The Pen Addict 682/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	682
Title:	The Second Page Is a Bag of Coffee
Release Date:	September 11th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 682
Audio File:	Audio Episode 682
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 682
Length:	6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Introduction and Catch-up[edit]

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 682.
Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and HelloFresh.
My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.
Hi, Brad.
Hello, Myke Hurley.
How are you doing?
I should say big fundraiser, Brad Dowdy.
Man, we're working on it.
That's what I should say.
We're working on it.
You're crushing it.
You're just crushing it.
We're trying.
We're trying.
Yeah, got lots of updates on that, which we'll get to in a moment.
But you want to tell people what we're doing, why we're raising money, and I can dig into what I've been up to.
Yes, this month is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
It is September.
And since this is, we've been raising money for St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital since 2019.
Since that first campaign, as a community, we've raised over $4 million.
I actually need to get the updated statistic number for this.
I think we might be closing in on like 4.3 because this year's campaign is already an astounding $250,000 raised for the kids of St.
Jude.
Yes.
We want to keep adding more to that total.
And I want every one of our listeners to be a part in helping us achieve it because there are many ways that you can be involved.
And I'll talk about those in a minute.
I want to talk about one of the reasons we support St.
Jude.
We've got some interesting new stuff that St.
Jude's up to since last year.
And I wanted to share some of this with our listeners.
So the first St.
Jude-led clinical trial to open in resource-limited countries was recently announced.
In May of 2025, St.
Jude announced Globotrack.
It's G-L-O-B-O-T-R-K.
Globotrack.
I like it.
It's a fun name.
It's a clinical trial for children up to three years old who have brain tumors with specific genetic changes.
St.
Jude is partnering with doctors worldwide to recruit patients in the U.S.
as well as Egypt, India, Jordan, Brazil, and Peru.
As part of the trial, patients will have a biopsy of their cancer taken to be reviewed at St.
Jude.
Conducting global trials is important because pediatric cancer is not isolated to the United States.
Making progress means partnering with doctors internationally to help young patients everywhere.
I want to read a quote from St.
Jude lead Dr.
Daniel Morea who said, The Globotrack is about finding the best treatment for patients, something St.
Jude is committed to on a global scale.
That is why this is so important to us.
The work of St.
Jude reaches worldwide.
It touches lives all over the world.
And it's incredibly important.
So I want you to go to stjude.org.
We would like you as part of our community to continue the incredible generosity that's been shown over the last seven years and make a donation to support the life-saving mission of St.
Jude.
That is at stjude.org.
Where you can make a donation.
If you make a donation, please click the blue search employer button on the donation summary page to find out if your employer will match your donation.
Also, donor advised funds.
There's a bunch of information over at stjude.org.
Please take a look if you have a donor advised fund about ways that you could help give to our campaign.
A couple of other things for you.
If you do not have the money for yourself to raise or if you would like to get your hands on some really cool incentives, go to stjude.org.
And register to fundraise.
You can become a relay community fundraiser and create a personal fundraising campaign.
This means that you sign up and you can give to that campaign.
You can go out to your friends, your family, your co-workers, encourage them to give too.
This is a way to make your donation go further.
Or if you cannot make a donation yourself, a way to be able to help support this campaign.
There are different incentives available starting at just a dollar raised.
We're talking coins, desk mats, even a backpack.
So, one last thing.
If you can't give anything, tune into the podcast as well.
The podcast with them will be on Friday, September 19th on the Relay YouTube channel.
It will be starting at 12 p.m.
Eastern.
That is next Friday!

Which is a horrific thought, but also an exciting one because me and Brad are going to be back together again.[edit]

Which is a horrific thought, but also an exciting one because me and Brad are going to be back together again.
Yeah.
Very excited about.
So, we're going to be doing the podcast with them.
I'm going to put a link in the show notes to it.
It's going to be on YouTube.
So, you can put a reminder or, you know, you can just click to remind, you know, like, what do they say?
They call it set a reminder.
Notification.
You can already put a notification on.
Hit the bell.
Hit the bell.
Hit the like.
Hit the subscribe.
That will be there.
Please tune in.
We're going to have a really, really fun time.
I'm really excited.
We're going, as we always do, bigger and better than ever.
I want people to go and check this out.
We're going to have a fun time.
And Brad's going to be a wonderful addition to the crew.
And I can't wait.
So, all of this information and more is available to you right now at stjude.org slash relay.
Yeah, I'm super excited.
We had our first, like, big Zoom call last night.
I mean, y'all have been working on it behind the scenes.
But, like, some of the, for lack of a better term, talent who's not, like, directing the show.
So, we all got together last night for a big Zoom call.
I am so excited.
Like, it's great.
I'm just, I'm more excited than nervous.
Like, I'm 0% nervous and 100% excited.
There's not really any need to be nervous, if that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, that's what it is.
I don't get nervous for the podcast-a-thon until, like, we're just about to go live because I just want to get the intro right.
And then everything else, you're just having fun with your friends.
It's not like a live show where there's, like, an order.
No, no, no.
Like, it feels, it has a totally different energy in that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, it's going to be fun.
I look forward to it.
We're traveling next week.
We'll have a guest podcast next week in your feed.
So, don't worry.
We're not going to miss a week.
I am working on that.
What else I'm working on is, for the first time this year, I built my own fundraiser.
Like Myke was talking about, you can do or anyone can do.
Literally anyone can go do it.
I've never done this before.
And, you know, I just went for it.
So, you know, I made a few goals to raise, you know, my initial goal was $5,000.
Like, I think I can do this, you know, given what I've done in the past.
And, you know, made some kind of artistic goals for me, you know, puts me like out of my comfort zone in like writing or creating art on postcards or doing ink ponies.
I've kind of come out of my shell a little bit on the creativity part of what I like about stationery and use those as some incentives to raise money.
So, we have a link in there in the show notes to my campaign.
We're getting close to $10,000 raised.
And I've bumped up the goals a little bit here.
So, we got a goal of $15,000 now.
And I think we might get to it.
I'm going to keep adding incentives as we go.
