The Grey NATO - Ep 114 - The Isolation Tapes // Topic Not Found
Published on Thu, 11 Jun 2020 06:00:48 -0400
Synopsis
Jason and James discuss taking a break from the podcast last week due to the current events and Black Lives Matter movement. They share their perspectives on the importance of speaking out against racism and inequalities, even on a podcast not focused on politics. They announce plans to raise money for related charities by auctioning off watches from their collections. The conversation also covers more lighthearted topics like James taking the top off his Jeep, Jason's Land Rover getting upgrades, and a quirky $930 electric car reviewed in depth by Jalopnik. Overall, it's a thoughtful episode reflecting on social issues while also providing an escape through their usual gear and vehicle discussions.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nato. It's a Hodinkee podcast and a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 114 and we thank you for listening. Hey Jason. Hey there. It's been a minute. How you doing? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, pretty good. It's been quite the couple of weeks. We skipped last week for reasons we're going to discuss here shortly. We're back on air. We kind of felt like we needed to, you know, air some things out, talk to each other, uh, talk to, talk to our listeners and just kind of see where we're at. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I certainly missed, uh, miss doing an episode last week, but, uh, you know, I, I don't, I certainly, I think I speak for the two of us when I say that we just literally couldn't find the frame of mind from which to produce an episode about kind of frivolous things. |
| Jason Heaton | It's been a tough, a tough couple of weeks. I mean, it's been a tough few months for everybody. And then I think the, Um, events of the last couple of weeks have sort of come down like a ton of bricks and, and just, yeah, you're right. It was just hard to come up with, uh, you know, diving and watches and gear and that sort of thing to talk about. |
| James Stacey | And on top of that, you know, obviously I think at some level this goes without saying we've been pretty clear about our stance on, on our Instagram channels, but there were just more important conversations going on and those conversations continue to go on. And, uh, we, we wanted to take some time just to consider. uh, the kind of the best way to frame a continuation of, of again, frivolous media in, in a, in a time like this. And I think it still has a place, um, but it needs to be within context. You know, I think the show needs to be within context and yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And, and, and, you know, just to be clear to everybody, I mean, TGN is, and never will be a political or current events kind of a podcast here, but we certainly can't ignore the reality of what's going on around us. And, um, you know, when we, decided last week not to do an episode. I think both of us were feeling in a very serious way and admittedly a bit drained. You know, the events that kind of kicked off a lot of the unrest and protests and things around the world were just three miles north of where I'm sitting right now. And I just was not in the frame of mind to record. And I'm glad we didn't. I think it was respectful and kind of a good thing to take a pause. But at the same time, we also don't want to you know, ignore what's going on. So we thought we'd spend a few minutes at the top here, just, you know, recapping our own feelings and, um, uh, you know, providing them maybe a few resources and, and just sort of venting a little bit before we move on and get back to, to what we, we usually talk about. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I mean, we have some, we have some ideas about, you know, putting our, putting our money, more money where our mouths are and, uh, and kind of keeping the ball rolling on that in a way that kind of aligns with TGN with the normal TGN. Yeah. Um, but I mean the, the, the big thing I think here to consider is, uh, you know, from my experience on Instagram and, and Heaton yours as well, I think is, is there seems to be this discussion of this being more of a political topic, the black lives. matter movement being a political topic. And one, I'm, you know, I'm Canadian and I took, uh, I'm more than happy to take some heat for being Canadian. That's fine. Of course. And, um, um, my opinion is, and I think Jason, you'd agree with me is this isn't, um, this isn't at all political matter at its core. This is a, a social matter. Uh, it's international racism is international. It's part of the human condition, but it is something that we can work on. And I think that work requires people to speak about it. Not only would it have been so strange to just continue posting pictures of watches and pocket knives and flashlights and stuff while the rest of the conversation had moved to, you know, a group of people that are begging for help and deserve exactly what they're asking for, which is equality and autonomy. And yeah, I found it just terrifying the thought of saying nothing. Um, because you know, these, this moment will pass as the way that things go. Um, the fight won't end in any way for, for black rights and, and minority rights and, and anything else. But, uh, the conversation will move on. There's always a new cycle to this and, and it just, it just, I, you know, I'm not sure I would have, I'm not sleeping great anyways, but I'm not sure I would have slept well saying literally nothing. Right. |
| Jason Heaton | So yeah. And I, and we have both received some, some feedback. both positive and negative via direct message and email about our stances and some of the things we've posted on social media. And a few people have come out and said, you need to kind of stay in your lane, stick to what you know about, which is watches and some cars and travel and diving. And I engaged one person who I think is a listener and might even be listening to this episode. And we had a bit of a back and forth about this. And I think we came to a respectful, conclusion that, you know, we can agree to disagree, but, but we have to be able to be able to express our opinions no matter what we normally talk about or who we are or what our expertise is, because this is not a political issue. And I think there's enough divisiveness and politicization of things these days that I think this is one thing that, um, you know, we could all just, you know, just make an attempt to, to read more, uh, posts and books and watch movies about and by uh, people of color. And I think it's been, it's been really eyeopening. I think if anything good comes out of this, it's just, uh, hopefully people just being willing to, to open up and, and learn. Um, that's what I've been trying to do at least. |
