The Pen Addict 121/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	121
Title:	Strange Ordering Processes
Release Date:	September 22nd, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Patrick Rhone
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 121
Audio File:	Audio Episode 121
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 121
Length:	7777 min <br />1.283 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello listeners. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Join us at RelayFM in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Learn more and donate now at 512pixels.net slash September. Hello and welcome to episode 121 of The Pen Addict on RelayFM. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts. For a free trial, visit lynda.com slash penaddict. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined, as I always am, by The Pen Addict himself, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Long time no talk, mate.

Myke Hurley: How you doing, sir?

Brad Dowdy: I'm good, I'm good. I know we had an episode last week, but we had pre-recorded that, so it's actually been two full weeks since we've talked live online, and it feels like a month, and it feels like about ten episodes of podcasts worth of content happened in those ten weeks, so I'm pretty excited to get back in the saddle today.

Myke Hurley: Me too.

Brad Dowdy: And I'm especially excited, speaking of not having talked to someone in a long time, we have a special guest today.

Myke Hurley: Who is that guest?

Brad Dowdy: Well, we would like to welcome our good buddy, Mr. Patrick Rohn, to The Pen Addict Podcast. Hey, Patrick. Hey, guys. What's up? So this is like a, you know, this is the originators. This is the group that got The Pen Addict Podcast started with myself joining Patrick and Myke on the now-retired and amazingly-awesome-enough podcast.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, yeah. Really? Wow. Yeah. I mean, but this was after, like, years of me bugging you for- Yes. To do a Pen Addict Podcast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so all of this is your fault, so everyone that's yelling at me, you just need to yell at Patrick, because he's the one that, between him and Myke, they are the ones that pushed me to do this, and I'm very glad that they did.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, yeah. I mean, Brad was perfectly happy in his own little pen cave, you know, shooting out dispatches every once in a while about pens and office supply store visits. But, you know, yeah, I kind of convinced him to, well, you know, he should have a podcast. It was just, I mean, if there was any, like, natural, like, this person should have a podcast, it was Brad, and he didn't have one at the time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Patrick Rhone: So. It's crazy how that happens. So how have you been, sir? You been doing good? Oh, yeah. You know, gosh, since we last spoke, I mean, the problem with us has always been scheduling it, just for whatever reason, the time that you record the Pen Addict Podcast and the time that, like, I don't know, have a life, just never quite lined up. But luckily with school being back in session and some changes in Miss Beatrix's schedule, because as anyone who's followed me for a long time knows, that I actually am employed by my daughter, my six-and-a-half-year-old, who, you know, everything schedules around her schedule, not the other way around. And it's finally worked out and hopefully will continue to work out for the foreseeable future. So, I mean, I would love for this not to be, like, a once-every-couple-a-year thing, but, like, maybe a once-every-few-month thing.

Brad Dowdy: We would love that, too. That would be great. Yes, that would be really awesome, because I know we have a lot to talk about with you today. We have a lot to cover. You started a new website called The Cramped, which we're going to get to later. I know everyone's clamoring to hear about that and how that got started. We got a little bit of follow-up to knock out first, and then we'll get into that. How's that sound, Myke and Patrick?

Patrick Rhone: Sounds great to me.

Brad Dowdy: Let's do it. All right, so I was at the XOXO Fest last week. Jealous. You should be, because it was one of the most amazing four days of my life. There's no real words to be able to describe it. You just kind of have to experience. I know, Myke, you experienced it last year.

Myke Hurley: It's pretty special.

Brad Dowdy: It's a really, really different thing, and it's really awesome. I mean, the conferences and the speakers and all the events that Andy McMillan and Andy Baio put on are fantastic. But, I mean, the biggest takeaway for me was the people that you meet and the relationships that you have that continue on after XOXO Fest. And that was, like, the hugest takeaway for me. And it's just a really, really special experience that I, you know, you want that all the time. You know, every day of the week. You know, 52 weeks out of the year. Not once a year. And as they tease at the end of most XOXO Fests that they do, they don't know if it's coming back next year. So, you know, I'm still soaking it in, everything that happened only a week ago. And it's even hard to talk about because I don't know that I've even processed everything. So much happened in those four days. It's pretty crazy.

Myke Hurley: Have you quit your job yet?

Brad Dowdy: I have not yet.

Myke Hurley: That was kind of the prevailing theme of this year is people were quitting their jobs. It's my understanding.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, like, Monday, the festival ended Sunday. And on Monday, Andy Baio was getting tweets of people going home and quitting their jobs already. We've talked about it. I don't know how we've talked about it, if we've talked about it on the show or just our offline conversations. It's something, you know, that I want to do eventually. So it was good to go and hear from a lot of people and talk to a lot of people and how they've done certain things, you know, in making a career out of what they do online and sometimes offline in a lot of cases. So, yeah, it certainly gives you or gave me a ton to think about. It validated some ideas in my head. It put some new ideas in my head. And you really can't ask for more than that.

Brad Dowdy: So, and field notes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, well, that seems to be pretty special, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're like, I don't know if there's an official name for the edition, but aside from the XOXO 2014 edition, but it's essentially the messed up edition. They did like, it was almost like an error print run where all kinds of things are printed out on the covers of the books. And they came out looking really, really good. But except they were, they're harder to get this year, I think, than any other year. Any other year, I think they've just been up for grabs or for sale. This year, everyone was basically allocated one three pack. And that was pretty much it. Unless someone was nice enough to give you another one, which no one was nice enough to give me any mic.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because last year, I, well, they kind of just had them on a table. So I just picked up a bunch and like, there were a few people that were doing it. I just picked up loads of them. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So I, I believe my understanding is that somebody has got a pack for me. Oh, nice. They're on their way to me via a very, very lovely listener. Uh, I actually don't know who as it, as it currently stands. Um, but I, there's a, there's a, there's a third party who let me know that they're on their way. Apparently.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Sneaky. Yeah. I think you'll like them. They're really interesting looking.

Myke Hurley: Well, this is going to be like a real, uh, black market.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: One, because this obviously so rare. Yep. Because that was the thing, like last year, you could grab a bunch of them. So people did, but if you haven't been able to do that, then that's, that's big. That's a big difference.

Brad Dowdy: Totally.

Brad Doughty

Myke Hurley: So what else has been going on in the world of Brad Doughty? That's what I want to know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I've been a busy boy. So XOXO was two weekends ago. This weekend was our fodder stack fall festival at Nock where we, uh, we opened the doors to the fair wage sauna. And, uh, let everyone in and showed them around the shop and, you know, uh, got to meet a bunch of customers and fans and all of our families came. Uh, Jeff and I had a really good, um, really mind bogglingly good turnout to this. And, uh, the positivity around, uh, the shop on Saturday was something I haven't experienced yet. And it just kind of validated that we're doing something right. And, you know, we had people driving from Tennessee and from North Carolina, South Carolina coming to visit us. Um, it was pretty unreal that, uh, people would take the time to drive all these hours to, uh, come by our, our, our little shop and then watch us make cases. And we, you know, we had some giveaways and, um, you know, we did a pin swap and we cooked for everyone and, uh, just really kind of hung out, had a good time. It was quite an event. And I think we can, uh, safely say it was a success. And that just gives us the, the motivation to do it, uh, even bigger the next time it was kind of an open house event. So you could just kind of drop by and, um, it was unbelievable. Every, everyone was great. And, um, you know, uh, maybe, you know, next year we do it bigger. And then maybe the year after that, we can go on like a world tour so we can come visit all you guys. How's that sound?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Do that. I would like that.

