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Transcript
Tinkle my ice one time. Hello, and welcome to episode 139 of the erasable Podcast. This episode is sponsored by our friend gary varner@notegeist.com Carrying stationary products from independent makers and big brands alike. We'll talk about that a little more later. I'm Johnny Gamber, and I'm here with my favorite Shut in co host, Andy Welfle.
Hello. I'm your favorite, for sure.
Tim is off fighting the forces of nature with admirable vigor. We'll let it be a mystery. It's probably not as exciting as Tim.
Had a little bit of rain last night. Let's just say that. Yeah.
But Andy and I are not alone tonight. Coming in from Nashville, who you probably recognize from episode 37 is Courtney Cochran.
Hey, Courtney. Courtney. Hi.
How's it going?
Good. How are you?
Good. Happy. Excited to have you back.
Courtney has launched an endeavor geared toward increasing letter writing called the Snail Mail Social Club, which predates the pandemic. Should point out the pandemic that's still gripping in the globe and most of us are quarantined to some degree in our homes. But they say to be human is to be social and connect with other people. But being an introvert, I've always thought that was a giant lie or meant something was wrong with me. But, you know, for those of us that are stationary inclined, then, at least for me lately, letter writing is the natural way to reach out to other people while you're stuck home, if not by yourself, then with people you're very likely tired of.
Yeah.
Hope my kids aren't listening to this. So, yeah, I mean, you know, letter writing is the opposite of zoom in my head too, because I really hate zoom. And so we're going to dig deep tonight with Courtney. Talk a lot about letter writing in general. And, you know, of course, both are talking about gear and, you know, maybe some folks will get the push to do some letter writing and. And, you know, when you write letters, you get letters, so that's really cool. So, Courtney, for those of us who don't remember 67, and also because a lot's changed since then, can you tell us about yourself a little bit?
Yeah, sure. So for anybody who I guess is a longtime listener of the Erasable podcast, back at episode 67, I was the creative director at Hester and Cook, and we have, you know, there we made stationary and pencils and all kinds of good stuff. And I was there for almost 15 years. But this past November, I actually felt called to resign and pursue Just some personal passion projects of my own, so I've been doing that lately. But I have a long history of being a paper lover, a pencil lover, just obsessed with anything that might be in the office supply store, all that good stuff. So that's. That's where I'm coming from. The kind of more artsy design side of it. But also an avid user of the products.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of products, why don't we start with our usual tools of the trade? Do you want to start us off, Andy?
Yeah. So. Oh, man, what have I been consuming? I feel like my consumption habits lately have been so much different just because I've been at home like, all of the time. I. Katie and I have really been enjoying just, like, the weird from, like, an anthropology perspective. Just, like, the weird shows and things that are being shown from people's houses. Like, I think, like, Conan o' Brien and Jimmy Fallon and, like, people are doing all these shows from their living rooms. Garth Brooks and, oh, what's her name, his wife. I'm drawing a blank. Yeah. Garth Brooks did a concert. They did a concert from their house. There was like a. There was an SNL on this week that was everybody sort of, like, creating skits from their living rooms. Did anybody see that?
Oh, no, I missed that.
No, I didn't see that either. Also, I feel like a bad Nashvillian. Not chiming in with Garth Brooks wife's name. I'm sorry, is it.
That's not Faith Hill?
No, that's.
That's Tim McGraw.
Garth. I know it, but just, like, not right now.
Is he Tricia Yearwood? Is that right?
It's Trisha Yearwood. That's who it is.
Okay. Did I redeem myself, Nashville?
You did. You did. Calm down.
We can edit that out so the answer comes out immediately.
No, I was setting you up to just sort of, like, be a good Nashvillian. Courtney. So all the weird shows from people's houses and, like, I'm really excited to see just like, in 20 years. Just everybody's like, Katie mentioned, like, how it's very much like. Do you all remember the writers strike back, like, a decade ago.
I remember the one from two decades ago.
Yeah. So, like, one maybe. Oh, man. I don't remember how long ago it was, but, like, there were so many things that just didn't happen. Like, half seasons and, like, big holes in seasons that didn't happen. I feel like this is going to be, like, a little blip in, like, our media history. Like, that, which is going to be really Interesting. People are going to watch like that SNL like in school or media class and something and just be like, oh, hey, they couldn't leave their house, so they still made a show. Yeah, so I've been doing that. But the biggest thing I've probably been consuming is this, this video game called Animal Crossing, which is like all encompassing. I can't. I can't stop playing it. It's like this little world is kind of like the Sims, if anybody's ever played the Sims. Courtney, do you know about Animal Crossing?
I have seen so many memes and references and things about Animal Crossing, but I don't actually know what it is. So I would love it if you could enlighten me.
So first. So it's only on the Nintendo Switch, which is a video game console that I did not own until like, you know, like a little over a week ago. So I bought a Switch and it's such a cool little piece of hardware. I'm not really a huge video gamer, so I've never owned an Xbox or a PlayStation. I think the last video game system I had was like a Wii back like, you know, 2006. So the switch, the Switch is just a really great little device. And there's this game that came out, I think after the quarantine started, which I think was perfect timing for it. And it is. You're this little character and you live on a deserted island with these other animals. I guess you're a human and all the other animals are animals. And your goal is to catch fish and water your flowers and like collect furniture for your house and like make money and buy furniture for your house and just doing all this stuff that, to just kind of like live your life. And it's very calming. You can proceed at your own pace. But what's really weird about it is like, there's this, this element of like benevolent capitalism that's involved too. So, like the guy who developing the island is this raccoon whose name is Tom Nook. And Tom Nook will do things like give you a loan for your house and you like, pay him back after you catch fish and cash him in for you sell it for cash and after you pay him back, Tom Nook is like, oh, hey, don't you want to have a bigger house? Like, here's, here's a loan for a bigger house if you want it. And it kind of goes and goes and goes. So you're just like constantly in debt to Tom Nook. And I keep expecting everything to get a little like, Extra weird and like insidious. Like suddenly Tom Tom Nook like, evicts you or like, like builds a high rise and makes all the animals live in a high rise or something. But like, he's just sort of like this friendly, like, like little landlord raccoon who's like, doesn't charge interest on his loans. And you don't really. You don't really have to pay them at any rate. You just sort of like, pay whenever. So it's a. It's really. It's this really just fun, relaxing. And it's very like. I don't know how to say. It's very involved. Like, there's so much stuff you can do. There's a social element. Like if your friends play, you can go visit their islands and you can like, trade. You can give gift, give them gifts and you know, like, just send them postcards. You can write letters to your friends in Animal Crossing. Relevant.
Okay, I'm sold.
There's this whole, like, big community online of people who are like, like, sharing with each other about it. Like, apparently there's People have figured out how to like, trigger you. Oh, you can also capture insects. So like, you. You have this net and you can catch butterflies and. And, you know, dragonflies and bees and tarantulas. And interestingly, you, like. There's this whole thing you can do to like, essentially farm tarantulas. Because when you sell tarantulas, they're worth a lot of money because they're relatively rare. So somebody found an. I don't know if somebody found like an exploit in the game or basically figured out how to get the game to automatically spawn tarantulas. So there are people who will just go to islands and do this particular order of operations and just catch all these tarantulas. And that's just the thing you can do. So there's Facebook groups that are dedicated to people. Oh, last thing I'll mention about this. So there's this. There's this person who comes around selling turnips on Sundays. And so you can go. It's not a real person. It's like a video game. It's a character.
Is that a San Francisco thing?
Turnips? Yeah, they're quote, unquote, turnips. No. So they sell turnips for like a random price, let's say 90. They call them bells instead of dollars. They're 90 bells. And then throughout the week, you have the opportunity to sell your turnips to the store there. But sometimes it's for a higher. Sometimes the price is higher, sometimes it's lower, sometimes it's really high. Like it's extra inflated. And so essentially it's like commodities trading. Like you are gambling on the stock market in this game too, if you want to. So people will buy turnips for hundreds of thousands of bills and then sell them for like dozens of hundreds of thousands of bills and just like make lots and lots of money that way. And they call it the Stalk S T A L K market. I love that the character that you buy the turnips from is a cow and her name is Sow Joan. It's a really fascinating game and the further you progress into it, the more sort of things happen and things open up and more complicated it gets. But it just progresses in this very interesting fashion. And as somebody, my job is I work in user experience for digital apps and stuff. And so there's this whole idea of a user journey basically as somebody progresses through your app or gets better at what they're doing, how do you reveal features over time to them? And I think that animal crossing thing is just perfect. Like they, they've nailed it. It's. It's amazing. So anyhow, long winded way to say that I've been mostly playing video games. What else am I going to do? So that's what I've been consuming and then I am writing in my Leuchtturm red dot notebook and I am using a Viking School pencil which we will talk about later. Courtney, what have you. What kind of media or you know, books or TV shows or music or whatever have you been consuming lately?
