Scribe

You got spanked for being a wiggle worm.

Good, how are you?

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, we were. Twitter chat. What do you call it? Direct messaging about it. Yeah, Texting. It's just texting. We're just texting about it.

Okay. So what we do. Consuming what we're consuming and what we're writing with. Is that right? Okay. So. Well, I'll do. I'll start with writing with. I'm writing with an Apsara Absolute. And I am writing in my Erasable and write notepads pocket ledger so that you sent me, Tim.

And I am consuming a tasty beverage from Kelso, Tennessee. I don't know anybody has heard of Pritchard's Whiskey, but Pritchard's Tennessee Whiskey. I'm drinking the double barrel bourbon that.

And TV and media stuff. I am consuming season 142 of the Chicago Cubs this year. It's not going very exactly how I thought it might go this year so far. So we're hoping it turns around towards the later part of the season.

under 500 after yesterday, I think.

And then I'm actually reading a Cubs book called the Plan. By David Kaplan. And I'm also reading Caroline's book, the Perfect Pencil. Or Pencil Perfect. I'm about halfway through it. I'm. I read very slowly.

Have you heard about this?

No, I haven't.

Reporter's Notebook.

She's so great.

So nice.

So the kind of like newest thing I've been messing around with is I just got over the weekend the new Field Notes subscriber extra. Yeah, so this year is a little bit different than last year. Yeah, last year it was a reprint of the Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue which they are still giving away. I was actually at Field Notes LA last weekend. Two weekends ago. Two weekends ago. And when they had the draplin pop up shop thing and they were still with every purchase of $20 giving two of those away. They don't obviously it just says commemorative. I forget what the. Yeah, commemorative reprint on the, on the belly band instead of obviously your name. But so because that would be. Yeah, I think maybe it was a good idea to maybe not do reprints this time around. Maybe because they have to make so many of them. I don't know. But they, you know, everybody was like, oh, it's going to be something cool. It's going to be grass stained green. It's going to be, you know, what was going on around Nuts, you know, the Field Nuts group. But those guys rose a bunch of whiners anyway. So, you know, it's like it's, it's, it's. Half of the people are like, you know, whatever Field Note says is gold and like they're, they're all about it. And then the other half just like complains about everything and that nothing is as good as Mackinac Autumn or whatever, you know, so it's just like, okay, whatever. But, but does it have paper inside?

So it's a blue book. Like it's pretty good. See, we didn't have this when I was, like, in school, but it's. Supposedly it's a blue. I don't know what a blue book is. You know, we just had to bring our own paper. Apparently, it's like a testing booklet type thing where you would write maybe, like, an essay or something.

So this is got, like, 1 2, 8 pages. And it almost looks like they took, like, regular lined paper and cut it off. Because the top margin is way too big.

But other than that, you know, it's pretty cool.

I think it's meant to be crappy, right?

Yeah, the lines are uneven. The. The paper's uneven. Like, it's. It's flush at the bottom, but not at the top.

Well, they give you three, right?

So, yeah. I mean, keep two and send one in. But the idea is you're supposed to send one in, right? So Kudal supposedly sends you, as the dean of the field notes, correspondence school sends you a letter saying that basically you have to write an essay. It's going to be graded on creativity, punctuation, spelling, and penmanship.

Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's like, okay, I have the me and a chicken. I think you could read the chicken better.

Yeah, it's a copy of Draplin book signed to you personally.

said, somebody nuts group is gonna be mad that you put your thing through a fax machine.

I'll fully admit I complained about it.

And the other thing, I don't know. I complained about it just because, like, I don't want homework for my subscriber extra.

Yeah, but they. They said how this is, like, built into the price.

Built into the price.

I wonder if you could, like, send this back in and get a. Get aligned, you know, like, oh, I just want a three pack aligned, please.

Cravedancer.com it's true.

Then I guess the other thing I have, if we're still talking about fresh points, is in front of me. I have. I just got these in the mail today. The New Baron, Fig, Nomad, and Mastermind. So it's that pack of sticky notes, like post it, type notes, and then the desk pad that's like a foot by eight inches. And they're both dot grid. Sorry, my microphone. I'll say that again. And they're both dot grid, dot grid.

Well, I use sticky notes a lot at work. My problem is, like, I feel like these are too nice to use for what I used for, you know, like. Oh, yeah, I'm just gonna write the, you know, hex code to some random yellow I want to use and put it up on the top of my monitor for the day. But if I, if I put it on this note, I won't want to throw it away.

