It’s time for another edition of Things We Love here at The Flickcast. This time the things we love is actually a group of things. What are these magical unicorns, you may ask? Well, they’re the Apple Macintosh computers. 

This won’t be a place to debate the merits or restart the war between Mac and PC. We each have our favorites and reasons for choosing to use what we do. Many of you prefer to use Windows computers, and that’s just great. Enjoy.

But for the majority of us here at The Flickcast, we go Mac. And we’ve gone Mac since the beginning of time . . . or at least since the last thirty years or so. 

What started as a fun challenge taken up by Steve Wozniak at the Homebrew Computer club in the mid-seventies and culminating, at that time, with the release of the Apple I computer (selling for an imaginative $666.00) spawned a whole generation of amazing devices we pretty much take for granted today. Apple computers of the early days paved the way for the Mac, famously introduced in 1984 by an Orwell-inspired commercial directed by young genius Ridley Scott. I wonder what ever happened to that kid?

Since that time, the Mac is grown in popularity and although it’s never achieved the level of success its Windows counterparts enjoy, it’s still the de facto tool of choice for millions of people around the world.

We know it is for us. Well, most of us. Joe doesn’t like Macs. We still like him, though. And we’re still working on bringing him into the light. Until then . . .

Thank you Woz, thank you Steve Jobs and thank you to the thousands of others who labored and toiled and sweated to bring us one of the things we love. And thanks to you Macintosh. We literally couldn’t do it without you. You will always be one of the things we love.

Here’s the infamous “1984” commercial.

Do you love Apple’s Macintosh as much as we do? Or, do you go to the dark side? Nah, only joking. Let us know why you love the Mac, or why we’re missing out on the perfection of Windows, in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

We believe few things in life are as satisfying as a good cup of coffee. So it should be no surprise to learn it’s one of the Things We Love here at The Flickcast.

Sure, one or two people around here drink tea occasionally, or as an alternative to coffee, but we don’t really talk to them all that much. To be honest, we consider their judgement a little suspect. 

So, coffee? Yes. Please and thank you.

There’s so many ways to make coffee at home, the office or at the home office we won’t go into every one of them here. We will, however, talk about a couple of our favorite methods and some tools we think are necessary to get the caffeine fix and amazing cup of coffee you deserve.

There’s basically two methods we use on a regular basis: the Pourover or the French Press. We also, on occasion, use a more traditional coffee maker if time is a factor, but won’t go into that in this post. 

First, let’s talk Pourover using the Hario V60, which is pretty much the industry standard. We could go into a lengthy explanation of how it works, what to do and all that.

Instead, let’s let World Barista Champion, author and famous YouTube star James Hoffman tell us all about it.

He makes it look easy, right? It does take some work and practice. But once you get it mastered this method creates an amazing cup of coffee.

To make this at home, the office or the home office, you’ll need a few things. Fortunately, you’ll only need to get most of these items once and they can be used for many years.

First, the V60 by Hario, which is the backbone of the entire system. You’ll also need a glass coffee server, which goes underneath the V60 and catches the coffee as it comes through.

Next, you need a way to heat and pour water. We prefer the Hario Kettle. You’ll also need paper filters, a grinder to grind the beans and, of course, some coffee.

For paper filters, we go with the ones from Hario. For a grinder, our favorite that’s seen daily use for several years and never once complained, is the Baratza Virtuoso.

Lastly, for coffee we like to buy local here in Austin from favorites such as Cuvee Coffee or Texas Coffee Traders. They also ship worldwide, but you can most likely find local roasters in your area. If you’re having trouble finding one, you can check out this map to locate a roaster near you. 

Now, let’s turn to the French Press. Again, here’s James Hoffman to show you the way.

As with the Pourover, you’ll need a few things for this method as well. Of course, the French Press itself. Our current favorite is the Bodum 1928.

You’ll also need pretty much the rest of the things mentioned above for best results. But as this is a French Press you won’t need the V60 this time.

Okay. That’s how we (and James) do it. It may seem like a bit of time and trouble, but the rewards of great coffee are worth it . . . at least to us. Enjoy your coffee!

Do you love coffee as much as we do? If so, what are some of your favorite methods to make it? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Welcome back to another edition of Things We Love. This time around we’re turning our attention to something that might seem like an odd choice given how prevalent digital technologies are these days. As you an tell from the title of this post, we’re talking, of course, about pencils.

Yes, that’s right, pencils. An artifact created in a time before iPads, iPhones, computers and most any other form of technology designed to help you create, remember things or get things done. They’re still in use today and more popular than ever. There’s even a podcast dedicated to them.

The pencil is generally credited to people such as Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who figured out how to mix graphite to mold it into a strong core, Joseph Dixon, who developed methods to mass produce pencils in the classic hexagonal shape they are known for today and Hymen Lipman, who was the first to attach an eraser to one end. According to pencil collector and expert Caroline Weaver in her TED talk about this very subject (which you can watch in its entirety below), this is a major factor in what makes the pencil special. 

“. . . it’s that long history of collaboration that, to me, makes it a very perfect object.”

She makes a compelling case for the pencil during her talk and you should definitely watch the video. It’s pretty cool.

Now that we (and Ms. Weaver) have convinced you pencils are awesome, where do you go to get some for yourself? Well, we mostly go to these places:

Pencils.com

CW Pencil Enterprises

JetPens

Some of our favorites include the Blackwing 602, the General Pencil Test Scoring 580, the Musgrave Tennessee Red, the ForrestChoice #2 and, for you mechanical pencil fans, the Pentel P205 and Rotring 600.

These are just a few of our favorites and some of the places we go to get pencils. Many of these are also available at Amazon.

So, why not give the pencil a try? You just might love it as much as we do.

Do you ever use pencils or other analog tools in your daily life? If so, what are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Image: Blackwing
Video: TED
Note: This post contains affiliate links.

We’re spreading the love here at The Flickcast. This time around it means the debut of another new series: Things We Love.

To kick us off, we’re turning to one of the things we love the most: Art Supplies. They’re always great to have on hand, especially if you’ve got kids, need activities at home during a global health crisis, or just want to create something beautiful.

Whatever the reason, art supplies are a must. They promote creativity, help you spend quality time with friends, family or on your own. And when you’re done you have a beautiful piece of art to hang on the wall or post to social media. Or both!

But what do you need? Well, it depends on what you want to create. There’s a wide variety of supplies for artists to express themselves in lots of different mediums.

For the purposes of this post, though, we’re going to focus on supplies for sketching, drawing, coloring and painting. Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s things we personally love and use.

You can always create in any way you want. But if you need help figuring out how to start or what you might need, we’ve got you covered. 

Ok, let’s get to it!

Pencils

Many great things start with a pencil. Sketch an outline, make some project notes, write a story or draw an entire picture. Whatever you want to create, sometimes all you need is a pencil.

Blackwing 602 – A beautiful pencil for writing, drawing or sketching.
Faber-Castell 9000 – A German brand offering a set with a variety of grades. These don’t break easily and sharpen well.
Staedtler Mars Lumograph – Like the Faber-Castell, these pencils have a place at the drawing tables of many artists around the world. We go back and forth on which is our favorite.
Caran d’Ache Graphite Line – Expensive? Yes. But these are the best drawing pencils you will even use. Although, the two above are no slouches either. 
Rotring RapidPro 600 – Mechanical pencils are great for sketching, layout and drawing too. This metal masterpiece is the top of the line and one we love.
Pentel P205 – We also use this mechanical pencil quite a bit. It’s great and a good value.