Brad Dowdy: Not co world tour. So, and, uh, Patrick, I want to come. You can come. Maybe we'll come to you. Um, you know, up in, up, up in your neck of the woods, that would be a good place to come for sure. Oh, dude. I got a place for you to stay too. Oh, I'm there. I'm there. So Patrick was teasing me, uh, before this episode about a prototype that we made. Um, we've teased it on, um, we teased it on our Instagram feed. Actually, Jeff teased it. It was kind of the, we've gone through about three or four prototypes of this. Um, I don't know. I guess you would call it a folio type case. We haven't, we haven't named it yet because we don't know if we're going to deliver on it yet, but, um, it's getting, uh, some positive reviews. We made one, we gave one away. We had a raffle. Um, we made one that day. We keep tweaking the design a little bit. So we wanted to update the design and we gave one away that day.

Patrick Rhone: Um, so you definitely should have come Patrick, but, um, man, I'm just, I'm, I'm heartbroken.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's like this little folio case. It can fit like two memo books or a memo book and some note cards on the right side. Um, can fit, you know, business cards. It's got a pin slots on the left side and it zips close and it's got two pockets behind the main pockets.

Patrick Rhone: So it's just one of these things that the moment you see it, you're going, yes. Why didn't you make this all along? Why, why wasn't this part of the launch? Like, you know, you could have kickstarted that alone and made your goal.

Brad Dowdy: Like seriously. Yeah, I think so. And, you know, I don't know if we'll like kickstart any new not code designs, but that's a thought. I actually hadn't even considered that.

Patrick Rhone: Look, if, if a writer Carol can make like 35 grand or whatever it's up to now off of a new website and some videos, you can do the folders or the, or the, or the, or the fully of, Oh yeah. We got to come up with a name for this. Yeah. The folio case, uh, uh, Kickstarter seriously.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's, it's gotten really, we, we broke it out, um, around this group of people, um, at the shop this weekend and, uh, feedback was super positive and we got about three different designs out there right now. So we're, we're still working on finalizing what we want that to be. But, um, a lot of people want some, um, some type of zip, um, zip case too. So that kind of solves that problem and holds pins and holds notebooks. So it's, uh, kind of a cool thing. And this is, uh, my partner, Jeff just comes up with this stuff, um, mostly off the top of his head. And he gets an idea, breaks out the fabric and the scissors and just starts going to town. And he goes, look what I made. And I'm like, this is awesome.

Brad Dowdy: And that happens a thousand more. Yeah. That happens more than you can believe. So, uh, I'm, I'm lucky to have a partner like Jeff in this business. Um, he, uh, we're, we're a good team. That's for sure. So it was good. It was good. Uh, man, I've been busy. I've been busy. It's been some good weeks and Myke, you haven't been busy. You've been lounging on the beach in Italy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like I'm bouncing across the country and I get texts from Myke with his, with his pasty legs out on the Italian beach under the umbrella.

Myke Hurley: Hey, they were still out. Hey, I was jealous, man. Pasty or not, those, those bad boys are out.

Crossword Puzzle

Brad Dowdy: That was good stuff. It was good stuff. All right. So I guess it's been about a month now. We had, um, one of our listeners, Chris Gottlieb do a crossword puzzle for, for the podcast.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: It, I'm still, mind blown, I guess, that he did this. It's, uh, it's like really, legitimately intense crossword puzzle. I couldn't finish it. I, I had a tough time, but the winners have been announced. The answer key has been published. We're going to have all of this posted in the show notes. Where are the show notes, Myke?

Myke Hurley: They are at relay.fm slash panaddict slash one, two, one.

Brad Dowdy: So are we going to announce the winners here on the podcast? Yes. Because what Chris did for the winners, I, I was shocked.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I kind of couldn't believe it.

Brad Dowdy: I could not believe it. So, the grand prize champion winner, Mr. Joe Cabrera, you win from our friend, Chris Gottlieb, a Lamy 2000.

Myke Hurley: I cannot, I just don't even.

Brad Dowdy: I, yeah. Yeah, so, holy cow, when I saw this.

Brad Dowdy: Um, and then our two other winners are Joe Austin, who gets a Lamy All-Star, AL-Star, sorry. And Terry Cavanaugh gets a Lamy Vista. And those are both awesome pins in their own right. And for Chris to do this, for us and for our listeners, I cannot thank him enough. So, yeah, you, uh, definitely need to go check out Chris's website. Uh, it's, uh, a propensity to.com. And we'll have all this in the show notes. So check it out. Thank you, Chris, for keeping up with this and offering this up to the listeners and readers of the pen addict. And, um, everyone who, who put in their, um, put in their answers, go check the key now. Um, all the answers are out there. And a lot of it, uh, is making more sense to me now that I see the answers. Because I had a tough time with it. Um, I'm not gonna lie. It was, uh, it was a hard deal. It was like, uh, I guess it was New York Times Sunday level crossword. Don't they, like, ramp them up throughout the week with Sunday being the hardest or something like that?

Myke Hurley: You're asking the wrong guy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, I think, I think they, there, there's a range, like, of difficulty. And with Sundays, Sunday being the most difficult, um, this was a Sunday level, uh, crossword puzzle for me. So, all right. So we got this follow-up out of the way.

Brad Dowdy: And this next item is the one thing I hated missing last week, Myke. But, you know, life gets in the way sometimes. But we missed the launch of the latest Field Notes edition.

Myke Hurley: We sure did. But I haven't received mine yet anyway, so.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I would.

Myke Hurley: It kind of feels like it was just the day, the launch week. Because that's what it usually does.

Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: So, Mr. Roan, you are also a Field Notes, uh, customer, correct?

Patrick Rhone: Yep, I am. I, I can't, I can't help myself. I, every, every time, like, the kind of pre-announcement or tease for the next one comes out, they usually do it about a week beforehand. On Wednesday, they'll say, you know, oh, you know, you better sign up for a color subscription because this next one's going to be, oh, it's great. This fan, you're going to want this one. And I'm like, ah, well, you know, I got, I got, like, I got so many Field Notes, like, completely unopened packages. And I usually, like, order, I usually order two or three. And, and here's my deal.

