The Pen Addict 532/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	532
Title:	Nice Cakes
Release Date:	September 28th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 532
Audio File:	Audio Episode 532
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 532
Length:	6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 532. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Trade Coffee. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad: Hey Myke, how's it going?

Myke: Pretty good. I'm excited about today's episode. There's some, I would say pretty classic. We've got a pretty classic episode coming up today. We're talking about some new sailor pens. We're talking about some paper being discontinued. And we're talking about planners. I mean, this is just like, this is what you're in for.

Brad: It's the good stuff. Because, like we always say, I don't really talk to Myke between the shows. So I'm always interested to get your opinions on the things I put in the notes. None more so than this week with some of our classic topics that we're going to tackle.

Myke: But before we do, this is the last time that we are going to be telling you and mentioning our St. Jude campaign for this year. So go to stjude.org slash relay and you can donate to support the life-saving mission of St. Jude. We are fundraising for just a couple more days. Our fundraising ends on September the 30th. On Friday, September 30th at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. You can join me and Stephen on stream on my stream at mike.live. We're going to be doing the kind of closing celebration of the campaign. We're going to be closing down our campaign and kind of talking about how much money we've raised. I will just note this in case you're wondering, the campaigns that people have also been running, so you can join up to fundraise yourself. They're not going to end for a couple more days afterwards. We're choosing to kind of end the RelayFM campaign at that point. We wanted to do that. We've not done that before. We never really get to kind of celebrate the final totals that we've raised. So we're going to be doing some of that on Friday. We're going to be playing some games. We're going to also be showing off the screensaver, which is available, the macOS screensaver, which is available. If you donate $60 or more at stju.org.relay, you get a wallpaper and screensaver pack. If $100 or more, you get that plus a pack of stickers, which includes versions of the stickers that me and Stephen have been affixing to our various desks and or cabinets in our offices. If you follow us on Twitter, you may have seen that. But as it stands right now, as a community, we have raised over $535,000 this year, which is truly unbelievable. We are so grateful. You know, obviously, it is a trickier time for many people around the world right now, like economically. And to bring in that amount of money is incredible. And obviously, what it has done is made us hit our big goal for the year, which was we have now passed in the last four years $2 million raised for the kids. And we do this because childhood cancer is a terrible thing. We don't want childhood cancer to exist in the world. So we support an institution that helps to cure children actively, but also develops cures and does a ton of research, which is shared around the world. So this stuff can be more preventable and also more curable. And that's over the last 60 years of St. Jude being around, they're celebrating the 60th year this year. They have seen just absolutely huge changes. So they have increased the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to 80% in those 60 years. So imagine where we can go in the next 60 years. So please go to stjude.org slash relay and let's cure childhood cancer together.

Brad: Well, congratulations to you and Stephen and the entire relay team. I know we're not done yet. We are not done yet. I'm going to talk about the St. Jude point in a minute. And it's hard to sit back and reflect while everything is just so busy right now, working for raising funds this month. And hopefully, y'all will get to take a minute to sit back and go, wow, we've raised $2 million. As a company, we've raised $2 million for a really amazing cause. And you should be, you know, have a second to sit back and reflect and just be super proud of what y'all have done. So good job.

Sailor Pens

Myke: I need to, I still need a few more days, I think, on that.

Brad: Yes. Yep. A few more days.

Myke: A little distance on it.

Brad: Yep. But one part, one piece of the puzzle that has wrapped is the raffle I help facilitate through the Pen Addict blog where we get a large amount of vendors and friends, friends of the show to donate goods to help us raise money for St. Jude's through the Pen Addict directly. This year, through that raffle, I've received $33,660 worth of donations for the raffle, which is just a mind-boggling number to me, having to see everyone come out, not just, you know, the vendors who supply the products, but for all the readers and listeners who support St. Jude's by donating to this raffle. The one thing I have not done yet, I just tallied, it ended Monday night, so I tallied everything yesterday to get the total and get everyone's raffle tickets ready to roll. So between, like, today and Friday, I will start pulling out winners and contacting winners for any respective prizes that you did come away with. But just thank everyone so much for all their donations. It was just, it's, it's a really good feeling to go into that inbox and see everyone just being so pumped about, you know, being able to participate in this. And just thank you everyone, you know, for donating, for just sharing the campaign, for really any, any bit of, for donating goods, for all the participation in this. It was really amazing. So the one thing I will do once I've completed contacting everybody who did win something, I'll put a post on the Panatic blog just saying, hey, I'm done. Like, we don't list names of winners out for each thing, but I just contact them directly. But I will say, hey, I'm done, you know, with the, with the tallies and contacting everyone just so you know that it actually is final.

Myke: You no longer need to be furiously refreshing your inbox, hoping for the W. Exactly.

Brad: Exactly. So look for that probably this weekend, maybe Monday at the latest, but we'll start contacting people here pretty soon and picking the winners. So thank you all for the participation. Thank you, Myke, for allowing me to do this as a, as a little fun little bit. And thank you to just everyone who participated. It's, it's amazing to see.

Myke: Yeah. I want to just echo that because this is the last time we'll talk about it. Yep. Thank you again for hearing these campaigns, you know, that we do each year. Thank you for your donations. And, you know, I'm sure that many of you donated more than you would have or multiple times and like so they could be entered into one of these raffles. All of the above according to my inbox. Yeah. Definitely. And that makes my heart warm. And thank you again to all of the vendors and producers who gave away their very valuable products and their own income to help support this as well. All right. Should we take a first break and get to some sailor pans? Yeah. I'm pretty excited.

Brad: I'm pretty excited to talk about this actually.

