Scribe

Thanks, dude.

When I got the text from you saying it was International Podcasting Day. I was in the middle of being interviewed for some teaching magazine about our podcasting project. To bring it up in the interview, like, oh, my God, Free just texted me that it's International Podcast Day. How appropriate.

Hacking in through my Chromebook.

Permanent placeholder.

Cutthroat.

Yeah.

What's beyond first world problems? Like what's the. What would be the next step above that?

1% problems.

Yeah.

Shrimp?

Have you guys seen lady in the Van with Maggie Smith? Have I talked about this?

Okay. I think I probably did it as a fresh point or I mean a tool of the trade before, but that's, that's a really good movie. I'll stop there since I already talked about it, but if you haven't watched it yet. Highly recommended.

Oh, my.

I wish they talked about Circle of Life on the Internet.

I just finished season three of the Good Place, which is on Netflix because season four of the Good Place started last week. So it was just the first episode of season four, which is the final season of this as well. So they're just doing like a four season four season plot. And it's my favorite show on TV still. I think it's just fantastic. And so I'll. It's. I've never. I don't remember the last time. Well, yes, I do, actually. The last time I tried to watch a show, like in real time with like commercials and everything was Madam Secretary. And I think we made it like three episodes. And then I was just like, I forget it. I'll watch it next year on Netflix just because I like, you know, like, with our kids would like wake up for two seconds and you'd go back and then you miss something and it's like, well, I might as well just not watch it anymore until it. Unless it shows up. Well, I guess now there's going to be that peacock NBC streaming thing, which you could probably watch it on there. But it is a. It is such an incredible show. It's so good. And I actually, there's a quote from the end of season three that, like, it's funny when you're watching, like, a comedy. And then there's a quote that just, like, kind of blows your mind and makes you, like, a better person, which I feel like that show does a lot. But I was watching season three, and at the end of the episode, Eleanor, Kristen Bell's character said, I guess I should just get used to the pandemonium, find happiness in the unique insanity of being here now. I thought that was, like, a really cool quote. And anyways. But it's such a funny show. Like, it just makes me belly laugh, which I need these days.

So Good place, Season four. I've been reading. I don't know what. What prompted me to get back into this book, which I've mentioned before, but just something was drawing me back and I started reading once again to Obama with love, joy, anger and hope, which I've mentioned before, but it is a. His director of correspondence. Yes. Published a selection of letters to him and his responses because he had this amazing practice of giving, getting. I think it was eight letters a day that they would give him and it would always be like a spread of positive and negative. He. Like, vastly more than any other president has ever done before. Yeah.

Yes.

And it's 10. Yeah.

Yeah. Jane got me for me for Christmas. And I. I really love it. And it's kind of a evening read. Kind of read a few letters and read his responses. And it's very.

Just very inspiring. And it's just like. And you get. But it's not like sugarcoating anything where, like, even the negative. There are some letters that were like, sort of on the negative side. And his response was, like, kind of short. You know, know where he's. I mean, he's a. He's sort of busy, but, like, where. Where he would just be like, I'm not. I'm. I'm paraphrasing heavily, but just being like, nope, I disagree with you and thanks for writing, you know, essentially, but like in an Obama sort of way, but in some of them are just really moving. And his responses.

Arrest for treason. Congress should look into his Netflix deal. So it is, it's great. So I've been writing that letters, letters. And then lastly, Sturgill Simpson, who I've talked about before, he's the sort of country adjacent artist, came out with his new album which is getting like crazy good reviews and it's called Sound and Fury. And he got pretty famous with that last album, Sailor's Guide to Earth, which is the one that he was nominated for album of the year in the grandmys. And so he has been struggling with fame basically, like getting attention for his music and like getting pressure to do certain things. And so he came out with this album which is just kind of an enormous middle finger to the recording industry where he's just like, nope, I'm going to do something totally different. And it's like this weird, it's like ELO mixed with country mixed with like metal or something. Like some of it's like real heavy and it's super cool. It's a really good album and it's really like even, even the way every song starts is like the opposite of what a radio station would want. You know, it's just very clear that he's doing it on purpose, but also something that's really cool and I haven't watched this yet. When he was in the navy, he became a big fan of anime because he was stationed in Japan for a while and so he teamed up with some renowned anime artists. And the same day the album came out, they released a 45 minute anime feature on Netflix called Sound and Fury that is totally original in his music. The entire album is the backing is the, is the music for the, for the movie. So I've not watched that yet, but it looks super cool.

