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Transcript
Merchandising. Merchandising.
Erasable. Erasable. The toilet paper. Erasable. The flamethrower.
Hello and welcome to episode 191 of the erasable Podcast. I'm your host, Tim for today and I'm joined by two of my favorite annual Christmas presents, Andy and Johnny. How's it going, guys?
Good. I'm excited we finally were able to find a time to do this.
Yeah, the holidays were tough. It's been a lot busy and sick and Covid and yeah, just a mess. So, yeah, I'm glad to be back. And we are going to wrap up 2022 on a positive note. So today we're going to be talking about our favorite things of the year, both in and out of the pencil world. So it's just kind of like recap of, you know, if we're going to start out talking about our tools of the trade and then we're going to get in, just dig into the stuff that we loved this year. So stuff you might have heard us talk about nine months ago or maybe we haven't even brought up on the podcast yet. So let's dive right into it. Let's do tools of the trade. And Andy, why don't you start us out?
Yeah. Oh, man. So I've been watching, especially over Christmas break, I've been watching a lot of tv. I watched the latest season of the Orville, which if you're not familiar with that, it is, I think we've talked about in the show before. But it's Seth MacFarlane's take on Star Trek. Basically. It's not like set in the Star Trek universe, but it is very Star Trekkie. And what's really interesting about the evolution of the show, it just, it's been on its third season, they, it started off as basically like Family Guy in space. Like it was very like comedic. It had a lot of those kind of like Family Guy style jokes, like, ah, this reminds me of the time that blah, blah, blah. And it was just like that part just wasn't very good. It didn't work. And as the show progressed it started getting more serious and more serious. And it's still like there's a lot of light hearted like dialogue and humor but like they don't crack jokes like that anymore. And this latest season, basically they went, it's a Hulu original now, so it's called the Orville New Horizons. And I assume that when it was on Fox he got a lot of pressure from executives to like make family die in space. And he Just wanted to make Star Trek so just like straight up like a. Like it just hits all the right notes that Star Trek the Next Generation hit, at least for me. And it's so good. There's. Yeah, I'm not like a huge Seth MacFarlane fan, but I know that he's always been a big Star Trek fan and has always just like wanted to like do something like this. And so yeah, he's. It's such a good show if like me, you like Star Trek the Next Generation a lot and you miss sort of like that style of television and somebody referred to it as like the well lit ship of the future. Right. Like. Cause you know, so many TV shows and movies, I think the, you know, the Battlestar Galactica reboot kind of like kick this off. It's like lens flares and dark moody ships. You know, the Enterprise, the Next Generation wasn't like that. It was like, it was well lit, it was comfortable. They had like Barca loungers that they sat around on.
Yeah, they were basically like fancy pajamas.
Yeah, exactly. And this one is a little bit more toward that like a family, like in space. So big fan of that, like Diorville a lot. I've been re watching the Venture Brothers, if anybody remembers that from so good gosh, 20 years ago. It started. They did a few seasons 2003, they did a few seasons in 2009. I think they did some in 2018. Some of that doesn't hold up.
Looks like a Mike Pence.
Yeah, it looks like Mike Pence. But also the. Some of the language like there's few. Some of the early episodes like they, they throw around the R word just like for the hell of it. Yeah, there's a lot there that just doesn't hold up. I remember thinking how edgy it was, you know, back when I was like 18, 19, 20, somewhere around there. But yeah, that doesn't. Great. I signed up for YouTube Premium over the holidays just because I was watching a lot of YouTube and trying to. Trying to skip commercials. There's a few good channels there. I been catching up on this one. It's called how to Drink, which is basically like a bartender, he makes cocktails, he talks about cocktails. He likes to go to like Chili's and Applebee's and like take home their cocktails and then quote unquote, fix them. Like, you know, figure out how to make them in a more interesting way. So I've been watching stuff, like stuff on YouTube and I'm a. About a third of the way through a Book called the Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor, which is. It's been getting a lot of kind of, I don't know, like, applaud lately. It's kind of like a science fiction novel. And so far what I think it's about is there's a, A super intelligent species of octopus that humans are learning to communicate with, which is pretty interesting. A lot of other stuff in there too. There's like symbology. It's a little bit like. What was that one movie? It was a book and then it was a movie. Oh, shoot. Where it's about like a linguist helps Lear to communicate with aliens.
Arrival.
Arrival. That's it. It's has a lot of themes, a lot of similar themes than that, but like, except with like octopus instead of aliens, which you know, they might as well be because octopi are very aliens kind of a species.
I think the Green brothers talked about, either talked about this book or talked about the concept of like octopi being like they could have been ruling the world. But they're like, like the rumors that under underwater that like the weird formations underwater were like. Yeah, you know, former. What do you call it? Like former structures built by oct. Like octopus.