Myke: All right. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. You can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything, your products, services, even the content that you create. Okay. Squarespace have got you covered. And it really is an all-in-one platform. It's what I love about Squarespace. Once I have an idea, I can just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, of course, to sign up for a free trial of no credit card acquired. And I can set up a website on my own. I can build it really easily and then just get it out in the world. You know, they have these beautiful templates. They're so easy to get started with. You can customize it to fit your needs, but they have so many options. You just choose the type of website or business that you're making a website for from these categories that they have to give you a perfect starting place. But you can choose any of them because they are incredibly customizable with just a few clicks. That's all you need to know. You don't need to know any code. It's super easy. Then you can push it further. Let's say you want to put a store onto your site. Whether you sell physical or digital products, Squarespace has all of the tools that you need to start selling online. They have a bunch of services that they provide. They integrate with the things that you need them to integrate with. It really is fantastic. And then once you've done all this, you've got your site out to the world. You set up your store. You know, you're ready to go. You're off to the races. You can use insights to grow your business. Squarespace has a whole platform inside of their system to allow you to go in and see where your site visitors are coming from, where your sales are being generated from, which channels are most effective for you. All of this can be seen in Squarespace by you. And then when you have that data, you can make changes to your website and your product offerings. You can build a marketing strategy. You can really grow what you're doing. Squarespace is not just like, hey, here's the website. There's also a bunch of tools behind the scenes that can help you build what you're trying to make. It's really fantastic. So go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required. Then use the offer code penaddict when you're ready to launch, and you will save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. Then when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace.com.

Brad: Sailor's on a heater again, Myke. Yeah, boy. Tends to happen multiple times a year, which is one of the reasons, like, honestly, you know, I've been burnt out from Sailor because it's a lot. It's a lot to keep up with. It's a lot of money, you know, between price increases and just like continued volume of Sailor products. It's like, wow, can we take a breath for a second? But then all of a sudden, they drop some new stuff. And I don't just mean new colors of traditional products, which we're going to get where they did that as well. But we're going to talk about a new, really kind of a completely new setup or idea by Sailor, even though in the end result kind of looks the same. But what they did, and they're calling it the Valeo fountain pen because of the swirls going through the material looking like, you know, a veil. You would. Okay. So, yeah, that's a thing. So, basically, it's an acrylic swirl. But they have taken rods of material, acrylic rods, like we're used to out of our custom makers, say, our good friend Jonathan Brooks at Carolina Penco, and manufactured some of their pens from acrylic rods. Now, traditionally, Sailor barrels, I believe, are just almost like a machined extrusion type of construction, I believe. I would have to look at it. You know, they're not, the barrels aren't drilled out, right? Like our custom barrels.

Myke: If we could take a slight aside. I don't know if you know this. I would be interested if someone who does this could tell us the answer. Is there a lot of waste? Like what happens to the inside once you've like bore it out?

Brad: Yeah, yeah. Is it just waste? It's just waste, yeah. Okay. So, you will see that in a lot of machine pen manufacturers. You will see just the, what do they call that? There's a name for it, like all the little shavings that come off of there. There's a name for it. I can't think of it. But, yeah, Sailor has pictures of these rods that they had made. A white, a clear with a white swirl. And then like a deep blue-green with a lighter blue-green swirl.

Myke: Still clear though. The blue-green.

Brad: Generally translucent overall. Yeah. And then the swirls are in one case white. So, they're two different pens. Pearl white. And then the other one is called blue-green. What do you think about these pens just from an aesthetic?

Myke: Your boy's in love.

Brad: Are you kidding me? It's legitimately good. Are you kidding me?

Pen Raffle Conclusion

Myke: Are you kidding me? Yeah. Oh. I have not felt like, you know, I don't know if, I haven't really spoke about this. I just haven't really bought pens in a long time. I just haven't really bought anything in a long time. And I think one of the big things for me is not going to pen shows. Right. You know, like that as, you know, I was doing most of my buying at pen shows now. Sorry, it had been like prior to the pandemic. And I haven't really bought many pens during the pandemic at all. Because, you know, like a lot of this stuff now, I'm in a point where I know what I like. So, to bring something new in, I kind of want to be able to see it and hold it and feel it. Right. I have not been so eager to own a pen in a long time as I am with these. They're unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Brad: It took me by surprise, especially once I started reading more about it. I was like, oh, look at these Sailors. They're fantastic looking. Like, I really like how they executed the two different colors. While they're the similar idea, they're two vastly different pens in design. Then I was taken aback by how they were manufactured and how that's such a different thing for Sailor. So, then my next question was, wow, what is the price of these? Certainly. Certainly these are like an ultra premium. They're not. So, these are the Pro Gear standard size. So, the Pro Gears with the 21 karat gold nibs in them. Right. So, the bigger of the two Pro Gears. And they're about $400. Okay. Which is the going rate for all the limited edition Pro Gear standards. Right. That's in line. And I'm a little, I'm shocked, I guess. I don't know. Like, it's, they did a really good job with these. And I appreciate the fact that they're doing something a little bit different. Even though, you know, maybe a lot of us have had, you know, more machined, you know, barrel pens before. And I don't recall Sailor having done this before. They might have done it before.

Myke: I'm intrigued to see how it feels to have a pen made in this way by a company like Sailor. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, with whatever is they have at hand for how these things are produced. Right. Whatever they've done on machines or handmade, I don't know. But I'm just really, I'm really intrigued. I love that they give you color matched converters. That's a nice touch.

Brad: That is a nice touch. So, which is your favorite out of the two? If you could only pick one, which would you pick?

Myke: Oh, I don't know.

Brad: That's how good they are. Yeah. Honestly. I kind of want both of them. Like, everyone's thinking that Brad would prefer the blue-green, and you're not wrong. I think I would go white. But the white one, the way it's executed, tells the story of this pen kind of perfectly. Right? I think that's the idea of the pen.

Myke: I'll say as well, for me, I don't own, I own more pens that look like the blue-green. Exactly. Than I do the pearl white, and I love the gold. Now, what do you think about that? Because you don't like gold.

Brad: No, I like gold. I just don't like gold and black. Right? I have plenty of gold trim. I have plenty of gold trim pens. Like, I just bought a gold and pink pen. Right? Like, it's fantastic.

Myke: No, I think the gold on this is perfect. How do I get one? Yeah. I have no idea.

Brad: What's the deal? They're limited-ish, but I think it's like, I'm going to get in trouble for this, because I really don't know. I thought when I originally read it, it was a worldwide release. Like, a very limited, but, you know, somewhat accessible to retail release. But now I'm not finding that information. It just says- The press release says- It just says nationwide, which means Japan. Yeah. So, it might be Japan only.