I have been on a bender with so many audiobooks. So right now I'm listening to how to Change youe Mind by Michael Pollan. But I just started that one so I don't have much to say about it yet. It was recommended by Tim Ferriss and I trust his recommendations typically. So I thought I'd give it a try. And it was immediately available on my audiobook app which is hooked up to my library card. So. So yeah that's. It's always a treat when something is immediately available there and I don't have to wait to borrow it. I have listened to so much content since. Let's see, I've been at home for. I think today makes it. I think we started on Friday the 13th of last month. So I've just been listening to audiobooks like nonstop since then and I've been doing everything from this one is non fiction. I've been doing like ya, like Books about witches and just all kinds of stuff. Like, all. All across the spectrum. I've been listening to a lot of mystery novels, just so many audiobooks, which I am currently in a competition to see who can read the most books this year. So it's really. It's really helping that I actually joined that competition in October of last year, and it started in January, so I had no idea that I would not only not have a job, but also not be able to leave the house. So I'm just really crushing it at this audiobook thing, and so many audiobooks. But I should publish a list of everything that I've read, because I'm up to, I think, four, 40 books already this year, and most of them good. Yeah, I know.
That's impressive.
I'm either reading or, you know, listening or writing or crafting lately.
So let me ask you this. Do you prefer audiobooks to paper books?
Lately, yes. Historically, no. But what I'm really enjoying about audiobooks right now is the same thing that I usually say I enjoy about podcasts, that I can be doing something else while I'm listening to the book, whereas when I'm reading, I can only be reading. So I can be cleaning the house, I can be crafting, I can be doing dishes, I can be doing yard work, pretty much anything and reading a book at the same time. So I really love the multitasking aspect of it. And if it's well narrated, the voice actor who reads the book makes or breaks it for me. I've heard some books that I loved when I read them, and then when I tried to listen to them, I could not get into them because I didn't like the voice actor who was reading it.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I've had the opposite experience where I really enjoyed a book that the writing was kind of mediocre, but it was so well performed that I really enjoyed it.
So.
So it's just a little bit of a different experience listening to it rather than reading. But typically, like, I've been a huge reader my whole life, and I have amassed quite a collection of books. I always dreamed about, like, growing up and having a house that had a library in it, and I could have all my books up just lining the walls. And, yeah, that didn't really come to fruition, but I do have a storage room full of books. So audiobooks help me to not accumulate more stuff that I don't really have any space for. And using the library really saves some money, too. So that's handy. But, yeah, right now, I'M definitely on an audiobook kick.
Nice.
Yeah. And then I am actually breaking out some things that I've been hoarding for a long time for my tools that I'm actually taking notes with while we're podcasting right now. So I have a box of. It was a full dozen, but now it's just 11 because I am using the first one out of it. It's called the Templar 777 pencil. It's made by Reliance Pen and Pencil Co. Out of Lewisburg, Tennessee. It is clearly vintage. I believe that that company does not exist anymore.
Yeah.
But it's a pretty good looking little box that has the tagline the aristocrat of pencils.
It will look down upon you.
Yeah, I just sharpened the first one out of it and I've been taking a couple notes here with it in a Wilson Jones columnar pad that is just kind of a ledger book used for bookkeeping or some other really dry thing that requires a brown and green grid, which some might think is ugly. But I love it. I love ledger paper and anything that has, like lots of columns and grids on it is like right up my alley. So that's what I'm using right now.
Johnny, have you sent. Have you sent her a letter on your vintage ledger paper?
I'm trying to think of if I have or not. I will next time.
Yeah, yeah. It's really good looking. It's the spreadsheets of before. Spreadsheets?
Yeah, I. My friend of mine gave me a pad and I've had it for years. I'm like, I don't know what to do with it because you can't write on it. And then finally it dawned on me to just write on the back where it's blank. Well, and I didn't realize the back was blank at first.
So just totally write on it. You could, if you felt so inclined, you might be able to use like, I don't know what the. What color the lines are on it, but you could write on it in like a Sharpie pen. I do that sometimes in my ledger papers or I make envelopes out of them.
Oh, that's a good idea.
This stuff's pretty thick.
Project.
Well, now we have so much free time.
Exactly. Cool. And Johnny, how about you?
So I finally finished 100 Years of Solitude, which I think I joked before. Sounds like heaven after four weeks of being in here with my children. But yeah, I mean, it was one of those books where, you know, it took me like two weeks to read the first quarter of it. And then I just, like, plowed through the rest of it in a day. Like, okay, finally done the stamp book, and we just finished watching Counterpart. I think it was on Stars, but now it's on Amazon Prime. Have you guys seen this with J.K. simmons?
No.
It's so cool. So it's along the lines of, I guess, like, the Matrix was sci fi ish, but there wasn't a lot of technology. It was, like, conceptual sci fi. Like, hey, reality is not what you think it is, and technology has kind of something to do with it. It's like that there's a parallel universe where you have an Other, and try to. Without spoiling anything. In the first few minutes of the show, J.K. simmons meets his Other, who is very different from him, but also, how do I not spoil this? So the world. During the Cold War, the world split into two parallel universes. So before that, there was no difference. And after that, you know, things started veering off. So they had exactly the same childhood.
It sounds a little bit like man in the High Castle.
It does sound a lot like that.
Yeah. Amanda, the High Castle, you'd. You can never meet kind of your alternate reality counterpart.
Yeah. This one, they don't want you to, but, yeah, it's really good. Plus, J.K. simmons is very good, and, you know, he plays two different people well. But the show is, like, so violent. Like, blood spurts. There's a scene where a guy bleeds to death in the foreground, while in the back, someone kills everybody else in the room. Okay. So if you don't like violence, you might not like it, but it was. It's good storytelling. And my third thing I'm consuming is that, you know, sort of with being stuck at home, I'm like, I want to come out of this with more than just, you know, a worsening anxiety disorder. I want to have, like, some kind of cool thing. Like. When did you start doing that? Oh, during the coronavirus pandemic. So I've taken up shaving with a safety razor, which is, like, not that scary.
Do you do the whole thing with the. With the soap and the horse hair brush and badger?
So I used to use a muggin brush in college and grad school, but then when I went vegetarian, I didn't. But now they make synthetic ones, so I was shopping for those earlier. That's gonna happen. But, yeah, I have a. I have a rough beard, so this is helpful. And it's just kind of cool and meditative. Henry thinks it's, like, the coolest thing he's ever seen.
When you say a safety razor, you're, you know, talking about, like, a straight edge is a different kind of razor, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Safety razor was the safe alternative to that because there was so much of a learning curve with those. Most people just didn't do it, and they would just go to the barber.
Yeah.
So, yeah, these really. You have to try hard to cut yourself with them.
Yeah.
And the. Now they market themselves, or the companies are marking it as being, you know, eco friendly because you're not throwing away cartridges that are plastic.
Yeah.
And they're super cheap. Like, I have five. 500 shaves worth of blades that I paid $10 for.
Wow.
And they were, like, pretty nice ones.
How often do you replace the blades?
Five is pushing it for me, but some people do more. Yeah, but it's. It's. It's. It's cool. And, you know, it's. It's a growing market, so there are a lot of options. There's a company called we that's geared toward women. I mean, they're just another pink. I own.
I own a Parker. And they. So safe, even a woman can use.
Yeah, they make pink ones.
Yeah.
And the, you know, they're like. The one I have is super heavy. Like, it would probably break your toe if you dropped it. And it's got all this gnarling on it so that it's, you know, grippy. And the ladies ones don't have that because women can't handle rough metal. It's gotta be smooth or whatever. That's a little weird. It's been. Aside from the colors, it's like they look gentle, but they're not. It's a hunk of metal with a blade in it.
Yeah.
But, yeah.
I love that you took up shaving in a time when so many people gave up shaving.
Yeah, I'm. I'm not a happy shaver from having to shave in Catholic school. And my jeans are such that, like, I don't know if you can hear that. I just shaved this morning, and I'm already a beast, so I usually just don't bother. But this is fun. And I could take the blade out and lather Henry up and sort of drag it across his face, and he thinks it's so awesome.
Get him out of precious. Like a popsicle stick or a tongue depressor.
Well, I'm thinking, I'm like, you know, what if I take care of this one? Henry can have this one to learn to shave on. And I think my father has some that are family heirlooms, which I might take off his hands. Yeah, but yeah, that's completely unstationary related, but that's taken up a lot of my breathing time. And I am also using a Leuchtturm, but mine is Nordic blue and it's like beat up. It's almost full.
Your bujo.
My bujo horn. So I'm also using an equally beat up Faber Castell American that's late 80s, early 90s. I mean, it's like destroyed. The feral is missing, so it's awesome.
Now, has it been in your possession this whole time?