Yeah, yeah, there's. Yeah, that I know that the Greens and like Robin Sloan who's a. An author I follow. Like, like a lot of authors have been really recommending this book. That's actually how I found out about another really great book of last year, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Like a lot of authors were just really loving that book and we're recommending it. And this is. This one is. Does Isn in the same sort of genre vein of that. But it's also just a really good book. So anybody's looking for a nice sort of like a thick science fiction novel like this would be a good. This would be a good one writing for you. And I am writing with an old timey California Republic stationaires Golden Bear in my. In my confidant Johnny. How about you?
I have been watching so much TV that I don't want to admit how many shows, but they weren't all good, but a lot of them were very good. And one that's definitely worth subscribing to BritBox for is Irving Welsh's Crime. That has nothing to do with the book. I understand aside from the fact that the main character is a Scottish policeman who fights what he calls beasts like the worst criminals, people who hurt children and stuff like that. So I think it was supposed to be a miniseries, but they picked up A season two and it's so good.
It's like the British svu. No.
Well, it's so the. I don't know. I don't want to spoil anything. The lead character has a history of substance abuse and I don't know, his gestures are just hilarious. Like the way he does a thumbs up and stuff. So, I mean, you could see it coming that at some point in the series he parties a lot with his brother and things get crazy. But really good fellow. Like a lot of language I could not understand at all. But I watched a lot of Scottish shows and I think the one guy was, you know, garbling on purpose. But anyway, if you don't have Britbox, it's like I don't think it's even 10 bucks a month and there's always something really good on there. And we restarted watching All Creatures Great and Small because season three comes out Sunday.
Oh, good.
And Miss Scarlet and the Duke apparently has another season coming out Sunday even though season two just came out. So I hope that wasn't a typo in PBS's emails, but that's good news. So, yeah, I started reading a book and then I just keep getting sidetracked and reading little books about bookbinding and the titles all blur together at this point. Like making handmade books, making books by hand. One is called Hands Making Books, so that's all a blur. But I start at Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was the follow up to all the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer, if that's how you say his name. So yeah, I think following up on something that you won the Pulitzer on must be extra hard because this is one huge book. But so far it's so good. And if you liked all the Light we cannot see, it sort of bounces around from different people's stories and they're, you know, obviously physically coming together. And in this one it seems like some of that's happening, but it also storyline is in the present, in the future and in Constantinople in the 15th century. So it's like wild but also really cool. I'm sure someone's getting the TV rights. And I am writing with a papermate. Earthright. This very specific one. Let me see if I get this timeline right. They were Eberhard Faber pencils and they were made of some kind of reconstituted wood that felt like crap, but wrote really well. And then Sanford, but Faber Castell usa, no hyphen. And they started making yellow ones with green erasers. And for a very short time they made yellow Ones with pink erasers. It's like one of the best looking pencils and it's just, you know, nice smooth cedar, delicious pencil. And I spent all day taking notes for the zine that I am a week late in putting out in an unlined roaring spring composition book, which is delightful, but the paper sucks, even for pencil.
I don't know if I'm familiar with the rolling spring combo.
Yeah, they make, what do you call it, like a premium version that is actually eight and a half by 11 and doesn't have rounded corners that I used to use in college, but even those really aren't very good. And I'm also becoming a paper snob lately, so a small grain of salt, but like you said, they're pretty notorious. But yeah, that's my ramble. How about you, Tim?
All right. I just finished reading a book about the Beatles that I really enjoyed. I've been on kind of a roll with music related books lately. I've. So I've read this. I just re. Watched the Get Back documentary. Loved it, of course, just like. But went back and I went back and was thinking like, well, what about Abby Road? Because they, they were. They recorded Abbey Road after they did Let It Be. So I was like, I wonder if there's any documentary footage of that. Which unsurprisingly, if you've watched Get Back, like, of course there isn't because they're like, no cameras this time. Like, absolutely not. Like, get out of here. So I was like, well, I'll find a book. So I found about the making of Abbey Road. It's called Solid State. Yeah. The story of Abbey Road and the end of the Beatles. And it was great. It's written like, it's not super long. It's not like one of those super in depth, like. And then John ate three pieces of toast and drank four cups of tea. And you know, it's like some of those Beatles books get into such crazy detail. So this one just kind of really got the broad strokes, really done really well and it was really entertaining because that's my favorite Beatles album. So I wanted to hear about how they made it. And that's also like when they were. Things were going nuts where they were getting ready to break up and they did break up and they didn't break up and everybody was mad and. Yeah, anyways, it was really interesting. Got to hear some stuff that I hadn't heard before about Paul, like, being like kicking Ringo out of his house and like, you know, doing like, sort of dramatic, like big like pissed off things that you usually think of Paul as being like, chill.
