This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I'll see your reticle graph in hell. Hello, and welcome to episode one, two, three of the Erasable Podcast. I'm Tim, Birthday boy. Awesome. Joined by my favorite co hosts, Andy Welfle and Johnny Gamber. Hey, guys, how's it going?
Hey, happy birthday.
Thank you.
Maybe we'll sing later.
I actually had somebody today at school make the joke of like, oh, you're one year younger, or whatever. And I was like, actually, technically, I am because I've been gray since I was 15. So it's almost like I'm. It's almost like I'm aging in reverse. So I'm catching up to my actual age.
So what is your actual age, Tim?
I'm 32 years old.
Oh, I thought you were 31.
No, that was last year. That's a good old 20. 18. Yeah, I was 32 years old.
You're still not as old as I was when we started the podcast.
A friend of mine today who's like, you're still. Or you've just now caught up to the age that I was when I taught you in college. So that was funny. But, yeah. Tonight is a special episode. We've got a special guest we want to introduce, and we are joined by Jenny from the 3Staples blog. So. Hey, Jenny, how's it going?
Hello, guys.
Where's that?
So excited to have you. I feel like we are just talking, like, when you're talking about Three Staples Podcast, the last episode, two episodes ago, whenever that was. Yeah, we should have her on. And then Tim just messaged you and here you are.
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me.
Yeah.
I'm not British, by the way. Okay.
I thought you were British for some reason.
I thought that was the funniest thing.
Ginny sounds British.
If you're British.
Oh, goodness.
Wow.
Wow, Johnny, that was expensive.
I'm offensive to my own people.
All right, so we'll be asking you some questions about Three Staples and hearing about your blog, which we're big fans of. We were talking about the other, I guess, one or two episodes ago, whenever that was, when we were talking about our favorite stationary superlatives. But before we get to that, we're happy to have you join us to talk about our first two segments, to talk about our tools of the trade and our freshpoints. So, Ginny, would you start us off with tools of the trade and tell us what you're consuming and what you're writing with? Right now?
Yeah, right now I'm drinking coffee. It's Phil's Coffee called New Manhattan Phil's. Yeah, it's a local chain, but I think they're also expanding into other cities. But the one I'm drinking is called New Manhattan. It's one of their lighter roasts. So that's what I'm drinking. I'm using Robin notebook. It's a spiral notebook with yellow off like really light yellow paper inside.
What color is the COVID Oh, right.
It is medium gray. Medium gray with yellow text on the color.
Oh yeah, I bought that one for my wife. It's so good looking.
Yeah, it's one of my favorite notebooks. And yeah, it's my go to notebook that I use for three staples related stuff. And it has these clear plastic sleeves in the back where you can store random notes and it's got an elastic band closure. Yeah. And I am using a very short IBM electrographic pencil.
Oh, nice. That was a deep cut.
Yeah, it's one of my favorite vintage pencils and I'm using that with this pencil cap called Sonic Cupot or Cupote. It's one of my favorite pencil caps from Jetpens.
Nice.
I love Jetpens.
Yeah, they just take my money.
Yes, they do that. Free shipping though. Come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm also using field notes, national parks. The Mount Rainier one.
Oh yeah, that's a good one.
It's inside the leather daily carry at the moment. And yeah, that's what I'm writing and that's my paper and pen set up right now.
So what have you been enjoying as far as like maybe shows or podcasts or things you've been listening to and things like that?
Oh yeah, I don't really watch TV that much. I've been getting. I've been getting back into anime, so I sometimes watch that and I listen to way too many podcasts. Yeah, I need to like file bankruptcy and just listen to all the recent episodes, but I keep starting new ones and the one of the new ones that I started is Conan o' Brien Needs a Friend. I don't usually listen to comedy podcasts, but I thought why not? And it's. It's really funny.
I was just talking about this before we got you on the line actually. Yeah.
Oh really?
I was just talking about this. Yeah, I was listening to it today.
Yeah, it's really funny. So I've been binge listening that and then I started another one called the Soundtrack show. Yeah, it's it. They. The host is really good at explaining music theory and. Yeah, so it just breaks down types of music that that films use and very good, very conversational, and makes music theory accessible to people like me who never learned music theory.
Yeah.
So great idea.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm only few episodes in, but so far so good. Oh, and I watched my. One of my favorite films in the theater recently. It's an oldie. It's called Millennium Actress. It's an anime film directed by Satoshi Kon, and it's from 2001, but I think it still holds up. And it's. I think it's being re. Released. It's being remastered and released as dvd. So that's why I was in the theater and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see it in the theater again. It's really good. It's about a retired actress and a documentary filmmaker trying to interview her and talk to her about her past life. And really takes good advantage of the medium. It's just interweaving like reality with memories. And beautiful soundtrack too. So I highly recommend it if you're interested in anime at all.
Nice.
Awesome.
How about you, Johnny?
So I just finished Mindhunter Season 2 last night. Did you guys watch Mindhunter? Never seen it on Netflix. So it's about the FBI unit that coined the term serial killer, and they interviewed serial killers. And two, they had Charles Manson on, which was entertaining. And, you know, the language in it is like, really mature. And one of the lead actors is the guy who did the voice of Kristoff from Frozen. So it's really kind of ironic to hear him using those words. But the other lead is the guy he was in Fight Club. He has, like. I don't know how to describe me. He's really, really enormous guy with blue eyes who said, yes. His name is Robert Paulson. He's got that, like, really great voice. But they're a really good duo. But, you know, most of the people I talked to haven't watched it because it's kind of dark or they haven't finished it. But, you know, dark's okay.
Yeah.
But I have weird dreams after watching it about packing for trips. It doesn't even make sense because they're so. They're. They teach in the road school where they go around and teach different police units. And their rental cars are frequently Ford Fairmont. So my first car was a 1982 Ford Fairmont. So it's a lot of good nostalgia and not on tv. I just finished a book called why Buddhism is True by a man whose name I forget. It's a book about evolutionary psychology and how a lot of the traditional proscriptions of Buddhism and prescriptions for how to fix it for, you know, what's wrong with people and how to get your thinking more straight or scientifically true even though they didn't know they were scientifically true. But yeah, it's interesting. I don't know if you guys have an interest in evolutionary psychology where, you know, until now, yeah, you're. He goes through all the ways that your brain is designed to propagate your genes and how that's really good in a hunter gatherer society, but now it just basically makes you miserable and jerk. So I'm like, oh, that sounds familiar. And yeah, it's, it's a good book. It was sort of at certain parts I'm like, dude, shut up. Like we get it. But it got really good toward the end and I just binge read Kindred by Octavia Butler, which is a time travel book about. So there's a lady in 1976 who gets transported back to the eastern shore of Maryland in 1815 and then a few time periods after that. It's really, really, really good. They talk about Baltimore like it's very far away and very like cosmopolitan. Yeah, you are on the eastern shore. But yeah, that's a totally, really, really good book. I didn't realize that everybody in the world's read that book except me, but
I have no idea.
I've read it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's, it's cheap on Amazon right now. My sister in law gave it to me for Christmas.
I do like Octavia Butler.
Yeah, I'd never read any of her books before. It was like, I mean, I think people classified as science fiction because it involves time travel, but you know, there's no time machine. It's sort of magic. So it's more just, you know, it's kind of like.
Have you ever read the Time Traveler's Wife?
No.
It's. Audrey Niffenegger wrote it and it's. It's about like a guy who sort of like involuntarily time travels the way that some people like sneeze and just about. They're kind of like non linear relationships and it's really interesting and it is classified, I think as sci fi, even though. Yeah. It's not like there's no technology involved. So I love that kind of stuff.