Myke: And these orders started a week ago, September 22nd.

Brad: So, it looks like it is probably Japan only. Come on. Come on. Yep. Yep. So, if they say nationwide with limited order production, like, I mean, this has got, this has, I would be shocked if it was worldwide, given the material restrictions. You know, as far as, like, how Sailor typically manufactures pens, this is a different thing. I can't imagine it's the volume that they do a lot of the other stuff. So.

Myke: Well, I hope that they can, that it's a success and they're able to make more of them.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, continue down this path. I'm mostly surprised at the price. Like, if this is really what I think it is, and it seems to be, like, that just, it just has to cost more. Because it's a different machining setup. Right? It's not necessarily handmade. Machines can still make them, but it's a different machining setup than their traditional barrels. So, it has to have an added cost, and they're really not passing that on to the consumer, which I'm very happy for. So, yeah. There you go. Looks great. Looks fantastic. So, that's the more interesting of the two releases. Well, technically, three releases we got. But the next one, Myke, is a more traditional, what we would expect from Sailor release, but it caught me completely off guard. This is the Sailor Tea Time Christmas Tea Series. So, we had the coffee series earlier in 2022. I think back at the beginning of the year, they did a series on, like, drinks of the world, like coffee and tea. So, they had an addition in the beginning of the year. And now, this one's coming out in time for the holiday season. There's two series in this. So, they're taking the Christmas Spice Tea Drink. Is that a thing in England? Yeah. I might have to lean on you on this. This seems to be a very British setup here. Christmas Spice and Christmas Pudding. Yes or no?

Myke: No. No.

Brad: No, not a thing.

Christmas Tea Series

Myke: No. Okay. I have no doubt there are people that drink these kinds of teas, right? Like, herbal teas, fruit teas, interesting, you know, like mint tea, whatever, right?

Brad: Here, let me answer my own question here and cut you off. Tea enjoyed during Christmas in England and other European countries. So, that's in the press release. I don't know.

Myke: I don't know how to say that. I'm going to say. As winter approaches, blended tea is released from each tea maker. And many of them are mixed with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Myke: Look, this is one of those things, right? Do people do this? I have no doubt, right? I have no doubt people are doing this. Have I experienced in my life a Christmas tea? No. I have never experienced a Christmas tea in my life. Like, if they would have called it, like, kind of mulled wine or something, that, you know, that would be like, oh, yeah, people do that. I've never come across Christmas tea.

Brad: All right. Well, let's stick with the Christmas tea and let everyone know it is awesomely orange. I did not expect this. I didn't know what to expect because I wasn't actually looking for this to exist. But Christmas Spice is a translucent orange barrel pen. And it does have an alternate color finial, like a deeper orangish brown.

Myke: A quick Google, by the way, does tell me that Christmas teas exist. Like, and I have no doubt about that, right? That, like, tea makers make Christmas teas. But it's kind of like, it's like how, this is actually kind of a good analogous for me of, like, sailor maker Christmas tea pen, right? Right. It's the same as tea makers making a Christmas tea. Of, like, well, we need something to do. Right? We can't just release our one black tea or black pen forever. So, here's a Christmas tea. You know what I mean? And, like, they're kind of like, this is the same to me of, like, well, hey, we've got to have a new pen. What do you want to do? Christmas tea? All right. We'll do Christmas tea.

Brad: So, it's not as ubiquitous as something like the pumpkin spice season that we're currently in. No, exactly.

Myke: If this was called pumpkin spice, I'd be like, all right, I get it.

Brad: Right, right, right.

Myke: It's also like, one of them is Christmas pudding tea? That doesn't make any sense. Why not just make a Christmas pudding?

Brad: I think it is Christmas pudding. Okay. That could be. Because that's the thing, right?

Myke: That's the thing, for sure.

Brad: This is Sailor's problem with this naming convention. The series is the tea series, okay? The overarching theme of this set is Christmas tea, and then the pudding also falls, and the Christmas spice also falls under the... They've dug themselves a hole here, as far as the naming. They've dug themselves a big hole.

Myke: Because by calling it tea would seem to suggest that, like, Christmas pudding is a tea-based cake, like a cake that you have with tea, which it is not, like, it is not that. Like, you have it at the end of a Christmas dinner. You know, like, it's not like how we have afternoon tea or whatever, right? Right. You don't have Christmas pudding as far as an afternoon tea. Because I'll tell you, Christmas pudding sucks. Everyone that tells you they like it, they're lying. They're lying to themselves. It's horrible.

Brad: Yeah, it looks like the fruitcake version of the Christmas dessert here in the U.S. and other parts of the world, where the firmer fruitcake is made into a mushier pudding style. It's like, that's a full pass.

Myke: And I believe every single person that tells me they like Christmas pudding, they do one of two things to it. They cover it in icing, or they cover it in brandy. And I will tell you now, what you're enjoying is either the icing or the brandy. It's not the Christmas pudding.

Brad: You have to get drunk before you participate. Oh, definitely. I mean, that's why it's at the end of Christmas dinner. Yeah, exactly.

Myke: Everyone's, they've had to be filled at that point.

Brad: So, they did the naming convention thing in the first go round, because I ended up liking the brown ink very much. But it was called Sailor Tea Time Fika Coffee. Which is also hilarious. I was like, why is it coffee in the tea time? It's like, they're like, well, you have coffee at tea time. I'm like, you are really not helping your cause here whatsoever. Why would you start your tea series with coffee?

Myke: Why would you do that?

Myke: Look, I'm from England. Tea, right? It means... Like, yes. Like, tea is like lunch, right? Right. So, you have like breakfast, lunch, supper, dinner, tea. Like, these are just, it's just a reference for a time.

Myke: Fine. I get that. I still wouldn't start with coffee. You know? Hey, how are you going to do? Sometimes you get yourself into these things.

Salem Ballpoint Pens

Brad: These pens are interesting. I guess some interesting choices in size and style of pen. So, the Christmas Spice, the orange translucent one, comes in king of pen. Like, the big, the big old pen. It comes in the Pro Gear Standard, which is the same as what we just spoke about, about the Valio, the 21 carat Pro Gear. And then Ballpoint, right? Those are your three choices for Christmas Spice.

