The Grey NATO – 219 – The 2022 TGN Holiday Gift Guide

Published on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 06:00:00 -0500

Synopsis

This episode covers the hosts' gift recommendations for the 2022 holiday season. They each suggest 5 items across different price points - 4 under $150 and 1 "break the bank" luxury item. The affordable picks include things like a titanium mug, slip-on shoes, a tech pouch, a sweater, driving gloves, a pen, and a Kindle e-reader. The luxury items are a nice sweater and adjustable dumbbells. They also discuss updates on the show schedule, issues with the private podcast feed, the growth of their Slack community, and some of their recent experiences. Finally, they recommend an Eddie Bauer video about mountain climbing and the Disney+ series Andor.

Transcript

Speaker
James Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 219, and we thank you for listening. James, the penultimate episode of 2022, here we are.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we're getting down to the end. This is always a fun one. You know, it was weird on the last episode. I couldn't remember doing a gift guide for 2021 and I went back and looked and I like all my pics. Lo and behold. Yeah, it was there. It was there must have been, you know, it's it's it's that time warp of the pandemic. You just kind of lose. Yeah, lose details of what was last year and what was the year before and that kind of stuff. But no, I always really get a kick out of doing these episodes. And yeah, I'm looking forward to to getting into it. But we have a few updates to to start with. Right. So I guess we can kick off with the show schedule. For anyone who missed last week, we mentioned we won't be doing shows for the latter half of December. We're taking that off holiday time. So that's the 22nd and the 29th. We'll be back on January 5th, 2023. What a sentence. Right on. And then there's been an ongoing issue with the feed, the private feed. For those of you who are on the supporter crew, there's a private feed that, of course, includes our monthly Q&A. And all of a sudden, it stopped working. You couldn't really add the feed correctly, and some people were reporting they weren't getting episodes. By the time this episode comes out, everybody who supports the show will have gotten an email with steps to fix this problem. Basically, Substack gives you your own URL. So if you want the best possible performance, and obviously if you're paying for it, you might as well. And if you're confused by that, you can either send us an email or all of the steps and the ability to get some support is in our Slack as well.
James Yeah, crazy. We've become kind of technical support guys as TGN has been growing.
Unknown A little bit, yeah.
Jason Heaton Clearly I'm great at it, right? There's only a problem like every two or three weeks.
James But speaking of Slack, I mean, man, it's blown up. I mean, we talked about this last time, but it's been tremendous to kind of sit back and observe. It's taken on a life of its own for those of you that are supporters and taking part in our Slack space. It's been a lot of fun. I mean, the discussions are lively. They're all over the place. They're very polite and cordial and supportive and diverse. It's been amazing.
Jason Heaton Really, really fun to see. Yeah. No, I've been super impressed. And you start to see folks just digging into various topics and asking for more channels. And we've got quite an array, well over 500 people in there. So I mean, there's still a lot of subscribers that aren't. So if you want to get in It's essentially, like I said, uh, previously functioning like a full on watch forum at this point. Uh, but we also have, you know, channels for adventure and diving and driving and gear and all that kind of stuff. So we're having a blast with it, seeing some incredible watches, getting to chat with a lot of really interesting people. So I think it's working out so far.
James Yeah. And on the shop side of things, um, we're still selling additional straps to our annual supporters. Uh, you would have gotten the email with the link for that and, um, and the code for your discount. And people have been taking advantage of it. I've got another crop to run over to FedEx today. Yeah, it's been great. I hope everyone's enjoying them. I've seen a few photos being posted of those straps being put on watches, and it's going well. We're getting a little low on stock on the 20 millimeters, but I think they might hold out until we get the restock here probably later this month.
Jason Heaton Great.
James Yeah. Yeah, that's super. Cool. So what else have you been up to? Well, it's, you know, it's full on winter here. Um, we've, we've gotten kind of rounds of snow and, and fittingly, I think as we were recording with a Burga for our episode, uh, two 18, uh, our Arctic Explorer, um, guest last week, uh, we got dumped on with a lot of snow and then it turned quite cold. So I've been actually taking advantage. I've been out cross country skiing a couple of times. And in terms of kind of my winter exercise regimen, I kind of switch over from cycling to skiing and trying to maintain maybe once a week going running. But I also, if you might remember from a couple of years ago, I bought one of those water rowers, those indoor rowing machines. And I try to use that once or twice a week during the winter just for some variety and kind of a full body workout while not being, you know, frigidly cold. And I don't know if you remember when we were in Henley visiting Bremont, several years ago now we met the Olympic gold medalist, Alex Gregory, who came to chat with us at the old Braymont headquarters. And he, um, I've been in touch or kept in touch with him over the years on Instagram and he has recently launched a rowing workout platform called Fluenta to kind of leverage his expertise and experience in, in rowing. And, um, it's pretty cool. It's, it's not, um, I would say it's not unlike the model of Peloton, although, you know, there's no visibility to you and it's not integrated with any specific machine. You just stream it. And he has live workouts and he has kind of archived workouts that you can follow along. And they're about, you know, between 20 and 40 minutes long. You can just set it up next to your rowing machine and kind of follow along with Alex as he guides you through workouts. And that's been really cool. We'll put a link in the show notes if, uh, if you're interested in that, if you have a rowing machine and want to do some of that this winter, He does have like a trial signup program and a couple of kind of free workouts that you can try. So, you know, if you're keen on that, give it a shot. I guess one more note too is, um, speaking of winter, if, if anyone's keen on trying ice diving, you know, I've done that a few times over the years and the North American ice diving festival is the last weekend in January, right here in the twin cities and the Midwest school of diving kind of oversees that, that whole adventure. Um, they, cut a bunch of holes in the ice. They, I think last year they had like 60 divers, um, not in the water all at the same time, obviously, but you know, going in at various holes, they offer ice dive certification classes through, I believe either Patty or now we, I think you can take one or the other, um, you can pick. So I'm going to take part in that this, this, uh, this winter. And if anyone is interested and available that weekend and wants to make the trip to the twin cities, uh, it'd be cool to see you there. And we'll throw a link in the show notes. So any brave, divers that have some cold tolerance and a dry suit or a very thick wetsuit. Yeah. I'd love to see you there.
