This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
And I was like, I'm going to say a lot of words that sound silly. First the buy is going to swamp ash, which is really good. It's light and it's grown in Louisiana. And then I have this neck has a wide nut. Sorry, wide nut.
Swamp ash. Hello and welcome to episode number 232 of the erasable Podcast. I'm Andy Welfle, dialing in from early morning on the Pacific coast and I'm joined by my friends on the east coast. Thinking about lunch already. Tim Wasem and Johnny Gammer. Hey guys, what are you gonna get
for lunch for a couple hours? I mean, it's only 11:15 here, but I'm. Yeah. Always thinking about lunch.
Yeah, I finish up breakfast and jump into lunch.
We got some leftover carnitas that we made for having some friends over a couple days ago. So I'll be nice.
Yeah.
Cooking up some tacos soon.
Lovely.
Nice.
It's good to see you.
We are entering. I know it's been a while. Yeah, we've been. I feel like we've got like an episode a month in us and we really have to get back to our bi monthly schedule. But yeah, it's a lot going on.
So.
Speaking of which, we're entering a time of the year that is famous for its charm and coziness and it's infamous for being stressful and fairly materialistic.
So.
So we're going to help you get a jump start on your holiday shopping because we love you. But first, let's check out some of the latest releases from Blackwing and Field Notes for the Winter. So before the gift guide. Yeah, let's. I just got. I haven't gotten my field notes yet. I don't know if you guys have. Okay.
I think mine come today.
Just talk about it. I'm sure they're somewhere. But that new Blackwing guys, that's. That's been fun. The Blackwing 21. Yeah. Do you all have them in hand? I don't know. Yeppers. Nice.
I don't.
They're interesting. So I guess first I'll mention, like if you are a Patreon of the Erasable Podcast. Excuse me, a patron at any level. You can find a video of this podcast on Patreon so you can see our lovely faces. And often we, you know, try to hold up what the thing is that we're talking about so you can get a visual for that and if not, anybody can listen to it free on the Internet. So go to Erasable Us for that. So I don't know. Johnny, what do you think of this pencil? Oh yeah, I can get some nice
asmr, so I like it a lot. I think it's really pretty. And the subscriber extra, which I feel like they didn't talk about a lot. Like I saw a picture of it online.
How are you going to be using your. Whatever the heck that is.
I'm on the market for one of those and like I couldn't pick one. You know, they're all the same price, same features, like. Damn. So I assumed it was just like a prop piece when I saw it online.
Pretty solid.
Very happy to get it.
I think a cast metal kind of a thing.
Yeah. It's one of the best subscriber extras they've ever put out.
For sure.
Yeah.
And also like those had to cost a lot of money.
Oh yeah.
Get one of those for every subscriber.
Yeah.
So I appreciate that.
What does it feel like, the pencil, like what is it like to hold? Because I mean I see the four sets. This is the one that's got the four sides. Yeah, it's like kind of like it's. Yeah, it's like a carpenter pencil. It's meant to like not roll off your. Which I mean it's.
Yeah, it's very.
Leaving aside that like the verl would do that anyways. But you know, like.
Yeah, the sides are very soft. It is not. It's not like a big square kind of. If you remember the five sided pencil that they did, I feel like that was very like the sharp. The corners are very sharp. These are.
I couldn't figure out how to hold that one. That's why I was curious about this one.
Like I. Oh yeah, this one does feel weird to hold. I keep wanting to hold it on a corner.
It's. But.
But if you do hold it in a corner, it's like a pretty soft edge. So it doesn't hurt your finger when you do that. So that's something I appreciate. It's. It's interesting because like it has. It already doesn't really roll because it's a black ring. Right. Like it has the kind of like flat eraser and.
Right.
It's a soft enough edge where I feel like this wouldn't prevent it from rolling like a carpenter pencil would. But the other thing I was trying to figure out is you're supposed to be able to see the finger joints that hold that this pencil is made out of. I don't know if I see that really. Maybe it's hidden by the lacquer There were.
There have been a couple companies doing
this for a while.
Like Ticonderoga had one called the Renew. It was like recycled.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And they were dove jointed like that. I thought it was a cost cutting measure, but I have no idea. But this one, it's like they took a regular pencil and shaved some of it off. It's a little thinner, but that also means mine aren't jammed under the ferrules, which is good.
Yeah.
The ferals aren't mushed onto it, but it's bendy a little bit. I don't know if you can see that because of that.
It's bendy.
Lack of corners.
So it's like one of these. I didn't realize. Okay, so like the Renew.
Yeah. So it's like great.
The joints are going across is what you're saying is what they're supposed. Is what it's supposed to be or I didn't know an internal thing or if it was going across yet because that's how. I don't know if you can see it on the. You definitely can't. But like right there, there's like teeth going up and down around the barrel. Like where they joined the pieces.
Yeah, I think that's what they're supposed to do. I don't know. Let me grab another pencil out of the box and see if maybe the pencil that I grabbed.
I just grabbed one. The imprint looks especially good because the sides are fat.
Yeah, yeah. All of the pencils. I'm looking in here, I don't see the finger joints, but I think maybe it's just because like the. That kind of like brown lacquer is pretty dark. This lacquer reminds me of. Oh, gosh. Do you remember the round blackwing from volume one? Yeah, yeah.
The Guy Clark one.
The Guy Clark pencil.
Sausage lining. That's.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay. I'm sorry. That is so bizarre that you brought that up because I like yesterday, two days ago, I was at my in laws house and he's got a little record collection because we have a family member who's been like sharing records. And I was flipping through and there's a Guy Clark record in there. I was like, yeah. And he was like, you can have it. I was like, yay. And I, you know, brought it home and then I went to the bookstore yesterday or like used bookstore and they had the Guy Clark biography and I bought the Guy Clark biography like that I've like listened to. But I was like, I want to have a copy of that. So it's just like I've had Guy Clark come up three days in a row in my life.
What do they call that? A Dunning Kruger effect? Is that what that is?
It's good to know. What is the. But he's just haunting me right now.
Yeah. Oh, great. He seems like somebody who would just, like, be. Get a lot of thrill out of haunting.
It sure does. Yeah.
Yeah.
Started before he died.
Yeah. Sorry.
It's the baitoff. The Bader Meinhof phenomenon, where things kind of keep, like, come up, and it feels like it's just, like, coincidental really coming up, but it's really like your brain is more attuned to it after something.
So it's like when you buy, like, a silver car and suddenly, like, all. Like a silver Subaru and all you see is silver Subarus everywhere.
You're like, yeah, no, that's not a thing. There just are a lot of silver supers.
Yeah. Yeah.
You're just like, oh, I'm actually just paying attention to them now.
Yeah, I used to come out of the store and, like, look in the park and that. And they saw, like, 10 silver Foresters. I'm like, a crap.