Patrick Rhone: So, if I, I order one for myself and one for my dad, because my dad actually uses them. And so, I always send a package out to him. Um, but, um, sometimes I'll order three. So, I have, like, an extra pack that I don't mind, like, opening and checking out. And maybe even, like, giving a couple away because I have been known to, I don't know. I feel like if I'm going to use a stamp, I want to get as much out of that stamp as possible. Mm-hmm. So, like, if I'm going to, like, send, say, a thank you card to somebody or some sort of greeting card, you know, I don't know, happy birthday, you know, just to say hi, that sort of thing. I like to throw Field Notes in with it. I know, it's crazy. Or I like to at least put enough in it that, like, I don't know, I maximize what I can send for a first class stamp. Does that make sense?

Brad Dowdy: That makes total sense. And that's why I buy several extras as well, just to be able to just, you know, shuttle some off here and there, you know, as you see fit. I mean, it's a great thing to do.

Patrick Rhone: Right. And then, you know, and then I have a completely unopened package for myself. And just turning around and looking at my bookshelf here, I've got, I mean, at least a foot worth of Field Notes just sitting there.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot of Field Notes. Yeah, I do. I mean, I know you guys go on and on about this stuff, so I won't belabor the point, but I can just pull one out at random. There's Day Game. Let's pull out another one. That's Shelterwood. Hold on. Let me see. Another one. Oh, what was this one? The first, like, the one they sent that had, like, pine? Balsam fir. In the pack? Balsam fir. That's it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I mean, I just pulled three out at random.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. So, yeah, I think you said it right. I can't help myself is the way I kind of feel about Field Notes, too. I mean, you just can't. I mean, it's like I've got this problem, and I'm going to stop any day now. And then they come out with something new, and I can't help myself. And the next thing you know, I have four three-packs landing in my mailbox. Mm-hmm. So, all right. So, let's talk about this edition specifically. It's fall 2014. It's called Unexposed. I thought they did a really, really good job, like, building this up. It was good. The video, my God. I mean, their videos are great. This was one of my favorite ones ever. If you haven't seen the video, do yourself. Even if you're not a Field Notes customer, just go watch this video. It's a minute and a half of your life, and it will put a smile on your face. And stay for the end. That's the important part. What did you think, Patrick, of this edition?

Patrick Rhone: Well, I'm going to put you on the spot first. That big bang was me reaching behind. I've got the apothecary bookshelf, so it's got doors that open. Yeah. Glass doors that open. Because I wanted to grab them and actually kind of open them up. Now, I feel bad even talking about these, because the whole, like, the fun of it was, the secret part of it, right? Right. You didn't know what they were going to look like. You didn't, you knew very little as far as details about them. And even after people, like, received theirs and were, like, posting pictures and stuff like that, it's still tempting not to open the package because, what are there, something like 36 different ones? Or, I forget what the number is, but there's, like, a whole bunch of different combinations. And you're not sure, unless you open it, which ones are going to be inside. So I've only opened two of the three that I left one unopened for that very reason. Yeah. Um, I really like the, once again, I feel like I, so the whole point of that whole thing was, I feel like I'm spoiling it for some people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah. Even talking about them.

Brad Dowdy: I thought everyone, I thought everyone did a really good job when they started arriving early. Mm-hmm. Of not going berserk and just, like, throwing it all out there. People were, in the places that I read, you know, like the Field Nuts Facebook group and Twitter and everything, people were actually cognizant of the fact that not everyone has gotten these yet. And, you know, if you want to see them here, you know, look behind the jump or, you know, or close your eyes or whatever. But I think the kind of the, the cat's pretty much out of the bag now. Right, Myke? You don't even have yours, but you, you know, essentially what you're getting. So I think, I think we're okay with, with spoilers in, in this episode. But let's, let's say that right now, though. Spoiler alert. If, if you do not want to know what's in the unexposed and you have not received yours yet, you may want to jump ahead a few minutes. Exactly.

Patrick Rhone: So I'm going to first talk about kind of the paper and how it, and the kind of feel of it and whatnot, before I even get into colors. All right. So, um, first off, the, the covers have this kind of, I don't know, rubbery sort of feel to them. And you know how like the, um, the, uh, which were the expedition ones, um, you know, had the kind of right on rain plasticky paper or whatnot. Right. Um, and the cover was even kind of, you know, kind of tear resistant or whatever. These feel even more like, I don't know, thick and durable and kind of rubbery. Mm-hmm. Um, the paper inside, I guess, is the same as the Night Sky edition. Is that correct?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's correct. It's the, uh, it's got the reticle grid. Is that the right way to say it? That's one of my least favorite words in the English language. Yeah.

Patrick Rhone: Well, it's, it's just, it's a bunch of pluses. Yeah. It's a bunch of pluses. But, uh. Which really screws up my dash plus system. I'm just saying it doesn't quite work on this paper.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, same paper weight, same paper color, same reticle grid pattern, and same reticle grid color. So, yes, identical, I think.

Patrick Rhone: Mm-hmm. And, I mean, from a, you know, usage perspective, you know, it takes fountain pen fairly well. And, you know, with not too much bleed through, you're not going to be using like a Sharpie on this or anything like that. But, you know, I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's all right. Um, but you can't ignore the colors of these things.

Brad Dowdy: You definitely can't ignore the colors of these things. Myke could probably see them from the beach in Italy when I opened my package here in the U.S. It's like this beacon went out.

Brad Dowdy: Let's just. You had to put more sunscreen on, right, Myke? I did.

Myke Hurley: I did wonder what that was.

Patrick Rhone: I was going to say that if he had opened up this pack before he left, he wouldn't have gone with pasty white legs.

Patrick Rhone: That's the truth. Uh, these, they are, um, very bright, uh, saturated, sort of neon-ish colors. Um, uh, with a, um, the text in a very kind of sharp contrast to whatever the body is. So, like, the ones I'm holding in my hands right now happen to be like a, ooh, I don't know, uh, kind of like a, a bright blue, uh, with hot pink, uh, lettering.

Brad Dowdy: We chose the same edition to use first.

Patrick Rhone: Oh, wow. That's the one I'm using. Well, I, I'm not using it yet. Okay. Well, that's the one I'm using. That's the first one I grabbed out of the package. Um, then I have, uh, the, the, uh, Minnesota Vikings favorite, uh, gold. Um, kind of a very, I don't know, almost goldenrod sort of yellow, uh, with a purple, uh, lettering. A nice kind of royal purple. Um, and then there is this orange that borders on red, or is it red that borders on orange? I can't decide. With, um, kind of a neon blue, uh, sort of lettering. And it is, whatever your color is on the front, the lettering, is reversed on the, on the inside. Um, so that you get, like, when I opened up the orange one with the blue text, it's actually orange text on the blue background on the inside. So, I mean, the, the, what's interesting is, you know, it comes in this very kind of black, austere, minimalist sort of packaging to hide what's inside. But then when you open up, it is just an explosion of color.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You, you and I, Patrick, are of the age where, um, where it was a high likelihood we had one of those velvet black light posters of a unicorn on our room. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Or Led Zeppelin or something. Yeah. Yeah. It totally reminds me of that.