Jason Heaton That's awesome. That sounds like a lot of fun. A certain type of a lot of fun, but a lot of it.
James Right, right. Yeah. And anything new on your end? You, um, you just had a little weekend travel for some family business, but, uh, I imagine you're busy with, with end of year Hodinkee stuff now.
Jason Heaton Yeah, pretty slammed with work these days. But yeah, I we ended up having to go to Edmonton very briefly this weekend for a for a family funeral, which was obviously not not the ideal, you know, scenario in which you want to travel. But we went to some cold and fairly snowy Edmonton and had a couple days with family, you know, to anyone in the in the area who, you know, kind of would have liked to have done a hangout or whatever. It wasn't really the context for that trip. Didn't have a lot of, you know, sort of free time. And obviously, with it being a funeral, there were some Family obligations. They're keeping us pretty busy. So If I can make it back to Edmonds, I probably wouldn't do it in December But if and when I make it back it would be a fun place to to try and get a few people together For a little bit of a hangout, which just didn't work out this time around Yeah, but luckily the travel and the weather and all that kind of stuff largely worked out. So it was pretty much headache free Yeah, oh good.
James I guess we can move ahead into our main topic. But before we do that, let's do a quick risk check You you picked up something new this week
Jason Heaton I did, yeah. We had a few errands to run, which brought us to the West Edmonton Mall, and so we had a morning trip to the West Edmonton Mall, which is, for those of you who don't know, I believe it remains Canada's largest mall. It has an amusement park, and a water park, and a pirate ship, and sea lions, and all this different stuff, and a whole hockey rink. And I hadn't been to the West Edmonton Mall in a really long time, and we were strolling around, crossing a few things off the list, and came across the Swatch Boutique, in the mall and thought, Hey, why not? Well, you know, it's a huge mall. It's probably a pretty busy shop. Maybe they've got a moon swatch in there. I've kind of taken to asking every time I go somewhere and you know, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, nope, no luck. Anytime I found, uh, found a swatch shop, you know, usually they were in airports or, or, or, uh, train stations, things like that. And, and didn't have any luck, but walked in and the guy said, Oh, we have pretty much all of them except the one that looks like the moonwatch.
Unknown Oh, wow.
Jason Heaton And I said, oh, that's great. So we're taking a look, trying to decide between this and that. And he said, actually, I think we do even have the Moonwatch 2. So I think the one that they actually didn't have, which was on my list of the ones I like, was the Neptune, the blue one. Oh, yeah. The dark blue. And I'm not sure that they had the gray black one. Kind of hemming and hawing between the mission to Mars and the Jupiter. And then I figured this probably isn't a watch I'm gonna wear a ton to begin with. Yeah. But it is one where like we're pretty keen on getting one, my wife and I, just because it was such a huge moment in watches and it kind of feels weird not to have one, especially because they're not that expensive, all things considered. Right. It does feel like a lot of money for what is essentially a plastic quartz watch, but we settled on the Mission to Mars. I'm a Project Alaska fan from way back, a very cool watch. And yeah, I've got that on my wrist on a tan NATO at the moment. And I like it. I'm not sure that I could get used to like daily wearing a bright red case.
James Yeah, I don't think I could either. Yeah. That's a surprise pick for you.
Jason Heaton I didn't... I can't see you in a red watch to begin with, but... Yeah, it's a little bit much, but again, we kind of figured it was more of a memento to kind of a big moment in watches. It'll be one of the bigger stories in my tenure in watches would be... Yeah, true. the moon swatch, and we just thought it'd be fun. So this one was also one that my kids were kind of excited about.
James And how does it feel? Is it absurdly light?
Jason Heaton Yeah, it weighs nothing at all. I like it. It wears just fine. It's okay on a NATO. I don't know what strap either. If I had bought the Jupiter, it would have been a much more wearable watch, being kind of... It almost looks a little bit like the Ceratanium IWC stuff, that kind of matte sand color. Yeah, and you could probably wear it on a ton of different straps. I came home and I don't like the strap. It came with one because it's white and two because it feels like it's maybe a two dollar strap. I came home and just started throwing it on other natos and it doesn't none of them are great. So I might have a red nato somewhere. I got to dig through, you know, the lower tier boxes of colors. I don't typically wear
James Well, you could, um, you could certainly get a green NATO and kind of lean into the holidays, you know, the red.
Jason Heaton Oh, I know. Yeah. And the red and white, this might be like my Canada day watch from now on.
James Oh yeah. There you go. Yeah. There's potential.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But yeah, I think with the right strap, it could be fun, but otherwise I think it's, it's, I almost see it as more of like a memento to, uh, to a big moment in watches. Yeah.
James Yeah. Oh, that's cool.
Jason Heaton How about you?
James Yeah, I'm wearing my Braymont, the Supermarine 2000. I pulled it out of the box. Still have it on the steel bracelet. So the thing, it's like, you know, a workout as well as a watch thing is very heavy. This is a watch that, you know, I was thinking back to, you know, how long I've had this watch. And I think it's the longest, my second oldest watch in my collection, not oldest in terms of date of manufacture that goes to like a Speedmaster from the sixties, but I got this watch in late 2012, so it's coming up on 10 years with this watch. And, you know, I used to wear it a lot more. I still love it. When I put it on last night, you know, I still get that little bit of a buzz. It's just such a crisp, kind of handsome, very athletic looking watch. And, you know, it's massive. It's a 45 millimeter watch, and I kind of veered more towards smaller, slimmer stuff that's a little more comfortable in the past year or two. I still love it. And I have a lot of good memories attached to it. And, you know, when I got it, it was, it was right when Bremont launched the S2000. They had the S500 before that. And this was one of the first of the S2000. So yeah, just kind of a fun coincidence to pull it out and then realize that it's been almost exactly 10 years since I got it.