Yeah. In Kindred she gets pulled back to save the life of someone who winds up being her slave owning ancestor. Which is not a spoiler. Like you found this out right away in the book.
Yeah.
So every Time he gets in trouble, she gets sucked back in time for wherever she is to help him and save his life.
Wow.
So then there's so, you know, the master slave dialectic. And he needs her and she needs him and they become sort of friends.
It's.
It's cool. I'm wondering if anyone's ever made it into a film because it would be a really good film, although really hard to watch in some parts.
Oh, I bet.
Yeah. But I am writing in a Fourth of July notebook the last few pages of my last 4th July notebook with Blackwing42, which matches it perfectly.
What's that? Black Wing. Is that a new Blackwing?
Oh, we haven't talked about that on the show yet.
Yeah, no.
Blackwing xxxii. No, it wouldn't be xxxii.
We'll get that detail, I'm sure.
Yeah. How about you, Andy?
Well, I read a really good super short book. So we went to Seattle last weekend for Katie's birthday to hang out with some friends. And there's this book that they just turned into a movie they're starting to show in theaters called where'd you go, Bernadette? And it was a really great book to read while I was going to Seattle because it's set in Seattle. And so like all of these kind of like observations about the city of Seattle that this character is making in the book, you can sort of like observe too. Like, I've been to Seattle a number of times, but never really. Just kind of for fun. So like she's always complaining about like how every intersection in Seattle is a five way stop. And I was noticing that myself. I was like, look, every intersection is a five way stop. But it's about. What is it about?
Fiction is real.
Yeah, like the person who wrote it like clearly had a kind of a deep knowledge of Seattle. And it's this character, this woman who was an architect in the 90s and kind of gave it up and became a mother. And her husband is like an executive at Microsoft and they have this kid, a genius, and there's like all these kind of like interesting hijinks that happen to them and it ends up. They end up in Antarctica. That's part of the plot. So there's a movie with. Who is in that movie? Some good people.
Oh, that pretty actress. I'm forgetting her name right now.
Yeah, Cate Blanchett is in it.
Yes, yes, yes.
And Kristen Wiig is in it. Judy Greer is in it. So yeah, it should be, should be really good. So I'm, I kind of watched it. Katie had read it a while ago and she really wanted to see the movie, so she told me to read the book before we went to see it. So did that. I actually spent the weekend last weekend sick with a fever in bed, so. Well, that will get. Get into my pencho narrative. Um, but. But basically we discovered that on Netflix there are old reruns of Jeopardy. From like, the 80s. What?
Really?
They have every season opener of jeopardy. From like, 1984.
Wow.
And it is, it is fascinating to watch. Like, what's one thing that's great about it is, like, you can see Alex Trebek from back when he, like, gave a crap. And also, like, I know, I know we're all supposed to be nice to Alex Trebek.
He has cancer.
But he's kind of a. He's kind of a dick. Like, he's. He interacts with the participants and the contestants and like, he, he. He never really, like, listens to them in the segment when they're supposed to banter. And he kind of, like, lightly makes fun of them all the time. Like, he just like, I. I really don't like Alex Trebek very much, but I. I really like Alex Trebek of, like, the early days because he was, like, into it. He was like, into this thing. So, I mean, I guess when you've been doing it for, like, like 36 years, like. Yeah. You'd probably, like, get tired of it too. Yeah.
Now when you watch it now, it does sort of feel like every time somebody tells a story, he's like, yeah, it's a great story. Okay. Now moving on.
He's like, phoning it in now.
How many bodies in your closet?
Good story.
But he, he, like, it's. It's really found.
Five bucks. Yeah. Great.
Because the questions are definitely. It seem easier. Like, I feel like I'm better at, like, 1984 Jeopardy. Than I am at current day Jeop.
So.
But it's just. It's just really interesting to watch. Like, there's some people. There was this one woman in one season opening who looked. She looked like it was A.D. bryant playing a contestant on Jeopardy. In the 80s. Like, she's just like, looks like a Brighton in like an 80s wig and like, some big fake glasses. It's really good. Um, but yeah, it's. If anybody likes Jeopardy. And just, like, wants to watch some, like, just some, like, old Jeopardy. Like, totally find that and watch it. And I'm writing with that same mystery Blackwing pencil that Johnny used. My trusty baron Fay confidant, which is where I keep my show notes. Tim, how about you?
I've been reading more than usual, so I've. I've kind of. I've been watching less TV and have. I think I've talked about this before, but I've decided to think about reading. Like, I think about watching tv, where it's like, I don't like having just one book going at a time. Just like, I wouldn't watch one show at a time. I typically kind of jump around. So I've got three books that I'm, like, actively reading right now. I'm actually making, like, parallel progress through these books. On my Kindle, it says, like, you're 40% through this one, 35% through this one, and through whatever, but the first one. And I might have talked about this before, but I'm picking it back up to finish it, which is called A Lucky man by Jamel Brinkley. It's a book of short stories, and he was kind of a phenom in the short story collection World. Last year, I think it was nominated for a National Book Award. He didn't win, but it was nominated. And it's a really incredible collection of stories. Uh, it's his first book. These stories are based in. I mean, so far that I've read are based in some African American. Within African American families that are in Brooklyn and in the Bronx so far. And I've. There are six stories I haven't read yet, so I don't know where it's going to go from here, but they're really incredible. And it's one of those books that just feels like this is what fiction is supposed to do. You know, it gets me into a world that's very different from my own, but, like, makes me feel what they're feeling and see what they're seeing and see them as, like, there's nothing stereotypical about his characters. And I really appreciate that. And it's really fascinating reading. So I can't recommend it highly enough. I mean, I've read the first, like, 60 pages, and I can tell it's a book that I'm going to revisit in the future. So I'm reading that. I'm also reading A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which I think won the Pulitzer. It was several years ago.
I heard her interviewed on Fresh Air once, and she's really cool and smart.
I need to listen to that. I need to listen to that because. So this. This book is. I'm kind of on a short story kick and especially with these two. And this is a novel, but it's. Every chapter could stand alone as a short story, but it kind of keeps, there's, there's one common character, Benny, through the whole thing, and he's either like a secondary character or a primary character in all these stories. And so you could read each of them just by themselves or read it as a complete unit. It makes for a really beautiful novel about the music industry. So it starts out following this high school band and then the various pieces of that high school band as they sort of spread throughout the world for the rest of their lives. So it's really, really great book. And I actually picked it up on recommendation from Jason Isbell, you know, on like one of our weekly conversations that we have when on Twitter. He talked about on Twitter and I was like, okay, I need to read that. If he liked it, then I'll probably like it.
Along with the 30 to 50 feral hogs.
Exactly. Yeah. One of my favorite, this baseball writer that I follow on Twitter, his name is Jeff Passon. He actually posted something about major league baseball players. Got a notice from the main office saying, like, hey guys, stop taking the male enhancement pills from gas stations because it's going to make you fail your drug test. Is this ridiculous? They actually had to send that information. And then this Jeff Passon tweeted about it. And then Jason is bull, like, totally, like dunked on him, like, grammar wise. And like, was like, oh, gosh, I didn't know. Then he, like, called him out for making it sound like the baseball players were having sex in gas stations. And it was just this like, really funny, really funny interaction. So that, Sorry, that might have been inappropriate, but it was really, I just liked the grammar thing that made me happy. I was like, he's my favorite songwriter and he knows grammar. Wow. That's where my head was. And then lastly, I'm, and this is. I don't know if I've had a time in my life that I've been reading three books that I've liked as much as these. And the last one is Kitchens of the Great Midwest. And Andy, you need to get on this one. It's a very Midwest novel. It's in the best way. I mean, it's, he set out to write it, this novel saying, I'm, I'm
San Francisco native, raised West Coast.
