The Grey NATO – 221 – You, Me, and 2023¶
Published on Thu, 05 Jan 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis¶
In this first episode of 2023, Jason and James catch up after their holiday break and reflect on their aspirations for the new year. Both hosts emphasize a "less is more" philosophy for 2023, focusing on reducing complexity in work, possessions, and commitments while investing more deeply in what truly matters. They discuss the success of their Slack community, which has grown to over 700 members, and express gratitude for the supportive TGN community.
The conversation touches on their holiday experiences, with James recounting his drive back from Pennsylvania through difficult weather conditions, and Jason describing his time cross-country skiing and relaxing by the fire. They discuss their watch collections, with Jason particularly enthusiastic about a vintage Omega Seamaster 2254 he received as a gift, and James wearing his Scurfa MS22. Looking ahead to 2023, both hosts express interest in more regional adventures, potential TGN meetups (possibly building on the success of their Wind Up Chicago appearance), and a renewed focus on physical fitness and mental health. They acknowledge struggling with work-life balance issues that intensified during the pandemic and commit to being more intentional about their time and energy in the year ahead.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode two twenty-one, 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 thegreynado.com for more details. And a hearty, happy new year to everybody out there, including you, James. I hope I got the intro right after taking a few weeks off |
| James Stacey | . And uh to everyone listening. I think it's gonna be a fun year. Looking forward to a a great many things. And that's kind of the the overall tone of the show is is a little bit of holiday catch up and then some chit chat about like the way that we're planning for twenty twenty three, what we're hoping to see, whether it be lifestyle stuff or who knows. But uh we'll get to that in a few minutes. Uh what do we got as far as updates? Oh the Slack is still going super well. Uh we're now over seven hundred people. Crazy. Uh 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. I'm obviously that's not what it is. It's not really social media. Uh but I just I like it so much more more than Instagram. Oh, I do too. Between wrist tracks and the the incredible stuff that goes into the adventure channel. Um, obviously, we got some some great car conversations going on in the 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 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 thegrayinator.com slash support dash tgn to get in for as little as five dollars a month. We'd love to have you there. And if you're a subscriber and you're not in there, be sure to uh check your emails, check the show notes, that sort of stuff, because that you should have a more recent invite and email with uh the proper uh setup steps or whatever. But |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and quickly speaking of uh benefits for supporters um for our annual subscribers, uh as you sign up, of course, you are entitled to a free um TGN NATO strap, branded buckle, um, and some stickers. And uh, you know, most of you have taken advantage of that. If you haven't, uh definitely uh 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, thegraynado at gmail.com. We've mentioned this before, but I thought it would be bear I thought it would bear repeating. And uh speaking of the straps, I just before the new year i got a shipment of uh uh all new uh NATO straps not all new as in um resupply restock so we're we're we're full up and and ready to keep shipping those out and we're we were getting dangerously low there at the end of the year, so I'm glad to see those arri |
| James Stacey | ve. Fantastic. Well that's great. And uh 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 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 how was uh how was your time away? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, it was great. I I think I followed a similar uh pattern as you. I um I I didn't turn off notifications on my phone necessarily, but I I don't get that many. But what I did do is I I just sort of left my laptop shut from about December twenty second until well, pretty much this morning, other than to fire it up to print some shipping labels for the our uh 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 have really 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 I love that feeling of just sort of shutting down. You know, I I went cross country skiing almost every day. We've been blessed or cursed, however you want to look at it, with a 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 uh new year's party at a friend's house and you know Gashani's been cooking some some great food lately so we've just been hanging out by the fire. It's just been a a really chill and and and nice break. Oh, that sounds awesome. You know, I think I mentioned before before the holidays that I kind of struggle with the whole, you know, reboot or 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 kick start their resolutions and get on with it and whatever. And I'm always like, there's a bit of a holiday hangover for me that takes a few weeks, and I'm just gonna like let that happen. You know, I'm just gonna kinda sure ease into the new year, let let things ramp up uh at its at its own pace. So but |