Jason Heaton That's awesome. Yeah. I'm trying to think if I've had anything for that long. I mean, yeah, outside of like my original SKX007. Yeah, probably not. Right. Yeah. Everything else has kind of come and gone for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. That's very cool. Yeah. Great watch too. Those designs, I mean, it was my introduction to Bremont probably only a little bit before 2012. I don't remember when I wrote that S500 review for Watch Report. That design was kind of my introduction to the brand. I just thought, man, it doesn't look anything like a sub. Right. It has this sort of like elegant, toolish thing that blends together. And it's honestly what I love about my 302 now. I think it's the core of their kind of appeal. Yeah. Well, Hey, speaking of good stuff, you want to get into the gift guide?
James Yeah, let's do it. So we got requests specifically like unsolicited requests from listeners who wrote in and said, are you guys going to do the gift guide this year? Because I've relied on it for ideas for the past few years. And so far be it for us to, to skip a year of the gift guide. We might be coming in a little late with this one. But you know, a lot of people are last minute shoppers. So episode 171 was our 2021 guide. I'm sure there's still a lot in there that might be applicable to this year. So if you're, if you want even more. gift ideas, you could go back and re-listen to that one.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'll go ahead and link to all of the past ones in the show notes, so you'll actually get a much bigger list than just because we've been doing this for a few years.
James Yeah, yeah. And our format has roughly stayed the same over time. We try to pick five items each, four under about $150 and then kind of one break the bank, kind of bigger item for that special someone or for yourself. or for an idea to give somebody. Yeah, maybe so. And, you know, we try to pick things that we've ourselves maybe had our hands on or enjoyed this year in most cases. And we're trying to kind of stay away from watch stuff. I mean, we talk about watches so much on the show that we kind of try to veer away from that.
Jason Heaton The whole show is kind of a gift guide to watches in some way. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. This is all stuff that we've kind of had our own experience with. Usually for when I make my list, I try and think about things I bought and used all year.
Unknown Mm hmm.
Jason Heaton That's probably a pretty good, pretty good place to start. And then the other thing we want to make really clear is this is not sponsored in any way. And none of the brands that we mentioned on the show today have any knowledge that they were going to be mentioned, right? There's no, there's no forethought or anything like that given to it. These are just things that we like that came in at a sort of workable price point. And we try to have some flexibility under the 150 as well. So it's not all $150 items and then a $20,000 watch or something like that. It's more chill than that if you haven't listened to one in the past. Yeah. You want to kick it off?
James Yeah, my first item is my least expensive and it's actually one that I did get as a gift from you. You and Sarah were kind enough to send Ghoshani and me each one of these Snowpeak titanium mugs. It's kind of along the form factor of a typical kind of camp mug with the folding Handle it holds about 14 ounces. So a decent-sized, you know coffee or cup of tea or you could eat soup out of it Whatever and being that it's titanium the kind of heat transfer it's different than kind of one of those aluminum mugs that like burns your hand when you fill it with hot fluid and Super rugged takes scratches really well. Ours is ours are pretty beat up. But you know, obviously very sturdy very Very durable product. And, uh, I just like Snowpeak stuff in general. I mean, you, you could almost put a whole gift guide together with Snowpeak products and I was tempted to do that, but I thought for kind of a, I don't know if you call it a stocking stuffer or something to kind of give somebody, you know, maybe even put, I don't know, a little candy inside of it or, or some tea bags or whatever to give as a gift to somebody that you know, that likes to get outside and, and. have a mug of tea in the wilderness or something. Um, it's, it's just a cool gift. I mean, anything titanium is, is awesome. And then to have a, a titanium coffee mug camp mug sort of feels a little bit luxurious or a little bit, you know, a little bit special.
Jason Heaton So that's my first item. Yeah. I told, I mean, I'm a huge snow peak fan that this stuff makes incredible gifts. When I, if I have to buy something for someone who kind of like you, like, I don't think guys like us are that easy to buy for. Yeah. like we just like because you come across something that you like and you just buy it for yourself or whatever, and and it's it's often bought with the some specificity right, especially like let's not even get into watches. That's a very difficult thing to gift somebody, but the nice thing about the snow peak stuff is the quality is really high and there is that like specificity of aesthetic and taste just in all of their product. So if you have to buy a gift for somebody, it's kind of a no brainer. They have stuff where it's not just for being in the outdoorsy type, They make all sorts of different products and even into clothing and things like that. I'm just a huge fan of the brand. I think they make a fantastic gift for sure.
James Yeah. Yeah. All right. That's $34. So easy, easy first entry there. What are you kicking off with?
Jason Heaton My first one is something I spoke about on the show a couple months back. It's a little case kit bag thing from alpaca. It's called the elements tech case mini. It's 55 bucks and I bought it I was kind of unsure how much I would use it, and I've basically fallen in love with it. Every time I've traveled since I got it, I've used it to hold, you know, a flashlight, a battery charger, a cable, my AirPods. I tuck my passport into it often. If I'm kind of coming and going from a hotel room, I'll put some stuff in that, and it can then drop into a larger bag, and it just keeps everything kind of organized. And then on a flight, it's like perfect, because it sits in the elastic pouch on the side of my tenba. right at my feet and I can reach down and just have access to all this kind of stuff that I might want. Yeah, I'm not saying you necessarily have to go with alpaca. I used a similar but much less refined product that was say maybe $15 from Amazon, like a velcro molly sort of pouch. This is just a kind of a more elevated take comes in a ton. It comes in four different colors. It comes in different sizes, you can get larger ones like ones that can hold a small iPad or a Nintendo switch. and if you go to alpaca, you'll see that like you can basically pick from like 58 different bags. So you can be very specific. This is the one that works for me, but I do think one of these bags would make a great gift for anyone who does the edc thing or travels a lot, you know, just kind of carries more than they might commonly just have in their pockets like a phone and a wallet and their keys. Yeah, so that's my first pick 55 bucks. My guess is they'll have a A sale, they just had a Black Friday sale, I'm sure. I got 80 emails about it. But yeah, I like it quite a bit and I think it would make a great gift and it comes in a few different colors.