Can't fool us, Andy, you reek of the region. So I, I, it's, it's a, it's a novel that follows a family that came out of Minnesota. Really, like Strict Lutheran family and then two siblings and then the progeny of those two siblings that kind of left that community and came south and became like engulfed in food, like sort of foodie world, but not in like a snooty way. It's, it's really, it's a beautiful book and it's. Yeah, can't recommend it enough. I found that one and actually J. Ryan Straddle, who wrote that one, and Jamel Brinkley both have really excellent episodes of Other People podcast, which I've talked about before. So if you listen to Other People, the other ppl, it's kind of like Marc Maron wtf? But for writers Jamel Brinkley and Jerry Ryan Straddle have excellent episodes of that.
So.
And I am writing with a Blackwing natural and I am using my first of my field notes Wilco collaboration. And I went with the Nels Klein, the lead guitarist. So that was my, my favorite.
Which notebook is that?
This is the one that has like, it's sort of split straight down the middle with white on the right and like sort of wine colored on the left with blue field notes and there's these like polka dots going throughout it and random lines. It is, it's awesome. And so this is, this is the first one I've busted out from the collection. I started it yesterday.
Nice. Yeah.
Well, let's, let's hustle into freshpoints. And Jenny, let's go back to you. What's been going on with you stationary wise?
Well, over the weekend I went to the San Francisco pen show. Yeah, it's in Redwood City, not in San Francisco.
I feel like I've talked to so many people who have been like, okay, where should I stay in San Francisco? I was like, well, you're gonna. Well to car or take a, take a really long Lyft ride down there.
Right? That's what I ended up doing.
Yeah.
Yeah. And it was, it was fun. I finally got to meet Brad and Mike from the Pen Addict podcast. I was really nervous. I'm sure I made a weird first impression, but they were really nice. They were sweet. Yeah. I couldn't stay too long, so there were other people I failed to say hi to, but it was a really good experience. A little overwhelming since I wasn't planning on buying any fountain pens. I mean, it's a fountain pen show, but did you. What's that?
Did you buy any?
No, I didn't buy any pens.
Yeah, he said you were planning to, so.
And it doesn't hurt to look in this world. We're so used to people folding and then ending up spending the money. So. Yeah, we were expecting that to be a lead up to.
Oh, sorry.
They blame all the podcasters.
I managed to get a few bottles of fountain pen inks, so did some retail therapy there and yeah, I got some pen. Fountain pen inks from this new to me brand called Vinta. They're based in the Philippines, so I got to. Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying those. Yeah, it was fun. I was hoping I would see you there, Andy, but didn't happen.
Oh, man. I'll talk about this a little bit in my section, but yeah, I was. I don't know if I've ever had FOMO more than this weekend.
Yeah.
Did you meet Ana Reinert or like LE Reyes who were there?
No, I did not.
Yeah, yeah, Lee is fantastic and Anna was. I think she was working the Venus Pens booth.
Yeah, I mean, I saw her, but like, she was busy with customers, so I don't know. I saw Matt from penhabit as well.
Yeah.
Yeah. Again, I missed saying hi to a whole bunch of people, but it was nice to see. It was nice to see people I've only seen on Instagram and, you know, online, so see what else? I just opened the Wilco edition. I got it right away, but I didn't open it until a couple days ago and I think it looks fantastic.
Yeah.
Did you guys see the. Inside the slip case? The lining inside the slip case. It's really nice.
Yeah, inside the slip case.
Yeah, yeah, inside the case.
Brb.
Yeah,
yeah, there's. Let me grab it too. Yeah, the inside. It's like a light gray with white pattern on it.
How about that?
Yeah, it's really. I mean, the details like that really get me.
They. They're amazing.
It has. Yeah, it has like a pattern printed on the inside. That's amazing. And I did not notice that.
Yeah, I. I disclaimer. I don't really listen to Wilco. I've heard of them. I don't follow them at all though. But this is. This looks fantastic.
Still an awesome addition.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I got it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Then they're like, really pushing this one. My local shop, you know, here in Baltimore, where, you know, Wilco's just another band, they carry it and for like, what was. What was it listed at? 27. They sell it for 29, which is pretty good.
Yeah.
I still haven't seen anything about them discontinuing, like, it being a limited edition at any, any point. Every. Everywhere. I keep looking it doesn't say anything about like, get them while you can.
And they made that big, they made that big deal of like it says like, doesn't it say like 01 like Wilco Field?
Oh yeah, yeah. The item number.
Yep.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really love that, that it's not white cover. It's like a really light gray cover. And as usual, I was looking at the specs and it says the COVID is French construction, 100 pound C in grout gray. And I noticed that we saw that previously in the Design Trilogy. Field Notes. Do you guys have those?
I love those.
Yeah, that's another one of my favorites. So I was really happy to see it again. And it was in the Tournament of books. Rooster singles from 2015, same cover.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
You have such an amazing. We'll talk about this later. But I love your just encyclopedic knowledge of like the field notes features.
It's called obsession. Yeah, I really like chasing details like that. But yeah, I really like that gray. So it was good to see it again. I don't know which one I should use first though. They're all, they're all fantastic. Maybe the one with the. Let's see, the John Sturrott. How do you pronounce his name?
Oh yeah, Strat. Yep, that's it.
That one, it's like a dark green with blue illustration of trees. I like that one a lot.
Yeah. Did you see the. On the back, it's got the dog face of the dog kind of like hidden in there. Yeah, I was trying to decide between actually that one, the one I chose, or the, the red one, the Pat Sansone edition that has the triangles and like the three dimensional shapes drawn all over it. And that one.
Yeah.
Can't really go wrong with them.
No, no. So yeah, that was an instant buy for me and I was supposed to get my CW pencils order yesterday, but then it didn't happen. I ordered the Apsara elephant jumbo pencils after reading your post, Johnny.
Oh wow. They're so pretty.
They're coming. I got two sets and they're coming.
I just ordered a second one too.
Oh wow. I really like jumbo pencils. For some reason I just had to buy them.
Yeah. Do you get the CW pencils quarterly pencil box set, Jenny?
No.
Okay. Yeah, mine is. They just sent them out like maybe like yesterday. So I'm hoping to get those pretty soon. Yeah.
So yeah, I think those are all my fresh points.
Nice. Cool.
How about you, Johnny?
So I'll put Off talking about the Blackwing for a minute today. Right. Notepads announced their. So I think they said they're not doing seasonal editions anymore, but it's their newest limited edition called the Copper Anniversary to honor their seventh year in existence. So. I know, Andy, you ordered some. Did you guys see them? Indian. I got it. Him, Andy, Ginny and Tim.
I saw pictures, but I, I did not order any of them.
So they, they, they went back to the pure binding.
I'm excited about that.
Yeah, I liked it. And then when they started doing the staples, it's like, ooh, I hope they keep doing the staples because I like to turn my notebook sideways and those are like, you know, a nice canvas. But these are back to the old box style, which is really awesome. And they're, they're a dark red, which is supposed to echo pantone420, which was the color they used on their old craft covered spiral books. So it's sort of like a nod to that. And then it has copper stamping as a nod to their first limited edition, the Lenore. And like, oh, they're so pretty.