And I am writing with a hallowing, which is a blackwing MMX with a striped feral added onto it and an orange eraser.

This is my Halloween and I am writing in. I just recently cracked open the Rocky Mountain national park field notes.

So how about you, Johnny?

No.

And it is September 30th here and it is 90. It was 93 degrees outside today.

The eternal 68 degrees of San Francisco.

Yay. Yay.

reminds me of Alabama Shakes.

Yes, I do. I'm getting ready for fall break. Praise the Lord. We're going this Friday. Fall break starts and we are going to Florida to visit my parents and my grandmother and my parents for a birthday present for both. Jane and I got us tickets for the Key West Express, which is a boat that sort of like gets us to Key west in like two hours. And we are going to go to the Hemingway house. Yes, you can. Absolutely. So it's just like a. We'll be there for like, we'll be at Key west for like six hours and then it brings us back. So it's just like a day trip. But yeah, I'm super excited. So I'll be sending lots of pictures and blowing up.

Yes, the six toed cats or whatever.

Yes, I will. I'll smuggle one back if I can.

And yeah. And then sort of sidestep to. I've been teaching Gatsby, so sidestep to F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm teaching Gatsby and I've wondered for a long time, like what kind of pencil he uses. And so I just went on this like long Internet wormhole where I was just like trying to figure it out and like, what would people at that time period likely be using? And especially like people in his circle or, you know, writer types at the time. And I think I've got it narrowed down to something that is probably as close as I'm going to get to the same thing that he would have used. And it is nothing fancy actually, but it is a Staedtler 2 millimeter lead holder. As far as I can tell from all my research and looking at different, you know, images of writing utensils from that time, I think that's probably as close as I can get to what he was using, I don't think he was using a wood case pencil. I think that's what it was. And also like going by, I mean when you watch the Gatsby movie, they. When they hand Nick Carraway like a notebook to like write the story down. You've got to write it down or whatever. It's this like very ornate gold mechanical pencil looking thing.

Yes. Yeah. Yes.

It's one of those. So I. So I'm gonna at some point order The Staedtler Black 2 millimeter lead holder because just to try it out and screw around with it. It's only like 12 bucks or something. But I think that is probably in the ballpark. But I'm going to keep researching and if anything changes, then I will let you guys know. But I'm not going to buy a solid gold mechanical pencil.

Yeah.

That is not my, not my thing.

Yeah. Get me more dedicated. Yeah,

So, yeah, so stay tuned for that. But I'm gonna order that and I think that will be something to add to my various pencil shrines that I've created over the years to different writers that I admire. And next would be. I talked in the last episode about how I finally had ordered one of the Mitsubishi Hyuni sharpeners and I got it and it's pretty fantastic. So remind me, neither of you have one, right?

Correct. Okay, so to describe it, it is way cooler looking in person than even it is in pictures. It's bigger than you think it's going to be. It's larger than a classroom. Friendly. And it's all just. It's very kind of like tightly constructed and built together where things like the drawer to capture the. The shavings as opposed to the classroom friendly. It is like airtight. I mean it like clicks into place and there's no places in the back where it can like the dust can sort of like float out. It is really.

Yes, exactly. Um, to wake you up in the morning, inspire you to write good to shaving. And it definitely the last shaving. It, it definitely does have the like rounded rubber stock like holders inside to, to hold the pencil instead of putting the teeth marks in it. So it's all around great. I. I Sent you guys I think some pictures of the differences between like that and the classroom friendly sharpener and the main differences, I think. So it puts just. It put just. Just. Just about as long of a graphite point on it. But the. I think we call it the collar. Is that the name we gave it for like the. The exposed wood section?

