03MAR2024

Happy Sunday, everyone! We have a short and (hopefully) sweet one this week:

• 🪄 Philosopher’s Desk - I am obsessed with these Philosopher's Desks by by the Lucky Rooster Company. They are beautifully designed corner desks that are themed around various magical or mythological elements, and are absolutely riddled with hidden compartments that are accessible through all manner of ingenious secret buttons and mechanisms. I want one... just need to find a spare $10,000.
• 🎒 Civic Panel Loader - 16L - Evergoods' Civic Panel Loader 24L is one of my all time favorite backpacks, and this week they launched their new, smaller 16L variant. I could see this being an awesome day pack or hiking variant when you don't need to bring a ton of gear.
• ✏️ New Rock Paper Pencil - I've previously linked to the Rock Paper Pencil by Astropad, and was excited to see they have just come out with a new updated version that looks to be a significant improvement on the original. Like the first one, it's a cleverly designed screen that you lay on your iPad that adds a really rich, paper-like quality to your screen surface when paired with the Apple Pencil. I've tried a bunch of offerings like this, and Astropad's is the best.
• 🧃Kin - As I get older, I'm noticing that even one alcoholic drink in the evening really wrecks my sleep quality for the night. As a result, I've been experimenting with different non-alcoholic drinks that replicate the experience of having a relaxing sip in the evening, without making me toss and turn through the night. Most of the NA spirits I've tried are either super full of sugar or taste like a disappointing simulacra of the original drink. I was really pleased to find Austin-local brand, Kin, who makes tasty non-alcoholic drinks that also feature various natural adaptogens that add to the relaxing vibes-- L-Theanine, Tryptophan, Vitamin B, etc... All totally legal and won't mess up anyone's drug tests. We got a sampler pack of all of their products on Amazon, and I liked every drink in the box.
• 🏜️ Dune 2 - We managed to get tickets for a Saturday night showing of Dune II, and 24 hours later I'm still processing everything we saw. It was INTENSE (as the second half of the book was), but I loved it. These two Dune movies are instant classics, and Denis Villeneuve has secured his placed among the best Science Fiction directors/producers of all time. As I wrote in my Letterboxd Review, beyond the epic story, incredible performances, visuals, and costume design, the sound design really blew me away. Hans Zimmer's soundtrack and all the incredible sound work just vibrates you throughout the entire movie. Worth checking out, but I'll warn you that the ending honors the book in not having a fully resolved ending. If anything, these two movies are just teeing up a much larger story. I came home and promptly started reading the sequel to the first Dune book, Dune Messiah, because I can't wait to find out what happens next.

That's it for this week, be well everyone!