James Yeah, I like this. This is like one of those products that you think, how did I live without this? Not so much that you need this, it's like it just makes life easier, it looks like. And like with the titanium mug that I had, this is something that if you wanted to kind of upgrade the gift or kind of supersize it, so to speak, you could you know, give it to somebody with something inside of it, something relevant. Sure. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Yeah. Very cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think like this, this and one of those little pry bar tools that you can actually take on a plane. Oh yeah. Yeah. It would make like a nice little like two for sort of sort of gift and you'd probably still come in under 70 bucks.
James Right. All right. My number two is a nice seasonal product here. This is the Stio Coulter Low. It's a pair of kind of slip on shoes that If you're not familiar with Stio, they're based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and they kind of specialize in kind of that mountain lifestyle clothing. They do make some technical kind of ski wear, hiking gear, that sort of thing. But these shoes, they come in a number of different kind of formats. I picked the low, which is kind of just a standard, very shoe looking piece of footwear. They make like a slip-on boot as well. And my first-hand experience is actually second-hand experience because I got a pair of these for Ghoshani. I got her the kind of the slip-on boots because, you know, she likes to just kind of throw something on her feet and go out the door, whether you're going to the store or she's spent a couple of days in the office this week and it's a pretty casual environment, but it's, you know, it's cold here and a lot of kind of warm footwear, kind of slipper style footwear just doesn't have any kind of traction on the bottom. And these are, these have like a legitimate, you know, kind of, Soft rubber lug soul that, that is really grippy on, on ice. And then the lining of it is kind of a poly wool blend. And with the, the, the culture low that I'm going to link to and talk about here, you can actually press down on the heel. So you can almost make it into like a slip on almost like a slipper. So these are really versatile and I'm kind of coveting hers. I kind of want a pair of these because they kind of pitch these as like a prey ski, you know, like you get out of your ski boots and you've got these sitting in the back of your car. And you throw them on and then you can go to like, you know, the pub afterwards or whatever it might be. And, you know, having seen Ghashanis, I think they're, they're pretty awesome. They're, they're like a suede leather outer, and then they've got the, this grippy sole. And then the inside is this a fluffy, warm, um, kind of soft interior. So.
Unknown Right on.
James Yeah. Good, good, good for kind of us Northern hemisphere types that, that get some cold weather. Um, if you want just a casual pair of shoes. Yeah. And these are about $129. So, you know, still under $150, still a nice gift. You're kind of maybe moving up a notch from, you know, kind of the casual co-worker kind of gift. This is a great one for a spouse or a kid or, you know, someone special or whatever.
Jason Heaton So, yeah. Yeah. Those are cool. I like the look and it looks like a pretty interesting company as well.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton All right. Where are you headed next? My second pick is going to be also a piece of apparel, one that I bought at Windup Chicago and have basically worn at least weekly, sometimes several times a week. Since then, it's also become a go to piece for travel and just general comfort, and that's the standard HXK sweatshirt. Oh, nice. Jason, I don't know if you got one of these. The T-shirts, obviously, we've talked about. I think the last year, their standard H Avant T was in our gift guide. I would live in one of these. If I buy three or four more, this would be my only long sleeve sort of top. It's a lightweight kind of classic sweater, super comfortable, fits really well, washes really well. It's $98. And I remember when I bought it, we love Standard Age, we love Wesley, we had him on the show when we were at Wind Up. But $100 for a sweatshirt, I feel like I've got sweatshirts that I like quite a bit that cost less than that. But the truth is I just absolutely adore this thing, worth every penny, really nicely made, like I said, washes really well and just insanely comfortable and pretty versatile. It's a simple crew neck sweater. It doesn't have a lot of weight or bulk to it. So it packs up really nicely. It's not, it's kind of like t-shirt weight, but it's a different material than his t-shirts. It has, it's like very soft and, um, and, and light and easy to wear. And it's otherwise it's, it's a gray sweatshirt. I mean, it's the, it's, it's the gray NATO of upper body wear. I absolutely love this. It's definitely not the only one I'm going to own. That's the XK sweatshirt in Heather Gray from Standard H. That's a nice one.