Patrick Rhone: Oh, totally. Totally reminds me of that, too. Yeah. Um, and I'm opening up another package. There's the, the, the kind of neon green with the neon orange. There's the hot pink with the yellow. Um, and I also have, um, the, uh, the purple. Um, that I, apparently, amongst all of these, the purple is kind of the hot commodity that people are trying to get.

Brad Dowdy: I think, did you just, did you just say all six of them? Did you, out of those two boxes, do you have six different colors?

Patrick Rhone: Well, yeah. So I have six different colors. Okay. Yeah.

Colors

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, that's good. So you got one of each color.

Patrick Rhone: Oh, really?

Brad Dowdy: So there's, there's actually, there's six colors. There's only six exterior colors available. Oh, okay. And so if you have six that are not, uh, not a duplicate, you have all of the unexposed colors. So the, the 36 that you mentioned. Oh, that's cool.

Myke Hurley: The 36 is the different amount of combinations that you can see. Ah, okay. I gotcha. So you got the best one in 36. Yeah. So, wow.

Patrick Rhone: And I haven't even opened the other package yet. So what we can reasonably surmise from that is that out of that other package that I haven't opened, almost every one of those inside will be a duplicate. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Oh, that is so awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So there's, so looking at the stats, there's, it's a 60,000 book print run and 10,000 of each of those six colors. Oh, that's awesome. Sorry.

Patrick Rhone: You're hearing me putting them back into the package and being very, very kind of careful with them.

Brad Dowdy: Pete Dennison in the chat room said you had a bingo. So, yeah. Oh, that is awesome. So, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Hello.

Brad Dowdy: Since you don't have these yet, I want to talk to you about the meta level of this edition. What are your thoughts of this edition? Just how they chose to go about doing this? Do you have any thoughts on that? Because there's a lot of chatter about this edition, which is good for field notes. I mean, I think it's, you know, to get people talking, whether it's good or bad is, I'm okay with that.

Myke Hurley: So, I'm upset that I know all about them because the whole point of them is you're not, you know, you don't want to know about them. That's the point. Right. Because now when I receive them, I know I'm just getting six neon books, right? Right. Which isn't as fun as, oh, what's it going to be? Because I was really excited. But the amount of time that's lapsed. I'm sorry. See? No, but the amount of time that's lapsed, it's basically, with the circle that I run in, impossible for me to not see it. Right? I have seen them. I know what they all look like. I know what the colors look like. But I think the colors look really fun.

Myke Hurley: After having seen them, I bought another set or two because I like them. I think they look like a lot of fun.

Myke Hurley: I've liked sort of the bright colors in the past, but there's never been colors as bright as this. So, I kind of like that. I think that looks pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: As an idea, I mean, it's an... So, this is definitely... With the way that they've been going recently, the guys and girls at Field Notes have been going hyper-ambitious.

Myke Hurley: And we've spoken about this. And Brad, I know a problem that you'd had with some of the more recent editions is it was like being ambitious for ambitiousness sake. Like, just, what's the next crazy thing we can do? So, at least this one is going back to the idea of it being just a nice idea and some just nice colored books. So, that's kind of... So, I'm like, I welcome that change back to like a fun idea as opposed to just, I don't know, trying to make them out of titanium or something. So, my feeling... Don't put it past them. Yeah, really. I'm going to guess how I think that you feel, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: So, I think that, for one, you're going to be super happy about the fact that we're just back to there being notebooks again. I know that you like that there's six. I know that. And I know that you love the neon colors.

Myke Hurley: Ding, ding, ding. Yeah. There you go.

Brad Dowdy: So, across the board. This is the best edition since Drink Local for me. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because I knew that you loved the Drink Local because there was six. And I know that you love the bright colors anyway.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. I'm pleased. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm super happy with this edition just as the way it looks and be cool to use them edition. Just like the Drink Local was. They did the six different colored covers.

Brad Dowdy: The cool covers. Patrick, these covers remind me a lot of the Drink Local edition. They're that same kind of cover that you're talking about. Same with the Expedition, too.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I hoped that that was going to be the case when Pat was describing it. Because that's the first I've heard that the covers had an interest in texture. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They're very similar to the Drink Local, in my opinion. Good. They have that feel to them. Kind of that mad.

Patrick Rhone: And what's interesting is that I haven't opened up the Drink Locals. Yeah. Because the deal with those was that there were two different versions of them, right? Yep. You had a six-pack. And you could order one of each, right? Yep. And so instead of ordering, say, you know, I don't know, 12 field notes, whatever it would take for me to do what I normally do, I only ordered the two that time. And I haven't opened them at all. Yep. So I didn't know that these covers had, or that those covers had that similar sort of feel.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So just as a field notes edition, I think it's great. I'm a huge fan of it. And Myke, you know me well. We've been doing this long enough. You knew where I was going to come down on this. I'm very happy with the colors. I like the six different neon colors. What I wanted to talk about was the collectability aspect of it and some of the questions and concerns that came up in the field notes group when they announced this. There was kind of a running theme. Some people were pretty hacked off, honestly. And I didn't really understand why. And I still don't. But they didn't like that they're going to have to chase colors, if you will. But, and actually some people felt that, not the same group of people, but then another group of people felt that field notes was actually trolling the collectors by doing this. And I've kind of gotten, you know, my mindset's changed over the past six months to a year. I don't feel like I'm that collector guy anymore. I feel like I'm more of a user guy. So I don't look at it from that collectability point of view. If I did, I wouldn't have had Aaron Draplin sign the cover of my Butcher Orange that I've been using. So the collectability thing doesn't concern me. But as far as trolling, I don't think so. I think they just legitimately had a good idea to come out. You know, it was kind of maybe a nod to the collector aspect of it. Okay. We realize there's people that actually collect these things. We can do something a little bit neat. If they were trolling us, they would have made this black cover, sealed the books up, and when you open them up, they were stark white with no printing and white paper in them. You would have been trolled then if you all got a blank notebook. That would have been trolling you. What I think they should have done is I think they should have taken it further. I think, you know, one of the colors should have only had a 1,000 print run.

Brad Dowdy: One of the colors should have had a 5,000 print run.

Brad Dowdy: One of the colors should have had a 10,000 print run. And so on to get your 60,000 print run. I think then they would have had a lot of people ticked off. But it would have been good because people would be chasing these things down. You know, like, you know, open up a pack of baseball cards or a Pokemon. You know, got to catch them all kind of thing, which we've always talked about with the field notes books. You're never going to be able to get them all. So that makes me think that they weren't trying to troll collectors by the way that they implemented this edition. It's very easy to get all six colors. Maybe you get your two subscription packs and you don't get all one of each of the colors like Patrick just did. You know, which is awesome. And I know a lot of people did. But, you know, there's a tradability aspect. And, you know, people are happy to swap out books of their favorite color since none are more rare than other ones. But I would have liked to see them really hammer the collector's part. And they would have sold off this edition, like, immediately for people chasing it. So I don't know. I don't have a problem at all with how they handled this edition. I love the notebook. The memo books came out great. I'm going to use the heck out of these. Like I did, Drink Local's been the one I've used the most recently. So this will be right up there. And I thought they did a really good job. One question I have or one thought. So Field Notes has always been in physical retail shops. I don't know that these will actually sell that well in physical retail shops. Because you're usually, you're not selling them to people who necessarily know what Field Notes is. They're coming to buy a memo book. They're going to see a black box of books right next to, like, the Craft Brown and, you know, maybe some past editions like Shelterwood or whatever. They're probably not going to sell. But I guess they probably really don't care. It'll sell out soon enough. It was a good enough edition to where they'll sell the heck out of these. So those are my...