And so I don't know. I mean, but I'm. That's what they're for, you know, it's not like they're limited or whatever. Oh, I got to collect them. But the other thing is the, the, the desk pad is, I mean, just off the top of my head first, like impressions, I want to say it's like in between size that I want, like, it might be either too small or too big for, like, if I was going to use it as like a, like, the idea is like the calendar, you know, thing like under your desk that, you know, people used to use. I think it might be too small for that, but it's too big to have like, kind of as like a side notebook that, that you hold off by your mouse.

Yeah, I just have a, like a wireless, like Apple keyboard. Like that really tiny one.

But I don't actually do a lot of like, typing. Typing I basically am using shortcuts all day. So like mouse in one hand, shortcuts in the other hand. So yeah, I really kind of like move my keyboard around all over the place.

I mean it's cool. It's like rounded corners, well made. It's like dot, grid on one side and blank on the other.

So you could actually use it one way or the other if you want to. Dot, grid or blank.

The notes are too. Yeah, coffee stains. I can see that too. But I think that's what it's for is like, hey, you know, mess it up and then tear the top page off and don't worry about it. As opposed to like, oh, this is like a beautiful confidant that I have to write like awesome, you know, journal entries in and like keep it really nice or whatever, my confidence.

Mine has like the worst notes in it too. So what can you do?

You know what I've been using a lot lately is one of Les's books. The no brand notebooks. Yeah, I've been using that as my journal, like my nightly kind of one page journal. I don't like to write like a whole bunch about my own, like personal stuff. So I just like, you know, a nice central Illinois boy, just mull it over in my own head until it takes the better of me. So I actually just like write little like kind of snippets. And like one page of a pocket notebook is about all I want to do like as a, like nightly journal. And so that's like the perfect size. And I really wanted to like use it before I talked about it, you know, because it's something that it's not. It's not something that's, you know, that you've seen before, like a field notes. Like you can look at a field notes and test one page with, you know, pencil and pen and all that stuff and really kind of get the gist of it because you've used a bazillion field notes. Like this is something completely new and different. So I wanted to use like one or two of them before I actually, you know, reviewed it, quote unquote on the blog.

No, I think that's it.

Come on, people.

The last thing.

Hey, Andy. Yeah?

Can we take a quick break while I go and buy this Squire? Because I really, really want

By the way, I'm $60 lighter now.

$60. All right, so actually Discover is $60 lighter.

I will be probably at this point, minimum payments 120, $140 lighter.

Thank you.

Hex.

Y' all darn we all messed up, man. We got in these up to New York City.

From the. I'm from where we think it's the south central Illinois.

They need a marketing person. Yeah, they wouldn't asap.

And when it's bad, it's a hipster mistake to send in yours.

Peoria.

The GSM 100.

Yeah, but that's not right. It's not 27 pounds. This is like between 60 and 70.

I've been to that website.

Feels rubbery.

Yeah, yeah.

Actually I think I, if I could like to add one more thing. I think I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the thing that I recently reviewed on the website on leadfast.

That a person from our group, Mike Lynn actually made. It's a, it's called the original Content Books Modern Notebook folio and it's kind of like a iPad mini or Kindle or whatever. Small kind of tablet folio with a pretty sweet notebook in there. He sets it up with 148 page notebook and a 30 page like sketch pad in this place where you could put your iPad. So it's pretty nice paper. It is really good for fountain pens and regular, you know, pencil. It's got a little bit of tooth, it's dot grid on one side and lined on the other but it's got a fat and a thin. So a pencil and a fountain pen kind of pen loop inside. Pretty high quality. So I really liked it actually. Yeah, I don't know if you want to link to it or whatever. Yeah, yeah, I thought it was pretty cool.

Well, most of it, like I don't know, the first like third of it was, you know, my kind of figuring out, you know, because it was the first thing that I've ever actually been given for free to review. So I kind of like try to like make my peace with that because for a while I was like, you know, I'm not gonna do that, like it's not real, you know, so on and so forth. So I try to like make my peace with a little bit in those first like I don't know, five paragraphs.

Yeah, it's got like an orange book in the. I have a gray, it's a, it's got a gray cover. It's like crosshatch and it's got an orange book and you can fit like any sort of like a 5ish size in. I put a right notepads like paper journal in there. I put the standard like journal in there, you know with the, the or what do you call it on the side, the, the rings on the side. Spiral bound on the side. And I put a confidant in there, I put a vanguard in there. So I, I had all sorts of different stuff in there. The only thing that won't fit in there is like top bound a five.

Yeah, I'm a second generation vape professional. Busting big clouds, just blowing that sweet fog all over Champaign, Illinois.