Myke: I feel like I didn't even know that Salem made Ballpoint pens.

Brad: I've known, and they've done Pro Gear Ballpoints for a long time. I'm kind of fascinated by this Ballpoint. I'm not going to lie, Myke. Who buys it?

Myke: Who buys this?

Brad: I don't know. I'm going to buy it if it's like not stupidly priced.

Myke: How does the cap go on the pen?

Brad: There's no threading. I think it's a push. I think it's like a push cap.

Myke: What I'll say, like, if you've never seen one of these, or if you can't see the images, you should go look at the images. They're in the show notes. But if you've seen a Pro Gear before, imagine they've changed nothing about the design. But instead of a nib, there's a Ballpoint at the end.

Brad: It's very strange. But I'm assuming that it's just like a push click, right? Or it could be a twist, but it might be a push. So I haven't read the specs that much. There's no threading on the pen. No, no, no, no. It's just a retractable, right? It's not a capped Ballpoint.

Myke: Oh my God, it's retractable? Yeah. Oh my God. I think, right? Yeah, now I've opened up the image. I can see a spring in the back. I assumed you took the cap off and put it on the pen. No, no, no, no, no. That's even weirder.

Brad: Yeah, that's what I was signed up for. That's the level of weirdness I was signed up for. You've got to get one of these. I think I do. I need to know. I need to know what it's all about. As long as it's not like $200. If it's like $100 and something, I might think about it.

Myke: It's going to be $200.

Brad: We'll see. So it's pretty, right? It's super unique and it's very strange. So we went and looked at the standard Pro Gear ballpoints and they're like $120, which is like ridiculous. But I don't own one. And I think I would get one if it was like a little bit more than that, which, you know, if these prices should be about the same.

Myke: What refill did I use?

Brad: It's Parker-ish looking, but it's got a really long front end, like just looking through.

Myke: That doesn't look right to me.

Brad: Looking through the translucency. That image doesn't look right. Yeah. It's a very long.

Myke: That would make the actual ballpoint end like an inch. Like an inch long. That doesn't seem right.

Brad: That's about right. I don't know about that one. We'll see. And I haven't gone and looked at the other refills to like see the compatibility chart for refills, but it does look a little bit interesting.

Myke: But is it a Sailor refill?

Brad: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Huh. I'm sure. I don't know if they make it. They probably make their own. I mean, they have standard ballpoint pens and gel pens. Sure. So they probably make this. I mean, if anyone's making their own internals, it's Sailor. They're about the biggest pen company out there right now as far as the ability for machinery to make things for them. So that's the Christmas spice. The Christmas pudding is a dark brown, sparkly green cap, gold trim, and then like a lighter. Do or don't? What'd you say? Do not. Do not. Do not. I don't dislike it. I don't dislike it. No, I don't like it. It's, but Sailor has also voted with you by only having this in Progear Slim is your only fountain pen choice and ballpoint. So Sailor has voted with their manufacturing saying this is not going to be as popular. Therefore, you only get the small fountain pen. And I guess we'll do a ballpoint too, which I don't know why, but whatever.

Myke: Yeah, I'm really not into it. It's like light brown grip, dark brown body, green translucent cap with like sparkles in it, and gold furniture.

Brad: Red finial.

Myke: Red finial. Red finial. Why not? Let's go for it. I'm not into this. I don't like like two browns. It's like, I'm not sure. I don't know, man. I don't know about that.

Brad: This is very Christmassy, right? Like it is, like it would be weird. I don't dislike it whatsoever.

Myke: The green and red, definitely. Very Christmas. The browns.

Brad: And the sparkle. The sparkle. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. So, good job overall, despite the weirdness. Like this whole series has just turned out to be weird in the best way possible. Like in a very happy, weird kind of way. I was like, whose idea was it to make a Christmas pudding pen, right? Who was in that meeting? But I kind of dig it. Like I like the orange better, but we'll see. Good job by Sailor. And the funniest thing, Myke, is this was all released like in the span of like a day. Like one day we got like the Christmas tea stuff and like the next day here's all this Valio stuff. And that's what Sailor seems to do from time to time is just unloads all these like really, really nice products at the same time. And they're just nonstop. They are something to behold. And I'm interested how the new ownership group is doing and the overall picture, health picture of Sailor. Because honestly, it doesn't seem like they have not missed a beat. And in fact, like the pedal may be fully down. Like they just seem to be going for it. Yeah. So, interesting times. Interesting times. So, we'll see. They'll probably have plenty more, plenty more pens to launch between now and the end of the year. I'll tell you what. I'm going to put this Christmas pudding ballpoint on the gift guide this year, Myke. I'm feeling it just to make you mad.

Myke: I mean, you can put it there.

Brad: No one's going to buy it though. Well, maybe it'll be a good deal by then. It'll be on sale. It'll be on sale. All right. You ready to move on from our Sailor? Yeah. Our Sailor news and updates. Yeah. I have a couple of... Well, I have a product I want to discuss and then a little bit of news for us to discuss. First up, I did a review of the Maker's Cabinet Feral. Mm-hmm. Which, if people are not familiar with Maker's Cabinet, they first came under my eye on a Kickstarter project called the Hovel, which we talked about back in the day. It was basically a manual blade pencil sharpener for you to just kind of like knife shave a tip onto a pencil, but in a little custom built device, like a little slider that you kind of slide over the tip of the pencil to sharpen it and just shaves it off. And you just kind of work it around that way. It's a very, very manually operated type of sharpener.

Myke: One of those, like, nice object type products.

Brad: Exactly. So Maker's Cabinet is, as a whole, a nice objects type of company. Hey, let's make a fancy ruler. Hey, let's make a fancy... I don't know. Whatever. The one that got real popular was this really, like, this ring. Iris. The iris. Yeah. So it changed. It's... I don't understand that... Why that thing exists, but it was very popular.

Myke: Do you not want to draw a perfect circle, Brad? What's your problem?

Brad: I guess, but I don't need to draw that many perfect circles to where it has to change, like, all the time.