That's a. Reeseism is like, is success or is like, definitely longer than the. Than the classroom friendly, which is kind of nice because you can actually like, grab onto it for some people who like, grip it right down at the bottom. It gives you more of like a exposed wood textured spot to grab onto it. So I like that a lot.

And now I need. Yeah, that's probably. I never noticed that. But. But I probably need to get another one now so I can have one at home and one at school because it is weird to like, go from that to the classroom friendly and back and forth.

2.

Probably get one for the car, too.

Yeah. Okay.

I just get, like, sign on to a subscription service and be like, just send me one a month for the

for the rest of my life. So I got really excited and started taking. I like, took out the. The cylinder. Like, it's got the grinder on it. And was trying to see if any of these, like, are interchangeable as far as the classroom friendly or the doll or any of these. And they're definitely not, but it was worth a shot. I love it, so I highly recommend it. I got the blue, which is kind of like a gray blue color, which is nice. And last thing for me is that we are recording episode one of season two of the membership on Yay. This Thursday. So we launched a Patreon for membership this week. Kind of like quietly launched it. And then we are starting season two and we're kind of changing the format up a little bit to make it a little more manageable to get the reading done, but also for our listeners to get the reading done. So instead of last. Last year, how we read, like, we did like we backloaded five episodes or something and then released them weekly. That was just like, way too rapid fire, which we see that now for people to read along. So we are starting that on Thursday and we're starting out with A book called the Hidden Wound, which was a book Barry wrote when he was 35 to. To make sense out of his family's history with slavery. So it's a pretty intense read, but it's kind of like an extended essay a about 90 pages, but where he's just trying to come to terms with his own family's history with slavery and then trying to understand what he calls the hidden wound that it leaves on the entire country for like, you know, generations to come. Yeah, so that's the first uplifting read. Only gets, only gets more uplifting from the membership. But it is, it's an excellent book. So looking forward to talking about it. But yeah, that's it for me.

Oh, thank you for asking. It is patreon.com membershippod and I think we've got like five levels and most of them involve, as far as rewards, some sort of personalized correspondence from us, the hosts. For now, that's the plan. So, yeah, if you're willing to donate even just a dollar a month, really would appreciate that. It's patreon.com membershippod the one you'll definitely

And then I'll bring a tattoo kit and you will give me a tattoo kit. A tattoo every time I come and cook dinner.

Yeah.

That's the Carl Castle.

I'll do it for you for free, Johnny.

How about you, Andy?

I do not either.

Yes. We'll definitely be planning some cool stuff for that live episode.

Yeah.

Cool.

So super excited.

Yeah.

They did, didn't they say. And maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but in the, the email about the upcoming edition, didn't they say something very vague but sort of informative about how it's sort of a back to basics edition or something like that?

Or am I inventing that in my head?

Yeah. So maybe we're gonna get like some solid color.

Yeah, I think that would be very cool.

It's way too low hanging fruit and they're not going to do it. But it still would be cool if it existed if they did an addition that just kind of mimicked the color spectrum of like a leaf changing, you know, like six, like six books. Like they're different. All different that have like the six colors all the way from green to brown, like and then changing to like yellow or orange in the middle. That would be really cool.

No, we don't need any more either.

we've. We've banished it apparently.

Yeah, I came up with it just in recently thinking about some of my old notebooks and I've been a pretty fairly regular morning pages person for a while now and I have a lot of. I just was just sort of thinking about. I have a lot of notebooks where I've written with like zero filters in some ways. Which of course, is a great thing and makes me happier, makes my brain happier. But at the same time, I literally had moments where I was like, what if I died? And people read this because life is hard. And I say some crazy stuff when life is hard, but also. Not just that sort of paranoia, but also wrestling with the idea of. I don't think all of these field notes that I've got around have things in them worth keeping. You know, I'm not one. And I think there's nothing wrong with. With this because I know there are lots of people who are. I don't ever look at them, like, ever. So I don't need to, like, see them all on a shelf together. Like, all of my used editions piled up. So I was just. Yeah, just was a subject that seemed kind of ripe for talking because I've started to discard some notebooks and trying to maybe even think of some kind of system for how to do it in a way that is, like, kind of mindful and useful.

