We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled program for this good old Blades micro podcast. Maybe there's a a portion of my life that is super busy all the time. I spend a lot of time working and a lot of time with family. And knives, knife making uh sometimes take uh takes a back seat to all that. And rightly so, because it's very important and it's very uh to focus on family, and it's very important to me specifically. Um but one of the reasons why I haven't been producing a lot of micro podcasts lately is is because I've been focus focusing a lot more on the full episodes and trying to um have a little bit of a paradigm shift between what I was doing and trying to refine that thought into what I'm trying to do now. And let me explain that. So at first starting the podcast, I was really focused on uh getting other makers' uh name out there, talking them to them a little bit, and getting kind of like maybe a little bit more than surface level conversation, um, and and kind of delving into the craft, but I don't know if early on I really had uh the same kind of vision for the podcast as I do now. And what I really want to do with the podcast, and what I'm really focused on, is trying to allow you, the listener, to have a seat at the table when I'm talking to makers the same way as I would if I was talking to them on the phone. And for many years, you know, I've asked a lot of questions of makers and I'm friends with a lot of people, and it's been really cool because you know, you you get to uh absorb things in conversation with people that are interested in the same kind of thing that you are. And in knives, man, there are so many fascinating people, and I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of them on the podcast, and I talk to a lot more on uh chat and other things, and it occupies a lot of my time when I'm doing other things. Um, and you know, I want to be able to pull that all together and so that you guys can listen to them and you can hear the same wonderful stories and the same charismatic um personalities as I get to. And so, you know, sometimes uh makers don't want to share that much. Some sometimes makers don't uh they're not used to the format and everything. But by and large, we've had a uh just a humongous amount of support from makers and craftsmen of of other sorts, you know, in knives and and from collectors. And I want to be able to continue down this road of having conversations and also being able to have the time invested in those conversations to really get down to something more than just surface level, uh more than just what you can read in a magazine or uh in somebody's bio. So um what I've kind of pivoted to is a long format on episodes, and I know that I know that they're long right now, but uh trust me, I'm trying to work on that. Um one thing I've been thinking about doing is actually splitting those episodes into smaller pieces so that way you guys can listen to them, but you don't feel like you have to stay invested for you know two and a half hours, you know, which is you know the kind of like the max amount that I I think I've had right now. Um, I can't help the conversations uh just last that long. Um if they if they're gonna go that long, then I really think that that is valuable, but um I want to be conscious of you guys and your time and listening and tracking uh what we're actually talking about in there, so I might actually break those up into uh 45 minutes or an hour, uh, depending on uh how long a conversation goes, and um then you can have two episodes out of it. Um I don't know yet um what I'm going to do on episodes and and release cycles. If I do have one conversation that's two and a half hours, am I going to release it on Wednesday and then another one on Wednesday and kind of extend that episode out? Or whether I'm going to um you know release them maybe twice a week so that way you guys can listen to them but separate them. I don't know, yeah. But uh micro podcasts for me is a lot more about technique, it's a lot more about ideology, and it comes directly from me. And I want to make sure that I'm uh feeding that because there are a lot of ideas and a lot of thoughts that I have um kind of come to terms with through talking to other knife makers and especially on the podcast, and I want to make sure that I represent that well. Um, one of those things is I know in the last few episodes, um, you know, full episodes, I it might come across that I'm being a little critical of the knife makers guild or organizations or things like that. And I I I'm really not trying to be. Um something that I've been focusing on is being able to have a direct path to success. And uh the difference in like the ABS evaluations and technical um um specifications, and the difference between that and the guild uh is is there, it's present, and I don't know that people understand some of the benefits of being in the guild versus the ABS, right? Um, for instance, you know, uh technically they are both very challenging organizations to get into, but the ABS focuses on some aspects of technicality that the guild doesn't specifically outline in their inspection process, and it's not entirely well known to uh people who may want to apply if you're a maker as to what to expect. Uh, some things about that uh really could be cleaned up in the guild's messaging and everything like that. And you know, and I'm a member um and I respect all the makers that are in that guild because they're just phenomenal. Um I mean, I've inspected uh some guys' work, I've been in rooms with these guys, I've been to shows with these guys, I follow their their careers and everything. And um, who am I uh to sit here on the podcast medium and to judge or to make it seem like um like like the process is less than? And that is not my intention at all. I I have just a profound amount of respect for the makers. It's just some of the guidelines for the guild and how how we get people into the organization and excited about what we're doing, uh, it could use some work. So that's something that I I I can articulate now a little bit better than I think I could eight months ago. And um the I'm always evolving. Um, my thoughts are always kind of changing, and it's not that uh they're changing for the worse or that I'm like incredibly in influenced by other people's opinions, but I can refine ideas because I'm in this thing talking to a lot of people. And so I want to make sure that I honor that through the the micro podcast, and I'm I want to make sure that you guys um get to hear my side of of the conversation, just kind of like what I think, because the full episodes are about the guest, they're about talking to them and picking their brain and understanding their lives and talking about philosophies and things like that, and they need their moment uh to be able to express all that. But the micro podcasts, again, is a conversation between you and I. It's a conversation about what I think, and hopefully, you know, you either um appreciate that or um stop listening. I mean, one of the two. Uh, I I don't want to waste your time, and I definitely don't uh think that my opinion is anything more than that. So I I want to jumpstart the the micro podcast again, talk through things that are interesting me or that I have uh some dilemmas around or maybe shop tricks or things like that, and we'll pick up kind of where we left off, but I have a little bit more perspective now. So um thanks for listening. Thanks for sticking with me while I've kind of taken this uh uh smaller sabbatical from micro podcast, and we will start those up. Um maybe I'll do one once a week for right now, just so I can manage my workload with uh some show stuff I have coming up, some orders and some regular work and family. Uh but you know, be prepared because I'm going to start hitting it hard with some great content, and uh, you know, always I hope that this helps.