Editing The Pen Addict 277/transcript (section)

== Podcast Mentions ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So the next two topics, Myke, uh, one of them, I cheated on you. The other one, I lied to you. So are you going to break up with me?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow. This is, yeah, I already know what you've been up to, but yeah, go on, fill everybody in. I see all this stuff. I got my eye on you all the time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Excuse me. So I cheated last week and was on another podcast called the Productivity in Tech Podcast. Listener, uh, Jay Miller, um, asked me on, we, he's, uh, he submitted some Ask TPA questions before and we've gotten to talking. And I heard him on the relay, um, show with Aline Sims and, and K Tempest Bradford originality. So I heard him and talking about bullet churning. I was like, oh, this guy's pretty interesting. You know, uh, so I started following him on Twitter. Then saw he had a podcast and I started listening to his podcast and I liked it. And he asked me if I wanted to come on. So we worked it out this week and it published on Monday this, uh, this week. And it was a good time talking to him. So I posted that and we'll have that link in the show notes. If you want to listen to me talk about, uh, talk, talked a lot about community in there and, uh, how awesome the Pen Addict community is and just the stationary community and hobby as a whole is. So it was a, it was a fun talk. So I appreciate Jay having me and fun fact. I did not know he was originally from where I currently live in Macon, Georgia. So he is out in California now, but he, uh, he knows, he knows my stomping grounds here. So that was fun to talk about as well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I lied to you. So that was my cheat. My lie was the Pen personality quiz. I said, we take during the show this week. And I was like, I think I'll do that for the refill members instead for the Pen Addict membership. And it was fun and I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I, I lied to you, but, um, I wanted to see. If you took the quiz and what you thought of it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I took it. I'm pleased that we didn't wait for it. Kind of the same. Yeah. Um, it isn't really, uh, what I thought it was going to be. Like I was expecting to, the answer to be like, here's the type of Pen person you are. Right. But it just seemed like a regular personality quiz that gives personality types, like analytical, thoughtful, all those kinds of things. Right. And then just had some like Pen things thrown in there. And I have no idea how any of it related to the other. And then also I got to find out what type of animal I want to be. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't really get it. It was lost on me, honestly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it was pretty much a straight up personality test that involved pens. It didn't have anything to do, like you said, with, you know, what your pen personality would be. So far, I don't know anyone that took it that hasn't turned out to be analytical. So I'm interested to see if there's other answers because I was getting emails saying, I answered so many different questions than, I answered so many questions differently than you. And I got analytical as well. So maybe that's the only answer that comes out in the pen personality quiz. And if so, then, uh, it's even more of a joke, but it was fun for about a minute. And, um, you know, I got a couple of things out of it, but really not much. So kind of, I'm glad we didn't do it live on the show. Although the, the animal talk would have been, would have been interesting. What animal did you choose? There was gorilla, lion, dog. What was the first one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, I don't know. It was a gorilla, a lion, a dog, and there was one of them. I don't remember what it was. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it was an owl. It was an owl. Owl. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I chose owl just for funsies. Cause I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Right. I chose dog. So whatever. It was fun. Y'all go take the quiz. And there is people in the chat room say they got, uh, uh, expressive driver. Uh, so yeah, that's, that's interesting. So good. I'm glad some, uh, some other people got some different things. The next one, Myke is one of my favorite times of the year to sit on the sidelines and watch as I do with NaNoWriMo, as I do with national writer letter writing month. I do it in October, inktober in October more than any other, because it's such a visual, um, project. I guess you would call this that people get involved in all across the internets. Um, one of my favorite artists and, uh, someone I talked to on occasion, if he needs some new not goods, we should, we ship, uh, Mr. Jake Parker, some index cards. He's a fan of, um, he has this whole project. That's kind of taken a life of its own called inktober 31 days, 31 drawings. And he kind of leads it up and gives you a prompt list for every day and people will take it either literally to his prompts or we'll just use inktober to do a drawing every day of something that they're interested in, not necessarily the prompts, but following just the whole inktober pattern of making a drawing every day and sharing it. So Brian Draghi, who is a big follower of the show and reader, and I followed him for years. He actually wrote some guest posts for the pen addict. He's doing my coolest one that I've seen so far for inktober. He's doing sketches of his EDC objects. So it's like the one I clicked up today is day three of EDC carrying gadgets. So he has a lighting cable and, uh, lightning cable adapter with his Copic multiliner and he's done the Lamy Pico. He's done a knife. So I, I, I love looking at inktober and I love going through the hashtags and, uh, looks like one of our good friends is doing this as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a