Like, I wasn't fully prepared for this, right?
This has been a good learning experience for me as this is how I'm going to do things going forward.
I think it's worked out well.
I think we were not concerned, but like thinking that this would generate fewer donations than the like raffle system.
But it actually seems like that is not the case at all, which is amazing.
Amazing.
So, I'm so thankful for the generosity of your community specifically.
Yeah.
And like the makers in the community, like they look to me like early in the year and say, hey, we want to donate something for Relay.
And I told them earlier this year, it's like, hey, I'm doing things a little bit different.
And I don't know exactly how I'm going to do this or how it's going to go.
And they're like, I don't care.
I'm going to send you the products and you do whatever you want.
And so, I've been able to like every $1,000 milestone, I just put up an open giveaway on the blog.
And so, we've got like, what about eight now?
Eight or nine up there now?
I know.
I think I might owe one right now.
So, like I'm out.
I'm like, I'm waiting for products to come in.
People are still sending me products.
I'm waiting for pens to come in.
So, we might have to catch up on a couple of these as we go.
But yeah, it's been eye-opening.
It's been fun.
And it's been important work to help raise money for St.
Jude.
And I'm looking forward to next week.
Stjude.org slash Relay.
And the link to Brad's fundraiser is in the show notes too.
If you want to go and check that out and give and get some of Brad's exclusive Pen Addict rewards that he's done, which is amazing.
Yep.
Very cool.
And those go alongside the Relay rewards.
So, you can get all the things.
Yeah, you can get everything there.
Yeah, they're not locked in.
So, this is the way it works.
Like the stuff that we offer.
So, like the stickers and the digital things are available to everybody who creates a community campaign.
And then people who create those community campaigns can also have their own rewards that they give as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So, Patricia wrote him.
Ready to get into a few things?
Yes, I am.
A lot of feedback on this one.
Oh, really?
Okay.
Oh, yeah.
Just this came to the feedback form.
Maybe you got more by email.
I thought I actually put it in the list, but maybe it's just still living in my notes.
It's living in your seat of the house somewhere.
Patricia says, I attended my first Pelican Hub last year.
Everyone who attended was given a bottle of Pelican's Ink of the Year.
You mentioned that they don't give away ink anymore at the hubs.
So, I wanted to share my experience.
Yeah.
I definitely got a lot of people reach out, and I was totally wrong on this.
I thought I had heard that there weren't as many ink bottles being sent, like a one-to-one type of situation.
But it turns out there are.
I even had someone reach out to me that participates in a well over 100 people hub, and everyone left with a bottle of ink.
So, it's kind of amazing and fascinating.
So, it's pretty, pretty cool.
So, maybe I just got my wires crossed on that.
So, my mistake.
And I love to see it.
You definitely love to see this.
I hope it continues.
Like, you know, I just hope that's just such a cool thing for Pelican to do that they don't have to do.
And it's pretty awesome.
So, shout out to Pelican, and my apologies for the mistake.
I can't.
What do we say?
Like, we retract?
We're retracting the statement from the last episode?
Yeah, I retract.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just, Brad hears things that don't exist.
Amazing.
And as we're talking, I was like, why isn't this in the show notes?
And then I found new content to add to the show notes.
So, let's keep going, Myke.
Yeah, the show notes are growing as we speak.
So, that's good.
I was like, why isn't that in there?
And I was like, oh, well, I missed this whole section of the show notes.
And so, it's just some small things I want to talk about.
So, let's keep going.
That's new stuff for me.
I look forward to finding out what these Sailor pens are later on in today's episode.
That'll be fun.
Annabelle wrote in and said, regarding the listener comment about the Energel RTX pens being a lot visually, I do agree, but love the Energel ink.
So, I buy Energel refills and put them in a more aesthetically pleasing Uniball 1P or 1F body.
My question is, why does this feel like cheating?
I mix and match different brands of fountain pens and ink all the time.
But when it comes to gel pens, I feel guiltier about doing so.
Like, the ink and body are supposed to stick with each other.
This is the most Pen Addict podcast question ever.
Like, I love this question so much because we all think this.
At least I do.
I think about this all the time.
It's like, well, I have this pilot refill and I'm about to steal it to put it in something else.
Is this what I'm supposed to do?
Does it feel odd?
And like Annabelle says, I don't really worry about that with a fountain pen.
If I have a pilot fountain pen, I could put sailor ink in it and really not even think about it.
You know, as long as I like the aspect of that ink, that color ink and that color pen.
And like, I wouldn't care.
But I think about it on these gel ink pens.
And I said, you just have to go for it, right?
Like, this is why you're listening to a podcast about pens is because you know you love the inner gel.
But that barrel is just not good enough.
And therefore, you're going to switch it into something nicer.
And that's why you listen to the show.
Like, you're one of us.
If you do that, like, that's a one of us thing, right?
Because you have found the thing that works the best for you.
So, yeah, I don't feel weird about it.
It does.
It feels like cheating in that it makes me giggle.
It's like, oh, well, this barrel is so bad.
I'm just going to use this in this other brand's other this refill in this other brand's barrel and just go for it.
Because that's what I like the most.
And I don't know.
That just makes you like, you know, 100% pen addict, I think.
And I love it.
So, yeah, just go for it.
And don't don't feel like you're cheating on the brands.
And, you know, if they want you to use one of their barrels, maybe they should make a better barrel.
You know, how about that?
I would say, yeah, like, Annabelle would go a step further and find, like, a third-party maker's barrel that this ink will fit in.
Do you think that it would?
Oh, sure.
No, no, no.
All these, the Energel refills fit in a lot of third-party barrels.
I mean, SpokePen makes one.
Yeah, I didn't even go there with that.
SpokePen is awesome.
There's a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of different companies that will make pens, Tactile Turn, Big Eye Design.
There's plenty of Keras Customs.
There's plenty out there.
Like, if you want a really upgraded barrel, you can look into that and just swap your Energel refills into those.
So, yeah, totally.
Maybe it's just me.
But, like, if I'm going to switch around, I'm going to make it worth my while, you know?
Yeah, you can get that one barrel.
