The Grey NATO - Ep 94 - The 2019 TGN Holiday Gift Guide
Published on Thu, 21 Nov 2019 06:00:13 -0500
Synopsis
In this episode of The Graynado podcast, the hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss their holiday gift guide recommendations for 2022. They each suggest five gift ideas across various price points - from relatively inexpensive items like water bottles, magazines, and chargers to higher-end gifts like a projector and a Lego Technic Land Rover Defender model kit. Along the way, they share personal anecdotes and banter.
For the "final notes" segment, Jason highlights an impressive multimedia story called "The Fisherman's Secret" from the San Francisco Chronicle's website. James then promotes the latest issue of the Hodinkee print magazine which features contributions from both of them. They wrap up by geeking out over a website selling rare, vintage military clothing and gear.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a Haudenosaunee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. I'm your host, James Stacy. I'm joined by Jason Heaton. This is episode 94, and we thank you for listening. Hey, Jason, how's it going? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, fighting a bit of a cold here, but hopefully that just makes my voice sound a little more moody and deep and intriguing. |
| James Stacey | Uh, so before we get into the show, I think this is one that, you know, it's, it's our holiday gift guide. We've done these before. It was one of our biggest episodes of last year. I I'm fairly excited about it, but we have a little bit of housekeeping from the top. Um, a few things to get out of the way. So that starts with a huge thank you. Um, for those of you who might've seen on, on our Instagram, we recently crossed 1 million downloads and plays. And that means. the world to Jason and I, that this has continued, that the show is growing, that we're finding new audiences and that people are still going back and listening to some of the older episodes. So just, uh, from the bottom of our hearts and especially, you know, uh, there's such a nice kind of early Christmas gift, uh, 1 million plays it's, uh, we're proud of it, but we also know that we did not in any way get here without each and every, uh, one of you listening. So we appreciate that a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I would echo that. And, uh, thanks for, especially for all the, the feedback and the positive responses. I mean, we just feel like we've got this big family behind us and, and it's been great. And I'm always amazed to hear people that, that say, uh, you know, I just discovered the show and I've started from episode one and I'm like, wow, that's a commitment. That's, that's, that's pretty crazy. |
| James Stacey | That's crazy. Yeah. So there's a lot there. Uh, yes. I mean, soon enough, a hundred episodes, which is another thing we're pretty excited about. Yeah. Um, the next bit of housekeeping is, you know, we've noticed, you know, recently we've done a handful of these chat episodes, which are like our interview episodes. And, uh, they're just not as popular as the ones where it's just Heaton and I kind of talking about whatever we came across in the last couple of weeks. So, uh, with that in mind, I still want to do the chats. I really love that format of podcasting of bringing in people from within the kind of spheres of TGN and giving them a platform to talk about what they're into. But I think we're going to kind of rethink that and maybe it won't be whole episodes. I think you'll always get a little bit of Heaton and I kind of chit-chatting at the top and then, you know, the usual final notes. So stay tuned for that. If you see another one that has Chad in the title, be sure to download it, give it a try. We have some fairly interesting people lined up for the next ones, but we're going to kind of lessen the impact on the overall format of the show. So. Uh, thanks very much for, uh, for listening. And for those of you who enjoyed those episodes, uh, we, we appreciate it very much. So next up, we have a little bit of information for those of you who are local to New York city. And that's, uh, currently Hodinkee has a big pop-up running at 274 Lafayette street in Soho. That'll be running until the 24th. So I figured it was worth mentioning. This comes out on the Thursday before the Sunday when it ends. So there'll be three or four days in there. Uh, for you to swing by, it's a, it's a cross promotional sort of pop-up with Omega. So there's a tons of watches and there's a space suit and, and, and all sorts of stuff. So if you've got some time Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and you're around the Soho area of NYC, it's really not far from a handful of different subway stops. Swing by the Hodinkee pop-up. It looks amazing. I unfortunately was, you missed it by a day, didn't you? Yeah, I missed it by a day on either side. I'm back in Toronto while we're recording this and I'm kind of landlocked here for the time being. So I missed it. Please make up for me and swing by and say hi to the team. Say hi to the shop team. They're working so hard to make sure that it's a really special event. And so far, the feedback's been incredible. The photos I've seen look amazing. The space looks really fun. So certainly worth some time if you're kicking around, maybe doing some holiday shopping. in and around that area, maybe swing by and say hi. And it's right next to a Lac Cologne. So while you're there, you can get some pretty fantastic coffee. Good one. Finally, for those of you who might be wondering, this is our TGN holiday gift guide, which will be focused on everything kind of non-watches that we really liked over the last year when actually recommend people spend their own money on. That said, episode 95 will be a similar format, but specifically watches. So we're doing kind of the normal gift guide and then Episode 95 will be probably like a watch holiday guide of some sort. So stay tuned for that if that's going to be more up your alley. But I think we've got some pretty solid picks for almost anyone you could be buying for if they're in the sort of, again, the kind of spheres of TGN interest. There's a lot here of good stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think so too. You know, whenever I put together this list, when we've done this the past couple of years, it's fun to do. It's a little daunting and sometimes I get a little paralyzed, but I, The list tends to be either stuff that I already own that I love or stuff that I want. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So with housekeeping out of the way, Jason, what's new? What have you been up to? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, like I said, I've got this cold and just kind of been laying low, trying to kick it with lots of tea and just hanging out. But I took a couple trips up to a couple hours north of here to Duluth, two different trips over the past few weeks since we've talked last. That's always fun to get up there by Lake Superior. And, um, the last time we were up was just this past weekend. We, Kashani and I went up with my parents to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday. Um, he's actually turning 80 as we're recording this today on the 19th. So happy birthday dad. He's a happy birthday, a big TGN fan and listener as is my mother. And, uh, I know your parents are too. So happy birthday dad. And, and, you know, keep on keeping on. So we'll, we'll do something again on your 90th, if not sooner. |
| James Stacey | I love that. Yeah. Happy birthday for sure. Well, that sounds like, you know, I've never been to Duluth. I guess, is it already fairly cold? It wasn't too bad up there. |
| Jason Heaton | There's a little bit of ice in the harbor. We got to watch some ships come in. But it was a pretty balmy weekend, all things considered up there. But, you know, one day you should take your Jeep and drive up over Kind of the top of Northern Ontario over Lake Superior and come down through Thunder Bay. And then we'll, we'll meet up in Duluth. That would be really fun. That's a, that's a cool road trip. We had, um, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law did that that years ago, quite a few years ago, they live in Toronto as well. And they, they did that trip came up over the top of the lakes and came down through, through Duluth. So yeah, keep that in mind. |
| James Stacey | That sounds great. I think that'd be a great plan maybe for the, uh, the spring. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | on the other side of the cold weather. In my case, I'm still fighting the cold weather as I know, which is I'm slowly really coming to love this stationary spin bike that I was given by a friend of mine. And then just recently, when I was in New York last, I was suffering through a pretty considerable bout of insomnia. So I was doing a lot more Google searching than I might. So I've been using this indoor cycling kind of spin bike to follow along with these videos from a global cycling network. They've a tons of these training videos, and some of them are like a GoPro on someone's handlebars as they climb through the Dolomites and others are kind of in someone's like living room. They're all really good and really useful. And I really like them, but they, you know, they, they base the performance on a few different metrics, a power meter, which I don't have and cadence. Yeah. Um, and, and the spin bike that I have has a computer, but the cadence, if I was going would be like three to four X what it actually was. So I don't know if it's measuring something other than what says RPM. Oh, I don't know. I'm not really sure what it's I, and I couldn't, I couldn't really find like a manual online. So I just kind of gave up and did the easy thing, which was a Garmin sells a cadence sensor for like $30. Yeah. And it just clips to the, um, crank on the bike. And immediately, you know, it uses that ant plus low power protocol. So it immediately connects to the Phoenix. Right. And, and now, cause I'm already using the Phoenix just to track the amount of time that I'm riding. I mean, it doesn't do distance because I'm indoors and it doesn't do speed because this is a hub list bike. It's like an actual spin bike. So there's no hub to put a speed sensor on. If you were riding indoor on your normal bike, you can actually buy this little twin pack that has the, the cadence sensor and the. The speed sensor, and then you would have both. Yeah. Um, in my case, I really just want to cadence. So I had some ability of knowing I was cycling to the speed that they were presuming. And then the rest seems to be a, this sort of less accurate measure of effort. So, you know, I think it's about kind of balancing your effort versus probably this semi-professional professional cyclist on the screen, that sort of thing. So anyways, the, these, if you're, if you're in my scenario and you've got a Garmin that that's going to run that ant plus profile and we'll pull The data and you would like that cadence thing. I was surprised by not only the fact that it's set up in about 30 seconds and I was using it immediately, but it's, um, it's accurate enough that I can just kind of glance down occasionally and it's always updating. So if you want to hold that 90 RPM for however long you just sit at it, it's great. I'm really happy with it. And, and so far the workout's been amazing. So I've been home for, um, five days now and I'm about six workouts in. So it's, uh, I've been liking the bike quite a bit. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, that's really great. Uh, you know, I'm using the Phoenix for my rowing workouts as well. And that has an indoor row setting and tracks, uh, it tracks heart rate, of course, and time, but then it also tracks my stroke rate. So it actually detects it detects. So it's kind of the rowing equivalent of your, your cadence sensor in that it's, it's basically tracking the back and forth. And, and this water rower that I bought also has a display that tracks, uh, cadence as well, or, or. stroke rate and they line up, you know, equivalently, which as they should, but, um, yeah, that's really cool. I, you know, I used to ride, put my bike on a stationary trainer in the winters, um, years ago and watch videos as well. And, um, I was amazed to, to learn recently, I went into a bike shop, actually the place where I bought the rowing machine and to see how stationary trainers have evolved over the years. I mean, they have something where you can actually hook the, and this won't be news to people out there that Or have done this for years, but, uh, you can actually hook the fork of your bike onto, uh, a little motor that will raise and lower the front of your bike to, to simulate climbing up a mountain. Yeah. Um, so that as you're watching a synchronized video, as the riders in the video are going up the, your bike will actually raise up in front. Um, yeah, it's, it's pretty crazy. I mean, and you can compete against other people and, you know, there's the whole online community that, that you're sort of competing with kind of like, uh, I suppose the Peloton model. |
| James Stacey | Yep. Yeah. I think the Peloton one seems to be pretty sweet. And you know, I, we received a ton of emails after that episode about fitness. Yeah. And I found there, there's a handful of people that wrote me in that don't have the Peloton bike, but still subscribe to their app. So I don't know, it was 15 or 20 bucks a month and it had, it's not just cycling workouts. It's any workout. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. Right. |
| James Stacey | But it runs it as though you're part of the whole system. Like it won't tell you your leaderboard and stuff because you're not on one of their pieces of hardware. |
| Unknown | Mm hmm. |
| James Stacey | But if I guess if I get to the end of these global cycling network ones, which I don't know, like, like, they range from 30 minutes, where like, when I'm done, my legs are shaking up to like an hour where when I'm done, everything is shaking. I just can't imagine really getting to the point where like, this is too easy. But I guess if I if I get there, there is that next threshold where we had I had a couple couple people write in and actually show me like photos of their setup where they had a tablet clipped onto a normal spin bike, and they were running the Peloton thing and then watching something else on their TV. So if they were just kind of like, you've got four minutes at this pace, just hold that pace, then they would kind of move on to something, something kind of in the foreground. And yeah, so I mean, I like it. I like this thing. And it's easy enough to deal with. It's not too uncomfortable. Like I've been back to back about an hour a day. So The first few minutes back on that seat aren't my favorite. Um, other than that, no real issue. And, uh, and I, I really just like that. I'm, I'm still able to get some exercise, uh, despite the fact that it's been, this is right that time of year in Ontario where you don't want to run so much because it's not that there's snow, which you can run in snow. That's not that big a deal. |
| Unknown | It's the ice. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. you know, you get a bunch of snow over the weekend and maybe not everybody shovels their driveway immediately. So you get that layer where it compresses down and it becomes this kind of sheet ice. Yeah. And it doesn't matter what you have on your feet. Like, I guess if you had yak tracks or something with a spike, you'd be better, but I'm not going to run with all that on. Um, right. So this is nice. I like it where it's, it's entirely like I can pick everything down to like the temperature in the room. I can put a fan on, I can, it's nice. I like it. Yeah. It's easy, easy way to work out. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Oh, I'm also, uh, speaking of everything, everything shaking when you're done, I I'm, I'm still working through the just six weeks pushup workout. And I'm about four weeks into it. And, uh, it's, it's tough. It's ambitious. The, the schedule they set up is, I mean, it goes up steeply. Every, every workout is, is quite a climb and I'm kind of holding my own. I've fallen behind a little bit what their program is. And it got me thinking that this, this app cannot possibly get anybody to a hundred pushups in six weeks, because if you can do 50 just at your starting point and I can do 25 as my starting point, how in six weeks are we both going to get to 100? I'm going to have this incredibly heavy lift with a lot more reps to get up there as opposed to you. So I'm not sure how that works. I mean, you might get somebody that can only do six pushups in a row to start with. Um, but regardless, I, I've kind of just decided not to, overanalyze it. And I'm just using it as a kind of a cool way to increase my, my fitness. I'm loving it. I love pushups. |
| James Stacey | So yeah, me too. I mean, I, I still, still like still doing, you know, I try and do like the five sets of 20. Yeah. Um, uh, every day. And then the other thing I've been doing, which is probably, I'm not sure if this is good or bad for my mid back. Cause it hasn't hurt yet, but I'm expecting it will eventually as I have, um, I got, it must be 45 pounds, a kettle, a kettlebell. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I'll, I'll put it on a seat next to the bike. And then when there's moments where, again, you have four or five minutes of just like the same steady state, 90 RPM. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I'll do curls holding that. |
| Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| James Stacey | Just to see like, cause I'll bike and I'll be like 160, 165 beats a minute. And then if, when I do that, I can jump into the one 70, like the really high, uh, prop, like almost problematic heart rate. And then as soon as I stop, like you come back, it gives you a little bit more of a, uh, I don't know, a little bit more of a challenge. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Um, which is nice. And it doesn't really add any time to the workout. Your arms aren't really doing that much. So in the scenario where I want to sit back in the saddle for a minute and, and take my hands off the handlebar, I'll grab that, uh, kettlebell and throw it around a bit. |
| Jason Heaton | I thought you were going to say you have your daughter sit on your back while you're doing your pushups. I've done that. |
| James Stacey | I've done that before. That works. I mean, uh, yeah, I mean, uh, yeah, the, the pushup thing, I don't know how you get to a hundred period. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's I feel like that would just it would be months of work. Yeah, being your that would be your like main goal is like I need to be able to do 101 said I would also get bored. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. I don't know. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, right. Right. Like, and then I start miscounting. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you've been there where your brain moves on to something else. And then you realize like you've 2427 I don't know, I always give myself the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, for sure. I mean, the goal, the goal of course, is just to be doing something right. How, how well it goes is a lot less important. Um, unless you're a professional athlete, of course, I guess. But, uh, in our case that really it's just doing something, even if you're not doing it that well. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| Jason Heaton | Let's jump into gifts. Uh, each, each year we, you know, close to the holidays, we each pick five gifts, uh, gift ideas, maybe something you'd give your buddy, your brother, uh, sister, parent, whatever. Um, or something maybe you want yourself, but yeah, you know, this is sort of a thinly veiled wishlist in some respects. But the way we've done it is we've typically done four that are close to or near, you know, sub a hundred dollars. This probably will change as costs go up over the years. But, um, and then the last one is usually a bit of a, a bit of a reach, a bit of a budget buster. Um, so we'll see how we did this year. I, I've got pretty, pretty budget friendly ones this year. Um, and my top one is, is not. super extravagant. So yeah, I'll get started. I've got a product that I've used for many years actually. It's a brand and everybody has their favorite water bottle or flask or sort of coffee tumbler. And mine happens to be from Hydro Flask. So it's these vacuum flasks that keep things warm or cold depending on what you're putting in them. And the one that I tend to use most, it's a 16-ounce coffee flask. And they come in a number of different colors. The outside is sort of a powder-coated finish, so it's fairly rugged and attractive. You know, it's nice looking. It's not overly logoed. And then you can get a number of different tops for it. So you can get a screw top that has kind of a tether on it, so you can unscrew it and drink it if it's maybe water or, you know, a cup of tea, or if you want something that You sort of sip out of a little opening. You can put on this screw on top with a little sliding, uh, sort of sip, sipping port, I guess you'd call it, um, for, for hot coffee, maybe while you're driving. And these are 25 bucks and you know, I know Yeti makes these and you know, any number of brands, uh, sell these. I have, gosh, I've got about probably about four of these in different colors. I got one as sort of a gift from Tag Heuer one year at an event or maybe it was at Baselworld and then, um, I've just, you know, bought a few over the years and, um, it's just great. You know, if I'm going on a road trip or, or, you know, I'm just going to go out and, you know, do some local diving or a hike or something, they're, they're just really nice for a cup of coffee or a cup of tea or something. And I think they just, they just make a great gift. Um, whenever we have guests over and I'm going to send them out or we're going somewhere together, I usually have, have one that I can give to somebody and everybody's always pretty impressed with how how long they keep stuff hot. And so nice little gift for 25 bucks. |
