Editing The Pen Addict 368/transcript (section)

== Topic Shift - Travel Gear ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So you're talking about your trip. Yeah. What was your stationary outfit?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I did a specific kit knowing, well, let me back up first. When we went to Chicago a couple of years ago to do our field notes interview, I added on some days there and took the family because we had never been to Chicago and we want to just kind of like hang out and, you know, see the city and do things. And I made it a goal that trip to take a pocket notebook with me and to record my trip in it. And number one, just to see if I could do it because I thought it was a good idea, but could I actually do it? Was that my thing? And I ended up really, really enjoying doing that because I don't do that enough. Like I don't capture my daily life. Like I don't journal, right? We talk about planners and, you know, we're going to talk about planners a lot in our next episode as a matter of fact, but I don't really journal. But when I go on a trip, I have that opportunity, one, to do it and two, because I want to capture those memories. Like I can write those things down. Like I can take all the pictures with my phone as, you know, as I want, but it really sticks more if you write things down. Like I think that's pretty clear to anyone who listens to this show. Like we like to write things down. So I planned on doing that for this trip through Florida. So what we did was basically road trip from north, northernmost Florida to southernmost Florida and back in our car with the kids. You know, I don't know that we would do it again, but we had like an epic trip. Like it was totally like Griswold vacation family truckster mode, you know, unloading and loading every night, like it is staying in a different place, seeing new and different things. And so I wanted to capture that. And back to the Field Notes perfection, like I didn't know what notebook I was going to take for about like five minutes and it hit me. The Field Notes coastal edition had a Florida coast cover. And I was like, well, it's pretty clear that that's going to be the one I take. Right. So I needed a pocket. I wanted a pocket notebook because I didn't want to carry around many things. And if I wanted to, I just wanted to throw it in my pocket to capture notes on. And then I had to think about what pens am I going to take? So I need a pen to write with. So I didn't want to take a fountain pen because unlike you, I hate fountain pens and field notes on most of their paper and I refuse to use them. So it was actually a pretty easy choice to take a spoke pen with the 0.5 black gel Uniball Signo DX because that's just a good writing pen. Like I can write and write and write. And the one bad thing about the Field Notes coastal edition is the reticle grid is really strong. It stands out a lot. You need a pen to override the density of the dark reticles on the page. Um, so I wanted a black ink to do that. So like I way overthink this. Like, do you like I, I seriously like overthink what I carry because I'm a nerd that way and I want to do it right. And I want to enjoy what I'm using. So I decided that was the pen. I also need a pencil on this trip because sometimes I'll do a little bit of sketching. I didn't have that much time to sketch. And like with the kids, it's hard to like, I can't sit down for 15 minutes and sketch a building, right? It's like super hard. They're not going to sit down, but I still take a pencil just in case. And I don't take a wooden pencil, but I take the Cron Dash Fix pencil, which I think is pretty much a given. If you've known me for any length of time, that's one of my favorite products of all time. Yep. Big fan. And then if those are my two main writing instruments, I need a little bit of color for notation, for highlighting, for coloring, for just side notes. And I went through a bunch of pens to pick out the Pilot High Tech C, the mica edition, which was a different edition they did a few years back. Same refill, different barrel design. And I picked out a bright blue and a bright pink to take on that because, you know, Florida and brightness and fun and neon, like, like it's the right, it's the right colors. I also took a Sakura Pigma Micron, which I ended up not using. Probably didn't need to take that. I used it like once to like, maybe twice and once to like draw on the cover of my notebook. And then I took a small roll of pink washi tape because like, if we go and do something and have a ticket or have a receipt or, you know, have an armband or something, I'll tape those into my little notebook. So that's how I do it. And I packed that all in the Unicorn Snot Notco Sinclair, which is the pink and the blue and pink one. Like I went full Miami Vice for this trip, Myke. I don't know if you have to, right? I mean, number one, these are colors I love to begin with. And number two, I mean, Florida, bright blue, Miami, Key West. Yeah. So I did it themed, right? This was like kind of all in my theme. And I'm