But so.
But I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. And I'm also reading Ballad of Bob Dylan, which is like. Which is a biography of Bob Dylan that covers. I think it's four concerts over the course of his career that this, that the author went to. And so he does like his life in four concerts that go all the way back to like 1963 to like 2009 or something, which is cool. And I'm also reading. Do you guys know the 33? And a third series?
These.
These little. These. Yeah, right. They're these little books. They're like. I don't know what size they would be. Maybe four by six or something, or four by five. They're kind of squarish. But these little paperbacks, there's probably 120 of them now that are all dedicated to one album. And so they have some music writer write essentially like a novella length, like 120, 30 page book about a classic album.
What I've never heard of.
They're amazing. Yeah, check them out. Yeah, they're. And they've got it all kinds of like genre wise, they're all over the place. But. But I'm reading the one about John Prine's debut album. John Prine. John Prine by John Prine. Yeah. Enjoying that a lot. And the only other thing is Jack Ryan. There's a new season of Jack Ryan on Amazon, which is one of our favorite shows to watch. And it's hasn't disappointed so far. It's fun action. You know, talked many times about my Lee Child. Yeah. Guilty pleasure. And this is kind of in that same vein, but a little smarter, you know, a little more like espionage. So it's a good show. And I'm using a Musgrave Tennessee round. And I'm using what I realized I had been stupidly calling a paperage journal. But is it just paper age, do you think? Is this. Am I supposed to say paper age? There's no space.
I've always. I've always said paper age. But like, maybe it is paperage.
I don't know.
But I was a fax machine.
I'm gonna. I'm just gonna keep calling it paperage because I don't know why. Yeah, it just makes me happy.
But that's.
Yeah. So that's. Let's right into our favorite things. So this is the like third year in a row where we're probably very happy to see the year go by.
Maybe they.
Maybe people have always said that, though, you know, like. Like, since, like, I don't know.
1842 is the worst.
Yeah. Yeah, it was bad. I don't want to rank them. It's inviting disaster.
Yeah.
This is at least, like, the 2022 worst year of all time, so. But we didn't hate everything this year, so we're gonna end on a positive note and talk about some things that we love tonight. And so I was thinking we'll do it. We're gonna do it by category. So first off, we're gonna do. And I was thinking, like, let's do it like. What do you call it? Like a snake draft style. So we'll do, like, start with Andy and then we'll go to Johnny and then me, and then I'll start the next one, and we'll finish with Andy, and then he'll start the next one. We'll go back and forth, forth. So Andy's going to start us out. The first category. What is for pencils? Let's just start with the obvious, like, pencils or pencil accessories. What is something that, like, you love from this year and I love that you're starting this one out.
It's very. It's very king of the hill. I have some pencils and pencil accessories. I know that. I know, right? I know we're trying to be positive here, but, like, I. You know, I was thinking about this. We started this topic, like, a few weeks ago, or at least brought it up and been thinking about since then, and I don't think there were a lot of, like, new pencils that really stood out to me this year. Like, I don't think there were any Black Wings, not even just volumes, but, like, any Black Wings releases at all that were just, like, really interesting. And I think the closest I can think of is the pencil king from Musgrave. It was kind of a, like a net new pencil. I mean, they squeezed that in at the end of the year, so it didn't, like. I think it came out in, like, November. So there's not been a lot of. A lot of competition for it. But I. Besides that, I don't think there's any. That really impressed me in 2022. So. Yeah. And I was. I was also looking, and some of it could be because I've been a little bit more. I don't say withdrawn or disengaged, but I. There hasn't. I haven't been as tuned into a lot of the stationary world as, like, I previously have been. So I don't Think I've really started using any new sharpeners this year. I still use my little black wing one hole, one stage sharpener, like, almost exclusively that one. And then the classroom friendly at my desk, but nothing, like super of use for me this year as far as accessories go. So I'm gonna have to go with the pencil king because, like, I can't think of any new pencils that came out in 2022 that I'm, like, really a huge fan of.
Fair enough.
Yeah. Johnny, how about you?
I'm gonna stay on that Musgrave train and say the Musgrave meant a pedal metal pencil sharpener. I'll say that ten times fast.
Oh, yeah, I haven't. You. I haven't. I don't have one of those.
I didn't fact check it. I'm not positive it was 2022, so I hope it was. Forgive me if not, but that is just the coolest little sharpener. Does such a great job. And it's, dare I say, kind of sexy. I carry it around sometimes just, like, in my hand, held out like a lantern. Like, I might look like a dork. But check this out. I got the sharpener hasn't worked. I haven't made any new friends or anything. And I'm not alone.