| James Stacey | I agree entirely. Yeah. I have, um, I have a, a Yeti one that I like quite a bit. And, uh, the Hydroflask looks a little bit more like a thermos. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | The Yeti one is kind of like a big mug with it, with a lid. If you're going to go, you know, put it in your car or something like that. Right. So I could see the Hydroflask. And the other thing is like, these things are kind of like a big business right now. Yeah, they are the various water bottles and various ways of keeping your hot hot and your cold cold. So yeah, I mean, $25 doesn't seem that crazy, especially, you know, now, now you're into something you could take to a Starbucks, and they can fill that. So we're, you know, limiting single use plastics and garbage and things like that. So I like it. Good pick. Yeah, cool. My first one was if we're all if we're going to start with the cheapest uh, or the, the least expensive to, uh, the more expensive, uh, this one isn't even a specific brand. It's just paracord. Um, you know, it's something that I've used. I probably find some excuse to cut myself a length of paracord every couple of weeks. Um, so would the stuff I like is five 50 tests. It'll just be called five 50 paracord. It comes from tons of different brands. I got, um, a hundred feet. for 10 bucks at a place called warriors and wonders in Vancouver. But this is also something you can buy on Amazon or eBay or wherever the stuff is a really useful. So this is everything from like camera straps to simple lashing leashes for stuffed animals. If you've got kids, I'm constantly like, where's the leash for this? Or how, how, how could I, you know, how could this monkey swing from this place to this place? And you just cut a piece of paracord and tie it up and go for it. The uses are kind of endless, you know, like, I'll find a problem with the way that, like just recently, I couldn't get one of my two car seats in the new Jeep properly. It just, because the leather seats are kind of slippery, if I went around a corner too quickly, the two-point seatbelt, if you were moving against the seatbelt, so towards the center of the car, my daughter would just topple over. Oh, wow. So it's just a booster seat, because she's a bit bigger. So what I did was I was able to just take some paracord and actually lash the top of the seat over the back of the seat rest and into the mount point for traditional car seat. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | And then use it like a simple tension tie to put, to keep it in place. And now the seat doesn't move. And that costs me, I don't know, like 30 cents, 40 cents. I don't like nothing. Yeah. Um, I highly recommend this. If you're buying stocking stuffers for someone who, you know, fits the, fits the right sort of ilk, it's kind of infinitely useful. It comes in any color. You can have it super bright. You can, I usually just keep like, Military green olive green like something simple like you got many of you have seen with my camera straps and that way You can always have it around you burn the ends with a lighter and it lasts forever. |
| Jason Heaton | I love it Yeah, and it's you can use it for like Spare shoelaces if you break a boot lace or something if you have the yeah, I would I would say this Yeah, this stuff's probably too thick for oh shoelace. Okay. Yeah But you can get the really thin stuff. |
| James Stacey | But you can get the stuff that's, I think, like in the 200 test range. Yeah. It gets quite a bit thinner. And that stuff's really clever because it's like really strong for how thick it is. Stronger than a shoelace, for example. Yeah. Yeah. I really like it. Buy a length of paracord and throw it in. If you've got like a, you know, a kind of adventure in the making, a young boy or girl who maybe you're buying Maybe this is a niece or a nephew or your son or daughter or something like that. And you're putting together, you know, get them a little flashlight, get them a length of paracord, get them a bandana and send them out into the woods, maybe give them a slingshot or something as well. Right. I don't know. Maybe our slingshots still a thing or do they not give those to kids anymore? Probably not. |
| Unknown | Yeah, probably not. |
| James Stacey | I mean, there's one grafted to my arm for about five years of my of my life. I guess that's not a thing that people give kids anymore. Who knows? Uh, but yeah, paracord, pick it up. |
| Jason Heaton | I love it. Yeah. All right. My number two is something I just discovered recently. It's a, a belt. I'm a big fan of belts and I like nylon kind of webbing belts. Uh, I've got one from Fjallraven. I've got an old Patagonia one that I've worn for years that has a, like a beer bottle opener buckle. Um, You know, I got one from Doxa, did the Poseidon belt for, uh, it's kind of a limited time a couple of years ago. Um, but I discovered this one recently. It's from a brand called grip six and it's really a clever design so that it's just two pieces. It's just the piece of webbing which you order to size and it's, it's nice looking webbing. It's a, as webbing goes, it's a, I guess a little dressier looking, I suppose. Um, but then the buckle is just a plate with two slots, you know, two sort slots that are parallel at each end. Um, and, and that's it. And you basically run the webbing through one end and it has a little bit of a catch on it so that it hooks on one of those slots. And then you run it around through your belt loops on your pants, uh, and then tuck it into the slot on the other side. And then it actually goes behind the buckle and behind the other side of the webbing so that you don't get a tail that you have to tuck in and you kind of just cinch it up and then it sort of is hidden. So it's a very clean look. And they have a number of different buckles that they machine out of aluminum. They've got a carbon fiber one. Some of them are little, uh, for lack of a better word, cheesy. I mean, I, I wouldn't get the one with the sort of, uh, you know, woods, woodsy sort of design or a fish or whatever they've got. But, uh, you know, just the plain ones are kind of cool. So, um, I actually just ordered one. I'm curious to, to see how it goes for $35. It's, um, just another, uh, sort of option in the belt space and I just find these things just kind of cool. I think that web belts, I used to wear leather belts, I just hardly ever wear one anymore because these are just so versatile and you know I've even worn and you know people will shame me for my lack of sartorial acumen here but I've even worn web belts with you know like the Uniqlo sport jacket and a pair of jeans or khakis and some red wings and I think you can can pull off the look pretty, pretty easily. |
| James Stacey | So I don't know. I'm looking at these things. I don't really, I'm like, I, I think I own one belt. Yeah. And, and hard press gun to my head. Not sure I could find it right now. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | It's somewhere. It's probably tucked in a dress shoe is where I usually leave. Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, so you just go without a belt. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Pretty much. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Um, it's not typically a problem. Like the, the few pairs of pants that I have that might be too big for me either have some sort of a built-in, uh, belt sort of system. Or I guess that would be the scenario in which I would try and find this belt. But they also make these in a narrow strap. I could see like this with a pair of jeans. It's not in any way outside of the norm. I don't think it's... They're not too good. They make some that are like the buckles are bright blue or red or like UV coated. Right. But the really simple ones look pretty straightforward. And I mean, there's a whole world of these like tactical belts. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | that people get really into. That's where it violates some of my sartorial thinking. But these, I think, are pretty minimal and look pretty low-key. And I agree that the webbing looks nice, nicer than you'd expect. It doesn't look like a NATO. It doesn't look like a piece of seat belt around your waist. Right, right. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think, too, if you want to stretch things a bit, kind of playing off your paracord idea, a belt like this you could use for Okay. This is, this is really a stretch, but you know, you could use it, uh, wrap around, uh, some, uh, you know, a bunch of firewood in a pinch or, or use it to kind of bundle something up. If you're, you have to carry something or. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Or like a broken suitcase or a zipper breaks in the backpack. You can probably, yeah, for sure. Tourniquet. There you go. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So anyway, pull on this end. Yeah. I like it. Cool. All right. All right. Yep. My next one coming in at a whopping $25, uh, is a subscription to road and track magazine. It's probably one of the best $25 I've spent this year. And I've only gotten, uh, three issues since I, since I paid for it. The fun thing is, is that's actually two years of the magazine. It gets crazier for the $25. It's not just road and track, but it's their sister magazine, car and driver. |
| Unknown | Oh wow. |
