An early contender for film of the yr

Hi, associates! Welcome to Installer No. 120, your information to the perfect and Verge-iest stuff on the planet. (If you’re new right here, welcome, prepare for Pen Opinions, and in addition you may learn all of the previous editions on the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been studying about Banksy and music apps and influencer agents, watching Netflix docs about the manosphere and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, marveling at Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco writing songs, having fun with Young Sherlock greater than I anticipated, immediately subscribing to Joanna Stern’s new tech channel, utilizing the Sleep With Me podcast to go to sleep, and making plenty of brownies with the unbeatable Costco mix.

I even have for you a must-see film for the weekend, a few enjoyable new methods to play with AI, a bit of delightfully creative furnishings, and far more. Let’s do that? Let’s do that.

(As at all times, the perfect a part of Installer is your concepts and suggestions. What are you watching / studying / listening to / enjoying / sticking to the wall with thumbtacks this week? Tell me the whole lot: [email protected]. And if you recognize another person who may get pleasure from Installer, ahead it to them and inform them to subscribe right here.)

When I requested you for pen and pocket book suggestions, I didn’t anticipate the unbelievable variety of suggestions I’d get! (Obviously I ought to have, the lesson as at all times isn’t underestimate the Installerverse.) Since my display screen share particular person fell by for the week, and I received so many good issues, let’s do an impromptu group undertaking.

As I type of suspected, all people has a favourite pocket book and pen, and there are one million good choices on the market. (Shoutout to Tim, who pointed me to the Japanese Stationery Awards, an absolute gold mine of cool group and productiveness stuff, and to Omar for sending me Peter McKinnon’s very inspiring setup.) But there are a few merchandise and types that got here up rather a lot in my inbox this week:

Pens had been, if something, much more various. Here are a bunch of suggestions I received, and have been intrigued by, most of them less expensive than I anticipated! Turns out you may simply go to the shop and purchase a fairly good pen. I don’t know something about pens, so listed below are only a bunch of suggestions I received:

You additionally shared plenty of good suggestions and tips, a number of of which I’ve already taken to coronary heart. Thicker paper is healthier paper; dot-grid notebooks are a wonderful catch-all; don’t attempt to construct an entire lovely system at first; don’t go full fountain pen till you’re able to go full fountain pen. I admire all people who took the time to share techniques and suggestions, and when my packages get right here I believe I’m going to try to go… effectively, not full analog, however a minimum of slightly extra analog. I’m very enthusiastic about it.

Here’s what the Installer neighborhood is into this week. I wish to know what you’re into proper now as effectively! Email [email protected] or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — along with your suggestions for something and the whole lot, and we’ll characteristic a few of our favorites right here each week. For much more nice suggestions, take a look at the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.

“Just finished part one of 13 of Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, which had completely passed me by until I saw it on both The New Yorker’s and The Guardian’s end-of-year podcast lists.” — Richard

“Unfortunately, I’ve become slightly obsessed with Wikipedia Gacha, the new Wikipedia card-collecting game.” — Yoinks

“I’ve been playing with a 10-year-old Olympus Pen Lite E-PL8, picked up in Map Camera, Tokyo. Small enough to carry everyday, but big enough (with a Micro Four Thirds sensor) to take much better photos than an iPhone. And with the silver coloured old lens, much cooler!” — Brian

“I just found out about the Rekindle site, which adds a load of tools / games / utilities to your Kindle through the browser in an E Ink-friendly webpage!” — Andrew

“I’m watching The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (basically 30 Rock) and Scrubs (literally Scrubs) so I’m desperately trying to trick my brain into thinking it’s 2008.” — Zach

“As 1Password increased the price I tried Strongbox and it is even nicer.” — Serghei

“After what felt like a street-level advertising blitz this past Friday, I picked up Esoteric Ebb on Steam and proceeded to spend most of the weekend playing it! I have not played Disco Elysium yet, but I hear this is very much in that vein of games. Highly recommend jumping into The Cleric’s boots to figure out what happened to the tea shop, as well as who to vote for.” — Adam

“I recently discovered the daily illustration that accompanies each NYT Connections puzzle, accessed by pressing the lightbulb icon above the puzzle. It gives a little hint or two about the solution in a really nice creative way. Even if I don’t need to use it for help, I enjoy checking it each day and find it weirdly soothing!” — Tom

I wore an Apple Watch for years. Then I received one of many new Pebble 2 Duos, which I like! Except I don’t like the way it appears to be like. I additionally need rather less expertise on my physique always, so I’ve been again available in the market for a comparatively non-fancy but in addition non-ugly watch to put on. Surprisingly exhausting to search out!

So far, the perfect a part of my journey has been taking place the rabbit gap of Casio modders: watchmakers taking aside these easy digital watches and upgrading them in all types of how. Sometimes they get new options, generally they’re mainly torn down and rebuilt fully from scratch. I’ve been looking at this modified A700 all week, and I’m in love with Adam Savage’s Casio Royale watch. The modding neighborhood is so enjoyable, and so full of excellent concepts, I’ve a sense by the tip of this I’m going to personal altogether too many watches. No fancy ones, although.