Yeah.
And they only did 700, so by the time this comes out, they're probably gone. But yeah,
as of recording, maybe like six, five hours later, still in stock.
But yeah, I was at the, I was at the zoo today and I was really worried I wasn't gonna get them. Like, oh, man. I'm like. I mean, the, the fourth of July ones were so pretty. And like I said, I'm just finishing it up. And the diet grip was nice, but like, these are really something else. Just like classic Chris design.
Perfect.
And as a quick note, they started making their. Their notebooks that were in brown. They were doing pistachio, which is sort of like a mint green and black. And now they've just added blue and red and like, but it's like blue, blue and red. Red, which is what they should call them. But yeah, I don't know if it's like the whole line, but I know, like, the meeting book and the, the landscape notebook they make, which that's one of their kind of unique things. And so the other thing we definitely need to talk about is the Blackwing 42, the fall release from Blackwing.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Edition.
Yeah. So they, they did a party in. In New York and Brooklyn at. What's the place called? Rough Trade.
Rough Trade Party. Yeah. And they had a launch party.
Yeah. And then if you're a subscriber, they sent you a link so that you could watch Alex talk about the release when it came out, which was pretty cool because I really wanted to go, but it didn't work out. But yeah, that was cool. The only. I guess there was some sort of hiccup. They announced on a Friday and there was supposed to be a notebook out Monday, and it came out quite a bit later, which we could talk about later. It's a limited edition notebook to go with the pencils, but so the pencils are a nod to Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and was also a war hero. It's like super awesome dude. And it's sort of echoes his Dodgers uniform, but the. The feral and the point protector, which they give free to subscribers, echoes the away uniform. So that's pretty awesome. So you guys have these in hand? Yes, I like, literally, like right now. Are you holding one?
Yes, I'm holding one right in front of me. I got some. Chris Jones sent me or I was able to buy a set through him because he got some extras at the. At the event and was able to actually secure the. The poster. He sent me one of the posters that came with it. Awesome. So I was really, really excited to have that. So. And I love, I mean, I love the detail on these and I really. I love the. Do you know why The Dodgers have 42 and like, the numbers in red on their jerseys? Have you heard the story? Yeah, I mean, it's a. It's kind of. It seems like it's not supposed. It doesn't look right when you see it sometimes I think it's actually blue on the front of their jerseys, but right on the back. Whatever. But the original idea is that when baseball began to be televised, the Dodgers changed the color to red because they felt like it popped off the screen more so that people could see, like when they were watching the game that they would see the number better because red, I guess translated better into black and white or like made it kind of stand out.
Wow. I never heard that.
So, yeah, so I loved seeing that attention to detail because that's the number. Their numbers are red on their jersey kind of traditionally. And so it's cool to see the two tone.
Yeah. This is the first time they've done a two tone. A two tone printing. And also it's the first time in a while they've just done a straight gloss lacquered pencil. Yeah, I'm not counting the TWA one.
I also love. This is. This is kind of the first time they've used this. What they're calling road gray as the ferrule.
Oh, yeah, I love that.
So I. I'm sure that our friend Jason Patterson will have a lot of, like, yeah, like, new hackwing kind of elements to use.
Say. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.
Yeah, I was. This is. This is how much I know about baseball. But, like, I was. I was. I was wondering. I was wondering to this crew, like, what, like, why is it called road gray? Like, that seems like a really specific kind of gray to say. Like, it's. It doesn't really. It's not really the same color as, like, streets.
Streets around here are a lot darker.
Yeah. And like. No, no, this is travel uniform gray. Yeah. I guess I'm used to baseball parlance or basketball parlance where they. They talk about their away jerseys.
Yeah.
Yeah, I see. I didn't know that either. I don't know anything about baseball. The more you know me, Andy.
Yeah.
Tim will be our guide.
Most teams, their away jerseys involve gray. Actually, like, it's kind of a traditional thing. So, like, I mean, like, the A's have a. Have a gray away jersey. The Cubs do, the Yankees do.
Yeah.
Yeah. Awesome. So how many boxes did you guys get?
I just did the one I just got.
I just got one. But I have to say I had a bit of an identity crisis when those showed up in conjunction with my Blackwing tablet. Like, the paper. The. I'm going to call it legal pad. The legal pad showed up and it was dot grid. And I thought I was getting lined. And so I was like, oh, bummer. Because I always, like, love to make fun of dot grid. You know, I call it door grid. I just, like, I don't like dot grid and I don't like the. The balanced core. And then I wrote with those two together and had, like, a transcendent experience, and I was all of a sudden like, I love balanced grid. I love dot grid. I was all of a sudden, next
we're going to get you on the reticle graph.
And so I've been, no, that's not going to happen. No, I'll see your reticle graph in hell. There's a title I. But I've been so. I've been using, like, nothing. I mean, I'm using a natural now because that was actually just what was in my bag, like, when I was. When I was coming down. But I've been using the balance core all week. It was kind of like I've been missing out. Which also means that I'VE got a bunch stocked up that I haven't been blowing through. So I've really been enjoying the. Yeah, that 42. And then also going back and using the 33 and a third and stuff.
Awesome. So do you guys want to talk about the notebook?
Yeah.
So, I mean, it's no secret that Blackwing makes notebooks and they have, you know, the pearl, the black, they don't call it anything. And the 602, they sort of have a line for each of those colors. So they put out a white slate that has a big blue 42 on the front in conjunction with this release, which was really cool.
Do you think they're gonna start doing this with all the volumes now or do you think this is just a special?
No, I mean, my wallet hopes not. But they also did the point protector in the special color, which was possibly the best subscriber extra. Yeah, that was. That was.
I was tempted to like subscribe just for that. Just for that bonus. But also I just, I just know myself well enough that I. I talk myself out of it. But yeah.
Yeah. So instead of buying another dozen of these, I bought the. The notebook, which was 30 bucks. The shipping was nine. That was kind of hefty. But you know, they, they usually get things out pretty quickly.
Yeah.
Plus, like, you know, if it was five, I would have paid for it. If it was nine, I paid for it. Whatever. They know, like you're already dropping 29 bucks on a notebook that's, you know, the same as the other one.
Johnny, just give us your. Just let us access your bank account. We'll just. We'll just take the money out. You won't even have to know.
They know what you're going to pay for it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sorry.
Wait, wait, wait.
So did you end up paying 42 for it to have it shipped?
No, it was like 39 and change.
Ah.
Okay.
Just wait till. For the Black Wing 75 1001.
Because this was sort of like low hanging fruit because they used a new feral, so it was a good excuse for a new point protector to match. And the white notebooks that they already make like, just worked right out. So they probably just got this stamped. I wish they would come out with a brown line to go with Black Wing Natural. That would be cool.
A wood cover, like the cherry graph or something.
Oh my God, that would be awesome.
Yeah.
So the notebook comes with a 42 pencil, I assume.
Yeah, that's a nice touch.
Yeah.
And you know, this, this graph.
I don't.
That notebook will kill it. And the slate is like super, super nice notebook. I don't, I don't usually have stationery that's so nice. I don't use it. But my black wing notebooks tend to just get looked at for no good reason. I mean, they're not that expensive, but, yeah, that's my old. I feel like I got all the good fresh points tonight, so I'll give up my spot.
