Editing The Pen Addict 143/transcript (section)

== Guest Introduction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's going to be real good and we're going to talk about that momentarily. But first, I want to introduce a special guest today. A what? A legend in his own mind, Mr. Dan Bishop from Kara's Customs, our long-time favourite pen maker. How are you, Dan?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm doing well. Is Dan just here to, like, to tell me off or something?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He might. I thought that was what the pre-show was for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How dare you lose something that I made for you? No, we repossessed it, actually. I sent a guy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, that makes sense now. Now I get it. You weren't loving it enough.

'''Dan Bishop:''' You didn't pay enough customs fees, so we had to take it back.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Customs fees? Oh man, you need to think of a way to use that. Like, customs fees. I like that. That's pretty cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we're going to talk to Dan about the LA Pen Show, which I'm pretty excited about. I know we've done, like, an Atlanta Pen Show recap when I've gone and visited the show. But Dan not only visited the LA Pen Show, but him and Bill Karras actually set up a table and were vendors at the Pen Show. So this is pretty awesome. I'm pretty excited about talking about this. But let's take care of a little business real quick, and then we'll get into the Pen Show stuff. Sound good, guys?

'''Dan Bishop:''' Mm-hmm. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So the Kickstarter, Michael, like you said, what do we got? 38 hours to go. $13,425. Our backers are awesome. And last week, I made an update because I went to the fabric cutting shop and picked up the forest green and yellow interior for the cases. So I posted that on the Kickstarter page. If anyone who is following and has not seen that update on the Kickstarter page, go take a look at the primary colors for your new Hightower cases that we're going to make for this project. I'm pretty excited. They look really, really good. And the cases are going to turn out awesome. So we are looking forward to that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One of my favorite things about this whole process has been how my girlfriend tells me about the updates. I have no idea that they're going to happen because Brad doesn't tell me anything. And then I only find out because she's a backer because I didn't back, which I feel so good about after last week where we were reading through the rules. Because technically, by those rules, she shouldn't be a backer. Oh, really? Well, you kind of said you can't have anybody that's related to you or the project.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Really? Okay. I knew you couldn't back your own projects, but I didn't know. I mean, people have family members that back the projects. I don't see why.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that's technically okay, but they have it in there in case it gets abused. Yeah. So if you get one of those 10,000 levels, right, and then someone's backing that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I've seen one case of abuse of that where it didn't come to fruition, but we won't get into that. Why not? All right. So moving on quickly before I get in trouble and get angry. I did the wire cutter. They were nice enough to have us. Myself, Brian Green, Elizabeth from No Pen Intended. We helped them out with a best pen article last year sometime. And they just recently asked for our advice again for a best mechanicals pencil article that they did. Tim Barabo, who has been real nice and easy to work with at Wirecutter. So this posted last week, the best mechanicals of mechanical pencils. And the winner's pretty easy, Myke. Do you even need to look at the article to know what it is?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, all I'm going to say is if what I expect to be the winner is not the winner, there will be trouble. I'm opening it now and I can see right on the top of the page you have a Kuru Togo. Yeah. You couldn't pick anything else. Sorry, dude. No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. No shot at anything else, especially the low end Kuru Togo, which I mean, you can get for as cheap as like $3, $3.50, something like that. I've had mine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've got mine right here. I've had it since like we started this show. Right. I actually bought it like a couple of weeks before we started the show, I think.