Look at that.
So, yeah, this pencil I appreciate they put the extra fir or the. Sorry. Just regular firm lead in there. You know, in my opinion, the best core. And. Yeah, I like it a lot. I. I don't know. Yeah, it doesn't sit super comfortably on my hand. Like, I definitely want six sides, but it's a fun. It's a fun gimmick. Right.
I think they're for crafting, not for extended periods of writing. Yeah, that's what I come.
If you're doing it for. If you're using them for, like, woodworking, to, like, draw lines. That is 100 a lifetime supply.
I mean, from draw a lot of
lines for 99 of people. It's like, if you're just like, putting stuff like mark and wood, like, this is gonna last you the rest of your life.
Unless you're, like, a property brother.
Well, right.
Yeah. Probably you're not using one of these if you're like a professional woodworker. I guess. I don't know what this is for. Like, we should ask. We should get Jason Patterson on the show to explain to us what to do with this.
Oh, that's for just squaring up joints or like, anytime you need to make a good right angle, something.
Okay, I see.
So, like, if I were using it, I'd hang the sort of lip off the end of my desk. And then I could have a perfect right angle when I put another ruler on it.
Okay, I see. That makes sense. I have. I've never really worked wood. Yeah.
You might find useful right at home, like putting up bookshelves and stuff.
Oh, that's true. Keep it level. That's good. That's a good point. What do you guys think about the new field notes that nobody has in hand? The 1943 edition?
I was struck by the primary colors because I like that a lot. And it, you know, brings to mind their county fair edition that was in print for like more than 10 years.
Yeah.
I wondered when they were out if the, you know, the primary colors together weren't some of the appeal. You look at them, you're like, oh, damn, that looks so good together.
Yeah.
It's like a pencil. It's. It takes you back to being seven. Like this fits like it.
Yeah. So I'll describe it. It is. It's the 1943 edition and it is inspired. So it's Inspired by. In 1943, the US government and like publishers made special armed service edition books, like novels to send to the troops. And they basically, you could like, they came kind of serialized, so they were like thinner and you could like fit them into a pocket. And so the idea is like, when you're just like hanging out on the battlefield, like nothing's happening. You can just kind of like whip that out and read a book. So they're essentially. They're just a field notes book that like the. The fold is not on the side. It's at the top so you can fold it up. Although there is one of them. Oh, no. On one side it's like portrait oriented. And on one side it's. It's like landscape oriented.
Yeah.
So I think. But they definitely, like, it's the like 5x5x3.5 memo book size. They're just like. The staples are in the short side, if that makes sense.
So these look awesome.
Yeah, they look awesome. They'd be really good for just like, just like a flip up list. Right. Like kind of like they're. They're like front page or. I can't remember what the permanent edition of the front page reporter's notepads are, but this is like just a much lower profile version of that.
I love the idea of the Portland style.
Yeah.
Or of the landscape. I love the idea of using it. Landscape because it's graph. It's like having a little bit of a wider space but still being able to fit in your pocket. That's really cool to me. And the whole like book thing is awesome. And that's. I used to talk to my students about this. That, you know, that's why the Great Gatsby came back as like an American classic. Because that book came out and it flopped. And so. But it was one of the books that they chose to do for the armed services editions. And so a bunch of soldiers, like reading Great Gatsby came back and were just like affected by it or realized how great of a book it was. And then that like sparked the resurgence of interest in it, which was, I think after he died. Yeah, you know, I think I forget when he died exactly. But he. Yeah, it was definitely before World War II. So we always used to talk about that in class. That. That was that whole idea. The Armed service edition is why the Great Gatsby, why we even pay attention to it now, because it would have been lost to history probably.
Yeah, interesting.
So the Germans made a field edition of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for World War I soldiers to carry in their leg pocket. Just some light Nietzsche in the other.
And there's that. What was the Steinbeck book? There was a Steinbeck novel that he wrote for the military that they like dropped. The Moon is Down. I think it's called the Moon is Down. It was like this short novel that he wrote as like a form of propaganda that they actually like dropped into enemy territory or something or into some of these countries that were being invaded. Because.
Yeah, he actually wrote another one called Bombs Away, the story of a bomber team as well.
Steinbeck did.
Yeah. Bombs Away. Oh, that's. Bombs Away was a non fiction training manual. So like they just got John Steinbeck to write their training materials.
It ends with somebody like. Yeah, like. Yeah, breastfeeding like an adult or whatever. The end of Grapes of Wrath. It's like in One in Doubt, find the comfort of. Yeah, that's super interesting. I didn't know about that one.
The subscriber extra. I man, people, they're killing it with the subscriber extras right now. Like they apparently that what's coming along with the memo books is they made a. They reprinted Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon in that style, kind of in that format, which is really cool. Can't wait to see that. I've actually never read the Maltese Falcon. I've watched the movie many times. But yeah, might be interesting in high school.
But I want. I. Yeah, this is super tempting. I'd love to have a copy. Yeah, have that little copy they sell it separately.
Oh, are they?
Okay, cool. Because I wasn't really, like, super interested in subscribing or I just haven't been for years. But, like, let's. If they're. I hope they are. That'd be awesome.
Yeah, See, I'm pretty sure they were. I'm not crazy.
Yeah, it looks like it. I'm looking at the website right now. Yeah, you can just buy the book kind of separately.
Share this link with you guys. We can put it in the show notes, but this is the armed forces edition of Great Gatsby for sale on Etsy for $2,200.
Oh, wow.
But it looks just like it. It's like, definitely, but there you go. There's the link, man.
I was gonna buy two.
Same style, sideways.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's interesting. It has the. The book on the book cover. Yeah, yeah.
It's like, hey, this is a book. Yes. Let me know. Like, this is a book.
I like how it's like, this is not a digest. This is the actual book. Yeah. So cool. Cool. Releases this winter. Yeah, yeah, it's. They're both, like, not gimmicky. Like, I mean, the. I guess the square barrels may be a little gimmicky, but like, it's. It has a specific theme and it's like it's not trying to do some sort of a weird rap on the barrel. Like, it's more conceptual, which I appreciate. And also the field notes is just like a simple form factor that I'm surprised they've never tried before. So that's cool too. Yeah.
Yeah.
Any other minor releases or anything that's not part of the gift guide we want to talk about?
There was one limited edition pen that came out. Is that fair game?
Yeah.
Talk about fountain pen day.
Oh, yeah.
Narwhal got this gorgeous green aluminum nautilus where the ink window is the logo of fountain pen day.
Yeah.
Like what? And they did sell out, but now I see that gold spot has them. So I guess came up with some more. Yeah, they've been making more of our limited editions lately.