Myke: So...

Maker's Cabinet Products

Brad: I mean, that's what it's for, right?

Myke: But people... This is one of those things that, like, be a nice desk toy, you know? You can, like, spin it around.

Brad: So, of course, that one, like, blew up on Kickstarter, right? So they're a very Kickstarter-focused brand, which is great. So one of the more recent ones is this pencil extender called the Feral.

Myke: Brad, I'm just kidding. I'm going to call foul here, all right? So I've gone to the page, Maker's Cabinet's website. As seen in Fortnum... Give me the odd one out. As seen in Fortnum & Mason, Vanity Fair, GQ, The Erasable Podcast.

Brad: I'd already seen that. I died when I saw that.

Myke: Odd one. Give me the odd one out.

Brad: We love The Erasable Podcast. I'm going to go with Fortnum & Mason, because I don't even know what that is.

Myke: That is one of the greatest department stores in England. It's by appointment to... Like Harrods level? Like Harrods type stuff? Better. Okay. I love Fortnum & Mason. If you're ever coming to London, and you want to do an expensive but nice tea, right? Like, if you want to do the, like, actual tea that we do... Do they have Christmas spice tea? You know what, Brad? When I was looking for Christmas spice tea earlier, I went to Fortnum & Mason's website, and they had some. So you can get it. They make my favorite tea, which is called Lady Grey tea, which is like a twist on the Earl Grey. Very good. But they do, I think, the best kind of, like, traditional-ish, like, afternoon tea. Because it's not too stuffy. Like, if you have it at Fortnum & Mason, it's beautiful in there. Everything's, like, nice and blue and silver. And I've, over the years, you know, like, I've taken family members to different things. Like, we've done afternoon tea at the Ritz and afternoon tea at Fortnum. Fortnum is the best one, I think.

Brad: Gotcha. So it's nice, but it's not overly pretentious to where everyone's uncomfortable.

Myke: It still has modern-ish stuff. They do fun things, nice cakes. It's not like... I like it a lot.

Brad: I'm getting hungry from this episode.

Brad: It's very good. So, back to the Feral. It's just... This is a strange product that I was shown. And then it kind of broke my brain on why this exists, how it works. And I had a friend reach out that bought two of these because they liked it so much. And said, hey, let me loan you one. And you can play around with it and review it if you want. And I had been using it for a while. And it's been on my desk for a while. It's a great desk accessory. But I was trying to sort out who would use this and why would you use it? And would you enjoy using it? And I just think the use case, which is kind of... It's completely fair for me to say because that's maker's cabinet whole deal. It's a very small use case, right? But each of these products that they make is that very small use case. Outside of the ruler. I think more people can use a ruler than most anything. But these are just a tiny, tiny use case. And it's a very high-end product. This is a $96 pencil extender. It just doesn't work for me for what I want to use this as. But I think someone will enjoy this. And obviously, people do enjoy it. But it's technically good and functionally great. And the design is beautiful, right? And it's a great object to have on your desk.

Myke: They're really... Everything they make is just so good to look at.

Brad: I just don't want to pick it up and use it, right? Like, I got 500 other things I would rather use instead of this. But it's good at what it is. But it's like... I don't see the use for it.

Myke: It looks awkward to me.

Brad: That's the biggest... I probably should have used that term in the review. Because it is such a wide grip area. And it's such a heavy product. But it changes everything about using a pencil.

Myke: It looks like it's very dictatorial about where your grip will be. And that looks way too high up the pencil to me.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. So, like, every grip you see, like, even in their product photography, is, like, way back. Right? It's like a sketch. It's like a sketch pencil. And it's like, well, I don't know that I need this for just sketching, right? Like, I would write to use it for different situations. And it just doesn't work for those situations that aren't sketching.

Myke: So... You get a little work out every time you use it. You do.

Brad: You do. It's really nice, though. Like, I get it. I get it. I'm glad I got it loaned to me. And I will be sending it back. Like, I don't need one of these in my life. But it's also kind of cool. It's like, this would be one of those things nice to have, but would just collect dust on my desk.

Myke: So, it's cool. Like the Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad: Like, that was perfect. Like, not just, you know, because of the name. That worked out how I intended. Like, I can't not try this. It was very expensive. Yeah. And it didn't work for me. Actually, I don't think it works, period. But that's a little bit different story. And I sold it. Like, that's... I had to find that out for myself, though. Right? Like, I really wanted that product badly to test out and try. And guess what? It didn't work. And I had it. I sold it. So, I was okay with that. A little bit of news this week. And this is a great read, as Daryl at Misubi always does these wonderful updates and newsletters. Cosmo Air Light is being discontinued. Cosmo Air Light, if you're not familiar, is a very ink-friendly, fountain pen-friendly paper that a lot of people really love because it shows off ink properties very well.

Brad: It's also a little bit divisive for fountain pen users. Maybe I'm just speaking from my own experience. I do not like Cosmo Air Light, but I understand that it's very nib and ink-dependent. And I don't use the types of nibs that perform the best on Cosmo Air Light. Like, for me, it's not great with extra fine nibs, right? Things like that. But people swear by it, right? Because it's bright white and it shows off ink beautifully. Like, for an ink testing paper, it's really, really nice. So, it became popular in the last couple of years as Tomoe River was winding down. It became, hey, what are my Tomoe River paper options? And Cosmo Air Light was one. And I think it's valid. I think it's a really great paper for those who like it. But it's one of those papers that I'd want to test out before I invested a lot of time and money in. Well, you may not get the chance because it's going away. And that's not necessarily the story. The story, and Daryl lays it out better than I could, but it's something I talk about quite frequently. So, the manufacturer is basically shutting down this machine because it's just not worth it for them to make this paper anymore. It's not cost effective. And I'm going to read this one little paragraph, which is something that I try to keep in mind a lot, even though I may not say it's this specific all the time. So, Daryl says, it related to the shutting down of the machinery that's being used. It's also a reminder that the sale of quality paper for handwriting forms, but a very small part of the overall industry for paper. We don't generate enough demand to really move the needle in significant ways. So, most of us in fine stationery are takers subject to the overall whims of the market. When the market forces shift, unfortunately, so do we. So, I always talk about how we're just the teeny part. Like, we're using these papers that were not designed for us in the first place, right? We have found these papers to be great, except the big manufacturers, the ones with the factories and the machines, are actually making these papers for commercial use, right? It just so happens they may be good papers for us to use for our handwriting and for stationery products. Well, that doesn't move the needle for the factory necessarily, right? They need the big consumers, the big buyers to come in and make books and magazines and corporate, you know, work and all of that stuff. Like, the stationery usage is just a blip on the radar for a lot of these non-traditional stationery companies, which is what's in place here. So, it's interesting. It stinks for fans of Cosmo Air Light. And, you know, it's like Daryl alludes to, like, this is not unique and it's going to happen again. We don't know when or where, but, you know, it's nice to have options and hopefully you'll find something that replaces that if you were a big, big fan of that. You can also still buy it, right? There's still plenty of Cosmo Air Light available. But once it's gone, it's going to be gone. And it's an interesting article that Daryl wrote or a newsletter that he sent out that's available on the website in just, like, the business perspective. That's what I always enjoy Daryl sharing because we see things the same way a lot. And it's good to remember how small of a role us stationery fans play in the bigger scheme of non-stationery companies. Like, it's just a little blip on the radar. So, this is very interesting.