| James Stacey | This is a, this is a show about communities, the communities that encircle the topics that we talk about. And I don't think these communities can be helpful, can be healthy, can move forward, can be supportive. Um, if it's just a community that'll turn its blind eye to pain. We get to talk about anything we want. It's our microphones, it's our show. If you don't like it, you don't listen, I won't notice. I literally won't. And lastly, we would say that a big side of this would be money. And we'll put the links in the show notes, but we have a nice list of what we think are pretty solid ways to donate could be two bucks, could be five bucks, could be more. And we're not saying spend money that you don't have or give money that you don't have or whatever. But if you're in a scenario where you have a few extra bucks, I think this is a pretty good way to, um, to be, be involved in, in a meaningful fashion. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And also I think, you know, uh, committing some time to, to anything, um, uh, on, on any area of the spectrum, whether you consider it overtly political or just a community based thing like, um, you know, cleaning up. I know there's been some big cleanup efforts here after some of the, the arson and the, and the looting and things that were happening during, um, during the unrest here a couple of weeks ago. And just people have come out in droves to, you know, sweep up the streets and donate food and, and, you know, just help rebuild the community that that's equally, equally valuable. You know, as a community, we'd love to get feedback, uh, one way or the other, you know, however you feel, you know, right in the gray NATO at gmail.com. Keep it respectful. Let's just have a dialogue. If you disagree with us, that's fine. I think expression of opinion is what makes all of this great. And no one's going to shut you down for that just as long as you stay respectful. |
| James Stacey | And just keep an open mind. And, you know, with that in mind, we would like to at least make an effort to put our money where our mouths are. And I think Jason has a neat idea. We can give credit to somebody else for this idea, but we have a neat idea of how to do that. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up. So I got this idea because I think it was last week. Suguru Nishioka, who goes by Garactical on Instagram, he does some work doing some translation work for Houdinki and Houdinki Japan. |
| James Stacey | He's a great follow as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, he is. He's also a diver. He's based out, I think, in San Francisco. And he auctioned one of his watches. It was the Swatch Houdinki Edition with the intent of allowing the winner of that auction to choose which Black Lives Matter outlet to donate the money to. And he raised 750 bucks for that watch. And then the winner of that actually apparently went on and re-auctioned it to raise more money, which is really amazing. But I liked the format that he used and so I decided to do something similar. So I have this Unimatic U1-DZ, which is the drab olive 12-hour bezel version of their really cool dive watches. And I still have it with the box and the warranty card and a couple of straps. And I decided to auction that off. So I put it up today. Today is Tuesday the 9th. And I've got the auction expiring on Friday at noon, so there's still time after this episode airs to go check out my Instagram feed and make a bid on that post. And I'm deciding to take whatever money comes from that and donate 100% to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which is an organization that has been near and dear to my heart. Way back in 2005, Ghoshani and I joined Big Brothers Big Sisters and matched with an 11-year-old boy and kind of were mentoring him for, you know, up until he was 18. And then we've kept in touch and stayed friends and we're actually his godparents. And he's turned into just a fine young man. He's about 26 now and doing really well. And, you know, little credit to us. I think we got more out of the program than he did. But it gave us a glimpse into in his case, an African-American family, his kind of cultural, his unique challenges, and, you know, just also how to communicate across generations and across kind of socioeconomic levels. And I think we gained a lot from that. And I think it's, it's a great organization. And so that's the one that, that I've chosen to, to donate the money to. So if you're interested in, in picking up a really cool unimatic, go, go plunk some money down on that one. It's up to about 600 bucks at this point. I started out the bid at 200. |
| James Stacey | It's double that. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, really? Oh, okay. |
| James Stacey | Well, 1250 is the highest bid. |
| Jason Heaton | Holy smokes. Fantastic. |
| James Stacey | That's, that's great. This is, uh, I love this so much. Yeah. So the one thing I'll say is, uh, if you're listening to this and you missed Friday, which is the cutoff for Jason's, um, unimatic, I have, uh, a watch in plan as well. So just stay tuned for that. I think it will be pretty fun. Um, you know, roughly in the same sort of scenario as the unimatic, a really cool brand. Um, like that. And then, uh, lastly, Jason, I would say that if you are a watch brand, that's listening to this and you would like to do something similar and you would like some help, uh, getting the word out, uh, drop us a line, the great NATO at gmail.com. Some of you are, of course, are people we know, uh, you can just WhatsApp us or whatever, but, uh, if, if it's a, if it's something you'd like to give a try in support of charity, uh, we would like to support this. I love keeping this whole thing kind of circling around watches in some way. And, uh, and yeah, so let's see, uh, let's see where that number lands on, uh, on the unimatic. I'm, uh, I'm really excited. I love this. |
| Jason Heaton | Uh, we'll, we'll certainly not give up on this. I think, uh, you know, the, the one danger in all this is that, as you mentioned, the news cycle tends to change and, and people move on to another topic. When something else comes up, we we'd like to stay loosely committed to this going forward and, and, you know, don't, don't take our eye off the ball. Uh, we can jump into kind of other stuff, I guess, where that was kind of our, we don't really have a main topic for today. We just decided to kind of catch up and chat about what's going on. |
| James Stacey | There's not really a topic. It's true. And if I'm honest, I'm feeling kind of lost. Yeah. Um, my head just kind of swirls with what, what the right thing is to say. And if, if it feels right to me, if that's actually something I should be saying at all. Um, yeah, I think there's a lot of learning left for certainly for you and I to do to, to, to kind of understand, where our voice has any value. But I think that the watch auction on Instagram is a very clear positive. So if you aren't loving us rambling about this for the last 20 minutes, show us by making a bid on one of those watches and maybe we'll have less to ramble on about and we can just do a watch every now and then for a charity. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Speaking of watches, what are you wearing these days? I've been wearing the Garmin. |