| James Stacey | So you're actually getting two years of each magazine for $25. Huh? And don't get me wrong, road and track. If you've picked one up in the last few years, it hasn't changed greatly. It's still a lot of ads. It's not on like really expensive paper, but I'll tell you if they, if there are better auto writers working in the world right now, there aren't many that, that are, that they're, that they've left out of road and track. Uh, they have, uh, Sam Smith, a perennial favorite of mine, one of my absolute favorite writers, period. One of my favorite, um, automotive columnists in general or personalities, Jason Kamisa, who used to be on Motor Trend with, you know, Johnny Lieberman in Ignition and Head to Head. And they have Zach Bowman. I've been reading Bowman for a long time and his stuff is incredible. They have Ross Bentley. He writes a piece on like finding speed and racing. It's absolutely incredible. I mean, I just simply adore it. And for, I don't know, when you do the math, they're basically free. Yeah. And if, again, this is something where like, maybe you feel this isn't up your alley, but you might know a kid who's getting into cars. This was my entry to cars, um, was road and track. And it was, you know, the year of the McLaren F1 came out the year, the E36 M3, you know, yellow shot in the Canyon. Some of you will remember the cover of that magazine. These are things that I love. I love car magazines. And, uh, and I just think they're doing. the best job with the people that are, that are writing for them and what they're writing about. Matt Farah from the Smoking Tire, he'll write pieces for them and he does an exceptional job as well. They just have the best group of people working for them. The magazine still feels like it could cost a dollar or two an issue. Like this isn't a, this isn't a coffee book style production, but it is without question worth way more than $25 for two years. |
| Jason Heaton | That's, that's amazing. I mean, That price is so good. I mean, magazines have by and large, and you and I have even worked on some of them with the gear patrol magazine, the Houdinki magazine that have become almost sort of luxury additions to existing online publications. And I think, you know, road and track and car and driver have both been around for so long. And I remember I'm a generation removed from you. And I remember flipping through it when I was a teenager and getting excited about it. And, um, there's just something, I don't know, still very thrilling and enjoyable about getting uh, a magazine in the mail. |
| James Stacey | And if this one is truly monthly and plus you're getting two of them, the link that I'll put in the thing also has the normal deal apparently, which is one year of both magazines for $15. If you want to save 10 bucks, I guess, go ahead and save it. Otherwise just get the two years. I think they're just, um, I think they're just killer and I've enjoyed so many of the articles. Many of them are read multiple times. The other thing that's fun is while, yes, maybe the overall production value isn't equal to some of these boutique magazines, like a Hodinkee magazine, it doesn't weigh anything. So if this is the one you want to put next to your laptop, you don't notice it. You'll forget that an issue's in there. And it's super digestible. It's like carrying a newspaper. And the writing, again, it's about the writing. And I cannot believe that they have people this good for this much money. Yeah. Wow. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Well, I, you know, I'm going to piggyback on that with another magazine recommendation. And I think, you know, I remember as a kid getting magazine subscriptions as gifts and I think it's, I still think it's a, it's a really cool holiday gift idea because it's, it's one that whoever you're giving it to is reminded of every month or however often an issue arrives. And, um, and then I remember always, you know, wondering the next year always is so-and-so going to renew this subscription for me or is it up to me now? But, uh, you know, we'll, We'll sidestep that issue. But the magazine that I'm going to suggest is one that I've brought up probably on more than one occasion on TGN, and that is Sidetracked Magazine. They also have a really robust online presence and a field journal that comes, I think it's every week, in your email. But I'm talking here about the print magazine. It's considerably more than Road & Track and Car & Driver. This one is actually $35, I think, for three issues. But it's high-quality stuff in terms of the paper quality, incredible photography. Their photo editor, sort of art director, is a guy named Martin Hartley, who is a well-known polar photographer. He's done a lot of expeditions. He's a friend of Ben Saunders, a Bremont ambassador and sort of polar legend. And, you know, what I like about Sidetracked is it comes out of the UK and it's largely adventures. And it's not high profile adventures. It's often to places that you've never heard of. Um, and the stories are written by the people in the first person that sort of undertook these adventures in a very unpretentious sort of rustic and humble kind of way where they have done these things, you know, with, with very bootstrap, uh, means and accommodation. And, um, you know, it might be, Oh, we, we decided we're going to pack raft down This weird remote river that runs through a canyon in Argentina or something. A place you've never heard of and it's kind of cobbled together and the photography is always good, the writing is really good and I'm just a big fan of the magazine. I get the magazine and then of course I get the field journal and a lot of the, I think, TGN final notes that I've done have come from some of the videos and the things that they post out too and sort of partner with. You know, it's one of those publications that, yes, $35 for three issues is not cheap. It's not horribly expensive for the quality and for as thick as each issue is and the quality, I think it's definitely worth it. But I think you're also paying to sort of for the whole package. You know, they don't charge you to read articles on the website or for the field journal that they send you. So you're kind of getting it all or you're kind of supporting them through that. And I'm all for it. I think it's just one of the better, if not the best sort of adventure lifestyle, kind of TGN-esque print magazine out there. |
| James Stacey | I absolutely agree that the, for me, the double, the double play on a, on a Sunday afternoon where you actually have like an hour is a sidetracked and a super Alpine. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. That kind of gets both, both sides of my brain, like the cars in the Alps or in the Alps Maritime or something. And then with sidetracked, you had these like deep. really kind of like non-flashy sort of expeditions and adventures to, yeah, interesting places. And the production quality is incredible. $35 for three issues, I actually think is a straight up deal. If you asked me what I thought a sidetracked cost, I would say 35 bucks an issue would seem fine. And their website, like Jason said, is great. I haven't signed up for that field journal or the adventure journal or whichever, but I should, uh, I should probably get on that. And yeah, I think that's a, that's rad. It's such an impressive magazine and they're doing something that other people aren't. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah. Good pick. Uh, so my next one, this is an easy one. It was a final notes, not that long ago, but it is something that has now literally become no matter how small my bag is, I try and bring this with me. So it's in my permanent plane kit, which is, uh, the anchor power core fusion. So I spoke about this on a previous episode, so I can be fairly brief. What this is, is imagine a charger that also has a battery in it. So now if you want to keep your phone charged, no matter where you are, you have a 10,000 milliamp hour battery inside the charger, and you have two USB ports to charge anything you want. And it has the fold out prongs. So it's not that much bigger than if you know what the smaller of the MacBook chargers are in terms of size, like let's call it two inches by two inches by an inch. Yeah. It might be within 20% of that, give or take, but it just isn't that big. It fits right in my hand. It's easy to have in a bag. And I love that it's, it's a, it's a one solution for something that could be three pieces, a battery, um, a charge plug and the actual wall adapter part of it. And so when you, if you plug it in to plug in two devices, it will still charge its own internal battery. It's a beautifully simple solution. And I'm surprised that like, this isn't the default for a wall charger. Like it, it blows, like I understand like with a Samsung or with an iPhone 11 pro you get a speed charger, which is awesome. I think that's some of my favorite technology of the last few years. The fact that you can get 80% of your battery in less than an hour is incredible. Yeah. But I really like if you're, if you travel a lot or in my case, I really don't like having plugs and wires in every room, but I move around my house all day. Like I'm constantly kind of moving around and this means that I can have kind of one solution. It's one thing that goes in my bag. It's one thing that does this or that. And then I might carry one of these small speed chargers in another little kit, like my camera kit, uh, just in case. But otherwise this has become my, my absolute go-to charger. It's, it's super handy. You can plug anything that's USB. It's standard, like USB three. And it's $26, but I'll be honest. Um, if you sign up for any of the services that track like Amazon sales, um, the one in Canada, that's pretty common is like red flag, but you can sign up for any of these deal sites. Anchor and Aki stuff, which are the two purveyors of like the best cables and chargers you can buy from Amazon. Uh, their stuff is always on sale. Like as we're recording this it's 30% off today. Oh wow. So I think the list price is somewhere around 26 bucks, 25 bucks. I paid 33 Canadian for reference for that kind of money. Literally anyone in your life that carries their phone, which is everybody, you know, likely could use one of these. Super straightforward, really easy, really simple, no fuss, no muss and super functional. Good one. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, seeing as this is the second time you've mentioned it and my dad bought one based on your recommendation, I think those are, those are good. Good validations. And, uh, I need to, I need to get one of those. |