like stupidly happy with what I did. I don't know why. I just get the biggest kick about it. It's like, man, I really nailed that travel kit, didn't I? I'm like super proud of myself. But it's probably because I used it and all of it worked, right? I think in that Field Notes notebook, I think I have like three empty pages. So in the span of a week on a driving trip through Florida, I filled the entire notebook, you know, single page, you know, not front and back, you know, just one side of the page. Sure. So it's like everything I wanted. And I like, I'm going to keep this little kit together. Like I'll have to take out the spoke pen and the fixed pencil because I use those more than, you know, than I'd be able to leave them in this case. And like, I'll take a bunch of pictures and elaborate this more for like Pen Addict members refill this weekend. I'm going to go through and like scan my notebook and show you how I use these things and do all that stuff. But I just like the idea of packing specificity, if you will. It's like I could take just a bunch of random pens and paper and figure out what I use when I need to use it or I'm going to use it. But this limits my options while giving me the things that I need to accomplish what I want to if I'm going to write or draw or capture things during the trip. And, you know, like the decisions were made. I didn't have to like question anything. I didn't have to dig through a bag. I could just reach in and grab my Sinclair and all the things were in there, including the washi tape, which fits in there. And I don't know. I, I'm just like stupidly happy with how this turned out. And now I have a notebook. Like I have my Chicago notebook. I'll now have this Florida trip notebook and I keep those things and, you know, I can refer to them later and read all the notes I put in there and just kind of relive the trip. So it was fun. Um, I gave myself a high five for this kit. Um, I think I nailed it and, uh, I want to use it more. I like doing things like this. So it's fun to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's cool. I took, uh, on my trip, I took, uh, my Brown Sinclair, which I love, which I had, I had a couple of field notes in there. Oh, I had one field notes, one story supply notebook. Um, I don't remember. What's that one called? That pocket notebook. You know, one of the red ones.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The red, uh, I want to call that one the four 20 edition, but it's not that it's, I think it's a number. I can't remember. The red one. It's really good. Yeah. Wonderful. And it's, it's really good with fountain pens. Exactly what I was going to say.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I took like the most ridiculous set of pens with me. So the Capeco student. Sure. The, uh, I took the Japan blue crazy sailor. Yep. Right. Cause absolutely adore that thing. Uh, my 1911 King of pen and, uh, kind of lay out Eolani, the new one. Nice. So I took on my trip. I barely used them, but really, I wouldn't. I wanted to show, I wanted to show them to Tiff. Yeah. She hadn't seen them yet. Nice. I wanted her to see those pens cause I love them and I know that she'd appreciate them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And that's a good kid. And, but like you said, like once you start taking multiple fountain pens and you're on vacation, you're not sitting there writing all day. It's like, well, am I really going to use all these things? So that's kind of how I tried to, you know, set the rules when I was packing. Right. You only take the things I can use, limit myself to what fits in this case, which you did too. Like you didn't over pack. Like you didn't take like three pen cases, but you also took things that you ended up not using. No, I took stuff to show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Right. Like I have my journal with me in case I wanted to do that, but you know, I never typically do it in my journaling on vacation and it was the same this time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And it's funny. I only journal on vacation.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's weird. It's weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe that's why I'm so excited about it because it was such a different thing for me. Right. It's, it's, it was out of my norm to, um, before I go to bed every night to sit there and write for like a half an hour, sometimes, sometimes more like that is abnormal for me. Big time, big time. I never do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it's a nice vacation activity though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yeah. It's, it's, and you know what? It's probably mandatory for my sanity, right? I can check out like at the end of the day when like everyone's on edge anyway and tired and exhausted because we've just been go, go, go. And we all like everyone jumps on their devices and I jump in my notebook and it was good.

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'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.