No, I found it in a church basement a couple years ago and took it home. And it doesn't smell like church basement anymore. It wasn't a Catholic church, so it wasn't incense. It just kind of smelled like moldy basement. Now it smells like, you know, my hand. I was like, coffee cedar.
Yeah. So 2 cents of Johnny Gamber.
Yeah, Coffee sweats. So, moving on to fresh points and not, you know, the hair on my face. Andy, do you want to go first?
Sure. Well, strangely, my fresh point is about Johnny's facial hair, so. Awkward. First thing I wanted to mention is I'm sure those of you who follow this sort of thing saw that CW Pencils has tragically closed online orders. They have seen kind of the strain on the USPS and people, especially in New York, I think people becoming sick and not working and delivery for USPS increasing. Well, like staffing has gone down because of COVID 19 and they've made kind of the like, amazing, brave and just something I haven't seen much decision to just not fulfill online orders, to not, not accept online orders. So they're not open to the like physically or with e commerce right now. And, you know, yet, you know, Caroline says they're. They're keeping busy. They have stuff to do. They have some planning they can do. So huge, huge kudos to CW Pencils for kind of getting ahead of the curb and curve and not doing that. Although tragically, we. We miss, you know, being able to order from them and kind of support some of our favorite businesses. So go hang out online with CW Pencils and with Caroline. Caroline's been doing. What is that, Johnny? Is it on Sundays? Oh, yeah, she's been doing. Yeah, she's been doing Instagram Live. It's been really good. I've run into Courtney there a few times, like in the comments.
Yeah, yeah, I love Caroline.
Yeah, Caroline's so great. So, yeah, find there's plenty of other ways to kind of like, support your favorite pencil people, although not apparently with like monetary ways. So go check that out. Last thing I mentioned, I'll mention is so at work at Adobe, every quarter we do this thing called, what is it called? Hacks, hobbies and side hustles. And basically like five or six people within Adobe Design, which is the kind of big design team that I work on, like 3, 300 people, ish, 5 or 6 people will do quick 5 to 10 minute presentations about something that they like to do that's not directly work related. So sometimes somebody just did one about how they just started drawing a comic about their cat and somebody else talked about how she and her, her niece are writing a children's book together. So I did one and it was about pencils. It started when I was, when I was writing it or when I was trying to come up with it. It started off to be specifically just sort of like, here are some reasons why I like wooden pencils. And that would have been fine, but for some reason I just sort of like, I don't know, overthought it and it turned into sort of this big philosophical thing about why I like pencils. And I ended up talking a lot about the stuff I talk about when I talk about my pencil tattoo. So I talked a little bit about that quote that's often misattributed to Marshall McLuhan that this tattoo design is based on. And I talked about how that relates to all these different threads in my life about, you know, just loving tools of creation software and like digital and analog and then kind of how it all tied back to creating like, you know, media about stationery and meeting, you know, other pencil bloggers in the world and eventually starting a podcast with them. I showed that picture of us meeting at the airport, Johnny, and eventually it kind of led to the conclusion that like, you know, we shape our tools. And like, in my case, and in the case of, you know, Johnny, Tim and me, they literally shape us because we got tattoos of our favorite tools. So, so I, so this was kind of like an internal presentation, but they gave me the go ahead. They, they recorded the presentation and they let me. I'm going to clip out my part of it and post that publicly. So sometime soon, as soon, as soon as I can do that, I'll post the video online because it's, you know, it's all remote right now. Of course, usually we do it in person, but so there's, there's me, even a little box in the corner and then the big, the Big portion of the video is my slide deck in keynotes. So I will. I will be posting that soon. Be. Be on the lookout for that.
Oh, good. I want to watch that.
Yeah, it's. It's supposed to be five minutes. I think I went a little bit over, but everybody else did too. I wish I could show some of the other ones like we have on the Adobe design team. There are some really, really amazing illustrators and graphic designers as well as, like, you know, like UX designers. And the comic about. I'll see if I can find the link to the Instagram comic about. About their cat. They decided that's how they're going to keep busy during. During the quarantine. Just make a cat comic. It's pretty great. So, yeah, that is. That is about it around here. I assume you don't want another. Another 10 minutes about animal crossings. So. This isn't a podcast. It's about all I've been thinking about lately. Courtney, do you have any. Do you have any fresh points?
I do. My first one is actually a pro tip that I wish I would have thought of about a month sooner than I did, but that was to set up my P.O. box to forward to my home address. I didn't know you could do that. You totally can do that. You can do a temporary change of address. So if you ever, you know, go on a long vacation to some spot and you want your mail to still make it there to you, as long as you're going to be there for, I think it's like over 15 days, you can set up this temporary change of address and you can do it all online. It just requires a credit card. They charge like a dollar or something just to. It's more of like a verification of your identity. Um, so you can do the whole thing online. And now my mail is coming to my house, even though it's addressed to my P.O. box, which is lovely. That said, it is taking quite a while for it to get here. Johnny, I actually just got two letters from you today.
I mailed one today.
Did you? Well, I'll probably get it in about a month because these are from the beginning. The beginning of March.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it was postmarked. One of them was postmarked, like, March 9th or something. And then the little forwarding strip that was on it from where it hit my PO Box and then came to my house was from like April 11th. So I don't know what happened in the intervening month, but something happened because it made it from my post office box. To my house pretty quickly. It just took a long time to get from you to my P.O. box. But that's a great idea for anybody who is trying to stay home and doesn't want to go out and check their PO Box, but is still wanting to write letters and communicate with people, you know, with written correspondence. Because I have not been leaving my house at all if for. I mean, the only thing we've done is to go out and, like, you know, walk around the neighborhood, just, you know, be out in fresh air. We haven't gone inside a building other than our house in a month, so that includes the post office, and that was leaving me high and dry on the mail front. So I'm super excited that those are starting to hit my mailbox now at home. So if you have a P.O. box, I highly recommend setting up a temporary forwarding to your home.
Nice.
Yeah.
So I didn't put this in the questions because I didn't think to ask questions about your P.O. box. But what size do you have?
I have. It's not the very smallest one that you can have, but it's the next size up. I think it's considered, like, three by five or something, which refers to kind of the. The dimensions of the door. And then the depth of it is like a full, you know, letter depth. However, I mean, it's.
Johnny, the size of the P.O. box doesn't matter. It's what kind of letters you send to it that counts.
You know, that's actually true.
That's just something people say that don't get mail. I can't think of it. I want a P.O. box. I didn't know that you could get it delivered.
You can't. I don't know if you, like, permanently can, but I know that I was able to set it up for the time being, and I have it running through. I think the start of June. I got to pick when I thought I wanted it to stop forwarding. So was being hopeful and said, all right, how about May 31st? We'll stop, you know, forwarding it. But I actually have the opportunity to extend the forwarding if I so choose. But, yeah, I think everyone should get a P.O. box. Who wants to give strangers their home address? Just kidding. Everybody does.
I probably should do that because I put my home address on the. On, like, the plumbago return address. And so, like, literally hundreds of people who are in any way associated with erasable know my home address.
You know, on one hand, it's a nice, like, privacy measure. On the other hand, people could probably Google your name and see your home address.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I'm on the white pages.
Yeah.
It's a little bit silly, but it just makes me feel good to, you know, I feel safe just giving it to anybody who asks for it. And I don't have to think twice about any safety concerns or, you know, worrying if they're going to show up at my house and my daughter's here alone or something like that. You know, it's just like, safe to. To give it to anybody who wants to send something without a second thought.
Yeah.
I know that some people do get really concerned about that sort of thing. And I love taking pictures of the mail that I receive and posting those pictures. And I don't feel comfortable doing that when it's somebody's home address on it. But if it's a PO Box, I usually don't hesitate unless someone has specifically asked me not to. But, yeah, I just like it as a nice little. A little one step away from it, going straight to my house. And now I can have it forwarded here. Usually I like taking the trip to the post office, and it's like a little ritual. It's something that I can look forward to, you know, going in there and doing. Maybe I'm an odd bird, but I like that part. Other than that, I've just been doing tons of crafting. So, like, things that I already have at home, which I have a lot of crafting supplies, but I'm also doing things that I feel like anybody can do. I've been doing a lot of, like, paper mache, which just requires newspaper and flour and water. And right now I'm making a giant snail and.
Oh, wow.
My plan is to. When people can gather in public again and I can get back to hosting some of the events I had been hosting. I'll bring it to those. And when people. Usually they'll write letters and I mail the letters for them, and they. When they're done writing the letters, they'll put them in this. Whatever little outgoing box I have. But I want to use this snail as my outgoing box. So it's really big, like maybe 2ft wide by 18 inches tall or something. And I'm going to put a slot in its shell to where they can, like, drop the letter in its shell. And then it'll be kind of like a piggy bank with an open bottom. So I can take all the letters out of the bottom to mail them. But it's going to be a giant snail outgoing mailbox. Yeah. And then Other than that, just like other little crafty things that I've been using for male stuff. So it's spring in Nashville. That means tons of stuff in bloom. Like, our yard is full of wild violets and ground ivy and all kinds of stuff that's blooming right now. So I'm gathering those and pressing the flowers in this little flower press that one of my pen pals sent me for Christmas. So another fun little thing that I can then, like, adhere to envelopes. It's a pretty little, like, decoration that's nice and flat and can go through the mail.