I wonder if they've somehow changed or improved their, like. Oh, what's the word? Like, like manufacturing process so they can do, like, more smaller runs. Because you're right. Like, I feel like I've been noticing more limited edition stuff. Like the vampire one.
That one was cool.
Really cool.
I guess there's not a place to talk about it later. It opens and the box has a coffin and there's a little ribbon and you pull it and the pen rises up like a Nosferatu.
So awesome. They have a face on the cap that'd be.
Yeah. One of my favorite sort of Mel Brooks scenes is have you ever seen Dracula dead and loving it. Like Leslie Nielsen, he did a vampire movie and Leslie Nielsen played the. Played Dracula and they did a. Of course it was a very typical Mel Brooks gag where he's like rising out of his coffin like this and then he just goes bump. He hits his head on like a beam ceiling and he falls back down, just shifts. Kiss. While we're talking about little, you know, limited edition things that came out, I've decided this year to do a, like a hobonichi. To do a, like a week's edition which is a little like small kind of checkbook sized weekly thing. So I found a very cool looking cover. This is.
Oh awesome.
It's a Tamagotchi cover. I think I was talking about this with.
Man, that brings back memories with the little duck face thing. Like.
Oh yeah, just a little. And apparently one of the moments, one of these guys. I can't remember which one it is. I think it's this one is like the. A special hobonichi. Oh, it's not that duck face. I don't know. I have to look it up. One of the little faces on here was a special Tamagotchi they made just for this. But yeah, I'm gonna try it this year. It came with a little like they call it a pencil board. It's basically you put this behind your page if you're writing like pencil on it so you don't tear through.
That's awesome.
It's like kind of plasticky. It's very cute. And then it also came with, gosh, can I find it? Just fun little. Oh, here they are. Tiny little Tamagotchi style stickers that you can put in your, your notebook. So I love that. So fun. We'll see. We'll see if I stick with this.
Yep, there's a Tamagotchi game for Nintendo I just saw yesterday when I was looking for something else if you want a holiday treat.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what else they have out on Nintendo Switch? I don't know if we talked about this. Backyard baseball. Do you guys ever play backyard baseball? I think a little closer to like the, like when it came out, it was like this cartoon kids baseball game that you used to play on the computer. It was just like everybody was obsessed with, with. And I just, I saw one of my friends, kids, his little three year old who had his hat on backwards, and it was, like, really low on his head, and he was just kind of running around. I was like, Pablo Sanchez, one of the best players in backyard baseball. And I looked it up, and it's on Nintendo Switch now. It's like, I definitely am getting that.
I sort of remember this. I never played it. I was.
They had all the sports, but baseball was the best one. Interesting. Like, every friend's house I went to, like, it was like our iPad at the time. You get together on your iPad with your iPad games. Like, we were just like, backyard baseball. Go to the computer. Let's play.
I think you could. I think you can play one of those characters on Smash Brothers.
Oh, yeah, I bet you can. Yeah, that would make sense.
Yeah, that'd be fun.
Cool.
Should we jump into our gift guide?
Sure. Yeah.
So I was really inspired. Like, every year there's an author based out of San Francisco named Robin Sloan, and he puts together in his email newsletter, he puts together a gift guide. And they're always really fun. He often just kind of like, separates them by category, and it always seems really thoughtful. I was like, you know, I've. I know we've done this before, but I don't remember if we've done it last year. Like, you know, we can put together just a fun gift guide. And I think we. We have some, like, pencils in here, but I think we were specifically looking for things that are sort of pencil adjacent, like, other stuff besides pencils that we know that our people will like. So that's kind of what we're doing. Do we want to just kind of go back and forth? Sure. Just, like, do one and move on the next one. Okay. Tim, do you want to start us off?
Yeah, yeah.
And by the way, links for all these will be. You can find in show notes. If you go to erasable US232.
Yeah, let's see if I have. Okay. I got my keys in my pocket. Perfect. So I got this. I was at Kohl's or something. I was getting like a. Getting some clothes or. And I. They. Kohl's will have, like, an area in the front that's just full of little things. It's like the nightmare of walking by with your kids because they're just gonna be like, it's around Christmas. Like, I always put this up, and it's like all these little versions of games or whatever. And I was like, oh, God, they got that thing out again. Which my kids weren't with me. But then I saw something I was like, ooh. And it was this little. I don't know if we've talked about this before, the Kickerland ever. It's.
What do they call it?
The Everlasting Pencil. But it's a. On a keychain and it's super short and has a flathead screwdriver on the other side. But it's just this tiny little thing. And surprisingly, like, even with this, like, if I am in a pinch, like, just like draping my keys over my hand and can use this to like, jot down a note in a notebook. And it works great. And I think this thing is, like a really fun stocking stuffer. It is slightly awkward. You have to get used to it, like, the size of it. But it's supposed to be unobtrusive. Like, it's not supposed to, like, get in the way of other things on your keys. It just disappears. I forget it's there sometimes. And then when I need it, which is maybe once a week, I'm just like, oh, cool.
Is it really? Because the website says it's graphite. But often a lot of those pencils have, like some sort of a metal tip that just kind of oxidizes and rubs off.
Yeah, I think so. It doesn't. I don't have the packaging now, but, like, it does not. Like, if I just sit here and rub the end of it, it's not going to come off on my hands.
Yeah.
But I do notice that the tip has, like, shortened slightly, like, just from using it 10 times. But it's still sharp enough to use for a long time, so I don't know how far it'll go. I mean, you're not using it to write a whole page. It's more like I need to add something to my to do list.
Yeah.
But yeah, because that's what I thought it was like, the oxidizing thing. But it did. It said something on the packaging about, like, wearing down over time. But also. And I don't. I haven't looked into this. You can replace. Like, you can unscrew the tip and put a new one in. Like, I'm assuming they sell them somewhere. But it's really, like, nice, like, metal threaded so it doesn't come loose. Because when I first saw it, I was like, well, that's weird because it's gonna probably end up in my pocket and I'll lose it forever. But it's never come unscrewed on its own.
Nice.
That's the first one. Yeah. Six bucks. Cheap, good stocking stuffer.
Yeah. Jenny, how about you?
Yeah, so for the first one, I'm going to go with anything from Musgrave, but especially they have new highlighting pencils, non highlighter highlighting. And they come in four colors, three of each in a box for like eight bucks. And they're round black pencils. And my two youngest ones sell them and they want them already. So I guess I have to get a set while I'm at it.
I don't know if I've ever used a highlighting pencil.
It's fun because you know when you're using highlighter, like, smears your ink and you're like, oh, man, it just went through the other side of the book. Because books are made of such crap paper. Yeah, they're. You know, I think I've seen them called Bible highlighters because they're good for really thin paper.
I like that I ended up with one at some point, but I don't know where I got it.
Yeah, I've had, like, big fat ones.
That was mine.