James Yeah, I've got a few of Wesley's stuff. I've got some of his Henleys and t-shirts and that cool Targa Florio jacket. But I don't have this and I remember seeing it at Windup. And you know, his stuff is just, it's like deceivingly simple. I mean, it's like so simple, but then like there's these like little touches and kind of design flourishes and the materials that he uses that make it stand out. So that's a good one. Yeah. What do you have up next? Another, well, another guy that was at Windup Chicago, actually, this is our friend Bradley at Autodromo. He sells these stringback driving gloves and I've had a pair for, man, I've had these for years. Ghoshani got these for me for a gift. Boy, it must be pushing 10 years ago now. And he's expanded in terms of his color offerings. These are fantastic. You know, driving gloves are not something that a lot of people think of or use anymore. And, You know, since I started wearing them, I got these when I still had the Alfa Romeo. I had an old Spyder years ago. And it just kind of felt right to wear kind of an Italian-inspired brand's driving gloves. And they're so comfy. And, you know, I don't really wear them now when I'm driving the Land Rover around. It just almost doesn't even seem to fit there. But I'm using them as cycling gloves in cooler weather because they're full-fingered, obviously. They're a lovely, very soft leather palm, you know, grippy surface. And then the back is this cotton woven string back format. And they look good. They're really slim and comfortable and very supple. And, you know, once you wear driving gloves, when you're actually like driving a car, like you realize why people always used to wear these. Especially in the old days, I guess you had bigger wheels, you know, wood rimmed wheels that were a little bit slippery. You know, when it's not really cold enough to wear like full-on winter gloves, these are pretty fantastic. And again, you know, this is about gift-giving and this is like a splurge. These are $140. They're something that if you gave somebody, they feel special. And I'm drawn to, the ones I have are like a black string with kind of a wine red palm surface, which he doesn't seem to have anymore. You can get them in black, you can get them in kind of a caramel brown with a kind of an accrue string back, and then what the ones I love are these green palmed ones with the white. I think these are just so sharp.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think you need to have the car to match it, but if you've got a friend who's got the kind of vintage-y car or an older car, something like that, I think you could do really well with a set of these as a gift. They're super fun. Yeah. And a little bit of sensification. Yeah, exactly. Right. Next up is another thing that I think when I first got one of these, I didn't think that I would get a whole lot of use out of it. I just thought it was a nice version of something I used occasionally. And then what happened was, because it's nice, I started using it more than I would have a less expensive one. And it's a tactile turn, the side click pen. So I've got a couple of these. They sent me one. I didn't buy this one. They sent it to me. And it's the mini size. So it's like 4.6 inches. Oh, sure. Yeah. It fits right in my Papa wallet from the Observer collection. and I use it all the time. It's the kind of pen where if it's on the other side of the house, I could be sitting at my desk and if it's next to my bed or something, instead of just grabbing a pen on my desk, I'll walk over and get this from the other side of the house to write something down. I really like it. I think it would make such a good gift because they're $100 for the titanium version and you can get them engraved for another 10 or 15 bucks. Oh, cool. So if that's within your price point, I think they make a It's just a really nice gift and pretty much everybody still writes something sometime. The small size, if I was going to write a lot, would be tiresome. I would want one of the longer ones, but for an option that can tuck into a wallet or, you know, be kind of unobtrusive in a bag, that sort of thing, I think it's perfect. It's either tucked into that wallet or it's at the bottom of the alpaca. That's where it lives.
James Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to suggest that that would make a great companion gift to the alpaca tech case you mentioned. I think that'd be a for sure. Slip it inside. Yeah. Machant flashlight, this, yeah, be cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton And they also do a bolt action version. Oh, yeah. Which I think is very cool, but I just haven't had hands-on experience with it. We have the Hasler spring bar tool as bolt action, and it's super fun. You can't always do it while you're, say, recording a podcast, because it's loud enough that it shows up on the microphone. Otherwise, I think that the bolt action is probably the way to go. And I've just been super impressed by Tactile Turn. They make everything in-house, even their own screws for the pen clip, the pocket clip. Yeah, they make some nice stuff, and I've really enjoyed having the pen over the last year, so that would be a strong recommendation for a gift.
James Alright, I'm moving a little bit upmarket here now. This exceeds the $150 artificial limit we've put, although I've noticed when you log on to Tivoli Audio's website, you get a little pop-up for 20% off, so if you want to sign up for something, you could get it down close to $150. This is the Model 1 BT. This is their kind of classic desktop AM FM radio and the BT stands for Bluetooth. So this is one that, you know, you click over to the Bluetooth setting, you can connect to your phone or whatever and play music through it. I really like these. I think we actually have two of them in the house. One's the Bluetooth and one is not the Bluetooth. And I got both as gifts, um, over the past, gosh, 10, 15 years. I keep one in my office. I just kind of keep it on low on like a classical music station. And then in the living room we have one that, you know, for, playing a podcast or some music or something. We use it on the Bluetooth setting. And they just look great. I mean, this is like an old school looking tabletop radio with an analog tuner that is incredibly satisfying to turn, to kind of tune into a radio station, AM or FM. Sound quality is good. It's decent. You know, I don't think it's up to the standard of, you know, a good set of hi-fi speakers. I think the trade-off here is, you know, you're getting something that's very compact, looks really good on a shelf, comes in a number of finishes, and I don't know, it's just a bit of nostalgic with a very useful kind of functional quality to it. And to boot, it's actually a radio that eagle-eyed kind of Bond movie watchers noticed Bond had in his house in Jamaica in No Time to Die. People noticed that in the background. So if you want that bit of cachet, that bit of a link, there's that as well. Yeah, this is the Tivoli Audio Model One BT for $199.
Jason Heaton These are sweet. I think for the... I mean, it's really easy to find Bluetooth speakers from any price range, right? But I have actually used these before, they were in a hotel I stayed in in the past as the kind of in room audio option, and they sound pretty good. Not amazing, it's a single speaker, so you have to adjust to that. But for a single speaker, they sound like they're worth 200 bucks. Yeah. And the feature set works good. And I think what you get here in the highest supply is a look. Yeah. They're just really pretty. Whereas most Bluetooth speakers at very best just look like a speaker. Yeah. Yeah. Some look like a sneaker, very ugly things to have kind of out and about. Like they make sense at the beach. Whereas this actually makes sense like in your living room, in a space where you might want to sit and relax and that sort of thing. I like them a lot and a great brand as well.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Oh, and look at that. A bunch of different colors too. Right. Yeah, some cool colors. Good pick, even if you did blow through the budget a little bit.
James All right, what's your number four?
Jason Heaton Yeah, so my fourth one is another thing I bought for $150 Canadian about this time last year and surprised myself not only with how much I liked it, but how versatile it was to the extent that it made me use it more. And that's a Kindle Paperwhite. I mean, this is going to be on a lot of people's gift guides. I could not figure out Amazon dot com's pricing structure. And they've said everything was unavailable. So I don't know if there's brand new ones coming and that's what's going on. But what I have is a 2021 Kindle Paperwhite. So this is an e-reader. If you don't know what an Amazon Kindle is, it basically you buy books and they load up. And if you travel like I do and get to read on planes, this makes sense almost immediately because it's so thin, it weighs nothing. The battery lasts forever. I bet you in I bet you have charged it four or five times in a year.
James Oh my gosh.