bunch of people that do this stuff and I will say that, uh, so this sketch, Brian's sketch shape, right? Like is sketch scape sketch scape. Sorry. Their series is unbelievable. Like it's so cool. And they are wonderful. I need to follow him on Instagram because I've been seeing you retweeting them. They are. Cause I love them. They look like they're just jumping out of the page. It's really wonderful. Um, I would say they're so simple. Yeah. Yeah. I would say just friend of the show, Tiffany Arment. She is, she's doing it this in an interesting way. Um, she's just doing little sketches to put in her son's lunchbox. Oh, now that's cool. And they, they're really cute. And she's been tweeting them out every day as well. So, um, I'll put a link in the show notes to, to her Twitter account. So you can go and see those. It really flies around. Inktober is one of those things that I've seen popping up in more and more places. But there's, there's also this part of me that's like, oh my God, there's so many things. Right. Cause I, I also follow the game design world. Right. And there's also a thing right now called Blocktober that's going on, which is where game developers are sharing, um, early versions of the designs of their games. So like, even like Naughty Dog have been sharing, um, images of like Uncharted, like really early on. And it's just kind of like, there's, there's so many things. There's so many, there's so many months. Right. And then NaNoWriMo. Cause that's where it all starts. Like NaNoWriMo is the originator of this, right? The National Novel Writing Month where you write something every day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'm sure there was something before that. Sure. But like, I think the thing that sparked this stuff now, it's NaNoWriMo.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm sure there's a, there is another one. Oh yeah. Cause there's the letter writing month thing too, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. IncoWriMo. IncoWriMo. It's February. And then during the summer is National Letter Writing Month is like July or June. And that one doesn't get a lot of run because people do, people really go all out for the February IncoWriMo, um, for the letter writing. But yeah, I, it's cool. There are a lot. Um, I participate in none because I'm just that way. I don't know. I, I, I'm, I'm tough with a commitment, I guess. It's hard for me to commit to these things, but I love, I love the fact that these types of things exist and then I can live through things and go, boy, I wish I could draw like Brian and, and do my Lamy Pico just like he does. Cause it's really cool. So I love it. Y'all keep it up. Everyone who participates in these things, share them with us. And, uh, I'll be retweeting a bunch throughout the month. The ones that catch my eye, cause I have a lot in my Twitter feed and I think it's really cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Should we take a break? Let me do some last TPA.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, boy. We, uh, I keep adding to this list and not narrowing it down. So I'll see what we can do this week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's good. Also, uh, we need to, we need to bug people about field notes questions. So we'll do that in a moment. Yes. Just after I take a moment to thank Squarespace, uh, you want to enter the offer code ink, I N K a checkout and you'll get 10% of your first purchase. Squarespace lets you easily create the website that you have for your next idea. Make your next move with Squarespace. No matter what type of website you want to build, they are the all in one platform that will let you do it. If you want to get a unique domain name, you can do that. If you want to take advantage of award-winning templates that you can very easily customize, you can do that. If you want to add an online store to your website, you can do that. If you want to add everything that you need to create a portfolio or blog, a site for your band, a site for your business, Squarespace has all of it. All the functionalities there. If you need it, you can just turn on and turn off what you do and don't need. There's nothing to install. There are no patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. Everything is done within the web browser and you can design your Squarespace website. You can manage it on the go with their apps. It's fantastic. Squarespace have got you covered with 24 seven customer support and a rock solid system. They are the right choice for you today to start a website. Trust me. I have used them and continue to use them for, oh my God, it's got to be nearly 10 years now. Wow. And I wouldn't use anybody else because they are the company that I use to get stuff online. The Pan Addict is there. Knock.co is there. The RelayFM blog and store is there. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Squarespace version four was my first version. So however many years ago that is, it's got to be six or seven.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's longer than that, man. Like seriously, longer than that. Like you're, you're probably on 10 like me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Roundabout. No, no. Cause the blog's only been around 10 and it had a couple stops before we landed on Squarespace. Close then, let's say. Close, close, close.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. You can start a trial today. No credit card required. Just by going to squarespace.com. It's completely open. You can try everything out, play around. And then once you've got the website that you want, you can sign up for a plan and use the code Inc at checkout and you'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. I'd like to thank Squarespace for the continued support of the pen addict and Relay FM Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I want to thank the listeners for their continued support of us and using the code because I get asked for it pretty frequently. Say, hey, what's the code again for Squarespace? I'm setting up a new site. Boom. Inc. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So should we talk a little bit of scheduling and the field notes thing?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Let's do that before we get into Ask TPA. So due to our upcoming travels, the pen addict podcast recording schedule is a little bit off kilter for the next two weeks. So jot these down. This will be updated on the Relay FM show calendar as well. Our next recording will be Monday, the October the 9th. And what time is that show, Myke? Is that a 9 a.m. Or a 10 a.m.? 9 a.m. Eastern, Monday, October the 9th. We will be live at home still just like this, but we had to move it up because we were traveling later in the week. So mark a calendar for that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that episode will come out on, as usual, on the 11th, on Wednesday.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So if you want to listen live, listen in on Monday. That's when we're recording it. It will drop for everyone else to download on Wednesday, the 11th. The following Wednesday, we are not doing a normal episode where we get in front of our microphones at home and talk and share the recording. We're posting our interview with Jim Kudal and Brian Bedell of Field Notes fame. So you will get to hear our interview with them on the following Wednesday, which is the 18th. So that will be a show that will go live and you can download then. So do I have that pretty squared away?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. We may be able to stream live the Pen Addict recording, but there is a less chance of that than normal. So if we are going to be able to, we will let you know, but it's safe to assume we probably won't because this one's going to be just a little bit more tricky than usual. So just to let you know about that in advance.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So we're definitely going to try. There is a low chance of that actually succeeding. So you may just have to wait until Wednesday to hear the show, but I promise it will be worth it. So on that note, you should send us your questions for the crew at Field Notes. I think I have about three or four now so far. After last week, we asked for more. If you have any questions for Brian or Jim or me or Myke, we would love to have your questions for those guys. They're super interesting and do lots of fun stuff. So tweet them to us, email us, however you want. Yep. I'm collecting all those and we'll be ready to roll next week. Man, it's finally here. It's getting close.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know. I have to say as well, I've started my preparation for the questions and it's fun for me to dust off my interviewing skills again. I don't get to do that so much anymore.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So I haven't started my prep yet. I'll probably do it this weekend. I'm thinking I should write all my questions in a sweet tooth.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe just rip them off one by one when you lost them. Bring that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's perfect. You just rip it. You just throw it over your shoulder. It's done. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see about that. So anyway. All right. Ask TPA. I had a couple of lengthy emails from last week that I wanted to get to because I thought there were some good questions that we can all benefit from or I can get some help from the listeners. So this first one's from Nancy. She says, hi, I've been listening to your podcast for about eight months and I'm slowly becoming a pen addict. I'm a hobby artist and first got into fountain pens because of some of the YouTube videos I watched with people sketching using fountain pens. So my first pen was a Duke 209 with a calligraphy nib. After I started listening to the pen addict, I got a Pilot Preppy. Then you were all talking about Susan Wirth and I watched a video of her demonstrating an italic nib and it looked cool. So to test the waters, I got a Pilot Plumix and I love the italic nib. I have converters for all of them and use Noodler's ink because I like to have waterproof ink in case I choose to use watercolors with my sketches. So obviously I'm budget minded and consider utility over beauty. Now here's what I want and I'm wondering if it exists. I would like black ink cartridges that are waterproof and I would like a pen with a broad italic nib that the cartridges fit in. I get a bit confused and concerned that I'll buy a pen, won't find the appropriate cartridges to fit it and I would like the cartridges for convenience. Can you help me? So this is a super particular question I had a hard time answering and the only things I'm coming up with are kind of roundabout answers because of the cartridge situation. So you can get black waterproof ink and cartridges, Sailor, Platinum, Faber-Castell, but the only ones that's not proprietary is the Faber-Castell, at least the only thing that I know of. So I'm looking for more cartridge-based waterproof inks. So the Faber-Castell Carbon Black is the only one I know that's an international. And I say that because Sailor and Platinum don't really have any options for budget stub or italic nibs. The only thing I can think of that does and can use an international cartridge are the Kaweco calligraphy pens, which you can buy a pen and it comes with a set of nibs, or you can buy a pen and a nib and buy extra nibs of different sizes. So you could use the Kaweco calligraphy pens and the Faber-Castell Carbon Black cartridges. And that's like all I could come up with on this question. So I'm open for more suggestions if you have them for Nancy. Tony in the chat room says Nemusine. That's a great call because they have stubs and italic nibs and will fit the international cartridges. So that's a good call. And they're pretty readily available too. You can get them, you know, at all your favorite pen vendors now, things like that. So yeah, so that's a good choice. But there's not a lot that are going to fit your waterproof black ink cartridges. So that's kind of the hang up here, you know, and I definitely get the utility aspect of it. So, you know, that's kind of that's the way to go, I think. So check out the Kaweco or the Nemusine and the Faber-Castell Carbon Black cartridges. And we'll have a link in the show notes to both of those items.