Well, my. I just have two, and they're pretty quick. 1. Just want to give everybody a Plumbago update. They're here, they're back from the printer and I'm just getting them all ready to do a big, big mail out, hopefully coming this, this long weekend coming up. We, I got all of the contributors. Um, I got them their plumbagos in the mail and yeah, everybody else is coming soon. So it's looks really good. Um, I know you. We, we talked kind of back and forth about whether or not we wanted sharp corners, arounded corners on this edition edition. And I, I really liked the sharp corners, so I left it. Even though Tim and Johnny, you both were like, let's do rounded.
I think rounded looks nice, but like, that's gotta be so much work. And I'm on the east coast not doing it well.
Also, there's like very thin stripes of accent color on the top and the bottom right to the bleed of this edition of the COVID And for some reason, to me, the rounded corners looked a little weird with that accent stripe. So I thought it made it look just really good with a sharp corner. So, yeah, gonna get that out really soon. And also, yeah, I gave away what I was going to talk about, but I was so excited. On Thursday, I was going to go to the Relay FM 5th anniversary party. I was going to go. I had an extra ticket that I gave to Ana Reinert. I was going to meet her there. We're going to hang out. And then the next day I was going to go down to go to the live Pen Addict recording. And then the next day I was going to work at Ana Reinert's husband's letterpress booth at the pen show and I was going to sell some back issues of Plumbago there. And then on Thursday morning, I got a. I came down with a fever and I was coughing and I basically just got a, like, short, intense summer cold. It was terrible timing and I just was in bed all weekend, so I did not, did not go to the pen show. It's very sad.
Sorry.
Anyway, anybody. I know that, Ginny, you were there. I know that Nick Seisei from Blackwing was there.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, that have been awesome to meet Nick.
Yeah, he's walking around. Ariel Arias was there. Several other people like Jacqueline Myers from I have. I never say her blog name right. It's Inkpot Thesis. Like hypothesis, Ink, Apothesis is what it is. She was there. Lots of. Lots of cool people. So I missed out on that. Very sad about that. So that is. That is it for my fresh points. Last but not least, Timothy.
I've only got one. Yeah, and that was actually just kind of popped into my head at the last second. And guys, I've got them to send to you. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I've got them. So these are some pencils that showed up at Kroger that I think people were talking about in the group some. And I just stumbled across them just grocery shopping and just saw them because I, you know, of course can't help myself but like check and see what shows up and usually I'm disappointed, but this time there were these pencils and I. This is why I put it in the show notes. I don't know what to call them. I'm not sure what the brand is because it says so many things on the box. It says Made in the usa, America's finest American arbor. Natural cedar and white fur. It's just like so much going on.
But it's the written word pencil company.
It's. So they're called Written Word. Oh my God.
Yeah. Because on their website they have a really cool pencil sharpener I'm staring at.
Okay.
So they feel like they have to use more words in order to be.
If I should have looked on the back to the tiny print at the bottom that said written word and then I would have known the pencil company name. It's just like really crappy packaging and. And I really, really hate when pencils put America's finest or America's favorite pencil. Just take it. If this would have said American Arbor on the front of it, I would have been like, cool, man. These, like, you know, just kind of a cool name. But. But so they came out with these two that I've only ever seen at Kroger. And one set is made of. And it doesn't say the name of the wood, but it's got to be what are some of the lesser woods?
Like base wood.
It was not that. It's not that bad. But anyways, it's save a black matte round pencil that's made with whatever that is, and then they have the one that's, that's more interesting that I was really excited about is this round natural set. And it's, it's also just like really, it's really interesting because they, and I don't know if this was just kind of a clever way to appeal to hipsters and cut costs, but they, they did two different types of wood in one edition, so, and so in one pack of a dozen, you get six that are made with natural cedar round and then six that are made with white fur.
Huh.
And they're so they're 12 round pencils, six cedar and six white fur. So it's kind of a cool combination.
So anyway, really good comparison.
Yeah, it's, they're, they're pretty similar. I think the, the cedar kind of gives you a, a smoother line because it's just like a firmer or like denser wood it seems like. And so it's, maybe you get a little more sort of like noise on the page or a little more feel from the, from the white fur, but they're both really nice. And so it's a, We've talked all the time about how there isn't a good readily available round pencil out there. And here's an option, it's only three bucks a dozen, so it's actually a really worthwhile find. So I, I, I got a couple of them and I got some to send to you guys and love you, Jenny. If you want me, just let me know and I can send you something. Send you something. Because I was there, I was, I was there yesterday and it was like still a full stock of them. So I can, I can grab some. So let me know.
Yeah, their website keeps saying coming fall 2019. Like why don't you come out with them before the fall so we can buy them for back to school.
Well, it seems like they, they got Kroger to like test launch them for them or like it's like a soft open or something at Kroger, which is a weird soft open. But anyways.
Yeah. So on their website they're do colorful jumbo pencils too, which is awesome. And yellow. I wonder if the yellow pencils be good. I wonder if they'll be round or if they'll be hex.
I hope they stick with round all the way developments.
Yes, that'll be a good company trademark. All around pencils.
Yeah, all around.
Oh yeah.
Should have called themselves like the rolling pencil company or something. Like fall off your desk and break and you cuss at it.
Pencil company the pencil that you can't hold down.
All right.
It just keeps moving. Okay, so let's, let's get into our, our main topic, our interview with Ginny. So, Ginny, thanks again for joining us. We're all big fans and we're excited to have you here and so we want to pick your brain a little bit.
Oh, boy.
Here for a little while.
No pressure.
So buckle up. Yeah. Oh, boy.
Are you a card carrying member of the Communist party?
We demand the truth. So first of all, can you just tell us a little about yourself, about your stationary interests and kind of what sparked that?
Yeah.
Anything you'd like to share?
Yeah, I run a personal stationery related site called 3Staples. Just to repeat. That's where I blog mostly about field notes. I'm a big fan of field notes memo books. And in case people don't know, the site name, 3Staples comes from the fact that the memo books are bound by three staples most of the time.
That's perfect. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't think I can take credit for it. It was my partner's idea, I think, if my memory serves correctly. So, yeah, I mostly talk about field notes there. And in terms of my relationship with stationery, I think it's just always been a big part of my life. Ever since I was little. I've always liked doing arts and crafts, so I think I learned from early on how to pay attention to different types of tools and their quality and, you know, how to compare. So that's, I think, how my love of stationery came about. I'm also into fountain pens and pencils thanks to your podcast. And I really got into vintage pencils after living, listening to your podcast and learning about CW pencils. And I'm also into, I'm also into journaling, so I sometimes blog about tools related to that like Japanese notebooks and gel pens and Hobonichi Planner. I use that daily. And Washi tapes.
Your Instagram stories after you came back from like Japan or wherever you were was amazing with the Washi tape, like with all of the Washi tape accessories you had.
Yeah, they have so many different types. I have, I have a Washi tape with a Washi tape pattern in it. I love those, I love those feta tapes and, you know, stationary related, you know, little illustration on the Washi tapes. I mean, I love
washing tape.
Yeah. So that's, that's me. I'm a stationary junkie. So. Yeah.
Can you talk a little about why field notes? Like why did you decide to start a blog about Field notes and not Moleskins, because they do special editions or some other sort of notebook brand or even a special kind of pen or Washi tape. What is it about field notes specifically that you really, really love?
Yeah, I think. Well, first of all, I've tried a Moleskine. Moleskine. Moleskine notebook. Long time ago. Didn't like it. So that's one reason why I never got into it.
That's good.