| James Stacey | The scenario is such that there's just a lot of digital communication happening these days to kind of keep the ball rolling with Hodinkee and various projects and of course family and everything else. And I really found it just so fatiguing to have the phone in my hand, especially with the way Instagram is and everything else. I'm really trying to dial back, certainly my direct involvement there and really with my phone in general. I found that I was spending a lot of time in the middle of the night on the phone Uh, you know, it was the first thing I was doing when I wake up in the morning, which is, which isn't really in my normal mode. Uh, and, and, and, and it's just been nice to, to, to rely on the Garmin for its smartwatch features, uh, at a time when I'm not going out and diving or adventuring, you know, I get to do some fun little projects here, there, and, and, and maybe we can talk about different watches I picked for, for those purposes, but yeah, it's, it's been the Garmin. It's just, um, it's a really, It's a nice size. The battery life is really good. It looks great. It's simple. It's super unobtrusive. And then as it gets, you know, it's, it's June, it's mid June in Ontario, Southeastern Ontario, it's warm here. It's warmer where you are, but it's, it's warm here, you know, as a way of just managing stress, I'm back to running and, and, you know, there's a workout every day. So it obviously it's on risk for that. It's a, it's a really handy sort of quarantine watch, I think. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I, I tend to wear mine like a, Like a tool watch or a specific task oriented watch. So when I go For a bike ride or a hike or something. I'll put it on and then take it off when I come back But I think it would make a good experiment I've always wanted to try to live the smartwatch life for like a week and I've never really worn a smartwatch for any extended length of time where I get the notifications and I'm checking them on my wrist and using the alarms and then going right into a workout. Um, so I think I might do that. I think the Phoenix, you know, the Phoenix six that I have, the bigger version, um, I love the watch. I mean, it's absolutely fantastic, but I still take it off when I'm done with it. And then, um, so I, I might, I might give that a try one of these weeks and just, just see how it goes. Uh, how, what do you do? Like when you get these notifications, you know, I get them obviously when I'm wearing it on the bike or something, but don't you feel compelled to reply and then you can't use the watch to do that anyway? |
| James Stacey | Well, one, you can set up auto, not auto replies, but short replies. Oh, okay. Um, so a lot of them all set one, like I'll get back to you in a few minutes is my common one. Yeah. Or, you know, sorry, my hands are full. Give me a couple minutes. Uh, like a, like a little blow it off, but I, it means I will get back to the person. Otherwise I just, it's, it's more just like being able to keep track of All of it. It's not so much that I necessarily, I don't know how many messages in my life actually require a reply as much as they require me reading them. Yeah. Um, I'm not a great replier typically of those of you who get some of the TGN emails I reply to, you know, it could be 10 or 15 days, but before I try, I, I finally decide like now I'm going to batch reply to all these. Um, but yeah, you know, I'm trying to support my, like my immediate family and then my extended family throughout Ontario with, with, things that they're going through and all that kind of stuff. And it's just, it makes it nice to, to have it and to know that I didn't miss any messages. Um, and then on top of that, you get, um, you get the easy stuff. Like you get some indication of how much you've moved around during the day, which is helpful when the most, the activities been pulled out of my life. Right. And, and then I really like that. It tells me when I have a meeting. Yeah. Uh, this is like my current, uh, mental deficiency on my side. But you know how like Google Calendar will tell you 10 minutes before something? Yeah. That's too much time. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I never remember I never now now while I'm sitting here directly in front of my computer, I should go in and change it to be like two minutes. Yeah, right. But 10 minutes, I see the thing, it'll be like, oh, there's an editorial meeting in 10 minutes, and I'll go no problem. And I'll go get a cup of coffee. And then It's two minutes too late. Yeah. Right. You're 40 seconds. Yeah. After I read that 10 minute warning, I've forgotten that. So there's a lot of these where it's five minutes into the meeting and people are texting me going like, right, Hey, are you, uh, are you coming to this meeting or you book, you book this meeting? Are you going to be in it? Uh, so I really need to change that, that 10 minute tolerance. But the, um, the watch I think is great. And I, you know, the funny thing is, is the bigger one is more useful. The bigger screen is really nice. Yeah. Because the screen technology for most of these, I did actually see that Garmin, uh, let me go on their site here. Garmin launched one with an OLED screen. Oh, wow. Which would be similar to like the screen on an Apple watch, like high res, super bright, high color. Yeah. Um, I just need to see what it's called. So the Venu, or Venu? Huh. V E N U. Hmm. It's currently on sale for 300 bucks. It's a 43 millimeter version of a Phoenix-like watch. I think it maybe doesn't have all of the same features, but it does have the high-res screen. So if you want more of a traditional smartwatch feature set, maybe look at the Venu. I will say that the Phoenix 6 is currently on sale for $450, which is $150 off. I don't know how long that sale goes for, but that's the sale on their website. Garmin has no idea I'm talking about Garmin. They didn't pay for this. They've been an advertiser in the past, and we love their products. This is just me literally scrolling through their site because I was working on another editorial project that included several watches under $500 for the summer. And I found this, you know, suddenly you can buy a six for $450, whereas normally they start at $600. That's not a bad discount, really. I mean, you can still buy an Instinct for $200, which is a crazy deal. That's a great watch, the Instinct. The battery lasts forever. What I will say is because they use these sort of not so battery intensive screens on the standard Phoenix system, you know, they're like a typical LCD screen. They're certainly bright enough for sunlight. They have a nice backlight, but they feel two generations back in terms of watch screens. If you've ever used an Apple watch or a Samsung smartwatch or something like that, and now it looks like they have it with the Venu. But what I find is the bigger one doesn't wear that differently. Um, but I do notice it just, I hit it on more things versus the 42 millimeter. Yeah. You know, that's a five millimeter difference. And on a steel watch, that's a world of difference, but these aren't steel. These are like a really high end plastic. Yeah. Uh, so they don't weigh that much. They have a fantastic rubber strap, but I don't know that the size necessarily would be a deal breaker for me. Um, I recently, uh, loaned the 47 millimeter Phoenix six I have to a friend who was interested in trying it out, um, after using for years, Samsung products. Uh, so I'll, I'll see what he says about the size. Cause I think he's also used to kind of smaller watches. It's interesting to get another perspective, but I, this 42 is just about perfect. I wear it all the time. You never notice it's on your wrist. |