If I wasn't already your friend, that would make me your friend.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
For real. I'm crying, but, yeah, I'm. Yeah, we've gone to Musgraves. How about you, Tim? Are you gonna jump on the Musgrave Musgrave train?
No, by the way.
Train. A train that Musgrave Musgrave would run would be the coolest train. Yeah.
I could see it happening.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
It would smell amazing. Yeah.
Runs on cedar shavings. It's like they shove, like, wood into the coal. Coal burners or whatever.
Okay.
Actually went with the black wing and I went with the black Wing eras from this year. That's had the one with the arrow. That was the. That was kind of the primary one that I could think the best black
wing of the bunch, I think. Yeah.
It was kind of a rough year. Kind of a year where I. I was not disappointed that I had let my subscription lapse. So.
Just buying.
Yeah, Just buying it as they come, if they stick out. And this year, there's wasn't anything that really stuck out to me. Except for that one, which I like. I like that one.
Yeah. I forgot that I already had some. I bought some for Frankie for Christmas. Not realizing that unless someone you know, is a ninja. And they put it in my pencil cup. Apparently I already have a box, so it says a lot about this year.
But you don't remember whether or not
you accidentally bought something twice.
Yeah, I spent two hours today shopping for a birthday present for my godson and I bought one last night. It wasn't until I came across what I bought him. I was like, oh, wait, it's just terrible. Yeah, don't get old.
All right, so let's shift to topic 2. Or the second category was Pension or Inks to kind of break the mold to, you know, to let our. That other podcast leak into this one for a little while. So for pen or ink, and I'll start it out and we'll kind of go back towards. Towards Andy. I had two that I picked. One is the Uniball one, which I talked about fairly recently, but I got the Black Barrel Uniball 1 and I put like, I put the 0.7. I bought it when I was in Baltimore, actually, and I put 0.7 refill in it. And that is the only. Literally the only non, like, non fountain pen that I've got. I love that pen.
They have some limited edition packs, like, oh, I don't remember what.
Yeah, but they have like, sort of like earth tone looking colors or something.
American Diner was one and French Antique is one. And when you look at the colors, you're like, dang, that is really the perfect thing.
That's cool. No, I did not. I'll have to look those up. Oh, yeah. Wait, is it like a light blue and mint green and like a pink or something?
Oh, I don't even remember. I went off that page before I bought them.
Yeah, that's.
That's why it does failed.
Yeah.
All right. And then the other one was an ink that I've been really falling in love with, which is from Robert Oster, which is the Lake of Fire blue. I've been using that a whole bunch and I've mainly been using it in my Moon man or mahjong or whatever. So, yeah, that's me. How about you, Johnny?
This is hard because I acquired a lot of ink this year, but one that I kept returning to was Wild Strawberry from Diamine, just their regular ink line. It's one of those reds that's like red. It's not pink or burgundy. It's super red. But it's also very bright and just behaves really well. It's a tiny bit of sheen sometimes, but I think I spent all of February with it in at Least one pen, which is not like me usually, you know, bounce around a little bit. More than a little bit, but, yeah, definitely get a bottle of it. I think I. Mine's, like, gone. I gave it to everybody I know.
Like, try this ink, Johnny. If you were to measure the amount of ink you have in gallons, how many gallons of ink would you say you had?
They don't hold much, but I'm starting my fourth drawer.
Oh, wow.
But largely that's because of the diamond ink vent calendars. They take up a lot of space, those little bottles.
Yeah.
So cute, though, that the name of that ink just makes me think of that, like, awesome old movie you ever seen Wild Strawberries, the Ingmar Bergman movie?
Oh, man.
Swedish. Yeah. You should share it. It's on HBO Max. But it's like a Criterion movie about this, like, crotchety old retired doctor. Anyways, not gonna get into it, but you should go watch it. It's an awesome movie from 1957. All right, Andy, how about you?
I think my favorite ink of the year just that I've consistently. Really. I mean, I have. I will say I. This isn't new from 2022, but I think the pen that I've been using the most this year is the inkjoy click pen. It's. I'm so embarrassed that it's a paper mate that I use heavily because.
Oh, they're good pens.