Yeah, definitely.

I feel like mine land. And I have like four categories. One is the sort of like catch all brain dump field notes, you know, lists, little things that I'm just trying to keep track of. Right. And then I've got ones that are journals or like morning pages books. And then I've got some that are like focused on like. I've got a what right here sitting next to me. I've got a baron fig, the one that's got like the blank on one side and dots on the other that's full of work stuff, stuff. And then the last one is ones that I do like long form writing in like drafting stories or things like that. So I feel like that's, that's. They always fall into one of those four categories in general. The one that you mentioned, commonplace book. I'm going to come back to that later because that's one that I've always wanted to like take more seriously as a, as a way of gathering cool stuff. And I've got some ideas about that I'm going to share at some point. But, but that's me. They usually fall into those categories.

That's a great way to put it.

My. I think. My. Me and Andy, I think have the exact same answer. I mean, most of it is like a 5 hardcover. Like a confidant or pocket notebooks is what I'm. Yeah, those are the ones that I'm mostly dealing with. Like what do I do with these? Some of the ones that I save are like the bigger ones. The ones that I'm like. I mean the ones that I'm like drafting stories in and stuff like that and doing that sort of long form writing, that kind of thing is never gonna go anywhere. Like I'm never getting rid of the. Rid of that stuff.

Oh yeah, I used it today. Yeah.

I've got it in the back of my classroom at a desk that when I get time to read, I'll go back there and sometimes write in that. So yeah, like things like that are never going anywhere. So the only ones I'm kind of contemplating what to do with are pocket notebooks.

Yeah, the sort of confidant Moleskine kind of shape.

if you have multiple. It's called fields notes.

The one that has like the blue. Like they're like the color on the side.

They are so awesome. We were in a Asheville the other day and went into a store that had. It was this like swanky bar slash bookstore. It was like. But they had just like a wall of decomposition notebooks, like tons of pile to the ceiling. It was pretty cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When you got a closet full of notebooks, that tends to happen.

The whole digitizing notebooks thing has never really appealed to me. I've thought about it. I know some people do it and they have special scanners and stuff that people use to do that and. And I've thought about it a couple different times over the last five years or whatever, but it's just something that's never seemed like it's kind of. For me, it's kind of like seeing my own or like hearing my own voice in a recording. Like, I don't like, look forward to that necessarily. So like the chaos of those notebooks doesn't like, when I look back at an old field notes, it doesn't feel kind of like, oh man, look how, look how sloppily I wrote, you know, like coffee filters.

And how does it do with cursive?

And that's mine too. So I was just curious.

Can I tell you guys my new plan? Yeah, I've hatched a new plan that I feel pretty good about. And I am doing it proudly in a erasable 100 episode notebook from Baron Fig, or yellow ones that we made. And so there's a book, I've talked about it, it was probably a long time ago, but I've got this book called the Wheeling Year by Ted Kuzer. And he's one of my favorite poets. And he has this book. And I think he splits it up. I think it's here, I've got it right here. I think it's by. Yeah, it's by month. And so he splits it up by month. And it's just. He was inspired by a friend of his who's a painter who just in order to prepare, like for a big project, he carries this sketchbook and he goes around and like, sketches, stuff that he sees or whatever. And he always loves looking through his friend's notebooks. And so he tried to make like the poet's version. And so they're all these like little sketches. So nothing is longer than like half a page, you know, but he's describing someone that he's seeing somewhere or a bird that he saw or whatever, you know, all this stuff that's just kind of raw materials for poetry. And it just gave me the idea that I think one thing I'm going to try to do is to establish like a for real, legit, commonplace notebook where I can go through in kind of a similar fashion, whenever I finish a notebook, like a field, especially like a field notes notebook, I can go through, put the date range, because I usually do a really good job of putting the dates, you know, in on the first page or whatever, put the date range in and then just flip through and just kind of like if I see something that's worth writing that like, is worth remembering, then it's worth writing down again. I'll copy it down, put a line across the page, you know, find the next entry that's worth saving, line across the page and then just repeat, you know, and just do that for a while. And then that'll be a place where I can sort of gather the thoughts and even make them. It feels, I don't know, for some reason it feels like even a little more special to me if it's being written down again, which is a little tedious, but not that much because in a 48 page field notes. I'm probably only going to write down like five or six things that are actually worth. Worth holding onto.