Jason Heaton And I've read a dozen books on it. I really, really enjoy the format. I love that for this model, and I'm sure this exists on more expensive ones, but I don't know necessarily why you'd spend more. But on the one I have, you can control the brightness, of course, of the backlight, but you can also control the color. So if you want it to be pretty much yellow for reading in the middle of the night, dealing with some insomnia, that sort of thing, piece of cake. The interface is good. The clarity of the screen is fine. I have no complaints about it as a product. Like I said, the battery life is great. Setting it up and getting it working so I can just buy something on my phone and it just shows up on it. I don't even have to deal with trying to navigate a website on the Kindle's e-paper, e-ink display. It just shows up and then I've read a handful of books and I have a handful more waiting for me. I've really, really enjoyed it and I think that it should be as low as $99, depending on where and when you buy it?
James Yeah. I clicked the link that you dropped in the show notes and I get on the American, the US site, I get for $159. So close, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah. All right. So maybe I blew the budget by $10. I definitely saw the 2021 for $99 over in the last couple of months, like for one of the big sale events. Yeah. So I would keep an eye out. If you like to read especially if you can get it synced up with your library system, so you don't even buy the books. Oh, yeah, right. That's what I originally thought to do, and it turns out my library uses the competing product in Canada called like a Kobo or something, and then I was just like, I give up. Not everything has to be this hard, but I know in the States you can do the... You can get your... Use your library card and the website and the rest of it and link it up, and then you're not buying the books, you just kind of reserve them and they show up when they're available. Oh, yeah. I think that's a great idea.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And I also, this, this is something that I think like if you know someone in your life who's a reader, maybe this isn't the right product for you. But if you know someone in your life who's kind of a voracious reader, I think that especially if you go the library route, this is going to pay for itself very quickly.
James Yeah. Yeah. I like this. It's cool. I hadn't really considered an e-reader. I do a lot of audio book reading, but then when I, I kind of cheap out and I just like read books on my phone, which kind of discourages me from doing it cause it's just a small display, but I like this.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely done a few with Kindle on my phone and it's it's fine if you're like on the subway right sure yeah, but like for much longer than than the twenty or thirty minute thing like with the Kindle like I can sit and read all afternoon on it. Yeah, there's no I I fatigue you're not looking at a bright screen or trying to deal with that like it's just it's a little bit more comfortable that way and in my world it feels like you pay twenty or twenty five bucks for every book. Yeah, especially if you're trying to keep up with something that's new and it's in hardcover or whatever so it Again, when you factor it out for a few bucks a year, even, it seems to make sense to me. And the fact that I can just... I mean, it's thinner than my iPhone. It just drops into my bag and disappears. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Good product. Yeah. Alright, so if you're blowing the bank, Jason, what are you going for?
James Yeah, and this doesn't... This last one I've got, it isn't... It doesn't blow the bank so much. It's not even that much. Yeah, right, by about $100. This is $249, but it feels... It looks so good. It feels good and luxurious. This is the... Prometheus Design Works CWO or Cold Weather Operations Full Zip Sweater. I have one of these. I bought it last winter and I probably wore it more than any other sweater. I've long talked about my love of commando style sweaters, you know, with the kind of the patches on the shoulders and on the elbows. This is kind of in that same vein, but this is more of a full zip cardigan sweater. Really thick, wide ribbing, luxurious, thick merino wool. And then the, the, um, sort of reinforcements or patches on the back of the arms are just incredibly long. They start way down at the, at the cuff at your wrist and go like halfway up your tricep. Um, and it's the sort of slippery nylon material. So they're not like a lot of these sweaters have like a cotton that kind of gets fuzzy or linty or whatever. This, this sweater just feels it's heavy. You can almost wear it as a jacket on, on, less frigid days. Um, I've been comfortable indoors with this on. It's got two very generous zipper kind of pouch pockets, uh, you know, hand warmer pockets and a two way zipper. It's, it's just wonderful. It's just, it, it feels good when you put it on. It feels like, you know, like you said about the gloves, it's a bit of an occasion to kind of put this sweater on. And I think that's kind of what a lot of Christmas gifts are all about. And I think as, as kind of my top end special gift, this just feels like one of those lifetime, articles of clothing that you'd give someone or hopefully receive and enjoy for a very long time. And I just love mine. And the one I have is like a silver gray, which they don't make anymore. They've got a black version and then the kind of the olive drab green color, both of which, you know, I really like a lot, but I can't say enough good things about Prometheus Designworks. Their products are great. It's a really kind of small set of clothing and interesting accessories and gear. You know, they've got the, The wrist strap compass and they've got, you know, some other oddball kind of very tactical sort of EDC tools, um, some bags, et cetera. But, um, the few pieces of clothing I've gotten from them are top notch and, uh, the sweater is, is among them. So yeah, that's my, that's my break the bank at a $249. I like it.
Jason Heaton Good pick. It looks like a fantastic sweater. Yeah. How many great sweaters are there these days? It's a good time to be into good sweaters. Yeah. And yeah, everything I've ever come across from Prometheus Design Works is great. Yeah. Yeah. Not unlike a Snow Peak. They just seem... They have a wide range of kind of products and all of it seems to work pretty well and have been made by people who like the thing that they're designing. Yeah. Which I always like. So that's a solid pick for sure.
James Yeah. All right.
