The Grey NATO – 221 – You, Me, and 2023
Published on Thu, 05 Jan 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
This episode of The Graynado podcast covers the hosts' reflections on the past year and their aspirations for 2023. They discuss the importance of simplifying their lives, doing less but focusing more on quality activities and experiences. The pandemic forced them to re-evaluate their priorities and find joy in smaller-scale pursuits closer to home. Moving forward, they plan to pare down possessions, travel less, and prioritize personal well-being through fitness goals and local adventures. For The Graynado, they aim to continue building the community through events and specials while maintaining the weekly show's quality.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Jason Heaton | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 221, and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. And a hearty Happy New Year to everybody out there, including you, James. I hope I got our intro right after taking a few weeks off. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we got to remember, see if we remember how to do this. But yeah, Happy New Year for sure. And to everyone listening, I think it's going to be a fun year. Looking forward to a great many things. And that's kind of the overall tone of the show is a little bit of holiday catch up and then some chit chat about like the way that we're planning for 2023, what we're hoping to see, whether it be lifestyle stuff or who knows. But we'll get to that in a few minutes. What do we got as far as updates? Oh, the slack is still going super. Well, we're now over 700 people crazy, which is which is nutty There's there's a conversation there pretty much every day that I lose some time on it's become my like main social media network Obviously, that's not what it is. It's not really social media, but I just I like it so much more than Instagram Oh, I do too between wrist tracks and the incredible stuff that goes into the adventure channels Obviously we got some some great car conversations going on in there and then pretty much anything you can imagine what watches like I need a recommendation of a strap That's this size that has this sort of hardware all the way down to like have you guys seen this look at this thing? I pulled out of my drawer. I got this repaired like it's full-on and I'm just having such a blast with it So if you're interested in getting in on the slack, let alone all the other benefits You can hit that up at the great NATO comm slash support dash TGN to get in for as little as $5 a month We'd love to have you there And if you're a subscriber and you're not in there, be sure to check your emails, check the show notes, that sort of stuff, because you should have a more recent invite email with the proper setup steps or whatever. But if you have any trouble, thegreatnadoatgmail.com. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and quickly speaking of the benefits for supporters, for our annual subscribers, as you sign up, of course, you are entitled to a free TGN NATO strap, branded buckle, and some stickers. And most of you have taken advantage of that. If you haven't, definitely hit us up if you missed that. And, uh, if you are an annual subscriber ongoing, you also get the ability to purchase, uh, any number of additional, uh, TGN NATO straps. Um, so if you have any questions about that, again, the great NATO at gmail.com, we've mentioned this before, but I thought it would be bare. I thought it would bear repeating. And, uh, speaking of the straps, I, just before the new year, I got a shipment of. Uh, all new, uh, NATO straps, not all new as in, um, resupply restock. So we're, we're, we're full up and ready to Keep shipping those out. We were getting dangerously low there at the end of the year. So I'm glad to see those arrive. |
| James Stacey | Fantastic. Well, that's great. And other than that, other than, you know, updates on the slack and the straps and the rest of it, how are your holidays? We, you know, I really made a conscious effort to not have my phone with notifications. I didn't, I'm not saying I missed any messages from you necessarily, but I definitely didn't get to them very quickly. How was, uh, how was your time away? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, it was great. I think I followed a similar pattern as you. I, um, I didn't turn off notifications on my phone necessarily, but I don't get that many. But what I did do is I, I just sort of left my laptop shut from about December 22nd until well, pretty much this morning, other than to fire it up, to print some shipping labels for the, our TGN supporter kits and strap orders. And it was just a nice break. You know, I, I kind of buttoned everything up before shutting down. And so I didn't really have anything. looming or lingering or, you know, niggling in the back of my mind that I had to get done or come back to. Right. Um, which is always nice. I love that feeling of just sort of shutting down. You know, I went cross country skiing almost every day. We've been blessed or cursed however you want to look at it with a ton of snow this winter. And, uh, I've made the most of that. And then just met up with, uh, you know, a lot of friends. We, we did everything from like winter solstice, uh, bonfires to curry dinners here and, and a new year's party at a friend's house. And, It's just been a really chill and, and, and nice break. No, that sounds awesome. You know, I think I mentioned before, before the holidays that I kind of struggle with the whole, you know, reboot to restart at the beginning of the year. And, and it always starts a little slowly for me. Like this week is always, some people really go into it gung ho ready to, you know, kick, kickstart their resolutions and get on with it and whatever. And I'm always like, Oh, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. There's a bit of a holiday hangover for me that takes a few weeks and I'm just going to like, let that happen. You know, I'm just going to kind of sure ease into the new year. Let, let things ramp up at its, at its own pace. |
| James Stacey | So, but it was good. I feel like if you, if you imagine, if you imagine like visualizing it as moving quickly across like sand, like a quick sand. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Then you start to fight it. Go check your emails or whatever. And then before you know it, you're up to your waist. And now I'm walking my way out of that kind of slowly. I've grabbed onto like a, you know, a read or a route of some sort and I'm pulling myself out of the mire. But yeah, no, I feel exactly the same way. I had a nice holiday. It was busy, at least on the first half. And then the last few days I've been doing like almost nothing, like an embarrassing level of nothing. That's good. you know, just just planes. I picked up an iPad before it's been on my list of like to spend a little bit less time staring at a laptop is to have a device that I used for some of the same things but doesn't have any of the work stuff on it. So it's got TGN slack on it and the message app and you know our slack for chatting with each other but nothing for kind of my quote unquote day to day job professional life of writing about watches and occasionally some other things. So it's a little bit Not air gapped isn't the right term, of course, but it is kind of shut off from the work side so I can sit and do something, whether it be a workout or watch a little bit of a Bond movie or whatever and actually disconnect from it just being in a different window on my screen. But I got to tell you, I don't know if I've ever talked about it on the show, but