Editing The Pen Addict 112/transcript (section)

== Paper vs Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you like pens or paper better?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like pens better, I think. Although I buy a lot more paper these days than pens, but I just buy one type of paper, so I don't know if it counts.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Gotcha. Gotcha. So, yeah, I think pens too. At least pens are easier to review in my experience, but of course we love paper too. But I've got a few topics to cover here, but before we do that, I want to talk about the, ask you one question, the topic of the day. Should you or should you not join a podcast network?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I'm tired.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I woke up an hour ago and I check my email and see what's going on. Then I get on Twitter and see what's going on and I can't read anything for my stupid Twitter blowing up with this stupid conversation that everyone's having. So, I just had to vent my frustration. Sorry.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I agree with most of what Marco has said. I do too. There are extenuating circumstances for different people. I think that starting a podcast network right now doesn't really make sense unless you have good reason. Yeah. And the good reason isn't just I want to do a podcast with my friends, so I have to have a podcast network. It's not necessary. Yeah. If I had two podcasts, like if I was starting out today or like if I only had one show or two shows, I wouldn't, they wouldn't be on a network. Yeah. It's just not necessary. But when you've got a bunch of shows like I do and you're collecting them together, I think it makes sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wow. I really didn't expect you to answer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is the only place I've actually given an answer. I've purposely not tweeted about it or answered anything.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I know. Well, it's not a black and white thing, so I don't know why people are trying to make it that way. But anyway, I was frustrated when I woke up because that's all I saw in my Twitter feed and all I wanted to talk about was pens and paper. So, let's do this. So, last week we had our friend Josh Ginter from The Newsprint and got a lot of good feedback on his episode. He did a great job. And then like the next day afterwards, what shows up on the front page of the Field Notes brand website, boom, his arts and sciences review. So, I was pretty happy to see that. I thought that was kind of cool. Hopefully we played a little part in that. Maybe we did. Maybe we didn't. But I'd like to think we did. And I was excited for Josh because that's kind of a big deal. And especially, you know, for someone still, you know, trying to get a foothold in the blogging world. So, that was pretty neat, I thought.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It was great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. And have you been using your arts and sciences any this past week?

'''Myke Hurley:''' A little bit. A little bit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is it fitting into your routine?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, because I don't expect them to. Yeah. It was like I said, like I use them sporadically. Yeah. But I had some like sort of longer notes that I had to take. So, I gladly used the arts and sciences where I maybe wouldn't have before. Like I would have just used a few pages in the regular book. I wanted to try them out. And I'm really happy. Yeah. I love them. I absolutely love them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And that's kind of how I use them too. It's more of a... What's the word? It's a complimentary notebook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good way to describe it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So, last week I read an email that I hope the listeners didn't think was too long. Because I have a longer one this week, Myke. That I really enjoy the reader feedback we get. And it makes me all warm and fuzzy. So, I feel like I should share the cool ones that we get from time to time. Because you don't always see these either. So, I want to share them with you too. Yeah. Just for the listeners, this is the kind of thing, you know, this is the why we do this podcast type of thing that I just enjoy seeing. And it makes me excited to see. So, this is an email from Rob. And let me read it to you. The subject line just says, thank you. It says, Brad, I wanted to drop you a quick line about how things have moved over the last number of weeks since coming across your podcast. And a brief pen-related story. In short, a few weeks back, I heard you on Gear Geeks Live and went searching for your podcast just for fun. I listened to a few episodes and started poking around on JetPens and a few other sites. Back in college, I had a cheap cartridge-filled fountain pen that I used once in a while and figured I would order a pen and some ink to have some fun. After reading your site, I went to the top of your no-brainer list and ordered a TWSBI 580 RB and a bottle of Conpecky ink. Once in hand, I was blown away how nice it looked and felt. And to do the pen justice, how I focused on my penmanship. Not to get too heavy, my mother's been ill. And during a recent drive from Atlanta to Pensylvania last week, I ended up listening to a number of the older podcast episodes. While talking with my mother about various topics from her health to memories past, for whatever reason, I mentioned that I recently started using a fountain pen. Immediately, her eyes lit up and she said while she was organizing, cleaning out things in her house, she found her old fountain pen she used to take shorthand when she worked for the FBI. How cool is that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, wow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' She mentioned she was going to throw it away, but for whatever reason, held on to it. I let her use the 580 and she immediately picked it up and signed her name gorgeously without a skip or a scratch. She then went to her desk and came back with an old Parker 21. While I did not have any ink on me that trip, I did flush the 21 of ink that probably dried up 30 years ago or more. I'm heading up again the week of 4th of July and plan to take a few samples of ink so she can pick her favorite and enjoy the pleasure a fountain pen can bring. Is it a coincidence that about the time I found your podcast that she came across her old pen? We certainly had a great time talking about its history, how she learned shorthand with a fountain pen from the nuns in Catholic school, and a bunch of other fun memories. Just wanted to share this and say thanks for the great job you and Myke do. Regards, Rob. That's pretty amazing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What a great email. Thank you, Rob. Yes. Thank you for sharing that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Thank you, Rob. And I'm glad we found several times now that people are finding this podcast, listening and enjoying it, then finding this connection with other people. Most of the time, their families, parents, siblings, other things like that. And it's just a really cool thing that you can share with other people that are, like with your parents, it brings back all these memories just flowing back into their brains and remembering how much they used to love fountain pens. Because back in the 50s, 60s, people were using these. That's why you can find lots of Parker and Estabrooks, because they were making them by the millions. That's what people used back then. And then, you know, they get long and lost and forgotten. And it's cool to see the resurrection of some of these old pens and memories. So that was very cool. So thank you, Rob.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' On the Kickstarter front, I missed this one a couple weeks ago, Myke. And I think I did anyway. I actually went back through the show notes because I thought I talked about it. But it's the MagNote notebook. Yeah, I saw these. So I'm hoping I'm not repeating myself here. I don't think I am.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, no, we haven't spoken about this.