What are your thoughts on the. You know, lately they've been saying to buy this is maybe something for the main topic. So I'm going to hold on that question until the main topic.
Well, that's really it for me.
Okay,
so I'm hijacking fresh points to announce our pencil of the month for April.
Yay.
The fight. I'm not going to pronounce the. The Danish name. The Viking school pencil. The yellow one.
The school by Lenten.
The yellow one.
Yeah.
So it used to be that you can only get them in the US from the pencil store, which is closed, of course, but pencils.com has them by the dozen for pretty nice price. I might get some more. Yeah, I like this pencil.
Yeah. So we'll. We'll talk about it in the next episode, which I think will be probably like 29 APR.ish. so if you can get it within the next two weeks, please do. And sorry if you can't because, you know, some. For some reason, somebody, you know, somebody hijacked our last episode, which I think was a little rude, but, yeah, I'm
still pissed about that.
Yeah,
I've been sleeping on the couch, so. Okay. So also my. My next two fresh points both have to do with carrying pencils around. First, I apologize a hundred times if I mispronounce this French because I didn't take French in school. And I checked with Courtney and Andy beforehand if they knew how to pronounce this. And Andy suggested La Barloo.
La Bar Loo.
There's a. There's a company in Montreal that makes these really, really cool pencil cases. I put a review on my blog a couple weeks ago where it's just a solid piece of wood that's sort of dug out like a canoe. And then la canoe. Terrible on the outside. There's like a tube of. I guess it's a veneer. It's real wood, but it's sort of, you know, pulpy. And glued into a nice circle. And you just slide one piece inside the other piece. And the way that they carve them out, one end is so much heavier than the other one. It won't roll off your table. Like, you could probably beat a man to death with it if you had to. I mean, if you filled it with something heavy, you just never know. I don't know. You go to a pen show, you might encounter someone who's very hostile to pencils.
This is, like, part of your edc, right? Like, you don't carry a pistol. You carry one of these things.
Now, this is being a nerd in Baltimore. Actually, I had a friend who used to walk home from my house back in the day carrying sharp pencils that I would give him his hands. But it was also, you know, like, two in the morning on a Tuesday, and we'd been drinking lots of soda. But anyway, these are so pretty, but they've closed up because of the quarantine. But Fred was making smaller ones just to hold, like, a pan or two, and also really long ones for things like knitting needles. And I forgot what the exchange rate is, but the one I have was $47 Canadian, and it was in, like, mid-30s American, which is really not bad for a nice handmade pencil case that you could leave to your children or grandchildren if, you know they stole it from you. Yeah, that's. That's, like, my new favorite thing for putting pencils in. I love it. And my other thing for toting pencils is that I finally got a balsa bag.
Yeah.
When Andy was visiting, he showed it to me. He's like, you should get one of these. I'm like, hell, yeah. But I couldn't pick a color because the gray was too light. And I didn't want an orange bag, so I bought purple. And I figured if I didn't like it, I would give it to Charlotte. But it's, like, dark 90s purple. It's perfect.
Matches your tattoo.
It does. And they're sold out of that one on Nokice, so. Sorry. I think I actually did buy the last one to check with Gary. But there's, you know, you get a pencil case that's got some flex to it, and it gets kind of floppy, if that.
Yeah.
Is your experience also. But this one, it's not stiff. It's just the way that it's sewn. It holds itself open so you can get stuff out of it.
Yeah.
Like, I love it. And it's real cordura, which I like.
Yeah. Yeah. They're really great. I. I can't remember if we talked about this before, but Paul, the, the maker of it is. I think he's an emt, so he is a very busy person right now. Yeah.
And they. The inside is military laundry bags. Is that right?
Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
So cool.
Yeah, they're really nice.
I have a giant stash of old, old US army pup tents.
Oh, really?
Yeah, someone gave them to me so I could make stuff out of them like over 10 years ago. So if, if I can find them. I wonder if he can make some stuff out of that. That would be cool.
What are they? What's the material of that?
It's a really heavy green canvas that's treated to be waterproof. So it has a. Like there's nothing that smells like that.
Yeah.
Like, we had a friend who was in Vietnam and he couldn't be around it. He would. It would just remind him of things he didn't want to remember. But. Yeah, I'm toting myself happy. Of course, now I can't go anywhere.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I'm toting them between my bedroom and the dining room.
It's a good carry for that.
I don't know if you can hear pleasant rattle of a couple pencils in the leverlou or however you pronounce it. I'm sorry. And apparently they can customize them. Like it has the. The branding sort of burned into it and included a couple little rulers that had. Had the. The talking about them.
Are we talking about the bolster bag? Are we talking about the. Okay, gotcha.
So it smells like fire and wood and glue, but not glue. It's. It's awesome. I really like it. So moving on from things that hold pencils and also where I bought my balsa bag. Let's talk about notegeist. So we've talked about Note guys a couple times and we got to hang out with Gary when he was in Baltimore, which was super awesome to finally meet. So notegeist is a small. So small it's only one person online stationery shop. The kind that needs our support during this crisis. Gary Varner, the proprietor, supports independent makers by making an easy and visible place for them to sell their products until they're able to create their own online web stores. So that's where you can buy right now Bolsa bags.
Which make.
Would you classify those as tool bags? The little ones, sort of like a tool storage bag.
Yeah. It's a great size for a pencil sharpener, eraser and your earbuds for Example.
Yeah, I'm going to get one of those.
Yeah.
And random thinks who? If you're in our group, you have seen the really, really, really cool 3D printed pencil stands that Keith makes. And also he did some 3D printed bullet pencils in different colors. So maybe they'll show up there. That'll be awesome.
Yeah.
And aside from that kind of stuff, no guys also has a stock of black wings and field notes, plus an eclipse eclectic mix of lots of other goodies to help out during these stay at home times. Notegeist has quote, we're all in this together. Automatic specials running with spending discounts for DDC merchandise, KUM sharpeners and erasers, including the masterpiece.
Yay.
Those really fun little pocket notebooks from the unemployed philosophers guild which did Gary. Gary gave us one of those last time we saw him.
I think so.
I was using it recently. It's got a really nice paper.
Yeah.
So you could check out the homepage for a list of the current specials@notegeist.com that's N O T E G-E-I-S-T.com for those of you who didn't take German and see I can't pronounce la barloo. Plus to help our listeners add some stationary fun to their lives during these trying times, Notegeist is offering this show special to the first 50 codes or April 30th, whichever comes first, spend $30 or more and use the code ERASABLE FUN. That's erasable F U N1 word. To get these treats, a goodie bag with fun and whimsical stationary stuff. And 15% off everything Blackwing branded, which these days includes a lot of stuff.
Yeah.
So Note guys, our online source for great prices, eclectic stationary goods and hard to find black wings and field notes. And also be sure to check out the awesome bolsa bags and random things goods. Remember, go to notegeist.com and when you're checking out, use the code Erasable fun. E R A S A B L E F U n no space.
Is that German?
No, that is way too short of
a word to be German.
The Bleich de Freud. So you said by the end of the month, like don't sit on it. By the time we record another episode, it'll be almost time. And also that's my parents anniversary. Happy anniversary mom and dad. So thanks to Gary and for Note guys, even though Gary isn't a note guys for supporting the erasable podcast.
Thank you Gary. Yeah.
So shall we jump onto our main topic yeah. Did we. Did we talk about the term snail mail social club yet?
I don't think so. I would love. Yay. I would love to hear the genesis of that, Courtney, and kind of where you came up with. With just all. All of that. Yeah. Yeah.
So this came before the pandemic.
I know.
And they're being stuck at home, so, you know, it's not just about, you know, everybody in their sweatpants. So, you know, what is it about sending and receiving letters in the mail that sort of grabs you?