I like the very kind of like,'90s neon names for the colors. There's the orange one is Supernova, the pink one is Punch, the yellow one is Hyper, and then the blue one or the green one is Nitro. It's like, yeah, I feel like I'm watching the X Games or something.
I also sort of feel like all those. That's one of the situations where, like, every one of those names should be on a different color.
Yeah.
At least is how my brain heard it. I was like, no, that should be that one. No, Hyper should be Yellow. No, that one should Nitro.
Nitro.
Why is that green? It's like that thing about Star wars where they say, like, if you think about it, like, every Star wars movie should have a title from a different Star wars movie. Yeah, I've never seen those videos. No, it's like the Rise of Skywalker should have been like Return of the Jedi or whatever. It's like there's like, yeah, you can do all of them and say, like, every single title would be better fit on a different movie.
George Lucas, like, had them all on a piece of paper and he actually tripped and dropped.
Dropped a bunch of note cards.
He's like, oh, my first one is something I just got kind of on a whim not too long ago, I think I was watching our friend Eric Langscale on his Instagram. He was using one. He really liked it. So I was looking at them and it is the. The Tom Studio Ren Pen. Are you guys familiar with this? It is A really nice. I've been familiar with this concept for a while and I feel like Tom Studio. I'm sure other people do this, but they just do it especially well. It's a, it's a felt tip pen and like the ren is like a little pocket version. I have this in my hand. It's like this is the size of like a fountain pen cap. And you, you take this out and you post the pen and it has a little, just a really nice fine tip on it. And the cool thing about this is that both the tip and the sort of like cotton insert are replaceable, consumable. And you can just like take your favorite bottle of fountain pen ink and dip this, this cartridge in it and it just immediately just goes. Just soaks it up using capillary action. It was so satisfying to watch. And so you just have a felt tip pen with your favorite ink in it.
I feel like you showed us that like. Or we got like a peek at it when you just got it or something. Or did you just get. Recently. But like, if I didn't realize that part of it. If you did talk or I had seen it somewhere, but I didn't realize about the fountain pen ink aspect where you. Yeah, I thought you just bought refills. That's really cool.
Yeah, it's really cool. And it comes with like, gosh, like six of the little cotton reservoirs. But then. Oh, cool. Also you can buy them for like $3 from their website for like another pack. But that's really nice. And then the tip, the less felt pen tip, you can replace those. But also they. It switches. If you put a new ink color in there, it switches to that very quickly. So I think it doesn't retain much of much ink itself. So yeah, it's. It's not like, you know, it's not like writing with a fountain pen. Right? Like, it doesn't like it. It's a thicker line. Like it's a little bit mushy. But that's a, that's a felt tip pen. So. Yeah, just a big fan of this. And I don't know, they had. They were offering free engraving, so I was like, why not? So I. It's hard to see here, but I just put. From the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I just put dope hands. So this is really cool. It's a really beautiful orange color. But you can do website.
Yeah, on the website, doing the thing where you can click on the bodies and it slides them in the frame and you can like choose the top and the bottom.
Yeah, Yeah, I was playing with that a lot, but then I was like, I think I want this orange one. So. Yeah, it's a good one.
I like this. This is a. I just made one that's. The barrel part is a Midnight Navy. And then the bottom part is called. Well, I don't see a name for it, but it's sort of like a marbled black and blue and white. Looks really cool. That looks really. Yeah, that's fun.
Yeah, they're great. And they're like 45ish dollars. Johnny, what do you have next? Or. Excuse me, Tim, what do you have next?
I was gonna. We've talked about these before and I know, Andy, you got some at some point, like Star Trek ones, but the theory 11 playing cards. This. We're about to do a gift exchange with my family. And it's like they have so many cool ones that if you want, like, one more thing to throw in with a gift, you can sort of always tie it in somehow or you can find a cool design that matches something. My sister's a graphic designer and I. And also a big Beatles fan. So I like. I had gotten her the new book from Paul McCartney that's like his photographs that he took on, like the 1964 tour that had never been released. So it's like from his perspective, the whole book, it's really neat. I was like, I want to get something else. And I got her a Beatles pack of Theory 11 cards. Like they do the Sergeant Pepper and you can choose which Beatles, like, outfit is the theme of the pack. So I got like a George Harrison pack of these Theory 11 cards, which are super high quality and feel really good. And so, yeah, a good pack of playing cards. I felt like adjacent and a fun choice. I've got probably five or six of those sets that I use all the time.
They have just at this point, I assume they have hundreds of these designs. They have so many. Yeah, yeah.
There's like new Stranger Things ones. There's always Star wars ones.
And that's fun.
Yeah, there's a lot on the game. Yeah, they have too. They've stepped it up and they. Yeah, that's true. Like at Barnes and Noble, they have. Usually we'll have like a display of a bunch of theory 11 and then the new bicycle, like, ooh, not sports cards. Yeah, they're a little cheaper.
These wicked theme ones are just. I love that green.
Yeah.
Bicycle ones for my mom. They weren't that interesting when I got them.
Yeah, nice.
Yeah. I'm sorry, man. I would say my favorite. I've got a Mandalorian set that's like really cool and also a Rolling Stones one that's pretty awesome.
Is Baby Yoda like the joker, like the wild card or anything?
I think he's an ace. Yeah, yeah, awesome.
I would suggest some kind of quality clipboard because I can't be the only person in the world because they offer the service. But I print out crosswords every day and like I'll be laying in bed or sitting on the couch and having a clipboard makes it much easier. And I have an A4 clipboard so it's a little more narrow and a little longer and it's perfect for regular paper. Like there's not so much overhang and you know, just a little extra inch. But yeah, perfect. And it's cool.
What brand is it?
Or I just got one at like on the Internet a couple years ago.
It's like the particle board back and like the big plastic. Oh, nice. Okay.
The particle board ones always sort of fall apart. I'll spill coffee on them once and they'll swell up.
Yeah.
So I mean, I'd rather use that than plastic, but I buy fewer of them now.
Yeah, I. Yeah, I have a. God, what is it? Like a Home Depot clipboard that just lasts forever and has moved like so many times with me. Like it's really nice.
Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things. It's kind of mundane, but most people probably don't have one sitting around. Yeah, they could just use like who
doesn't have a clipboard? But I guess you're make. That makes sense.
Yeah.
I've been at my parents house. Like you guys have a clipboard? Like why would I have a clipboard? Why wouldn't you have a clipboard?
Mine is right here. I have. It's like one of those plastic ones and.
Oh, nice.
Right now I just have a bunch of random files in it. But a long time ago I put one of my like Apple stickers on it. So I was like, it's an Apple clipboard. Yeah,
you can only put what Apple says clip to it.
Yeah, exactly. The clip is extra.
Terrible.
The clip costs like $40 extra. It's like, oh, you wanted a clip on your clipboard.