| James Stacey | it was good. I feel like if you if you imagine if you imagine like visualizing it as moving quickly across like sand, like uh quicksand, yeah, yeah. Then you start to fight it'll go check your emails or whatever, and then before you know it, you're up to your waist. And I now I'm walking my way out of that kind of slowly. I've I've grabbed onto like a uh you know, a a reed or a a root of some sort and I'm pulling myself out of the mire. But uh yeah, no, I feel exactly the same way. I had uh I had a nice holiday. It was busy, uh at least on the first half, and then uh the last few days I've been doing like almost nothing, like an embarrassing level of nothing. That's good. You know, just just plain of with planes. I picked up an iPad before. It's been on my list of like to I'd spend a little bit less time staring at a laptop. Yeah. Um is to have a device that I that I use for some of the same things, but doesn't have any of the work stuff on it. So it's got T T N Slack on it and and m the message app and you know our Slack uh for chatting with each other, but nothing for kind of the my my quote unquote day to day job professional life of writing about watches and and of occasionally some other things. So it's a little bit not air gapped, uh 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 a workout or or you know, watch a little bit of a bond movie or whatever and actually disconnect from it just being in a different window on on my screen. But I I gotta 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 I worked at a in a in a tech support call center for several years, and all of those guys played a lot of Call of Duty. And and I got into Call of Duty with them. And this is we're talking like it was 2010, 11. And uh 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 I only say this all because I I 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 in to review and shoot a video and that kind of stuff, like easy light stuff. Yeah. Um, 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 gotta pick you up like one or the other. So I put all of my Xbox and and several games and the rest of it into like a Tupperware container, big Tupperware container, and just sold it. Oh wow. Uh come and get it. Yeah. And uh for years I've really fought all sorts of other video games. I 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, there, never really feel addicted. You know, then uh you laugh when you look back and like I put a hundred and thirty 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 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 it was like, Oh, there's this call of duty mobile thing. I wonder how hard it is to get online and and to play the game's free. And like five minutes later, I'm playing and it all came back. It it all came back like exactly like it was uh I immediately realized one how much I had missed it and two how much of a big a mistake I had made. Uh 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 gonna have to remove it from my iPad to return or 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 two, three, three, four in the morning. I'll rearrange my schedule to have an hour or two to play. But I it turns out I'm 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. So that was a 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 uh to Christmas Day. Yeah. Ye |
| Jason Heaton | ah. Which is really nice. Yeah. I I fear now that you're gonna m you're you've just kickstarted a whole new channel on the Slack uh community for Call of Duty. You're gonna you're gonna get people coming out of the woodwork. Oh my goodness, yeah. And if if there are any pauses during the show where you're you've gone away from the mic, I I know what you're gonna be doing. No, I don't even have I my iPad's in the other room. There's no way I could think. I can barely speak and play at the same time. Yeah, it's uh it's a lot. It's super fun. Well your your trip that you took, you um you drove back, like I remember you telling me, like um Christmas Day was pretty brutal weather wise, wasn |
| James Stacey | 't it? Yeah. So for those of you who were keeping tabs on 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 uh and so a couple days before I s I checked the news just casually. Um again, I'm very limited on devices over this, so I hadn't been look watching anything more than the route. Every day around the time that I planned 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. Yeah. 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, twenty so this would be twenty second or twenty third, I hear, Oh, there's this huge storm kind of developing over the midwest. It's gonna hit the lakes and get really crazy and I was like, Oh man. Yeah. That could take twenty hours to drive home. It could be, you know, obviously wanna come home and have we you split time with family, so you have plans for that. Sure. The day or the day after we got home. We ha we had kind of hard plans. So the 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. Wasn't like an apocalypse or whatever. Yeah. 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, yeah. 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 su And and everywhere else. I mean that storm hit a lot of states. Yeah. Some of the folks that we travel all the way down to to PA to see were also flying in, their flights were all canceled, so we didn't get to see them. And yeah, 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. Uh like was it Southwest or something? Like like almost all of their flights they canceled. Yeah. Um, pretty crazy story there with their computer system uh going offline. But uh I've now uh you know um derivated pretty pretty deeply from the topic. But yeah, luckily for those who asked in Slack and 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 yeah would would be how I I would contextualize my experience. Well I |