Oh, so many things about it. I love the tactile nature of it, how it's. It's not as fleeting or just kind of neither here nor there. The way that texts or any kind of digital correspondence is. It's, like, heartfelt, and you can see that somebody sat down and took the time and was thinking about you when they wrote it. And I just love the whole experience of it. Like I said earlier, I even enjoy going to the post office to check my P.O. box. The whole thing is kind of like a little ritual I'll carve out of whichever day I decide to do it and drive to the post office. You know, there's the anticipation of walking in there, wondering, is there going to be something in the box or isn't there, and then unlocking it and seeing what's inside, and then having this, like, little treasure that somebody mailed. You know, probably across the country, I have some international pen pals, so who knows what kind of distance the letter came from? And being able to, like, pick up a physical piece of something that a friend of mine was holding just a few days before, while they were sitting down to think of me and send me a letter and looking at the paper that they chose and the way that they decorated the envelope, how they addressed it, the decorations that they put on, the stamps that they used, and the. Whatever they chose to write with, whether it was pens or pencils or markers or whatever it is. I just love everything about it. It's art, and it's nostalgic. It reminds me of being a kid and getting into my dad's supply of, like, all his office supply stuff. He had this huge cabinet full of things for his business that was just, like, way more paper and pencils and paper clips and all that stuff than anybody really needs. And I would love going in there and looking at all of it. And that's kind of the same feeling that I get when I receive mail. I just. It's just such a fun overall experience for me. It's more than just like getting a message or an email and just reading it and getting the information out of it. There's all this other thought and intention and choices that were made and things like that that go into it. I love that it's slow and it's more of. It's just like an analog process. It's something that has been done for so long and I feel like there's a connection to history through that too. That kind of takes me out of the, like modern digital age that we're all living in, where I'm always rushing and talking super fast and moving on to the next thing and listening to an audiobook while I'm doing something else and just really distracted. It's such a singular focus. Yeah, but, and it's, it's just layers and layers of things that I love. So it all combines into, you know, just, it's all packed in one envelope and I can sit there and open it and have this full experience. And that's really unlike almost anything else that I encounter on a day to day basis. It reminds me a lot of like all the things that I like about pencils. You know, the whole kit and caboodle of it, the aesthetics, the way that it's used, the feeling of the pencil, how the graphite interacts with the paper. All those things that all kind of comes into play with letter writing also.
Yeah. So is the snail mail social club like, you know, that plus, plus anything else? Is it, is it a personal project? Is it a business? Like, what do you like, like how do you sort of like spread this love of letter writing?
So the way that it started was I had been wanting to gather people together to send mail and because I love mail, and I would see, you know, other friends of mine who were gathering together and writing mail. I know Caroline has done some letter writing things at her shop and I would always see pictures of that and, you know, friends of mine there gathering together and writing mail. And then I would receive mail that I had seen, seen them making. And I just really wanted some of that experience for myself and for the people around me. So I could see how happy the people were when they were gathering together and kind of connecting around this hobby. So I wanted kind of that aspect of it. And I have this like unholy stash of just stationary supplies that I've accumulated over my entire life. And so I felt like, you know, that's a good way to use it up and then I can justify this hoarding. So I actually started maybe two years ago now hosting these events for Hester and Cook. So I didn't have like a lot of extra time to just take on a side project like snail mail social club when I had a full time job. So I just kind of piggybacked on the structure that was available to me through my employer because we had a team of awesome people who would want to participate in it. We had retail storefronts that had the space for it and the customers who would be able to come and enjoy it. So I thought, well, I'll just do it for Hester and Cook. And so I started doing them about two years ago through those shops. And it was successful and fun and we all had a really good time. But it wasn't quite the iteration of the social that I wanted to host. I. I kind of tailored it to be more, you know, smarter for a business.
Yeah.
So when I kind of stepped out on my own and resigned from my job back in November, I didn't know what I was being called to do. I just kind of felt like I was being called to make a move. And I wasn't sure what that meant. So I was just trying to let my mind be still and follow just whatever path is unfolding in front of me. So I kind of indulged in my hobbies, waiting to see, see where the path was because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
Yeah.
And that looked like me sending a lot of mail and the holidays were coming because like I said, this was back in November, so everybody was needing to send out Christmas cards and things like that. And I have, you know, quite a stash of Christmas cards and things to decorate Christmas envelopes and stuff like that. So I started hosting just public gatherings where I would rent out a room at the library and just say, whoever wants to come can come and I'll bring all these supplies. And if you want to bring supplies to share, you can do that too. Or you can just use mine and just show up and make some mail and meet some people and have a little bit of social interaction, meet some new people, but not have any weird, awkward feeling of, oh, I need to really like these people who are strangers. Because you also have an activity to do. You know, you could focus on just kind of a light chat, oh, hey, how are you? My name's Courtney. And then get down to writing a letter if you don't really feel like you're vibing with people or you might meet a new friend. And so I had hosted a few of those and did them you know, through December and January and into February. And I have a friend who offered up her. She's an audiologist, and she offered me her office space, which was a beautiful new office that she had just leased. And it had a huge area with seating and stuff. And she was like, you could totally use my office to host one of these socials. And I was like, okay, well, well, let's do it. And so we did a Galentine's thing, and I brought all this stuff, like, inspiration to make balance Galentine's cards and had, you know, snacks and drinks and just all so many crafting supplies. And all these ladies showed up and had such a good time, and they. They really were very encouraging about it and told me how much they enjoyed the night and wanted to, like, donate money to me for it because, you know, it costs a lot for me to put these on because I am using a ton of supplies and I'm putting out food and drinks and, you know, basically hosting a party for a bunch of strangers. So my friend, the audiologist was like, courtney, what are you doing? This should be the last time you ever do this for free. You've got to start charging for these. I was like, okay, good point. Because I had no income and I was spending money hosting parties for strangers, you know. Yes. It made sense. Sense that maybe, you know, I should take some monetary compensation for that.
By the way, I really, really, really love that, like, this concept from, like, a sitcom has turned into this big thing, Galentine's Day.
I know. Isn't that wild?
Yeah. For. For those of you don't know it, do you know what Galentine's Day is, Johnny?
I was going to ask.
So it's the day before Valentine's Day, and it's, I guess, like a thing from Parks and Rec, which I didn't even watch, but so many of my co workers watched it. And so I was always hearing about it. And it's become a huge thing now. Like, it's real, and it's totally just out of a TV show.
Leslie. Nope. Leslie. Nope. Would have this thing, I think. I think hers was, like, the Saturday before Valentine's Day, and she would get together all of her best, like, you know, like girlfriends and just, like, have a brunch and just sort of like, celebrate their. Their friendships. And it was just, like, so, like, wholesome and heartwarming. So. And it's the thing. I've definitely noticed lots of people doing as some sort of like a, you know, brunch with friends or it's yeah, it's kind of like blossomed in this whole thing. So it's, it's. That's just like really amazing to me.
I love it and I love that it's, it's something that isn't, you know, people say, oh, I don't like celebrating Valentine's Day because it's just a commercial holiday that, like, you know, company made up for you to spend money. Like, you can't even say that about it. It's just such a wholesome, like, gather people you love and celebrate your friendship with them.
Well now, well, now that you charge money, you know, it's Galentine's day is going commercials. So it's true.
I'm going to get for everyone. But yeah, that's kind of how it started. I had said that, you know, I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing, and I was just looking for, you know, the path to kind of unfold for me. And right on the same timeline that I had said, you know, I'm not gonna, I told my whole family I'm not even gonna look for a job until January. And then right along the time that I had said I would start looking for a job was when people started trying to pay me for my snail mail stuff that I was doing. It's like, okay, well, maybe that's a sign that, you know, I can pursue making money off something that I actually enjoy doing. And I feel like it's a benefit to society as a whole because to me, it's all about connection.
Yeah.
So the, the actual social that I'm hosting itself, you know, that's all in person connection. All those people who are coming together, they're mostly strangers. Maybe they know one person who's there out of the 12 or, you know, however many people. So they're meeting new people and they're actually forming friendships. I just think that makes such a difference. I don't think people realize it, but so many people are really lonely and they just haven't identified what they're experiencing as loneliness. But there's a real lack of connection that's happening right now. And I think some of that has to do with technology. And there are things that we can do to counteract that. And it's all about building connection. And that helps with people's feeling of satisfaction in life. It helps with anxiety, it helps with depression. It helps. That's one of the biggest components of people maintaining sobriety. It's all built around connection. And so that's really what I'm Trying to spread, like, in addition to spreading joy. It's about connection. So we've got the connection that happens in person during the socials, and then the additional layer of connection that happens when you send that piece of mail out to somebody who wasn't even there, and then you're building that relationship with the person who you're writing to.
Yeah. Cool.
So, you know, leading up to an erasable episode, there's a lot of technology involved and, you know, we were all asking each other questions, which is. Got username and stuff like that. Like, pretty instantaneously. Letter writing, especially with your P.O. box, is exactly the opposite of that. And like, my kids have been doing it more, and I can tell that it's changing the way that they talk to their friends. Like, you don't say the same things in a letter that you would say in an email. But anyway, how is. How do you think that letter writing on a really regular basis is changing your experience of the world?
Well, it definitely slows me down. The act of writing the letter obviously has to slow me down because that something that takes time to do, it's way slower to write something than it is to type it for me. And so that alone really kind of brings me back down into the moment. But also I've noticed that it's slowing me down when I'm just going about my day. Maybe slowing down is the wrong word. It's more the concept of like, presence of mind, where I will more actively observe things that are happening, which is a very interesting concept to me. I'm not sure what it is that.