Brad: Yeah. Go ahead.

Myke: It's just for fun. That's very scary.

Brad: Yeah. Well, as someone who makes paper products, like, you know. Well, I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast. I mentioned it on stream, so I can't remember where I said it before. I have tried to continue Knox index cards, the note cards that we make. And the papers, they don't make the paper anymore. So, what do I do, right? Do I reinvent it or do we just follow it away as, hey, that was great while it lasted. And I don't have an answer yet. So, I would like to find a way to continue to do them. But guess what? They don't make that paper anymore. And I've tried. I've tried. So, we talk about business and a lot more on Conduit, Myke. I was a guest with Kathy and Jay on last week's Conduit episode. We talk about life, productivity, and reality, Myke. We had a really great show. I got to sit in with Jay while we had Kathy on the other end of the internet. And the three of us just chatted about stuff. And it was really, really fun. And it's one of those episodes that was, you know, over an hour long. But it seems like it took us about five minutes. So, I wanted to put a link in the show. And I would give a shout out to Kathy and Jay. Thank them for having me. If y'all want to listen to me talk more about business and life and how I do things and why I do things. And some of the impetus for the decisions I make. We talk about that on Conduit. And it was really, really fun. I suggest y'all listen to Conduit anyway. Because it's just a great conversation. Has great perspective. Has a really great community behind them. And they do a great job. So, by the way, they're my friends.

Myke: So, you should go listen to them. The Discord, the members Discord is very behind Conduit, which is awesome. Yes. And it's a really nice thing to see. It was like, for us, I think the first show we launched post-Discord. Mm-hmm. And it's been very interesting to see the community grow around that show via our members Discord. So, that's not the only way to consume a show, of course. But it is just like one of the really interesting things. Like, people that love Conduit, love Conduit. And you should go check it out. Yes. And this is a good, like, I like this kind of stuff. It's like a good way to get in, right? You haven't listened to the show before. You're not sure what to expect. Well, you know Brad. So, you know.

Brad: Yeah. And they kind of did all of their normal stuff, like, during this episode. So, you get kind of a taste of what the show is all about. And then we had a little chat with me. So, it was really, really fun.

Myke: All right. This episode is brought to you in part by our friends over at Trade Coffee. Every day is precious. We should all make the most of all of it, for every single one of them. This does not mean starting your day with mediocre grocery store coffee. You deserve to start your day with the best coffee you can make at home from Trade Coffee. Trade Coffee is a coffee subscription service. It's unlike anything you've tried before. They partner with top independent roasters to freshly roast and send the best coffees in the U.S. directly to your home on your preferred schedule. And one of the things that I love is that they work with roasters all over the U.S. So, you get to try things from different places, which I think is fantastic. Your trade experience can be as simple or sophisticated as you want. If you know what you're already looking for, you can just go in and you can select from curated collections by roast, flavor profile, brewing method, and more. Their team of experts will do all the work. They taste test hundreds of coffees from across the U.S. every month to curate over 450 exceptional coffees to make the cut. Or if you want something curated just for you, take a minute and complete Trade's Coffee Questionnaire. You'll be expertly matched with your perfect coffee and a fresh bag of beans will be on its way. Or if you think to yourself, you know what? I just want to have what Myke likes. Well, I can help you because I've worked with Trade and we've created a custom coffee collection based on the coffees that I have enjoyed from Trade. So, the kind of taste and notes that I like, the roasteries that I've said that I enjoy from the stuff that I've been buying, they've been able to use their awesome technology that they have to generate these kind of profiles around you and make these suggestions. They've taken that from the coffee that I've enjoyed from Trade and have created a collection. So, it's really great stuff. And one of the things I love about Trade from lots of different roasters, different backgrounds, that kind of stuff. So, if you're like me and you want your coffee to taste just right every day, go check out my collection at Trade. But if what I got isn't up your alley, don't worry. Trade will have whatever it is you're looking for. You can shop their most popular coffees by roast or flavor profile, take their coffee quiz, and get expertly matched with coffees you'll love if you would prefer that. Trade is the easiest way to get your very best tasting coffee delivered fresh just when you need it. And there's nothing to lose because Trade guarantees you'll love your first bag. Because if you don't, they're going to work with you to replace it for free. So, if you want to support small businesses and brew the best cup of coffee you've ever made at home, it is time to try Trade Coffee. Right now, Trade is offering our listeners a total of $30 off your first order plus free shipping at drinktrade.com slash penaddict. That's drinktrade.com slash penaddict for $30 off your subscription to the best coffees in the country. Our thanks to Trade Coffee for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad: I opened up a new bag this morning, Myke, from Sightglass. Sightglass out of L.A. Classic.

Myke: Classic. Nice.

Brad: Yeah, it was good. The blend is called Blue Boon, not Blue Moon, but it's tasting notes of milk chocolate, mandarin, and honeysuckle. And it's been fantastic. Get in. That sounds amazing. Enjoying it. Enjoying it. Sounds amazing. All right, Myke.