| Jason Heaton | '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 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 uh call of duty and 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 thirtieth and we I I mean, Kashani 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 that you have to wait for. So we waited right up until the thirtieth when episode six uh 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 uh it's just tremendous. Uh 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 I'm going to limit that by saying the best series of its kind 'cause there are a lot of lots a lot of good shows out these days. But Yeah, for sure. Between the acting and the and the writing, you know, I've read a couple of the McHaron 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 I would almost say it's even better than season one. So man, I'm excited. 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 or don't fit. And and I drove them over to uh a place to donate yesterday. Um just bags of of tir-shts and shirts and shoes and and bedlins and things like that. And it's it felt like kind of a cathartic way to kick off the new year. Um you know, I've it was just it it kind of takes up a lot of space physically, but also kind of I think it has a a mental effect to just hold on to stuff that you never use and and so it felt really good to do that. And I'm kind of, you know, at this point I know it it's only, you know, the third of January, but I'm I'm kind of I wanna 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 for my collection go and and some other stuff. So |
| James Stacey | we'll see. But it it felt good to do it. 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 felt I didn't feel like I had all that much more space. Yeah. I still have more clothes than I can wear. Yeah. Like yeah I you know there there is something to be said for those folks who like figure out a uniform totally? And then just kind of go with it. Like my brother 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. Yeah. He has ten of these Henleys, he has ten of these T-shirts, he has five of this pair of pants, it's the same socks. Yeah. And that's that's how he operates. And I I think that it definitely makes some sense, but I also kinda like dressing. So you gotta find a mix somewhere |
| Jason Heaton | . Yeah, and I think the the process of of thinning out also can be a bit intimidating. And every time I have that ambition to say, this is the year we're gonna do this, we stop 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. So |
| James Stacey | Yeah, not too bad. Yeah. Ready for another season. Yeah, exactly. Do you get anything come in over Christmas versus what went out? Anything exciting uh as far as gifts, uh given or received? You know, I got |
| Jason Heaton | I I we we kind of didn't do the gift thing uh w Gashani and I and and with my family and and it was kind of refreshing, kind of nice to do that. Um, but I also got some really nice gifts that were sent to me by people that um were really thoughtful and 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, uh, Depth Charge. And and you know, I jokingly mentioned that you know I'd love a t-shirt with uh the Tusker beer logo on it and and he sent it to me all the way from Australia when he got back from his vacation in Vanuatu. Oh man. I got a really nice uh handmade leather strap from Alex Van Slyck of Marshmade uh Leathers. You know, the guy who runs Patina National, um Oliver over in the UK, he's he's uh started up a vintage watch business, he sent me a a nice watch roll and then I got an amazing gift from another guy that I'll I'll mention during wrist check, but uh I'll hold off on that. But uh Oh yeah, I saw that. That is a killer. Yeah, but it was it was great. It was it those those fun, kind of unexpected things that that popped up were really uh really touching for me. What about you? Any uh any any cool gifts this year |
| James Stacey | ? Uh yeah, I got an LL bean jacket, like a flannel jacket that's lined. Oh nice. It's like an insulated one. Yeah. Um it was it was one of the we 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 coats, chore 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 um nylon, like a line, like insulated lining. And uh and then 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. Uh, really happy with it. Super comfy, especially because it's not like crazy cold right now in Toronto. It's actually pretty warm. Yeah. Um so that and t-shirt has been fine uh for kicking around. And I think you know that 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. Uh oh, the other thing is I I I don't I'm not I I haven't quite convinced myself that I needed it, but I picked up a a new backpack. Um, 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 Tapo day pack, the the gear patrol one that I have, which I I love and is it does make a really good smaller backpack. And then I'm just putting a lot of wear and tear on the 10 bow using it for things other than camera duty. Mm-hmm. 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 GR1 Heritage in the the sand color was on sale. Nice. Uh from Huckberry. 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. 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. So that'll be that'll be the go-to bag, at least for the foreseeable future in in pretty much any usage. I'm you know, I think I'll get a ton of use of it throughout the summer. Yeah, |
| Jason Heaton | you sent me a picture of that a while back and and it was very tempting for me as well. I I had a GR one years ago and and I remember all the things you you cited about it. You know, it it's a heavier than kind of normal backpack and it 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 go rock 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 and sturdy and |
