And I said, you know, I wanted to just, you know, things, more things come out as the project ages, right? You know, you get more information and, you know, you kind of get a feel for how the project creators are handling, you know, customer service, answering questions, things like that. You kind of get a feel and a vibe about the project. And before I dumped more money into it, I wanted to kind of get that vibe. And yet I went ahead and upgraded to the titanium nib. I'm going to stick with the steel barrel because I want the black with the titanium nib instead of, I said I was going to go full titanium, but I think I want the black with the titanium nib, I think is the route I'm going to take. So yeah, I'm, I mean, I'm all in on this one. I think it looks good. We'll see how the grip does when we get it. I don't think it's going to be as big a deal as, you know, as it could look, but we'll see. I mean, it's definitely worth giving a shot and it's fairly priced. And, um, yeah, it looks good.

Myke Hurley: I'm gone all titanium. Look at you. I might have to change that. I think that that's too special. Yeah. I don't have a titanium pen. I have lots of steel pens.

Myke Hurley: There's something about it. I'm like, yeah, that's fancy. That's like super fancy. People, that's an interesting pen. Yes, it's made of titanium. Oh, including the nib. Please, sir, come this way. And I also like, cause then they sent out, I like the way they're doing this, right? I've seen this a bit more recently where it's people are like, increase your pledge by X amount to get this, which is a really interesting way of doing add-ons. Right. So I, I got the titanium pen. I increased my pledge to get the titanium nib. And I also increased it by like the three pounds for a converter as well. So I was like, why not? Like they sent an email. I was like, I like these guys. And I did the same as you before I backed. I went and looked at, they, they only done one other, uh, Kickstarter project, which is like a 3d printed Tyrannosaurus Rex skull, which is incredible. But I went on their website and that they seem to have pretty good chops. Um, like the places that they're kind of featured in and stuff like that in the UK are interesting enough to me, um, that I, I wanted, that I felt good about it. Like they're in the science museum, which is like a really, it's quite a prestigious thing. Um, so, you know, I, I felt that these aren't fly by night guys. Uh, you know, they, they even use Edelstein ink. Right. Exactly. It seems like they could be pen guys. Uh, but even if they are, they aren't, they are, they at least understand good quality. Right. So I'm, I'm really excited about this. I hope that they meet their date cause it's November cause I'm really excited to try.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. That's a good date. Yeah. I hope it, uh, hope it delivers. So it's got 24 more days. Well, from when we're recording. So it'll have less than that by the time you're hearing this. So plenty of time to get in.

Myke Hurley: I hope that this goes over a hundred thousand cause I think that'd be fantastic for them. Yeah. I think it might, you know, cause I think it might. You're approaching a quarter of a million dollars at that point.

Tactile Turn

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yep. That's awesome. So another, another Kickstarter on the positive front, and it's one that we're all familiar with. It's the tactile turn. Um, Will Hodges came out with, um, a bunch of new materials. Um, I call them the rare materials. It's titanium, brass, and copper, um, and the mover and the shaker pins that he sold before that I was such a big fan of. Um, and he just sent me, you'll see, you've seen a bunch of reviews from my friends online about all of these, the new materials pins and Will sent some to me and I just haven't gotten to it yet. He knew I was on vacation. So I'm still got a post in the works on these, but I wanted to make everyone aware if they were a fan of the original tactile turn and want an upgraded body. Um, one thing different in these pins aside from the materials is Will's gotten some new machinery that turns the pins and the barrels are actually smoother than the aluminum barrels were before. Not that they were rough and the, the, what this has done, it's made the seam to where the pin unscrews in the middle, completely invisible. Like I'll sit there and stare at it right in front of my eyes and you can't see the line where the pin screws apart. It's really fascinating. He's done an excellent job of this. Um, so I wanted to, to point that out and let everyone know that these new materials are out and they, uh, they look really good. Will's done a good job, um, with these pins and it's already met its goal. And it'll have a few days left. Um, you can, you can get it on that and I'll, I'll have a, my post will be up, uh, shortly.

Myke Hurley: I like the look of the clip on these.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's real good. It's integrated, um, kind of into the barrel and it's a real tight, real, real firm clip and, uh, it looks good.

