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Transcript
I would. That would be the greatest news story of all time. Like, man's man arrested for suspicious amount of pencils in his bag.
Hello, and welcome to episode 76 of the erasable Podcast. Well, we're back after a few weeks off, and tonight we're talking about leaving again. Already traveling, that is. What items of stationary do you take with you when you travel? What do you leave behind? What do you write about? I'm here with my two co hosts, who I definitely wouldn't mind being stuck between, and Coach Johnny and Tim. Hey, guys.
Hey.
Hey, Andy.
To be fair, if we were all traveling together, obviously we're flying first class, so we won't even have to worry about that.
First class? No. Did you see that New New Yorker cartoon? It was like, royal class. Royal class. The king all by himself in the front of the plane.
That would be US Diamond Rewards Royal Platinum Gold Visa class, actually, with the
option to sit on the wing if you want.
I actually went to Minneapolis last week for a conference, and I got upgraded to first class, which was amazing. So good.
Man. That just reminded me of something I need to add to my. My consuming. But American Gods.
Oh, man.
The first class scene during the storm. Okay, yeah, I'll shut up.
So, speaking of which, let's kick it off with tools of the trade. Tim. What? What else are you consuming?
Oh. Oh. So thanks for. Thanks for asking. Yeah. So I'm watching American Gods, which I think I talked about this before when I first started, like, the first episode, but now there's five or six, and I'm almost caught up. But just hearing you talk about first class things that made me think of how they just nailed the scene at the beginning of the series where Mr. Wednesday and Shadow meet in first class during that, like, crazy storm. Have either of you watched this yet?
I have.
No, I'm saving it for later in the summer.
Same. Same.
Okay.
Yeah.
And if you.
I read the book.
You both read the book?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, man, you're not gonna be disappointed. Is Wild Ride. I love it so much, but I'm watching that. I'm finally getting around to reading Gone Girl on the recommendation of Harry Marks, and I was just. I mean, I feel really cliche in this, but the summer comes around, and I do want to read things that are kind of a little more popcorn y. Or like. Yeah, yeah, you can read faster thrillers, things like that. Yeah. But this being a, like, super pleasant surprise, it's actually. I mean, it's really good writing, and then the story just. I mean, Keeps you. Keeps you sucked in. And I haven't seen the movie, so I don't really. I don't know what's gonna happen.
I saw it. It sucks. It's terrible. Seriously, it's really bad.
Well, yeah, so I'll watch it eventually. But the book so far is awesome, so I'm enjoying that. And we're watching Victoria finally.
What do you think about it?
I don't really care for it that much.
Did you watch the.
Have you seen it?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I love the Crown.
Yeah.
Victoria was just a little too.
Just everybody's really.
It's weird to say predictable when it's about.
Yeah. Like everybody's ridiculously good looking and kind of like. I don't know.
Yeah.
Predictable is a really good way to put it.
Yeah, they're really witty. Don't talk like that.
Yeah. And it's just. It doesn't. It just doesn't feel right. And I think it was my. My wife, like, nailed it. And she said they all look like they're dressed up in costumes, like is how it kind of felt.
Yeah. The Crown had a much more like. It's almost like documentary intake to it.
Yeah. For real. Yeah, it definitely did. And I think my wife kept watching it, but I just. The last episode, I just kind of peaced out and read in the other room. Didn't want to lose that hour and a half of my life. But that's what I'm consuming. I have a glass of wine and I am riding with a Blackwing 344.
Nice.
Which I love, love, love. And I'm using a Write notepads reporter notebook.
Nice.
So Chris told me that the pen shop in Washington called Farnie's is selling the Write notepads reporter notebook like crazy. So we were wondering if they're like, you know, all of those reporters that are going to do interesting things in the next few months, buying them all at Farnie's.
Oh, they're just like. There's so much news every single day that I need a sturdier notebook.
I need one I can hit people with.
He's going to start making them. Like for all the. The White House staff reporters that are. It's a reporter notebook, but it's like three and a half inches thick.
It's like 800 pages of reporter notes.
You just. You just look out at the press. Press room and there's just paper, like flipping back and back and back.
But very, very nice paper.
Yes, that's right.
Johnny, how about you?
So, speaking of Washington, I Finished House of Cards season five, embarrassingly quickly. I'll move on so I don't give any spoilers. So we're almost finished. The keepers. Have you guys seen the keepers?
No.
So it's about some ladies in Baltimore investigating the murder of a nun in 1969. In Baltimore. It was filmed in Baltimore and everybody in it is from Baltimore. So if anyone ever thought I was joking about the accent, watch the show, but don't watch it late at night cuz it's really creepy. Especially if you went to Catholic school. A lot of it's gonna freak you
out
that John Gamber is a wiggle worm.
We need to. We need to get like a button that just like plays that clip.
I can do.
What's really funny is when the soundboard,
they showed the class picture of the nun who got killed. And I swear that nun was in the row in front of her. She had a very distinctive mushed up little face, even for a young lady. I think it was her, but yeah. So I just read a really good. Well, not really good, really interesting biography of Sherman called Fierce Patriot. I think I got good reviews. There's a newer one out if you like. Mr. Sherman trying to talk Roth into doing a Sherman issue. But I don't think that's gonna happen. It's a little controversial.
Now you're talking about Sherman from. Sorry, you're talking about Sherman from Sherman and Mr. Peabody.
Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Not the one that took a visit to Atlanta and Savannah. Saved a little money by walking. I finally read on writing by Stephen King. Apparently I'm the only person that never read that. And we were discussed with this in the group. So I started salt today, which is super awesome. I learned a lot about olives, which I hate very much. There's like they're talking about olives for a long time. Like why? Because you know, that's how he writes the books about salt, the alarm olives and ancient Chinese history. And I am writing with the beautiful general scribe in field notes utility graph.
Nice. Yeah, very nice.
That on writing book Stephen King is. I feel like half of it is pure gold. And then there's some of it that just. Which I guess Stephen King has a pretty strong eye roll effect on me where like every. Like I'll be loving it and then something will come across. Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate his potty mouth. That was nice.
Yeah.
It's candid.
Yeah.
One thing about that, I like most of that book, but he's. He's very much one of Those. You either got it or you don't. You're either a writer or you're not. Kind of like mentalities, which, like, maybe it's true, like, to a certain extent, but it's not super helpful for people who just like doing it, you know?
Yeah. I feel a little disturbed.
Yeah. He makes himself sound like. Which I know he's super prolific, but he's not that good of a writer sometimes. Like, I fully appreciate that he's way more successful and productive and imaginative than I am, but there are some times where his writing is just not that good. But he makes himself in that book sound like he's this, you know, God. Yeah.
But he's good enough to get blocked by Trump, that's for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. That was awesome.
Did you see that?
I still love Stephen King. I saw that on Twitter. Yeah. Didn't he say something like, I guess I'll go kill myself, or there's something like that? I was like, whoa.
It's very rife.
Yeah.
For real. I am kind of in the middle of season five of House of Cards. It's very good. We won't talk about it too much here. Yeah, definitely. I see it in a new light this season than before, but, yeah, it's super good. I watched on Sunday, Katie and I went to go see the Wonder Woman movie, and I'm not usually a huge superhero movie fan, but, you know, Wonder Woman is a classic and it's. Yeah, it was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. There were. I mean, it's still very much like a superhero movie. Just like, a lot of fighting and a lot of, like, kind of loosely connected plots and like, weird timelines and stuff. But I. I appreciated it. Also, I put in here. I just put levar Burton. I'm not consuming levar Burton, don't worry. But I did.
In your freezer. Are you going to consume him later?
Later. Later. No. I was just at a conference called Confab in Minneapolis last week, which is a big kind of, like, conference in my industry, and they always get a really interesting keynote speaker, usually to do with literacy or writing. Two years ago, it was Anne Lamott who wrote Bird by Bird. Last year, Cheryl Strayed. This year is LeVar Burton. And he talked a little bit about a little bit of his life and acting career, like Star Trek and Reading Rainbow and Roots, but he specifically talked about, like, children's literacy and the kind of, like, relaunched incarnation of Reading Rainbow, where he's basically making a like, like, learning platform and interactive, like, learning computer platform for Kids and teachers. Yeah, he was fantastic. He wrote a children's book, so he was really interesting to learn from. So I really wanted to bring my Star Trek the Next Generation technical manuals to the conference, but I was specifically told that he's only signing his new children's book, and so I did not. I restrained myself, but I really wanted to. I also have a large, like foot and a half long gold Enterprise that I wanted to bring to, but I couldn't like, fit that into my overhead compartment, so. Oh, well, I was not the only Star Trek obsessive there, so don't worry.
Cool.
All right. Should we jump into fresh points?
Sure.
All right, Tim, do you want to. Do you want to start us off?
Sure. First thing, I want to break up. And thanks for the suggestion suggestion, Andy, because I forgot about it, but I'm also reading a book by J. Robert Lennon. I didn't mention it in freshpoint or in Tools of the Trade, but a book by J. Robert Lennon, who hosts the Lunchbox podcast and he's been a guest on the Pen Addict before. He's a novelist, teaches at Cornell, and he has a new novel called Broken River. It's like a literary thriller that I picked up on a trip to Asheville, which he's actually gonna be there in a couple weeks for a signing or actually a little long. It's the beginning of July, so he'll be there at the beginning of July for a signing. So I definitely plan to go meet him and take the book. But there's a paragraph that stuck out and I texted it to you two fellers and I was just gonna read it here. It's from the beginning of the second chapter, so I'm not given anything major way. This is definitely just a detail and a detail I think that people would, in this group would, or listening to this podcast would appreciate. There's a girl named Etrina, or Irina. Sorry, and she's, I think, 14. Irina is sitting on her bed with a spiral notebook open on her lap, a pencil poised above it. It's a special pencil, one from a box that her mother bought her, a long defunct brand that has been brought back to life by the kind of people who miss old pencils. They are silvery gray with soft, dark lids. The eraser is flat and rounded and encased in a rectangle of squashed gold metal. These pencils cost $20 for a box of 12. Irina looked them up online. Her mother would disprove that a gift is a gift, however much it cost. But in this case, the Price has made her like the pencils more. They are precious. They can't be used for stupid things, which is why she is using them to write her novel.
What is he talking about?
What could he possibly gel? Pen.
Yeah, I like my favorite sentence being or two sentences. They are precious. They can't be used for stupid things like that. Sorry, I was, I was stuttering. I'm reading it off of a tiny phone screen. That whole paragraph. So. But it's a great, it's a great book. I just really got a kick out of that reference and it doesn't really come back. Come back in. It's actually. He uses that description of the pencil to introduce the character and then it makes. Actually makes the character make a little more sense when you, when you get down thinking about it. But also we have to talk about the new Black Wings 73. I guess you'd put news and quotes, right? It's just coming. Yeah, it's a black wing 73.
It's one of those teasers I feel like we're recording at a really weird juncture because like if we recorded this time next week, I feel like we would know about the Blackwing, we would know about the new Baron fake Archers, we would know about the right notepads and probably the field notes too.
So yeah, yeah, we'll make it. We'll make it happen.
Yeah, we will.
It'll work. But like, can I interject and go first and say why the hell didn't you make 7 12? Thoreau is the father of pencils and his 200th birthday is in July. Like the most low hanging fruit. I'm sure the 73 might be awesome. It might even be some sort of Thoreau reference I don't get. But like I really thought they'd do it. I mean, I'm glad they didn't because I would have to buy them all. And you know, I have three kids, so I need money for some other stuff.
Hope they can eat pencils.
Yeah, I like one.
It's shaving because it's vegetarian. Right?
Yeah. Can I tell you my, my three favorite speculations? And they're just completely speculations. So. So yeah, the number is 73. And of course as soon as they Instagram the number
they.
Everybody starts wildly speculating, which I think is half the fun. Like of these pencils. Yeah, nobody really knows. So the one that to me seems the most realistic is Levi Strauss, which is Levi Strauss. Levi's were founded in 1873. It says so in the back of the gene in San Francisco. So there's a California connection.
And guys, you've also got a blue background.
Yeah, it has a blue background of the picture. And guys, denim covered pencils. Actually, it's kind of a terrible idea, but I used to have. I used to have a pencil that was made out of recycled denim. Have you, have you ever seen these?
I. Yeah, I have one of those somewhere.
Yeah, they're cute. Yeah, I think so. There's another theory that I ran across, and I think a few other people did too, is Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory wears a shirt that says 73 on it. And at one point he was quoted as saying, the best number is 73. Why? 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror 37 is the 12th, and the mirror 21 is the product of multiplying 7 and 3. And in binary, 73 is a palindrome. Palindrome 1001001, which backwards is 1001001. So I was looking to see if there was some anniversary of some like, computer history or computer science or something like some Silicon Valley thing. I didn't run across anything really, but that seems pretty. That seems pretty. Pretty likely. And then also timely. The Golden State Warriors, a Bay Area basketball team, just won the NBA championship last year. It set a record with seven. Set a record for the most games in a season, one with 73 wins. They did not win last season. But it's. There were people the other day when they went. Won the championship this year, literally screaming in the streets, yelling and carrying on. It was. It was fun and cool, but I was just my little, like, street up here on a hill. Like there were people down there just like, just yelling and carrying on. It was, it was fun, but I
think just see the town burning. It was wonderful.
There was a commercial afterwards. I don't. I don't know if they just played it locally or if it was everywhere, but it basically, the commercial ended with celebrate with dignity, which they were basically just saying, like, hey, please don't burn anything down.
They had something similar when the Cubs won. I forget what it said, but it was something like that.
Yeah, please, no rioting.
Yeah, riot Baltimore.
Somebody in the Mission. When. I think it was 2014 when the. When the Giants won the baseball World Series.
A couple people won in 2010, 2012 and 20.
Oh, yeah. Believe in every two years when that happened in 2014, somebody. Maybe it was 2012, somebody lit a car on fire in the Missions.
So.
So it's probably good that they Tried to convince people to celebrate with dignity. So who knows? We'll know next week.
So a very fun. Since it's only two numbers, the very low hanging fruit of it being just the year being like, oh, it's something that happened in 1973. Which it probably is not. I'm sure it's not positive. But it is a lot of fun to go to the 1973 Wikipedia page and just read some of the things and imagine what that pencil would look like.
Fishbowl.
Feral.
I'll throw some out there. So these are things that happened in 1973. Richard Nixon is sworn in for his second term as president. Hey. So it could be a Nixon pencil.
Nixon wing.
The first. This would be a super serious one. But the first prisoner of war in Vietnam was released. The United States dollar is devalued by 10%. I would be, like, so happy.
10. That much of a $10 discount on black wings.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
It was a black wing. To celebrate the release of the animated version of Charlotte's Web. That can be kind of cool, actually.
Gosh.
What were some of the others? I was. I was pretty deep into it. So now I'm coming back. Oh, Watergate. So a Watergate pencil would be pretty hilarious. The Godfather won the Academy Award for best picture. That would be really cool, actually. Sears Tower was completed.
Huh.
Skylab. The first American space station was launched. They need to get on. I think we need to go to, like, weekly special editions. And they should all be about 1973. The DEA was founded.
DEA. Blackwing.
That would be. That would be hilarious. But I'll stop. But it's just fun to go through. And just like there's. There's a million things here and everyone just.
Yeah.
I feel like we could do a whole episode just imagining what the pencil would actually look like for Watergate or what.
That'd be fun.
Charles said something that I would like it when I asked if it was a Thoreau edition. So I wonder if this is some sort of like, Thoreau or Hemingway. Really deep reference. Like 530 was pretty deep. And 344, especially 344. That was like, out there.
Yeah, that's true.
But the pencil was so awesome. Just the number was kind of like, whoa.
Yeah. Huh.
At least, you know, they come up with the idea and the number second the idea first. And then like, oh, what number for this? Instead of being like, what are we going to do for volume 74?
Yeah. This is kind of cool, actually. The American Psychiatric association finally removed homosexuality. Homosexuality from the DSM rainbow pencil.
That would be pretty sweet.
The next one on the list is literally, O.J. simpson becomes the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
White Bronco edition.
Hopefully. Hopefully they don't do that. Yeah,
the box looks like a Bronco.
Yeah.
Do we. I feel like they. They stopped giving actual clues for these things because people guessed it. I know. Someone guessed John Muir, right?
Yeah.
So we got that one. And then the 724. Somebody. Somebody guessed. And those were the. Were those the first two?
I think somebody guessed the Dorothy Lang one too. The 344.
Oh, did they? And didn't somebody guess the Movie one? The 1138?
Yeah, that sounds familiar.
Feels like it. But it's kind of fun for somebody to get it right, though. It's like winning a lottery that doesn't get exactly.
It's like just showing people how clever you are.
No harm done.
Yeah. Cool. Any. Any other fresh points, Tim?
That's all I got. Cool. How about you, Johnny?
Well, I'm gonna reiterate my first fresh point, which is why no 712. But like I said, it could be awesome. It could be something throw related.
So Target, you could hack wing your own 712.
You could.
This is true. They have that weird. That ugly. Well, not ugly. That not very nice writing replica pencil at the store at Walden Pond.
Yeah. Maybe you could take a 211.
That shall be done.
Take a 211 and pry the back off and just have a like a naked back to 11 and make that the thorough pencil. Waste 15 bucks just. Just like that.
God. What they're going for is.
I know.
So Target has the new summer pencils out and they've got some cool stuff. So I don't remember what the red, white and blue dipped pencils were out last time we podcast. I don't think so. But those are super cool if you're in our group. Those have popped up a few times. They're with the patriotic pencils. And then they have some like summer themed ones that involve, you know, references to adventure and travel that are very pretty and some that Andy would hate and love that are paper wrapped but then end dipped in paint.
Weird.
Yeah, they're pretty. Yeah, they're very pretty.
Yeah.
I feel like their. What is their company made for retail makes really nice pencils. The cores are nice, the finishes are amazing. I mean, the wood is not cedar, but you know, they're nice pencils for the price. So. Yeah, I only have two more fresh points the week after next, I'm off to Cambridge for a week with my fam. So Dee and Les and I and I think Melissa were gonna try to do a meetup across from Bobsleigh and then descend on Bobsleigh and buy all the pencils.
You should record an impromptu episode of RSVP and maybe we can cross run it on erasable.
That would be awesome. Get really hyped up on caffeine. We could record like half an episode in five minutes. Just slow it down. Slow it down a little more so I get a really deep voice like, hello. Black Wings are great.
He turned into John Way. Yeah.
And I got to go visit write notepads recently, so I know what the summer edition is. Bragging. And I'm taking bribes too.
I was just telling Kelly. Kelly, it's my sister Katie, my wife. I was just telling her that I feel like you go to write notepads, like maybe once a quarter just to see what's going on over there. Yeah.
This one is pretty amazing.
Yeah.
So I should mention memberships are open, so this would be a good time. Got mine to get yourself one.
Yeah, Yeah.
I texted Chris. I was like, andy just got a membership. He was like, I just saw it. Oh, I forgot you worked there. So, you know, they have, as always, a couple more things in the works, including the pencil cases they just put on their website, which are big. Like they'll hold a paintbrush, let alone a Black wing. So that's cool. I don't have one yet.
Hint, hint.
But yeah, they're always fun to go visit and drink beer. And also I discovered in Baltimore we have Blackwing Lager. And now there is also Blackwing Pizza.
What?
Which so, I mean, it's just named after the beer because the beer is in the crust. But still, I got to order Black Wing pizza on Henry's birthday. It was very good.
Guys, remember, Remember when my Blackwing beer
exploded every time I was thinking, like, I should take some of those to Boston, but in my luck, I'd take them up there and they explode.
Yeah, that was insane.
I don't think Bob Slate would let us drink beer.
The top of it, like, blew off.
That company uses this weird, bizarre six pack holders that are just a lot more plastic than they need to be.
Those are the ones that go over the top. Just the top.
Yeah, they're really hard to get off, but they're recyclable. Okay. They're like five pounds of plastic to hold six beers together. Yay.
Cool.
Yeah. That's all I got. What do you have, Mr. Andy?
Oh, what do I have?
What you got? What you got?
Tell me what you got. Well, I.
What you really, really got.
I just started trying to plan for Plumbago Magazine issue 2. Sent out an email about that and have a lot of submissions and plans, which is pretty great, if anybody remembers. Plumbago issue one was a zine that I kind of wanted to do quarterly, but it's probably working out to be more like once every six months. So that's fine. I have a couple different plans with it, but I think that our theme of this issue will be loosely based around hack wings. So not even necessarily, you know, taking the ferrule off of a black wing and putting it on some other pencil, which I think there should be lots of that. But I also think that just the idea of having a purpose or using your stationary for things maybe other than they were intended for or in an inventive way would be perfect as well. We have somebody who is writing about using pencils and baseball scoring and a little bit mmoire. We have a couple people who wrote. Who drew some comics. I think I might update my top five again, which I did last six months in Pambago issue one and a few other things. And we. We should be doing. I think we're going to do pre orders this year so people can get a hold of them earlier or I can make sure we make enough for everybody. And I think we're going to try to sell them at CW Pencils, which would be really cool. Carolyn and I just started talking about that. So if you want to learn. Yes, if you want to learn more about Plumbago, go to Erasable Us slash Plum Bago. Drop me an email from there about what you're interested in submitting or just message me on Facebook or Twitter or whatever. And I think that will take submissions until the end of the month and then use July to try to actually put that thing together. So. Yeah, what else? Oh, quick follow up from the Baron Fig bag Kickstarter. They made their goal. They made more than twice their goal. Their. Yeah, their $100,000 goal was like stretch goal, like incentive was a blue bag, like a blue color. And they made it. So I'm totally getting my black. My backpack backplack my backpack in black plaque, getting my backpack in slate blue. Oh, yeah. If you have not already. If you're not already dialed into the pencil community, go. Go look at D. Scolardi and Michael Hagen's posts on their respective blogs, the Weekly Pencil and Leadfast about a new pencil made by Franklin Kristoff which makes really nice fountain pens. I've always thought their fountain pens were kind of like just very like conservative and like plain looking. I guess they're good quality, but they're just not the Franklin Kristoff they're just never been.
Yeah, I've got one right in front of me.
Do you like it? Like, do you like the fountain pen?
Yes, I do. I mean, there's like, there's a bunch of them and they're. When I went to the pen show, I tried a bunch and most of them I was kind of like, man. But there was one that I'll just. I could tell you about later. But like it. The cap sets really deeply and it just fits nicely in my hand, but it's also like a cool, smoky, clear color. So it's kind of a. Yeah, sort of spellish special looking one.
But.
Well, that's. That's good to know. Yeah. Some of their fountain pens have always, to me, have always struck me as just kind of like, meh, like just kind of like very nice quality but very like plain and conservative. Well, Franklin Kristoff was like, hey, let's make a pencil. And so they went to our good friends over at Musgrave and said, hey, make us a pencil. And Musgrave was like, well, all right, that's my Musgrave. That's enough of that. I will no longer bash Musgrave in that particular way.
You guys want our good stuff for the craft?
I reckon we can make a pencil today. I only say that because nobody listens to. Nobody at Musgrave listens to our podcast or indeed any podcast.
What the hell is your podcast?
Yeah, and they produced a pencil that was kind of crappy. Definitely not befitting of Franklin Kristoff and definitely not befitting of the price tag that Franklin Kristoff put on them. So I think that Dee and Mike will both. Will both attest to that. So don't buy one, but go read their reviews. Yeah. Speaking of pencils that are the opposite of that, both inexpensive and amazing, if anybody is in the group, they may be familiar with Suraj Singh, who is a gentleman who lives in India and he has a business called the Curios C U R I O S. And one of the things that he sells is a sampler pack of. You can get one or two of every Indian pencil he sells. And I ordered, I ordered the two packs. So two of every. Every dozen that he sells. It's a hundred, it's basically 120 pencils. So many pencils and it's only $14.50. It's also $28 for shipping from India. Yeah, but. But yeah, it's really nice and kind of like we've talked about before. You know, last episode we had Mike on to talk about Indian pencils. One of the things Mike mentioned is that they are inexpensive, they're solid, performing, and they use color in a way that I feel like Japan and the US and Germany don't really use bright colors. Interesting combinations. If you are at all interested in Indian pencils and you have 30 ish dollars to spare and you want a crapload of them, drop Siraj a message because these are amazing. I just got mine yesterday. I'm using actually right now one called a Camlin supreme hd. Camlin is the brand. I don't know if it's made by Hindustan. I actually haven't heard much about this particular brand before. It's really beautiful. It's sort of this like metallic blue with a white stripe and a red cap. So it's very like patriotic looking. And it writes really nice for an hb. I'm sorry, we don't know if it's an hb. It says HD and then it says high density. So I have no idea. No idea what grade it is. Yeah, it says Camlin Supreme HD 1080. Yeah, HD. And then it says slash high density. So no idea. Writes in 4K. It's great.
1080p.
Now, the 4K pencils only come from Japan and Germany right now.
Yeah, right. They're really expensive. Pretty soon you'll be able to get your India knockoffs.
But none of the paper you use will work.
Right? It only works on certain kinds of paper. Only certain sharpeners. Yeah. So totally get these. If you're at all interested in this, I'll have a link to Siraj's Facebook page in show notes. He does not have a website, I'm guessing. He. He and I talked when he was just kind of starting out and he joined the group because he wanted to talk a little bit about like our policy for selling in the group. And I told him, like I tell everybody, I'm just. I'm like, if selling the group, but please be like an active, participating group member as well. And he took that to heart. He posts really great pictures of the stuff that he has that he's working on. He's a. He's, he's a cool guy. And he also. And he doesn't advertise it enough as as much as I think he should. But yeah, you should message him if you're in the group and get a price price sheet because he sells them for very inexpensive prices. I bought. So the Nataraj pop pencils that I loved and are no longer sold by CW Pencils. They're now being made by Apsara, which is the same company, just a different brand. I don't know why that is, like why they just switched brand names on them, but same pencil, $1.50 for a dozen of them, which is amazing. So, yeah, speaking of Michael Hagen, he and I have had like a little private text exchange. We're both a little bit obsessed with green pens right now. We talked a little bit about. A little bit about the green pens after the experiment came out. And one of the pens that I've been obsessed with for a long time is the, the Uni Ball Vision evergreen pen. And if you look at the way that an Evergreen Uni Ball Vision writes compared to the way a regular green Uni Ball Vision writes, the Evergreen is much richer and deeper and amazing. And they're really hard to find. Like, I actually have no information as if they're actually been discontinued right now by now. But he actually went on Amazon and bought specifically where it said in Evergreen Uni Ball Vision and they sent him green ones. I actually don't know how he resolved it if he got his money back, but I can't find them. I have no idea. So if anybody has any information out there about like, what is going on with the Uni Ball Vision evergreen pens and maybe I should do a. I should do a post or something. I don't like to write about pens too much, but I do like pens. Just yesterday I was at Daiso and bought a green Daiso branded rollerball pen in 0.38 and it has that same deep, rich green that I really like. So if you have a Daiso in your area, pick up the rollerballs that they have by the cash registers. And if you don't make friends with
somebody, are there a lot of daisos?
I. I don't actually know. There's. There's several of them in the Bay Area. There's several in la and I think there's some in Seattle. And I feel like somebody in the east coast has told me that they have them. Maybe in New York. I actually don't know. You should come out and visit Tim and we'll, we'll go to Daiso.
Be there tomorrow.
All right. Japanese big lots. That's what I call It
Japanese big lots.
That's basically what it is. They sell like all sorts of like cheap plastic crap from Japan, which is amazing. Everything's a dollar fifty. So I guess more like Japanese. Like dollar tree maybe.
Yeah.
Is that it? Any other fresh points? Talked about Franklin Kristoff? I think we're good. Yeah. Should we.
Any guesses on the field notes?
Oh boy.
Sorry. No, there was that. I forgot. There's a picture of the axe. A gentleman. It looks like a man's arm. I'm assuming it's a man's arm. Yeah, the. A glove and an axe. A very small axe.
Have they.
So I was guessing that it's Paul Bunyan.
Oh, that's flannel lined.
The axe looks small and. No, they're just gonna be big. Like big ass books. Like not a five, like a four books.
Wow.
Yeah. Like, hey, you guys wanted some big books. Here's some big goddamn books.
Do we? So. So I've never actually been able to detect the pattern. Like when they send out those emails then they say like, this is not a clue. This is just a picture of like a man with an axe. Are they ever actually clues? Because they seem really loosely connected to the theme. If they are, I think it's like
the blackwing numbers at the end. You're like, oh, yeah. But when they show it to you, you're like, what?
Yeah, yeah.
At least I am.
Then there's Baron Fig whose archers are on their way. I just got a shipping notice and they don't give you any clues. So screw you guys. Joey and Adam speaking. Oh, hey. If you yourself are a stationary blogger of some kind or interested. They are looking for new voices to check out some of the products and review them. So check out their Instagram. I think that they have a thing about how to sign up to like get blogger samples. It is well worth your time.
Yeah. Yeah.
Cool. Should we. Should we slide into the main topic? Let's do it. Yeah. Well, this is a suggestion or a topic that I think has been suggested to us before by some people. And we've kind of like talked around it a little bit and I think that it was kind of spurred on. So. So when I went to Minneapolis, I really wanted to try out just relying on. What am I trying to say? I wanted to try out relying on my Apple pencil to take notes because I knew I was going to take a lot of notes. I knew I was going to do a lot of tweeting and I just wanted to try doing it all from my iPad pro. My apple pencil. So I purposefully did not bring any stationary to me with me just to, like, see if I could do it on my. My apple pencil. Spoiler alert. No, I did not. It was not a good experience. My handwriting was even worse than it is usually. At one point, my apple pencil ran out of battery, which is a thing that happens in 2017, I guess that, you know, you could like break your lead pencil and not bring a sharpener or something. But, like, it's like, I'm sorry, I can't take any more notes. I have to go sharpen my pencil. My. I have to go charge my pencil. That's. That's the thing that happened. And I really wanted to erase with it. Like, you can't turn it around and use the back end of that stylus to erase, even though it seems like you should be able to. So. Blah. Yeah, so. So the apple pencil. Not. Not a good traveling companion if you are on more analog inclined. But we're trying to think of how best to frame this. I'd actually be interested in kind of starting off hearing about when you guys travel, how you usually do it. Like, I feel like I'm so far away from places where I travel to that if I'm traveling for more than a day, I have to fly. And so I'm always kind of conscious about, like, what I pack with me. I don't pack my bullet pencil, even though I want to, because I just don't want to go through security with something that's bullet shaped in my bag and then have to give up a $40 bullet pencil. Tim, how about you. When you. When you travel, how. How do you usually do it?
I don't fly very often, so I haven't had to like, really pare back far. So it's kind of a little different every time. But I definitely always have when I'm traveling just by car, always take my timber twist. And in the last couple times I've either taken. I have a Keras Customs ballpoint. The. It's the. What do they call it? Edk. Keras Customs edk, which is their click pen. And I have a really nice ballpoint refill.
This.
Oh, no, sorry. I was gonna say the same one that's in the Baron Fig, but it's the same one that I put in the Baron Fig, but I usually carry that. Those two definitely. And then outside of that is kind of a. Kind of a toss up. So I. I. My most liked photo on Instagram ever was my travel carry picture.
Oh, yeah? Yeah.
Trying to find it right now. But like, that was one that I just posted kind of like on a whim while I was sitting at a table while we were on a trip to Hilton Head. And then like 130 people, which is the most I've. I've had on something. I liked it, but it was just a picture of the. The seven pencils I chose to take, which is probably more than I normally would. But I have this little metal tin. I think I've talked about it before. I know, and.
Or.
Johnny, you have that Hogwarts metal tin with like the different layers and different levels. Do you still have that?
Oh, yeah. My kids are fighting over who gets it when I die.
Watch your. Watch your back, gambler.
So I have one just like it that my wife bought like 10 years ago in New York City. And it's got all these like weird little monsters and creatures all over it, so.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
I took. Yes, I took that. And then like the bottoms just full of erasers and stuff. And so I was carrying. I tried to get. I always try to get a sample of like just a little bit of everything. And so I took Palomino HB the. And now I can't. I'm looking at the picture and I can't remember the name of the pencil. It's the dark green Musgrave HB pencil. Duragraph or something like that.
Unigraph.
Unigraph. That's it. And Tombow 258. 2558B. Blackwing 211 24, 602. And then a right notepad Spatty. So. So I don't have like a go to thing, but I feel like maybe a better way for me to answer would just be to talk about, like on a given day, I don't walk around with a ton of stuff. And I almost always have either. I have my timber twist, so I would travel with my timber twist. And then some kind of ballpoint pen. Like either my Baron fig that Keras Customs EDK or my space pen. I keep it pretty slim.
Yeah. Johnny, how do you.
Are we gonna talk paper too, or are we just doing pencils?
Oh, yeah. Oh, totally. Talk paper.
Yeah.
Yeah. I usually have. If I've got a bag with me, I have a. The Notco and I'm gonna forget the name of it. I want to say High Tower.
Oh, yeah. I think that's what it's called.
It's. Yeah. Not. It's the one that. It's like a bi. Fold and it's got three slots on one side and then a slot for notebooks on the right.
Yeah.
I think I've got it wrong.
Is that the fodder stack or is that the high tower almost?
No, no, it is the.
Sorry, Brad.
It is the hightower. Yeah.
Okay.
It is the hightower. Yes. Sorry. I've had it for a long time. I got it. That's the one I got with the Kickstarter. The original Kickstarter. I love it. But it's got one side, you can put notebooks, and it's got three slots. And so I'll put, like, those two things and then a gel pen or those two things and one fountain pen. And then on the right, I always bring just. I try to only just take one pocket notebook and then something bigger, which was just whatever's active, which has been for the last year, it's been a confidant. Try to be minimal. Because there was a period of time, like probably the first year we were doing this podcast and like. Or like the. Within a year, you know, maybe a little bit before the podcast. And then the first six months of the podcast where I would travel with all the pencils.
Yeah.
I'd leave it like 20.
Great.
I'm gonna write for five minutes on this vacation, but I'm ready.
That was kind of my next question. Like, when you. When you're on vacation or if you travel more than a day, do you. Do you write? Do you draw? Like, what do you. What do you do with it?
Yes. And I mean, I sort of paste things into mine.
Yeah.
In a. You know, bizarre, like, oh, here's my big Amtrak ticket folded in half, making my book look junk. But I'm not gonna throw it away.
Yeah.
I. I feel like I. If I'm not going somewhere to use it, you know, if that makes sense. Like, like, if I'm going to a conference or I'm going to something where I've got, like, notes to take. Yeah. It's mostly. I tend to. I'm an introvert. And so when I'm on vacation, it's usually with not just my family, but, like, extended family. There's, like, a lot of people around and like, pulling out a notebook and just, like, scribbling down anything is kind of a release, like a little bit of an escape.
Yeah.
And so I tend to actually end up getting good ideas for things, like, while I'm on vacation, just because I'm like, okay, I gotta shut. Tune this all out and just write for a second. Kind of turn my Brain off. And sometimes I'll just make random lists and yeah, it's kind of chaos. But I remember on this last vacation there was just a ton of stuff going on. A bunch of kids running around and I remember disappearing to my room for maybe just 10 minutes and got out my notebook. It was just like really satisfying. Got a pencil and made a list of like the 10 most important books that I had ever read. You know, to me, just little, little exercises like that. I think I tend to do that kind of thing a lot just to clear my head. Yeah, well, rarely get time to actually do real writing.
What was your story? Oh man. Did you leave something on the top of your car the last time you traveled?
Yes.
Was it a. Was it a confidant? I can't remember what it was.
No, it was a heart. It was a pocket moleskin, like the hardback that was probably three quarters full. Yeah, we were in on Hilton Head Island. I pretty sure I set it on the top of the car and we drove off somewhere and I heard something at some point I was like, that was weird. You know, Kept driving. Then about 40 minutes later, figured it out and it was really sweet. Like my, my in laws were. I think they were kind of overwhelmed by all the kids in the house. So they're like, we're gonna go out for an hour. Can we look for your notebook?
Sure.
And they drove up and down the road, looked for it and then I went and walked up and down the road everywhere for like an hour and. But no dice. No dice. Yeah.
That's depressing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so it goes. Vonnegut would say, but yeah, so.
So Johnny, when you.
Hey, yeah, random. I'm sorry, random note but it kind of relates to this is I'm on the, on NotCo's website and if we ever. I remember talking about the, the pencil case that they sent me like a long time ago. Like the zippered pencil case. Remember me tell you about that orange one? Have we ever talked about the fact that they sell those now?
No, I don't think so.
Like they actually have on their site. I didn't know until, just. I mean I missed this somehow. But they have the Chimney Top XL on their site. It's 14. So it's the Chimney Top, like the normal, just like little pouch. But they add I think like 2 inches onto it so it can fit full size pencils. Yeah, I love that thing. I still use it. So yeah, just a little plug for that. It's sold out right now, but it's Nothing super cool, really simple, but it's just. It's nice.
Can you fit an unsharpened blackwing in it?
You want me to find out?
Sure. Okay.
Talk amongst yourself.
We'll do it live.
All right.
I'm walking across my room, reaching into a box full of pencils.
So. Well, Tim is demonstrating live on air, a non sharpened blackwing. Johnny, how do you usually travel when it's more than overnight? And how. How does that take into account how you pack your stationary?
Usually? I'm traveling with a lot of children and my bag is a diaper bag. So whatever's in there has to not be that heavy. Size is flexible.
Yeah.
So I've been. I usually use pocket notebooks. And I'll do like, you know, this field notes is for this trip to Boston. This is for this trip to New York. But, you know, with the children, I started getting really anal about writing down everything. Like, you know, on Henry's first trip to this restaurant that I loved when I was in grad school, this is what he had for dinner. So it gets too big. So I picked up a moleskin voyager recently. Have you seen those beautiful little brown things?
Yeah, those are cool. Aren't they like kind of moleskin's version of the whatchamacallit, the traveler's notebook.
I don't know, someone said that, but I don't really understand what the traveler's notebook is still. And it's just like a moleskine with a weird size. They're like, oh, no, never mind. Pocket and big. Oh, you're thinking of those things.
Yeah, the chapters. That's what I'm thinking of.
Yeah.
Yeah. This is brown canvas, and there. There are three sections of three bookmarks. One is lined, dot, grid and blank. But lined is the most pages. So, like, I use that for writing and the dot grid for information, and then the blank ones for gluing in things that I don't need but don't want to throw away. Yeah. The size is like, perfect for travel.
Yeah. Real quick interjection.
And
we cut back to Tim. Tim, what did you find out?
Mm. Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
The answer is yes.
So when the.
It fits a full size. Full size Black wing.
So when the Chimney Sweep XL is back. Wait, Chimney top, Chimney Sweep. Chimney top, chimney, chimney. Yeah, when the. Chimney top.
Chimney chim. Chimney chim chim.
When it's. When it's back, everybody pick one up.
Chimney Top xl.
Okay, cool. I'll have a link in show notes.
Yeah, cool.
All right, so Johnny, I'm Sorry. Continue. You. You write down, like, what Henry's doing or what Charlie's doing. You. You carry. You carry it in your diaper bag.
Well, my diaper bag is a Timbuktu bag that is called the Stork. So it's really just a Timbuktu bag that has a very nice changing pad in it and a tricycle lining. Tricycle print lining. It's pretty cute. I think they discontinued it because people don't buy $150 diaper bags that get pooped on.
I mean, I don't.
This is funny.
I don't remember if this one's got poop on yet, but they're pretty easy to wash, you know?
Yeah.
But.
Yeah.
So my other practice lately is I have a pencil case from out of print called the po Dot. It's polka dots, but the dots are igrow and poe, where everything I take has to fit in that, including the book. So that's tricky, but helpful. And also everything in there gets really dirty from the pencil.
So I saw that in a store just, like, two weeks ago out here. And kitty go, kitty, kitty goes. Indy, you should get this for Johnny.
It's like a really nice pencil case. I've had it for a couple years, and the inside is not tan anymore, but no holes nowhere. The zipper's good. Very nice.
Yeah.
But, yeah, for a long trip, I've been like. I always take my masterpiece or a knife. Sometimes both, because I take Amtrak usually. And they don't search you. And if they did, I don't think they'd care if you had a pocket knife.
Yeah,
well, I mean, maybe.
I don't know.
I'm definitely with you on the diaper bag thing. I can sympathize with that because I carry this one. It's called the Diaper Dude.
I know those.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yo, bro.
It's, like, just black. It's real diaper, bro.
Diaper, bro.
Poopy, bro, Bro.
Do you even diaper?
But it. But it's just. It's got, like, one main big pocket and then three small ones on the front. And the middle one is dedicated to daddy stuff. And so it's always got my. So whenever I go anywhere, I've always got that. I forgot it again. Hightower. The Hightower with those things loaded. A pocket notebook. And then usually my mini. Like my small hardback moleskin. It fits perfectly right in there. I'm traveling with kiddos.
I feel like usually when I get
more and more to the point where I feel like I Don't need anything but a timber twist.
So, yeah, when I travel, I feel I usually am doing it for work unless I'm going back. Back home or something. And. And there's always usually some element of note taking that I. That I need to do. So I always make sure to have like some bigger. Bigger than pocket note size thing. So generally that's a Baron Finn confidant. Um, but yeah, I. I definitely like, get really paranoid about what I take on the plane. Like sometimes I've even really worried about like sharpening my pencils too sharp because maybe the TSA agent would see that in the scan and those things could definitely like puncture a jugular. So I worry about bringing that and also them wondering, like, why does this guy have so many pencils? Maybe I seem suspicious.
I would. That would be the greatest news story of all time. Like, man's man arrested for suspicious amount of pencils in his face.
Tech company employee has all these analog tools.
Yeah. What. What is he doing underneath it?
But it says, wtf, son.
It's gonna start showing, like on that picture when you're going through security has like all the things that you can't have in your bag. All of a sudden it's gonna have like a pencil with like a 2 inch long point on the end of it. Like, there's gonna be a little measurement thing. Like, your pencils can't be longer than this.
TSA regulations prevent the carrying on of pencils that are over 2 inches in point length.
You have to get like a carry permit.
No pencils over 4B, 4H.
No Musgraves. They'll break and get in the instruments.
Yeah, Carry permit for the masterpiece.
I'm sorry, sir, the permit is in German, so they just have to trust you.
Yeah. What else should we.
Oh, so have you guys ever gotten those? They're less popular now. The Moleskine City notebooks, like smartphones.
I've never bought one.
Yeah, I have it.
Yeah, they used to do a lot more cities than they have now.
I have a San Francisco one from probably like seven or eight years ago.
I think they only do, like, New York now.
Huh.
In North America or something. Yeah, but they got it.
You bought it seven or eight years ago.
A friend of mine moved to San Francisco and he bought it for all of his friends, and I got one.
Cool.
Yeah. And it really. It really has just been replaced by a smartphone. Like all of the things that you. Except for the actual, like, writing part of it, which you could still do on your smartphone, but like the maps and the guides. Do you guys, like, remember walking around like, like New York City or something with like a map and getting lost?
I do, though. I don't use my smartphone in New York.
Oh, you're that guy.
No, it failed me one time when I was in the subway and I was like, I don't know what to do now. So I have a most conceited notebook for New York that I take.
I. That is the one. Like not one, but that is one of the. A few digital conveniences that I definitely think is like, objectively better than an old paper one. When you, when you can get it as is like digital maps. Like when I'm driving and when I'm walking, I get lost really easily. So for me, yeah, yeah, for me it's. It's digital maps. Like, I'm terrible with reading maps in the first place. I love maps. I have. I like like looking at maps. But when I'm like under the gun, like out in the world, and I. And I'm relying on the map instead of just like studying it, then I'm just like, screwed because, oh man.
Might as well just my fuddy duddyism. I'm like, really good at reading maps. I suck at like everything, but I'm really good at reading maps.
Then it ends up being Andy carrying a map and then texting pictures of his map to Johnny and being like, how do I get there, Johnny?
Where am I? Help me figure out where I am.
I send you back a video of me in Baltimore. He's telling you how to get there. Dude, just. Just make a ride up here, you know, Wait for that light.
Just don't fall into any like, open manholes.
I fell into a water main cover a few months ago.
I remember that.
I messed my foot up. I forgot about that.
Weren't you hearing, Rosie?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was a not fun day.
Oh, man.
Could have been worse.
So, yeah, so what else do we talk about? Do you guys have any like, specific like travel affordances for. Do you have anything that you use specifically for travel or do you just bring with you, like pencils and paper and accessories that you would probably otherwise have?
I have, I have a traveling sharpener that kum. With the extra blades because, you know, I'm always paranoid. Then I go on a trip and suddenly my sharpener blade is dull. So that's got two extras on the side. But it lives in my suitcase. I don't ever take it out. Probably it's dull.
Yeah, yeah. I'd say for me it's just when I, if I'm going. There's been a couple occasions where I've said I want to start a new pocket notebook just for this trip, you know, just for like. But that's it really. Most of the time I'm pretty consistent. Like I'm carrying the same thing everywhere, just less to think about. And I bet if I didn't have 1055 child related things to bring along that I would have like a duffel bag full of stuff. I'd have like, like an old 200 year old manual camera with me and like all this goofy analog crap. Have like a typewriter in my bag. But, but now it's, it's a portable typewriter, guys. It means you can carry it.
Yeah, yeah. Do you guys have any, any travel don'ts like anything that you've realized you've tried traveling with and just realized, oh, this is a huge pain in the butt to travel with.
I've stopped.
I'm high fiving you right now.
I remember the pen addict about like flying with your fountain pen and I'm just like, no, I just, I didn't think about how that's a thing. Like yeah, it explodes in airplanes because
the air pressure change totally not worth the problem. Like the, the trouble. I mean, yeah, Mike was always the one who's like, yep, still not gonna do it. Still not gonna do it. And I just appreciate it because like you don't need one, right? You'll be fine.
Yeah. So Mike was just here in San Francisco. Well, he was in San Jose for wwdc, but he was. We didn't overlap. Like I went to Minneapolis and he was here. So I wanted to give him an erasable lapel pin. And since I didn't want to, I wasn't going to see him. I just like mailed it to his hotel. So I feel like, I feel like mailing somebody to somebody to something to somebody at a hotel is like, it feels really old fashioned. Like for real. Like Cary Grant goes up to the desk and is like, like do I have any messages? I have any messages. And yeah, and, but I, yeah, it worked. He DM'd me and said hey, thanks for the bell pins. So that's really awesome. Yeah. So I missed Mike was sad but I wanted to go to the Relay fm the Relay Con. I did see. Oh, I didn't mention this in my freshpoints. I did hang out with a little bit with Adam Cornfield. He was in town from Baron Fig. You know, he is sort of their like in House developer of their apps that they produce. And so he went to the Big Apple Developers Conference to just kind of learn some new tips and tricks and stuff and. And hang out with. Hang out with his friends in the Bay Area. So we went to a really good bar with really good cocktails and sat in the patio, and another friend of his was there who had a big dog with him, and friend with a big dog hung out with the dog. Yeah, super, super sweet dog. I don't know. I don't honestly know if other big cities are like this, but there are always, like, the default. Unless there's a specific sign that says no pets, the default at a cafe or a restaurant is bring your dog. So this dog was just, like, hanging out. And probably once every, I want to say, like, 10 minutes, somebody stopped and said, like, can I pet your dog? I was like, sure. So, you know, Adam. Adam and I are solidly in the cat camp, but. But dogs are all right.
Henry was introduced today to the world of cat slash just animal videos on YouTube. And I. I don't know if he's ever laughed that hard in his entire life. Like, it was like tears pouring out of his eyes. Just like. Hilarious, Hilarious. Cast up. It all started because we went to the zoo yesterday and they had a goat there that sounded like a human screaming. Have you ever heard?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, like, I was so tickled by it. Like, I was trying to get a video of it, but there's this goat, and every time you'd walk up, it would just go scream at you. And Henry thought it was hilarious. So we found a video and then just, like, led us down this rabbit hole. But now, now he's like, oh, daddy, I want to get a cat. I'm like, it's not necessarily going to do all those crazy things those cats are doing. I want a cat.
Have you. Have you ever seen the. The video they mashed up? Oh, it's a Taylor Swift song. And there's this period in which everybody, like, in the refrain just sort of goes like, laugh like that. And they just overlaid that goat screaming.
I have seen that. I totally forgot about that. That's me.
Classic Internet.
Way to go, Internet.
Good job.
Thanks for making my day.
So, yeah, I. I'm trying to think the only, like, travel thing that I've never, like, super bought into, I think, as Johnny alluded to, is that Midori Travelers notebook, like, that whole system. Because it just. It seems like. It seems like selling accessories for the sake of selling accessories seems too fussy and yeah, it's. It's real fussy and it's not very like, to me. To me, something is a good travel thing. If it's like, if it's compact and if it's easily portable, if there's, like, a handle on it. I don't know, something like that. But it's just really big and thick and kind of bulky, and you're just supposed to shovel sorts of crap in there. It just seems inelegant. Like, it's aesthetically, like, it's beautiful. Those, like, leather covers and all the notebooks you put in there. But it's just not a very, like, elegant system, if that makes sense. It's really, like, aesthetically nice looking. But. But, like, what I look for in, like, travel accessories are that they are, like, compact and easy to travel with. And, like, those things are just super bulky and, like, you just, like, shove crap in there. It doesn't seem very like, like useful and elegant of a system, if that makes sense.
Yeah, it's like. And maybe it's just my personality, but if I had one of those, that thing would be just, like, a cluttered mess.
Mine would be, too.
And I just don't. Yeah. Just stress me out. That's why I keep my notebooks separate and a lot of mingle.
Yeah, yeah. And also, like, they have rubber bands that hold the notebooks into the spine. And they cost $20 for a pack of three.
What for?
For rubber bands?
Oh, yeah.
They sell them at Mido. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's bizarre.
So, so do you guys take, like, erasers and stuff when you travel?
I do, but I never use them. Like, always have some in my pencil case, but I just. I never pull them out.
I keep one of those little, like, gritty pebble erasers in my pencil bag. My pencil bag. I use the one from CW Pencils with the patch on it that fits a black wing. But it's, like, super dirty because it's sliding around in there with pencil and.
And
yeah, it's just like, I haven't actually used it just because it's so dirty.
So my wife got me a really cool new pencil case from the Harvard bookstore, and I was afraid of getting it dirty, so I insisted on all of my pencils having caps inside. Didn't work because they all have that choking, you know, anti choking hole, so the dust still comes out, but it was more like a dot instead of a giant smear. But, yeah, I don't think there's really a way to avoid it. It's okay. Pencils messy, but it doesn't blow up on a plane or fade. So, you know, trade offs.
Yeah, this is true.
So explode.
You know what I realized? Yeah.
I mean, it will jam up. It's a real problem on a spaceship, but, you know, can't do everything.
That's why I don't carry them.
Anything else we should talk about before we button up the travel stuff?
That's a quick question. Suppose you were just going to New York for a day and didn't have to carry a work bag or a diaper bag. What would you take with you? It doesn't have to be New York. I mean, any urban center.
Yeah. I might just take with me a pocket notebook and a like bullet pencil or something.
Yeah. I feel like my answers are super boring because I've got it stripped down so minimal already. I say like almost the exact same thing. I'd have a. One of. One of those two ballpoint pens, my timber twist and a pocket notebook. And I would be just tickled. That would be great.
Yeah.
Yeah. Do you guys usually carry some sort of a bag with you? Like. Like, I guess. Johnny, you have your diaper bag?
Yeah.
Yeah. Tim, you have either a diaper bag or I carry my mountain briefcase, which.
Okay.
I. I still try to keep that thing like pretty minimal. And so if I've got that with me if I'm going on a trip and I don't have to fill it with other crap. Like right now, if I was to leave on a trip tomorrow, I would have the things I've already mentioned and then I would put in my. I can't remember what they call it, but the big baron figure. The big fig.
Yeah, but hashtag big fig.
I would, I would have that in there as well. Again with my Kindle and stuff. But. But my, my. I don't think my carry of like items like writing items would. Would change all that much. Under. It's fun to whittle it down to like, I. I enjoy that. I enjoy like whittling things down to like the. The minimalist kind of like this. These are.
I find when you do it and it fails. Fails spectacularly. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Haven't done that yet, but I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure it'll happen where I'll like be out on a. Your pencil safari in the middle of. Middle of Africa and then my bullet pencil stub will like spontaneously combust and I'll just be carrying around this carcass of a bullet pencil. No way to write. Trying to like, dry Clods of mud, like, in the sun, and use them to write. That's what's gonna happen.
Yeah.
Knock on wood. Happens to the best of us. I just. I'd like to hear from other people. That's the kind of thing I love. I love hearing about that kind of stuff. Like, what do people carry? Like, give it. Give the breakdown of what you carry on a trip, like, with a specific parameter. That'd be cool.
Instagram. I want to see pictures.
Yes. Hashtag erase. Podcast. Hashtag pencil carry. There you go.
Everyday pencil carry. So when. When you travel with your pencils, what kind of a revolver do you. Do you take with it?
See, that's the wrong question. The right question is what kind of.45.
I thought you were gonna say how many revolvers do you carry?
But, yeah, I mean, I never leave home without six.
Six shots or six revolvers.
I'm basically a Kill Bill character when I have a samurai sword.
And what kind of a katana do you bring with you when you travel?
My travel katana. It holds up.
Do you guys. Do you guys have. Do you guys carry your tactical fitness dinner?
Is that a. Oh, my.
I don't know about where you guys are, but every single store in San Francisco is selling spinners. Right?
Those things with a fiery passion.
How many of you had to compensate?
I hate these things.
Yeah.
Because it's like, oh, the whole point of them is to help you focus. But, oh, wait, when everyone has one, they're a distraction. And when that hillbilly in the back corner is making his own and, like, selling them in the back of your glass. So I hate these things. I've never taken them away. But I did make a rule, like, in one of my classes. But I'm gonna do it. And next year I'm gonna say, hey, this fidget spinners are fine as long as I can slap it out of your hand while you're using it. See what they say, because that would just be fun.
That could be some good YouTube videos.
Yeah.
Tennessee teacher loses it.
Like, imagining, like, going up and, like, bopping it up into the air and then, like, headbutting it to the back of the room. Never again.
But now, that being said, the videos of dogs with fidget spinners balanced on their nose spinning.
I am gonna Google that as soon as we are done. But did you see the Saturday Night Live sketch about the fidget spinner?
That's incredible.
Sometimes she's kind of awful. So give her the diamond encrusted gold fidget spin.
Oh, hey, Tim. In the. In the chat is talking about a Kickstarter for a spinner that attaches to a pencil. It's a pencil topper.
What?
Whoa. I'll have a link to that in the show notes. Whoa. This thing is fugly.
The name's fugly, too, right now.
Yeah. Spin Pal. Spin Pal. Stout is what it's called. They've already made three times their.
Their goal, so.
Yeah. Yeah. It's only.
Those things are hideous.
Yeah. Wow. We've. I feel like it comes full circle. Pretty soon you're gonna get, like, a fidget spinner side on your fidget cube,
and there's gonna be fidget spinner apps for your phone like you don't even have.
Yes.
Then I'll be developing a very balanced phone you could spin.
I guarantee someone will invent an app like, just put your phone on your finger and spin it. And people are gonna be breaking their phones like, what the hell? My phone's broken.
I don't know what to say.
Motorola's new idea. They're gonna finish coding the market.
Well, let's see. There's already a fidget spinner app where you. You just basically. You just basically swipe the spin. I'm sorry, There's.
There are.
There are more than.
Of course there are.
There are more than six of these apps on the iOS app store.
People should be ashamed of yourself.
For shame.
Okay.
Poor shame. All right, guys, don't forget your fidget spinner. Yeah.
When you're traveling, don't forget your fidget spin.
They've been banned on Amtrak.
Good. No, really. Just trying to spread.
I was gonna say they don't.
I mean, you can basically do anything on Amtrak short of smoking weed.
For now.
Yeah. Just wait, Tim, where. Where can people find fidget spinners? Near you?
Everywhere. There's a graveyard of them behind my classroom.
Oh, hey, speaking of near you, I just realized. So I hung out with some. Some friends at my conference, and we went to a karaoke bar. Michael Metz was there. He just showed up unexpectedly. But there is this song called Wagon Wheel, and there's this. This place where they. They sing about Johnson City.
Jc. Yeah. That is the. If you play in a bar band around here, you learn that song, like, no questions. Yeah.
Three chords.
Yeah, it's a. There's this guy who got up and.
Older.
Older, heavier guy, big white beard. He kind of looked like Kenny Rogers. He gets up and he, like, starts that song, and he whips out a harmonica and starts playing that harmonica. Amazing. But he. He. I just feel like, he goes like, every. Like every Thursday to that bar and, like, sings this song or something.
You know the story of that song. But so it's the chorus, rock Me Mama, Like a Wagon Wheel. That part was written by Bob Dylan. So that was a. That was like a sketch that he wrote of a song and, like, got out as a bootleg. And then the band Old Crow Medicine show got a hold of it and contacted Dylan's people and were like, can we finish the song? And he actually said yes. So. So, like, when you look at the actual song, it says the writers are Old Crow Medicine show and Bob Dylan, even though it was three decades apart.
Yeah, well, I love that. Just like all of a sudden, everybody in the bar goes, johnson City, Tennessee. And it's like, oh, I know that.
Yeah, that is like, yeah, if I could play it gets played here. You'll hear it from, like, blocks away. Like, you just hear the waves of people going, johnson City.
Now that people know where to find
you in your life.
My address is.
Yeah. Where can they find you on the Internet?
You can find me on Twitter. Imwassum. And on Instagram. Imothywassum.
Cool. And Johnny, how about you?
You can find me on the Internet@pencilrevolution.com, where there's a cool new piece about doodling, by the way, which I didn't write. Twitter Ensolution. And on Instagram, which is less pencils these days, at my name. How about you, Andy?
And you're in Baltimore. Is that it? Is that where you live?
I live in Roland park, the country's first planned suburb, but it's part of Baltimore City now. Yeah, you'll find me.
I am sorry. Go ahead.
You'll find me.
Yeah, you'll find him just hanging out in a disreputable park.
If you look at the pictures taken off my balcony, you can probably figure out where I live.
Just triangulate the location. Don't be creepy. I am in the coastal city of San Francisco, California. I am on the Internet@woodclinched.com or on Instagram and Twitter as wellfli A W E L F L E. And the Erasable podcast can be found on the Internet@ erasable us. This episode is episode number 76. We will be at erasable us 76 if you want to talk with us and a whole bunch of amazing community members. And if you're on Facebook, check out our Facebook group. It is at facebook.comgroups erasable. You can find out information, news, updates, things like that from the Facebook page, which is facebook.com erasablepodcast we're on Twitter and Instagram. Oh, I already said that already. That's erasablepodcast. And find us on the Itunes app. App Store Podcast directory, not App Store, which is actually switching to be called Apple Podcast soon, or the Google Music Play Store, or any other podcast directory near you. So thank you very much and we will talk to you again in a couple.
The intro music for the Erasable Podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music at www.thismountainband.com. If I could just catch time.
This has happened before. All I said.