| James Stacey | um Yeah, and you and you you when take it off, it 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 What's on your wrist today? What did you wear a lot of over the break? I wore only two watches. I uh it was no smart watches, so I took a break from the Apple Watch and the the Mark II. Yeah, the Garmin. Um and and I wore pretty much just the Mito for the first half of the break, like until I got back from PA Christmas time, that sort of thing and then then since I've just had the Skurfa MS twenty two on a gray NATO. I had on a green NATO for a little while as well, which I like quite a bit, but it's back on the on the gray T Gn strap and yep, it's uh just a perfect watch. I I have no I have no complaints about this one. Maybe when you switch between something as thin as the Mita, which isn't like it's not like insanely thin even for a sport watch. Yeah um but it does sit a little bit lower. Um, but that also might have been the strap choice 'cause I had the Mito on a rubber strap so there's nothing, you know, no fabric over the case back. Right. Um but I think the I think I might prefer the scurfa 'cause I wouldn't call it like a super thin watch, right? Um, 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 much how many hours you got left of vacation. You gotta know that down to the hour. So uh this is a great a great watch for that. And I I just love the way it looks. Yeah. I just I I've really really come to uh to appreciate that and we've got a full scurf a cult going on |
| Jason Heaton | in on the Slack. Totally. Yeah. I mean an argument argument could be made that that's a a pretty perfect two watch uh collection. Those two, |
| James Stacey | the scurfa and the meeto. Between the meetow and the scurfa. Yeah. Or or I mean uh you know I I I'm working on this idea of like the a two watch collection that doesn't really ever leave you in a lurch. Yeah. Like the the no the no lurch pairing, which like I think the scurfu you could wear most of the time. Yeah. And then a 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 twenty five hundred bucks for that whole pairing. Yeah. And then have something you could wear like anytime. Yeah. Yeah. Vacation |
| Jason Heaton | all the way up to like a wedding. Right. You know, the idea of the two watch or three watch or one watch collection, it it 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 we 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 two 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 you have in mind um more than than even the watches themselves. So absolutely. Yep. No, I agree. Yeah. How about you? What have you got on this week? Yeah. So this is uh mentioned earlier. I got um this as this was an absolute surprise gift from a very good friend and a longtime uh TGN listener. Um uh this is a guy that actually it's funny, w 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 Up. Uh, but I've known him online and and through the TGN community for a number of years and we've sent some things back and forth in the past, but uh he really upped the ante because uh the day before Christmas, I guess it was twenty-third actually, uh 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, uh a sea master diver three hundred M. This is the the reference twenty two fifty four. Oh, nice. I mean just a uh 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, um, the aluminum bezel insert with the big bold numerals, and and the wave dial is it's a black wave dial, but it's a very subtle wave, like you can only see it in certain angles. Incredibly legible. Uh, you know, I it's kind of ruined me for my other seamasters. You know, I've got the regatta timer that I made some trades to get uh about two years ago, and then of course I've got the white dial coaxial uh seamaster with the ceramic dial. And I've had this on every single day, like 24-7 since the 23rd of December, and it's 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-2000s 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 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 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 it just sings on this rubber strap and I've been wearing it on that for for uh for several days here and I I just love it. It you know it to me it feels a lot like the S302, the Braymont, you know, it's kind of the similar size, similar bracelet. Um and and you've had a 2254 as well |
| James Stacey | . Yeah, I had one for years. Uh loved it, wore it a ton, uh kind of all the time, and then eventually only sold it because I I had kind of found a few other dive watches that I liked. And you know, the the the thing that stands out for me, the 2254 is the loom's incredible. Mm-hmm. 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's 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 uh from an aesthetic standpoint, mine also kept really excellent time. You know, it's an 1120 base, so it's an EDA, easy to get serviced, all that kind of stuff. And and the pricing on those I still think remains pretty fair. Mm-hmm. Ye |
| Jason Heaton | ah. It's I I I'm just thrilled with it. And and you know, funny when I compare it to the white dial ceramic, you know, I I'm I'm I'm I know I'm in honeymoon mode now, but I I 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 and the more subtle dial. It 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 toolish luxury watch that hit that sweet spot back at that era. And do you have it? Is it the bond bracelet or the speedy bracelet? Aaron Powell 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 of links on either side, and um which is my favorite version. Yeah, that's how I had mine as well, and it it was just perfect. 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 twenty twenty three. 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 the Slack group and in the comments on on Substack uh around um what we hope to to achieve and and experience in twenty twenty-three. So I love it. James, I mean what's uh I I I I'm looking at our list here in our notes that we share online and I I feel like we have we're kind of in a |