| James Stacey | I really hope, I really hope they make one that had just now that Apple has started to accept fast charging as a base feature. Yeah. I really hope they relaunch one that has, uh, you know, 18 watt power delivery. So you'd get fast charging on an iPhone. You get fast charging on a Samsung. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It'd be nice to have some adapters too for foreign. |
| James Stacey | The travel adapter would be, yeah, it'd be killer if it had kind of the Apple style ones that pop in and out. Yeah, I agree entirely. Well, maybe next, next holiday. Yeah, I did. I did support an Indiegogo for a device like what we're talking about right now actually does everything that we're talking about right now, but because I haven't seen it and I don't necessarily trust that brands will deliver on their Indiegogo promises. Yeah. I'm not going to talk about it, but when I get it and I try it, then we can talk about it. So maybe in the next few months. Yep. |
| Jason Heaton | Yep. All right. I'm moving on from sort of practical and, and, uh, edifying stuff to, to just sort of pure, I've got two purely sort of fun and childlike or childish, uh, gift ideas, which I think are just super cool. Um, the first one is something and I, I could kick myself because somebody sent me a link to this and I, for the life of me, I can't remember who it was, but I apologize if you're a listener and you You're the one who sent this to me on a DM on Instagram, but it's called models for divers. And these are small figurines that you would say, put on your desktop or a bookshelf or something that are incredibly lifelike, little sort of almost action figure things, uh, of different types of divers, whether it's a commercial diver or an old sort of brass helmet, um, Hardhat diver or a technical diver a wrecked diver. They have all of these different I don't want to actually call them action figures because you don't actually Manipulate the limbs or move them around or they're not really meant to be sort of played with I wouldn't necessarily give these to your kids or anything like that, but they're purely for decoration, but the level of detail and I'm not usually into this stuff so, you know, if you're rolling your eyes and thinking oh, I'm sure he's got like a you know, bookshelf full of model cars and things. The most that I have gone in this realm is that, uh, Saturn five Lego rocket that I built. Um, so, so I don't have a lot of this kind of stuff around the house, but maybe it's because I'm a diver and you just get so few diver oriented or dive related or themed things, uh, that would be kind of cool gifts. I'm really jazzed about these. And, uh, Some are fairly expensive, you know, the tech diving one, or you can order little dioramas in which you can put them, so there's like a little shipwreck that you can sort of position the diver in that is incredibly detailed. But the figurines themselves are, I think they're made in Poland, clearly by someone who is a diver, him or herself, and they're sort of a molded resin But then all of the hoses are, you know, real rubber tubing. They're painted, you know, very authentically. You can order specific brands for, say, you're putting a BCD or a buoyancy wing on somebody, you can order like a Halcyon or a Hollis or any number of the brands that you might like, Aqualung or Poseidon. I don't know, the one that caught my eye was the commercial diver who's sort of standing on a platform with, you know, his umbilical coming off of his, his Kirby Morgan helmet. Um, lots of color. Uh, um, you know, that one's a bit out of the price range that I was hoping to hit here. So I, I just put in, we'll put the link in for the one that I chose, which was the, they call it the old heavy diver ready figurine, which is, you know, kind of the classic, uh, you know, hard hat diver standing on a platform with his, uh, his heavy boots and his canvas suit. Um, but just super cool stuff. And, and, Um, this one is 64 euros, which I think is about $75. And, you know, um, just fun for somebody who's, who's into this sort of thing, who's a diver or maybe likes to, to build a little models or kind of keep this kind of stuff around. So we'll see. I'm not sure if I'm going to pull the trigger and order one, but I'm, boy, I'm inching, I'm inching closer. Cause I just think they're, they're just really, really cool. |
| James Stacey | They are very cool. I, uh, I did lose 20 minutes of, uh, of my, of my day to that, to that site clicking around, uh, It is that sort of thing. Like when I was a kid, I was really deep into like Warhammer 40 K that kind of like hand painted models and that sort of thing. And like that side of my brain, I think is now dead. Like the side that wants to put things on a mantle place and look at them. But I still, I still get excited by like the tiny details and the thoughtfulness. And I didn't even get into the fact that you could like customize the branding and that sort of thing. It's so, so cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it really is amazing. Yeah. So. That's, that's a classic gift territory too. That's like the kind of thing you don't really want to buy for yourself or, you know, someone might hesitate to, but if you got it as a gift, you'd be like, that's really cool. You know? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great gift. Absolutely. Especially if you can get something within the same sphere as the person who's getting it. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James Stacey | Or maybe it's somebody who's more interested in diving than they actually dive. Like a little Cousteau one would really get me. Oh yeah. Right. With the, with the lung and. Right. Right. The, the ancient kit. That'd be really fun. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so moving on to my next one, this one, I broke the rules a little bit because so many of my products that I've talked about so far were like less than 26 bucks. Everything has been so far. So I bent it a little bit, uh, for what's probably my favorite piece of gear from this year or, or at least one of, I have another one in final notes. It's a little bit more specific, but also pretty handy. This is the Toppo global briefcase, which we've spoken about before. It's a really clever sort of camera and computer bag from Toppo. Uh, you know, a brand that we love and I have several Toppo bags. This one is, has become kind of my go-to bag for my usual travel kit, which now would be, you know, a 15 inch MacBook pro plus it's charger. And then the Leica Q in its own little wrap plus it's charger and batteries. And then, uh, a little kind of zippered pouch of various other batteries and wires and cables and SD cards and that sort of thing. And then at that point, there's still quite a bit of room left in this. So I can do things like my bigger headphones. I can do, um, I can do a flash and my firing cable. I can do a bunch of stuff. It's just the right size. It's really kind of a casual look, which I'm starting to appreciate more and more because. I've owned more expensive bags and bags that look fancier and they never quite feel right, but this one can do the backpack can be a shoulder bag or it can just be a handbag. And it has these kind of two nice outer pockets. It's the right size for places like the subway. It has a luggage handle pass through on the back, so I can slide it right on top of my luggage. And I would say in, in a scenario where I'm not carrying multiple camera bodies, which is where I would normally go to the Tenba that I've spoken about ad nauseum for a couple of years now. Uh, this topo has become my absolute favorite and they make a three day version, which is a little bit more. The, the standard global briefcase is one 29. You can pay a little bit more for the three day. And I think the three day might just be perfect. It's just a little bit bigger, which might allow me to carry a couple more magazines or a couple more pieces of gear. If you get into a camera with additional lenses, that sort of thing, you'd I think the three day might be the ticket, but it is over the hundred dollar limit for our first four items. And I balanced that again with having mostly more inexpensive items in the list. And then even my break the bank item isn't that expensive compared to what some of the ones we've done in the past. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I was really splitting hairs on my final pick between what I picked and things like my Leica, right? Because I love it. And that's the best thing I bought this year is that Leica Q. But it's also $5,000. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Which is absurd unless this is your living. Right. The Toppo global briefcase, which was in my case, a gift from Josh Perez. Absolutely killer. I adore it. And it's now just where a lot of my stuff lives. Like my main kit just stays in that bag. And I kind of, if I'm home, I use it. And if I'm traveling, that that's where it is as well. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I'm, I'm a longtime fan of Toppo designs and I think, uh, uh, you know, they've got so many different kind of configurations of bags and briefcases that if you don't find one that you like, it's, uh, you're just not looking hard enough cause it's, uh, and this one, this one looks great. I love those sort of pouchy pockets on the outside. It has a very tactical look, but not over the top. Um, yeah, I love that. And I, it's funny, I look at the gifts we've recommended so far with the addition of my kind of silly diver figurine and they all could go inside of your global briefcase. Absolutely. A very handy sort of little travel kit. You've got a couple of magazines, a coffee flask, Charger. You're wearing your belt and you've got to... Yeah, exactly. This is definitely the theme of TGN this year and always. Yeah, that's a good one. |