That's.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm so I'm doing that. I. And I'm going to go through some old field notes that I actually had recently just marked for destruction. Like I was just going to burn them, which I will do at some point. I do have a slight part of me that is considering I'm not a. I'm no good with visual art, but I. Part of me. I do love the way that a field notes cover looks when it's all beat up. And so I thought about cutting the covers off of all my additions and just keeping the covers and trying to create some kind of collage out of all those like sort of mangled field notes covers eventually. So I might do that and then just like say goodbye to the rest of the notebook and copy over the things that are, you know, worth it.

So that's. That's my idea. So that's like that wheeling year idea which is just a place to. To. To gather ideas. And then I don't just. I just don't feel too precious about them. At least I don't right now. So I should probably burn them while I don't feel precious so that I don't keep amassing huge crazy amounts of notebooks.

Solid band name right there, everyone.

That's one thing that I like, I definitely wrestle with is that like my morning pages kind of stuff. I spend so much time just like getting all like the negative junk like out of my system like where I'm just like spewing it onto the page just to like clear my head. It's like clearing the cobwebs out or whatever. And then I. I do sort of like Cringe about looking back on that. And, you know, things like, you know, marriage is difficult, and so sometimes you're, like, trying to figure out how to, like, do a good job at that. And so you're saying things and, like, evaluating situations and hashing things out and maybe sometimes not being super fair. And it's like, I. If my parents left those behind, I think I would definitely see the sort of, like, fascination with it of, like, being able to have that sort of, like, insight into the brain of a person. But I don't know, I just feel like I have to think more on that. I think the pocket notebook stuff is different, but that stuff is. That gives me. That makes me a little scared just because that's, like, my brain living in a notebook. Because my brain can't function without a notebook. Yeah.

That's what I was just like, I've got them all. I've got some of them that have been, like, sort of, like, set aside to just, like, destroy. And I didn't throw them away, but I think I am going to burn them was kind of what I was thinking in recent days or whatever. But I still. I'm thinking about that idea of. Of detaching the COVID and saving the covers of some of these.

They could be rewards. We'll do, like. I'll just give them away, actually. We'll autograph.

Feed them to the trash.

Feed them to the Trash Wheel. It was the title, 100%.

But these days, man, I'm not sure.

Recycling is even real. And hearing so much, so much stuff about recycling that I'm just like, what? Yeah, Scientists telling you, like, you're better off throwing plastic bottles in a landfill. I'm like, oh, don't say that.

So guys, I've been meaning to talk to you about something. In the. In the case of my death, I'm gonna need you to fly to Tennessee and, and take care of a few things for me.

There's some things backyard that I need you to dig up. There's instructions already underground. And then there's the notebooks to deal with.

Yeah, yeah, it's just gigantic. Ignore the smell blooming in the corner. But yeah, I don't have a plan. But I probably should have a plan. Unless, you know, a shout out to Milligan College. If you're looking to establish my papers at your school in the archives, you can just let me know and I'll save everything. I won't burn it. The collected papers of Tim Wasserman, which are like the most mundane, boring things of all time. Be sort of like a modern art exhibit. Like just like what, what is he doing? What is this? He's been complaining about not writing for six years in his notebook.

All of his writing is about not writing enough.

Yeah, that's admirable.

And well put.

Yes. Yeah. You're like, how about you? It's something I'd like to think about, and I insist on it actually happening. So whoever's out there, please keep my notebooks forever. Don't throw them away.

I. Yeah, I think I don't know what to do with this exactly because a lot of this conversation has kind of made me think differently about some things. And it is a pretty appealing idea to be a sort of analog bridge for people in your family in the future. Right. As things get so digitalized all the time that, like, there will be a time. It's really depressing to me to think about, like, which I don't think it would happen really. But, like, just the idea of my family sitting down at a computer and, like, trying to figure out all my passwords or something to, like, do, you know, to like, gather some information, like, that's just really depressing. So much less depressing than them, like, opening up a cardboard box that's just like stocked full of, you know, Simpsons themed moleskins and like, in these commonplace books or something where they can look through and kind of get this little. Yeah, it's like a little museum exhibit or something that you have to slow down and look at and judge in whatever direction you judge it. It makes me think of the book, the Marilynne Robinson novel, Gilead, which is. It's not like journal form or sort of his, but it's like the whole book is this like 70 year old, has a young child, like late in his life, ends up having this young child with his second wife whose name is Lila. But he is writing kind of an account of just a lot of stories and just kind of gathering some things that are going on in his head for his son to read one day. Because he knows that by the time this kid gets out of high school, he's probably going to be gone. And that's really kind of a touching, related concept that now I'm sort of kicking around in my head because not that it's going to be something profound, but just that it's going to be something that is, you know, a way to. And not in a sort of prideful way, but a way to kind of live on a little bit or like. Because I'd like to think that hopefully my family will miss me, you know, my kids will miss me when I'm gone. And it. And it is pretty appealing to have something. Something that you were. What's the word I'm looking for? Intentional about, like something that you were intentional about leaving behind as opposed to just like, let's scroll through Grandpa's Twitter feed.

And is your name really Johnny Gamber or are you in the witness protection program or something? Did I just blow your cover sh.

Your footsteps running away. Like,

Sounds like James Bond instead of chili or something.

Chili spaghetti.

Or I'm writing remember it much later.

My family has a sort of a history with Alzheimer's, which I know a lot do, but like, that now has me thinking about that. I wonder if there's any research that's been done or any information about how the effects of having old journals would be for people who are suffering from something like that. Or maybe it would make it worse, I don't know. But having sort of written accounts of things, I can't imagine it would make it worse. But that would be. That would be something sort of grim, but just something to think about, you know?

Big plastic tub.

tube in the garage?

There are candles and it's, you know. No, there's an American flag draped over the top of it and there are candles surrounding it.

Depends on the stuff. Like I've already said, I don't do the field notes books as much. Like, those just kind of live out in obscurity. But my sort of journals I definitely look back at. It's super fascinating to me sometimes to look back, like one year ago and just see how different you were just one year ago.

Cool.

Lame answer. But everything. I mean, when I flip through my notebooks it's just all over the place. Lots of. Well, I mean, I really. I mean, either. These days, I'm using. I've got some fountain pens I still use, so you'll see that every once in a while. But mostly it is pencil. Mostly. What I end up using most of the time is a. For at least for the last, like, six months, has been a black wing of some kind. And then, yeah, gel pens. Just see those, like, all over the place. I also use that. That ballpoint refill that fits in the. The Squire. The Schmidt ballpoint refill, not the rollerball one that comes with it. But I. I always have like 10 of those around the house. And it's. I put it in all of my. My Keras pens and all of my retro 51s. Like, all those kind of pens. I. I use that refill because I think it's the best refill in the world. So, you see, I see that a lot, for sure.

No, green. Orange.

I Picked up a burgundy micron this week.

was in Asheville at the mall props bookstore. So, yeah, it is a great color. Sort of like, it's a little on the brown side, but I love it.

I think we've been pretty exhaustive.

Yeah, for sure. It'd be kind of cool to revisit this topic if we do get some feedback from you all. If we could revisit this in a month or so and just do a segment where we sort of lay out some options. Like, here are some systems that people are doing to keep track of their writing in these notebooks, and maybe we could pick out, like, I don't know, six to 10 of them that seemed like really good ideas. And then surely that'll help somebody out there who's trying to figure out what to do.

Yes. Yes. So that's a guy, a friend of mine on Facebook and his wife. He posted a quote from his wife, and his wife asked him if he likes molasses, and he says, I don't even like moles. So I was proud of him for that, but.

Well, for ending on dad jokes,

Yes, you can follow me on Twitter imwasum and I'm on Instagram for some reason. TimothyWassum and the membership podcast and Membership pod at all of the things. Yes.