| Unknown | Uh, yeah. |
| James Stacey | I mean, it's not as, it's not maybe as like emotionally interesting as like a mechanical watch. Like there's definitely times where I walk into work, you know, my office where I keep my watches and I want to throw on a sub pro. Yeah. I want, I want that orange dial. I want that bit of fun. I think I just haven't been feeling that fun. lately. Yeah. And this is so functional for me. I like it. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So, well, I've, I've, I'm completely at the opposite end of the spectrum. I've got this, uh, 50 year old Doxa Teagraph SeaRambler on my wrist, which is a big, heavy steel hand wound chronograph. Um, and I just put it on yesterday. You know, we had crazy hot weather here. It was 97 Fahrenheit, which is what did I say? 36, 37, Centigrade so you know hot and humid and just kind of called out for a bracelet watch although I should have opted for a lighter a lighter bracelet watch like Submariner Explorer or something but this is doing the job and it has this the great ratcheting clasp the original from way back when and so I can kind of loosen it up as my wrist swells up during the day and I don't know DOCSIS just feel like great summer watches I wear it a lot more in the summer than I do in the winter and the silver dial kind of just feels summery Um, even though I'm confined to, uh, to the garden and the, and the office here these days, not exactly doing any water sports, but, uh, yeah, I don't know. It's a, it's a little escape. It's an escapist, uh, watch choice, I guess. In other news, we have, we have some truck updates. Uh, I noticed you put the, you took the hardtop off the Jeep, which is very summery thing to do. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I, um, I got to this weekend and I really needed some way to blow off steam. |
| Unknown | Um, |
| James Stacey | I was just feeling pretty kind of pent up. I was pretty upset about not, not doing a show. Like I want it. I want it. I want a scenario where we can do a show every week or when we want to. Yeah. And, and I understand all the reasons why we didn't and I stand by that decision, but it was, it felt like I had kind of lost an outlet, um, for, you know, just appreciating the world around me to a certain extent. And, uh, I, uh, I, I had found as actually some, some several listeners, so, I won't call out anyone specifically, but several listeners sent in emails after I'd mentioned taking the top off the Jeep, um, what to do with the top. And they sent in these roughly the same guide with different branding attached to it. So it must be something that's kind of shared around the internet. Um, but it's a guide to building kind of a dolly to hold the top of the Jeep, uh, uh, which allows you to hold it kind of upright where it takes up the least amount of space. I don't have a garage scenario where I could hoist it onto the ceiling. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | I just don't. I share part of a garage for my home. And I was able to, you know, order up some two by fours and whatever and kind of screw this thing together and put some carpet on it to keep the thing from scratching. And it turns out it's perfect for maybe $12 worth of wood and caster wheels and a few deck screws. It's going to protect that top. And the top's not like in amazing condition, but I just don't want it to get worse. Right. uh, in my care, it's, it's covered in scratches. That's how I like a car like this. Like I don't, I don't want a baby. I don't want to be worried about it getting hit or anything like that, but I do want to care for it, especially when it comes to things that are going to keep like water out of parts of the car that don't, don't need to be wet. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I, I was able to build that in 20, 30 minutes. And if, if anyone out there is a Jeep owner and would like the same thing, just send me an email and I'll put it to put it in an attachment to you. but it's a pretty agreed upon sort of dolly. And then once it was off, I mean, the Jeep looked really fun and it was exciting to see. They're just like a big toy, right? Like it's a big Lego set almost with, you know, there's only like six bolts that keeps the thing on, like the six big torque screws. So I took it off and put it on this dolly and then drove it around a little while, like we just with nothing, with no top at all, which was awesome. Like it felt really fun and like a bit of an escape and Uh, then came back and watched a YouTube video or two about how to put the soft top on, uh, which was something that in my mind I had really made out to be like a very difficult task and it ended up being really easy. Uh, it took, it was like maybe one 10th the difficulty that I expected. And, uh, uh, the previous owner had everything kind of squared away. It turns out that in all the packaging and everything for the, their soft top, I think they must've bought new windows at one point. Cause the windows appear to be in much better general condition and sun damage than the rest of the top. So maybe their windows were cut or something like that. I don't know. Uh, which is great. And then they also turns out, and this is something I would have literally used since, you know, for almost a year that I've had the Jeep, uh, it turns out they had, um, so, you know, they're the front panels. So in, in these jeeps, you can take off the panels directly above the driver and the front passenger's head. They're called freedom panels and they come off, uh, just as two big pieces of fiberglass. It's, it's very easy. Yeah. It's designed to be very easy. And, um, and it turns out that the guy had bought like the rather expensive Mopar pouch to hold these tops. Oh, okay. Man, man, I've been putting these in the back of the Jeep and like, like wrapping security blankets around them for months. Like, like as soon as it wasn't winter, I was taking these, these funny tops off. And it turns out I had like a whole storage system just sitting in the garage because I was too, because I thought it was part of the soft top. So I wasn't going to get to it before I got to it. Yeah. And I laid everything out on the grass and we started opening this bag and I was like, this is something that's like a $400, you know, like zip up case for the, for the top. This is great. Um, the soft top went on really easily. And now if you want to throw it down, you can kind of, you can do like the two latches, just like a normal sort of, uh, you know, mechanical, um, convertible, and then you can throw it back and