| James Stacey | similar mode here, wouldn't you say? Absolutely. Yeah. I think I think the goal in reading yours and and reading mine, um, the like the first the first big one seems to be like kind of a a less is more standpoint on yeah everything from you know the style of work or work to the things that we buy or sell or lifestyle like just you know s 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 uh less is more, less work, less stuff, less complexity, and it's not necessarily like less watches, but maybe focus on removing things that aren't working or or are adding pain or anxiety, that sort of thing. Yeah, I agree. I think you know |
| Jason Heaton | , I've talked earlier about, you know, thinning out a wardrobe and and possibly a the watch collection and I I I think it also goes well beyond kind of just stuff or or you know, thinning out stuff around the house. I think it it really comes down to, like you said, saying no to things more often and and not to be, you know, or curmudgeon or or uh 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 twenty twenty, the year of the the big pandemic and everyone was kind of shut in and we were starting 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 twenty twenty two was a year that uh you know, I I did a a fair bit more traveling than I did in twenty twenty and it was and and twenty twenty one and it was definitely a 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 um i it leaves less time for you know for kind of those quiet moments of of high quality kind of activities and and contemplation and and fitness and kind of wellness and mental health. And I know that might sound a little bit kind of new age or mumbo jumbo, but I I I just feel like I just kind of want to pare down and just do less in general um in in this year. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I guess I also feel like I I last year what really lacked for me was having the latitude to really invest in the stuff I w I I was happy about doing.. Mm-hmm 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. Like I like to try and hold you too, Jason, but definitely myself to a to a certain standard. And I feel like last year I let that standard slip because of the level of busy tasks that was 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 uh would would be much more rewarding than trying to do everything. Yeah. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Because I I'm curious, Jason, like at this point, it's twenty twenty-three and this is something I've been thinking about a lot 'cause I 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 twenty twenty-three. Do you feel like you've been able to return to how you felt before the pandemic? I I feel like the p |
| Jason Heaton | andemic it wasn't an overall negative on my kind of mental health or well-being 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 on to from that. I think before that I I I I I was sort of being less mindful in terms of managing my life and my career and 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 the the TGN community grow and things like Wind Up Chicago and our 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 you find who your I want to say who your real friends are, but I like a more loyal, smaller group of friends is just so much more rewarding thanan 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 place in the world, you realize how fleeting that is. And when you're kind of forced to pair back and go it on 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 how are you feeling about |
| James Stacey | that? I I I also feel like I was super blessed in that the pandemic and on for lar 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 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, like I feel like I had something figured out from a work life standpoint. And then when when all of that got up ended, 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. Yeah. And both that expectation came from clients like Hodinky and also from myself, like just oh, I have I have more time, I should do more. Right. I was really surprised in the last couple days just how kind of stressed out I felt when I thought about coming back to work today. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like after having don't two weeks off. Yeah. 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 L VMH watch days, which is a ton of stories that have to be prepped and managed and and all these other things. And uh and obviously we have TGN and oh I have I haven't done obviously we you know we don't have the QA done and 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. Yeah. Sure, you've got some you've you've got a few things on your 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 'cause I could take may take a phone call while I did it. Yeah. But I do feel like I I'm carrying a little bit and I think the key to this is exercise. Mm-hmm I think that's what I'm I'm kind of like missing. Man, I was doing really good until about December twentieth and I pulled my back doing a deadload. But yeah, so now I'm now I'm kind of getting up in the morning try trying to assess if I So hey, if you've got a water rower in the greater Toronto area just uh collecting dust somewhere in your home, hit me up. But yeah, I think that I think that's what I what's missing. If I look back on what worked for so many years, it was that I was 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 |