Ah, yeah. There's definitely enough charge for that.
Yeah. My next, my next gift is one that just has brought me a lot of joy over the last several months. So, you know, I was talking about. I'm getting kind of getting into photography and it's One of those things, like, I don't know if I like photography or if I just like cameras because those are two different things I like, I think I like taking pictures with it too. But this was kind of the thing that started me off. I wanted to play with some film. And so Kodak makes these little there. It's basically a disposable camera except it's reusable. And so it's a, it's like just a little guy like this. You can't change the shutter speed, you can't really focus. It's like a limited range focus it. But it takes film, which is cool. You can open it back, you can open it up back here. I just definitely had a sense memory of like loading film into here that I haven't had for a while. And it is a half frame camera which means that you know, as the space of a regular like frame of photo on the film, it fits two kind of like portrait shots in there. So you can, in a roll of 36, like 36 roll film, you can fit 72 pictures on it. Which is pretty, pretty good because developing film is expensive so might as well get as much as you can out of it. So I think the trade off is that, you know, it's only half of the size of that film. So it's. The resolution is like only half there. But it's. If you're just taking pictures to you know, scan and put on social media or just hang out an album, it's pretty nice. So. And it of course has a flash. If you want that like 1990s like house party vibe of just like flash photos, you can get that in there. So they come in really good, cool colors. It's like 50 bucks, I think $60 on the website right now. But they go on sale a lot. And yeah, then you have to buy film and then you have to buy processing which has gotten way more expensive but still really enjoying that there. Also I just noticed Kodak is releasing, I don't have this in the list but they're releasing a new similar camera that has like some zone focus. You can focus close up or focus out. I'm trying to remember what the name of that camera is, but it's a full frame camera but it's still fairly cheap. So if you want to get that kind of vibe of like just like a 90s disposable camera. I don't know if you ever had your parents like hand you one of those and be like, hey, go take pictures. It's like the Most fun thing to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so funny how it's developed from the Instax kind of thing where they're like, oh, people today can handle that. Maybe they'll still think that's cool. And then we're like, yeah, we think that's cool. And now it's like, moving into, like. Or just cameras. Like, it's just like, slowly. Eventually we're gonna get those, like, things where you have to put the sheet over your head and silver plate fin types or whatever. Yeah. Use the bulb. Look at the birdie. Yeah.
For 10 minutes.
I can't remember if I showed you this last time. Did I show you the, like, film camera that I bought in New York?
That looks pleasantly heavy.
Yeah, it's very heavy. This is. This camera is my age. It's a Nikon fg. And so it's a film camera. Like, everything's pretty manual. Like, I've just been, like, futzing around with this a little bit. It's really fun. It's. Yeah, it's heavy and it just like. It has the most satisfying shutter click. Like. Like you. You hit the button. It's just like, thunk. It's so good. That's something. I.
Now we need to hear it.
Oh, yeah, let's.
No pressure.
See if I can do this. Okay. Get this up to the microphone. Okay. Ready? Did you hear that?
Okay.
I wonder if zoom is filtering out like background noises. But you can feel it. You can hear it. Yeah. When we're in person. I'll bring it. You can hear that. Cool. Tim, you're up.
I wanted to. Just a quick one is to throw out the suggestion of Roland's book, the Notebook, A History of Thinking on Paper. I think I've found. And I've recommended that book to a couple people is that. I think it's perfect for stationary adjacent or people who, like, enjoy this kind of stuff. But I think, like, most people will find this book fascinating.
Oh, yeah.
Like, if you're just like, how it.
If you like accounting, if you.
And if you're. If you got accountants in your life, if you got songwriters, if you got. But just like, to understand kind of what got us to where we are now, like.
Yeah.
Those kind of books, I think, are fascinating to people a lot of times. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Roland Allen's the Notebook, History of Thinking on Paper, which we need to have him back on again. That was such a fun conversation, talking to him.
If you're. If you're new to Us, we had him on as a guest. Gosh, when was that? Episode 217 so back about a year ago. October 2024. It's been a year. Wow. Yeah, the episode posh blonde, English protagonist is very English and charming. So yeah, that's a great book, Johnny.
So this is not a plug for Gold Spot Pens, the online retailer. I don't even particularly like them, but their Black Friday thing is 20 off all narwhal pens. So that includes the Dracula pen, the fountain pen, day pen. They still have some of the black titanium Nautilus, which is like really cool pen in person. Every single thing on it is black except for the clear ink window. But yeah, I mean they're like for cost to quality ratio, very good pens. And they just put out some. They've done. Am I saying this right? Urushi there. You'll have a pen that's like hand lacquered.
Oh, I think so, yeah. Yeah.
So they've had a couple like really expensive ones that were like, holy crap. They made like five of those, but they just put out five colors of the Nautilus and they're 500 bucks a piece, which apparently is very cheap for Arushi. And right now they're 400 bucks.
Oh, wow.
Not even tempted. But if you want.
Yeah, there's some really light blue. Yeah, they. I think that it's such a thin lacquer that it requires like hundreds of different coats of this. And so it's fairly labor intensive.
That's crazy.
Somewhere. And I can't even remember where I got it. I have an Arushi wooden pencil and I have not dared sharpen it, but it has that sort of. It's the red with the sort of like black kind of like pattern on it. And it's. Yeah, it's. I have to dig it up. It's around here somewhere. But it's just so pretty to look at and to feel. And I'm just like, I too afraid to sharpen this.
I wonder like if all those layers of lacquer would wreck your pencil sharpener.
Oh, yeah.
I mean it wouldn't be worth it. Like my sharpener died and my pencil trying to sharpen this very sharp from
across the country, that'd just be the saddest thing ever. You're like, put it into an electric sharpener and it just eats the whole pencil. And then your sharpener does like, it gets caught in the gears and just like sucks it out of your hand.