Yeah. It was a sketchbook and I didn't really like the quality of the paper, but, you know, I'm sure I'm not being fair to them. Field Notes. I think I was attracted to Field Notes because of its design. Like, it was really just aesthetics, really simple, you know, very utilitarian. I think I first saw them in one of the design blogs I was subscribed to. I was really drawn to the Futura font, and I've never seen any. Any notebooks like that before and, like in that format in rounded corners. And the fact that it says field notes really drew me to them. I mean, I don't usually like notebooks with branding on the top, like title on the COVID but feel notes somehow. I mean, it is the name of their brand, but it's like generic enough, you know? Yeah, yeah, so. So, and the fact that it's in Futura kind of attracted me to them. And I saw Ravenswing and that really hooked me, and that's what prompted me to subscribe.
Yeah, that was such a good one.
Yeah, I had to subscribe. It was actually me and two other friends, we chipped in for one subscription, so every quarter would have to split the shipment. That was a humble beginning. And then, yeah, as my collection was growing, I started noticing all these details, like the specs that they share on the back of the COVID And then I started comparing the older ones with the newer editions. So that became my hobby. That became my obsession. I guess I also like that they're not meant to be precious, you know, so. And the fact that it's a Chicago company. I spent part of my childhood in the Chicago area, so there was that connection. And. Yeah, and I was. At the time, I was trying to find an easy way to, like, a different way of journaling. I wanted to try a different notebook, and I thought there was, like, a easy way to start, and I wanted to start a new notebook more frequently. And I thought Field Notes had, you know, it wasn't intimidating to start. You know, it wasn't a thick journal with like 300 pages or whatever. So that's how I got into it. Yeah.
Nice. Well, you kind of talk about a little bit, but generally just every day. What do you use your field notes for? Are you mostly keeping lists or are you still journaling every day in it? What do you use it for?
Yeah, these days I use them as like an inbox, like a scratch pad, just whatever notes I need to jot down. I used to. For years, I used them as a journalist notebook, and I would fill every line. And I used to use two a month, but nowadays maybe two per one per month or one per one every two months. So I've slowed down. But yeah, these days I just, you know, I actually before, I used to never take them outside because it was like a personal journal. I didn't want to lose it. And so I would always stay at, you know, stay home.
It's safe to say that you get more field notes than you use, probably.
What do you think?
I won't make you answer that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have. I have way too much. I have way too many stories. Yeah. But nowadays I actually. You take them outside. It goes in my purse. Sometimes when I doodle, I write down grocery lists to do lists. Things I heard on the podcast I want to refer back to, things like that. And some of the notes get moved to my digital apps, some of them don't. And never. I never look at the notes again. But that's my workflow these days.
So when filling your books, what sort of writing or drawing tools do you use? Are you a super graphite person? Or do you usually use fountain pens in the field notes? Or what is it that you enjoy using with that paper and these. These notebooks, specifically?
Yeah, whatever is lying around. But mostly I prefer gel pens. I really like the. The pentel energel euro needle, euro needle point in 0.35 millimeters. That's what I really like. Among all the gel pens. And sometimes I use fountain pens. I know there are people who, you know, saying they'll never use fountain pens with field notes, but I don't care. I just. Whatever is convenient these days. Plus, I use fine nibs on fountain pens so it doesn't really get too, too wet on the page. I also use pencils like what now? Yes, pencils. Caran d' Ache Blackwood jumbo pencil. That's another jumbo pencil I really like.
That is an absolute unit of a pencil right there.
I love it.
Yeah.
And when I have. When I carry field notes in the leather daily carry, I like to use the Caran d' Ache 849. It's a retractable hexagonal ballpoint pen. But I don't like bulbal pens that much. So I take the refill out, and I put in auto gel pen refill. And it fits. Really. It fits perfectly in the pen tab in the daily carry. So.
So that's what I really. That's a really attractive, like, pen case. I. Or I know exactly which one you're talking about. They have some really great colors.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, it comes in other colors.
Wait, which one are we talking about?
It's the daily carry. The field notes daily carry.
Oh, I'm sorry. I was talking about that karan dash rollerball pen.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry.
Yes, they come in. I think there are a lot of limited editions, too.
Yeah, yeah.
But I just have one. It's the gold. I think it's called gold bar. Really, really comfortable to hold. It looks like a pencil. That's why I like it.
One thing I'm on your. Your site right now, and I'm looking through. You have that page of your. Your favorite gel pens.
Oh, yeah.
And I was. I was just looking through that. And one thing I really appreciate about watching your, like, roundup of all these gel pens is that so many of them are, like, almost out of ink. So it just, like, shows how much you actually use these. You're actually using these things. I love that there's. Some of them are, like, barely filled up, and some of these, like, look actually different than what I'm used to. Like, guys, that Sino. The uniball Sino pen looks different than the one I'm used to. It seems like maybe even sometimes different areas of the country or different areas of the world get different versions of pen bodies, and that's always kind of interesting to pick around at.
Yeah, I think the Sino or signal line is pretty big, so there's a lot of variety. Yeah, that. Yeah, the gel pens is. I used a lot of gel pens when I used to journal, when I used to journal and feel notes every day. I mean. I mean, that was. That was my. My go to tools for a long time. But nowadays I also like to use rollerball ink pens on field notes. These days. I just really like how the ink gets, like, the Finch paper inside field notes. Like, it's just the way that it absorbs ink. I really enjoy how they feel with the rollerballs. And so I use a uni Ball vision Elite. So that's good with field notes. So, yeah, whatever. Whatever I can find on my desk yeah.
Cool.
So if you had to pick somehow, if someone had got you on their podcast and made you say what your three favorite field notes releases were, I mean, limited or seasonal or even regular regular releases, what would your top three be and why?
Oh, that's. This is. This is cruel. This is really tough. So can I do, like, three quarterly editions and, like, three non. Let's see. Well, like, okay, so in preparation for this question, I went to my own ranking on my website, top five, and I'm like, how do I choose three out of those five? Well, the first one is easy. It's always going to be Nice Guy, number one, Nice Guy. And then today I will pick Ravenswing and Day Game. Those three are my top three quarterly editions. Night Sky. Because, you know, it's a simple, you know, all black, very practical. It's not going to get dirty. I mean, even if it does, you won't be able to tell. And there's just really just enough visual interest, you know, in the holographic foil stars in the back. I just love how they combined everything without overwhelming the original, you know, style of field notes. And I love the stars and constellations as visual motifs. So, yeah, that's. That's an easy pick. It was the first edition to get black staples and reticle graph grid, by the way. So reticle graph.
I love it.
It's just graph paper that doesn't commit. Yeah, I wrote an activate.
Yeah, I wrote a giant post on Night sky at three Staples, and it was a lot of fun to write it. I think I spent like 40 plus hours on that post. Yeah, so that's number one. Number two, Ravenswing. Again, it's black. I like black things. Black pencils, black notebooks. It's simple, all solid color with linen texture. And the duplex cover, it's got that dark gray on the inside with black text on it. It's really nice looking, in my opinion. And it's letterpress. It's too bad they didn't use black staples then, because that would have been really, like, all black. And then they used orange belly band on it. So I really like that combination of orange and black. And number three, Day Game. Again, I don't know anything about baseball, but. But I really like that one. You get three different colors and they're simple, you know, French paper covers, which are my favorite foil stamped. I especially like the white book.
That's my favorite too.
Oh, that one. I like that one too. But like, I like the craft one with the white oil stamping on It. Because it's like a slight variation on the original craft. And that white on the green book. Oh, I love that combination. So those are my three top quarterly editions.
