Editing The Pen Addict 310/transcript (section)

== Industry Growth ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Overall picture is super positive though I think I mean it's got to be like this industry is growing there's no stopping it. You know everything I read online just in general business terms sees growth in the stationary industry for the next five years sees it to be pretty solid just in the the overall big picture and I'm glad we can bring some some fun to it Myke. I love what I do. This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. I am y'all are stuck with me for the long haul.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Especially you Myke you're your host. I absolutely love every minute of what I do and I'm going to keep doing it as long as this industry will have me and I think that's going to be a long time so I look forward to the years to come.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you want to wrap up on a couple of us TPA?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah so we actually have a bunch that I put in this doc and we're not going to get to all of them today but I'm going to put ink dependence on the spot next week with the rest of these ass TPAs that we don't get to. So yeah I'm not

'''Myke Hurley:''' going to be on next week's episode.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Myke won't be here next week but Myke will. So we're covered.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Myke please don't do it to people. You're just breaking people's brains at this point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah let's hit a few of these and then we'll save the rest for next week because I'm going to have a lot to talk to Mr. Ink Dependence about. So let's hit this one from Liz real quick. Is there such a thing as a good medium bold fountain pen for someone whose writing is real small and cramped? My dad can't stand a fine point and he has tiny writing but I would love to find him a fountain pen. So this is kind of like an impossible question but I do think there's an answer. You want a firm nib right? So you don't want to buy you want to buy a steel nib pen that from a company that is known to have firm nibs. You could even do a gold nib if you did sailor like hard nibs. But like something like a Pelican gold nib would be a terrible idea for having a wide line but still consistently right small. So you want to look at something like Twisby I think has very firm nibs for the width of the pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pilots steel nibs you know you can get a great medium nib that's a wonderful writer you know even in the in the Pilot Metropolitan. I think those are kind of the two I would look I would look at for a wider nib that's still going to give you some control for writing small. So that that's where I would start.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sarah asked does your daughter have a pen pencil and notebook picked out for tracking auction prices. So that was the I I've talked about it a million times that was one of the highlights of our trip to Raleigh last year was the auction because it's the first time I'd sat through one and my daughter ended up loving it like I thought she would last like five minutes and she ended up never wanting to leave. So she does not yet. So we're going to work on that today. We're going to pick it out pick out her her carry for this trip auction kit and the auction kit. So we'll get that taken care of today and we'll make sure we'll post it on Instagram what she's going to use but she'll probably track they provide a tracking sheet actually. So you get a print out when you go to the auction that lists all the lots and the opening bid and the ending bids and if they have a reserve. So she'll track it on there but she will pick out her pen and pencil to to use for her auction kit. So Alan wants to know what tool method do you use to get notified of new pen and stationary content on the web. Google alerts doesn't seem to work for me. Google alerts is really sketchy. I use it some but I'm a hardcore RSS person. I am a big feed reader. You know I am one of the biggest backers of any RSS service just because it makes my life easier. It makes my work easier. How do you follow this Myke. I mean one of the good ideas is to follow some blogs like the Well Appointed Desk and the Gentleman Stationer and Gourmet Pens who post links every year right. So I mean every week. So you can go every year. That'd be a long time. That'd be a big post. So every week they'll post a grouping of say 20 or 30 links to content that they enjoyed this week. So that's one way. I personally just I bring in those links to those articles through RSS. That's the way I go. Is there any other option you could recommend?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just follow Twitter accounts. I don't use RSS. I don't use any type of news aggregation service. It's just what I see on Twitter and I'm not even a Twitter completionist. So there's things that I know the things that I miss but I kind of got over that a while ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So Twitter you can create lists. So I don't have one now but I used to have like a stationary list and you can just put in feeds from the blogs and things like that. Like I have a separate Twitter account that's pin underscore addict that is only the RSS feed from the blog. So you subscribe to that and you see every all the content that I create and then you can make a list of all the other you know blogs and bloggers and just you know Twitter people who you want to follow and learn about those things. So I'm all aboard the RSS train choo choo and hopefully it does not go away anytime soon. All right. I want to hit one more Myke which is a combination of three questions and we'll wrap it on this and then we'll save everything till next week because we are in that gift giving time of year and I get a lot of questions on that with graduation happening. So first one Brian Hamilton. What's the best gift to give somebody that you're trying to get into fancy pens? Second one from Beware Ninja. What pen would you give as a congratulatory gift for a librarian who just got a great new job? And third one from Doc Krog. I got a couple friends I'm trying to buy a proper pen wedding present for. What's a good gift for a jazz trumpet player and a left handed vet? That's very specific Doc Krog. I love you for that. This would be their first nice pen experiences. Cartridge preferred. So I lumped all those together because you're kind of talking in the same grouping of answers for all three of these questions outside of the jazz trumpet player who if you can afford it Doc Krog. Montblanc has a wonderful Miles Davis edition you should look into. So that would be a pretty amazing pretty amazing gift. But as far as the best gift to give someone that you're trying to get into fancy pens.