So this one, this next one, it is a little piece of Electronics. But it is, it is interesting because it feels more analog, which is weird. So I have an Apple watch that I will often wear, like to track steps and bicycling and just you know, because it's handy, it does things, but it's really bulky and sometimes you just want like something that's a little less intense. And I don't know. Does anybody remember pebble watches from like 15 years ago? It was the first ever smartwatch basically. And so it had a little E ink kind of E paper display in there. It's black and white and it had a, you could do things like you could put your, you could design your own watch face and upload it to that or you could pick from like an app store of what watch faces and the, there's also little apps on there. So it was just had a really sort of like cult following like 15, 15, 20 years ago and seemed pretty ahead of its time. And so Fitbit, cause it had a little heart rate sensor in it. Fitbit acquired them and then Google acquired Fitbit and just killed off the Pebble Watch. And so you couldn't get it for a long time. People still had their Pebbles and they were just like, oh, it's great. We're gonna wear this until it just completely wears out. So Google recently open sourced the pebble operating system and then let the trademark lapse for the pebble name. And so the original inventor of the pebble decided like, let's just make more. So I really wanted one. I couldn't really afford them the first time they were out, but I bought them or I bought one. It's a, my Pebble Watch, it has just a very like plain black and white, high contrast face and it's like fairly thin. It's like compared to an Apple Watch, it's very lightweight. I put like a, just an aftermarket like Amazon watch band on it. But it uses just regular watch bands, unlike Apple Apple watches which use special Apple watch bands. So I've been really enjoying it. It has like the right amount of notifications for me. Like, you know, an Apple Watch, you're constantly like, it's just like hey, hey. It's just like constantly just tapping you and you can just sort of more easily control this. So there's not a lot of deep integrations. Like I can't like maybe I can actually, I can't compose like text messages from here. I can't do things like, like look at my photos on my watch, things like that. But I can be like, okay, when I get A text or get a notification from this app. Like let that come through. So it's. It's really nice. It was. It's maybe 150, maybe less than that and comes in any color you want as long as what you want is black and white. Black or white. Yeah. So I'm just enjoying.
Seems like they do they release them like in batches or they produce them in like batches or something where it's like every.
Yeah.
Sell out. You have to wait for like the next round to come back or something.
Yeah, it's kind of like Kickstarter in that. You know the maker, Eric Josie, he like goes to like the factory and like kind of supervises this. And yeah, it sounds like they're getting them in batches, but this just came. Started shipping like this summer, like late in the summer. So it's fairly new. They're also doing one. I don't know when it comes out, but I guess it says December 25th. They're going to do a color version. So it has that same like it's a 64 color screen. I think that it has. Yeah, that has a heart rate monitor on it. The. The pebble that I got doesn't have heart rate. It has like a compass and a barometer. But yeah, it's. It's very similar to the formerly Pebble Core Time two. My favorite is. Yeah, like they. They definitely leaning into this being like an old technology. They're like. It's like the 2016 era Pebble Time 2, but better.
Yeah. Just.
I don't know. It's fun. So I've been wearing a watch so it's a lot less intrusive than an Apple watch.
That sounds nice.
Yeah. Tim, what's next?
I had to put this on my. I guess my final thing I'll mention is the Moleskine Blackwing graphite lovers set. Like, I mean that is just. That just makes a excellent gift. It's a little like. I mean it's a little on the expensive side, but it comes with a lot of stuff. I mean it's just like package where you get the. Because I was just going to put the sharpener which I mean would be make an excellent gift as well because like as somebody. If you are getting a gift for someone there. Single hole sharpener that they've had the metal one that we've talked about all the time. I have two.
I'm.
I love having two of them. I would have three of them just to have them in like one of my bag one at home. Because they're not cheap, but they. I mean, they're such good quality. So it comes with one of those. Comes with two dozen pencils, comes with replacement erasers. It just. It's like a starter pack for getting into this stuff. It's interesting that it's like a Moleskin X because it's all black. Because it doesn't come with a. Yeah, it doesn't come with a Moleskin. It came with a notebook. It'd be even better. But yeah, I mean, you pair it with the notebook that you can buy somewhere else from a. Whether it mean Moleskine or get one from Johnny, you know, and pair it with something like this. Just to kind of give somebody a starter kit with everything they need to just have good pencils with them all the time. I just thought that was really cool.
I wonder if they're co branding with Moleskine for it so they can get into different stores.
Maybe because they have it at Barnes and Noble. When I was at Barnes and Noble and they have this kit and all the Barnes and Nobles that I've been. I guess I've. Weirdly, I've been to like three in the last month with traveling. We'll go to like a soccer tournament and it's like we need some time to kill for an hour. It's like, hey, there's Barnes Noble and it's right there. So they have black. And it's also funny because they've. Every time I've gone and seen it, they've had this gift thing with the Moleskine. The Ex Moleskine pencil is one of the options in there. I think it comes with that. Does it come with that? And the mmx, I can't remember. It comes with two different versions, but it's always right next to the Blackwing notebooks, which I just thought is funny. Blackwing notebooks collaboration with a notebook company, but not the notebook. You know, I still get like unreasonably angry every time I see the little black wing notebook that has the cut off, the sawed off shotgun pencil, like the half black wing. I still just get unreasonably like, even though it's like a free add on. I'm just like. That just looks so. That just makes me so mad. But anyways, that's. I still bought one.
Yeah.
Because I needed the notebook. I was like, damn it. And then I gave the little pencil to my daughter who was just like, perfect.
Black wing. You've you win this time. Jenny, how about you?
I'm gonna say one or more Books from every man's library. Pocket Poet series. Oh, actually, I can do this without messing everything up, but if you look
behind fully endorse this, at least two of those. I'm obsessed with those.
They have a Christmas one that's like pretty good. It's mostly lyrics to Christmas carols, but they have a really good one called the Four Seasons that has non stupid poems for each season. Like they put the Seven Sorrows with Fall by Ted Hughes, which I thought was like a nice deep cut. And like every year they put out a couple more. They have a good one about books and libraries. There's a, you know, one about trees, one about gardens, one about insects like
fatherhood and like motherhood. And then like there's. I love the Zen one. Like Zen poems. That's one of my favorites. I, I have had that in my backpack for a long time. I've gotten into the habit of every used bookstore or bookstore I go into, that's like the first thing I look for is just to see if they have any of those. And surprising. You'll go into a bookstore and be like, oh, Shakespeare Pocket edition. It's on, it's got it, you know, and then so I've gotten probably three or four like that. They're. Those are so great. They're so well made.
The single author ones are usually really good. The Whitman one, I hardly ever pick up a bigger wit.
Oh yeah, I have that one too. That's a good one.
But yeah, they're. I mean, you can get them anywhere. But some of the older ones, you
might have to order online. Music, they're in print. It's like poems about music. That one's, I like that one a lot.
Yeah.
Every year Santa brings my kids each one in their stocking. So like Santa forgets which ones he already got.
Santa's getting old.
It's like, it's a lot of shelves to look over.
Yeah. Wow, there's like Uyghur poems in here. That's cool.
And there's one that came out a year or two ago about spells and magic that my sister in law is in, which was, which was a nice surprise. I'm like, holy crap, there's Kiki.
Yeah, that's cool.
That's awesome.