Myke Hurley: So I just want to take a moment, Brad, to thank our final sponsor for this week's episode. Um, they are a good friend of ours, a returning sponsor and it's the fine folks over at Squarespace, which is a company that we both love and have used for a long time. Squarespace are the all-in-one platform to make it fast and easy to create your own professional website portfolio and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit squarespace.com and enter the offer code INC at checkout. A better web starts with your website. So if you want to be like Brad and have your very own pen blog, well, you can do that. With Squarespace, you don't have to worry about all the tricky parts. You just go to squarespace.com and you get started with one of their fantastic, beautiful templates. You can very easily build your own pages with their fantastic drag and drop page building system. It's all within your web browser and you can see all of the changes that you're making to the design all in real time. You can say, I want this font. I want this color. I want the width to be like this. I want to drag and drop things around like this. You're doing all live in the web browser so you can see exactly how it's going to look before you click save and publish it to the world. Squarespace takes care of everything for you. They take care of web hosting, image hosting, and if you want, even podcast hosting. And what if you want to run a store like Nock? Well, you can also be like Brad because that's exactly what these guys do. Nock, Nock Co, that we all love so much, is run on Squarespace and their commerce platform. So the whole site and the store is all run on Squarespace. Every single Squarespace website features Squarespace commerce. Now this enables you to set up your own store to start selling physical or digital goods immediately. They integrate with Stripe for payments and loads of awesome services like ShipStation to help you run a fantastic business. Squarespace takes care, take away, sorry, all of the pain from building your own personal or business website. They have awesome templates you can choose from that look good on all devices. They have awesome apps to manage your site and stats on the go. They have 24-7 award-winning customer support over live chat and email with teams located in New York City, Dublin, and Portland. And this all starts at just $8 a month. And this also includes a free domain name if you sign up for a year. So I want you to go to squarespace.com right now and sign up for a free trial. There's no credit card required to do this and you can start booting your website today. When you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INC. Not only is that going to show your support for the Pen Addict podcast and RelayFM, it's going to get you 10% off your first purchase. So I want to thank Squarespace for their continued support and renewed support in the Pen Addict and what we're doing with RelayFM. That's Squarespace, where a better web starts with your website.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. You did a good job on the read and you alluded to one thing. The one thing that I always comment about Squarespace and it should be their tagline is they make it easy. I mean, it's really, really easy to create a site and it's even more easy to, you know, manipulate that site after the fact and make design changes that you want. Or like in the case of knock, add products and item descriptions and keep track of inventory. It's just easy. I mean, it's for people like me who don't want to deal with back-end servers and, you know, WordPress installs, not to call them out. WordPress is totally fine. But other, you know, self-hosted, self-install, you know, platforms and Squarespace handles all that. And I'm real happy with them and always have been. So thank you, Squarespace, for joining us once again today.

Brad Dowdy: You ready for me? Oh, I'm ready. So we've titled this next, um, this next segment on the Pen Addict podcast, that damn scribble. Am I allowed to say that on relay?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, sure.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So a couple months ago, Myke and I talked about this pen that did a big PR push to all the gadget gear tech sites called Scribble. And what it purported to be was a pen that could color match a color in the wild, in real life, you know, whatever, you know, you have a wall that's painted blue, you stick the pen color in the pen, you know, you have a pen, you have a pen, you have a pen, you have a pen. So great idea. Lots of questions surrounding the implementation and will it work? So at that time at the, when they had their big PR push, I emailed them with some very specific questions. I got very unspecific answers that I was disappointed in. I replied back saying, basically, you didn't answer my questions. Here's what I want to know. Can you narrow this down? And I never heard back. So fine. I really don't care that much.

Myke Hurley: I really like, I love when you're in this mood because it's like these people, I mean, look, you are, I mean, I think it's safe to say that whether you would say it or not, you're one of the most important people in this industry. You have an extremely well-read blog. Everybody who is in the pen world that circulates online knows the pen addict, right? You have the right, if that's the right thing to say, or the ability or the clout to come at these situations like this. But these people don't know what they're getting themselves in for. They're like, this is some guy sending them an email. He says he's a pen addict. He sounds like a peculiar gentleman. And you're just like, give me the answers. And then they ignore you and like, right, I'm going to slam you.

Brad Dowdy: So here's what I believe in as a person.

Brad Dowdy: I have the right to information. If you're not providing me with accurate information, I have the right to ask you a question about it. And if I don't get clarity, then it's on.

Brad Dowdy: I'm all down with that, buddy. Yeah. But because it's as a business.

Brad Dowdy: You have to be able to answer your customers questions in a clear manner, in a consistent manner. If someone has a question about your product and you're diverting them and you're circling around and you're, you know, going off on a tangent that's unrelated, you're begging for more questions. And then that pile of questions gets to be this huge volcanic pile that's eventually going to erupt back in your face. So if you're not ready for that, then you're doing something wrong. And that's the vibe from when their PR push came out two months ago. So there's so many questions that are unanswered about this project. And we kept, you know, it was just, it wasn't a, it wasn't a product yet. Right. They weren't doing anything for sale. They didn't have a Kickstarter launch. So, you know, there's no need in pushing it. You know, maybe that's going to, that's going to be phase two. All right. So maybe they would come out with, okay, here's the real working prototype. So last week they come out out of the blue with the Kickstarter launch for the scribble pen.