| James Stacey | So, Jason, how about you kick off the no budget, higher budget sort of option? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, higher budget. And like you, I mean, I didn't break the bank. I think like I've done in the past. I'm not sure. I can't remember what I've done in the past. I think I might have done the... Last year was the Bose, the QC35. Bose headphones, which are 300 bucks or something. So this year I came down a little bit. Uh, again, it's, um, something you would display at your house and it's not something you by any means would, would take with you anywhere, but boy, this is cool. This is the, the Lego Technic, uh, Land Rover Defender kit. Um, so if you'll remember, you know, I know you're a fan of Legos and I think you have a couple of cars, maybe. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | The speed champion stuff, the really simple stuff. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I've got the Saturn V rocket, and then I still have the Apollo moon lander, which I haven't put together. I've got it in a box right here next to my desk that came from our friend Enrique. He sent that to me, and I'm excited to build that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, he sent me the same, and I can never get my five-year-old keyed up enough to do this. I think I have to start building it. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| James Stacey | So that she can start to see what it looks like, because it's so many pieces. |
| Jason Heaton | Yes, yeah. The Saturn V took me all week. I can't imagine. this Land Rover Defender will probably take as long. Uh huh. Um, this is $200. Um, the funny thing is, is that when the new defender for Land Rover was announced at the Frankfurt auto show a couple of months ago, um, uh, this toy had actually leaked ahead of that. And, and the, the model is actually based on the new vehicle, the new Land Rover. Um, so, so people were posting pictures of, you know, usually you get sort of spy shots of new cars and in this case people were posting spy shots of of a Lego model, um, that was based on the new car, but it's, it's incredibly detailed. It has, uh, you know, articulating wheels, and I think you can even adjust the suspension height. Um, you know, the engine, you know, you build the engine separately and install that. So it looks like the real engine. It has, uh, you know, most of the same exterior features and look of the, of the new Land Rover Defender and, uh, and a working winch. Yeah, exactly. I mean, if there, if there ever was, buck wild. If there ever was a vehicle that lends itself to a Lego model, it's, uh, you know, it's, it's your Jeep or a Land Rover, you know, I mean, they're just, they're so kind of squared off and chunky and, and, you know, at least the way the old Land Rovers went together, um, it almost was like a, like a Lego model, uh, you know, macro sized. So, um, I suspect this will find its way into my home at some point, but, uh, cool gift. It looks like it's now 200 and about 200 bucks on Amazon. And I, I wandered past the Lego shop at the mall, uh, and they had one on there and it was all I could do to keep from picking it up. It's, it's 2,573 pieces. So fantastic. They say 11, 11 plus for the ages. And that's probably not a bad idea. I think you'd, you'd end up, uh, missing a few pieces if you were doing it with a little kid with maybe a shorter attention span. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, that's my direct bank. I love that pick. Uh, those were when I was a kid, those were Lego was always the big gift from my parents. Um, so I had the castle, I had the spaceport. I had like, this is like really early Lego that when they were first starting with bases where you would get like a molded thing that made that you built on top of. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Um, and that's some of my fondest, like memories of the holidays was getting one of these giant Lego kits. It was like literally like a huge castle with like a King Arthur and a drawbridge and a moat and, uh, like a, uh, a jail place. It had a little skeleton that you could trick into going into different places. It was the best. I love that stuff. And I would always build it with my mom, you know, kind of between the end of opening gifts, Christmas morning and before she had to start making Christmas dinner. Yeah. Uh, and it would just, it would fill a table and you'd sit there and work your way through this small book. And I love that stuff so much. It's, uh, and it's been really fun to introduce the same sort of thing to, uh, my girls admittedly on, uh, on a smaller scale so far, you know, it's these, these speed champions and then they have tons of their own Lego that we build it once they trash it and then they just build whatever they want, which is rad. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Uh, and that defender looks like a lot of fun, good pick and, and would look kind of cool next to the Saturn five as well. I think so. Yeah. Um, So my final one, this is a kind of a weird choice for me. It's, uh, when, when I moved from Vancouver to, uh, Toronto, I really wanted to change the way that I spent some of my free time. Uh, I haven't had that much free time over the last year, but you know, I, the way I aspire to free time and, uh, that included preferably not having a television. Oh yeah. Or at least not having one in the normal fashion. I really don't like the way that when you walk into someone's living room, it's always formulated and designed to face a television. It's something that's bothered me more and more as I started to get into the phases of my life where I was setting up my own living rooms. And you were quickly realizing like, oh, I have this giant television. Everyone has to face this TV because what else would we do if the TV wasn't on? Right. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then less so maybe for me because I'll still watch things on my laptop and those sort of thing. But I really wanted a space the main sort of like communal space in my home to not suggest to my kids that all it was for was for watching television. Yeah. Um, so the solution for that is not only cheaper than a TV, but it also is a statically much more pleasing and that's just to buy a cheap projector. Um, so in this case I bought one from Amazon, which is called a Vankyo Leisure 510. Um, which is a hilarious name. Obviously it's about 180 us dollars. I paid like 250 Canadian for it. It does seven 20 piece. So it will just barely handle HD, which is nice. Um, has HDMI inputs. I connect a Chromecast to it. So my girls, if they are going to watch some cartoons or something on a Saturday morning, they can do, um, Netflix really easily. And I can stream from my own Plex platform and that sort of thing. But the nice thing is, is when it's off, it's invisible. I mean, the thing isn't that much bigger than a stack of books. It doesn't make an incredible amount of noise while it's on. It didn't cost that much money. I mean, you can't get a nice big screen TV for $180. Um, and I think what it does is it just, it doesn't present. It sits in the room and it works just as I like it as much as any big TV I've owned, but it doesn't suggest that it needs to be turned on. Like a giant TV in a room when it's off is such a sad, ugly thing for me. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I don't like the way they look. I like some of these ones that look like pieces of art. Um, I like some of these ones, you know, I've, I've seen people who hide them behind, uh, dart boards or cork boards, and then they're on a hinge and then, so you don't see the TV. And I think that's incredible. I like that a lot, but I really liked just having this cheap projector that I don't really care about. That isn't good enough to make that I want to sit and watch eight hours of something on it. But if I want to watch a movie, it's perfectly fine. It's not great. It's not bad. Um, sometimes depending on the movie, if I'm, if I'm going to watch something I really care about, I'll just watch it on my laptop because I'm watching it just for me. Um, otherwise it really helps to keep kind of the communal experience to be less about watching a screen. Um, and, and don't get me wrong. I'm, I'm, I'm not going to be so hypocritical as to say that I'm trying to limit screens in my life. I'm really not, I live in front of screens. Um, but I do try and change it when, The goal, if the goal is to spend time with my family, it's not to be watching television. And I think this one works towards both of those goals. Having something where you could watch a show or a movie. I recently, you know, my girls really liked the old Jumanji. So we'll watch some of that occasionally, which is fun. It's a fun movie, but it's also, you know, when it's off the room is just a room without a TV, which is nice. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. You know, I like this idea. You know, we, we have, a TV, but we keep it in the bedroom and we don't have one in our living room. We just, the kind of the fireplace is the centerpiece. But you know, if you do have people over, let's say you're going to watch a game or you want to watch a movie or just show a video from a trip you took or some photos or something. I mean, this would be really cool to kind of pull off the bookshelf set up, um, and fire up. I think it's, that's super versatile. |
| James Stacey | If you're willing to spend a little bit more money, you can get into the micro projectors, which like are literally the size of Coke cans. Oh, wow. Like they're itty bitty. You could easily leave them totally offline. Mine kind of stays on a shelf and I turn it on when I want it. But you could make ones that you could take anywhere. Some of them run on batteries. And you could really make it more of an experience than something that's like you walk into the room and the default is turning on a television. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I know a lot of this is going to sound fairly preachy. It's just a personal decision. I probably spent a good portion of the last decade just watching TV. Anyone who knows me at a more personal level knows of my complete obsession with things like 30 rock and community and the first season of true detective, like a very much an addictive viewer of television. And just in the hopes of not maybe passing on, um, too much of a fascination into that when my kids are so young, that that's, that's my only train of thought. I'm not saying that someone should or shouldn't spend their free time watching TV. I've, I've, I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of television and still do. It's just something that I'm trying to reframe by not having a big TV. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I mean, I think TV is not to get off on a tangent, but you know, TV has evolved from, at least for me, I don't care for sort of normal broadcast commercial cable TV shows, um, with lots of ads and kind of cheesy shows. I mean, I like to be selective and I think this, This gift, this projector is something that encourages that you, you turn it on, you, you become more thoughtful. You're not just clicking on the TV and sort of thoughtlessly surfing. You're actually doing it with the intention of watching a specific show, which is how a lot of the good. TV can be digested nowadays, whether it's true detective or, you know, mad men or, or whatever it is. |