| Jason Heaton | just doing nothing. Yeah, and I think what the pandemic introduced, and not to heap all the blame on the pandemic, but I think this this notion of work-life balance got scrambled because pretty soon we were all kind of, or many of us, I should say, were 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 well |
| James Stacey | , especially when you have the you have the like you have that like the social pressure of oh I ha I'm fortunate enough to have a job Yeah 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 make 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 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 um that if you don't do it all all of it goes away and I don't think that's accurate necessarily I I've I've spent the last two, three years stressing a lot about things I can't control. Yeah. Which is obviously like well outside of the kind of stoic stuff that we like to talk about occasionally. Depression's kind of a sneaky thing for 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. Right. |
| Jason Heaton | In terms of exercise, uh 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 I almost want to set a like some kind of a big adventure or fitness goal. Yeah. 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, you know, one year I did the Alcatraz swim. Something like that. I feel like I need that. And and I have a couple of ideas in mind, but how how do you approach that? Is that something you'd want to do as well |
| James Stacey | ? Yeah, I think for me it I need to remove ik the excuse layer first. Mm-hmm. Because the the 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 it just 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 bow flex 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 too too much. So I think the key is finding a a home workout that I can't possibly turn down on bad weather or when it's cold. Right. So I think the water rower would work pretty well for that. Yeah. 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 ten 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 not for the training |
| Jason Heaton | . Well, I'm 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 uh inral C Amerentica, 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 in 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 four three or four week commitment. And there are a lot of people out there due to different you know ages or life's circumstances or whatever that that can do that. And 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. I you know, I've got a few other ideas in mind for for kind of ambitious but but achievable and less time consuming uh |
| James Stacey | goals. But I you know, yeah. Yeah, I think it is important to to consider that as an option. Mm-hmm 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 have done Rainier. Yeah. You know, two weekends later, like just picked up a spot when I was still sharp. Yeah. No, I I agree. Um and I don't mean to sound like a downer or even like I have any complaints. It's uh most of this, I would say n this is ninety-five percent 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 years. And uh and and I think from a work standpoint it worked out really well. But from a mental health standpoint, from a personal fitness standpoint, like I'm just I'm severely detuned on sort of both both fronts, and uh 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 I think a get together, right? I mean, wind up was such a blast. It it just was such a boost and so inspiring for for both of us, I know, and and we'd love to meet more more |
| James Stacey | people uh this year. Yep, I think a get together would make sense, possibly two. I think that there's a possibility that we could do two. Mm-hmm. But we both have it on our list that like one of the highlights of last year was absolutely wind up Chicago. We were kinda gutted we couldn't make it to New York. Yeah. And we're gonna 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, we T G N 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 T GN 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. Kee keep keep keep doing what we're doing. I mean I I think I I always enjoy our our weekly chats and I I I love hearing from people and and the way the community has grown. Um I |
| James Stacey | just let's just keep on doing that. Yeah, I think we have some pretty cool stuff in the works for the TGN specials. And if you didn't collective one, uh go 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 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. Um, but that should give us it 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, and anything, any other plans as far as uh you got any like special trips or or or stuff like that outside of the workspace to probably do Bonair again or not sure y |
| Jason Heaton | et. Debating debating uh timing of another trip to Sri Lanka this year. You know, Gashani's family lives over there, um her parents are getting older and and we want to spend time with them. Probably gonna 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 in February that I'll talk about uh 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 uh Wisconsin, across Minnesota, maybe do kind of a Great Lakes uh 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. Totally. And then, you know, we kind of got sidetracked by I maybe it was it was kind of when I was kind of in the thick of doing press trips and and more kind of international travel, that kind of got set aside uh, as, as well just a lot of dive trips that we w 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. Nice. Spend a little less time on a plane, you know |