Myke Hurley: I feel like it would take them a while to sell out of these ones, though.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because people have to kind of come across them in, I think, an unboxed form for them to sell out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's kind of my point about the retail displays and stuff like that.

Myke Hurley: Because I think that they typically tend to sell out when they resonate with people outside of the pen and paper community. So, like, you know, the Raven's Wing or, you know, Night Shy. Shelterwood. Yeah. Yeah. The ones that are like, whoa, kind of, what is this? And people might think that about these ones. I mean, I bet the Gradient one, what was that called?

Brad Dowdy: Cold Horizon.

Cold Horizon

Myke Hurley: I bet that sold quite well as well for that reason. Because it was like a really interesting looking one. It looks good on a shelf. Exactly.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, you know, I see this and I wonder.

Patrick Rhone: So one of the things that they played around with was sizes in the last one with the arts and sciences, right? Mm-hmm. With that kind of larger size book. And that appealed to some people and whatnot. I actually happened to be in an antique store last week. And this antique store actually had kind of a whole bunch of different brands of actual, you know, field note type notebooks. But not like, I mean, like the old, like the kind that these are based off of. You know, these are based on kind of the old memo books that, like, you used to get from seed companies or insurance companies or things like that. That were kind of freebies along with, like, little paper desk calendars and pens, right? These are kind of these novelty freebie items that you would get for when you did business with somebody in the industry. And I picked up a couple because out of all of them that were there, most of them were a much smaller size than these are. And I actually, I'll put a link into our Skype thing if I can figure out how to do it in the new Skype because I don't like it very much. But I did take a shot on Instagram holding them in my hand. And, I mean, they're tiny. And I would be interested to see, like, them do kind of a smaller size edition, something that's about the size of maybe a, you know, maybe a little bit larger than a business card, for instance. Or, you know, play around with the sizes just like they did with the real ones back in the day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I could certainly see that being a possibility down the line. Like, there's a, Moleskine makes a size called the Volant, which is smaller. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, a little bit bigger than business card size. So, there's a few other companies that do that size as well, which I think is pretty neat. It's useful.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, and I think it'd be interesting to see. I just don't know how much more they can continue to do with colors and paper types and things like that. It might be interesting for them to kind of play off of that size thing again, but going the other direction.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I like this one because it was back to basics in the style, but they still managed to make it a conversation piece by how they decided to deliver it. And, yeah, I thought they did a good job with this edition. All right, Mr. Roan, we need to get into some of your details. But, first, Myke has some real work to do. What you got for us, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I want to talk about our sponsor for this week's episode, and that is the fine folks over at lynda.com. Lynda is an easy and affordable way to help individuals and organizations learn. You can instantly stream thousands of courses created by experts on software, web development, graphic design, and so much more. Lynda.com works directly with industry experts and software companies to make sure that they're providing informative, awesome training in a timely fashion. So, sometimes this can be on the same day that new versions of software or products are released or as quick as humanly possible. All of their courses are produced with fantastic production values. They are at the highest quality. These are not like videos that you're going to find on YouTube of someone with their iPhone 4 recording their MacBook keyboard and screen. You know, these are people in awesome studios. They have all the right equipment, and they do things with just a real professional look and feel about them. Lynda.com has awesome tools. So, when you're watching your videos, you can get access to searchable transcripts. So, maybe somebody said something that you wanted to go back and check in a video you watched two weeks ago. You can search, you know, editing or something like that, and it can take you to that point. And you can click at any point in the transcript, and it will take you to that point in the video. They have playlists that you can set up and even certificates of course completion, which you can publish to your LinkedIn page if that's something that you want to do. Whether you're a beginner or advanced learner, Lynda.com has courses for all experience levels. You can also learn whilst you're on the go with the Lynda.com apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. And they have just one low monthly price of $25 to get unlimited access to over 100,000 video tutorials on topics such as maybe you want to learn development, like sort of app development, maybe you want to make an iOS app. Maybe you want to get into audio and music productions. Maybe you want to make some music tracks on your computer or you want to make a podcast of your own. They've got stuff there. Maybe you want to get into web design. Maybe you want to get into photography, marketing, business stuff. They've got courses on everything. I've checked out a bunch of Lynda stuff myself, especially some on Logic, which is what I use to edit these shows. And there's more that I've sort of saved in a playlist that you can set up that I've set up myself and Lynda to go in and watch Zoom about compression and stuff like that to get an even better understanding to make these shows sound even better. And I love it. Lynda is a great way for – it fits the way I want to learn, basically. I am a visual learner and I like to go along with people whilst they're teaching me something. So one thing that I've loved is I can watch the videos on my iPad and I can be sort of playing along in Logic on my MacBook as I'm watching them do it. And some of the Logic tutorials that I've watched allow you to download the project files that the people are actually working with so you can play along completely with what you're seeing on the screen. I have an awesome deal for you with Lynda.com. We've worked with them to get this for you. So you can get access to all of Lynda.com's courses for free for seven days if you visit Lynda.com slash PenAddict and sign up right now. That's Lynda.com slash PenAddict. Thank you so much to Lynda.com for their support of The PenAddict and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Lynda. Yeah. All right. So we've got a pen blog of the week this week that's not a traditional pen blog, but it's actually a blog that I can't believe I've never talked about before because I follow it religiously. That is Mr. Chad Doan's Doan paper feed. Oh, yeah. He has an offshoot Tumblr where he just collects inspirational pictures. Some of it's stationary-based, bag-based, but a lot of it's got art, architecture, things like that.

Patrick Rhone: His visual... Trucks or cars. He likes automobiles a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, lots of old Porsches and land cruisers and things like that. So his visual aesthetic really speaks to me. I'm really into all the stuff that he finds and posts on this. So I'll follow this religiously. And also, he'll sneak in every now and then some new product stuff that he's working on, like his latest Topo Designs Doan paper mountain briefcase version 2.

Patrick Rhone: So handsome, huh?

Brad Dowdy: Which is just all kinds of hotness. I have the version 1. I use it every day for work. It's one of my favorite bags that I've ever purchased.