years ago, long before TGN, long before I lived in Vancouver, coming up when I worked in a tech support call center for several years and all of those guys played a lot of call of duty and I got into call of duty with them and this is we're talking like 2010 11 and and I played a ton of it and I and I it got to the point where like it was absolutely the it had the form of an addiction and I only say this all because I remember there was a point when I was starting to get more serious with watch report and realizing that even though I didn't necessarily have deadlines, I had a couple watches into review and shoot a video and that kind of stuff like easy light stuff yeah But I was pushing it back to play more Call of Duty, and I got to the point where I was like, all right, I got to pick you like one or the other. So I put all of my Xbox and several games and the rest of it into like a Tupperware container, big Tupperware container and just sold it. Oh, wow. Come and get it. Yeah. And for years, I've really fought all sorts of other video games. You know, I bought a Switch a couple years ago and got Breath of the Wild, which is the greatest video game of all time. and played through that, but it was slow. I could play a half hour here. They're never really feel addicted. You know, then you laugh when you look back and like I put 130 hours into that game over, over the course of the pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. To make the story a little bit shorter than it might be. I picked up this iPad and quickly realized that I could connect the switch game controllers as like a game controller for the iPad. Yeah. And I hadn't played like a first person shooter in a long time, but I got on, I downloaded a few, they all kind of sucked. And then I was like, Oh, there's this Call of Duty mobile thing. I wonder how hard it is to get online and to play the games free. And like five minutes later I'm playing and it all came back. It all came back. Like exactly. Like I immediately realized one, how much I had missed it and two, how much of a bigger mistake I had made. So I've been playing that basically like up to maybe like eight hours a day over holidays. Yeah. Yeah. And I really love it. And I'm going to have to remove it from my iPad to return or like learn how to limit it or something like use it as a reward. Otherwise, I'll play until the middle like it'll be 2334 in the morning. I'll rearrange my schedule to have an hour or two to play. But it turns out I'm I haven't lost too much of my too much of the original edge in the game is all the old maps. Oh wow. So almost all the all the maps that you play on. I remember from a decade ago or more. Yeah, sadly more than a decade now. So that was a big part of like my last week or so. And then before that, my wife and I drove down to like the Bucks County area. It's a suburb of Philadelphia to visit her family for kind of the week leading up to Christmas and then to Christmas day. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Which is really nice. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I fear now that you're going to, you've just kickstarted a whole new channel on the Slack community for Call of Duty. You're going to, you're going to get people coming out of the woodwork. My goodness. Yeah. And if there are any pauses during the show where you've gone away from the mic, I know what you're going to be doing. |
| James Stacey | No, I don't even have my iPads in the other room. There's no way I could think. I can barely speak and play at the same time. Yeah, it's a lot. It's super fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, your trip that you took, you drove back. I remember you telling me Christmas Day was pretty brutal weather-wise, wasn't it? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So for those of you who were keeping tabs on that element, I did have a plan to drive back Christmas Day from Pennsylvania around Philadelphia to Toronto, which means you go right through Buffalo. Yeah, or you go like kind of to Syracuse and then around the lake and then down almost from like Ottawa over the top of the lake Kingston anyways, and and so a couple days before I check the news just casually again. I'm very limited on devices over this so I hadn't been watching anything more than the route every day. around the time that I plan to leave, I was opening up the route in Google and ways and just comparing times. So I did that for like four or five days before the trip, which is pretty common for me. If I have a long drive, I try and get a handle on like the patterns of when the times are higher or lower. And, uh, and, and so I was watching that and then the day before, two days before 20, so this would 22nd or 23rd, I hear, Oh, there's this huge storm kind of developing over the Midwest. It's going to hit the lakes and get really crazy. And I was like, Oh man. Yeah. That could take 20 hours to drive home. It could be, you know, obviously want to come home and have you split time with family. So you have plans for that. Sure. The day or the day after we got home, we had, we had kind of hard plans. So a day of, it was nice weather in PA, it was nice weather in Toronto and, um, you know, couldn't get a clear answer on how bad things were say in Buffalo. Um, so the drive back ended up being largely okay. Um, we went through the Buffalo segment at night. And, you know, it was a lot of snow, a lot of blowing snow, kind of like low, low blizzard conditions. I've, I've driven in worse certainly, um, but not, not significantly worse. There were other cars on the road. It wasn't like so bad. It wasn't like an apocalypse or whatever, but I definitely saw stuff on the news over the next two or three days after that, that kind of showed the aftermath of other routes, even in that area that like hadn't seen the plows fast enough and other stuff. And people had obviously really tough time and there were some pretty bad outcomes for, uh, for some folks who either got stuck in their car or were shoveling, um, in, in that sort of weather. But, uh, we were able to make it back. It didn't take that much longer than originally predicted, but certainly my, uh, my heart goes out to the folks at Buffalo. That's a tough way to, to kick off, um, or a tough way to deal with the holiday season with that kind of weather for sure. And everywhere else. I mean, that storm hit a lot of States. Some of the folks that we travel all the way down to PA to see, were also flying in, their flights were all canceled. So we didn't get to see them. And I'm sure I'm sure I'm far from the only person who's affected by a truly ridiculous number of flight cancellations. Yeah. Yeah. Like was it Southwest or something like almost all of their flights they canceled? Yeah. Pretty crazy story there with their computer system going offline. But I've now, you know, derivated pretty, pretty deeply from the topic, but yeah, luckily for those who asked in Slack and that kind of stuff, that the drive ended up being largely okay. I don't think it was unsafe. or it wasn't in my experience. And, uh, and there were, uh, other folks out on the road, including plows and that kind of stuff. So normal bad weather driving would be how I would contextualize my experience. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I'm glad you made it back. I know, uh, it really followed up a lot of people's plans. That's, uh, that's rough. Um, absolutely. Yeah. We were just hunkered down here. In fact, one of the things we did, you were talking about, um, kind of, uh, time sucks in terms of a call of duty or whatever. We, we binge watched the entire season two of uh, slow horses on Apple TV. Oh man, it's in my folder. I can't wait. You know, we waited the, the, the sixth episode of six came out on December 30th. And I mean, cause Shani and I are weird, you know, like we, we don't like to like watch in, in real time or whatever, you know, when like, as they release episodes, I hate when there's like two or three episodes missing, you have to wait for. So we waited right up until the 30th when episode six was released and then we started at episode one and just Blasted through all of them like over two days if you've seen slow horses season one, you know that it's it's just tremendous Kristen Scott Thomas, of course Gary Oldman Amazing TV. I think it's it's the best series of its kind on TV when I first put that in the notes I was I was really originally going to say this is the best series on TV But I'm gonna limit that by saying the best series of its kind because there are a lot of lots a lot of good shows out these days but yeah for sure between the acting and the writing, you know, I've read a couple of the mcharron books and and it's just You can just tell this is just expert writing with, with a really good cast, uh, well-filmed. I mean, it's just, uh, it's just so good. Season two, I would almost say it's even better than season one. |
| James Stacey | So, oh man, I'm excited. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, we, I guess we did sort of kick off the new year with some bit of ambition. Uh, Gashani and I just decided like, let's go through our drawers and closet and just like purge clothes that we don't wear or don't fit. And, and I drove them over to a place to donate yesterday. Um, just bags of, of t-shirts and shirts and shoes and bed linens and things like that. And it's felt like kind of a cathartic way to kick off the new year. Um, you know, I've, it's just, it kind of takes up a lot of space physically, but also kind of, I think it has a mental effect to just hold onto stuff that you never use. And so it felt really good to do that. And I'm kind of, you know, at this point, I know it's only, you know, the 3rd of January, but I'm kind of, I want to follow that trend and, kind of move through the rest of my life as well. And so, you know, you might see some, some watches from my collection go and, and some other stuff. So we'll see, but it felt good to do it. |
| James Stacey | That's great. Yeah, no, I, I, we did something similar in November because we, there was nowhere to put some clothes. Yeah. I guess what, what I found most startling about that process and maybe it was different for you, maybe you went, you were more intense, but even after we removed several garbage bags of clothes, yeah. for donation, I didn't feel like I had all that much more space. I still have more clothes than I can wear. There is something to be said for those folks who figure out a uniform. |
| Unknown | Totally. |
| James Stacey | I totally agree. And then just kind of go with it. My brother has essentially been wearing the same, not the exact same pieces of clothing obviously, but the same clothes for four or five years. He has 10 of these Henleys. He has 10 of these t-shirts. He has five of this pair of pants. It's the same socks. And that's, that's how he operates. And I think it definitely makes some sense, but I also kind of like dressing. So yeah, you got to find a mix somewhere. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think the process of thinning out also can be a bit intimidating. And every time I have that ambition to say, this is the year we're going to do this, we stopped short because it seems like a really daunting task, but we've just decided, you know, when you get a free hour, like pick a closet, pick a drawer, pick a room and just, you know, just tackle it, you know, like, like maybe at some point I should do my desk, you know, maybe this week, you know, just take an hour and just kind of weed through stuff. Uh, and that's kind of the, and if, if I'm, if I'm done with the house by, you know, September, great. I'm in, I'm in good shape. |
| James Stacey | So not too bad. Yeah. Ready for another season. Yeah, exactly. Do you get anything come in over Christmas versus what went out? Anything exciting as far as gifts given or received? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, I got, We kind of didn't do the gift thing with Ghoshani and I and with my family. And it was kind of refreshing, kind of nice to do that. But I also got some really nice gifts that were sent to me by people that were really thoughtful and just amazing. You know, I got, I got a t-shirt from Vanuatu for Tusker beer from one of our listeners who's also on the, on the Slack community. You know, Tusker is the name of the, character in my first book, Depth Charge. I jokingly mentioned that I'd love a t-shirt with the Tusker Beer logo on it and he sent it to me all the way from Australia when he got back from his vacation in Vanuatu. I got a really nice handmade leather strap from Alex Van Slyke of Marsh Made Leathers, the guy who runs Patina Nationale. Oliver over in the UK, he's started up a vintage watch business. He sent me a nice watch roll, and then I got an amazing gift from another guy that I'll mention during wrist check, but I'll hold off on that. |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah, I saw that. That is a killer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, but it was great. It was this fun kind of unexpected things that popped up were really touching for me. What about you? Any cool gifts this year? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I got an L.L. Bean jacket, like a flannel jacket that's lined. Oh, nice. It's like an insulated one. It was it was one of there was a discussion going on in the TGN slack about these things like the sort of like sometimes people call them like shackets or like work work work jackets work shirts short coats all that different variety, but this is like a pretty down the down the middle ll being like buffalo plaid on the outside the inside is like camo. Nylon like a line like insulated lining and and it has like the corduroy collar like quilted. Yeah. Yeah quilted. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, and so I've been wearing that basically living in it. It's great. really happy with it. Super comfy, especially because it's not like crazy cold right now in Toronto. It's actually pretty warm. So that and t-shirt has been fine for kicking around. And I think that's probably the one that stood out as just being kind of fun and in the TGN vibe. And it was like part of a discussion that was going on in the Slack. Oh, the other thing is I haven't quite convinced myself that I needed it, but I picked up a new backpack. I've kind of been without a go-to like full weekend backpack, like not so much for work travel, but for going to the cottage, going to see my parents, like just, you know, when you're away for two, three nights, right. And I'm, and I'm not bringing a couple cameras or a full podcasting rig or that sort of thing. It's a little bit too much work for the topo day pack that the gear patrol one that I have, which I love and it does make a really good smaller backpack. And then I'm just putting a lot of wear and tear on the 10 boat, using it for things other than camera duty. So I thought I'd split that with something that I can just carry like a backpack, but still works as a carry on. So I found a, um, it's the GR one heritage in the sand color was on sale, uh, from Huck Berry. So I picked that up and, uh, and so far I'm, I'm thrilled with it. I mean, it's everything I remember from the black one I had, it's heavy, it's overbuilt, it's all these things. But then as soon as you start like putting stuff in it, it just is this