| James Stacey | . Yeah. I already have my first trip booked to Geneva for the end of the month. Uh so that'll be kicking off uh in just a couple of weeks here. But yeah, I I 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 I would love to do some a TGN road trip of some sort and maybe maybe that's a a couple of stops for smaller get togethers along the way or something like that. Who knows? But 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. Uh I think it's been long enough. I'd like to get back to like a proper bit of scuba diving, you know, re remaintain all those skills and and get everything back in the water and what and that and that. So whether that's uh a run to the Caribbean uh later this year or maybe some work up in Tobermore, we're not sure. But uh I'm very keen. My wife would like to get certified as well, which would be a blast. And uh that that's certainly on my list for uh twenty twenty three. Yeah, |
| Jason Heaton | that'd be great. Especially if we can do it together. I mean, maybe it's in Bonera, maybe it's uh maybe it's somewhere else. But I'd love to do it in Bonair. |
| James Stacey | All right. Well, you know, look, I think that's uh that's kind of our hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals, etc. 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 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 how what your year's plans are. If you have any big goals that are kind of leading the motivation uh for the year, or if uh you've got a big change coming up uh through work or famil I know we 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 because 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 twenty twenty four, you'll have one less thing on the list that's been kind of carried over. Mm-hmm. Uh I think that's maybe maybe a a better way of looking at it. Like a lot of it is just these little tweaks, right? Yeah. All right. Well, let's uh let's jump into our first final notes of uh of twenty twenty-three. What do you have? 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 thirty first on Wire. Uh the writer's name is Justin Pot 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. Yeah. That way it it it's not really part of your the way that you interface with your phone. And the same with Facebook and the rest of it. I'm gonna say Instagram 'cause that's the social media app that I have the deepest connection with, but also find the most troublesome for my like time and and the way that I think about the world. Yeah. Um but it this is a really interesting story where uh 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. 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 in my bio, like I'm not gonna check in DMs. I'm gonna continue on that. I have a pu very public email, the greatado at gmail dot com. And uh and you can obviously uh get in touch uh 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 yeah chasing down tags or or or this kind of stuff. I I think it leaves a lot on the table but removes some of the stuff that I find stressful about the environment. So that's a 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. Yeah. Very fitting uh fitting one for |
| Jason Heaton | today's episode too, I think. Something to try. Yeah. Yeah, right. Um, mine I think is also a uh kind of a fitting note for today. Um, given how much we talked about pairing down and doing more with less and simplifying life, etc., um, this is a YouTube video uh from a guy named Eric Grandqvist. Uh he's Swedish and he's uh I believe in his early 20s. And the video is called I Spent Three Years Alone Building a Log Cabin. And lo and behold, Eric was inspired by uh uh Dick Prennicke, uh a TGN hero of ours, um, The Alone in the Wilderness videos series by Dick Prenicke about his time back in the nineteen uh sixties and seventies, you know, building a log cabin and living alone in um 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 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 a a GoPro that he wanted to kind of document his process, probably in the way that that Prenicke did as well, with his old uh probably Super 8 camera or something. And he films the whole thing. And it's an hour and a half video. Obviously, it's uh it's uh edited and shortened um because it took him three years. But you see him doing the same kind of stuff that Prenicy 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 just notice he's got one point one 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 uh a lot of traffic |
| James Stacey | . Yeah, that's great. This uh does look awesome. They've had twelve million views in a month since he put this out. Uh so my guess is a good portion of you for 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. Jeez. Maybe don't install Instagram or whatever social media app you can't turn off on your phone specifically. Right. And uh and yeah, you know, I guess the joke the joke that you hear online a lot is that term like touch grass, go outside. Yeah. So yeah, that's our first episode of twenty twenty three. 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, getting into the Slack, and maybe even getting yourself a new TGN sign NATO, just visit thegreynado.com for more details. Music Throw to Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. Leave you with this quote from Car |
| Jason Heaton | l Jung, who said, You are what you do, not what you say you'll do. |