it goes kind of halfway. So it just opens up for the front passengers. Yeah. And then if you get out, you can release these two clips that then let the top go all the way down, but you have to take the windows out to do that. So there's a little bit of a process. It's a little bit, you know, you have a Miata amongst your vehicles and that's something you can do at a stoplight without getting out of the car. Right. This, I don't think is quite that. It would have to be a really long stoplight, because you've got to unzip four windows, decide how to care for those windows when they're not in place, and then throw the top down. But if you just wanna do the front bit, that can be done by two people in a good push. That's fine, or even one person in a good push, I suppose. But yeah, that was the big The big one, you know, it's also a funny thing. We're like, I'm I'm not a really I'm not not a handy guy, but I don't make an effort. Yeah. If that makes sense. You know, I have I have a very brief and those who know me really well will know a hilarious history in construction, which very, very quickly led to a non-serious but a construction career ending injury involving a circular saw. And so among this dolly, which I looked at and my feeble mind was able to decipher whether or not I would be able to build it. And I was correct in that. My also feeble mind thought, Oh, well, I have this kind of propane grill that's on my porch. Um, it's like a little fireplace, but you can cook marshmallows over it. And that's what the girls like to do. But it has this tube that goes to a propane tank, like a big, ugly propane paint propane tank. Yeah. And I thought I would build a table to kind of go over it and hide the tank and also be a table. Sure. Um, this is the moment that James at 34 learned that two by fours aren't two by four inches. The world made a whole lot less sense to me in that moment. And I'm still like, I'm, there's a part of me, the part of me that like can't handle that Porsche calls electric cars, turbo, or Oh yeah. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James Stacey | That sort of thing. Like, like why do we call them two by fours if they're not two by fours? Why don't we have a different term that isn't two numbers? Yeah. Because like, I understand that like words can mean all sorts of things. Numbers typically can't. Yeah. Right. And I know that I understand it's been explained to me by my brothers who are much more handy woodworking types than I'm ever going to be that like they start out as two by four. That's how they're cut. And there's variances. And then there's, there's changes in the wood over time and they end up being usually uniformly smaller than two by four. But if you're just, if you're just James, a guy who occasionally picks up a camera, spends all of his time, you know, on Instagram, like I got a pencil and I got a piece of graph paper and I figured, well, one inch to one square, I'll make a 20 inch square table like a cube. Yeah. And then I'll take one by six and gap them and they'll be 20 inches. Well, none of it was 20 inches, Jason. And none of it made any sense to me. And I was having a really bad day. And I remember just like looking at this and I go, this doesn't like Why even try it when a 2x4 is not 2x4? So you burned it? |
| Jason Heaton | You burned it in the stove? |
| James Stacey | It's still there. It's still there. It's probably something I should get back to. I'm not great. A lot of the cuts didn't come out very good. I've got this... I got a hand-me-down circular saw. I put a new blade on it. And so we're doing that. I'm used to... The few times that I did anything more intense than whittling a stick, I used a table saw typically. Yeah. Um, which really takes the guesswork and the, the, the art out of it to a certain extent, like, you know what you're going to get. Yeah. Um, whereas this one, you wouldn't believe the turns I can make with a, with a circular saw by accident. Uh, so yeah, maybe, maybe sometime in the summer when I'm a more calm person and I've, I've accepted that the numbers two and four don't actually mean that much. Yeah. I'll try and I'll try and tackle that. I would really like to have this table because I think that propane tank is just, it's viciously ugly. Well, I'm glad you... My, my, my, the table did not go well. |
| Jason Heaton | The dolly went really well, which is good, but... I'm glad you shook this down before I ever got around to that because I'm even worse than you when it comes to carpentry. And I had to look up when I saw your show notes that 2x4s are not 2x4. These are big confessions here for us with our thousands of people listening, but I'm 50 and I had no idea. So I've got 16 years on you and I didn't know 2x4s were not 2x4. I will |
| James Stacey | fully admit that in all of my... I always... When I worked in tech support, we always had a joke that you can't... Nobody's smart at everything. Yeah, yeah. Because you'd work in tech support and somebody would call in, and of course, they would give you your phone number or their name or whatever, and you'd go like, oh, this person's a doctor, a surgeon, or a PhD. Yeah. And they could not fathom how to set up a pop email address, which is like four things that you type into a space and then click okay. Yeah. And, uh, and, and you'd end up having to like literally send someone to their home to help set up their email address. And you go like, well, you went through med school, dude. Right. Yeah. So it's like, there's, this is, this is the hole in, in my kind of ability is, is, is, is this. And the nice thing is, is I have two brothers who do this professionally. Oh yeah. Um, so if I really need a table or almost anything at this point, uh, one of the two of them can make something absolutely gorgeous, uh, gorgeous for me, I guess I wanted the challenge. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Um, but then when, when suddenly two by two by fours weren't two by fours in my, like a little bit, it was, it was a little bit of like my framework for how I like approach the world. The matrix changed a little bit around me. Yeah. Yeah. goodness sakes yeah so yeah maybe don't ask don't you know you can ask me for a photo or something like that but don't ask me for a table well the dolly looked good i'll give you that that looked the dolly the dolly came together really well it was uh but man is it a basic thing compared to uh yeah attempting attempting to make a a table so speaking of lacking expertise i um uh |