Yeah.
That creates that dynamic. Like, what is it about writing letters and slowing down for that that's creating more presence of mind in other situations. I'm not sure how it's doing that, but I'm definitely observing that connection. And I'll find myself throughout the day thinking, oh, I should write to so and so about this.
Yeah. It's kind of like, it reminds me a lot of journaling. Right. Like, I. Whenever I journal, I'm trying to think about like. Like, oh, well, what has. What happened today? What have, what have I been thinking about? That's kind of like outside of like, oh, I had breakfast at nine in the morning and I did this. I try not to journal like that. But letter writing. Yeah. Feels very much like that.
Yeah. And you follow more of a train of thought to its conclusion than one might just in conversation. Like, we'll latch onto an idea and then follow this separate tangent off in another direction. So we might not ever find the ending conclusion that we might have reached had we been just writing it. Yeah, so, yeah, I just. The development of thoughts really does unfold a lot differently when it's pencil to paper.
Yeah. So I. Katie and I recently watched that movie with Melissa McCarthy called can you ever forgive me? Do you know, have you watched this movie?
I haven't seen that.
So the. The idea is that she is a. Like, it takes place in the early 80s and she is an author, and she. It's apparently based on a true story. But what she would do is she would. She would, like, forge personal letters written by celebrities to their friends and then sell them for lots of money. So she would. She. She. So she would, like. She had this letter from Katharine Hepburn that Katharine Hepburn wrote to her when she, like, wrote a. Like a biography, biographical piece in the, like, New Yorker or something about her. And anyway, she. She reads a lot of these letters and then she goes into, like, you know, antique shops and, like, sells them. Sells, like, really good forgeries to people. And it just reminds me of a time that I never experienced, like, fake nostalgia, I suppose, about, like. Yeah. When you would just sort of, like, pour out your heart and be really witty in a letter. Just like how I would, like, you know, how I crack jokes with Johnny and Tim through text. You know, people are doing this kind of, like, long form through letters. And I think it's really interesting because, like, those. Those hold value in the future. Right. Like, if ever I became, like, some famous, like, person, which is probably not going to happen. Um, you know, people aren't gonna be able to sell my text messages to Johnny and Tim. But if we were writing letters to each other, there's like, a physical artifact there. Something that people can. Yeah, yeah. Actually kind of go back and forth. So. Yeah, that's really. That's something. Just an interesting thing I was. I was thinking about. So I'm. I'm definitely somebody who, like, wants to write letters, but I don't. For whatever reason. I think I've written more letters recently than I have before. I wrote Johnny and Tim both. Both some letters, but for those of us who have, like, kind of a block on that and just don't know where to start, I would love to know your suggestion, Courtney, and just kind of like, where to. Where to start on, like, unblocking yourself to write letters?
I would say that if you feel blocked, ignore the fact that you feel blocked and just start, like, wherever you are with whatever you've got. I can really relate to experiences of Perfectionism that manifest themselves in wanting the stars to align just right before I start a project. So the way that might look and as it relates to writing a letter would be, oh, well, I need to have a good story to tell them before I write. And then I get the good story to tell them, and I think, well, I. I need to get that paper. Oh, I remember I had some stationary that this person would really appreciate. I need to find that specific stationary to write to this person. And then I find that stationary. I'm like, oh, but where's that pen that I just got? Because I really wanted to write with that one. And so it's like, I need all the things to be just perfect when I could have just grabbed an index card and a nub of a pencil out of my junk drawer and written them a little thinking of using, and that would have gotten the juices flowing, and I could have just started right then, and it would have made a hundred times more impact than the letter that I never sent.
It's just like journaling, because I feel the same way. Like, oh, I just bought this new. This new journal, and there's no way I could ever write in it because it's too fancy.
Yeah. The way I avoid that with journals is that I skip, like, the first two pages in a journal and I leave those blank so I can always open it and remember what it looked like when it was not all messed up with the dumb things I put inside it.
That's really good.
But, yeah, I would say if you feel like some kind of a block about writing a letter, just ignore the fact that you feel the block about it. Because, I don't know, I think sometimes the ego creates this resistance. It doesn't want you to live the full, happy life that you could be living if you did the things you actually wanted to do. It wants you to, like, think more about yourself. So if you just, like, ignore those things that are preventing you from want from, like, starting the things that you really do want to start and just go ahead and pick up the pencil and start writing. Like, you can always erase it if you mess up or, like, start over. But if you never start, you'll definitely never send the letter. But I'm curious, as somebody who wants to write and hasn't written very much, what are the obstacles that you're encountering? Or, like, what's the train of thought? Or what is it that happens that prevents you from writing?
Yeah, and actually, I was just, like, trying to formulate my next question, which was going to be a little bit about this very thing. So you kind of read my mind. I honestly think that the pressure of like, you know, trying to be as witty as Noel Coward or Katharine Hepburn or something or like, you know, what do you write in those letters? Like, I, if I needed Johnny, like, Johnny knows everything about me. Right. Because we text every day. We know many things about each other.
Yeah.
And if I had a quick thought or something I want to share with Johnny, I probably just text it to him. And so, you know, if I'm writing a stranger, that's like a completely different idea because I'm going to talk a little bit about myself and, you know, where I live and where I come from and my family and all that stuff. But like, I specifically with people I do know, like, I often just don't know where to start, like what to talk to them about. Because we, you know, we have like instantaneous but low fidelity communication multiple times a day rather than just sort of like, you know, like an in depth, high fidelity written communication once a week or whatever. Like, that's. Yeah, that's. I think that's for me, where the block is. Because I just don't know. I don't know what to say and I don't know where to start.
Yeah, lately. I'm sorry, I'm answering your question. So, like, lately we all have this thing we're going through which has just been my prompt and making it easier for me to start. Like, hey, life is messed up right now. In what ways is your mess? You're messed up.
Yeah, that's.
You probably have way better answers.
No, that's just. It's a question that I like to ask. Like, what are those impediments? Because that's something that I try to address through the snail mail social club. Like, what are all these, like, barriers to entry of being a letter writer that people encounter that prevent them from ever discovering, you know, what it might be like to take up that hobby? So I've heard a lot of different things. Anything from, you know, setting aside the time to do it to not having the supplies to do it to. I had the supplies, but then I didn't have a stamp to. Well, I wanted to write and I had this funny story I wanted to tell, but I didn't have anyone to write it to. I just hear all these different reasons that people have for not writing. So I try to kind of systematically address those through snail mail social club. So there's a set date that you like, sign up to come to this Thing, and that is the time automatically set aside that you've already dedicated to sending a letter. And I brought the materials. So you have the paper. You have pencils, pens, glitter. You know, you have everything you need, whatever you wanted to put on that letter, like it's there. So then that doesn't become a stumbling block for them. I have the postage stamps there for them. I in the past have written out all my Christmas cards and gone so far as to address them and put stuff stamps on them and then just not walk them to the mailbox and mail them. Like that's an actual thing that I've done in my life. That sounds ridiculous, but I'm probably not the only one who has done something that silly. So I also, like, not only do I provide the postage for them, but I also mail the envelopes for them. So it's like all those little things that I've heard are impediments to sending mail. I've tried to find little ways to just kind of ease that problem and get rid of it. So they just have kind of a turnkey interaction with letter writing where all they really have to do is show up. I'll even give people writing prompts. I have a snail mail directory of people who have signed up to, like, if. If somebody shows up to social and doesn't have anyone to write to, they can pick someone out of the directory and just send them whatever they want. And these people know that they might get a random letter because they added themselves to the snail mail directory. So all those little things that people have told me, well, this is why I don't send letters. And I really want to, but here's my reason that I don't. So I always ask when people tell me that, I'm like, okay, well, what's your reason? And is there a way that I can fix that problem for you?
Awesome. We mentioned that. I don't know. How do I say this tactically? This is expensive and you are launching a Patreon. So can we talk about your Patreon?
Can you plug your Patreon for us?
I can. Thanks for asking. Really, it is a pricey endeavor. A forever stamp alone is like 50.
So,
yeah, any money that people want to contribute can help. So I did just launch a Patreon today, as a matter of fact, just today. I started it months ago and then, you know, got into one of those little perfectionist traps where I was like, not having good enough ideas of the benefits to offer, not having, like, not being inspired enough to make a Video for it or whatever the thing was. And so today I was like, I need to just finally finish this and be able to say that it exists in the world. So. Patreon.com Courtney Cochran that is the URL. And there are a bunch of different tiers that people can become patrons at. So, you know, some that are kind of low investment, like five bucks a month. That's more than I'm getting for it right now.