Brad Dowdy: And then my Twitter feed fills back up. Hey, scribble launch, scribble launch. It's on Kickstarter. So I went, okay, great. Number one, I went over there and it's already like 250 K on the first day. Out of a hundred, $100,000 goal. And it's at 250 K. And we're going to, we're going to come back to that.

Brad Dowdy: Um, so I start reading through and I watched the video in full, read everything about the page. And then went for my second pass where I really started. Okay. Now I'm going to take notes and see what's wrong. So the first red flag, I started posting some red flags on Twitter. The first red flag is when a company feels that their own press release that was regurgitated by gear, gadget, and tech sites is quotable validation for their project. So what they did was they sent out a press release. All these sites reprinted their press release. And now they have gone back and linked to, hey, Gizmodo said this. Gizmodo said what you sent out in the press release.

Myke Hurley: Gizmodo says scribble ink lets users draw with colors that they find around them. As if Gizmodo has seen it and is claiming it as fact.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So all these links say, pen lets you draw any color in the world. The pen lets you draw any color in the world. This pen can draw every single color in the world. This pen lets you draw every single color in the world. Are you kidding me?

Brad Dowdy: That's a monstrous red flag.

Myke Hurley: It's all the same.

Brad Dowdy: That they think that that's an important thing that they should include. It's fine that they did the PR push, right? But then to include that as if that's a validation for this product is a joke. That has no bearing on this project at all.

Myke Hurley: There's one thing I wanted to say as well. I'm sure you're going to talk about the video. Yeah. Why is it so weird?

Brad Dowdy: So the video, all I could think of when I watched this video is that it's up until they got to the interview part, which was a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah, that was its own level of weird as well. I was uncomfortable doing our video, so I don't really want to comment on that. No, I will. Okay, you can comment on that. But the product video was an as seen on TV infomercial.

Myke Hurley: It was like more stock stuff. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So you've all seen that brand. It's called As Seen on TV. It's the guy they had voicing it is probably related to Gilbert Gottfried in some way. And it's really commercially and late night 2 a.m. TV watching commercial. It's very poorly done.

Myke Hurley: Welcome to the scribble. Yeah. Let me tell you about all the great things that this product does. Yeah. It slices. It dices.

Myke Hurley: Shamwow. And then the interview with the creators is super weird. They're like weird close-ups on their face. They've clearly, I think, you can see at certain points, they've like overdubbed the audio, which is strange. Yep. It's weird. It's weird. And like smiles from the guys.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I caught the overdubbing. The overdubbing was bad. I caught that for sure. And it was just uncomfortable to watch. There was no passion that they believed in this product.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. They're like dead behind the eyes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like I'm watching the part now where they're talking about their product. If you've made this, you should be doing cartwheels in this video. Yeah. If you've actually made a product that you can scan a color in and reproduce that color in ink. Like the whole iPhone app bit is just like whatever. Like I'm not interested. Yeah. That is a product that people aren't buying and they spend way too much time demoing that part.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So let's touch on that. Yeah. I mean that's a huge red flag. The majority, 90% of the video, if not more, not counting the interview of just the product stuff is on the stylus. Okay. And that's, okay, maybe that's a valid product. I could see that being a valid product and a valid Kickstarter. It's all digital and can do some digital color matching. And you have an app and you can use these different colors. Awesome. Great. Knock yourself out. Do your project on that. Then they show, they show a little girl doing the, with actually the ink pen part of it. She draws a single white line. And that's all you see. And I'm not even sure that's real output from that pen. Right.

Myke Hurley: I, I, I, I'm not convinced.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's.

Kickstarter Project

Myke Hurley: I'm, I've just, I've just watched that part of the video. It's super sketchy. Super sketchy. There's no way to say that anything comes out of the pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Not at all. And the drawing she's on is, is, is not marker. It's like a colored pencil. They're making this, they have this beautiful drawing out there that, you know, it makes you, it kind of alludes to the fact that I've drawn this whole drawing with this pen when, you know, that's clearly not the case.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, I posted all these things on Twitter. The next, that night or the next morning, um, friend of the show, Jimmy Reeks, he goes, here's another red flag. And I missed this on the front and on the first time I went through it, this is a ginormous red flag. So each Kickstarter, uh, project, they have to put a timeline of events. Okay. You know, here's when we get the money. Here's when we start production. Here's when we expect delivery. So every project has a timeline. On their timeline in December of 2014, it says we have beta prototypes ready to be tested.