Yeah, no, these are good pens. I still don't. I still wish that they, like, had a different form factor. I might eventually try to take a refill and put it in another nicer pen, but I use the green and the sort of turquoise blue inkjoys a lot as my. As my, like, sort of regular pens. So big fan of those. If I were to pick a regular, like, an ink that I just discovered this year and then I just really love it's. I've talked about it, I think, both here and on indelible podcast, available to Patreon subscribers pretty regularly. It's the Iroshizuku Fuyugaki ink, which is. It's persimmon. It's this really kind of orangey red that I just Is so bright and vivid and just sort of like a happy color. So I really like that ink. I usually don't go for warm tones like that. I usually stick with blues and greens and. And things like that. But I. Real big fan of that ink. It's dark enough that it's really visible, but also vivid enough that it's just really bright and stands out. So big fan of that ink. While we're on the topic of pens or ink, especially for 2022, you guys see that post that Draplin made at the end of. I think he made it on New Year's Eve just about. Like it's a big picture of all the field notes that he has used in 2022. And he, in the, in the caption he said for note making in 2022, I mainly use a couple well worn DDC10 hex pencils, Pentel sign markers and this incredible Baron Fig X erasable pen that the kind Annie Welfly gave me a couple years back. Had to get new ink refills. So yeah, Draflin's favorite fancy pen is our Baron Fig pen, which is cool.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, I didn't realize that I sent, I, I think I sent it to him after he was on the show a couple years ago and just to say thank you and yeah, so that's really fun.
That's very cool.
Yeah. Okay, do I start us off on paper notebook or is that Johnny first?
I'm going to butt in and do paper first and say everything that field notes has been doing. All of their seasonal ones this year have been like in my book super great. I really liked the blue and red sort of flood coated craft ones that they did for Wednesdays this year and their collaboration with the USPS is one of my favorite things that exists in stationery. It's so cool. So yeah, even though they suck for fountain pens, keeps me using pencils so
well. Andy, you also had some field notes.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the craft. Plus it's been a minute since they've had something that feels really good for just like new regular stock. And I think everything about it I really like. And they tried to keep the price point under $10 so it's only two notebooks instead of three. They're using like a little bit heavier cover. I really like. I was talking to friend of the show Topher Survik and we were just discussing like how just like how functional this is. And one thing we both really like is that they all the pages have perforations. So I'm constantly just like on notebooks that have like, you know, the back few pages are perforated. Like I'm constantly like tearing those out and leaving a note or break bringing a list along with me or something. And I'm really excited that like all of the field notes, craft plus covers or inside pages have perforations. So big fan of those. So Glad to see that they made it to the. To the regular stock, I guess. I guess that was the intent of giving to subscribers, right? Was that, like, we want to just sort of showcase these things and they give subscribers an extra color that I think isn't part of the regular stock, but yeah. So those craft pluses are really great. Yeah. How about you?
Yeah, well, my. The first thing I put on here were some notebooks from a place called Pencil Revolution.
Oh, that's true. Those are some good notebooks.
They're pretty solid.
They come with a blood in a plot, though. They come with blood a lot.
Oh, I thought you said love, but
they always come with same.
But honestly, like, there's been a couple that I've used a whole lot, and also my kids use them, like, all the time because he's made. Johnny, you've sent some really cool smaller notebooks, and Lila stole the teeny tiny one that you just. She was just like, this is mine now. And so she, like, made, like, a little zip. She used your little zipper pouch that I gave her, and she, like, keeps that and a pencil in there. And he's. And then she came back and she was like, no, I need a. Like, a smaller pencil. I was like, okay. And then I got, like, a black wing stub that was about, like, 3 inches long and gave it to her, and she put it with the tiny notebook, and she pulls those two things out and writes little tiny notes in it.
It's really cute.
I'm happy to make you a replacement. Okay, well, didn't take a lot of paper.
I can't imagine it did.
It's tiny.
But, yeah, seriously, been loving them. And the one I've actually used the most is one of the first ones you sent, which I know, like, some of your. The newer ones you've sent are like a. You've learned a lot. But the one with the Thomas Wolf letters. Oh, wow. That's like, one of the first ones. I think it might be the first one you sent, but keeping that at my desk, so. And then the only other notebook that came to mind that I've just really, like, been loyal to and, like, really fall in love with is the. When I went through that whole saga of trying to find, like, the best pocket hardback notebook because I was just not happy with Moleskine anymore. And I got a couple of those, like, term pocket notebooks with dot grid on stupid sale at Barnes and Noble or something. And they're perfect. I love them. I carry it everywhere. I go inside of the Fanny pack that I'll talk about later. In the next category. So the next category is Stationary Adjacent. And I'll start off and then send it back towards Johnny and Andy. Got a keychron keyboard this year, which I had been curious about since Andy started talking about them. And I finally. Yeah, just finally pulled the trigger on it and have absolutely loved it. So it is. And it's like, I totally understand now. Like, I'm like looking at getting more keyboards. I'm like, why would I need more than one keyboard? Doesn't matter. I do. Yeah, I just do.