| Jason Heaton | I turned over the Land Rover as we know and have discussed over a month ago to a local Land Rover shop for some work. You know, I'm certainly at about a level two out of maybe level five in terms of auto mechanics. And while I've been willing to tinker with a few things kind of above the beltline that I don't have to crawl underneath for, it had some major work done to it. And I'm pleased to say that it's back. I got that overdrive installed, which was the main reason for bringing it into the shop. But then while it was there, they discovered that one of the leaf springs was broken and the exhaust was getting pretty rusted through. So I ordered the parts and had them delivered to their shop and it took them several more weeks to kind of finish it all. And I picked it up last week and boy, you know, Certainly it's been a grim few weeks and months for all of us, but what a little glimmer of joy to have that back. And it really is like a new vehicle. You know, the overdrive was great. Like I said, that was kind of the main reason for having the work done. And it extends the top end to, I've got it up over 60 on the highway, which is significant with very little drama. And you can actually leave it in overdrive in all four gears. It actually just kind of extends the gears. It's not so short. Now it's eight gears. Now it's an eight speed. Well, and then if you take the four wheel drive high and low, you have 16 gears. But it drives very civilized now. And then the biggest change was these new springs. So these are parabolic leaf springs and they just, the old springs were so stiff. They must've been 40 years old and just rusted in place. It was, I keep comparing it to if, you walked around without bending your knees, kind of stiff legged, and suddenly you were able to bend your knees. That's, that's what it feels like. I mean, it actually drives like, certainly like a short wheelbase vehicle. So you still kind of have that rocking horse effect, uh, on kind of uneven pavement, but it's not that kidney punch every time you go over a pothole or, or a crack in the pavement. It's just made a world of difference. And, um, the exhaust note is nice. Now it's got the stainless steel exhaust and, um, Yeah, it's fantastic. I haven't driven it a whole lot in the past week, but every excuse I get, uh, I take it out. It's, uh, it sits two inches higher now with these parabolic springs. So it's really quite, uh, you know, I'm going to rip the crotch out of a pair of pants one of these days getting into this thing because it's, uh, it's, it's a challenge to climb in. Ghoshani has an even harder time. I need to install some of those flip down, uh, little steps that, that you can get for the side of this. Cause it's, it's significantly taller now, but, uh, man, I guess there's no running boards, are there? There are no running boards, but like I said, you can get these little spring loaded steps that just kind of bolt on underneath on the frame and then they just flip down. And so I'll have to consider that. But yeah, it's it's it's wonderful. |
| James Stacey | It's it's great. I'm so glad that I'm so glad that worked out and that it's good. And that's quite, you know, between the exhaust, it's going to sound a little bit different, the ride riding different and then having the ability to drop it into Yeah. Overdrive. That's, that's a pretty big upgrade. That's a lot at once. |
| Jason Heaton | It was, and it was, it wasn't cheap. Um, but on the other hand, you know, I bought this vehicle for not a lot of money three years ago and I haven't put a ton into it. I put in a starter motor and a blower motor and a few other odds and ends. So this was kind of the first really significant outlay that I've made. And, um, it was, it was worth it. This'll, this'll make it a very pleasant, more usable vehicle for, many more years. So yeah, it was a good thing to do. |
| James Stacey | Talking about worth it, if you want a highlight of the, again, some problematic ways that my brain works and responds to patients especially, I finally got a desk chair. Believe it or not, if you've ever listened to any episode I've recorded home in Toronto, I sat on a stool, kind of hunched forward, at my desk, just because I always figured, you know, Oh, I only use my, my, this is kind of the longest that I use my desk at one stint. And now I'm realizing, and now that I've had a desk chair for all of 24 hours, that the reason I was not using my desk very much is because I didn't have a proper chair. And back when kind of COVID kicked off and we all knew we were going to be home for a bit, obviously no idea how long, I started looking at chairs thinking like, oh, it'd be nice to have like a proper chair that I could actually sit back in and not be in pain after say about a half hour or 40 minutes of attempting to keep my back perfectly kind of held up while sitting on a stool. And this is such an insane thing to admit. I was going on Amazon and Wayfair and Staples and everywhere else and looking for chairs. they were all, you know, two, three, four weeks shipping. And I always just kind of roll my eyes and then think like, I don't even want it. And talk about like problematic short-sightedness. Cause I probably like my back is sore all the time, uh, between the workouts and then sitting in bed, working on a laptop. So you're already in this kind of like weird semi reclined position and then in a head forward position with to, to do the laptop. And, uh, and then anyways, I finally bit the bullet and figured like, well, I've waited so long, what, what's the 12 or 13 days that it was now. And I ordered this chair, nobody's going to care what the chair is. So that doesn't matter. Uh, but I ordered a decent chair, um, you know, kind of entry level sort of desk chair and man, it's lovely. I, uh, you know, I, I had, I, I've been at my desk all day answering emails and now I'm sitting here. And it feels a lot easier to do like mic control, like to stay where I need to be for the microphone. |
| Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm not messing around with the volume as much on our recorder or anything like that. And if I want to sit back, I just kind of like lean back. It's, it's there. It's nice. Uh, so yeah. Uh, I mean, just, just talk about stupid, stupid, stupid is, is this whole idea that like, if I can't, if I can't do the, Oh, well it'll be there tomorrow. Thanks Amazon. Yeah. Suddenly I don't want it. And in some ways that's really good. We've talked about this before, but Kevin Rose always had that thing where he would say anything he really wanted from Amazon, he would let it sit in his cart for 24 hours. And it really brought his buying level down. The only thing I wish I hadn't let that thinking persist was an office chair. It's nice to have a decent office chair. I think we'll be still working from home for the foreseeable future, so I'll get some good value out of it. but I thought I would highlight just a little bit of just general stupidity in the way my brain reacts to patients, basically. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's funny what we... It's nice to have a chair. It's funny what we procrastinated on. You know, a lot of times it might be the silliest stuff, like I'll hem and haw and, you know, wait forever for something that costs, you know, 50 bucks that would make a significant difference in my life. And then I'll wait for months or even years before I actually pull the trigger. And then when I get it, it's like, why didn't I get this? It made such a huge difference in my life. Whereas, Mm-hmm. You see, you know a vintage Seiko for 600 bucks for sale and you're like I Need that, you know by now, you know PayPal send you anything and it's like why do we do that? It's crazy. Just crazy. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah for sure All right. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, it's it's it's an interesting thing, but it's nice to have the top off the Jeep It's nice to have a chair and and it's it's also it's nice to have some perspective about what makes all that kind of stuff nice as, you know, as the last few months has really lent a lot of perspective to these sorts of things and, and both big and small types of privileges, whether that's, you know, being able to get a chair when you need it or otherwise. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think, uh, you know, I've, I've seen some posts and I even posted myself. I was like, you know, wake me up when it's 2021 or when it's 2020 is the worst year ever. And I've seen some counter perspectives that I've kind of taken to heart. And that is maybe we needed a year like this to reset Um, our outlook and our expectations and kind of learn a little bit from some of the things we're all going through. And, uh, so I'm trying to try to reframe my thinking in that, in that respect. |
| James Stacey | So. I think especially, you know, so much of this is out of control. Yeah. Um, so that the stoic, you know, setup would suggest you wouldn't spend a lot of time being upset about something you can't change. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Um, but there's a lot of things that we can change that, that are worthy of that energy. Um, and, and as much as the, yeah, the wake me up in 2021 or, you know, the 2020 memes that you catch every now and then on Instagram are funny. Uh, I, I agree that, that there's probably a more productive, um, kind of perspective to, to seeing this as a growth scenario, as an opportunity to challenge some of our thinking and, and, and also just to, uh, just to kind of see the sweet things that we have for what they are, things that we could not have. Right. Things that could go away things that you know need to be protected need to be cared for people and otherwise and Yeah, I think it's a I think it's an interesting an interesting sort of lesson in the power of perspective. Yeah for sure oh the the other thing I came across and you're talking about your Since we don't have a topic. I don't see Well, just keep rambling But the other thing I came across that brought me quite a bit of joy this week I was going to have it as a final note, but I think it's easier just to drop it in here because we were talking about the relative changes to your Land Rover and the suspension and that, which made me think of this series that Jalopnik has been doing. This is between two guys at Jalopnik, but specifically I think most of the writing and the hosting is coming from Jason Torczynski, but also a guy named David Tracy is also involved, as I think they're at his home. But it's this incredible series on the world's cheapest electric car. And there's no way, there's no way in an audio medium that I can tell you, I can accurately describe what a Changli looks like. But this is a $930 car from Alibaba. It's metal. It looks... Oh my gosh. The best thing I could say... Yeah, exactly. There you go. The best thing that I could say is if you have kids and you've seen the show Paw Patrol, it looks like a Paw Patrol vehicle, but with a roof. It's a very strange proportion. It's a very strange vehicle, but it's a $930... It's about $1200 once you add all the batteries. But it's a 1.1 horsepower EV with a roof and windows and an air circulation system and a steering wheel and pedals. And these guys are deep, deep car nerds, and they're blown away by what they're able to put in this car for such a tiny amount of money. It's made out of metal, not plastic. It has curved glass, which would be expensive. It has a crash bar front and back. It has a roof rack with an LED bar on it. It has little fans and little fans in the ceiling. It has an FM and Bluetooth stereo of some sort. It has a backup camera, which my Jeep doesn't have. Your Land Rover, of course, doesn't have. Um, I mean, if the other thing is like, if, if we decided to put a backup camera, even in a vehicle like my Jeep, it would cost several hundred dollars. Yeah, sure. Um, it, it's on a little tiny, like, um, I guess it would be billet aluminum wheels. Like why not steel? Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the strangest, most wonderful things I've come across in the car space in the last little while. And they've done everything from getting really excited about essentially getting approval from the owners of Jalopnik to spend the $1,000 on this car, to like getting it, driving it. They go through the whole suspension. Like it's like an actual suspension. It's not like a golf cart. It doesn't use leaf springs. It uses coilovers in the front. It has king joints. It has you know, a rack and pinion steering system. It's such a wild thing. And I had, this is like every time the new video would come out, it would be like, I'm going to sit down and eat dinner. And I'm watching Jason Torczynski and David Tracy gush over this $930 electric car. And it made me, it made me really happy watching these. It's such a, such a silly, weird vehicle. And I, you know, I guess they're there in North Carolina and I'm sure it changes from one state to another. I'm sure it's different in Canada, but you can use a vehicle like this as long as it has a VIN, seatbelts and then your normal indicating light. Sure. On roads under 35 miles an hour. Yeah. And then you're allowed to cross roads that are more than 35 miles an hour. Yeah. So it's not like this wouldn't be like, like my parents live in a town where there's no road that's more than 35 miles an hour. Yeah. So you could do all your shopping in it. Um, it's, it's five lead acid batteries to make 60 volts. Um, and I'm sure you could find an L a lithium upgrade, which would theoretically give you, you know, more range, I guess, not, you wouldn't necessarily just instantly get more power. The thing has an actual differential. Um, like, so the motor is mounted directly into the differential, the, the electric motor. And I assume with a chain, they haven't taken it apart yet. Um, but you would expect it to be so much more like a golf cart, especially when a golf cart costs like five grand. Yeah. And this thing's one grand and has a roof. |