Planner Discussions

Brad: Short topic for today, but maybe bigger overall as we move into 2023. We haven't had a full planner discussion here, but I've already made a decision for what I'm going to do for 2023 because August and September is planner season in the stationary community. It's decision time. Yeah, it's decision time. It's like, what are you going to do for the next year? So I thought about it.

Myke: Or if you're in the kind of planner journal business like me, you're making orders. We just made our holiday order. Got to get them in.

Brad: Got to get them ready. Get them in, baby. Beginning of the year. Everyone wants to start something fresh. Or continue on what they're using in the previous year. So in 2022, I've used the A5 Hobonichi Cousin, which has been fantastic. And I'm leaving it for 2023. Right? That makes sense.

Myke: It's Brad Dowdy. Why would he say one thing?

Brad: So yeah, why would we do that? Like I am spoiled for choice. Right? Which like I don't overlook that fact. I am spoiled for choice and have access to all these different things. And the Hobonichi Cousin has been great. I really don't have a negative thing to say about it. Sometimes it's a little hard to fill every day. But you know, that's not that big of a deal. And I did a pretty good job with that and still have done a pretty good job with it. I've tapered off probably since the summer. I've tapered off my just absolutely 100% usage into something much less. So I was thinking about why and how I'm using these things. And not to mention the access to other things that have come into my view. And that is specifically related to the plotter narrow size that I bought in San Francisco. Which is what was my intent going into this San Francisco pin show was I like my plotter. I don't like the A5 size as much. I don't find a lot of great usage for that. So can I find a smaller one that works for me? So I went into San Francisco show targeting the narrow. I ended up buying it. Narrow is the shape and size of it. It's kind of a little bit smaller if people are familiar with the Traveler's Notebook. It's kind of like the rectangular but not like a full like A5 size. It's a very, very tall and narrow notebook. Like a Hobonichi Weeks. So a little bit bigger than that. So I've been using that since San Francisco with just to-do list pages and notebook pages. And just kind of getting used to the format, the style, the layout, me carrying it around, how I use it, things like that. And I was like, okay, I really like this. Could I switch into their weekly planner pages?

Myke: Seems small for this notebook. For a planner.

Brad: Yeah. So what this is is similar to the layout I had in the William Hanna planner where you have a week on one side of a page, right? And it's just like seven days like horizontally like lined out Monday through Sunday. And just short notes on there. I'm wondering if it's going to be too small like you're saying. But since I'm carrying this notebook.

Myke: It looks like their refill makes it a double page. Mm-hmm. Right? Right. Right. So you have the dates on one side, but then on the other side, it's like the same seven boxes as such. So you could go all the way across if you wanted to.

Brad: Yes. So it's like a continuation across the page. Or you could just use it generally, you know, for that week's additional notes, right? Yeah.

Myke: It doesn't necessarily have to match to the day. Understand their layout. Like why are there – it's got like time numbers across the bottom of each line. But there's no way you could fit – like I don't know. Yeah. I want to – I don't understand. I don't get this. It seems too small to do what? Yeah. It's going to be an experiment. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's like you've got like 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, right? It goes along the bottom of each day, right? So I guess the idea being what do you want to do at each time? But it's laid out horizontally on a small – like I don't know what you would do with that.

Brad: It's a – the way they envision you using it is not how I'm going to use it. They envision you have a horizontal day and then a vertical time breakdown, right? How would you – Is how their theory of usage is. But that's not how I'm going to use it. Oh, I kind of see the image that they've created. It's almost like – think of it like a chronodex where it's like time block. Yeah. Except it's like – It's horizontally.

Myke: Not me.

Brad: Well, so I won't use the time slots like that at all, right? So I'm just going to use the day block.

Myke: Sure, sure. Again, this is one of those things where you probably have to go look at the show notes. Yeah.

Brad: You definitely need to go look at it to understand what Myke's and I am trying to lay out. But I will just use the day and not the times, right? The times are not – do not factor into how I plan on using this.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: All right. So – but yeah. Then that's going to go into my Plotter Narrow. And then I've got the monthly calendar sheets as well. So I'll have a month on a spread, like a two-page spread. A section? Yeah. But that'll be a small section. Okay.

Myke: Yep. Let me look at this monthly one too while I'm here.

Brad: So it's more of a general, you know, calendar layout. Also small, right? This is a small thing, but that's a more traditional looking, you know, what you would expect. Yeah.

Myke: This is more what I would expect exactly this thing to look like, right? It's a double-page spread. Every day is accounted for, basically. Right. It's interesting to me that it spans the whole way left or right. Like it goes – Yes. One, two, three, four, five, six, rather than like – Yeah. That's how I would expect it though. I don't know what I think about it. They hate set edits on Sundays. It goes half box. Brad, I'm going to tell you right now. I'm interested to see – hear more about this. I don't think you're going to stick with this.

Brad: Okay. We'll see. It could be too small. Like there is a very valid reason it could be too small.

Myke: I think you're going to get annoyed at you not being able to fit everything in.

Brad: To try to learn about this, what I have done is I've already gone ahead and bought the 2022 weekly. They still had some in stock. So I'm going to use it for the rest of the year. I haven't unwrapped it yet, but I must put it together today. Okay. So that will give me time to see, ooh, do I really like this or is this not going to work? And it was only like a $15 experiment, right? So I'll be able to test that out. And if I have to punt, I will have plenty of time to get something good for 2023 in a bigger format. So we'll see.

Myke: Yeah, I want to hear about it, right? Yeah. I'll be fascinated because I will say like, you know, I have my eye on Plotter too, right? And I love the way the narrow looks. Yeah. And I like the idea of this like small notebook that I could, you know, because they have all these fun, it's because of why people like them, right? All these fun accessories, all these fun refills, like you can really make it your own, which I just think is like kind of a fascinating product idea. Right. So here's what I'll ask you then. So you had the Hobonichi Cousin, right? Which is A5. Were you finding that your book was empty a lot of the time?