That's right. Enough fate getting into the coil business. That's where it's at. Forget selling the fog. Oh man, I, I don't know. I. About myself, I went to school in Carbondale. Just missed Johnny Go Salukis. I went to, I went to film school there actually. And like most film students, I'm totally not doing anything with that degree. But after that I like moved to LA for a little while, then moved to Chicago and then made my way back to central Illinois and started selling craft beer and booze and wine.

Actually, you know what? That, that, yeah, Lacroix. I sold the hell out of Lacroix. All the hipsters in champagne love Lacroix. But that the pencil ladies were drinking a few episodes ago. I totally sold that brand.

It was Brad Pitt. Miraval. Miraval.

Yeah.

But recently I made a career change and stopped selling wine and booze and whatever and because I'd been doing freelance graphic design for about 10 years off and on. So I decided to kind of transition that as to my like full time career. So I'm doing that for doing that in social media marketing for a small business here in town now. So that's. And then I have a pencil blog. So that's kind of me. I have a little dog and a girlfriend named Laylee and our little French bulldog Luna. And my Instagram posts of Luna get more likes and followers than my Instagram posts about pencils.

Yeah, she is a cute little dog. And I swear to God, if you hashtag Frenchies of Instagram, you'll get like five followers. Just do it. Just put a. Put a pencil on there and hashtag

That's sweet. You didn't look at it.

I don't know. You know, I've been blogging in various forms since like the late 90s, early 2000s, like, since like before there was blogger. I don't know, I just been making my own websites and doing that kind of thing. What's that?

like, anything like Geocities or Angel. What is it? Fire Tripod. I always had my own URL. Ooh, but fancy. Yeah, yeah, early adopter. That's right. And I was always on the org thing back then too. Like, I've always been using Org. So yeah, I could have ledfast.com if I wanted to pay some like, URL squatter for it, but I decided not to.

That's right.

I wanted Leadfah St. But that's so good.

No, I didn't do any of that either. But yeah, so I just kind of. I always start blogging. Like, I start a blog to, like, learn about something. So I mean, I have always been into, you know, analog tools and pencils and, you know, I wrote a little bit about it on the website actually, for National Pencil Day about, like, kind of my path to pencils and notebooks and kind of analog stuff. But at first when I started the blog, I thought I'd, like, keep it small and keep it to myself. And then, you know, I started like, linking a little bit here and there, like posting my. My, you know, reviews on the Facebook group. And I started getting, you know, a lot of hits and people were, you know, like, now Google is my number one referrer when it used to be Facebook, because it would just be, you know, just posting the stuff on. On the Erasable group or the Field Nuts group or something like that.

Gotcha.

But I just wanted to explore and, like, write about it, you know, like, that was what my angle was. But increasingly, like, over the last, like, couple months since my career change and my, like, my focus has been whether or not, like, products are actually worth the money, you know, so, like, because, like, I'm kind of more on a budget now because I decided to change my career in my mid-30s, so my budget constraints, my. The fact that this is a hobby, but for collectors and prolific users, this can get pretty expensive. Not pencils so much, but notebooks, definitely.

Unless you, like, exclusively use Blackwing pencils, it can't really get too expensive. But so that's kind of like where I. Where I did that, you know, like, what. What my angle has been now, and, like, I've been talking about money and what it's worth and is this worth what they're charging sort of thing now. So are you getting what you expected to get when you say, subscribe to something?

I actually ripped off the idea of naming my blog after a printing on a pencil from you. Yeah, because, I mean, I know that's why you asked this question. I might as well apologize to public, right?

No, I'm just kidding.

But, like, actually, I just was like, I literally did see, like, wood clinch was taken. Pencil revolution was taken, my number one and number two choices. So I was like, you got that reversed, right? Yeah, I mean, no, that's right. But I like, you know, like, I don't know. I was just kind of like, that's a good way to find a name. Right. So it's part about it, but it's not necessarily like, you know, I love pencils dot. You know, Mike Dot blog.

I'm not doing that. I'LL just change it and.

If I checked lead fast too. It's not.

Well, the problem I have is my personal. My personal Twitter account. That's my. My bio.

You know. Actually, once I found the name though, everything else for me, like, fell into place as far as, like, making the blog, like, design wise, like, I just needed to like, figure out what the name was going to be. And then from there on it was. I was good with it.

Like, I want. I just knew, like, it. The name was simple and was simply, you know, like, you know, embossed on the side of a pencil. Like, I just wanted my blog look to be simple and just clean. Like, I don't. It actually doesn't even say leadfast on the website. It just has the lf.