Patrick Rhone: Someone I follow online went ahead and bought one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so Joe Lebo. Yes, Joe. I know he bought one. So he sent me some pictures of when he loaded it up, but I haven't actually had to talk to him, like, now that he's using it, how is it? But I know he was real excited when he got it. But it's a great-looking bag. I mean, Topo and Chad Doan collaboration is just like a no-brainer for me. If I did not have one already, I'd be buying this one because it's just perfect. I love what he does. With these collaborations. And obviously, I'm a huge fan of Doan paper itself. So check out the Doan paper feed, and you can see lots of cool stuff. And then you can get some sneak previews of things he's working on for Doan paper. So be sure to check it out.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah. Patrick Roan here endorses Doan. Definitely. Because not only is it great stuff, but he's a super, super nice guy. I love supporting, like, genuinely great people. You know, people who are just making something that they love and doing it because they think others will love it too. And is just super, super sweet. Really great guy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. He's a legitimately good guy. Just like you said. I echo all of those sentiments. All right. So, Patrick, I was reading the internet as I do. I've heard of it. Yeah. You've been on the internet. Once or twice. And, like, a few months ago, I came across this blog called The Cramped. What the heck is that? And it had this byline of this guy named Patrick Roan. And I was like, whoa, I know that guy. Hey, I know that guy too. He has a what? The Cramped? What is that? Yeah. So, congratulations. All kidding aside, I was super excited, and I think a lot of people were, to see this project come alive. You had been giving me the heads up for a while that this was coming. So, tell us about The Cramped, how it came to be, what you're trying to accomplish there, and why it's so awesome.

Patrick Rhone: Well, okay. I don't know why it's so awesome. I think it's awesome. But I don't know. I never really know why other people think the things I do are awesome. You know, I'm a writer, and so I'm not allowed to think that anyone else gives a crap about what I'm doing.

Patrick Rhone: So, basically, I guess my inspiration was, number one, I've always been a pen and paper guy. I've been a pen and paper guy for a long time. And I've really appreciated, obviously, the work that you've done. And, you know, the work that Anna at Well Appointed Desk has done. And then, you know, other recent people I've been following, like the Modern Stationaire and Myke Dudek with the Clicky Post and, you know, Andy Welfie with his pencil obsession. And, yeah, I've been, you know, following this stuff for a while. And while, you know, I love a good pen review like the next guy, and I like a good, you know, I like to see new notebooks and new papers reviewed and things like that. And you're going to have to forgive if you hear my daughter singing in the background. She's off to piano lessons, so she's getting ready. I felt I could add something to the conversation. I never really want to start anything unless I feel like I can add a unique voice to it. It's kind of like with Minimal Mac. The last thing the world needed was another kind of Mac blog, another Apple blog, another technology blog. I didn't want to do that. What I wanted to do was I wanted to talk about technology from a realist and practical perspective, from an idea and a standpoint that I didn't feel was being well represented online. I approached the cramp the same way. I wanted the cramp to be more about what it's like to actually use the tools, and not just from a review perspective, but I want to see people using this stuff. I want to see notebooks after they're brand new. I want to see pens after they've been, you know, the nib's been bent a little bit. I want to see the stuff having been used. I wanted to celebrate the fact that these tools are meant for that.

Patrick Rhone: I don't know. I guess to me, it's like with the field notes, right? The field notes are less interesting to me when they're new than when I have one that I just scanned in that was being held together by clear postal tape, and I had to stick another staple into a section that had worn away. You know what I mean? That was as much a part of the life of that notebook and adding to its greatness and its character and its meaning as anything else that field notes themselves delivered. Does that make sense?

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't agree with that more, and I say that because I didn't used to be that way. And I'm talking like in the very near term, like when the past year, no more than two, I would like, everything's pristine. Don't mess anything up. Don't ding this, dent this, bend this, break this at all. And now I'm like, you know, passing around my Nakaya pins at the Foddershack Fall Festival, and I don't care if someone drops them. It would not faze me the slightest. Yeah. And that's like a huge mental change in me. I don't know how that happened, but it is. I mean, it's just I want to destroy my field notes, not keep them wrapped up in a package, you know? So, yeah, I totally agree with that.

Patrick Rhone: And so the cramped I try to approach things from that perspective, I also try to encourage those people who either have been frustrated with using pen and paper, have never really seen the point of it, you know, in the age of the iPhone and the iPad and the iThis and the iThat.

Patrick Rhone: I wanted to help those people out and help them see the joy and pleasure using analog tools can bring. And so you also will see lots of links kind of celebrating that, you know, to, you know, kind of handwriting making a renaissance, why it's so much more beneficial from a memory perspective and from a cognitive perspective, why it's important that we don't lose it, why good handwriting is still very, very important, important, but not so important that not having it should keep you from doing so. And I especially wanted to reach out to lefties, believe it or not. I'm not a lefty, but I felt like if there was one thing that seemed to be missing from a lot of fountain pen reviews, it was, it was like, okay, how does this work for a lefty? Mm-hmm. And so you also will find, uh, on The Cramped, probably the greatest collection on any pen blog of articles, you know, essays specifically written for the left-handed writer and how to make your, your, your writing experience a better one.

Brad Dowdy: Well, not just that, but your, your guest posts and your contributors just in general do, like, really, really good work. Like, you know, we had... Oh my gosh, I'm so lucky. We had Mr. John Robert Lennon on the show. Yes. He's wonderful. He's, he's written for you, and obviously, you know, I, I love Harry Marks, and he's been, um, you know, working with you on this.

Patrick Rhone: Yep, and, and, uh, Myke Rohde has, uh, has contributed, um, you know, who not only is a, is a good friend, but I was a huge fan of for the longest time before we even became friends. Um, and, uh, I mean, you know, Anna has written stuff, um, and, I mean, that's the other thing, too. So many of my other sites have kind of been my singular voice, and I've been kind of protective of that, um, for a number of reasons. Uh, most of them, uh, my own, uh, inflated ego. Um, but, with this one, I really wanted to reach out to, to people, especially, like, I'm not lefty. I can't write about, you know, about how to, you know, tips and tricks for using a fountain pen for the left-handed. I have nothing to say there. So I didn't, I kind of have forced myself into positions where I have to reach out to people and say, hey, I would love to have you write this. And, and put it on the cramped and bring people, uh, people's attention to your fine work as well in doing so. Right, right. So, yeah. Speaking of which, um, I'm waiting for a guest post from you. I need to work on that. Anything you want. I don't, yeah, I don't care what it is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I like doing the, not what I do on the pen addict stuff, um, when I do things for other people. So I will put together some ideas and, uh, I will, I will get right on that because I would love to do that for sure. I would love to have you.

Patrick Rhone: So, Myke too, but Myke doesn't write. But if he just wants to record. But if he wants to record something for us, you know. That would actually be kind of funny. I don't record either.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you're too busy.

Patrick Rhone: You just podcast. You're too busy creating podcast networks. Yep. Yep. So, yeah. So that's, that's basically the thing about the cramped is I try to be a, a, a, a contributing, um, voice in the pen and paper blogging world. Not a, not an echo. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And for people who listen to this show and don't follow the cramped, you need to fix that immediately. Um, cause it's, it's a really, I mean, it's Patrick Rohn. I mean, what else do I need to say? Jeez.