Like, I use Energels in, you know, our Spoke Rody XL fits Energels.
So, you know, that's where I use.
I swap out our stock refill to an Energel needle tip refill, and that's what I use in my Rody XL.
So, yeah, that's great.
There you go.
That's a challenge for you, Annabelle.
If you do it, I want to hear about it.
And James wrote in and said, In the last Ask TPA, you mentioned using brass shims to clean out the fibers of tines.
The method I like to use is the metal sheets that are inside of security tags from DVD cases.

Is this episode one of the podcast from 12 years ago?[edit]

Is this episode one of the podcast from 12 years ago?
Like, when's the last time you bought a DVD, Myke?
This was why I wanted to include this.
So, James also says, We love you, James.
This is amazing.
You probably already have some, says James, and they're softened in brass.
I got this tip from Minimal Scholar.
And so, I'll put a link in the show notes to this in case you have no idea what anyone is talking about.
But security tags on DVDs are like these things that would set off an alarm if you tried to steal it from a store, right?
And I remember actually cutting myself quite badly on these quite a few times because in a prior life, I worked in a supermarket.
And one of my jobs was managing the DVDs.
And it meant that I had to kind of do things with these, like removing these things or putting them on.
And sometimes they would kind of break open and the metal pieces that are inside of the plastic would give you pretty serious paper cuts.
Yeah, I've just got to say, this is a fascinating thing.
But James, one, you've got to buy DVDs.
And two, you've still got to have the thing stuck to them.
Like, I don't know who's just like got these lying around.
It's incredible though.
Now I'm thinking I probably have some video game cases that have the little strip in there.
I should go look.
I should go look at those.
Like, I don't know that I have any DVDs currently.
They're usually like stuck on.
This is the thing.
A lot of times these tags are like they've got like adhesive that keep the case closed.
So you would take off the adhesive and throw this thing away.
Oh, sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's not on the internal.
You kind of, in this scenario, the way that I'm imagining it is not only you have to have DVDs, you have to have DVDs that you've never opened.
I don't know.
I think they might be inside the cases.
Sometimes, yeah.
I feel like video games might be inside the cases.
Anyway, my DVDs, I'll have to check and see if I've stored them inside my VCR and see if I can find any DVDs that might be laying around.
But yeah, I'm actually going to go look for this because then I might just have some extra shims laying around.
And now I want to do a comparison to see if they're softer than the brass, which the brass is already pretty pliable and soft.
So now I'm actually genuinely curious about this.
And I'm going to go look at my video game cases.
And that's about the only shot I have at coming up with this.
But I know exactly what they're talking about.
I really, really, really want to get some follow-up from you on this one.
Okay.
Yeah, we'll note it down.
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Brad, I believe HelloFresh sent you a box of food?
Yeah, they've sent me a box, and we're regular HelloFresh customers anyway.
So I've been using a lot of their meals over the past several months and really over years on and off using HelloFresh.
I just got a box this week that we've already eaten two of the meals of, and the next one is shrimp po' boy to talk about some of the new seafood options.
They have a shrimp po' boy option.
So they send you the bread and everything to make these great sandwiches.
But yeah, we've had that.
We had a chicken and couscous one recently.
We had meatballs and rigatoni one recently.
We eat HelloFresh all the time.
We love it.
My wife and I like that we can cook it together, and we kind of make an event out of cooking the meal.
And they're pretty quick to cook.
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Go to HelloFresh.com slash TPA10FM to get 10 free meals and a free item for life.
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Free meals applied as a discount in the first box to new subscribers only.
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Our thanks to HelloFresh for their support of this show and relay.
All right, we got our shout out of the week, Myke.
It's a double.
Do you have to say it again?
Double, double, double.
No, that's what you get.
Even though it's a double three times, so I don't really know what that means.
Yeah, so I don't have the trifecta of pen shows to recommend, but right now we have the Orlando Pen Show coming up this weekend as you're listening to this podcast this week when it drops live.
Orlando Pen Show is about ready to kick off.
That's, what, September 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th.
So the main days are the 12th and the 13th, Friday and Saturday.
Then they have a couple events on the 11th, which is today, and then on the 14th, like a half show day.
And then two weeks from now, and I wanted to go ahead and put this in the show notes because I don't know that I'm going to have a chance to shout it out.
And I've been asked to shout out both of these shows, and I've been to both of these shows, and I love both of these shows.
The Dallas Pen Show, September 26th and 27th, if you're in the area.
Also a very good pen show to go attend, hang out.
Brad, with the way that my travel home from Memphis tends to work, I may be in the area.
That's true.
That's true.
You could probably just drive over to the Dallas Pen Show, like, the week after.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You have had some travel issues.
Luckily, Orlando is a drive for me when I've been.
I think I've been to the show twice.
I don't think I've been three times.
I forget.
And I've been to Dallas once, and they were both very, very good pen shows.
Dallas is a very busy pen show because they just kind of cram it into Friday and Saturday, and they bring a good crowd.
And Orlando is just kind of a really great event that's grown on me.
It's one of my favorite shows to go to.
It's just extremely well run.
It has great space.
It's in a great hotel.
It's very efficiently set up and enjoyable.
Lots of great vendors.
So, yeah, Orlando show definitely growing in Dallas.
One of the stalwarts of the pen show circuit here in the U.S.
So, definitely go check them out if they're available.
So, two really good pen shows this month.
And, yeah, we'll keep going.
We've got some other pen shows coming up later this year, including the Tokyo International Pen Show that we had feedback on or asked TPA on last week.
And I've already gotten feedback.
It's like, hey, can they follow up if they go to the show and let us know?
Yes.
I want to know that.
Hopefully, we'll see.
We'll get some feedback on that.
So, there we go.
All right.
So, a couple of product notes.
I got the Lamy Balloon, my tariff pens in very quickly.
Oh, they did arrive.
Okay.
Yeah.
They came in.
I got them Monday.
So, it was pretty quick.
Did you pay the driver by cash in hand?
I did not.
Oh, that's a shame.
I didn't give him a Sopranos handshake just to, like, drop off the packages.