Obviously you just need more.
Yeah, I need another one. And then I need to find a place to like. Yeah. Stack, like put them on the wall or something. But I love it. Mine is a. Hang on. Literally had to grab the box because I don't remember which one it was. The C1. Keychron C1. It's like one of the cheaper ones. It was like 60 bucks or something, but still. But I love it. I love it. Love the sound. Those brown switches, which, Andy, you recommended.
They're perfect. They like feel really nice and clicky, but they don't annoy anybody who might be in the same room or on the same floor as you. Yep.
I feel like you're in the computer lab in elementary school.
Yeah.
In the 90s. So I loving that. And I'm also loving my fanny pack, which I think Johnny and I have the same fanny pack.
Jansport, Fifth Avenue.
Yep. Jan's black jansport. Yeah, I love it. Wearing all in on the. Wearing the fanny pack over the shoulder and not having a bunch of crap in my pockets. And like can fit a pocket notebook, you know, my hardback pocket notebook, a few pens. I've got my wallet, my phone, my piece, everything that I need. I'm just kidding.
I don't carry a gun, but it's for your edc.
Yeah, that thing's straps are a little thin for carrying a.45 I'd want.
So. Yeah, I love it. So how about you, Johnny? Stationary adjacent.
My favorite stationary adjacent thing is the fact that the USPS is always putting out cool new stamps. And I don't know if you guys are or how I got on this mailing list, but I get their catalog a couple times a year, which is really well done. And they do a lot of cool, I guess, accessories or add ons for a lot of the big releases. Like mentioned the field notes ones. But for pony cars, they're different muscle cars and you can get like a blown up version of each different stamp. They have like portfolios and pin, like really cool pins. Just, you know, I know people are complaining because it's. I think the rates are going up like 2 cents or something.
Yeah, I think it's going up to 60 cents for a full letter, isn't it?
Yeah, it's okay. I mean, I spend a lot of money at the postal service so like, I suppose I should be more upset about it. But they do so many cool things and our carrier that we have is like the nicest guy. Like I can't say enough things about the USPS and their stamps and services, if not necessarily their rates. But it's very dependable.
So.
Yeah. How about you, Mr. Andy?
Well, this is a. Maybe a dumb thing to say, but I. For the first time in since they came out, I got one of the regular standard size iPhones instead of the big one. And I have just sort of been enjoying like being able to like easily fit my phone in my pocket. I just. There came a point at which is I was just like, you know, like, I have an iPad. I have like, I have so many screens and I don't need this phone to be this big. And it was like, I didn't have any reach problems. My hands are like, you know, big enough to like, you know, tap things on that big phone. But yeah, it's been nice to go back down to like the smaller size phone and I got used to it really quickly. So I guess that's sort of stationary adjacent.
Is that why they stopped making the iPad mini? Didn't they stop making that?
No, they still make that.
Well, they still make that. Okay. But I say they're like merging. They're merging closer and closer to each other.
Yeah, the iPad mini and the iPhone pluses have always like not been that much different size from each other. So yeah, I went down a size in this this time around. And yeah, I'm okay with that. I. Stationary adjacent. Like I've been really loving stickers from this. I don't even know what you call it. Website designer, something called deep space 90s. And it is a kind of a celebration of Star Trek and a celebration of the 90s and a celebration of stickers. And this guy will take like old and by the way, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek. Deep Space Nine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, like just right around now, which is just bananas because I remember watching the first episode when I was. I must have been 10 or almost 10. So it's like, oh God, it's 30 years old. And so this website, they make lots of really great stickers. They have this really good holographic one of Jordi from Star Trek with like the holograph. The holograph is like his visor, like the metal parts of like the thing he wears over his eyes. There's one with data from Star Trek with like the, the like with one of his like positronic brain panels, exposed holograph. There's all sorts of really good stickers. He only does them in pre order, so if you want them you have to kind of order them when they come out. There's a really good one where he mashed up. Not Star Trek 1, but he mashed up. Do you remember the no fe. Oh yeah, yeah. He mashed up the no Fear logo with oh, what's his name from Dune who says like I must not fear fear is the mind killer fears the little death that brings total. So yeah, it's not, you know, not the new one with Timothy Chalamet either. It's the Kyle McLaughlin dune, of course. So he has one, a sticker of. It looks like the Oakland Raiders, I guess the Las Vegas Raiders now except it's. It says Klingons and it's. Instead of the little Raiders guy, it's Christopher Plummer's Klingon character with an eyepatch from the Star Trek 6 movie. My favorite, which I ordered a bunch of is Mulder and Scully shining a flashlight onto the Enterprise, flying over their heads, which is pretty good. I don't know, like, there's just something about like these stickers which I just love because they, they're very Star Trekky but also like have like other little references or tie ins. So they're just really well done. So big fan of those. I ordered a bunch last like a few times a year he does pre orders and then. And you know, you buy them and then he sends them to you pretty quickly. So big fan of those. And then something, I guess. Man, the most stationary adjacent thing that I feel like I have probably used the most this year, even though I didn't get it this year is my Medium Cafe bag by Tom Bin. Just a shoulder bag for getting around town. I use that thing pretty much every day that I go outside. And a big fan of that one. Yeah. So that is. That's it for me for stationary Jason stuff. Should I start us off with miscellaneous?