Just have a couple pictures and stuff.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Tim. Did you want the products to be the star? You know what mean? Like, I wanted my branding and like, me as a person, like, take a back seat to all of it because, like, no one comes to that website for me. Like, they're like, oh, let's see what Hagen's up to. Like, no, they want to see what

Well, it's because, like, at some point you and I are gonna party in Carbondale. That's why you.

That's right. Carbon delay.

Bloggers ruin the town.

That whole section is called Little Egypt.

when I read it I just did think important, right?

Yeah. You know my grandpa always had pencils like he always had. There's a like still to this day. I was just at their house this weekend. There's a pencil cup right next to him on next to his recliner. There's a pencil cup on the kitchen table. There's a pencil cup downstairs in the like family room basement area on the coffee table that nobody ever uses in. The pencils are so damn dry, you know, the erasers are just drier in heck. Like there's a pencil cup in the bathroom for crying out loud. So like I've always been like, like I remember being a little kid and like wanting to set up a pencil cup like next to my chair at my parents house which I didn't really have my own seat there, you know like in the living room you just sit wherever. But like I just wanted to have like a table and this little pencil cup like grandpa did, you know. And so I was always was kind of into it then and but you know, I wasn't really one of those kids that like look forward to back to school so I could get all my stuff like perfect or whatever. You know, I had to have matching folders and you know for every class or I didn't do any of that. Like I didn't care. I was a like loose leaf mead paper guy, you know, just. And I don't know, I didn't really care about it and didn't care about it in college really so much. But when I kind of like got as like when I was living in Chicago I lived without Internet for a while because we're broke and just like was always carrying like whatever pencil I could steal from work and a little moleskin or like whatever like Walmart moleskin I could find, you know. And this was carrying it around or a composition notebook or something was Carrying it around and was taking pictures of the city because I just moved to Chicago at the time, so was kind of doing that and, like, kind of keeping track of all my, like, photo notes. So that's kind of like, where I got into it and into, like, keeping a notebook and all that stuff.

written anymore, but this guy, Mitt Mesa, used to do it.

Oh, man, I forget the writing arsenal.

Dang, man, that writing arse, I think it was.

back in a way. I was, like, floored.

It needs to come back.

Shut it down.

I don't. I don't know. I don't really have a favorite pencil blog. Like, I. I like everybody's pencil blogs. Like, because I just like to be part of the community and, you know, read what everybody has to say.

I sometimes will, like. Like, I hope I'm not giving too much away, but sometimes Deidre and I will message back and forth and just be like, okay, what'd you really think? You know, like, what do you think of this? You know, what do you think of that? And I'll message other people like, okay, so what's the real story? You know? Yeah, like, I. I like to do that. Like, I like to figure out what people, like, really think. And I think that on my blog, I. I like to say what I really think as opposed to, like, not being, like, trying to, like, I'm not personally trying to, like, hurt anybody's feelings, but at the same time, I'm not trying to, like, be nice to somebody just because they made something, you know, like, if I don't like it, I don't like it. It's nothing against, you know, Jim Bob, that works at Musgrave. I just don't like his pencil.

I'm sorry, not Jim Bob. Joe. Mark Bob. Joe Henry Bob.

Sorry, Jim Bob. So somebody fax them the show notes,

Sure.

Well, they're cheap.

First of all, and, but not necessarily cheaply made. Like some of them are and some of them aren't, but they're all always cheap.

Like, I think when you buy something from Amazon or from ebay, you're really only just paying what it costs them for shipping. Because I mean, if you do like the conversion, because all these boxes have like what they actually cost in rupees on the back. Right. And it'll like say what it is for the box and what it is for per pencil. And if you do the conversion, it's like 60 something cents or something like that for like a box of half of these things. Right. So it's like, dang. You know, that's. They're, they're really well made pencils for how cheap they are. Right?

And they're also very colorful.

Like there's gonna. Designs are like all over the place. Like some of them, like you got the marble, you got like the neon stuff, but then you have all the different like stripe combinations and you know, like, like, well, each hex panel is a different color or there's like a stripe down the edge of the hex panel. And then, you know, in dips are all different colors. And you know, it's like, I think the Natural Joy.

Yeah. And it's funny is like I have, I'm actually holding an Apsera Joy in my hand right now. So that's the other thing they do is they, they'll like take the two names and like, you know, interchange them Quite a bit. So it's like, oh, is this the same pencil or is it not? Like, you. I mean, you and I know, like. And most people listening to this know that. Yeah. Not Hindustan makes all their pencils so natural and Apsara pencils. So it's like, okay, yeah, they're just, like, interchanging the imprints. But, you know, somebody might be like, oh, this pencil company's ripping off this other pencil company with the same thing, you know? Like, I don't know. So, like, that's part of, like, why I kind of like to blog about it too, is, like, kind of explain, you know, hey, this is all from the same pencil company. And, you know, they're really great pencils. And I think that the cores are a lot. There's a lot of similarity there, but I think they make up for it in. In, like, really great, like, paint and, you know, well made and designed. And, you know, I just want. I want one of them. One of them to be made with cedar at one point.