I have to say that I think for the listeners of this podcast, that is an excellently tiered, excellent, named tier, because you will officially be a graphite guardian.
Yes.
Oh, my God.
Yeah. Well, I mean, these are my people, so, you know. But, yeah, it's definitely. It's something. I don't know. I felt kind of strange about, like, asking for money for it at first. And as I said, I was, like, throwing parties for strangers and not making any money, just, like, giving my money to do it and didn't have a job, so that made, like, no sense. I was using up my savings to host these things. And so as I kind of transitioned away from that into doing the paid events that were ticketed, I still wasn't making a ton of money, but I was at least covering the costs of it. But still, like, to me, the real. The goal is that we're creating connection. And I just. I believe so much in how that betters the world that I just feel like it's a very important thing to be doing. So it was kind of like, you know, no big deal if I'm kind of just breaking even on doing this thing. But now that we can't gather and have those events, you know, I thought I would take my friend's advice. I've had several people tell me, why don't you have a Patreon? I would support that. And I'm like, okay, I will give people the opportunity to support me.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Then exercise in vulnerability. But, you know, that's life. I'm here for it. So we'll try it out. And I would love it if anybody feels like it's important work and they have the means to throw a little support to it. A little goes a long way when you're supporting somebody with a small passion project like this that's trying to grow. Especially like, with the pandemic. Everybody is staying in now, and so many people are starting to want to write and were reaching out to me. So I kind of started an offshoot of the snail mail social club, which was a little bit more of, like, A local thing for people who were attending in person. And I was creating like workshops that I would host and curriculum to take into the schools and teach kids about letter writing and things like that. But then people start reaching out and wanting to write letters and have pen pals and things like that. And so I got in touch with some nursing homes and some medical facilities and then just a bunch of people who are self isolating and really needing that human connection even though they had to stay socially distant. So I started another social club. That's the shut in social club. So
yeah, that's one for me.
Well, I totally relate to being an introvert and like, you know, not really getting out there so much. So the shut in social club sounds like it was pretty much made for me. But it's good for these pandemic times when we're all staying in. But I have now in that one hundreds of people who I've connected up with pen pals and folks in nursing homes and healthcare workers and people, you know, just to send notes of encouragement and, or notes of gratitude and thanks for, you know, being on the front lines and all of that. And it, it's a time consuming thing but I'm doing it because I feel like it's important. But I'm also trying to balance that with the fact that it does take my time and there are costs associated with it. And it is okay to give people the opportunity to support people who are doing work that they think is important. So the Patreon is available for people who feel like they want to contribute and help me be able to keep pursuing these projects and trying to get some goodness out into the world.
So speaking of financial support, something that I've just heard a lot about recently is that the USPS is really struggling financially. Kind of the centuries, centuries old organization that is like, you know, has made this possible for such a long time. So for those of you don't know, they're losing money, they're losing staff, they are regulated by Conver Congress like that they were like, they were like a federal department but yet they are expected to be kind of a money making corporation. And Congress is not providing a financial relief to them like other big corporations. So I'm not going to get into that. But I do want to ask you Courtney, how do we support the USPS and ensure that we can like keep on sending letters for decades to come?
I would say that one of the easiest ways you can do that is to use the service.
Yeah.
Give it a reason to exist. It is A self supported organization. So they don't get budget from, from the federal government. What they get is your money from buying stamps and sending things. That is how they are funded. So I would say buy some stamps.
I, I love love stamps. I, I in another life where I like, I don't need one more collection but I would like. I've always considered being a stamp collector. Johnny. Johnny and I just when I was heading back to California after visiting him in Baltimore, we stopped by the Smithsonian Post Office Museum and it was so much fun. We looked through all these old vintage stamps. They have all these old spent stamps. Just buckets and buckets and buckets of them that you can look through and sift and sort and collect. They let you collect.
Oh, I love it.
Like six of them. Johnny. Is that right? Yeah.
Like I found an Ed ground Poe one recently. I ordered a bigger group of them.
Yeah.
Because like it's so cheap to buy some cool old stamps like that.
Yeah, yeah.
That place is like an a little treasure. It's not on the mall, so people don't seem to know it's there.
Yeah, I need to go there. Yeah, sounds awesome.
I think it used to be a post office. That's why it's next to the train station. But they do have a functioning post office inside, like next to the gift shop.
Yeah, but they, yeah, that was really fun. And honestly I just go down to my post office, you know, close in my neighborhood and like just sometimes buy some buy a sheet of stamps for the hell of it because they have really cool stamps.
So I'm lazy.
Oh, sorry.
You can buy them online for a dollar thirty.
Yeah.
What you were gonna say? I'm sorry.
No, I was going to say like don't hesitate to buy stamps because stamps are forever stamps now. So they really only go up in value. You can buy them today for $0.55 apiece and then next year they might be $0.60 apiece. And so you're, it's like printing money. Guys buy lots of stamps.
The more you spend, the more you save.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah. I actually just had somebody who is a pretty regular supporter of the snail mail social club. I was talking to her and she didn't realize that you can buy stamps online. That like blew her mind. I was like, oh girl, get at it. There are some good stamps on there right now.
So for one last question. Of course, this is the pencil podcast. So let's talk about gear. So I guess two questions. First, do you ever write letters in pencil? And if so, which ones do you prefer? And also, can you address envelopes in graphite?
Yes and yes. I love pencils. I have so many pencils. So of course I have to write some of my letters and pencils. Definitely depends on my mood. I'm usually more of like a firmer graphite kind of person. I like one of my highest priorities is having it not smudge. Pretty much anything that I write. Letter wise, I'm going to end up folding it and I really don't want the graphite to rub off on the other side of the paper. So that's my biggest priority when I'm picking what I write with. And but yeah, I'm pretty indiscriminate other than that when it comes to which pencils I will write with. I have to say I am enjoying this Templar 777 pencil that I'm using tonight and I think this will be one that I'll use to write some letters. It's just a regular like vintage number two pencil, but it really not smudgy at all and I feel like it's retaining its point pretty well. So I think that I'll be using this one to write some letters soon. In fact, I'll probably. I think I'll do. I'll do an Instagram giveaway too and like give away one of these pencils because like I said, I just opened a box of 12 of them. So I have 11 unsharpened that I could um, I could, I could do a giveaway with some of those.
How do you usually decorate your, your letters? Do you to put rubber stamps on them? Do you. On the envelope or do you use Washi tape or how do you. What, what else do you use to kind of like judge it up a little bit?
Yes, I use all those things. I do rubber stamps sometimes. I have quite a collection of those, but I don't use them as much as I ought to, considering the amount of them that I have and the amount of space that they take up. Like, I really should employ those babies more often. But I love doing washy tape. I love. Oh, something. So it was just my birthday the other day and I got so excited about what my partner gave me and it was a pack of like, I think it was 18 of these markers that I wanted from the dollar store. We were talking about things that like, what would you do if you could go out right now? And I was like, I am honestly like dying to go to Dollar Tree where everything's a dollar, and get these glitter markers that they have because they have a glitter marker there that they sell in a two pack and it is so glittery. And so he found on Amazon where you could buy like the entire rainbow of them in one box and gave me that for my birthday and I was like, yes, the dollar store markers. And so now I don't even have a desire to leave my house. Yeah. So I've really been digging those glitter markers lately. I really also like anything that's like vintage utilitarian looking. So like old air mail envelopes. Like Johnny, you use a lot of those. I love those things and anything that looks like that. So like the, the self inking stamps where you kind of like stamp down and the, the rubber stampy surface kind of like rotates and leaves the impression and it's like first class mail or air mail or you know, whatever it says. I have a bunch of those stamps that I like and then I have a lot of like already used stamps, like what you were talking about at that postal museum. I have tons of stamps that are like off paper stamps like that that have already been used. And then, you know, basically I, I go to estate sales a whole lot and I bought a gigantic cardboard box that was probably like a 15 inch cube that was full of just torn off edges of envelopes that had canceled stamps on them.
Wow, that is awesome.
Yeah, it was so cool. It felt like the find of the year when I came across that my boyfriend's like, what are you doing? And I brought him.
Don't mind me. I'm just salivating.
He's like taking pictures of me on the floor like Smeagol. Just like sorting out all my little precious. But I'll soak those and remove them from the little envelope corners that they're on and then dry them flat and use them almost like a sticker or something. You know, hit it with a little bit of a glue stick and glue those on the outside of envelopes just as decoration. You know, keep my full, you know, valid postage that's on there as well. But then just kind of decorate with those used stamps well and good until
you get arrested for mail fraud.
It's totally legal as long as you don't try to use it as valid postage. But yeah, that's really kind of. Oh, and then lately, as I was saying, I pressed some flowers from the yard the other day. I actually had pressed a bunch of flowers from my Valentine's Day bouquet and had to take those out of the press to put the yard flowers in the other day. And so I sent out A batch of Easter cards that had pressed flowers on the envelope. So I just, like, you know, took the flat flower out of the press and laid it on the envelope and then brushed over it with Mod Podge and it, like, adhered it to the envelope. And I've already heard from a couple people that they arrived mostly intact.