Yeah, let's do it.
I. For my birthday this year, earlier this year. Got some. Got a coffee pour over set by Fellow Mix. Really hipster, but Also very good quality. Just like coffee accessories. I have a fellow stag like gooseneck kettle. You know you can like choose your temperature by the degree and it heats up really quickly and it's really nice. And so I got a really nice coffee pour over set to go along with that. That matches it. And I've never really done pour overs before this. I've always been either an aeropress guy or a French press guy or a drip coffee guy. And I've really been enjoying the pour overs because like you know, it's not quite as strong. You use both less coffee grounds and also it's not quite as strong as like an aeropress. And I've been I guess appreciating for my stomach lining have a little bit mild to coffee but you get used to it. Yeah.
And that's scar tissue to build up.
Yeah, yeah. Just destroy my toilet every morning, you know it's been fine. No, yeah. I've been really enjoying the pour over this pour over set and so it's. Yeah, I've. I use it pretty much every day and it come. It came with this really nice double walled coffee carafe which keeps warm really well. It's all just really nice to hold. Feels really solid in your hands. So big fan of. Big fan of fellow. Even though it is like extremely hipster. Yeah. What do you think, Johnny? Oh, you stuck up. Yep. Yep.
My first thing that I'm happy about in the end of 2022 is that we're coming up on nine years of doing erasable Bananas.
It's crazy.
We're probably just shy of you guys having the idea.
Yeah, yeah. Tim and I just like talking because I think in January I went on, I was on the pen addict and that's kind of like how it sparked for Tim. Right. It's like what if we had a whole episode, a whole podcast about this? Yeah.
One day. One of these days.
One of these days.
Merchandising. Merchandising.
Erasable. Erasable the toilet paper. Erasable. The flamethrower.
It's the best smelling flamethrower on the market. 35 miles of ash or your money back. So to put something on there that's less suck up y I think the January 6 hearings, their existence and watching them and you know how many people are willing to just tank their careers for them like that just the whole thing makes me very happy that it happened. And also that in Maryland we elected our first black governor who is like so freaking cool. Like President Westmore.
Yep. Yeah, you heard it here.
First Stu called it.
Yeah.
So how about you, Tim? I see you have the same word three times.
Yes. I'm all. I'm an optimist. So I put tomorrow and tomorrow. Yes. No. Yeah. That book was the best book I read all year and I'm almost. I think I'm just going to read it again soon. I really love it.
I.
Every. Maybe once a month I'll go online and just get on Google and see if anybody's made any of these games yet. Like their version, like fan versions of the games that they talk about.
I want to play them so bad.
Yeah, me too. Yeah. So that book was incredible. It was a. Is it Gabrielle or Gabriel?
I think it's Gabrielle.
Gabrielle Zevin or Zevine. And I just got one of her other books for Christmas.
I need to read that one. Which one?
I've got. It's. It's upstairs. The Storied Life of AJ Something or something like that.
Yeah.
I'm excited to read that. I've also really been loving Chili Crisp.
Love Chili Crisp.
This is my kind of so good Chili Crisp. Cooking eggs and Chili Crisp has been my favorite thing to do. I've also been enjoying Bluey.
Oh, that's such a good show.
I love Bluey's the kids.
I've heard a lot of people, kids say that that's a really good show.
It's the greatest kid show of all time. My daughter came to it late and found out about it like three months ago. And now all her every Christmas present she got was like blue related and like she wants to watch it all the time. I'm like, yeah, sure, let's do this. It's my only gripe is that those parents play with their way too much. Like, that's unreasonable.
Thank you for the rest of us for another time.
Yeah, for real. But yeah, that's me. Those are my final three. Bluey, Chili Crisp and a novel about video games.
What's your preferred Chili Crisp brand?
Oh, gosh, I don't remember the name of it. I got it as a gift this year. Mr. I'll send you. I don't remember what it is.
Beijing.
No, it's not that one. Because I actually just saw that.
I.
Of course, because I am who I am. I started researching Chili Crisp recently and that was one that kept popping up. Oh, Mr. Bing. That's what it is. Oh, yeah, it's good. But what they call spicy is not spicy. So I need to. I'm gonna get another one. I want one to, like, light my face on Fire. Yeah. So. But it's good. So good. I think I'm gonna try to make my own, too.
What's Chili Crisp?
It's basically, like. You. Go ahead. Go ahead, Andy. You probably describe.
Oh, it's basically, it's chili oil with spices and kind of, like, crunchy stuff in it. So there's usually, like, dried chili flakes, and sometimes there's, like, sesame seeds and garlic, like, crispy garlic. And it's very. It's spicy, but it, like. It's usually, like, pretty hot. And.
Except apparently, this one spicy, Mr. Bing.
And it's. But you put it on stuff, and so there's, like, fermented black beans in there. Sometimes, like, peppercorns.
Adds a really good texture.
Yeah, texture and spice and also flavor, too. It's. It's funny because it's something that, like, I feel like only in the last, like, five years have, like, white people discovered this. It's like, when it's like white people are like, hey, guys, have you heard of this, like, thing called Tajin Sriracha? Yes, Sriracha. It's the newest kind of, like, thing like that that we're all discovering.
It's salsa.
Yeah. Momofuku. Like, they. They have a chili crunch. Like, a bunch of, like, upscale, like, Chinese food brands that cater to. I mean, to Asian people, but also white people started selling it. And so, yeah, I don't even remember where I first came across it, but I think I got served an ad for it on Instagram, and I was like, I'll buy this. It looks interesting. It's so good. Just. You can put it on. It's like balsamic vinegar. You can put it on ice cream. You can put it on rice, like, whatever. Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm getting hungry.
So this episode is brought to you by Chili Crisp.
I wish.
All righty. Yeah.
Come on.
Send us some Chili Crisp. All right, well, you guys want to button this thing up? Yeah.
Can I make a suggestion?
Sure.
Yeah.
What is your stationary thing that you're looking forward to in 2023 the most? If you can think of some. If. I mean, if you can read the future.
I can't.
Can I go first? Whatever Field notes does next, go for it. Field notes Spring. It's gonna be awesome. Just because. Track record.
You were taking. I was taking a different direction. I was like. I was thinking, like, stationary goals or something.
Oh, no. My prediction for the new ink from Noodlers called orange jumpsuit number 45.
Oh, man.
What?
But it's gonna sheen like a really weird yellow color inside of the orange.
Yeah, it smells like Big Macs.
Gross.
Yeah.
It's so gross.
Oh, you open that. Open that bottle and you're like, okay.
I don't know. I'm looking forward to a another amazing year of zines by Pencil Revolution Press.
I got bad news for you.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
I'm working on one small break.
I was going to try to suggest that maybe one of the new acquisitions, slash publications by Pencil Revolution Press might be from Blogo, which, like. Ooh.
But Ed Kemp of, like, the most famous pencils union and I are supposed to collab early this year on something.
Oh, nice.
That sounds all kinds of scenes.
Yeah.
I am, like, super honored because Ed is so awesome.
That's great. We have to have him on again. He was, like, one of our best guests.
Yeah. He changed my life, man. Seriously.
Yeah. How about you, Tim?
I'm gonna be an optimist and say that one thing I'm looking forward to is Blackwing bouncing back. So that's been four in a row that I was like,
that would be good.
That would be good. So we'll root for it. And then also, it seems like. Oh, sorry. It seems like Musgrave. Was it last year or this past year they came out with the Pencil King. The year before they came out with Tennessee Round. So whatever Musgrave comes up with this year, I'll be excited to see that.
Yeah. Cool.
All right.
So many exciting things.
Well, thank you for listening to episode 191, Erasable Podcast. You can find the show notes at erasable US 191. Join us on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, anywhere you can find us. It's not too hard to find us. Just search Erasable Podcast. If you are interested in supporting the podcast, you can support us on Patreon. There are multiple levels you can support us and there's some free stuff that we or stuff that we. Gifts that we send out each year, as well as doing a bonus podcast, which is called Indelible, where we talk all about pens. And so if you support us at the producer level on Patreon, then you're going to hear your name right now. So these are people who support us at the producer level. Ziya Marie, Melissa Miller, digitaltent Tech Angie, Aaron Bollinger, Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida Umphers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Ed Swift, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Cappellouti, Stephen franciscali, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d' Alosa Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Joe Crace, Michael Hagan, Bill Clow, Jason Dill, Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton, Chris Jones, and John Woods. Thank you so much for your support of the podcast and we will see you next time. Happy New Year.
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