No.
So, no, I got the package.
Easy, like, easy travel aside from the extra payments.
And I inked them up.
And the balloon is fantastic.
It is essentially the Lamy Safari slash Vista pen with a different cap.
So, to no one's surprise.
Like, they basically, the balloon name, I guess, will relate to the cap on this.
So, it's a rounded cap.
It's translucent.
And it has kind of this weird oval-shaped clip.
I don't think the clip is very good on these pens.
Like, when you have to compare them to the Safari or the All-Star or the Vista, the standard kind of wire clip is much better and much more Lamy.
But this clip and cap is what makes this pin the balloon.
And you pay less for it.
I think it looks nicer than the standard one, though.
Like, you know.
So, if you don't use the clip, maybe.
Yeah, it's one of those things where visually it's fine, but functionally it's a little bit flimsy and not as clippy as the standard wire clip.
It's a little bit softer and more pliable.
So, it's completely fine.
I just prefer the wire clip.
Which makes me want to say, get rid of the balloon and just make the Vista the colorful pin.
Which I don't think they're going to do.
But, like, this is essentially a Vista with a different cap, right?
It's translucent.
It has, like, this one is pink, blue, and green.
The translucency we went over all this last week.
And this is what I want from the Vista.
And if you just did the Vista, you could use the standard clip on that.
But, I don't know.
It's a great pin.
And I like the fact that it's cheaper than the Safari by several dollars, I think.
And, I don't know.
It's great.
I still prefer the Safari, of course, over this.
Like, I do think the clip makes that much of a difference.
And I've just had the Safaris for so much longer.
But I'm glad this exists.
And I'm interested to see if this styling or these translucent colors kind of jump over into a product like the Vista.
And then you could just, like, eliminate the balloon completely.
And just, like, lean into the Vista.
That's when I started Lamy.
That's, like, the Vista is my main priority.
Because that's kind of the platform pin where you could do just the weird, wild stuff.
More than the Safaris or the All-Stars do.
So, in short, great pin.
It's essentially a Safari barrel with a different cap and clip.
And I don't think the clip is as good as the standard Safari.
So, there you go.
Okay.
I'm glad I have the colorful ones, though.
It's my show notes pin today.
It's hot.
I chose the pink one because it's awesome.
And, yeah.
It's great.
Did you get the packaging?
The nice packaging?
The case?
No.
Like, the little case things, no.
Okay.
Nope.
I skipped those because I wouldn't use them.
Yeah, yeah.
And I was going to get, I'm going to give away the other two anyway.
And I could have done, like, the whole little package deal.
But I thought, let me just get all pins and go with that.
Speaking of translucent pins, Myke, I'm very happy to see that the Sailor 2Zoo has done well.
And I assume it's done well because we're now in version 3 of colors of the pin.
And that's always a sign to me that a pin is doing well when you launch a pin and the 2Zoo is a different pin.
And you'll have to go back and listen to our podcast or link to my review.
The design of the pin allows for you to rotate the nib to meet your writing angle.
That's the one.
Okay.
That's the one.
I was going to ask you to remind me.
I couldn't remember what it was about the 2Zoo because I was thinking of, what was that one, like, click and lock and twist and click?
Do you remember that pin?
Yes.
Yeah.
I can't remember exactly what that was.
Ball knock, click, ball, click.
The ball knock zone.
Ball knock zone.
Yeah.
So that's a pilot friction is the ball knock zone.
Not a fountain pen, standard pen.
The 2Zoo, it has this rotation in the nib if you want it.
I don't think that's a feature that sells this pin.
I think what sells this pin is it's a good pin, right?
And then the feature is a bonus if you need it.
But I think, like, the percentage of people who buy this pin because it's a cool pin versus the people who buy this pin because of the need for a rotating nib is it's got to be 80-20 for just the pin, if not much, much less than that.
Like, I think I'm probably being generous.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I still think it's, like, it's just a differentiator in the store.
It is.
Like, you probably come to it because you like the look of it.
And you're like, oh, it does this.
That seems like something I might want.
Yeah.
But what really stood out on this pin is the steel nib.
So, Sailor has had problems in their low-end pin categories.
And that's why I talk about this one a lot because Pilot and Platinum own this category, like, from $5 to $50.
Like, it's all Pilot and Platinum.
Like, every pin they make in that category is exceptional value.
And Sailor had nothing because they – and not without trying.
It's just that their nibs were consistently poor.
Their inexpensive steel nibs on their entry-level pins were consistently poor.
And they've kind of adjusted it.
And they've been successful with this nib.
I thought it was fantastic.
I thought the pin as a whole was fantastic.
It just fit and felt great.
It's a little maybe expensive for what it is.
But when you add in the cost of the engineering of the movable parts in here, like, $45 is completely fine for it.
Like, that's about what I would expect.
But what I would like to see is Sailor.
And I think they're starting to do this.
They're going to do some more steel nib pins, like I saw one at the DC pin show with Sailor leaning into some steel nib options as opposed to gold.
Which I wonder if we'll see some new innovative steel nib pins from other companies, too, as the price of gold keeps going up, right?
Like, that's an added cost.
That's one of the things that keeps the cost of the pins going up.
Aside from just general materials costs going up, the gold is a much higher percentage price jump.
But, like, there are benefits now to making a unique, innovative, some kind of feature in a steel nib to be able to increase the price of a steel nib without it being too much.
That's interesting.
I wouldn't have thought of that.
But, yeah.
Are there other materials better than steel that aren't gold?
Not really.
Okay.
I mean, there's always been kind of, like, there's a titanium nib out there.
It's just never good enough.
Squeaky.
Like, and then anything else is getting into, like, different metal alloys that are just not really conducive to making, you know, a large quantity of nibs and having them perform well and behave with, like, ink chemicals and chemical reactions and things like that.
You've got to start thinking about that with inks.
I wonder if, like, I do wonder if there is an opportunity for somebody to try and do something new, though.
Like, with a different type of testing, different type of formulation, something, something, something.
Because gold's not going to get cheaper would be my expectation.
Sure.
So, yeah.
It'll be interesting to see if anybody, I don't know, takes it upon themselves to try and do something new.
Even with steel, right?
That, like, we're going to use steel and we're going to formulate it in a new way or we're going to form the nib in such a way that it produces a more desirable result on a high end or something?
Yeah.
Maybe we'll start seeing some more, like, nib manipulation as far as, like, tipping shapes go.
Which you're starting to see because, like, this is a...
Cuts in the nib to bounce, aka softness, that kind of stuff.
So, there's some things out there like that right now.
And we might just see more exploration in that space just for pure cost reasons, right?
Yep.
So, long story short, I think the Tuzu is a very good pen and I wanted to give sailor props on that.
I was honestly skeptical when this pen launched.
But getting it in hand, testing it, using it, I'm like, okay, they did a really good job here and I wanted to give them credit for that.
The other area where I give sailor more of a hard time is when they launch all the different colors every week of their mainline fountain pens, like the Pro Gears and the 1911s.
But another area I give them props in is they started this annual Tea Time series several years ago.
And this is one of my favorite series that they do.
So, they do this once a year, usually towards, like, the fall time frame heading into the holidays.
We've definitely had some, like, Christmas-themed ones just in recent past.
So, the new one's out this year.
Tea Time, I guess, is the fifth series.
Is that what they're saying here?
What's funny is I didn't know this existed or this had launched until someone, when I was streaming, said, hey, have you seen the new Pelican Sailor?
And I'm like, what are you talking about?
Yeah, that's a perfect way to put it.
They sent me the link and I'm like, oh, my goodness.
It is exactly the Pelican color.
The classic Pelican black and green and gold.
Like, that's all you can see in this pen.
The finial is great.
I think it's supposed to be a matcha-themed pen, which it looks fantastic.
Look, I'm not knocking it.
I immediately saw Pelican.
I was like, oh, this one's a winner.
Like, to me, it's like that is a classic look.
And the classic is Pelican.
I just hadn't put it together in my head.
Like, this feels like a classic pen look.
It's like, yes, because it is.
Yeah, so they go big into this release every year because they do a king of pen.
And they always do.
They seem to do two colors.
So, like, they have the traditional, the green one.
And then they have, like, a purple and white one.
I forget.
Which T is that one?
I'll have to look and see exactly what they're calling that one.
So, they do a couple of different sizes.
So, the green one has the king of pen in it, right?
Which means that they're putting a lot in.
Anytime a king of pen goes into release, that means it's a big, broad, wide release.
Because that's a, like, that's a thousand dollar pen.
So, then you get the different 1911, excuse me, Pro Gears and Pro Gear Slims.
And then they, each of them have a ballpoint, which I don't remember.
I usually remember having one ballpoint.
But this time, both the colors have a ballpoint, which they must sell those pretty well.
But anyway, Sailor Tea Time series is always a favorite of mine.
They do, if nothing else, they do good inks that match with these.
So, I think these are going to do, I usually end up buying the inks if I don't buy.
I don't, yeah, I don't own any of the Tea Time pens.
But I've definitely used some of the inks in the past.
And I don't know.
This is just a very enjoyable series for me.
That I think they, that they theme and execute very, very well.
As opposed to just, like, throwing something out there.
It's like, hey, sunrise, boo, pew, pew, pew.
You know, like, all right, now it's Wednesday.
Let's do a sunset, woo.
So, these are great.
It seems like the other one is not named after tea.
It's named after, like, a sweet treat that goes with tea.
Okay.
They, they've done, like, they've done, like, Christmas, like, one year, one year was, like, Christmas pudding.
So, they do, like, a tea and then, like, maybe a complimentary.
Yeah.
So, like, Christmas pudding was, like, last year or two years ago.
And then there's been, like, some Moroccan tea and some other.
No, it's okay.
So, I've got to the press release.

Oh, gosh.[edit]

Oh, gosh.
I've got to the press release and it's done the translation.
And on the big image, it says, number five.
I'm sorry.

Like, the release is called, I'm sorry.[edit]

Like, the release is called, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I put a screenshot in Discord.
I'll put the link in the show notes.
You need to get this in Safari's translation.
It just says, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Oh, my gosh.
What could that even be?
I don't know, man.
This is, yeah, this is a Japanese tea ceremony set.
That's what they're going for here.
I don't think I'm sorry.
And this, maybe this is, like.
It's translating the image text.
So, that's probably even more difficult.
Yeah.
Maybe this is, like, some tea ceremony that is, I don't know.
Maybe it's something about, like, being sorry.
But it doesn't kind of translate in that way.
Yeah, it's hard to tell because these machine translations are not great most of the time.
No.
Yeah.
Incredible.
Yeah, especially on the images.
But props to Sailor.
Again, two great Sailor products, I think.
The Tuzu and the Tea Time series.
Always going to be winners in my book.
They do a really good job with these.
So, it might even tempt me to get another Tuzu one of these years.
And they've made some cool colors.
Like, the last one they did was a purple translucent.
So, I like, you know, I like my fun translucent barrels.
We've already had a balloon talk.
So, and I'll probably get the green Tea Time ink.
So, we'll see.
We'll see.
Good stuff.
I absolutely want the Matcha 1 inking of pen.
Yeah, it's so good.
I want to think about how expensive that would be.
So, the new price is now, I think, over $1,000, I think.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Like, they've recently been, like, in the last two years, they got to $880, I think, was the retail.
And now, I think they're a little bit over $1,000.
I don't remember how much I paid for my King of Pens.
Yeah.
I paid in the sixes.
Yeah, that seems about right.
And that was just, and that just would give me, like, a panic attack.
Yeah.
When I bought my Sky Blue, or Sky, it's just called Sky, I think it was $660.
I'll say, like, the Sailor King of pen is about as good a pen as you could ever wish to buy.
Like, they're essentially, for me, perfect.
I could not spend $1,000 on it, though.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're a, at most, $800 pen, I think.
Yeah, my review was very specific on how overpriced they are, but I still wanted it, you know.
And that was in the 660 range.
Like, it's literally a plastic barrel with a nib that probably costs, like, $400 or something like that on it, is what it is.