| Jason Heaton | It's so funny how they tried to, they tried to like make it look like, a real car and then it has this bulbous top that gives it that cartoonish look but there's like a big bull bar on the front like which i'm assuming is some protection but it's got like a grill and with like a hood and hood or not like it yeah i mean it's like it's like they've tried to make it look like it looks like a toy it totally looks like a toy |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it definitely looks like a weird toy, like a kid's toy of some sort. And if you're listening to this and you cannot believe how long it took, please hit the link or just Google Chang Li car. One word, Chang Li car. And these videos are just awesome and super funny. I don't even think you have to care one tiny bit about cars. And maybe when they get to the pulling apart the suspension to show you how complicated it is compared to its price point, But yeah, I was just absolutely thrilled by this. Super, super fun and a huge fan of Torchinsky and Tracy separately on the site and to see them working on this kind of stuff together and driving this thing through puddles and doing little like handbrake slides or whatever on gravel and stuff is super fun. It's a really weird oddity. There's no like, I wish I could do this for watches. I guess the equivalent would be like buying a Chinese tourbillon or something and somehow comparing it, but it would take somebody vastly more intelligent than me to make that comparison in any sort of a fair way, whereas this is car stuff. It's stuff that you can see from one car to another, and a $930 brand new car shouldn't have coilovers. It shouldn't have pressed door cards or a metal body. You'd expect it to literally be a go-kart with a roof. And it's so much more than that. I was just absolutely thrilled. Um, so definitely check that out. And, uh, for those of you who actually absolutely hate the idea, I apologize for talking about it for like 15 minutes. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that's a good, it's a good, uh, it's a good button on a, on a quirky episode sort of, uh, rent run the spectrum from some very serious stuff to, uh, to something really fun. And, uh, it probably is a good, good time to move into final notes. |
| James Stacey | So, yeah, so for final notes, we wanted to connect back with kind of what we talked about at the start of the episode with everything that's going on with the black rights movement in the States and just again, make some level of encouragement towards general education. And I think here we've got a couple of selections that might not be easy or enjoyable watching, but I think these are crucial things for people to understand because they provide context to a scenario that I think a lot of us listening don't have. Not all of us, but certainly I don't have, Jason doesn't have, et cetera. So Jason, why don't you go first? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so mine is a website. It's actually an organization that also has a pretty robust Instagram presence as well, and it's called melanin base camp. And as I mentioned earlier, a lot of the stuff we talk about on the show, adventure, travel, diving, climbing, that sort of thing, you tend to see predominantly white people doing this stuff. And I think people of color are largely underrepresented in those fields and certainly under reported or under shown, I guess, in everything from North Face ads to the movies we recommend like Meru and things like this. So Melon and Basecamp is an organization that was developed by people of color to kind of highlight the activities and achievements and gear and everything else for people of color. And although I personally am not a person of color, my wife is and she's from Sri Lanka and whenever we go hiking or on dive trips or traveling in a lot of places and kayaking or biking, um, she often does stand out as, as an anomaly among a largely white group of people. And I found this really encouraging to see this organization, to see this website that has, you know, different sections on featured bloggers and trip reports and gear reviews and, um, you know, different ways of, of amplifying or encouraging diversity outdoors. And I think it's really a healthy, sort of forward thinking, very positive way to, you know, move things forward, move that discussion forward. And I'm just, you know, kind of thrilled to see this and I've shared it with Ghoshani and, you know, certainly if there are people of color out there that are looking for more information that they can relate to, this might be a good one or for, you know, people like us, you know, white people. It's just nice to see a different perspective. Um, absolutely. So just a cool site and you can certainly check out their, their Instagram feed as well. So that's a melanin base camp melanin being the, the skin pigmentation that makes skin not white. Um, so that's where the name comes from. Cool. |
| James Stacey | No, that's a great pick. Uh, when you, when you dropped it into the show notes, I gave it a, gave it a spin. It's a, it's a good project and I like the delivery of it as well. That's cool. Um, mine is actually a, uh, a Netflix documentary, which they're now offering for free on, uh, YouTube, which is just called 13th. And it's, uh, it's a Oscar nominated, uh, film that won the best documentary at the Emmys and the BAFTAs and the ends double ACP image awards, uh, the year that it came out. And it's basically a look at the U S prison system and how there's, you know, longstanding racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration among blacks in America. And I think this is absolutely crucial viewing, especially if the goal is like we're saying to understand more than speak necessarily. And in this case, I think this is a great way to see one side of the systemic racism and some of the problems that could be treated and aren't being. So that's I don't think there's a lot more to say there, but it is now free. So you don't even need a Netflix. Uh, you know, account, uh, you can just watch it on your own. It's an hour and 40 minutes. It's not an easy viewing. Um, it's, uh, but I think it is something worth, uh, worth seeing and a scenario certainly worth understanding. |
| Jason Heaton | Hmm. That's good. That's great. And if you do have a Netflix account, I've noticed that they're highlighting, uh, um, yeah, there's a lot now. There's a lot now that's being highlighted on Amazon and Netflix that are kind of around some of these topics. So, um, if you're looking for that sort of thing, it's, uh, |
| James Stacey | Little easier to find, but I'll check this one out. If you have anything to add to a sort of list of things that you think we should be watching or intaking or understanding, by all means, send us a note to thegraynadoatgmail.com. And of course, if you have any feedback about today's episode or suggestions for future episodes or anything of the ilk, thegraynadoatgmail.com. And if you'd like to get your question and answer Audio question included in June's Q&A episode, which will be in a few weeks. Again, thegreatnadoatgmail.com. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, as always, thanks so much for listening and please hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. And you can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Eaton. James is at JESTACY and be sure to check out my post where I'm auctioning that Unimatic watch to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Thanks a lot for that. And yeah, if you have any questions, write thegreatnadoatgmail.com as James said, and keep those voice memos coming. Please do subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music Throughout a Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from George Bernard Shaw, who said, those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. |