Myke Hurley: Oh, first trial runs will be carried out and all feedback carefully assessed. The meticulous process of calibration begins.

Brad Dowdy: They're using Kickstarter to fund the prototype.

Myke Hurley: That doesn't make any sense.

Brad Dowdy: Which is not allowed under Kickstarter rules. That's a, I mean, that's a huge, huge mistake.

Brad Dowdy: So what this boils down to, in a nutshell, this is a, this is a prove it Kickstarter, right? Prove to me that this pin is real and it works as you say it works. And the comment section is just filled with people saying, tell me how this works. Show me how the ink switches. Tell me how the ink's going to get cleaned from the yellow ink I just used to the purple ink that I chose next. And it's not going to be a brown ink. Tell me how it works. Show me how it works. They could never do it. Not once. They ignored those questions. They avoided them completely.

Brad Dowdy: They don't, because they don't even have a prototype.

Brad Dowdy: I don't believe. If they, if they did, they could show a quick iPhone video and no one would care. Show me. Prove it. And they couldn't. And not only could they not prove it, they could not answer a question about it. And when that, like I said before, that volcano, man, it's just gurgling to the top because the questions keep getting repeated. Everyone has the same question and they're not answering it repeatedly, repeatedly. And it finally blew up in their face. And now as of the day we're recording, which was last Wednesday, the project was cancelled about three hours before we went to air.

Myke Hurley: I had no ideas that happened until I pulled up the show notes. Like just before we started talking about this. I didn't know they cancelled the project. This is the thing. So their statement for cancelling the project is Kickstarter wants a, Kickstarter contacted them and want a video made. Like a descriptive video.

Brad Dowdy: Of the real pen working.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So it's like, they're like, oh, it's, you know, they want it in 24 hours. So we've had to cancel the project with hopes of restarting with a much more detailed video. If you have the product and you're sitting on $366,000 with like a few weeks left to go. If you have the product, you're just going to make a video. You're going to stay awake all night. You're going to make this video. You're going to recut the original video and just show people using the pen, right? Because you're sitting on what could potentially be a million dollar Kickstarter, right? That is what you've got in your hands at this point. For you to cancel that project means you have not got the product.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. This is a horrible answer. And it actually answers all the questions that everyone had about this project. You don't leave this money on the table if that product's sitting there in your hand and you can shoot a video in a 30 second shot, a one minute shot of the pen actually working. They do not have this product. Nothing that they've done says that they actually have this product in hand. And that's why they got canceled.

Brad Dowdy: And it's unfortunate. You know, we don't no one wants these things to be scams or jokes or failures. I mean, I would like this to succeed. If this is legitimate, it would be great. I would never use it, but some people will. You know, you want to see, you want to believe that there's, you know, great design and technology and these new ideas coming up and you want to help support them. That's what this Kickstarter platform is. But when you have the nerve to launch a product, I mean, a project on Kickstarter and not be able to fulfill the, to answer the basic question of show me how it works, then there's no other way that this is going to end than in failure. And that's what happened.

Brad Dowdy: So, I don't know where it goes from here. They've certainly given themselves a huge black eye when, I can feel confident

Myke Hurley: that there's not going to be a massive change between the time we're recording this and the time this episode goes out.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think we'll see this relaunch before. Yeah, this is actually live.

Brad Dowdy: But what's funny is, and Jimmy just tweeted me while we're talking now. He said, or actually, no, it was someone else. It was, it was Curly McD said, the comments make for interesting reading. The difference between experienced backers and people new to Kickstarter is striking. Like, I'm looking at one of them, one of these responses and actually the, in their, their post today, you can actually comment directly on their update. Number three, one of the replies says, do you have, is there an email address at Kickstarter where we can write to protest this demand decision? It seems like they're not being reasonable. And, I don't know what to say to people like that. I mean, if you want to light your money on fire, I mean, go for it. But, to not realize what's actually taking place. People are mad at Kickstarter for canceling this project. They should be mad at Scribble for not having a product. But, it's funny. There's a bunch of people like that.

Kickstarter Rules

Myke Hurley: So, there's a good and bad on Kickstarter's side for this. This is the problem that they are now going to have time and time again considering that they've changed their rules. So, Kickstarter doesn't review projects anymore. You can just push it to the store. I mean, anybody could have just watched this video and seen what they've now asked for if that was all they asked for. You know, for all we know, Kickstarter came in and said, we're cancelling your project in 12 hours. There's no recalls to this. We don't know, you know.