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Ankum has a really good question. He says, I enjoy listening to your show and keep up the good work. Thank you. He says, I'm a student in high school and a Boy Scout and have ADD. One of the things I do because of my ADD is write things down that I need to remember in notebooks. For school, I've used composition notebooks, but I dislike them for use in Scouts because of their size. I would like something that I could fit in my Scout Pants cargo pocket, which is 6.5 inches square. I prefer a lined paper for this because it helps guide me when I'm quickly writing something down. It does not need to be waterproof because I'll mainly use it indoors, although the more durable it is, the better. I'll be writing in this book with a ballpoint pen, although it would be nicer than a standard pen. Finally, and in this case, least importantly, I generally like plain single colored notebooks and red or maroon are my preferred colors. Do you have any suggestions? So let me tell Ankum, number one, thank you for the email. And number two, it's amazing because of this is the type of detail that we're all about here at the Pen Addict, right? He's got everything that I need to know. And even though it's very specific and even though it's not a normal notebook situation, we can kind of find some things that would work. And what you want to do, Rodia makes square pads. They're mostly in graph. You know, I kind of think you might want to go with an A6 hardbound notebook like a Leuchtturm because they have them in cool colors like red and maroon. You can get them lined. They're going to be durable. They're not square, but they're going to fit in that pocket size. So the A6 size, I don't know if I said A5 a minute ago. I meant if I did, I meant A6. So it's a little bit smaller. It's going to fit in there and it's going to look really good, you know, for that type of style. And it's going to be able to withhold, you know, going in and out of your cargo pants just fine. So that's kind of where I would lean for this. But there's a lot of options in the A6 or memo book size for you to give it a shot. So thank you, Ankum.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So this one, Myke, I wanted to explore with you a little bit and see what you think. So this is from Alex. I think I've outgrown my first few fountain pens in the sub 50 range. And especially after seeing your updated top five list, I'm ready to spend probably one from either Sailor, Pilot or Platinum. The issue is I know these all have different nib fields and I don't yet know which one I want. I'd like to try them all first, but I don't live close to any pen shows and I can't think of any way to test these pens before I buy them. Are there any stores that have a sample program, maybe where they send me a couple of pens? I try them, then send them back. Or can you think of any other way to try pens if there are no pen shows nearby? So we have a business idea, Myke. So it's like Warby Parker, but for pens. What do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's a really good idea, except the problem of all of these things is, right? So like something like a Warby Parker, the reason they can do it is because the expensive part is the lenses. Yeah. That's the expensive part. So you can send the frames and like they're not the expensive part. Unfortunately, the thing that people like Alex want to try in a pen is the expensive part, which is the nib. That's the part you have to try.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I say this because I don't have a great answer for Alex. Like I, you know, people are suggesting, you know, well, just shop somewhere with a good return policy. And, you know, I think that's a pretty common thing to do. But not everyone's, you know, interested in doing that. But, you know, it's hard if you're not in a metropolitan area and there's no pen clubs around that you can get involved in and go check out other people's, you know, different pens and nibs and styles like that. And you can't get to a pen show, which I guess you probably can't because you're not in a metropolitan area. I don't have a great answer for this. You know, it would be a great idea to have Warby Parker for pens. But, yeah, the overhead to start something like that up would be astronomical. And I don't even know how you could do it because, like you say, it's these nibs that are, you know, kind of the kicker. And that's Alex's problem, right? We're trying to solve Alex's problem. How can he figure out what he wants? Because a Lamy 2000 is different than a Pilot and it's different than a Platinum. You know, all these are different. So how do you, you know, how do you get around that? And, you know, I don't have a great answer. Except starting a new business just for Alex.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So we have a new budget game, Myke. And we used to do these in the past. And I think this might be our lowest dollar one yet. So this is the $30 budget game. Derek is wanting to know. He says, I'm new to the obsession and I don't have much to spend. So here's a question. If you could recommend any number of pens to someone with a strict $30 budget, what pens would you choose? Could be 20 different gel pens or a single Lamy. Interested to hear what you think. So I don't have... Man, I wish I had like $35. I want to manipulate the rules a little bit. Because I would get... Honestly, I would get two pens. And it would be that simple for me. I would get a TWSBI Eco. And I'd get a Uniboss Signo DX. And the issue, the reason I hesitate is because I don't have money in my budget for ink.