Just to see it.

Yeah. But the other thing is too, like, I find that they always advertise them as dark pencils. Like, they're always like, oh, these are dark writing. Super dark writing, extra dark writing. And. But they're always advertised for writing or, like, for students, you know, or. So I like this. Actually, this guy that owns this liquor store that I used to sell beer to. He's Indian, and he was. He. He owns this liquor store, and he's actually in school doing math, and we were talking about pencils, and he's like, I really need a pencil that has, like, really good point retention so that I can, you know, like, do my math homework and, like, not have to stop and sharpen all the time. So, like, I gave him an Apsara absolute, and I was like, here. And then gave him a sharpener. Try this. You know, and he loved it. He's like, yeah, this is great. So it was. It was kind of, like, odd because I was giving an Indian pencil to an Indian gentleman who had never heard of this pencil is. And I just felt, you know, I was American guy giving an Indian pencil to an Indian guy is Caroline.

I think so.

Mm.

And I got. I kind of got into Dom's because somebody in the pencil swap gave me one, and I just fell in love with Dom's and ordered a bunch of their stuff off of Amazon. Like, I don't think Caroline store. I don't think CW pencils carries doms at all.

Yeah. So they're. They. They're owned by the same people that own Ticonderoga. The Fila group. Yeah. So they own Prang and Lyra and Ticonderoga and a bunch of other.

Yeah.

Yeah, the Doms are awesome.

The Doms are equally as well made, if not almost better made than some of the Hindustan pins.

I really love the Doms.

Get the Dom's ultimate dark zoom in the triangle one. So it's like they're pink, purple, and light blue, Like Easter color almost. Those are beautiful.

They're beautiful, though.

I actually have, like, so many more Indian pencils that I have not reviewed yet, because I'm waiting on some to show up. And I have actually ordered some of those natural checking pencils, like, the red ones. I want to see how they hold up to my favorite checking pencil, which shout out to Harry Marks. I sent him, like, 12 of those and less.

Ronnie from the group? I'm blanking on his last name, but when I first, like, joined the group, he reached out to me and said, like, hey, I want to send you, like, a sampler or whatever. I mean, he does that to a lot of people. And, like, he's really great. Like, shout out to Ronnie. But he.

One of the things that he sent Me was an Apsara Absolute, and I was floored by it because I love a thick cord pencil and this thing writes beautifully and smoothly and. And dark. But the point retention was good. And so then from there on, I like, built up to all, like, checking out all the other pencils. And the one thing that I will say is like, yes, they are really dark and the point retention is not terrible. So that's kind of like why I. Then. Then from that point, from that point on, you're just looking at like, what design do you like?

My number one is the Apsara Absolute. Yes, for sure. That's just like, I've thought this before, but I've gotten a few from, like, the Nataraj Deep Dark. I did a review of it on my website and it's nice, but the paint job is not like, the best. I've had some that were really good paint jobs. And then the paint job was like, the next box I got was kind of like, so. So. But I've never had a bad batch of absolutes, so that's definitely like, I think their best made pencil number one for sure. Number two, I probably have to put the Dom Zoom in gray. I. I don't know. I love that pencil a lot too. And then probably from there on, I just kind of hop around a little bit. The Apsara Joy Nataraj Pop. Those are good ones. I think maybe number three, that I'd have to put the Nataraj 621, the. The regular, like, HB. It's kind of like their version of like the Ticonderoga or something. You know, as far as, like, this is the school pencils, you know, like, they've been commercials for this pencil since, like, you know, the 70s or 60s or whatever. Like, this is a. Just like a classic pencil from. From India. I mean, as far as, like, I'm not Indian and I didn't grow up there, so I have no idea. But, like, from what it seems like, from what I've researched, it seems like this is like their classic, like, school pencil. So I kind of like that pencil a lot too.

Hmm.

I don't. I've had. I went. I did like a month.

I mean, I didn't do one every day for a month, but I did like maybe like four or five a week for Like a month, just because I, like, got into it and was doing a ton of them and. And probably, I don't know, probably my Dom's Zoom review. It's probably my favorite.

Because I just love those pencils so much. And they're really, you know, like there's two different styles. There's like the. The Easter egg style and then there's the. The kind of like, business style.

Yeah, the executive style.

There's the gold and regal gold from. From Nataraj and Apsara or whatever. And they. They have, like, the gold and they have the regal gold for executives.

The Apceros versus the Nataraj.

I bought some Nataraj joys just to check them out from CW when I was reviewing the Apsara joys and I thought that they were exactly the same. I didn't find any differences except for in the imprint on the Nataraj one. They do say 2B on the imprint, but the Apsara one just said extra dark. So.

I mean, they're making how many times a day or something like that, so.

Yellow with what color?

I have that one. Right. Is that the one with yellow and gray?

Pollux and my metal shop CT bullet pencil. The timber twist.

I have the dark one, like the walnut.

My dog chewed it up, though.

John offered me. I put a post of it about it on. On Instagram. And John offered to send me at cost. And I was like, dude, no, I'll sand it off. It'll be fine. You don't have to do that. You have super nice and, like, way

Yeah.

Yes, I will talk about that. It was a shelf full of field notes that had a beer can on it. Because I had been doing design.

I've been doing it. Yeah, exactly. I've been doing a design for a beer can for a craft brewer here in Illinois called Old Bakery Brewery out of Alton, Illinois, which is kind of across the river from St. Louis. And I had two of their cans, their previous cans in front of me. And what happened was my shelf that had. That sat above my computer that had all the field notes, like, boxes, these little plastic boxes that I have, the super stackers or whatever they're called. Yeah, that thing failed and it just. It landed. One of the beer cans was on it. One of the beer cans was on the. On the desk. And it. They were both closed. I mean, they didn't have anything, you know, there, but they blasted everywhere. And that really put a lot of perspective in my life as far as, like, all right, like, just use this stuff, man. Because, you know what, were they going to bury you with your Butcher Blue? Like, who cares?

You're going to get more joy out of using it. And you're going to get more joy from the look on, like, the Field Nuts face when they're like, are you using a Butcher Blue? Like, yeah, dude, I'm totally using a Butcher Blue. Like, just a crane. I watched Draplin rip open a grass stain green two weeks ago at the Field Notes HQ Pop up shop thing. He just tore it open. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna sign this thing. And just. And I don't know if the guy even told him that he wanted it signed. I think he was just showing it to him and the guy was like, oh, okay.

Yeah, it was awesome, though. Like, that's.

It sucked. It sucked. And I had so many people from the Field Nuts community and from the erasable community reach out to me, like, dude, what can I send you to help you out? Like, get your collection back? And I was like, no, it's cool. Yeah. Oh man. I had like five packs of butcher orange that just went kabloey.

My favorite favorite is the write notepads top bound graph. I wish they would make that in a fat ledger.

Just make it a big fat like ledger. That would be because their graph is way too tiny.

We have the technology, we can rebuild it. So I honestly but that like I use that, that graph paper for all my like pencil reviews as far as like my testing. So that's kind of like where I consider like perfect middle ground of like hey, it works for good for pens and it's really great for pencils. As far as like what I am liking right now. I've really been digging the Infinity Baron Fig Vanguards. Those things are amazing. And they, they like suck up pencil though. I mean the Baron fig paper is like really super toothy.

And like in the best way. I love it. I can like take like an F pencil and like make a nice dark line there on that because it's just perfectly toothy to like take all the lead off of your point. But if you're writing with something soft like beware you will be sharpening. So those are my two favorite kind of like papers right now. I think field notes papers a little bit like anymore like after I've like grown out of it and like came back to it. I think it's a little too like glossy. I feel like some of my pencils almost like shine over, you know, like or they don't quite like get in there on the paper. Like there's something between the paper and the pencil that's stopping it.

I've been today I was a little bit was writing in a Shenandoah and that has like seven or. Yeah. 60 pound paper and it was just a little. Seems a little glossy.

I like when they do toothy stuff.

Well, everyone likes the. The byline paper, but obviously you can't find a byline anymore. The store supply company notebooks have the exact same paper in them.

And those storage supply company books, I've. I've been carrying that as my daily carry right now. And that. That thing's awesome.

Sweet. Credit card knife. Where it folds up into a credit card. It's like sneaking on the plane kind of when I need to take care of business, I can untake it and put it and stab it.

Cinnamon vape, because half of the people are allergic to it and it makes their eyes and they can't see me

That should totally be the name of the podcast.

It has to spell out hashtag.

You have to, obviously, with the hashtag in front of the spelling out of hashtag.

If I had to only use one pencil for the rest of my life, I would probably use the. Probably the Blackwing 602.

Because overall. Overall, it's. It hits all the buttons for everything that I like. What I really, truly want is a natural pencil without any lacquer on it. Like, no thin, clear lacquer. Like, straight up natural. Like, take all my grease and all my oil and all my ear gunk and, like, take it and suck it up. Right.

You know when you put the pencil behind your ear. Whatever your.

Oh, I had a. I had a guy on my sales route that did that constantly. It was disgusting.

Well, whatever. Whatever it is, I want this pencil to suck it up. I want a patina.

It's like wing 211 with no thin lacquer with a pink eraser. And you want to. Yes. You want a General Silver Ferrocore 24 core.

No, no, I don't. I don't like the general cedar point.

It's the number one and number two Like, I have to actually look at it to see which one I'm writing with.

The number twos or the number ones?

The erasers are good.

It's not me.

We ain't gonna be like them Northern generals guys.

That's right. For years.

You figure that, like, as many, like, small news stations that actually go there and film stuff that they would actually talk to you guys?

I mean, how many, like, times is there a YouTube video that's shared in the group that's like, oh, check this out. They talk about generals and it's like some podunk station from, you know, nowhere, New Jersey. The General's pencil factory. Like, hey, how about you guys come on a pencil podcast where people actually care about.

Four of us back them up too, pal.

And they're like, who's this mint Mesa guy

For some reason, when you said that long time ago, that stuck in my mind. So hilarious.

No.

You've lost your identity.

He's from a very popular family in New England.

Well, I hope I can, like, figure out, you know, because I was there for a while. I was there with four days a week, five days a week, because I was between jobs. So I was, like, prolific then. Now I'm trying to, like, figure out how I can get one post a week done. So I don't know, I, I'm trying to, like, make more videos and kind of get more into that space a little bit, because I feel like some people don't do that as much about pencils. Like, there's a gazillion fountain pen videos out there, but no, you know, hardly anything about pencils. So I try to do pencil videos and the notebook videos and stuff. I try to, like, make a video for each, like, major review. If I think that it's, like, a big deal or, like, to me, it's awesome. So I want to do a video. So I'm trying to do more videos and expand my YouTube presence a little bit. Looking forward to your new podcast, $0.03. What's up?

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I podcast with a true buddy.

I do podcasts with a bunch of my bodies. No, Nobody on here wants to listen to us ramble. It's like Five high school friends talking about bs but amazing.

Yeah. That's the only people I'm friends with. That's why I'm, like, so prolific in the group, because I don't have any friends in champagne. Except for Hannah Kang. Shout out to Hannah Kang.

Hannah King. We had lunch the other day. It was awesome.

But, you know, I'm trying to, like, get more into doing more notebooks as opposed to pencils lately. So I have like three or four things on the docket, notebook wise, that I need to talk about. Like, not just pocket notebooks, because I've been doing a lot of field notes, a lot of write notepads, a lot. You know, those type of things. Like, I want to do stuff that's more like long term, but for me to do the. The review, I feel like I need to use it for a little while. So that takes a little bit longer, you know, so on and so forth. So I kind of am just trying to, you know, expand it a little bit. I. I did dabble into trying to do, like a fountain pen review here and there, but I was like, you know what? There's way too many people that are way more into it than I ever even thought. My fingernail being so plus.

Plus fountain pens are stupid. I actually have decided that, like, I don't like fountain pens.

After buying, like, six of them, seven of them, I've decided, like, I just don't like them. I don't like the fussiness. Like, I can grab a pencil and sharpen it and go, right, I owe you a hug. Rollerball pen. What's that?

I mean, I seriously don't. Like, I just. I cleaned them all this weekend. I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna sell these carbon Dillon.

So I got into it really. I really got into it with. Because I was, like, looking for inks. Like, I love the ink aspect of it. Like, different ink colors is. Is why I got into it in the first place. So I just bought this, like, rollerball pen that you can fill with ink, and it sucks. I mean, it's not great, and I won't name it here, but protect the innocent. But it's not it. But I. I can, like, use my inks and, like, not, like, have to be fussy. You know, it's really scratchy, but it's. I don't have to worry about a lot of stuff with it. You know, it's just, like, fill it up and go. And, you know, my favorite pens have been, like, now, like, gel ink and rollerball pens, because, hey, the colors are phenomenal. And, like, the. I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate mail for saying this, but the paper, mate, inkjoy, is, like, one of the best.

Like, the green is an amazing green.

I love that Papermate inkjoy green. And I've bought, like.