Jason Heaton You're gonna bring us home. I sure am. So I really kind of hemmed and hawed on a handful of different products for the blow the bank. You know, last year I went with an electric bicycle from Rad Power Bikes, which we love and got tons of use out of this year. It's a great product. And this year is something I've actually owned for, it's got to be six or seven years. And I've used it on and off and you'll understand why in a moment. It's the Bowflex Select Tech 552 Dumbbells. I went back and found my notes from last year's gift guide. and I had these select along with the rad power and I went with the rad power because you could actually buy it during the pandemic. It was really difficult to get a set of these weights. I'm sure I'm sure many people in the audience know what these are. I think that these are for four hundred and twenty nine dollars, the best thing you could buy yourself or someone you care about for that amount of money. It's two dumbbells. They have dials on the side and you change the amount of weight. They sit in a base that holds the plates. Yeah, And it's very simple to use. They're really nicely made. They're not cheap, but there's so much less to deal with than buying a rack of weights for the corner of your room. And if that works better for you, by all means, spend the money on that. My point is more to make a little bit of an investment in like last year it was a bicycle, this year it's a set of weights. and they haven't included app. I haven't moved, for those of you who go and check it out, they're offering, they're transitioning from the old Bowflex app to a new one called Journey, but spelled without any vowels. And I think that's a yearly thing. I haven't used it, so I can't comment on it. I think they're gonna force me to go to that soon, and they'll discontinue the original app. At this point, I know my workouts so well that I would just do them off a piece of paper. But the app, especially if you're just getting into it, the app and the weights, You start with a six week challenge. They take you through a bunch of different motions and you get a feel for what your weight level is for each one. These things go from, I think it's five pounds to 52.5 pounds per hand. Okay. Yeah. And the app has several hundred movements and then you can either use any of its pre-designed workouts once you're done. The six week challenge is how I recommend you start. and those ones will take you from about 18 to maybe 35 minutes, so we're not talking about a huge outlay of time, but the whole system together is one that I found I returned to. For whatever reason, you stop working out or you stop keeping to a schedule, you travel too much or whatever, I never really mind coming back to these. I took a big break over the pandemic, just got lazy and I've been getting back into it more recently and just really, really enjoy them and highly recommend them. They're not cheap, Yeah, there's definitely cheaper ways to get into moving some weight around your house. If you want best dollar per pound, it's probably just to buy a kettlebell or two and do a few things with those. But these, if you're willing to break the bank, I really like the product. I enjoy using the app. It's a little video. It's all time. So you get 30 seconds to do your exercise and then a minute wait, and it takes you through five sets. And then it goes to the next one. And each time you can put in what your weight was and it can start to track whether you're getting stronger and how and all these sorts of things. And each one has a little video of a person doing it. So if you're not really sure the difference between, you know, a deep squat and a deadlift or whatever, you've got the video right there.
James Yeah. I, you know, I've never been much into weight training. I've never found it compelling, but I think with, with an app that kind of guided you through it, I could see that being less arduous, less, um, I don't know, less prohibitive. And I, I, I liked the look of these. I noticed too, on their website, they offer free shipping, which is not an insubstantial offering given that each one weighs, yeah, exactly. And they're saying if you order by the 14th, you get it by Christmas. So, you know, yeah, that's, that's, uh, that's a very intriguing gift idea and a good one as we get into kind of that midwinter, like time for resolutions and, you know, get back on the fitness horse and that sort of thing.
Unknown So yeah, good pick.
Jason Heaton It's it's tough to suggest some of the other stuff like with your rowing machine. You can do that inside with a stand up bike. You could do that inside with the weights. You do that like but otherwise like a lot of my exercise is very much kind of tied to the season. Yeah, right. And this kind of gets me out of going on the weather's not good enough for a run today or a hike today or bike or whatever. You just go like well, they're just across the room and then I've I've even designed myself down to like I have a lazy workout, which is only like it takes me 20 minutes, huh? And when you get the number low enough, I actually title it 15 minute workout to trick myself, but when you get the number low enough, you end up removing some of these barriers where you're like, Oh, I don't have 35 minutes plus the time for a shower and the rest of it. Like, and yeah, true. Then you get into the mode of doing this every other day and pass the point where you're kind of sore for two or three days later. And then, and then it just becomes something that you kind of, in my case, look forward to. I mean, there was a time when I was in Vancouver, I probably did this three or four times a week for like four years and loved and just gave up when I moved and had a bunch of different lifestyle changes and that sort of thing. So I'm happy getting back to it. I think it's worth every penny of what they charge. And now that they're actually selling and shipping them, they're not blown out in terms of demand. It's on my list. I would have made it last year, but 2022 it is.
James All right. That wraps up our gift guide for 2022. Quick summary. You started with the Alpaca Elements Tech Case Mini for $55. A standard HXK sweatshirt for $98. The Kindle Paperwhite, which is about $159 US or as low as $99 Canadian. Who knows. The tactile turn side-click pen for $99 and can be engraved for a little bit more. And you finished with your Bowflex Selectech 552 dumbbells for $429. Yep.
Jason Heaton And you kick it off with the Snowpeak titanium mug for $34. I'm not sure you could spend $35 a lot better than that. The Stio Coulter Low shoes for $129. The Autodromo Stringback driving gloves for $140. The Tivoli Model 1 BT Radio, which is around $200, but you can get a discount through their website, or I'm sure find sales at other retailers that carry the same product. And finally, the Prometheus Designworks CWO Full Zip Sweater for $250. I think that's another 10 pretty TGN-y sort of products. Yeah. And stuff that we've really enjoyed this year, which is kind of my favorite context for this.
James Yeah. Same here. I hope people get some good ideas. I hope you get some, some good gifts for yourself and for whoever else you're buying for. And if you have other ideas, you know, there's still time. We got a couple of weeks before the holidays. Drop them into the comments on Substack or get into the Slack channel for episode chat and drop your ideas there. And let's just, share great gift ideas.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, it is a little late this time of year, but who knows, maybe, maybe, uh, you end up with a little bit of cash in your pocket from, uh, from a gift or, uh, you know, a gift card to burn something like that. Some of these would work out for that as well too. Right. So, yeah. All right. Let's do some final notes.