nicely logical thing that also blends in a few different ways. It doesn't have any molly on the outside, which I like. It's, it's the slick style, but in the heritage, so you've got, you know, nice leather accents and, and it's this more of a sandy color, which feels in some ways a little bit less tactical, not less military, I guess, but just less tactical, which I like. Uh, so that'll be, that'll be the go-to bag, at least for the foreseeable future in, in pretty much any usage of, you know, I think I'll get a ton of use of it throughout the summer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You sent me a picture of that a while back and, and it was very tempting for me as well. I had a GR one years ago and, and I remember all the things you cited about it. You know, it's a heavier than kind of normal backpack and it definitely feels overbuilt, but I kind of miss it. And I think it's because I've been using some really lightweight, like I use my black hole pack from Patagonia a lot, but it's, it's such a light kind of crinkly shiny bag and, and the, The GOROC as I remember it, like it just feels good. Once you start to load it up, like everything feels kind of thick and padded and sturdy. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And when you take it off, it manages the weight and the balance of everything nicely because it's a little thicker at the bottom or deeper at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. Should be happy with it. Always nice to start the start the year off with a little bit of gear and that nice that that one doesn't actually replace something that I have, but kind of fills a hole. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I think that's a, I think that's probably it for catch up. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. What's on your wrist today? What did you wear a lot of over the break? |
| James Stacey | I wore only two watches. It was no smart watches, so I took a break from the Apple Watch and the Mark II, the Garmin, and I wore pretty much just the Mido for the first half of the break, like until I got back from PA, Christmas time, that sort of thing. And then since then, I've just had the Scurfa MS22 on a gray NATO. I had it on a green NATO for a little while as well, which I like quite a bit, but it's back on the gray TGN strap and Yep, it's just a perfect watch. I have no complaints about this one. Maybe when you switch between something as thin as the Mido, which isn't like, it's not like insanely thin even for a sport watch, but it does sit a little bit lower, but that also might have been the strap choice because I had the Mido on a rubber strap, so there's nothing, you know, no fabric over the case back. Right. But I think I might prefer the Scurfa because I wouldn't call it like a super thin watch, right? But I think I might prefer the Scurfa on a two-piece strap. Yeah. Sometimes, but just for kicking around the house, like you forget this is on your wrist, but you still know what time it is, you know how many hours you got left of vacation. You got to know that down to the hour. So this is a great watch for that. And I just love the way it looks. Yeah. I just, I've really, really come to, to appreciate that. And we've got a full Scurfa cult going on in Slack. |
| Jason Heaton | Totally. Yeah. I mean, an argument could be made that that's a pretty perfect two watch collection. |
| James Stacey | those two, the Scurffa and the Medo. Between the Medo and the Scurffa. Yeah. Yeah. Or I mean, you know, I'm working on this idea of like the two watch collection that doesn't really ever leave you in a lurch. Yeah. Like the no lurch pairing, which like I think the Scurffa you could wear most of the time. Yeah. And then like a dressy vintage watch, like the two together, you could still probably come in under like with a nice dressy vintage, like a little chronograph or something. Yeah. Like you come in under 2500 bucks for that whole pairing. Yeah. And then have something you could wear like Anytime. Yeah. Yeah. Vacation all the way up to like a wedding. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. You know, the idea of the two watch or three watch or one watch collection, it's so over discussed. Um, and, and we get so many suggestions for that for topics and yet it's an endlessly fascinating and tantalizing topic. I mean, I think you can almost have it every week, you know, you can almost make it a part of every show. Like, okay, what's this week's to watch collection. I mean, it's fun to kind of fit together that puzzle. And I think it says a lot more about, kind of the lifestyle you choose or the different scenarios you have in mind, um, more than, than even the watches themselves. |
| James Stacey | So absolutely. Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah. How about you? What have you got on this week? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So this is, uh, I mentioned earlier, I got, um, this as, this was an absolute surprise gift from a very good friend and a long time TGN listener. Um, uh, this is a guy that actually, it's funny. I feel like we've known each other a lot longer, but I only met him in person for the first time in Chicago at wind We've sent some things back and forth in the past, but he really upped the ante because the day before Christmas, I guess it was 23rd, actually, I get this, this package from him and he said, Oh, I'm sending you a few things. And it was some, some cool stuff. And then lo and behold, in the bottom of the box was an Omega, a Seamaster Diver 300M. This is the reference 2254. Oh, nice. I mean, just a, I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's a, it's a, it's a, utter shock. Um, you know, it's a watch that I used to own many years ago in my old watch flipping days and, and loved and parted with, and, and you and I have talked about it a lot. The 2254 is kind of the, I think is, is almost the perfect sort of iteration of the kind of the bond style Seamaster diver. Um, you know, this is the, the black dial, the full sword hands, The aluminum bezel insert with the big bold numerals and the wave dial, it's a black wave dial but it's a very subtle wave like you can only see it in certain angles. Incredibly legible. It's kind of ruined me from my other Seamasters. I've got the regatta timer that I made some trades to get about two years ago and then of course I've got the white dial coaxial Seamaster with the ceramic dial. I've had this on every single day, like 24 seven since the 23rd of December. And it's just not coming off. Uh, it's, it's made me like rethink like my collection. It's, it's kind of had that profound of an impact because it's, it's a watch that has some nostalgia for me because I remember really loving this watch back in, you know, the mid two thousands when I was getting into watches. Um, and, and I always kind of held it up as my ideal and always hoped that Omega would kind of come back with a version of this and, And, uh, this one's from 2007, as far as I can tell from the serial number, but it's, uh, it's great. I I'm, I'm wearing it currently on the. The rubber strap that was originally intended for it. So it's that kind of planet ocean style, stiff, wide black rubber strap, right. That I had bought to fit on my white dial Seamaster. And, uh, luckily I still had it. It arrived on, on the bracelet, which is a very nice bracelet as well, but, um, it just sings on this rubber strap and I've been wearing it on that for. for several days here, and I just love it. To me, it feels a lot like the S302, the Bremont. It's kind of a similar size, similar bracelet. And you've had a 2254 as well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I had one for years, loved it, wore it a ton, kind of all the time, and then eventually only sold it because I had kind of found a few other dive watches that I liked. And the thing that stands out for me in the 2254 is the lume's incredible, the dial's really nice. It's still super subtle. It has a real bond feel to it, despite obviously not being a bond version. It has the sword hands. Yeah. And there's something about that, the like MOD nature of the sword hands that makes that watch feel just right for me. Yeah. With the turned lugs and the scallop bezel. Sure, the bezel is not easy to turn. That's absolutely true. It's even worse in water. Also true. It's even harder with gloves. Triple true. But from an aesthetic standpoint, mine also kept really excellent time. It's an 1120 base, so it's an ETA, easy to get serviced, all that kind of stuff. And the pricing on those I still think remains pretty fair. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm just thrilled with it. And funny when I compare it to the White Dial Ceramic, I know I'm in honeymoon mode now, but I almost like it better. It harkens back to what I liked about Omega in that time when I got my first Planet Ocean. It was kind of that similar you know, something about the aluminum bezel insert and the more subtle dial it, and you know, these markers aren't glittery and surrounded by, you know, white gold or whatever they're using. Um, it's, it's just, uh, it feels a bit more like that tool-ish luxury watch that hit that sweet spot back at that era. |
| James Stacey | And do you have it, is it the bond bracelet or the speedy bracelet? |
| Jason Heaton | It's the, it's the speedy bracelet. So it's the, it's, well, I guess it's like three link, but then there's like kind of that narrow band of links on either side. And, um, which is my favorite version. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. That's how I had mine as well. And it was just perfect. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So, but you know, big thanks to, uh, to, uh, this friend who sent this to me, you know, you know who you are, um, really appreciate it. And, uh, it was a great way to end the year and kick off the new one. And that's a good way to segue into kind of our main topic. You know, we've, we've been catching up so much. I feel like we're just sort of continuing on with the same topic, but we, we wanted to use this first episode of 2023 to kind of talk about, our aspirations, hopes, dreams, ambitions for 2023. Uh, it seemed like a good, good way to kick off the year and kind of just talk about some big ideas and some, some goals that we have personally, uh, and, and hopefully spur a discussion both in the Slack group and in the comments on, on Substack, uh, around, um, what we hope to, to achieve and experience in 2023. So I love it. James, I mean, what's, uh, I I'm looking at our list here in our notes that we share online and I feel like we have, we're kind of in a similar mode here, wouldn't you say? |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. Yeah. I think, I think the goal in reading yours and reading mine, um, the, like the first, the first big one seems to be like kind of a less is more standpoint on everything from, you know, the style of work or work to the things that we buy or sell or, Lifestyle like just you know stick around home a little bit more than we have maybe maybe see about more local adventures Say no to some stuff basically so yeah for me I said less is more less work less stuff less complexity, and it's not necessarily like less watches Mm-hmm, but maybe focus on removing things that aren't working or adding pain or anxiety that sort of thing yeah, I agree I think you know I've talked earlier about you know thinning out a wardrobe and possibly a watch collection and |
| Jason Heaton | I think it also goes well beyond kind of just stuff or, or, you know, thinning out stuff around the house. I think it really comes down to, like you said, saying no to things more often and not to be, you know, or curmudgeon or, or, you know, really overly negative. It's just figure out what's important at a smaller scale and, and kind of do what's right. When I go back to, to 2020, the year of the big pandemic and everyone was kind of shut in and we were starting the isolation tapes, that was, kind of forced upon us to kind of be home and, and focus more on, on kind of smaller scale things. You know, people would pick up new hobbies or, you know, baking bread and that sort of stuff. But I feel like now, um, 2022 was a year that, uh, you know, I, I did a fair bit more traveling than I did in 2020 and it was in 2021 and it was definitely a fun year of getting out and doing some different things. But I've just come to realize like the more you pack your life, it, it just it, it leaves less time for, you know, for kind of those quiet moments of, of high quality kind of activities and contemplation and fitness and kind of wellness and mental health. And for sure, I know that might sound a little bit kind of new age or mumbo jumbo, but I, I just feel like I just kind of want to pare down and just do less in general in this year. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I guess I also feel like last year what really lacked for me was having the latitude to really invest in the stuff I was happy about doing. It felt like the signal to noise, especially for work, and at times it made TGN rushed. It made an episode maybe shorter than it needed to be or didn't have the prep that it required. I like to try and hold you too, Jason, but definitely myself to a certain standard. And I feel like last year I let that standard slip because of the level of busy tasks that were also on my plate. Oh, sure. And I feel like taking on a little bit less, but being able to do more with what I decide to do would be much more rewarding than trying to do everything. Yeah. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Because I'm curious, Jason, like at this point it's 2023 and this is something I've been thinking about a lot because I wanted to have a chat about it on this episode and it kind of came up in some conversations over the break, but it's 2023. Do you feel like you've been able to return to how you felt before the pandemic? |
| Jason Heaton | I feel like the pandemic, it wasn't an overall negative on my kind of mental health or wellbeing or outlook. I think it changed me profoundly in that I realized that the things that were important, you know, kind of bubbled to the surface during the pandemic. That's what I want to hold onto from that. I think before that, I, I, I, I was sort of being less mindful in terms of managing my life and my career and things like travel and work. Um, and it kind of forced me to, to recognize what's important. And I think another thing that helped in that was, um, as we've seen that the TGN community grow and things like wind up Chicago and our Slack community that we just started, it's things, things are better to me. I've realized on a smaller, more personal scale, you know, it's, you find who you're, I want to say who your real friends are, but like a more loyal, smaller group of friends is just so much more rewarding than kind of a life that I was the course that I was on pre pandemic where it was sort of, I don't, I don't want to say I was chasing followers on Instagram and things like this, but this idea of like keeping up with other people professionally or on social media or, you know, try to stake my, my place in the world. you realize how fleeting that is. And when you're kind of forced to pare back and go down a smaller scale, you, you realize who the people are that are really important to you and the things that are important to you. And, uh, sure. I think that's the effect that the pandemic had on me. Um, why, what about you? How are you feeling about that? |