Myke Hurley: But then the good part is that they're still acting upon, obviously people reported them or they've just seen a lot of activity. So, they're going in and viewing them. I would like to think that after a certain like, threshold, somebody goes in and checks.

Brad Dowdy: Right. You're talking about dollar amount or backers numbers. Backer amount, dollar amount

Myke Hurley: or activity over a certain period of time. Like, I'd like to think that there's something that's catching these products before they get funded.

Brad Dowdy: It's just amazing how many people are still like, oh man, this sucks. I'm totally going to back this when it comes back. I'm like, I don't get people sometimes. It's never coming back.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe just the stylus.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but then what's the point of that? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But, you know, they... Because the color reproduction will only work in their app and if their app isn't good... Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They've just really shot themselves in the foot and... But, it's totally avoidable. You have a product or you don't have a product. It's black and white.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: And, to launch this knowing that you can't prove it is mind-boggling to someone like me. it's absolutely mind-boggling. And then people are commenting, you mean I'm going to lose out on my early bird now?

Myke Hurley: Are you kidding me? It's like, I don't understand why they thought it would all go okay.

Brad Dowdy: Like,

Myke Hurley: I don't know,

Brad Dowdy: nobody will ask. That's exactly my point. It's... I don't know. So, it's... I mean, the questions never went away about this product and they just move forward and move forward and move forward and it's, you know, coming back to roost now. I mean, they're paying for it in more ways than one.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's definitely something we will continue to follow. I do think we're going to see this in some way, shape, or form, but I bet we're six months out minimum.

Brad Dowdy: They need this to die down before they try again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you know, if they had the pen sitting there on their desk, they would have had a video up already and they would have been on their way to a million dollars. You don't leave that money on the table.

Myke Hurley: Why would you? It makes no sense.

Brad Dowdy: it's sad to see. I don't want to see people fail, but when you can't answer basic questions about your product, you're going to have a bad time.

Myke Hurley: Well, I don't mind people failing if they're dishonest. If they are actually dishonest, then they deserve to fail. That's my opinion on that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Smart guys finish last. First. Last. Somewhere along the line. Basically, the right people win.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. Yep. So, if you would, this is the first time I've mentioned it, and I probably should have mentioned it earlier, but if you want to get the show notes for this week's episode, then you want to go to relay.fm, that's R-E-L-A-Y dot F-M, slash penaddict, right, so it's relay.fm slash penaddict slash one one six. Nice. And that's going to get you to the show notes. Well,

Brad Dowdy: it's good to be back on the air, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Oh, it's fantastic. I've missed this show so much. And I'm really pleased. And again, thank you to everyone for listening, for finding us, and for continuing to tune in. It'd be awesome. If you want to get in touch with us, tell us about the show. Maybe there's some things you want us to change. Who knows? Or maybe you want it to stay exactly the way it is. There's a few ways you can do that. We're on Twitter. I'm at iMike. Brad is at Dowdyism. So I'm iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is Dowdyism. D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. Brad also writes at penaddict.com. And if you want to get in touch with us, go to relay.fm slash penaddict and you'll see links to contact us. You can send us emails and stuff like that. If you are a company that is interested in sponsoring the show, we'd also love to hear from you and you can click the sponsor links and find out more and send us an email. I'm sure we'll cut you a good deal. So please get in touch if you're a vendor or something like that and you want to give it a go. We believe and we know that it works well for companies that sponsor this show. So I think that you would also serve well for doing it. So thank you, Brad. Thank you very much for being here with me today and every other

Brad Dowdy: week. Thanks for all your hard work behind the scenes getting relay up and running and upward and onward.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. And we'll be back next week for episode 117 of the Pen Addict podcast and we'll be broadcasting on our regular day. There is also a chance and I've not yet spoke to Brad about this that we will record this show live in future.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah, I was actually going to ask you that offline and I would be 100% for that.

Myke Hurley: So keep your eye on the Twitter account for the network which is underscore relay FM. We have the ability to and we'll likely be streaming the show live so you can come along to relay.fm slash live and there's a chat room there so you can talk to people as you're listening to the show and you'll get to hear me and Brad do the show live if that's something you're interested in. So we'll let you know about that just that's a follow the network account because it tweets all that sort of stuff out automatically. It's underscore relay FM and that will be from next week. We're going to start broadcasting live so we'll probably be broadcasting a day we record which is Tuesdays. So I hope that you'll join us. So thank you so much for listening to the brand new Panadict podcast and we'll be back next week. Until then, bye-bye. Bye.

Myke Hurley: Bye.