James You want to go first? Sure. This one's been in my, um, notes for pushing a month now. This is, uh, from Eddie Bowers, uh, YouTube channel. Um, and it's from, uh, early October. It's called Daulagiri, which is the name of a mountain in Nepal, one of the, the 14, 8,000 meter peaks. And it's an interesting story. It's a, it's a, it's a longer one. It's about 40 minutes and it's about an Ecuadorian mountaineer named Topo Mena, who some of you might remember was a partner to Corey Richards, uh, that, um, very well-known mountaineer that James interviewed a while back and who was involved with Vacheron on that incredible Everest watch. When they were going to pioneer that new route up Everest, which ultimately they couldn't succeed on, in this video, the two of them get together to put together a new route on Daulagiri, which is in Northwest Nepal. And due to some various circumstances, they were actually trying to do this right during the kind of the peak of COVID times and for a number of reasons, one of them drops out. They have to pick up a different climber to kind of take his place. And it's this well-known Ecuadorian climber, a woman named Carla Perez. You know, they set off to, to kind of pioneer this new route on Daulagiri. And I'm not going to kind of give away how this all wraps up, but I found what was interesting about this is whenever I watch videos about expeditions in the mountains or diving or wherever you're going, charting new places. I always think a lot of effort is put into making these videos and oftentimes it involves a team of videographers and a lot of money coming from sponsors. In this case, Eddie Bauer with this hope or maybe even assumption that it will be a success. And that's not always the case. And I always wonder what kind of pressure that puts on the people taking part in this when they get a lot of dollars from Eddie Bauer, the North face, whoever it might be. And I think this kind of addresses that, not, not head on, but just the idea of like expeditions are not guaranteed things. They're not something that, yeah, they're a gamble, you know, or any adventure. They're all, all a gamble, especially in the high mountains on a new route in, in, on an 8,000 meter peak. So, um, kind of keep that in mind as you watch this. I think it's a, it's a really well done video, obviously beautifully shot. You know, it's, uh, it's just a fantastic, uh, video about 40 minutes long on Eddie Bauer's YouTube channel. So check it out. It's called Del Laguerre.
Jason Heaton That's great. What a great suggestion. This looks fantastic. I totally, totally missed this one for whatever reason I'm not. I am now, but I wasn't subscribed to Eddie Bauer's YouTube channel. You know, I love a brand that does one thing and seems to also have the ability to, you know, put out a movie or something like this as well. Like we've had some great stuff like this in the past from Patagonia and it definitely kind of sweetens the kind of viewpoint on the brand. Yeah, right. Very cool. All right. What do you have? So for mine, I'm going to close out the show with a recommendation that actually came from several TGN listeners and Slack users, and that's a show on Disney Plus called Andor. It's from the Star Wars universe, not really my cup of tea typically, not a huge Star Wars nerd one way or another. I could take it and leave it. Generally, I've enjoyed a few episodes of Mandalorian over the last couple of years, but Andor is something a little bit different. It takes place in the world, but it doesn't have any characters that any of the major Star Wars characters. As far as I can tell, after the first season, there's no obvious Jedi in the show, and it's almost like a spy political thriller within the worlds of Star Wars. It's almost now that I start to explain it. I think I thought I had a better handle on explaining it before I got this far into the sentence. It's super compelling and kind of suspenseful and mysterious and has various sort of chapters of interest that that play out throughout the first season. And now I kind of understand why so many people have told me like, oh, you love Andor. Oh, you should watch Andor. Like, check it out. It has a nice depth to it. It has characters you actually want to know about and get to the next episode and that kind of thing. And I've really enjoyed it. So a full on and hearty endorsement of Andor, which still is in its first season or the first season is available on Disney Plus and the second season comes out. Soonish I think sometime next year. I think this only kicked off like in September You know, I'm with you.
James I have gotten so many recommendations from people to watch this There must be something to it and now you're you're suggesting it as well So I think I think it's time we we take a look at this and you know All bets are off when it comes to what I like or don't like I think I used to be much pickier or much more prejudiced when I approached shows and then We got into Game of Thrones. We got into Stranger Things and it was these are both shows that I just thought There's no way I'm going to get into this stuff. And I ended up loving them both. I'm sure this will be another one of the same. I think I loved the early Star Wars stuff. I kind of grew up with it, but then kind of fell away in the past, you know, a couple of decades. But yeah, I'm game to give this a shot. This sounds good. I mean, when that many people recommend it, there's something to that, I guess.
Jason Heaton I think you'll like it because it's a bit of a slow burn. They really take some time in the first few episodes to set up what's happening. And then they very kind of quickly flip that on its head. Yeah. then it takes off like almost in crisis mode over several episodes, and it's definitely the first show I've watched in a while, where I knew that there was 12 episodes or whatever, and I would finish an episode and look at the clock in the evening and go like... Should I do one more or should I just go to sleep? I'm tired, but I wanna know what happens. It has a cliff hangery sort of element to it, and I put several of them... I put the last half of the season on my phone for the flight back from Edmonton, and And it turns out I didn't have the final episode. I had only downloaded like the episode 10 or 11 and got home and immediately watched it and finished the season. So yeah, I'm a fan. I like it. And kind of like with the Mandalorian, it takes a format of a show that's recognizable, like a Western or a sort of political spy thriller, and then just deposits it into the Star Wars world. And you kind of get this play. I'm sure if Star Wars people are going to say like, oh, it's more specific than that. And I don't have the background for all of that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm, but I have really enjoyed enjoyed this and between this and the Mandalorian I think this feels like somebody had a whole idea when they started it whereas the Mandalorian kind of feels like One of those shows like like a Xena warrior princess or whatever where there's it's a new sort of theme every episode Without a lot of like overarching story that connects it all together There's some of that but there's a lot of it in and or and or feels like one long movie, huh? I Think you'll dig it.
James Nice. Cool Definitely will give it a shot. Good, good time of year to, uh, to dive into something like this too.
Jason Heaton I am. So as always, thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the gift guide for 2022. And if you want to chit chat more about it, hit us up on the Slack. It's a, it's going absolutely crazy over there. I have to turn it off when we're recording. Yeah. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly. Maybe you can grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO. Please visit TheGrayNATO.com.
James And we leave you with this quote from Anne Frank who said, No one has ever become poor by giving.