| James Stacey | I also feel like I was super blessed in that the pandemic on for like large scale life things was not tough for me. I had some big moments through the pandemic, some life moments, that sort of stuff. But I do feel like whatever I had in terms of, it wasn't intentional, so I can't take any credit for it, but let's say leading up into March of 2020, I feel like I had something figured out from a work-life standpoint. And then when all of that got upended, there were all these great parts where, yeah, you were home more often than the rest of it, but there was also this expectation of like, you have so much more time, you should be working. And both that expectation came from clients like Hodinkee and also from myself, Oh, I have more time. I should do more. Right. I was really surprised in the last couple of days, just how kind of stressed out I felt when I thought about coming back to work today. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like after having two weeks off, which is a rarity for lots of people, myself included, but to have that kind of time off and then to know like, Oh, I have to come back. I'm coming back one week before LVMH watch days, which is a ton of stories that have to be prepped and managed and and all these other things, and obviously we have TGN and all I haven't done. Obviously, you know, we don't have the Q&A done, and like you can let this stuff kind of spiral, and then before you know it, like the sun's gone down, you haven't eaten a meal today. Sure, you've got a few things on your checklist like checked off, but you also haven't like called a friend, called and spoken to a sibling in a while, or gotten out on the bike, or even for a walk. Like for a while, I found that the only thing I could do was go for a walk because I could take a phone call while I did it. But I do feel like I'm carrying a little bit. And I think the key to this is exercise. Yeah, so true. I think that's what I'm kind of like missing. Man, I was doing really good until about December 20th and I pulled my back doing a deadlift. But yeah, so now I'm kind of getting up in the morning trying to assess if I can lift anything well enough to get back to the kind of workout plan that I had or if I have to go to a modified plan. I'm still hunting a water rower. So hey, if you've got a water rower in the greater Toronto area, just collecting dust somewhere in your home, hit me up. But yeah, I think that's what's missing. If I look back on what worked for so many years, it was that I was moving around more than I did during the pandemic. And I think the honest truth is that I've gotten physically, I've gotten very lazy. Where like my body is used to just doing nothing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think what the pandemic introduced, and not to heap all the blame on the pandemic, but I think this notion of work-life balance got scrambled because pretty soon we were all kind of, or many of us, I should say, we're forced to stay at home, you know, work on our laptops. Like you, you didn't have to move, you know, you, you weren't forced to leave the house. There was no key moments during the day that sort of triggered changes to your schedule. And so you could just sort of, it became this amorphous like day bled into night, bled into the next day, work bled into, |
| James Stacey | Well, especially when you have the, you have the, like you have that, like the social pressure of, oh, I, I'm fortunate enough to have a job and I'm reading about inflation. I'm reading about people losing their jobs. I'm reading about layoffs in our own industry. I'm reading about hard times for people that I know, you know, that can't, that can't, you know, that they're living kind of dissipated over the course of the pandemic. So then you have that pressure where you're like the moment that you would go like, oh, I don't need that email, could wait until tomorrow or whatever. And then before you know it, you're like, oh, nothing can wait. There's this like sense of kind of panic. Right, right. That if you don't do it all, all of it goes away. And I don't think that's accurate necessarily. I've spent the last two, three years stressing a lot about things I can't control, which is obviously like well outside of the kind of stoic stuff that we like to talk about occasionally. Depression is kind of a sneaky thing for me. I may not like feel it, or I don't notice that I feel it, but it's how I take it out on the decisions that I make for myself. Yeah. Like not, not eating or only eating one bad meal a day, not going outside, even if it's a nice sunny day, because you've concocted this idea that like, you'll never make a deadline if you go for a half hour walk. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. In terms of exercise, how, how do you think you'll approach it? I, I, I've been pretty good over the past year I would say with my own regimen, but I started to realize this week that in order to, encourage myself and not let it get stale. I almost want to set a, like some kind of a big adventure or fitness goal and train for it. It's really worked for me in the past. I know you and I have talked about Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, one year I did the Alcatraz swim, something like that. I feel like I need that. And I have a couple of ideas in mind, but how do you approach that? Is that something you'd want to do as well? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think for me, I need to remove the excuse layer first because mentally I know that I absolutely love exercising. Yeah. And then, but then that's easy to tell yourself like, Oh, you don't have the time to work out, which is just a flat out. Isn't accurate. I'm just making the time. Right. So it'll be, I'll, I'll continue with, um, with the Bowflex weights. I absolutely love those, but obviously I need to slow down a little bit. I was, it was starting to feel good. So I went to too much. So I think the key is finding a home workout that I can't possibly turn down on bad weather or when it's cold. So I think the water rower would work pretty well for that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And then, you know, and then beyond that, as soon as the weather's back, my, my goal would be to get back, um, some semblance of my 10 K time, which I think would take me the entire summer, like the entire summer running season. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. A big through hike I think would be super fun, but I can't imagine being able to set, set aside the time right at this point. Yeah. Yeah. For the, just for the recreation side of it, not enough for the training. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, when I was mentioning kind of a big adventure goal, there was something that popped up, uh, I don't know, probably some email spam I got or something that from, from a, a mountaineering company out in Washington state, um, with whom Ed Visters is working these days and, and it was promoting a climb of Aconcagua down in the, in central America. Um, you know, which is, I think it's the highest peak in the Americas and, and it was being led by Ed Visters and a couple of other guides and, and like the price wasn't outrageous. It wasn't horrible. Um, And I thought that would be a really cool goal. Like I've always thought like climbing one of those big peaks and in South America would be really fun and it could be a good goal to kind of work up to. But then you look at the time away and it's, that's a three and three or four week commitment. And there are a lot of people out there due to different ages or life circumstances or whatever that that can do that. And there was a time when I used to consider doing stuff like that, but I don't know, that's a huge commitment to just be away from home. You know, I've got a few other ideas in mind for, for kind of, ambitious, but, but achievable and less time consuming, uh, goals. But I, you know, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think it is important to, to consider that as an option. I think that can be super positive. Certainly the, the best shape I was ever in was in the system of time when I was preparing for the two, two bids on Baker. Yeah. Probably should have turned around and done another mountain while I was that I should done Rainier. Yeah. You know, two weekends later, like just picked up a spot when I was still sharp. Yeah. No, I agree. Um, and I don't mean to sound like a downer or even like I have any complaints. It's most of this, I would say this is 95% like, uh, for me, like, uh, the way I'm thinking about things, not necessarily the way they are, right? Like a lot of this is just, is just getting out of this sort of cloud of, of how I've operated for the last couple of years. And, uh, and, and I think from a work standpoint, it worked out really well, but from, mental health standpoint from a personal fitness standpoint, like I'm just, I'm severely detuned on sort of both, both fronts. And I think that'd be a pretty strong thing to focus on for the year. And I love the idea of kind of paring down a less is more sort of approach because I think that will add clarity over time. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. How about on the TGN front? I mean, I think we've, we've talked about a few ideas. You and I have kicked things around privately. We've dangled a few things out there on Slack and gotten positive feedback. I think, a get together, right? I mean, wind up was such a blast. It just was such a boost and so inspiring for, for both of us, I know. And we'd love to meet more, more people this year. |
| James Stacey | Yep. I think a get together would make sense. Possibly too. I think there's a possibility that we could do too, but we both have it on our list that like one of the highlights of last year was absolutely wind up Chicago. We were kind of gutted. We couldn't make it to New York. Yeah. And we're going to chat with the wind up folks this year and see what sort of a role we might be able to play. If it's something that's on the table. I look back on last year and that was just such a blast. And it also gave me this, um, this kind of like fire to, to stay on TGN, keep it, keep it as sharp as possible. Do the slack. Like we've, we've got some people that, that, you know, are like-minded and could connect and that sort of thing. And, and it's worked out so far. So yeah, I definitely think that would be, that would be something to focus on. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, other than that, you know, TGN wise. I mean, we've got some, some fun merchandise ideas. We've got, uh, you know, we're, we're working on, on ideas for more of our kind of TGN specials. Those, uh, those standalone episodes that we did, like the one we did with collective, uh, late in the year, last year. But I think just keep cranking it up, keep, keep, keep doing what we're doing. I mean, I, I think I always enjoy our, our weekly chats and I, I love hearing from people and the way the community has grown. Um, I just, let's just keep on doing that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think we have some pretty cool stuff in the works for the TGN specials, and if you didn't listen to the collective one, go back and check it out. It's kind of a new format for us where the results on that were so far beyond what we expected in terms of both engagement and just the feedback we got from people. So I think it's something we'll keep working on. I don't think we'll manage more than a couple a year, but that should give us, like we were talking about with the less is more, that should give us a chance to make those few episodes extra special. Yeah. Uh, you know, Jason, anything, any other plans as far as, uh, you got any like special trips or, or, or stuff like that outside of the workspace? Probably Dubonnet again, or not sure yet. |
| Jason Heaton | Debating, debating, uh, timing of another trip to Sri Lanka this year. You know, Ghoshani's family lives over there. Um, her parents are getting older and we want to spend time with them. Probably going to do another month in Sri Lanka at some point this year. I'm not sure which month. We did it in April last year. I think we might push it to a little later in the year. Yeah. I've got kind of a big trip coming in February that I'll talk about a little later. But, um, you know, besides that, I, I'd kind of like to do a few more road trips, a little bit more adventuring in the Land Rover, you know, I've got some ideas for, there's kind of a, some kind of off-road adventure trails across Wisconsin, across Minnesota, maybe do kind of a great lakes circle tour again. That would be fun, you know, and then also, you know, just more kind of regional camping. That's something that, that we used to do a lot of years ago. And then, you know, we kind of got sidetracked by maybe it was, it was kind of when I was kind of in the thick of doing press trips and more kind of international travel that kind of got set aside, uh, as well as just a lot of dive trips that we kind of took their place. I'd like to get back to more regional stuff, you know, camping and road trips and hiking and, and, uh, you know, crank up the garden again this summer and, and, and some of those smaller scale adventures. |
| James Stacey | Nice spend a little less time on a plane, you know? Yeah. I already have my first trip booked to Geneva for the end of the month. So that'll be kicking off in just a couple of weeks here. But yeah, I would totally agree. I think that there's a lot of opportunities like even between essentially where we live to connect and do a lot of that kind of stuff that you talked about. Yeah, you know, I would love to do some a TGN road trip of some sort. And maybe maybe that's a couple of stops for smaller get togethers along the way or something like that. Who knows? But right. Certainly that would be a blast. And then you mentioned scuba diving and that's the other thing that's on my list for the years. I think it's been long enough. I'd like to get back to like a proper bit of scuba diving, you know, re maintain all those skills and get everything back in the water and whatnot and that. So whether that's a run to the Caribbean later this year or maybe some work up in Tobermory, we're not sure, but I'm very keen. My wife would like to get certified as well, which would be a blast. And that's certainly on my list for 2023. Yeah, |