Brad: Like that you weren't filling the days? No, not up until like August or so. Like, no, I was pretty good. Like maybe not on the weekends, but still even some weekends I would put it, I would fill them up. Like, yeah, I was pretty consistent all the way up through like July. Then August, I kind of mostly stopped. But the one thing I'm trying to think about is like the daily tasks that I have are pretty much all digital, right? Like everything, I'm using reminders now. I converted over from Todoist to Reminders. Oh. Because of the type of tasks that I need in there. I don't like necessarily run like project type stuff through there. It's just all the repetitive stuff that I do each week I need to track and make sure I don't forget stuff. And that's worked out really, really well. So I ended up needing less of like, hey, let me see Monday on a sheet of paper. And was using that more as a, hey, let me recap Monday in my cousin. Which was cool. Like I, that was, that was cool. I enjoyed doing that. And I also use the extra space to play around with things and, you know, just, you know, make notes and do other stuff. But I'm supplementing the plotter narrow planner piece, the, the, the weekly schedule or weekly calendar with a Hobonichi five-year planner or five-year journal. I should say. That is to capture just more of the, hey, how was the day? What were your thoughts? Or what do you want to remember about this day? Or really anything that I want to use. That I was using. Yeah. And I wanted to go ahead. I'd been thinking about that most of this year. We've been talking about it a lot on stream. I've been thinking about going into that. And I thought, well, one, I wasn't going to start that until January where you can start a lot of projects. I'm always like pro just, hey, just start. That one I did want to start at the beginning of the year to get the full version or the full usage of the product. I also wanted to go ahead and buy that one because it still has the Tomoe River paper in there. Yeah. Which I'm sure is going to change soon. So I'll now have five years of that book. And it's like, and I bought the small size. It's an A6 size. So it's a very small, it's like five lines, five like little grid lines, like four or five millimeter lines each day just to fill out. And I've seen a lot of these and read a bunch of reviews and looked how people were using them. So I think I have some ideas on how I'm going to use that for myself. And that will be kind of in conjunction. Okay. Now I have a smaller place for like my daily weekly planner, right? Smaller data set, if you will, right? In this plotter setup. And then I'll have the more written recap stuff that I was doing in my cousin. I'll have that in the five year. And that'll be kind of the setup. And it sounds more complex now that there's two books essentially involved. But it's actually going to simplify some of the things that I was doing before, even though I'm splitting the tasks into two different things, two different areas. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. If anything, the plotter setup could fail. The five year is not going to. Five year is just going to be nice. That's very straightforward, right? Yeah. Hey, it's Tuesday. Write the thing. Yeah.

Myke: And also like it's a big, like it's like a commitment of a thing. And it's a nice object. And, you know, there's something sweet about it. That's a good way to put it. You'll get five years of being able to use some tomorrow.

Brad: Oh, man, the jokes instantly came when I said I was using this. That, okay, you know, give it six months. Brad will have a four and a half year daily journal to sell to somebody.

Brad: I thought was kind of funny. I was like, okay, I see you. I see you. You're not wrong. But let's give it a go, right? It's actually not that intimidating.

Myke: I like this, the five year journal thing. I have like an idea I've been formulating in my brain of something like this I want to do one day. I think I've told you about it, like these longer running kind of look back type of products. I have a good idea, but I got a lot of things I need to get out of the way before I can even think about that.

Brad: You do.

Myke: My God.

Brad: I can't wait until we can finally start talking about your things.

Myke: Oh, Brad, I just, I'm dealing with customs now, man. I'm dealing with customs now. I've got to get a customs agent. Oh, God.

Brad: Manufacturing is hard, Myke.

Myke: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad: Getting a product to the market, not easy. No.

Myke: No. You'd think I would, if just assumed it would get easier. I'm like, it does, but like not in necessarily all the ways.

Brad: It's just more. It's always more.

Myke: They're different. I mean, the problem is, is like if this, I think this is an issue for people like me and you, where like if we just stuck to one thing, it would be fun. Right. Or it'd just be much easier. But like we can't stop. But like, oh, I want to do another form factor. I want to use different materials.

Brad: We lose the depth of saying yes to a thing is way more enormous than the part where you say yes. Right. The depth of saying yes to things is so huge in some situations. And it gets pretty squirrely.

Brad: So there you go. All right, Myke. I think that's a wrap for this week.

Myke: Sounds good to me.

Brad: I already have fun stuff planned for next week. It seemed like you were off a week and I've just piled up the things to talk about. I think, I think I pretty much have next week's show already written out. We're going to talk about more stuff. We'll maybe get to some Ask TPA. So y'all keep getting those Ask TPA questions in. And yeah. Yeah. Sailor will probably release like five new products by next week. That'll be like a whole show.

Myke: This is an episode, just if you haven't already, does benefit from looking at the show notes. You can find them on the web at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 532. But you should also see them in your podcast app. You should be able to go into your app somewhere and see these links that we put in. As I said before, if you don't see those links, you should get a different podcast app.

Myke: Yeah. So yeah. All the suckers. All the good apps show you these links. And so if you don't see them, then I recommend that it's time that you consider a new podcast client. Even free ones. All the free ones. The good free ones do it too. So, you know, get a good app and then you can see all the links and you can follow along. While we're talking about the color of a pudding. You know? Who doesn't want that? Christmas tea, baby. Please support our sponsors, Squarespace and Trade, because they support us. And thank you if you are a RelayFM member as well. That's how you get access to the Discord. When we record live, which is every week, there's always a bunch of people hanging out in the chat and talking along with us, suggesting titles, that kind of thing. Go to relay.fm slash membership. You can find out more about that. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com. He is penaddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. You can find Brad at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad streams three times a week. Don't forget to join Stephen and I on Friday the 30th at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. As we're going to be participating in the RelayFM for St. Jude closing ceremonies. And thank you again to everybody that's donated. You can go to stjude.org slash relay. For the next couple of days and still donate to the life-saving work of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. We'll be back next week as, Brad, we enter October. Can you imagine? Can you imagine such a thing? We're in October, Brad. Come on.

Brad: Yeah, you know what they say. It is Christmas spice tea season.

Myke: That's what they say.

Brad: Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.