Patrick Rhone: Well, and also, I should, I should also say it appeals on many levels because I also am trying to focus not just on pen and paper, but also, you know, typewriters. Yeah. Whenever the opportunity presents itself. I posted a video about a lovely, um, secret bookshop in New York City that unfortunately Harry informed me minutes after I posted it that, uh, they're actually getting evicted and shutting down. So, um, you know, but, you know, so reading is another theme that you will see popping up a lot on the cramped, um, things like that. It's, it's just basically, if it's analog and it involves the written word, it belongs there.

Brad Dowdy: That's perfect. That's perfect. So one of the, one of the main reasons aside from the cramped I wanted to have you on is we wanted to talk about paper and which paper we're using, you know, what's, uh, what's been really, uh, piquing our interest. And in the event of not running this show too, too long today, I'm going to boil this down into one thing. Mm-hmm. And then I'm going to give you the floor. Okay. And it's one type of paper that you and I are fans of. So lovely. And a lot of people are fans of. I think I'm getting like, like giddy just thinking about it.

Tomoe River Paper

Patrick Rhone: It's the Tomoe River paper. Yeah. Now. Is that how you pronounce it? Yeah. I'm glad someone cleared that up.

Brad Dowdy: I keep saying Tomo or something. Or Tomo. Yeah. It's just like, it's just like moleskin. There's several different pronunciations. Yeah. There you go. So a few years ago, all our collective writing minds got blown when we discovered this paper. And it wasn't necessarily widely available. And now it's still not widely available.

Patrick Rhone: But it's a lot more available than it was.

Brad Dowdy: It was at least accessible.

Patrick Rhone: Yes. Before it was almost next to impossible. Right. Unless you spoke Japanese and could convert dollars to yen in your head. Right. It just wasn't going to happen.

Brad Dowdy: So you have a very important thing in your life that you talk about all the time from a writing and pen and paper aspect. So why don't you tell us about your favorite Tomoe River paper product or products in this case.

Patrick Rhone: Okay. All right. So I've got three that I am actively using right now. But the one that kind of sparked my interest, got me on to this initially, was the Hobonichi Techo. I think I pronounced that correctly.

Brad Dowdy: You did. I've gotten several corrections on that. And I still have a hard time with it.

Patrick Rhone: All right. So the Hobonichi Techo is a Japanese planner book. Very popular in Japan for a long time. A couple years back, they came out with their first English language version. Even that was hard to order at the time because while there was an English language version, the website was still in Japanese.

Brad Dowdy: There was actually a website. Someone actually made a website on how to order that product for English speaking people. Exactly. That's how difficult it was.

Patrick Rhone: For you, like a step-by-step. Yep. You printed off this thing so that you could have it next to you while you followed along on your computer. Yep. Unbelievable. And that's how I ordered my first one, by the way.

Patrick Rhone: But, yeah.

Patrick Rhone: But it uses the Tomoe River paper. Now, there's lots to like about the Tomoe River paper. First off, it is a pleasure to write on.

Patrick Rhone: It's very smooth. No matter what pen you're using, it makes the pen feel better. But it is especially good with fountain pen ink. It has taken any ink I have thrown at it. I have yet to find a fountain pen ink that bleeds through on this paper. But the other aspect about it that throws a lot of people off, I think, but that I love, is that it's very thin.

Patrick Rhone: But because it's very thin, you can fit a whole lot of pages. In the case of the Hobonichi Techo, I mean, there's, what, 400 and something pages in this? Yeah, it's 400. Yeah, and it's barely an inch thick because the paper is so thin. And so you have this combination of getting a lot of pages into a short amount of space on thin paper, but thin paper that takes fountain pen extremely well, no bleed through, and is not show through enough, especially when the page is turned on top of another, that it's distracting. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. And so owning the Hobonichi really, like, just was a mind opener for me as to, you know, what having really, really nice paper can do. And for a long time as a fountain pen user, I thought nice meant heavy. I thought nice meant, like, oh, it had to be, like, you know, big, thick, 90-pound paper or something. You know what I mean? That's the truth.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't think of it that way, but absolutely correct.

Patrick Rhone: Right. Like, you know, and so if I saw, like, recycled, deal breaker for me. If I saw anything less than, say, let's just say anything less than 24-pound, deal breaker for me. Right. I couldn't use my fountain pens on that. Just out of the box. Here we have paper that is incredibly light and incredibly thin but performs better than any other paper I have ever used with a fountain pen. So, yeah, this I use every single day. I keep a daily log using it. So, basically, I'm not only writing down times of meetings and things like that that have happened and taking little notes that way, but kind of tasks I've completed. It's basically just, you know, if I do something, I log it. And, you know, using my Dash Plus system, I mark it down. And I've kind of built in other little habits like making little sketch notes in it and things like that. And if you look for these things online, you will find, you know, people use them in all manner of things. It's everything from just a straight-ahead planner to, you know, to drawing books, to watercolor. Because the paper even takes, like, watercolor well. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. It's crazy, right? So, there's that. But, of course, that then got me into a whole Tomoe River paper obsession. And, basically, I can't stop myself. It's like with field notes. If it says Tomoe River on it, I must buy it. I don't – I can't stop myself.

Brad Dowdy: So, that led – you have the Big Daddy Seven Seas monster in the book. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Patrick Rhone: Oh, yeah. And that – so, I got a grant to do a big book project. I'm not going to get into that too deeply right now. But this is a big book project. It's going to involve a ton of research, ton of notes, interviews, all sorts of things. I knew I was going to need kind of a big notebook with a lot of pages that was going to stand up to – that was going to last, right? But it was also going to be, well, you know, Tomoe River paper that I love. And so, when I saw the Seven Seas from Nanami paper, once again, it was like, okay, InstaBuy. Must have that. And that's become – I am solely using this one for a big book project. And it's performed like a champ. And once again, a ton of pages. I forget how much is in the Nanami. 480 pages.

Patrick Rhone: And this thing, once again, I'm going to – thanks to the field note ruler in the back of every field note, so I can tell you exactly how thick it is, assuming I can open to that page. What do we got here? We got – we got about an inch and a half thick for almost 500 pages. Yeah, that's crazy. That's just insane. Insane. And I'm going to need that. I'm probably going to order – need a second one by the time this is all said and done. Wow. So, yeah, it's wonderful. But the most recent discovery, the things that I've really kind of fallen in love with, and you're going to have to forgive me, Mr. Field Notes, I'm taking this out of my bag. But there is – I discovered on one of the pen blogs, I forget which one,

Patrick Rhone: Kernow Bookbinding and Leatherwork.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah.

Patrick Rhone: I know what you're talking about.

Patrick Rhone: They make these little kind of field note – I don't know. I don't want to call it a knockoff. No, no, no. Really, because field notes themselves are a knockoff of the old seed and grain farm bureau books that came before them. Everything's a remix. Everything is a remix. And this is the back pocket journal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Patrick Rhone: And the defining characteristic of these is the fact that they're like field notes and kind of feel, but they're made with the Tamale River paper.