| Jason Heaton | That'd be great, especially if we can do it together. I mean, maybe it's in Bonaire, maybe it's, uh, maybe it's somewhere else, but I'd love to do it in Bonaire. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | All right. Well, you know, look, I think that's a, that's kind of our hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals, et cetera, for 2023. It's not a lot about, Oh, which watches we want or don't want, or, you know, this or that it's a little bit more nebulous. Uh, some of it's a little bit pie in the sky. Like it's stuff that I feel like we'll be working on for years, working on ourselves, that sort of thing. Uh, but yeah, I think, I think that's probably sets the tone for the year ahead and kind of what we expect from the show and that sort of thing. But if you want to continue the conversation, we recommend the slack, but you can obviously get into the comments on the show notes on Substack. That's free. You just need a Substack account, which you don't have to pay for, and you can get in and leave comments. Let us know what your year's plans are, if you have any big goals that are kind of leading the motivation for the year, or if you've got a big change coming up through work or family or that sort of stuff. I know we constantly come across people via email or slack that are changing jobs or having their first kid or that sort of thing. So I think it could be an exciting year for everyone. And I'd love to hear how people kind of approach, not so much the idea of resolutions. Cause I feel like that's so casual that it's easy to kind of blow it off after a month or two, you know? Right. Um, but the idea of like, like changing your lifestyle so that in, at the start of 2024, you'll have one less thing on the list that's been kind of carried over. I think that's maybe a better way of looking at it. Like a lot of it is just these little tweaks, right? Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, let's, uh, let's jump into our first final notes of, uh, 2023. What do you have? |
| James Stacey | So mine is a story from wired, uh, that I really liked, uh, over the course of the, the winter break holiday break that we took, I deleted Instagram from my phone. Uh, so I couldn't check it. I couldn't get Instagram notifications or any of that kind of stuff. And then I came across this story, which they published on December 31st on Wire. The writer's name is Justin Pott, and it's called Stop Using Social Media Apps. The Web Version is Often Better. And I've heard about this, like, not using Instagram, just using it on your computer. That way, it's not really part of the way that you interface with your phone. And the same with Facebook and the rest of it. I'm going to say Instagram, because that's the social media app that I have the deepest connection with, but also find the most troublesome for my time. and the way that I think about the world. Yeah. Um, but it, this is a really interesting story where Justin is simply suggesting, even on your phone, don't use the native app because it has, you know, it's doing more tracking. It has the notifications, you have less control over the way that you might interact with it. Whereas you can still go to, and I tested it on my iPad and on the phone, you can go to Instagram on mobile devices, log in and have most of the same experience. but none of the stuff where it's just constantly kind of bombarding you with various other stuff to do versus just looking at some photos and liking them. Yeah. I think it's an interesting concept. It's definitely something I'm going to try. I don't think I'll put Instagram back on my phone. And if you're listening and you, you want to get in touch with me, please know that DMS are the worst possible option. I don't check them. I really only have it set up where uh, in a professional scenario, somebody could reach out to offer something or to, or to look for a connection. And I might check that occasionally, but it even says my bio, like I'm not going to check in DMS. I'm going to continue on that. I have a very public email, the great data at gmail.com. And, uh, and you can obviously get in touch via the Slack as well, which is an option, but I think this is a neat, a neat way of taking something where you're not necessarily losing the core option or the core thing that the the platform does like for Instagram, you can scroll some photos and look at them, but you're removing some of the stuff that activates your reward center or whatever, or your stress center where you're doom scrolling or you're chasing down tags or, or, or this kind of stuff. I think it leaves a lot on the table, but remove some of the stuff that I find stressful about the environment. So that's a wired, wired story. Stop using social media apps. The web version is often better from Justin pot. I'll have in the show notes of course. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Very fitting, a fitting one for today's episode too, I think. Something to try. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Um, mine I think is also a kind of a fitting note for today. Um, given how much we talked about paring down and doing more with less and simplifying life, et cetera. Um, this is a YouTube video, uh, from a guy named Eric Grandquist. Uh, he's Swedish and he's, uh, believe in his early twenties. And the video is called I Spent Three Years Alone Building a Log Cabin. And lo and behold, Eric was inspired by Dick Prenike, a TGN hero of ours. The Alone in the Wilderness videos series by Dick Prenike about his time back in the 1960s and 70s, you know, building a log cabin and living alone in remote Alaska. uh, has inspired a lot of people, including us. And it inspired Eric to actually go out and do it himself. And I believe from what I read about him and this video, you know, he wasn't really setting out to, to be kind of a YouTube hero or make money from this or, or be, you know, get a lot of followers. He just had a GoPro that he wanted to kind of document his process probably in the way that Preniky did as well with his old, uh, probably super eight camera or something. And, and he films the whole thing and it's an hour and a half video. Obviously it's, uh, it's edited and shortened, um, cause it took him three years, but you see him doing the same kind of stuff that Preniky did. I mean, he built the cabin from scratch, cutting down trees, uh, you know, prepping the wood, notching the wood, making tools for himself. And it's one of those inspiring, meditative, uh, calming videos that, that I just think fits so well with kind of what we've been talking about today. And that is just, you know, finding. joy in, in everyday things and, and closer to home and just kind of learning new skills and. For sure. And kind of living a more minimalist life. And, uh, it's really well done. It's, it's really, really nice to watch. So I highly encourage that one. And boy, he's got a lot of subscribers. Oh, does he? I just noticed he's got 1.1 million subscribers. Okay. So, you know, minimalist might not be the right word, but in this video, um, I mean, it's amazing. It's obviously gotten a lot of, a lot of traffic. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's great. This does look awesome. They've had 12 million views in a month since he put this out. So my guess is a good portion of you folks have heard about it, but maybe dig back in, watch it again, share it with a friend, that sort of thing. I mean, we should probably reach out to him, see if he'd like to be on the show, eh? Wow. Yeah, seriously. |
| Jason Heaton | Jeez. |
| James Stacey | Man, a solid final notes and kind of a good impetus for the year. Go build a cabin, you know, maybe don't install Instagram or whatever social media app you can't turn off on your phone specifically. And, and yeah, you know, I guess the joke, the joke that you hear online a lot is that term like touch grass, go outside. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So yeah, that's our first episode of 2023. A happy new year to everyone who's listening. Thank you so much for everything. We're looking forward to a super fun year ahead for the show and just for life in general. And if you're enjoying the show, we'd love for you to tell a friend. As always, thank you so very much for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show to get into the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly. And we leave you with this quote from Carl Jung who said, You are what you do, not what you say you'll do. |