Nice.
Yeah. But tomorrow I might choose national crop and balsam fir because I love the balsam fir too. That white undark rich green.
Yeah.
Balsam fir was the first. The first quarterly edition that I ever bought. And I bought. I bought three packs of them. I bought one that I gifted to a friend and I bought one that I used and I was going to have one to keep, but I used most of that one instead. Little did I know that someday be worth so much more money than I paid for it.
Yeah, that one's very handsome. Yeah.
So, Ginny, what does your. If Jim Kudal or Brian Dell called you up right now and they're like, hey, we want you to design our next edition, what would your ideal field notes limited edition set look like?
Okay, let's see. How long do we have? Well, I would love to see letterpress again. Not gonna. I don't think it will happen again because it's probably too expensive and time consuming. But yeah, letterpress would be ideal for me or like blind hit in. In the fashion of grass stained green and ravenswing. Sort of like that. It'll have to be solid color, nothing too fancy. Yeah. I'm one of those who prefer. If you couldn't tell by now, like the older, simpler editions. And. And the COVID would have to be colored all the way through. Like, not like white cover stock with colors printed on top, you know.
Yeah.
So it doesn't have to be French paper, but. But I think that helps. Yeah, they. They tend to like them and I think they have a relationship. So. Yeah. And there are a lot of. I'm looking at. I have a. Let me grab. I have a booklet of pop tone French paper. Pop tone paper color samples. I'm looking at the colors and there are a lot that they haven't used yet, like Razzleberry and cotton candy. These like, like pink colors. I would love to see pink colors again.
Oh, yeah.
Or not again, but like in the quarterly edition series, I think, because we've seen them outside of the series, like here and there in the branded editions like Point Zero and capsule spring summer 2014. And. But we've never seen. We've seen like little hints of them, like tucked in in like additions like unexposed and national parks recently, but never an addition like entirely with like pink.
Yeah.
And I'm not even a fan of pink color that much, but I think it's. I think I just want to see them do it because I think it's. It would be a little bit out of their comfort zone just because, you know, I might get criticized for this, but I think a lot of their additions tend to be a little bit, you know, a lot of Americana, a little bit stereotypically masculine. So, yeah, I would love to see just unabashedly pink edition.
Absolutely. Make all those field nuts bros mad.
They get mad all the time.
That's true.
I'm actually scared. So. Yeah. A color, like, solid color, you know, it doesn't have to be pink. It could be like that pop tone, grapesicle. It's like a really, you know, pastel, pretty pastel lavender color. Why not? And then graph grid, probably. Graph. Graph grid. Just because I think it's. That would be more versatile in a. And it would have to be colored. It would have to be in a color that matches the COVID I think just a slight, you know, not too bright, not too dark, because that would be too distracting for writing. Not like coastal, you know.
Yeah.
So that would be ideal. And some. Maybe finch paper and 50 pounds instead of 60 pounds. Because I. When they first started using 60 pound in arts, I appreciated the thicker weight, but I think I'm beginning to like the thinner weight or lighter weight. I. I just. I. I just think it makes the notebook a little more, I don't know, more pocketable. It. It's less precious, you know,
with you on that. Because that's like, they still use 50 on, like, the craft edition. Right. And the. Like the Chicago and the Portland ones or whatever. Yeah, there's. There's some. There's something about those that it's way easier to just kind of like, throw it in your back pocket and just sort of destroy it or just kind of let it. Let it go. Whereas, like, the one that was. What was the. I always forget the name of this edition, but the new one that has, like, the streets, the, like, the road trip ones. What was it called?
Oh, my.
Like, that one was one edition where I, like, really just didn't, like, feel like carrying it around for some reason. For some reason.
So there's definitely something about the thicker notebooks that make it, I don't know, less wieldy, like.
Yeah.
Yeah. So maybe it might not be a popular opinion, but I'm beginning to appreciate the older editions with the 50 pound in arts, so. Yeah.
Yeah. So this is a safe space. Nobody listens to this. So you can be honest with us.
I'll Never hear this.
So you gave us your three favorites. What's like maybe the one you were least enthusiastic about.
Oh, least enthusiastic about. Oh, I think when I had the full ranking before, I think expedition was always at the bottom. Not because. Not because it's ugly or anything. I think it looks great, but I have no use for that. That particular type of paper inside.
Yes.
So, yeah, I. And. And campfire. I think somebody. Somebody here likes campfire. That's you.
Yeah. That one's so pretty.
I'm sorry. It's just okay for me. I mean, I'm fine. I can use one. Fine. Just not really drawn. I'm not really drawn to the covers that much. I like the concept. I just don't like the COVID And utility. I don't. Do not like utility. I just.
Yeah, I can agree with that. Yeah.
I think it. Did it sell out. I know it was available for a really long time. I don't know.
There's still some at my local shop.
Well, remember how. Remember how that was like, maybe the poorest, like, production quality, like the quality controls are great. Yeah. And I think that probably prevented a lot of people from buying them because they were just like visibly damaged inside the wrapping.
Oh, wow. Yeah. I just don't.
They're not available on the site anymore. But there's. Well, actually they've still got that project kit that comes with some of them, so they're. They're hidden in there.
So they're trying.
They're trying to pull it off on us through the. Through the project kit.
Yeah, they were. They were on the website for a long time. And I just don't like how the ruler on the back is kind of set in, you know, like, the paper is exposed. I don't know what they were thinking there. Uh, oh.
So March 2014 was a very, very good time for stationary publication because that's when you started your blog and also when Erasable started. Yay. So your first post was about Ravenswing, and you mentioned that that was your sort of gateway to getting really into field notes. But. And this was even before the field notes group, so there. There wasn't a lot of, like, concentrated Internet talk about field notes.
I'm surprised to hear that.
So what inspired you, you know, back then when field notes weren't really the thing they are now to start. Start your blog.
Yeah. Yeah. So that was around when I was, you know, subscribing and my collection was growing, so I wanted a way to document my collection and I. And I wanted an outlet where I Can, you know, geek out over the details. And I also wanted to look back and review some of the older editions. Just talk about, you know, put my opinions out there and, you know, see how the older ones compared to the newer ones. And. And I think I was. Do you guys remember signal noise?
Yeah.
37.
No, no, no, no. I think it's. He's a designer. Friend of Field Notes and Draplin, maybe It's a. He's a graphic designer. He used to have a. He used to have a page where he would, you know, it was like a gallery of his Field Notes collection.
Oh, I remember that.
Yeah. So I was inspired by that. And I'm like, oh, I should. I should put my collection out there too. And, you know. Yeah, because he used to have, like, pictures of editions that he was looking for and, you know, looking to buy or he just acquired. And I, you know, wanted to just talk about stationery and just connect with fellow fans, make friends along the way, hopefully.
Yeah.
And, yeah, I like taking pictures, so. And working on compositions and editing them, making them pretty. And this is like a side goal that I had. It was like I wanted an excuse to learn how to make animated GIFs and cinemagraphs from scratch. So I'm like, oh, I can do the field notes. So, yeah, I think. I mean, there are a lot of apps like that now that make you. That let you make Cinema or animated GIFs really easily now. But I think back then, maybe not, but yeah, that was just like a silly tertiary goal. Yeah, I made up. So that's how three staples started. I actually. Fun fact, I started on Tumblr.
Oh, really?
Yeah. And then I know I realized that it wasn't going to be appropriate. It was just my posts kept getting long and long.