Patrick Rhone: Sold, like, immediately, like, okay, how do I order that? Once again, a very strange ordering process that requires, like, directions. Yes. Because he doesn't have, like, a – Doesn't have a storefront. I don't know, like an online – A storefront, an online storefront, which in this day and age you can set one up with – well, I can't mention them. They're not a sponsor.

Patrick Rhone: But, you know, can't you do that with, like, one of those blogging software things that every other podcast in the world is sponsored by? It starts with Square and it ends with Space. Let me tell you a little bit about Squarespace. A little bit about Squarespace. A little bit about Squarespace.

Patrick Rhone: Like, you can set it up with, like, one click on Squarespace. Why he hasn't done that, I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Myke pressed F1 on his shoulder. It's integrated into his body. It just makes his mouth start talking.

Patrick Rhone: So, yeah. You actually have to go on Facebook, his Facebook page, like, check the stock there or something like that and then, like, send him an email and say, okay, here's what I want. And then he sends you – I don't – basically, he sends you instructions on how to order it via PayPal and you do that and it comes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Passport Size

Patrick Rhone: It's a really strange ordering process, but it's worth it because the books are great. And what I discovered was – and this is a whole other – like, you know, you need to have Mr. Harry Marks on to talk about these. The Midori Traveler's Notebooks?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah? You know they make, like, a passport size?

Brad Dowdy: I do. Yeah?

Patrick Rhone: Yeah? Well, the passport size leather case fits the back pocket journals perfectly.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's good. That's real nice.

Patrick Rhone: Good to know, right? Yeah. Because the thing about the back pocket journal that people are going to order and they're going to be, like, you know, they may be thrown off by is that they are a little bit smaller than filled notes. And by a little bit, I mean, you know, when you're dealing with things that are already small, it can make a big difference. Let's just say that these are about a – I'm going to say about a half inch shorter than a standard field notes book.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Patrick Rhone: And maybe –

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a pretty large amount.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah. And, yeah, it's a pretty large amount. And so it's smaller than field notes. That may throw some people off. It threw me off a little bit because I had a nice, you know, kind of leather case for my field notes, a nice Horween leather one. And this was a bit too small for that. And I was like, oh, man, I really want to, like, put one of these to use. But it won't fit really well in the field notes cover. And that might be kind of a deal breaker. But then I found the Midori Traveler's Notebook cover and was like, oh, okay, this totally works. So, yeah, that's kind of – those are the things, the Tomoe River paper things that have really rocked my world. Of course, I do have, like, some Tomoe River stationery, you know, like letter writing stationery. Mm-hmm. That's, you know, once again, really nice.

Patrick Rhone: You know, it's just – I've fallen in love with this paper. And after – you know, and I'm a paper guy. I have more notebooks than you could even shake a stick at. And more paper types. And, you know, it's not just the notebooks. I mean, I've got loose paper. I've got paper pads. I've got a bunch of Doan stuff. I've got – you know what I mean? I've got a ton of stuff. And the Tomoe River is the creme de la creme, especially if you're a fountain pen user.

Brad Dowdy: Now, you've seen the new Hobonichis finally separated out the Tomoe River gridded paper they use in the Techo to just a regular memo pad, right? Have you seen this? Yes.

Patrick Rhone: Yes, I have seen it. I have yet to order one.

Brad Dowdy: Those just landed on my desk this week, and, I mean, they're totally legit. You know, probably similar to the back pocket journal for that size. But they make them in the A5 and the A6 size, so they match the exact size of your Hobonichi planner. If you have a case for your Hobonichi, so that will fit in there. Like, it will be a perfect match kind of thing. So those have been excellent so far. I'll review those on the blog coming soon. So that's been a real positive for me.

Patrick Rhone: So I'm excited about that. Well, and I should mention that the A6 size is the traditional size for the Hobonichi Techo planner. So a lot of people are thrown off by how small it is. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: It photographs very large, and it arrives, and it's actually pretty small. But once you start using it, it's pretty much perfect.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, exactly. And that's the weird thing about it. I actually ordered, and we won't talk about this now, but at the same time I ordered these back pocket journals, I decided to go the other direction. Because the back pocket journals are a little bit more expensive. They're like $12.95 versus, say, $9.95 for field notes. Well, I decided to go the complete opposite direction and get some A6 size Muji notebooks. Little Muji notebooks. That similar kind of craft paper sort of feel, but made with recycled paper, although they do make a high-grade version one. And test that out, too. Because I wanted to, I'm working on a little piece for the cramp that will be, you know, if you want to spend a little bit more, you know, if you like field notes but want to spend a little bit more, back pocket journal is a good alternative. If you like field notes but want to spend a little bit less, here's, you know, the Muji might be a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's a good idea. Yeah, that's a great idea for a post.

Patrick Rhone: Yeah, so look for that to come on the cramp eventually with some pictures and some of my own, you know, kind of deeper feelings on that. But, yeah, the little Mujis are attractive mainly because it's the exact same time as the Hobonichi, or the exact same size as the Hobonichi.

Brad Dowdy: Well, Patrick, we could go on for hours more. I know, I know. It's not enough time. Yeah, we're just scratching the surface, I feel. But that's good because that just means we have to have you back sooner than later, right?

Patrick Rhone: I would love that. Now my schedule accommodates it. So please, please, please, sooner rather than later.

Online Presence

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. So why don't you tell everyone where they can find you online?

Patrick Rhone: Wow. I am Patrick Rhone, P-A-T-R-I-C-K-R-H-O-N-E, like the river in France. Not the Rhine, but the Rhine. Every time I say like the river in France, people go, oh, the Rhine. I'm like, stupid Americans in your effed up geography. And, yeah. So, and I'm that everywhere. You can find me on Twitter using that. You can Google my name. You're going to find everything I do. But really do, for the folks, for this audience, you've got to check out The Cramped if you haven't. It really is the favorite thing I'm doing right now. And I'm planning more stuff for it. So please plug in now and keep your eye out.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. So, Michael.

Myke Hurley: Yes, Mr. Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I think it's a wrap, sir. You want to tell everyone where they can find the show and find us online?

Myke Hurley: If you want to find the show notes for this week's episode, go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 121. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm at iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. And my lovely co-host is Mr. Brad Dowdy. He's at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he writes over at penaddict.com. This show records live currently on Mondays at a time.

Brad Dowdy: 5.30 Eastern.

Myke Hurley: 5.30 Eastern. U.S. Naturally.

Myke Hurley: Which is some other time. Everywhere, I guess. Yeah. It's like 10.30 for you. Struggling. It's 9.30 GMT, 2.30 Pacific time.

Brad Dowdy: We have a calendar to help you out with that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But the calendar only displays Eastern time.

Brad Dowdy: That's the most important.

Myke Hurley: Because.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Anyway. We'll be back next week with another episode of the Penaddict Podcast. Until then, say goodbye Brad and Pat.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Brad and Pat. Bye Brad and Pat.

Myke Hurley: Bye Brad and Pat.

Brad Dowdy: Bye Brad and Pat. I'm sorry.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry.