Hello, and welcome to the Panatic podcast on five by five. This is episode number 83 The Panatic is a weekly show where we discuss pens paper and the analog tools that we love so dearly My name is Mike herdley, and I am joined by the high priest of handwriting. Mr. Brad daddy. Hey, that's pretty good I've been getting I've been getting questions about the the handwriting actually here recently again Yeah, yeah, it's something that comes up all the time. You know, how can I improve my handwriting things like that? That's a hard thing to uh, it's a hard thing to discuss, you know, it's a hard You know, it's there's no clear cut way other than practice practice practice kind of stuff. So I mean It's like it's at least sort of 30% of the whole thing is the handwriting, right? Get the pen. Yeah, and they're the handwriting. Like yeah, excuse the pun. They go hand-in-hand. Yeah, yeah Just like that was was it last week? No, it was the show we had on on where that link on Reddit was about you know the my It showed up on the pinmanship porn subreddit. So yeah, it comes up from time to time So that's funny. It's how are you sir? Yeah, I'm good mate big shows a huge show today massive so much stuff including including this And you have to wait until the end of the episode to find out what that is I Can't wait. I can't wait. So yeah, well, let's get it started then we had some follow-up with field notes a few few field notes items this week Just one thing I thought that field notes fans should check out if they haven't seen it already It's it's worth a worth a watch On the field nuts Facebook page, which Mike and I have talked about It's a group page on Facebook and pretty much the only reason I have a Facebook account just to participate in that in that group because it's pretty cool Field notes themselves did a contest Where they were offering up Three Well, it started out was as three Press sheets like these rolled out big press sheet printings from field note covers That they were given away to these readers I mean to yeah to the readers and the members of the group and Well, that was cool in itself. They finally gave it away and then Brian bedell who's been on our show before From field notes did a video showing what the sheets looked like and that was the coolest part of the whole thing You and I didn't win. Unfortunately, no But you know mine would have gone straight into like a picture frame or something like that But it was worth I wanted to point it out the video Because I thought Brian did such a great job With the Brian cracks me up. He's hilarious. I had a grin on my face the whole time. I watch this video He's he's really smart and funny and It was cool to see what some of these test printings and print sheets from From field notes look like so, you know if you're interested in that kind of stuff like Mike and I are and you know A lot of other people are we'll put the link to the video in the show notes and it's worth just checking out You get to see Brian from field notes talk about some of the printing processes of the notebooks and things like that. So That's pretty cool. Do you get to watch that video? Yeah, what's this morning? Yeah, it was pretty neat seeing some of the the old covers and then at the end he threw in a little extra Test printing of some of the Raven's wing covers. So that was kind of cool the Oh, it's gonna up my head Something I was gonna say something but now I can't remember what it was something something field notes something something field notes. Yep Okay, we'll go with that. Yeah, have you broken out your horizon edition? I have and So I really really love the way that they look The I like the the gradient quite a lot and the blue colors are really really striking I like that the covers feel different again. I Hope that that's something that they continue now Like the covers got this weird. It's like shiny, but it's got kind of like the texture. It feels like it's kind of like Bobbly it's weird to describe. It's like a rough texture My only sort of thing about these is they smell really strong You think it's maybe the cover material. I think it's the paper because the paper's colored because when I Smell it It's got it just smells like you know, it smells like paper But sometimes, you know, you will notice all of our panetics No, sometimes that sometimes paper just has a smell to it and this is it's got quite a strong smell to it. Yep. Yeah well, I got mine finally showed up and I haven't Opened the envelope from field notes, but I haven't opened up one of the sets yet So I haven't taken a whiff, but I did I Did think that's gonna be a new it's gonna be a new field notes meme You know smelling your field notes like Aziza tastes taste the fountain pin ink will be smelling field notes. So there's somebody that tastes Aziza from gourmet pins it was on that it was on the Anderson pins podcast one time. I don't know. I don't know how it came up, but yeah I don't think like it's a regular thing. I think it was just kind of like a one-off thing that became a thing Anyway, when I opened up the cold horizons envelope, I was impressed More than like looking at the pictures online with how they looked. They are really striking looking It's one of my favorites like to look at I mean, I I've not made I haven't used I've only used it a little bit Like I've not used it a lot like I've I've broken out one and I've been writing some notes that aren't sort of my daily notes I'm still I'm using one of the They might want to call the new black ones pitch black pitch. I'm about halfway through a pitch black. So I'll be you probably picking up a cold horizon after that I can using it on a daily basis So I really like I love the way that these look I think that there's some there may be one of my favorite designs to look at but it does have that little downside for me is that The paper smell was quite it's quite strong Yeah, well, I'll I'll have taken a whiff of mine by next week I should be ready to open up a new one So I'll open up one of those and check it out. Yes a couple of people aren't like in aren't like in the cover So I want to I love I love I love the way. I just like that they feel different I like if I like that. There's a difference in the most. That's just fun for me So I had one of these yesterday morning and I was writing in it with My Edison pearl and I thought I was high because the fumes of the the fumes of the acrylic Yep, and the fumes from the paper. Yeah, it was then my notes got a bit funky Don't do that in a closed up room, right? I'll try not to we'll have to we'll have to break down the door and rescue Mike from his his pen and paper-induced coma Yeah, it was it was fun, but It sounds like it. Yeah, it was it was interesting it was interesting So a couple of people asked me on on Twitter, you know aside from field notes You know what other notebooks are you using what other paper products are you using on a regular basis? And I've gotten a few I've talked about how I've been kind of behind on my notebook testing But there's a few that I'm really really anxious to try One of them I have I have started trying and that's the Hobonichi Techo the planner I got for 2014 I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, you know as we get closer to 2014 to start using this notebook and what they did was in December of 2013 they did like These little half pages. It's it's not a full show type full-type page, you know until you get into 2014 But you know starting December 1st They give you these little half pages and you can start writing on them because I wanted to start using the paper Because it's that Tomoe River paper that I like so much to use with fountain pens And it's gonna be nice to have like a little planner Or journal to use, you know, whichever fountain I wanted so I started on December 1st anxiously and using you know kind of a wider nib pen I think I used a pelican nib Just a regular standard EF nib which is you know sometimes wider than some of the Japanese EF nibs or F nibs that I use and Man that paper just handles handles anything you can throw at it so easily It was um it's it's a real joy to to write on so I'll be having more I'll do a review of the Tekko coming up soon I'm trying to decide whether I'm gonna do it before I really start heavily using it or wait You know to like January's over after I've used it and see how it holds up So I've had so many people asking me to review it or what's going on with it But it's you know, it's kind of not really useful until 2014 so I've been to limit on on when to post that review But um, I'm very happy with the with the product so far One notebook That I think might crack the heavy rotation and might replace some of my rodeo use is one called the Why am I butcher this Kiyokuto Kiyokuto. Yeah, I think yeah Kiyokuto the F O B coop W ring notebook and This came out at jetpens. It's been several months ago and I picked one up right currently 40% off They've got the moment. I Think that's if you buy over $75 oh, yeah, 75 minimum notebook. Well, it's a lot of notebooks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so they always have that in place That's always in place for notebooks. Okay so I bought one When they came out and I haven't really used it But this is the notebook that Ed Jelly uses for all his reviews now And he raves about it and he told me I needed to get on it and start using it because it's really impressive handling all different kinds of inks normally I'm not a wire bound notebook kind of guy Unless they're done like really right and really strong and really durable like the um, the dome paper idea journal That one's done right and it's perfect This one looks like it might could replace, you know, some of my rodea pads It just um for review purposes and fountain pen review purposes and things like that. It's a great size What's this what's the standard size here? I just don't like ring Yeah, it's when you get it when you get it in hand, it's So well-made it feels strong and durable that you kind of overlook the ring and normally I'm with you Mike I I don't Ring is way down the list of what I would normally look for in a notebook, but this one's done right It feels very strong very durable So we'll see this one's they're calling this a semi B5 which doesn't make sense the Seven nine no, it's seven inches by nine point nine inches, right? It's I find it uncomfortable to have the spiral right in the middle of the Yeah, that's right. You're left-handed. Yeah, I forget that that makes a bigger difference for you. Yes truth to that, so Truth But Yeah, I need to review this ASAP because I think I might cut over to Using this notebook for some reviews because what I do is I've been using a rodea Dot pad, but I have been using the The ringbound one of that and I keep all the reviews in the same notebook without tearing them out So that kind of helps to where it keep all my reviews together and instead of having stacks of loose sheets Which I still have also but Regardless keep it keep an eye out for that one because I think I think that's gonna be a good one and I Know Ed loves it and just click over to edgelly.com and you'll see all of his reviews now or in that notebook And you can see how good it handles all of all of the inks and things like that One I'm a one more. I'm a little more hesitant on It's called a life noble notebooks. They're from Japan. They're way more expensive then Something like the Kiyokuto or the rodea just to use on a daily basis I have one and I'm gonna I'm gonna test it out I just don't know how it's going to if it's going to be that much of a difference to To accommodate the the large difference in price that the notebook is They're around about twenty five dollars each There's for like 80 page notebook that I use the a for one is forty six dollars on Japan. Yeah, that's insane Whereas the Kiyokuto one. I was just talking about is 1350. That's really expensive like I mean like 1350 is expensive. Yeah for a notebook and then to the one I bought I think was the a5 on which was twenty five dollars Which is extremely expensive For a notebook, so we'll see we'll see on that one. I mean it's gonna be a great notebook I just don't know if it's gonna justify the price that seems awfully awfully expensive to me So I just use field notes like I feel like people are asking me this question more and more often now as well And I'm like and you use field notes just because of the way that I use my notebook is different Like yeah, just it's not about for me. It's not about like anything else other than portability Right, right that is the main thing that I look for now in a notebook Yes, I guess those questions are better for me because I'll do different things for the blog You know testing and writing on different papers for different reviews and things like that You know like I've been using the dome paper for you know gel ballpoint rollerball inks and I've been using rodeo paper for fountain pens, so But I do try different things and review different ones so and carry more more paper than just the field notes. So yeah I'm always experimenting with that. So I will have some more coming up on those soon for sure Should take a quick break Yeah, that'd be good So take a moment to thank our friends over at Squarespace for helping to support this week's episode of the pan addict Squarespace are the all-in-one platform to make it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase Go over to squarespace.com and use the offer code tallyho12. That's gonna not just support the show But get you 10% off. So Squarespace the things that we love about Squarespace me and Brad use them both for our own personal Websites and Brad also has one for knock-cows as you well know We love the way that they look fantastic the fact that we Can use the beautiful themes that they have and we can tweak them and we can change fonts and colors and stuff like that as we please And it's gonna look fantastic across all devices like I spent some time a couple of weeks ago And I just overhauled my entire website and I went to change the way it looked and just give it a totally different feel And I was able to do that just in a very short space of time and I was able to tinker to my heart's content It was great, but it was all easy like when I say tinker I wasn't going in and changing like HTML code or CSS code I was just like moving sliders and changing selectors and how does this font look click? Okay, how does this font look click and then it just all updates live for me in the browser as I'm drinking these changes That's the sort of stuff that I love But if I'm in Squarespace and I'm playing around and I get stuck with something or I need help with something well I Can contact their fantastic support team which worked 24 hours a day seven days a week They even have people in and working over Thanksgiving as well So it just shows how how dedicated they are to making sure that you can use your site as you like whenever you need to I Mentioned that Brad is using Squarespace for the knock-cows Well, he's able to do that because of their e-commerce platform that Squarespace have built So if you want to set up a shop and sell things online You can do so in just a few minutes and not only will it help you actually sell products But you can also manage all of your inventory and shipping information and stuff or through Squarespace commerce They have connected accounts meaning that if you want to look at connecting your Twitter Facebook Pinterest Instagram accounts Just their name to name just if you you can do that you can have your content from these services showing up on your website Or you can push content out to some of them as well. I really love Squarespace They're like the all-in-one place that just like a one-stop shop for you to go and just get all of your website needs Taking care of so the best way for you to see all of this is to go and try it out for yourself So go to squarespace.com. You can sign up for a free trial right now There's no credit card needed to do that their plans start at just eight dollars a month and include a free domain name If you sign up for a year when you do decide to sign up make sure that you use the offer code tally ho 12 It's gonna get you 10% of your first purchase. It will also show you support for the pan addict from five by five Thank you so much to Squarespace. They give you everything that you need to create an exceptional website Yeah, it was awesome to see how active Squarespace has been in development here recently So it kind of it kind of comes and goes they're always working on stuff in the background and they don't dumb They don't release it till it's ready They don't like hand around and people will be paying them questions and they're kind of elusive at answers and then boom They'll just drop something on you like the Squarespace commerce commerce with the ship station integration Yeah, I mean just like out of the blue. So that's something that I've been wanting for our commerce site I haven't had a chance to play around with that yet, but that's a feature that is going to be It's kind of a game-changing feature Okay, I'm going to add to that so it's ships. I'll be able to talk to talk about that more. What is ship station? It's um, it's integrated. It's going to it's going to allow us kind of one stop Organization of orders and shipping like everything will be integrated to where in order Will someone will place an order and it'll come in and I'll be able to ship it and track it and contact the Person who ordered it let them know that shipped and you know all the notifications and all the tracking And it's just going to be integrated into the platform there. Nice So it should be pretty cool. It's going to be very useful for someone like us So, but I'll have more about it once I get to play with it here in a couple months and They don't do they provide shipment for you so like they How does it like see if you need no no no it'll it'll be like You know like I could self print postage kind of stuff right like in Disha It like it's integrated within Disha, which is what I'm using right now For just for printing labels and shipping and stuff So you just like you fund your shipping account basically so you can just continually buy and print postage Yeah, I'm just looking at it's a hundred and forty five dollars for unlimited shipments per month Yeah, I'll have to look and see what the break down seems kind of Incredible is that anyway if it's what I think it is. I don't know. Yeah, I believe it or not. I don't ship products No way So learn to ship Okay, I'll go Hey, you need to come over here and start helping me shipping some notco stuff I think early birds are going out next week for all of you paying attention I have to finalize something with the post office I'm going to finalize that tomorrow then have early birds packed and shipped next week. So heads up there So and then we'll start with other stuff right after that. Cool. All right, so This next topic encompasses lots of things that I want to talk about and it's from a new blog that I stumbled upon from The field nuts page on Facebook gentleman by the name of Matthew Hicks He's he decided hey, you know, there's there's an infinite He said there's an infinite amount of blogs out there and I've decided to give it a try as a hobby I just made a post on how I use my field notes check it out So I went and checked it out and I was like wow, okay, so this has this that little simple Thing got my got my brain working overdrive for for several topics And this is probably something of a topic for next show but I wanted to point out Matthews post one because it answers a question that I get a lot of times and This post details a field notes planner system that he's using So if you've ever asked me about using your field notes as a planner and how to set it up And this isn't necessarily a new thing He's just kind of taking some things that have been done by other people in the past and updated them to to fit him Take a look at this take a look at Matthews post He goes through a few things one is just he has like a general calendar in his field notes He basically modifies his field notes. It looks like he just breaks out a ruler and and goes to town setting up calendars Daily planners, and he also uses a what's called a spiral decks, which you've probably Heard me talking about Patrick Ng's Chrono decks, you know, it's just another way for people to do time tracking during the day He incorporates all this into his field notes Into a single notebook has a second notebook that he uses for task and like a bullet journal system Then he uses a third note book because he has a separate farm business. I love with this man Yeah As a fourth a third notebook for the farm business where he tracks all the daily ins and out of the farm then he has a fourth book where it's his brain dump book He calls it and then his fifth book is the one that he carries around in his back pocket And it's kind of like a the current brain dump and and sketches and things like that And then he keeps these all like tied up in like a Midori style leather cover so people, you know, this a Lot of people asked me about field notes as a planner so go here to check out a math what Matthew does and This is the first post on his blog. I thought he knocked it out of the park. So, you know, I wanted to give him some some link love To check it out because I thought he did an exceptional job. Yes, nice looking sight, too Yeah, yeah, it's a really cool looking theme on You know and this brings up a point that I wanted to I wanted to just mention kind of in passing and See what the listeners if the listeners were interested in me doing something like this in the future Because I've had a couple questions recently about starting a pin blog or a paper blog or a review blog or something like that And you know a lot of people reach out and you know say, you know, how do I get started? You know, what site should I use? What should I write about? How do you get products and things like that? I'm wondering if The listeners would like an episode just on you know, like getting started in pin blogging, you know, that kind of thing I would so yes Yeah, so we'll do that and I've got an and got an idea. I want to have a guest for that episode to talk about Doing that so I will work on that because I've been getting more and more questions about people wanting to start their blogs And should they do it and you know, how do they go about doing it and um? You should just do it. I mean, it's it's a fun community to be a part of and there's nothing really stopping you these days from just going to town and and and starting to write about, you know, pins and paper and Inks and anything else you want to write about funny cuz only a few minutes ago I was remembering when we were first talking about Ed jelly Well, that's that that's what I want to have on I haven't I haven't told Ed that yet so Ed check your calendar because I want to get you on to do a pin blogging episode So that's that's who I had in mind my whole nearly four years of podcasting I've never heard somebody invited on to a show in a pre in a in like a prior episode The invitation goes out via the episode. Yeah, so no one tell Ed. Let's see if he really listens to the show Then what no one tweeted at or no one do anything like that Let's let's see. Yeah, let's see if he let's see if he listens listens to the episode and not accepts My invitation to come on and talking about getting started and pin blogging. So so the onus is on you Ed We had I don't know if you're on the jet pins mailing list by chance Mike Yeah, yeah, so they had a cool they do this once a year. I think they did it last year in the year before Well, they'll come out with an email, you know around this time of year which is perfect for Christmas and things like that where they Just kind of do you know like Google does like the soft tops search terms of the year and you know all the big search engines do all that and Jet pins did in their latest newsletter the most wishlisted items of 2013 and You know, it's a cool list if you if you need ideas for pins or anything like that go take a look at the list as a whole but one of One of our listeners named jail Thompson he sorted out the list and he filtered out the list for fountain pins and Just to kind of get an idea of what the most popular fountain pins were most popular wishlisted Fountain pins were and it was an interesting result. So he sorted this by cost And let me just kind of let me run through this list real quick and y'all you'll be familiar with most of these Pens so the most popular wishlisted items of 2013 from jet pins in the fountain pen category where the platinum preppy black platinum prep preppy blue black the pilot petted one blue black pilot petted one black The pilot pinmanship EF nib black pilot pinmanship EF nib clear platinum carbon desk pin Lamy safari charcoal black Lamy safari Well, that was fine Lamy safari extra fine charcoal black and the pilot namiki vanishing point So it takes a significant turn at the end Yeah, the jails comment was I'm amazed at one the number of pilot pins that are popular Which just happens to be my favorite brand for fountain pens roller balls and ball points? To the fact that the metropolitan is not in this list and three the price point jump from the low economy range Pins to a premium range without any mid-range pins in between like the praira or the platinum cool So yeah jail had the same same thought that you had and it It's super interesting and this goes to a point where I'm at and some of the conversations that I've had with other people That are like super super experienced with fountain pens You know wanting to Kind of have a different conversation about fountain pens whereas I'm wanting to have the conversation about like this list of fountain pens because these are the ones that are people you can tell from this list that People are just people are trying this out, right? They want to see will do I like a fountain pen? Is fountain pen or fountain pens gonna work for me? You know maybe it's something I like maybe it's something I don't like but I can take a you know a three dollar risk or an eight dollar risk And then you know, I'm not really losing out if I really hate it Excuse me. So It's an interesting list in that aspect that it's all of these Low-end pens sure and then it jumps right into the Lamy's Lamy Safari's which we recommend a lot And then it goes straight into the vanishing point. It's pretty funny I mean the only thing that I can think is that the vanishing point Gets additional press maybe people talk about it. Yeah I think so just because it's such a unique pen that no one else has really been able to pull off I mean there's other retractable pens like the Lamy dialogue three kind of makes me sad a bit though Yeah, I mean I guess it's just a it's just an engineering technical thing that pilot has nailed and not everyone else has I just I just I don't know. I just don't I don't like that it jumps to that pen on this list. There's something about that to me where I'm like, it's It's really expensive and they're in my opinion far superior pens for like a half of the price Sure, and that's why I always Talk about that range that price range That fifty to a hundred dollar price range in fountain pens is a is is quite a variance there You know, that's why I talk about the Twisbee 580 so much. I think that's one of the best value pens Around, you know, fifty five fifty five dollars sixty dollars something like that. I think that a Think that a vanishing point Should be in all panetics like Arsenal, right because it's so cool at some point but Clearly this list Is is reaching further than panetics or you would see you would see the prior in the metropolitan in there Mm-hmm. I don't know that I It's good to see that the safaris in there. Yeah, that's good. I'm happy about that But I don't know I don't know I just see it. I'm like that's so much money to be spending and then to think that That one hundred and forty dollar pen is selling more than the prior Is a is a concerning thing to me? Well, not it's not necessarily a sales list, right? It's just the wishlist wishlist that item. It's not oh, this is a wishlist item Yeah, that kind of changes my a little bit, but I'll still stand by some of it Yeah, no, I think most of it was valid until just that point I just want to make sure you you realize that But I was kind of surprised that metropolitan wasn't on there to be honest Even I had that metropolitan on my wishlist just because it sold out so fast and I couldn't get the one that I wanted So it was on my wishlist forever. Just waiting for it to pop back up Wishlisting a pen that cost three dollars. Yeah, I don't know Maybe I don't wishlist properly. I don't know yeah, I don't know I just use it as a future purchasing list You know, but um, yeah It's kind of funny to wish wishlist like the preppies and the petits because they're three dollars and they're always in stock the pilot penmanship is a great one because they sell out of it all the time and it's so popular because The pilot the nib the EF nib that pilot uses fits on the praira So I recommend always buying the penmanship Taking the nib off the penmanship and using it on the praira So I've never I bought like three penmanship But I've never used one because I get them and I take off the nib and put them on something else Yeah, but the best way to get that nib is a really good nib then yeah, it's just extra extra fine And you can't you can't buy it. You can't buy an EF nib on the praira. You can only buy an F nib So so pro tip right there But yeah, anyway, I thought that was something cool to look at and we'll have the link to the the full wishlist and the show notes If you guys want to check it out. So I thought that was a thought that was some interesting Interesting things to to ascertain from that list so Pretty cool cool stuff So we got it we got a second sponsor today Mike we do indeed we have the the great people over at doxy Have come back to sponsor another episode of the pen addict, which is excellent stuff So let me tell you about the doxy flip which is a new type of scanner It's not for going paperless, but for capturing your creativity in history anywhere Doxy the doxy flip is a retake on the traditional flatbed scanner of the past two twists First it's super small. It's about the size of a book and it's battery powered so you can take it anywhere But secondly the doxy flips the doxy flip flips over to allow you to capture old photo albums books and pocket notebooks Of a transparent scanning window underneath the underneath that lets you see right through to what you're scanning So you can easily line it up and capture your original thoughts The doxy flip is perfect for field notes and moles and notebooks index cards and everything you thought couldn't be scared of a traditional sheet fed scanner the doxy flip is now available for $149 from get doxy.com and while suppliers last you can buy the From dark doxy directly and get a free limited edition doxy field notes notebook with textured French 80 pound cream Cord tone covers. I've recently scanned my second notebook in with the doxy flip again took me 10 minutes I loved it. I loved it. I got the little preview Other stuff out simpler is to then just use to take those notebooks in the software So once I've popped the SD card out put the SD card into my MacBook Pro Use the software that doxy has to just sort of take all of those show them to me in one big image I can flip them around as I need to to make sure that your orientations correct Staple them together into one book chip them out to dropbox and other notes. I love it I'm so happy that I have one of these things and if you are a person that is as Embedded in the paper lifestyle as I saw pen addicts are Especially if you're a field notes user or use like the smaller notebooks. It's really good for that Then I it's a definite recommend for me But even if you do use larger notebooks you can like they do this stitching thing So you can scan different sections so you can like scan one half scan another half and then stitch the images together Which is really really cool, too So go to get doxy.com. That's G.E.T D.O.X I E.com and you can pick yourself up a doxy flip which is a great stocking stuff for the pen addict in your life Or if you just want to buy a present for yourself Yeah, cuz our Friend and now my business partner Jeffrey Brook wiki, you know is Got one of these for himself for Christmas. So yeah, it's a cool gift and it's a it's a great. It's a great scanner It's like it's completely functional for what I need To do with my notebooks and things like that. So yeah, perfect a couple of weeks ago I needed something that was in and I was at work and I had taken some notes in My previous field notes notebook that I needed But that notebook is in my archive box at home. So I pulled out my phone open to Evan out and just scrolled through the PDF document and found the note That's awesome. So it's exactly what I wanted it for. I now have it for that And that's what makes me happy. It's kind of makes this part of my life go full circle That yeah, I may have the convenience of technology with the feel of the pen and the pen and paper That's cool. That's that's exactly what Yeah, well how it should be used, you know that that archival type stuff and you know You don't need it every you don't need your notebook every second of every day But when you need it you want it and to be able to have it so easy like that is awesome. Yep Okay, so this arrived It's go time the vision air Is here like we should I feel like we should play some like intro music. Yeah, this is you know, I mean I can play one of these sounds Which That's a whole other thing, but it got in there Right, so it's I don't you I honestly don't know what to say Because I don't the build up of this is so it's so large. So what I'm gonna do I've taken some notes Okay, but I'll go through The packaging was weird it came in an envelope When I opened the envelope there was like a thank you note slash card, which is then all like crumpled up Because it came in an envelope Fine whatever. I mean it shipping is shipping like don't send it to me anything. It's gonna cost you too much money I get that it's just a point the tube that the pen comes in like a sort of a cardboard tube Which is fine. I mean you've seen this in a bunch of places like the retro 51 doesn't stuff like that And then there's like this like little velvet Case which is inside a case like a little bag and then inside the velvet bag was the pen which was wrapped in like a plastic sheath Which and I found the plastic weird like it just felt like an inattention to detail The way that it felt to me was they arrived in plastic and he shoved him in these velvet bags and put them in the tubes I should forgot the velvet bag. Take care of the plastic right The and the only way that the only reason that I mentioned things like that and there might be a few other things Along that sort of line with the attention to detail is that that is the impression that Morgan has given about this product That it is premium and that there has been a fine attention to detail taken like the cartridge is I Didn't use the cartridge is and I'll get on to why I didn't in a minute But they send a little box of cartridges that comes with the with the vision air and it's just like It just looks terrible It's just like a little box and it's just his visionary on it and it says like fine writing instruments on a side And I'm just like I don't I understand what you're trying to do but that it's you've not it's not all come together And I actually have some images. I've taken some photos. Okay, so I will I'll make sure that they they find their way into the show notes somehow So yeah, I'll think of a way to do those. I'm really thought how I'll put them in But I took just some photos of mine at my sort of unboxing experience Yeah, I think of a way to do that, but yeah, so you'll be able to see the images I have the chrome version Okay, so I'll go through some of my thoughts like that as I was writing them down when I sort of strategies in this pan So it's got a really good weight It's weighted really well It's not too heavy. It's not too light. It feels solid and the actual build the actual material that it's made from feels relatively solid Not high-end but solid and I do consider those things a different It looks very professional Like this is the sort of pen that I would expect to see in the hand of my boss's boss It's very simple very sleek. You know, it just looks decent, you know Mm-hmm real slight aside. I was in a meeting a couple days ago at work Sitting around a big table and there were people in there that were honestly three pay grades above me One of them was using a bick that the end had been chewed off And the and then other guy was using a bick as well. I'm like Guys seriously anything just anything will do instead of this That's amazing to be a pan addict Um This is really hard for me Brad Talking about this pen because of how long we've been discussing it. Yep I mean, it's almost not fair. There really isn't much to say Like I don't have a lot to say the ink flow is okay The nib feels like it's medium But it's impossible to tell It's not marked in any way, but it feels like a medium nib It just is a radium point germany on the nib There's nothing to me anyway. I'm sure that you know, there are smarter people than I that can work out by something, but It's relatively smooth These are sort of my initial impressions like it, you know, it was relatively smooth and I was writing with it and I was quite impressed With the I was expecting it to not not feel good at all But that it was kind of, you know, it was it was fine like it was, you know We'd because of the way that we'd sort of This is the wrong way, but it's anyone can think of the way we'd sort of vilified the project I was expecting it to be horrible and disgusting in every single way, right? But it wasn't I used it came it comes of a converter which and I and I filled it with Erosius who goo ink I Know I filled it with For you gucky, which is the orange? Mm-hmm, and I wanted to do that because I didn't want the experience to be Tainted by using the potentially cheap cartridges, right? They came with I wanted to give it a fair shake by using good ink which in my thing my sort of Mind was the right thing to do So they were my initial feelings That it was perfectly fine Mm-hmm and that's what I've said all along and then I've said I've said the same thing for months, you know, so then I Was taking some notes a couple of days ago and I thought I'll use the Vision Air and I could use it for like a minute and I had to change pen and I have no idea why I Think that there is a mismatch Between the way this looks and feels to how it performs, right? And the actual look and feel of this pen is Is nice. It's actually pretty decent for me anyway, you know in the way that it is weighted, but I kind of found it Because of that as I was using it I couldn't help but compare it to other things and Considering I use the same ink in my Edison I had to switch to my Edison Because I just did not want to use this pen It's actually became for me uncomfortable to hold it's really slippery and There's no grip at all. There's no grip portion So it's like a chrome and it was just sort of felt like it was not secure in my hand as I was writing with the long periods and By far and away the worst thing about this pen is What I expect some people think is the best thing Which is the resistance that has been added to the cap mm-hmm. It is it's not possible to easily remove the cap with one hand There is I'll open it and close it. I don't know if it will give you any indication, but It sounded it sounded hard to put back on it is it's it's extremely difficult and I and I can see it It's been added to make a premium feel Mm-hmm, but it just makes it's it just annoys me. I can take a screw cap off of a pen with one hand right this one For me to do it. I'm concerned I'm gonna break the nib because I have to kind of like force the pen nib to one side to get some traction Do it one hand mm-hmm. It's just it's it's in my opinion the worst part of the pen Yeah, one of our one of our Twitter followers Glenn HK Actually mentioned that and I hadn't heard that before he says when he's putting the cap back on It's like the nib itself is rubbing the sides of the cap That could be possible So which is bad it is it's just it's like an it an ordeal every time I want to put the cap back on hmm Yeah, I mean look I I wanted to give it a fair shake kind of wish I hadn't bought it, but please that I did talk about on the show Do you have any questions for me at all? I do so a couple questions coming to mind and you've kind of you've kind of answered them But I just these were the questions that popped up when you were talking about it out of okay So you have the vision air where would you what would you do you have anything? Any other pen that you currently own that you can even compare it to like is it similar to something? Is it worse than something? Is it better than? Something else like how does it? Rate with any other pen that you've used kind of thing did to put disappointment level Remember the platinum yeah kind of like that. Yeah, okay Like yeah, just like nice nice looking yeah, not super functional perfectly fine But not to the levels that we expect gotcha That that's kind of my my sort of if yeah if I could put it in one one line is the the visionary is perfectly fine but just not to the level that we would expect like for this money and Just as a pan addict. It's just not it's just nowhere near. It's just nowhere near Brad. It's it's it's it's stuff, you know It has not met the brief Yes, so have you had any the some of the people or we're talking about like overly Inky like nibs like the ink flow wasn't good like it. It was almost you know like seeping through the nib it just wasn't Kind of making a mess type of thing. Did you have any of that? I haven't had any of that kind of you people were talking about that so I I mean I'm I think it's obvious. Definitely not worth the 37 bucks or whatever, right? No way Yeah, I wouldn't want to buy it for any amount Really like right there is nothing I wouldn't want to own this pen like it's just not it doesn't do anything It doesn't do anything for me like even if you spent five dollars on it or something It's just gonna sit there on the desk and not be used because it's not a good writing But it's not a good experience when you pick it up. It's not a good experience, but then it's also not an interesting one sure That's that's a good that's a good point. It's like I have some pens though. Also not fantastic, but they're interesting Oh, I have pens that I don't even really use that much, but they're interesting to me This is none of those things or like for example. This is nice as a right with in my opinion an official space pen Because you know, it's a fountain pen and I always find fountain pen superior But the Fisher space pen has its interesting points, which mean that is a better pen to use This doesn't have either of those things for me really I Yeah, I would I wouldn't I wouldn't like I have do you remember that that pen? That I bought called the AG spalding Sure. Yeah, that wouldn't would barrel. Yeah, which was kind of uncomfortable to hold because they did like they do like this We're sort of like leveling on the grip area And I never use it really But I love that I own it because it is a fantastic to look at right And so I don't regret that decision at all But I do regret buying this because it doesn't give me anything it is so like when I say it's professional-looking It's because it looks like a sea level executives pen, right? So it's just understated But but made out of a nice-looking material and isn't garish in any way, you know Like when I put my 540 ROC down on the desk people are like what is going on here, right? Yeah But yeah All right, well, I mean I got to say that's about what I expected I guess I mean I've said you know from the jump that everyone's gonna get a perfectly fine pen It's just not gonna be You know one it's not gonna be worth the money for sure and two I don't know how it's going to function in relation to what you can get for you know something like a pilot metropolitan, you know that would be way more impressive of writer than then a pen like the visionary so So, you know, I'd like to say hopefully we could put this to bed, but I I doubt I doubt that's the case since our friend Morgan has popped up with another Kickstarter campaign that we're not gonna link in the show notes, but I could I could safely say I would avoid it at all costs Because this one like it just looks badly made Yeah, I think it I think it is what I thought it is the whole time. I mean, I think it's exactly what I thought it was going to be and I have not heard one Thing that that changes my mind about it at all So in regards to the vision now, which is quite this is quite some book because it's just like a If you have any questions send them in and yeah Next week, I mean I would be surprised if anybody had any questions more than what we've covered Yes, yeah, let's put let's put um, hey Matthew's Visionary video Matthew did a video Put that and we'll put that in the show notes It's like a 10 minute review and it kind of goes through the same things that you went through exactly except that the kids is worse His is actually physically broken. Yeah, his review is much harsher than mine I think partly because of that like some of the stuff that he was saying I didn't agree with but I Know it is a very good take Yeah, and you can see like the cap the cap Stuff and and that Mike was talking about in Matthew's about these video. So yeah, so like I said, you know, I want this to be The last time we talked about it, but I'm sure it's not but I mean I think as more and more people get their pins I think we'll probably see more and more people talking about it and you know I Think Yeah, like I said earlier it is it is what it is and it's it's exactly what I thought People would be getting and it's unfortunate that Morgan has been able to get away with this, but You live and you learn and hopefully, you know, I've seen some positivity coming out of it Some of the people like I've read on the fountain pen network Couple of people that back the visionary for their first fountain pen Saying that, you know, I wish I'd listened to other people. I wish I had done some more research And you know in the interim, you know, I bought something like a Lamy Safari And now I see what you know People are talking about and what how a fountain pen should be and how it should write and you know I'm disappointed that I bought this other got suckered into buying this other thing about that though is if somebody Bies this and it's their first fountain pen This is going to be perfectly fine and we're also Potentially prime them to buy more fountain pens. Yep, because as they it does, you know a decent job But it's just not very good one. Yeah, I just hope it's an it's an eye-opener in in You know, it gets more people into fountain pens, you know that something good could come out of it, but um, yeah, you know I think people are realizing pretty quickly. It's not It's not anything special like it was it was touted to be Are you gonna save it for signing your your first child's birth certificate? Is that something that he actually says Yeah Yep, he sure does it's an heirloom pen man Yeah, all right, well, let's end it on that so we don't embarrass ourselves Yeah, I might be for the best I just feel like dejected I know because I really didn't want it to be like this And it just annoys me. It just really really it just frustrates me. I'm angry. I'm angry about it now I get really frustrated about it a lot. I really really freaking care about this stuff like so much like this is such an important part of my life pens and paper and doing this show and This the stuff that's happening on Kickstarter is not just good for consumers. It's good for the community That is built around pen and paper and this show and and I honestly believe like we Our listenership on this show is growing more and more and more all the time Like I can't believe that it continues to but it does and I think that it's because of things like Kickstarter and the incredible projects that are there That get people interested and intrigued and then when something like this happens It just it just detracts from everybody else Because it doesn't affect some of most of the consumers But what it does is it puts a perceived value against the quality And this pen is not worth however much it was I paid for it like 37 dollars or something It's just not it's just not worth that and it frustrates me that there are there are people like Make trying to make a living that can't so Trying to make a living and I'm really struggling and they're trying to sell better stuff at similar Value cheaper value or a more expensive value But the value of this pen is probably as much as as he paid for it Which was if correct nothing and if he did do everything that he said that he did and paid for things Exactly the way that he did Then somebody really needs to sit down with him and have a serious conversation about this stuff because he has clearly gone into a business And he has he knows nothing about And he really needed at least someone to help him It just really anchors me. You can probably tell I'm really annoyed I'm really annoyed about it because it just it just this sort of stuff devalues what me and you love so much and and that's I think the last thing that I'd say about I I I think you knocked it out of the park right there. I'll let that stand on its own. That's uh, I agree 100 percent With what you said and the passion and emotion you said it with I couldn't say it any better If you want to catch up with me and brad online, thanks by the way, you can do so in a couple of ways We're both on twitter brad is at diodism d-o-w-d-y-s-m I am I mike at I mike. I am yke. I have no doubt that you'll be talking to us this week Um, you can find brad online as well. He writes at panatic.com and don't forget not code.com as well And uh, we'll be back next week. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the pan addict We do actually love you all and until next time say goodbye brad. Goodbye brad [BLANK_AUDIO]