Turns out we could have, like, paid for Tumblr with our pocket change recently. Did you see that they sold for $3 million to WordPress?
What?
Really? Yeah, yeah, 3 million.
Chump change.
Yeah. Tumblr. All of Tumblr. Sorry, that was a sidebar.
Yeah, I moved to Squarespace. I think I used, like, the promo code from Pen Addict.
That's what we did.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm still on Squarespace. And. Yeah.
Nice. Well, speaking of the way your blog looks, I think I called this out in the last episode about how just really phenomenal your photography is. Thank you. I think you do such a good job of, like, you know, layout, like, knowing your field notes, but then also, like, the photos are just so crisp and clear. Are you willing to talk for the photography geeks Listening a little bit about your photography setup.
Oh, oh, yeah, sure. I use. Let's see. I use an Olympus OM D EM5 with Panasonic Lumix 20 millimeter prime lens. That's what I primarily use for the blog. Sometimes there's some iPhone shots in there. I use iPhone 7.
Yeah.
And then I use mostly Photoshop to edit. Yay. I have a whole, like, workflow there set up. And then sometimes I use VSCO for some of the iPhone shots.
Yeah.
And I use a white matte framing board as my background.
You just use natural sunlight or are you using some sort of like a soft studio lighting?
Yeah, natural light.
Yeah. It looks so good.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I look at some of my older editions or older posts and I cringe, but thank you. So, yeah, I have a white mat board that I use as background and I need a bigger one, but that's all I use. And I spend hours editing and.
Yeah,
that. Yeah, that's my setup.
Nice.
Yeah, we were like, again, we've talked about it before, but we're big fans of your Instagram presence and you do a really good job of sort of curating the collections into themes. You've. I've done it by the print on the inside. We've seen you do, like, the fall colors clumped together. I just was looking at a post of years where you're putting all of the black staple, like, all the editions of Black Staples together. And that's just like one of those really satisfying things to see for people who are interested in this stuff. But I don't know, just what's your process for curating collections together and how you think about that? Does that just sort of come together naturally because you've got such a photographic memory of all this, or is that just how you think?
No, no, no, no, no. I. I think I'm inspired. I think whenever there's a new release out, I would look at the new newest edition and be like, wait, I think I saw that color before. Or, you know, oh, this time they use black staples. What other editions use black staples? And then. So that's how I'm inspired. I think that's how I get the idea. And then I look through all my field notes and see if I want to take a picture. I also have like a. I have a page on my website called 3Staples or not 3Staples, field notes by Theme, where I kind of group field notes into little lists. Like, you know, I put. I list all the editions with all the black staples and then this is great. Yeah, that's my little cheat sheet. I go. I reference my own site. Yeah, I reference my own site. I go to look at. I look at that and I say, okay, I. You know, I pull out all the editions in that list and I take a picture. I don't do it for. I don't do that with every edition that comes out.
That's just.
Yeah.
Really impressive, though. This is really cool. This is. I surprised me of John Pattison, who I do the membership podcast with. He's the one who, like, will, like, whip out a spreadsheet and, like, categorize all of Wendell Berry's books and, like, everything gets them all, like, thank you. Because we would not spend this much time. Like, this is really incredible. Yeah, this is. This is really neat. I'm scrolling through it right now.
Yeah, I try to update it whenever there's a. There's a new edition, but. But sometimes I. Sometimes I. I fall behind.
I really. I really love the. The. The phrasing of some of these where you said off white innards, colored innards, thicker innards. So I just. I really want to start a band now called Thicker Innards.
Thicker Innards.
That sounds wrong for some reason.
Something. Yeah. Perforated innards sounds painful, but. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's by no means complete, but I have fun with it.
Nobody will notice. Yeah, this is pretty impressive.
And, you know, whenever they tease, you know, the next season release, you know, then it makes me wonder, oh, like, what are the summer. All the summer editions so far, you know, do I like them? You know, so that sparks an idea. And that's when I start taking pictures.
Cool.
Awesome. So I'm sorry my thing went away. So recently you've done some Instagram polls comparing different editions. So what is. I'm sorry.
Oh, I said, oh, yeah, yeah.
So what.
What have you.
What sort of information have you gleaned from these? Like, you know, concerning what. What people are really into?
It's really hard to tell. Sometimes I wonder if there's a natural bias, you know, towards newer editions. You know, like, right after something is released, you know, people go, ah. You know, and then that's. That ends up winning. Yeah, but that didn't happen with Mile Marker. But what I learned recently is that they really like National Park. National Parks, Yeah. I think I've done five so far. Yeah, Five Instagram polls with national parks, and I think it won every time. Let's see. And it's really hard to tell whether people, like, if they skip voting for the One if there's an addition they don't have or that they never seen, or they just vote, even if they've never seen either of them. So, yeah, I don't know if I've learned much from the polls. It's just for my amusement. But it's been interesting.
I always vote when I see it, and sometimes it's really hard. You're like, I don't know if I can choose between these two editions. It'd be really interesting if you did a tournament kind of a thing, like a bracket for.
Yeah, I thought about that. I'm like, oh, that's just too much headache. Yeah, but what was I gonna say? Yeah, I think some. A lot of people comment and say, oh, I don't know which one, so I'm not gonna vote. Or, oh, why did you. Why did you have to pit this one against this one? Those are my. Two of my favorites. I can't vote.
Sorry.
Sophie's Choice over here.
That's the inverse of what's wrong with our country right now. Yeah, I like them both so much because it was so impossible to choose.
Yeah, any. Yeah, any. Anything. Before we kind of wrap up that.
You.
You want to talk about that we just haven't even brought up so far.
Oh, let's see. I have some index cards.
Yes.
Speaking our language now.
Yes, go on.
If Fieldnotes is listening, I would really love them to start making the annual recap videos. Do you guys miss those?
Oh, yeah, those were awesome.
Yeah, those were awesome.
It was a very casual. Just, you know, just talking about each release. Each releases that year. I feel like they're not doing. I mean, why not do it, you know?
Yeah, Come on. You don't have anything better to do? Yeah.
Doesn't seem like it'd be too intense to start that back up, but totally nice.
That's about it.
Cool.
Great. Well, thanks, Jenny, so much for joining us. This has really been awesome. Thank you. Yeah, we've been kind of talking about it kind of in secret for a while, and then in the podcast, it was. Previous podcast, we were finally like, let's make this happen now. And I'm glad it happened so quickly and glad you were available to join us for this. So maybe. Maybe it's the first of a few visits that you might grace us with for this. We'd love to hear your thoughts on future editions of Field Notes.
Oh, sure.
So tell people how they can follow your work online with 3Staples.
I can be found at 3Staples.com. I'm also on Twitter and Instagram by the same name. Three staples. Oh, I do the feel notes. Instagram polls on every Friday.
Okay.
So if anybody wants to vote. Yep.
Yeah. Choose between your darlings.
Hey, Andy, where can people find you on the Internet?
I am on the Internet@woodclinch.com and Andy, WTF? And I have my Instagram and Twitter is at a wealthley. How about you, Johnny?
I am on the Internet@pencilrevolution.com and on social media ensolution.
And Tim, cool. You can find me on Instagram timothywassom. And I'm on Twitter imwasum. You can find the show notes for this episode at erasable US123, the Sesame street edition of the podcast. Please go and like our facebook page@facebook.com erasablepodcast and if you're not in our group, please, please, please join our group at facebook.comgroups/erasable. And you can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram at Erasable Podcast. Thanks so much for joining us for episode 123 in a collector series and we will talk to you soon.
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