Yeah. I put this on here. This is something I got my mother for Christmas last year and she just really liked it. And I was like, yeah, this, I think this would be good. Just like, if you're like me, you have a lot of junk. Or if you're like my mother you have a lot of junk and you gotta get things to organize those things. Excuse me. So I love all of my little organizers from Tom Bin. Tom Bin, the bag maker based in Seattle. And they have like a. This really great little travel tray which is sort of like a little nylon structured cup that you can put like if you're traveling. I do this when I go to a hotel. I make sure I have my like keys and my like chapstick and like a pencil and a notebook and all this stuff I put in my pockets, I put in this when I'm in the hotel. So I just know where it is. And I travel. I use my little travel phone charger. I'll store it in there. And then basically you can just zip it up or use the drawstring and just draw it up and then just like throw it in your suitcase. So that's really nice. They have a something called a grab bag which is this little. Just a really handy. I'm holding up a version here. Just a really handy little bag. I keep camera stuff in here. You can get them in mystery colors. So they basically use scraps of the nylon that they use for their bigger bags to just kind of make these. So you can get some really kind of funky colorways there, which is cool. They also have something. It's called a ghost whale organizer. And I don't know why it's called that, but it's just a tiny little. Yeah, ghost whale tiny little business card size pouch with a little zipper that kind of goes across it. And I usually keep stickers in there, like writings, designing stickers and erasable stickers and things like that. But I do have one somewhere that I have like a little eraser and a little brass sharpener in there. There's like a emergency pencil maintenance kit that I keep in my shoulder bag. And then I also have that just like. They're called mystery organizers. They're the same thing where they're made out of like scraps of fabric, but it's just like a little pouch and I put together in my shoulder bag. And then also in my like work backpack I have like a little tiny first aid kit in there. So like a couple band aids and little things of like Neosporin and some ibuprofen, like some, some Advil if I need it. I think I have some alcohol wipes and some. Oh like a shout wipe and that. Those have come in handy more often than I expected.
So just a really stressful day. You need to wring out one of those little alcohol Wipes. Yeah, like,
it's like a tiny little gin and tonic. Yeah. So yeah, those are fantastic. So yeah, just like I, I got my mother just an assortment of those kind of bags and they're not that expensive and they're just like handy to have and a lot of people have never heard of Tom Bin, so I think it's my favorite bag maker. Just a big fan of them. So yeah, that's a good. You can. And you can keep pencils in there.
Score.
Tim, do you have any others stuff?
Are you.
You tapped out?
Wait, I think maybe I had one more. What was. I feel like I did. Oh, the. Yeah, the roll up pouch, which is something that I asked for. So I don't have one. Besides I have the, the knocko one that they don't make anymore that like, I forget what it was called. But you zip it, you unzip it and then it rolls out and you can roll it back in. That's my favorite pencil pad I ever had, but I wanted to get like a proper pencil roll. And there's so many now which is like really interesting. They're just like, you look it up on online and there's just hundreds of them which I'm sure like artists have always been using them. But I've just seen them out more where like even people like my uncle who's into pencils or friends who are into it, I'll like notice that like they've picked one up, they'll pull out like a roll and pull out their pencils and stuff. So just that's like a cool gift for something. They make them in all different materials and you can find them with. Yeah. Made of leather. You can find them made of synthetic materials and just a really handy thing, especially the smaller ones. I mean there's some that are made for artists that are like.
Some that are like this 50 pencils.
Yeah, they hold this crazy amount, but I'm just thinking there's ones that hold like 10 to 20 something in there, which is just a fun thing to have. It rolls up and you tie it off, you can throw it in your bag. Keeps them from knocking into each other and getting the pencils all graphitey. Like what happens that happens in the nacco thing. If you don't put a cap on it, you just throw them in there. Eventually the bottom of that little bag is just like dusted with graphite, which I love, but maybe not everybody does. Johnny, how much are you reaching in to grab a pencil out of your pouch and then your fingers are all covered in black graphite, and you're like, start writing like, this guy's nuts.
It's like a horror movie.
Yeah.
I'm going to suggest a gift card from your favorite bookmaker.
Oh, so, like, Pencil Revolution Press. Oh, okay. Get it from the Penguin House. Penguin.
Yeah, Penguin Random House.
They're not going to make whatever you want out of pen friendly paper.
Yeah.
But, yeah. Do you sell Good Time of year.
Nice.
And usually people remember to use them. Sometimes they have one, and then they buy something, and I'm like, dude, but they're hanging on to it.
Free money for you.
Yeah.
Yeah. I guess I'll end. Yeah. Speaking of, you know, some promotional stuff like that. Why not an erasable corduroy ball cap for the stationary lover in your life?
Olive.
Yes. Olive is really good. I actually really like tin. The ones that you have. The red one is just a really good color.
It's Christmasy.
Yeah. And then I have a. I have the kind of, like, navy blue one. But yeah. Yeah, they're really nice. I was surprised at the quality of this. It's one of those things where it's kind of print on demand, or I guess embroidered on demand. So if you order from our shop, it basically goes straight to printful, which, you know, creates it. And, like, they. They do the embroidery, and then they send it right to you. And it's surprisingly fast, and it's really good quality. So I wore mine just yesterday. So, yeah, this is. This has been the erasable gift guide. We'll have links to all of these things in our show notes, so. And hopefully, like, I feel like usually when we do this sort of thing, it's, like, already, like, a week before Christmas. Like, none of these presents you can actually get in time. So. Good for us for thinking ahead.
Yeah, I feel like that was all you, man. Yeah. Like, from you guys. I was like, man, dang, that's a good idea. I was like, I already. As we were talking, I picked out. When Johnny, when you mentioned those Pocket Poets, was like, I've just been so selfish about those editions. I haven't even thought about giving one to somebody. It's like, I need to check those that I need to get.
Give them to your kids, and that way they're on your shelf.
That's smart.
We got to keep them together. They get lonely. They're small.
Yeah. Any. Anything else before we wrap up?
Can I add to one thing?
Please do.
The Library of America, they make those really cool additions where, like, you know, everything by Steinbeck in A box set. But they're really nice books and they're pretty affordable, so I would add that to Pocket Poets. Like, they make a Robert Frost. It's like everything Robert Frost in a clothbound book that you'll have for the rest of your life.
And I'm sorry, Johnny, which publisher is this?
This is the Library of America. They're loa.org others. It's one of those things where, like, you've seen them everywhere and they're like.
Oh, that's what they're called. Yeah. They're black covers with the, like, red and white stripe across the middle of them. Yep.
Oh, yeah.
Two years ago for Christmas, she got me the collected Wendell Berry essays. It's like two. Two copy or two volumes in, like, a. And it came in, like, a little cardboard sleeve for both of them. And I love that collection.
Yeah, for.
How nice.
They're not expensive. And usually they have, like, scholarly intros and someone who's an expert pick out the essays or selections. If there are selections.
That's cool.
The. Apparently, the first edition of Emerson that came out in the 80s had a bunch of stuff that was actually written by Margaret Fuller, so they had to redo the book. I tracked down one of the old ones just for the hell of it. And it's a lot bigger.
Yeah. Okay.
I have one more to add. One more gift idea. This is a board game, so I feel like that's still in the realm of, like, you know, analog, but it's called Binyo B I N E A H O. And it's a soccer game. If you hate. If you have no interest in soccer, you will still love this. It's a tabletop soccer game. It has, like, these, like, big elastic bands on the side, and you can get, like, themed boards. And it has. So you have a soccer board or a soccer field that's. On this big, thick board, there's a net. There's these elastic. Big, thick elastic bands around the side, and then metal pegs that are put into this formation. There's a little marble, and it's like you flick to play soccer, but it has a little magnet in it, so it, like, will kind of get caught up in the pegs on the table. So it's not as easy as it sounds. And it doesn't just bounce all over the place. And it's so much fun. Which. We're a soccer family, but, like, I've played it with people who have no interest in soccer, and they're like, this is awesome. And then, like, you also there's like certain rules and so you have a yellow card and a red card. So you can like give the person a yellow card if they double touch the ball. And if you get two yellow cards, like you have to take one of their pegs off the board. So that makes it easier for you to score. It's so much fun.
It looks a little bit like a cross between soccer and like billiards or something.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah. Interesting.
It is. I can't recommend it enough. It's so much fun. We got it for Christmas last year for Henry and I'm the one who ends up being like, you want to play Pino? It's so great. So I'll put a link to the website they have and you can customize them too and pick different colored pegs. And if you have a team that you're into, then you can, you know, get their logo like on the field, like if you want. But they have some that are just designs, like just cool looking designs. So. Yeah.
Can you get like the TED Lasso team on your Pino board?
I wish. I. Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind. But I'll put a link to them.
Yeah. Well, for doing bonus rounds. I think I mentioned this before in the podcast because I've been like a little obsessed with it for a while, but there's this tiny little, tiny little video game console that is independently made called the Playdate. And it looks kind of looks like this. It's just, it's very thin and it's adorable. It has like the greatest little animations. Like here's how you click, click and the little eyes open and then it goes straight to your like little games. And what's really fun is it has, has a crank. So this is like part of the gameplay that you can do and you can like, you can do stuff. Like you can scroll through with it.
Oh, I thought it was like a little generator and it was like.
Oh yeah, no, it doesn't generate the battery. It's actually like many of the games that they make for this isn't just like a retro like Nintendo Game Boy handheld. Like, you know, a lot of companies make, they have like games that come that are made specifically for this by like independent game people.
Super cool.
Yeah. And yeah, it's not cheap. It's made by like an independent company. It's like 230 for this thing.
Yeah. But it's.
Yeah, it's. I don't know, it's so fun. I just, I love the industrial design designed by teenage engineering which makes all these, like, really great, but also super hipster, like, music synthesizers. Just these. Just Swedish. Exactly what you think, like a Swedish industrial designer would be. Like, just like, just, you know, very wry, like big statement glasses, baldman wearing electrics, you know.
I love their copy on the site. It says, here it is fun. Here it is, period fun, period, yellow, period. Fits in your pocket, period. Includes season one and A Crank I.
So the company that makes this, Panic, they make software. And, like, they're. Most of what they make is like web development software for the Mac. And so I've used this for a long time. I've been familiar with Panic, and it's one of those things. If Panic was like, hey, Andy, we want you to take a 50% pay cut and come work for us, I would absolutely do it. They're amazing. And at one point, like, I was. I can't remember, it might have been that website copy for the play date, but I was like, this is amazing copy. I just, like, tweeted at the founder, like, CEO of Panic. And I was like, who do you guys have a copywriter, like, who writes this? He's like, oh, I just wrote that. I'm just like, damn, you can do everything. You're a good programmer, a good designer, a good writer. So, yeah, it's Playdate's great.
It's this guy named ChatGPT.
Yeah, exactly. The playdate has been. Is one of those things that was in development hell for like, three years because of the pandemic. And I think I maybe had told this story on here before, but they like, I. I signed up to receive more information about it, and they had this big story about some companies will. If they're like, making something new, they'll hire. And they like, if it's a small company, they'll like, hire contractors who will go to, like, Shanghai or Vietnam or wherever the factory is and basically just kind of supervise the making of it. And they'll, like, do quality tests and just kind of make sure it happens. So they sent somebody out in like, March 2020 to the factory in, remember where in Shanghai to like to check it out and make sure, you know, everything looks good. And then the entire country locked down and these people who thought they were going to be there for two weeks were there for three months because they couldn't get out. So that just sounds like a huge cluster. But it was. Yeah, it was just an interesting story and just like, really fun and thoughtful design that goes into this thing, which I love. All right, should we wrap it up feel like we've. Yeah, exactly. Sorry about your wallet. Yeah, yeah. So this has been episode 232 of the erasable podcast. You can find an audio recording of this show and then show notes kind of wherever you can get your podcast. But if you go to erasable US232, you can find that there as well. So you can find the Erasable podcast on other things. We still have a Facebook group. It's facebook.comgroups/erasable. It seems like it's still going pretty strong. I made a Discord community with a good number of people in it, although I have not. Not been in there for a while. I actually just heard that our the usual guy who plans Secret Santa gifts is planning an erasable, like, Secret Santa gift swap this year again. So.
Awesome.
Yeah, please check that out. We also have a Patreon and if you are a patron at any level, you can watch the videos. We've been doing this for maybe like, gosh, like eight, 10 podcast episodes now. You can find that patreon.com erasable. And as always, I want to thank our producer level Patreon members, Those who give $10 a month or sort of the yearly equivalent, which, by the way, if you make an annual gift, you get a little bit of discount, which is nice. And those folks are pdx, J. Morris, Reiko Henning, Chris Berry, John Schroeder, Ellen Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umphers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Capilouti, Stephen Fonsale, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael Diallosa, Tana Felice Jafx. In the Midwest, Chris Metzkiss, everybody's favorite, Church Reynolds. Thanks, Johnny. Saw you typing in there. Mary Collins. Johnny. Was that. Is that you, Tim?
That's me. That's the name of my daughter's turtle that she tracks that she got with like a stuffed animal. It's a female loggerhead turtle named Kurt Reynolds, which I think is the best.
That's really good. I just assumed that that was Johnny typing that. It reminds me of. What is it from Celebrity Jeopardy? Snl. It was like Turd Turd Ferguson.
Ferguson, yeah. Which was by Burt Reynolds.
Yeah, Burt Reynolds.
Yeah. It's funny. Funny Ferguson. It's funny.
Turd Ferguson. Mary Collett, Kathleen Rogers, Dr. Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton and John Wood. Thank you all so much. Except you, Turt Reynolds. We don't want your money.
Keep on swimming.
Yeah. All right. We'll catch y' all next time. I hope we can do another one of these episodes before Christmas. And.
Yeah, see y' all then.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you don't like our podcast, David will turn it off.