| James Stacey | And you know, the other nice thing is because it's, you can spend a little bit more money and get a 10 ADP is nice. That's not going to matter to my kids at all. They would never notice the difference. It's bright enough to work. okay-ish in daylight. Um, but again, why even bother having it on? They got Legos, they have Duplo, we go outside, that sort of thing. Um, but the nice thing is, is the 720, I don't even mind it despite the fact that like my last several TVs were like huge 4k, like really nice televisions. And I don't really mind it because I'm watching like an all put on a Hitchcock and it makes no difference. |
| Unknown | Yeah, right. |
| James Stacey | It looks really nice in 720. So yeah, yeah. It's, it's a nice little thing. It's a little bit of lifestyle shaping. Or maybe it's a scenario where you have a room where you might want to watch something with friends every now and then, throw on a funny YouTube video. It's really good for those sorts of things. It just isn't designed for like binging eight hours of the dark or something like that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and all of your gifts fit into your Topo Designs global briefcase, right? |
| James Stacey | The projector is probably too big. Oh, really? Okay. Well, it's the size of like a normal, this is a standard projector size. It's maybe a little bit smaller in footprint than a laptop. Okay. Um, but you know, and it's got a little leg to help you adjust the height and that sort of thing. |
| Jason Heaton | So yeah. Yeah. Well, close. |
| James Stacey | I mean, yeah, I think pretty close. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it. That is the TGN holiday gift guide. For those of you who like recaps, Jason had a hydro flask, 16 ounce coffee flask, which is about 25 bucks, a grip six belt at about $35, a subscription to sidetrack magazine, also $35, but you get three issues. A models for diver figurine at roughly 70, $75. And then the brand new and very cool, uh, Lego model of the Land Rover defender, which is about 200 bucks, give or take. For me, I had the road and track magazine subscription, which is $25 for two years and comes with car and driver. So that's a lot of value. Um, a length, a grip, as I would call it a grip of a five 50 test paracord. Uh, should be about 10 bucks, pretty easy to source. Uh, the anchor power core fusion is a battery, uh, for your phone and also a charger for your phone, all kind of wrapped up in one. Then I had the topo global briefcase, which is a camera and computer bag, pretty straightforward to understand there. And finally, I said a cheap ish projector in my case, the Vankyo leisure five 10, which is about 180 bucks. And it's a simple, no frills, not that even remotely high end way of throwing a huge picture on the wall for occasional viewing. |
| Jason Heaton | Love it. And, and we, we pulled off the episode early enough that people can actually go out and buy this stuff. I think, I think we've been a little late, late in the past. We've sort of put these things together in December. So we're ahead of the game. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think, I definitely think there's enough time, especially with some of the stuff that comes from Amazon and then with the magazine subscriptions, they're going to be delayed either way. Like that's just the way that the subscription works. Yeah. Um, so maybe with one of those, the, if you do the magazine subscription for someone in your life, go to the magazine stand, buy one at list price or order. Uh, order a sidetracked, uh, you know, faster, uh, than starting a subscription and then, you know, throw a little note in there and say like, Hey, this is what you get, but also you're going to get more. So yeah, might work pretty well. Uh, you feeling some final notes, put a button on it. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Let's jump into it. I've, uh, I've got two, I'm going to start with one that, uh, just kind of blew me away about a week ago. Um, it was a feature piece on the San Francisco Chronicles website. |
| James Stacey | This is so, this is so incredible. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's it's a story called The Fisherman's Secret. And it's sort of a multimedia, well, first of all, the story itself is amazing. The story is about a Northern California fisherman, who, you know, hardworking guy who's out there fishing in the Monterey Bay, sort of, I guess, reserve in sort of the protected waters out there. And he has developed this sort of rig where he puts a GoPro camera on his trawling nets and is able to see what is happening a thousand feet down where he's dragging the nets and kind of see what's happening while he's fishing. And one day he's reviewing the footage and he catches this flash of bright gold and rewinds it, looks at it, and thinks he's stumbled on possibly a shipwreck with some treasure, many of which have been known to sink in that in that area from the gold rush days in the 1800s. And so the story is about the convoluted, frustrating process of figuring out, A, how you're going to determine whether it is gold, and B, you know, how you're going to get to it. And then also, there's this conundrum of this is a protected waters, there are salvage rights and, you know, insurance and etc, etc. I mean, these are these are stories that happen anytime someone discovers a sunken wreck with possible treasure on board. And this guy's just a, he's not a treasure hunter. He's not a shipwreck hunter. He's not a deep sea diver. He doesn't have an ROV or a submersible. He's just a fisherman. And so the story tells about his process of going through trying to determine all of these hurdles or get past all of these hurdles to possibly score this windfall for him and his family. And it's amazing. Besides the story, the way it's told and the presentation of it by the San Francisco Chronicle is just something to behold in itself. It's a multimedia presentation. It's a dynamically scrolling story with some interesting graphics and video and great photos and just some good writing. It's good stuff. Um, this is great, not, not just long-form journalism, but modern long-form journalism. You know, we've talked about some of these things, uh, the New York times has done in the past and, and some other publications, and this is, this is right up there. So, um, I know you enjoyed this. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I, I, I'm not sure what I could possibly add. I'm just, I, I beg people to read it. I put it in a weekend roundup for Houdinki. It's, it's an absolutely incredible presentation. It's huge. It's 10 chapters. It's nice and long. It's not like book long, but it's definitely like big magazine project long and the evidence of work that went into it. And like, now that. Heaton and I work in a, uh, the sort of environment with the, you know, some of the whole dinky team and you meet the four or five kind of teams that are involved in building something like this designers and photographers. And then of course the writer and the people who are actually the subjects of, of the story and all of their details. And you start to like, do all this work and you think like, how do they ever get any return on this? Yeah. Yeah. Just please just check it out. It's too good to be ignored. It's an amazing story. I loved it. The presentation's incredible on a tablet or a laptop. And, uh, and it's highly worth, I don't know, maybe 40 minutes of your time. Yeah. Maybe two, two 30 minute sessions. Like you'll have a great time reading it. I, I don't know anyone who, I don't think you have to be interested in any of this. It's a human story and it's really well told and it's gorgeous. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And just a note, uh, when you do click on this link that we're going to put in the show notes, if you aren't like a regular subscriber to the San Francisco Chronicle, you do have to sign up to read this, but there's no fee or you don't have to put a credit card number or anything. You're just basically just signing up in, uh, in order to read it, which wasn't a, wasn't a big lift and I didn't bother me at all. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I didn't have to sign up for mine. Uh, it could just be the security settings I have on my browser, uh, or VPN or something like that. But, uh, even if they were asking for a couple of bucks, it's, it's, yeah. Absolutely incredible value. Really cool piece. Yeah. Yep. What you got? Speaking of kind of big projects that take a lot of work and, uh, and I'm always happy to see them in their physical final manifestation. Hodinkee magazine, volume five is out. I, uh, I had a part in writing and producing a story about a car that I care very much for the McLaren F1, my, my most favorite car. And, uh, and I got an experience, you know, I spent two days near the car. I got to sit in it. I got to start it. I didn't get to drive it for all of those who are asking. And if you read my piece, you'll get an idea as to why they're just insanely valuable. I mean, think about some of the things I've driven. It would be, um, four to five times the most expensive vehicle I've ever driven, uh, for this mid nineties, British supercar. And so I highly recommend Hodinkee Magazine, Volume 5. It's packed full of great stories. I actually think the story they put on the cover is the strongest piece of work in the magazine. And that's Cole's piece about a watch from the Cold War. Yeah, a plane crash story. Yeah, it's a real story. And Cole did some incredible work to put that story together. And the art assets are incredible. The style shoot in the magazine is by Brett Curry, Uh, who we love and I hope to have on the show at some point, one of my absolute favorite photographers. And he, I mean, he, he just crushed it. The style pieces beautifully shot at this Insano house out in the desert in California. Um, that one came together beautifully. The magazine came together really, really well. Uh, Josh Perez, who I mentioned earlier as being the guy who gave me this topo bag, he shot the McLaren for us that day. And the photos are by far the strongest. aspect of the McLaren piece, and I highly recommend you take a look at it. Order a copy. It makes an incredible gift. It dips into many different avenues. If you haven't been through Hodinkee Magazine in the past, I highly recommend you even just swing by the site to get a feel for the fact that it's not just watches. I mean, we'll tell some great watch stories, but Heaton's written several pieces for previous volumes about histories of various complications. And, uh, and I've been lucky enough to do a couple of pieces for automotive coverage and it's, uh, it's been fun. And I think it's, it's where, where the road and track thing is, is a little bit more of a, of your typical, like magazine. This is a coffee table book that we do twice a year. And, you know, it takes a huge team to put it together and I'm really proud of the way it came out. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, it's, it's, uh, such a sign of the times that we do this podcast that is connected to an online publication and we have now talked about three or four magazines on the show. And I think we just have this love of well-produced print material and good journalism. And I think the complement between the Hodinkee magazine and what's on the site is so evident here, especially with the, you know, Cole's cover story, which had a companion online sort of version. |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah, we'll link to the digital version as well. We'll put that in the show notes. |