Like, six of them just because, like, I'll be at Walgreens. And they have them singles. Right. And I was like, oh, I need another green for the car. I need another green for the bathroom. I need another green for the bedside.

Yeah, I don't like teal at all.

Yeah, I've been. I have a buddy that works at a stationary shop here in town, and it's kind of like art supplies and stationery, and they've actually started carrying bear and fig, and they started carrying field notes on my recommendation, and they carry Black Wing and all this stuff. But. But he's really into fountain pens because they sell Kaweco and Safari or Lammy and all that stuff there. So he always, like, gets me a lot of, like, cool fountain pen examples. So I just mess with them, and, you know, I really just kind of want to pour them all over those little color rings that Ana Reinert made and just look at the colors and forget the fountain pen. I mean, that's.

Forget the fountain pen. I really am another F word. I'm just like, it's just too much for me. It's just too much. Says the guy who went to the Chicago pen show two weeks ago. Hey, that was a ball pen there. I took. Totally. It was totally.

I know. Because we weren't following each other on, like, Twitter yet.

So, like, we were following each other on Instagram, but not Twitter. And I was like, oh, yeah. I would post something, and she was like, oh, I just missed it.

Or I'm headed there now. But I went solo, so I move quick when I go solo somewhere. Just in and out. See ya. I hate being awkward, so I just leave.

Yeah.

So leadfast.org is the blog. I am ledfast.org on Twitter because some guy has eight tweets and he's at Leadfast, so I can't, I can't seem to snag it from.

Yeah, this guy hasn't tweeted since 2014 either, so I don't know. I just haven't even worried about it because I, I, I really don't like Twitter. Like fountain pens. I just kind of don't like Twitter either.

It's just, I don't, I don't need to go there to hear people like, you know, complaining about politics stuff. Like, we all know what sucks. It's great. Like, I just want to see pictures of pins.

Or Instagram.

Exactly. I want, I want cats and coffee. That's what I go to the Internet for. I don't need politics. I hear all day. I don't want that.

That's right. Actually, you need to follow my friend Nomi Kane. N O M I K A N E. I don't Just look her up. She writes a lot or draws a lot of stuff for the Nib. Oh, yeah, I think it's the Nib, right? Is that right? The Nib? Yeah. Cartoons and stuff. She's actually lives out in Berkeley, and she is a killer cartoonist, and she does all sorts of hilarious Trump stuff. So look her up. On. On Instagram, I managed to get Ledfast, so. And then I have the YouTube channel, which is, you know, a bunch of letters. So just go to the blog and click on the Lead Fast YouTube link. It's down at the bottom in the footer if you want to check out the YouTube videos.

Yeah, so I do. It's Good. It's lunch table.org me and all my buddies call ourselves the Lunch Table. And so we do three different podcasts. Me and my friend Ferg do Bad Movie Breakdown, and that is a. I

Yeah. So we do Bad Movie Breakdown, and that's just us talking about, you know, really crappy movies from, like, the 70s 80s, you know, cool as Ice, I think, is our most recent episode.

Yep, that was the point. Yeah, I, like, even, like, tried to make it to where, like, the. The thing was kerned. Exactly. Like, the Polaroid lettering was kerned, but. And then we do a retro video game podcast called Busting Bricks, and that's where we just kind of get together and talk about, hey, you remember this Nintendo game? Oh, yeah, that was great. Do you remember this one? Oh, yeah, I remember. I'm member. So we do that one, and then

Busting Bricks, yeah. Try naming a video game podcast. It's impossible. Because every single thing that you come up with is a video game podcast, because every nerd and his grandpa has a video game podcast. So. And then we do what's called the Lunch Table Round Table podcast, and that is just us five founders talking about random stuff. Like, the most recent one we. Or the first one we did was like, hey, what was your favorite? Or what would you pick for a meal on Death Row? Like, so your last meal on Death Row, what would you pick and why? It's kind of a getting to know you and kind of, like, comedy thing or whatever.

Yeah. Well, we've been working on this for a long time, but we wanted to launch on April 1, like as April's day.

So bunch of we. What we did actually is we wanted it to be like an online magazine, but we kind of started doing podcasts as a side thing and then decided to pivot because a podcasts are funner or funner. Look at me, I'm a writer. Fun. More fun. And they are, you know, it's more fun and it's not as much work. Like I have to sit there and edit and write and if I say something like funner, nobody's gonna be like, oh ho ho, this guy can't write. Oh, whatever. I said funner. Big deal, right? On a podcast. It's not a big deal.

That's right.

We're doing that thing now. So that's taking up even more of my time away from the lead fast. So

75.

If I could choose the time this has happened before. All I said.