So, it's...
And that's why it's so expensive, right?
Because, as you said, we just spoke about the gold problem.
Like, the nibs are so big.
Like, they are so big.
And they are, I guess, really, really carefully made.
Yeah, and 21 carats, so they're higher quality.
So, yeah, they're expensive.
They're expensive.
So, not a surprise.
That price keeps going up.
So...
This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet.
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Yeah, speaking of interesting pens and interesting filling systems, they have the Endless Captivo, which we've spoken about on the show.
And I've never got one, but given the price of this, this is the pen that has the built-in filling mechanism, like built into the back of the barrel, where you just kind of, it's almost like a ratchet mechanism in the back of the barrel that allows you to piston fill the pen.
But the price is, as Pen Chalet does, is crazy low.
And they have the black and silver model and then you can get the fully blacked-out stealth model, which is pretty cool.
But this price is going to make me, like, I probably need to get one.
Other people have reviewed this pen and I think they've reviewed it pretty positively on how the filling mechanism works.
And for this price, it's crazy cheap.
And speaking of crazy cheap, I don't know that I've ever seen an Aurora Optima at this price.
So they're a very expensive pen, but it's just a great classic, beautifully made, gold nib, firm gold nib, piston filling, fountain pen, Italian-made fountain pen.
And that's kind of a core pen in just like the fountain pen universe.
Like, it's a classic pen.
And for that reason, they usually don't get discounted very much just because the Aurora Optimas just kind of sell themselves.
But they're at a really good price right now.
And you should definitely go check that out.
And further down the page, they definitely have some of the Sailor seasonal pens that I was talking about for a price that makes you want them.
Like, you know, you just look at all the releases and you go, how can they keep releasing these pens?
But then you, if you just wait and you're patient, you can find one you like at a really good price like over at penshalet.com.

That was just maybe the loudest thunder of my entire life.[edit]

That was just maybe the loudest thunder of my entire life.
Really?
Whoa.
That was bananas.
That was so loud, Brad.
I'm scared.
Sorry, Pen Chalet.
Whoa.
That was terrifying.
Anyway, go to penshalet.com slash penaddict.
Thunderous deals at Pen Chalet.
Apparently they heard it.
They heard it on the live stream.
So that will be in the episode for everybody to hear.
My word.
It sounded like an explosion.
I assume it.
I hope it was thunder.
Penshalet.com slash penaddict.
Thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and relay.
All right, Myke.
I'm shaking up over here, man.
It was so scary.
I feel you.
I feel you.
So you collect yourself and I'll drive a little bit here because I wanted to talk about notebooks that I had a little quick topic I wanted to discuss last week because I'm actively working on finishing another notebook.
And I thought I would have a topic on how to finish a notebook.
And, you know, this is always an interesting topic to me because it's always been, I don't want to say stressful or like a limiting factor for usage, but notebooks are hard.
Like filling notebooks and journaling and, you know, opening the cover of a fresh notebook and finishing out all the way to the end is like one of the hardest things.
Like we think about it.
We think about it as stationery users.
How do you use your notebooks?
So I thought I'd put down some notes on how I finish a notebook.
And then we have an additional question that I got just from mentioning the topic and pulling it from last week's show.
Someone said, well, if you're going to do that, how about you talk about how to start a notebook?
So we'll save that for the end.
So I'm just talking about a few rules that I have for using my notebooks.
And then I realized after I held the topic and thought about it more, I ended up writing it in for Panatic members in the refill newsletter I send every week.
Why I want to fill a notebook.
And that's kind of like the prequel version of how the how is the why.
Like I was just going to last week, I was just going to talk about how I do it.
But as the more I thought about it, the more I had time to think about it.
It's like, well, I never talked about why this is important to me or why I wanted to do it.
And it was as simple as I love seeing finished notebooks on a shelf.
Like that's a really neat goal to have for me.
Like I decided my goal was to have notebooks that I've completed stacked on a shelf.
Like that was it.
It wasn't to like, hey, let me pour my guts into this notebook and have like a journal that like really is meaningful and precious to me.
Like that's part of it.
But that's not why I was filling up a notebook.
I wanted it because it seemed difficult to start and finish a notebook from front to back.
And it is difficult.
I'm living proof of that because I went for years and I'm sure many of you can relate.
I went for years starting a notebook and not finishing it and moving on to another one.
Like that's just kind of what we do in the stationery world.
Oh, you know, shiny new toy.
Let's play with this notebook.
Oh, here's why this one's different.
I'll just start using this one now.
And you have all these uncompleted notebooks.
So I decided that I want to complete a notebook.
And the why that I want to complete it is I just want to see it done on the shelf because that gives me a sense of accomplishment.
So that was kind of the prequel version of why I got there.
And I explained it more in the newsletter.
And I might eventually publish that on the blog because I thought it was a good little piece on there.
And then the how is what I want to talk about last week and this week.
And the how is what things clicked with me to allow me to finish a notebook.
Look, I remember the first notebook I tried when I said I was going to do this.
I only used one side of the page.
And I get asked that question a lot.
Do you use one side of the page or do you use both sides of the page?
And honestly, when I started the very first notebook years ago that I was dedicated to finishing, I never thought about using the back side of the page.
I just never did that growing up.
I don't know why.
You know, if it's just ink reasons, right, legibility reasons.
But now I can't not use the back of the page.
So I have even more pages to fill in the notebook.
So I made it even harder for myself.
But as everyone says who preaches using both sides of the page, you're only using half of the notebook if you don't.
Like what are you going to do?
Like you have a whole other half a notebook that you paid for.
Why don't you use it?
So I gave myself the task to fill it.
And since I don't have a traditional journaling habit, I think a lot of people who do have traditional journaling habits, this comes a lot easier, right?
Because you'll pick up your journal and you'll say, you know, today, you know, X, right?
And you'll write for two sentences or two pages.
Well, however long it takes.
And you're going to do that again tomorrow.
And you're just going to fill up the notebook.
That's not me.
And I think that's a lot of other people can relate to that.
So I think people with like traditional journaling habits, like this comes easy to them, but it's never come easy to me.
So I just kind of write everything in a notebook.
And the first kind of step in allowing myself to write everything is the availability of the notebook, right?
I'm not going to use the notebook if it's not around me.
Now, I'm lucky that I sit at a desk at home.
So my notebook that I'm currently using, it's the Life A5 Hachimanjia notebook, the pink one and purple one that I take a lot of pictures of.
It sits at my desk.
It's always with an arm's reach.
Which I've tried to carry it around the house with me.
I don't leave the house for work.
If I did, it would go with me like in a bag or a backpack.
But you have to have the notebook available.
Because the way I'm filling the notebook is random thoughts, ideas, notes, lists, literally anything.
So I'm looking at this page now that I just, I wrote for last week's podcast.
So on one page, I have podcast notes.
I have notes for this week that we've talked about.
I have my tariff math that I wrote for last week's episode.
So I could do the math.
And then across from that, I have a set of lyrics that I wrote for a review.
That's just like on one spread, like on a left page and a right page.
I will literally write anything in this notebook.
So having it, that availability is one, to where I can just pick it up and write nonsense if I need to.
Or write something important if I need to.
It doesn't matter what I write in there.
And I had to get through my head that that's okay, right?
Not just important stuff has to go in my notebook.
To that point, I've also just been completely open in what I put in here, in this notebook.
There's ink samples in here, Myke.
There's washi taped receipts from a trip I went on in here.
There's stickers that I've picked up on the trip.
My goal is to fill up these pages of this book, and I don't care how.
So it can just be scribbles.
It can be sketches and artwork.
There's a ton of ink samples in here.
There's stickers.
Oh, look, here's an ink pony that I drew that I taped in here.
There is, what's this?
Oh, there's some video game notes in here.
When I was building a character for Path of Exile, like it doesn't matter.
I just want this thing full and on my shelf.
So everything goes in here, right?
Literally everything goes in here.
And it's not pretty and it's not precious.
And allowing yourself to be open on those pages has really freed me up to where I don't have to restrict myself to my innermost journaling thoughts to be allowed to write in my notebook.
And maybe you have a separate notebook for that, right?
You can have, it's okay to have multiple notebooks.
I don't want to have too many notebooks going on.
I have this notebook and I have my work plotter and that's pretty much it.
But it's okay if you do have like a journaling ritual to have one notebook for that and then maybe one notebook for like the type of journaling I'm doing, which is like literally anything goes into this journal.
So, and the last thing, which is these all things kind of tie together, the availability of the notebook, the openness of what I put in the page, which is literally anything.
And then the grace to myself if I don't fill a page.
Like it's okay.
Like if I don't write today in the notebook, guess what?
It's okay.
Like that is totally fine.
So I'm just letting myself, allowing myself to be open with these notebooks.
And now I think I'm on like my fourth one doing it this way.
And I found something that works for me, which I never thought I would be just like a consistent notebook filler.
The other thing.
It's absolutely a practice, right?
It is.
And being able to let go.
Like I kind of felt a little bit anxious when you said like, I'll write ideas in here.
I'm like, oh, but I want to find them again.
Yeah, that's okay.
Yeah, I guess it is.
They got out of my head.
This is the thing too, right?
But like I go through this with digital systems where I'm like I'm working on something and I'm like, all right, I'm going to write it down in this place.
I don't know if I'll find that again.
But it's kind of not the point.
It's like verbalizing it or writing it down is sometimes all of the work that is required.
And then it's like in my, it lives in my head now.
And yeah.
That's exactly right.
Like I have to get things out of my head.
So they go, they go in the notebook.
And I am not fast.
Like there's no time limit on this, right?
This is going to take me at least a year to fill this notebook, right?
It's not like I'm filling an A5 200 page notebook every quarter.
Like this is going to take me at least a year, if not more.
And that's okay.
Like I'm good with that.
Now that I know how I use notebooks and what my goal is, like literally my goal is to fill every page and put it on the shelf.
I'm not trying to like find myself within the pages.
Is I'm trying to release, release myself onto the pages and, and then just move on.
So I think it's a little bit different way of looking at it than a lot of, a lot of other people use notebooks, which there's, there's no right or wrong.
Like we just have to figure out what's, what's good for you.
So like I said, this notebook that I'm referring to when I'm talking about this is not my work notebook.
Like I keep works in a separate, my narrow plotter.
That's a separate conversation.
So there's no, like there's notes in here.
Like there's podcast notes as we're talking.
I'll, I'll write things on the notes, you know, maybe a show title or maybe a follow-up question.
That's fine.
But I'm talking about like work schedules, tasks, to-do list and like work related stuff that goes separately.
Um, this is just literally everything else.
And, um, it's been working for me for several years now.
Uh, I think this is, this'll be like my fifth, fourth or fifth notebook filled, I think.
Um, which for me, I, like, I never thought I would have one.
And despite as much as I write, it was literally more in like pads and loose sheets.
And like, I have probably- You would get a notebook, but use four pages of it and then move on to the next one.
I would use more than that.
No, but like, I'm exaggerating, but it's more than like you were never filling.
It was just like, I'll use this one until I get another one.
Yeah.
I have a stack of loose sheets.
That's probably, that are filled loose sheets.
That's probably four to six inches high.
So that's a lot of notebooks worth of loose sheets.
That's just like random that I've kept over the years.
How long is it taking you on average to complete one of these notebooks?
Yeah, probably a year.
Like I looked, I put the start dates on them and then, and then that way I know how long it takes me.
And they're all around, uh, 12 to 14 months, I think.
So it's not a fast thing for me.
No.
Which is okay.
It's my thing, right?
Yeah.
So I'm very happy with it.
So that's kind of, I know I kind of like rambled a little bit.
So if y'all have questions on like how I do it, um, like, again, I can only tell you what I do and what's worked for me and just giving myself the freedom to just do whatever instead of having rules is, is what's worked for me.
So that brings up the question, which why don't you read that for me real quick and, uh, so I can take a sip of water.
Uh, this comes from John who says, uh, I was thinking of a similar topic just the other day.
Um, and I wanted to get your opinion on it.
How do you start a notebook?
I can't seem to start one.
I've just bought a ton of different notebooks to try out the paper, but I can't bring myself to actually start using them.
I'm waiting to find the right use for them.
So I don't start one and waste pages if I don't finish it, or I try to put too many things in there and run out of pages.
I think a gaming notebook would be fun, but how much space do I leave for one game before starting the next?
What about leaving blank pages or worse running out of space because I started another section too close and didn't leave enough space?
Yes.
That's all out of order.
I don't know if other people have this issue, but I would love to get your thoughts on it.
Maybe this is the kind of thing you were thinking you were getting out and finishing a notebook.
Yeah.
So this is a great question.
And I think this is a more common question than me jumping, jumping into like the middle of an incomplete notebook and saying how I use it.
Um, excuse me.
It's different.
I'm giggling because I'm thinking about this notebook.
It's like, why did I choose to start this notebook and, and how did I start?
Um, so number one, thank you for the email, John.
I appreciate it.
It was, it was perfect timing.
Um, I chose this notebook because it was pretty and I thought I would like the paper and I like the style of it, which made me want to use the notebook.
Right?
So I have a stash of notebooks I could grab and use any day I have, you know, without counting probably 20 or 30 notebooks I could just go grab that haven't been touched and need a use.
But this one compelled me to use it because I thought it was cool and interesting.
So that was number one.
Like I had a product like with blank paint with that hadn't been used that I found compelling.
So that was one.
And then second goes into what were my goals before I even started this notebook?
Um, my only goal with this notebook was to finish the notebook.
So it didn't matter to me what went in there.
So I do think you, that, that was my goal.
How do you start a notebook?
So you have a goal in the end.
My only goal is to finish the notebook.
So it didn't matter what went on the first page.
I opened this up.
There's literally a sticker on the first page that someone sent me on a package.
It was on the outside of the package.
It's a keyboard image.
It says I was here.
That's literally my first page is a sticker.
Let me go into the, the second page is a bag of coffee.
And then the third page is on January 1st of 2025, like a bunch of different things where we had podcast notes, um, some little clips that I guess I was thinking about and a quote in there that I wrote in Robert Oster fire on fire.
Like that was it.
And then I just went, right?
So my goals were to only fill the notebook.
So you have to figure out what your goal is going to be.
Is this going to be a journaling notebook?
Is it going to be a work notebook?
Is it going to be all the things notebook?
It's hard, um, to, to do in all the things notebook.
Like I don't consider this in all the things notebook, even though that's literally what it is because I do separate work.
I separate work.
Yes.
So like, I do think for me, I couldn't have work in this notebook.
I wouldn't use this notebook for what I want to.
If it was work, I do have to separate work.
And let's just call it play.
Um, one of the interesting bits that John wrote about is, um, the spacing in the notebooks, like leaving enough pages or having gaps in the notebook.
So I do two different things.
Once I've decided what I'm using this notebook for, for, since I play a lot of video games, I start that in the back of the book.
So if I open, if I go to the back cover, I start having pages and pages of video game notes starting from the back.
So I'm basically, um, you know, there's only like five or six pages filled that way, but that's a nice way to separate.
If you want to have a certain topic, like if you just want to have, you know, regular day to day thoughts or ink samples or whatever you want to write in the front of the notebook.
And in the back, I put my video game notes in.
I, I'm totally fine starting at the end for a second topic in the past in other notebooks.
I've done that for music.
So I would do album lists starting backwards to front and then everything else would be in normal, you know, front to back type of writing.
So I always, I pretty much most of my notebooks these days have something that starts in the back and goes forward, um, as opposed to the traditional way of writing.
Um, and then the last thing related to space is sometimes I don't have much to say or much to write.
I'll flip through a page that's 20 pages ago I used and then has like a quarter page gap in there.
I'll write something in there just randomly because it doesn't matter.
Like I'm not putting, I don't have dates on any page that I write, right?
It doesn't matter what day I wrote the thing on, right?
I'm just writing.
I guess I do.
I mean, I guess there are a couple of dates, like I'll have a podcast title or something like that.
So you can kind of date things, but like, yeah, I'm not, if I open this notebook today, you know, I'm not writing down the date on what I'm about to write.
I don't generally do that.
So that allows me to go back and fill up space that I've used.
The only caveat to all of this in the way I use it, and you alluded to it earlier, Myke, is I'm probably not going to find anything in here.
And that's okay.
Because if it's that important that I need to find it again, I'm going to transfer it maybe into my work notebook or something more specific, maybe digitally, right?
Put that on a task or something for future or a list that I need to keep that I want to refer back to again.
That's going to move out of here.
Like the notebooks that I've completed, I don't think I've ever gone back and flipped through them, you know, because I'm not looking for anything.
If there was something important enough that I think, oh, I probably need to remember that so I can find it again.
It's probably going to go somewhere else, you know, nine times out of 10, probably digitally to be quite honest, like to where I can search for it faster, things like that.
So I don't scan my completed notebooks.
I don't do anything like that.
They literally sit on the shelf and look pretty.
If you have questions about how to fill a notebook of your own or about how Brad fills his, go to penaddictfeedback.com.
You can send us any questions there.
You can also email them to brad at hello at penaddict.com.
And we'll get to those in a couple of weeks because we're both going to be preparing for the podcast-a-thon next week.
So there'll be a guest episode that Brad's going to be recording, which I'm excited to listen to.
The podcast-a-thon is part of our St.
Jude campaign.
Go to stjude.org slash relay to donate today and learn more about what we're doing to support the life-saving work of St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital.
You can find the show notes for this week's episode, but you can also find the link for Brad's personal fundraising campaign over at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 682.
Thank you to HelloFresh and Pen Chalet for sponsoring this week's episode.
If you want to find Brad online, he's over at penaddict.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict, and spokedesign.com.
I'm at theenthusiast.net and cortexbrand.com as well.
We'll be back.
The show will be back next week.
We'll be back in two weeks.
Until then, say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.
Dead.