'''Dan Bishop:''' Oh, sure. You don't lose that. Great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have nothing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have nothing. I just... Here we go again. I just don't know where it is. My only thing is that I must have taken it out of the house to use it and somewhere along the way, it's...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it... Yeah. I think at this point it would have turned up in the house. Yeah. So it must have escaped. So TR4656 in the chat room says, surprise, the rotary isn't on there. I think that was probably my second choice, the 600.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I am surprised it didn't get on there. But the Pentel Sharp and the Pentel Sharp Carry and the Pentel Graph Gear 1000 all are excellent, excellent additional choices. I love all of those pencils and they give you a really good writing experience when you use them. So it was fun to be part of another Wirecutter article. And I'm glad this one finally saw the light of day. We were working on this one last year as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, really?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So this one's been a while in the making. I will give Wirecutter credit. I don't know a lot about them. I know... Was it Ben... Who's the Wirecutter guy? The main guy. I never talked to him. Oh. Tim... You know who I'm talking about. Gizmodo guy?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I can't remember his name though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So... But Tim has been... Never mind. Yeah. Never mind. But anyway, Tim is excellent to work with. He's really thorough. Which is why these take so long. And you can see how long these articles are. I mean, they take this stuff seriously. I mean, we go back and forth. I mean, sometimes dozens of emails. And just his... He'll like nitpick my answers. And then he does this with everyone else. So I know they put a lot into these articles. So I just wanted to point that out. So... Thirdly... Mr. Bigfoot himself. We're just going to start calling him that. Dwayne Lively. Who went and hunted down the Bigfoot vanishing point for us. Last week, Myke. He wrote an article about... On his blog. About his experience. Being involved in our shenanigans. And I'm not going to read the whole article to you. But I wanted to read the very first sentence. And then everyone can find the show notes at... Relay.fm. Slash. Penaddict. Slash. 143. To go click and read the rest of this post. And you should. Because it's really good. But the first sentence should have you sold. It says... Perhaps the oddest thing the internet has done to me... Is turned me into a pen detective. So... You can follow up from there. I cracked up when I read that. So... It's pretty funny. So go check that out. About the hunt for the elusive... And... Turns out to be... Non-existent orange vanishing point. Did you know, Myke... And I think we might... Did we talk about it last week? There is an old... Limited edition orange vanishing point. Did you know this? With chrome accents?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was released like in the 90s. And they pop up every now and then. They run about 500 bucks. If they do show up. It was a limited edition. So that one is not on the radar. I will be passing on that one. But if anyone has a good deal on one. You know, I guess get in touch. But you rarely see them. They're very, very limited.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm going to have to go show mascot. On Mel. Who writes us these amazing... Bullet point podcast responses. Are you getting these, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I am, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How amazing are they?

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're kind of like... Okay. I want to say something very quickly. So, you know, I'm very happy to grant the co-mascot status for this. But I just want to be very clear. We only need one person to do this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mel, I want Mel to know I really appreciate these. Because they're funny to read through. But I really... I can't... I can't have more than one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, she does... You're saying that because... And only you and I have seen these. She does an extremely thorough job at doing this. And it's actually very, very helpful. Because being in the Japanese market like she is. She gets a lot of clarifications for us. And expands on a lot of the topics that we talk on. Especially around Japanese pins. She can elaborate. You know, like where all the platinum lakes. That they made the 3776. Some of those pins out of the clear ones. You know, where are the different lakes. I love every second of these. And I read them at least two or three times. Because I always pick up something that I don't. And Mel, I feel bad that I don't reply to everyone. Because I read them. And I don't know what to say. It's like you blow my mind. Every time I can't... I can only tell you you're this awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's nothing to say. Right. Because we've already been through it. But they're nice to refer... It's like play-by-play commentary of what's happened in the show, effectively.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly... That's the best way to put it. Mel puts together a play-by-play. I've just put this in byword. It's 651 words. This recap. So it's basically a play-by-play of the show. And it's freaking hilarious. And I mean, she even has like laughs in here. And things like that. But you know, I think she's not looking for a response. Like because she... The way she ends the... Ends the emails is... See you guys next week. It's just like... She likes to do it. And she's helping us out. And it's really awesome. So Mel, if I don't give you an email response... I wanted to give you a podcast response... And say thank you so much for doing this. It really, really makes my day... When I get these emails in my inbox. And I usually keep them in there for about a week. Because I read them multiple times.