| Jason Heaton | Neat to see that come together. So I haven't, Mine hasn't arrived in the mail yet. I think it always takes a little while longer, but I can't wait to see it in, in the paper. So yeah, congratulations to everybody that, that worked on that. That's a, that's a good one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And a big kudos for John, who runs the entire magazine at a project level. That's a task that would kill me. So big shout out to John and the way that he put it all together and kept things moving and made the deadlines and all that kind of stuff. So it's really one of those things that's like, it's hard for the team to build all this stuff. It's extra work on top of anything else that we're working on. And it's not just for the editors, but like the designers, the photographers, um, everybody who just deals with like logistics, the ad team has to actually like make everything come together in time. And the fact that it can be done by a team that's used to used to dealing with the somewhat laissez-faire, uh, idea of a deadline when it comes to web work. Uh, it, it, I think it's very impressive. And, and, uh, yeah, I'm for those of you who, who, you know, sent, sent in feedback about the McLaren piece or even just the magazine in general. Thank you very much for reading. Thank you for following along. And, and I think the, the, a lot of these picks, whether it's a rodent track or a sidetracked or hoodie key magazine, or this piece for the SF Chronicle, it's about chasing really good stories. I mean, we're just inundated with content. Yeah. And some of it's not that great. Some of it isn't that thoughtful. Some of it's not that well produced. Some of it is packaged poorly. And if you can kind of sift through and find some really great stuff, it, it, there's a lot out there that is special. Um, and it, it doesn't all cost the same. It's not all at the same level of presentation, but it is all really good. A really great way to spend some time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, my last, uh, my last note here for, for this week is just a bit of, um, sort of retro clothing workwear porn, I guess you'd call it. This is saundersmilitaria.com. Saunders Militaria is this website that carries rare and old military and kind of expedition clothing and gear. So wild. And there are a few out there, you know, there's a few others that, that I, I love to look at. But this one, I'm just blown away by the kinds of stuff that they get. I'm looking at their, their homepage right now and they have about one, two, three, four, like five, uh, vintage Eddie Bauer quilted down jackets that were probably developed for, uh, you know, like Everest expeditions or, or some sort of polar stuff when, when Eddie Bauer was really hardcore into that stuff back in the sixties. Um, you know, beautiful old stuff. They've got canvas bags, they've got, um, a pair of, uh, uh, Vietnam era jungle boots from the French foreign Legion. Um, they have this, this awesome 1950s, uh, Swedish biker dispatch rider jacket, um, which is just the coolest thing. I mean, it's look, everybody loves this sort of thing. And a lot of the brands that you see now that people like are styled after this very, um, this very stuff, you know, vintage military has always been in and, um, You know, I know you, you're a fan of it. And I remember going to the military surplus shop in Vancouver when I came out to visit a few years ago. And, um, this, this stuff kind of kicks it up a notch. It's, it's definitely, um, a bit on the luxury side of things in terms of pricing. But then again, these people had to source this stuff and I don't know where they get it, but I'm sure they chase the ends of the internet and all over the world to, to find these really kind of rare finds. Um, occasionally you'll find like a, I think I saw something that was already sold a while back. It was like an old Hamilton W10, like a field watch. Oh, cool. Which was cool. So, you know, keep your eye on it, bookmark it, check back. Who knows what you'll find, but I love these old Eddie Bauer jackets, the red one or the forest green one. Really, really cool. |
| James Stacey | Those jackets are killer. And it's funny because they use a lot of small thumbnails. So color really makes a difference in these layouts. And if you scroll down a bit, there's a dead stock British. RAF Mountain Rescue Windproof Survival Orange Smock. It's $380 and I cannot fathom a life without it. It's so cool. It's bright orange and it's a survival thing. It would have been probably packed into a bag or something like that. They're really, really cool. As soon as you sent this to me, I sent it to a handful of guys at Hodinkee. I was at the office when you sent it to me and said, like, you guys are going to dig this and they're just like, trading one after the other. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh yeah, yeah. The wildest one in here is, they call it the ultra rare museum piece, the World War II S.O.E.O.S.S. hand-painted waxed camo windproof striptease jumpsuit. It's a camouflaged, hand-painted camouflage jumpsuit that would have been worn by special forces or sort of secret agents jumping, you know, infiltrating from, from an airplane by parachute behind enemy lines. And they would wear this jumpsuit over their civilian clothes. And then when they would land, they would strip off this jumpsuit, bury it, and then blend in with the local community to kind of carry out their mission. And I think the story that when I read about this on the site was that like a farmer in Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic now found this as he was like tilling his fields, he found this thing buried. And they've bought this and they're selling it. I mean, it's just wild stuff. I mean, even if you don't buy anything, just reading some of the backstories are just great. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I don't know that I'm in for the price point of any of this stuff, but I do really enjoy clicking around. It's a good click. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Finish this up. |
| James Stacey | All right. So my last pick is for those of you, you know, we've spoke a bunch in the past about Blundstones and their kind of I think it was one of Jason's favorite things. Um, yeah. And what I found, uh, for them was, uh, they offer sheepskin footbeds. Uh, so it, I paid 50 bucks for these when I was last in Vancouver, you know, walked by one of the stores that carries Blundstone and walked in and yeah, it, it basically just allows you to take a normal pair of, of the Blundstone Chelsea boots and make them a bit warmer. I love these. We got an email recently, or maybe it was an Instagram DM asking like what we do for winter boots and those sorts of things. So this is what I'm going to be doing. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Which is just a simple pair of they're like the same Blundstones I wear year round as my kind of pull on no questions asked sort of boot. Yeah. I just upgraded the sheepskin footbeds, so... They look a little thick. Do they... They must compress, obviously, when you put... They do compress a bit, and I think if you were... I think if you were in the mode... I always... With a boot that I would wear in the winter, I always go a half size up... Yeah. ...to allow for a little bit of extra sock space. So they might have eaten that half size. I haven't tried to do the footbeds and two pairs of wool socks yet. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So we'll see. |
| Jason Heaton | It's funny, the link you put in was for... Blundstone.ca, so the Canadian Blundstone site, and the description of the product says, these insoles are a must for Canada. And I'm sure they are. I'm just curious if the equivalent page on the U.S. site eliminates that line, but that's great. I'm sure they'll work well in Minnesota too. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So for anyone who's in the Blundstone camp or theoretically, like you can go to the store, they're sold on the size. Uh, so you can put these in any boot conceivably, as long as you have the space, especially along the top of your foot. Yeah. Um, which works really well in blendstones is they they're not too tight across the top of your foot, but, uh, yeah, I highly recommend these. It's nice to not have to worry about another pair of boots. I like blendstones a lot for the cold weather and they were fine last winter. You know, I, I got to Toronto and it was negative 30, uh, last year. And, and I wore these with two pairs of socks and we'll, we'll see how it goes with maybe one pair of socks in these, uh, sheepskin footbeds. |
| Unknown | Nice. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Solid pick. And, uh, and yeah, that's the, uh, that's the episode. I hope you enjoyed the gift guide as always. Thank you very much for listening and a big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show. You can hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J E Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout a siesta by Jazar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from the travel writer Bill Bryson, who wrote, To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time. To be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar, it is taken for granted. |