So you jammed up maybe one or two postage sorting machines. It's fine.
Maybe. I mean, who's to say? Who's to say, really? But yeah, anything like that? Definitely. Just, like, little. I love a well decorated envelope. But I also, on the other end of the spectrum, can go totally minimalist, where I just use some sort of vintage envelope and just stay, like, very nondescript with everything that I put on it and let the envelopes speak for itself. So hopefully the people who get those actually, like, appreciate that about them. And they're not like, wow, look at this plain thing she sent me.
Well, Courtney, before we. Before we wrap up, is there anything that we missed that you. You want to chat about?
My gosh. I mean, I could talk about envelopes and paper and pencils and supplies all night, so I don't think there was really any.
I look forward. I look forward to your. To your podcast about mailing supplies.
I would still listen to that.
I sure would.
One man show. Just me in my basement going through my preciouses.
There's this show on. On PBS called Keeping Up Appearances. It's like an old British sitcom from, like, the 70s and 80s. And one thing that's always like, like, in the intro theme is about, like, this woman, Hyacinth Bouquet, who's like the. The star. She's like, let it setting out like, some like, like formal place settings. And she's dusting. She's setting out flowers and she's mailing out invitations, and she, like, has a ruler out and she's like, measuring the amount of distance between the edge of the envelope and the. And the stamps. I'm just like, wow. So every time I put a stamp on an envelope, I think about how she's measuring out, like, a centimeter between, like, the edge and the stamp itself.
They sell, like, stencils for that, for spacing your addresses?
Yeah, it's amazing.
I try to get, like, not too caught up in that because I'll drive myself crazy, you know? Like, I notice if I put a stamp on cricket, I'm like, oh, dear Lord, like, why did I do that? But also, probably nobody's going to notice that I did that. So I try to just let it go. I can't even tell you how many times I've, like, written a lovely letter and folded it up all nicely, got the folds all straight, put it in the envelope, do some lovely lettering on the envelope, have my stamp on there. And I'm, like, all proud of myself because I didn't run out of room. Because sometimes I'm like, if I'm doing, like, kind of brush lettering and it looks kind of scripty, like calligraphy, I'll be writing too big, and then there's not room for the stamp. So I'm like, if I'm all proud of myself that I spaced it, all right, and there's room for everything. And then I flip it over to put my return address on the back, and I'm like, oh, man. I wrote the address on the front upside down. I do that kind of stuff all the time. I'm like, you know what? That's just part of life, and it's okay. I don't need to be such a perfectionist about that stuff. But that used to really, like, bother me if I did something like that, and now I just don't even care so much, and it's so much nicer.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I don't think that we really missed any points. I mean, my main things are, like, if people want to check me out on snail mail, social club on Instagram, or, you know, Online Snail mail, social club.com, those sorts of things. That's like, my thing that I do all year, all the time, and I've been doing it for years now.
Yeah.
Then the shut in social club is the newer pairing people up with nursing homes to write to.
That's really great.
Yeah. Well, thank you. It's been really fun and, like, heartwarming for me. Getting to talk to the people who are reaching out, wanting to get addresses to write to, and just hearing their stories and hearing how excited they are and how they just have the spirit of generosity and they want to do something right now that is positive and helpful, but they don't really know what they can do because they're not supposed to leave their homes. It's just really nice to hear from people who want to be so giving. So I've really enjoyed getting to. To talk with those folks and then talking to the nursing homes and hearing, you know, the response from them of how much they've enjoyed getting all this mail. Yeah, it's really been nice. So those are, like, the two main things. And then, yeah, Patreon also, that's happening. So I don't know. You guys were very generous and kind of hitting all the things that I'm thinking about right now. Is there anything that we didn't talk about?
For me, we didn't talk about indelible pencils and addressing envelopes.
Wow, that's a specific thing.
Yeah. I used to be like really anal about using a no blot for that until they were no longer available. So now I use a pen. I feel like it sell out.
Well, I.
You are, Jeffrey, you are.
Yeah. That's unforgettable. Using a pen now. And I'm going to have to ask you to leave this podcast.
Courtney is your replacement.
Don't give Andy any ideas,
But if you're concerned about pencil on your envelopes, you could always hit it with like a little bit of hairspray or something or like, you know, mod podge over it, depending on how smudgy your pencil is. I. I address in pencil all the time and I've yet to have anything returned to me or heard that people aren't receiving things, so seems pretty successful. But yeah, if there's ever anything that's smudgy, just a little hit of hairspray on it usually will seal it up. So it's not too bad.
Johnny has a little like, a little like point in his hair sometimes and so I assume he has just like a big can of Aquanet that he uses to achieve that point.
That's what happens when you think he had like a travel size Aqua Net in his little everyday carry situation.
No, I managed to sleep equally on both sides.
Nice.
That's what happens.
That's impressive.
Yeah.
Very well balanced of you.
Yeah. Now it's all too long for that, but thank you for coming on again. Yeah. So can you tell folks where to find you on the Internet and where to find the snail mail social club and your patreon?
Sure. Yeah. So on both Instagram and Facebook, I have snail mail social club. So that's just like facebook.com snailmailsocial club. Same thing for Instagram and then also snailmailsocial club.com and so that's where you can find anything that is workshops that I'm hosting, it's curriculum that I'm developing for, you know, public school students to learn about letter writing and different things like that. And there's a lot of ways that that ties into core points that kids need to be learning anyway. So there's ways that we tie that into history and into art and different things like that. That. And that's where you'll find anything that's like my live events that are, you know, the ticketed things where you can come and use all the supplies and meet cool people and eat some charcuterie and have a soda or whatever, you know. So that's all the snail mail social club stuff. And then if you're interested in getting hooked up with writing to nursing homes, that is the shut in social club. And so again, facebook.com shut insocial club and same for Instagram at Shut Insocial Club. And yeah, so that one. Currently I'm pairing people up with one individual and one nursing home or medical facility. So if people want to sign up on the Shut in Social club, that's how I'm pairing those up right now. And then if they're interested in supporting any of this work that I'm doing, then that's where Patreon comes in. So. Patreon.com courtneycochran that's C O U R T N E Y C O C H R A N And yeah, that's, that's where I am on the Internet and. And I don't know, it's kind of a fun spot to be.
Yeah.
Well, thank you, Andy. Where can folks find you?
I am on Instagram and the other one Twitter at a. I don't know, I won't hand out my, my mailing address here, but you can, you know, probably get a hold of me if you want it. And yeah, and Andy, WTF is my website? How about you, Johnny?
I am pencilrevolution.com and on social media pencilution and you can also email me for my mailing address if you want. We like letters, so we are obviously the Erasable podcast. You can find us at erasable us. You can support us on patreon at patreon.com erasable you can actually catch us on Spotify. And are we on Pandora? I don't even know.
I have no idea.
I know we're on Spotify and I
don't think Pandora does podcast.
Yeah, they do now. They want to be Spotify but they're not.
I had no idea.
I just learned something new.
We're not on frickin stitcher. That's right. That's true.
And we are on Google podcasts, although I don't think anyone uses that.
All those.
Yeah. So you can check us out on facebook@facebook.com erasablepodcast on Twitter and Instagram @erasablepodcast. You can join our Facebook group at facebook.com groups erasablepodcast or you can just enter the URL bestplaceontheinternet.org and that'll bring it up.
Huh?
That's actually not true. That's not true. But we hear over and over that it is the best place on the Internet. And I definitely agree. So thanks again to note, guys for sponsoring the episode. Remember, the first 50 people to use the coupon code. Erasable fun, all one word@notegeist.com will get 15 off Black Wing products and a goodie bag. And speaking of Patreon, thank you to these following Patreon supporters who support us at the producer level. Alex Jonathan Brown, Ann Sipe, Bob Ostwald, Bobby Letzinger, Chris Jones, Chris Metkus, Chris Ulrich, Dave McDonald, Dave Tubman, Fourth Letter, Franklin Furlong, Gangster Hotline, Hans Noodleman, Hunter McCain, Jacqueline R. Myers, Jason Dillon, Jay Newton, Joe Crace, John Banion, Johnny Baker, Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Larry Grimaldi, Leslie Toussay, Mary Collis, Measure Twice, Michael Diallosa, Michael Hagan, Millie Blackwell, Random Thinks, Sarah Hunter, Stuart Lennon, Tana Feliz, Terry Beth Ledbetter, and Think Travel Eat Bam.
That's a lot of people who love what you guys are doing.
We love you guys, too.
Yeah. Thank you so much.
So thanks again, Courtney, for joining us, and we'll be back with another guest named Courtney next time.
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